Jane Carver of Waar by Nathan Long Read Free Book Online Page A

Where’s the nearest...”
    Something clobbered me on the back of the head. I hit the ground eight feet away and looked up, my eyes going in and out of focus.
    Queenie was scowling down at me. “Bad girl.”
    Another Aarurrh mama started slapping around the guy I’d talked to. He squealed for mercy.
    For the rest of the day all the other slaves gave me dirty looks.
     
    ***
     
    The day wasn’t done when we got back home. Queenie showed me how to kebab some of the tubers we’d dug that day, and how to chop up meat with a cooking blade shaped like half a circle. It looked a bit like an Eskimo’s chopper. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the meat had feathers on it. Giant bird I could stomach. I’ve had worse chow. Giant bird tasted like a combination of wild duck and alligator—yes I’ve had gator; I grew up in Florida—and once the tubers cooked up they tasted a little more like garlic and a little less like dirt.
    After dinner Queenie sent me down to the river to rinse off the skewers and the chopper. There were no plates, they just chewed everything right off the kebabs. I thought she was crazy sending me off on my own like that, and armed with blades and pointy pieces of metal no less. What was she thinking? All I had to do was slip into the river, float downstream ’til I was below the camp, climb out of the canyon and...
    And go where?
    I sighed. I finished cleaning the skewers and chopper and walked back to Queenie’s tent.
    My bed was the same pile of straw Queenie had laid Sai on. I flopped down beside him, more wiped out than I’d been since boot camp. All I wanted to do was close my eyes, but first I checked Sai’s wound. Queenie’s goop seemed to be working. The edges of the cut were starting to knit together and there was no redness or puss.
    Sai opened his eyes. “We still live?” He almost sounded disappointed.
    “You’re doin’ fine, Sai. You’ll be up and around in no time.”
    He was less than thrilled. He closed his eyes again. I should have let him sleep, but I had a question. “Sai, what’s up with these furry fucks, anyway? Why do they hate your guys so much? What did you ever do to them?”
    He sighed. “The myths of the Aarurrh tell them that they once ruled all of Waar, until the Tae stole it from them and forced them to live in the wastelands.”
    “The Tae?”
    “The Tae. My people.” He closed his eyes again. “The Aarurrh religion is pure superstition of course. We Tae have been here since the Seven created the world and placed us upon it to serve as their custodians.”
    “Custodians? You gotta mop the floors and fix the plumbing?”
    “Pardon?”
    “Nothin’. Never mind. Just bein’ a jerk.”
    Sai lay back, but I had something else on my mind. I dropped my voice to a whisper. “Listen, Sai, I know you ain’t feelin’ so good right now, but shouldn’t we be thinkin’ about bustin’ outta this joint and hightailin’ it after your fiancée? You got a wedding to stop.”
    He shook his head without opening his eyes. “There is no escape from the Aarurrh. It is hopeless. We are dead.”
    “No escape? What are you talkin’ about? We’re not even chained up. We get down to that creek, I can get us up to the plains in twenty minutes. As long as you know your way home from there...”
    “Unfortunately, I do not.” He opened his eyes and looked directly at me for the first time since we were taken. “Mistress Jae-En, your enthusiasm is admirable, but useless. Even if I did know my way home we would not survive the journey. If by some miracle we managed to elude the Aarurrh, who are only the greatest trackers and hunters on Waar, we would not escape the savage packs of Shikes, capable of stripping us to our bones in the blink of an eye, nor the dreadful Vurlak, the jaw of which can crush stone, nor the wild Skelsha, which can—-”
    “Okay okay okay. I get the picture. But does that mean you’re just going to give up? Are you gonna let that