Tip of the Spear

by Marie Harte

  Then she hesitated. This was too easy.

  She rummaged throughout the room for the coarse ropes he liked to use on her, because they abraded her tender skin. She tied him up, spread-eagled and naked, and gagged him with his socks.

  While he bled out, she searched his room for as many expensive items as she could gather. Gold rings, necklaces, a silver picture frame, and oh yes, his fancy gun. She quickly dressed in the ragged gown she’d been given to wear, grabbed the small sack carrying her treasures, and shoved her feet in wool-lined boots stuffed with scarves so they’d fit. Grabbing Gregor’s fur jacket from the chair where he’d tossed it, she turned to go.

  A muffled shout from Gregor stopped her.

  Celia turned to him and smiled. The dim light of the oil lamp gave her one last look at the man who’d made her life a living hell.

  “You don’t look so powerful now, do you?” she whispered. “Not so mighty stuck like a pig, losing that precious life’s blood.” Celia knew she had to leave, but she had to finish this. She dropped her bag and leaned over him, dragging Pilar’s knife over his thighs to rest against his shriveled man-parts.

  She enjoyed the fear darkening his eyes, the pain clearly etched into his cruel features. “I’m not carrying your child,” she informed him with relish. “Got my woman’s time today.” Then she stabbed his genitals and twisted the knife.

  His muffled screams gave her the closure she needed. The blood spray soaked the sheets.

  “Hurts when someone plunges a weapon between your legs, don’t it?”

  Not wanting to chance his survival, she slit his wrists, wiped off the dagger, and retrieved the small bag. She left without a backwards glance and crept into the night, a free woman at last.

  ***

  Thais had waited so long for this moment. Pilar looked the same. Still tall and lean. Still a nasty, dishonorable woman deserving nothing more than her loathing. And yet the sight of a proud Amazon prepared for battle made her long for her mother. The conflicting emotions tore at her as she used the rage to her advantage.

  “You have dishonored the memory of our sisters by consorting with an enemy. You disgraced your heritage, turned against your own queen, and helped aid in the extermination of a once great people.” Thais spoke from the heart, truly disgusted at the woman before her. “And for what? A life in the Territories? Sex with Brian and Deke?” she mocked, glad for the information Brian had given her before he’d died.

  Pilar’s face turned red. “You don’t know anything about what I’ve been through!”

  “You? What you’ve been through? How about Nina’s babe, not even a year old and they ripped her open from her throat to her belly? The elders too weak to run when the Territory men fired upon them? The queen, raped and then decapitated while you, her guardian, watched in silence?”

  Pilar paled. Good. At least the bitch had some sense of shame for what she’d done.

  “And let’s not forget Princess Estefina. Defiled by the very bastard you pledged your loyalty to. So how much have you been through, Pilar?” Thais spat at her feet and gripped her knife, needing to return the pain to this woman who’d caused it all.

  Dry-eyed yet visibly saddened, Pilar lowered the hand holding her spear. “Nothing like that was meant to happen.”

  “Well it did happen! What’s wrong? You just wanted to kill the queen? Did you want the crown for yourself, then?”

  “It was all about Aliane.”

  Thais blinked. “My mother?”

  “You don’t know, couldn’t possibly understand what it means to love so deeply that you’re lost without him.”

  Thais gaped, wondering if Pilar had lost her mind. “You ruined a once proud tribe because you loved Aaron Bartel?”

  “Not Bartel, you stupid shit. Thalen! He was mine! My love, the father of my son! And Yasmin made me give my child away. You have no right to judge when you know nothing of the facts.”

  Thais couldn’t stomach another word from the worst traitor her tribe had ever known. She attacked, conscious that her knife couldn’t combat Pilar’s spear, but the fact it came from her mother gave her the courage to use it with confidence.

  They jabbed at each other, but Pilar’s skill with her spear had not faded in time.

  “You puling child. I lost my son. I lost my heart to a man who had eyes only for your mother. She had the girl I was meant,” Pilar raged, stabbing at Thais with maddening strength. “While our sisters took my child and gave him away, Aliane, always the queen’s favorite, gave birth to a healthy girl. She had you and she had Thalen!”

