90_Minutes_to_Live (28 page)

He realized the cord was taut and when he looked back at her, Maria was trying to run away again. He shook his head, allowing a little more slack on the leash to give the illusion of success before slowly reeling it back in. “I suppose you must struggle, even knowing it is pointless,” he conceded. “Very well, we’re nearly there.”

It was true. It felt like a beacon of light, shining out from the foliage ahead. It was hard to believe she could not sense it too. In just a few moments more, they would be there, and he felt he should tell her the truth before they arrived, even though he was enjoying her misery.

“Other than the moon and the lock of hair, there is one other requirement for the resurrection to succeed,” he explained. He stopped and looked back at her bloodshot gaze. “The sacrifice must go to their death entirely of their own free will.”

There was a moment and as this sunk in he saw Maria’s puzzlement. “No, it wouldn’t work to force you with pain or threats to your loved ones. Believe me, if I could, I would. There is no way I could make you genuinely want to lay down your life, so your death would be pointless.”

He sighed. “That’s why you’re not here to be sacrificed.” Her frown returned; her hatred tempered with mistrust. “You’re here to be a witness,” he explained. “I will be the sacrifice.”

And with that, giving her no time to comprehend, he pressed forward, dragging her through the last bushes and into the Glade.

*   *   *

Even without Cain’s sensitivity to it, Maria could tell it was a place of great power. The clearing was perhaps the size of a village square but almost perfectly circular and totally enclosed. No gaps marred the perimeter of trees and ferns but the otherwise smooth ground was pocked with a handful of jutting rocks.

The canopies overhead stretched inwards, blocking out most of the moonlight and leaving only a single, wide shaft to illuminate the structure at the centre of the clearing. From this distance, she could not tell its exact nature; twisted and as tall as a man, she assumed it was a great stump but there was no sign of a fallen tree.

Most astonishing about this place was the lighting; the Glade was far too well illuminated for the meager shaft of moonlight. Her hairs slowly started to stand on end as she realized that the centerpiece itself seemed to glow.

Finally, she turned to her captor. To her disgust, he was already looking at her, drinking in her reaction. She suppressed a shudder.

“Now, I’m going to remove your gag,” he explained. “I’m sure you’re smart enough to understand screaming and shouting will achieve nothing. In fact, it would only result in the gag being reapplied,” he tilted his head. “...
tighter
.”

She nodded slowly, aware that if he was telling the truth and she played along, she should come out of this alive. Of course, she had no reason to trust him.

As the gag fell away, she started panting, relishing the increased oxygen flow. Catching his eye, she saw he was expecting something of her. Probably gratitude.

Instead, she summoned up the foulest curse word she knew.

He looked stunned for a second and then a grin, almost genuine, broke out across his features before he burst into laughter.

“Wonderful,” he exclaimed. “Good, kind, generous and utterly foul-mouthed. What fun my men would have had with you.”

“You’re disgusting,” she shot back.

“I never denied it,” he agreed. “Oh, he’ll like you.”

She frowned at the comment but refused to be thrown. “You made me fear for my life. Why? For fun?”

“Pretty much,” he shrugged. “Come now. Would you deny me my last little pleasure in this life?” she answered him with a cold look. He sighed. “Well, you know the truth now.”

He casually walked over to the nearest rock and leaned against it. Maria glanced again at the central structure and then back at him.

“And that’s what I’m supposed to believe? That you’re willingly going to sacrifice yourself to resurrect someone from the dead?”

He nodded. “That’s basically it, yes.”

She shook her head. “Who?” She considered the matter, “Someone you killed?”

He looked at her uneasily and shook his head. “Someone I lost.”

She blew air from her nose. “Is that meant to make me feel sorry for you? I’ve lost a lot of people too. Mostly at the hands of your men.”

“I know,” he shrugged. “And I don’t care.”

She gave him the same hate-filled look as when she had been gagged, but kept her peace. “A lover?” she asked. For some reason he seemed to find that funny. “Family?”

“All you need to know is that it’s someone I let down and a much better person than I am.”

“And I’m here to witness this.”

“More than that. Once he’s back, he’ll need you to look after him, to get him out of this forest and to help him find a life for himself.”

She was taken aback. “And what makes you think that I’ll do this little favor for you? What makes you think I won’t just leave him to rot?”

He sighed. “Come on now Maria. You know the answer to that question.”

When she thought about it, it was obvious. “Because I helped Ethan, even though he was one of your men.”

“Precisely.”

“But he hadn’t done anything to me, not himself. Whereas you’ve kidnapped me, dragged me here, threatened my life, gloated....”

“I never actually threatened your life,” he stated mildly. “I let you infer.”

“I have every reason to leave this person, out of spite!”

“But you won’t and I’ll tell you why. He’s an innocent, a mere child. If you were a bad person, a vindictive person, you might leave him here to spite me; but that’s not you. You’re a good, kind person, so you will help him, despite it being exactly what I want. That may infuriate you but you know it’s the truth.”

She shook in anger at his certainty, straining uselessly against her bonds but could only reluctantly acknowledge—he was right. She would not leave a child there, no matter how much she hated her captor. She slumped down.

“You could have brought one of your men. Even in your line of work you must have
someone
you can trust.”

“Yes,” he said slowly, considering Jacob. “But I don’t want the boy to be raised with any attachment to the taint of my life. In fact, I wanted to entrust him to someone positively disgusted with me.”

“Well, in that case you’ve certainly chosen well,” she agreed, with an icy smile.

“It may be best that you not tell him about me. Make up whatever you need to. Just make sure he lives an honest life.”

