by Beth Reason
Chapter 5
"Young man, we need to have a talk." His father loomed dark and serious over Tenet.
"Father! What are you doing here?"
"You know why I'm here," he said, the familiar iciness of his voice chilling Tenet as it always had.
The dread filled Tenet. "Can't you just let me be?"
Tenet Bradwin the third laughed with all the mirth of Death himself. "You've got to be joking. How can I let my only son just 'be'? Be what? A hooligan? A drifter? A half-man with his head in the clouds?"
Tenet knew no response was necessary, just as he knew any response would, in fact, make everything worse. He learned early on in life to quietly take his lumps.
"I know," his father said, his face twisting into a sneer. "You want to be like your mother. You always have. Tell me why her approval is so important to you, when you couldn't care less about mine." Tenet did open his mouth then to tell his father just how wrong he was, but the man wouldn't hear it. "You can't deny a truth. Haven't you ever listened to me? Just because you don't want to know it doesn't mean it's not true!" He was shouting then, and began his annoying habit of pacing in a tight oval when he got truly angry.
"Every single day of your life I have struggled to get you to open your eyes and accept the truth. And every blasted day you've intentionally covered your ears and closed your eyes like a petulant little child!"
"That's not true!" Tenet blurted.
His father stopped in his tracks and turned an incredulous look towards his son. "Isn't it? Shall we stand here and list every way you've put your head in the sand? Let's start with Nada's fall. Utterly her fault."
"It was an accident," Tenet said through clenched teeth.
"Was she supposed to be up on that equipment?"
"No, but..."
"And why had she climbed up there, hm?"
Tenet sighed in frustration. This was an old argument. "She was a child, Father."
"She was a spoiled little brat who wasn't getting enough attention!"
Tenet's stomach turned at the coldness of his father's logic, as it always had.
"And even now, she uses that injury, the injury she caused herself, to get everything she wants. How many times had she been told to stay off it, hm? Would you ever have climbed up there?"
He could not lie to his father. "No," he admitted quietly.
"No. Because you were not supposed to. And yet, you excuse her behavior."
Tenet scoffed. "You hate me because I defend my sister?"
"No. I hate you because your blindness and inability to accept the plain truth in front of you makes you a liability." Tenet brooded silently, and his father switched gears. "How about your mother? How long have you known she dallies with anyone who whips out his dick?" Tenet's face burned with anger and humiliation, and the worst part of it was the fact that he felt his father's words were all too true where his mother was concerned. "Did you once tell me about it, boy? I know you saw. Did you even think to come to me, man to man and tell me the woman I thought I married was gone, replaced with a back alley whore? Hm? No. We played the la-la-I-didn't-see-it game, didn't we? You let her cut me to pieces."
Tenet felt sick. "Stop."
"Jiti Ton. Your best friend. Stood up at the alter. Why?"
Maybalin, his intended, confessed years of pining for Tenet the night before the wedding. He had no idea. He never saw any signs. Even looking back, he couldn't see any. Jiti Ton did, though. He knew. He never spoke to Tenet again, even after he finally made a successful match. "Stop," he begged.
"Why? To let you wallow in your illusions? Perhaps I let you do that too much in your life already." He was silent while Tenet reeled inside. "You have been removed from military service at my request," he said eventually.
Tenet didn't care about that. He hadn't really wanted to be a military man anyway. But he did care for what it meant, what it would mean to the rest of the world. "Why?" he croaked.
"You cannot lead a platoon if you cannot see and accept the plain truths in front of you. I will not put lives in your incapable hands." His voice held no hint of the possibility of reprieve.
"What will you tell people?"
"I will tell them the truth. That you are ineligible to be an officer because of your maternal lineage. I broke too many rules and gave you too many chances already. There will be many people who find themselves relieved at my decision. I had hoped you would grow out of your senselessness and frivolity as you aged, but I was wrong."
Tenet stared, numb. "What will I do now?"
"I don't know. Perhaps you should have thought of that, boy. You've had a life time of warnings. It was your fault. All of this is your fault."
Tenet bolted awake, soaked with sweat, his heart racing. It took him a minute to get his bearings. He was in the cave, not his father's study. He was on the hard ground, not sitting in the uncomfortable office chair next to his father's desk. His father wasn't here. No one was but Scarab.
Tenet shivered and tossed another log on the fire. He sat in front of the half lit fire, staring at the flame that licked the new wood. He hadn't thought about that day since it happened. He hated how right his father was on some levels. Not all the way, of course. He would never regret being Nada's champion to their father, and deep down he knew that it was not his responsibility to keep his parents' marriage working. It was not in him to be a military leader, no matter what the reason his father said. Maybelin's crush was beyond his control, and Jiti Ton's reaction always struck him as unnecessarily harsh, making Tenet the scapegoat when he should have been thanked for the sparing of a loveless union. The cold words were his father's special way of making him feel small and worthless. It was manipulation, and Tenet knew that.
Still, those facts didn't make the memory of his father's words untrue. Cold, impossibly harsh, and manipulative, sure. But not untrue at the core, and that's what really rankled. If the past two months had taught him anything about himself, it was that he really did tend to turn a blind eye. He was trying hard to change that. He was really working on seeing the situation for what it was, not what he wanted it to be, and make the reality in his head match the world around him. He ate meat because he had to. He killed a wraith because he had to. He took in every detail of the betrayals he learned more and more about and accepted them, because he had to.
And yet, his father's voice still haunted him.
It was all his fault. All of. The mess they were in, the peoples' lives that were now in jeopardy. Scarab asked him how it was he just seemed to accept everything that was happening. The truth was, he didn't. He was eating himself up inside trying to make sense of it all.
It was all his fault.
