The Last Book on Earth by Catriona Ross

Author:Catriona Ross [Ross, Catriona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-05T22:00:00+00:00

A bellow, not far behind them.

The bandits have bound his wrists and attached a rope leash to him so that he walks ahead of them like a beast of burden. Flustered now, they jostle D@rc out of the path into the shadows of trees.

Ululating cries, more than one voice. D@rc is still bound by the leash. The man wrenches D@rc's arms behind his back, twisting the fingers. 'Make not a sound,' he says in his ear. D@rc is pushed to the ground and pinned with a knee. The man and woman crouch in shrubs beside him.

Two figures have appeared on the path on pelting feet. Boys. No, youths. From his low vantage point, D@rc sees first their bare moonlit legs. Chests smeared with paste, reed headdresses. Both are armed at the waist with a short club and a knife in a sheath. Slung over their backs, a bow and a quiver of arrows. Each holds a stick.

They stop in the path ten or so metres from the bandits.

'What do we have here?' The taller one, white braids, bends to inspect the items scattered on the path.

'Appears to be a recent spillage, Rasc,' says the other, wider in the chest and thigh, a spiked halo of hair. 'Why else would someone leave good junk on the road if they hadn't been surprised?'

'This could have happened minutes ago,' Rasc says. 'Must have been our blood-hunger cries. Sent them running.' He slides his pointed stick free – light sings off the blade attached to its end like a bayonet – and draws an imaginary line across the vegetation around him, neck height.

Sun cracks his knuckles; his bicep muscles roll out.

'If you ask me, I think they've only just run away,' he says. 'They couldn't have got very far, hey Sun?'

'If they knew the beatings we've dealt out to offenders, they'd be sh#tting their sorry selves,' Sun says.

D@rc's forehead is wet. He can feel the pulse from the man's knee in his back.

'So. Let us be systematic. First, the footprints.' Rasc steps back, forward, and circles the collection of items from D@rc's bag, looking for tracks in the moonlight.

'I reckon there were three of them, at least,' Sun says. 'An ambush. You see? Look, those two came out of the trees ahead of us.'

'They're still here,' says Rasc.

'Agreed. We'll find them.'

'They've made off with any food the victim had, I bet.'

'Not sharing. Not good,' Sun says.

For a few minutes there's only the shuffle of grass and branch as the warriors prowl and smell the air. D@rc shifts position; the man elbows him in the neck, pushing his eye into sand. The woman is crouched so close to him that he can smell the sweat from her thighs. D@rc closes his eyes, praying Get me out.

'Could this be theirs?' It is Sun's voice.

'What?'

'The device ancient peoples used to store their information.'

'Hey, let me look at that.' Rasc grabs the item and holds it up to catch the moonlight. 'A book. That means either the victim or attacker is a learned person.

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