Lotus and Thorn Read Online Free Page A

I forced myself to look away from Tasch and Lotus as I slung the bag over my shoulder. Knowing that time was already eroding their faces from my memories. “Go through that gate and never return. You are considered Indigno for the rest of your days.
May they be thirsty ones. May they be few.
”

CHAPTER 1
    657 Days Later
    I CROUCHED BEHIND a crumbling wall and pulled out my scope. Through two scratched camera lenses and a bit of plastic pipe, I scanned the blue haze hovering over the ridge of dunes. Something was moving on the other side. And nothing that moved was good.
    Right now, I was weak, and I was trapped. Our crewboss, Suji, had chosen this ravine—a little pocket between the mountains and the dunes—after the first symptoms of Red Death had shown themselves. The crescent of cliffs at our backs meant we only needed one lookout to keep an eye on the desert to the east. And there were enough decaying buildings to hide our movements. Suji said if we were lucky, no one would notice us.
    But we were not lucky.
    Yesterday, the vultures started screeching and circling, signaling to everyone in Tierra Muerta that there’d been death. That we were vulnerable. And by tonight, the stink would lure the wild dogs down from the mountains.
    But the dogs hardly mattered, because the men would gethere first. I’d spotted them a few hours ago, a flash high up on the dunes—the noon sun bouncing off something metal. Now, as the sun dropped behind the mountains, the men had given up on even the pretense of stealth. I watched them through my scope . . . exiles with mangy beards sharpening knives. Swigging mezcal. Always keeping one eye on what they could see of our camp.
    They were waiting till dark. Then they’d come down here and pick us clean—food, scrap, and any recruits who might be willing. Or unwilling for that matter. And they could afford to wait to attack because we had nowhere else to go. It wouldn’t be long now. The only good news was that it looked like there were two different crews—they’d have to fight each other as well as me.
    Keeping low, I scurried back through the maze of ruins to camp. Though after two days without food and one without water, it was more like a limping stagger. “There’s two groups waiting to ambush. Thirty, maybe forty men in all,” I said.
    “Time for you to go.” Suji groaned as I ducked into the tent; she started coughing, blood splattering out of her mouth. Seizures racking through her.
    I’d thought she was too far gone to speak, but evidently she was still in the fighting ring with Red Death.
    My teeth clenched, crunching grit between them. “How many times do I have to tell you, I’m
not
going to abandon you.”
    I was fighting too. For the past three days, I’d been battling to save Suji’s life—to save
all
their lives.
    Suji managed to open her eyes. They were two gaping red holes in a sea of bruises. She looked like a monster from a fairy tale. She looked like Death.
    “Water.” The word gurgled up from her, as she forced air throughthe blood filling her lungs. And the surge of energy was gone. Seeping out with her blood. Her body curling her into a tight ball—as if death was unmaking her, returning her to the womb.
    “It’s okay.” I dropped to my knees and laid my hand lightly on her chest, breathing with her. Aching to breathe
for
her. “I’m here.”
    Suji reached for the water jug strapped to her nearby pack, but she was too weak to manage it.
    “I got it.” It was empty—had been since yesterday—but I doubted she’d notice at this point. Pulling the knife from her belt, I sliced through the rope holding the jug in place. Carefully, I managed to coerce a tiny droplet down the side. She closed her eyes as it reached her swollen tongue.
    “Are they
all
gone?” Her hand searched the empty sand next to her for her wife—forgetting we’d lost Maria yesterday.
    I was glad there was no water left in me for tears. I owed it to Suji to answer