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SLINGER
BOOKTWO:STRANGE BONDS
BY BEN LYLE BEDARD
COVERART AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAN MADDEN
B L A Z E V O X [ B O O K S ]
Buffalo, New York
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Slinger Book Two: Strange Bondsby Ben Lyle Bedard Copyright 2013Published by BlazeVOX [books]
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproducedwithout the publishers written permission, except for briefquotations in reviews.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover Art and Illustrations by Dan MaddenInterior design and typesetting by Geoffrey Gatza
First EditionISBN: 978-1-60964-159-7Library of Congress Control Number: 2013947205
BlazeVOX [books]131 Euclid AveKenmore, NY 14217
p u b l i s h e r o f w e i r d l i t t l e b o o k s BlazeVOX [ books ]
blazevox.org
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CHAPTER ONE
There she is. Damodara. Golden planet of the Qing
Mei system. From a million or so miles out, she shines like
the eye of a cat at night, all a-glimmer with promise. She
seems like something you could slip into your pocket and feel
mighty good about holding to from time to time when life
dulls down. She sure is a sight to see. Especially for eyes
more accustomed to that brown blur that Earth turned into in
her old age. Or to the aching blackness of space that weighs
on a heart just to think on. That golden sphere, streaked with
white clouds, crossed by an elegant loop of ice at its waist,
seems like some bountiful harvest that all you got to do is
reach out and take hold on, and all your life will be just as
sweet as a spoonful of kulfi.
Course aint nothing what it seems to be. On the
edges of Damodara there glimmers a few thousand ships
belonging to the Rama Corporation, set as it as on the
domination and ownership of said planet whose strange
geologic history has made it a wealth of rare metals. The
Rama Corp is there a-massing for war, as is their wont. For it
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is true that the Rama Corporation by sheer power has
dominated a goodly portion of the galaxy from here back
Earth-ward, about half to be exact. They aint much
accustomed to being denied their whims, of which there sure
are a fair amount.
But being denied they are, and by the Gaozu. They sit
out there in the darkness striking now and again, determined
as they are to keep the Rama Corp from the metal mentioned
back a piece. To simplify matters, its easy to think that
whatever the Rama dont own, the Gaozu got. As you might
well imagine, especially if you are familiar with human beings,
this aint made for the most peaceful state of things. Both
Gaozu and Rama Corp argue that they own the golden planet
of Damodara and all the metals therein located. Hell, aint
that a bind?
This is why the night sky sparkles so about the planet
as these two set to brawling. Aint no use to fret on it or dwell
about the golden setting wherein these two groups of humans
set to killing each other. Its the way of human beings to
make a hell out of their paradises. You might sooner empty
the oceans with a teaspoon than change that nature, all right.
To hell with them Ramas and Gaozus then.
Let us swoop down to said planet. Down over the
plains where the drip mice scurry under the chub grass and
the chatter grass speaks in the breeze. Over the packs of
howlers and the herd of Neegoh, up by the glacier-fed river,
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all milky color, then smack dab to the mountains. There
through a whirling storm, the mountain passes seem a wild
and unforgiving place, cold as hell and getting colder. Snow
whirls against the rocky mountain side where grows nothing
but lichen-like creatures, microscopic beasts that learnt to
feed on not much more than rock and air. In the right light,
those beasts set to glowing. But aint no one concerned now
with them.
There was a sight too much pain to think.
So it was for the Kid who lay broken up on a ledge
having been tossed over the side of the icy cliff by the Slinger,
for reasons he imagined were reasonable. The Kid were a
lean one, owned a dusty blond head of hair, and under the
right circumstances, would put a light into a womans eye.
