Dustborn

by T. W. Piperbrook

  “The monster?” Gideon asked, furrowing his brow.

  “The creature that killed our people in Red Rock,” Darius said.

  A darkness crossed Gideon’s face. “Ah, the Behemoth.” He blinked his eye.

  “The Behemoth? Is that what you call it?” Darius asked.

  Gideon nodded. “I remember it landing on top of me. That was the last thing I saw before I woke up here.” He raised a weak hand, gesturing to his lap.

  Darius nodded.

  Unable to refrain from asking the question that was on all of their tongues, Neena said, “What did you know about this Behemoth before?”

  Gideon started to speak, but seemed to lose his train of thought. A moment of despair crossed Darius. Hoping to keep Gideon on track, he said, “It sounded like you knew of the monster’s existence before it came.”

  “We knew about it, but we had never seen one,” Gideon recalled. “Our hope was that those things were extinct, like all the other creatures who died long ago.”

  “But Kai’s colony told you that one was alive, and so did we,” Neena said, unable to help her accusatory tone. “You knew that at least one lived.”

  Gideon looked between them, having another confused thought.

  Kai cut in. “The emissaries from my colony—New Canaan—told you about the creature, or we suspect they did.”

  Gideon’s face sparked recognition. “They told us about the beast, yes.”

  “Just like Neena and I did,” Kai said.

  Gideon looked like he was pairing names with faces.

  “And you knew about the one in the tunnels, too,” Darius insisted, pointing to the floor of the cave, toward the lower chambers. “You knew about the old carcass of the dead beast. That’s how you knew about the creature’s existence, right? That’s why you forbid people from traveling inside the rock formations?”

  “Carcass? What carcass?”

  An anger Darius had repressed for too long sprang to his words, as he found the courage to speak them aloud. “The dead monster in the cave. The secret you covered up. The reason that you had my friend Akron killed.”

  If Darius had been in Red Rock, the accusation would’ve landed him in a Comm Building jail. But he wasn’t going anywhere, now. He clutched his cane and stood silent, shaking.

  Even Neena and Kai fell silent, waiting.

  Feeling the weight of the accusation, Gideon looked from one of them to the other. “Akron?” He adjusted under his blankets, looking from their faces to the cave’s ceiling, as if he might find an answer in the crevices. “I don’t know any Akron.”

  Darius could hardly contain his frustration. “He’s the boy your Watchers caught exploring in the caves. They killed him for what he found. And then they covered up his body in the passage. You must’ve known about it.”

  “I don’t know of any passage.”

  “Thorne would’ve told you about it. Even if you didn’t see it, you would’ve known,” Darius insisted.

  “Thorne tended many matters, as did I,” Gideon said, his eyes faraway. “It is hard to keep track of all of them.”

  “But you were his superior,” Darius finished. “You would’ve known of this secret. You were complicit in Akron’s death.”

  Gideon’s face solidified into certainty, only for a moment, before it faded again. “I’m sorry, but the accident seems to have affected my memory. I can’t remember.”

  Chapter 20: Gideon

  “Jameson.” The word croaked from Gideon’s mouth in a frustratingly quiet tone, as he listened to the fading footsteps of Darius, Neena, and Kai. Finding the strength to push another word past his chapped lips, he cried, “Jameson!”

  He reached to the side of his bedroll, looking for something to knock over. He needed another way to get the man’s attention. Gideon tried sitting up, but the pain was so intense that he couldn’t move more than a finger’s grasp. He fell back to the bed, exasperated.

  Finally, the man appeared by his side.

  “What is it, sir?” Jameson asked.

  No longer faking his confusion, Gideon said, “Get me Bryan and The Watchers.”

  His eye fluttered. Without wanting to, Gideon succumbed to sleep.

  “Get your rest,” Jameson whispered, as he drifted off. “When you awaken, I’ll get them.”

