Condemned (Death Planet Book 1) (39 page)

Daniel took another sip from the pod. “No-one should have to be afraid all their lives, just because of their gender identity. It’s not fair.”

“Life’s not fair, kid. And when you’re not even half as strong as me, on a shitty planet where might makes right, it’s really not fair at all.”

“Someone has to protect them.”

“Feel free. But, right now, we have more important things to worry about. Like staying alive ourselves.”

Guy pushed on through the undergrowth. Daniel took a big sip from his pod, then burped. Either he was getting used to whatever was inside it, or drunk enough that he no longer cared whether it burned. The Brain brought up the rear, still wiping his shirt on the trees. Had he bought the story, or not? Maybe it was time to just cut the niceties and tie him up.

Daniel yawned. “Actually, I feel really tired...”

His eyes closed, the pod tumbled from his hand, and he slumped to the ground.

Guy turned to the Brain. Just in time to see the broken tree branch the Brain had hidden inside his shirt swing through the air toward his head.

T
he King blew snot from his nose, then stared down at the mass in his palm. It was thick and black, full of the smoke belching from the steam engine. He flicked his hand, and tossed the worst aside, but the wrist stopped moving suddenly as the exoskeleton joint seized up. He wriggled the wrist until the joint turned again, then wiped some away on the nearest tree.

A cloud of smoke and steam filled the air around him as Pig-Face poured river water into the steam engine’s water tank. The girl would have to wait. He’d never met anyone who knew the tricks that girl did. Just thinking about her gave him a hard-on. But, right now, his exoskeleton needed the Brain more than his dick needed the Pussy.

He should send a couple of dozen Guards after her. Should. But he couldn't spare them, not until he'd recruited a new bunch. But he couldn't let the bitches just walk away, not after trying to kill him. People might get ideas. And people with ideas were dangerous.

Still, there was one man he could almost trust to do the job the job. Semi-competent, and disposable. He flicked the last of the snot toward Andy. “You.”

“Sir.”

“What's your name?”

“Andy, sir.”

He didn’t look like much, but he’d beaten the bitches once. More than any of the other Guards had. He’d better be able to do it again.

“Piss-poor name for a King's Guard. Particularly one on a special mission.” He motioned for Andy to come closer. “Take some hounds, and find me that little bitch. If you can’t find her, don’t bother coming back.”

“You can trust me, sir. But I’ll need more men.”

“Take Short-Ass over there.”

Andy nodded, and strode that way. Pig-Face slammed the cover shut over the water tank, and hung the bucket on the back of the exoskeleton.

“Should do for a few hours, sir. But you’ll need more wood after that. You’ve burned up a lot.”

The King stood, and strode on at the head of his army. He would burn up a lot more of the forest, if they didn’t find the fuckers soon. The suns were rising over the forest, casting long, orange tree-shaped shadows over the dirt and undergrowth. Dawn, already.

Finally, he could see something other than the dark shapes of trees in the tiny circles of light from the torches. The whole fucking forest had looked the same for the last few hours.

He sniffed the air. It smelled like blood, and rotting meat. Pig-Face followed a pair of hounds as they sniffed the trees ahead. There was something familiar about the place. The trees, the crushed bushes...

The bear’s headless body rotting in the dirt.

“Why are we going around in circles?” he yelled.

“We've been following the hounds,” Pig-Face said. “And they’ve been following their scent. If we're going around in circles, then the fuckers we’re following must be going around in circles.”

Moses stumbled along beside the King, chains rattling around his wrists and ankles. The Royal Hounds hissed behind him, and bared their teeth whenever he slowed down.

Moses jerked as the King slapped his back. “Where are your fucking friends, then? I’m tired of this shit.”

“I told you, they’re not my friends. They robbed me, sank my boat, and killed my lovely boys.”

“I didn’t want your life story. I just want to know where they’re going.”

“When we get to the coast, we turn right, and follow it for a few kilometres. The monastery is on the clifftop there. Only one way up, and only one way down, unless you want to jump off the cliff. And, then, you might as well shoot yourself.”

