Bella Read online

  There was warmth on my leg; either blood or I had finally pissed myself. I wanted to stand up but was afraid to.

  “Ying, what the hell did you do?” Wasco asked from somewhere off to my left.

  “I summoned spirits of the sun. The spirits of the sun hate the creatures of darkness, so they destroyed them. Unfortunately, they also burn so brightly they can blind.” Ying said. “Mr. Wasco, you have been bitten at least a few times. I need to tend to those wounds immediately.”

  “Naw, I’m alright Ying. Check on the others first. Bites ain’t that deep and the Black Rot won’t hurt me.”

  “Ms. Ying, I am afraid that Jacob is not here.” Li’s voice again. “I saw him earlier. He was, uh, being dragged away.”

  “What? Where is he?” I asked. My stomach was sick, and I thought I might puke.”

  “I believe he is fine Christopher, he is just over the ridge. I saw him go as well. Li will go and collect him in a moment,” she said.

  When the last spots finally left, and I was able to see again, I might as well still have been blind. The fire was completely gone, and the night was pitch black. Only the stars told me that my sight had returned. Li began another small fire and Ying cleansed any wounds that were rotted. Once she was satisfied with Li’s wounds she sent him to retrieve Jacob and worked on mine. Wasco was covered in blood. Some his, some the coyotes. When the fire illuminated him, I swear the blood was moving, flowing around the bite marks, and following the little burn scars on his body that now looked like intricate designs. It was mesmerizing, and I stared until Wasco turned his head and said Li was coming back. I looked where he was but couldn’t see anything in the darkness.

  Soon I made out movement and my hands tightened on the Winchester. He was alone.

  When he stepped into the firelight he said, “I found where he was. A lot of coyote bodies and much blood. In the sand there is an imprint where he fell, but he is not there.”

  He was covered in sweat and breathing hard, his chest heaving air in controlled deep breaths.

  “How far?” Wasco asked.

  “Near half a mile I would guess,” he replied.

  “Show me,” Wasco said and got up. I stood as well but he put his hand up. “Need to find tracks, the fewer people stompin’ around the easier it’ll be. Stay here.”

  I started to protest, caught myself and bit my lip until it bled. They walked off and I just stared after them. I might have dozed off, maybe I didn’t, everything was confusing, and my mind was having trouble focusing.

  “Someone took him,” Wasco said when he came back into camp.

  “Ain’t gonna be able to track them in the dark and we’re too beat up. Nothin’ to do but get some rest and be ready at first light.”

  I was too stunned to say anything. Ying frowned, then nodded and walked to her bedroll by the fire. Li followed, and Wasco set to packing everything we didn’t immediately need. I’m not sure what happened, at some point I sat down and then I woke up sore and cold in the dirt with Ying gently shaking me. The sun was up but no direct sunlight was hitting us yet because of the cliff to the east. I shivered in the morning air and numbly gathered my things. Someone, probably Wasco, had put a blanket over me in the night, and I kept that wrapped tight around me.

  By the time I was on Old Shit’s back I had remembered what had happened and I was shaking from more than the cold. We rode in silence with Wasco leading his horse as he followed the tracks. I tried not to look at the still-smoking bodies of the coyotes as we rode, but I could not avoid the stench. The most disturbing thing was I was so hungry, and it smelled like cooked meat, which made my mouth water until I remembered what it was, then I would dry heave.

  After a couple of hours, Wasco stopped us and passed out some hard bread. By then I was awake, and I was getting angry at not knowing what was going on, combined with not wanting to ask. I was afraid someone might tell me the answer.

  “Well,” Wasco said pointing to the sheer cliff face ahead. “I’m pretty sure Jacob is alive. The drag marks stopped awhile back and a new set of barefoot tracks started. They lead to them rocks there. “

  I hadn’t been paying much attention so I was surprised to find that we had been riding straight toward the cliff. Edge City and the mines stared down as if in judgment. The ground was littered with giant piles of rocks and pieces of metal apparently tossed from the mines. Scattered across the base of the cliff were caves and crevasses where any number of creatures could be living. I pulled out my spyglass and scanned the side of the wall. With a start I dropped the glass and gasped.

