The Sorrow Anthology Read online

  “What did he mean?” Sorrow asked.

  “He meant that he does not give me permission to mate with Jess. He knows I have loved only her since I met her, but he says it is my duty to continue my tribe’s line, undiluted, and that mating with a human is disgusting. He says she will die trying to birth our kind, and I would do her a kindness to set her free now.”

  “Huh,” Sorrow said, thinking this through. “Well, it was his dying wish…”

  “Yes, and as you say, he is not dying,” Han smirked.

  “Then I guess you don’t need to worry about it,” Sorrow finished for him. “Is Jess here?”

  “Yes, she is right outside – she is carrying our baby, Sorrow.”

  Sorrow gasped but recovered herself quickly.

  “Then you have my congratulations, Han. My mother will be so very pleased to hear the news.”

  Han smiled as Sorrow rose and gave him a brief hug.

  “Ask Jess to come in,” she said, “our plan will very much depend on her.”

  Jess entered the tent and cast a worried look at Khalili.

  “Don’t worry, he’s still asleep,” Sorrow smiled at the girl. “Jess it’s important that your parents and those guarding the Keep see you before they see this group of Sin. You need to get to Etienne, pass on my message.”

  Jess nodded. Sorrow’s message to Etienne was that this group of Sin were to be offered sanctuary in the Keep. She had given the girl the kitten ring her mother gave her before she left Earth, to show Etienne, ensuring he would know she was behind the message.

  “Not that he wouldn’t trust you anyway,” she smiled at Jess, “but he is a strange little French man, and he will recognise this ring when you give it to him. He gave it to my mother when they were working together on an archaeological dig in Napoleonic Egypt; she passed it onto me.”

  “Strange is not the word for that man,” Han laughed, “but he will do anything for you.”

  Sorrow frowned. “Etienne and I are friends,” she said firmly, “he is an old friend of my mothers, like an uncle to me really and I value his opinions.”

  “Of course,” Jess said, slipping the little turquoise and gold ring onto her finger and pulling Han’s hand to lead him out of the tent. “We will return once Han’s tribe are settled. We will bring back a cart and help transport Khalili,” she said, glancing over at the gently snoring tribe leader.

  “Don’t rush,” Sorrow said, sighing, “his recovery is likely to take weeks, and I won’t risk moving him from this forest until he is healed. Just remind Etienne just in case Anhur comes, that everyone must deny they have seen me.”

  “I will,” Jess said solemnly before turning and leaving the tent.

  8

  Sorrow watched from the ramparts as Khalili worked with the line of human and Sin workers raising the town walls.

  Six months had passed since the attack on his tribe and his long recovery. Yet since his return to the keep with Sorrow, he had barely spoken to her.

  She watched his muscles ripple as he helped haul buckets of mud up the wall to be poured into the moulds. If this rate of work continued, she would likely have the town totally walled and complete before next winter. The height of the walls would not be quite what she wanted, but they could be slowly added to. The main thing was to get a perimeter wall up, within which homes could begin to be constructed, livestock could be safe, and people could shelter from Sin attack. At present the walls were around five, sometimes up to seven feet high – she wanted them 15 or more in the end, but how long this would take she couldn’t say. And she knew she most probably wouldn’t be here to see its completion anyway; she would need to jump through the portal in a matter of months.

  Nevertheless, she pressed on; she wanted to ensure a strong legacy was left behind, especially if she was unable to forge an alliance between the Sin and humans. She had not revealed to Etienne, who was keen to return to Earth, that as the months passed and there was no pursuit by Anhur, she was becoming more reluctant to leave Heaven, and surer that her role was to heal the rift between the three races.

  She sighed and looked back towards the small township, now slowly spreading out from the castle walls. The past winter had seen a number of deaths, as she knew it would, from cold, hunger, the Sin, and disease. But still more humans poured into the Keep, hoping for sanctuary and protection from the mounting Sin raids on the pasture lands.