Tenet turned his gaze to the entrance of the cave. His father was out there, coming for him. He would not stop. He wasn't lying when he said that to Scarab. He knew that his whole life, even if he had been spoiled and blind about everything else. When his father had a plan, he saw it through, to hell with the consequences, and means be damned. For whatever reason, it was not enough that Tenet was clearly leaving the realms. A naive hope had driven him to try and think of why someone else may be chasing them. He even tried to convince himself that it was a fluke, that they weren't being hunted, merely followed by another soon-to-be ex-patriot. It wasn't true, but it did help pass the awful afternoon. Was it really so bad to think like that? It certainly got him through an emotionally shitty childhood. And it was getting him through now.
Sick of his inner voices' need to pick apart everything, Tenet rose and went to check on their gear. The early morning light was just starting to filter into the mouth of the cave, and they'd be packing out soon. The majority of the gear was dry. Only one of the blankets was still too wet to pack, and he moved it as close to the fire as he dared. The rest of their clothing was rolled back up and stuck in the proper packs, along with their other dwindling supplies. He sincerely hoped they were close to the border. The only absolute need at the moment was food, and Scarab seem
ed confident that she could provide. However, the medicines were sadly depleted, and while the seeds hadn't mildewed or dried out too much, Tenet knew that was more from luck of good packaging than anything they could actually control.
His moving around woke Scarab, and they had the rest of the coffee and set off within a half hour. Scarab climbed to the top of their rocky ledge and stared downhill, trying to get a line on those following, but couldn't see anything but forest. She offered to climb a tree again, but they both figured it was pointless. Either they'd make it at this point, or they wouldn't. The terrain didn't really offer them a plan B.
There were only two good things Tenet could find with that morning's climb. First, the rain had stopped. They weren't battling a downpour on top of the terrifyingly sheer hike. And second, the trees stopped.
"It's not a good thing," Scarab said when he pointed it out.
"No pine needles, no scraping bark, we can actually see ten feet in front of us..." He was only arguing to get his mind off the misery.
"Exactly. And if we can see ahead of us, we're visible to whoever it is that's following."
Tenet stopped and propped his leg up on a rock. "I need a drink." He took a swig of his water and turned to look down. He shouldn't have. Vertigo gripped him and he leaned back, holding onto a rock behind him to battle the sudden dizziness. He had no idea how far they had really climbed. He felt like he was going to pitch forward and plummet.
"Damn it, Tenet!" came Scarab's annoyed voice. "Didn't I tell you not to look back?"
"I thought you meant it in a metaphoric way!" He battled to keep his stomach from lurching.
She surprised him by laughing. "Turn around and sit for a minute."
"I'll fall!"
She scooted back down to be next to him and grabbed his arms firmly. "Look at me." When he tore his eyes away from the rocky death that was just one misstep away, she gave a nod. "Good. Now, sit for a minute."
He sat and leaned back against the rocks, glad to have the support of a whole mountain. The jelly feeling in his legs eased and his sense of stability slowly returned. "How much more of this?"
Scarab sat next to him. "We're close. I can see a notch up ahead. We'll make tracks for that instead of going all the way to the summit." She took out her own water and gulped a mighty swig. "I hope the notch has some kind of stream. I'm getting kind of light."
He nodded and swallowed, glad his stomach wasn't rolling anymore. He knew part of the queasiness was the fact that they had no food that day. "How far do you think we are from the Borderlands?"
"Just over that ridge." If her memory was correct. She leaned back against the rocks next to Tenet and closed her eyes, hoping she was right. "The sun's brutal this high up."
"Feels better than being a washrag."
She snorted and was about to say something else when her eyes popped open. The noise of a bot snapped her back to the moment. Her eyes darted around them, looking for the source. "There!" she said out loud, pointing down the mountain.
"What?"
"Bot." She slapped his shoulder. "Get moving!"
Tenet struggled to stand, still a little dazed. "What the hell..."
Scarab grabbed him, turned him facing uphill, and shoved. "Oh no you don't. Keep those eyes up and move."
Tenet leaned forward, clutching the rocks in front of him and started to scramble upward, his fear of the mountain's height paling in comparison to the fear of the bot and hunters behind them. "How far are they?"
"I don't know. I didn't stop to measure," she said wryly, digging in and passing him to find the best path for them both.
After about five minutes, Tenet heard the hum of the bot over his ragged breath and pounding heart. It was closing in. "We can't...outrun it..." he panted, catching himself when his foot twisted on a loose rock.
Scarab wasn't ready to give. "We're almost to the notch."
"And then what?" Tenet barked.
Scarab's eyes scanned the nearing cleft in the mountain, looking for a cave, a bush, anything. But there was nothing she could see. Tenet was right. They couldn't outrun it. "Shit!" she yelled, pounding her fist on the mountain's unforgiving rock face. She told herself to calm down. If it was still the same bot from the other day, and she had no reason to believe otherwise, then it was a recon. Most of them were unarmed. A quick glance around once more confirmed that their best bet was once again a straight up gamble.
Tenet reached her. "Move!"
"No." She pulled her gun out of her belt and motioned for him to do the same.
Tenet blinked in surprise, then threw his hands in the air. "Are you insane? You're going to attack a bot? Here?" He was so flabbergasted he sputtered the words between his heavy breaths, his voice echoing down the mountain.
"It's a recon. It'll probably be unarmed."
The memory of the bot's gleeful destruction of the coonskunks replayed in his mind. The government robots seemed to almost enjoy shooting down whatever they came across in the Southland Summer. He had seen how dangerous they could be, and he didn't want to stake their hides on a guess. "Probably?" he bellowed.
"Would you quiet the hell down? Yes, probably. You want me to lie and tell you I'm positive? Would that make you feel better?" He didn't answer, and she didn't expect him to. "Now either we do the team work thing you're so hell bent on, or you lie prone and out of the way. Choose fast, because I say we have less than a minute before we're in range."
Tenet set his jaw and pulled his weapon.
"Brace your back against the rock or the recoil will send you right back down."
He shot her a bland look as he put his back to the mountain side. "I have been trained, you know."
They watched the bot approaching. Tenet pulled his weapon and sighted the bot in the scope, just as he had through many training exercises at the academy, while Scarab held her gun down to her side, knowing she had better aim in the moment, the rush of adrenaline helping her zero in on her target.
