Snare of the Blood Flower: A novella from A Poisoned Land by Roberts Craig P

Author:Roberts, Craig P [Roberts, Craig P]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2016-01-28T05:00:00+00:00

Wallace

He was in that blissful time between sniffs. The dust still ran through his body, not enough to give him a full high but enough to satisfy his need so that there wasn’t the constant craving. But soon, the thirst for the dust would be back.

Cauly! He had to see Cauly in these moments where his mind wasn’t clouded. Wallace went down to the cells below the throne room. He didn’t sneak; it was far better to walk confidently, spear tucked under his arm, nodding politely to any of Grietum’s daughters and his fellow workers (rats, as Grietum called them) that he passed on the way.

Wallace hated to think of himself as a rat, serving another person, but he had to. If he served Grietum she would reward him with the gift of the special ‘dust’. His duties included standing guard—although Grietum’s daughters were far more effective at protecting their mother than the small army of brown-eyed males that Wallace was forced to be part of.

“Cauly,” he whispered through the bars as those who were in the throne room above slept.

His brother knelt naked on the floor of the cell, sleeping, with his hands chained to a pole. He began to stir. When Cauly’s eyes locked on to Wallace they drifted down to look at the ridiculous leather kilt and pelt waistcoat that he had been given to wear in order to fit in with the other rats. Cauly’s face winced with confusion and then he whispered, “Are you okay? I hadn’t seen you in days and thought—”

“—Listen,” Wallace interrupted, “I came to tell you that I’m going to get you out of here.”

“You don’t have to,” Cauly said, shaking his head. “I’m going to tell them that I’ll lie with Grietum and end the hunt if she agrees to let us both go.”

In that moment Wallace could possibly picture himself leaving, but he knew that his craving would return. The thought of being stuck outside those huge metal doors knowing that the blood flower dust was trapped on the other side would kill him. Added to that, he knew better than his naive older brother, telling him, “She’s not going to let me go. And she won’t let you go either!”

“We don’t know until we try though.”

“If you go with her, then it’ll be too late. She’d have no use for you anymore. I’ve seen what they do to the blues that lie with her. They don’t let them go. My plan will get you out, but just you alone.”

“I’m not going to leave you behind.”

“We don’t have a choice!” Wallace snapped, still trying to keep his voice low so as not to wake the sleeping beast above. And I need to stay here for the dust, he thought but held that part of his reasoning from his brother, feeling the shame of being so attached and dependant on specs of dust…wonderful dust…

“No!” Cauly’s voice was breaking up and his chin was quivering. “What did Mum say to you

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