A Cold and Heartless Lullaby -Chapter 18-

In the commotion, Aaron burst from his tent. A row of wheelers were approaching in the distant darkness. Leper turned to him.

“I’ll run. Before they get here.”

“No.” 

“What?”

“No! Rot!” Aaron cursed, “If they catch you running, they’ll have our heads. Get inside the storage tent and hide. I’ll redirect them.”

Leper nodded and sprinted to the storage tent, keeping Kia close. He ducked through the flaps and hid behind the wheeler, a protective hand over Kia. Narrowing his apertures, he adjusted for the crack of light between the entrance flaps, but he couldn’t see anything. He turned up his hearing. Wheelers rolled into camp, their engines purring before shutting off one by one. Boots crunched in the snow, and the wind howled. 

“We know you have him!” a distinct voice yelled. Roman.

“Do not take another step forward! You are forbidden by the treaty!” Aaron commanded. 

Leper skulked closer to the tent’s entrance, just enough that he could see through the crack. Roman stood at the front of an entire squad of reverants, wheelers parked behind them. Aaron was their sole opposer.

“You went against the terms of our treaty when you took that andron into your protection!” Roman screamed.

“The only androns left belong to you! Where would we get one?!”

“We watched our stolen wheeler drive into this camp,” Roman said, taking another step.

“STOP RIGHT THERE,” Aaron barked, “This is a neutral zone!”

Roman spread his arms, “What are you gonna do, huh? What are you gonna do if I step in? Are you going to kill me?”

“We are not looking for conflict!” 

“So what then?” Roman said, a mocking tone seeping into his voice, “You won’t even try and stop me?”

“According to the treaty, you cannot attack!” 

“Then consider the treaty broken.” Roman whipped his gun from his holster and fired. A hunk of scrap tore deep into Aaron’s shin, and he collapsed with a cry of pain. Blood spurted, staining the snow.

Roman stepped forward again. Aaron swallowed his pain and tried to sit up.

“You are forbidden to enter this neutral zone!”

“Aaron, stop!” his mother cried, rushing towards him. He held out his arm,

“Mother, don’t!” he said, hoarse. “I can handle this.”

“This is your mother?” Roman asked.

“You stay away from her!”

Roman motioned to his men, “Get her.”

“NO!”

Roman’s men rushed in, crossing the threshold and grabbing Aaron’s mother. She didn’t struggle as they dragged her to Roman. He took her and put her in a headlock, holding his gun to her head.

“Can you hear me, andron?” he yelled, “I’ll give you to the count of three to reveal yourself, or this woman dies!”

“Please!” Aaron cried, “She has nothing to do with this! Leave her alone!”

“Tell that to your metal friend.”

 Kia inched closer behind Leper, trying to see out.

“Stay back, Kia,” Leper said, holding out his hand. She gave him a concerned look.

“He is not here, your reverence!” Aaron pleaded. 

“Oooone!” Roman counted.

Nobody in the camp dared to move. Leper crouched by the door, watching Aaron’s mother as her eyes turned to fear. 

“Twoooooo!” Roman continued. 

Kia tugged on Leper’s arm.

“I said stay back,” Leper hissed.

“Thrrreeee!” 

The words rang out into a breathless camp, and seconds passed like heartbeats. At the sight of Roman’s snide grinning face, Leper boiled with rage. He stepped out of the tent.

“Would you look at that!” Roman mocked, “You must have forgotten about that one.”

“Do it!” Leper screamed, “Pull the trigger!”

Roman turned to him, bemused, “Excuse me?”

“You won’t do it!” Leper stepped closer. “You’re too weak.”

Roman shook his head, “You want to kill this innocent woman? I will pull this trigger!”

“And her blood will be on your hands!” Leper said. Aaron’s mother gave him a look of betrayal. Roman pulled the woman closer and touched the gun to her temple, a malicious grin spreading across his face. She shuddered, a tear falling down her cheek. 

Wind buffeted the silence. No one moved or breathed. Leper watched Roman’s fierce eyes dull, turning to indecision. Show us your weakness. 