"If it's armed, how close before it shoots?" Tenet whispered.
"Maybe fifty yards."
"Maybe?"
She sighed heavily. "I'm so sorry I don't have the tech specs for every bot on the market." Her voice dripped with sarcasm and tension. "I focus on the bots that affect my life, the ones that hunt and kill."
"Fine then," he said. "We assume fifty yards."
They watched it get close. Scarab was certain it had already seen them. It didn't sweep or pause, just steadily climbed a few yards above the rocks straight for them. She frowned. Though she didn't know a lot about recon bots, she did know that bots in general had a few ways of working. First, they could be on a set route, guided by internal programming. They could also be set to sweep, to make zigzags or circular patterns, and gather data or kill anything in the path. It was possible that whoever had sent the bot out programmed it to go in a straight line. But the odds that they'd know the exact path of Tenet and herself were astronomically slim.
"I think it's a drone," she said quietly.
"What's a drone?"
"A bot that's controlled by someone at the other end in real time."
He tightened his grip on the gun. "So someone's controlling it...with what? Some kind of remote?"
"I think so." She didn't bother explaining her reasoning. There wasn't time. "Hold your fire," she managed to get out before the bot was on them. It got about ten feet away and simply hovered there.
Tenet had lowered his weapon slightly, but stood, braced and ready. The seconds stretched to a full minute of tense inactivity. "What are we waiting for?"
"I want to see what it will do."
"What this bot does depends on what you do, hunter," a voice played through a speaker on the bot.
"Who are you?"
"I don't believe you are in the position to be asking questions."
Scarab snorted. "Are you seriously trying to threaten me?" She made a show of looking around. "I guarantee that by the time you get here we'll be long gone."
"And I guarantee that this bot is fully loaded."
Tenet hoped his face didn't betray the panic rising inside. He tried to take Scarab's lead and stare the bot down, but he was terrified.
"Big man hiding behind a metal ball," Scarab said coldly.
"Hiding? No. Utilizing the most modern equipment available. We can't all be purists like you, Scarab."
She knew the voice, but was having trouble placing it. His use of her name confirmed that she should know who was at the other end. "Brains beat bots, every single time," she said, trying to keep him talking. If she could figure out who she was dealing with, she'd have a much better idea of how to best him.
The cackle sounded eerie coming through the hollow-toned speaker. "Do they, now? I caught you, didn't I?"
"No. Your bot followed me. I don't see you anywhere."
Tenet shot her a sideways look. What the hell was she thinking by goading the man? He wanted to tell her not to piss the guy off, but she refused to look in his direction. In fact, she crossed her arms over her chest and took on an insolent sneer. His stomach dropped and cold dread replaced the frantic panic. So this was it. This was the end.
"We could stand here arguing the merits of tech verses good old fashioned human knowledge, or you could get to the point already and tell me what you want."
"Always direct, aren't we, darlin'?"
She suddenly knew who he was. It was that exact phrase, the tone of voice when he said it that got to her and she had to struggle to keep her jaw from flapping open in shock. "Jace."
"Who else could have found you?"
Tenet frowned at the change in tone.
"You're dead," she said. The report was very clear, the evidence indisputable. He had a run in two summers ago with a band of wraiths. The only thing recovered from his gear was the indestructible number plate from his suit and one sole of a boot, also marked with his ID number.
"Obviously not."
Jace was alive. Her mind reeled and she felt her knees go weak. He was alive.
Tenet couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. Scarab was clearly floored by the news of the Jace person being alive. If he didn't know better, he would think they had meant something to each other, something deep. That annoying little voice in his head asked him just how well he knew Scarab after all. "What's going on?" he asked her.
She ignored him. "What happened with the wraiths?"
"Did you really think a couple of angry monkeys would take me out?" He sounded highly offended.
"What was I supposed to think? They found your tags."
"But they didn't find me, did they?"
"Of course not. Wraiths don't leave scraps."
A patronizing chuckle came through the speaker on the side of the bot. "Scarab, think. Would I have gone down like that?"
No. She couldn't believe the news at the time, and even after the IDs were recovered, she had a difficult time accepting it. It wasn't until the months without hearing his voice that she accepted it. "Then where in the hell were you?"
There was a long pause.
"Answer her," Tenet barked.
A laugh came through. "Shut it, bounty, or I end your life here and now and gather my reward."
Jace was hunting them. He was picking up the job she had failed to complete. "You don't talk to me for two years and when you do, it's to bring me in?" Bitter betrayal sliced through her, and his silence was all the confirmation she needed. "Just tell me why."
"Why?" came is disgusted reply. "I thought better of you, Scarab. Really I did. You know damn well why. You dropped the ball, kiddo. You royally screwed this up. And the people you chose to blow off...they aren't the kind to lie down and take it. My bosses hate being crossed."
"I know that," she said icily. "I wanted to know why it was you disappeared." The voice made some start of a reply, but she cut him off. "No need. I've got it figured out. You went mercenary for the govers."
"We're all mercenaries," he snapped.
She gave a snort. "Fine. Assassin."
Tenet gasped. His government would never...would they?
"I see your little buddy's shocked. Doesn't he know what his daddy does?"
"You were good, Jace. Why'd you go that way?" Disappointment tinged her angry words.
"Don't sound so high and mighty, Scarab. I've always told you that high horse will throw you one of these days. Looks like I was even more of a genius than I thought."
"Why?" she demanded again.
"Why not?" he said, all humor gone from the icy voice. "I get a house. It's mine. It's not one I have to break into. I've got food. I never run out. I've got women willing to go to my bed, not slippery, coy little bitches who pant one minute and never..." His words cut off suddenly and Tenet shot a glance in Scarab's direction. Her face was red and her eyes burned with anger, but she held her tongue. "I have a life here Scarab."
"At what cost?"
"A surprisingly little one," he said with a laugh. "I tie up a few loose ends a year and it's easy sailing."
Scarab felt sick. "What the hell happened to you?" she said hoarsely. "You used to have morals and..."
