by CW Tickner
‘Maybe they will give up,’ Sonora said. ‘No more lives need be lost than necessary.’
Harl looked at her. When she was called upon to fight she looked more beautiful than ever, like a sleek predatory animal. She had that look now. She stood differently, ready to spring into action and rend anything that threatened the ones she loved. Her eyes tracked every small bit of movement and her hands twitched as she prowled, pacing back and forth as she spoke. A short sword was slung over her back and a sleek fierceness in her face showed the changes that had come over her since she killed the first hiver. He found he loved her more when she showed such passion.
‘They’ll fight to the death,’ Uman said. ‘The ones in charge of the cells carry the pistols of light and have sworn oaths to the council.’
‘So be it,’ Harl said, picking up Gorman’s sword from the porch and double-checking his quiver of arrows from the gifting so long ago.
It felt like an age since his times drinking with Troy in the Golden Spear. Waiting for such gifts had seemed like a blessing. In reality it was a curse, bare essentials given to sustain a living product in the hope of a profit.
No doubt Troy would be guzzling pints of foaming ale, perhaps remembering Harl, as he charmed the ladies. Had he slipped into a life of regret, using women and drink to mask the ruin that Harl had brought down on him? Maybe he would see him again one day, but Harl knew nothing came without a fight.
He walked down the steps and tightened his grip on the sword. The air smelled heavy with rain as though it was preparing to wash away the blood that was to come. He grimaced and walked on.
‘Let’s get this over with.’
Harl crept out into the night from the patch of shrubs. He was almost unrecognisable. Sonora had wrapped him in smelly rags and he hobbled along leaning on a makeshift crutch as he made his way towards the prison.
The only difference between the long brick building and the nearby houses were the criss-crossing bars that secured its windows and the two guards chatting in the darkness outside the heavy wooden door. Everything else was the same. Sandy coloured bricks made up its walls and a riot of flowers covered its roof and hung down the walls.
Harl took a deep breath, cursed himself for suggesting the plan, and then shuffled down the dusty road towards them.
‘Right, left, left,’ he murmured to himself, repeating the directions back to the others in his head.
The men took notice as he drew nearer.
‘Halt!’ the guard on the left ordered, drawing a pistol as Harl got within ten paces of the door.
Harl dropped the crutch and fled back down the street, his feet kicking the dirt into clouds as he sped away. As he had hoped, the guards gave chase. He ran through the directions in his head again as he dodged around the back of a building at the end of the street. Blue streaks of light burst from behind and slammed into the wall above his head. He ducked and twisted right, darting down a narrow passage. Another shot exploded over his shoulder, its light searing his eyes just as he took a sharp left. The men shouted curses as they rounded the corner into the long alleyway. Harl slipped left again just before a dense clump of bushes.
Uman and Damen stepped out from the shrubs and loosed arrows straight down the alley. The guards crumpled to the floor, each with an arrow embedded in their leg.
Harl stepped back around the last corner as Sonora slipped from the bushes, sword in hand, and checked each man’s pulse.
‘It worked,’ she said, smiling at the two senseless men.
To Harl they looked like a pair of drunks sleeping off the ale after failing to make it back home.
Damen knelt and picked up a pistol, then plucked a key from the other’s chest pocket.
‘They’re heavily armed,’ he said, inspecting the weapon, before passing it to Sonora. ‘This is not their usual equipment. Be careful.’
She took the pistol in one hand and then slid the sword into the scabbard on her back.
‘They should be quiet for a while,’ she said, stooping down to the guards and drawing the arrows out. She wrapped a thin roll of cloth around their legs to bind the wounds. ‘The venom will last for a while before they come around again.’
‘How did you make such a weapon?’ Uman asked, staring at the two limp guards.
‘Herbs are a wonderful thing,’ Sonora said. ‘Some can heal and others-’ She gestured at the bodies. ‘-can be used to make life easier during an operation.’
Uman shook his head in disbelief and smiled.
‘The ways of women,’ he said.
