tried!”
Rolling her eyes, Morgan turned to see where Vere was.
“Why do I have to do everything myself?” she mumbled.
But instead of finding her friend, she spotted Balor. The one-eyed giant was shambling across the yard toward Baldwin. At five or six times the height of an adult human, Balor’s shadow cast a long dark shroud across the prison yard. She had been so focused on the barrage of blaster fire and guards with vibro whips that she had lost track of the colossal monster. She gritted her teeth, seeing it lumber toward her friend.
“Morgan, I need help over here,” Baldwin said.
The monster roared as it continued to approach, its head eclipsing the sun far off on the horizon. A quarter of the work grounds became cloaked in the veil of the monster’s shadow.
“Morgan, what should I do?”
She thought about trying to create a diversion. Maybe she could catch the monster’s attention with the light of her sword. The only problem was that by making it turn its attention toward her, she was also focusing its poisonous eye in her direction. One look from it and she would shrivel up and die.
“Baldwin?”
He continued to huddle behind the rock wall without answering. Either he didn’t realize the giant was right behind him or he thought that huddling for safety might make him a less attractive target than the running and screaming inmates.
“Baldwin, run!”
Peering out from her hiding spot, she saw that he was still crouched against the wall, still motionless. Balor was only a few feet away now. The one-eyed giant was directly above Baldwin, looking right at him. Balor hunched forward and dragged his massive hands along the ground.
“Damn it, Baldwin, get out of there!”
Baldwin finally moved, but instead of running for safety, he swayed to the side, then fell backwards, crashing to the ground like a toppled statue. When he smacked the rock surface, Morgan saw that Baldwin’s skin looked more like marble or granite than it did human skin. Gray and textured, the driest places cracked and crumbled away.
Balor reached down with one of his gigantic hands and picked Baldwin up in the air. In his scaly and dusty face, Morgan saw that her friend was already dead. The monster roared, then clenched the fist that held Baldwin’s corpse. As Morgan watched, Baldwin’s body broke into dusty chunks that scattered on the ground.
Knowing she was next, Morgan looked all around for something to protect her from the one-eyed horror that would be coming her way. Seeing the unconscious alien inmate by her feet, she yanked him up by the edge of his shell and held him in front of her just as Balor took two giant steps forward.
The alien she was holding as a protective shield went from having soft, fleshy skin where his shell didn’t cover him, to the stone skin of a Gthothch. As she held it, the alien in her arms was completely dehydrating, withering into a dried out husk. And after it was dead, Balor would swat it aside and do the same to Morgan.
14
Vere dug her foot into the ground, got her shoulders squared, then heaved forward as hard as she could. The Circle of Sorrow turned another few inches.
A tiny part of her was cognizant of the fighting and yelling all around her. However, it didn’t register as anything out of the ordinary. The same part of her was aware that she was on Terror-Dhome performing grueling labor at the Cauldrons. While she understood her circumstances, they were not a burden, a thing to dread.
The truth was she wouldn’t have survived one week at the Cauldrons if she hadn’t learned to block out everything going on around her, especially while she was pushing the Circle of Sorrow. And in fact, it hadn’t been her own doing. The entire journey aboard Mowbray’s shuttle on her way to being processed at the Cauldrons of Dagda, she had been filled with anger and regret.
“This one won’t make it a week,” the android in charge of registering new inmates at the prison had said
Rolling her eyes, Morgan turned to see where Vere was.
“Why do I have to do everything myself?” she mumbled.
But instead of finding her friend, she spotted Balor. The one-eyed giant was shambling across the yard toward Baldwin. At five or six times the height of an adult human, Balor’s shadow cast a long dark shroud across the prison yard. She had been so focused on the barrage of blaster fire and guards with vibro whips that she had lost track of the colossal monster. She gritted her teeth, seeing it lumber toward her friend.
“Morgan, I need help over here,” Baldwin said.
The monster roared as it continued to approach, its head eclipsing the sun far off on the horizon. A quarter of the work grounds became cloaked in the veil of the monster’s shadow.
“Morgan, what should I do?”
She thought about trying to create a diversion. Maybe she could catch the monster’s attention with the light of her sword. The only problem was that by making it turn its attention toward her, she was also focusing its poisonous eye in her direction. One look from it and she would shrivel up and die.
“Baldwin?”
He continued to huddle behind the rock wall without answering. Either he didn’t realize the giant was right behind him or he thought that huddling for safety might make him a less attractive target than the running and screaming inmates.
“Baldwin, run!”
Peering out from her hiding spot, she saw that he was still crouched against the wall, still motionless. Balor was only a few feet away now. The one-eyed giant was directly above Baldwin, looking right at him. Balor hunched forward and dragged his massive hands along the ground.
“Damn it, Baldwin, get out of there!”
Baldwin finally moved, but instead of running for safety, he swayed to the side, then fell backwards, crashing to the ground like a toppled statue. When he smacked the rock surface, Morgan saw that Baldwin’s skin looked more like marble or granite than it did human skin. Gray and textured, the driest places cracked and crumbled away.
Balor reached down with one of his gigantic hands and picked Baldwin up in the air. In his scaly and dusty face, Morgan saw that her friend was already dead. The monster roared, then clenched the fist that held Baldwin’s corpse. As Morgan watched, Baldwin’s body broke into dusty chunks that scattered on the ground.
Knowing she was next, Morgan looked all around for something to protect her from the one-eyed horror that would be coming her way. Seeing the unconscious alien inmate by her feet, she yanked him up by the edge of his shell and held him in front of her just as Balor took two giant steps forward.
The alien she was holding as a protective shield went from having soft, fleshy skin where his shell didn’t cover him, to the stone skin of a Gthothch. As she held it, the alien in her arms was completely dehydrating, withering into a dried out husk. And after it was dead, Balor would swat it aside and do the same to Morgan.
14
Vere dug her foot into the ground, got her shoulders squared, then heaved forward as hard as she could. The Circle of Sorrow turned another few inches.
A tiny part of her was cognizant of the fighting and yelling all around her. However, it didn’t register as anything out of the ordinary. The same part of her was aware that she was on Terror-Dhome performing grueling labor at the Cauldrons. While she understood her circumstances, they were not a burden, a thing to dread.
The truth was she wouldn’t have survived one week at the Cauldrons if she hadn’t learned to block out everything going on around her, especially while she was pushing the Circle of Sorrow. And in fact, it hadn’t been her own doing. The entire journey aboard Mowbray’s shuttle on her way to being processed at the Cauldrons of Dagda, she had been filled with anger and regret.
“This one won’t make it a week,” the android in charge of registering new inmates at the prison had said
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