  Although the raids continued on the Keep, many humans had built rudimentary shelters outside the Keep walls, reluctant to go back to the plains, no matter the danger. Sorrow had allowed them to stay but warned that their homes would eventually be demolished to make way for more permanent structures. Her plans, including the construction of orderly housing lots, roads, sewerage and water supply were steadily progressing, and as the outer wall and defences became stronger, and the number of human defenders increased, the impact of the regular Sin raids became less and less.

  Outside the walls, livestock had been enclosed in paddocks and pens. Horses, goats, chickens, all had accompanied the fleeing farmers and been set up where they could still be looked after, bred and slaughtered for the small town’s consumption.

  It was Sorrow’s hope that her small township could be the model for others like it on this planet if she could only sway greater numbers of Sin to her cause.

  Thinking about this drew her attention back to Khalili. At first, she had feared she would never win his support to aid her plans, but gradually, as she nursed him, and they came to know one another, he had capitulated.

  Their conversation had begun slowly after he awoke. First about his tribe, their location, who lived, who died. Later arguments about food. She refused to cook meat; he refused to eat vegetables. Still later his frustration at having to lean on her and walk so slowly during his convalescence. She had teased and manipulated, managing to have him do all that she asked, threatening him with violence if he did not, and carrying through on more than one occasion. Gradually, she knew, they had come to respect one another. She blushed suddenly at the recollection of their last conversation.

  She had been dressing his stomach wound, had just removed his stitches and was wiping up a small amount of blood when she noticed he had an erection. ‘Gah he is huge,’ she thought as she stared at his member, ‘Anhur was big, but that is…’ Blushing and looking up at his face she saw he was considering her with dark, inscrutable eyes.

  Quickly packing up her rudimentary medical equipment, she left the close confines of the tent and gulped a lungful of fresh alpine air. ‘I am a doctor. I shouldn’t be even noticing things like that. What the hell is wrong with me?’

  The next morning, they had journeyed to the Keep and he had taken up his role of supervisor of the Sin wall workers. Through violence and sheer will he had made them work and follow him. Now, months later, they and a steady trickle of new Sin captives and tribe members shadowed him out of loyalty. Once prisoners, they were now free to build and live within the bailey walls, their children mingling with the human children. Sorrow knew it was not easy for Khalili, convincing the Sin from other tribes to eat goats, educating them on the ways of humans, changing centuries of beliefs in a matter of months, yet so far, he was managing.

  But it was also not lost on Sorrow that apart from meetings with Newto and Etienne to outline building plans or defence, he had not spent any time alone with her. On more than one occasion she thought back to their time in the tent.

  Refocusing on the now, Sorrow saw him turn, stretch his back and meet her eyes. She realised she had been staring and, blushing, turned to hurry to another part of the wall.

  Entering the castle briskly Sorrow called for one of the servants to boil some water.

  As all the humans in the Keep and the newly growing township were free; she considered there was no such thing as slavery and would never address any as Slave, admonishing any who called her ‘Master; out of habit. But the long days and nights she spent planning and defending the township meant there was m
uch she needed help with. Consequently, she had ensured servants’ quarters were also built in the castle, and a bathhouse and kitchen. This ensured she and her close circle of people could be fed, bathed and the castle kept clean, leaving them free to concentrate on the bigger, more important issues – like the fact they were running out of food.

  Most of those she had ‘hired’ were single women with small children or babies, their husbands having been killed or eaten by the Sin. And if she was honest, hired was a strange word for their work for her, given there was no currency on this planet, they worked in exchange for food and shelter. Sorrow knew three women and their children slept in the warmth of the castle kitchen, others had small rooms allocated, still more rooms were being built, and a few young families slept in the great hall, their small trundle beds pushed up against the walls during the daytime. She had tried her best to accommodate as many people as she could and to continue to treat the ill, no matter how tired or distracted she was with her other duties. Apart from her room and Etienne’s room, which also often lodged a revolving door of young, nubile women, every part of this burgeoning castle was utilised by those who needed accommodation, employment or succour. And that included the baths, heated by the great fires in the kitchen, and used by many of the Keep occupants.

