Chapter Ten
Kodyn
A fight broke out in the fortress after Taraxen’s death: a swarm of Vithohn ready to kill me.
Nadirath stood watching. As a Voth, I had seniority: too respected for him to kill without suffering the consequences himself. But he would gladly watch the others rip me apart.
I took his head start and grabbed Elise, taking off into the pitch-black night.
I set my jaw and fumed, replaying the night over and over again. I hated her for putting herself in danger: hated myself for not protecting her sooner. Jealousy and guilt swam through my veins and made it feel impossible to speak. I wasn’t sure who I was more furious with: Elise or myself.
We ran through the freezing cold desert, making our way back to her ridiculous Scarlet Heights. The wind had died down since we first left, but I could feel my wounds burning from under my armor: blood still pooling at the seams of my chest plate and my jaw feeling like it was going to fall off at any moment.
“Kodyn,” Elise said, breaking our silence as she tugged on my bleeding arm.
I jerked away from her and whipped around, disgusted. “I never should have brought you here,” I hissed.
“I'm sorry,” she said quietly, tilting her head down as we walked. “I’m just…desirable, I guess.”
My eyes went wide. “This is funny to you?”
“No,” she said simply, swallowing nervously.
“I killed my people for you!” I fumed, stopping suddenly so that she stumbled into me. The warmth of her skin was intoxicating, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hold her or scream at her.
“I know,” she stammered out nervously. “I’m sorry.”
“Do you know what that's like?” I extended my arms on either side of me, gesturing to the flat plains around us. “Do you know what we've done?”
“We're outcasts!” she screamed back, spitting at me as she did so. “I get it!”
“No, you don't! You wanted this!” I accused, knowing it wasn’t true. Not entirely. “All you wanted was to get away from your people, and now here you are, with a security guard in tow.”
Elise ran a hand across the buzzed side of her hair: incredulous. “Like I planned this?” she enunciated with disgust.
I shrugged, biting, “Why were you talking to Nadirath then?”
She blew out a long breath, low and slow. Then both brows shot up, and she announced with spite, “You and me, we’re not speaking.”
“Fine by me,” I scoffed at the ridiculous threat and waved her off, walking far ahead.
A number of hours passed and I could feel the energy leaving me. When it seemed safe to do so, we stopped by an outcropping of rock that offered protection from the elements. I sat hastily, leaning up against the mountainside and stretching a foot out.
Elise puttered around our makeshift camp, circling the spot and looking for anything she might have been able to use to build a fire or patch me up. A good thought, considering we had lost all of our supplies back at the fortress.
“I can go hunting, if you want,” she offered with sugar.
I all but ignored her. “Do as you like,” I bristled.
“Well, are you hungry? We probably won't make it back today.”
“I’m fine,” I said tersely.
She clenched her jaw tight and said, “Well, I’m hungry,” and then stormed off.
I couldn’t have felt lower. I put Elise in danger: almost watched her get raped by the monsters I’d taken her back to. I’d betrayed my own people.
I tried to tell myself the kill was for Elise. It was the protection I had never given Fiona. But I kept coming back to the pull: the gnawing gut feeling we Vithohn had to rid ourselves of the madness that we were born with. As glad as I was to kill Taraxen, I knew he didn’t know any better.
If he really had the opportunity to be with Elise, he would have gladly fought on our side.
My stomach turned at the thought and I dry-heaved into the air.
Sometime later Elise returned to the camp, small and gorgeous. I watched her toss down a handful or random plants. She’d found food, after all.
She wasted no time putting a small fire together, smashing rocks until they flinted a spark onto some dry brush. I was impressed with how quickly she got it started.
If I weren’t so weak, I would have been able to use my spire to start one easily, but I couldn’t even fathom moving at the moment.
"It's a date palm," she said of the bitter fruit, noticing that I was looking over at it. She had also brought several speared lizards back with her. I scowled at them, looking at their little faces scrunched up on the branch: their eyes open and dead.
She set them over the fire and I watched as they browned and then caught fire. She blew them out when they were nearly charred, preferring them crispy. I frowned at the food once more and waved my hand in decline when she offered one to me.
“There's a settlement to the south. They call it Red Ridge. Supposed to be a big group,” she said casually, never looking at me.
“And that’s where you want to go?” I asked. “Not back to Scarlet Heights?”
“I think it's our best bet to keep safe. For now, at least,” she offered.
“I don't need your help to keep me safe,” I nipped.
“Fine,” she said, tired but defeated, tossing the sticks onto the ground and letting them catch fire. She stared down at the burning lizards and then triumphantly to me. “Then I’ll leave.”
“I won’t chase you,” I argued, crossing my arms.
She shrugged. “Good.”
“Give me a break, Elise,” I lectured, feeling too tired and angry to put up with her. “It's been a hell of a day.”
“Yeah, for me too. You're not the only one who's had it rough, okay? I'm sorry. I'm sorry it didn't work out with the Vithohn, I'm sorry this is happening, I'm sorry you had to kill your friend. What else, Kodyn? What else do you want me to apologize for?”
