Hera (5 page)

It must be only the harbor
neighborhood
, she told herself and gripped her gun more
tightly. Surely other parts of the town looked – and smelled –
better.

There was the shuffle of feet, and something
whizzed past her ear.
What in the hells?
She threw herself
sideways, and the second dart, for that was what it was, hit a wall
and ricocheted, striking the cement with a hair-raising
screech.

Shaking with shock and anger she got to her
feet. Whoever was there would soon regret this pitiful attack. She
took aim, her pulse racing, but never got the chance to fire. A
whirlwind of hands and feet and high-pitched voices stormed her.
She knocked a bony hand aside with the handle of her longgun and
kicked at a leg before she even realized who these persons
were.

Children
.

She turned the muzzle of her gun in a circle,
zeroing on face after emaciated, small face, and her breath caught
at their stench, their blackened feet, their shredded clothes.
Children living on the street?
They crouched as if about to
attack, and she steadied her aim on the tallest one who seemed to
be their leader.

“Go away and I will not kill you,” she said,
proud her voice did not waver. The boy’s eyes hardened, then
softened as he glanced around him.
Aha, a weakness
. “You do
not want the others to die, do you? You’re responsible for them.
Take them and go.”

He surprised her by lifting his chin and
taking a step toward her. “We need food and water and medicine.
Come on, give us what you got and we go.”

“I have nothing.” And that saddened her, she
realized with surprise, because they looked thin and hungry. Did
their whole family live on the street? Mortals were raised by their
mothers and fathers, she knew, being born so much weaker than the
Gultur. She tried to imagine growing up with Tefnut – a hand
caressing her hair and an arm around her shoulders – and a rare
feeling of jealousy closed up her throat. “Where are your
parents?”

“Parents?” He laughed but it was bitter and
sharp, and it was odd, coming from him. He did not look older than
twelve. “Your race killed them off. Prevention measures, they
called them. Murder, I say.”

Shit
. Hera’s head spun. Although she’d
grown up without her mother, she’d always been surrounded by her
teachers and trainers. She could not imagine growing up without
someone older to guide her, feed her, teach and prepare her for the
future.

Sobek. If only that future did not frighten
me.

Hera took a deep breath, knowing she did not
have much time before her escape was discovered. She needed to get
back fast, yet not before getting the intel she had come out for.
“Tell me this: is there a raid tonight? Can you take me there?”

“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” He spat and
wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, scowling. “But you don’t
wear a visor and don’t have a shield. They left you behind, didn’t
they?”

“You stupid...” She bit her tongue. The other
children’s faces twisted in grimaces of fear and anger. “No, they
did not leave me behind. I just need to know... the truth.”

“The truth is that your bastard race’s
killing us,” he said, his dark eyes narrowed. “You’re killing us
every day, in every way. You took control of everything and left us
begging for scraps. You treat us like dogs, squish us like bugs.
You got everything. How come we got nothing, huh?”

“You started the War.” Gods, her voice
trembled now and her gun shook just a little. She tightened her
grip on the handle. “You tortured us and killed us first.”

“So this is your revenge? For something
nobody remembers?”

“We remember. It happened five hundred and
seventy years ago,” Hera quoted, her voice like stone but starting
to crack. “It is written. You started—”

“Buzzardshit.” The boy took a shuffling step
toward her, his hands fisted at his sides, his cheeks flushed.
“Says who? You. Besides, who cares who started what five hundred
years ago? It wasn’t my parents and it wasn’t me, was it?”

Hera couldn’t breathe. Every day, together
with the other Gultur of her quarter, she’d prayed to the Gods to
save her from the mortals who wanted her death, who wanted her
destruction, and to give her strength to smite them. She’d asked
Regina to lend her strength to do what she must.

Today everything she’d always known seemed
wrong and stupid.

The boy glared. He’d taken another step
closer. His eyes glittered, and his hair, sandy like Sacmis’s, hung
in greasy strands around his thin face. He reeked of sweat and shit
and truth.

Hera took a deep breath and savored it. “Just
take me to the raid,” she whispered, lowering her gun so it didn’t
point at his head anymore. “I need to see.”

