Liar's Harvest (The Emergent Earth) (35 page)

The shot cracked loudly in the still air and lingered as it echoed back out of the forest around us. Bark and splinters popped off of Prime’s stomach, revealing pale white wood underneath.

Leon screamed and hunched over in the grip of the creature carrying him. Blood dripped onto the tops of his boots and onto the thirsty ground. Tiny knots of darkening roots bloomed where each drop fell.

As before, the splintered divot on Prime repaired itself in moments, and as it did so, Leon’s breath became less labored.

He skinned his lips back in a mirthless grin at Prime. “You think that matters? If you’re me, then you already know that I won’t mind dying to put you under. None of us would.”

Prime gave him back the same smile, but with a mouth full of black thorns.
*Self-sacrifice is easy. Everyone wants to be a martyr. But can you sacrifice someone else? That’s different, isn’t it? Can your friends murder you to save themselves?*

He turned away from us and knelt in front of the bone tree, Hunger still clenched in one fist.
*You already know the answer. Now be still.*

He was wrong, of course. Anyone who has lived long enough will tell you that nothing worthwhile is ever accomplished without sacrifice and anyone who has been to war knows that sacrificing others is part of the price. But sometimes you get to choose how you pay.

I didn’t have to kill Prime. I only needed to take the Heart away from him before he could finish the ritual. I could accept whatever happened after that.

I dug my fingers and toes into the ground and shot forward in a blur towards the bone tree. I had to pass close by Prime to reach it, just to the left of where he knelt, facing away from me. I don’t know how fast I was moving, but I can guarantee that no human had ever hit that kind of speed in a sprint before.

But Prime wasn’t human, either. Without looking back, he swung one trunk-like arm out as I passed, catching me in the chest. I may as well have been hit by a car. I felt the ribs on my right side collapse and then I was on the ground. I didn’t remember landing.

I’m hard to put down and I’ll be the first to admit that I take that for granted these days. And not just harder to injure than I should be, but faster to heal. Shoot me, cut me, tear my flesh, and I come right back, good as new. That’s what always happens, so that’s what I expected.

But this time, laying there on my back, everything felt wrong. I hurt like a sonofabitch, make no mistake, but it was all on the surface. I didn’t have that radiating, pulsing ache in my gut that makes you want to vomit or that bone-deep bruising throb that you get from a full body tackle. All of the pain floated on top, bright and hot, like naked skin being scraped across concrete.

Underneath was something worse than pain. The hunger that I had held down every second of every day and placated with secret binges of cold beans and the cast off garbage of strangers rose up and shook me in its teeth. It turned my bones to fire and stole my breath.

I pulled myself laboriously to my knees, fighting every second to keep my need from eating my control. My mind.

My chest and stomach were a mess. Prime’s thorns had torn me up pretty good and I could tell by running my hands over my side that I was right about the ribs.

The pain of my body should have begun to fade by now, but it remained bright and insistent. I wasn’t healing.

Getting body and will together in order to get to my feet took time I didn’t have and willpower that I couldn’t spare. But I did it. I walked with a half-limp, trying to favor my right side, directly towards Prime’s back. If I couldn’t go around, I’d go over.

The movement caught Prime’s attention. He turned around and I leapt. It was a shitty leap, but good enough to pass over him and land next to the bone tree. The shock of the landing made me cry out, but didn’t stop me from reaching for the Heart. My fingertips burned as they touched the white-hot surface, but before I could get a grip on it, Prime wrapped one hand around my head and the other one around my arm.

He picked me off of the ground and threw me back the way I had come. The landing left me gasping in agony, but I pulled myself slowly to my feet anyway, my eyes never leaving Prime’s.

He strode over to me and slammed one massive fist into my gut. I went down again.
*Do you even know why you’re here? Did the fox appeal to your vanity and tell you that you would be the one to save the world?

I got back to my feet. My tongue was thick in my mouth, forcing me to push the words out. “Fuck ... the world. I’m here for my friends. And that little girl, right there. That’s enough for me.” 

*That girl? The one that the fox delivered to me after sending you away from the shelter?*

“That’s not true. The fox gave us a way to find you. To stop you.”

*If you were meant to stop me, then why did the fox give you the thorn that would create me?*

He swung at my face. I got an arm up in time, but all that meant was that his fist drove it into the side of my head. I hit the ground again, this time face first. The roots stung my cheek as they tried and failed to feed on me once again.

*The fox is a liar and a betrayer. You aren’t here to save the world. You’re here to save the fox.*

I probably shouldn’t have, but I got up anyway. It’s not in me to stay down. Never has been. “I don’t care. These people will live.”

*No, these people will die. Just as the fox intends. The question is, who will they die in service of? Me, or the fox?*

I didn’t get an arm up this time. I didn’t even see it coming. Prime’s fist cracked against my skull, the thorns slicing deep into my face. I landed on my back.

“Stop it!” shouted Anne.

