Gods of Rust and Ruin

by Azalea Ellis

Adam wiped goop off his face, and turned to me. “I told you we should have just killed him in the first place.”

  I grunted. “We couldn’t have gotten away with that. Now it doesn’t matter.”

  “Toss him through the waste dump,” Adam said. “Good job with the gun, Sam, but your Skill is needed.” He waved a hand to me, Torliam, and Blaine, who was silently using a med kit to deal with the bullet wound in his leg.

  Zed spoke up. “Eve’s hurt bad. She needs to be healed ASAP. Her arm’s . . . I don’t even know what to call that. And she looks like she’s been starving for weeks.” He scowled at me.

  Sam stared wide-eyed at the body, blinked a couple times, and then turned to my arm. He took a deep breath. “Okay.” He dug out a small medical kit from one of the supply packs.

  Blaine went to the back to check on the kids and keep them from coming out while Jacky disposed of the body.

  Adam checked behind us from one of the small windows cut into the sides of the ship. “No immediate pursuit, but I can only imagine they’ve got trackers on this thing. They’ll be after us soon.”

  “No human ship will catch my Lady Ladriel,” Torliam said with pride. He was using his arms, so Sam must have fixed his spine while I was blacked out, though it looked like all the rest of his wounds remained. Then he did something, and the force of our acceleration rocked me. “Lady Ladriel” began to shudder at the speed. The vibration was almost soothing, like being inside the belly of a big purring cat, except that I knew I was actually inside the belly of a small ship that had been hit by a bomb, and then inexpertly patched up by people who didn’t even understand its technology.

  “I’m hungry,” I said weakly. “Could I get a nutrition bar?”

  Sam waved Zed aside and out of his way, taking charge as he only did in situations like this. “Did they feed you? Your body’s been eating itself, obviously.”

  “They fed me some. But the food was drugged.”

  Kris peeked around Adam’s side, obviously curious about my fearsome battle wounds, and Gregor joined her. “Here,” she said, handing me a nutrition bar. She took one look at my arm, and drew the bar back. “Oh.” She tore open the wrapping, and then held the bar up to my mouth hesitantly.

  I let her feed me, while Sam used some tiny scissors and an equally small set of clamps to cut away the sleeve of my uniform, and then peel it painfully out of the crusted blood and open wound that was now the surface of my arm. It hurt. A lot.

  The kiddos gasped, and Gregor looked from my arm to his own much smaller one.

  “Goddamit, Eve,” Zed said. “What did you do?”

  I kept eating, because somehow the pain only made me even more ravenous. “Got in a fight with Kilburn,” I said, a few crumbs spewing out of my mouth.

  As Sam revealed more and more of the injury, there were sporadic gasps and groans of horror from the onlookers. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at them, but decided not to look down at my arm just yet, because I knew they weren’t overreacting, and I didn’t want to think about it.

  “Oh, Eve . . .” Adam said, his face falling. “I’m . . . god. I shouldn’t have . . .” He seemed, for once, at a loss for words. “This happened because of me.”

  “Damn,” Jacky said succinctly.

  Torliam even turned his head to see what the commotion was about, but I couldn’t read his expression before he turned back to the controls.

  “Not your fault. It was always the plan for me to cause a little havoc. I just went for the overkill.” I grinned, but I was afraid it came out looking more like a grimace.

  Gregor’s little eyebrows were scowling as always, but this time with concern. “Can you even fix something like that?” he asked Sam in a tone that was more demand than question, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Sam laid his arm on the top of my shoulder and closed his eyes for a second to analyze the wound before answering. “It will be difficult,” he said, instead of a true answer.

  For the first time since I’d first gotten the injury, I couldn’t stop the fear from slipping into my conscious mind. What if this was permanent? I hadn’t known until just then how much I was counting on him to make everything better, to just . . . fix me.

  “Hurry up, then!” Zed said.

  Sam scowled at the group. “Stop pressuring me.” He took a deep breath, and some of my pain just . . . went away, like it had evaporated through the connection of his skin on mine.

