Vengeance Is Mine

By Leigh Kimmel

Chance spared Bina when the Sand Locusts destroyed the village of her birth. Determination kept her alive in the years that followed.

But survival has come at a price. Each day she lives among her captors, she must ignore the signs that their nameless god is not a force of law and justice.

Will she continue to turn a blind eye? Or will she put an end to the scourge that is the Unspeakable, once and for all?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Starship Cat Press
• Release date: May 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223296072

Book preview

The first time the Sand Locusts raided her village, Bina was seven years old. That time it was just outriders, and the men of the village fought them off. But as everyone set to repairing the damage, people cast narrow-eyed glowers at her.

Just look at her, they would say. The Sand Locusts' symbol right there on her face.

As the murmuring grew ugly, some went so far as to say Bina ought to be killed, or at least driven forth into the desert to die. See if they'll rescue her. At least we won't have their creature spying on us any more.

Her father remonstrated with them to cease their murmuring. He even enlisted the village midwife to testify that Bina had been born with that reddish-purple mark on her forehead. When a few people grumbled about Bina having been cut from her dying mother's womb, it had strained her father's patience to the breaking point. Eyes moist with grief, he reminded everyone that no one had ever dared suggest her mother treated with enemies, whether of the visible world or the unseen.

Shame had mollified those hungry for vengeance, for no one wished to speak ill of the dead. However, Bina remained ever afterward a pariah. None of the other children would play with her, and in time she learned to go about her tasks alone. As she grew toward marriageable age, her father despaired of finding a suitable match for her.

Then the Sand Locusts returned in force. Bina had been out at the desert's edge, gathering the sweet-smelling sap of the smoke-bush so prized by traders as a base for temple incense. Her first warning was a distant clamor she took for thunder. In the western sky she saw only wisps of white cloud like wool caught by thorns.

She returned to her work, until the breeze carried the odor of burning to her. She looked over her shoulder to see a pillar of smoke rising over the village.

Although she ran as fast as her legs would carry her, it was too late. Already all the houses were engulfed in flames, and those few people who had managed to escape death by fire had found only