Scavenger of Souls by Joshua David Bellin

hell out of here before his whole army shows up. And you should consider yourself lucky I don’t fry your skinny butt right now.”
    And that was it for that conversation.
    We marched for hours in silence. Tyris tried to engage the girl more than once, but she was no more successful than me. I lost track of time, lost the ability to do anything but put one foot in front of the other. The moon had long since come and gone, and my aching body felt on the verge of collapse when we finally reached her camp.
    Such as it was. I’d wondered if there might be otherswith her, but the campsite was nothing but a camo tent propped up in the middle of the darkness. No stove, no fire, no supplies except small plastic bottles of water. Nothing for Aleka that I could tell. I’d hoped there might be something to transport her, but there was no vehicle, either. I tried to see that as a good sign. Unless the girl lived out here, which I couldn’t believe, we must be close to whatever place she counted as home base.
    Tyris busied herself with Aleka’s shattered arm. She’d had some luck stanching the blood on our way here, but I could tell from her face that the damage was too severe for her to repair. After she’d done as much as she could, she turned to cleaning and rewrapping Zataias’s chewed-up feet. He winced and tried not to cry as she removed slivers of glassy stone from his soles. I tried to inch over to check on her patients, but the girl’s rifle jerked to my chest the moment I made a move. She sat on a stone formation and handed a water bottle to Tyris, keeping the rifle trained on me. It seemed like a week since I’d tasted water, but my parched throat found nothing to swallow but burning air. At last, when the others had taken a drink, the girl tossed a bottle in my direction. My hands were so stiff and sore I could barely unscrew the cap, which I suspected she’d fastened extra tight. I finally got it off, resisted the impulse to pour water over my hair and face and instead let a trickle drip down my throat, too grateful for the relief it offered to care that the girl was sizing me up the way you’d look at a snake coiled to strike.
    â€œThank you,” I said when my throat felt supple enough to produce words.
    The silence that radiated from her was as poisonous as her stare.
    â€œIs your base nearby?” I tried.
    Still nothing. Her hand went to her left arm and rubbed rhythmically as if it was itching her, but she kept the rifle leveled at me, as steady as her laser-sharp eyes.
    â€œLook,” I said. “I’m asking you one more time. Take them to your base, but let me go.”
    â€œPiss off,” she said. “You’re not going anywhere. And we’re only staying here long enough to give the little boy a break.”
    I thought that was going to be the end of it, but then, with an edge in her flat voice that might have been curiosity or might have been simple disdain, she added: “So that’s the plan now, huh? Fake a sacrifice then jump us when our guard’s down?”
    â€œDoes her arm look fake?” I said, pointing to Aleka. “They were about to kill us. I assumed that’s why you stopped them. I assume that’s why you’re helping us now.”
    A string of curses met my ears. I’d lived with soldiers as long as I could remember, but none swore as constantly or as creatively as she did. “I stopped them because every one of them I take down today is one less I have to take down tomorrow,” she said when she’d exhausted the possibilities. “And if you think I’m planning to help you, just wait until you see what Udain has in store for you.”
    With that, she went back to staring me down. And though I tried to get her to explain what she meant, she wouldn’t say anything more.
    The others settled down beside the stretcher, Zataias giving in to sleep so quickly he let Tyris wrap her arms