The King huffed. “If you’re lying to me, you’ll be sucking your own dick tonight. And I don’t mean that in a good way.”

“That’s where they said they were going. If they’re not there, they’ve been eaten by bears.”

The Brain was too smart for that. Probably. But the bears weren’t the only dangerous creatures in the woods. Half of them probably hadn’t even been found yet. Or, if they had been found, the men who found them didn’t live long enough to tell anyone else about them.

“Fuck the hounds,” the King said. “Spread out. Head toward the coast. If they’re heading that way, we’ll find them. If they’re not...” He glanced at Moses.

Moses dodged as the hounds snapped at him.

“They’ll be there.”

They’d fucking better be. Otherwise... well, where the fuck would they be? They had to be in the woods, and he fucking well would burn the whole lot to the ground if he didn’t find them. Better the Brain dead than gone to Over The Sea. If he didn’t find them, the King’s wrath would know no bounds. The cocksucking bards in the bars of the Borderlands would sing of it for a thousand years.

Pig-Face hauled on his hound’s chain, and pulled the beast away from the trees. The men yelled at each other, and spread out further on both sides. They stomped on through the bushes, crushing down plants that had never known human feet before. The forest animals hissed and screeched, then turned tail at the sound of the army forcing its way toward the coast. Flying things fluttered into the sky, and drones hovered above them in a thick cloud of buzzing plastic and metal .

They stomped on as the suns rose higher and the sound of breaking waves grew louder, until the hounds hissed, and stared into the trees ahead Something was out there, something they recognized. The King raised a hand, and motioned the army to stop. Yells filled the woods as the word passed along the line.

The King nodded toward Pig-Face. “Take a look.”

Pig-Face’s hound pulled on its chain as he nudged Liam, then stepped forward with his sword drawn. Liam pulled a crossbow from his back, and whistled a tune as he followed Pig-Face. The King stomped along behind them, his own hound hissing until he pulled hard on the chain. Shouldn’t they be sneaking? He glanced at the line of men stretching out on each side through the woods. Well, no, nothing hiding in there could really miss the noise from dozens of men and hounds.

“Hey, Pig-Face,” Liam said. “You must hate your parents.”

“Why?”

“Can’t get much action looking like that.”

Pig-Face laughed. His hound pulled ahead, and forced its way through the bushes. He held his sword high and stared between the leaves. “I got girls lining up. You know what they say... “ he grabbed his groin. “Big tusks, big tusk.”

The hound tugged the chain. It lunged forward through the undergrowth, pushing tall plants aside as it squeezed between them. It hissed. What the heck had it found?

Pig-Face pulled it back, and pushed on through the plants himself. He stopped beside the hound, and stared at the sight that awaited them. The King stepped forward, crushed the plants under his feet, and gazed into the clearing beyond.

A naked boy hung, upside-down, from one of the trees. A cable bound his ankles together, and the other end was tied to a branch of the nearby tree. A cord tied his wrists behind his back. The boy twisted gently on the end of the cable as he wriggled his arms, trying to pull them free. Long hair flicked and turned where it hung down below his head.

Then the wriggling stopped as the boy stared at the King.

“Uh, hello again,” Daniel said. His face glowed red as the blood pooled in his head.

T
he pounding in Guy's head just wouldn't stop. He should never have turned his back on that asshole. The Brain may act dumb, but he had a big brain and a mean streak buried inside that big skull. At least he'd tossed Guy into a tree, where he wasn't likely to get eaten by a passing bear before he woke up. By the time he did, the suns were shining in his face, and the King's army were yelling nearby.

Well, so much for that plan. There was a time for courage, and a time to turn tail and run. And this was running time. If the King caught the Brain and locked him up again, that would be his own damn fault. Guy wasn't hanging around bravely to be tortured to death. There'd be another day to get rich. Next time, he'd know better than to rely on old comrades.

Water crashed on rocks up ahead. Guy pushed through the low bushes, until he could see blue water and bluer sky between the trees. Just a few more steps to the coast, then... where? If he went to the monastery, the King could have one heck of a greeting party waiting when he got there. So long as the King was chasing him, it was a no-go.

