by K. F. Breene
“I’ll find out. I’d rather stay in here than have to confront that colossal,” one of the Graygual said in their home language. “I hear he’s a giant.”
“All these men are giants. Even the shorter ones are stacked with muscle.” The other Graygual looked out over the street. “The Captain is supposed to be unbeatable, though.”
“Exactly. I’d rather guard the weaker ones. Do you think the Hunter is going to send out sacrifices?”
“I don’t know. I hear there are not many of them out there. They’re waiting for more.”
“Then he’ll probably send out the best.” The man sucked his lip in thought.
Shanti felt Rohnan’s impatience behind her, but she wanted to hear this out.
“The girl isn’t with them, though,” the first said, wiping something from the front of his uniform. “The Inkna didn’t see her or feel her presence. She’s with the Shadow.”
“Or else she hung back.”
“What good would that have done? Nah, from what I’ve heard, she’s always running around, killing people. If she wasn’t in the battle, she’s making her way to it. The Hunter agrees, so…”
“The Hunter should capture that Captain before the girl gets here,” the first Graygual said with a knowing tone. “It’d be easy. This city is full of bleeding hearts. They’ll roll over and play dead if a woman is smacked. I say that if the Hunter just starts killing people, that Captain will walk right in and give himself up. I guarantee it.”
“He’s going to. The Hunter, I mean. You know how he works, though.”
The other man spat. “For a guy that has no problem torturing, he sure has a funny set of rules.”
“That’s just it. Rules.” The man looked around and leaned closer to the other. He dropped his voice to a level that Shanti could barely hear. “If I’d known what I was getting into, I wouldn’t have bothered to join up, know what I mean?”
“Shhh! You’re going to get us killed.” They started walking toward the middle of the street. Their hushed voices turned into nothing more than hissed whispers.
So Cayan had said she hadn’t come with him. He didn’t really have any other choice. The Hunter would be suspicious, though. Any foul play in the city, and he’d turn his Inkna inward, searching.
She took a deep breath. This was not a great situation.
Wasting no more time, she started moving again, increasing her pace. She could feel the women starting to relax, their focused determination drifting into overall angst. They had to be getting ready to sneak back to their homes.
Shanti turned the corner and ducked behind a hedge as the solitary Graygual standing near the far wall shifted his stance. His body swung in their direction, his gaze following a moment later. Rohnan dove behind a cropped bush, the thud thankfully going unnoticed. Gracas half ran to the side, ducking behind a wall just in time. Leilius had already hidden himself in shadow. Ruisa, though, was halfway across the street, aiming for a deep patch of black, when the Graygual lazily scanned in her direction.
Her shoe scuffed the street as she slipped into the nearest shaded area, nothing more than a crevice in the architecture of a house. The Graygual’s body went rigid, his shoulders swinging around to match the direction his face was pointed. At Ruisa.
“Hey!” He pushed off the wall at a brisk walk, heading in her direction.
Ruisa, caught, jumped out of her hiding place and tore off down the street. The Graygual ran after her, just as quick but with longer legs. Before she could turn the corner, he was on her, tackling her in someone’s front yard.
“Flak!” Shanti emerged from her spot at a run, her knife in her hand and Rohnan at her back. She reached them as the Graygual was dragging Ruisa to her feet.
“I have grass stains now, because of you!” He grabbed her by the hair and pulled his other hand back, ready to slap her into submission.
Shanti slipped in behind him, silent as the grave. She stuck her blade into his back. She slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle the scream. Before she could slit his throat, Rohnan was there. With two quick hands, her brother grabbed the Graygual’s head, a look of pure hatred on his face.
A loud crack announced the end of the scuffle.
“Slitting his throat would have meant a lot more blood, Chulan. You’re getting sloppy.” Rohnan wiped his palms on his pants, trying to catch his breath.
Shanti cleaned her blade on the man’s uniform before looking around for a place to put the body out of sight. The women were starting to break up now. One had already left.
“Why didn’t you just use your mind, S’am?” Leilius said as he jogged over, his eyes darting around the empty street.
“The Inkna would’ve felt the release of power it takes to kill.” Shanti stared down at the body. “Damn. Well, let’s hide him. We can come back for him later.”
“Sorry, S’am. I—”
“Don’t.” Shanti held up her hand to stop the younger woman from explaining. “It happens. This is why we carry knives.”
“Yes, S’am.” Ruisa dropped her head.