  “What is it girl?” Wasco asked.

  “I saw something,” I said and pointed. “It was looking right back at me!”

  Wasco bent and handed me back the spyglass.

  “Well, ain’t no sense tryin’ to sneak up then. Let’s go see if they got Jacob,” he said, grabbed the reins of his horse, and started walking. The rest of us climbed off our mounts and followed. Li gave a quick count of the arrows he had managed to recover from the coyote fight that were now in his quiver and then set one to his bow. After a few more steps I pulled the Winchester from its holster and cocked it. The noise echoed around the rocks. Wasco looked back and gave me a nod. I had been expecting a glare.

  We walked into the sandy, rock-strewn field, everyone on edge and looking around. When we were close enough to see the cave I had spotted, there was nothing there. Wasco headed toward an old dead tree and loosely wrapped the reins of his horse around it, we all did the same. Then he set about looking at the ground.

  “Might as well start where ya seen something girl, too rocky to see where they went,” he said.

  We walked between two huge fallen rocks and into the darkness. The passage made a slow curve, so the sunlight was quickly gone. It felt like we were going down, but I wasn’t sure. Ying took out a small vial, popped the cork and whispered something into it. She then replaced the cork and the vial began to glow softly. It was not bright, but in the blackness of the tunnel it was enough. We walked slowly, everyone on edge. Except Wasco; he was on guard. At an intersection he bent to look at something on the floor and pointed to the left with his rifle. We followed.

  After a while, the tunnel leveled out and opened to a large cavern. I am not sure how I knew that. I think I could just feel the openness. Without the close sides of the passage for the light to reflect from, it seemed as if the darkness consumed the meager light from Ying’s vial.

  Wasco stopped. I bumped into him and Ying into me. I had no idea where Li was.

  A sound echoed around the cavern. Psst, click, clank. We froze, listening for more sounds and looking for movement in the inky black of the cave. Then again, something mechanical. It repeated with a regular cadence that was quite ominous, getting louder, getting closer.

  Psst, click, clank. Then there was a pinpoint of light, a spark. Then a fire blazed to life some yards ahead of us. The suddenness of it blinded me at first, but as my vision cleared and adjusted, a figure took shape, silhouetted by the fire he held. At first, he was just a blob, hulking, but vaguely human, coming toward us. As he got closer I was able to make some details though I wished I hadn’t. Psst, click, clank. The clank ringing out each time his right foot hit the stone.

  Wasco called out for him to stop where he was and raised his rifle. He did. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Hours passed in those seconds while everyone waited.

  Then, sssst, click, pffft, and it spoke.

  “Why are you here?”

  It sounded like a growl made into words.

  “Ya took one of ours,” Wasco called. “Aim to get him back.”

  The thing was silent for a while, and then raised an arm.

  I heard grunts, clanking, and whirring, then footsteps coming from the darkness behind him.

  A few paces before they were even with him, the first one started forward with the rest fanning out behind him. Wasco adjusted his grip on the rifle. I tried cocking the Winchester and realized it was already done the
n looked around to see if anyone had noticed.

  Some of them were carrying hammers, picks, and clubs. Others had them on broad backs or hanging from belts. A few were wearing guns at their hips or carrying rifles.

  They were not human. They were a combination of green humanoid and pieces of metal machinery. The sound they made as they came was not as loud as you might think; it was an almost melodic combination of clicks, dings, whirrs, and gongs. Some of them moved with a lithe grace that surprised me, while others plodded along with heavy footfalls. There was something odd about the way they moved. Like they had been broken into pieces, put back together, and were relearning how to move.

  The leader stopped about ten feet from Wasco and the others fanned out to his sides—about six of them I think. He had a square jaw and his shoulders were broad but seemed to have some kind of metal armor on them so it was hard to tell what was him and what might have been armor or machine. He was tall but stood hunched over, so he looked much shorter than I think he really was. His eyes were a contrast to the heavy brow and harsh lines of the rest of his face. They were alive with life and twinkled brown in the torchlight, and he had wrinkles at the corners, like someone who smiled a lot. As he breathed I noticed steam streaming from his wide nostrils and between two large tusks that protruded from his lower jaw.

