Vengeance (14 page)

Hyde leans forward
and whispers in my ear.  “Enjoying the view, Queeny?”

I grit my teeth and
resist the urge to slam my foot down on top of his, but only because
I know that it would cause me to stumble.  “I have a name,
you know?”

“Course you
do.  Don’t mean I fancy using it though.”

I
choose to watch Vondran’s lank hair swing to and fro before me
instead of responding to Hyde.  He would like that too much.  He
seems to take extreme pleasure in riling me up.  
Guess
he’s trying to get back at me for being mean to his little
sister,
I
muse sourly.  
Apparently
the fact that I have no memory of wronging his sister counts for
nothing!

A scent hangs on the
air that reminds me of rotten garbage.  I sniff twice, trying to
place it.  “Gas,” Vondran calls back over his
shoulder.  “It’s rising from the swamp.  Try
not to breathe too much of it.”

“Sure,”
I mutter, feeling the sweltering heat beginning to wear my patience
thin.  I can almost see moisture droplets hanging in the air
before my eyes.  My clothes rapidly drench with sweat.  I
peer over the railing at the ground and see a dense off white fog
hovering over the ground.  The scent of rot and decay sits heavy
in my nose.  “I’ll just be sure to hold my breath
the entire time we are here.”

I cast a glare back
over my shoulder at Hyde, knowing he won’t be able to resist
that set up.  He shoots me a toothy grin and I roll my eyes.
 “Grow up.”

“Nah.  Life’s
way more fun this way.”  He groans as a hand swings out
and catches him in the ribs. I hear him cough, wheezing slightly.  I
look over at the Roamer guard that stomps beside me and imagine that
the grunt that rises from its throat is a laugh of approval.  I
almost smirk...almost.

The
metal grate beneath my feet tears at my flesh.  It doesn’t
take long before I am stumbling more than walking.  Blood coats
the bottom of my feet, but as I glance down I can’t tell if it
is my own or from the prints left from those before me.

When we reach the
end of the long ramp and level off onto normal ground, I realize that
I prefer the feeling of the metal over the slimy surface of this
foreign planet.  Each step is arduous as I am forced to yank my
foot free only to sink back into the stinky sludge.  It feels
like tar against my skin, hot and tacky.  We only move half a
dozen steps before I begin to weary.  The problem with being
chained to other men is that I am forced to keep pace or risk being
walked over.

I search the canopy
above for any sign of a sun or moon but find none through the dense
covering.  The trees here are enormous, towering well over a
hundred feet above my head.  Their trunks are large enough that
it would take five of the Roamers to stretch around them, standing
hand in hand.  Wild vines of varying colors of green and blue
dangle from the trees. Some of them sway despite the lack of breeze.

In
fact, now that I think about it, I haven’t felt a single gust
of wind since I emerged from the ship.  Nor have I heard a cry
of a bird or a flap of wing apart from the flying insects.  It
is almost as if nothing can survive on this wretched planet but what
I suspect to be carnivorous plant life.  

I
lower my gaze and glance at the Roamer nearest me.  It has
donned a full breast plate of bone and rock.  The stones are
purplish in color, dark and veined with black.  The bone is
slightly yellowed and judging by the one stretching across its chest,
I suspect it to be human in origin.

The great giants
move effortlessly through the sediment, their claws digging deep to
give them traction.  They hold great wooden clubs with
spike-tipped ends over their shoulders.  Some have a belt of
cloth tied about their waist to keep them from being exposed to the
naked eye.  Others seem far less concerned with modesty.

I glance at a Roamer
nearby and feel my cheeks flush before darting my gaze away.  Hyde
was right about their proportions.  Those poor girls!

Hissing up ahead
brings my face around to the front once more.  Our small group
comes to a stop and I am thankful for the brief rest.  Without
needing to glance back over my shoulder I know that we have not
traveled far and yet I feel as if I have been forced to run the
length of the entire planet.  

“What’s
going on?” I ask, unable to see over Vondran’s shoulder.
 

His hair seems to
move in one sweaty mass as it sways along his back when he tries to
look back at me.  “We just met up with the other groups.”

“Groups?”
 My stomach drops at the thought.