  Tonight though, it was late, and the bathhouse was empty as Sorrow sunk into one of the many large, square bathtubs they had dug into the hard earth and lined with fire-hardened tiles, and sighed, allowing the hot water to free up her muscles. Sinking deeper she floated with her ears underwater, hearing nothing but the bubbles popping in her ears and the dull hush of her hearts beating. Eventually, she pushed her face above the water to find Etienne sitting nearby, one leg crossed over the other, picking dirt from his nails with a small file.

  “Etienne,” she said, sinking back below the water line so that her ample breasts were not visible. “Can’t it wait?”

  “No, ma sardine,” he said, nonchalantly continuing to clean his nails. “I have an idea, and you know how I like to share these moments of brilliance with you.”

  Sorrow smirked. Of all the French endearments he liked to call her, she thought it the first time he had called her a sardine. “OK lay it on me,” she reached down to scrub her feet with some soap. It was one of the last real Pears soap bars she had brought with her from Earth, it smelled of glycerine and herbs, and reminded her of her mother since it was the same soap she always used. She supposed when it ran out she would have to use the charcoal and goat fat soap the farmers’ wives made on the plains. She wrinkled her nose at the thought, any kind of animal product made her gag.

  “Lay it on you? An interesting choice of words,” Etienne chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

  She giggled and shook her head. “Don’t be rude old man; I’ll tell my mummy. Do you have a bloody idea or not?”

  “Oui,” he said, nodding, “Although you should know, by most standards 32 is not old, but I digress. I think we should retrieve the pod and raid the Capital grain house for food. If we do not do this soon your fine little township of humans is, in all likelihood, going to starve.”

  Megan sighed and sat up straight, forgetting that her nipples were just above the water line.

  “That is a very, very bad idea,” she said in a low voice. “I don’t know why Anhur hasn’t found us yet, some of the human stragglers who came in last week said questions were being asked throughout the plains folk about a missing Earthborn woman matching my description. But what I do know, is that he will step us his search quick smart if we start making raids on his bloody precious Capital.”

  “Yes,” Etienne nodded, looking for all the world like he hadn’t listened to a word she said. “But as you say, he is still searching for you and sooner or later, mon sucre d’orge, he will find you. Until then, let us press our advantage and feed the starving little urchins crowding your bailey because in case you have not noticed, there is no point in protecting a dead populace.”

  Sorrow put her face into her hands and shook her head from left to right.

  “Jeesuz!” she sighed, “You want to what? Fly in, grab a pod full of food and fly back? The risks outweigh the benefits. The amount of food you would get into the pod, if you got any, wouldn’t feed five families for a week.”

  “True,” Etienne said, continuing to pick his nails in an unconcerned fashion. “But the pod has carrier nets, does it not? Khalili told me the Earthborn capture and collect large creatures and Sin and fly them back with these nets strapped underneath the pods.”

  Sorrow peered out from between her fingers at her friend, his long muscular, jodhpur-clad legs now stretched out, white shirt spotless, despite his day of hard work.

  “You never cease to amaze me,” she said eventually. “I suppose you plan to load up hundreds of bags of grain and fly them back.”

  “Yes, that would be about right,” he said, grinning.

  “And you want me to go to the mountains and bring back the pod?”

  “Yes, I think that is a good plan,” he said rising and stretching, “perhaps tomorrow?”

  “I’m not sure I know the way,” Sorrow frowned.

  “Khalili has said he will guide you,” Etienne said, slipping his nail file into a little pouch and putting it into his back pocket. “He said it is five days walk from here, no more.”

  “Great,” Sorrow muttered, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks at the thought of several days of camping alone with the Sin leader.

  “So, it is settled?” Etienne asked, making his way to the door.

  “Yes,” Sorrow sighed, splashing her feet in frustration.

