He was teaching her. She didn’t look like she needed much training, though. She was good, and easily holding her own against him.
‘She’s good,’ said the cloaked man beside him.
Nero turned to look at him. He also wore a mask that obscured most of his face below the eyes, but Nero could hear him clearly through it. ‘She is,’ he said.
‘Any idea who she is?’ the cloaked man asked.
Nero shook his head.
‘That’s Nyx,’ Ras said on the other side of Nero. ‘She’s Rex’s wife, I guess. She’s always out here, training with Lobos. She’s a babe, ain’t she? Shit man, look at them tits. What I wouldn’t do to fuck her. Not gonna happen, of course. Rex would cut my balls off if I touched her.’
‘His wife?’ Nero asked.
‘Heh, that’s what he calls her, more like a slave if you ask me. Word around here is that she’s into some mystic shit, though, you know? She spends a lot of time with Pheen, so word gets around,’ Ras said.
‘Who’s Pheen?’ the cloaked man asked.
‘Rex’s Oracle,’ Ras answered.
One of the mad ones, Nero thought. Touched by the magic of the Cataclysm, they had the gift of insight. They knew things, saw things, but the gift usually came with a degree of madness as well.
‘Hell, I could sit here and watch her dance about like that all day, you know? Shit, I’m gonna need to get myself one of the Madam’s girls tonight, I think, before I explode,’ Ras said.
Nero wrinkled his nose at the image, but Ras did have a point. This girl, Nyx, was certainly a beauty. She was slim, lithe, with sharp striking features and great skin. There was an intensity to her eyes that spoke of ferocity and mystery. He wasn’t surprised that Rex would take someone like that as one of his own. He wondered if she was with him willingly, or if she was more of a slave, as Ras said she was.
The man in the cloak turned to face him then and offered his hand.
‘I’m Cryptus. And you are?’ the man asked.
‘Nero,’ he answered, and gave the man’s gloved hand a shake.
‘Nice to make your acquaintance, Nero. Are you from one of the local camps?’
‘No. Just passing through,’ Nero answered.
‘A fellow traveller of the wastes, that’s good to hear. I myself am just passing through. I like this place, though. I might tarry here a while, see what it has to offer. Will you be staying here long?’
‘No. Just got a few jobs to do, then I’m gone,’ Nero said.
‘Stocking up on supplies, I take it?’
‘Something like that,’ Nero answered.
Suddenly, the loud clanging of metal pipes being hit echoed out over the compound. Nero looked up to see Rex standing on a higher, smaller balcony, looking out over those assembled below.
Behind him stood a human-shaped creature in a pitch black hooded cloak that dropped the thing within the cloak into shadow. It looked human, but Nero knew right away that it was nothing of the sort.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming here today,’ Rex started.
‘The Whisperer,’ Cryptus muttered next to Nero.
‘It brings me great pleasure to announce the arrival of our patron, who will be staying with us today, and, in honour of his presence, a feast will be held tonight to celebrate the bounty that he shares with us. I ask that you all join us tonight to celebrate, whether you be from one of our local camps, or if you’re simply passing through. Good day to you,’ Rex finished.
Nero bit off another chunk of meat and chewed it. Those daemons, those Night Lords, always gave him the chills, and part of him was convinced that its presence here could only be a bad omen.
Nero resolved not to stay here any longer than he needed to as he looked down at Nyx, who had stopped her training to listen to her master. As he watched, she turned, looked around the camp and up into his eyes once again. Her gaze lingered on him for a little longer than felt comfortable.
However, he thought, there were perks to hanging around here a little longer.
Chapter 5
Nyx
Nyx looked up at the men and women on the balcony nearby as they drifted away from the railing, leaving Ras, who she’d met a few times and was always letching after her, and two newcomers. A masked man in a hood, who, to her, seemed very creepy, and the man she’d seen drive in earlier. She’d heard his name mentioned by the guard and by Rex. Nero. He was looking right at her, so she looked back up at him. He was actually rather handsome with his short cropped hair, stubble, and leather jacket. Everything he had on was well worn, covered in dirt and more than a little roughed up, like everyone else. But there was something about him, something a bit different than the other travellers she’d met here over the years. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, though, and wondered if it was her insight working for her. Pheen had spoken about it often and had tried to cultivate it within her, trying to get her to listen to it more than she currently did.