  They battled back and forth. Thais would dive with her knife, only to have Pilar block her time and time again.

  Thais argued, “She did not ‘have’ Thalen. They coupled, he left, and she never saw him again.”

  “It didn’t matter. It was her he wanted, her he’d given a girl child.”

  “This was not a reason to kill an entire people,” Thais shouted as she launched herself at Pilar. She pushed Pilar to the ground and jabbed her in the side with her knife before Pilar knocked the weapon away. They fought to control the spear, experience and strength against the power of youth and righteous anger.

  Pilar rolled over Thais and leveraged her weight to straddle her. They fought for control of the spear, now lying across Thais’s chest. Positioned underneath Pilar, Thais had a hard time gaining the upper hand.

  “I did not mean for the destruction of our village,” Pilar was saying as Thais fought to breathe. “Bartel used me. He came into the camp with more men than he’d promised. More than our entire village! They raped and killed while I was forced to watch. While I watched,” Pilar screamed and suddenly tore herself from Thais, the blood from her wound dripping down her side.

  When Pilar pushed off, she applied so much pressure Thais felt something snap.

  Pilar continued, her movements frenzied, and Thais wondered if she felt any pain. “He took from me what I’d never intended to give him. And he took the crown. I’ve been after him since.”

  Still trying to catch her breath, Thais rolled in search of her knife, and wavered at the excruciating pain.

  She wobbled to her feet and saw Pilar clutching it in one hand, her spear in the other. Pilar stared at the knife, transfixed.

  For the first time that Thais could remember, Pilar looked uncertain.

  “The blue stone, a reminder of The Cave, where we are born.” Pilar blinked, and a tear trailed down her cheek.

  Thais was stunned to feel pity for this creature who had destroyed almost everything she’d ever loved. Pilar had lost a child and a man she cared for. She had no home, no more sisterhood. But did that excuse such malice toward those she’d once called sister?

  Pilar wiped angrily at her cheek and tossed Thais’s knife at her feet. “Do you think I don’t know I’ve made mistakes? That I don’t regret, every single day, what I allowed to happen? At least I admit I’d done wrong. Renata, Marcela and Bruna took up with Bartel and his men.” Pilar sneered. “Bartel isn’t even his real name.”

  “I know.” Thais knelt, grabbed her knife, and had to force herself back to her feet past the agony stealing her breath.

  “I’ve tracked his gold, the only thing that seems to matter to him. He runs loads of currency along the railway. Amery Nore, that’s one of the names he uses. Last I heard he’d vanished north of here, into Lost Territory.”

  While Thais appreciated the information, she didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to empathize with Pilar or understand her. She wanted to avenge her tribe, her queen, her mother.

  “My mother died protecting the queen. A guardian through and through. Yet you, who wear the mark, turned on your duty,” Thais rasped, calm despite the tension rattling her determination.

  “And where were you?” Pilar thrust the soft words as sharp as any dagger. “You don’t appear to have suffered.”

  “I will always regret that I was not there to help defend my tribe. But I will not take responsibility for
what happened.” Not anymore. “It would never have come to pass were it not for your selfish greed.”

  “Perhaps not,” Pilar said tiredly. She dropped her spear and spread her arms wide.

  Thais didn’t know what to think. Nothing about this meeting progressed the way she’d anticipated.

  “Go ahead. Throw the knife. Make sure you hit my heart. Take my life, there’s nothing much left for me here.”

  “Not Brian.”

  Pilar nodded. “I figured you killed him when he didn’t return days ago.”

  “Not me. One of McKenzie’s men did it. I sat with him as he died.”

  “Butch,” Pilar spat. “A monster. How ironic I found another deviant as bad as Bartel.”

  Thais didn’t know what made her say it. “Brian said he loved you.”

  “He did?” The despair in Pilar’s eyes stunned Thais into silence.

  Not sure why she bothered to provide comfort for this enemy before killing her, Thais couldn’t help herself. “He did. His death took time. It was not pleasant. He’d been shot intentionally in the belly, which we found odd.”

