There was a figure on the horizon. Heat waves distorted it, and it was a wonder that it could move at all beneath the overbearing heat of the true sun. Greenblatt could barely make it out from his scope, but he could hear it, even from this far away. It sounded familiar, and it was already giving him a headache again.
“It’s him,” he said. He handed the scope to Ulrich, who was sat on the back of the pack beast. The big man took it and looked down it the wrong way, the same Krav had the first time he used it. Greenblatt sighed and flipped it for him.
“Are you sure that’s him? It could be anyone. Could be a witch the way it’s jabbering.”
“It’s him, alright. Check his belt. He still has the skull.”
“Then where’s Mac?”
That was a troubling question indeed. Greenblatt panned the horizon and found nothing but cacti and tumbleweeds. If the situation weren’t so dire, he’d be happy to only have to deal with one of the little troublemakers.
It had been a few days since they left the Pit. Ulrich had insisted on staying and spending time with his risen warlord. It was a gesture Greenblatt was unfamiliar with, but he allowed it. Even though he was wracked with anxiety over Krav and Mac every second spent not looking for them.
The Black Thumb clan wasn’t much for warlord worship, not when he was warlord anyways. What he saw from the Pit Lords was on a whole other level away from worship. It was like watching a father return home from war and having all of his children run to embrace him.
Shiela the Lioness, who had killed thirty-seven people in a single night, sobbed when she heard his voice. Hati and Loken touched his armored carapace like it was the hem of god’s robes. Mateo and Boris excitedly recounted every battle they had fought since his decommission, which they were pleased to hear he could recall from his catatonic state. Ulrich simply watched in awe.
By the end of it, Greenblatt and Ulrich had secured a powerful ally in the Pit Lords. As thanks for reawakening their warlord, they promised to go to war with the Gordo clan as soon as they recovered from the destruction of their home.
Now, the pair went west. It was the only direction they could agree on. They could only go off of the memory of the map from the bar in Mallum Vid. Ulrich mentioned something about a bunker, but Greenblatt swore that had nothing to do with it. They decided to keep an eye out for a large oasis. That couldn’t be terribly hard.
Rather than find a jungle, they came across a crispy young man dragging an axe through the desert. And he was missing their companion.
“No idea where she could be. Shiela said she saw them leave together. You don’t think…”
“I don’t assume anything,” Ulrich answered. “We’ll ask him soon enough.”
The closer they got to Krav, the more tangible his yelling became. Venomous words of spite carried on the heated wind, scorching Greenblatt’s ears and making them ring. Most of it was incoherent ramblings, but they could make out a few words in between. Mainly, he shouted, “Kill that four-eyed fuck!”
When they finally reached him, Greenblatt poked him with a stick. The boy was like a timebomb, and if he dared get any closer he might lose his head.
Krav snapped up at Greenblatt, and the warlord’s heart sank. He had seen those eyes before. Once before he left his love in Kiva Noon, and once again a few months prior on his own face. The pale grey circles were like rings of caked dust, but they were the first sign that he was wasting.
“Krav…” he said. “What have you gotten into this time?”
The boy stared at him for a long while, then continued walking as if they were mirages. Greenblatt looked back at Ulrich, who just shrugged. “He’s wasting.”
“So are you,” Ulrich said. Then he turned to the boy. “Hey! Where’s Mac?”
“He’s just a kid though. I’m in my thirties; I’ve made my peace. He’ll turn in the next couple of years if he’s lucky.”
Ulrich ignored him. “Krav! Where’s Mac?”
“Mac…” He grabbed the skull on his hip and stared at it. When it didn’t speak to him, he knew he wasn’t losing his mind. “That four-eyed freak in the feather coat took her.”
“Jackmaw Yapyap?”
“No. Not Jackass Yapyap. Shit-o.” The name was burned into the back of his eyes. He had recognized him briefly from Agua Fria as the man who stopped Jackmaw from kidnapping him, which meant he was the reason they took Lenny instead. Now he took Mac too.
And he had shot him in the stomach.
Ulrich pointed out his wound, and Greenblatt carefully made his way to it. The boy was dehydrated, and as a consequence he was partially losing his mind. “Come on. Let’s get you to rest. I can patch you up and you can tell me what happened.”
