by Beth Reason
Sacred
Tenets
Book II in the Tenet series
By Beth Reason
Copyright 2013 Beth Reason
Thank you for downloading this ebook. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied or resold, either for commercial or non-commercial use. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author!
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
About the Author
Other Great Books by Beth Reason
Chapter 1
Skipping the mandatory governmental migration was probably the dumbest thing Tenet Bradwin had ever done in his life. As the son of the United Council's Exalted Leader, he had lead a life in the spotlight, where every action was scrutinized and every mishap a juicy tidbit for the national press. Attempting to spend the hot, brutal months of Summer in Southland instead of boarding the transports for New Canada with the rest of his family was certainly the most illegal thing he had done. Prior to off-seasoning, the naughtiest thing he had ever done had been sneaking a little widow weed from his mother's medicine bag and sharing it with his friends behind the barns. Tenet Bradwin was a straight and narrow guy in a straight and narrow life, because that's what was expected of someone in his position.
But he wasn't really Tenet Bradwin anymore, was he? The man at the border town who fabricated a new identity for him renamed him Archibald Lorne. Archie wasn't the son of the Exalted Leader, he was a failed tomato farmer looking for a new life in the Borderlands. Archie wasn't rich or powerful. He didn't have strong government connections and there were absolutely no strings in his life he could pull if things got rough. In a nutshell, Archie was a man of little consequence, exactly as he should be.
As Tenet marched through the first long, flat stretches of the dead zone between nations, he gave the two versions of himself careful consideration. He wasn't Tenet Bradwin anymore. The long weeks of struggle for survival traipsing through the burnt ash of his homeland under the blazing Summer sun morphed the spoiled boy he was into someone else. Someone bigger, someone stronger, someone far less naive. Though he wasn't really an Archie, either, as he marched beside his new wife, he believed he was somewhere in the middle of the two.
Scarab. His wife. Angel Lorne, now, he reminded himself as he smiled at her back, working hard to keep up brutally steady pace she set. On paper they had been wed for months to throw off any suspicions of both the government they fled, and the other one they were attempting to join. In reality, it had only been a few days since the man at the border performed the world's quickest wedding and united the two. Tenet already had to remind her twice since the ceremony that he was no longer some bounty she was bringing in, and if he was a betting man, he would have laid odds that he'd have to do it again and again.
The sun was finally rising. They had been walking all through the night again, stopping to catch naps when the heat of the day got to be too much. They needed to get to the Borderlands as quickly as possible, and Scarab told him there would be hard traveling through mountains before long. They needed to take advantage of the good terrain while they could. The pace was demanding, and every step made Tenet's leg ache a little more. However, he was bound and determined not to let Scarab down again and pushed through. She had risked her life for him. It was the very least he could do.
As Scarab had predicted, the first twenty miles of the trek had been easy walking. They were crossing a wide, flat plain, and even though all roads had stopped, the hard-packed dirt under their feet created a surface almost as smooth as pavement that wound between the sparse scrub grasses. It was the easiest travel they'd had yet, and even though his leg throbbed like a bastard, Tenet was in a good mood. When the sun rose over the horizon, he was delighted to see it catch and twinkle on the morning dew. Dew! How long had it been since he saw dew?
Scarab smiled at his innocent excitement. “Well, we are about eight hundred miles north of your ranch.”
The figure seemed hard to believe. In one way, the journey felt like it had taken a lifetime. In another, it seemed like it just began. “Wow,” was all he could say. They rested near a stream, and Tenet couldn't resist splashing in it.
“Tenet,” Scarab scoffed as he splashed her. She was sitting on a rock, swishing her feet back and forth in the cool water.
“Sorry,” he said, not really the least bit apologetic. “It just feels so good after all that time in the desert.”
She wasn't angry with him. In fact, his childlike excitement was rather endearing. She looked down at her feet under the water and had to agree. “Does feel good, doesn't it?”
He bounced over and sat next to her. “And that was just a month or so that I was in it. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I have no idea how the hell you hunted in the off-seasons for so long.”
Scarab shrugged. “What choice did I have? Besides, it wasn't all bad. Not the Summers, anyway.”
“What are Winters like?" He waved his hand broadly. "You know, if I stayed in New Canada instead of migrating.”
“Horrible," was her instant reply. She pulled her feet out of the water and raised her face to the warm morning sun. "I'd take a hundred Summer bounties over one Winter one.”
“It's really that bad?”
She nodded. “Absolutely.”
Tenet gulped, the thought of cold weather looming before him. Scarab noticed the pale tone his face had taken and tried to set his mind at ease.
