the smooth lines of youth. “How could you tell?” she asked sarcastically.
“Because I saw you that day,” I said. “I saw you pass your initiation.”
“Bullshit,” she snapped.
I rose as much as my contorted position allowed. “The horses should have killed you, but they didn’t. Your dress was too big. And you wore ribbons.”
The silence grew heavy over the next few moments. Finally, in a voice so quiet I barely heard it, she said, “Who are you?”
“Name’s Eddie LaCrosse. I’m from Neceda, in Muscodia.”
“Where is that?”
I told her.
“And you…” She took a deep, shuddering breath in the darkness. “You remember what happened?”
I nodded. “And I tell you the truth: I killed the monster who did it that same night, too.”
The position they had me in was really killing me by now, so when she stood and cut the ropes that tied my wrists to my ankles I let out a loud groan. She undid the rest of the bonds, and I sat up stiffly.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
I worked my numb fingers and toes. “No problem,” I said out of habit. I gently felt the back of my head. The lump, tender and hot to the touch, swelled behind my right ear, but I felt no dried blood. The little bozo that smacked me had a light touch, at least. “Who hit me?” I asked.
“His name’s Leo,” the scarred girl said. “He always stays back to see how the robbery goes. He’s only seven, but he’s tall for his age and totally fearless.”
“He’s got a future,” I agreed. I’d never even heard him coming. A spasm of queasiness went through me, but I blinked it away. I wiped the sweat from my face with my sleeve. “So what kind of scam do you have going here?”
“Not many jobs for someone who looks like me, so I’ve learned to work the edges. I take in the orphans and the runaways, teach them how to survive. And when the boys get old enough, like Scotty, I teach them about women. If it’s dark enough, they can pretend I’m anyone.”
“And you’ve been here ever since…?”
“I traveled around. Some people helped me, some didn’t. I settled here because these old mines under the town make it easy to stay in the shadows. For obvious reasons, I prefer that.”
“Yeah.”
She leaned forward into the light. What expression her injuries allowed was pitiful. “ Why are you here? Please, tell me the truth. I deserve it.”
“I’m trying to find a line on Andrew Reese.”
“You mean he’s real?” she whispered.
“Maybe. If he is, he’s the one ultimately responsible for what happened to you.”
Her eyes were clear and bright blue, the beautiful eyes of a sad and tormented child. “Will you kill him if you find him?”
“Yeah,” I said. Truthfully I didn’t know what I’d do, but the lie seemed a small enough reparation for the life she’d been given.
Someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” she said.
Trudy the waitress stepped into the light, followed by the boy Scotty. “I have to get back to work, and-” She froze when she saw I was no longer tied.
“Relax,” I said. “We’re old friends.”
“He’s free to go,” the scarred girl said. “Trudy, show him out, will you?”
“He knows about me,” she said dubiously. “About all of us.”
“And I know about him,” the scarred girl said. “He’s been honest with me. There’s no reason to hurt him.”
Trudy scowled at me.
I looked at the scarred girl. “Can I do anything for you?”
“We don’t need your help,” Scotty snapped.
“We don’t,” the scarred girl agreed more evenly. “We’ve found our niche here.”
I started to protest further, but I sensed the futility. “Maybe I’ll check in on you again, if I’m ever in town,” I told her. “And if I find Andrew Reese, he’ll pay for what he did to you. To everyone.”
“But not Epona,” she said emphatically. “Epona gets no vengeance.”
“Why?”
“Because Epona lied to us. She claimed to be… well, you were there, you know. I believed her. I believed in her. That lie was the hardest thing to accept.”
I nodded.
“Come on,” Trudy said impatiently and grabbed my arm. She was clearly anxious for things to get back to normal. “I’ll take you to your stuff.” Scotty stayed behind with the scarred girl, standing protectively beside her and glaring until the door closed. As I followed Trudy down the dim passageway of what had been a played-out mine, I faintly heard the scarred girl singing that damned maddening tune. “Andrew Reese is broken to pieces…”
My sword and other belongings lay in a pile near a curve in the old mine tunnel. I buckled my scabbard and counted the money in my pouch. It was all there, and it turned out they hadn’t even thought to check for the knife in my boot. Well, they were just trainees. Then I trailed the waitress some more, having to stoop in many places. At last light shone down an overhead shaft and illuminated a ladder that led to the surface. My head still throbbed like a drum at a harvest festival, and finally I had to say, “Whoa, wait a second.” I leaned against a wooden support beam and made myself breathe slowly and evenly. I was in no shape to climb a ladder until the tunnel stopped wobbling beneath me.
Trudy impatiently put her hands on her hips. “Come on,” she snapped. “You’ve been lucky enough today.”
I wanted to lie down right there, but I knew I needed to get out of the tunnel and back to my job. I shook my head to clear it, a move I immediately regretted. Then I realized the soft voice I heard was not, in fact, my conscience chewing me out for being an idiot. It was a child’s voice softly repeating something.
It came from behind a tapestry hung over a crossing tunnel we’d just passed. If we hadn’t stopped, I never would’ve noticed it. I lifted the heavy fabric and peeked around. The area was just a tiny side room, originally carved to allow miners to step aside when ore carts needed to pass. Small candles illuminated it, their light hidden by the thick curtain. The little bait girl knelt before an altar, her pudgy hands clasped together in prayer. “By Epona’s white mane, I ask that my wish come true,” she said in her singsong voice. On the altar was a single horseshoe, and on the stone wall it faced someone had crudely drawn a white horse.
Trudy pulled me back. “That’s none of your business,” she snapped.
“You’re right. Let’s go.” Some lies took longer to accept than others, evidently.
I stepped ahead of her, and realized she lagged behind for just a moment too long. I dodged sideways, and her knife stabbed right through the spot my kidneys occupied a moment earlier. I punched her with the heel of my palm right between her eyes. The blow stunned her, and the knife clattered to the stone floor. The noise carried, and would soon bring her preteen reinforcements.
I slammed her against the nearest wall. I was pissed off now, and took her knife hand by the wrist. “Your boss and I had a deal, you backstabbing little bitch,” I snarled. “Did she tell you to do this?”
“No,” she said, too dazed to lie.
I bent her last two fingers back until the bones snapped. She cried out in pain, and her eyes opened wide. I slapped her to keep her attention. “I’m not going to kill you because your boss was straight with me. Next time be a good soldier.” Then I shoved her to the ground and went quickly up the ladder. No small, lethal hands reached to pull me back.
I retrieved my horse and crossed the bridge at the next open time for folks mounted on horseback, and eventually found the spot where, long ago, Cathy and I had departed from the road. Most of the forest had been cleared to build the newer buildings in Poy Sippi, but I still wandered for two days, trying to hit upon some familiar landmark that would orient me to the old half-remembered trail. Finally, just as I was about to admit defeat, I found the sign that had originally guided us.