  His head would twitch every few seconds accompanied by a metallic clicking sound. There was a hinged iron lever coming out of his neck that jumped when that happened.

  His right arm was covered in the clean, white, cotton sleeve of his shirt, but his left had the sleeve cut off at the bicep. Out of the sleeve a muscled green bicep ended in a metal pivot that anchored what looked like a cannon. One foot was also a clump of metal. As I looked closer it actually looked like a steel pick instead of a foot, like something miners carried.

  He noticed my stare and turned his head with a whirr and a click and smiled at me. His eyes crinkled just like I had expected they would. Even with those tusks, the smile turned him from monster to pleasant man in an instant. It was one of those smiles that you just know is genuine. I smiled back.

  “Sssst, click, pffft. My name is Samrak,” he said.

  “I’m Topher,” I said. “This is Wasco, Ying, and...”

  I realized only then that Li was nowhere to be found. Ying’s eyes met mine and held them a moment.

  “Wasco and Ying from Edge City,” I said.

  “Sssst, click, pffft. Come, let us sit and we will tell you of your friend. We meant him no ill will and caused him no harm.” He turned, as did most of those with him in a cacophony of metallic clicks, pings and clangs accompanied by puffs of air and steam.

  A few didn’t immediately turn to go. They stood tense and a few hands had found the handles of weapons. Wasco didn’t move. He had locked gazes with one of the threatening green men and the two looked ready to charge each other at any minute. Samrak turned back and saw the standoff. He stormed around the offender, cutting its stare from Wasco’s and locked his own with it. Words passed between them, but I could only hear what sounded like growls. A few tense seconds passed, and the challenger turned and stalked off, his apparent followers falling in behind him.

  Samrak stalked after them without a glance back to us. After a moment of hesitation Wasco looked to us, shrugged, and we followed them into the gloom of the cave.

  I watched the things that walked in front of us. Almost all were misshapen in some way, even under the metallic bits and various shades of green. There was something about some of the misshapen bodies that rang familiar to me, but I was unable to place it.

  As we came into their camp I saw Jacob. He was sitting against a wall, his head cocked to the side. His eyes didn’t focus on us, didn’t even blink.

  “Jacob!” I cried and ran towards him. One of the creatures started to reach out to me, but a wave and a look from Samrak stopped them.

  Jacob did not move. Didn’t acknowledge me. I spun on them.

  “What did you do to him?” I screamed.

  I would have started shooting right then had I not dropped my Winchester when I ran to him.

  “Sssst, click, pffft. He has been drugged,” Samrak said.

  A growl crept through the cavern. Everyone looked around at first, thinking it an animal or the rock walls themselves. It had come from Wasco. All eyes eventually focused on him and nobody moved. He looked like he was about to kill everyone in that room.

  “I dunno what or who you are, but you better consider yer next words carefully,” Wasco said. His eyes burned holes in Samrak and I swear he grew ten feet!

  Samrak seemed to grow as well and I thought I heard a growl from him. The two faced each other for a long time before he said, “Sssst, click, pffft. We did him no harm; the drug is meant to ease pain, although there is more. If you want to listen, then I will explain.”

  Steam leaked from between his tusks every few words and there was an implied, Or else.

  Wasco’s hands tightened on his rifle. More seconds passed so slow I swear my hair grew.

  Ying stepped up and said, “That will be fine, Mr. Samrak. All who came into this cave with us accept your offer of hospitality and will honor it and listen to what you have to say.”

  Samrak’s gaze flicked to Ying and held there for a few long seconds. He cocked his head to the side then nodded and turned away, indicating we should follow. I felt, without really understanding, a quiet rumbling of discontent that spread through those watching from shadows at Ying’s words and Samrak’s agreement.