Now, though, broken as he were, upon the ledges of that
mountain, he werent so great to look upon, nor did he think
on such things. Truth was he werent sure what he was
thinking. He werent sure how long hed been there neither,
having woke up to a world of pain. What werent hurting
were freezing cold. He gave out a sob at first, thinking he was
dead, sure as shit. The freezing wind tussled his hair. Hell,
thought he, I aint ever thought Id die like this, out in the
cold, broken up bad in a storm. To be honest, the Kid never
thought much about how he would die to begin with. Didnt
seem likely. Even when he been shot and bleeding, he always
assumed hed make it, for he was that young and the power of
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life in him were strong enough to convince him that death
werent real the way he was. But now, laying there in the
cold, maybe with his back broken, the ledge of the cliff too far
up to climb to, the Kid came face to face with death. And it
werent a pretty face, not by far. In the eyes of that face saw
he eternity and his place in it werent exactly transparent.
What the hell would come of him when he closed his eyes for
the final time? He werent sure if hed just vanish from the
planet or become love itself, like the Crotuses thought. Or
maybe those Christians were right with their baby god and
hed end up in a heaven of childhood just dancing about and
drinking sweet drinks and sucking at candy and, well, fishing
too, he imagined. Or maybe the Hindus were right and hed
just end up coming back a snake or something. Though, the
Kid thought, on this planet, who knows what hed end up
being? Drip mouse? Mud puppy? Neegoh? Ice ghee?
Dizang, but there was no way to tell what death would bring
to him! The Kid werent no sinner, so he werent afraid of
hell. But when he thought of that, he saw in his memory,
bright-clear like it were happening again, his rifle leveling
steady against a man and the shot ringing out and the Laycroft
holding to his hip for a second before falling down. Then he
felt again the glory he felt at shooting that man. But now he
was plumb ashamed of that feeling. No one should be
shooting no one. It werent right. And he thought of that
man he shot and wondered if he died and if he did, did that
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hardly keep track of all the stupidity flowing through him
then. Damn it, he sobbed. Goddamn it, wept he. Mai
chod. Then he got to laughing looking up at that ledge on
cause of it being so far away and the stars seemed to shine like
that were funny. Laughing hurt quite a bit though so he
stopped that. Shit, he said. Shit. He breathed hard
through his clenched teeth, which made a hissing sound.
Then he grunted and put a hand to the wall and smiled
through those ivories of his cause he knew pulling would hurt
like hell. He pulled. He were right. It did hurt like hell. The
pain went through him first like a shock and then like a
glowing fire been sparked all through his legs. But he lifted
anyway and threw up his other hand and then he were
screaming and he clung to the wall and somehow was on his
feet and knew that only one of his legs were broken and the
other were just in freezing pain and cut up some from the
rocks. Well, he reflected, whilst his body burned about him
in pain, my back aint busted. That was a blessing, he
supposed. He had a warm feeling of thankfulness for his
intact spine, which were a strange feeling to have while
trapped on a ledge during a storm with nothing but a
thousand feet of air behind you and a wall that didnt seem
likely youd be able to scale in front of you, but there it was.
The feeling of blessing werent with him long, just a
momentary flash of warmth upon him, blown away like the
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frigid wind now trying to snuff him out, candle-like. Then it
were time to climb before he got to thinking too much on it.
The Kid threw up both arms with a groan and then
pulled. His foot at the end of his unbroken leg searched
around for a hold, but finding none, he slid back, his broken
leg coming up hard on ice and gave him a jolt that felt like
hed been stabbed in the heart. Inarticulate screaming shook
him like it werent him doing it. Then he cleared some and
found himself hissing through clenched teeth and heard that
he was cursing. That pain had nearly knocked him out of
himself. If he fainted from it, hed topple down through that
abyss about him and either land down a bit farther, ledge-
caught and broke even worse, or hed keep right on going
through that gray air and into the chasm and never return no
more. But that werent something to think on either because
there was no choice, no matter the danger, except if it were
dying. And dying, he saw, werent a choice at all but just
what happened when you didnt fight. And hell be damned
but he werent dying that a-way. So if he fell, he fell, and that
was all that could be thought about that. He flung his hands
up again, his jaw clenched up tight and set to pulling himself
up. This time his foot caught. His broken leg, dragged and
scraping against the snow-blown ledge, gave out such a pain
that he felt sick to his stomach from it but his hold was certain
for now. He smiled and then looked down. Hed moved
maybe a foot up that wall. Looking up to the far world of the
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top of the ledge, which might have been heaven it were so far
away, he could only give out a laugh. A horrible laugh it was
though, full of death. Hed never heard himself laugh so and
put a stop to it. He supposed there werent no use thinking
on it or the top of that ledge nor the bottom of the abyss.
