Shi-Toh dragged Mac through the jungle by her wrist. They were running past greenery and half eaten megafauna carcasses as they lost their way in Paradise. Ever since the attack of the local savages, the consul had been so turned around he thought the world had flipped upside down.

  They were down to the ropes when the attack was over. The red eyed woman was dead somewhere far behind them, leaving the lobotomites to go mindless. The cyborgs were following Shi-Toh now, but like babies in grown bodies, they couldn’t follow orders or communicate. Instead, they simply stared and followed close behind.

  The clansmen he brought with him hadn’t fared well either. When the ambush kicked off, they immediately went for the pipe rifleman. He had been impaled on either side by a twin attack of spears and died instantly. The blinkers did most of the heavy lifting, firing wildly into the trees and dropping corpses from them like a rain of ripe fruit. Even they were cut down eventually by lobbed spears that crashed through their chests and impaled them with their incredible weight.

  They even killed the damned sloth that was protecting them.

  The truth of the matter was that they had absolutely slaughtered each other. The final survivors of the Gordo clan were Shi-Toh, Mac, and the army of lobotomites. The last of the ambushers was only a girl, and she ran away from the fight before they had.

  He was leading them now to a point where he thought they would be safe. Up ahead, he could hear the trickling of a river as it whipped around a bend. Too fast for megafauna to stop and drink from, he thought. A river also meant a break from the trees, which would also mean that if there were more pursuers, they’d have to leave their hiding spots from up in the branches.

  They made it to the river, and Shi-Toh collapsed to his knees, hacking and coughing as he clutched his chest and tried to catch his breath. Mac was in a similar state, but her legs worked like pistons all the way to the river’s edge before she allowed herself to collapse onto her back. All she could do was stare up at the sky between the trees and suck air in through ragged breaths. At this time of day, the color of the sky was a beautiful purple and orange, but that meant that darkness was coming soon, and with darkness came the predators.

  “Are they…” Mac huffed and coughed before she caught her breath to continue. “Are they gone?”

  Shi-Toh was nearly wheezing as he fell to one knee. Tight knots were forming in his chest, and he could feel his pulse in his neck like a bass string being plucked out of control. Before he could manage to answer the Great Macaw, he needed to calm himself. He ejected the magazine of his gun to check its contents and try to ground himself. Four bullets remained, but it was a wonder how any made it to the river with him at all.

  “I think so,” Shi-Toh said, then he coughed until he hacked up something from his lungs and spat it out onto the floor. “But now we’re lost. I don’t suppose you can concoct anything that gives you a better sense of direction, huh grand apothecary?”

  Mac shook her head, and it nuzzled deeper into the rich soil beneath her. She felt like the earth itself was trying to hug her into its depths, and that was calming enough to tempt her with sleep. There was a cool spray of water from the river as it crashed against its rocky edge, and it misted her face with mercy.

  “No. I could make you a memory potion and we could retrace our steps, but it’ll have you strung out for about a day after.”

  “That might be…” he began to cough and spit again. “That might be our only option.”

  For a moment, Mac considered crafting a poison for Shi-Toh. The thought was quick and passed before she could dwell on it, but it surprised her none-the-less. Memories of Krav holding his gut wound replayed in her head, and she knew if she took the potion with him, the only thing she would be able to remember was that moment.

  Death was a common factor to account for in the valley, and she was no stranger to it. But she had never seen it happen to someone like Krav. Never to someone who considered her a friend in the way he did. It was enough to boil her blood and swell her eyes with tears.

  But in the end, common sense won her over. Killing Shi-Toh meant trapping herself in this place. At least if she followed him, they could make it back to Jackmaw Yapyap. She could go back to her miserable life as an apothecary and forget there ever even was such a boy named Krav.

  Luckily for the both of them, the jungle was a bountiful harvest of intoxicants. Mac recognized the flowers whose roots were the bulbous mock root. Large leaves the size of palm fans and colored with blue stripes were the of the same plant species that the Black Thumbs used to make their downer. She could use a combination of the two to form a pain suppressant for them.

