“That doesn’t sound helpful, but all right. What else?”
“Another time it gave me the power to wither and kill things I stepped on.”
“Now that is a power!”
Halla hissed. Pil caught her breath and lowered her voice back to a whisper. “What did you do with it?”
“I killed grass and bugs.”
“Oh. Well, I guess I shouldn’t judge. It seems a little . . . unambitious. But what else?”
I took a couple of deep breaths as I walked. The book’s third effect had been one of the more appalling experiences of my life. As fast as I could, I said, “It brought the ghosts of people I’ve killed.”
“Really? That’s amazing. What did they do? Could you talk to them? Which one did you call first?”
“There was no first. They all came at once. There, that’s what the book did. I’m not going to talk about this anymore.”
“Everybody you’ve killed. Fantastic.” She sounded as if I’d done some great sleight of hand for her. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had applauded.
A sudden thought flung my stomach into my feet, and I halted with such a jerk that I stumbled and almost fell on my face.
“Bib?” I heard Pil whisper.
I couldn’t make a sound and didn’t think I was breathing. It felt like I might have been hit by a door, or walked into a wall, but I hadn’t.
I had killed Manon. I could use Harik’s book to call her back. I could talk to her. The idea terrified me. I knew I should never do it. Part of me yearned to do it.
Pil had walked on ahead for a few seconds. Now she came back and grabbed my arm. “What’s wrong, did you see something out there? I can’t see anything.”
Before I could speak, I heard Vang sprinting away, a little awkward with his hands tied. He didn’t trip on a single damn rock or hole, though.
Pil ran after him.
“Stop!” I shouted as I sprang toward the sound of her footsteps. I grabbed her around the waist and hauled her to the ground. She struggled until I whispered, “There might be a thousand seven-foot-tall barbarians out in that darkness. You wouldn’t know it until they cut you into strips.”
By that time, Halla stood over us. “How did he get away?”
I jumped to my feet. I preferred to stand in a dignified way while I admitted I was stupid as hell. “I let Whistler hold the rope. Whistler?”
Whistler grunted. “He was nearly choking himself to death every time he tripped. I got tired of listening to him cuss and bitch. I only loosened the rope a little. He was such a clumsy fart I didn’t think he could slip away. Or run away in the dark, neither. I’m sorry.”
“What happened?” whispered Bea, who trotted up holding Affie’s rope.
Halla said in a flat voice, “Bib and Whistler were outwitted by an uneducated soldier with food in his beard.”
Someplace ahead of us, Vang started shouting. “It’s me! It’s me! Don’t kill me!”
Pil snorted. “There’s not much point in being quiet now.”
I drew my sword. “All right, let’s creep up there and kill them. Maybe we can do it before they ride off to warn Leddie.” I stepped off toward the sound of Vang’s voice, moving at a decent clip but not so fast that I’d run myself onto somebody’s sword in the darkness.
From behind me, Pil huffed, “What about the thousand barbarians?”
“Screw the thousand goddamn barbarians! I hope there are two thousand of the greasy bastards for me to kill!” Of course, that was ridiculous boasting, but I wouldn’t have objected to a dozen barbarians if I could string them out and fight them three at a time. That was ridiculous too, and it might kill me, but I’d never pay off Harik’s debt by being timid.
There was not much chance of barbarians out there, but there were soldiers in the darkness who didn’t like us much.
I couldn’t see any sort of campfire on the plains, but soon I spotted something big blocking out a load of stars. Ten more seconds at a gliding walk revealed a huge, well-spread tree. I said over my shoulder, “This way, toward that big tree.”
“What stinking tree? I don’t see it,” Affie complained.
I heard shouting from at least three men out near the tree. That stopped me, but I couldn’t make out any words. Running footsteps sounded from ahead, and more came from the left. I turned my head from side to side to fix the locations.
“Watch out!” Halla yelled.
Something slammed into me from the right, hurling me into Pil and then onto the grass. I responded by noting I should remember to tell Halla that her warning was the least helpful thing she had ever said to me. I stayed on my back for a moment in case somebody was about to swing weapons around above me. Nothing like that happened, so I scrambled toward the place I thought Pil might be.
Before I could find the girl, I bumped into a big man on his hands and knees. He bulked a lot more than Whistler, so I figured he was the one who had crashed into me.
“Krak’s pits!” Whistler yelled from someplace ahead of me. Steel weapons clanged.
The man at my feet was pushing up to stand. I still held my sword, but it wasn’t well-suited for close-in fighting. I grabbed the knife that I’d scavenged from the bandits, and my numb hand almost dropped it. I reached around to cut the man’s throat. The night was as dark as Harik’s
