The Vulture King Page 8

  In nervous silence they began to pick their way down the trail which was slippery with loose shale. Their steps raised choking clouds of dust, which clogged up their throats and eyes. By the time they made it to the bottom hours later, they were covered head to foot in a thick layer of red. They looked like flayed corpses. Aram hoped it wasn’t a bad omen.

  He expected them to find a place to rest out the day but Bayre said, “We’ll push on for a while. There’s no shelter here and it’s better to travel the Barrens by daylight.”

  Bina groaned and Aram could feel exhaustion dragging at his legs after a full night’s walking. But they could only trust Bayre knew what he was doing.

  As they set off across the sere plain, Aram sent his bird up high. Hopefully, the magpie’s eyes would give them advance warning of any approaching danger. Bina lent him her hand as he stumbled over rocks and small stones. Without his bird watching the ground ahead of him, he would have fallen if not for her help. Tai’s head swiveled from side to side, on high alert. The tension in Bayre’s shoulders spoke volumes.

  Exhaustion lay heavy on Aram and turned his thoughts dark.

  After glancing at his face, Bina said, “You look so angry. What are you thinking about?”

  “I’m thinking how ridiculous it is, that all of you expect one boy to change the world. In hundreds of years, nobody has managed to challenge the king and survive. I mean, what difference do you think I’m going to be able to make? Ellery failed. Why should I succeed where she couldn’t? This whole journey is madness.”

  “You do enjoy looking for the bad in everything, don’t you?” Bina gave his hand a small squeeze as if to try and take the sting out of her words. “Have you ever thought the vulture king is just one man? Yet, he managed to change our world. He warped and twisted it all by himself, didn’t he? So how come it’s so hard for you to imagine one person might be able to set it all to rights again?”

  Aram shook his head with a wry grin. “You have the answer to most everything, don’t you? I’m never quite sure why, but there’s a part of me that believes you too.”

  “Well, a small bit of faith can go a long way. I think you’d find it easy enough to believe Bayre could change the world. It’s only yourself you doubt. Perhaps it’s time you started to believe you may just be capable of more than you think you are.”

  As usual, she was completely right. If the fate of the world rested in Bayre’s hands he would think they at least stood a fighting chance. Bina’s words gave him a lot to think about as they walked on in silence.

  At one point, Bayre held up a hand and they stopped as a red and black patterned snake wound across the sands in front of them. It hissed a warning as it passed but moved on quickly. Aram wasn’t sure how Bayre knew what direction to walk, as there were only rocky slopes as far as the eye could see. No distinguishing landmarks broke the monotony of the plains, but Bayre moved confidently forwards.

  Just when Aram was beginning to think his legs would give out beneath him, Bayre cut off to one side down a narrow gully. Rock walls rose higher and higher on either side of them and eventually they came to a halt where the gully ended at a stone face. The man lay down on his back and wiggled under a slight overhang. There was barely space for him, but the lip provided shelter from the sky, scant as it was. Tai squeezed in next to him and Bina followed suit. Aram wiggled in too although he couldn’t imagine how they were going to rest in this cramped, uncomfortable space. Then the exhaustion of twenty hours of walking hit and his eyes dropped closed and sleep overtook him.

  He woke to the sound of worried voices. Ryu stirred next to him, squawked and opened one eye. Through it, he could see the flames of a small fire flickering in the gully and his companions’ forms huddled around it. He rolled out from under the overhang and staggered towards them, his magpie settling on his shoulder.

  “What’s going on?” he asked as he joined them.

  Bina was worrying at her lip with sharp teeth, twitchy and on edge, although her hands were gentle where they lay cradling her dove.

  “Tai’s water bottle sprung a leak,” said Bayre gruffly. “It’s not a total disaster but we’ll have to ration water carefully from now on. Fortunately, the place of the Veldera lies not far into the Barrens. We’ll be fine so long as we’re careful.”

  Bina chipped in, “I just don’t understand how he didn’t notice? I think I would have noticed water dripping down my back.”

