Death Cultivator by eden Hudson (knowledgeable books to read .txt) 📗

the young lady and portly young gent will precede us up?” The Bailiff gestured to the ladder with a wave of his ghost hands.

Kest and Rali both shot me meaningful looks before they headed for the ladder, but I didn’t really know them well enough to get what the meaningful part meant.

I took a step toward the ladder, ready to follow them.

A ghost hand bumped against my chest.

“Hang on there, penultimate champ.” The Bailiff pulled even with me. “You and I have some teeth to air out before we ascend. Now, I don’t know what your friends slipped you, but if it’s sharp and you’re thinking of sticking it in my vitals, I’d sure think again. See, I might’ve called off the hooligans, but I’m not down here with nothing but Spirit to protect me.”

He pulled his webbed hand out of his pocket. At first, I thought he had a domino—it was the right size and black and white—but instead of dots, it had more script.

“This here is a direct line to that there,” he said, pointing at the tattoo on my arm. “If you get any comedic ideas about knocking me off and disappearing into the Shut-Ins, I just infuse this little baby with Spirit...”

He pressed his thumb to the domino. The script glowed with the same gray light as his ghost arms—

Pain ripped through the meat under the tattoo and shot to every part of my body like sawtoothed lightning. My muscles locked up before I could take a breath to scream, trapping me in silent, blinding agony. No way to escape, no way to scream, no way to move.

Then it stopped.

My muscles all went limp with relief at once, and I realized I was on the ground, sand sticking to my sweaty skin. I didn’t think much time had passed while the Bailiff was showing off his torture remote, but my hair and clothes were soaked.

“Packs a wallop, don’t she?” the Bailiff said. “I just wanted to let you know what you were in for if you tried anything foolish, so you can’t say your old pal the Bailiff didn’t warn you.”

His giant ghost hands picked me up and set me on my feet, one holding me steady while the other dusted me off.

“There’s no range limit on this thing,” he said. “I can reach out and zap you even when you’re clear on the other side of Van Diemann. Just keep that in mind and we won’t have a problem, will we?”

Until he stopped and waited for my reply, I didn’t realize I’d been gritting my teeth the whole time he was talking. My fists shook at my sides. I had to make myself unclench my jaw so I could answer.

“No.”

The Bailiff grinned that brush-toothed grin and rocked on his heels.

“Verbal frugality. How I do admire that in a servant.” He tipped his head back, holding onto his bowler hat, and checked how far Rali and Kest had gotten on the ladder. “Well, I suppose we ought to start the journey up to your new life, don’t you think, lad?”

Welcome to the Gang

IT WAS A LONG CLIMB up the ladder, and there was nothing to do on the way but get angrier. I wanted to punch the Bailiff in his grinning brush teeth, and then I wanted to punch myself for getting into this situation.

At the top, Kest and Rali helped me onto the flat, bloody dirt of the fight cage. My arm and leg muscles were Jell-O, but the fury was still burning in my guts. That was pretty much the only thing that kept me standing when I should’ve been on the ground, passed out from exhaustion.

That and maybe some of the energy from Rali’s Coffee Drank-flour ball.

I looked over at the twins. I wanted to tell them thanks for helping me and sorry for screwing things up enough that we’d got to this point, but the Bailiff’s ghost arms pulled him up over the edge before I could say anything.

The Bailiff climbed up and dusted off his faded black pants.

“All righty.” He pointed a ghost hand at Kest. “You still need reimbursement for your day laborer, don’t you, Miss Selken? See Barrister Eruja in the saloon and she’ll get you paid.” Then he sized up Rali. “I’ve seen you kids around town. You ought to think about joining up. We always got room for a strapping young lad with a healthy appreciation for good food and a young lady who knows how to keep her less-than-legal activities inside the technical letter of Universal law. Plenty of off-world job opportunities for third-genners like yourselves.”

Fury shot through my skull, and I snarled, “Back off them, you creep, or—”

Kest grabbed my arm and dragged me back as Rali stepped in front of me.

“Thank you for your consideration, honored Bailiff.” Rali bowed over his prayer hands. “My sister and I regret that we’re unable to take you up on your offer, but you have our humble gratitude at being measured worthy of the OSS.”

“We’ll go settle up now,” Kest said to the Bailiff, one hand still firmly clamped onto my arm. “I expect our day laborer will be well taken care of by the OSS, and no harm will come to him as long as he behaves himself.”

She dug her nails into my skin to make sure I got the point.

“You have my word, Miss Selken,” the Bailiff said. “The only way for you to be more certain is if you join up and take responsibility for him yourself.”

He grinned at me. He’d figured out that I didn’t want the twins involved in their stupid gang, so he was threatening dragging her into it.

I snatched my arm away from Kest. “I’ll be fine.”

She looked at me for a second, the lace in her eyes shifting back and forth, then nodded.

“Help me pull up my chain ladder, Rali,” she said.

While they were busy with that, the Bailiff led me out of the cage and through the