Edge of Dark (2 page)

Charlie thumbed his line to Jean Paul open. “Found two of them. Apparently they were hunting tongats.”

Something in Charlie's voice must have clued in Jean Paul. “Tongats hunting them now, huh?”

“Yeah.” Charlie'd seen it happen before. Spacers mystified him.

“Stupidity. Are you safe?”

“Yeah. I'm on my way to talk to them. At least one is armed. Keep your line open so you can hear the conversation.”

“Got your back.”

“Always.” Charlie smiled grimly and toed the skimmer into a careful landing. The closest flat place was half a klick away, so he had to make his way to the boys through the bodies of tongats. It saddened him greatly to see the big beasts so still. He walked close enough to the one the boy had shot to see that the bullet had gone clean through the thick neck, missing both the spine and the jugular vein. A thin trickle of blood stained the animal's black coat with a bright, wet line. Damn.

He stopped at the bottom of the rock pile, looking up at the trespassers. The bigger boy looked wary and the smaller simply shell-shocked. Both had the ultra-white skin of spacers and thin, slightly elongated bodies.

Charlie took a deep breath and tried to calm his anger over the tongats. “I'm a ranger. Charlie Windar. You're trespassing.”

The small one managed to stutter out, “Th-thank you. Thank you.”

He looked so pathetic that Charlie dredged up a smile he didn't feel. “You're welcome.” He started up but stopped halfway. A body lay sprawled on a flat rock below the boys' perch, one leg shattered. White bone protruded from his leg in two places. Blood had pooled and congealed on the rock, and ants crawled through the blood. The dead boy's white face appeared twisted by pain even after death. Probably the middle boy, the fifteen-year-old.

If they'd been anywhere near civilization, he would have lived. The bloody bottom of the smaller boy's shirt tied around the dead one's leg was the only sign of any attempt at medical attention. Another problem with spacers; they lived inches from good medical care.

Charlie closed the dead boy's eyes before he climbed the rest of the way to the top of the rocks and asked the older boy, “What happened?”

“Richard fell.” He spoke calmly, although his voice shook. “We were climbing up behind him and suddenly we just couldn't see him. We tried to tell him to wait for the doc, but he couldn't do it.”

The younger one said, “It got dark. We stayed here and halfway through the night the big dogs started howling and they kept coming closer. This morning they were here so we couldn't go for help.”

“What's your name?” Charlie asked.

“Justin. And this is my big brother, Sam.”

Sam looked displeased to have his name revealed so easily. From time to time he glanced at the patch on Charlie's shoulder that proclaimed him an officer of the law.

“Why did you come out here?” Charlie asked him.

“Aren't you going to take us back?”

“Not yet.”

The boys exchanged a worried look.

“Why'd you come?” Charlie asked again.

“Dad said we should know what a planet is like.”

“Did he tell you to hunt?”

Neither boy answered.

“Did you want to kill a tongat?”

“No,” Sam said, but Justin nodded. A brief angry look crossed Sam's face, and then he looked accusingly at Charlie. “You killed them. You killed all of them.”

“No, I didn't. And that's why we're staying right here. We need to take care of them.”

Neither Sam nor Justin appeared to be wearing any technology. Their clothes were nothing much either: ragged ship's jumpsuits and scuffed boots that needed new soles.

Justin retreated to the far edge of the rock, the look on his face so lost and unhappy that Charlie felt the tug of it on his heart. He spoke softly, as if talking to a wild animal. “Don't you fall.”

Sam looked him up and down, appearing a little more interested. “Do you eat tongats?”

“No.” He glanced over at the still forms. “No. We protect them. That's what we're going to do now. Sit here until they all wake up.”

“They're not dead?” Justin asked in a high, thin voice.

“No.” Charlie held out his hand. “Sam, give me your gun.”

“I can't.”

“Why not?”

“It's not mine. It's my dad's.”

Charlie nodded. “I have something to do, and I'm going to make sure you can't point that thing at me.”

Charlie stood still, hand out, working hard to keep his face neutral. In the space of about ten breaths, the gun landed in his hand, a little heavier than he expected. “Thank you. Now stay here.”