"Oh save the righteous mumbo jumbo for someone who hasn't seen the blood on your hands. Just because my morals are different from yours doesn't mean I don't have any."
Scarab could have argued the differences between them till she was blue in the face, but it would do no good. He wouldn't listen. He never had. "So you'd kill an innocent kid because your boss tells you to. Yeah, that's a strong moral code all right."
"Innocent kid? By whose standards? Because I'm looking, and I gotta say I can't see anything either innocent or remotely child-like. He's a man who has put how many lives in danger? Including yours, I might point out."
"He's got a point," Tenet said quietly. Perhaps he could convince this Jace to take him and leave Scarab. "It's my fault. I'll take the blame."
"Tenet, no," Scarab said quickly.
Tenet ignored her and turned to the bot, trying to get it's attention by waving his hands. "Over here."
"I can see you both," Jace said, flatly. "You don't need to wave around like a moron."
"Take me, let her go."
"Tenet," Scarab hissed in her best warning tone.
"As charming as this act of selflessness is, it's pointless. I've got a work order."
Tenet sighed. "I know my father. It's me he wants. Let her go. She won't bother anyone. She won't come back to haunt him. Hell, you'd be unleashing her on the Borderlands. Who's suffering then?"
Jace laughed loudly. "You've got more backbone than I was lead to believe, kid. And you don't know how tempting it is to let her go terrorize those barbarians."
"Look, I've never heard of you before and I don't know what it is the two of you had together, but you obviously meant something to each other at some point." Tenet hated having to say the words and almost stopped for the wave of jealousy inside. But he could right a wrong here. He had to at least try. "Let her go. I'm asking you, man to man, just let her go. I'll drop my weapons and wait for you. Or let your bot kill me here."
Scarab was trying to get his attention, trying to get him to shut up, but he refused to acknowledge her existence. He was rushing ahead with some foolish plan. While she knew she should be flattered, it was more annoying than anything in that moment. If he would only glance her way, she could motion a plan. But he wouldn't. The idiot kept on with his offers of sacrifice. Fine. Let him be stubborn and keep talking and she'd once again get their asses out of the fire.
"Ugh. Don't tell me you've actually fallen for her," came the sneering voice. "How predictable."
"So she means nothing to you?"
Scarab had been sighting her gun from the side of her thigh, low where it couldn't be noticed. She had one shot to disable the main power supply on the bot and she hoped Tenet would keep talking to give her time. When he asked that, though, she paused to hear Jace's answer.
"Look. I'm a hunter. This is my job. Right no
w, she is my job. Just like you are hers, no matter what fantasy life you've created for yourself in that fanciful little head."
Scarab's hand tightened on her weapon, Jace's words firming her resolve. He should have just stayed dead.
Tenet scoffed. "And you claim you have morals."
"I don't need a morality debate from a fellow hunter, and I certainly don't need one from some spoiled little rich kid."
"I may be spoiled, but at least I'd never sell out my own."
The hatred in Jace's voice when he answered was almost a visible wave coming from the speaker. "Tell yourself that all you want, but the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You and your ilk are just as bad as me and mine. Worse, because you pretend you care about all those you step on. At least I don't make any pretenses. I'm in this world for one person, me. And I've never, ever said any different."
The bot shattered in front of his face before Tenet even registered the sound of Scarab's gun. The side blew out, shards of metal and plastic tumbling to the ground in front of them while the useless round body bounced and rolled down the rocky mountain side. It all happened so fast that Tenet could barely grasp what was going on.
"No, you never did say any different," Scarab said numbly, watching the bot teeter on a ledge before a small gust of wind blew it over the side. She heard the satisfying crash echo around them. She holstered her gun and turned to continue their climb. "He'll have more. We've got an hour, tops."
Tenet turned and followed her, too stunned to ask the hundreds of questions that swirled through his mind. His hand slipped and his foot had to scramble on the loose gravel to keep him from joining the shattered bot. He pushed the questions aside and focused on climbing. One hand up, pull and steady with the other, repeat. They were close to the notch. Though he had no idea what lay up and over that narrow V in the mountain, he knew that at the very least they'd be out of the line of sight of Jace. He wouldn't risk looking back and down, trying to see if Jace was climbing up after them. It didn't matter. At this point, they would either be safe or not. It was liberating, in a way. At least they know who hunted them and why. Scarab was right, he thought to himself. Knowing was far better than guessing.
They reached the notch in another half hour of muscle-burning, near vertical scaling. The height thinned the air, and as they stood in the shelter of the V and surveyed the land in front of them, it was dizzying to try and get a deep breath. Tenet sat heavily on a large rock.
"We're not...safe yet..." Scarab was doubled over, propping her hands on her knees trying to get her own breathing under control. She was relieved at what they saw over the rise, but couldn't feel the excitement. Not when it was Jace after them, not when he was so close.
They were high up a mountain side that could not have looked any different than what they just climbed. It was hard to believe it was the same mountain. Where the other side was jagged and wind torn, this side was much gentler. Instead of cliffs, there was sandy rock with sloping paths that lead to scrubby trees which faded into a forest at a much higher elevation than the side they had just been on.
"Why's it so different here?"
She shook her head. "I'm not a geologist. How the hell would I know?"
"Because you know everything." He flashed her a wry smile.
She gave a snort. "I wish. Come on. Won't be a picnic, but I think we can reach the scrub pretty quickly."
They reached the scrub brush faster than either thought or even hoped. In fact, the loose gravelly surface of this side of the mountain all but threw them towards it. Within a few steps, they both began to slide, and it was just sheer luck that neither was hurt as they slid, rolled, and scrambled down the embankment. Tenet slammed into a gnarled, twisted little bush with a grunt and a laugh. "Wish we went up that fast."
Scarab had more grace. She slid, mostly standing, and grabbed at the first bush she could reach. She held on with her hand and anchored her foot into the loose rocks. Tenet knew he had flailed down the hillside more than anything, and wondered how in the hell she managed to make it look that easy.
