Kell's Legend

freaks and vagabonds, the army deserters destined to die, the deformed left to perish in low mountain passes. That is your tradition, isn’t it? With the babes who have no arms? Those of twisted limb? Those are theBlacklippers, they are not the pretty people of a good, noble society. They are the weak. The cripples. The diseased. The underlings who you would rather imagine did not exist.” Anu took a deep breath, then looked away up the cold, flowing river. Like me, she thought. And smiled. “I’m sorry. I’m bitter. I have recently been…abused, as an outcast, something different. It’s not a pleasant feeling to be hated by those who once accepted you.” She met Alloria’s gaze. “Once, your outcasts ran to us; but the vachine, also, are filled with a primitive superiority and they turned on the Blacklippers. Now, illegally, the Blacklippers gradually feed your nation to ours. They think of it as a kind of justice. Of payback.”
    “Feed?”
    Anu smiled. “We have a currency in blood,” she said, and Alloria gasped, hands coming to her mouth.
    “Is that why your army invaded?”
    Anu nodded. “Our civilisation expands, and our needs multiply. We are losing the war in an ability to satiate our own needs. And so…” her voice trailed off, as her eyes alighted on the now silent form of Vashell. “So we must spread out, move south; to where there are many ripe, succulent pickings.”
    “You talk about my people, the good people of Falanor, as if they are cattle!” snapped Alloria, eyes hard.
    “They soon will be,” said Anu, her head tilting to one side. “Once the vachine roll in the Blood Refineries.”
    “I don’t understand. My husband, the king, is a great warrior. He has thousands of soldiers at hisdisposal; an army of unconquerable might! He will oppose any invasion with savage force, and chase your vachine people back to the mountains like the savages you undoubtedly are. Either that, or slaughter them without mercy.”
    Across the clearing, Vashell started to laugh. He sat, bloody face leering at them, mangled hands in his lap, laughing in an obscene gurgle.
    Anu strode to him. “Something funny, you faceless bastard?”
    Vashell reclined a little, looking up at her. “My. Kradek-ka really did a fine job on you, my twisted, sweet little deformity. His technology, I admit, is superb, for never have I been bested in battle. Not by human, not by vachine.” He took a deep breath, and Anu could see the pain in his eyes; not just a physical pain, but a mental scarring. He was trying to mask this with bravado; but she knew him too well.
    “I threw your face in the river,” she said, leaning close. “I didn’t think you’d be needing it again.”
    Vashell shrugged. “You may do what you wish to me; but you do know they will come.”
    “Who?”
    “The Harvesters. I am linked. They have sensed my pain. As you sit there, on your arse, squabbling with prime succulent Falanor Queen-meat, they have already decided your fate. No longer is Kradek-ka to be brought back. I’d wager they simply need your extermination, for your threat is great; your threat, now, is terrible. If you are lucky, little Anu, you little twisted vachine experiment Anu, they will send the cankers. But if you are unlucky…”
    “They will never catch us,” said Anu, and there was a tinge of panic to her voice. She feared the Harvesters. Everybody feared the Harvesters.
    “If you’re unlucky, they will come themselves.”
    Anu’s claws slid free. She glared down at Vashell, and even in his pain, now over the sudden shock of his ripped-off face, he mocked her. His arrogance, and loathing, had returned. “I will kill you,” she growled, her own hatred swelling.
    “No,” said Alloria, grasping Anu’s arm. Anu threw Alloria to the ground, where she lay, staring up at these two alien creatures.
    “I will kill you,” repeated Anu, and moved in close…
    “That would be foolish. How, then, would you find your father?”
    Snow was falling, and the rearing mountains were diffused. Light had started to fail, and the sky held that curious grey brightness, a cold tranquillity, only found in the mountains. A slow unrolling of mist eased in from the around the barracks, and Anu caught the silent approach from the corner of her eye. Ice prickled up and down her spine.
    “Where is he?” she snapped.
    “You need me,” said Vashell, his eyes burning. “Only I know where he was last seen. I have my reports. If you kill