“Some of them look a little scary,” she said. “But it looks like they set your leg, so I guess they can’t be that bad.”
I could feel Callon’s eyes boring into me. The Zink guy was laughing to himself. Koz was saying something but I couldn’t make it out.
I focused back on Tuesday. “We won’t be with them long. They’re going to bring me, now us, to the next village.”
Her eyes crinkled. “That’s close.”
My fingers squeezed her arm. If we could hear them, they might be able to hear us.
“It’s not where we would’ve planned, but it’ll be nice,” I lied, tilting my head so no one could see my face but her. I mouthed, We aren’t going to stay there.
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be good. No, great. I’ve heard wonderful things about that place. The people in charge are supposed to be so nice, and you get a lot of days off from your work, plus…”
She kept going, but I turned back to the guys, hoping they weren’t paying attention. Instead of a sprinkle of good words, she was hauling buckets. She’d bury it so well there’d be a mound of bull a mile high. Subterfuge was never Tuesday’s thing.
Koz walked over with food, distracting her from covering her tracks and saving us both in the process.
Koz handed me a chunk of meat large enough for both of us.
I took the offering. “Thank you.”
“I’m Koz,” he said, smiling hesitantly at Tuesday.
She smiled like her jaw had just been greased. “Tuesday.”
He paused for a second, and they took each other in before he nodded and then walked away.
Tuesday kept staring. “He’s handsome,” she whispered. “And his teeth are so pretty. We don’t have anyone who looks like that at the village. He’s so big, too. I bet he’s a really good protector.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. Koz might be a little too nice. If she wanted protection, she was better off setting her sights on Callon. He looked the type to kill without hesitation.
“Maybe.” Didn’t matter either way. We wouldn’t be with them long enough for any of that.
I ripped the meat in half, or sort of, and handed Tuesday the larger chunk. I had to nudge her with my elbow to get her attention off Koz.
“How far is this village we’re going to?” she asked, her voice a little softer.
“They say it’s about twenty miles from here. Not enough time for anything.” I broke off a tiny piece of meat, putting it on the good side of my mouth while I watched her rip into her piece.
She choked down her first bite.
“Is that where they’re from?” she asked, still looking at Koz.
She took another huge bite, while I was still working on my first.
“I don’t know where they’re from.” They, not us. That was the important thing here. We weren’t on the same team, and she better not forget that because of a good head of hair.
Tuesday lost the whimsical look and her forehead bunched. For a split second, I thought my point had sunk in.
“The scary one is watching me eat,” she said.
She was staring right at Callon. She had a point. He was watching her eat.
“Maybe he doesn’t like to share food? Chew quicker so you don’t keep reminding him he’s sharing.”
Afraid of giving up her food, she shoved a piece in her mouth so big that I was afraid she was going to choke. She was done in a matter of minutes.
After a few more tiny bites, I handed her my piece too. If the guy did have a thing about sharing, we were better off finishing up quick. I didn’t need any more fights about how Koz should bring me back.
“Too painful?” she asked, taking mine too.
I nodded. “I’m fine. Not that hungry.”
She took the meat but struggled a little more with this piece.
Koz, with a last smile in our direction, settled down in front of the fire on our right. Hess and Zink did the same not too long after.
Tuesday stretched out, getting comfortable as well.
One by one, I saw them drifting off, until only Callon was left awake. He stood in front of the fire for a little while. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking about as he stared into the flames, deep eyes watching it as if he saw something that I couldn’t.
I turned on my side, removing him from my vision so I’d stop being so curious. A few minutes later, he walked off into the trees. I didn’t know who should be more nervous, him or the beasts.
I listened for soft snores before I nudged Tuesday’s arm to get her attention, knowing she wasn’t completely asleep.
“If it gets ugly, we should split up,” I said in hushed tone.
Tuesday was shaking her head before I finished. “No.”
“Tuesday, I’m dead weight. You might—”
“Nope. I’m not doing it.”
I didn’t speak, hearing nothing but crickets for a minute. “We’ll talk about it—”
“Never. Not talking about it ever.”
I didn’t say anything else. When Tuesday was in one of those moods, which she certainly was now, there would be no talking. As the minutes of silence ticked by, we both accepted the truce. I wouldn’t bother her now, but she knew I’d harass her later. She’d then repeat what she’d just said and refuse to discuss it. Sometimes I wondered why I bothered. Once she’d made a decision, there was no going back.
She stirred next to me, nearly twenty minutes after I thought she’d fallen asleep. “Have you seen anything? You know, that stuff?”
“No.”
Tuesday hated to say I saw death, let alone believe it. She’d told me once that it was too creepy and that I wasn’t creepy enough, so it just didn’t work for her. When we’d been younger, she used to pretend it was all in my head. I used to do that too in the beginning. By the time I was ten, the body count had piled up too high and I’d gotten past denial. She was still clinging, but she had that luxury.
“Really? None of them?” The whisper was softened further by confusion.
“No.” I wasn’t always a hundred percent, but I never struck out four times in a row. I should’ve seen one of their deaths. What did that mean? Was it me or them?
