Chapter 6
It’s like everything wants to kill us out here, including the trees.
Those trees, specifically.
Our horses come to a stop as we survey the valley below. The sun is setting, casting the sky in a soft yellow and pink. Mixed with the redness of the forest, it looks more like a painting than what it actually is – deadly.
After two days of edging along the badlands, this is the heart of the bomb’s poison.
Or, one of the hearts. Up until here, the land looked like home: mountains, trees, valleys – green, overgrown and scarred in places, with rusted remnants of the old world.
Everything except towns. Villages just don’t exist, even thirty-eight years later.
There’s nothing out here like Kingsland – the one place that somehow survived unscathed from the attempted massacre of everyone in the Federated States of the Republic.
Which doesn’t bode well for our mission.
‘Would you look at that?’ Levi marvels. ‘What is this place?’
‘It’s the red forest, you horse chip,’ Samuel mutters.
Levi’s eyes narrow in a way I’ve seen too often over the last couple of days of travelling. Here we go. Why our town council chose a teenage sword prodigy to go with two elite guards to find a functional coal mine is beyond me. But it wasn’t for his ability to shut up.
‘But why call it red?’ the kid asks.
‘What do you mean?’ Samuel snaps. He throws out a muscled arm, pointing. His six-foot-six frame makes his horse look dwarfed. ‘Because it’s red.’
‘Is it, though?’ Levi asks. ‘I’d say it’s more orange. Maybe brown.’
‘It’s not ora–’ Sam inhales so hard his crooked nostrils close. ‘The Sarcans bombed every reactor in the Republic, and the trees around every direct hit turned red. It’s called the red forest. Everyone knows that.’
‘Well, not everyone, obviously,’ mutters Levi.
‘But maybe they would if they called it the orange forest. And we don’t know it was the Sarcans.
It could have been Daulti after decades of us playing let’s-try-to-kill-your-leader-but-make-it-look-like-an-accident.
Then there’s North Ripette, another country that was constantly threatening to take us out.
For all we know, it could have been an all-of-the-above situation. ’
Venson, the name I’ve given the bulging vein on Sam’s forehead, makes an appearance. It’s become my guide, telling me whether I need to intervene. ‘Just walk away,’ I say to him.
A warning flashes in Samuel’s dark eyes. But then he twitches his heels and his horse moves along.
Levi turns to me, mischief sparking on his face. ‘Also, what exactly is the chip of a horse?’
‘A horse chip is what you’re full of !’ Samuel yells over his shoulder.
‘Ohhh … you mean like manure?’ Levi fights a grin.
I arch a brow at Levi. ‘That’s really how you’re going to use your free will? It’s too early in the morning to have to save your life.’ Again.
He chuckles low. ‘Good thing it’s the middle of the afternoon.’
Is it? With a sigh, I pull out the trader map that Vador, our mayor and head of the elite guard, gave me.
‘This is the Sekani Red Forest.’ I stab the bottom of the map with my finger.
‘It extends four miles. We’ll encounter more like this along the way.
Especially where the bombs targeted a fission reactor, which, thanks to the old world’s thirst for electricity, could be close to a thousand different locations across the Republic.
They’re the worst of the destruction.’ My gaze skates to the dots we’re headed towards, due east, the only settlements on this eastern trade map.
We’re still about three to five days away from our target, if we’re lucky.
Levi leans in to see it. ‘Do we need to dig out those old-world gas masks?’
‘You can. But if we avoid this area altogether, we should be fine.’ Should be being the operative words.
There’s not exactly a lot of scientific monitoring going on.
‘Our contamination control team lead said the residue left from the bombs in these areas rests in the soil. If we only stop where the map indicates it’s okay, we should be good.
Most importantly, don’t dig a hole and lie in it around here. ’
Levi’s eyes go wide. ‘And we’re going to trust some random trader’s map?’
I click my tongue, prompting my horse, Duke, to follow Sam. ‘Not sure we have a choice.’
We ride another two hours alone, but with the hills on either side funnelling us into a forest valley, it soon becomes a popular area.
We run into eight men and two women, all of us drawing our bows and taking aim as we slowly pass by each other.
I’m not sure if it’s our weapons or the promise of malevolence permanently stamped on Samuel’s face, but no one has tried their luck against us. Yet.