He’d have to go left along the coast, instead of right. Work his way past the mountains, and see what was out there. Find a place to hide out while this blew over, maybe join a new gang, build up a rep with the locals. Then take it over.

Guy crouched as he crept through the final few metres of bushes and low trees. The sharp leaves scraped against his thick leather clothes, but couldn’t cut through. Then there was dark sand beyond, stretching to the rocks at the shoreline. Beyond that was just blue sea, out to the horizon. No sign of land. There must be some other islands on Hades, but, if Over The Sea even existed, it was too far away for human eyes to see.

A boat sailed along the coast, only a few metres from the shore. A tall mast above a shallow hull of logs, with a grey, heavy sail fluttering in the wind. Dark, humanoid shapes moved in a small hut at the base of the mast.

It wasn’t a big boat, but it was one of the biggest Guy had seen. And big enough to carry him somewhere safer. He just had to convince them to let him on board. Or take it from them, if they weren’t convinced.

He raised his arms, and waved toward the boat. “Over here. Hey, help.”

A dark face peered out of the hut. Then the man’s hands grabbed the ropes leading to the sail, and pulled on them. The sail twisted in his grip, and the boat turned toward the shore, rolling through the breakers near the beach until it slid up onto the sand. Then the man turned his furry head toward Guy.

Red leaned on the side of the hut, and stared at him. “Long time no see, shithead.”

D
aniel rotated slowly at the end of the cable. With every twist, it pulled tighter against the bare skin of his ankles as his weight dragged him down. His head felt like it would explode if any more blood dripped that way. Or maybe that was from whatever the Brain had given him to drink last night.

He bent his waist, and reached up, trying to get his fingers to the cable to untie himself. He’d tried before, but had no luck. Even when he managed to reach the cable around his ankles, his own weight was pulling it so tight that he couldn’t pull it away from his body.

The last thing he remembered was stumbling through the woods behind Guy, with the world spinning around him, and barely able to keep his eyelids open. Then he woke, hanging upside down from the tree. He must have fallen asleep. But where did the cable come from? The orange hulk of a pod passed through his field of view as he rotated. Why was he back in the clearing they’d been in a few minutes before he blacked out? And why did the pod look like someone had looted it since they were last there? Metal panels were scattered across the ground, and loosed cables hung from the sides.

Pig-Face stepped toward him, and sniffed the air. “Why does this place smell like fish?”

“Stop,” Liam said. “It's a trap.”

Pig-Face stared at Daniel, and smirked. “And looks like he got caught in it.”

Oh, shit. That made so much sense. He must have fallen too far behind the others as they hiked through the jungle, and been caught by a trap set for newbies. Knocked out by the shock, maybe.

He took a deep breath. Pig-Face was right. The air did smell like fish. Why would it, when they were still some way from the water? He could hear the faint crash of waves breaking on rocks over the creaks and hissses of the forest, but it must still be at least a kilometre away. Had to be too far to smell.

The King’s hounds hissed, and pulled hard on their chains toward Daniel. “Spread out,” the King said. “Search the area. See if the other fuckers are hiding out there.”

At least a dozen of the King’s men spread out to his sides, staring into the woods, weapons drawn. The hounds hissed and sniffed the ground around them. Guy and the Brain better have put some distance between them before the hounds picked up their scent, or they could be caught in moments.

Either way, Daniel was really doomed this time. The only reason they weren’t already coming his way was fear of being caught themselves. Once they lost that, his life was over.

For some reason, the realization erased any fear he might have felt as his gaze passed the King’s metal-clad bulk with each spin. There was nothing left to be afraid of. He’d be dead by the end of the day, free from this hideous place. He’d done his best. He couldn’t do more.

At least the others might get away and start the Revolution without him. The more time he could give them, the better their chances. His job now was to delay the King as long as possible. Nothing else mattered.

The King’s gears crunched as he slapped Pig-Face on the back. “Get him.”

“I wouldn’t,” Daniel said.

“And why not, boy?”

Daniel held his hands out as far as they could go, trying to stabilize himself. But he continued rotating, just a little slower.