‘Nyx,’ Rex called out to her from the balcony. She looked up at him and could see the shadowy figure of the Whisperer behind him.
He inclined his head, telling her to come to him before he turned away and disappeared from view. Nyx pressed her lips together and let out a light sigh before she turned to Lobos, who stood nearby.
‘Duty calls,’ she said.
‘Sure. Good practice today, well done,’ he said.
‘Thanks. Same time tomorrow?’ she asked with a smile. Her training was something she loved. It was an escape for her, allowing her to focus on her movement, her balance, and her swing, forcing her to forget everything else. If she didn’t have total concentration during her sparring sessions, she would fail. She loved that feeling as she spun and moved about, swinging that blade. She might still be here, in this place, a prisoner of Rex, but for a short time each day, she was free.
‘I’ll be ready,’ Lobos said.
Nyx smiled at him and stalked off into the building. The whole place had been welded and bolted together using sheets of metal and plastic, old rusted pipes and any other scrap they could find to create this large multi-layered complex of rooms and corridors. She wandered through them, passing some of the Watchtower’s residents and at least one of the guards as she made her way over towards the lift at the back of the compound that would ferry her up the tower.
She stepped out of a door and into a much smaller space than the main courtyard where she practised her sword fighting skills and spotted Rex. He was standing off to one side of the small yard talking with the figure in curious shadow-like robes. Seeing them together like that reminded her of the reasons she hated Rex. One of those reasons stood right next to him. The one thing she hated more than Rex was the daemons that infested this world. That fact that her captor also happened to serve one of these so-called Night Lords only cemented her dislike of Rex even further.
But, what could she do? She had no survival skills. She wouldn’t have the first idea what to do out there, and Rex knew it, which was why he kept her in here and ignorant of any survival skills, barring sword fighting, of course.
Rex seemed to sense she was there and turned to look at her, waving her over. Nyx sighed. Now, she needed to put that well-worn mask of hers back on and pretend to be the kind and content servant to Rex that he expected of her.
Disrespect was not an option unless she wanted to be punished for her disobedience. She gripped her sword in her hand as she started to walk over towards him, and wondered what it would feel like to swing her blade and cut his smug little head off.
She’d bet a lot that it would feel great.
She noticed one of the guards watching her, and as she approached, he stepped forward and pointed to her sword. She knew what he wanted. He wanted her to put the blade away. She’d expected it, but had wanted to test the boundaries, to see what she could get away with.
The answer was nothing, by the looks of things. So, she slid the sword into its scabbard on her back as she walked and left it there before s
tepping towards Rex. She kept her eyes low, looking at Rex’s feet as she walked up, but even so, she could feel his eyes on her, eyeing her up hungrily.
She always felt like a piece of meat around Rex, like a trophy for him to display and show off to everyone around him. She was his status symbol.
‘Darling,’ she said as she reached him and leant into him, pressing her chest against him in the way she knew he liked and kissed his cheek.
He let her, and in return, reached around and took hold of her right butt cheek in his hand, giving it a rough squeeze and caress. The feeling of his touch made her insides squirm every time. She hated it. It was just something she could never get used to.
But it wasn’t the worst thing, either. She knew full well that Rex would be summoning her to his bed tonight and expecting her to submit to him utterly. Out of everything that he made her do, the sex was the worst. He got her to do all kinds of things for him, and she needed to always look as though she was enjoying it, or he would punish her terribly.
She’d learnt to blank it out, to run on autopilot and do her best to forget what he was doing to her, or making her do to or for him. With the Whisperer here today, she felt very sure that he would want something special tonight, something to celebrate this visit and to allow him to let off some steam. Most likely, he’d bring in one or more of the girls from the brothel downstairs and expect some kind of show before he joined in.