At dusk, we stop next to a small creek. The terrain has changed again; the land is flatter and treeless. Mostly a barren prairie with some foliage along the water.
‘No fire tonight,’ I say, tense. My eyes clock a few of the lousy options for cover if we’re attacked. ‘And we shouldn’t do tents.’
No one objects. We all saw the bodies left next to a smoking campfire yesterday. A wake-up call to be more alert. Less seen. ‘I’ll take the first watch.’
Samuel squats for a drink from the creek. ‘And you, kid, will water, feed and brush down the horses.’
Levi tosses one of the packs he untied from his horse. It lands not far from Samuel’s feet. ‘It’ll go faster if we all work together.’
Samuel wipes his mouth with his shirt. Venson the vein making another appearance.
‘Sam,’ I warn.
‘No,’ he snaps at me before stalking towards Levi. ‘You listen up – I don’t know how you got here, but you damned sure haven’t earned your place in the elite guard.’ He retrieves Levi’s pack and throws it hard at Levi’s chest.
The kid falls back a step as he catches it, face tight.
But, miracle of miracles, he pauses to think before he speaks.
‘I’m not an elite guard, yet, but I am a trained soldier – two years ago, I was the first they allowed to enlist at fourteen.
And I’m here because I won the Teelerman tournament. I chose this as my prize.’
Sam and I share a look. The Teelerman is a choose-your-weapon obstacle race, mixed with a tournament of battles. It’s for soldiers of all ranks.
I’ve won it twice with my bow.
‘They let you choose this mission as your prize?’ Sam says in disbelief.
‘No,’ Levi says as if that’s crazy. ‘I gifted my prize to a Captain, who then put in a good word.’ He shrugs.
Sam and I just stare.
‘I mean, come on,’ he continues. ‘Kingsland is stuck in the middle of nowhere behind a mountain range, surrounded by trees, an army and an electric fence. No one in and barely anyone out, except our own traders. How else am I supposed to see what’s out here? Isn’t that why you guys came?’
‘No,’ I say, unfreezing. ‘We’re here because we’re elite guards who vowed to protect Kingsland, and if we don’t find another source of coal, this is our future.’ I gesture to the desolate land around us.
Kingsland’s always known our luck would run out sooner or later.
There are only so many parts you can recover or repair from the old world.
But no one anticipated that our backup plan for our failing hydro dam – our coal mine – would be wiped out by a landslide.
It’s going to take years to dig it out. ‘We need coal or we’ll lose our electricity.
Which means no electric fence – our main source of protection.
We can also kiss any amenities goodbye, like working lights, running water and heat. ’
‘Yeah. I’m here for that too,’ Levi says, like that should have been obvious.
Glad we’ve established that.
But I guess I can’t fault him for having a side mission. Mine is to find a certain killer.
‘Well …’ Sam says, tilting his head towards the horses. ‘You’re still not an elite guard. So pay your dues.’
The moon is full tonight, which means I can slightly make out the outline of a bush.
Or hopefully an enemy if they sneak up on us.
I rub my face, tired. We’ve pushed hard to make it through the most dangerous areas quickly, which feels like it’s been the whole way.
You never know when you’ll encounter people.
It makes me wonder what it means for the future of the Republic.
How long can we keep operating this way?
And is there really no functioning part of the old world coming to find us – save us – from ourselves?
My eyelids dip, and I rest my eyes for a second. Then I slip into the scene of a murder.
The air is hazy, as if I’m seeing it through a fog. I’m a kid again, standing in a field just beyond Kingsland’s fence and away from my parents. The blue-eyed vagrant with the missing hand stabs my father and my mother lets out a blood-curdling scream –
A hand covers my mouth. ‘Wake up.’
My eyes snap open, hand darting to the knife on my leg.
‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,’ Levi whispers urgently. ‘Relax. There’s a raid happening. A wagon that passed us is getting hit.’
I exhale and lower my blade, shaking off the nightmare, slowly putting his words together. How long was I out?
‘Sam, get up,’ I say, while slinging my bow and quiver over the weapons vest I never took off. When his snores don’t stop, I kick his foot, startling him awake.
I turn to Levi. ‘That’s how you wake somebody without losing a limb.’ Especially since Sam has nightmares of his own to deal with.
‘Noted,’ Levi says.