"Are you hurt?" she asked, catching her breath.
"I'm fine," Tenet said, scrambling to gain solid footing. "I've never been on hillside like this."
Scarab had to agree. Even in the burnt dunes of deep Summer, she'd never experienced the type of loose terrain.
"I wonder how these bushes hold on."
Scarab rolled her eyes. If he started on farming again...
She looked down the mountain. While there was still a long way to go to the bottom, they would make it to thicker cover by night. As it was, if she heard a bot, they could simply slide down to deeper cover. Dangerous, but not deadly. She decided to take a minute to really look around, to see what was beyond the mountain. All she could see for miles and miles was unbroken forest. "Shit," she muttered.
"What?"
She shook her head, unsure of exactly what she was expecting. A wall? A town? A welcoming committee? There should be something that would let them know they were close to safety. She honestly believed that the Borderlands lay just over this mountain. Well if they did, the Borderlands govers sure had a good way of disguising it!
Tenet saw her looking out across the land ahead and he did the same. To him, it was more forest. Different kinds of pines, he noticed. Deeper, taller. And he couldn't see a single palm anywhere. It was clear the high mountain range was a great divide in more ways than one. "Where are we going next?"
It was a damn good question. She squinted, looking for some sign of any kind of civilization. When she couldn't detect any, she hoped it was simply because they were too far away and had a bad vantage point. She saw a weaving break in the trees and knew that was a river. "There," she pointed to it. If they couldn't have safety that night, at least they could have water and hopefully get a good meal. "We'll head to that western bend."
"Are we still being followed?"
"He doesn't tend to give up."
"Will he get us?"
She sighed, and Tenet knew he was pushing too far. "I'm doing my best to keep that from happening. We'll head west. He's expecting us to either run or go east."
"Why would he expect us to go east?"
"Fine. He'll expect me to go east."
"Why?"
Years hunting together. Years follow each other's patterns. Season after season of trying to one up the each other. A deep knowledge of one another. Jace would think she was heading east because it was afternoon, the sun would be at her back. The position of the mountain range would shelter them from the winds that she felt blowing up and over if she followed the curve to the right. The eastern side of the river bank would give them the advantage in the morning of having the sun in Jace's eyes if he caught up to them in the night. There were many reasons she would normally choose the eastern path, and many complicated reasons Jace would know this. She didn't take time to explain. "Follow me."
It was as much talking as she was going to do for awhile judging by the tone of voice, and Tenet knew there was nothing to do but move. The brush thickened rather quickly, and with it they found firmer ground. Scarab instructed him to turn his body and step forward and down at the same time, as if he was climbing down stairs sideways. Although it made their descent much shallower, it was easier traveling and soon they were in shrubs that were regular and waist high, with several that jutted much higher into the air. Tenet guessed an hour had passed before they heard the hum of another bot. Without so much as a word, they dropped right where they were, wedging themselves against the gnarled trunks of the scraggly brush.
Scarab made her breath shallow and slow, giving Tenet a look that told him to be silent. He didn't need her warning and he made a mental note to add it to the list of things he intended to say later. He willed his breath to slow down and be as silent as Scarab's.
The bot hummed in a different tone than the other one had. It sounded larger to Scarab. Larger and meaner. There was very little chance Jace would bother with anot
her drone, and she knew she was dreaming if she thought for a second it could be a simple recon. She wished she was in a better position to spy, but any movement at all in the short bushes could give them away. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the sound. It was above them. She could hear the echo somewhere up the mountain side. For a few painful minutes, the droning buzz got louder. She opened her eyes and watched Tenet. He was staring at her, his look solid and secure. He was certain they were safe. Either that or he was simply resigned. She held his intense gaze and tried to calculate how long it would take for the bot to find them judging by how near it sounded. One minute. Two, maybe.
And then miraculously, gloriously, they bot's whining engines and small propulsion jets sounded slightly quieter. Tenet thought it was wishful thinking until he noticed the surprise in Scarab's eyes. They listened more intently. It was definitely going the wrong way. Soon it could barely be heard. Scarab moved to take a peek. Tenet tensed, but he didn't try and stop her. In a painfully slow motion, she inched her way up through the stubbly scratchy needles of the shrub until she could see over. The bot was definitely a killer. The lasers weren't even disguised. They stuck out from below like two fingers of doom, waiting to fry anything it its path without thought. But most importantly, it was definitely going the other direction. She watched it sweep wide to the east, then stop and pivot. She got ready to plaster herself back to the ground, but wanted to know her enemy. The bot paused for a second before coming back their way. It was sweeping in a zig zag. While that meant it was deadly, it also meant it was stupid, and she couldn't help but feel a moment of triumph. Jace always underestimated people. Always.
Scarab ducked back into the bush with plenty of time to whisper an explanation and plan to Tenet. They'd stay where they were and wait out the bot's return. Once it was past them again, they'd head back up the mountain a little to give themselves a wider berth, then watch how far the bot scanned to the west. They'd continue to make their way west until they were well past the bot's sweep pattern and then head down the mountain.
It was a stressful and tedious plan, but after the fourth time they lay prone, waiting for the bot to clear away, Tenet had given up on the fear aspect. He lay flat looking up at the darkening sky. Night would be on them soon, and he didn't think there'd be any chance of a fire. His stomach rumbled. No fire, and no food. At least they weren't in the rain. Or going uphill anymore. And they had a pretty good system working with the bot and edgewise travel. All in all, it could be worse. His brain just needed to hold onto that one little thought. It could be worse, so that meant that it also could get better.
Scarab tapped Tenet on the shoulder, and he rose back up. "We're well beyond the sweep now," she said quietly. "As long as we move slow and careful, we'll be okay."
Tenet turned and looked at their enemy for the first time. It was larger than the drone Scarab shot down, and more menacing than the bots that combed the scorched farmlands for wraiths had been. "You sure?"
"Yes. On this one, I'm positive. It's in a pattern and will continue in one until it kills us. Or kills two large animals it thinks are us." She saw Tenet's shiver and patted his back. "Come on. Move."
