Chapter 5

Perditus’ foot came down hard on the Iron warrior’s skull, knocking the sinking the dazed Telluris into unconscious oblivion.

“Now,” the Fire Glatorian said, removing his foot. “What to do about him?”

“We could always kill him,” offered Scodonius.

Vocta gasped.

“Kill him!” she exclaimed. “Are you no better than the Skrall?!”

“Relax,” the Water Agori growled irritably. “It was just a joke.”

“Well to be honest, there aren’t many other viable options,” Kirbraz said. “We can’t take him with us where we’re going, and we certainly can’t leave him free.”

“Tie him up,” Perditus said. “He’ll still be alive by the time I come back through the area again. He’s endured worse before.”

The two Earth Agori expressed varying degrees of discomfort at the thought, and even Kirbraz raised an eyebrow, but Scodonius burst out laughing at the idea.

“By Solis Magna, Perditus, you are one cold Dune Snake. Very well, Telluris is your responsibility.”

Kaldii glanced at Vocta and shrugged. “He did try to kill us first.”

Vocta threw a glance at Kaldii that conveyed more than words could say: dissatisfaction, moderate concern for their prisoner, and a level of fear for their own well-being.

In response, Kaldii held her gaze with comforting eyes that reflected acknowledgement. She shrugged helplessly.

While this was happening, the three vehicle riders were checking their machines and ensuring there was no damage. Kirbraz and Scodonius were oblivious, each bragging at each other about their accomplishments in the battle and neither listening to the other. Perditus, however, quietly regarded the two from the corner of his eye.

He still didn’t quite know what to make of them. Vocta seemed to be the more emotional of the two, and talkative enough for both of them at times, and in her excitement, her voice was prone to impossibly high pitches. Kaldii, on the opposite extreme, spoke with a consistently low monotone, and while talkative, often yielded to let her friend speak. The two clearly had known each other for years, having been through much together. But there was more to them than they let on—that much was quite obvious.

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“And then I was like—‘Eat rubber!’ And Telluris—oh, you should have seen his face, man, it was the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen. I haven’t seen eyes that wide since the Kaxium landed on the front of the Cendox that one time and Crotesius was vaulted across the arena. Do you remember that?”

“Yes, yes, of course. But Kirbraz, you should have seen the way I twisted through the air after you detached. I felt like a real Thornax!”

“And that turret, did it go flying!”

“I probably would have landed upside down if I hadn’t thrown my balance in the opposite direction at just the right moment.”

“I almost pity Telluris, the way I smashed up that console of his. Reminds me of the time you were picking on Berix.”

Wha—oh, right,” Scodonius growled. “We’ve discussed this, Kirbraz.”

His partner shrugged. “Just saying.”

“Come,” Perditus announced, as he finished binding Telluris and moved over to his cockpit. “We’ve spent enough time on this distraction. We need to make tracks if we’re to make it to the Dark Falls by nightfall.”

“Wasn’t it your idea to come this way?” Kirbraz asked, climbing into the Kaxium.

“Yes,” Perditus responded as the Earth Agori took their positions. “And I’m glad we did. Better we stop Telluris and his Skopio while it was crippled than let him finish repairing it. But it’s time we get going.”

“What do you even want at the Dark Falls, anyway?” Scodonius asked. But the Thornatus was already riding off.

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Following their diversion, the five travelers were close enough to the Skrall River that they could quite easily navigate northeast along it without much trouble. Wherever necessary, their vehicles could cross the river fairly easily, for they were light enough that the river afforded them little difficulty. In fact, following the Skrall installation of a dam, the river itself was not a proper flow of water, but rather a dense layer of semisolid dehydrated sand atop a flowing layer of slick, muddy current. By some geological miracle, it did not mix to form quicksand, but it was nevertheless ill-advised to remain still for too long, nor for something as heavy as a Skopio, for example, to cross without a bridge. The river flowed all the way down from the Black Spike Mountains along a series of falls and ridges, down past Atero to empty in the Gulf of Liquid Sand.