They returned to find the jail door locked. Damen thrust the key into the keyhole and gently turned it, coaxing as much silence as possible from the lock. The click was barely audible when it came and he used a foot to ease the reinforced door open. He froze as it creaked, unwilling to continue for fear of more noise. Sonora slipped in beside him and braced her hands on the door edge, then lifted it up to take the weight off hinges as she swung it silently inwards.
Harl guessed that living with Gorman had forced her to get creative in avoiding detection.
Once inside, they swept the gloom with their pistols, but found the guardroom empty and abandoned. Only a battered table and chairs lurked in the darkness.
An open doorway led off into a long room lined with cells on either side. There was no sign of light in there, just a pitch blackness that smothered the furthest end of the room. All Harl could make out was the shadowy corners of some boxes stacked at the far end. The place was deserted.
‘Maybe no one’s home.’ Harl said as he walked into the cell block. ‘Have they moved him?’
‘Our man said he was brought here,’ Damen said. ‘But it’s possible.’
‘Why the guards?’ Uman asked.
‘It’s a trap!’ Kane’s voice screamed from out of the darkness ahead, just as the corridor lit up with twin streaks of blue fire.
Harl didn’t have time to react as the shots hurtled towards him. A hand yanked him back, and as the blue light streaked past his head, Damen stepped in front to return fire with his bow. Sonora squeezed beside the hunter and knelt to fire her pistol. Her shots lit the hallway like a storm, splintering the boxes at the far end into a burst of flame.
‘Behind!’ Uman called as three guards charged in from the front entrance.
Harl spun and tore his sword from its scabbard. His heart began to pound as the closest man rushed him. The look in the guard’s eyes was crazed with bloodlust. He slashed out with a melting-dagger, but Harl parried the blade and then launched a foot out to stop the guard from advancing. He felt the man’s ribs crack and, as he thrust his sword out, the man sprang at him, snarling. Harl braced himself and thrust forward. The sword’s tip punctured the man’s armour, impaling him up to the hilt, Harl pressed forward but the weight of the body forced him back until his foot caught on a chair leg, and he toppled over backwards.
The body collapsed on top of Harl and he twisted, shoving it aside as he scrambled to his feet. He ducked as Uman launched a spear at the two men crowded in the entrance. The spear slammed into one of them and forced him backwards into the other. Harl leapt forwards and shoved the dying man aside, and then plunged his sword down into the guard pinned underneath.
He spun back to the cell block doorway. Sonora and Damen were on either side of it, backs against the frame as shots flashed through into the guardroom. Harl jumped aside as a couple of shots flashed towards him. He dodged them, barely, and they hammered into the far wall and dissipated with a hiss. Acrid smoke began to fill the room, growing thicker and thicker with each shot until it threatened to suffocate them.
Harl crouched beside Sonora as Damen knelt by the doorway, nocked an arrow, and then twisted around the door to fire blindly into the darkness where the last shot had originated.
‘Sonora, shoot down towards the end,’ Harl said.
She nodded, leant out and fired twice, lighting the walkway and cells on either side with blue flashes as her shots flew into the room
. The searing blue shots rippled light past the bars until they struck the boxes at the far end, briefly illuminating the scene.
‘There are more than two of them,’ Uman said, lying flat on the floor to peer around the frame. ‘They’re hiding behind some boxes at the end.’
‘Like cowards,’ Damen growled.
Sonora fired again.
Damen and Harl leant out from either side of the doorframe and fired together, using the light from Sonora’s pistol shot to guide them.
A cry came from the darkness at the end of the long room.
‘Good shot,’ Damen said, dodging behind the frame as a rogue blast whipped back through the doorway to scorch the floor beside Uman.
The scout growled and cursed as he tore off a piece of armour on his arm. The shot had glanced the metal to leave a reddening burn underneath.
‘What now?’he said, pouring water from a waterskin onto the tender flesh.
‘If they knew we were coming,’ Harl said, ‘there might be more outside. Cover the entrance, Damen.’