What the hell good did it do but fill one with hope and
despair? What were the use of that? So the Kid were set on
only thinking about the next climb.
Climb he did, one pull at a time, to the tune of the
pain about him. The wind whirled about him and he began
thinking that what he really had to worry on now was that he
was slowly freezing to death. Already he werent really feeling
his hands, nor his feet. He was only hoping they were
clinging to the wall like he told them to. Each second he was
out there he knew he was coming closer to dying. The Kid
knew too that if he couldnt get up that ledge, hed soon lose
all control of his hands and then he was a goner. So he had
to hurry, which was a hard thing to think on because hurrying
would likely lead to a mistake, but not hurrying would kill
him. It was hard to think that if he werent broke up so bad,
hed just climb up that ledge lickety-split and be done with it.
Never had space seemed to the Kid such a difficult thing to
possess nor in its extension so mysterious. Hand over hand,
he climbed, trying to think only of the climb, the handholds,
the footholds, but his mind were wandering awful. He kept
thinking of his Ma telling him not to leave and him saying to
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her he had to find his own way and she tearing up so that his
heart would break. Then he werent thinking of nothing but
her face and that was hurtful. He started sobbing and saying
he was coming home, Ma. His mother said to him, come
home to me, and he said to her, I am Ma, I am right now.
And her face was shining in him like a thing made of bright
love and the Kid was weeping now and saying he was sorry,
Ma, sorry he ever left, sorry hed ever listened to Pa, and that
he never belonged no where if he couldnt see his poor ole
Ma. Then there was a burst of pain so awful he cried out and
found himself down at the bottom of the ledge again. Hed
fallen to where hed started except now he was numb from
cold and there was a voice in him saying what use had been
all that pain? Now that hed fallen through that space, where
did all that toil and hardship go? No where! Like it never
been! Just waste. And that voice found that warmly
humorous and laughing come up out of him, but not bitter
like before. It was warm and seeped through his body like a
heated bath. The Kid laughed under that ledge in his
growing warmth and he thought to himself suddenly, yup,
thats how you do die freezing all right, just as warm as can
be, aint that strange? But the thought shook him and he
seemed to remember that he werent supposed to die like this.
Well, he reflected, I guess no one could choose the manner of
their dying. He thought hed die struggling, but it sure did
seem he was going to die laughing. Aint that a bitch? He
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Anna set to telling Leo about Horizon, the drip mouse.
Shed just started in such a way as to have the children
Horizon saved from starving to death as well as from being
eaten by the great howlers get themselves captured up by bad
folk when Leo interrupted. I dont want Horizon to be
here, said he. Horizon deserves better.
It were awful pathetic to see Leos swimming eyes in
that dim light concerned for that fictional mouse and what he
did and did not deserve, so Anna nodded and agreed that this
werent no place for such a virtuous drip mouse as Horizon.
Chrissy who was sitting next to her was in agreement.
I think Horizon shouldnt be here neither, said she.
This goddamn place aint fit for no one.
Which was painful true. The innards of the Bradger
compound were lit by a single yellow light that more
reminded them of the gloom than provided light. They lived
in cages, the bars going up to the ceiling. There were about a
dozen or so of these cages, each holding women of all ages.
Must have been about thirty of them in that space, but you
wouldnt know it. Their food was drugged up so that the
women spent their time either sleeping or staring outward.
