Blood Red Road

ferget it.
    But I thought we said we’d—
    Ike, he says. Saba’s right. She needs to know what we’re up aginst.
    I knew it! I says. I knew you knew more’n you was lettin on. Gawdammit, Jack, why didn’t you tell me before? Why didn’t you tell me right away, when you found out where I was headed?
    I know I should of, he says. But I didn’t want you to know till you had to.
    I ain’t a child, I says. I don’t need you to pertect me.
    I know, he says, I know, I’m sorry.
    Think I’ll … head on back to camp, says Ike.
    Coward, says Jack.
    Go on, Ike, I says. Jack’s gonna tell me everythin I need to know.
    Right, he says. Well … if I hear any screamin, I’ll send Emmi. He disappears without a sound. Not a rustle or a footstep. Fer a big man, Ike moves real quiet. Nero must be startin to feel restless because he takes off after him.
    Then it’s jest Jack an me.
    All right, Jack, I says. Start talkin.

    Four years ago, he says, I was in the wrong bar at the wrong time. Got picked up by the Tonton. They’re always on the lookout fer strong workers. Fer slaves. That’s how I ended up at Freedom Fields.
    You was there, I says.
    I was, he says. Let’s sit down.
    We sit facin each other, on a couple of rocks. A bit too close fer my likin. His feet nearly touch mine. The heartstone’s hot aginst my skin.
    That’s where I met Ike, he says. We got slaved there about the same time. As you can imagine, him an me didn’t take kindly to a slave life, workin in a chain gang in the fields. But everybody else … well, nuthin seemed to bother ’em. We figgered out why pretty quick. A big waterwagon ’ud come around twice a day, once in the mornin an once in the afternoon, an fill everybody’s waterskins. There’s chaal in that water.
    Helen said it was all about chaal, I says.
    It slows yer brain down, he says. Makes you stupid. A good thing if you wanna control people. But if you take too much, everythin speeds up. Yer heart races, you git all excited an aggressive, you don’t need sleep or food.
    I think of Mad Dog, back at Hopetown, what he did to Helen. Of the crowds in the Colosseum, bayin fer blood in the gauntlet.
    I seen what it can do, I says.
    Me an Ike ’ud fill our waterskins with the rest, he says, but we never touched it. We’d sneak water from the irrigation channels in the fields.
    How long was you there? I says.
    A couple of months. Jest long enough to collect what we needed to pick the locks on our ankle chains. Then we had to wait fer a stormy night. The dog patrols don’t go out when there’s lightnin or bad weather, it spooks ’em.
    So you got away, I says.
    An counted ourselves lucky, he says. We hit the road, layin low, keepin outta trouble. Ike eventually settled at the One-Eyed Man. But I kept on goin.
    Till you ended up in the cells at Hopetown, I says.
    Yeah, he says. Wrong bar, wrong time. Agin.
    You’d think you’d learn, I says.
    You’d think.
    Whaddya know about the King? I says.
    He was crazy, says Jack.
    I know, I says. I seen him.
    He was crazy, he was smart, an he controlled everythin an everybody, he says. Lived in a big white house up at Freedom Fields. The Palace. With the finest of food an drink. Everythin. Amazin stuff from Wrecker days. Soft chairs, big tables, lookin glasses, pictures hangin on the walls. He had house slaves who’d crawl on their hands an knees if they went into a room where he was. If you looked at him the wrong way, he’d run his sword through you. I only ever seen him from a distance. That was close enough.
    I know what you mean, I says.
    An over the last couple of years, he started expandin his empire. Everywhere I bin lately, I’m havin to dodge Tonton or I’m hearin about ’em. Any place where there’s good water or land fit fer growin food, they’re comin along an claimin it fer the King. If there’s somebody already on the land, they eether work it fer the Tonton or git killed. They got spies an informers all over the place.
    He don’t control everythin, I says. Look at the Free Hawks.
    Maybe they won’t be free fer much longer, he says. The King might be dead, but somebody’ll step into his shoes. His empire’ll keep growin. You can bet on it.
    I cain’t believe Maev don’t know this, I says. That she ain’t heard about it.
    I tried to tell her, he says. She wouldn’t listen. I believe her ezzack words was, I dunno what yer game is, but as far as I’m concerned yer a lyin chancer. That desperate fool might