  The plant she was looking for to make the memory potion wasn’t around, and she didn’t think it would be in a place like this. The main ingredient was the bark of a dead tree that the people of the valley called a hangman’s tree. They were much smaller than the large trunks here that stretched to the sky. Still, the hangman’s tree was the only kind of tree they could find in the valley. Maybe these were just those same trees that were allowed to mature to such a size?

  It was an interesting theory to test, so she brought her knife to one of the great trees and began to shave off its bark. The pieces were soft and fibrous, highly unlike the hangman’s tree with its crisp, thin bark. Still, she was willing to try it.

  One last ingredient for her potion that she had to forage was a depressant. Almost anything would work, but the catch was that it had to be in a liquid form in order to mix into her potion. The mock root would have been perfect save for the fact that it was dry as a bone and any moisture to be squeezed from it was more work than it was worth. The chlorophyll from the downer plant might work, but it wasn’t potent enough in small quantities and it took ages to harvest from the individual leaves.

  Her answer came in the form of a small, spikey bush. Its thick leaves stretched away from it like blades of grass with the length and width of Mac’s arm. Spines grew along the edges of the leaves, and she pricked herself plenty of times trying to harvest it. The plant was full of a thick slime that was known for its ability to heal sunburns. With some chemistry, it could be reduced to a thinner liquid that could be ingested to induce drowsiness.

  It would do. By the time she had three blades of the plant in her hand, she was covered in nicks and scratches. She covered her arms in the raw juices of the bladed plant to stop the bleeding and promote healing, then she got to work with the leftovers.

  With some of the river water and a small fire, she was able to start a boil inside of a stolen beaker. After, she squeezed the bladed plant’s chlorophyll into it and stirred. She continued to skim off the juices that foamed at the top of the boil and left the purities of the plant to mix with the water. Then came the ingredient she dreaded. She had pulled the bark into its fibrous strands, and she stirred them in like a clump of hair. They sank to the bottom, and after five minutes of stirring, she strained the beaker into a tin cup and offered the brew to Shi-Toh.

  The feathered man accepted it, offering no thanks in return. It felt like a warm cup of coffee in the wintertime, the perfect comfort drink. He touched the edge of the cup to his lips and sniffed. It smelled like a faintly sweet tea, and he made a face like he was pleasantly surprised.

  “I forgot about your talents, Macaw. Perhaps it wasn’t a total waste of resources rescuing you.” He didn’t wait for a response before tipping the drink back down his throat and finishing the whole thing in one long sip. When he was done, he offered the cup back, and she left him to wash it.

  By the time she returned, he was already feeling it. She could tell by the way his head loped from side to side like a buoy in high tide that he was no longer with her. Mac packed up all of her things and tried to help him to his feet. “What do you think? Are you remembering any better?”

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “I’m remembering so good right now,” he laughed to himself. Mac wasn’t used to a rakish demeanor from Shi-Toh, and she didn’t know if she liked it. He was shaking his head and smiling to himself. “You made this out of random shit you found on the floor? Such a talent wasted on a girl like you.”

  That one stung a bit. She knew deep down that Shi-Toh only kept her around because of her knack with herbology and alchemy, but it hurt to hear out loud. It made her miss Krav more. The boy’s vitriol was always a venom laced with honey. There was never any real animosity between the two of them, and their insults felt like siblings bickering. Not like Shi-Toh. The feathered man just wanted to hurt her.

  “Remember any way to get back to the clan?” Mac asked, shoving his comment deep down and trying to ignore it.

  Shi-Toh shook his head and giggled to himself. “I remember a lot. But I don’t need to remember. Not anymore.” The feathered man reached down his shirt and revealed a pendant… no, not a pendant. It was a small bottle filled with a pinch of hair. He held it tight in his palm. “With a high like this, I can see what the boy sees.”

  Far across the jungle, Lenny rode on the back of Bantu. Night was approaching again quickly, and all of the Gordo clan were welcoming it. The sticking heat of the jungle, and the bugs that were attracted to that heat, all seemed to disappear at night. That was when the predators came out in force, but as they had learned, the king of the world was more than capable of keeping them at bay.