“By Sol’s grace, you are spared today!” Roman claimed. A man caught in his bluff, he dropped Aaron’s mother on the ground and holstered his weapon. “And by Sol’s grace alone!”

She scrambled to her feet and ran crying back to her son. 

“I knew it!” Leper cried, “You’re a coward!”

“Hold your tongue, andron! You will atone for your crimes!”

Leper couldn’t help it. He let loose. “Go ahead! Try and stop me! What power do you have? The power of Sol? You control by fear, all the while hiding like a coward behind your pretend religion!”

Roman stepped forward and trained his gun at Leper, “I will personally tear the voice box from your head, andron!”

“Oh, I’m sorry! Does the truth offend you?” 

“Grab him,” Roman ordered. Reverant guards seized Leper and shoved him to his knees.

“Go ahead,” Leper said, “Shoot me in the face, maybe that’ll shut me up!”

The rail of Roman’s scrap gun quivered slightly as he leveled it at Leper’s head. 

“Believe me, I’d love to,” Roman said through clenched teeth, “But I have a far worse fate in mind for you.”

Leper met his eyes. “I look forward to it.”

Roman’s face contorted with rage, losing all composure, and for a split second, Leper worried he had gone too far. Eyes burning and nostrils flaring, Roman struck, snatching Leper’s charging cord and tearing it out. He bypassed the safety pin and ripped half of the mechanism from the back of Leper’s head. Wires snapped like tendons. Metal broke like bone. Pain washed over Leper’s entire body, unlike anything he had ever experienced. His vision blacked out for a moment as he collapsed into the snow, grasping at the frayed wires that stuck out from the back of his head like exposed nerves. Roman knelt down and leaned in close to Leper’s ear.

“This is what happens when you mock me.” 

Waves of needles turned Leper numb, and he rolled on the ground. Guards grabbed him and forced him to his knees, facing the camp.  Leper’s soul froze. Kia was running towards him. The sight of her concerned face swam across his vision, and blinking didn’t clear it.

“Kia!” he cried, “No! Stay back!”

Everything was spinning. The guards were already dragging him away. Leper fought to keep Kia in sight, but he could barely tell which direction he was facing. They shoved him into a trailer they had connected to one of the wheelers, propping him up on the hitch-side wall and strapping his arms to opposite sides of the bed. Leper blinked. Someone tossed Kia into the trailer. They didn’t bother to tie her up. Everything lurched, and Leper’s head pounded. It took a second for him to realize they had started moving.

…

All too slowly, the sun rose again. Leper’s vision had slowly recovered, but the burning pain in the back of his head had only lessened to a throb. Every time the exposed wires brushed against the trailer wall behind him, he felt a wave of nausea pass over him. He could only stare helplessly as Kia huddled in the corner of the trailer, doomed to face the consequences of his actions.

I told you. You are only prolonging her death. You failed the moment you took that bag. Leper didn’t reply, he just sat and endured the pain. With the connection broken, you can’t charge. When your internal battery depletes, you will die, and your soul will leave. You have nowhere left to run. 

…

At first, Leper thought the reverants would take him back to the fort, but they were not heading in that direction. In time, it dawned on him. There was only one place to take an enemy of the Revenance. Few had ever seen it. Those that had would not speak of it. Scavengers would not go within a day’s march of it. But as the sun burned red on the morning horizon, Leper knew he was bound for it. 

He looked over his shoulder, pulling on his shackles to see a sheer cliff surrounding a monolithic cement tower. Faceless, cold, and imposing, it jutted from the ground like an executioner’s spike. Surrounded by mountain cliffs, it looked small, but it must have been over sixty stories tall, and its base was easily as wide as the ravine in the Split City was deep. It was encircled by a perimeter of countless ribbon-like Revenance flags quivering from tall iron poles, their gold lining glimmering in the morning sunlight. From a distance, they looked minuscule, but as the wheelers drew near, Leper could see that they were as tall as twenty men. There was no question. It was The Cathedral.