“If something happened to you out there,” I said, getting worked up all over again.
“Holy shit!” she shouted into the air, throwing her hands up. “Now I’m in trouble again? I don’t know why I ever thought this would work,” she said, shaking her head and coming to a realization I couldn’t understand. “I’m an idiot,” she said hoarsely, her chin quivering.
She had burst into tears then. Heavy droplets spilling from her sad, tired eyes. She buried her face in her hands and looked so alone that I had no choice but to stand, bloody, and grab hold of her.
I pulled her tiny body into my arms and set my chin on the top of her head, soothing her.
“What... What work?” I asked stupidly.
She forced her hand into my chest but didn’t push away. “Us!” she said through a flood of tears. “I have lived my life trying to seduce and trap and convince the Vithohn to join us and yet...”
I swallowed, feeling sick. “What?”
“I have never felt more alone than I do right now. I wanted this to work.”
I grabbed the back of her head and closed my eyes, unsure what to say. I began to part my lips, but she cut me off with a loud sob. In between her breaths, she managed to make me feel even worse than I already did.
“You're walls are up. Way up! I keep opening up to you, and you keep me at arm's length. It couldn't be clearer to me now what we really are.”
I craned my neck back to get a better look at her, suddenly stoic. “And what’s that?”
Her mouth sloped downward as she tried to control her lips: tried not to cry anymore. “Two people who needed comfort from the first warm body they came across,” she snapped.
“That's not what we are,” I sighed.
She blinked back in surprise, and it occurred to me then what she must have been through. Almost being raped. Watching the violence. I was acting like I was alone, but I wasn’t.
“Then what are we?” she asked.
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. Not yet.
The only reason I had followed her in the first place was to get my revenge, and everything had just spiraled downhill from there. I cared for her, but to what end? I couldn’t answer that yet.
I leaned down and kissed her, wanting nothing more than to pull her on top of me and feel the familiar warmth of her body. But as I felt the blood soak through my shirt, I knew it wasn’t an option.
She was right, though. I had been keeping her at a distance. I was so set on revenge that I never stopped to enjoy her. Fiona was still so real in my mind, it felt impossible to let go of her.
The memories of Fiona, her breath and the smell of her, came flooding back to me. Then I decided I still wanted to go through with my revenge. I would scout Red Ridge, if that’s what it took.
We spent the next two days walking before we stumbled across a collection of mech.
They stood in a row like warriors awaiting their command. We stood and watched them for some time, wondering if they would light up and come to life. It reminded me of when we'd first met, but it didn't bring a smile to my face.
I squeezed Elise's hand and pulled her forward.
“Who do you think they belong to?” she asked, looking back as though she couldn’t let go of the memory.
“Abandoned, maybe?” I said, breathless and weak from the loss of blood. We needed to find the town soon.
“No. Not if they're set up like this. This is a sign: a warning to the Vithohn,” she said with confidence.
As if on cue, the robots lit up, storming behind us slowly. We turned to regard them, and I felt a heavy sickness in my stomach. I nearly fell when I tried to run; I was just too weak to put up another fight.
I swallowed hard and stood my ground. Elise nestled into my chest and wrapped her arms around me, unwilling to leave.
The robots came at us with a fury, hammering the ground with their heavy feet. The one directly in the center of the rest of the army pointed its oversized beam saber at me, so close that I could feel the heat radiating off it.
I tilted my head back in a dare.
The pilot must have sensed my resolve, or perhaps he saw Elise and decided to give up.
“Well hey there,” one of the men said, stepping out of the machine. He had a strange accent I’d never heard before. He looked older, with a dark beard and shaggy black hair. “You alright, miss?” he asked and nodded toward Elise.
“Please,” Elise begged, looking up at them as she trembled in my arms. “Help us.”
“This Vithohn with you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she fired back quickly. “Yes, he’s with me. Please, help us. We’re trying to find Red Ridge. I am from Scarlet Heights.”
“Well hell,” he said with a crooked grin. “That’s where we’re goin’.”
“Will you take us? Please?” Elise asked, and the man looked us over for a long while. The silence was deafening.
Finally, he nodded and said, “Hop in.”
The ride to Red Ridge was short, and I assumed we would have made it there by nightfall without the aid of the robots, but it felt good to be able to lay down all the same.
They planted their machines right outside their base and the man, Cristopher, helped Elise and myself to climb down the side of the mech.
We looked up at the wide gates of the hideaway: rolling hills of green that sloped up and down like smooth mountains. There was a large metal flag that said “RED RIDGE” in block letters that used to light up.
“It’s a mini-golf course!” Elise cheered, looking up at the sign with a childlike grin.
I looked up at the sign: red and yellow with a caricature of an apple welcoming patron’s in through the broken gates. I turned back to Elise with a perplexed look and finally asked, “What is… golf?”