“This one’s still alive,” said a voice. A man’s voice.
“Not for much longer by the look of it. Might as well do the earthworm a favour and cut her throat.” Another voice, also male. She groaned again, more loudly this time, and tried to sit up but her body refused to move.
There was a creaking sound and then she felt her chin gripped by gloved fingers and her head was turned roughly from side to side. She waited for the knife blade to slice into the exposed flesh of her throat.
But then the hand released her chin and the fingers began to prod her in her stomach at the base of her breast plate. “Can’t see anything serious. All that blood can’t belong to her,” said the first voice, very close now.
“Probably came from this poor bastard here,” said the second voice. “See, looks like she got him in the armpit with a lucky thrust.”
It wasn’t lucky, thought Jan resentfully through the red haze of pain that filled her head. When the Sky Warrior had raised his arms to brain me with his rifle butt I made a perfectly good lunge.
“So what do you think?” asked the first voice.
“I still say we cut her throat.”
“The orders were to bring back prisoners and so far the pickings have been slim.”
“The orders were to bring back some important prisoners so that the Aristos can punish them personally for their treachery. Does this bitch look important to you? Besides, she’s too young.”
“Well,” said the first voice slowly. “She might be important. Maybe under all that blood she’s an earthworm princess. That armour looks expensive, sort of.”
There was a long pause before the second voice said, “If she’s a princess I’m Lord Pangloth, but I guess we might as well take her. If she’s not important enough for the Aristos to play with we can claim our rights and sell her as a slave.” Gloved hands gripped her wrists and she was hauled roughly to her feet. The violent movement made the pain in her head explode into even greater intensity and she cried out. She still couldn’t open her eyes and, overcome with dizziness, she would have fallen if her invisible captors hadn’t held her upright. Then her wrists were pressed together and she felt rope being tied around them. “Come on!” commanded the second voice and there was a jerk on the rope. Blind, sick with pain and shock, Jan had no will to resist and took her first stumbling steps towards her uncertain fate.
It wasn’t until they reached the square that she was able to open her eyes. It had begun to rain, quite hard, and the cold water had washed away the dried blood that had sealed her eyelids. She found herself looking at the black armoured back of a Sky Warrior. The rope binding her wrists was slung over his shoulder. Beside her, on her right, was another Warrior. He turned his head toward her when she looked at him. “See again, can you?” he asked coldly. She saw blue eyes peering out from the ugly helmet. “Good. A blind slave isn’t worth two cents.”
She tried to answer but her throat was too dry. So she tipped her head back and opened her mouth to the rain. The cold water tasted so wonderful she briefly felt glad to be still alive. Then she glanced about and the crushing despair returned.
Little that was recognizable remained of Minerva. The fires had been extinguished by the rain but they’d had long enough to do their work. What hadn’t been blasted apart by the bombs had subsequently burnt down. She could see Sky Warriors poking about in the ruins, looking for salvageable loot. By the look of the piles of different items in the square they’d already had good fortune. She even saw several grain sacks lying about, which meant they’d found the underground storage bins. Sky Warriors were loading their loot into two loading cradles identical to the one that had earlier been destroyed. Jan guessed that the Sky Lord was directly overhead again but the downpour made it impossible to see. The cables on the loading cradles just seemed to fade into nothingness some fifty feet above the ground.
Jan saw that she was being taken towards a large wicker cage that looked very crudely built. Tied to its top was a single rope that, like the cables on the cradles, vanished upwards into the greyness. There were about twenty people in the cage. As she drew nearer she saw that none of them were relatives or close friends. In fact she recognized only a few of them. If these were truly the only surviving Minervans it meant that everyone she’d ever loved or been close to was dead. Her mother, her father, Alsa, all her friends … even Simon was gone. It was all too much to comprehend. Until now she had only lost one close relative through death and that had been Pola, her older sister, who had been born at the breeding time before Jan’s. Pola had died in a battle with a band of marauders while on guard duty at one of the outer farming areas some six years ago. It had taken Jan a long time to come to terms with Pola’s death. Now she was faced with the death of her whole world.
“What have you got there?” asked a Sky Warrior standing by the cage as her two captors came to halt. The one who was holding the rope began to untie her wrists.
“Not sure, sir,” said the other Warrior, the one she thought of as ‘first voice’ and the slightly more sympathetic of the two. “By the look of her armour we thought she might be a high ranker. Maybe even a princess, sir.”
A third Warrior made a sniggering sound as he stepped nearer for a closer look at her. “The amazons don’t have princesses, soldier. Or rather they didn’t. Liked to pretend they were all very democratic. But they did have a ruling class of sorts. …” Jan saw, as he thrust his helmeted face close to her own, that he was dressed differently to the other two and was obviously an officer. “Well, what about it, amazon?” he demanded. “Were you anyone important in this earthworm town?”
The rain water had eased the dryness in her throat and she was able to answer. “No,” she said hoarsely. “I was just a warrior.” Then she remembered that around her neck she wore the chain and medallion which signified that she was the daughter of a Headwoman. It was hidden under her armour but this officer seemed knowledgeable about customs.
“Just a warrior,” repeated the officer sneeringly. Then he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the side of the cage. “You in there!” he bawled. “Do any of you know who this girl is?”
The Minervans, who were all sitting slumped against the sides of the large cage, looked at Jan. Their faces were grey with shock and fatigue. She saw that more than half of them were men. “Well?” demanded the Sky Warrior.
The occupants of the cage all shook their heads. Jan felt relieved. She still didn’t care whether she lived or died but from what the other two Warriors had said she didn’t care to fall into the hands of the ‘Aristos’, whoever they were. The thought of torture terrified her.
“That’s that then,” muttered the officer, sounding annoyed. “Get that armour off her and stick her in the cage with the rest of the earthworms.” He gave her a shove towards the other two.
They unbuckled her breast plate. A flutter of panic stirred in her lower belly. The officer was certain to spot the medallion around her neck. And as the armour fell free he did.
He stepped close to her and took hold of the medallion in his gauntlet. “Now that’s interesting,” he said. “Looks like solid gold. What’s its significance?”
She swallowed dryly. “It’s … it’s a medal. I won it. For bravery. On the wall. I stopped one of the big lizards getting in. …” As she spoke she felt a wave of self disgust. Lying pathetically to these bastards to save herself. If her mother could hear her. …