“Gracas, help me lift him.” Rohnan moved to the head of the fallen man. “And mind your clothes. We don’t want to get to blood all over. It doesn’t wash out.”
“Hurry up, you guys. We have to go.” Shanti traced the rest of the way with her Gift. “If we roof it, we can avoid any more Graygual.”
“How are we going to get on the roofs?” Gracas grunted as he picked up the legs of the dead man. “This guy is heavy.”
“Roof it. Like…go fast.”
“Hoof it, you mean,” Leilius said, eyes still darting.
“Oh. Ah, yes. Like a horse. That makes more sense.” Shanti put her knife in the holster.
“Ready.” Rohnan wiped off his hands again.
They took off at a jog, everyone but Rohnan staying distractingly close to her. Luckily, apart from a sprint that was needed to cross a street, the way was clear. They reached the house where all but two of the women were still present.
“They are going to be so happy to see you!” Ruisa gave three light knocks, then two, paused, and then five more.
“What would’ve happened if I didn’t have that code?” Shanti asked, impatient to get inside and out of sight.
“They would’ve all hid before someone opened the door.”
“She’s just trying to show off.” Gracas shook his head in disdain before looking out at the street.
The door opened a crack. Then swung open all the way. “Hurry!”
Ruisa slid through the doorway, followed by the two boys. When Shanti finally crossed the threshold, the first person she saw was Molly.
“Shanti!” Molly’s hand came up, impossibly slow. Not knowing why it was happening, but wanting to fit with custom, as strange as it was, Shanti stood still. Molly slapped her across the face.
Chapter Twelve
Shanti tilted her head as Rohnan came in with a confused frown. The door closed behind him.
“I…did something wrong?” Shanti asked.
With tears in her eyes, Molly barreled into her, wrapping her thin arms around Shanti’s frame and squeezing. Sobs racked the woman’s body.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” Shanti confessed.
“You’re here to save us!” Molly straightened up, looking Shanti in the face with a giant smile. “I knew you’d come. I said she’d come, didn’t I, Eloise? I did. I said she’d march right in here and save the day!”
“Well…we snuck…”
Ten women gathered around them, some assessing, some smiling in delight, some wringing their hands.
Eloise, a stocky woman with a face like an angry bulldog, said, “Did the Captain come with you?”
“He’s outside the gates. We haven’t many with us. We need to feed them information.” She left off the “somehow.” It made her sound more confident.
Eloise nodded decisively, like she’d expected that answer. “He knows when to send in a woman to get the job done. Our C
aptain is the best there is.”
“Let’s show them what we’ve got!” Molly, still tearful, ushered Shanti to the living room where empty teacups littered a low table.
“What about them?” one of the older women asked, pointing at the guys.
All the women slowed, then stopped, looking at the males in the group.
“What’s the problem?” Shanti asked.
“We don’t usually share our…art with men,” one of the hand wringers said. Her hair looked like it was desperately trying to escape the bun it was confined in.
Shanti turned back, noticing that, for the first time, Gracas and Leilius both looked terrified.
“No.” Molly fisted her hands and braced them on her hips, turning to the women. “Tabby, that is nonsense. Before Shanti came, the men didn’t let women fight. We only practice our art because we weren’t allowed to defend ourselves in other ways. But Shanti changed that, for better or worse. The Captain let Ruisa in, and I’ll tell you something, I certainly wish I knew my way around a knife.”
“Any good cook knows her way around a knife!” one of the woman said in a bold tone.
“But I doubt that cook knows where to stick one into an enemy,” a mousy women in the back said quietly.
“It’s no great mystery,” the bold woman fired back. “It’s a knife. Just put it in the body somewhere and you’re in business.”
“I’ve butchered a pig,” someone else announced. “I know where the vital parts are. You just stick a knife in one of those.”
“Well then, when we’re overrun by pigs, we’ll be sure to ask you!” another woman badgered.
“Ladies, ladies.” Eloise put out her hands to stop the bickering. Her eyes were burning into Leilius and Gracas, in turn. “Molly’s right. The Captain and Shanti, not to mention a gaggle of Graygual and Inkna, have brought change. There’s no use trying to stick to the old ways, not now. We need to work together if we want to take our city back. These boys can help.”
“I don’t know the handsome one, but I know the boys. They are too dense to learn the complexities of mixing chemicals.” Shanti couldn’t see who uttered that, but she didn’t bother to hold back her laughter.