  Chapter 21: Raj

  Raj looked around the cave, eyeing the people eating breakfast. Shortly after waking up, Neena, Kai, and Darius had gone on another excursion, according to Amos. Raj wasn’t sure where they went, but he didn’t care. He had something else on his mind. Looking across from him to where Adriana sat cross-legged, he could hardly contain his excitement.

  “What is it you had to tell me?” Adriana asked, growing impatient.

  Raj shifted and looked over at Samel, who played in a circle with a few other boys, farther away.

  “I found something last night.”

  Adriana furrowed her brow. “Something?”

  “In the caves.” Raj nodded discreetly toward the end of the passage, where one of the guards paced. “Down where Samel and I went yesterday.”

  “You went there again last night?” Adriana asked. More than one person had seen them returning, after Samara and the others retrieved them.

  “Yes, I snuck away while everyone else was asleep.”

  Adriana’s face grew serious. “You could’ve been killed!” Her worry quickly turned into curiosity. “What did you find?”

  “Something special. I left it in a secret place.” A conspiratorial smile crossed Raj’s face. “Remember I told you I was going to get you something?”

  Adriana leaned forward, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ears, intrigued.

  Looking around, ensuring that no one was listening, Raj continued, “When Samel and I chased the dust beetle the other day, I saw something gleaming in a small passage at the side of the tunnel. Last night, while everyone was asleep, I snuck down there and pulled it out.”

  Her eyes sparked with curiosity. “What was it?”

  “Something so wondrous I can’t explain it, Adriana. Something grander than any of us has seen. You have to see it.”

  Adriana opened and closed her mouth with eagerness. “But—”

  “It’s not something I can explain with words,” Raj repeated. “You’ll have to see it for yourself.”

  The flutter in Raj’s stomach returned, as he saw her excited expression, knowing that he had caused it. Her amazement certainly made him happier than any time he’d spent with his family, lately.

  “How are we going to see it?” Adriana asked.

  “Tonight, when everyone is asleep, I’ll show you,” Raj said. Looking around sneakily, he continued, “But you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone. Not Neena, Darius, or Kai.”

  Looking him in the eye, Adriana swore, “I promise.”

  Chapter 22: Neena

  Standing on the cliffs next to Kai, Neena traced the contours of the ruined houses below. Far on the horizon, some birds flew in a swooping pattern, rising and falling.

  “Obviously we aren’t getting any answers from Gideon,” she said with despair. “Maybe not ever.”

  She looked farther down the ledge, where Darius was already returning to the Right Cave. The conversation with Gideon had lowered his spirits. Or maybe it was the lack of answers, which seemed to have frustrated him.

  “Talking with Gideon seems like a fruitless effort,” Kai agreed. “His memories are jumbled. Or, at least, it seems that way. We might never make sense of them.”

  “So what do we do?” she asked.

  “Our search for answers is our own.” Kai fell silent.

  Neena looked right, but she saw no sign of Bryan or his Watchers. If not for the voices of the people in the cave behind them
, and the few guards that stood quietly nearby, she might have thought they were the only ones left on the ledge. Or the planet. But that wasn’t true, because the monster was out there, and so was Kai’s colony. She sighed and turned her gaze back to the desert, searching between the tall, rocky spires.

  After a long moment of silence, Kai asked her, “What are you thinking about?”

  “I was thinking of your colony. It’s strange, knowing they’re out there somewhere.”

  “It is strange for me, too.” Kai matched her gaze into the horizon. “I often wonder what they’re doing. I don’t have many people who might miss me. But I do wonder how my parents reacted when I left.”

  Neena felt a pang of sympathy. “Do you think they went searching for you?”

  Kai sighed. “My mother was in no condition to look for anyone. In some ways, I hope my father forgot about me. I wouldn’t want him injured or killed on a fruitless search.”

  “Do you regret leaving?”

  Kai considered, before meeting her eyes. “One thing is for certain: I don’t regret meeting you.”