Anna remembered that feeling and knew how Soma worked
and she remembered how she had shook and cried and
screamed when shed weaned herself off it and the creatures
that crawled about her then and she trembled to think that
shed have to do that again. It were bad enough when you
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didnt know how bad it was going to get. But shed been
lucky, as it goes. Theyd decided to keep her lucid so she
could look after Leo and hed have a better chance of living in
that jail. He were still young enough to sell off to a mining
ship where hed go down in some hold and probably never
emerge again until he were a grown man, old enough to be set
to harder work. Then he wouldnt be much more than an
animal.
Anna werent thinking of that now. Right now Leo
would have to stay alive and then shed worry more about
what came next.
She also had to think of Chrissy. Seen the way the
guards put their eyes to her though she werent more than a
child and didnt show no sign of being a woman. Anna knew
that didnt matter to those black-hearted sons a bitches. So
the food they gave to Chrissy, Catherine ate, and Anna halved
her meal with the girl, which meant she was terrible hungry
all the time. Catherine thus double drugged slumped up
against the metal wall sleeping all the time except if it were to
wake up to more eating. Anna couldnt think on what she was
doing to Catherine. If she didnt die from the Soma, shed
have a hell of time leaving that drugged blur. Maybe dying
would be a blessing, though. None of it would matter a damn
anyway if they couldnt get free. Catherine will be better off
dead, thought Anna, if they was to stay here to get sold off by
those goddamn Bradgers to some whorehouse or, even worse,
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to some pleasure ship in orbit. Those places. Anna knew
those places.
Anna, said Chrissy. Is Leo going to die? She
asked this question frequently.
No, answered she.
Said Chrissy in return: Well, how do you know? He
looks awful sick. You always say he wont, but how do you
know?
Because I aint letting him die, said Anna in return.
Now be quiet. I dont want no one hearing you talking.
Youre supposed to be drugged up, remember?
Sorry.
Anna hugged her to her body. Thats all right, she
said. She kissed the top of her head and her thin warm hair
stuck to her lips and Anna most died from the feeling of
tenderness for that child. It burnt in her hot and turned to a
rage that she kept down only through a mighty effort. It was a
rage that were capable of a good amount of killing, and she
knew it and hid it down to use later on. If ever the chance
come, hell would look paradise to these sons a bitches when
she was through with them.
Chrissy seemed to sense that rage. Its all right,
whispered the girl in Annas ear. SHELL save us. That
she was the Slinger whom they had not seen since their
capture. Anna cringed to think on what they were doing with
her, that beautiful graceful Slinger all drugged up and
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helpless somewhere. It would be lucky they didnt tear her to
pieces in their need to get at that untouchable grace. Shiva
keep her, thought Anna. And she were a sight grateful she
herself was only passable beauteous. It was a hell of a world
for beauty to be in, that were certain. But she didnt say
nothing to Chrissy. The girl needed some kind of hope out
there.
For Anna it were the Kid. He hadnt been strangled
with Calder and Gregory. He was out there somewhere. And
there was no way he was letting the Bradgers keep the
Slinger. Anna doubted he thought much of her or the
children, but hed sooner kill himself dead than leave the
Slinger. Look how he almost got himself killed just to get her
horse back, and that was when everyone thought she was
dead and gone. Though Jack too had escaped that death, she
reckoned he was halfway back to Earth now. Probably on a
pleasure ship too, the son of a bitch, easing his way home on
the money hed made selling the caravans. She didnt put no
doubt to it. Jack were a normal kind of man, selfish, arrogant,
and as unfeeling as a fish. Which were none too kind to
fishes, she reflected. Didnt make no sense, really, making
such heartless creatures as men. Anna reckoned that were
good proof that there werent no god or, if there were, he
were a man himself and life werent nothing but a joke to him,
to which woman was a punch line. Anna had had about
enough of being a joke. She could forgive life for what it
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done to her, but there werent no forgiving for what it was set
to doing to Leo and Chrissy. It would not be. Not while she
breathed.
