'Yes, yes,' admitted the halfman. 'My death. Or we could make a deal…' It looked at me curiously and slobbered.
I felt a sudden little splash of hope, but then I thought, they never make deals! Everyone said so. It was just playing with me.
'You're not even human,' I spat. The halfman sighed and rubbed its head.
'Perhaps I should kill you now?' It sounded as if it was asking me. Its heavy head hung so low on its shoulders it had to peer at me from under its hairy eyebrows.
'Why don't you?' I sneered. I was so scared!
The halfman sniggered, a sort of funny giggle. 'It won't save me,' it said. 'Why should I kill you for no reason? Why should I sink to your level? Hmm? Well, well?'
I just stared. There wasn't a word of sense in me.
The halfman spread his hands. 'I'm a trader,' he said. 'Name's Karl.' He grinned at me. 'What did you expect – Fido? I trade between King Conor and the towns. I have good contacts. Jewellery, wine, electrical goods. Sometimes even weapons. I make – made – a good living. But King Conor wants my prices to be lower. He always wants them to be lower. So I lower them and lower them until it's pointless. Then I refuse. Then, King Conor organises a halfman hunt' The creature shrugged. 'It's always the same. He'll seek my stores and steal everything. He'll slaughter my wives and my children and my people, to show that it's best to obey him. He's right, it's best to obey him. But maybe it's better to have no dealings with the human. See?' The halfman sneered at me. 'You deal with the human part of the halfman till you get bored with it, then you can hunt down the animal. Easy. Easy. That's your level, girly.'
I was so outraged I couldn't speak. He was a halfman! How could he compare his filthy murders with Conor! Conor had his faults – I'd been finding that out – but he was no halfman. You have to make hard decisions sometimes if you're a ruler, I knew all about that. This thing wasn't even human!
It was some trick, that's all. I thought, he just wants to try to get me to help him escape, and then he'd kill me.
'You…' But I had no words.
The halfman sneezed. Its eyes began to water. I looked away in disgust. I thought, it isn't even well made, look at this mess. It slobbered and snotted and didn't even have the pride to hide its face.
'Ugly,' I told it. I was furious with it for its horrible lies. 'Ugly!' I said again.
The thing shook its head angrily. 'What do you think?' it growled. 'I'm going to die. My family have just been murdered.' More water came from its eyes and nose and I suddenly thought, he's crying.
But…
It had to be another trick. These things have no feelings. Were the technicians at Ragnor so clever they had made these creatures able to cry at will, just to gain extra seconds before the kill?
'Your family? The little ones down there…?' I asked.
'Of course. What did you think – dwarfs? This isn't fairyland.' It began to sob. It put its head down on its arm and cried. I thought, it cries. I don't know what I thought. And I put out one hand – I didn't mean to, it just came out on its own – I put out one hand and touched it.
He wiped his eyes and watched me. I scratched the stiff hair on the back of his neck, and patted him roughly, like the great dog he was.
Behind us came the noise of the troops.
He pulled away.
'Just because you can cry. You're still the enemy,' I hissed.
'Still the enemy. Always the enemy,' the creature agreed. He leaned forward and began to touch me, to pat my legs and sides. I thought he was going to maul me and I tried to push him away, but he just reached out and grabbed me with the other hand and held me so I had to stand there. He was so strong – if a horse had a hand he could grip you that hard. But he was only seeing if I was armed.
'You chucked the pistol away,' I scolded him.
'Here comes lover-boy,' he muttered, as a convoy of Land-Rovers raced towards us. 'Suppose it's just a case of how many I take with me, mm?' He raised his eyebrows at me, and sniffed the air.
'You could take me hostage,' I said. Don't misunderstand me, I wasn't offering to help him – not me! It was the only move I had. So what if he could cry for his children! He was still the enemy, like he said. But if he held me hostage he'd have to keep me alive.
'Ah, the new Queen! Well, what a prize! But I'm not so sure that having you with me would stop them shooting.'
'What do you mean?'
'Take my advice, Queeny. Conor's not the man to spread his power by treaties. He wants it all – yesterday, tomorrow, today, all his, now. If you got killed on a halfman hunt he wouldn't mourn.'
'You're lying,' I hissed. I was furious with him again. Now he was trying to spoil things between me and Conor!
'He'd invite your clan for the funeral. Oh, yes, yes, yes. He'd love to have the Volsons come for a visit. He has nothing for any of you but death.'
'We have a treaty,' I said.
The halfman looked at me and licked his ugly lips.
'So did I,' he said, and he laughed, huf huf huf, under his breath.
I just laughed in his face. 'Do you think my father is on your level, you half-thing?'
The halfman reached out so fast I hardly saw it, and snatched my woolly hat off my head and perched it on his own. He looked ludicrous – his heavy hyena head with the hat pulled down over his eyes.
'Disguise?' he suggested, and laughed, huf huf huf. He smiled crookedly at me, and without thinking, my eyes suddenly filled with tears because… because… Because he was more human than animal after all. Because he could both laugh and cry. Do you see? He had the best weapons already. He could laugh and cry.
'I suppose you have the machine gun,' I told him, nodding at the ferocious-looking thing mounted on the railings.
Sadly he held out his hand. The stiff, short, stubby fingers were more like toes. 'No fingers, no thumb. If you had a grenade I could have pulled out the pin with my teeth. I can't hold so much as a hammer.'
As he spoke, the sound of the troops, the dogs, the four-wheel drives broke out loud as they thundered through the bushes under us.
The halfman turned to me. 'Now I die. Have I a heart?'
I thought, what? I said, 'Yes, I know…'
He laughed and he said, 'Now, since you know me, look after this little one for me.'
He opened his coat and took out – a kitten. He'd had it hidden in a pocket inside.
I put out my hands, and he laid it into them.
'Don't let Conor or any of his men see it. They'll kill it.'
'How do I know you're not just putting an enemy inside the compound?'
He shrugged. 'You must judge for yourself. When she's grown up a bit you can let her go, take her back to our lands. Or you can keep her if she wants to stay. But listen, Princess…' He leaned forward to me. He had only a second, the vehicles were close. 'She wasn't made like me, or born like you. She doesn't come from Outside or Inside. You'll see.' He leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, 'She has more than one shape.'
'What? What do you mean?'
At that second a bullet ricocheted off the metal next to us. The halfman laughed. 'Are they such good shots? Or don't they care so much about Val's daughter? I'll do you one last favour – yes, I've already done you one. The kitten's name is Cherry. Look after her. Keep her secret…'
Then he stood up straight, turned and threw himself over the railings as if he was vaulting a fence. I screamed; I jumped up and looked down. The men were following the body with rifles but there was no need. He bounced halfway down off the metal struts a few times before he hit the ground and lay still. Bursts of machine gunfire came from at least six separate guns as he lay there.
The men leaped out of their cars and ran around the shattered body. Faces looked up to me. One of the generals raised his hands to his mouth and shouted through the wind, 'So we got here just in time,' he bellowed.
