I functioned well without sight. Ten months in a slimy, lightless underground cell had taught me that trick. However, all I could discern now was that between ten and twenty people were shouting, groaning, stomping, and fighting all around me. It was an awful performance on my part.
Somebody fell right past me and flopped onto the ground. I couldn’t tell whether it was an enemy or a friend. A moment later, somebody else stumbled past in front of me, right after the first one. I couldn’t identify them worth a damn, either. I thought about killing them both, but I settled for knocking the second one to the ground, kneeling, and holding my knife to his throat.
“Get off me!” Whistler yelled.
“Hell, I should have killed you both.” I let him up and spun toward where I thought the first one had landed. It seemed that person had run, because I couldn’t tell that anybody lay or stood close by. In fact, the fighting sounds seemed to be drifting apart.
Bea screamed off in the darkness, unmistakable. Whistler hobbled fast in that direction, and I kept looking for the person he’d been chasing. I took three steps after Whistler before the sound of approaching hoofbeats stopped me. Odds were good that was one of Leddie’s men riding to warn her.
“Stop that rider!” I bellowed.
Somebody scuffed the grass behind me. I turned to find a woman jumping at me, starlight touching the knife she had pointed at my chest. I stabbed her in the throat before realizing she might be Pil attacking what she thought was an enemy. I panicked for a moment and shouted, “Pil!” I held her upright, as if that could keep her alive.
I eased the dying woman to the ground and peered hard at her face from a foot away. It wasn’t Pil. Some person had set Affie free, and I guess she had decided to murder me. Although, in the darkness, she probably didn’t know it was me in particular.
The hoofbeats drew close, so I ran toward them. The huge outline of a horse surged to cover the stars, and I jumped toward it. I went for the rider’s leg to drag him down, but I was only able to slap his boot as he galloped past. The hoofbeats receded, and I heard more yelling and fighting, some in the distance. I paused to wonder how many of these blood-spitting assholes we were fighting. While I was at it, I wondered who they were.
I started trotting back to where I’d first been knocked over. The fighting had become more distant and sporadic. A skinny man appeared in front of me with a knife in his hand. Bits of starlight glinted off his wide-open eyes. He thrust faster than me, since I was struggling with my hand. I dodged, and his blade scratched my cheek and ear. Then he paused as if he were waiting to see how his thrust had turned out. I stabbed him in the chest and didn’t pause until I’d stabbed him three more times.
As the skinny man’s body collapsed, I heard somebody crying out in pain not far away. The moaning and whimpering sounded almost like a suffering dog. I crept toward the sound, in case it was a trap of some sort, but I found a woman writhing on the soft grass. She panted for a few seconds before bellowing in pain. Then she panted some more.
Bea lay on the ground, wounded, and I chose not to remind her that I had predicted this very thing would happen. I grabbed one of her hands while I felt for her wound. I found a ragged slice in her belly, both agonizing and most likely fatal.
Bea started to scream, and her whole body clenched as she bit it back.
“Don’t worry that you have to keep quiet, Bea. Anybody who comes to kill us will be surprised when they find me waiting.”
Bea sat halfway up, screamed like it might be her last, and flopped back down flat. “Save him! Bring him home! You promised.”
“Most of my promises aren’t worth a bucket of sand, but I’ll honor this one. Don’t worry.” I patted her shoulder.
Bea stopped breathing. Then she shouted, “Don’t worry? Don’t goddamn worry? I’m dying, you toad!” She turned her face away from me and started crying. “I’m scared.”
After saving Whistler, I had just a tiny amount of power left. I might keep Bea from dying right away, but her open wound would fester and kill her before long. If we tried to carry her someplace, she would die for sure.
“I know you’re scared, darling. But I’ve seen a lot of death, and you’re braver than most.” That was a damn lie, but it might have been the only good lie I’d told in a month.
“Why do I have to die?” Bea cried harder.
I couldn’t say anything to that.
She grabbed my arm hard. “When Harik takes me, you stab him in the ass as he leaves!” She let out a short scream and went back to panting.
I sat back on my heels, although I kept hold of Bea’s hand. If those were her last words, I approved. I almost laughed, but it would have come off as impolite.
Of course, she wouldn’t have been lying there like a gutted mackerel except for my carelessness. I let those young people in Bindle get slaughtered and stolen, including her baby. Maybe I owed her a life.
But hell, if I saved her now, likely something else would kill her tomorrow. She was like a baby bunny in a dog fight. It would be a waste.
On the other hand, I had been prepared to bargain with Harik to save Whistler’s life.
I admitted that I was scrambling for a reason to save her too. I guess I just wanted to keep people I knew alive, which didn’t really sound like me.
Saving Bea would cost me something. If I did everything just right and the
