Condemned (Death Planet Book 1) (10 page)

The man clutched the oar tighter, and shook his head.

He couldn’t mean that. No-one would stay a slave if they could live free. “He must think you’ll kill him.”

“He knows he has a good life here, with us.” Moses nodded to the crossbowman. “Lock him back up. Nice and safe.”

Daniel pulled harder on the oarsman’s hand. The oarsman released the oar with his other hand, and pushed Daniel away, knocking him down to the deck. The oarsman continued to row as the crossbowman locked the shackles.

Moses leaned toward Guy. “Your boyfriend hasn’t been here long, has he?”

“It’s that obvious?”

“What is he, fifteen?”

Daniel climbed to his feet. “Eighteen. Nearly. And I'm not his boyfriend,” How could Moses even imagine that? If Daniel was going to explore his sexuality, it wouldn't be with someone old enough to be his father. “We just work together.”

“Such a tight young ass,” Moses said, then slapped the side of the boat as he laughed. “And so charmingly naive. I want him. How much would you take?”

“He’s not for sale.”

“I’ll give you a hundred silver shinies.”

“Will you please shut up,” Daniel said. They were talking like he was just a thing to be bought and sold. Not human at all. The oarsmen might have accepted that, but he never would. He had a mind, he wasn’t just a pet, or a piece of meat.

“Tempting,” Guy said. “But he’s still not for sale.”

“That only intrigues me more. Perhaps I should have just sailed on, and left you behind. I could have had him for myself.”

Guy nodded toward his rifle. “If you didn’t want to have a head when you arrived in Kingston.”

“Do you hate me so much? All right, a dozen gold shinies, and your pick of my boys. They're all very well broken-in, and will do anything they're told.” He leaned closer to Guy and smirked. “And I mean anything.”

“I am not for sale,” Daniel yelled. Perhaps he should just jump off the boat. He could swim to shore, find a place to hide. Try to survive on his own. Try to stop all this.

Guy smirked. “He's not for sale.”

Moses slumped down and sighed. “True love, eh? Sickening. Such a waste of youthful beauty, to squander everything he has on a beast like you.”

Guy shrugged, and leaned back. “Well, some of us have got it. Some of us haven't.” He glanced toward the crates. “So what are you taking to Kingston?”

“Ah, I bring them the true delights of life. The things man cannot live without.”

“Women?”

Moses laughed. “I have an agreement with a monastery out on the coast. They make wine from some awful plant that stinks like goat diarrhoea, and I sell it in the city.”

“Sounds lovely.”

“It really is very nice. Much better than the shit from the King's farms, though don't tell him I said that.” Moses waved toward the bowman. “Spank-Monkey, break out a bottle for me and my friend.”

Daniel watched the oarsman, who stared resolutely ahead, avoiding eye contact. What more could he do for them, when Moses and his men had all the weapons?

Then one of Moses' words sank in.

“What's a monastery?”

“It's a big building full of men wearing dresses. They seem to feel the best way to stay alive here is to stay as far from the assholes as they can. And, as one of the assholes, I get to make a profit on trading for them.”

The bowman pulled open one of the crates, pulled out a bottle, and smashed the top off on the side of the boat. He poured wine into two shiny mugs, then handed one each to Guy and Moses.

Daniel licked his lips. He hadn't drunk anything since he left the pod the previous day. The longer he looked at the river, and heard the water splashing against the boat, the drier his throat became, and the more he wanted to cup his hands and scoop some up. Only thinking of the diseases that might be in there stopped him. Better to die of thirst than puking out his guts.

“Can I have some?”

Moses grabbed the bottle from the bowman. “No. Who knows what trouble I'd get into if you were drunk? Guy might try to kill me again.”

Guy sipped from his mug and nodded toward Moses. Then he motioned Moses to lean closer. “I've got something I need to discuss in private.”

“Nothing sordid, I hope?”

“Got a job you might be able to help with.”

K
evin and Liam dragged Andy along the grey stone floor. Even Andy's tired, addled brain could hardly mistake the scenery. The castle was the only stone building in Kingston, and he’d walked the same route many times since joining the Guards. Besides, the skulls staring at him from stone plinths were a bit of a giveaway. The King should be adding a few new ones to the collection before long.