I had to spit the blood out of my mouth before I could speak. “Just a scratch.” I rolled onto my hands and knees.

*I don’t know if you can die, but clearly you can be broken. Too bad for the fox. It helped me find the Heart and finish the Womb of Bone that cradles it. But if it thought that you would destroy me and let it take my place on the tree? That was one gamble too many. The next time the Heart beats, I’ll be one with the tree and your kind will be culled. Magic will rise again and the thousand houses will return, as will the old gods. And I will ascend to their ranks.”

I thought about the isolation and the desperate hunger that clawed at my insides like fire.  ”Godhood is overrated.  What about the people you cull? How do they die?”

He spread his arms wide.
*The forest will eat them. All of them.*

I was still on my knees when I ran out of time. The Heart beat, throbbing in sync with the shivering trees. Sighing groans came from Prime’s victims, slipping from their numb lips. The girl, standing on the black soil, feet covered in greedy roots, sank to her knees and slowly toppled over to lean against the legs of her father. He didn’t know she was there. A drop of blood fell from her nose and spattered on her dirty nightgown.

Flame erupted from the Heart and the outer shell cracked and fell away, exposing a white-hot tangle of tightly packed roots in its center. The roots uncoiled and slithered around and through the bones of the tree, igniting them as well. In seconds the tree was ablaze with spectral fire that gave heat but almost no light, as if the silver flames dancing along the bones were too greedy to let it escape.

Prime kicked me in the gut, lifting me off of the ground. I landed curled in a ball around my broken ribs.

He tossed Hunger aside and strode towards his destiny.

59

F
rom the ground I saw Prime walking towards the tree, head bowed and palms up in supplication. His back rippled with oily thorns as he walked, solemn as any priest.

The townspeople began to topple, one by one, as the Bone Tree consumed their lives as fuel. The wooden men let them fall as they went boneless in their grips.

I moved my head, my torn cheek scraping against the dry ground, and saw Anne and Leon thrashing in the arms of the shaggy monsters holding them. They struggled like insects pinned to a board, arms and legs flailing uselessly.

Far out of my reach I saw Hunger lying in the dirt. The moonlight slipped across the strange texture of its metal skin, making it seem to glow. As always, the light writhed across it, suggesting movement that wasn’t there.

And I saw one more thing.

The fox. Bounding out of the trees and into the open glade. Behind it, dozens of hairless, muscular shapes running on all fours, their massive claws churning up the earth as they ran.

The Eaters of the Dead.

In front of the pack ran one covered in ritual scars, some fresh. Each Eater behind also bore new scars, a dome with two circles like eyes and where a mouth would be, three wavy lines. The sign of the Devourer.

The pack screamed together, an ear-splitting metallic shriek that felt like it was scraping against my bones.

The shaggy giant that had ripped Hunger from me staggered as two Eaters leapt onto it. Claws that could rend stone sank into its wooden body. It shook as the Eaters tore at it, gouging out chunks of wood.

More Eaters landed on the back of the monster holding Anne. The creature dropped Anne and reached behind its head, grabbing the Eater by one shoulder. Anne rolled aside as the towering construct hurled the Eater over its head and down into the ground, just missing her. The Eater hit the earth with a sickening crunch and was still.

Leon was tossed aside as his captor came under attack, and together he and Anne ran towards me.

By the time they arrived, I had pushed up to a sitting position. Anne started to wipe at the bloody grit on the side of my face, then stopped. “Abe, don’t move.”

She raised her pistol and pointed it at the heavily scarred Eater that was racing towards us with Hunger between its jaws.

I put a hand on her arm. “Don’t.”

The Eater skidded to a stop in front of me and spat Hunger on the ground. Foul breath washed over me as its sides heaved in and out. Shiny black eyes met mine, just for a moment, then it spun and dashed away to join the pack that was circling Prime.

I wrapped my hand around Hunger. The weapon was fever-warm and flexed against my palm. Relief swept through me.

“You two start hauling the townspeople out of here. I imagine that whatever happens when Prime uses the tree, it’s going to mean a sacrifice. A big one. I’m going to try and take him down, but if I don’t make it, I’m counting on you to save those people.”

Anne’s reply was drowned out by Leon’s scream. Blood gushed from his calf as one of the Eaters slashed the back of Prime’s right leg.

Leon fell to the ground next to me. “Anne, go. I’ll be right behind you.”

She gave him a long look. I couldn’t tell how much of it was anger and how much was sorrow.

He refused to meet her eyes. She turned and ran for the townspeople.

“I’m sorry, Leon. I wish there was another way.” Hunger stretched out into an impossibly sharp, three-foot-long, leaf-shaped blade.

He nodded. “I know. Tell Uncle Henry, if we win, that I ended up doing the right thing after all.”

“I’ll tell him.”

I left him and moved as best I was able towards Prime, staying behind him while the Eaters held his attention.

When Hunger plunged through his back, Leon screamed.

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