Chapter 23: Shaking Ground — Part 3

“It was foolish to let any of you live the first time. I won’t let it happen a second.” Shadow warned.

“Jesus woman!” Laura snarled. “It’ll take days for me to grow those fingers back, weeks before they look quite right.”

Shadow turned unexpectedly furious. “Stay back, Christian bitch, or your friends might just learn how long it will take for you to grow back your head.”

Shadow had her back to the Mercy’s door, was starting to feel sick. The illness, she knew, had entered her bloodstream, and her immune system was doing its best to keep her healthy. The symbiont had hit her hard during the fight, but she wasn’t backing down until she knew her crew was safe. Her enemy, the locals, had their own concerns. Shadow was powerful enough that she might pose a threat to their chosen leader, if left alive. Charles and Laura were falling victim to their protective instincts. Seva, whose mind was in many ways stronger than either Charles or Laura, wiped the blood from her lips and put her hands behind her back. She knew better than to try to trick Shadow, or to wait for the symbiont to weaken her. Something told Seva that the symbiont would not steal memory or consciousness from Shadow, as it did others. Nor would she be weakened by its progression.

“Obviously we’ve taken the wrong stance with you. Is there any way we can call a truce?” Seva said.

“Damn right you did.” Shadow whispered again. “A Storm Warrior never surrenders while there’s a threat to crew or ship.” Shadow said.

“Fine then, what if I surrender? I’ll come in unarmed, and we can talk about this before somebody really gets hurt.” Seva didn’t add or remove any emotion from her voice: kept it level, realizing that Shadow was a match for any symbiont-enhanced human, or maybe even a small group of them.

“The moron and the Christian can stand down and go home, and you can come within fair talking range.” Shadow said.

Seva stepped into view, her head bowed. “I won’t hurt you.” She said, keeping her motions controlled.

“You couldn’t if there were ten of you.” Shadow said, without a hint of emotion.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“I want you to guarantee the safety of my crew.”

“I can’t guarantee anything, so long as you have that sword in your hands.” Seva said.

“A Storm Warrior never surrenders her blade. You’d best make a better deal than that.” Shadow’s voice, unbroken and strong despite her injuries, was kept level only with her effort.

“She can’t make that deal, she hasn’t the authority. But I can.” Susan said. “I know you can sense me, Captain Storm. You can’t see, but you don’t need to. You haven’t needed to see the world in a long time, have you? Even with your eyes torn from your head, I doubt they could have taken you.”

Shadow smiled at the compliment, but didn’t lower her guard. “You must be their leader. You’re not like them, you might actually be a challenge. You’d probably kill my crew, once you got by me. You must understand that I can’t allow that to happen. Not while warm blood flows in my veins. Not even when it goes cold, if I can help it.”

Susan put an open hand out in a careful gesture of courtesy. “I give you my highest word that none of your crew will come to harm by a hand of a member of my Tribe.”

A lancer wraith, small, deadly, and practically invisible, shot from one of the trees, straight for Seva’s skull, responding to the smell of blood. The lancer had a way of noting the least attentive of a herd or group of animals, and of striking that creature off guard. Small as it was, it would burrow into the flesh of its victim and kill the creature by devouring it from the inside out. Shadow had been anticipating its strike, had sensed its presence for several moments, so of course it would have nothing to do with her. Shadow launched her dagger past Seva’s skull, killing the translucent wraith before it could reach and kill its target. Moving as a blur, Shadow assaulted the writhing beast, pinned to the tree by her blade. The snake-like creature flew into pieces under the careful slices of Shadow’s blade. Heavyset jaws and slick wings jogged off in one direction, its heart and entrails went another, and what remained of its body, hanging against the tree finally stopped twitching. Seva stared in surprise at the remains, unable to speak. Shadow turned back from the creature, her attention returned to Susan, though her first words were to Seva.