17
BENE
THE UNIVERSITY OF GERICH ASSET RECOVERY TEAM
EASTERN RENDEROS
MUMOLO
It was near full dark when Khela finally awoke. She had lain in the corner of her tent for hours, unmoving except for the rise and fall of her chest beneath the blankets.
“Hey there,” said Bene. “Lie back down. No need to get up.”
“Ow,” said Khela, ignoring him. She sat up and rubbed her forehead. “My head hurts.”
“Lie back down, then. No need to get up.”
“No.”
“All right.” Who was Bene to argue? “As you like.”
“For a moment,” said Khela, still rubbing her head, “I didn’t have the foggiest idea where I was.”
“And now?”
“It was bliss, Bene. Pure bliss. I forgot about everything. I even forgot about the massacre on the road. I almost wish I hadn’t woken up.”
“I hate it when that happens.”
Khela shook her head. “Don’t trivialise it. I don’t suppose you have any water, do you? Ugh! My mouth feels like a cat took a shit in it.”
“Now there’s a pretty picture.” Bene handed her his canteen. “Here.”
She swallowed a few mouthfuls. “Thanks. Is this my tent?”
“Yeah. I’ll go back to mine if you want. You know, now that you’re up?”
“No. No, it’s all right. Stay.”
“Are you sure?” asked Bene, unconvinced. Just talking to her felt weird. They hadn’t had anything good to say to each other for ages. And he felt extra weird for having sat there for so long while she slept. He didn’t want her to think he’d done it because he wanted to get into her pants or anything. Even though, deep down, he knew that was exactly why he’d done it.
“Stay. Please? I think I could do with your company, after… well, everything.”
“All right.” He held out his hand to take the canteen back, but either Khela didn’t want to give it up or she couldn’t see him in the darkness. “Do you want me to light a candle or something?”
“No, no,” she said. “No need.”
“All right.”
“I don’t mind the dark.”
“You were out for a good long while.” At one point he’d wondered if she might never open her eyes again.
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah. It’s been ages, Khel. Whatever they gave you, it was pretty potent.”
“Fornt leaf tea.” Khela shifted under her blankets.
“Really? That’s what they gave you?” A particularly powerful infusion, that. One that was usually reserved for people with serious injuries.
“Where’s Agbo?”
“Don’t worry. She’s all right.” He paused. Might as well give her the truth. “Well, actually she collapsed from shock.”
“Oh no! Is she all right?”
“She’s fine, Khel. Really. Or at least she will be. Ghislaine’s lot are taking good care of her.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t worry. She’s in good hands, you know it.”
Khela seemed to relax a little. “Fine. Yeah, all right.”
“How do you feel?”
“Ugh. Like death. My head’s pounding. Mouth’s dry as sand dunes.”
“Well,” said Bene, “they did say you’d probably have a bit of a hangover. I promised to keep an eye on you until you woke up. You know, Ghislaine didn’t even ask me if I wanted a little of the fornt leaf myself. I don’t know if I should be flattered or offended.”
“You know it’s the first one, Bene.”
“Heh. Yeah, true.”
“Her not asking is her way of acknowledging your ‘tough man’ status. Or at least it is, in your mind.”
Bene laughed. “You’ve always been able to see right through me.”
“So, you said I was out for a long time? How long, exactly?”
“Um, over a day.”
“Shit!”
“I know, right?”
“Over a day? What a waste of time, Bene!”
“Oh, I dunno. You needed the rest, Khel. You were in a pretty bad way.”
“You don’t need to remind me. Oh Bene, all those people...”
Bene nodded, then was reminded again that she probably couldn’t see him through the darkness. “Yeah. I know.”
“Why? Why did we have to kill them? It was a bloodbath…”
“Shh. This isn’t the time to discuss this, Khel. You’re still woozy.”
“Yeah, but–”
“Shh. Just relax.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” spat Khela, smacking her pillow. “Think you could be any more patronising? I’ll talk about whatever I want to talk about!”
“No.” Bene’s voice was hard. “I know where this is going, so don’t start, Khel. All right? And whatever you do, don’t you go saying anything to Roaoo.”