  “Oh, and by the way,” Etienne said, turning from the door, “when I said the bitch-slut in the Capital had nice breasts, I didn’t know what I was talking about.” He nodded in the direction of her nipples, still just visible above the water line and dodged smoothly as she hurled the bar of soap at his head.

  9

  Sorrow watched Khalili swing his sword, his shoulder muscles rippling, as he hacked a path through the dense vines hanging from the trees. The vines and understorey formed an almost impenetrable, green curtain, making walking through the woods nigh on impossible. She followed close behind him, the greenery closing up instantaneously as they passed, their path indistinguishable from the surrounding forest.

  This was only their second day of walking, and while she was fit and keeping up easily, her unease had grown as they ventured deeper into the alien understorey. She hoped there were no snakes, bushwalking back home in Australia meant constant vigilance against vipers. So far though, all she had seen were the strange lizard-birds that inhabited the trees this close to the base of the mountain. In agreeing to retrieve the pod she had not anticipated such a difficult walk. The forest near the castle was open, a kind of pine forest with little understorey, but up here, closer to the mountain, it was dense, sticky and strangely ominous.

  “My mum slept in trees for the first few months after landing on this planet,” she said, loud enough for him to hear, “I can see why, it is so close and sticky under here.”

  Khalili made no change in the rhythm of his sword strokes to indicate he had heard her.

  “It’s a wonder you are so, so hairy,” she said, almost to herself, “you’d think that would only make the heat worse.”

  Khalili grunted, paused and turned to give her a harsh stare before continuing on his way, not bothering to acknowledge or answer her implied question.

  Sorrow grimaced and kept following. She was about to ask another question, anything to break the monotony and the oppressive feel of the vines and leaves against her body, when he stopped suddenly and held up his hand. Pausing to tilt his head and listen for a moment, he motioned her to move forward again, this time taking a sharp turn to the right.

  Sorrow shrugged, she hadn’t been able to hear anything above the cacophony of the lizard-birds.

  Twice more he paused and changed their direction, each time not telling her why. Finally,
she stopped, exhausted, sweat pouring down her face, her clothes sticking and clinging to her like wet hands in gloves, and insisted on answers.

  “Why do we keep changing direction?” she asked quietly to his back.

  He paused infinitesimally in his jungle hacking, before continuing.

  “I’m not going any further until you tell me,” she said, still quietly, knowing he had exceptional hearing.

  She saw his shoulder muscles tense. Slowly, he turned back to her, his face a thundercloud.

  “You said when we set out that I would lead,” he growled, “I lead, you follow. I do not need to answer your questions or respond to your incessant prattle.”

  “Prattle?” Sorrow snorted, “I was trying to make conversation arsehole. You have barely said three words to me since we arrived back at the castle. You forget I saved your life.”

  “I forget nothing,” he said, advancing on her, his body radiating aggression.

  “Why do we keep changing direction?” she asked again, ignoring his threatening stance.

  “There are other tribes,” he said, spitting out the word as though it was obvious, “if they find me, they will kill me.” He motioned to the tattoos on his chest, indicating he was a tribe leader, “and eat you.”

  As he said this, his eyes moved from her face to her heaving bosom and lower, before roaming back to her eyes. She thought he looked, what? Hungry?

  “Have you ever eaten an Earthborn?” she blurted, almost wishing as the words left her mouth that she could swallow them.

  “No.”

  “Huh,” she nodded, relieved although she couldn’t say why, “why not? Is it because you maybe subconsciously knew you were related? That they were special in some way?”

  “No,” he snorted.

  “Then why?”

  “I couldn’t catch one,” he said, turning his head to one side and narrowing his eyes at her.

  “Right,” she nodded, gulping. It wasn’t that she feared him, but he was unreadable, unpredictable; violence was always so close to the surface. Now that she had him talking though, she wanted to keep the lines of communication open. If her plans for this planet were to succeed, she had to have the Sin on her side, and she knew, without a doubt, that Khalili was the key to that.