“See to believe, huh?”

“Something like that.”

“If I take you, you give me your gun?”

“Nobody takes my gun.” She scowled.

The boy suddenly grinned. “And if I have my
gang take it from you?”

“Your memory is too short, boy.” She sneered.
“If you do not do as I say, I’ll shoot, and they’ll die. Do you
really want that?”

He squinted at her. “Do
you
?”

Dammit.
Silence filled her mouth and
killed the words.
Do I?
She sighed and lifted her gun again,
aiming at his head. “I said, take me.”

A smaller boy tugged at the leader from
behind. “Mantis, take her there. Do it, come on, man. She’ll kill
you if you don’t.”

The leader – Mantis – nodded. “You’re right,
Kem.”

She wanted to laugh, though her stomach was
in knots. “What, you do as a little one says?”

He cocked his head to the side, observing
her, barely blinking. “It’s not always the strongest who knows
best, I’ll have you know.”

Hera winced. “And you have said enough. Take
me.”

Mantis shrugged. Turning on his heel, he
started off down an alley. “Come if you like, fe. Your kind gets
off on blood and death, huh?”

“That is a stupid thing to say. Nobody likes
blood and death.” She hurried after him, wondering as she did why
she felt she had to correct him, or explain anything. The other
kids dispersed, melting into the shadows of fire escapes and other
alleys. “We are not like that.”

“But you are. You will be.” He gave her a
sidelong glance. He walked remarkably fast for a young boy. “When
you get older.”

Hera shuddered. “How do you know all this?”
About Regina maturing, overtaking me.

The boy shrugged. “All adults like
blood.”

Hera shook her head. So he did not really
know about Regina.
Being paranoid again
. He turned into a
wider street and she matched his pace.

“How often do they raid?” she asked.

“They?” He snorted. “You talk as if you
aren’t one of them, as if—Oh shit.” His face paled and he pressed
his back to a wall, waving at her to do the same. No sooner had she
hidden in the shadow of a rusty fire escape, than a Gultur patrol
marched by, visored and armed, shields held before them. A man
scuttled out of their path. One of the Gultur shoved him with her
shield and sent him smashing against a wall. He crumbled.

Hera hissed and made as if to step out, gun
at the ready, but Mantis’ hand on her arm stopped her. She stood,
frozen in place, as the Gultur laughed and marched on.

“Is he all right?” she whispered.

“Well, he’s not dead. He’s a lucky bastard.”
Face grim, Mantis tugged her away and into an alley full of cats
and trash.

“Wait.” Hera shook her arm free. “They would
not kill him just for standing in their way.”

“Oh, wouldn’t they?” His emotionless voice
twisted Hera’s stomach. “Hurry up or you’ll miss all the fun.”

Hera smelled the smoke long before they saw
the fire. She opened her mouth to ask where the fire brigade was
when Mantis muttered:

“They’re using the flamethrowers and
‘splosive grenades again today.”

“What are you talking about, these are
not...” Hera frowned.

Gultur helicopters and aircars surrounded the
area on fire. Black smoke billowed out of the broken windows of the
burning buildings and hung heavy on the air; it stung Hera’s eyes
and throat with every breath.

Then an explosion rocked the ground and thin
screams echoed. Where were the fire trucks? Hera squinted in the
smoky air, trying to discern what was happening, and a gasp left
her lips. She stared in shock, her knees weakening.

Oh gods.

Visored Gultur held flamethrowers aimed at
the buildings and the people inside. They were not helping, no,
they were killing, burning, destroying. Gultur were doing this,
delivering this. This raid. This death.

Bile burned the back of her throat. ‘
You
must get off on blood and death, huh?’
She dropped to her
knees, her gun cluttering to the pavement, and she retched.
Nunet’s snakes. Is this what we are? What we do? Is this what
Regina convinces us to do?

“Hey, you okay?” Mantis’ pale face loomed
over her like a moon. “It’s like you’ve never seen this shit
before.”