“Look how different the weather is only eight hundred miles north of your ranch. Why, it's almost chilly this morning." It wasn't, not really, and the afternoon would be very hot, but he knew what she meant. Compared to the last month of mornings he'd spent, it almost did feel cold. "And while it'll be cold in winter, it certainly won't be anything near as bad as it gets in your Northern ranch. A thousand miles makes a lot of difference.”
Tenet had her talking and he didn't plan to let her stop. Scarab was so used to a solitary life that Tenet often wondered if she just forgot to speak, if she was simply so conditioned to have no one around her, she just didn't remember that communication was a basic human skill. She iced him out when she was angry, that was true. But he was beginning to learn that silence with Scarab was not always an indicator of mood. When he could get her into a conversation, he made it his mission to keep it going for as long as possible. Unlike her, he liked talking and hated the long stretches of silence, even if that silence was amiable. “What's it really like in real Northern Winter?"
"Lonely," Scarab answered automatically.
"Aren't the Summers lonely for you, too?" Tenet was sorry he said it as soon as it was out. It was definitely one of those statements he made that could make Scarab clam right up again. To his relief, she actually answered.
"It's different. The winds howl, masking any noises danger might make. The snow is blinding in the day, and twirls up to be just as blinding at night. The houses are hard to get into, even with the unitool, because of the ice, and most of them have their emergency systems shut down. They don't have to keep the houses cool from the sun, and it gets so cold that the people have to empty the pipes so they won't freeze. With no water to keep running, and no air conditioning necessary, it's cheaper and easier just to shut down the electric grid. There's no power. If you do manage to make it into a house, you've got no heat and you can't very well have a fire in the middle of someone's living room.” Scarab gave a small smile, and Te
net wondered if she had actually tried. "It's different. In Summer, even high Summer, there's always a back up plan. There are beacons and electricity and running water. It's tough, but in a real pinch, a hunter could always just stay in a house and wait out the worst. In Winter, a real Northern Winter, a hunter is truly alone. Until they find their captive. If they find their captive. And then all the troubles just double."
“And that's what we'll be facing,” he said with dread in his voice.
Scarab laughed. “Not that bad, no. That's New Canada Winter, not Borderlands. In the Borderlands, they keep the power on, for those who have it. There are people. It doesn't turn into a frozen, isolated tundra of death and loneliness. But," she said quickly, not wanting him to think it'll be easy. "It will get cold, and there will be snow, and it will be a completely different life than what you know. We've got plenty of time to get there before it hits and make sure we've got all we need for the winter.”
“Are you sure?”
Scarab gave a firm nod. “Absolutely.”
Her certainty did nothing to ease Tenet's apprehension. He had seen snow. He had seen it and scrambled with the rest of his family, making their way to the warm south to start their Winter season in warm comfort, abandoning the raging storms and bitter life until the spring thaw. He had never once considered skipping the Winter migration. No one did. There were rites of passage, and then there was sheer stupidity. No one considered off-seasoning to face a real Northern Winter anything but a death wish. Only the worst of the criminal element attempted it. And now, they were heading for a life filled with winters. Nothing she could say would ease his trepidation. He knew he wouldn't relax until they made it through one.
“Come on,” she said, jumping up. “Back on the road.”
It was later that morning when they began to hit the rough terrain. While they were able to travel with ease for miles on the flat grassy lands the day before, they could only go half that distance in the hills before they had to stop for a breather. “Is it like this through the whole Borderland?”
Scarab shook her head. “More mountains than what you're used to, but a lot of flatlands as well. A good mix.”
Tenet took a swig of water and rubbed his throbbing leg. The stitches he had received in haste after his government tracker was removed from deep within his leg were not healing well and he could feel the ache deep in his muscle. “Damn Weevil. I knew he did it wrong.”
“Let me look,” said Scarab.
Tenet shook his head. “No. It's not infected. Just hurts like a bastard.”
Scarab sighed and started yanking up his pant leg. “Better to look at it now than cut the leg off later,” she said when he protested. He threw his hands up in defeat and told her she couldn't reach the wound that way. He unbuttoned his pants and pulled them down, far beyond embarrassment by that point. "Damn," she hissed when she saw the angry welt caked with blood.
Tenet looked down and cringed. “Ew. Now that's not good.”
Weevil's half-assed stitches had popped. Weevil wasn't a doctor. Hell, she didn't really know what to call him. He helped those in desperate situations who had nowhere else to turn. Scarab frowned and poked it. Still, she figured a blind wraith could have put a better row of stitches in a wound so deep. Doctor or not, he could have at least put in a little effort instead of slapdash a few threads so he could rush off to examine the unusual object Tenet had carried inside him his whole life. Weevil hurried so he could be nosy, and if Scarab planned on seeing him again, she'd bother to prepare a speech that would scare him silly.
