The Realm of the Deathless, page 18
Finally, they could be thrown, always from short range. The two opponents stood several yards apart, the spear held overhand, near the shoulder. They would skitter toward each other, feinting throws, until they caught their opponents over-balanced or dodging the wrong way, and then hurl the weapon. The problem with this was that you could really only carry a couple of spears, and if you missed you were in deep trouble.
After her bout with Second, she watched the others training. Unsurprisingly, Dusk was doing the best; by the time they stopped she was moving almost as well at the Twins. Shandor, Billy, and Errol were doing okay, but none of them looked as comfortable with their weapons as the warrior-woman.
Veronica and Aster didn’t practice with the spears at all. But they didn’t really need to, did they?
***
Two days later, they set out. Errol felt a little better equipped than before, although he still felt pretty vulnerable. He was getting used to the loincloth and mantle, but they were no replacement for his armor. It felt good to have the spear in his hand, although he wasn’t that great at fighting with it. He was okay at throwing it, but most of the training the Twins had given them was on how to use it as a hand-weapon. He had a flint knife hafted onto a piece of antler, as well, and a throwing stick. A throwing stick, as it turned out, was a boomerang, a curved piece of wood carved so it was something like an airplane wing. These didn’t come back, the way the plastic boomerang he had back at home did, but if you threw it right, it would glide a lot farther than you could throw a normal stick. And it was heavy, heavy enough to use as a club.
The village had only four bows among them. He’d tried one out and saw what the Twins meant about their effectiveness. The staves were only about a yard long, and the pull probably wasn’t much more than thirty pounds. The arrows were sharpened river canes. That would be okay for taking down something small to medium game but would probably just annoy something bigger.
Shandor, Billy, and Dusk were similarly equipped, although Dusk had managed to make herself impressive. Lacking armor, she had fashioned a round shield of saplings and rawhide, and she had cobbled together leggings that were suspended from the belt under her skirt. They offered her some protection, but he was pretty sure it was mostly to cut down on the amount of skin she was showing. She carried two spears in one hand and a boomerang in the other.
They camped a few hours before “night” came. There wasn’t much camp to set up; First started a fire. Errol and Billy went out to scavenge a little firewood.
They hadn’t gone far before the came over a hill and were looking down a little stream valley at a small herd of pig-like creatures. They were maybe sixty feet away, snuffling around on the bank.
Errol carefully placed the firewood he had gathered on the ground and pulled out his boomerang. Billy glanced at him and nodded, taking his out, too.
Let’s see if I can do this, he thought.
The pigs hadn’t noticed them yet. He cocked to throw it as he had been shown.
“You want to try first?” Billy whispered.
“Best we try at the same time,” Errol said. “The first throw is likely to spook them, right?”
“Yes,” Billy said.
“Okay,” Errol said, setting his stance. “On three. One, two ...”
He whipped the stick toward the pigs and watched it hopefully. He’d tried a few throws back at the village and knew that it wouldn’t fly in a straight line; it spun like a returning boomerang, and its course bent first right and then left. He missed the animal he’d been aiming at by two yards. Billy came closer, but also failed to hit anything. As predicted, the pigs scattered.
Errol shrugged. “Oh, well. I got closer than I thought I would.” He picked up his spear and went to recover the weapon.
They reached the general area, and Errol began hunting in the bushes along the stream, while Billy stood by. He was wondering why Billy wasn’t looking for his own throwing stick when he spotted a blur from the corner of his eye.
“Hey!” Billy shouted.
Errol swung around, pulling the spear in front of him, but he wasn’t fast enough. The blur slammed into him, and jaws closed on the arm he threw up in defense. The weight of whatever it was knocked him off of his feat. The animal thrashed, worrying his arm, and Errol had only fragmentary images of fur and fangs, and one glimpse of eyes that seemed horribly human. It felt hot, and it stank. Claws raked across his body, splitting skin.
Then his attacker screeched, horribly, and leapt off of him, skittering back.
“What the ...” he sputtered. Billy was next to him, pointing his spear at it as it circled them.
He’d thought it was a lion or something, but now he saw it was some kind of monkey. In fact, it looked like a baboon. But it was huge. Standing on all fours, it was nearly as tall as he was. He saw it was bleeding from its flank. Billy must have stabbed it.
Its gaze flicked back and forth between him and Billy. It looked insane. In fact, it reminded him of the rhino, back in the other place. Like it wasn’t really a baboon anymore.
“Brother, leave us in peace,” Billy said. “We’ve no wish to harm you further.”
Speak for yourself, Errol thought. His arm was bleeding freely, and he felt scratch marks over most of his torso.
It didn’t matter anyway. The Baboon screeched again and launched itself at him.
This time he got his spear up, and as it leapt, he hit it in the throat. The stone blade went through it like butter. The weight of the beast yanked the weapon out of his hands. He stumbled back as it kept coming for him, but Billy hit it again. It sputtered and fell over, huffing quick, shallow breaths.
It turned its eyes back to him. It smiled. Then it died.