“Can you still see mine?” she asked, probably thinking the same.
“Good point.” She knew my theory about only seeing deaths that happened within my life span. If I was right, and I could still see hers, we’d both make it out of this mess. Or my untested theory was a joke. I preferred not to believe that.
We’d only talked about her death once, even though I’d seen it plenty. I grabbed her hand, giving it a bit of a jump start with a skin to skin connection. I didn’t normally need help, but familiarity tended to dull the visions, and hers was a comforting one I didn’t mind. The familiar sight flashed in my mind.
“Is it the same?” she asked.
“Same.”
I didn’t have to tell her what I saw. She knew. Old and grey, dying peacefully in bed with family all around her and an expression that said she was ready. She’d live a long and full life. The most comforting was she’d be around for a long time to come.
Those were the kinds of deaths I could deal with. Too bad there were so few of them.
7
I woke to the wind blowing in my face and the smell of trees. I breathed in forest air and sat up, listening to the birds. For the first time in eighteen years, I didn’t envy them. I couldn’t fly, but I was no longer caged. Baryn was dead, even if Turrock might still be out there.
Tuesday stirred beside me as the smell of meat cooking drifted over. I didn’t see Callon, but Hess and Zink were walking out of camp with their water bags while Koz worked his spit.
I moved my hand and it knocked into a pair of sticks, both with forked tops chopped short and stubs sticking out about halfway down. There was a piece of fur wrapped around the top of both to cushion them.
I’d seen things like this in the village, when other people had been hurt. I’d just never had a pair. I�
�d used a regular stick once, without the luxury of leather. Baryn had broken it in half when he’d seen it. I hadn’t bothered again.
Tuesday hadn’t stirred from beside me all night. She was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes, so she hadn’t left them there.
There was only one other suspect. I looked over at Koz.
He smiled. “They’re not the best, but they’ll help you get around.”
“Thank you.” I ran my fingers over the fur.
Koz waved a hand. “It wasn’t a big deal,” he said, looking back to the fire, his eyes darting back to me as I checked them out.
Tuesday, still yawning, sat up to see what we were talking about.
“He made you crutches,” she whispered, awe in her voice. Her eyes shot to Koz, looking at him as if he were a god walking among mortals. “You made her crutches.”
He shrugged and smiled at her. Their eyes met and glued. I didn’t care. I was too busy wanting to play with my crutches to worry about their crush.
I stood up on one leg, dragging the crutches up with me and putting one under each arm. It took a little maneuvering, but I got a few steps down. The next few weren’t nearly as klutzy. By the next handful, I was cruising.
I listened for the sound of water and hobbled my way toward it.
“Hang on, I’m coming with you,” Tuesday said.
I slowed down, but it took some effort on my part. I moved better on these than when I walked normally with my limp. Tuesday fell in beside me and we followed the sound of the stream, only having to stop a few times to untangle weeds from my crutches.
I balanced with one crutch at the bank of the stream. The cold water rushed over my hands, freezing, and all I wanted was to plunge into it, because I could. There was only one stream that ran through the village, but I hadn’t dunked myself in it since Maura had died, not even in the boiling heat of summer. Everything had gotten so much worse once Maura had died.
Sometimes I wished she could come back for a single day, or even an hour, so I could thank her for all the things I hadn’t known she’d done. She’d been a buffer between me and Baryn for years and never said a word.
And what it had cost her, I hadn’t known that until even later. It had taken older eyes and a string of bad experiences to piece it together. Even Tuesday didn’t know the extent of what Maura had done for me, and I’d never tell her. I couldn’t bring myself to, for her and for me. Tuesday didn’t need to carry that knowledge around with her, and I didn’t want to see the way she’d look at me if she learned the truth.
Tuesday flicked some water at me, drawing my attention to the present.
“Can you believe we’re out of there?” Tuesday asked, as she knelt beside me, enjoying the stream.
“No. I really can’t.” I dunked my arms in past my elbows, splashing it over every inch of skin I could. The cuts on my face burned and I splashed more, relishing in the abundance.
She sat back on her heels after another few minutes. “I wonder if Koz has a girl back where he comes from?”
Ah shit. I flicked some water back at her and she scrunched her face.
I ignored the look.
“Don’t get attached. They’re dropping us off at the next village. We can’t go with them.” If it had been Koz alone, it might’ve been different. But he had the other three, and one was more hardened than the next until you worked your way up the mountain to the man of granite himself, Callon.
“Maybe they would take us with them? It’s not like we’ve got somewhere to be.” She dared me to say she was wrong with almond eyes, large and demanding.
“Callon calls the shots and he’s not going to do that. He wants us gone. Even if Koz agreed, it wouldn’t matter.”
She crinkled her eyes but stopped talking. She leaned back over the water, not saying anything. Silence was never good with Tuesday. Never. Not since we were little kids. Silence meant she had decided to stop talking to you because she didn’t like what you had to say. It meant nothing about what she was going to do.
Did I pretend nothing was wrong or try and persuade her?