“Hey!”
“It's not infected yet," Scarab confirmed. "That's good.” She reached into Tenet's sack and took out the emergency first aid kit they had bought at the general outpost before crossing into the dead lands. “Better get it patched up.” She applied the salve, then ordered Tenet to stand so she could wrap the gauze. He stood, then immediately turned red when he realized where that put her head.
“Uh,” he said, swallowing hard. “I can do this.”
“Hold still,” Scarab said, oblivious to his discomfort. “This might hurt.”
“Might?” he squeaked when her hand darted between his legs to catch the roll of gauze.
“My, my, my. What have we here?”
Scarab jumped away from Tenet at the first sound of the unfamiliar voice, and drew the gun from her waistband before Tenet could even turn around.
The stranger stood on a rock just above them. It was a bad position to be caught in, and Scarab cursed their choice of resting spot. “Don't mind me,” he said, leering at Scarab. “Please. Do continue your happy moment.” He motioned towards Tenet's crotch and waggled his eyebrows. The gesture made Tenet nauseous, and he yanked his pants up as quickly as possible.
“We don't want trouble,” Scarab said evenly.
The stranger put his hand over his chest. “You wound me with the insinuation, ma'am. I simply said I was enjoying the show.”
Tenet tried to move to stand directly next to Scarab, but the rocks on the hill were too loose and he slipped.
“Careful, boy. Wouldn't want an accident, would you?”
Scarab cocked her gun. “We're just heading to the Borderlands. That's all. We're not stopping, we're not taking over your territory. All we want is to pass on through. If you'll move aside, we'll be on our way.”
“Oh, now, missy,” he said, taking a step closer. “You seem to be wise to the ways of the world. It doesn't work like that, not even here.” He held his hand out. “You have to pay a toll.”
“Money?” asked Tenet. He reached into his pocket and took out his temporary bank card, holding it up to the man. “There's not a lot there, but it's certainly worth the cost of letting us pass.”
The man snatched it and turned it over in his hand. “A bank card?” He threw his head back and laughed. “Yes, I'll just take this to my local branch and cash it out.”
Tenet's face turned red, but Scarab kept her calm.
“I need something I can eat, drink, sell, or screw. What's it gonna be?” The man's eyes told them exactly which of those options he was hoping for, and it made Tenet's hackles rise.
“There's a good stream a mile back if you're thirsty,” said Scarab coldly. “And this gun should tell you how much of the rest you'll be getting from us. Take the bank card and the information about the river and consider yourself lucky that I'm in a good mood today.”
The stranger didn't like it. He had the physical advantage over both of them. But she did have the gun. He seemed to consider his options before he spoke. “You make a fair argument. However, I can have that gun out of your hand before you have time to pull the trigger, and you know it. So. Why don't we drop the act and start forking over something before it has to come to that, hm?”
Tenet held his breath, begging Scarab not to do it.
“Come on, now," he said with a cracked-tooth grin. "I hate violence.”
Instead of lowering the weapon, Scarab raised it, just a fraction, and had the raider's head in the sight. “I don't like the terms of the negotiation.” He lunged, she pulled, and it was over, just like that.
Tenet was stunned. He watched the man's body slide down the loose rocks until it came to a lifeless rest wedged against a boulder. He looked back at Scarab. She was calmly replacing the weapon in the band of her pants, and looked up at him.
“What?” she asked, seeing the look on Tenet's face.
“You killed him.”
“He was going to kill you.”
Tenet frowned. “He wasn't even looking at me.”
She shrugged. “He was going to get the gun out of my hand and shoot you with it. If he was planning on just killing me, I probably wouldn't have had to shoot him.”
Tenet tried to wrap his mind around it. One moment there was nothing but peaceful sunshine, birds, and gentle breezes, and the next they were once again struggling for their lives. Had it really only been a couple months since his easy days of lazy comfort on the porch
of his father's corn farm? In that life, in his old life as the pampered son of the Exalted Leader, he never would have had anyone attempt to hurt him or his family. He never would have had to choose life or death. And most unnervingly, he never would have had anyone by his side that would jump in and choose for him, that would value his life that much. He was stunned both with the event itself and her response to it. “So, you killed him because he was going to kill me,” he said, trying to wrap his head about it all.
“Yes.”
“And you, too.”
