Guns of Mars 82

A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon

CHAPTER 25.2

Neither of them talked as night waned. By the pearly light of dawn they’d come to the water cache at the top of the last slope. The bounty man knelt and dug away the sand mound until he’d pulled one of the amphorae free. He explained the purpose of it and the major details of his scheme.

“Give my thoat a drink,” Kal said, remaining astride the animal.

“That’s my saddle,” the man said as he held the amphora aloft to pour splashes over the thoat’s extended tongue.

“I found it on what was left of a thoat. I found another carcass before that, rotting away beneath a pack frame. You leave dead behind wherever you go.”

The man thought of the circling carrion birds he’d spied two days prior.

“You as well,” the bounty man said, taking a drink from the amphora. The water was cool from resting in the night sand. “Or is the orluk still alive after it shat you out?”

“I had a bit of help with that. I will allow that to remain a quandary for you, for now. What I wonder at is how you bounded up that canal wall like a wild sorak.”

“I’m told it is a gift from an ancestor many generations back. As is my name.”

Kal considered that.

“How far?” he asked.

“The better part of a day,” the man said looking out over the sand gleaming like water under the setting moons.

“We rest then until first light,” the thark said, gesturing with the rifle barrel. “You over there where I can see you.”

The man retreated a distance and sat down, cross-legged. The thark dismounted then and drew his beast onto its knees. Kal rested his back against the thoat’s gently heaving flank and only closed his eyes when he saw the man’s chin sag to his chest.

“You’ll need to stable your thoat outside,” the bounty man said as they arrived late in the day at the base of the mountain.

Kal stood looking at the broad opening carved in the rock.

“Why? It looks like there is more than enough room for it within,” he said.

“It’s better I show you then explain it,” the man said, trotting inside. “And come along. We don’t have much time.”

He allowed the thark to wade into the pool and drink his fill before calling hm out of the water. Kal followed him up to the terrace level as the last of the light beaming through the apertures surrendered to the gloom.

The fascii filed in from the crater to take their nightly place in the shallows.

They lay above, watching the ghastly parade in silence. The bounty man placed fingers to his lips as he rose. He gestured for the thark to follow him. They did not speak until secured within the fortified chamber.

“And this happens each night?” Kal said, watching the man light kindling.

“It’s an uninterrupted cycle. Probably centuries old.”

“I’ve seen their like before. The Warhoon have burned out many of them from where they have infested our water tanks. If we are to make a trade of this bounty, we must eliminate the fascii.”

“I have a few ideas about that.” The man reached into a clay bowl of dead beetles and stuck them on the rifle rod before offering it to the other across the fire.

The thark plucked the bugs free and stuffed each into this mouth raw. He chewed contently, nodding as the pair spoke further of a strategy to make the Eye of Water theirs alone.

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Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.