He nodded and turned to follow. "I hope it kills two large animals."
"Me too. I'm starving." She got back to the serious business of their never-ending escape.
They reached the river long after dark by the light of a full moon. They heard it through the forest long before they actually came up on it, and that was a good thing. Unlike the rivers they'd been past so far that lazily floated along, this one raged through a deep gorge carved in the side of the rocky mountain side. They stood looking down into the frothy white beast, made more majestic by the eerie glow of the moon, and Scarab whistled.
"We can't cross it."
"No shit." She rolled her head back, feeling the day's strain in her neck and shoulders. She considered stopping for the night. She looked to Tenet. "Camp here?"
Tenet was too stunned to answer. She actually asked his opinion.
"Or not. Your call."
"I, uh..." he stammered. "What do you think?"
"I'm spent. But if we stop, he'll gain on us. Don't think he's not moving even as his lackey's doing his dirty work. He's too good for that. We aren't safe, not by a long shot." She took off her pack and sat down heavily on top of it. "So by all rights, we should keep our asses moving. I know how tired I am, how hungry I've been all day. And I don't have a bum leg. I can only imagine how bad you're hurting, too. So, like I said, your call."
He was touched. He looked along the river ledge, looking for a way down, or around, or over. In his mind, if they could just get to the other side, they'd have another level of safety. He wasn't the expert, but he had some training and he had been paying attention through the trip, even when it seemed like he was not. He hesitated for only a second before taking off his pack.
"We rest then," Scarab said.
"No." He rummaged in his pack and came out with the medicine kit. Using the light of the full moon, he shuffled through the little baggies until he found the right one. "We don't rest until we find a way across that river. Here. Tuck this into your cheek and swallow when you need to."
"What is it?"
"Just something to give us a little boost." She raised her eyebrow at him. "It's kind of like caffeine." Okay, so he was underselling it a bit. He doubted she'd take it if she knew the full details of the effects, but he knew they both needed something to keep them going. "It'll keep us moving."
"Are you sure your leg can handle it?"
He nodded, then motioned for her to take the herbs. She sighed and stuffed a pinch between her gums and cheek.
"If I have a hangover in the morning, you're toast." Scarab pushed up as he laughed and slung her pack over her back again. She was proud of his decision. She hoped it wouldn't bite them in the end. Sometimes it was far better to rest and push harder later. But if she was on her own, crossing the river before stopping would have been her choice, too. "You want to lead?"
He laughed. "Let's not go overboard with the partner thing."
Scarab couldn't help the grin as she took off into the night. He was so different from what she expected. Still, after two months of hard travel together he surprised her daily. As she made her way through the dark forest by the peaks of moonlight, she couldn't help but compare him to Jace.
Jace was a good hunter. No, he was a great hunter. Several years older than her, he started his career later than most and they were rookies the same first summer season. While hunting was a sink or swim profession from the start, elder hunters often took fledglings under their wings. Hark and Enna gave Scarab a crash course, but Jace was completely self-taught. In the wide spread but oddly tight knit community of hunters, it was great sport to track the successes and failures of their peers, but especially the newcomers. Many outposts tracked jobs, earnings, injuries and deaths on leader boards for all to see. Some even laid odds and made bets. There were thousands earned and lost on the successes and failures of the poor kids who picked a hard life.
After that first season, it became clear that there were three hunters to watch out for. What started out as the elders laughing at the mistakes of the incompetents always turned into hushed planning around the few that would give them a run for future jobs. Scarab, Jace, and a large girl who went by Pearl were all very successful. Of the new batch, they were the ones that the elders would have to either sabotage or step aside and let join their ranks. Jace was fully accepted, while Scarab and Pearl were the subjects of sabotage. Jace always crowed about that, and it took Scarab a few more seasons to understand how foolish he was. They accepted him, not because of his ability, but because he did not present a threat. He never understood that.
He was great. Honestly, one of the best. But he had limitations. First, he only took kill jobs. That never set well with Scarab, though she justified it by telling herself that someone had to take those bounties. Then there was the matter of his ref
usal to do winters. True respect was given to the hunters who did both, not one or the other. It was a weakness in her mind, his unwillingness to put himself in any discomfort. And then there was his attitude. He was so sure of himself.
Scarab snorted at her own thoughts, but didn't even hear Tenet's questioning about why. She supposed she couldn't fault Jace's attitude. Didn't she walk around full of herself? Ah, but she earned it. Jace spent a lot of his time with the tech. It created a binding challenge between them. He was so certain that technology was the future of hunting. "Why get my fingernails dirty, babe?" he asked her once. "They're such pretty fingernails." He was cocky. And conceited. And something about him sparked her, pushed her, drew her in and repulsed her at the same time. She was not one for relationships. And yet, if there had ever been anyone that came close, it was him. God knew he tried.
It was Pearl's death that first really drew Scarab to see Jace as more than a competitor. Pearl was sabotaged on what should have been an easy job. It was foolish and stupid, and a seasoned hunter would have seen the trap for what it was. Scarab was sorry to see Pearl go, but had a hard time feeling too bad when the girl walked right into a den of wraiths, following an obviously fake path of the alleged bounty. It was textbook, as if the person laying the trap had a check list. Footprints? Check. A bit of clothing that mysteriously didn't burn up as ash? Check. An empty canteen? Check. It boggled her mind whenever she thought of it. Pearl made it a season and a half. That was it.
When Scarab heard of Pearl's death, she passed on a lucrative fugitive bounty to find Jace and accuse him directly of Pearl's murder.
"And why would you care? Aren't you looking at more jobs now?" Scarab had been furious. Beyond furious. She reached her hand back to slap him and he easily caught it, laughing softly. "Are you really mad at me for laying the trap, or her for following? I got paid to do a job, just like you. You know I'm right on this. Why do you have to be so stubborn, hm? We could work together. We could always work together." He had almost whispered that last part, and even thinking about it all these years later made her heart race. She always wondered what would have happened if she had just leaned in a little.