“What? But–”
“No!”
“We butchered those people, Bene! Don’t say otherwise!”
“Just stop, will you? We–”
“No, you can’t just–”
“Enough!” cried Bene, far too loudly. You still don’t get it, do you? After everything we’ve been through, I can’t believe you still don’t fucking get it!”
“Bene, we bloody well butchered those people!”
“Not on purpose we didn’t! It’s not like we planned it! The simple fact is, they panicked. They stampeded when the wights showed up, and we did what was necessary to protect ourselves. We had absolutely no choice.”
“No choice? It was a massacre, Bene! There’s nothing you can say that could possibly justify what we did to those people. All those innocent people!”
“What did I just say, Khela? Enough! And I’m not trying to justify anything. They flipped out and we did what we had to, plain and simple. And we lost six people ourselves because of them. Six! Did you know that?”
Khela hesitated. “Really? Who?”
“A soldier, an apprentice blacksmith, two stablehands, and two kitchen girls. Six people we couldn’t afford to lose, Khela. Dead. Gone.”
“Oh no, that’s terrible! Who were they?”
Bene frowned, remembering. “Traven was the soldier. Apprentice Abrey. The stablehands Birt and Frozie. Midri and Thelsee from the chuckwagons. And we’ve got maybe two dozen people injured, some of them badly.”
“Oh no.”
“Those fucking Mumolonians could have ended us all had we not done what we did.”
“Don’t curse them, Bene.”
“I’ll say whatever I want about them!” He felt hot, angry. “They could’ve ended us! And then where would we be?”
“Well couldn’t we have, I dunno, taken a different route around Mumolo or something? Maybe we provoked them somehow?”
“No,” said Bene tiredly. “We couldn’t have taken a different route around anywhere. And we didn’t provoke anyone, so don’t say that again. They got spooked by the wights, that’s all. Shit, so just don’t start. All right? I hate playing the ‘what if’ game with you all the damn time. What’s the use? And if you dare suggest it was in any way our fault outside this tent, the soldiers will skin you alive. After what happened to Traven, they’re on the warpath.”
Khela tossed the canteen aside. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I hate this expedition.”
Bene scrambled over and took her hand in his. “Yeah, I know you do. Truth be told, I’m not exactly having a ball either. But let me make one thing clear about what happened: it was them or us. All right? We didn’t set out to kill those people, but they’re dead. And we can’t second guess everything all the time, either. We have a job to do, remember? We have to stop her, and we have to recover that object. Regardless of the cost, Khel. You know that. There’s no one else to do it. And we’re not the bad guys, either, even though maybe sometimes it looks that way.”
“I’m not sure I agree,” said Khela, sniffing, “but I just don’t have it in me to keep fighting you. I really don’t. My head’s hurting too much, so let’s just leave off.”
“All right.”
Khela sighed. “How is it that you seem to cope with everything so much better than I do?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.”
“I would.”
“No, Khela.”
“No, really, Bene. It always seems like–”
Bene snorted. “Look Khel, forget what it seems like. If you want me to be completely honest with you, most of the time I’m just trying to make it look like I’m not totally useless in front of Roaoo and the soldiers. Especially the soldiers. They all stand head and shoulders over me. And I weigh maybe half what they do. They make me feel so small, so useless...”
“So what? Size isn’t everything, Bene. Roaoo made you his right-hand man for reasons other than how big you are.”
“Yeah, but most of the Scouts are giants! In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so puny and inadequate my entire life.” He found his canteen and took a swig. “And I’d probably have been ripped in half today if not for them.”
“You’re not puny. You’re… bigger than puny.”
“Um, thanks Khel.”
“You know what I meant.”
“Eh, not really.” He patted his paunch. “I have to say, though, my gut’s kinda getting there. I don’t know whether I qualify as a fat skinny man or a skinny fat one. Can you be both?”
Khela pulled him into an embrace. “You look fine. And regardless of anything, I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”
He held her tightly. “So am I.”
She laughed. “And just in case I don’t get the chance again, I wanted to say thank you for today. I’d probably have been ripped in half if not for you. And I’m sorry about the last few weeks, too. You know, for some of the mean things I said to you?”