Krav shook his head and pointed to the sky. Far off in the air, a speck was soaring towards the twin suns. “Follow that bird.”
They had to wrestle Krav onto the back of the pack beast. Even after promising not to stop following the mega vulture, he thrashed and kicked in their grips. Ulrich held his shoulders down, and eventually he lost his strength. They forced water down his throat and waited for his spirit to calm before Greenblatt began to operate.
As stitched passed through his gashed stomach, they filled each other in on their situations. Mac was reclaimed by her clan, and she had plugged his wound with the map. The Gordo clan had a small army of lobotomites with them. It was something that made Greenblatt’s stomach sink. If Jackmaw Yapyap’s main consul had them in his possession, then he could only guess what had happened to Kiva Noon. The Black Thumbs had either continued to drown their good name being complacent with raiders, or they had been enslaved.
He didn’t like either answer.
As for Mac, she was back with her people. It couldn’t be that bad. The girl had done nothing but praise them ever since she had been separated. But Krav said that she didn’t want to go with Shi-Toh. That didn’t make sense until Greenblatt began putting the pieces together.
“Didn’t Jackmaw want to recruit you as well? Why leave you?”
“I don’t care about why,” Krav said through his gritted teeth. The needle and wire were almost done sewing him together. Crusted scabs flaked away as the skin was pulled taught, and pain like molten pins flared in his abdomen. “I’m going to make him wish he was never fucking born. Take me to him.”
“You’re in no position to fight,” Ulrich said.
“I’ve got a pocket full of zerker that says otherwise.”
“You also have a freshly patched hole in your stomach. Unless you have a miracle in there as well, you’re going to be out of this fight.”
The boy stared at the bird in the sky. If he could reach out and squeeze the life out of it, he would. Instead, Krav leaned back against Greenblatt and closed his eyes. For just a moment, he could rest if it meant he’d be able to regain his strength and strangle everyone in the Gordo clan.
Miles ahead of him, Shi-Toh saw Paradise on the horizon. He commanded his men to halt as he assessed the situation. Jackmaw had warned that the area was densely populated with monstrous animals, and it was apparent by the bending of the trees that indeed giants moved here.
Mac stared back in Krav’s direction. The heels of her boots had all but shredded away as she was dragged through the sand. She barely looked at Shi-Toh when he asked his question, but when he smacked her on the back of her head with his gun, she was all ears.
“Wake up! I need your eyes.”
She nodded and stood for the first time since she’d been kidnapped. Wide eyed, she stared at the jungle and momentarily forgot about her peril. “What is this place?”
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“Paradise, evidently. Do you see anything concerning?”
“Like what?” she rubbed the back of her throbbing skull.
“Like that,” Shi-Toh said, and he pointed to something high in the trees. It looked like a shaggy bear with long arms. Its jaw worked slowly as it squashed a juicy fruit between flat teeth. Yellow eyes pierced the tree line and watched them with something like trepidation.
“What is that thing?” one of the raiders said. He aimed his weapon at it.
Shi-Toh snatched it from him. “It’s a megafauna, you fool! And not the kind you can find all over the valley. This place is different to anything you’ve ever encountered.” He scanned the area, then spotted what he was looking for. A handful of feathers pounded into a tree with a nail. They pointed the way forward. “This way. And for Karma’s sake, don’t look it in the eye.”
As the group passed beneath the canopy, the mega sloth crawled towards them. Its movement was slow, but its size made its approach quick. Clawed fingers gripped wooden branches, and it leaned curiously towards the raiders.
The red eyed woman was sweating profusely. Each of her lobotomites was waiting on her order to cut down the creature, but it seemed like even with their strength, it would be like sending an army of ants with toothpicks to fight a grown man. As the beast stretched low and sniffed at her, she felt like she might explode.
“Hi,” Mac said, wiping away her tears. She reached up and tangled her fingers in its fur. The mega sloth was startled at first, shaking the tree as it jumped at her touch. When it turned its head and saw her sad eyes, it softened slightly and leaned into her touch. “I’m the Great Macaw, but my friends call me-”
“Macaw! Don’t touch that thing! The sooner it leaves us, the better.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” the red eyed woman said. As much as she hated being in the vicinity of the mega sloth, there was something else she was afraid of more. She had noticed it when the raider with the pipe spotted it. For some reason, he remained silent, perhaps not registering what he was looking at. “There’s something right there, Lord Shi-Toh.”
