“I surrender.” He held his hands out, palms up, to show me he no longer carried a weapon.
“Why did your people attack my guide?” I nodded toward Skrew who danced from foot to foot.
The alien turned his head to Skrew, frowned, and locked eyes with me. “We will not be your slaves. We will resist you. You will spend every night while you sleep, wondering if it is the night we cut your throat. If you sell us away, we will return. We will hunt you. We will find you. We will strangle you with your own entrails. We will not be your slaves for long.”
“Good,” I said.
The alien managed to look as surprised as Skrew, who also managed to look more disappointed than I’d ever seen him look.
“Good?” the alien asked, his neck flaps withdrawing.
“Yes,” I said. “Because I’m not a slaver.”
He glanced at Skrew. “But—”
“But neither is my guide,” I said. “Your mistake was assuming that just because he’s a vrak, he must be a slaver. In fact, he was a slave. I freed him.”
I heard the one with the broken arm and the first lizard-man I’d struck begin to stir behind me. They were obviously badly injured, but they seemed willing to give their lives if I intended to enslave them. The one I’d skewered with the knife didn’t get up, but then I wasn’t exactly expecting him to. Skrew stepped closer, watching them with frightened eyes.
“Your men listen to your orders.” I took a knee and leaned close. “Order them to stand down, or next time, I won’t spare their lives. You’ve made a mistake. Now, don’t make it worse by sacrificing them needlessly.”
“Zero!” the alien said. The sound of movement behind me stopped. “I am Shesh. I have made a grave error.”
“Yes,” I agreed, “you have.” My eyes returned to the amulet.
“You have spared my life.” Shesh removed the amulet from around his neck. “Therefore, I offer you the Spirit-Watcher, an heirloom of my people.”
“No,” one of the groggy warriors behind me whispered.
“Zero!” Shesh hissed as he gently laid the device in my outstretched hand. “You are not like the others. There is something of the Dark Ones in you.”
The Dark Ones. A cold shiver ran up my spine as I stared at the device. I knew who they were. They were the Lakunae, and somehow, they were galaxy-wide-famous. Why they chose me, someone who hadn’t believed in them at all, I didn’t know. But there I was, their avatar.
I turned it over a few times and marveled at how the material absorbed all the light it received and reflected none of it back. It was a hole into nothingness—a gap in the universe—the absence of reality.
“Why is it called Spirit-Watcher?” I asked.
“Because,” he said, his voice becoming quiet and reverent, “it shows us the spirit-world. It shows us the spirit of those around us. It is a gift from the Dark Ones, a lens into their realm.”
I turned the device over in my hand. “I accept your offering of peace. Go, and learn from what’s happened here.” It was the most I could say after receiving the gift.
The alien scooted away from me before standing. “I will,” he said. Then he gave the Spirit-Watcher a sad look before he ran to join to his people. They carried the corpse with the burst head away as they disappeared quietly into the forest.
I almost felt bad for killing one of their comrades, but I hadn’t had much of a choice. If I hadn’t treated the situation with lethal precision, Skrew might have died, and then the path to Brazud would have been far more difficult.
“Jacob did kick the big, big ass!” Skrew breathed. “Then he not kill the maggot-wart. But Jacob and Skrew are having fun, yes? Skrew make them fight, accidently. Jacob beat them up, pow! Jacob find cool stuff! We make great team.”
I groaned. You still need a guide, Jacob. You still need a guide. I repeated it to myself like a mantra.
Chapter Seventeen
My new amulet felt cool against my skin as Skrew and I resumed our journey toward Brazud. The trees grew thinner, and I spotted a well-traveled road at the edge of the treeline. The smells of civilization announced our proximity to a town or city, and not all of them were pleasant. We were still a while away from Brazud, so this had to be someplace else.
The unmistakable smell of food and wood fires filled the air. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until my stomach protested. I still had food left but decided to wait. There’d been enough trouble in the trees, and I’d already seen the kind of creatures that prowled through it. My best option was to sit down with a wall to my back and suppress the desire to eat.
The unpleasant odors, mostly of dung, the stench of sweaty bodies, and possibly pheromones, competed with the pleasant ones.
“Jacob and Skrew approach Madomar,” Skrew whispered.
“Madomar?” I asked. “Can you tell me about it?”
“Was way-station of Sitar. Food. Goodies. Bombs. Pew-guns. Brazud beyond Madomar. Not far, but beyond.” He sniffed the air before continuing. “Maybe buy food, yes? Jacob has money?”
I’d taken the black orbs because I wanted something to sell for currency, but I really didn’t want to part with them.
“I don’t have any money,” I said. “So, we’ll have to eat our rations and find something in the wild to eat.”
Maybe another steak-a-pede? I thought.
“ Skrew steal food, yes?” he asked.
“Maybe,” I said. I didn’t feel good about it, but my own store of food wouldn’t last forever. I couldn’t bet on finding another alien that was worth eating since we hadn’t discovered anything edible since leaving the Ish-Nul.
I’d try to find some way of