Scarab knew there was no point in holding back what he'd have to know, and it might just make it easier on him the next time. “Eventually, maybe. Most likely he was going to kill you, then rape me. Maybe kill me. Maybe sell me.” She nodded her head to the dead man. “I couldn't tell. Either way, you were a dead man and I wasn't about to let that happen. Now, let's go. They rarely travel alone.”
The information was almost more than Tenet could handle. He looked at the dead corpse and shuddered. It looked human. But no human could possibly kill and rape as wantonly as Scarab said. “How do you know that's what he was going to do?”
“I just do, alright? Let's go.”
He followed, but wasn't satisfied. “I really want to know. How can you be so sure that's what he had in mind?”
Scarab sighed heavily. “Years of practice. The look in the eye. I've taken in a lot of criminals, I know the signs.”
"How can you be sure?”
She turned around and looked at him. “You don't want to know. And when I say that, I mean I don't want you to know. I don't want you to ever be able to look a man in the eye and see what exactly he's capable of, okay?”
Tenet scowled. “And why not? You seem to think you do.”
“Because,” she said more softly, “the only way you can is to go through it yourself.” She shook her head. “I don't want you to ever know what it's like to stare down a barrel. I don't want you to ever know how it feels to be looked at as a free whore or a slave or property or...." Scarab drew a shaky breath to calm herself. "Trust me when I say that man wanted all that and probably more, and he's dead and I'm not sorry. Now, let's go.”
Tenet let the words sink in as he walked behind her in silence, trying to reconcile this new life with his old beliefs. Life was sacred. From the time he was in diapers right on through to the day he made the decision to skip migration, he firmly believed in that one guiding principle. Life was sacred. It was why he'd had so much difficulty learning to eat meat, why he would go out of his way not to harm anyone. It was a good principle, a firm morality that he'd never given thought to in his old life. He accepted it because it simply was. He had no need to kill anything, for there was never anything or anyone that wanted to kill him. But that was the old life. The new life he found himself in was not that kind. It was not that placid. It forced him time and again to accept death of others at his own hands, or, if not at his hands directly, for his personal benefit. The cow that made the protein cubes he ate wasn't bled by him or chopped and cooked by him, but he still did the eating.
Tenet marched and let the scene play over in his head. There was a great difference between eating an animal for food and taking a human life. Tenet thought over the brutal scuffle, trying to see any way out of it that would not have ended with the other man dying. Scarab was right when she said the man's eyes were cold and mean. They reminded Tenet of a wraith, the terrifying mutated apes that had hunted them through the Southland Summer. Cold, calculating, murderous. Tenet knew there were bad people in the world. He knew there were even really bad people in the world, the ones that were barely better than viscous animals. The man Scarab just killed was one of those, and while Tenet still firmly believed in the sacredness of life, he decided the world was better off.
He looked up ahead and watched Scarab march steadily up the hill. How was it that she could so easily see the danger and he still could not? She had said something about not wanting Tenet to know, but as he marched, that thought didn't set well inside. She wanted more for him, and he could appreciate that on a deep level. No one in his life had ever wanted "more" for Tenet, and no one else would have been so quick to jump in and save him. It was humbling and awe inspiring.
And yet, for some reason, it also really bothered Tenet. He was a man. Why did the burden have to be on her shoulders alone? The more he marched up the difficult mountain, the more he began to fume. She didn't want that for him? That may be a fair sentiment, and he certainly knew enough about himself to realize that even though it was necessary, he'd have haunting dreams about the sudden interruption of the calm morning, like he did with the wraith. Not regret so much as shock. But he was a man, not a kid. She didn't even give him a chance at proving himself in the situation. He had to rely on her for that, because she designed it that way. He didn't even have a weapon!
This was his world now, his life, and he knew it would be a harder one than he ever could have imagined. They had just started out, and already the bitter reality reared up and slapped them down. Maybe it was Fate's test of their mettle, as if that hadn't been tested enough already. And hadn't he proven himself yet? Hadn't he shown her he could handle what came his way? It had been weeks since he complained or whined. He never said "it's not fair", or pouted, or even put up much of an argument against everything he thought he knew. He put himself out there, every day, out of his comfort zone, doing what he had to no matter how wrong it felt. He wasn't the same kid with a chip on his shoulder and half a clue that he was a month ago. He had grown up, at least he felt like he had. And it galled him to his core that she couldn't see that.
By their next break, Scarab was out of breath from climbing, and he was out of breath from his silent fuming. She took a swig of water, and looked at him. “You okay? You've been awfully quiet.” When Tenet only looked away, she sighed, taking his silence as a reprimand for her actions, not words. “I'm sorry it bothers you that I killed him. I know it's one of your 'things'.”
Tenet's head whipped around. “Things?”