The feathered man followed her finger. She was pointing at a tree close by. At first glance, it was just a tree, but a strange growth on the side seemed to be alive. He watched it for a long time, then he could have sworn he saw it breathe. His eyes almost fell out from behind his glasses.
“What in the Karmic hell…”
“I think this beast’s presence is protecting us from the others. I think they’re scared of it.”
The growth on the tree shivered, and Shi-Toh knew it was some sort of camouflaged animal. He had of course encountered carpet beasts in the valley, but this was something else. Those things just buried themselves, this creature actually looked like it grew from the tree and hugged against.
As they passed, the red eyed woman chanced a glance behind them. The creature on the tree changed positions. Long limbs stretched around the tree, and a glimmer of eyes shined where the sun met them. Her heart jumped into her throat and if she didn’t have the bionic set of eyes, she would have started sobbing on the spot. A massive spider stared back at them, easily the size of Kiva Noon’s gate.
“We can’t go on…” she said. Then she was snatching at Shi-Toh’s feathered robes. “We have to go back! This place isn’t paradise! It’s hell!”
“Control yourself! They clearly aren’t concerned with us when we have this creature is by our side.”
“I can’t! They could be around any corner!”
The lobotomites were starting to shiver and falter. Their master’s emotional state was making them jumpy as well. Shi-Toh knew he had to get her to calm down or else his escort team would be whittled down to a blithering mess of shaky corpse-puppets and scared shooters. He pulled his pistol on her and put it to her forehead.
“I said control yourself! You’re under the command of the king of the world now, and he has asked that you bring me and the Macaw to him alive. What is a giant spider in the face of power like his?”
“It’s a giant spider for Karma’s sake! I would have been afraid of it if it was the size of my hand!”
Suddenly, Mac put a hand on the red eyed woman’s shoulder. Shi-Toh eyed her before replacing his pistol in its holster. The girl had a weak, but comforting smile on her face. “I bet they won’t touch us with this big guy around,” she said. Mac led the red eyed woman’s hands to the soft fur of the mega sloth. “I think he might eat them.”
“It is… soft.”
They were completely unaware of what else stalked them in the trees. High up, shaggy beasts the size of normal men were silently climbing through the branches with so much coordination and intelligence, it wasn’t clear if they were animals or people.
Deeper in the jungle, Jackmaw Yapyap wrenched a tooth from the fleshy jaws of the lizard they had slain and eaten. It was big enough to be mistaken as an adolescent drinking horn. The warlord had one of the artificer slaves from Kiva Noon turn it into finery for his war sage.
Lenny wore it with no pride. To him, the tooth was a reminder that Jackmaw couldn’t be killed easily. The slash in his leg was all that he received from a monstrous beast and a hail of Ammo. The war sage touted it around his neck like a millstone.
They continued on, following the river where more megafauna avoided the king of the world. Lenny could sense them now. He had spent enough time in the swampy jungle to sniff their foul odors out of the air and spot their glowing eyes in the flora. They really were everywhere out here. Around every tree trunk, behind every bush, and absolutely stalking just beneath the waves of the river.
Jackmaw rode on the back of Bantu with Lenny while the men cleared a path ahead. The boy spoke up, and his voice cut through Jackmaw’s boredom. “Why do you want the Emerald Expanse so badly? What’s out there?”
“Your scab head master really should have told you.”
“Don’t call him that.”
The warlord’s neck cracked as he turned with a terrifying speed. There was a smile on his face, as if he was pleased that Lenny was finally sticking up for himself. “Alright, kid. You really want to know? We’re looking for a whole bunch of something that people outside the valley want.”
Outside the valley. Lenny had never considered that there was anything other than the valley. He definitely hadn’t thought that there was anyone roaming outside of it, anyway.
“The world’s a big place,” Jackmaw continued, as if Lenny wore his questions on his face. “The weapons we have, the ones that we’re going to use to take over the valley, they come from outside. There’s a group of people that make them. They trade them for something that’s completely useless to us.”
“And what is that?”
