“Well said.” Gio yawned and, for the first time in a while, he studied her figure, how her cleavage showed in the V-neck of the light gray shirt, how her ass filled out those black pants. “Come over here so I can change those bandages. They’re bleeding, your hands.”
So they were. Simply handling the crystals had worn away at the wounds. He followed her to the blanket they’d set up earlier and watched as she gently changed the bandages on his hands. Watched the play of her fingers, the wisps of hair at her ears. The black dye was wearing off already and hints of gold glinted among the black.
His feet had healed faster. All his wounds had healed faster than normal. The Aerthe’s effect?
“You liked my words? I should say some sort of speech tomorrow. We should leave then.”
“They weren’t bad. Could be better. Prophet level?” She waggled one hand. “Not sure.”
“Now who is skeptical?” He added, after some thought, “You came back for me.”
That was probably a blush he saw on her cheeks though firelight made it hard to tell.
“So did you.” Suddenly Gio seemed shy. She peeked at him. “You came for me too. Shot down that sniker.”
“Aunt M was handling that. She ripped off enough pieces to make it crash.” Which made him wonder where she’d vanished to, and JI. Though some of the Mekkers had questioned why he trusted a Scav. “I admit I did try. So, we are definitely friends then?”
“I guess so.” She smiled weakly.
Something about this eluded him. Something was off. Too tired to decipher what it was, he decided to figure it out tomorrow.
The morning brought a brighter brain. Fatigue eliminated, he could see many things he’d lost in the chaos of the previous day, and he stood with a hand on a tree branch overlooking the countless deckers who’d had enough faith to follow him out here. Some sat around small fires. Some were preparing food over them. No doubt there’d be burns and burnt food.
There was much to learn. Hunting. Gathering. How to construct a shelter. How to predict the climate or track game.
He knew he was not the leader for them – Badh was. He’d make sure his brother understood this.
He also knew what was missing when he talked to Gio, when she sat with him.
And he knew she intended to leave. No doubt feeling as if she knew him better after the recent events, or perhaps because she felt safer outside the landship, she’d spoken freely and had said as much last night.
He forbade her of course, though he used reasoning. That she gave way and agreed it was wise to remain and see if the lost city would provide a home for these people and her, it reinforced his thoughts.
He knew her better than she’d yet admitted. Yes, he’d changed, but not as much as she thought.
Nowhere near that much.
Neither had she. He saw the casual way she sometimes positioned herself as if to lure him – ass up when she picked something up from the ground. She still wanted sex but that was only the beginning of his desires. He was in no great hurry. He would wait until they found the site of the city, to let her understand her situation.
Out here was no safer than in the landship. Less so, if anything. There were Scavs and wild beests, the weather, the land itself, and men here thought slavery was natural. This was never going to be her world.
His one misgiving was that she strived to improve her portal making skill. Now that she knew it existed, she sneaked away from the main mass of people when she could, and she practiced. He saw this enough times to be certain she was making headway. Before she’d been ignorant of her ability.
Now... The circle of greenish light was expanding, incrementally.
No other humans had been allowed to leave the swathe. There was only one who might step through any portal she created – Gio.
After days of walking, while fending off beests that killed three and wounded several deckers, they reached the site of the city.
“There it is,” he breathed the words.
They’d topped a rise beyond the main delta of the rivers, dreading an expanse of sand and lifeless countryside, only to find the crumpled and crumbled remains of the city. No smoke drifted from these ruins that spread for miles. There were no signs of crops being grown, no signs of people. The Scavs and grounders weren’t using it, though they must have explored the place.
A branch of the river meandered beside the city and through it, on the way to the ocean that lay to the left – fervent blue water sweeping into forever, waves frothing inward and dying on a long beach.
“The sea!” several cried. The reverent echoes of that word carried down through the crowd edging onto the rise of the land. “The sea.”
No landship ever ventured close to the oceans, for the soils could be treacherous and the waik crystal harvest was poor. No Mekker had seen such a vast amount of water, free on the land, for generations.
Ryke smiled as Gio walked up to stand next to him.
“We have found it, girl.”
“We have.” Uncertainty flew over her face before she firmed herself. “I hope you do well here. I will wait a while and find supplies before I go on.”
“Hmmm.” She wanted freedom? He wanted her. “You need companions to survive here. Alone would be reckless.”
“Yes. I agree.” Her lips twisted – she agreed with him yet was unhappy. “I was hoping maybe JI and Aunt M?”
“JI is a loner. I don’t understand the man well, but I doubt he’d have you. I believe he’s spoken to Aunt M. They have some goal in mind.”
“Aunt M too? Really?” Disappointment dripped from her voice. “I haven’t seen her or JI for days.”
What other ideas did she have? Expecting a sun-mad mechling to want to stay with her seemed odd. If the creature...thing, hadn’t showed her mettle, he was sure the other Mekkers would’ve asked for her destruction. Perhaps that was why Aunt M had kept to the fringes and not walked with them.
Perhaps that was why she’d taken to JI? Though why she’d feel aligned with a Scav was beyond him.
