Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)(23)
“The hell are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” The blunt question drew my eyes up to the front of the cart, where a guy was standing from the driver’s seat, looping the reins for the bullsen over a handle in front of him.
He was easily several life-cycles older than me, but there was something experienced about him that denied his still-handsome appearance. A roughness that came from hard work and cynicism, instead of age. I knew that he was a dweller immediately.
“A couple of sols knocked me out, threw me into the back of a cart and dropped me here,” I announced plainly.
I even gestured in the general vicinity of my head, to indicate where the ‘knocking out’ had occurred. He arched a dark brow and jumped down from his seat, causing me to glance toward the cart to see if anyone else would come out.
“So,” he brought my attention back to him as he approached, “what’d they knock you out for? Did you steal something? Polish the wrong shoe? Accidently sneeze in front of someone important?”
I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of my mouth, and I examined the guy a little more closely: he had sooty hair, dark eyes, and darkly tanned skin, as though he spent a lot of time in the sun. Probably driving carts. Through the dead zone …
“Wait a click.” I shook my head, frowning, and gestured back to the cart, checking again to see if anyone was poking their heads out to see what was going on. “What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“It’s my job,” he replied, like it was obvious. “I take the deceased out to the ruins, and … er … put them to rest.” He was rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, watching the look on my face.
The look that was probably full of disgust and horror. Which would explain why he was suddenly acting uncomfortable.
“What kind of deceased?” I eventually asked. “And who the hell pays you to do this?”
“My father pays me.” He almost looked like he was blushing now, and he started to glance back toward the cart. “It’s the family business, you see. One of the gods asked my great-grandfather to take the bodies to the cave behind the temple, where the guardians live—”
“Guardians?” I interrupted. “I thought nothing lived out here?”
“Well if the guardians catch it out here … it probably won’t live for long.” He cut his eyes back to me, trying to convey the seriousness of that statement, but I was still stuck on all the horror and disgust over the fact that he carted dead things around.
“You still haven’t answered me,” I prompted. “What bodies?”
“The bodies of the dwellers.” He watched the alarm chase away my disgust, and then he was shaking his head, seeming torn between amusement and annoyance. “They’re already dead. I don’t kill them or anything. I just take them from one place to another.”
“Who the hell is killing dwellers then?” I demanded, my voice becoming shrill.
“Nobody! Or … well, I guess sometimes … listen, I really need to get this load to the temple before nightfall, otherwise the guardians get pissed. And you really don’t want to know what happens when the guardians get pissed. You can come with me, and I’ll hide you in the cart. Or you can stay out here and wait for them to find you. If you decide to come with me, I’ll explain everything to you on the way back home, and then we can discuss what the hell to do with you.”
He walked over to the cart, pulled back the canvas wrap, and motioned me inside. I stayed right the hell where I was.
He groaned. “Look … what’s your name?”
“Willa.” I wasn’t even looking at him. I was still staring at the cart. “What’s yours?”
“Zac. And I kind of want to keep it that way. If I’m late tonight—or if they catch you out here—we’ll become Patricia and Kenneth. I know this probably doesn’t make any sense to you, but they do things with the bodies. Change them. Give them new names, and then send them to Topia to serve the gods.”
“Actually that makes perfect sense.” I took a shaky step toward the cart, bracing myself for what I’d find inside.
Zac seemed to relax as soon as I made it clear that I was going to go with him, and he pulled the canvas back further for me. Laid out across the benches were several wrapped bodies, shapeless white figures, all stacked up on top of each other. The smell was awful, now that my nose wasn’t full of dust.
“Just … try not to make any sounds, okay?” Zac seemed almost embarrassed that he was forcing me to hide in a cart full of dead people, even though he was technically saving my life, and probably putting himself in danger to do it.
It made me realise that I should probably be a little more grateful, so I quickly pushed into the opening and then reached out and caught his hand before he could close the canvas on me.
“Thanks.” I tried to sound sincere, instead of sick-to-my-stomach. “I won’t blow your cover, I promise. And as soon as we reach the ninth ring, you can get rid of me. I’ll find my own way back to Blesswood.”
His dark eyes widened for a moment. “You’re from there? You were serving in Blesswood? That’s a long way to travel, just to dump a dweller. It would have been easier if they’d killed you and waited for someone to come and collect the body. I don’t do the Blesswood pickup myself, but my brother works the sol-cities. There’s another guardian temple right in the middle of Tridel. So why didn’t they just kill you?”