“Tuesday—”
She sat back up. “I don’t see why we couldn’t try.”
“I think we’re better off on our own.”
“You really so sure? Have you looked at us lately?” She was staring at me as if I’d gone daft. As if I didn’t know that I was lacking two good legs and she hit as hard as butterfly wings.
It was such a comical face that I might’ve laughed if I hadn’t caught a hint of movement across the stream. “Did you see that?”
She followed my gaze. “I don’t see anything, but that’s exactly why we need them.” She hooked her thumb back toward camp.
I kept staring into the shadows across the way. It might’ve been a deer or something. Or plain old paranoia. Paranoia wasn’t such a bad thing right now. It would keep me on my toes, where I needed to be. Maybe she was right that we could use a little help, but it didn’t change anything. We didn’t have willing help. It was us.
“We can’t have them. They’re not an option. But if you want to try, go ahead—just don’t get all broken up when it doesn’t happen.” Was that a branch in the shadow of a tree?
Tuesday smiled so wide that I could see her molars. “Good. I will.”
I dried my hands on what was left of my pants, now more wet than dry. Tuesday helped prop me back up on my crutches. We made our way back to the camp, my skin still tingling with the buzz of invisible eyeballs watching me. We might not have company for much longer, but I’d feel better with them around at the moment.
I didn’t even mind when Callon stopped speaking to Zink as we approached. Obviously they’d been discussing us, but at least he didn’t try and cover up with some stupid chatter. Koz was the only one who smiled as we made our way over and settled down in front of the log.
Koz grabbed some meat off the spit and brought us two pieces of something so blackened that I couldn’t identify it.
“We eat a large breakfast because we don’t stop for lunch.”
His smile had gotten a little something extra since last night.
“Thank you,” Tuesday said. “I’m sure it’s wonderful.”
Tuesday’s smile was the same, but hers couldn’t handle anything extra. It was already packed full. Between the two of them, I was about to get a stomachache.
“Koz,” Callon called, breaking up the moment.
I wasn’t the only one catching the vibes buzzing back and forth between them, or maybe he really did need to speak to him at that very second.
The meat, some dark red stuff I couldn’t name, smelled like heaven in spite of its aggressive cooking. I took as much as I thought I could choke down and handed Tuesday the rest.
“Still?” she asked, taking it.
I swallowed the small piece I’d put in my mouth with as little chewing as possible. “It’s been worse. Probably only another few days.”
She nodded and then went back to devouring her share. For as slim as Tuesday was, she ate with the ferocity and gusto of a three-hundred-pound man.
I was still focusing on my tiny pieces when I sensed her stiffening beside me.
“He’s watching me eat again.”
I glanced up. Technically, Callon was watching both of us. He didn’t look angry, but he did seem awfully intent. He really must not like sharing.
“Eat faster.”
She shoved half the piece in her mouth, using her fingers to push it back in when it threatened to escape.
I was listening for choking sounds when I heard Hess talking to Callon. “Should we make a sled? She’s going to take forever with those crutches.”
Huh? I thought I was doing pretty good! I took a couple more tiny bits of meat as I split my attention between listening for choking sounds to come out of Tuesday and their conversation.
Callon shook his head. “No. We’ll carry her. It’ll be easier, and Hera isn’t too far.”
Carry me? Like, miles? Ugh. Th
at sounded absolutely horrid, and I wasn’t even the one doing the lifting. I was small but I wasn’t that light. I’d probably only have to put up with it for a little while before they realized it was a stupid idea.
Koz stopped kicking dirt onto the fire’s ashes to turn toward Callon, as if this deserved his full attention. “We’re going to Hera?”
That was a good point. Who was Hera? And why would we go there?
“Who’s Hera?” Tuesday whispered, as if I’d have an answer. Sometimes Tuesday thought because I could see death, I had some unlimited source of information.
I gave her the shush face so her talking wouldn’t ruin my eavesdropping.
“It’s not that far out of the way,” Callon said, as he moved through camp.
Koz looked like someone had told him a riddle.
Hess and Zink moved in a bit closer, seeming pretty interested in this as well.
“But why?” Koz asked.
Callon’s gaze moved to my leg before going back to Koz. “If we don’t, they might not take her like that.”
Then no one said anything else about it. After a minute of awkward silence, they all went back to business as usual, breaking down the camp and leaving me stumped.
Why would they bring me to someone else for my leg? What else was there to do? Callon had set it already.
“Who’s Hera?” Tuesday asked, loud enough for all to hear.
Tuesday had a strong immunity to the shush face, and for once I was glad.
Koz walked over to where Tuesday was sitting beside me and knelt to our level. “A witch. She has her drawbacks, but she might be able to heal it completely. Callon has a point. The next village will be more willing to take you if you can walk without crutches.”
I had no intention of going to the next village, but it didn’t matter. Healing my leg completely? That might make all the difference in the world.
Turrock was still around to collect on how much he’d sold me for, and he wouldn’t be satisfied with the story of a beast dragging me off. He’d want to see the eaten bones of my remains. I couldn’t stay around here, and having my leg healed would help us keep moving.
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