AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The damn geas controlling what I could and could not do had its exceptions. Luckily for me.
I took the emergency rations that remained from the house, since no one lived here, and chewed the tasteless bricks as I headed south. I found two more abandoned farms as I explored, its inhabitants likely having died from the flu and been turned into Ridden before their heads could be removed, which was sad for everyone involved. It got me even angrier at that damned Greene. I swore to myself that when I’d completed my actual mission, I’d revisit what was happening here.
The sun was close to setting when I came to the third home, which I was grateful for. I quickened my pace; even if everyone was dead, I’d prefer to spend the night under a roof, especially given the monstrous thing I’d seen howling the night before. Ridden I could handle, but that was not a Ridden. It was something else, something worse. Maybe even an angry spirit.
Halfway down the path, I reflectively ducked behind a tree as a bullet buried itself in another tree directly to the right. My heart raced. The last thing I needed right now was a bullet to the head, but I didn't blame the owners of this property for being a little jumpy if everyone around them was turning up dead.
“I'm not a Ridden!” I yelled in the direction of the shot, hoping that might lead to a bit of hospitality.
Usually, when I went on missions on the Outside, I encountered cautious people. But nothing like this. Nothing like bullets flying before asking questions, or every home empty along my path. The Outside was dangerous, but if the administration in the area was doing what it was supposed to, it wouldn’t have more dead than living.
Still, most of the people on the Outside offered me a place to stay in my travels. It was customary. And I had a feeling once this landowner realized I wasn’t dangerous, they’d do the same. “I’m not here to cause any harm,” I tried again when I got no response.
“Come out with your hands in the air!” The answer was about two octaves higher than I would have expected, fear or youth stressing it, I wasn't sure which.
Tense, ready to duck if necessary, I stepped out from behind the tree. The silence stretched as the shooter approached. He was in his mid-teens, I guessed, dressed in too-big clothing, rifle steadily fixed on me as he approached.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Alys Quinn.” With my hands still in the air, I shifted so I could see his face better. He had the faintest trace of a mustache under his nose, and his scarf was pulled low to reveal his pale throat. “I work for the Halls; I’m traveling to Durgion. I’ve been checking the farms to see if anyone survived the flu.”
“Where’s your badge?” He squinted at me, eyes searching my body for clues or weapons.
“Look at my forehead.”
“We’ve got a scanner; if that’s fake, I’ll shoot you and collect the bounty.” He jerked his head in the direction of the trail. “Start walking.”
“Can I lower my hands?”
“No.”
Closer to the building, the reason for his caution appeared. There were at least a dozen children, hanging out near the building. As we came closer, another teenager ran out, wiping her hands on her apron.
“Get the scanner, Tally.” His voice came from behind me.
A moment later, she re-emerged carrying the handheld. Lips pressed together, she played the beam across my face. It chirped when it interfaced with the microchips embedded in my onyx, giving her a readout based on the security clearance of her reader. Her face lit up with hope. “She’s real! Alys Stormdust-Quinn, Servant to the Halls, based in Capitol!”
“Sorry, Ms. Quinn.” Frozen grass crunched as the youth backed away from me. “It’s been rough here.”
“I’ve seen.” I lowered my hands. “May I come in?”
“Yes.” Tally’s eyes were wide as I accompanied her inside. After a few minutes in the kitchen, she blurted, “You’re a Stormdust?”
Even here, the evils of holodramas must have spread. “Yes, but nothing like in the shows.”
“Oh.”
The Stormdusts were a byword for crazy and powerful: they were part myth—which helped keep people out of Kalderon—and part true. We lived in the mountains in Kalderon and came down to the lowlands as a group when we were needed. Otherwise, most of the family kept to themselves.
The Guild had put together a show romanticizing the Hill people a generation ago. After watching the first few episodes, I’d taken to dropping the Stormdust portion of my name to avoid the unwelcome attention.
Yes, I liked sex. No, indescribable pleasure didn’t radiate from my touch. And I only wished I had the power to instantly blow anything that annoyed me into a bloody spray.
Tally’s disappointment was almost funny.
There was an uncomfortable kernel of one of the storylines from that show in my life, though. My parents had broken the first rule of our people when they fell in love and had me, like two of the characters from the show. Both my mother and father were Stormdusts, descendants of the thirteen mages who volunteered to have children with the elves. Having children with the elves was the only way to protect the other people in the hills from a violent attack from the Ridden.
So it was done. The women sacrificed themselves and the elves protected the people in the hills.