If she had hope, it sure didnt rest with Jack, that
being the main point. The Kid were the origin and end of
what little hope she had. Anna might be terrible unschooled,
she couldnt even read for crissakes, but she werent stupid.
She knew what lay in store for them, had listened when it was
important all her life, even in those years she were drugged
up senseless on Soma. These Bradgers wouldnt be no
different. She and the other women would be sold off to
nearby towns or maybe the Bradgers had their own
whorehouses set here and there on Damodara. A few others
might get swept off the planet altogether to get sold in larger
markets. Anna figured Slinger would be one of those. One
thing Anna was certain theyd do was set to breaking them up
as soon as they could. These bastards didnt like any of their
new whores to have any connections to their other life. Made
for trouble. Anna had heard long stories of sisters separated
and daughters from mothers and old friends from each other.
In them stories the women got reunited often, but that
werent how it was really. People got ripped from each other
and that was the end. First chance they got, Anna reckoned,
theyd be separating them. Already theyd taken Tina and the
Slinger, both of them being worth more money than the
average woman. Anna couldnt think of the impending
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drugged food, their bodies already learning how to cry out for
Soma. Johnny and Garland started at one end while Tooth
walked straight toward the cage where Anna watched him,
carrying a tray of undrugged food for Anna.
Come and get it, growled Tooth, walking toward her.
I aint going to spoon feed you.
Wheres the medicine I asked for? asked Anna
imperiously, giving him the level of her chin.
We aint giving you no medicine, said Tooth. I told
you that plain last time. That kid either dies or he dont die.
Thats the end of it. He handed her the dish through the
bars. Fuck sakes, woman, he continued. How many times
I got to tell you that? He glared at her, but then his eyes
wandered down to linger on Chrissys blonde hair and his
mouth opened a bit like he were thirsty of a sudden. Anna
yanked the dish from him.
All right then, Anna snapped. Get me some
bandages and something to clean him up with.
Tooth looked away from Chrissy and glared back at
her. Anna could tell he hadnt been told not to, maybe even
been told to do it once in a while, but he were too lazy, maybe
didnt want Leo to live for some damn reason. Or just didnt
give a damn enough to make the effort. Anna felt a rage in
her light up, but she fought it down. That a boys life should
depend only on one mans laziness was the worse feeling she
ever had. She grit her teeth and tried on a smile.
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Come on, she said in a voice she meant to be nice,
but came out shaky. We sure would appreciate it.
Tooth grunted. I dont run errands for no whore, he
said, but it werent biting, but like sulking cause he knew that
was exactly what he did. But Anna couldnt push him, or hed
let Leo die just for spite. It were delicate.
Please? wheedled she. Wed be awful grateful to
you. She turned her head so that her neck went bare to him,
but just a little so that he wouldnt feel manipulated. But even
that were too much.
Tooth looked at her and frowned. I dont care if you
are grateful, he said. I got other things to do, you know. I
aint got all day to run errands for no whore.
Anna swallowed down her anger. Tooth watched her
and scratched at his scraggly face. Anna leaned up against the
bars close to him so that she could smell his stink which made
her furious, but she hid it up close to her. She put out her
hand to touch his that were all dirt and fingernails. Tooths
hand clutched her arm.
Dont you fool with me, whore, he said. But Anna
just smiled at him, letting her body be numb to his touch as
men like him enjoyed their women, all mindless pliant flesh,
and he clutched harder. His mouth came open and breathed
through his rubble of teeth.
Please? Anna begged.
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Tooth pushed her away with his hand, but she kept on
her smile and just to see her stumble back made him happy,
she could see that. I dont know, he said. I might find the
time.
Anna smiled like hed blessed her for all time.
I aint promising nothing, Tooth said hurriedly. Im
just saying I might find the time later. Dont you set your
heart on it.