The spear had gone out the back of its neck, so he had to push and pull it on through to get it out. It couldn’t have been smiling, he thought. That was just my imagination. But he’d felt a connection, as it died. It had felt like ... contempt.
He looked down at the corpse. “Should we field dress it?” he asked Billy. “Take it back to camp?”
“I don’t think it would be a very good idea to eat that,” Billy said.
“Probably not,” he said.
Billy found the boomerangs while he tried to staunch the bleeding from his arm, most of which came from two holes made by the beast’s huge canines. Then they went back to camp.
***
“Those don’t do that,” Second said, as he rubbed some kind of smelly paste into his wounds and then wrapped it up with a strip of soft hide. “Mostly eat fruit and bugs, a few small animals. They don’t go after big things.”
“The Under had a grip on it, I think,” Second said. “That’s the likely explanation. Unless it had the Fear-of-Water sickness.”
“Rabies?” Errol said. He hadn’t thought of that. He was so used to fighting dragons and whatnot it hadn’t occurred to him that what would kill him would be a disease they had back home. He’d been vaccinated, right? Did they vaccinate humans for rabies? He didn’t know for sure. Whenever the doctors had given him shots, he had always been more interested in getting through it than wondering what they were for.
Veronica squatted down next to him. She touched him lightly on his wounded arm.
“I don’t know about rabies,” she said. “But that was definitely something the Raggedy Man sent your way.”
“The villagers said some animals had been made bad by the Under,” Aster said.
“Yeah,” First said. “More all the time. Me and my brother, we can smell it. We can tell. Best not go off to hunt without one of us, right? Otherwise next time you might run into something really dangerous.”
Errol looked at the boy, thinking the giant baboon probably outweighed First by twenty pounds. But of course, though they looked no older the twelve, they were twelve-year-old gods. So when they said something “really dangerous,” what did they mean? He shuddered to imagine what else was out there. Lions and tigers, surely. And maybe things that were worse, that were extinct in his world. But this wasn’t his world; if the Kingdoms could have dragons, there was no guessing what might live here.
They ate jerky and figs the Twins had collected. Errol stared at the fire for a while, mesmerized by the brightening and darkening of the coals. But he was tired and shaken, and soon took his rest.
He had wondered why they had been given cloaks. Pearl and most of the others hadn’t worn them, and in the tropical weather they didn’t seem necessary. But now he realized they were ready-made bedrolls. He stretched out on his, trying to ignore the ache in his wounded arm, the sting of sweat in the lesser scratches on his chest, and the mosquitos and biting flies that were not entirely deterred by the smoke from the small fire. He watched the blaze of stars for a while, then closed his eyes. When Dusk put her cloak next to his and lay down, he pretended to be asleep, and soon he actually was.
He woke to being kissed. It was startling, but pleasant enough, and certainly unexpected.
“Hey,” he said. Dusk was lying next to him.
She smiled. “Do you mind?”
“Let me think about that,” he said, and kissed her back. She shifted so she was half on top of him, and he winced; the cuts on his torso might be shallow, but they stung.
“Oh,” she said.
“No, it’s okay.”
She kissed him again, then suddenly bounced to her feet. She held out her hand.
“Come on,” she said. “Bring your cloak.”
He did, his pulse pounding. She led him out of sight of the fire, so there was only starlight.
They laid their cloaks down and started again. She was warm, then hot, and he felt like their skin was melting together.
Then he realized why. She’d taken her top off.
“Dusk,” he said. “I’m not sure ...”
“Hush,” she said. “I’ve waited long enough. Who do I have to answer to? My mother? My siblings? My kingdom and its people? That’s all gone. I can make my own rules now.”
He felt like he should say something else. At least one more thing. Because he had a feeling that as much as he wanted this, in the end it was not a good idea.
“You might—uh, what if you get pregnant?”
“Like the girls back in the village, my menses stopped months ago,” she said. “I do not think it is possible for anyone to become pregnant now.”
That sounded reasonable, but how could they be sure? But he was all out of willpower, and she kept kissing him. Not like she had before, but really fiercely. She was starting to get rough, too, and she was strong. He realized he was actually a little scared of her. But then she softened, as if realizing that. She giggled a little.
“What?” he asked.
“How do we do this?” she said.
“I, uh ...” he sighed. “I’ll show you.”
He started to roll her over, but she shook her head. “I told you,” she said. “I cannot be helpless.”
“Okay,” he said. “Then I think ...”
***
Errol looked up at the stars, trying to clear his head. Dusk lay against him.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He wasn’t sure. There had been a flash, and then it felt like he had touched an electric fence, but with his whole body.
“Is that not what is supposed to happen?” she asked.
“Maybe with electric eels,” he said. “Not with people. There’s no lightning involved, usually. Not literal lightning, anyway.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It must be this thing happening to me. Like it is to Aster and Billy. But what we just did ... is new to me. All of the feelings were ... good, but unfamiliar. I’ve never felt any of that before. Next time I will be more careful.”
Next time? He thought. He’d barely survived this time. Still ...
“Okay,” he said.
She propped herself on an elbow.