“Nah,” said Bene, letting go of her. “Don’t worry about it. I said some pretty mean things to you, too.”
“So you forgive me?”
“Of course I do. Do you forgive me?”
“Of course.”
“Well, great.”
Khela rubbed the back of his hand. “And do you remember that time when you were saying this expedition might be a sham? I’m sorry I dismissed you out of hand. I shouldn’t have done that. I should have been more open-minded about it, and listened, but I guess it’s just that at the time I was–”
“Nah,” said Bene, shaking his head. “Nah, look, just forget about all that. I was talking out of my arse that night. No idea what I was even saying. I don’t really think that about the expedition. At all.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good. I guess?”
“Yeah. No, really Khel, just forget about all that stuff. Not important.”
“All right, if that’s what you want... So, what now?”
“What now what?”
“I mean,” asked Khela with a shrug, “where do we go from here?”
“You mean you and me? Well I guess we could, uh, kiss for a bit if you want. Then, you know, take it from there? See what happens?”
Khela laughed. “Stop it. I don’t want to laugh right now.”
“Sorry,” said Bene with a chuckle. “I know what you meant. You meant the expedition, right?”
“You know I did.”
“Well,” said Bene slowly, “as of this moment we’re camped right outside Mumolo. On a hill. The place is absolutely teeming with wights. Er, Mumolo, I mean. Not the hill.”
“Really?”
“If I told you how many there were, you wouldn’t believe me. You just wait until you see for yourself–there’s gotta be thousands of them, Khel! They’re clustered in the town, mostly, but we’ve been catching some strays now and then.”
“Thousands? Of wights?”
“Yeah! I mean, it’s not like anyone’s been counting them or anything, but yeah. Khel, it’s absolutely swarming down there.”
“Oh. Oh no, that’s horrible.”
“Yep. The scale of it is something else. Oh yeah, and the town’s on fire, too.”
Khela gasped. “On fire?”
“Oh yeah. Big plume of smoke went up this afternoon. Could’ve been an accident, could’ve been deliberate. We don’t know for sure yet.”
“What’s Roaoo’s plan, then?” asked Khela.
“Well,” said Bene. “He and Tonneson and I were talking about sending a team of soldiers in to have a look around. It was supposed to happen this afternoon, but the weather took a turn for the worse, so they’ll probably go in first thing tomorrow. Well, that’s if the weather comes good, I guess.”
“And if Mumolo hasn’t burned to the ground by then.”
“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Anyway, we can’t exactly hang around much longer in any event. Tonneson’s worried about repercussions from the locals because of what happened on the road. There’s a lot of ill feeling towards us, and vice versa. Roaoo’s more worried about her, though. About the trail going cold.”
“Hm.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Bene, almost forgetting. “Apparently, we had an agent in Mumolo. Did you know anything about that?”
“No.” Khela seemed surprised by the question. “How would I?”
“Dunno. It was news to me as well, and I can’t say I liked finding out about it second-hand. It was someone by the name of Leander. I wonder if he made it out in time.”
“I hope so.”
“Yeah, me too. He’d able to fill in a lot of blanks for us.”
Khela sighed. “So I guess that’s it for Mumolo, then? Another town wiped off the map?”
“Yeah,” said Bene. “Totally fucked. Like nothing we’ve ever seen.”
“Poor Agbo. I can still hear her screams in my head.”
Bene patted Khela’s hand. “She’ll be fine. Besides, her family might still be alive. They weren’t in Mumolo itself, so you never know.”
“I really hope they’re all right.”
“Oh, that reminds me! Shit–I nearly forgot to tell you!”
“What?” said Khela, startled. “What is it?”
“About what happened this afternoon! Little Dony got bitten by a wight!”
“What?”
“I know. Can you believe it?”
“Whoa, whoa! How? What happened?”
“Well, all right.” Bene giggled. “I’ll tell you. But let me preface this by saying I didn’t witness the attack first hand.”
“All right?”
“All right. Here goes. So, it all started at lunch time. I’m in the line outside the chuckwagons with everyone else, right?”
“Hm?”