She didn't, though. She pulled back and didn't speak to him for a year. But somehow, their paths began to cross again. And again. And soon she gave up fighting and would drink in the bar with him, listening to him brag about his latest jobs. She never gave anything of herself to him. She couldn't. And she never even hinted at the details of her jobs. She hated that people would brag about the worst moments of other peoples' lives. Perhaps it was because she remembered how it felt to be hated, hunted, beaten, broken. But she would listen to him. She would seek him out when he was in town, and let herself be found when came in from a hunt. And as the years passed, the undercurrent between them grew and grew. If he hadn't died...
Angry reality stopped her thought.
Jace didn't die. He masterminded his own "death" to fade out of the public eye and become a murderous specter for the very government he claimed to hate. And now, now she was the job. She snorted again, feeling the bitterness of the truth. She was always a job. She wondered how many times he'd tried to sabotage her. There was only one other hunter in the world with a perfect record, and that was her. Perfect in summer and winter, for seven seasons each. Nothing he could ever do would change that. Her stomach clenched. No, he couldn't change that. The closest he could come would be to clean up her one and only failure, to succeed where she couldn't.
"Earth to Scarab," Tenet said, impatiently.
"Huh?"
"I said, I think we can cross this log."
She blinked and looked around. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice the terrain at all. She hadn't heard or seen anything. Even standing and trying to pay attention was difficult. Everything had a funny haze to it. The thought shook her, and she spat the herbs out of her mouth and wiped the juice from her chin with the back of a shaking hand.
"You okay?"
She was tired. She was hungry. That was all. She wasn't weak, she still had her edge. She wasn't letting Jace mess with her anymore. She was done thinking about him forever. Angry at herself, she gave Tenet a nod and pushed past him to survey they log. It spanned the river and in the moonlight she could see that it had been there for quite some time. There was moss on it where the spray from the river below watered the slippery growth.
"I don't know, Tenet. It looks sketchy at best."
Tenet was feeling good. His spirits were high, his energy was great. In fact, under the full moon, it was an incredible night. How far had they come? How much did they overcome? He felt taller, prouder, more capable. Half his brain knew it was the herb he was chewing, the other half didn't care. For the first time in weeks, he felt great. "Aw now, where's your sense of adventure?" He was grinning at her like a fool.
It was the herbs. Something in Scarab knew that. Either that or Tenet had gone past the point of exhaustion right on to mania. Whatever the cause, his buoyancy was contagious and her own pensive mood shifted to match his. "Well let's go then!" she said with a new bounce in her step.
"I shall lead the way for madam," he said with a bow, then climbed up unsteadily on the log and held his hands out until he was balanced. He giggled and took a step.
"Crawl!" she said, laughing at his comical expression. Her little warning voice was screaming inside her head and she found she didn't really care. "What was the name of that herb?"
"Mother called it widow weed," he called, inching along the log on his hands and knees.
"That's an unexpectedly depressing name."
"I know. But if you use it every day you'll get addicted and die a horribly painful death." His voice was cheery while he spoke.
When he was about halfway across, Scarab scurried up behind him. "Let's call it giggle weed."
Tenet laughed at this unexpectedly playful side of Scarab he'd never seen. The distraction caused his hand to slip on moss. The sober side of his brain tried to take over, but he pushed back that fear. Fear was no fun. Laughing was fun. Playing in the woods was fun. They would laugh and play in the woods.
"Hey. Keep moving." Scarab almost ran into him.
"I can't go that fast," Tenet pointed out, trying to turn to look at her. "You're much better at this."
"I know."
"Modest, too."
"Always."
Tenet inched forward through the slick moss until a loud crack rang through the night from underneath them. "I think it's shooting us!"
Scarab laughed loudly. "You idiot. It's not shooting us. It's just so old it's splitting in half!" She didn't sound concerned. She should sound concerned. She knew that, but couldn't find it in herself to care.
"Well shit. That would be bad."
"A little."
"Then it's full steam ahead!" he bellowed, snorting like a bull. "Here I go!" He reared up like a charging horse and scampered to the other side.
Scarab laughed hysterically as she charged after him. Her foot slipped through the bark of a rotten patch when she was almost at the other side and her laugh turned to a deep frown. "Aw hell," she said, trying to tug her foot free. "I'm stuck."
Tenet was on firm ground once again and took his pack off. "Then the valiant knight will save the fair maiden!" He posed in what he figured was a noble stance, then bent down and reached out a hand for her.
"Where do you come up with this stuff?" she asked, grabbing for him and missing.
"Mother's old fairy tales."
The log cracked again. Something in Tenet's brain broke through and he stopped playing and grabbed Scarab's hand. With a mighty tug, he pulled her to him even as the rotten section of log broke loose. He held her as they both watched the log slowly crumble into the raging rapids below. They stood stunned, long after the chunks had been washed away.
Eventually reality sank in and Scarab turned to look up at Tenet. "Holy shit."
He was just as dazed. "Are you okay?" She nodded. "I d
idn't hurt you, did I?" She shook her head. Everything was still so fuzzy.
Tenet was looking at her intensely, his arms still tight around her as if he was still afraid she'd fall. "Who's Jace?" he whispered.
She didn't want to answer. She wanted him to let her go, to get his pack, and to find a place to camp for the night. She wanted to go to sleep and let the drug wear off before it made her do anything else stupid. "He's another hunter," she said anyway.
"I meant, who is he to you?"
She didn't want to answer, damn it! And yet, she did. Her traitorous mouth would not stop speaking. "I don't know. I honestly don't know. I thought he was...well...at least a friend."
"Nothing more?"
God Tenet was intense. Intense and tall and warm and...when had his arms gotten so strong? She needed to stop talking. She needed to step away. She did neither. "No. Never. In case you hadn't noticed, I...I'm not so good at personal relationships."
He smiled, that lazy half smile of his and her heart quickened. "I hadn't noticed," he said in a teasing tone.
