The Crimson War: A Space Opera: Book Three of The Shadow Order

by Michael Robertson

  Phulp and Jawty then came out together and more guns pointed their way.

  Seb’s throat dried and his heart pounded. To let the children be so vulnerable didn’t sit well with him. But when he saw the main soldier lower his weapon a little more, he focused on that. They could get out of this without fighting. The others wouldn’t shoot without the leader’s say so. “As you can see,” Seb said, “we’re no threat to you.”

  The trees rustled again and the guards’ shadowed faces all turned to look at the sound.

  When Janina stepped out, Seb spoke with slow and quiet words. Because she stood slightly larger than the others, she could be perceived as more of a threat. “Amina,” he said. “She’s their mother.”

  Each guard kept their weapon raised, but they relaxed their postures.

  A final rustling and Seb spoke before Bruke appeared. “Now, I promise you, he may look hench, but Duke won’t cause you any harm.”

  The reassurance seemed to have the opposite effect. Every single guard tensed and pointed their weapons at the sound coming from the trees. They formed a semicircle around the already emerged group members, and the three children moved close to their mother.

  When Bruke stepped from the trees, blinking at the change from total darkness to a silver highlight of moon, he raised his hands in the air. He looked close to tears.

  “Quite a lump, isn’t he?” Seb said. “But look at him; he’s shaking like a leaf. Would someone who means you harm really be so nervous?”

  Although the main soldier watched Bruke, he clearly aimed his words at Seb. “And did you find any berries?” The semicircle closed tighter around them.

  “No,” Seb replied. “It’s dead inside those woods.”

  The other members of Seb’s party looked at him. Maybe if he’d thought about it, he wouldn’t have used those words.

  “Why do you think we warn beings against the woods? We know there’s nothing in there.”

  “Sorry, we didn’t know.”

  “Look, get back to the slum now. I don’t want to see you out here again. You got that?”

  Seb nodded. “Thank you, sir.”

  It came close to physical pain to defer to the imbecile in such a way, but Seb needed to put his ego to one side.

  The leader of the soldiers stood aside, but the rest of the crew didn’t. The leader roared at them so loud the vibrations of it shook in Seb’s chest. The children screamed at the sound, but it worked and the guards parted.

  Heavy breaths ran through the large leader’s frame as he looked at his subservients, and more steam than ever issued from his hood. It reminded Seb of an enraged schtoo.

  Seb stood aside and let the other members of his group walk through the collection of guards in single file. The soldiers might have parted, but they still leaned over the children and still aimed their guns at them.

  Each party member stared at the ground, clearly trying to avoid provoking one of them.

  Once all of his group had walked through, Seb followed.

  “Wait!” one of the guards said, the little rat by Seb’s feet. A rasping voice, the creature moved with a bounce in its step like a small primate. He circled Seb, looking him up and down. “What’s he wearing?”

  The hooded leader’s hood moved up and down too as he looked at Seb from head to toe. “He’s got a point. Why are you wearing that?”

  The rest of the soldiers closed in again and Seb’s path through them vanished.

  Seb should have changed out of the ridiculous clothing much sooner. “The flight suit?” he said.

  “Obviously. What else would I be referring to?”

  Maybe they hadn’t noticed his backpack.

  “Because it’s better than being naked.”

  “Don’t get smart.”

  Bruke and the others had reached the entrance to the slum and they all turned around to watch Seb. For their sake if nothing else, he dropped the attitude. “Sorry. I found this suit in the slum. My guess is the wind blew it from the elevated part of the city.”

  “So you stole it?”

  Tension turned the air electric. No doubt theft would be punishable by death on Caloon. The edges of Seb’s world blurred again and he clenched his jaw. If he needed to fight them now, at least the others could duck into the slum. But if a wayward blast went their way, it could end any one of them. “Who should I have returned it to? There was no name inside it.”

  Seb didn’t need to see the soldier’s face to know he was scowling at him—the way he hunched over, his shoulders raised, and his head bending down towards Seb. The silence lasted for a few seconds before he finally said, “Get out of here. Now!”

  Best to cut his losses and do as the brute said. As Seb walked a mazy path through the rest of the guards, he kept his focus on the others. They remained by the edge of the slum. They only moved when he threw a shooing motion at them with his hand and mouthed go. He followed after them.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Seb led the group like he always did and inhaled the now familiar smell of waste. It curdled the air in the slums.

  The usual sounds of activity came at him from every angle like enemy blaster fire. Cold and with his ridiculous flight suit done up to his neck, Seb kept his head held high and stared straight ahead.

  Despite his confident strides, Seb couldn’t ignore the activity in his peripheral vision. The suit attracted attention, and maybe he should have changed out of it, but the attention could prove to be useful—especially if he needed to lead a revolution. Better to stand out as a leader than look like everyone else.

  Until now, the creatures in the slum had merely watched him from the shadows, but something different seemed to be happening around him at that moment. Some of the beings now walked at his side. Rather than random stares from random strangers, they seemed to have grown in confidence, flanking his progress.