Hopefully not Andy’s.

But he was in no condition for walking this time. His butt and shoulders were raw from being dragged along the road for half the night by that bloody bear, and the girl. The dirt and rocks had torn through the pants and jerkin, and into his skin, before the bitches slowed down for long enough for him to pull his foot from the leather strap that had caught it when the cart raced away. When he found them again, he was going to show them what happened to girls who crossed him.

He laughed. Kevin and Liam looked down at him as though they thought he was mad.

Oh, he was going to show those bitches well.

He’d struggled along, following them, even though every step sent pain stabbing through his body. Then collapsed when his legs would carry him no further. If the Guards hadn’t found him out there, he’d be dead, like the others.

“The King wants to see you,” they’d said, and tossed him over the back of a hauler, bringing him back to Kingston. Now they dragged him through the stone archway to the King’s Chambers, past the metal gates with a Guard at each side. Two more stood in the chamber, wearing scaled leather armour. The King’s personal bodyguards. He’d dreamed of being one of them, one day, and now maybe he stood a chance.

“You’re really in the shit, mate,” Kevin whispered.

“If I was you,” Liam added, “I’d have run. The King’s gonna execute you for sure.”

Kevin licked his lips. “Hope you taste good.”

They tossed him to the floor, then stepped aside. He pushed himself up on his hands. The King sat in the middle of the chamber on a tall, grey rock he had worked over the years into a throne, with carvings of his famous exploits. The first bear he killed after landing, without steam power for his exoskeleton. The Battle of Kingston, when he finally settled the question of who ruled the Borderlands. Opening the first mine, up in the mountains, where he dug the first tunnel himself. A carving of his helmeted face hung from the wall behind, with rugged, young skin where he now had scars and wrinkles.

His white-haired younger daughter sat on the rock, with a short, shiny dagger in her hands. She glanced up at Andy, then metal scraped on stone as she rubbed the blade on the rock.

“Sir...” Andy gasped.

“I didn’t tell you to speak.” The King leaned closer. “I just wanted to see what failure looks like.”

The King’s big, glowing eyes stared at Andy, and the smell of burning wood filled his nose. Didn’t the King understand he had important news for him, about the crazy girls?

“I heard you were bringing me a new girl for my harem,” the King said. “I was very excited by the news, as I haven’t had anyone who could entertain me properly for weeks. They just want to bitch about me knocking them up.”

Andy nodded. The King had at least a couple of dozen girls in his harem. Surely one of them could relieve him? Andy would settle for half a dozen. Or even just one, for now.

The King lowered a metal-clad fist in front of Andy’s face. Then flung it open. “Now, poof. She’s gone. The cart is gone. The other Guards who were guarding her have gone. You are all that is left. And I ‘m not getting any action tonight.”

“Naughty, Daddy,” the girl said, and giggled.

Should Andy speak? Or wait to be told? The King stared at him, saying nothing. Maybe he should?

“The cart broke down, sir. Then we were attacked.”

“By what? A legion of Space Marines? The King’s Guards are supposed to be the toughest bastards in Kingston. That’s what I pay you for. That’s why you’re feared throughout the Borderlands. What kind of army beat you?”

“There was this bear...”

The King laughed. “A bear? I killed dozens of them with my bare hands when I first landed on this shit-stain of a planet. I wouldn’t waste a bullet on a fucking bear.”

“It was as tall as a house, and had tits like furry melons.”

The King paused for a second, red eyes narrowed. He huffed. “A hybrid? And what did it do?”

“Killed everyone, and stole the cart. I tried to fight it off, but the girl grabbed me. Then they dragged me for miles behind the cart, trying to kill me. I barely escaped with my life.”

The King stood, and motioned toward the Guards. “Kevin, tell the rest of the men to be on the lookout for a ten metre tall bear with tits like melons. And bring her to me. If she turns up in Kingston, she won’t he hard to find.”

Then he turned back to Andy.

“Now, you. When I allowed you the honour of serving in the King's Guards, you vowed to protect my charges with your life, did you not?”

At the time, it had seemed a better deal than starving to death. “Yes, sir.”

“Then why are you not dead?”