“You’ve done this before, then?”
“Once,” he said.
“With Veronica?”
“No,” he said. “Another girl. Back home. A long time ago.”
“But you are no longer with her?”
“No,” he said. “She dumped me.”
“That can’t mean what it sounds like,” Dusk said.
He chuckled at that.
“No,” he said. “I mean she didn’t want to continue the relationship. But it feels like being dumped off of a cliff or something.”
“I see,” she said. “Perhaps when this is all over, I will seek her out and punish her for hurting you.”
“No,” he said. “There’s no need for that. I’m over it.”
Out in the darkness, something howled. It didn’t sound very close, but Dusk grabbed her clothes and started getting dressed.
“What?” he said.
“This was foolish,” she said. “We are easy prey out here. This isn’t like me. I wasn’t thinking.”
“My fault,” he said. “I didn’t have to come.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s that my passions are so strong. My lust, my anger, my ...” she trailed off. He wished he could see her face better.
“I lost control,” she said. “I fear I will do it again. Do you understand?”
“I do,” he said. He started dressing, too.
“But Errol?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m not at all sorry about what we just did.”
“I’m glad,” he said, hoping she was telling the truth. Hoping it stayed that way.
SEVEN
ON THE COAST
When the moon shone again, they moved on. Errol found himself glancing often at Dusk, searching her face for signs she was having second thoughts, but whenever she noticed she just smiled a little, and once she shook her head. Mostly she seemed focused on the terrain, and on trying to get what information about the dangers they might face from the Twins.
Soon they were in hills, winding through a broad valley, and the air took on a little chill, making their cloaks useful for more than sleeping bags. The grass gave way to trees. Errol couldn’t identify any of them; they looked more like they belonged in a jungle than the forests he’s grown up with, although it wasn’t all that hot. Maybe it would be warmer if the sun came out.
Which brought up an interesting question.
“Aster.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Why aren’t all of these trees dead? If there isn’t any sun, how can they keep on ... you know, photosynthesizing and all of that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “You keep trying to make sense of this place in terms of what you know. You’d be better off trying to understand the way things actually are, here.”
She sounded irritated. But she also sounded uncertain. As if she could almost be talking to herself.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “Something’s happening to me.”
“Like when you lit up like a road flare?”
“Yes,” she said.
“What’s going on, there?”
“It’s like ... like I’m this tiny light bulb, the kind you put in a flashlight. And someone is trying to plug me into a wall socket.”
“Like you’re going to explode?” Errol said.
“Sort of,” she said.
“Light bulb? I thought we weren’t supposed to refer to science or whatever to—“
“Oh, shut up,” Aster snapped. “I’m just trying to use an analogy that would make sense to you.”
Aster had a habit of talking down to people. In their time together, it had not become more endearing.
“Whatever is happening to you, it’s because you have a real soul,” he snapped. “Not this second rate thing I have.”
“You have a soul, Errol,” she shot back. “It’s what I animated the automaton with.”
“You know what I mean. You’re giving off light. Billy’s getting taller. Dusk is—she’s stronger. And she shocked me last night.”
“I don’t want to hear about whatever kinky stuff you guys are into.”
“No,” he said. “A literal shock. Electricity.”
“Oh,” Aster said. “Don’t make out with her, then.”
“Like you can talk about that.“
She shrugged and looked down. It wasn’t a big gesture, but he realized then just how worried she was.
“So are you turning into a god or something?” he said, more softly. “Into the Dawn goddess, like the Twins said. That might not be so bad.”
“It might be really bad,” Aster said. “How much reading have you done about gods?”
“A little.”
“Some of them are really nasty. Didn’t you listen to Pearl’s story? And where we are ... things are much more basic here. Much more elemental. Further away from anything human and much closer to the stuff the universe is made of. Imagine me, with unthinkable power, but no empathy or kindness, feeling not much more for you than I would for a pet at best or a tick at worst.”
“That’s sort of how I think of you already,” he said.
She stopped and stared at him for a moment. Then a tear suddenly ran down her cheek.
“Hey,” he said. “I’m just kidding.”
“No you’re not,” she said. “Not really. And you’re right.”
“No, I’m not right,” he said. “Listen—”
“No, you listen. If it happens—if something happens—run, Errol. Get away from me. Please.” She paused. “And keep your eye on Dusk and Veronica. Especially Veronica.”
***
In the next few moon days they made their way from hills down to a rocky seashore, a long flat of tide pools with surf rolling in the distance. The moon was as close to full as it ever got, painting the puddles in sunset hues; beyond the irregular white line of waves, the ocean faded into the sky. The breeze smelled of iodine and seaweed. Delia loved it. She had always adored going to the seashore, but the only one she’d ever been to was on the Gulf Coast. When she was a girl, her parents had rented little beach cottages down there, and she’d spent hours beachcombing and swimming. Her favorite time to go had been at night, when the winds were cool, and the sun wouldn’t burn her skin. Those beaches had smelled of sewage and algae bloom and papermills, and were all of sand, mostly dredged up artificially.