She shook her head, refused to take his
offered hand to stand. She made it on her own, stood on trembling
legs and holstered her gun. “I have to go back.”

“Oh yeah?” He gestured at the raid unfolding
before them. “Won’t you join them?”

“No.”
Never
. Dammit, now she had more
questions, needed more answers than before – but at least she knew
where she stood. Who she was. Who she would become if she did not
fight back. “Who leads the resistance?”

“You’re asking too much. For all I know,
you’re only looking to kill me.” He scowled. “Besides, what makes
you think I know such things? I don’t work for the damned
resistance, do I?”

“I need to contact them.”

“You’re out of your pissing mind, fe.”

He backed away then, and she knew he would
probably melt into the shadows and never return. Sweat dripped in
her eyes.

“Wait, Mantis.”

He hesitated. “What?”

She had to convince him. If only she knew
how. “I am not like them.”

He bit his lower lip. “Not yet. Soon, though,
soon you’ll be just like them.”

“No.” She wiped her mouth, swallowing hard to
get rid of the sourness in her throat; in vain. “I do not want to
be like them. I did not know, I...” She exhaled and wished she
could find the right words. “I want to stop this.”

“Heh.” His mouth twisted in an angry smile.
“And how?”

“I told you. I need to find the
resistance.”

His smile fell and he looked away, hands
loose at his sides. His shabby pants hung in shreds below his dirty
knees. His boots were holed in several places.

We’re all human.

“If you knew where to find them, you’d betray
them. The resistance.” He turned his dark gaze back on her and she
could not look away from the pain and anger and sadness that filled
it. “You’d kill them all.”

“I shall not.” How to make them trust her?
She was a Gultur. Why would they ever believe in her sincerity?
She’d only just changed her mind about everything she’d ever been
taught that morning. Yet she had to succeed, she had to convince
this boy that she would not betray his trust, if he chose to give
it.

Her mother’s words returned to her memory and
she closed her eyes briefly, drawing on them for inspiration. “Take
them... Take a message for me.” Would they know her mother? “Tell
them, Tefnut says we’re all human.”

The message at least was clear.

He scrunched up his face. “Who the hell’s
Tefnut?”

“She’s...” Hera sighed. “You do not need to
know more, that would be safer for both of us. Just tell them what
I said. If they agree to meet with me, you must find me when I
return to the Gultur military port in two days for my next patrol.
Be there. Give me their answer.”

“All right.” He looked dubious, his brows
drawn together. “Where?”

“On the other side of the high wall where I
met you.” She saw in her mind’s eye the concrete wall and frowned.
“But I’m not sure I can break out again, they may suspect me
already. Can you break in?”

The boy avoided her gaze. “There’re ways for
someone my size. Listen, fe, I’ll just pass your request along,
hoping it’ll somehow reach them.”

He looked scared, even if he tried to hide
it. Hera nodded. She hoped her suspicions were right, that her
mother’s name was known to the resistance and that it would be
enough to vouchsafe her trustworthiness to the leaders of the
Undercurrent.

Chapter Three

T
he two days crawled
by. The Bone Tower, the spacious, open-air citadel of the Gultur,
stifled Hera like a headlock. The filing observation data and her
other assignments dragged, a looping nightmare that sucked on her
concentration, leaving her empty. The lessons in biology and
history failed to hold her attention. For the first time in years,
she was reprimanded and sent to read in her room.

Terrible things were happening outside the
gilded walls and she was kept in darkness. When she finally raised
the courage to ask where her mother was stationed, she was told it
was not her business to know. Girls had nothing more to do with
their mothers after early childhood, and that was long past, so she
could not ask again without drawing attention to herself and that
was the last thing she needed right now.

Sacmis avoided her, and ignored her when
working together on an assignment became unavoidable.

Not as if I saved her life or
anything
, Hera thought bitterly. Although, deep inside she
knew, it was not she, Hera, who had saved Sacmis – but the unknown
man with his boy, the mortals she’d been about to kill.

When the day of the patrol finally arrived,
she was not overly surprised to find out that she’d been partnered
with Sacmis again, but it did complicate matters.