Jince came forward next. If Jawty appeared small, Jince looked miniscule. When she got close to her dad’s form, she dropped down onto one knee in front of him. “Don’t worry, Daddy, Seb will make sure the Countess doesn’t take Phulp.”
By that point Seb couldn’t see for his tears and his shoulders bobbed as he cried. The cold air bit into the tracks on his face and the end of his running nose stung.
Little Phulp moved forward last. No more than a blur now through Seb’s grief, he walked up to his dad and said nothing. Instead, he stared down at the lump on the ground.
Seb rubbed his eyes to see the boy a little better. Unlike his family, he didn’t cry. A hard frown dominated his face as if he failed to understand what lay in front of him. He simply stared at what used to be his father.
The silence lasted for a few seconds before Janina pulled her son into a tight hug.
As one, Phulp’s family turned their back on their patriarch.
Seb led the way out of the woods. Slightly easier than entering the trees, he had something to aim for on the other side. Fires burned in the slums. Torches, stoves … The moonlight also ran a silver highlight over the top of the ramshackle buildings.
Then Seb heard it and stopped dead. The movement of the others behind him also stopped. The snap of a twig went off close to them. Maybe no more than an animal, but they couldn’t be sure.
After Seb had checked that the others remained still, he stepped forward, the leafy ground crunching beneath his steps. Then he saw them.
A group of about ten foot soldiers had left the slum and they were headed straight for them. They came in a variety of sizes and looked like they were searching for something. The sides of Seb’s vision blurred and he clenched his fists.
He turned to the rest of the group and mouthed the word soldiers at them. Wide eyes stared back at him. Wide eyes and very little action. And what did he expect? They were hardly warriors. He’d have to deal with this. After taking a deep breath, he stepped from the trees.
Chapter 15
Seb stepped on a thick stick as he walked from the trees, announcing himself to the group of soldiers with a loud crack!
As one, the pack of Crimson foot soldiers spun to face him with their blasters raised.
Like most groups of guards on the planet, the lot in front of Seb stood as a mismatch of shapes and sizes. Species from all over the galaxy seemed to end up in Caloon and in the Countess’ employ. If the galaxy were a huge toilet, Caloon was the final U-bend that caught anything large enough not to get flushed out to sea. The Countess cast a wide net when recruiting, and it didn’t take much skill to become a mindless grunt.
As with every other group of crimson-robed soldiers, their faces were hidden in shadow. They all stared at Seb. He couldn’t work out how he never saw their faces unless they chose to reveal them. It seemed like some kind of witchcraft.
The largest of the group stood a couple of feet taller and wider than Seb. Not only the largest, he seemed to be the leader from the way he raised his gun and spoke in a deep boom. “What are you doing out here?”
The question sent a ripple of tension through the group, and Seb noticed each soldier’s trigger finger move ever so slightly as if readying to fire. Some of the soldiers swayed from side to side, and some stood perfectly still. But they all focused their weapons on him.
Seb drew a deep breath to still his rapid heart rate. It gave him a second to think before he spoke. The edges of his world had already blurred, and if he didn’t remain vigilant, his gift would drag him under.
The beast stepped a pace towards Seb and said, “Well? Don’t keep me waiting, scumbag.”
A couple of the others stepped forward with their leader. One of the smaller ones came so close to Seb he had to refrain from kicking out at the tiny rat. A hard boot would have driven the small creature several metres back into the slum.
Another deep breath and Seb held his tongue for a moment longer. It would only kick off if he said the wrong thing. If they’d wanted to shoot him, they would have done it by now. He looked at the leader and kept his voice even when he said, “Can you lower your gun, please?”
The guard and several others stepped another pace closer. He shoved his gun at Seb’s face. His breath turned to steam in the cold air and his voice sounded like a huge ship’s engine ticking over. “Start talking.”
The smaller one in the group stepped so close to Seb it stood on his toes. It happened the universe over. The small ones, the ones who’d always felt disempowered because of their size, suddenly became the most forward of the group when they had backup. Years of being bullied, they seemed to revel in the chance to bully back.
“We came out looking for something to eat,” Seb said.
The other soldiers bristled at his words and looked at one another. A line of three identically sized guards moved in behind their leader and stood shoulder to shoulder. Just in case he thought about running, he now had a wall to get through.
“We?” the main guard said, looking at the trees behind Seb.
The distance between them had closed to the point where Seb could smell the brute and his cronies. Not unpleasant, it reminded him of a pack of sweating horses, especially with how heavily they all breathed. They twitched as if ready to burst into action. “Yeah, we hoped we’d find some berries or something in the woods.”
“You’ve said we twice now.” The shadowed hood moved around as if looking for the others. “Who are the we you’re talking about?”
Before Seb could ask any of the others to step from their hiding place, he heard a rustling behind him. As if driven by the same mind, the guards snapped their weapons in the direction of the sound.
“Please,” Seb said, “don’t shoot them. We mean you no harm and we’re unarmed.” His backpack suddenly felt heavy with the weight of his blaster. But, as the only weapon between them, he couldn’t access it quickly anyway.
When Jince stepped out into the open, Seb looked from her to the guards. Any hint of aggression and he’d be ready for it. No way would he let them attack the poor little thing. “This is Bince. As you can see, she’s just a child and no threat to you.”
Not all, but some of the guards relaxed at the sight of the little creature. It made no sense for Seb to give up their real names to the soldiers. A name held a lot of power.
“We’re only out here because we’re all hungry and need some food to survive. We’re desperate. Do you have any food?”
The question seemed to disarm the lead guard, who tilted his head to one side. When he looked at the others and they stared back at him, he seemed to find his aggression again and boomed, “No! And I wouldn’t give it to a slum dweller if I did.”
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 16
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 laye
r 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.”
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 41