  I sighed and released some tension I hadn’t even known I’d been holding.

  “Urgh!” Sam grunted and pushed through the others, throwing himself towards the small waste removal station at the back of the ship. He fell to his knees and threw up noisily into the basin. The smell of vomit had hardly started to spread before the ship sucked it up.

  I wondered where the vomit went. And where the body went. Did the ship eat it? “Are you okay, Sam?” Maybe something was wrong with the wound. Maybe something about the snake’s Skill meant Sam wouldn’t be able to heal me. And just like that, the tension was all back.

  “I’m fine.” He stood up, wiping his face, and spitting into the basin with a small amount of ration water. When he came back to my side, he was still pale and breathing hard, but he returned to normal as I watched. “It’s just . . . the pain. I didn’t even take a lot from you. How are you still conscious right now?”

  A low whimper forced itself from Kris, and tears fell out of her eyes before she angrily scrubbed them away with her sleeve and turned her head away.

  “I’m okay,” I said, forcing my voice to sound like I meant it. “I was out of it for a few hours, under sedation. But then I needed to be awake. Don’t worry about numbing me or whatever. Just work on the actual injury—that’s the important part. Besides, when you fix that, the pain will follow suite.”

  Sam clenched his jaw and nodded. “Someone get the numbing spray from the med kit. Something is better than nothing, at least,” he said. He healed my arm, bit by bit, as Adam covered my entire arm and every new piece of exposed flesh with the substance. Because of the way my arm had been twisted, Sam had to untwist it to heal it. And because he couldn’t heal all of it at once, it was excruciatingly painful for parts to twist back into place while the pieces adjacent to them were still mangled. Fragments of bone slid through muscle to reattach themselves to each other. Old, clotted blood seeped out of my flesh as the skin and muscle moved, separating themselves from the marbled-swirl-cottage-cheese mess they had been part of.

  I tried not to scream, I really did. But I couldn’t help it.

  Sam apologized over and over, white-faced and straining as his own flesh mimicked my injuries in little patches, but I gritted my teeth and told him to shut up and stop worrying about me.

  Adam’s hair was floating around his head in a big curly halo from all the times he’d run his fingers through it while nervous static jumped from his skin.

  Kris was crying silently in the corner, while Blaine tried awkwardly to simultaneously comfort her and shield her from the sight and sound of me.

  Zed knelt beside me and held my good hand, and let me squeeze his fingers so hard they would probably be in danger of breaking, if his bones weren’t reinforced by those bastard nanites. But from the way he gritted his teeth, maybe the nanites weren’t standing up to my Seed-enhanced strength. I figured if I did break his fingers, at least Sam could fix them later.

  Torliam pushed away from the controls.

  He was still using the hoverboard to support his weight, but he moved it with skill, obviously having acclimated quickly. He was scowling, and despite the fact that he was currently half-crippled, and still had holes along his spine in some places and the backs of metal claws poking out in others, he was imposing enough that those standing around stepped back.

  Adam quickly realized what he’d done, and moved forward again, as if to insert himself between Torliam and me.

  Torliam glared at him. “She’ll break her own teeth, grinding them like that. Move.”

&
nbsp; Adam scowled and didn’t move, but Torliam shoved past him. He snapped of the strap of a nearby pack, folded the padded fabric over, and forced it past my lips, between my teeth. He settled it back between my molars. “Bite down. It will help.”

  I bit down, and nodded my thanks to him, panting through my nose.

  Zed pushed some sweat-dampened hair back from my forehead, and then Sam started again.

  I learned a new appreciation for Sam. What must it take, to willingly mutilate yourself, over and over, for someone else? Then, Sam jerked backward, and stared down at where his hands had been in horror.

  I didn’t want to look, but I did. I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but five little spots of red crystal sprouting out from my skin like a fungus, where the fingertips of one of his hands had been . . .? I was speechless.

