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“Oh, Silver will, at least.” I smiled as I continued cleaning my already healing shoulder wound. To give Silver a little credit, he didn’t enforce the law based on the victim’s income bracket. He tried to enforce the law fairly with all people, which meant he cared about the “little guys,” one of the reasons I didn’t completely detest working for him.
The motion caught her eye, and her brows drew together at my newly healing wound. I wasn’t about to explain the ins and out of being my weird self, so I pretended not to notice.
Putting the bloody towel down, I continued, “I’m going to set it to record while I go out. Would you tell it your name and everything that happened, starting with the date, then explain everything you told me? I’ll try to make sure medics come through this coming fall.”
She nodded, pointing mutely to a shovel by the door. The row of well-used tools stood neatly racked by their front door.
I headed outside.
While digging, my thoughts wandered to how unfair it was for the people out here. Ridden were so powerful that even if the people out here had simple magic, it wouldn't be enough. Without offensive spells, they were toast. And because the Ridden were spirits that took the bodies of people after they died, and the people out here were always dying from one disease or another, there were far too many of them running around. Which meant the people out here were ill-equipped to fight the Ridden but had to face them regularly.
Which was especially dangerous when it came to the Ridden who could use magic.
The ground wasn’t hard, and I placed the hole at the far edge of their fields. Cold rain started up again, making everything a slippery miserable mess, but I didn’t care. Something in me always wanted to make sure that the dead had a place to rest.
I buried the family together, with heads removed from their bodies and tucked between their feet as a precaution against any Ridden that might want to take them, marking the grave with large branches driven as deep into the ground as possible, given my tools. A more permanent marker would have to wait until the man was better because the geas pushed me to continue my main mission. It didn’t hurt yet because what I was doing fell under my more general orders to help anyone who needed my help along the way. So, I could probably spend the night without being prodded, since darkness had fallen.
Still, the geas never quite let me forget that I wasn’t free to do as I chose.
My stomach grumbled, interrupting my dark thoughts, and I glanced at the house. It would be slender rations this early for them, but hospitality demanded that if I stay the night, they needed to feed me. So I would accept whatever they made for me tonight and leave them with some of the freeze-dried food I carried, knowing it would help them out a great deal. It was unfortunate that I still had several more days of travel, but I could hunt as I went if I needed to, so I could give them most of my rations without fear of starving.
Anna reappeared in the door, a pale blot, gesturing me inside.
When I got close to her, she called out, “Something hunts people in the woods at night, sometimes. It’s better to come in before it’s fully dark.”
Something hunts people? Like what?
But rather than ask, I just hurried over and slipped inside, then she bolted the door behind me saying, “We don’t go out after sunset.”
“How do you know it’s out there?” I asked, glancing toward the door.
“It howls,” she answered, her flinch easy to read.
Something that howls is hunting people out here?Well, that was another interesting bit of information to bring back to Silver. Hopefully, whatever was out there wasn’t hungry tonight. Our day had been more than eventful enough.
ChapterFive
ALYS
Awild, inhuman cry woke me from where I slept near the stove. As I sat up slowly, I wondered if the sound had only been a trick of my mind, but then it came again, so long and low that goosebumps rose along my arms. I was glad that I’d stayed fully clothed and armed, because whatever the hell that was, I had a feeling I’d need my weapons if it tried to get inside. Even in safe places, I generally wore knives to sleep—there were no second chances if you didn’t have one when you needed it.
Scrambling to the window, I glimpsed a vast shadow, blotting out the stars and moving west. It cried out again, but luckily, this time further from the house. I stared until I was sure it was gone, then went to the little table in the room. The sound had made sweat start up on my spine and armpits, and I noted what had happened in the LawBook as I waited for my heart to settle and the sweat to dry.
Once I fulfilled my mission, I’d find out what that was and deal with it.
I didn’t sleep after that, but laid back down, giving my body some of the rest it’d need for the remainder of my mission. But as soon as light came through the window, I rose and readied myself. When I was almost done, Anna came out and started on breakfast. My stomach growled at the delicious smell, but I knew that these people had barely enough to feed themselves, let alone me. So when the father woke up and offered to let me stay and share their food as a thank you, I told him I couldn’t. That the weather had cleared up, and I didn’t want to waste any time. They thanked me and waved goodbye as I headed back out on the road.
I knew I had a lot of things to do, but I adjusted my plan to include figuring out what the hell had happened to the family near this one. The ones who had died and become Ridden. I knew Anna said they’d been sick and died from the flu, but I wanted to see for myself.
The shelters where each family had started their claim were spaced perhaps a mile apart on the road, so it didn’t take me long to reach the first one. The nearest stood whole, though the door was cracked open. The smell of illness lingered inside; there were two beds with tumbled sheets, and gouges clawed in the walls. I recorded everything I saw in the LawBook, while I continued looking for any remains.
With nothing inside, I decided to explore the outside of the house. There were markers out back. Apparently, the adults had managed to bury their kids before the illness killed them too. Inside again, I searched until I found used handkerchiefs and dropped two into a plastic bag. If it was flu, the virus might linger, and the medtechs would be able to tell if it was a type the vaccine covered.
The law Silver had drummed into me included the agreement between the major cities and those who tried to settle Outside. The cities were supposed to send out medical assistance and provide immunization as well as disaster relief when needed for as long as the settlement existed. The settlers, any previous crimes pardoned, had a decade to set up their farm or ranch, then the taxes started.
Many of them died before they got a chance to pay, but people were still eager to make a new start, especially those who lived in the shantytowns that circled most major cities, living off their scraps and trash.
I checked my briefing for details on the Administrator—if what Anna told me was correct, Administrator Greene had committed a felony by pocketing the money meant to give these people vaccines. My mission right now concerned a probable offended spirit flooding an area, not this, but since what I was investigating right now involved a crime, the geas stayed quiet.