Thank you, said Anna, clasping her hands together
and keeping her head low and working hard to keep her
thoughts and feelings down. I sure do appreciate it.
Yeah, well, said Tooth, trailing off. His eyes swung
back down to Chrissy and it was good he didnt see the flash
then in Annas eyes to see him thus put eye to the girl.
Hey! cried Johnny from the other end of the room.
Hey! Tooth looked over.
What?
One of them up and died, said he. One of the little
ones too! Gus aint going to be happy! Tooth stalked over
toward him without giving another glance to Anna. Johnny
kept talking. I told them they were putting too much Soma
in that food! I told them so! You heard me, didnt you? I
said it plain as day.
Naw, that aint it, Johnny, said Tooth. Livia knows
her business, I reckon. Someone was feeding that girl from
their own meal. Tooth turned to face all the cages. We
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done told you to eat naught but your share, didnt we? Now
look what you done? But most of the ears were numb to the
talk.
Shit, said Johnny. They aint listening. Anna
watched as Johnny walked inside the cage and came out again
with the body of a young girl, just beginning puberty by the
stretched look of her. Anna grit her teeth watching that
scene, but then turned away. Too much anger would kill her
mind. She sat back down next to Chrissy and held her head
to her lap to keep her from looking. The girl had seen her
share of misery. She didnt need to see more.
Johnny left the room with the dead girl, leaving Tooth
with Garland. When they came to their cage, Garland walked
inside with the meal trays, her body moving awkwardly. She
put a tray in Catherines lap who just stared at her wide-eyed.
Then she put a tray down beside Chrissy. A smile come to
her face and she leaned over and patted her blonde hair.
Oh, aint she pretty? She looked at Anna with a wide smile,
her large eyes all a-glitter.
Anna felt her stomach turn at Garland. It was like she
was the angel of death, though Anna knew it werent
Garlands fault what they set her to doing.
Hurry up, goddamn it! snapped Tooth.
So Garland hurried, but such hurrying caused a
stumble or two and when she about fell out of the cage, Tooth
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gave her a cuff on the back of the head that made her stumble
down to her knees.
Dont talk to them, he hissed. Damn it, Garland,
why dont you listen?
Sorry, Garland said, lifting herself up.
I got better things to do then cuff you around all day,
you know that?
Sorry, said the girl, fumbling with the cart.
Chrissakes, Garland, continued Tooth. You aint
got but one or two rules to follow. You cant even do that.
You sure are one dumb fucking slut, aint you Garland?
Yeah, Garland said. She shut the cover on the cart
and started wheeling it toward the door with Tooth following
cursing her all the way when Johnny came in the door. He
walked past them and paused for a second.
What you swearing up a storm for? Johnny asked.
Fucking Garland been pawing at the girls again,
growled Tooth.
Well, shit, said Johnny. Why dont you let Garland
be? I dont see why you always cuffing at her anyway. Im
getting tired of watching it.
How she going to learn if we dont teach her?
Teach her what? asked Johnny, walking toward
Annas cage. She does her job bettern you do, thats for
sure. Johnny turned and dumped some bandages and
ointments on the floor of Annas cage without so much as
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He dug himself a little burrow in the sand and crept down
into it just for the joy of it. And when the roof came in on him, he
scurried out and shook himself free of the sand. The two children
were running up and down the sand, laughing and throwing mud
at each other. Horizon felt like hed done well by them two. Hed
led them this far, and they hadnt been killed. Nor had they starved
to death. They were strange, helpless creatures, but they were full
of life and joy and so they deserved to live. And as long as he was
around, Horizon would see to it that they did, no matter if there
were storms or floods or all manner of disasters.
But for now, standing there by the sea, with the children
playing about him, for once, Horizon had nothing to worry about.
He found a nice patch of delicious samudra beera and sat down
among them and ate them one by one until his belly swelled up and
he dozed off, one contented and satisfied drip mouse.
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