Awaken (25 page)

There’s no sound other then the sighing
of the wind and our own breathing. Cat slinks along beside us, her
head twisting in the breeze catching scents of things we cain’t,
and possibly don’t want to know about. The quiet is nerve rattling
and I find my hand hovering over the butt of my shooter. I know it
ain’t nuthin but my imagination but I cain’t help but feel we’re
being watched. Like at this moment there were countless eyes
watching our passage through the dead city. Maybe it was just the
ghosts of the settlers long gone but somehow that thought don’t
make me feel any better. At least a critter or a mutie you could
bring down with an iron shooter.

A loud shrieking from my right scares
me something fierce and the shooter is in my hand before I recall
moving. I duck instinctively as a black cloud sails past my head
and disappears down into one of the paths to the other side of us.
My heart is thumping frantically in my chest but I’m real glad the
scream on my lips don’t come out ‘cause I feel real foolish now
seeing as it’s just a bunch of crows. Our intruding on their
territory must have scared them off. Cat takes chase after the
birds but I don’t bother to call her back, I know she won’t go far.
I look up at Finn who’s still riding the nag and grin at him. He
grins back though I can tell from his eyes his fright had been just
as bad as mine. It was good to see his smile though ‘cause it tells
me he has forgiven me for yelling at him earlier. It eases some of
my guilt. Tater is holding a hand to his chest, not bothering to
hide his fright, his face pale and ashen.

“
Oh dear me, that was rather
disconcerting! But as my dear mother would say ‘fright makes the
wolfling appear bigger than he is’. Truer words were never
spoken.”

I’ve come to realize that Tater tended
to prattle on the more scared he was. Hope we don’t come across no
more crows, we don’t need to hear no more ‘wise
sayings’.

I grab the nags’ reins and give her
nose a reassuring rub as she snorts nervously. The crows had
startled her too. These iron bones had put us all on edge. Hope it
don’t take us too long to get through. I give a slight tug to get
her moving again but we don’t get more than two paces when a
howling from the path Cat had run down pierces the air and roots us
all in place.

“
Cat!” Finn yells and just
like the boy I can tell her wailing is one of pain. In the blink of
an eye he is down off the horse and I grab him by the scruff of his
tunic before he can run...I know what he is thinking. He struggles
against me but I hand him over to Tater.

“
Stay here! The both of you!
Tater make sure he don’t follow me!” I say.

I pull my shooter again and head in the
direction the wailing was coming from, ignoring the words the boy
is hurling at my back. From the sounds of it Tater had heeded me
and was physically containing the boy and he wasn’t liking
it....not one bit. But I cain’t be worrying about Finn trailing me.
Something had Cat howling and it probably wasn’t anything
good.

The path between the building husks was
dark and narrow. I hesitate....try to adjust to the dim light. I
peer into the dark but all I can see is dirt mounds and empty
road....no sign of Cat. I was going to have to go in deeper. Taking
a few deep breaths to steady myself, I step into the darkness, my
shooter firmly gripped in my hand.

I make my way between the crumbling
relics looking round swiftly....making sure nuthin is trying to
sneak up on me. I don’t hear Cat no more but I can still hear
Finn’s yelling....the boy was going to wake the dead with his fool
shoutin’! Slowly I creep through, pausing every few steps...looking
‘round. Nuthin. I make my way to the corner where another road
crosses the one I was on. It’s like a maze, I think....roads and
tracks everywhere! I peer round the corner steeling myself for
attack. All I find is Cat, lying on her stomach. She looks like
she’s gnawing on something but I cain’t see!

“
Cat,” I whisper loudly and
she looks back at me and a miserable mewling comes out of her.
Slowly I approach, still waiting for something to jump out at me.
Finding it clear, I hunch over her and push her big head out of the
way. Her front paw is caught in some sort of steel snare....a trap.
There’s blood on her fur and I can tell the teeth of the trap have
sunk in good. I pray there ain’t too much damage done to her
paw.