Bene took a breath. “It’s lamb soup, and I’m really looking forward to it. And I mean reeeaaally. I don’t care about the black mood hanging over the entire place. I mean, I do but I don’t. You know? Because the smell of meat is driving me absolutely insane. I’ve been dreaming about it for days, so I’m practically drooling in anticipation. Anyway, suddenly Dony appears out of nowhere. He comes running up with his pants around his ankles, screaming for help.”
“Hang on, which one’s Dony again?”
“You know Dony, Khel. He works in the stables. He’s the one with the ridiculous hair you always say looks like a girl’s.”
“All right. Go on...”
“Anyway, he’s crying and crying. Bleeding from a cut on his head, too, and going absolutely bonkers. Everyone’s asking him what’s wrong, but he’s incoherent. But then finally he blurts out something about wights.
“Of course, at that point the soldiers dive on him. They get him pinned down, but Dony’s not having any of it. He’s wailing and crying harder than ever. They’re trying to get him to talk, but they can’t get anything out of him. Then he lets slip something about being bitten.”
Khela gulped. “Oh, no! He hasn’t turned, has he?”
“I’ll get to that,” said Bene. “So anyway, they’ve got him pinned down. The poor little guy’s kicking and fighting like you wouldn’t believe. I try to help, but Dony won’t talk to me. He’s practically foaming at the mouth. Everyone’s worried he might be turning. There’s talk of cutting his throat.”
“Oh, no! Poor Dony. They didn’t, did they?”
“Don’t worry, they didn’t.” Bene gave Khela’s hand a gentle squeeze. “But now here’s the thing–at the time, I honestly thought that because he came running out with his pants down, it meant he must have been bitten… well, you know, below the belt? But no, he seems to be all there.”
“So what happened next?”
“Yeah, well, the soldiers soon have the poor little bastard trussed up like a pig. He’s yelling out, ‘I don’t wanna be a wight! I don’t wanna be a wiiiight!’ at the top of his lungs. So they gag him.
“Someone goes and gets Roaoo, and of course Roaoo starts firing off questions left and right. He keeps referring to Dony as Tony, and for some reason, my brain decides it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m having a hard time trying not to lose my shit. Also, Dony’s flopping around like a fish and I can’t help but notice he’s wet himself and there’s dirt collecting on the tip of his little todger. Ha, ha!”
“Wow. That’s horrible.”
“Yeah. I’m kind of amazed all the noise didn’t wake you, actually.”
Khela nudged Bene’s knee. “So, come on! What happened next?”
“All right, so Roaoo sends for Ghislaine. She arrives and she’s as calm as always. Roaoo and the soldiers fill her in on what’s going on, and she starts examining Dony. Sure enough, there’s a bite mark on Dony’s head just above his hairline.”
“Oh no.”
“Yep. And Ghislaine’s pretty sure it’s a human bite, too. She wants to take Dony’s gag off, though Roaoo warns her against it. She’s adamant, and he finally relents. So, Ghislaine gets down on the ground with Dony and starts talking to him in that soft voice of hers. Don’t know what she said, but Dony’s nodding. And get this–he doesn’t scream once the gag is off. He’s still crying, but he starts telling her exactly what happened. I lean in so I can hear him, and…”
“What did he say?”
“He says a wight tried to bite his head off.”
“Wow. And?”
“He also says something about getting wight juice in his mouth.”
“Wight juice? What’s that?”
“Yeah, Khel, I dunno either. All he said was he got it in his mouth.”
“Could he have meant blood, do you think?”
“Maybe.” Bene pondered the possibilities. “Or maybe he was talking about the fluid under their skin. You know those big blisters they get before they really start to rot? But I dunno, can’t be sure.”
“Huh,” said Khela, thinking. “And this all happened today?”
“Yeah. Today at lunch time.”
“All right. So, go on. What happened next?”
“Right,” said Bene, taking another deep breath. “So anyway, Ghislaine’s there comforting Dony, and when she’s done, she and Roaoo start having this big discussion. In front of everyone, I mean. Ghislaine is all, ‘I’m not going to let you put him down, Roaoo,’ and Roaoo is all, ‘I don’t even know where you would get the idea that I would do such a thing, Ghislaine.’ It was… weird.”