  The sounds of the slum continued around Seb. Babies still cried and beings still shouted at one another. The smell of boiled cabbage still mixed with that of piss, shit, and vomit. But the slum activity now happened farther away from him than it had previously. It seemed like the slum had withdrawn from that particular area as if waiting for something to happen.

  The cold air turned Seb’s breaths visible as he walked, and he did his best to regulate them. He didn’t need to show any unease to his spectators.

  Since they’d left the guards on the outskirts of the city, the group hadn’t spoken to one another. Seb hadn’t even turned around to look at them; best to keep a low profile in the slums and talk in the relative privacy of a hut. Although a low profile and the flight suit didn’t go so well together, but at least they could keep their mouths shut. The slums had ears, ears that led directly to the Countess. Now, with the beings pulling up next to them, it would seem that the slum didn’t mind showing it had eyes too.

  It stood as a silhouette to begin with and Seb couldn’t make it out. Although, he’d sussed out the main point of his predicament; something blocked the pathway up ahead. Something bigger than him by several feet each way, something huge.

  The footsteps on either side of Seb now marched with him. Soldiers leading a prisoner to their death. By simply being present they forced conformance from him. They hinted at what could happen if he deviated from his path. Not just to him, but to his group too.

  There seemed little point in acknowledging those around him. Instead, Seb kept his head held high and walked straight at the thing blocking their way.

  “Uh, Seb,” Bruke said.

  Seb didn’t reply.

  “Have you seen that thing up there?”

  Every step closer revealed more of the beast. It looked like a silhouette for the longest time on account of its black fur. It stood like a wall in the middle of the path. At least ten feet tall, it had the body of a bear and the head of a bull. Its dark eyes stared at Seb and its breath turned into huge silver clouds on the cold air.

  When Seb got about a metre away from it, he stopped and stared at its
broad and hairy chest. Its large pecs rose and fell in time with the huge expulsions of fog from its hot breath clashing with the cold air.

  Silence fell around them. The footsteps on either side of Seb had stopped. Even the regular beings in the slum had paused to watch. Very few beings knew him there, but from the way he looked in his flight suit, he clearly didn’t belong.

  The crowd obviously wanted drama, so Seb stared at the brute’s chest for a few more seconds before he slowly lifted his gaze and glared into its dark eyes.

  It stood so tall it put a pressure along the back of Seb’s neck to look up at it. It made him slightly dizzy, but he kept that to himself and continued to watch the thing.

  Even its face had black hair covering it. Its huge and damp black nose glistened in the moonlight. “Where are you going?” it said.

  Seb didn’t respond but heard the shuffle of feet behind him; his party clearly felt uncomfortable with their current situation.

  “I said—”

  To be sure the slum heard him, Seb spoke loudly. “I heard you.” An echo ran away from him over the rickety roofs. Even the sounds in the far distance stopped.

  A hard snort covered Seb in the reek of the brute’s breath. The hot cloud that came forward with it smothered him and clung to his skin like a layer of sweat.

  But Seb held its glare, unwavering in his challenge to the monster. The very edges of his vision blurred, but he kept his gift at bay. If he needed it, he’d use it. Nothing had shown him he’d need it yet.

  “Now, if you wouldn’t mind,” Seb said to the creature and made a shooing gesture at it.

  A heavy frown sat on the creature’s receding forehead. It looked like it did mind, but it also looked like it didn’t know how to deal with him. Maybe it hadn’t been used to conflict before. If Seb were that size, he wouldn’t expect much conflict either. Subservience had probably been given freely to the monster whenever he’d demanded it.

  Maybe it understood what it saw in Seb’s eyes. If Seb needed to fight, he would. And he’d win. Did the brute want to go there? Maybe it sensed they would be allies at some point. Maybe it simply respected Seb’s show of strength. Whatever motivated the creature, it bowed its head and stepped aside.

  Seb said nothing as he walked past his aggressor. He didn’t look at him again.

  After they’d gone a little way into the slum, Bruke moved close to Seb’s back and whispered, “I think you should get rid of that flight suit, you know.”

  “Why?” Seb whispered back.

  “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Messing with the beings in the slums. If you’re not careful, this will get back to the Countess.”

  “You know what?” Seb said. “I’m still up for keeping a low profile, but with the way most of the slum looks at me now, I wouldn’t mind betting it’s already got back to the Countess.”

  “Yet you want to keep the flight suit?”

  “I did consider getting rid of it.” A look left and right and Seb saw the beings looking at him. “But you know what I think now? Especially after what’s just happened with one of their champions backing down.”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “Maybe it’s not such a bad thing for this lot to know who I am. I mean, when they find out what I have planned, they need someone to get behind, right? Someone different to them.”

  “Different? Why?”

  Seb kept his voice low. “Slum dwellers have been kicked for years, haven’t they?”

  “Yep.”

  “They have no self-esteem. No hope.”

  “Right.”

  “So who are they more likely to follow into battle? Someone who looks like them, someone weak and tired and not deserving of a better life than the one they currently have. Or someone who looks like they belong up there.” Seb pointed up at the elevated part of the city and he saw Bruke stare up at it with his mouth open wide. “Someone who’ll stand up to a freak like the monster we just encountered.”