  He smiled and pulled her close. His warm skin reminded her of the nights they spent together, pressed even closer. He smelled like the must and dirt in the caves, but he had another scent, an alluring and foreign one that she’d come to appreciate. Now that she had him, she never wanted to let him go.

  “Perhaps you will make it back to New Canaan one day,” Neena said, as they looked out from the cliffs together.

  Kai shrugged. “I don’t think my people would want a criminal back.” Feeling a bit bad for dismissing her suggestion, he added, “Who knows? Maybe when we kill the Abomination, we’ll find them again, and they’ll hail us as heroes.”

  Chapter 23: Bryan

  Torches flickered on the wall as Bryan and six of his closest Watchers filtered into the dark, recessed cove, merging around Gideon’s bedroll. Even in the middle of the day, the caves always held the same sense of gloom. The smell of bandaged, healing flesh, urine, and feces filled the air.

  Bryan focused on Gideon. The leader’s chest rose and fell with his labored breaths as he looked from one man to the next, settling his eye on Bryan.

  “Thank you for coming,” Gideon said.

  Bryan nodded. His heart beat faster, as it always did in the leader’s presence. He looked over at the six men beside him—his closest comrades, among the forty Watchers left. With them was Louie, his arm hung in a sling.

  “I’m sorry about your arm,” Gideon told Louie sympathetically. “Jameson explained what happened.”

  Louie bowed his head.

  Gideon looked over at Bryan. “And I’m sorry to hear about our brother, Gary. Too many deaths have plagued our colony.” Gideon looked down at his paralyzed body under the sheets. “We’ve all paid a steep price.”

  Bryan looked down at his boots. Many people blamed Gideon for what had happened, but no one could dispute the extent of his suffering.

  “Have you buried him?” Gideon asked.

  “We will do it tomorrow evening, after Gary’s relatives and widow have said goodbye.”

  Gideon nodded. “Undoubtedly, you have heard some things from the others, in the time after the attack.” Gideon looked down at his folded hands. “It is my hope that I can clear these things up for you today. You deserve that much, at least.”

  Bryan and his Watchers stood rigid, waiting. Unlike the previous visit, Gideon seemed alert this time.

  “If I have one regret, it is that I was not beside you on the day the monster attacked, or in the days since. But I’d like you to know that the oath I swore means as much to me today as it did when I was a young man. Everything I’ve done has been for the good of our colony. Or at least, those were my intentions.”

  Bryan and his men stayed quiet, waiting for Gideon to continue.

  Gideon wheezed through a breath. “I suppose the question on everyone’s tongues is why I didn’t tell you about the monster.”

  Bryan traded a glance with the others. Undoubtedly, the matter had stirred great debate.

  “The veteran Watchers knew of this information. My regret is that I did not share it with all of you younger Watchers. For that, I take responsibility.” Gideon struggled to shift on the bed. His eye blazed with a determination his body no longer supported.

  Reddening with embarrassment, Bryan turned away.

  “It is okay,” Gideon said. “You do not have to feel pity for me. I have accepted my fate, such as it is.”

  Bryan slowly returned his gaze.

  Stepping into the room, Jameson asked, “Excuse me, sir. Would you like me to prop your head up more?”

  Frustrated, Gideon resigned to the healer’s help. Once Jameson positioned him to his liking, he continued.

  “On the day that I told you about the people of New Canaan, it was my hope that we would never see the monster,” Gideon said. “We prayed that we had eluded it, as we have done for several generations. It was my hope that I could avoid a panic that would seal Red Rock’s fate. That is what The Heads of Colony and I discussed. Perhaps I should have followed my instincts, over their suggestions.”

  Bryan watched him, waiting for what came next.

  “In the meeting we held a few weeks ago, I told you about the division of our First Generation. I told you of how those people fought and fractured. There was a little more to that story than I shared.”

  Gideon sucked air through his suffering lungs.