“What about Richard?” Sam said.

“Richard doesn't care what happens next. But you two are safe enough. You can watch me from here.” Without waiting to see how the boys reacted, Charlie climbed carefully through the rocks and went back to the injured animal he'd checked on the way in. He pulled a med-kit from his pack and sutured the wound, one hand on the warm, thick neck muscle. His attention roamed back and forth from his work to the beast's wide mouth, which was full of impressive off-white teeth. Once, he jerked back when the animal shuddered head to tail as if shaking off a fly.

As soon as he finished he stepped back a few steps. “Jean Paul?”

“Yes.”

“We'll be here another hour or two. Do you know where I should take the boys?”

“The coordinates are in your nav system.”

“Thanks. Parents in custody?”

“Yep. Said the boys ran away but we think they sent them off so they could do a deal with other smugglers.”

“Fits the boy's story.”

“Sad,” Jean Paul said.

Charlie glanced back up at the boys. They sat side by side, watching him solemnly. He went to the skimmer and opened a cargo compartment, pulling out a pack.

When he got back to the rocks by the boys he settled down comfortably in a middle of the widest, flattest rock near the top.

“I want to go home,” Justin said.

“Did you know there are animals that would eat these tongats if they came across them in this sorry state?”

“They tried to kill us,” Sam said. He was standing, his arms crossed. “I want my gun.”

“Now that there's no danger?”

Sam looked away, anger and impotence on his face.

Charlie felt like the kind of mean adult he'd hated when he was kid. Still, they'd lost a brother. “I'm sorry about Richard.”

“Can we bring him home?” Justin asked.

“Yes.” He patted the rock next to him.

Neither boy moved.

“We're going to be waiting a while. You might as well sit down.” He pulled the pack onto his lap and extracted two water pouches, setting one on each side of him.

It took a while but eventually both boys sat down, one on each side, even though Sam stayed as far away as he could without falling off of the rock. To his credit, he sucked on the water slowly, and didn't finish it all.

The younger boy sat close enough to touch Charlie, and he simply looked sad and tired. Charlie resisted an urge to put an arm around him. “Did either of you sleep last night?”

“No,” Justin said. “I was trying to keep Richard awake talking to him.” He stopped for a moment, blinking back tears and then turning his face away. After a few deep, shuddering breaths, he turned back to Charlie. “He lived until halfway through the night.”

“I'm sorry. You know this place is off-limits to humans.”

“You're here,” Sam said.

“Good thing for you. But there's two continents where you're not allowed to go on Lym. Here on Goland, and do you know the other one?”

“Entare.”

“So you did know better than to come out here.”

“Dad told us to see the wild places before they're all gone.”

“They're not going to be gone,” Charlie said. “We're keeping them for everyone. And Lagara is almost a park. People visit there every year.”

“Rich people,” Sam said.

“There's some truth in that.”

Sam looked surprised that Charlie agreed with him. “So what were we supposed to do?”

Charlie fell silent, pondering. “Respect the boundaries. The same way I'm respecting the tongats out there. We almost destroyed this place once, and then we almost destroyed it again. This time that's not going to happen.”

“Are you sure?” Justin asked.

“Yes.” Charlie drank some water himself. He pointed in front of them. “Look. One of the tongats is getting up already.”

Sam and Justin were silent as they watched the biggest animal stand up and shake itself, looking one way and then another and then nosing a packmate's flank. “See,” Charlie said. “They're a family. They watch out for each other.”

“They tried to kill us.”

“You were invading their home.”

“Will they hurt us now?” Justin shrank closer to Charlie, almost touching him.

Charlie's glasses pinged for danger and he blinked a few times, adjusting his view, taking in the size of the heat signature behind him. “Charlie?” Jean Paul's worried whisper vibrated in his ear. “Do you see it?”

Charlie whispered in turn to the boys. “Stay completely still. Don't make any sound. None.” He checked his gun, stood up and turned slowly. A huge animal stood on its hind legs about twenty meters in front of him, just at the bottom of the rocks. He drew in a sharp breath and his hand tightened on his gun barrel. Being above it might not help very much.