“This.” Jackmaw reached into a basket on Bantu’s back and produced a tiny vial. Inside, something like clay sifted. It looked like wet grey sand except it had a green glimmer to it. “You can find it all over the fucking place, but the Emerald Expanse has the most.”
“How do you know that?”
Jackmaw rubbed his head through his mask. Lenny was reaching for the vial, but the warlord quickly tucked it away. There was an impatient scowl on his face. “Enough questions. If you know too much, you might try to stop me. Tell me what Shi-Toh is up to. Did he find my apprentice or what?”
In truth, Lenny didn’t know. The rituals the feathered man had taught him on remote communication were pretty much bunk. He could, however, still see through the eyes of the bird. Whenever he closed his eyes and focused on where it was, he could feel wind under his arms. The heat of the sun was twice as harsh on his face. He could feel his toes curl into talons.
The mega vulture was in pain. It was so overwhelming, it almost broke Lenny’s concentration. He could only see out of one eye now, and the bird was forced to fly lower to account for its impaired vision.
When they entered Paradise, the beast flew into the canopy. It was hopping from branch to branch, following Shi-Toh and his group through the jungle. There was no sign of Krav, but he did have the girl, the one they called the great Macaw, with him. They had a mega sloth in tow, the same one that scared Dansk just a day ago. They were close.
Before Lenny could open his eyes and cut the link between his spirit and the bird’s, it hopped again, then shrieked. It flapped manically, but it was trapped in some sort of net. From its one good eye, Lenny saw Shi-Toh turn on his heels and pull out his pistol.
There were figures moving in the tree. They looked like animals, but they weren’t megafauna. As they glided through the trees and approached the mega vulture, Lenny could feel it panic. It hissed and tried to flap its wings in protest.
The figures stood on their hind legs like humans, but they were covered in shaggy fur. They had giant heads, and red and green faces stared out from their matted hair. Each had a spear in their hands, and Lenny counted five in the tree alone.
One of them approached the bird, loping along a branch. It reached out its spear and poked the vulture, which proceeded to scream and protest. The thing retreated and studied it. From the ground, there was a great commotion. Lenny could hear yelling and gunfire, but the bird wouldn’t turn its head to see. It was too focused on the thing that was prodding it.
There was a slap on Lenny’s face, and he was forced back into his own body.
“Earth to war sage! Does Shi-Toh have your brother or what?”
“He’s under attack by some sort of animal. It didn’t look like megafauna though. They should be about a day behind us.”
Jackmaw didn’t look like he was entertained by that answer. He was frowning and picking scraps of meat from his teeth. “Is your brother there or what?”
Lenny just shook his head. Seeing Krav again was becoming a dream he might never see come true. Some days it felt like he was just in reach, like he could feel him on his fingertips. Others, he was so far away he couldn’t see him. Even when the Gordo clan restrained him to the mask and trapped him in visions, Krav was becoming exceedingly rare.
And every time Lenny saw him, he had those damned eyes. There was no way he could be wasting, he told himself. Most people that they met that were wasting had been older. In fact, the merchant they met, Greenblatt, had been the youngest by far.
“Lord Jackmaw!” called the tallyman. He was excitedly rushing through the ranks of the Gordo clan, hopping along them the same way the strange beasts had leapt through the trees. “My king! My king!”
“What the hell is it? Can’t you see I’m having a damned conversation here!”
The tiny scout had brought the entire marching caravan to a standstill. He waited at the feet of Bantu, not daring to climb the elephant without express permission. That seemed to make Jackmaw even angrier.
“Well get your ass up here and give me your report! If I have to go down there, I’m punting you all the way to the other side of the fucking jungle!”
The tallyman snorted like a pug as he excitedly hurried up Bantu’s leg. When he got to the top, he pushed passed Lenny and went straight to Jackmaw. He was cupping something in both hands. When he got to his master’s feet, the tallyman knelt and tried to kiss them.
Jackmaw scowled and pulled them back. “Knock it off and tell me!”
“My lord!” he extended his hands to him like an ancient priest offering up a sacrifice; head bowed and knees bent. In his tiny hands, he held two fistfuls of the shimmering substance. Clumpy, wet sand that had a light grey color and shone with green.
“Shale,” Jackmaw smiled. He pet the tallyman on the head. “Lead on, boy. Take us to it.”