  With Shi-Toh gone, it was up to Miss Minnie and Lenny to talk Jackmaw into settling down for a rest. The discovery of shale by the impish Tallyman had whipped him into such a frenzy that he was ready to drag his clan of sycophants through the jungle by their necks if he had to. With the help of the spiritual leaders, he was shown some sense.

  “The Tallyman says there’s no fucking resistance!” boomed the warlord. “If we take it now, it’s damn near free!”

  “There are more people here,” Lenny said. He was trying to sound authoritative, but instead, it was coming out as a shrill whine. He shrank whenever Jackmaw’s blood red eyes fell on him. “They took out Shi-Toh’s group and killed the mega vulture.”

  “And karma rest that poor bird’s soul! Now let’s go!”

  “Use your damn head, Lord!” Miss Minnie said. She was better at sounding like she had some charge. She was puffing out her bony chest and shoving a gnarled finger into Jackmaw’s stomach. When she looked up at him, Lenny was shocked to see that he was considering her words, even if he was twice her size and looked like he could bite her head off. “The boys need some sleep! None of us have eaten since the lizard yesterday, and we’ve been marching all day today! The god damn Emerald Expanse will still be there in the morning!”

  Jackmaw growled and snaked a finger into his mask to scratch his head. “Fine…” he finally said. “But we leave at first light.”

  The warlord didn’t say a word while the camp was constructed. He watched the trees to the west and plotted out exactly what he was going to do when he got his hands on his prize. The tents went up, the fires were started, and even after his palace of a resting place was finished, he didn’t get off the elephant’s back. He simply crossed his arms and looked west.

  The clan feasted on the salted remains of the stripped lizard. They cooked large flanks over the open flame and passed it around on skewers as they slurped it up greedily. Lenny brought a palm leaf filled with steaming meat and glistening berries to Jackmaw.

  “You should eat,” he told him, and he didn’t know why he was saying anything at all. Lenny despised Jackmaw Yapyap with all of his heart. Little did he know something was influencing him.

  “What?”

  “I said, you should eat, Lord.” He didn’t like that. That word Lord slipped out without him ever conjuring it up in his head. How could he call this man Lord?

  Jackmaw whirred, rotating so fast he almost threw himself off the elephant. “You called me Lord? You don’t do that, war sage. Did you come around and realize I’m the real deal? Or have you gotten so high you’ve learned your place?” He snatched the leaf full of meat and berries away and scooped half of it into his mouth.

  “I… I don’t… Ah!” suddenly Lenny felt his back fold and he jutted his chest out. His fingers and toes curled up like dead spiders, and tears were forcing themselves from his eyes as if he was choking on mock root smoke. A noise like a death rattle was floating from his throat.

  A cluster of Gordo clansmen stopped eating and looked at the boy. He looked like he was having a seizure. They looked at each other, then looked at Jackmaw. The warlord was smiling and watching. Rather than interrupt their warlord’s entertainment with their concern, they turned away from the commotion and put it out of their heads entirely.

  There was a sputtering cough that interrupted the droning death rattle. Then a moan escaped Lenny. “What’s happening… Ah!” he screamed and then collapsed. For a long moment, he was still. Then his body moved like it was a skin suit that an alien was having trouble putting on. He struggled to move at all, save quick spurts of thrashing and clawing at Bantu’s back. Movements gained motor control, and slowly, Lenny was able to lift himself off of the back of the elephant.

  When he looked at Jackmaw and smiled, the warlord knew exactly who that was. “What do you have to report, Shi-Toh?”

  “Much, Lord. I have retrieved the Macaw. Unfortunately, we’ve had an unfortunate run in with the locals.”

  Lenny felt like a prisoner in his own body. His whole psyche had been compartmentalized and stored away to make room for Shi-Toh’s invasion. He stared out of his own eyes like they were the barred windows of a jail cell. Even when he banged on them and screamed at the top of his lungs, nothing could wake his body from Shi-Toh’s control.