"You'd never hunt me, would you?" her babbling mouth asked before she could stop herself.
"No," Tenet said firmly. "You know I wouldn't." He was giving her that look again, the one she saw in his eyes at the river the other day.
"I know why you keep looking at me like that," she blurted. Stop talking, she shouted at herself. Stop it right now!
His eyes crinkled with his smile. "I'm sure you do."
"It's...it's just your damn widow weed."
"No, it's not," he whispered, lowering his head. Before she knew it, his lips had found hers and she couldn't muster up enough fear to stop it. He was warm and soft and so very tender that within a few moments, she couldn't remember why she would ever want it to stop. Before the fear could bubble up again, she pressed her hands to his chest and slid them up and around his neck. If it was the drug, so be it. It was the first wonderful feeling she'd had in years and even if she regretted it later, she would enjoy it while it lasted.
Tenet was sure his heart stopped beating when he felt her pull him closer, felt her respond. He wanted this so badly. It didn't matter that it was the drug that finally lowered her defenses a little. She was kissing him back with all the passion he felt bottled up inside, and no amount of widow weed would do that if the feelings weren't there to begin with. If all they ever shared was this one kiss, so be it. At least he knew that she held just as much inside her as he did. He was the one to pull away first, and he gave a small chuckle when she stood on tiptoes to follow his mouth and try for another kiss.
Scarab knew she would be embarrassed later. She didn't care. One more time, she tried to throw herself into his arms. She didn't want sex. Just a kiss. She'd never had one before, never knew how good it felt. One more, and they'd stop. One more and she'd be content. He kissed her until she was breathless, and still she wanted more.
Tenet pulled himself away before it was too late, before he took it too far. He'd had widow weed before. He knew it could relax inhibitions too much, and he didn't want her to ever look back and be sorry. He was sure she'd come to him completely when she was ready, and he was willing to wait however long it took for that to happen of her choosing, in her time, without the weed making her act out. He gently tugged her hands from around his neck and kissed the knuckles.
Scarab watched his lips leave her finger tips and then looked up at his dazed and goofy face. Her head began to swim with the headiness of the emotions fighting inside. Tenet leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her forehead that was nearly her undoing. All of a sudden, everything swamped her at once, and for the first time since she lost her sister, she felt real tears sting the backs of her eyes, the dam threatening to burst.
Tenet saw the war of emotions playing across her normally stoic face. He could feel the tension in her hands, the slight tremble. Whatever was happening in her head was bigger than him, bigger than their shared kisses. He released her hand long enough to get his pack, then took it once again in his.
"Don't touch me," she whispered, afraid she was breaking. There was a lump in her throat, years of screaming that pushed and wanted to break free. She tugged at her hand, but he held it firm and lead her away from the bank of the river.
The moon was low in the sky. Soon it would be full dark and their progress would have to stop. Tenet walked quickly, knowing they were about at the ends of their high and approaching what would no doubt be a crippling crash. He scanned what he could see of the forest around them, looking for any kind of protection and pulled a stumbling Scarab behind him. Finally he came upon a fallen tree. It was enormous, larger than any he'd ever seen, and the roots were thrust towards the sky way above his head. They created a lean-to. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. Scarab was shaking and making small, painful little gasps. He pulled her to him and took off her pack.
"It's the widow weed. You just need to sleep," he said quietly as he unrolled a blanket and wrapped it around them. He held her and gently eased them to the forest floor under the roots of the ancient tree. Tenet tucked Scarab very close to him and in a few minutes, her sad little gasps stopped and her breathing calmed. He felt her take a deep, shaky breath.
"I don't like this," she whispered.
"What?"
"Feeling," she mumbled against his chest.
He stroked her hair with one hand and held her close to him with the other. "You'll get used to it."
"I don't want to." Laughter rumbled through him under her cheek. "I don't," she insisted. "And I won't. Tomorrow I won't take your widow weed."
"Good, because I wouldn't give it to you tomorrow even if you wanted it."
She snorted. "I could make you."
He laughed again. "I'm sure you could. But since you don't want it, it's not an issue." He lay and stroked her hair. After a few minutes, she became quiet and still and he knew she was falling asleep. His own body wanted the same, but his mind was still wide awake. Damn widow weed. It had been a couple years since he sneaked some from his mother's medicinal case and took it with his buddies behind the fields. He forgot just how much it hyped him up. His friends usually faded quickly, like Scarab, and he'd be left to lie awake and alone to stare into the stars. He never had someone to hold during it, though. That was new and, if he was honest, amazing.
And she vowed to go back to how they were in the morning.
His hold tightened, as if he could will her to remain in this moment with him forever. He saved her. No matter what else, he saved her. Was that really him? A hero? Sure, he made the problems in the first place. But he saved her. He grabbed her and pulled her to him and held her like she belonged there.
Damn it, she did belong there. Right there, in his arms, with him. His head spun with the feeling. He'd never had that before. He'd never felt a tenth of the fullness and calm he felt at that moment, and he knew the widow weed had little to do with it. Sure, it made it easier to think about, made the emotions clearer and gave definition to the vagueness. But they had to be inside in the first place.
Jace said he was just Scarab's job. No. Not even his drugged dizzy brain could accept that. He stopped being a job a long time ago and everyone but Scarab knew that. Hell, she knew it, too. She just hated to admit it. There had been pain in her eyes when Jace called her a job. No matter what she said about being confused about their relationship, in her heart there was something shared with Jace, and the heightened emotions through the widows weed made the jealousy clench his stomach.
The man was a moron. After long minutes of reflection, that was the only conclusion Tenet could reach. Jace was an absolute moron to turn on Scarab. Yes, she was brash. Yes, she was stubborn. Yes she was infuriating to the point of distraction. But as he held her and finally started to drift to sleep, he knew she was worth it. Anyone should think she was worth it. Jace was a moron, and Tenet gave up fearing him right then and there. He kissed her head one more time, hopefully not for the last, and finally let his brain wind dow
n to give his body some much needed sleep.
