Dark Warriors: A Dark Lands Anthology (Darklands) (30 page)

“Wait!” a woman called as Dey slung one leg over the seat of her bike. Out of the corner of her eye Dey recognized the abrasive Megin. Inwardly, she sighed. It couldn’t have gone better with Keg, and she was in no mood to talk. Her body symbiont connected with the large one, prepared to take off.

“Come to dinner tonight. Please,” she added when Dey looked like she’d refuse.

“Why?” No one here had ever made her feel welcome. They took one look at her hideous hair and they treated her like a half-blood pariah. Megin had been as outspoken as anyone, once even spitting on the ground Dey walked on.

“Because we do need help. No one wants to accept Beast charity, but none of us can hunt. We can barely survive here. You bring meat every time you come. You know how to beat the swamps. We need you.”

“I’m not a leader.”

“We don’t need a leader. We need someone to teach us. Come tonight.”

“I’ll think about it.”

The drive home was a blur, though by habit she was careful to avoid being followed. The drafty old temple wasn’t the height of comfort, but it boasted a roof and four intact walls. One thing about the ziggurat structures¾they certainly stood the test of time. She could appreciate that.

Sadly, this moldering old pile had guarded no treasures, but the jungle overgrowth protected her from curious eyes. Had she not practically fallen through the secret door, she wouldn’t even have found it, so she was fairly certain she would remain undiscovered there.

A touch on the pitted stonewall opened a hatch, which she and her symbiont cycle entered. The weighed door made only a slight scraping noise as it closed behind her.

Afternoon light poured through the high window slits, illuminating the mosaic floor. Geometric cuts of multicolored stone swirled in patterns, the joining undetectable by touch on the highly polished surface. One or two of the ancient solar lamps still worked, providing light throughout the lonely nights, but not enough to attract unwanted attention.

Lonely. She dropped her saddlebags to the floor in the corner and withdrew some savory rolls and rounds of bread, trying not to think too much. The cloth-wrapped bread went in a small wooden box. The roll filled her mouth, but did nothing to stop the flow of her thoughts.

Yes, she was lonely. So what? She’d been lonely a long time. Megin’s offer of dinner wasn’t going to change that. Besides, she might see Keg there.

A surge of isolation so strong it made her chest constrict struck her. She would not think about Keg.

Her hammock swayed as she sat in it, then swished as she climbed back out. Pacing helped channel her nervous energy.

She’d seen Keg today.

Jaw clenched, she swore she wouldn’t go back to that village. The symbiont could carry her great distances, easily to another settlement. She’d never have to see him again.

Silent minutes ticked by. She closed her eyes and listened to the faint calls of chattering birds. Suddenly this haven she’d found felt more like a tomb than a shelter.

But she was not going to Megin’s that night.

After much consideration, Dey chose to go to dinner. It had nothing to do with whom she might or might not see. She was tired of her own cooking. If the woman wanted the work of preparing a meal for Dey, then fine.

There were Beasts in the shadows around the settlement. Dey circled silently in the night, knowing they knew she was there, testing the waters. They did not react to her presence.

She raised a brow. Hm. So Keg was guarding his prizes in the village. Did the women know?

First hand experience told her it was excruciatingly difficult to avoid a Beast patrol once it gave chase. They had tracking equipment, experience and sheer nerve on their side. Dey had a fast bike and knowledge of the swamps. Not much of an advantage.

She went in anyway.

Megin opened the door wide at her knock and exclaimed over the bristled fawn carcass Dey had brought as if it were gold. “It’s been so long since we had meat, I’ve forgotten what it tastes like!”

Embarrassed, aware of the eyes in the night, Dey tried distraction. “These are for your children.” She handed the eldest girl, a child of perhaps twelve, a small bladder containing wrinkled brown balls, a delicacy known as sweet nuts. She often ground them together with seeds to make sweet flour. “Try it. It’s like candy,” Dey assured the polite, but doubtful looking girl.

Reluctantly, with the rapt attention of her younger brother, the girl took a tiny bite. “It’s good!” she exclaimed in surprise, and her brother quickly crowded in to claim his share.

“Where do you find all these things?” Megin asked as she ushered Dey to a rickety chair.

“The swamp is full of things to eat. Most of the time it’s harder not to become dinner than it is to find it.”

Megin’s cooking was nothing to brag about, but Dey ate it without complaint. She’d had worse. Besides, the shabby interior of the tiny hut told her that it was probably the best Megin had.

“So when can you start to teach us?” Megin asked toward the end of the meal. “I’ve spoken to the others and they’ve agreed to make it worth your while. We’ll feed and house you.”

Dey almost pointed out that she fed and housed herself quite well, but bit her tongue as she recalled how these people would hate charity. Instead she raised another issue. “Do you know that the Beasts guard you at night?”

Megin froze. Her voice came out a fearful waver. “They’re out there?”

“Yes.”

Shoulders hunched, Megin looked away. “They want to make slaves of us.”

“If that was so, you would be,” Dey echoed Keg’s friend’s words. “You should consider what it is they do want. I’ve been all over these swamps. There aren’t a lot of human men left.”

Rage twisted Megin’s face into a snarl. “The Beasts killed them!”

Not about to get into the politics of it, Dey looked at her steadily. “Some of the women will choose to go with them. Quite a lot, considering what they have to offer. What I can teach you will be a small buffer against that. The handful of you that will be left behind will be lucky to last the year.”

“You’re on their side!” Megin shot to her feet, her posture saying she’d love to attack Dey.

Dey rose too, ready for anything Megin might try. Warning in her eyes, she said, “It’s time you accepted some grim truths, Megin. Your way of life is over. I can’t change that. Someday soon they’re going to take you all away.”