  “As I told you, the months after the ships abandoned the planet were tense ones. After a while of waiting for the ships to come back, and sending unanswered messages into the skies, the leaders of the First Generation divided into two factions, as I told you. The unintelligent leaders—those who later left and founded New Canaan—thought they might get Earth’s ships to return if they worked harder. And so they directed some miners deeper into the caves, like I said in that first meeting. Most of those miners died through sickness, starvation, or were lost, as I told you. But others died in the mouth of a monster, much like the one that now stalks our colony. That part is new to you.”

  “We’ve heard about the carcass from the old man, Darius,” Bryan said, motioning vaguely toward the floor. “And we’ve heard about the piles of bones around it.”

  “Jameson says that all of the colonists now know of it, as well. Is that true?”

  Bryan’s eyes gravitated downward.

  “Have you seen the dead beast?” Gideon asked, curiosity sparking in his eye.

  “No.” Bryan shook his head. “According to Darius, it is deep in the formation’s bowels. He said it is too dangerous a journey. No one has seen it but him.”

  “Interesting,” Gideon said. Something flashed in his eye that Bryan couldn’t read. “I haven’t been there in a long time. Unfortunately, the knowledge of how to get there died with Thorne. He knew the caves a lot better than me.”

  Before Bryan could ask another question, Gideon continued, “Anyhow, the fracture between our First Generation’s leaders was already heated. And they were about to find out about the monster, which would make matters even worse. As I said, some of our miners were lost in the tunnels. Of course, their absence led to unrest among their relatives. And so both sets of leaders agreed to send out a small expedition of colonists to find them.” Gideon looked from one to the other of them. “By the time that small group of colonists discovered the cavern, both the miners and the enormous, hideous creature had perished, leaving a sickening mess of broken limbs, crushed bodies, and chewed flesh behind. Most of the dead miners’ bodies were so dismembered that it was hard to tell one from the next. Blood and bile soaked the ground. The people in the expedition guessed that the creature ate some of the people in the tunnel and spit them out, before others killed it, and then both the beast and the remaining miners died from their i
njuries. In any case, no one was alive to tell the tale of what exactly happened.”

  Bryan’s eyes grew wide as he listened.

  “The sight of those ruined, mangled bodies struck a fear deep in the hearts of the small expedition. You see, the colonists left on Ravar were workers, not fighters. They did not have experience with anything like what they found in those caves. The people who protected the miners—men similar to you Watchers—left with the ships, taking all their weapons, and anything that wasn’t secured in the Comm Building.”

  Bryan was awe-struck. “They took all of their weapons?”

  Gideon’s memories rolled to a far-off place. “Back then, the colonists had better weapons than spears. Or at least, it was rumored. According to the stories passed down from our ancestral leaders, in fact, those people had weapons we cannot fathom. In any case, those hardened people were gone and had taken most things of the things of value, leaving only the workers and some of their leaders behind. The fractured First Generation had more problems than a cave full of dead people, whose relatives were waiting. The leaders had an abandoned colony on the cusp of panic. And they were barely holding it together.”

  Bryan nodded his understanding.

  “When the small expedition of colonists returned and relayed the story of the monster and the dead miners to the fractured leaders, the leaders grew scared. No one knew if more monsters might exist. No one knew what they could do about them, even if they did. Despite their conflicts, the feuding leaders agreed on one thing: no one should ever enter those caves again, or tell the rest of the colonists. It is an edict I have upheld until now, of course.” Gideon waved a weak hand at the cave around them. “Of course, we have been lucky enough to see no sign of those monsters for generations.”

  A mixture of wonder and fear overtook Bryan.

  “A year after the First Generation’s abandonment, the ships still hadn’t returned. Tensions grew worse. That is when the unintelligent leaders in the bunch formed a new plan—they would take half the colony and leave, seeking out a new settlement. Of course, our leaders knew that was a suicidal mission. They knew it was likely to end in death. So our First Generation fractured, as I told you.”