Bhotta’s Tears by J.D. Lakey
for sale at Amazon.com (link new window)
Excerpt:
The boy caught her, his strong arm scooping her up, driving the breath from her lungs. Cheobawn tried to get away, pummeling frantically at his arm with her fists and kicking out with her heels. Barefoot, she could do little damage. Her heels found nothing but the solid meat of his thigh.
“Settle down. We’re not going to hurt you,” he grunted shifting his grip to pin her arms and settling her on one hip.
Scar Face skidded to a halt before them, wearing Eater of World’s form. She writhed, unable to stop the high pitched keening that escaped from her lungs. The boy’s hold on her slipped a bit. She jerked an arm free. Using it as a lever she tried to climb up has shoulder and down the other side. The boy’s arms crushed her against him, pressing her face against his throat. This was not so bad. At least she would not see the teeth of the thing that wanted to crunch her bones.
“Don’t let him eat me please don’t let him eat me don’t eat please please please don’t eat me,” she whispered frantically against the boy’s neck.
The boy swore, hard and long. His grip eased a bit. She wrapped her arms around his neck, locked her legs around his waist, and prayed as hard as she could.
“Give it here. Let’s see what we caught,” Scar Face said with a cruel laugh. Cheobawn tightened her grip and began to keen again.
The boy shifted his body to put himself between her and Scar Face.
“Back off, Garro. You’re covered in blood and you are scaring her.”
“Getting all soft, bug?” Scar Face sneered. “We ain’t seen nothing so far on this trip that didn’t want to kill us and eat us for breakfast. It ain’t a puppy. If you’d take the time to notice, that thing snugged up so nice and cozy against your guts has a sharp little fang hanging off its belt. Hold it still.”
Cheobawn was not going to let go of the boy willingly. She tightened her grip, ready to fight but the only thing Scar Face wanted from her was her knife. She felt him jerked it out of its sheath.
“Ask the little bug what this is for, why doncha. What’s it doing here? Where’s its mummy and daddy, huh?”
The boy did not reply. Instead, he turned and began to retrace his steps through the undergrowth, the heat of his anger beating like a drum through the veins of his neck. Cheobawn pressed her face against that, letting it wash through her.
“Report.” The voice crackled faintly out of the air. Scar Face had a com unit. She hiccuped in surprise. Blinking away her tears, she looked back at him over the boy’s shoulder. She had been thinking the Lowlanders were primitives but here they were with technology every bit as sophisticated as anything the domes might have. The Mothers might have warned her. Their penchant for secrets was very likely going to get her killed.
Scar Face pulled something off his belt and held it in his palm.
“Caught it. We’re on our way back,” he said into the device.
“What was it?” the device asked. She assumed the voice came from Sparkly Man.
“You’ll never believe it. Bug caught hisself a kid.”