  “What about my apprentice?”

  There was a long pause, and Lenny’s heart sank. When Shi-Toh finally used Lenny’s voice again, it came out heavily laced with anxiety. “Dead, Lord. I had to put him down in the desert. He attacked the vulture.”

  Jackmaw’s face soured. Even trapped in his own skull, Lenny could feel the fiery contempt from the warlord like a cauldron boiling over. He stopped trying to escape his prison, instead cowering as deep inside of it as he could. It was the first time, he realized, that he had ever seen Jackmaw Yapyap look like that. It wasn’t a look of annoyance or subtle anger. It was unfettered hatred.

  “You killed my fucking apprentice?” he growled. His teeth were locked together as he scowled.

  “He would not have joined our cause.”

  “If you weren’t in the boy’s body, I’d squeeze your neck until your little head popped off. I want you to get your ass to me now. We aren’t moving a fucking inch until I see you with my own eyes.” Jackmaw crossed the elephant’s back with a blinding speed and lifted Lenny high in the air. “I’ll be thinking about your punishment until you get here. Understand?”

  Lenny couldn’t feel his body as Jackmaw twisted his robes tighter and tighter into his chest. The other consciousness in his body definitely could, though. Somewhere in his own head, Shi-Toh was leaking his pain and fear into the boy’s body like an injection of cold medicine into his veins.

  “Lord… I…” his voice was choking, and Lenny wondered if his throat was closing. If Jackmaw wasn’t careful he’d kill them both.

  “Save your apologies. I won’t accept anything less than you groveling on your fucking knees you pathetic little shit. Get the Macaw here and beg for your life, then we’ll see if I’m still in the mood to crucify you. Follow the river west. You’ll find us.”

  The warlord leaned his neck back and sent it hard into Lenny’s face. It smacked him so hard, it sent Shi-Toh’s possession out of the boy. When he regained control of his body, he felt the strike throughout his entire head. He needed to sit down to keep from falling off of Bantu’s back.

  “From now on, war sage, you’re my main consul. You’re the only one that can understand the loss of your brother like I do. Your first order of business is to come up with something good to punish that scab head with. I’m thinking of using him as bait for tomorrow’s dinner.”

  But Lenny couldn’t think of anything to punish the feathered man with. His head swam with pain, and he was still trying to register what he had spoken through his own tongue. He could still feel the words in his mouth like a swig of venom.

  Krav was dead.

  Shi-Toh collapsed on the shore of the river. He was sent back to his body with so much force, he made Mac jump in fright. The feathered man held his head and rubbed it for a moment before he sat up. The onyx glasses had fallen to the floor, and Mac realized she had never seen his eyes. When she did, she was horrified.

  “The warlord is… displeased in me,” he said as he wiped the glasses off and replaced them on his face. The blow to his heart and mind had sobered him up so completely, he was going into withdrawal. He looked erratic and spacey. “We… need to go west. Follow the river.”

  From a pocket in his feather coat, he produced a tin of the green dust the clan took before raids and wars. To his utter shock, he saw that it was empty. “What luck. What terrible luck.”

  Mac kept her distance from him. His demeanor was shifty and emotional; a state she had never seen him in. It was a mix of desperation and shame, so palpable Mac almost felt bad for him. “Are you trying to get high?” she dug through her bag and offered him one of her rare mushrooms.

  Shi-Toh shook his head and smiled. “Isn’t it funny how we do that? We run from our problems, burying them in intoxications? When we get back to the clan, they’re going to kill me unless you vouch for me. I need you to tell them he wouldn’t have joined.”

  That wasn’t hard. It technically was the truth. But if it meant sparing his miserable life, she thought she might want to lie. Maybe Jackmaw would make his punishment worse if she said she had swayed Krav’s mind and made him accept the position of apprentice. Maybe the warlord would even let her join in on the fun. A few shots to his gut might make her feel better.

  But it wouldn’t bring her friend back.