Death Cultivator by eden Hudson (best books to read .TXT) 📕

you,” I said back, bowing my head like it was a benediction.

While Kest negotiated prices with the guy, Rali and I squeezed through the crowd until we were up against the cage. A big dude with tusks was whaling on a shark guy similar to the corpse Kest had taken those boots from in the shut-in.

“Whoa,” I said, looking down in the cage. The floor was the top of a stone pillar, roughly oval red dirt and rock, and all around it was empty space. Way down below the floor, I could see sand and trees. “Is that a shut-in?”

Rali nodded. “Technically, I think it’s called a slot canyon when it’s just a hole like this.”

“What happens when one of them falls down there?”

“They lose. That’s where most of the scavenge Kest finds comes from.”

“People who broke their neck when they fell?”

“Or who got lost trying to find their way out and starved. Or got crushed in a flash flood. Or killed by chaos creatures.” He gave me half a grin. “There’s a lot of ways to die down in the Shut-Ins.”

The shark guy barreled into the guy with tusks, his mouthful of teeth slicing the dude to ribbons. The guy with tusks tried to get him back, but after that bloodletting he was on his last legs. A big hook punch to the jaw sent him tumbling over the side into the canyon. I flinched away and shut my eyes, my stomach flipping, but I still heard him hit rock on the way down.

The crowd roared with approval.

A guy wearing a bowler hat, wifebeater, black pants, and suspenders walked out on a wood plank to the stone oval. A huge pair of spectral arms grew out of his shoulders, as ripped as if they’d come off the ghost of a bodybuilding giant. One grabbed the shark guy’s bloody right fist and raised it.

“And the winner is Ripper!” the bowler hat guy called up to the crowd. “Collect your winnings now or let it all ride on the next fight!”

Out in the cage, the shark guy limped off, weaving dangerously on the plank of wood connecting the rock island to a door. Once he was out of the cage, two new fighters made their way in.

“So, if you guys are trying to avoid criminals, how does that work with selling stuff to a smuggler?” I asked Rali. “Isn’t smuggling illegal?”

He bounced his walking stick from hand to hand. “Oh yeah, super illegal. If you get caught landing a ship on Van Diemann without CPA authorization, I think it’s like ten years hard labor on one of the penal farm planets the first time, then life here the second time. But space moths have special Spirit abilities that hide them from scans, so they get around without getting caught. It’s why they make the best smugglers. Naph’s been doing it forever, and he doesn’t even have a record.”

“But what if somebody saw Kest trading with him?”

“That’s where Universal law gets complicated,” Rali said. “Basically, it boils down to her not accepting anything but credits from him. If she was buying or trading for contraband like the general store does, she’d be taking part in an illegal activity, but since she’s just taking money for her builds, she’s considered a seller and can’t be held responsible for how the buyer makes his money.”

I squinted at him. “That’s...convoluted.”

“Now you see why I’m not a part of their system. Because it’s ridiculous.”

A severed arm slammed against the cage in front of me. A couple flecks of orangish blood landed on Rali’s walking stick, and he wiped them off with the hem of his shirt.

“So you don’t follow their laws?” I asked.

“I’m not breaking any that I know of, but if I had to...” He shrugged.

“What about getting off this planet?”

“That’s Kest’s thing. If I do, whatever. If I don’t, also whatever.”

All the we’s and us’s she’d used when she was talking about buying their way off Van Diemann came back to me.

“I think she wants you to go with her, dude.”

“Because she thinks it’s better somewhere else,” Rali said, grinning and raising his eyebrows like he was telling a joke.

“I mean...” I looked around. “Isn’t it?”

He shook his head. “Every place is different, and every place is the same. You’re not a different you, even when you change.”

I smirked. “Is that some kind of ancient wisdom?”

“Nah, just a dumb sewer-punk song that used to be popular. It’s got the right idea, though.”

In the cage, the alien whose arm had been torn off finally passed out from blood loss. He dropped facedown on the stone. The scaly guy fighting him shoved him over the edge into the hole.

Kest came up between Rali and me with her mostly empty bag over her shoulder. Sounded like there were still a few pieces clanking around in there.

“Pretty sure I’m supposed to be carrying that for you today,” I said.

“Oh right.” She handed it over. “Thanks.”

“No big deal.” I hooked the strap over my shoulder.

She jerked her chin at the cage. “How’s the disapproving going?”

“I think I’ve passed enough judgment on violence for one day,” Rali said, turning to her. “But I’m behind on looking askance at greed and ambition. So, how did the sales go?”

Kest rolled her lacy eyes. “Are you guys ready to head home? I want to get these leftovers melted down and scrapped.”

“And I can get the mochi started,” Rali said.

I hesitated. The twins were feeding me and helping me get settled into this world and even expecting me to stay at their house, already acting like I lived there. All without wanting anything in exchange. They had basically nothing, but they were being more generous than most of the people I’d known on Earth with nice houses and cars and brand-name clothes. I didn’t want to take advantage of them.

Kest was watching me like she’d picked up on my hesitation, and for a second, I wondered if her kind of alien could read minds.