“Yeah.”
I can tell by the tension in his voice that’s it’s not
good.  “Seems like there were a lot of pit stops along the
way.  Some of these creatures aren’t exactly human.”

The desire to shove
him out of the way so that I can see is strong, but I resist.  A
part of me doesn’t want to know just how bad it really is.
 “Can you see the girls?”

“No.”
 The finality of his words makes my hopes plummet.  “Can’t
see any, to be honest.”

“What do you
mean?”

This time Vondran
shifts, tugging on his chains so that he can turn just enough to look
at me.  “You’re the only female that I can see.”

The
trek across the swamp lasts for several hours by my best guess.  Only
the occasional curse from Hyde or muttered complaint from Marius
breaks the stillness.  The farther we trudge into the swamp, the
worse the terrain becomes.  I sink all the way to my knees
several times and fear that I will never be free again.  Two
Roamers stay close to my side, yanking me free when it becomes clear
that I am not able to escape on my own.

The air in the swamp
is thick in my lungs, making it hard to breathe properly.  My
arms grow tired from the near constant swatting at swarms of bugs
that buzz about my face, attempting to enter my nose and through my
mouth.  I spit to the side, disgusted by this foul place.

Despite
my mounting annoyance with Hyde, I have to admit that his random
outbursts are comforting.  Whether he is being irate over a
particular smelly bog or flapping his arms at an enormous winged bug
with a full set of teeth, he keeps me alert.  I would never come
right out and thank him for it, but I think he might be the only
reason why I actually make it to the other side.

Days without water
paralleled with the arduous trek leave me near collapse when I
finally claw my way out of the muck.  My hands and legs are
coated in the filth.  I tremble from exertion and when a unified
hiss sends everyone collapsing on to the ground to rest, I willingly
go with them.  I don’t even care that Hyde is pressed up
against my back.  At least I know I’ll remain upright.

“Are
you alright?”  I look up to find Reyes watching me.  The
weight of the neck clamp feels nearly unbearable now and the concern
in his eyes touches me.  I smile and nod, too weary to speak.

“Course she
is,” Vondran smirks, tossing a hefty rock that he just dug out
of the ground into the mire pool behind us.  

I cry out as a great
finned creature rises from the mud and sinks back down only a few
feet from us.  “Those things were in there with us the
whole time?”

Hyde laughs, shaking
his head.  “Leave it to a Queen to assume a swamp wouldn’t
be filled with all sorts of nasty things.”

I straighten my
shoulders in defiance.  “Why didn’t they attack us?”

“Maybe they
prefer eating rocks instead?  Probably a much tastier snack than
you.”  What I wouldn’t give to wipe the smirk right
off Hyde’s face right about now.

“Ease off,
Hyde.  She’s been through enough.” Reyes warns.  I
noticed that his grip on his chains has tightened.  I doubt even
at this close distance that he would be able to throw a punch without
taking Vondran and me out in the process, but he looks tempted.

“Why?  Because
she’s a girl?  Please,” he scoffs and rolls his eye.
 “If she isn’t tough enough to deal with me there’s
no way she’s making it off this God forsaken rock.”

“He’s
right.”  I sigh, closing my eyes and wishing that they
could remain closed.  I haven’t caught more than a few
moments rest since I awoke from my nightmares on the ship.  Sleep
deprivation, hunger and dehydration are things I can deal with even
if I can’t control them at the moment.  “I should
have expected it.”

“No,”
Reyes shakes his head.  “Don’t even think of
agreeing with him.  He’s being a prick on purpose.”

I laugh and find
that once I start I can’t stop.  Tears stream from my
eyes, clearing trails of grime from my face.  My companions look
at me as if I have lost my mind but I don’t care.  It
feels good to laugh even when there is no apparent reason for it.

“It’s in
his nature,” I say, wiping my eyes.  “He may be a
full-fledged pain in my backside but at least he is consistent.”

“Well, golly.
 That almost made me feel special,” Hyde mutters sourly.
 I pick up a clump of mud and toss it at him.  It hits him
in the neck and slowly slides down to the edge of his sweat stained
collar.  “Did you really just throw a mud pie at me?”