  “We’re all on edge out here, Bina,” chided Bayre. “I think Tai’s had his mind on other things.”

  Aram said, “Why am I not surprised that it’s Tai’s bottle with a mysterious leak?”

  The older boy leapt to his feet. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying you think I did it on purpose? What kind of a fool do you think I am? Water is life out here. I think you’re an idiot, but I’m not going to risk my life to try to kill you off.”

  “Settle down now both of you,” said Bayre. “You’re like two young rams constantly locking horns and it’s not helpful. We’re all supposed to be looking out for each other, so it needs to stop now.”

  Neither of the young men said a word but Tai dropped back to the ground and Aram settled himself in front of the fire too. A small lizard turned over the flames. Looking at it, Aram couldn’t imagine each of them getting more than a mouthful of stringy meat off it. To break the tension, Bayre rummaged in the pack and handed everyone a small handful of dried berries.

  As they ate, Bina asked, “How much further do we have to go?”

  “It’s no more than another two days from here,” answered Bayre. “Not long to go now.”

  Aram’s stomach clenched. Once the journey was over it would all come down to him. Was he capable of making the sacrifice Ellery spoke of? If only he knew exactly what he was supposed to do, it might make things less terrifying.

  Soon dawn dragged its bloodied fingers across the horizon. Bayre put out the fire by kicking sand over it and shouldered the pack. They headed out of the gully and back onto the plains. As the sun rose behind the clouds, for just a moment the land looked beautiful, bathed in warm pink light. But as they walked, the reflection of the rays on the red sands burnt their eyes. Dust swirled and the dry heat sucked moisture from their skin and lips.

  All Aram could think about was water. Now that they were dangerously low on it, thirst burned through him with feverish intensity. It stirred his resentment against Tai and angry emotions bubbled in his chest. He knew Bayre didn’t believe him, but Tai was not to be trusted. He didn’t send Ryu up to scout, so the magpie rode on his shoulder, a bedraggled clump of red-coated feathers. The bird looked as miserable as Aram felt.

  He was so lost in his own thoughts that Tai’s warning cry took him by surprise.

  “Varanids, approaching from the left!”

  Bayre whirled in that direction, the spear he’d been using as a walking stick lowered defensively. Tai stood at his shoulder, also armed with a spear and Bina stepped up behind them, her knife drawn. Aram fumbled at his belt for his own knife.

  Inside the cloud of approaching dust he could make out vague reptilian forms.

  “I only see two,” grated Bayre. “That means they’re young males without a pack of their own yet. They won’t be fully grown and without a group to back them up, they’ll be wary. But don’t underestimate them. The slightest graze from their teeth and you’re dead.”

  The lizards slowed as they got closer and began to creep warily towards them.

  Aram couldn’t believe these monsters hadn’t reached their full size yet. Each as long as a tall man, their bodies were held up on six thick legs, corded with muscle. Bright yellow scales edged in orange, might have been beautiful on a creature less deadly. Black horns jutted backwards from each heavy head and their massive jaws were lined with spike-teeth, dripping saliva which hissed where it landed on the sands. Reptilian eyes, red with bloodlust, glared at them, probing for any weakness in their defenses.

  The larger one rushed forwa
rd but screamed when Bayre stuck a spear into its nose. It backed off rapidly and roared at them. Aram felt all the hairs on his arm stand to attention at the bugling call. The beasts began to circle them, and Tai and Bayre turned with them, keeping their spears levelled towards their attackers. The smaller lizard feinted towards them, but Tai drove him back with a snarl and a thrust. His skirling swooped about the varanid’s head, claws and beak raking at its eyes. It snapped at the circling bird, teeth clicking together like the jaws of a steel trap.

  Aram’s mouth was dry, and his hand shook. He noted with shame that Bina’s hand was steady on her knife handle. She was crouched next to him, ready to fend off a charge. Aram wished with all his heart Bina had been tasked with defeating the vulture king. She was everything he was not--brave, calm, steadfast in the face of danger. It seemed a terrible cosmic joke that he was supposed to save the world when she was clearly better suited to the task.