The big man moved to the front door without hesitation and peered out. He ducked back, dragging the bodies of the two dead guards to form a crude barricade in the doorway.
‘Here,’ Damen said, tossing a pistol from one of the dead men to Harl.
Harl kept up a steady stream of fire towards the crates as Sonora crawled over to Uman to apply a crude bandage around his arm.
It was a stalemate. Other than waiting for the men inside to die of thirst, Harl had no idea how to get Kane back. But it was a moot point. An electric light flicked on above the centre of the corridor and Kane was thrust out from behind the stack of metal crates.
Squinting against the glare, Harl raised one hand to shield his eyes and levelled his pistol at the crates concealing the captor.
‘Drop your weapons and move into the cells,’ a voice said. Harl recognised it. It belonged to the fat Enlightened council member who’d accused them of stealing the weapons.
‘Walter,’ Damen whispered.
Walter stepped out, but held Kane before him, pistol raised and pointing down the corridor. Kane was clearly terrified, sweat dripping down his face onto the arm around his neck.
Damn them, Harl thought. He hadn’t practised enough with the pistol to be sure of hitting Walter; only a fraction of the man’s shoulder and face were vulnerable. It was a near impossible shot with a pistol.
He hesitated, unwilling to risk the shot. The pistol seemed a wasted weapon in such a situation. The thought brought an idea to mind and his eyes were drawn up to the florescent tube set in the corridor’s ceiling. He smiled. It was a small chance, but it might just work.
‘Uman,’ he said, keeping his voice low, ‘pass an arrow to my left hand.’
Harl focused on Walter.
‘Alright,’ he called. ‘We’ll do what you want, but on one condition.’
‘You’re in no position to make demands,’ Walter said, leaning out further from Kane’s shoulder to get a good look at them. ‘But I will humour you. What?’
‘We’ll surrender,’ Harl said, spotting a second man peek out from behind the boxes, ‘but only if we’re given another trial. A fair trial this time.’
The arrow slid into Harl’s hand, and, trying not to move his mouth, he whispered to Sonora. ‘Shoot the light out when I say, then hit the floor. ’
‘Easy,’ she muttered, but he couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic. ‘Just be careful.’
‘Fine,’ Walter said and twitched the gun to Kane’s head. ‘Now drop your weapons.’
Harl stepped out, his pistol aimed at the ceiling, the other hand held the arrow behind the back of his arm, hidden from Walter’s view.
He bent over, his gaze flicking from Walter to Kane’s demoralized features, memorizing their positions.
‘I also have a bow,’ he said, placing the gun on the floor and starting to unsling the weapon from his shoulder.
‘All of you,’ Walter said, impatient. He pulled the gun from Kane’s head and waved it at them. ‘Your weapons. Do it!’
‘Now,’ Harl said.
Sonora fired, sending blue streaks flashing across the room. The shots disintegrated the light in the ceiling and they were plunged into darkness. Harl had the arrow on the string in a heartbeat and fired into the pitch black room before throwing himself to the ground. There was a scream and the darkness fractured as a flash of blue went wide into the cells.
Sonora rolled into Harl’s view and stayed low as she unloaded her pistol into the far end of the boxes. Harl glimpsed a man edging out from behind them as her shots lit the room like a lightning storm. The man screamed and staggered in the shadows before crashing against a cell door. He grabbed his stomach and moaned in pain as he raised one hand to stare at the blood in horror. After a moment he slid down the cell bars to the floor.
Harl dived aside as a wave of blue raced towards them. The shot lit up Walter, the arrow embedded in his shoulder. A ferocious snarl twisted his chubby face.
‘Die!’ Walter cried, firing a storm of shots down the narrow space between the cells.
There was a muted thump and the firing stopped. A shrill scream rang out as a single shot was fired. Harl leapt up, terrified that Kane had been hit in the crossfire. He started to run, but stopped when Kane’s silhouette stepped out from behind the boxes.
‘I’m okay,’ Kane said, stumbling towards them holding a pistol.