“Boys,” he whispered. “Stand up as slowly as you can and be careful not to fall.”

Justin's arm slid around Charlie's waist and Sam let out a tiny moan, then went silent.

The predator cousin of the jumpers he'd flown over earlier stood three times the size of a man, with a long neck and snout and huge haunches. A thick, long tail twitched on the ground. Its neck moved like a snake's, back and forth, back and forth. Vestigial wings fluttered on its back and the small hands attached to them reached out sideways as if pulling on the air.

Justin whimpered. His braver brother whispered, “A rakul. A real rakul.”

Charlie swallowed. “That's what might have eaten the tongats that might have eaten you.”

“What do we do?” Sam whispered back.

“Nothing, unless it comes closer. It's trying to decide what to do.”

A howl came up from behind them. The rakul raised its head and looked around. It bounded close enough for Charlie to make out the small fine feathers on its arms and the folds in the leathery skin of its neck. Its teeth were as big as his forearm. A breeze blew the smell of carrion and earth toward them.

Justin buried his face in Charlie's stomach. Charlie's free arm snuck around the kid, patting his back awkwardly. The other hand flexed at the gun, keeping it ready. He'd need a very precise shot to even slow a rakul.

Time slowed. The beast glanced at them directly from time to time. It bent to sniff at a tongat body and then lifted its head again, apparently surprised that the possible dinner in front of it was alive.

Charlie aimed his gun at the rakul. His hand shook. His own rules told him to allow predators to kill, but he had put the tongat in harm's way, and it shouldn't die because he'd stunned it.

Another tongat bayed, then a third.

The rakul glanced around and then cried out. The high-pitched screech drove a smile out of Charlie.

Other than his hand patting Justin's back, he wasn't certain he could move if he had to, even in self-defense. His eye stayed on the beast, drinking details. He'd never been so close to one. “What terrible beauty,” he whispered, and Justin clutched him harder.

The tongat closest to the rakul pushed itself up and then raced away, a little unsteady on its feet but obviously driven by fear.

Two more rakuls came up over the rocky ridge, both bigger than the one they stared at. The biggest called sharply. The one close to them turned and jumped away, its thick tail thumping with every leap.

Charlie closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them and double-checked. Nothing. “It's fine, Jean Paul,” he whispered. “It's all fine. It's gone. They're gone. There were three of them.” He turned and did a three-sixty visual scan of the area. “The tongats are gone, too.”

Jean Paul's relieved laugh on the other end broke the spell. “Wouldn't you be gone if you could run fast enough to outpace a rakul?”

“Even the one the boy shot got away.”

“They're lucky beasties,” Jean Paul said.

“The tongats? You bet. I'm bringing the kids in.”

It took thirty minutes to bundle the body and the two living kids into the skimmer. “I don't have helmets that fit you,” he told them. “You'll have to close your eyes when we go fast.”

“Okay.”

Even though they weren't moving fast yet, Sam had his eyes closed when he said, “The rakuls might be big enough.”

“Big enough for what?” Charlie asked him as he stepped on the gas a little, sending the skimmer lurching lightly forward.

“Big enough to stop the ice pirates.”

Charlie blinked. “Probably not. Hard for flesh to stand up to machines. But the ice pirates can't get here. We're way inside the Ring.”

“Pirates have been coming inside the Ring. More than usual.”

Charlie stiffened. “Who told you that?”

“My dad.”

“Was he trying to scare you?”

Sam was quiet for a long time. Eventually he said, “No. I think he was scared.”

CHAPTER TWO

NONA

The room reeked of antiseptic and medication, the sharp scents fighting the thick flowery smell of lilies. It was enough to
make
someone sick. Nona coughed. The miasma of smells clotting her throat felt like death. Death was close—very close. Her mother Marcelle's skin had gone the white of the nurse's uniforms, so thin that spidery veins latticed her cheeks and ran in red threads along the pale line of her neck. Her body had thinned too; she could be a child huddled under the soft blue throw.