  A low groan interrupted them both.

  A dark haired man stumbled into the barn and fell at Pilar’s feet. “Brian,” he gasped, bleeding from several bullet wounds to his body. “Dead. I knew it.”

  Pilar sank to her knees and cushioned his head in her lap. “No, Goddess. Not you, too. Deke.” She leaned down and wrapped her arms around him.

  The light of life slowly faded from his eyes. “Did we…?” Deke mumbled something more Thais couldn’t hear.

  Tears ran unchecked down Pilar’s face. “You stubborn bastard. If anyone could, it’d be you.” She put his hand to her belly, and Thais stared at the pair in horror. Was Pilar indicating a pregnancy?

  Deke smiled and passed into the land of the dead, while Pilar sat staring at him.

  “Are you really breeding?” Thais whispered.

  “No. But it was something he wanted. Something I wanted, so very, very much.” Pilar’s tears continued, but she didn’t sob aloud. Her silent grief tore at Thais’s resolve.

  Thais didn’t know what to do. For years her every thought had been to bring justice to those who’d destroyed her people. Now when she had one of those responsible, it felt as if the Goddess had already meted out her own justice. Thais was nothing here but a witness.

  Pilar looked up at her. With slow, sure movements, she raised the tip of her spear and scored a line through the flower on her cheek. It had to hurt like hell. She did it again and again, until her cheek remained a mutilated mess of flesh and blood.

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Take the justice our sisters demand,” she said in an icy voice.

  Thais raised her knife, ready, but no longer eager to deliver Pilar’s death.

  “Thais,” Hinto yelled from outside the barn. “Thais, honey, you okay in there?”

  Silence.

  Pilar quirked a brow. “Hinto. Yours, hmm?” She stroked Deke’s hair. “I once had a man I loved. I let him and my child be taken from me. Here’s my second chance at happiness, lying dead in my lap.” The fight had gone out of her. “Do to me what you will. I deserve nothing less, and nothing more than this eternal suffering.”

  Pilar leaned down to place a kiss on Deke’s head and gently lowered him to the ground. She stood and waited with a dignity she’d been lacking for as long as Thais had known her.

  Thais suddenly understood, and because she did, a terrible weight lifted from her shoulders.

  Atonement couldn’t come from a lifetime of vengeance. It couldn’t come from rage or from guilt, but from acceptance, from forgiveness, and from being right with herself—untainted by hatred.

  “You shouldn’t have made a deal with the devil,” she told her mother’s rival, now just a pitiful shell of a woman. “And you shouldn’t have hated her for loving me, or for being with Thalen.”

  Pilar didn’t speak.

  “But I understand why you did what you did. And I think—I think I believe you when you say you didn’t mean for the worst to happen.”

  Pilar’s true punishment: nothing she did could ever make it right again. She’d lost not only her child, but two men she’d loved, and all at the hands of her own making.

  “I’m sorry for you, Pilar.” Thais struggled with the words, so hard to say yet she truly felt them. “And I forgive you.” The Great Mother guide me now.

  Thais turned from Pilar and walked away, the pain in her chest growing.

  She sensed Pilar move with her but didn’t worry about giving her back to the enemy. A strange sense of unreality settled over her as she put her faith and love in the Goddess. For a moment, she could almost smell the vanilla spice of her mother’s favorite oils.

  And then Pilar attacked.

  Hinto shouted, Wolf swore and Jon fired at something just in front of her she could no longer see. A great weight settled on top of her. She couldn’t breathe. The pain of taking a breath overwhelmed her.

  “Die you son of a bitch,” Hinto shouted, and everything blurred.

  Thais blinked up at a black sky. She inhaled, eager to fill her chest with air, and moaned, aching all over.

  The smell of a fire burned nearby. She turned her head to see what the hell had happened, and Hinto’s worried face swam into sight.

  “I’m not dead?” Surely Dozie’s prediction had come true.

  Hinto placed kisses all over her face. “You had me so worried. You’ve been out of it for hours.”

  “What happened? Why do I hurt?”