“Wait a moment, Bene. You’re saying that Ghislaine thought Roaoo wanted to put Dony down? What, as in, kill him?”
“Yeah. Apparently.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe to spare him the agony of turning, or something? Or to protect us. Or both.”
“Go on.”
“Right,” said Bene. “Well, after that, Ghislaine announces she’s taking Dony into her care. She’s insistent. Roaoo’s in full agreement. For some reason Ghislaine seems very surprised by this. It was almost as if she was expecting him to fight her over it, or something. He doesn’t, though. He says she can take him, but only if there are two soldiers guarding him at all times. Ghislaine says she’s fine with that. There’s a bit more discussion, and then Roaoo has the soldiers pick Dony up and take him away.”
“And so what happened?” Khela was obviously concerned about the boy’s fate. “Is Dony all right?”
“As far as I know, he’s just fine. Last time I checked, the soldiers were taking bets on how quickly he’s gonna turn. But he hasn’t so far. Roaoo thinks he won’t, which was partly why he let Ghislaine take him in the first place.”
“He thinks he won’t?” Khela obviously had doubts about that. “Why?”
“Because we don’t think wights are contagious.”
“What? That’s insane! Of course they are!”
“How do you know?”
“How could they not be, Bene? We’ve always assumed they are.”
“Yeah. And?”
“Well… aren’t they?”
“That’s the thing, Khel. We’ve never known for certain. We just assumed they were.”
“And because they are. I mean–”
“No,” said Bene, cutting her off. “We don’t have proof of that, actually.”
“Don’t you think that’s taking a pretty big risk?”
“With Dony? Not really. Look, Khel, the boy isn’t going anywhere. He’s in chains, so even if he does turn, it’s not like he can do any damage. And while Ghislaine’s the most compassionate soul you’ll ever meet, even she isn’t going to risk him wiping us out. And if he doesn’t turn, well, that kinda tells us another thing about wights and the object, doesn’t it? But we’re pretty sure he won’t.”
“I guess. It still sounds like a huge risk, though.”
“No, not really. The object has a limited area of effect–that much we know for sure. If you’re unlucky enough to get caught in its field, you get wighted. But if not, you don’t. And we’ve never seen anything to indicate contagion otherwise.”
“Wighted?”
“Yeah. I came up with it a while back. Like it?”
“No offence, Bene. But no.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I don’t think it’s going to catch on either, unfortunately. Anyway, our current theory is that although she’s turning people into wights, they don’t go on to beget more of themselves by attacking others. Beyond the initial infection, there’s no spread of sickness. And when you think about it, it actually makes sense.”
“Yeah,” said Khela, clearly very reticent about buying into this new theory. “I really dunno about that.”
“No, really. I mean, if wights are contagious, then why are we still alive?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Because they’re not. Think back to the first few days, Khel, back to when it all started. Any contagion would have wiped out the entire campus. Not only that, it would have spread across the whole of Gerich like a wave. And from there, across the world. But it didn’t. Why not? The logical answer is because it doesn’t work that way. There’s no contagion beyond the initial infection.”
“Maybe there was contagion but it didn’t take hold until after we left?”
“Come on, Khel,” said Bene, shaking his head. “We’re still getting letters from the university and everything. The place is obviously still standing.”
Khela sat there, digesting his words. From somewhere outside came a sudden cry of alarm and the snapping of crossbows. And then silence. “What was that?”
“Eh, probably just the soldiers shooting a wight,” said Bene, standing up. “Anyway, I should let you get back to sleep, huh? Well, see you tomorrow!”
Khela grabbed his arm before he could leave. “What? Shit, Bene! You’d better be joking…”
Bene laughed and sat down again. “Of course I am.”
“Good. There’s no way I could get back to sleep now.” She paused. “The wights... they can’t get in here, can they?”
“We’re in camp. No way can they get in here.”
“Then what did we just hear?”
“Um, most likely a wight not getting in? I told you we were catching strays up here, didn’t I?”
“Bene!”
“What?”