Condemned (Death Planet Book 1) (41 page)

He rose to a crouch, and held the sword ahead of him as he crept toward the King. He followed the side of a fallen tree trunk for cover, past the smoking bodies of more dead men.

“Haven’t you found him yet?” the King yelled.

“He’s the fucking Brain,” Liam yelled back. “Of course we haven’t found him yet.”

“Then look harder.”

Daniel climbed over the torn roots at the base of the trunk, and through the smashed branches of the tree beside it. The King faced away from him, staring toward the trees on that far side of the clearing. He wouldn’t even see Daniel creep between the fallen trees and shove the sword into his back. And whatever happened after that hardly mattered.

He took another step, keeping his head below the top of the trunk, out of sight of any Guards who might have survived. They seemed to have been smarter than most of the other men in the King’s army, and had hit the deck as soon as the flames began. He’d only seen a couple of dead or dying men in the Guards’ uniform so far, so most must still be alive.

Another few steps. He was barely five metres away.

Then a hand slapped down on his shoulder.

T
he hand heaved on Daniel’s shoulder. He twisted around, swinging the sword without even thinking. Moses dodged back, then swung his leg, and kicked Daniel in the face. He fell, and the sword slid from his grip, sliding across the dirt until it smacked against another fallen tree trunk. He slammed down on a burned body. Bones cracked as they broke under his weight, and burned flesh cushioned the fall.

Moses grabbed the sword with one hand, and Daniel’s arm with the other. “Got you, my boy.”

Daniel kicked for Moses’ balls, but Moses smacked his leg away with the side of the sword blade. Daniel glanced around. A knife lay in the dirt near the roasted body of a dying hound. He grabbed it and threw it toward Moses. The knife twisted in the air, the blade turned, and the hilt smacked into Moses’ chest. It fell harmlessly to the dirt.

“Not very good at this, are you, boy?” Moses said. “I was going to keep you, maybe let you join my crew. But perhaps it’s about time I just put you out of your misery.”

He tossed the sword from hand to hand, then swung it again. Daniel glanced around him. No weapons, only bodies. He grabbed a shield, and held it up just in time for it to take the blow that Moses had aimed at his head. Moses swung the sword again, toward his legs this time, and Daniel pulled them back.

Hounds hissed, and men howled behind him. Feet thumped on wood as they clambered over the tree trunk behind Moses.

“Mosssesss, you fucker!” Red yelled from the trunk.

Moses glanced toward them. Daniel threw his arms out, and smashed his shield into Moses’ groin. Moses grunted, and dropped the sword. Daniel grabbed it, and held it toward Moses, his heart thumping from the exertion, and throat dry from fear.

Moses looked at Daniel, then at Red and his men. Their hounds hissed at him.

He turned, and ran.

“Get him,” Red yelled, and released the hounds.

One hound ran after Moses, while the others sniffed the dead bodies around them. Two opened their mouths wide, and bit down. One ripped flesh from a dead hound, and a burned man screamed as the other tore away his arm.

“You can eat after,” Slaphead yelled, and kicked the hounds. They hissed, tossed the meat down their throats, then joined the chase. Red and the other hunters followed.

The King turned toward the noise. Daniel held up his sword and shield, and stepped out past the tree trunks, toward him. This time was really the last time. He would die, or the King would die. The King stood between two tree trunks in the middle of the clearing, while his remaining men searched the woods for the Brain.

This was the single combat Daniel had wanted. The King turned toward him, and Daniel smiled.

“Men, to me,” the King yelled.

Well, maybe not single combat for long.

K
evin crept through the bushes. The King was yelling behind him, and the other Guards were pulling back, crunching through the plants as they forced their way back to the clearing. Kevin wasn’t. If the King was going to kill him for not finding the Brain, he was going to find the Brain, or run away.

If the King got killed as a result, so be it. Kevin could be back in Kingston boning a princess before the day was out.

He should really get a new job, anyway. One where his boss didn’t threaten to kill him at least once a month. The King had always said there was only one way out of the Guards: buried six feet under the dirt of Kingston. But there had to be another city somewhere on Hades where he could hide out.