She motioned with her hand. “You know. The list of morals you have that you'll never break and all.”
Tenet stood and marched over to her. “I'll have you know that's not why I'm upset!”
Scarab blinked in shock. He was furious, absolutely outraged. "Oh," was all she could say.
“If that poor excuse for a human wanted to...to...” he almost couldn't get the word out. “Rape you...he deserved that bullet and then some!”
Scarab shook her head in her confusion. “Then why are you screaming?”
He took a deep breath. “We're a team. You married me," he put his hands up to stop her when she opened her mouth. "As an escape, true," he rushed ahead. "But nonetheless, that makes us a team. I don't want you to shield me from the world. I'm a man who's capable of taking care of myself, so you can stop taking on all the burdens and share the load!”
Scarab's eyes went wide. Where had that come from? "I...I uh... I don't know what to say,” she stammered.
“Don't say anything. Just stop treating me like I'm a...a...”
“What?”
“A kid! I'm not a kid, Scarab. I'm older than you for god's sake! I don't know anything about this world we're in now. So what? I'll learn. I have to. And you have to stop rushing in and just assuming that I need saving.”
"You did need saving there, Tenet," she pointed out.
He waved a dismissive hand. "We'll never know, will we? No. Because you didn't even give me the chance. And then you have the gall to assume I'm angry because you killed something that amounted to little more than a wraith. I'm not angry that you killed that bastard. I'm angry that you still think so little of me."
Scarab had no idea he felt like that, that she made him feel like that. She had been a hunter for so long, and alone for years before that. It was just her nature to take over and lead. He was right, she did jump in because she didn't think he could handle the situation, because in her life that's always how it h
ad to be. “I've been there before and you haven't," she justified.
He couldn't argue that. "I handled the wraith."
"Wraiths would have killed us quickly. The horror that guy wanted to inflict was like nothing you've faced before."
He wasn't about to let her win this argument. "His focus was on you. If I had been armed..."
"Which you weren't!" She looked smug for half a second.
"And why is that, hm?" He rubbed his chin in an exaggerated manner. "Let's stop and think on why it might be that I, a supposed equal partner in this endeavor, am lacking the very basic survival equipment of a weapon."
There was the condescending tone she hadn't missed at all over the last few weeks. So he hadn't gotten rid of it after all! It instantly set her teeth on edge. "I don't remember you asking to bear that burden."
"I don't remember you offering!" They stared each other down for a second before he thrust his hand out. "Give me a gun. A loaded one." At Scarab's snort, his jaw tensed again. "See? There you go, proving my point. I'm not a child. You know damned well I've been thoroughly trained at the academy, and I've proven that I can...."
"Alright!" she yelled, throwing her hands in the air. "I give." She grabbed her pack and searched through for the other weapon. "Here," she said, thrusting it at him.
He checked to see if it was loaded, then stuck it in the waist of his pants. "There. Now was that so hard?"
“Yes, if you want to know the truth,” she admitted through clenched teeth.
Tenet sighed, his anger going out with the breath at her honesty. “I am amending the marriage contract,” he said after a few uncomfortable moments of silence. She quirked an eyebrow. “Hey, we said we'd leave it open to amendment.”
“Oh. Right.”
"We're a team. And I reserve the right to chew you out when you don't treat me like an equal member of the team."
Scarab thought about it for a minute before nodding. It was a tall order, but one that he had every right to demand. He wasn't her bounty anymore, and she had to learn to stop treating him like one. She knew there would be a lot of chewing out for awhile, but she also knew she could take it. “Fair enough. But, you have to realize that sometimes I'm going to act in the moment. Like with that asshole.” She held her hands up. “However, I promise to always explain why after. Sound fair?”
He stuck his hand out for her to shake, and she easily took it this time. He held her hand a second longer than necessary, but she didn't object. He gently began to circle his thumb over her wrist, and she slowly pulled away.
She stood up and put her sack back on. “Let's go.” She took a step then stopped and turned back to him. “I mean, if all the members of the team agree.”
He smiled, deciding to ignore the sarcasm he heard in her voice, and stood. “Sounds good to me.”
“I was thinking we'll be at the peak by nightfall, and it might be a good idea to camp at top instead of trying to pick our way down the other side through the dark. That is, if that's an acceptable plan for you.”
Tenet gave her a bland look. “That's fine.”
“Oh, and while we're making decisions, we have to choose what's for dinner. Should it be the dried meat flavored lumps? Or would you prefer the dry soy? Personally, I don't care either way. Just want to let you have your say.”
Tenet rolled his head back and looked at the sky, asking whatever powers that were what sin he committed to land him with such a difficult woman.