  My eyes tracked up to meet his, and he shook his head back and forth, taking another step back. “It was an accident,” he said. “My Skill . . . it just . . . slipped.” He was stuttering, almost, holding his hands away from himself as if afraid of them. “It’s been difficult, lately. Like it’s pushing back against me when I try to heal. It’s been getting more difficult to push through, but nothing like that has ever happened before. I didn’t mean to do that.”

  “Maybe you need a break,” Jacky said.

  “But what about Eve?” Zed said. “You’re only halfway through! And the Estreyan dude has holes in his back! Also, Blaine got shot.”

  “We have Seeds,” Blaine said. “In the back. I could only carry two cases, but they may ensure infection does not set in, at least. I cannot use them, but my wound is relatively small. I can treat it myself. And perhaps the Seeds will give Sam the energy he needs to continue.”

  I looked to Torliam, and though his knuckles were white and the skin on his back had a slight sheen of sweat, he didn’t say anything, or turn around.

  Blaine directed Adam to retrieve a metal briefcase, which clanged much more heavily on the floor than its size would indicate. Inside, row upon row of Seeds, nestled individually like eggs in a carton, and stacked atop each other. A quick calculation told me it held at least a few hundred Seeds within.

  I took the slobber-soaked, well bitten strap out of my mouth and grabbed a handful of the sparkly treasures. “I wish I had more Life,” I muttered, ignoring the sharp pricks as the six or so Seeds injected their contents into me. I dropped the empty spheres to the ground and grabbed another handful. “I wish I was more Resilient.” I repeated the process again, then waited as the side effects swept through me, signaling that the Seeds were “planting” themselves in me.

  Torliam let out a sharp puff of air that no one but me seemed to notice.

  Sam did the same, and went to sit hunched over in the corner.

  After a few more minutes, and quite a few more devoured nutrient bars, I felt a little better.

  Kris looked around, and frowned. “Where’s Bunny?”

  No one said anything for a few moments.

  “He decided he was on NIX’s side after all,” I said.

  “So he decided to stay behind?” she asked, clenching her moose.

  “Yes,” Blaine said, staring hard at me. “He decided to stay behind.”

  Gregor’s eyes narrowed, and his gaze tracked from face to face, analyzing our expressions.

  Sam shifted and avoided his gaze.

  Gregor’s eyes stopped on my own face, and he raised an eyebrow.

  I raised my own in response, just a little. He was smart enough to figure it out for himself.

  His expression flattened out, and he gave me a small nod. “He was weird, anyway,” he said to Kris.

  I grabbed a handful of the bars and moved to stand beside Torliam, still eating. It seemed like my stomach would never be sated, even with bland chewiness I was swallowing en-masse. I ripped the wrapping off yet another bar, using my teeth and the fingers of my good hand. I waved the bar teasingly under Torliam’s nose. “Aren’t you hungry? I bet they starved you to keep you weak down there.”

  Something tightened in the skin around his eyes, his tangled beard moving as he ground his jaw under it. “They will be following. Tracking us. We have little time, and I refuse to go back.”

  I, too, would be afraid to return to a tiny little prison deep beneath the surface of the earth. I could understand that, and I knew what he needed to hear. “Eat,” I spoke more softly, leaning down so I was closer to him. “You need to build up your strength. If you end up needing to fight . . .” I was confident he understood.

  He reached forward and grabbed the bars from my hand, ripping one open and biting into it. The ship continued hurtling through the air over the ocean, unconcerned. Overhead, the clouds parted sporadically, beams of sunlight shining down and making the water glow. We stood in silence, and then he spoke in a soft voice, his lilting accent making his words seem almost like poetry, in a way I’d never heard from a human. “It has been irimael since I have seen the sun. It is not my own, yet somehow, it is comforting to know that the light of a distant star shines brightly on its own world.” He sniffed in a way suspiciously reminiscent of tears, and I carefully didn’t look at him, in case that would embarrass him.

  Sam’s voice came from the back, unsure and exhausted, “I’m feeling better. Let’s try again.”

  I looked down at Torliam’s back, a few meaty holes in row with the huge hooks still pressing into him, threatening his spine. “Come away from the controls and let my healer help you,” I said. “If it comes down to it, your condition will be a lot more important than mine. Sam can heal me once we’re safe away.”