A branch snapped up ahead. Kevin crouched low as he crept toward it, watching the ground so his own boots wouldn’t snap anything, and warn whoever was hiding there.

Besides, if it was another fucking bear, he was going to turn and run screaming before it could do anything. There were far too many things living in these woods that wanted to eat him, and he needed to keep his head on his shoulders.

He sniffed. None of the mouldy fur smell the bear had filled the woods with before. Though was that only after the fight? He raised his sword. The ridges where the leather was sewn around the hilt dug into his palm as he squeezed it tight.

Something slapped down on his shoulder. He swung the sword, and barely stopped before the point slashed across Liam’s stomach. A second later, he wished he'd let it stab him.

“What are you doing?” Liam muttered.

Kevin ran his finger across his throat, to try to tell him to shut up. Liam just pushed Kevin’s sword away, then leaned closer to whisper to him.

“The King’s yelling. Shouldn’t we get back?”

“Yes. So why aren’t you?”

“I thought...”

“You thought you’d rather hide in the woods than get burned to death. Smart lad. Same here.”

Leaves swished against each other. Someone, or something, was definitely moving out there. Kevin nodded toward Liam. “Go get it,” he whispered.

Liam went to the right. Kevin took the other side, creeping round the back of the tree to their left. If something nasty was out there, one of those fucking borers, maybe, Liam could get it first. If not, well, Kevin would take the credit for leading the capture. Either way, he was better off hanging back.

Liam crouched as he pushed through the bushes on his side. Sunlight glinted from the blade of his sword as he glanced at Kevin. Kevin waved him on, and took a step toward the twitching bushes. The movements were further to the left now, as though someone was crawling along the ground beneath them, toward him.

He tried to control his breathing as he crept toward the movement. Then he lifted his foot to take another step, and it caught on something.

He crouched to pull it away from his foot. Was that a root? No, some kind of thin cable. Nothing like that would grow there. What was that doing buried under the dirt?

He grabbed it and pulled gently. The cable was wrapped around the tree, then ran across the ground through the bushes to the left. Someone must have laid it there, and tried to hide it from anyone who passed through. On the far side of the tree, it ran toward the King. No point going that way.

He crouched as low as he could, and followed the cable into the bushes. It was hooked under a root, then hidden beneath leaves as it crossed the ground beyond.

The yells from the clearing covered some of the noise as he crept forward. Liam’s crunching footsteps covered more. A man lay on the ground ahead, hidden beneath a thin layer of dirt and leaves placed over a mound of broken branches.

Dirt was smeared over the man's face, but there was no way to mistake that familiar brain tattoo on a bald, rain-splattered head that was staring toward Liam.

“It’s just a fucking rabbit,” Liam yelled.

Kevin lunged forward.

S
team and smoke filled the air as the King stepped toward Daniel. He swung the sword and fidgeted. What was he going to do, anyway? He’d expected to sneak up on the guy and stab him in the back, not fight from the front where the King had all the advantages.

The King raised his left hand in a fist, ready to punch Daniel with a blow that would probably kill him. Then the right hand reached down to his waist, and swung up again, now holding his revolver. The hammer clicked down. Daniel raised the shield high, and dodged to the right as the gun fired. The bullet blew a cloud of splinters from the wood, and smacked into the tree trunk behind him.

The King’s metal-clad thumb pulled the hammer back again. That settled it, Daniel would be safer close to the King than far away. He held up the shield and ducked behind it as he ran toward the King.

The gun boomed again. Splinters exploded from the wood above Daniel, and the bullet hissed past his scalp. A man yelled behind him, as the bullet smacked into his chest instead.

The King tossed the gun aside, and swung his fist.

Daniel held up the sword, then thought better of it, and dodged to the right. The fist smashed into the ground beside him, and flying dirt tapped against the shield.

He swung the sword. He could see pipes and wires on the King’s wrist, between the metal plates that protected him, and the metal rods that moved the suit. Would cutting through them stop it working? Surely it couldn’t hurt.

But that was irrelevant. The blade smacked into the metal plates instead, and slid off. The King’s arm swung, and hit the shield. The impact knocked Daniel back, and the blades on the King’s wrist slashed through the wood, tearing away the top few centimetres of the shield. The King’s red eyes stared at him over the broken shield, and the mouth smiled.