Light beamed in from the guardroom behind Harl as Uman found a switch. It illuminated Walter’s body on the floor beside Kane.
Kane looked like he had been in a bout with a prize fighter. Bruises bulged from his head making it seem larger than usual. Somehow he had managed to keep his glasses on, but the wire-rimmed frames were buckled and twisted.
Damen stepped into the guardroom.
‘A couple outside. Ran off when I went out. No spine in them,’ he said and then nodded at Kane. ‘Looks like you’ve hunted a scuttler. What happened?’
‘I decided to have a look at your belongings,’ Kane said, waving a trembling hand at Harl as Sonora dashed forward to inspect his bruises. ‘When I found the book, I knew what the outcome of the meeting would be. The discovery of the Third would change our way of life. The other Enlightened would want to keep the knowledge to themselves, and that meant the removal of anyone who knew of its existence. But they sent someone to collect your bags just as I was checking them, and, before I could act, they locked me in a cell in the caves. They brought me out here during the meeting. Ha! Lynching is more appropriate. I guess they thought it wise to lock me up and teach me a lesson.’ He rubbed the bruises on his cheekbone. ‘So what’s next?’
‘The council are locked up deep inside the caves,’ Damen said. ‘The people are restless without guidance and I think some planning is in order before we try to pry them out.’
‘And a bath,’ Sonora said, dabbing a cloth against the blood coating Kane’s face.
‘What if they attack again?’ Harl asked, thinking a counter-attack right now would be the end of them.
‘I have men rooting out those still in favour of the Enlightened,’ Damen said, ‘So we need not fear a direct counter-attack.’
‘They will be preparing for later,’ Kane said. ‘The longer they have to prepare their next move, the more people we’ll lose in the battle.’
‘Battle?’ Harl asked, wiping the sweat from his brow. He didn’t know how much more fighting he could take.
‘They won’t give up,’ Damen said.
Kane nodded. ‘We must organise ourselves. We need a base of operations.’
‘What about here?’ Sonora asked.
Kane looked around at the bodies and blackened walls.
‘Anywhere but here,’ he said.
‘You can stay at my place,’ Damen said. ‘I’ll give orders for a watch on the Enlightened inside the caves, but Yara will be pleased to have so much company.’
‘I doubt she’ll be so happy when we tell her we’re hav
ing war meetings in her living room,’ Sonora said.
Damen laughed.
‘We’ll see,’ he said.
Chapter 41
If I am to keep a monopoly on the creatures for as long as possible I must ensure their habitats are are optimal for breeding. Unfortunately I do not know when their mating season is.
The six of them gathered inside Damen’s house. The living room was far too small for everyone, so all the wooden furniture except the table and chairs were shoved to the sides. It was a tight fit. As he sat down, Harl found himself staring up at a ferocious hiver head mounted on the stone wall. It’s dead eyes gleamed in the firelight.
‘Okay,’ he said, trying to pull his eyes away from it, ‘before we hear from Gorman, I want to know what has happened. The book’s discovery acted like a trigger. It caused our death sentence and now the whole town seems to have risen up against the Enlightened council members. People have stepped forward to act as our guards and, even now, a group seems to be waiting on us outside. What does it all mean?’
The question was addressed to Kane, who had been looking at Harl with an air of discomfort since Gorman’s arrival. Maybe it was something to do with having another older and more experienced man in proximity. Had Gorman been the equivalent of an Enlightened before ending up in the tanks?
Kane cleared his throat, ‘This might take some time to explain, but a little history is needed if we are to proceed. Before the separation of the Enlightened and the Passives, Delta was a place of technology and learning. For as long as we can remember there have been stories told of how we came to this planet from the sky above. The truth of these tales has been handed down through the generations, but only a handful of people know that they came from out of our own history books. Three books, to be precise.’
‘Each of these volumes was special, teaching not just our history, but the rules of society, and the laws of science and technology. Each book was a manual showing the intricacies of the fantastic devices all around us. But each book held its own secrets. The complexity of ideas and schematics grew more advanced from book to book.
