Only time would tell.
“Strong!” Skrew repeated, and this time, he wrapped his hands around my bicep.
I tore my arm free and gave him a light shove. I barely used any force, but the vrak toppled head over heels through the detritus.
“Strong!” Skrew gave me a sharp-toothed grin as he sat upright.
Oh, boy. I hoped the crazy vrak turned out to be one hell of a guide.
Chapter Eleven
I took a little time to wash my hands and face in a stream before heading back to the small clearing. I didn’t want the old woman to suffer even more distress because of my appearance. I had more vrak blood on me than I thought that many of them could hold. They weren’t that big, after all. It turned out out the vrak weren’t just vicious; they were also kind of juicy.
I stared into the stream and saw no difference in my appearance, but I definitely wasn’t what I used to be. My experience with the Lakunae had been real… somehow. I had strength, speed, and knowledge. But their gifts hadn’t come without strings attached.
I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I remembered what they told me. They wanted to enter this universe, and they wanted me to be the man opening the door. One thing I knew for certain: there was no such thing as a free lunch. I filed that thought away for later.
A few minutes later, I was as clean as I was going to get. I hurried back to the clearing and found Skrew whacking one of the dead guards with a stick. He probably needed to get his aggression out, so I left him to it and turned my attention to the old woman who’d climbed a tree again. She must decided it was better to hang around the foliage than on the ground with a bunch of corpses. And Skrew. I couldn’t say I blamed her.
“We’re safe now,” I said as I raised my hands to help her down. She stared at me from the darkness of her hood. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I got all of them. There are none left to return to the village. But a search party might come soon. We need to leave here. Please, come down.”
She leaned forward, trusting me to catch her, which I easily did. The poor old lady was shaking and breathing hard. I hadn’t been able to wash all the blood off my clothes, and they were ripped in a couple of places. It could have been the violence that caused her to tremble like this, or the proximity to her dead tormentors, or something else. I wasn’t sure, so I did the only thing I felt I could do. I held her to my chest and allowed her to be silent. She’d talk when she was ready. I had no idea what her captor had done to her, so I wasn’t going to rush it. She could take all the time she needed.
“Skrew,” I said. “Quit playing with that thing and lead us to your hidey-hole. She needs to get some sleep.”
Skrew looked up from the mess of a guard and frowned at the bundle of rags in my arms. “Skrew does as he is told. This way.”
Before I followed him, I examined the vrak rifle again. It was far too risky of a weapon to fire with any reliability. Closer inspection confirmed my earlier suspicion that the firearm would also be likely to backfire or explode in my hands. Whether I liked it or not, I would have to continue without a weapon.
With Skrew in the lead, I held the old woman in my arms while we walked for hours through the almost endless jungle. I was amazed at my own strength and endurance. I could have carried her before, but not for hours.
Along the way, I kept a wary eye out for threats but also thought about what I needed to do. I wanted to search out the crew of the Revenge, but I had more pressing concerns. Shelter, water, food, and rest for the old woman and myself. Skrew seemed as if he had an endless supply for energy, skipping around and reenacting the fight with the guards. At first, I smiled, but then I started growing tired of his antics. He stopped only after I threatened to pick him up and throw him halfway across the jungle.
As the night gave way to day, the jungle became a rainforest of rocks and steep hills. A short while later, Skrew turned around and pointed at a bush. “We’re here!”
“You’re kidding,” I said. “What are we meant to do with that?”
“No kidding. This is Skrew’s hidey-hole! It is safe. It is dry. It is good for sleeping and not getting eaten by crawly-things. It is not tall. It is not wide. But it is mine. Jacob does not like?”
“It’s a bush,” I said, wondering if I could trust him to watch the woman while I went to look for a more secure place to rest. Even though I hadn’t slept for about three days, I didn’t feel at all tired. But the woman clearly needed to sleep. She’d managed to doze while I carried her, but the walk through the jungle had been rough at times, and she’d often woken with a start.
“Is disguise.” Skrew pulled the bush, and it slid out of the way on small metal wheels, revealing a dry cave. In the back, I could see the outlines of what looked like cloths, probably used as blankets, and a couple of bags. There were also several water skins, though they were flat and appeared to be empty.
The cave entrance was narrow. Barely a yard wide and almost as tall. There was no way all three of us were going to fit
