CROSSProcess, Part 3 by Billings Hildred M
Author:Billings, Hildred M.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barachou Press
Published: 2023-02-06T00:00:00+00:00
five
The bells woke Cairn two days later.
She rolled over and cursed the timeâshe still had one hour before she had to get up. Who the hell had the balls to die at dawn?
Suppose they didnât die at dawn. Odds were they died overnight and were found when they didnât report to their station. Or maybe it was an accident. Maybe somebody was murdered. Cairn knew a thing or two about that.
The bells kept ringing. Cairn rolled over and growled into her pillow. On the other side of the room, Kila threw a boot at the door. âFucking dead people!â she grunted.
Somebody pounded at the door until Kila finally oozed out of bed and answered it with a scowl on her face. Cairn peered between her fingers at Silva, who stood with venom leaking from the corners of her surly mouth. âGet up. Youâve got a funeral to attend in an hour.â
âWhose?â
Silva stopped before heading to the next door. âJillicentâs.â
âWhat?â Cairn nearly fell out of bed at the news. âFrom what?â
Silva spat in the hallway. âTake a wild guess what kills you shits the most.â She stomped off, thumping her fist against Giselle and Lessiâs door.
Kila sat on her bed. âJillicentâs dead?â
âWe all die,â was all Cairn could say.
âJillicent wasâ¦â Kila stopped. Cairn knew what her partner wanted to say. Sheâs one of us. Two weeks ago, Jillicent was a junior mercenary, graduating to become a woman no longer in Aynaâs purview beyond work and assignments. Now she was dead from the biggest killer of girls their age. Most people assumed that the majority of mercenary deaths were on missions, but⦠Cairn didnât want to think about it. She had a funeral to attend.
They went to Sulim and Eyneâs room to find them both groggy and confused about why they were being dragged to the funeral of somebody theyâd never met. âDoes everyone have to go?â Sulimâs face implied she couldnât imagine the entire fortress attending a funeral for anyone except the chief.
âNo, not everyone, but until last week she was a junior mercenary.â Cairn stared down Sulimâs bloodshot eyes. âYouâre sleeping in her old bed.â Cairn had slept in it herself, once or twice. It had been two years since she last dallied with Jillicent, a skinny girl with dark red hair. Always respectful and always reciprocal. She liked both men and women. Didnât play girls like me for fools, either.
Sulim said nothing more after that, but Eyne kept at it. âIs that what those bells were for? I thought we were being invaded!â
âItâs in your manual.â Cairn motioned for them to follow her and Kila out to the funeral grounds. âWe donât use the bells much anymore. Only when somebodyâs died planetside and thereâs going to be a funeral.â Like now.
Funerals on Cerilyn had to be quick affairs. Sleeping space was precious in the quickly growing tribes, and with the heat, disease was known to fester with a carcass left out for too long. Cremation was impractical and against
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