“I wanted to warn you.”

“I'd rather have warm pussy than a warning.”

“You should have given us more guns. We only had one, and the girl got it away from me.”

“Guns are valuable. Girls are valuable. You are not. Thanks to you, I've not only lost my new girl, a cart, and a hauler, I've lost a gun, too.” The King glanced toward Keven, then nodded at Andy. “Toss this one on the barbie at the Brawl tomorrow.”

The girl glanced up, and smiled as she touched the blade of the knife to her lips. Then she stared at Andy with dark eyes.

“Daddy, can I skin him first?”

The King stroked her hair. “If you’re good tomorrow.”

Andy ignored the pain as he pushed himself to his feet.

“Sir, give me a chance. I'll find the bear for you, and I'll bring back everything you lost. I'll find your girl, too.”

The King's laugh echoed back from the hard stone walls. It continued echoing for a moment after he stopped laughing, as it bounced back and forth in the corridors nearby.

“Why should I believe a cripple can do that, when you’ve been such a failure at everything else?”

Andy glanced toward the girl, who slowly licked along her knife blade as she stared at him. The corners of her lips twisted into a half-smile as he watched.

“Because you’ll feed my balls to your daughters, if I don’t.”

D
aniel stared at the wrinkled face above him. Empty, pecked-out eye sockets stared back. The head was impaled on a wooden spike that looked like it was cut from a tree top, beside a wall of weathered, fungus-covered logs along the riverbank. Dried blood coated the remains of its neck, and long brown trails had dripped down the spike after it was impaled there. Dozens more rotting heads lined the wall. Mostly male, mostly human, between a few females and hybrids.

“Who were these people?”

“They pissed off the King,” Guy said. “So try not to.”

“Careful, Butt-Clench,” Moses yelled behind them as glass clattered against wood. “Those bottles are delicate.”

The crossbowmen was hunched down on one knee, trying to get a good grip on a crate of wine. He moved his hands, then climbed to his feet again, grunting under the weight. Glass rattled against wood as he lifted it.

If Kingston was what passed for a city on Hades, it was a lousy one. The log wall stretched for a hundred metres along the riverbank before it turned inland, past tall stone walls and battlements, toward the nearby foothills. Open wooden gates three times Daniel's height filled a gap between the logs. A King’s Guard holding a long axe stood on each side of the gates, staring at those who approached.

Moses took the pile of fur from the boat. “I'm going to the tailor,” he yelled to his men as they struggled toward the gates, loaded down with crates and kegs. “Try not to bankrupt me before I return.”

What a dick. “Why did you even ask him to give us a lift?”

“My feet were tired. That saved us a couple of hours. Hope he didn’t scare you too much.”

“I’m not homophobic.”

Guy sniggered. “Believe me, you would have been, if he’d got his hands on you. Lucky I was there to protect you.”

Moses' men grunted and swore as they carried crates toward the gates. Chains rattled between the feet of the oarsmen, who sweated under the weight of two crates each. The slave-master cracked his whip behind them. Yet, still, they didn't turn on the man and beat him to a pulp.

Daniel wanted to run over, grab the keys, and unchain them all. But then what? If the bowmen didn't kill him, the oarsmen probably would. He couldn't force them to be free.

“They could have killed us.”

Guy strolled toward the gate. He didn't seem scared, but he must have been there many times before. Besides, he had guns. He'd probably killed more men than the Guards had.

“They could have tried, but I would have got a couple of them first. There’s a difference between jumping an unarmed newbie, and someone who’s lived by their wits and weapons for twenty years. A man can shoot you with the same gun you want to steal.”

A red circle inside a black triangle was painted on each side of the gate, like the patterns on the shinies, or two evil eyes staring at anyone who approached. “What are they?”

“You’ll find out.”

“You could just tell me.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Two bodies lay rotting by the wall, their guts hanging out and small flying things hovering over them. One was stripped bare, the other wore an orange jumpsuit. A rat chewed on the dead newbie's fingers. That could have been Daniel.

“Will anyone still be alive next week?”

“Life gets hectic when the newbies arrive. Lots of fresh faces who don't know the rules, lots of new power relationships to work out. It'll calm down in a month or two. Until next year.”