  He nodded sharply and conceded his spot, moving over to the sleeping nook in silence.

  Adam moved up to take the spot at the control panel, but Blaine protested. He had emerged from the mecha suit, which was sitting crouched in the back corner beside our supplies. “I can pilot the ship,” he said with contrasting smile and narrowed eyes.

  Adam shook his head. “Haha! I’m the master of electronics, alien or human. This is my thing.”

  “I am a genius, a mechanical engineer among other things, and I know more about the alien technology than everyone else but . . . perhaps one person on this ship. And that person is not you,” Blaine said firmly.

  Jacky snorted. “The boys both wanna drive the cool alien plane,” she said to Kris who had thankfully stopped crying.

  “Ahh . . .” Kris grinned, nodding wisely and crossing her arms over her chest.

  “Childish,” Gregor said, adding his own nod.

  “Come on, Blaine.” Adam pointed an accusing finger toward the powered-off suit in the back. “You’ve got a freaking warrior mecha suit! I think I should at least get to fly the ship.”

  Under the weight of that argument and all our stares, Blaine gave in.

  I ate and drank till I was stuffed, sharing the pack of food bars I’d opened with Torliam, who ate stoically even while being healed. I fell asleep at some point with Birch purring next to me. Adam draped a blanket over me as I fell asleep.

  Interlude 2

  Someone had hit the woman. A purpling bruise spread across her cheekbone, darkening where it surrounded her eye.

  His heart thumped, and he turned to the man who held her arm in a vice grip, undoubtedly bruising her tender flesh. "What happened?" It came out an accusation.

  "She attempted to escape, Eliahan. I found her climbing over the inner wall, to the east." The man rubbed a hand across his jaw, where already fading red lines marred the skin.

  "And she fought back, so you hit her. A human woman who could never be your match in battle," Eliahan said, letting the words roll out as slow as mountain honey.

  His compatriot flushed. "She fell, when I was forcing her back down off the wall. I did not hurt her intentionally."

  The woman yanked away from him, and he let her go, shooting Eliahan a guilty glance when she rubbed gingerly at her arm.

  "I will take her back," Eliahan said. "And you would do well to remember th
at these people are our guests, not our prisoners." He pretended not to notice when the man muttered that the "guests" weren't worth their efforts, and offered the woman his arm as they walked away.

  She refused. "I know what you've done," she said abruptly. "How could you? They're only children."

  Her accusatory look made him feel oddly guilty. "I have done many things wrong in my life. What exactly is it you accuse me of?"

  "Kidnapping our children! The other families were talking about it. How their children started acting strange, and kept getting injured, and then just disappeared. You've been running some sort of...cult, or militant recruitment group. I didn't even..."

  He frowned. "I believe you may be mistaken. It is not us who is taking your children. That is an organization called NIX. We have you here to protect both you and your children."

  She seemed to deflate. "So someone did kidnap them? I'd hoped..."

  He shook his head. "They are being trained for war, in ways you cannot even imagine."

  She was silent for a moment, and then surprised him. "Well, what are you going to do about it?" When he was silent, she stopped and turned to scowl up at him, hands on her hips. "Eliahan, you damn well better be doing something to fix this."

  Chapter 14

  Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.

  —John Milton

  Turbulence woke me, as the ship rattled and pitched a couple times.

  “Oh, what have the humans done to you, Lady Ladriel?” Torliam muttered, frowning down at the ship’s controls. His wounds were no longer oozing blood, though they were quite raw, and at least all the clamps had been removed from his back.

  “How long have I been sleeping?” I asked.

  “Not long,” Adam said. “Twenty minutes.”

  “Any signs of pursuit?”

  “Not yet, but there’s no way they’re not tracking the ship. And it won’t just be our base coming after us. They could be sending pursuers from anywhere in the world. We’ve been gone for slightly over an hour. If this ship wasn’t so fast, they probably would have caught us already,” he said, fingers running along the cartridges at his waist, as if reassuring himself they were still there.