The Black Pod Read Online Free Page B

it to dump its contents onto the
steps.
    At first glance, they looked like
twelve wickedly curved daggers. She took a single step back and
dropped her chin to her chest. Adams realized as he descended the
stairs that they were the tail spikes from the Telis Raptors they
had killed the day before. Wynn must have gone back and harvested
them.
    He reached down and lifted
the smallest one. It was still longer than a hand's breadth.
The spike was incredibly sharp and the last tail bone made the
perfect handle. He lifted her chin with his left hand. She stared at his bruised but healing wound . It was just a scar
now.
    “ Thank you.” He handed the
tail spike to her. He wouldn’t know the significance of the gesture
until much later.
    ***
    That winter his collection
of tail spikes increased to twenty-three . The Telis
learned to stay away from the Keep after that first year. The Telis
were the reason people also stayed away.
    The
land recovered, and the hunting became better. With Box’s help, Tony learned common tongue and Wynn learned the high speech.
    Each of the tail spikes
was boiled clean and polished, and Wynn made a leather wrap for the
grip. Each of them was stuck into the underside of the mantel as a
trophy. At first it was just to dry the leather of the grips,
but there they stayed.
    Box maintained radio silence, waiting
for a retrieval signal that never came. Passive sensors saw one
other ship get destroyed by the automated defense grid. But that
was the last. There was a war going on it seemed. Adams remained at
his post. They stayed quiet, as nuclear bombs destroyed the
planets’ networks.
    ***
    Years passed and
the world was silent . Refugees found them, bringing
tales of mass destruction and chaos on a planet named Baytirus.
Pilgrims came. Many stayed, if they were brave. They all
believed Adams was a Keeper. A kind of spiritual leader.
    Adams let them believe it. He would
sit on the throne and answer questions. He adjudicated disputes. It
was easy with Box. It was a simple life as he waited. They repaired
the Keep, planted gardens and orchards and fields.
    He envied their ignorance of the
universe.
    Lane lived another
nineteen years. He became a legend that no one actually believed,
that is until they saw him sleeping at Adams' feet in the
throne room. Eventually, he was cremated with every honor that a
Keeper would have received. Adams personally tended the fire with
Wynn, and collected the ashes for burial. It was then that he found
Lane’s tail spike; it would not burn. It was larger than any in his
collection. After that, he carried it with him always, in a sheath
Wynn had made for the purpose.
    Thirty-two years after Adams’ arrival,
the entire Keep had glass in all the windows. It was alive again.
Vines covered the dome of the Black Pod. Forty-six adults
and twenty-one children resided inside the Keep full time. It
was clean and beautiful. Where the forest had once been burned flat
was now dotted with farms and even a small village with a
tavern.
    Wynn and her husband had
four children and eight grandchildren. She was the Keep’s real leader, and the only one that had ever been inside the dome
where Adams lived. She was also the only one that noticed that Lord
Adams had not aged a day since they had met.
    ***
    “ Box, will you please tell
Keeper Adams that a guest will arrive in a few minutes. He wears
the livery of one of the High Keeper’s Trackers.” Wynn knew that
she could speak directly to Box from anywhere that had a line of sight with the vine-covered dome.
    By the time the hooded figure entered
the Keep, Adams was waiting in the high seat. As he entered the
great hall, instead of approaching the dais right away as was the
custom, the High Tracker turned his back on Adams to examine the
collection of Telis Raptor blades stuck to the mantel.
    Box was sitting in her usual spot on
the steps just to the right of the throne. “ Be very careful with this one , ” she said to Tony in