“Sure did,”
I grin.  Vondran chortles while Reyes and Marius grin openly.  

Like it or not I am
stuck with these guys.  Might as well accept that fact, Hyde and
all.

Hyde shoves me off
him and I slam into Vondran.  He reaches out his bound hands and
helps to steady me.  “Lean on me.  I can support
you.”

I
offer him a grateful smile and press against him.  “How
long do you think they will let us rest?” I ask, laying my head
against his shoulder.  The only solace I find in being this
close to Vondran’s sweaty hair is that the swamp just behind us
smells far worse than he does at the moment.

“I’m
hoping for quite a while,” Marius speaks up.  His voice is
strained, still weakened from his hollering on the ship. There is a
new wariness in his eyes that tells me that he is all too aware of
what happened to him while lost to the dream world.  I have
refrained from asking if the pain lingers, not wanting to remind him
of it, but I suspect that there must be.  “I’m plumb
tired out.”

“If we aren’t
careful we’ll all end up diseased over that trek.”  I
turn to find Reyes attempting to inspect the condition of his feet.
 Like my own, they are coated in a goopy drying layer of muck.
 “Who knows what nasty bugs live in this place.”

“I
think that is the least of your worries,” Hyde says.  His
voice sounds off.  I lift my head to follow his gaze and see the
crimson hooded Roamer heading straight for us.  I shrink back
from its intense gaze, knowing that it is not coming for the other
men.

Vondran surprises me
by placing his crossed hands over my own, as if that would be enough
to protect me.  Reyes shifts, placing himself slightly in front
of me.  The Roamer steps over the men before us with hardly a
glance down.  One step brings him down on a man’s foot and
agonized howls rise louder than the snapping of his ankle.  

I
lower my gaze, praying that by some miracle the Roamer will pass me
by, but I know better.  We are at the back of the procession,
backed up to the edge of the swamp. There is no one else for him to
seek out.

I look up as his
shadow first hits me.  He stares down at me long enough to force
me to look away.  A Roamer with bright blue hair trailing down
its back approaches and I listen to what I can only imagine to be a
heated argument over me.  I shrink back against Vondran when the
hooded Roamer passes over a large sack and then points to me.

I cry out as I am
yanked to my feet.  My companions collapse beneath me, still
attached to my chains.  A single claw protrudes from the
Roamer’s finger and for a moment I fear that he will run it
right across my bare skin, severing my arm but it twists and the lock
at my wrist releases. It slams into the back of Hyde’s neck
before tumbling to the ground.  A second click frees me
completely.

The
Roamer hoists me over his shoulder and turns, carving a path straight
back through the groups.  I stare at Reyes’ pained
expression for as long as I can, but he is soon lost to a multitude
of faces.  Hundreds— perhaps thousands —of men
surround me.  Some seem to be from Calisted, while others sport
obvious abnormalities: extra ears, webbed toes or wings on their
back.  Some glow like lightning bugs from Earth while others
prance on hooves.  I have no names to place with these creatures
nor have any idea which planet they may have been stolen from.  

The only thing I
know for certain is that this Roamer is holding me a bit too close
for comfort and I have a very bad feeling about that.

The damp cloth
against my feverish skin feels amazing.  I dip it once more in
the clear waters and bathe the sweat, muck and tears from my face.
 Droplets of water fall from my chin, pattering onto the small
wooden table before me.

The
chair that has been provided for me is made of a wood native to this
planet, something akin to a tall pine from Earth but veined with
bright red fibers.  It stands upon an aged wooden plan floor, a
welcome change from the swamp.  Before me on the table rests a
small shard from a mirror for me to see to wash with.  I take
great care to clean every inch of my face and neck before moving to
my arms, dipping the soiled cloth into the wash basin.  I know
that if I survive this trial I will never again take a shower or pool
of clean water for granted again.  

Though I was told to
wash quickly, I paused long enough to down half of my cleaning water
due to sheer thirst before I began to wash.  The water tasted
sweet and fresh against my parched throat.  From what little I
have seen of this filthy planet— swamp muck, stagnant pools of
discolored water, animal carcasses left to rot at river edges—
I can’t fathom where this clean water came from, but I don’t
care.