  “Okay,” Bruke said with a sigh. “I get your point.”

  A nod and Seb said, “We’re going to do this, Bruke. And we need to start laying the groundwork now.”

  The conversation between Seb and Bruke ended. When Seb looked behind him, he saw the green scaly creature frown at him, but he didn’t speak again. Janina and her family all watched on without saying anything. They needed to get back to Phulp’s hut now. Maybe they could talk some more when they got there.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The cold and hard ground of Phulp’s hut sent pains through Seb’s body that balled as a buzzing sting in his hips. He rocked to ease the sensation, but it did little against the frigid and unforgiving ground. He hated it here, but he couldn’t complain. Bruke had spent a night in a tent with a river of sewage running through it just to get shelter. The rickety little structure they currently occupied seemed palatial in comparison to that.

  Once everyone else had settled in the small, cold, and uncomfortable place, Seb slipped his backpack off and slid it next to the door. It made a whooshing sound from the fabric scraping against the rough rocky ground. When he looked back at the others, he saw all of them had watched him do it, but none of them asked what the bag contained. If they had, he would have told them, but Janina and the kids didn’t need to see any more of the wax pebbles their dad had been forced to eat.

  “Right,” Bruke said while clapping his hands together. “Can I make anyone some food?”

  All three of the kids came to life and their hands shot into the air. Seb looked up at the rickety ceiling above them. It hadn’t rained on Solsans since he’d been there, but when it did, the hut didn’t look particularly well set up to deal with it.

  “Janina?” Bruke said.

  Phulp’s wife nodded and pulled a tight-lipped smile.

  “Seb?”

  How did he tell them? Seb smiled also and said, “No, thank you. I’m not hungry.”

  For the perpetually starving, ‘not hungry’ clearly seemed like an alien concept. Wide eyes and open mouths regarded him; even Janina struggled to contain her dismay.

  “Can I have his?” Jince asked.

  “Jince!” Janina said and scowled at the little girl, who took the scorn by turning her back on her mother and hunching her shoulders.

  While Bruke busied himself lighting the stove, Phulp moved closer to Seb and said, “Why didn’t you fight them?”

  “The soldiers in the woods?”

  “Yeah.”

  A quick look at Janina and Seb saw she seemed as interested in his answer as the kids were. “Fighting isn’t always the best course of action, you know.”

  “It’s not?”

  “If I’d have fought the soldiers, I would have had to kill them, right?”

  The mention of killing seemed to stun the small boy, rendering him mute.

  “If I hadn’t killed them, they would have gone back to the Countess and told her what happened. I mean, she probably knows I’m in the slums anyway.” Seb pinched his flight suit and pulled it away from his body. “I don’t exactly look subtle in this get-up, and my skin’s nowhere near as pale as the rest of yours is. So with that in mind, I want to keep as inconspicuous as possible. If I start killing people, she’ll come after me now. We could do with a little more time.”

  “Inconslictous?” Phulp asked.

  Another look at Janina and the two of them shared a smile. “Inconspicuous,” Seb said. “It means hidden, under the radar. Besides, I had you lot with me and there were a lot of guards out there. I couldn’t guarantee your safety in a battle. There’s plenty of time for me to fight with the foot soldiers.”

  A frown crushed Phulp’s face and the girls on either side of him stared at Seb.

  Jince then said, “But I thought you were tough.”

  A deep breath and Seb growled as he leaned forward. “I am tough!” The small hut amplified the bass tones in his voice.

  Jinc
e whimpered and pulled back.

  Another growl and Seb lurched forward, scooping the smallest of the three children up in his arms.

  Somewhere between a laugh and a scream, Jince twisted and writhed to try to get free of his grip.

  But Seb didn’t let her go and he tickled her as he boomed, “I’m super tough.”

  The other two children ran at Seb and jumped on his back. Their laughs joined Jince’s.

  Seb roared again and hunched over on all fours as the children climbed on him. “I’m the toughest there is. The toughest in all the galaxy.”

  At that moment Seb pretended to fall over and die. He rolled onto his back, careful not to squash one of the children, and spoke as if he struggled to get his dying words out. “I’m a fierce warrior. Three children are no match for me.”

  The three kids giggled and all jumped on his belly and chest, pinning him down by lying across him.

  “I can defeat you.” He flipped his body in a convulsion to fake his death and groaned, “I can …” and with that, he fell completely limp.

  After a few seconds, Seb opened his eyes again and looked over at Janina and Bruke. Tears ran down Janina’s face and she moved close to Seb and smiled. She put a hand on his forearm and whispered, “Thank you. They needed that.”

  As soon as Seb sat back up again, little Phulp jumped on him. He wrapped his arms around Seb’s neck and hung from him.

  While making fake gargling noises, Seb laughed. “You three are some of the toughest warriors I’ve met, you know? I’m glad I’ll never have to fight you lot.”

  The kids—charged with childish giddiness—wanted to continue the fight, but Seb needed to get on. Janina clearly sensed this because she called at them, “Come on, kids, Seb’s tired now.”

  All three of them frowned as they looked at Seb, a half-smile on each of their faces to show they didn’t quite believe what their mother said.