  The larger lizard rushed them again, and Bayre grunted as his spear sank deep into a scaled shoulder. The beast snapped at him, but he leapt clear of its jaws, forced to let go of his weapon as he did so. They were all so focused on the wounded monster they didn’t notice its brother creeping closer. Just as the beast rushed at Bina, Tai whirled and pushed the small girl out of harm’s way. As she stumbled to one side, Tai slashed at the lizard’s side, opening a long, shallow gash. It screeched in anger and pain, attracting the attention of its companion. This gave Bayre enough time to rip free his spear and turn to place himself back in front of Bina. The larger beast, driven beyond fear by agony and rage, charged Bayre who was knocked sideways by the rush. It sank ferocious jaws into the pack he carried on his back. Bina stuck her small blade into one of its legs then leapt back as Tai ran past her, spear raised.

  To Aram’s bewilderment, the varanid let go of Bayre and scuttled backwards. When he looked around for the other beast, he found it had also backed off. The two lizards crouched down and stared at Bayre expectantly as he staggered to his feet.

  “They think the poison’s going to get me,” he panted. “It’s fast-acting so they don’t have to take any further risks, they can just wait till I keel over dead.”

  “But they only bit your pack, didn’t they?” asked Aram in confusion.

  “We know that, but the lizards don’t know it’s not part of me, do they? Get behind me all of you and keep still.”

  The children moved until they stood behind Bayre and watched as he put on a convincing dying act. He stumbled to his knees, gasping for air. Then he rolled onto his side, thrashing his legs and moaning. Aram noted his spear was still held firmly in one hand. The larger varanid crept closer to the apparently dying man, saliva drooling from its mouth. The other seemed content to let its brother take the lead. With stunning speed, Bayre rose to one knee and thrust his spear through the lizard’s scaled chest. The beast rose on its hind legs and screamed in agony. It fell to the ground and began to writhe, tail lashing the ground.

  As the beast’s struggles grew weaker, its companion rushed in and tore a strip of flesh from its side. Aram gagged and turned away.

  “Back away slowly,” came Bayre’s quiet instruction. “It has a meal now, so it won’t worry with us any further.”

  Once they were a safe distance away, Aram dropped to his knees and emptied the scant contents of his stomach onto the ground. Bina handed him a water skin and he gulped gratefully before remembering how limited their water was. He lowered the skin and met Bayre’s eyes.

  “Why did it do that? They were companions but it was eating the other beast alive.”

  “They’re lizards, boy, living in the harshest land imaginable. There’s no time out here for mercy. It’s eat or be eaten and that’s all there is to it.”

  Tai walked closer and looked down at him as if he was some rare curiosity. “How did you ever survive on your own, as soft as you are? I’m surprised the Carrionlands didn’t swallow you whole and spit out your bones.”

  A red haze descended over Aram’s sight. The fear and adrenaline, relief and horror combined into a pounding ball of fury. “I hate you. Why did you even come? I know it was you who called the vulture king to the settlement. Bayre can trust you all he likes but I know what you are. You slit your water skin open to kill us and for all I know you called those beasts down on us too. You want me dead. You want all of us dead.”

  Tai’s lip curled with contempt as he stared down at the smaller boy. “You don’t know it, you poor fool but I don’t need to try and kill you. Bayre over there is going to do it anyway before this is all over. Shows what you know about who you should place your trust in.”

  Aram turned and his magpie eyes bored into Bayre. It wasn’t true, it was just another of Tai’s lies meant to hurt and confuse him. But the Black Shroud’s face told him everything he needed to know. The betrayal was written there, clear as stream water. Tai was telling the truth. For reasons he couldn’t even begin to understand, before this was done, Bayre intended to see him dead.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  "Why?” he gasped through the pain that banded his chest like iron straps. “I trusted you, why would you do this?”

  Bina was staring at Bayre as if he had unexpectedly changed into a varanid. She walked over to stand next to Aram, silently lending him her support.

