Shadowkill

1

After the fifth stop there were no more ayntis. P’murr passed out water bottles and warned the Contract women that it was all they’d get for the day so they’d better make it last.

The land was beige under a pale yellowish sky, the tag end of winter sucking the color away.

It was as empty as it was colorless, except for dark specks soaring too high above them to be identified when they pulled up for rest and meals. Jassy pointed them out with macabre zest; she was sure they were vultures, she’d seen that sort of thing before. She and her sister Eeda produced a series of revolting stories about the habits of vultures on other worlds they’d favored with their presence-until Tinoopa made them stop because several of the younger ones were sweating and turning green.

It was dark inside the box, there were only those two small windows to light the space and both of them were gray with ancient muck. Outside, the tires on the two land-rovers and the truck threw up fluff-tails of white from the dun-colored earth, fine floury dust that crept through the most minute of cracks to powder the women and everything inside. Air came from outside through filtered vents, bringing with it the pungent smells of the countryside; it was cold dry air that leached moisture from their noses and mouths, cracked their lips and made them bleed.

The convoy stopped twice a day. The women in the labor cadre were given bits of coarse dun paper and sent into the Brush to do what they had to and warned not to linger. Four armed guards went with them, more armed guards lay flat on the truck’s roof, each facing a different direction and the rest took turns watching over the Matja Allina. This and the loneliness of the land spooked even Tinoopa. She hurried into the truck as soon as she’d eaten and relieved herself; the others scrambled in with her, giving a collective sigh of relief as the back panels clanged shut.

Kizra was frightened every moment she was outside. She hated that, so she hated this place for doing it to her and she cursed the Matja Allina for bringing her here; most of all she raged against the Unknown who’d stolen her memories and discarded her like garbage.