“I can’t promise that,” she stated honestly.

“I know. But I know that you will try.”

Silence descended but now Maria was fiercely curious. “Alright, Cain,” she demanded, relishing the chance to spit out his name. “I’ll protect him. But I find it hard to believe that you—
you!—
possibly the most depraved bandit ever known, would lay down your life for anyone. Tell me
why
. You owe me that much.”

He looked down, collecting his thoughts. She noticed his hand idly feeling the shape of the case in his coat pocket, reassuring himself it was still there. Finally, he looked up again.

“About a year ago,” he explained, “I visited a medicine man that checked me over and told me I only had a few more years to live. He told me to expect certain pains and I have experienced them just as he described. I believe he was telling the truth.”

He looked thoughtful. “I started to consider my legacy and I didn’t like the way it looked.”

She was amazed. “It took imminent death for you to realize the harm you were causing?”

“I never used to care. But when I thought about other people taking over the empire I built and doing the things I do....”

“It just seemed so much more grim when you wouldn’t be the one to reap the benefits,” she supplied.

“Exactly! And I decided, if I was to die, then it should mean something. You may have trouble believing this but after all of this time, I found that I wanted redemption.”

She looked at him, uncomprehendingly, for a long time. “You want to be...redeemed?”

“I do.”

“By saving one life?” she almost laughed and then started to get angry. “You think one life is enough to redeem you, for the countless innocents you’ve killed and had killed? For the brutality, the fear, the misery you’ve brought into our lives?” her voice grew louder.

He ignored her tone. “As I said, I grew up with those stories about the Glade. Some part of me always thought this would be how I should go; on my own terms, doing something noble.”

She snorted. “So this is redemption? Sacrificing the few years you have left, to save someone you loved? That doesn’t sound like balancing the scales; it sounds like holding them in place and hoping no one notices.”

“Perhaps. We’ll have to see. Maybe you’ll change your mind about that.”

Maria shook her head in despair. “If you’d really wanted to turn things around, you could have dismantled your
empire
and done the world a favor.”

He smiled unpleasantly. “Oh, but I’ve done that too,” he explained. “I had separate meetings with two of my most belligerent and ambitious lieutenants, telling each that they were my chosen replacement. Within days they will clash and start tearing apart everything I have worked for, each believing the other is a treacherous liar,” he actually seemed pleased with himself.

Maria did not know how to react. “So you cheerfully betrayed everyone you’ve commanded and worked with?”

His grin faded, “Would you condemn me for that?”

“Well no, not in the circumstances. I suppose for a man like you, morally ambiguous is a step up.”

He nodded and took a deep breath. “So you see...that might go part of the way. And while one life won’t balance the scales, all of the good this boy goes on to do will also be to my credit.”

She was not sure she agreed but she did not wish to argue details with him. She loathed to ask such a question but finally went ahead. “But are you sorry?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, interested.

“Do you regret how you’ve spent your life and the harm you’ve caused all of those people?”

He seemed to think about this for a long time. “No, I don’t. I’ve lived well for the last twenty years. If I had stuck to what was right, I would probably have lived a life of suffering and died without making any impact on the world. No, I can’t wish that I had chosen that path instead.”

Maria went to speak but he cut her off, “But ask yourself which you would rather: that I was regretful or that I did something about it?”

“In theory, I think both are required.” Now the adrenaline was wearing off, she could feel her exhaustion, the half-sleep of the drugs and the night’s march through the forest catching up with her. “Look, is this going to happen any time soon?”

“Yes, it is. Don’t worry, we won’t miss it.”

*   *   *

They settled into an uncomfortable silence. The height of the moon was fast approaching and Cain considered what still needed to be said. Reaching into his pockets, he started taking out a number of small bronze ornaments and putting them on the floor in a pile.

“Once it’s over, you should take these with you; I’ll leave some in my pockets and the boy can have my clothes. These are the charms that will protect you from some of the forest’s less savory inhabitants. And these....”

He had retrieved his pouch and extracted a beetle from it. Maria grimaced as he showed it to her.

“Don’t chew; swallow it whole. The longer it takes to die, the longer you’ll be sensitive to its power. The whole forest is alive with it; just head for where there is none and you’ll get to the edge.”

He had not been paying attention while he talked to her and she saw the beetle wriggle from his fingers and fall to the ground. He looked down as it desperately scuttled for freedom, frowned, and then suddenly stepped forward onto it, grinding it with his foot. He looked back and caught Maria’s expression. “Don’t worry, you’ll find plenty more in the pouch.”

Maria shuddered. “I won’t swallow any of those. I just won’t.”

“I suppose you may not need to,” he conceded. “The forest may well let you leave without trouble. But just in case, take them,” he put the pouch on the pile. “Between this and the charms you should be able to get back to the world outside without much trouble.”

She warily looked over the pouch on the ground, checking that it was tightly sealed, before grimly nodding to him.

As he felt the power in the air start to increase, Cain’s heart began to beat faster than he would admit. “Now, let’s have a closer look, shall we?” he asked with false levity.

He did not need to use the cord’s special power to bring Maria along with him. She was obviously curious to see the centerpiece, as curious as he had been the first time he had been here.

As they approached it, he looked over to see the glow it cast on her. Too pure to be eerie, it was still disconcerting. Not as strange as the object itself though.

From a distance, it might have appeared to be a twisted stump; up close, it looked like no vegetation on the planet. There was no line where a tree might have sheared off. The whole mass was smooth, dipping and bulging but unbroken. More importantly, it had entirely the wrong color and texture for wood: off-white and ungrained, admitting no flaw or crack, no vine or moss.