Page 31 of Condemned

Chapter Thirteen

The advantage of wearinga bag on her head—and my my, how ironic to find a plus to this—was that she felt anonymous, less sexy, and less notable, even if her tits had been freezing before the cloak was given to her. The disadvantage was the flip side of that coin, as in it let these mauleons see her as an it. Zo had told her she was a person. He’d also spilled about Nibbles. And where had Nibbles gone?

At least her hands were free. Riding with bound hands would have been difficult. The smallest lurch and she’d not have stopped herself from falling.

“A bot seems unlikely. I’ve seen it eat.” Kondio’s warm voice rumbled through her back, between her ribs. All of these mauleons could get jobs as heaters.

“A bot could eat, if the power reactor it uses is sophisticated enough,” Takk mused from their left, reins held loosely enough that she wondered if he’d keep hold if the florse spooked. What if she screamed and then leaped off, ran for it?

Plots and plans for escape kept sprouting in her brain. Useless right now, she was stuck here riding. She’d have the best chance at night.

“What?” Kondio twisted. “They can eat food?”

“Yes. Some of them, according to what they taught us in school.”

“Well, I never... Must’ve skipped that class.”

“I figured it might be one, or it might not be. Tech is not everything. The world is a beautiful puzzle, waiting for us to sort it out.” Riding to their right, Zo opened his arms to the heavens and rode hands-free for a few paces. “It could be magic?”

“Magic?” Takk scoffed. “Zendokai says magic exists?”

“Why not?”

From the rear Timin sang out, “Bot says it’s mechanical, you idiot, Zo.” Takk’s eyebrows popped up. Zo screwed himself around to look. “Magic is like, not real.”

She felt Kondio’s chest move as if he laughed silently. “The boy speaks.”

“He does.” Takk grinned.

“I will consider your theory, Timin. If you can prove its innards are that—mechanical. Magic is as likely.”

“Catch it then. I’ll look for screws and welds, or a magician’s mark saying Zo was fucking right.”

“Good, good.” Her most recent lover had a smug look to him, even seen through the ragged eyeholes of the bag. Truly he’d been compassionate... for an enemy.

The mauleons continued batting ideas about and it seemed to her as if insults were never taken seriously. Novel. Insults suffered were generally meant, she’d learned from painful past experience.

The bag was making her nose itch. In a gap between their barbed words with each other, she made a suggestion. “If you dyed my hair black, you’d not need this.” She pointed at the bag.

“You speak, small thief.” From the feel of it, a hand gathered the bag material. “What say you all? I see a flaw in her argument. Her eyebrows are red too.”

“And her cunt hair.”

They all chuckled.

Thatvoice had been Zo’s. She caught him grinning, in the glance she managed before Kondio dragged her to look up and back at him.

“Are you thinking to disguise yourself, girl?” Using the bag, he gave her head a shake.

“Yes?” She smiled inside the bag. “That’s the whole point.”

“That’s truth.” The captain was a very matter-of-fact person. “While we are on the subject of our human girl, by which I mean huleon, why did you cloak her? Was naked too much for your old brain?”

From his sigh, Kondio was annoyed. “Fook, no. I had a fookin’ thought, unlike some here. Her pussy hair and those...” he released her head and gestured vaguely at her front, “...rings she has stuck through her bits are also a giveaway as to who she is.”

“Red hair, nipple rings, clit ring, and a huleon? She is a special one.”

Confused, she stared at the reins where they ran past her hands. Takk had echoed Zo’s earlier words. That was weird and disturbing... and weird.