“
It’s okay....it’s okay
girl,” I keep whispering to her, rubbing her panting side, and
studying the thing. At first I don’t notice the fresh bird carcass
laying just past her head and the rope tying it to the trap. But at
seeing it my blood runs cold. This was no random accident...someone
had laid this trap deliberately....and recently! That meant we were
not the only souls in amongst these iron bones! This realization
hits me at the same time as the silence. Finn ain’t yelling no
more! The dead quiet scares me more than anything and I bolt
upright.

“
I’m sorry Cat,” I whisper
urgently. “I’ll come back for you....I promise!”

It’s like she understands my anxiety,
my fear for the boy and she licks my hand giving me permission to
leave her. I high tail it back the way I had come, berating myself
for falling for their ploy. Who ever had done this had split us up
on purpose and I had fallen for it like a fool! Fearing for what I
will find I emerge onto the main road and my fears are painfully
justified. I take it all in in an instant. There are two of them
waiting for my return and another two holding Finn and Tater, both
of them pressing wicked looking knives to my companion’s
throats...to keep them from yelling out a warning. But I don’t fall
into their hands as easily as they would have liked. At the sight
of the iron shooter rock steady in my hand and pointing straight at
their chests they bring up short and we eye each other for a
bit.

I cain’t quite tell if they are man or
mutie. The one closest to me is wearing a filthy red wrapper tied
round his head and the ends hang down his back like a braid. Tiny
white bones dangle from holes in his ears and what appears to be an
actual small skull hangs round his neck. His tunic and trousers are
a filthy patchwork of different colors and cloths, like he had sewn
together the remnants of others (captives?) clothing. There are
reddish, crusted sores covering his face and arms...some of them
open and festering, running with pus. He smiles at me then and I
can see his blackened gums and rotted teeth. He could be twenty,
thirty or fifty born years...I cain’t tell. But the blade he holds
in his hand could probably rip me open from belly to breastbone in
a flash...I can tell that much.

“
Well whadda we got
‘ere....a lovely little ducky... wot? Look at the ducky
Beanie...ain’t she a lovely ducky?” he calls over his
shoulder.

“
Aye Talbert....a lovely
ducky...lovely ducky,” the other answers in a singsong tone and
then starts howling with laughter like it’s the funniest thing he’s
ever said. That laughter echoes with madness and adds to my growing
fear. Dangerous I can handle but crazy was a whole other
story.

I gulp loudly a couple of times trying
to swallow the huge lump blocking my throat.

“
Let my companions go,” I
say finally, finding my voice. I am amazed it only cracks
slightly.

“
And I promise not to shoot
you.”

The one called Talbert takes an
exaggerated step back from me and looks round in wonder.

“
Wot? Ya ‘ear that Beanie?
She ain’t gonna shoot us if we let the others go. I think the ducky
is threatenin’ us Beanie. Wot you think?”

“
Aye sounds like a threat to
me all right,” he says, and snickers some more like he cain’t even
help himself.

I can feel my fear threatening to
overtake me but I push it down...I cain’t afford to show them any
fear! Finn and Tater’s lives probably depend on my actions right
now, I’m going to have to play this carefully.

“
I am only gonna say this
once more. Let us go....you can have some of our supplies. But let
all three of us pass without harm and I will let you live,” I
say.

The Talbert creature grins at me again
and rubs his thumb along the sharp edge of his blade. I don’t know
if the cut was on purpose or not but he don’t show no flicker of
pain. He merely puts the bleeding thumb to his mouth and licks away
the blood, never taking his eyes off me for a second.

“
The ducky does ‘ave a big
shooter fer certain....could even be a threat to us Beanie. Wots to
stop us from killin’ the two yonder then the ducky an takin’
everthing fer ourselves eh? “

“
What’s to stop us?” Beanie
echoes then puts a fist to his mouth to stop his maniacal
laughter.

I shrug my shoulders at him, keeping
the rock hard lump of fear in my gut hidden.

“
I suppose you could kill
those two,” I say. I hear Taters indignant ‘here now!’ but I don’t
look his way.