  Bayre stood with his shoulders slumped, gaze fixed on the blood-red dust. Slowly he raised his head to glare at Tai then he turned to meet Aram’s accusing eyes. He spread out his arms, palms raised. “It’s for the good of Alaiya, Aram. We’ve all suffered too long under the claw of a tyrant. Ellery is afraid once you’ve tasted the power the radix can offer you, you’ll never give it up. She tasked me with stopping the rise of a second vulture king, even if it means betraying a friend.”

  Aram listened to Bayre, but his words weren’t making much sense. “But you know me. You know I would never do that. Surely…” His words trailed off at the sadness he saw in Bayre’s eyes.

  “I’m not a Veldera, Aram. I’ve never had the smallest bit of magic so I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like. All I know is power corrupts the best of us. Unlimited power such as you’ll soon have access to? I can’t imagine even the best of men turning away from its lure. I promised Ellery I would protect our land, if necessary, as much as it broke my heart.”

  He turned to glare at Tai again. “As for you, the boy I raised as a son knows better than to inflict this unnecessary cruelty. Are you still the boy I raised, Tai?”

  For the first time Aram could hear doubt in Bayre’s tone. Before, this would have filled him with self-righteous glee, but now he felt nothing. The ashes of Bayre’s betrayal blew through the hollow chambers of his heart. He knew now, beyond doubt, he was alone. Bina might argue that he still had her, but he had finally learned a valuable lesson. To trust in others was to expose yourself and it made you weak. If he was to succeed at the task that lay ahead, he needed to be strong. If that meant he could only rely on himself, so be it. He would become the weapon they all desired, cold and deadly. Then once he was done, Bayre would finish him before he turned into a monster. Why had he believed there could be any other ending for him?

  Aram spoke and the ice of his voice silenced the others. “There’s no time for this. While we argue, my mother draws closer to death with each wasted moment. Get me to the radix Bayre, and I’ll do what needs to be done. Just as you will do what needs to be done in the end.”

  His three companions simply stared at him, but he marched past them, heading in the direction they’d been walking before the attack. Bayre caught up to him. “I’m sorry, Aram, I never wanted you to bear this extra burden.”

  “No, it would have been much easier for you to simply stab me in the back one day, wouldn’t it? I’d never have seen it coming. Now you have to carry the guilt with you before it happens. That seems fair.”

  Bayre sighed deeply. “I’ve carried guilt from the moment I agreed to do what Ellery asked. I’m sorry…”

  Aram cut him off. “Save y
our apologies. They don’t change anything. Just promise me one thing.”

  “Anything.”

  Aram felt tears well up, but he blinked them back. “If my mother survives take care of her, Bina too.”

  Bayre’s hand fell like a benediction on his shoulder. “I will Aram, I promise you.”

  It wasn’t nearly enough, thought Aram, and yet it was all he could ask for.

  Bina knew Aram well enough to leave him to simmer in his own juice for a while. Towards evening she dropped back to join him where he dragged his feet far behind the group.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about. My friends want me dead, it’s all as clear as water. What’s there to say?”

  She sighed and raised her collar against the sharp wind which had sprung up as the day faded. Ryu gave a squawk and landed on her shoulder, pecking at a silver glint on the fabric of her jacket. With a startled cry, Bina shooed him off and the magpie landed back on Aram’s shoulder crooning to itself.

  Aram knew that sound and tapped him on the beak. “What have you got there? Drop it, Ryu.”

  The bird obediently released a small object onto Aram’s palm. He held it up and saw it was a silver pin shaped like a rat’s head. “What’s this?”

  Bina held out a hand and he passed the piece of jewellery back to her.

  “Surely you’ve seen one of these before?” she said. “It belonged to my mother.”

  Aram had seen the pin before, or one remarkably similar. They were the sigil of the rat hunters who moved from kraal to kraal helping to exterminate pests.

  “Mother was a ratter which meant we had a reason to constantly move from place to place. We never stayed anywhere long, so there was little time to arouse anyone’s suspicions. Plus, rat hunters are mostly welcomed. The kraal folk don’t like to deal with the unpleasantness of killing their own vermin.”