Letting Gio go off with a Scav was never going to be allowed. He mightn’t have used his cock much but he would surely get lustful ideas with her around.
Two children ran up with their Above parents, giggling and pointing at the remains of the once-tall buildings. Birds circled below the flimsiest of white clouds. The sun shone. And not a single storm had hampered their travels.
Gio picked up one of the children and held the girl higher so she could see past some shrubs poking up from below the ridge. The little boy begged him for the same and he perched the child behind his shoulders. It surprised him how good it felt to do this.
One child with Gio, the other with him, both of them laughing with the boy taunting his sister. Ryke smiled at Gio. There was something admirable about families.
“You’re a natural,” Gio yelled to him, laughing herself as she handed the girl off to the father. The boy demanded to be let down also and he watched them run off along the line of people still exclaiming at the wonders of this derelict city.
“Children are the hope of our people.”
“Yes.” Gio nodded. “They always are.” She turned to pick up her pack and hoisted it onto her shoulders.
He helped her adjust the fit. “Let’s go find out what this city holds.”
And more, much more.
A sparse forest lay between them and the outskirts of the city. Alongside Gio, he picked his way down the ridge at the forefront of the little army of settlers.
When Badh arrived, he ventured something he’d been wondering, “What do we call them all from now on? Deckers? Mekkers? Or do we invent something new?”
“I don’t know.” Badh dodged a whippy branch and stepped carefully over some rocks and uneven ground. “Perhaps we will think on that in a month’s time when we are sure we won’t starve to death?”
“Oh we won’t starve. Not with you as our leader. I am certain of this.”
Badh chuckled. “I’ll brin
g up your suggestion, Prophet, at our first meeting in the city.”
“This city was once called Mucho Boo.”
“It was? Now that one will have to be changed.”
“New New York? New Sydney? Wooloomooloo?” Gio interjected. “I can give you a ton of suggestions.”
“I think we should call her Hope City.”
Gio smiled at him. “That’s a beautiful suggestion.”
“Thank you.”
“Hope, maybe. It’s a little bland,” Badh said. “Or Prophet City. Either way, we have to tell the king as soon as we can that we Mekkers can now live on the land of Aerthe.”
“Agreed. Definitely a priority.” He nodded.
He’d find a place he could call his, also. Somewhere where no one would hear her screams. Good screams, of course. He didn’t do bad ones anymore.
Soon he would show her the flaws in her plans.
Chapter 43
It had been a week, no more than that, since they’d arrived and filtered through the wrecked streets of what most called Mucha Hope. Gio had found that name giggleworthy and he wasn’t sure why.
They had a system for hunting, a place to pool supplies, had designated teachers of skills and had begun a rudimentary method to farm the lands. The desert seemed to have kept the city largely untouched. Perhaps the forests had arisen recently. Rivers did change their flow. The land altered over time.
He’d found this place, a shell of a structure, but still solid and standing three stories high – that was fairly unusual in a city flattened more than a century ago. Two centuries some thought. History here was wonky, as Gio said.
He was putting a lot of credit in what Gio said, but that was fine, he was sure she was also seeing the worth of his views.
This man, however...
Ryke stood, shoving away the light metal chair. It was a good chair. Scavenging here was strangely satisfying, akin to mining for precious substances.
The man was kneeling and bound.
“Go,” he dismissed the two deckers who’d brought the man up the stairs to here, his third level of the building. Birds and bugs could fly in through the ragged walls. Windows were non-existent, but as far as he could tell, this wasn’t falling over any time soon. Water on the ground floor, a view up here. He was at the edge of the city, overlooking the river, and he felt like a king.
Except for this.
Ryke walked slowly around the man until he stood behind him and drew his Thelk from the chest holster. “Thought I was past this but you have been found guilty of passing on a double blessing to one of Ormad’s men.”
He’d had to interrogate that bastard. Seemed as if Ormrad had planned well and sent one of his men to infiltrate the Above who’d accompanied the deckers. He’d joined the faithful and become friendly and had been blessed. He’d been left to be a spy, but had been recognized.
That man, Ormad’s man, had led to this one. The doubly-blessed decker who’d been paid to bless the spy.
Paid with a to-be-collected future favor – one he’d never get to collect from Ormrad.
The one thing they hadn’t ascertained was whether this decker had also blessed others he shouldn’t have, such as Ormrad himself.
“You were chosen to be doubly blessed and then you chose to give that to a man who was loyal to Ormrad. The king condemned the judge for treason. For this reason, you are sentenced to death.
He aimed the weapon at the side of the man’s skull and fired, watched him jerk and fall.
He was a double killer again, in this new city. He felt dirty but not terribly so. He could live with it, unlike this one.
Ryke whistled. “Come and get him! And clean up the blood!”
The two deckers did as he’d asked, leaving only a darkened area of floor to show where a dead man had lain.
He didn’t want to be an executioner, but no one else wanted the job.
He’d let that dry before he called for Gio. Maybe give it a day so he forgot. He really needed somewhere else to do this. Somewhere official. Killing in his home was nasty.
He sat in the chair again, the Thelk dangling from his hand. And of course, the worst of this was that Ormrad was confirmed alive and likely going for that mech, wherever it lay. He’d make sure Aunt M knew.