“
And between the four of
you, you may be able to take me down....but not before I can put a
slug between your eyes and blow your ugly head from your shoulders.
You wanna take that chance....Talbert?”

I pray he don’t heed my bluff. My
insides are shaking something fierce and feels like I’m gonna retch
any second....but my hand holding the shooter don’t waver...not a
bit. He studies me for a moment, assessing how much of a threat I
could be. Then his grave face turns to cackling laughter making him
sound just as crazy as the other one.

“
She’s a lively ducky wot
Beanie? Lotta spirit. I like that... I do. Tell ya wot ducky, me an
Bean ‘ere we’s reasonable chaps....we make ya a trade we will.
We’ll let ya pass...aye we will. Just give us yer supplies an yer
nags an ya can go on yer merry way. No trouble, no fuss...ya won’t
‘ave to worry about us.”

Beanie’s high pitched howl makes me
jump some and I tense for him to attack but he is just laughing
uncontrollably and whacking himself in the head.

“
No fuss...no worrying ‘bout
us....yer a poet you is Talbert! A poet!” he says, wheezing between
whacks.

Shizen! How much more crazy can I take?
I shake my head no hoping they don’t notice the sweat beading my
forehead.

“
You can take the horse and
two bags of supplies. We keep the mule and the water skins ....and
the two of you get to keep your heads,” I say, hoping my threat is
as forceful as I mean it to be. The Talbert one tosses his knife a
couple of times...thinking hard and ignoring his companions
impatient “Tell her Talbert...tell her!”

The silence seems to stretch on. No
sound comes from Finn or Tater but I don’t dare look to see if they
are okay....I get the feeling one moment of inattention is all
Talbert would need to pounce on me.

“
You drive a ‘ard bargain
ducky. Tell ya wot...I’ll let ya keep the mule but in exchange ya
leave us the boyo. You see Beanie ‘ere...well he likes the
young’uns an ‘e ain’t ‘ad a playmate fer quite some time now. ‘E
may look full grown but ‘e ain’t quite grown in the ‘ead...know wot
I mean?”

I hear Finn’s gasp at the offer before
Beanie’s howling laughter drowns him out. At knowing the boy is so
scared I feel the anger building. How dare these lowlifes, these
horrible wretches try and barter for Finn! The evilness of the
situation, of these creatures, it surrounds us like a dark
cloud....smothering, suffocating. I suddenly understand again what
gra’da and the old folk of Rivercross had tried to do...to protect
us from this all consuming evil that seemed to cover the lands on
this side of the mountains. How did creatures like this standing in
front of me come to be? What had made them this way? And how dare
they even suggest I leave Finn in their vile hands! There ain’t no
way in hell that’s going to happen!

The coldness of the iron shooter in my
hand that used to scare me not that long ago, it comforts me now,
like it is a part of me. I realize we ain’t going to come to no
agreement. This was a game to them, they were playing with me and
it was going to end badly. I raise the shooter slowly so that it’s
aimed straight for Talbert’s head, confident I will not miss when
the time comes.

“
Bargaining is over mule
turd. This is how it’s gonna be. You let my companions go, right
now, and you walk away with nuthin but your lives....and that’s
being damn generous on my part.”

All traces of humor disappear from
their faces now at knowing I was onto them. I didn’t think it was
possible but the sneer on the creatures black lips, it makes his
face even uglier. But it’s his eyes that scare me more so. They are
no more human than the wolflings or other creatures we had chased
off these past few days. They were no different. They were
predators and we were their prey. Only I ain’t going down without a
fight!

Cheekily the Talbert one winks at me,
all smiles again, distracting me from the wicked blade he is
holding out in front of his chest in a fighting stance.

“
Ave it yer way ducky....but
choose wisely. You gonna save the boy? The old man? Or yerself? Ya
cain’t get us all. Yer shooter cain’t...”

“
Er...Talbert....” Beanie
interrupts but the other man ignores him and goes right on
talking.

“
My men they’re gonna kill
yer companions the minute ya move at....”