  I had never been down into the mines, but the metal and machines I saw as I looked around are what I thought I would have seen if I had. Among the piles of metal and machines was an area filled with canvass and hide tents, a small kitchen area, and heavy wooden tables that had been reinforced in some spots with metal. Samrak led us to one of the long tables.

  “Sssst, click, pffft. Sit,” Samrak said.

  Wasco pulled a chair from a table and sat. “Okay, talk. Who are you? What are you? And what the hell did you do to Jacob and why?”

  Samrak sat down as did two others from his group. One was about Wasco’s size, but older, with a grey beard flowing from below his yellowed tusks. He had very little in the way of metal or machinery attached to him. The other was a woman, not large, but muscled and lithe. She reminded me of a hunting cat. She was disfigured in a way that’s hard to describe. It was as though her upper body wasn’t put onto the lower half quite right. She also had tusks every bit the size of the others. She had black hair that hung to her shoulder on one half of her head, the other side was bald and smooth as if it had never had hair. Her pale skin stood in contrast to her deformed figure, being a smooth, even pretty, shade of light green.

  “Sssst, click, pffft. Some of those are things that may not be any of your business,” Samrak said. “I will start with the last.”

  “Your friend was found in the sands by some of our scouts that we send to gather, um, scrap. They found him and gave him a tonic to ease his pain and keep him slumbered.”

  “Why?” growled Wasco.

  “That gets us into the rest of your questions,” Samrak said.

  He paused while a woman set some metal cups and a bottle on the table. She was young looking, but when she turned to go I caught sight of the other side of her. She was missing half the skin on her face and on her left hand. There was just bone. It looked like it had been sealed with some strips of metal that were screwed into the bones. Hoses ran to various places on her and each finger had three small wires going to them. I couldn’t help my stare. I just couldn’t look away.

  After the requisite clinking and clacking, Samrak said, “Elsa there is a good example of what I am going to tell you.” He glanced at the woman’s retreating form. “But first I must have your word that you do not speak of any of this when you leave. We do not normally let others see us. If people knew who and what we are, it would hurt all involved.”

  “Why?” Wasco said.

  “Sssst, click,
pffft. Because,” Samrak said. “We are dead. Or at least we are to any that knew us. And the people who we left behind cannot know we still live. It will hurt them in most cases, and in some endanger our lives and theirs.”

  Wasco eyed him for a few silent seconds then said, “Go on.”

  “Sssst, click, pffft. Did you notice Elsa’s appearance? My own rugged handsome qualities?”

  He held up what I thought was his good hand and I noticed something I had missed before. It was on wrong! His whole arm was just wrong, twisted in an angle that made the hand face backwards when it ought to face forward.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Samrak looked to me and smiled again. I am sure the ridiculousness of my asking about one injury to his arm given most of him was green, just as mangled and part metal was not lost on him. But I was young.

  “Sssst, click, pffft. When I hit the ground, my arm was shattered, and my neck broken.”

  “Hit the ground?” I asked.

  “I was a miner many years ago. I do not even remember how long it has been. Many down here are miners; others had been broken by the steam in the city. I was mining silver when the first veins of Ember were found. Nobody had figured out exactly how to get it out of the rock yet, or what in the hell it really was. It was in a shaft off the Edge wall, just a few hundred feet in.

  Sssst, click, pffft. One day the boss sent me and my crew down to see if we could dig some out. None of us took it too seriously, just figured it was some worthless rock. We worked just inside of the shaft, so we still had sunlight close by and we didn’t need to get lanterns and such. That’s how we figured out that it turned color in the sunlight. Went from black to deep translucent green when we carried it into the sun to have a closer look. After a few hours of work, we managed to get a few ounces of the stuff. We had just carried the last bit out into the sun when we saw the storm clouds blowing in.

  “We ran back in to grab our tools and Bill stuffed the Ember into his pockets. We hadn’t made it far when the rain started, a downpour like I had never seen. First rain we’d had in a long time too. It soaked us pretty good, so we headed back into the shaft. None of us wanted to try to make the climb in that downpour, figured we’d wait it out.