“Why did you come here, then, if you thought that? Aren’t you afraid they might take you, too?” Megin flung at her, tears of fury in her eyes.

Dey shrugged. “My days are numbered, anyway. You have no idea how hard it is not to become breakfast out there. I might be well fed, but so are the other predators in the swamp. It’s just a matter of time before I run into something I can’t outsmart or outrun. If the Beasts do take you, they’ll be doing you a favor.”

“Get out!” Megin shrieked, her face red with fury. “Get out!”

I guess this means dinner’s over, Dey thought grimly. Careful not to turn her back on her screaming hostess, she edged out the door.

The hairs on the back of her neck prickled as she left the hut. One hand fell to the butt of her gun. Danger.

“Hello, Dey.” Keg stepped out from the shadows, still dressed in armor.

“That must chafe,” she said in annoyance. Her grip loosened on the gun as she slowly withdrew her hand.

“The armor?”

“No, your shorts,” she snapped. She mounted her bike, glad for the tendrils, which immediately webbed around her legs, securing her to the symbiont.

Much to her shock, he mounted behind her.

“Get off!”

“We need to talk.”

“Concerning?”

“Us.”

“There is no us.”

“There should be.”

She growled. “I’m not discussing anything here. How many men do you have in the shadows, listening?”

There was a telling pause. “I know a place. No one will follow us.”

“And I’m supposed to trust your tender mercies?”

“You know I wouldn’t harm you.”

She glared at him over her shoulder. “There are a great many things I don’t know about you, Captain. Like your real name, and age, for instance.”

He placed a finger on her lips. “Then come and talk with me, Dey. Let’s settle this.”

Tempting. Very tempting. Too bad she wasn’t in the habit of trusting anyone, especially him. “I made that mistake years ago. I’m not doing it tonight.”

He sighed and snuggled a gun against her spine. “You make this so difficult, sweetheart.”

Frozen in place, unable to quite believe he’d pull a gun on her, she said stiffly, “I was right about your desperation, wasn’t I? Though even I would have doubted you’d use a gun on a woman.”

If he was angry, he didn’t show it. “Get off the bike, Dey.”

Laughter at his expense bubbled out. “It is difficult to get me loose unless I will it, isn’t it? What would you do if I refused? Somehow I doubt you’d really shoot me. Your kind needs women too badly.” In fact, she was counting on it.

“I could shoot your symbiont,” he said in a sinister tone.

For a moment her heart stopped. He could not be so cruel. Then reason asserted itself. “You wouldn’t, not while I’m attached. The shock to my system might kill me, too. That isn’t what you want, is it?”

Two other Beasts had drawn near while she talked. In the distance she could make out the blinking red lights of Beast aircraft: big aircraft. Other Beasts began to move around the darkened village.

Ignoring the motion around them, Keg swiftly sheathed his gun and pulled her hands behind her back, securing them with binders. “Then here’s how we do this,” he whispered in her ear, his breath caressing her cheek. “I’ll have my men throw a tent up around us. Right here, in the dark, we’ll settle this. I think you’d like it, Dey.”

Absolutely still, she considered his threat. Oh, yes. He’d do it. Already his hands had settled at her hips, his thumbs circling slowly at the small of her back, under her shirt. It would take so little for those hands to move higher.

Or lower.

She shivered.

Keg moved in for the kill. “Is this how you want it, Dey? I wouldn’t mind. You might be webbed in, but you could stand up. I could stand behind you. It wouldn’t be hard. Or maybe it would.” He laughed, low and mocking.

A fine trembling overtook her whole body as sweat popped out on her skin. “You’re crazy.”

She felt him shift as he snapped to one of the Beasts, “Bring us a tent.”

“No!” Now she was certain he really would carry out his threat. He wasn’t the Keg she remembered.

The Beast kept walking away.

“Tell him to stop!” she ordered Keg, really worried now.

“Un-web from your symbiont,” he said calmly.

A snarl crawled from her throat. She’d underestimated him, based her strategy on what she’d known of the other Keg, a pre-war Keg. That man would never have forced her like this.

The Beast was coming back. He had something with him.

“Make your choice,” Keg demanded.

With a silent curse, she disengaged from her symbiont cycle.

And was pulled away from it with amazing swiftness.

“You give up too easily,” Keg said with a smile that was not.

A withering look was all he got in reply.

Dey glowered out the window. A glowing blue city appeared in the distance and rapidly grew larger.

“Your new home,” Keg said. He’d sat beside her for most of the way, guarding her as a family heirloom. Defiant satisfaction fairly radiated from him.

She grunted. More like her prison, at least until she found a way to break out of it.

The walls of the city were laid out in a ring, and the whole thing shimmered with what she suspected was another shield. As they got closer, she discovered that the walls were truly massive and completely smooth, like metal.

Big hairy deal. She refused to be impressed.

Intermittent sniffling broke out among the other prisoners, making her edgy. Dey had little illusions about what awaited them, but memories of a younger Keg and even Drostra, tempered her own concern.

For the other’s benefit, she drawled in a carrying, insolent tone, “So this is what you’ve come to, eh, Keg? Enslaving women for your friends to beat and rape?”

Startled anger flashed in his face. “You are to be wives, not slaves, and the man who harms a woman here is executed. You are far too valuable to us to abuse.”

A snort expressed her opinion. “So you don’t consider rape to be abuse?”

“You know better,” he said, his tone quiet with fury. A warning glittered in his eyes.

Aware of the many listening ears, hoping that she was giving them comfort, she said, “I see. So you’ll force these women into marriage, but their husbands aren’t allowed to force anything else on them, is that right? Then why bother stealing them? From my point of view, you’ve got a problem.”

“Why do you insist on speaking as if what happens will not concern you?” Keg countered sardonically. “In case it’s escaped your notice, you’ve been captured along with them.”