The danger in that, Ormrad with a deadly and highly effective mech in his control...
Shove it away. He had more important things to contemplate.
Her.
He clenched his fist and felt the minor particles of Aerthe sizzle in infinitesimal ways against his palm skin.
No one else could sense this.
He knew things. Such as that his double blessing would wane in the twenty people he’d so blessed.
His new acquaintance with Aerthe had made him aware of what this world was, of how it interacted with people, with the air they breathed, of how jealous it was, in a rather nonchalant way, of the organisms that inhabited its surface. It didn’t care who you were, just that you were a part of it, and it liked to keep you, once it had you.
Once it really had you.
Chapter 44
She watched as JI and Aunt M said goodbye to her and Ryke...sort of watched distantly, even though they were right here before her. What would she do now? She felt abandoned. Aunt M was a kick-ass mechling and had seemed a vital connection to her dreams of leaving here and going out into this world. She couldn’t leave here by herself. That would be close to suicide.
The street was still strewn with piles of debris, though the Mucha Hope people had resolved to clear it. After a million other things were done.
“Don’t go near where the Gathering was,” Ryke told them, shaking hands with JI then grinning somewhat foolishly at Aunt M.
The abandoned mech was there, rumor said. Ormrad would love to get hold of Aunt M’s brain, though she’d obliterate him if she could. Gio knew who she’d bet on – Aunt M.
“We’ll do the best thing we can come up with.” JI stood slouching to one side, his big red rifle hanging from his hand.
She’d heard Mekkers grumbling about him. Scavs and Mekkers had a lot of obscenely violent clashes in their history that’d take a lot of work to break down. Mekkers had trashed this world when they’d arrived on it, this city being a prime example.
JI eyed the people here sourly when he bothered to come near anyone else. Though she liked him and he seemed to like her, he’d said no when she asked to travel with them.
That had hurt.
Hesitantly, he stuck out his hand to her also and she shook it.
You’d think the man didn’t know how to say goodbye.
We will be careful, Gio.
“Good.” She nodded to Aunt M, and neither JI nor Ryke seemed to find it odd.
She had a feeling JI knew what had happened though she’d never explained the mind-talk that happened between humans and mechlings. He seemed as in tune with Aunt M as she was. That peeved her. Her private tête-à-têtes with mechlings had made her feel special.
She’d had no more visions either, though her portals were improving.
Her one last big hope.
The notion that she might be able to step through the air and back to Earth made her practice daily. Only the duties the city had given to each resident took up more time. Everyone had to pull their weight. It wasn’t surprising, if rather communal. Maybe she should give them a few lectures on the pitfalls of communism.
Though it wasn’t quite that, more a distant offshoot of a weird monarchy. The king still seemed their king.
Of course she’d already been appointed lecturer a few times. Ryke had pushed her forward. Sanitation, plumbing, irrigation systems, all those were underway now. The Mekkers excelled at learning new systems. Duty was in their blood.
Committees on this and that had been formed, though they all reported back to Badh.
Whatever Ryke’s aim with promoting her skills, she hadn’t minded. Teachers received a few perks.
She wasn’t a promising hunter or a g
atherer but she could organize and think laterally like nobody’s business. As a Scav, JI should’ve been a perfect teacher for hunting and surviving and all sorts of relevant shit, except he seemed to be missing some skills, or the wish to communicate them? Probably the latter.
Would this group survive for even a year? She really didn’t know.
A better question was how would she survive, if she doubted them, these thousands? She put her hand on her stomach. The pain there had been increasing since they arrived. Worry was forever churning in her mind. She couldn’t sleep most nights.
JI and Aunt M set off for the best exit from the city, walking over the rise of the rubble and down the other side. The crunch of boots and mechling limbs diminished and was gone. Sunset soon. Damn. Her life was getting less and less sure.
If she had someone to leave with she’d go, now, today. Abandon her room in the temporary dorm the single deckers had created. Or were they Mekkers? Hopers? Mopers?
She wished they’d sort it out. Maybe Mekkers were always Mekkers. Decker Mekkers? She nearly laughed out loud at that one.
Then Ryke touched her arm.
“Come with me.”
Obeying was her first inclination, stalling was her second. “Why?”
“Come.” He beckoned, curling a finger.
For the first time in weeks, her heart did a dance. Ryker had this look he could summon.
She went.
Chapter 45
They climbed the stairs to the third floor of his dwelling. It was a few streets away from where most had installed themselves, which wasn’t surprising given who Ryke was and how he’d always lived. She’d been here before, but never to this floor.
It was stark, except for his large bed, which was draped with piles of cloth no doubt taken from one of the stores they’d unearthed and explored. He had chairs too, a few storage chests, water in a barrel, a sofa that looked battered, as if it’d been up here since civilization had collapsed on Aerthe.
“No windows,” she murmured. The lack of walls and windows wasn’t unusual for Mucha Hope.
“I find it freeing after the landship.” He smiled. “Sit, please.”
Branded Possession (The Machinery of Desire Book 3) Page 28