Several hours along, the party paused to stretch their legs. It was during this time that Scodonius decided to finish his incomplete business with the Fire Glatorian.

“So what do you even want at the Dark Falls, anyway?” his voice came so suddenly from behind Perditus that he bumped his head on the top force blaster.

“What?” rubbing his head, he turned to look at the Agori. Seeing Scodonius alone, without the company of his partner, felt particularly bizarre to the Glatorian. Perditus had associated the two together since they’d been originally entrusted with the vehicle. To see only one here was… unsettling.

“You keep saying that you want to go to the Dark Falls,” Scodonius said silkily. “But you haven’t shared why. Was wondering what you’re doing up there.”

Perditus snorted. “Neither have you, old friend. Our business is our own.”

“Just a friendly question.”

“If you really want to know,” the Glatorian shrugged, resuming work on the lower force blaster. “Raanu wanted me and Crotesius to spearhead a team to check the Dark Falls for any missing Exsidian from Iconox’s shipment a week ago. I don’t know much about what happened —- I was in Tesara until the day before yesterday. Otherwise I would have been able to help them.”

“Was there much Exsidian missing?”

“Enough to warrant a search party. Are the others ready to head out again?”

“Er… uh, yeah, I think so.”

“Good,” Perditus said with a dry smile. “Then you can tell me your intentions up there while we go.”

“Well, truth be told…” Scodonius followed Perditus to the other side of the Thornatus. “Tajun was sending us to check for the same thing. We — I think they were hoping Vulcanus had forgotten about anything that might remain. Berix was supposed to come with us, but, well… he -—”

“Ah, I heard about the treatment you and Kirbraz dished out to him.”

“Oh, did you?”

“You’re famous, Scodonius. Word travels fast of your… delinquencies.”

“It wasn’t that bad! Everyone makes it sound like it was so much worse than it really was. Everyone in Tajun thought it was funny, and even Berix was laughing a bit. Well, at least smiling. Well, until he realized what we -—”

“You made a laughingstock of him by pretending you wanted him on your team. You exploited his dream of fighting in the arena for the sake of a practical joke.”

“One he set himself up for! The way he behaves, you can tell he loves playing the fool!”

“Listen, Scodonius,” Perditus said, securing the straps tying a bag of rations to the Thornatus. “I’m not here to lecture you or to dish out judgement or punishment—”

“I certainly hope you aren’t.”

“-—but I don’t think you realized just how it came across, in the end. Regardless of how anyone was acting at the time, it’s really tainted your reputations. I’ll be the first to tell you that everyone has their own opinions of Berix and his… neuroticisms. But in spite of that — maybe because of that — the fact you exploited it just comes across as low.”

“Yeah, well…”

“Do you regret it?” Perditus turned to look at the Agori, his gaze piercing.

“…”

“Because if you do,” he added, hoisting himself up and examining the Thornax Launcher. “Then you might as well just apologize.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Oh?” Perditus jumped back down. “Doesn’t seem that difficult to me.”

“Scodonius,” Kirbraz said, walking over. “Kaxium’s all set. We bent up some of the connectors with that stunt earlier, but as long as we don’t do anything crazy before we get back to Tajun, they should hold.”

“Fine by—”

“Do you hear that?” asked Vocta, hurrying over, followed by Kaldii. “Sounded like a howl.”

Scodonius and Kirbraz exchanged glances but Scodonius shook his head.

“It’s too early in the day. There’s no way.”

“I don’t know about that. The nocturnal activities of the Vorox have been forcing them to hunt earlier and earlier.”

“This early though?”

Vocta frowned. “What? Forcing what?”

Kirbraz glanced at her. “Wasteland Wolves. Or Dune Wolves, depending on where you’re from.”

“Still, I don’t think—”

Scodonius hesitated as his heart dropped. Yes, there it was. Very faint, but as clear as the light of the sun above.

“We need to get moving,” announced Perditus. “The Dark Falls are pretty close. Everyone, load up.”

But as everyone was finding their place again, there was a flash of movement to the right.

Along a ridge of dunes, a single wolf had raised itself on its hind legs and howled at the sun.