We leave our horses tied up and run along the bank of the creek, keeping our cover until we see it. Beside a blazing fire, two bandits wrestle with the owner of the wagon.
‘They’re going to kill him,’ Levi whispers.
‘Not our problem,’ Sam mutters.
Of course it’s our problem. ‘Stop,’ I command, revealing myself. With an arrow nocked, I pull my bow tight and approach slowly.
The two raiders still, then resume punching the old man, only faster.
They don’t think I can hit them from this distance.
They’re wrong. I squint, find my target, and let loose an arrow.
With a noisy clang, it slams into the cooking pot hanging over the fire, flipping it.
The robbers duck and yelp as they’re splashed by the hot contents.
‘Nice shot,’ Levi mutters.
I ready another arrow, but Sam grunts and stands, probably eager to end this so he can go back to sleep. Terror enters the men’s eyes when they take in the murderous-looking stranger. They scramble off the old man and bolt for their horses.
‘Well, that was easy,’ Levi says, rising to his feet.
‘Ah, many thanks.’ The old wagon owner gasps for breath before pushing unsteadily to his sandalled feet. He’s missing some teeth and there’s a bleeding cut on his cheek. With an airy chuckle, he dusts himself off – he has only one hand.
Just like my father’s murderer – the violent thief who was never found.
The memories that source my nightmares are from when I was four years old, so there’s not a lot to go on.
Could it be …? My focus narrows as I catalogue his features.
The guy looks ancient, but life is rough out here and appearances can be deceiving.
Still, I don’t think my father’s killer would be that old now.
There’s a distinct smell to the guy that should have warded off any attack to begin with. I move closer, needing to see the colour of his eyes – one of the few details I do remember. Brown. I exhale – it’s not him.
‘You good?’ I ask, lowering my weapon.
‘I almost had them,’ he says, limping back to his wagon.
I watch him carefully, something about him not sitting right. His eyes are shifty. He’s hurrying too much, like he’s got somewhere to be at three in the morning.
His hand slips into the back of his wagon, then he whirls on us, pointing a loaded crossbow at my chest.
We all stiffen.
‘Drop your weapons,’ he shouts, all pleasantries gone. One finger twitch and I’m dead.
All of us obey, although Samuel takes it personally. ‘Are you kidding me?’ he growls. ‘We just helped you.’
‘Whatcha got on you?’ the man demands, eyes wild. ‘Hand it over. All of it.’
‘Wait,’ Levi shouts. ‘I … have a question first.’
For some reason, that stumps the old man. ‘Well, what is it?’
‘It’s actually a comment.’ Levi cocks his head. ‘Maybe two comments.’
Sam huffs. ‘Did your mother raise the placenta instead of the baby? Get on with it!’
It takes a monumental amount of self-control not to pinch the bridge of my nose.
‘Anyway,’ Levi directs to the old guy. ‘I just wanted to point out that you have only one loaded bolt and there are three of us.’
The man nods. ‘And? It’ll still kill one of yas.’
‘Right. But’ – Levi jabs his thumb in Sam’s direction – ‘just make sure you hit him first, because if you don’t, he’s gonna decorate the ground with you.’
The old man swings his crossbow to Sam, and as he does, Levi flies forward and tackles our would-be robber. The two of them land hard on the ground, and the crossbow springs from the man’s hand.
I lunge forward and scoop it out of the dirt, then aim it at the weasel’s heaving chest.
‘Hey. Hey, hey, hey,’ he says, painting on a sudden grin as Levi climbs off him. His one gnarled hand shoots up in submission. ‘I-I was just kidding. I wouldn’t have actually done it.’
And I’m an elf. I eye him warily. ‘What’re we going to do with him?’ I call over my shoulder. We can’t leave him tied up; he’ll die in a matter of days.
No one answers, but there is a gurgling sound behind me. I glance back and find Sam strangling Levi. Wonder Boy’s face is a concerning shade of about-to-be-murdered. ‘Sam!’ I shout, which accomplishes nothing. I throw myself between them. Levi drops to all fours, gasping for breath.
The wagon driver slowly crabwalks backwards … and you know what? Have at it. ‘What are you still doing here, old man? Go on. Run.’
He scrambles to his feet and I briefly consider going with him. Because, bloody hellfire, I’m surrounded by absolute sausages.