Most of the girls from down there were nice, and they treated her as one of their own, teaching her how to deal with him, the little tricks of the trade to make life a little easier. The nights when they were just putting on a show for him, herself and one or more of the girls were the easiest, but she got the feeling that this would not happen tonight.
She could already feel the fear and revulsion growing inside her, but she pushed it back down and shut it away. She could worry about that later.
‘Hi,’ she said to Rex after kissing him. She then turned to the shadowy figure, took on a more deferential tone and completed a shallow bow to him. ‘My Lord,’ she said. ‘It’s a pleasure to see you again.’
‘Thank you, my child,’ the thing said to her, its voice had a strange quality to it. It was quiet, but easy to hear at the same time, and had a curious, inhuman modulation to it that was very alien to hear. ‘I shall join you in your quarters, Custodius,’ the creature said, before stepping back into the shadows behind it and dissolving into them.
It always freaked her out how it could do that.
Rex stepped away from her and walked towards the lift close by with his second in command, General Pitbull, a huge muscled mountain of a man.
Nyx followed, not really paying any attention to their conversation. They were going over plans for tonight or something, but it didn’t interest her. She knew what she would be doing later during the meal anyway.
‘So, this Nero guy wants to do this job for you,’ Pitbull said.
Nyx’s ear’s pricked up as she heard the name of the cute guy that had arrived today.
‘Yeah, send him out with two of my Dogs, we need that band of raiders dealt with, then give him whatever he wants and send him on his way. We don’t need more people hanging around here for days on end,’ Rex said.
Nyx looked at him. He appeared agitated about something.
‘Agreed, we have too much going on with the offerings and everything to sort out over the next few days,’ Pitbull said.
Rex simply nodded.
Nyx narrowed her eyes at him. What wasn’t he saying? Something was bothering him, that was for sure.
They stood on a large platform of metal that was attached to four chains that extended from each corner up to a balcony on the former turbine housing high above by a system of pulleys. Nyx held onto one of the railings as it rose up, giving her a view of the whole of the inside of the Watchtower’s walls below and the people moving about down there. They were most of the way up, and Rex had stopped talking to Pitbull when she felt a playful slap on her bum. She looked round to see Rex smiling at her. He winked, and her stomach turned.
‘We’ll have some fun tonight, hey?’ he said.
Silently, she groaned inside. Outwardly, though, she smiled sweetly. ‘Whatever you want,’ she purred back to him. It always felt fake to her when she spoke like that, and she always thought that he might one day realise the façade she was creating, but so far, he hadn’t, and a dirty grin spread over his face at her comment.
Moments later, they were at the top of the tower and Rex led the way off the lift onto the platform that sat on top of the turbine housing. Up here was Rex’s living quarters, while steps down into the housing led to her own personal bedroom. She could see the dark shadowy figure of the Whisperer in the doorway to his quarters, and she had a sudden urge to whip her sword out and charge at it. She’d dearly love to skewer it on her blade and send it back to whence it came, but she guessed it would be harder to do than she thought.
‘Stay here,’ Rex said to Pitbull and ushered Nyx down the stairs in front of him. She walked into the first half of this level, with its ladder that led down inside the tower and the door into her bedroom. To one side of the room sat a guard, who immediately stood up to attention on seeing Rex enter the chamber.
Rex stopped at the bottom of the stairs and watched, as she knew he would. She had been through this same ritual most days, and it was almost automatic now. Nyx withdrew her sword and walked over to the wall where she placed it up onto the hooks that held it in place above where the guard sat, day in, day out. With that done, she walked over to her bedroom door, opened it by turning the deadbolt, and stepped inside. Rex followed her in and was pushing the door shut behind them when she turned around. She smiled sweetly, as she always did and waited.
‘Tonight we feast with the offerings from the camps in honour of our Lord,’ he said. ‘You will be there, serving with the other wenches,’ he said. Nyx’s stomach twisted as his implication that she was a wench. She wanted to punch him.