Why had this ever seemed like a good idea?

The King had strength and endurance. All Daniel had was a sword, and part of a shield.

And speed.

As the King swung again, Daniel dove to the ground, and rolled. The wrist blades hacked another chunk from his shield, but he climbed to his feet behind the King’s leg. He swung the sword as the King turned, and it slashed through the wires on the left ankle, before smacking into a metal pipe. The pipe bent, and steam hissed out. The King tried to move the foot, and it just groaned.

Daniel swung again, but the King’s hand swung his way. Daniel dodged and rolled back, and the hand smacked into a Guard’s chest, instead. The man screamed as the impact threw him back over the nearby tree trunk, with blood spurting from the wounds in his chest.

Daniel looked up. Two more Guards approached from the woods, running between the fallen trunks. Another climbed onto a tree trunk with a crossbow in his hands, and swung it Daniel’s way. Pig-Face dropped to the ground from the fallen trunk behind him, and raised his sword.

The King smiled at Daniel again.

“Time to die, boy.”

A
heavy weight slammed down onto the Brain’s back. He grunted as it forced the air from his body, and tried to roll aside. But the weight held him down. A sword clattered to the ground, then hands grabbed his wrists, and pulled them back.

He kicked his legs, but Kevin slammed his own leg into the back of the Brain’s. Then Kevin grabbed his sword, rolled the Brain over, and held the point at the Brain’s neck.

The Brain stared up at Kevin. He vaguely recognized the man. Wasn’t he one of the guards from the castle? He was sure he’d seen that big nose through the grille in the cell door now and again. What was he doing there?

It was the Brain's own fault. Desire for revenge had made him sloppy. He shouldn’t have been so engrossed in watching the chaos he’d created to let some dumb guard sneak up on him. He’d thought that showing himself at his first hiding spot would keep them searching there while he hid at the second.

Now what?

Grab the sword and stab him? Not likely to work. Electric shock from the battery? Too far from the cables, and too low a voltage. Throw dirt and leaves to distract him? The helmet would protect him from most of it. Any violent solution was a big risk. The King would want him alive, but that didn’t mean this asshole wouldn’t kill him in self-defence.

“What’s going on?” Liam said. Then stared down at the Brain. “Oh, fuck.”

Now, two of them. If they shouted for help, they’d soon bring enough friends to drag him back to that shit-smelling dungeon. And that couldn’t happen.

“Get up,” Kevin said.

A drone buzzed above them. The Brain carefully rose to his knees. From there, he might have a chance.

“We’ve...” Kevin shouted.

The Brain swung his arm into the flat of the sword blade, as he pulled his head away from the point. He’d have a split second while Kevin’s brainstem decided whether to stab him, or try to grab him without injury. The Brain threw himself into Kevin’s legs, and knocked them out from beneath him. Kevin slammed back into the tree behind him.

Kevin's sword fell to the ground, but Liam swung his at the Brain’s head. The Brain ducked, and kicked out, slamming his feet into Liam’s calves. Liam tumbled forward, and his helmet rolled away as he smacked down into the bush. The branches crunched as he squashed it beneath him.

“Help,” Liam yelled.

Shit. Too late.

Kevin reached for his sword. But something small and black dropped from the branch above him. Simon spread his legs wide as he fell, and Kevin looked up just in time for the spider to land on his face. Kevin yelled and fell back, as Simon tried to bite his nose through the gaps in his helmet.

“Simon,” the Brain yelled.

Liam rolled over. Then a bare, muddy foot smashed into his face, and he slumped back down.

Guy grabbed Liam’s sword, and raised it high.

“Stop playing with them, and let’s go.”

He slammed the sword down. Liam gasped as the blade smashed through his chest, and into the dirt beneath, impaling him there. Guy slid his arms past the sword hilt, and rubbed the cord that tied his wrists against the blade until it cut through the leather, and the cord fell away.

Kevin yelled as he grabbed for Simon, smacking his hands against the helmet as they tried to find the spider. Simon twisted and turned, and bit the fingers as they reached for him.