  “We think you cracked a rib. Not sure if it happened when Pilar knocked into you or before. But Thais, she saved your life.”

  “What?” Was she having delusions? Thais reached up to rub her head, glad to feel her skull in one piece.

  “Butch wasn’t dead. I’ll go to my grave remembering that fear. I swear to you, I stuck my knife in his gut. He didn’t move, and I was so concerned about you I left him behind without making sure.”

  Wolf snorted. “Ease up, Hinto. I would have thought him dead too. Fuck me, but that blood all over him was so dark it was black. You hit him good. No way he should have been up after that.”

  Hinto continued, “Thais, I heard you with Pilar. I didn’t let them interfere, though it took a lot to keep Jon back. For a quiet guy, he’s a real pain in the ass.” Hinto glared at Jon, who rolled his eyes and continued cleaning his rifle.

  Thais noticed Salvatore and the others keeping a respectable distance away.

  “Everyone still here?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

  “Yeah,” Wolf answered. “They took care of a few of McKenzie’s remaining ranch hands. The remaining Nolans scattered like roaches.”

  “Gregor?”

  “Dead,” Hinto said, an odd look on his face. “We found him naked and tied to his bed. Had blood running from a slash in his belly and his wrists. And his dick had been severely mauled.” He appeared uncomfortable talking about it.

  “Good. His gun?”

  “Gone.”

  She sighed. “Maybe Kitty’ll believe us if we bring her something else.”

  “I took the ring off his finger for proof. It’s the McKenzie crest. She might accept that.”

  “Hell Hinto.” Wolf snorted. “Don’t be stupid. Bring her back his head. No question there.”

  Hinto’s eyes glinted in the firelight. “Good point.”

  “Why did Pilar attack me?” Thais still wanted to know. How had the woman saved her life?

  Hinto ran a hand through his dark hair. “Butch wasn’t really dead. Me, Jon and Wolf were watching you fight Pilar. Highlighted by that fire, you two looked like ghostly demons from hell. You’re a lot scarier than you look, honey.”

  “Funny.” She groaned when she tried to sit up.

  “No, don’t move. Point is, while we were watching you two, and hearing you forgive her then walk away—Thais, I just… Honey, I am so damned proud of you.”

  Wolf cut in with a sigh. “
What big brother is taking forever to tell you is that Butch surprised us. He stumbled into the open and took a shot at you before we could blink. Not sure how the hell she did it, but Pilar shoved you down in time to take the bullet.” He glanced away from Thais, and she followed his gaze to see Pilar no longer among the living. “Before she died, she said to tell you something.”

  “What?” Thais felt like crying, and she didn’t understand why.

  Hinto said quietly, “She said giving him away was her biggest mistake. Do you know what she meant?”

  “Yes, I do.” Thais didn’t want them to see her crying, but she couldn’t help it. She closed her eyes. Hinto carefully lifted her onto his lap, mindful of her injury, and held her while the tears came.

  She cried for Pilar. She cried for her mother, her sisters, the queen and the princess. For the little boy Pilar would never know, and for the love her mother had never felt for the man who’d given her a daughter.

  “It’ll be okay, Thais. If you didn’t find what you need, we’ll keep looking.” Hinto rocked her, soothing her with his touch, with his love.

  “I found what I need. I love you, Hinto.”

  She felt his smile against her cheek. “Hot damn. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist me.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Well, Kitty, is this good enough?” Hinto handed her a large box.

  She set it on the table and opened it.

  “Couldn’t find his gun, but I figured this would work well enough.”

  Kitty started to laugh. Thais smiled and winked at Hinto.

  “Shee-it. I knew you two’d do it right. I’m guessing Butch is no longer with us?”

  Hinto lost his good humor. “Hell no, he’s not. After he almost raped Thais and nearly killed her we—”

  “He’s dead,” Thais said. “You might have warned us to beware the bigger threat.”

  Kitty didn’t even have the decency to apologize. “Honey, I figure I did you a favor.”

  “Oh?”

  “A fool coulda seen how you were itchin’ to kill a man. I served you not only Gregor, but Butch as well. And I threw in a stud to boot.”