One by one, the other Murkovin pick up their spears and hammer them back down. As a thunderous boom of steel colliding with stone resounds through the surrounding hills, the woman graciously bows to them.
When the clamor finally recedes, the woman turns away. Out of the corner of one eye, she notices the former Traveler and the young man with long hair walk to the end of the row of Murkovin. They sit on the ground side by side. The woman drags the corpse towards the hill where the tall Murkovin still stands.
After she reaches the slope, she hauls the dead body to the crest. The tall Murkovin expects her to stop beside him, but she continues straight over the top of the hill and down the backside.
“I’ll get rid of his body,” the tall Murkovin calls out to her.
The woman stops but doesn’t look back at him. “I take care of my own dead.”
“You didn’t even take a step,” he says. “All you did was lean into the light and blend.”
The woman turns her face to him, nods her head, and then resumes her walk down the hill. At the bottom of the slope, she hoists the corpse over her shoulder. As she runs to the east, rays of light bloom before her eyes. She only travels for a few moments before disentangling from the beams near the edge of a deep, narrow ravine.
Standing on the ledge of the bluff, she holds the face of the dead Murkovin in front of hers. Her eyes fill with loathing and she spits in his face.
“I’ve killed your kind before,” she whispers. “I’ll kill you again. For you, my Ovì.”
She hurls the corpse into the ravine. The body pounds to the rocks at the bottom of the gully, shattering the bones hidden under pale skin. The woman stares down at the limp corpse while thoughts of the past whisk through her mind. Memories of her Ovì, memories of so many morrows of her youth surviving on her own, and memories of the many lives she’s taken.
She turns away from the ravine and runs in the direction of the camp. She doesn’t bother to blend her light, relishing in the power of her long, trim legs churning across the rocky terrain. When she reaches the base of the hill where the tall Murkovin still waits, she stops and removes a steel flask from her belt. Guzzling the red liquid inside, she immerses herself in the wave of new energy that pumps through her veins. She doesn’t pull the flask away from her lips until the last drop has rolled down her throat.
After returning the flask to her belt, she walks to the top of the hill. Once on the crest, she stands beside her most trusted companion. While looking down at the group of Murkovin still sitting in front of the tree, she notices that the former Traveler is no longer with them.
“The former Traveler left?” the woman asks the tall Murkovin.
“A few moments ago,” he replies. “The young man with long hair went with her.”
“Maybe she’s finally found something for herself,” the woman murmurs.
“I apologize for bringing the man you had to kill to camp.”
“It’s not your fault that he was the way he was,” the woman says. “Never underestimate how much you’ve helped me. I’ve often tried to imagine what kind of a man my Mür was. My Ovì told me that he was a loyal man, a strong man, a fair man. I’m quite certain he was much like you.”
The tall Murkovin keeps his eyes stoically focused on the tree at the bottom of the hill. “I’m sure he’d be just as proud of the person you are as I am.” He holds a spear out to the woman. “I fetched your weapon for you while you were gone.”
“Thank you,” the woman replies, taking it from him.
“I’ll see you on the morrow,” he says.
The tall Murkovin trots down the hill. When he reaches the bottom, the woman’s eyes drift to the few remaining people still gathered near the tree.
Perhaps I won’t need to end the former Traveler’s life, the woman thinks. Maybe with the long-haired young man, she’ll find what she’s been looking for in the Barrens. She can finally fulfill the need for companionship and release the physical desires that she’s been trying to bury for so long.
No matter how much I press her, she only reveals tiny pieces of disjointed information about the Delta, nothing I don’t already know. But she could prove to have even greater value after the Delta falls.
I need to keep the attack on the Delta a secret from her until after it occurs. Hide her at a camp somewhere in the outer Barrens before the attack, maybe with the long-haired young man at her side.
Once the Delta is ours, I can blame the attack on the former Watcher. I’ll tell her that I believed he was dead, only to learn later that he was secretly building an army of the type of Murkovin I killed moments ago. I can tell her that he had others spread the word of his death, but he was actually hiding in the Desert, well out of the view of my eyes across the Barrens. I’ll blame the fall of the Delta on him and him alone. She’ll believe I was ignorant of the entire plan.
Although we’ll kill many of the people in the Delta, we’ll let a few of the skilled workers live so they can train our kind. We’ll barter the lives of the children with the Tree of Vision for seeds to spread across the wasteland. She could help convince the remaining people of the Delta to put their trust in me, to believe that I’m their salvation.
Chapter 34
“Anything?” I ask Maya.
She remains silently statuesque while seated on the ground. Already knowing what her answer will