‘Good practice today,’ he said as he started to undo his belt. ‘I do love watching you spar; it’s always exciting to see you move.’
Nyx shivered in disgust, she knew what was coming next.
Chapter 6
Nero
Nero brought the dinged metal mug up to his lips once more and took another sip of moonshine that Lobos apparently made, and relished the burning sensation as it trickled down his throat.
He’d discovered a little balcony area, higher up than the main communal one. It was also higher than the surrounding wall and gave him a great view over the wastes beyond the walls. The evening was drawing in with the last remnants of the sun’s light dying on the western horizon, allowing the night's velvet embrace to envelope the landscape.
He could hear the general noise and hubbub coming from below as people talked, but it didn’t impinge on his enjoyment of the view. In fact, it was rather peaceful.
Placing the mug on the floor beside him, Nero arched his back and stretched with a yawn. The massive tower came into view above him, and he could make out the figure of Nyx standing up there, on a balcony above him, also looking out into the landscape.
He couldn’t see much of her, but her strawberry blonde locks stood out against the darkening sky, highlighted by the lights behind her.
There was something about that girl. Something he liked, something that drew him in like a moth to a flame. He had no idea what it could be, but he liked her.
Nero chuckled to himself. What an idiot thing to think. He’d never even said one word to the girl, and he was already thinking how much he fancied her? Jeez, how corny was that? He shook his head and reached for his drink again. An evening with one of the girls from the brothel might be just what the doctor ordered.
‘Taking a liking to that stuff?’ said a gruff, slightly muffled male voice behind him.
Nero turned to see Rex standing in the doorway with two other guys behind him, looking at him.
‘It’s not bad,’ Nero
said.
‘Well, we have loads of it, so, take as much as you like,’ Rex said and walked onto the balcony, leaving the two guards by the door. Rex wandered over to the railing in front of Nero and rested his two hands on it, looking out into the wastes. Nero took the opportunity to glance up, but the girl was gone.
‘So, that job we talked about earlier. You still interested?’ Rex said.
‘Raiders?’ Nero asked.
‘That’s right,’ Rex said, turning to face him with his masked and hooded head. ‘The ones I mentioned before with the pet Zombies. They’re not far away, according to my scout. Just south-west of here, towards the edge of the salt flats out there. I’m sure you’ll find them.’
‘You want me to take them out?’
‘Sure. Kill em, scare em, whatever, but I don’t want to have to deal with them again. Show them that the Watchtower won’t tolerate that kind of behaviour in their territory.’
‘I can do that. How many?’ Nero asked.
‘Only a handful. You’ll be travelling with two of my Dogs, okay?’ Rex said, pointing towards the two guys standing in the doorway. Nero looked back at them. They returned his gaze with the steely look of warriors born and bred. Nero had the distinct impression that these guys were little more than insurance, there to make sure he did the job for Rex more than anything else.
Nero nodded with a grunt.
‘Excellent. Well, if you get going, you should be back in time for the feast. Good luck,’ Rex said and walked off the balcony, leaving the pair of guards with him. What did he call them? Dogs? Well, with a name like Rex, he guessed it fit.
Nero lifted his feet off the railing they had been resting on and sat upright before looking back at the two young men. ‘No time like the present, hey?’ he said.
‘Let’s get going, pussy,’ one of them said.
Charming, Nero thought, raising his eyebrows a fraction. These guys would be a barrel of laughs. He only hoped their fighting skills were better than their social skills. Nero got up with a grunt, feeling a little stiff in his knees for a moment before turning to face the two men, who were not looking at all impressed. Nero sighed. This would be a long trip. He walked forward, passing between the two Dogs and made his way down through the compound, the two guards following close behind. Before long, they were in the garage, heading for his car. He saw Ras and Gus close by. Gus was still working on their van, but Ras was just leaning against the vehicle and spotted Nero immediately. Ras wandered over, reaching Nero before he got to his car and then walked with him.
Wasteland Road Knights Trilogy Page 5