“I could mix chemicals,” Gracas muttered.
“Son, you’d melt your face off,” Eloise said in utter seriousness.
Shanti laughed harder, joined by Rohnan.
“But that isn’t to say you couldn’t help us distribute this round of flu.” Eloise gestured them over to the small table. A map of the city was spread out, small rocks dotting the landscape.
“The Graygual haven’t caught on that you guys are causing the sickness?” Shanti asked, looking over the layout.
Eloise sat down with a weary sigh. She rubbed her knees. “Old bones.” Glancing at Molly, she said, “Put on some more tea, dear.”
Molly bustled off to the kitchen as Eloise explained, “We aren’t really using a flu this time. It’s a new creation. We’re working on its potency, but I think we’ve got it. Tabby, do you want to explain?”
The woman with the hair struggling out of the bun stepped forward. “In the beginning, we created a sickness like we usually might. The Graygual thought it was the water. Since it only affected them, this made sense. When they started treating the water, though, we could only kill the ones that were the worst off.”
“You’ve killed?” Rohnan asked, sitting on the couch opposite Eloise.
Tabby looked at the floor sheepishly, a shy smile playing with her lips. “Yes, of course,” she said with a shaking voice. Nervousness and lust poured out of her.
Shanti hid a smile.
“The goal is to take back our city without alerting the Graygual to our tactics,” Tabby continued, wringing her hands harder. “The trick is aiming for those not valued as highly. The Hunter doesn’t seem to have friends. Or even people he likes. But he does value ability. So if someone who isn’t a great fighter suffers, the Hunter doesn’t seem to care. But if someone that he needs, or values, is in jeopardy, he looks into the problem. This is why he sent out for water treatment. We’d targeted the best and brightest at first. Unfortunately, that was a mistake.”
“Nothing is a mistake until you get caught,” Shanti said, looking at the map. “You learned some vital information.”
The women nodded, muttering their agreement.
“Well. So…” Tabby glanced at Rohnan. He met her eyes patiently. She jerked her gaze to the ground, batting at the wisps of hair touching her face. “That was a stomach irritant. So while we tried to come up with something else, we hit the city with food sickness. Unfortunately, we had to include a few of our own or else it would be obvious.”
“We didn’t kill any of our own, though,” Eloise said.
“No. None of our own, no.” Tabby scratched her head. Her bun danced. “We targeted those who deserved it, anyway.”
The women collectively nodded and muttered again. Leilius took a step away, his eyes darting to the door. Shanti could feel how uncomfortable he was.
“So we were able to kill off a few more that way,” Tabby continued. “By the time that was cleared, we were ready to test this new formula. The first two batches didn’t seem to work. Or not that we could tell, anyway. The third was too much. We partially paralyzed one of them. Thankfully he was whipped shortly after for touching Sabra inappropriately.”
Shanti’s throat squeezed. Not wanting to hear the answer, but needing to know all the same, she asked, “Have they put their hands on many…”
Eloise batted the air. “Oh no. We planted Sabra. She can seduce anyone, and then call up tears right after. It was a big problem when she was just growing into her body. She became curious, like we all do…” Eloise looked around the room with raised eyebrows. A few women smirked, some scowled, and a younger one bit her lip, looking anywhere but Eloise. “She didn’t want to be given a label, though, or get in trouble, so she blamed it on the boys. Absolutely inappropriate.”
“I bet you didn’t poison her…” Gracas mumbled.
Eloise fixed him with a stare. “She was punished, I assure you.”
Gracas withered from the scrutiny.
“Be that as it may,” Eloise went on, “we had her get close, and then slip him the concoction. Then she cried and screamed. The girl can really put on a show. The man was visibly flagging when the Hunter had him tied to the whipping post. He died after only five lashes. The whipper thought he’d done it, as had the Hunter, so we got lucky.”
“Yes,” Tabby said. “So we remixed and tried again. We’ve got a winner now, I think. We’ve already seen the effects. We’ve increased the dose and are trying to get it into as many as possible.”
“So it doesn’t kill?” Rohnan asked.
Tabby went mute, her fingers turning white with how hard she was wringing them. She looked away from Rohnan in embarrassment.
“Oh for heaven’s sakes,” Eloise muttered. She answered Rohnan, “Yes, but it takes time. It’s a slow-acting poison. I won’t bore you with the details, but the body starts shutting down. First the signs are small. So small you have to look for them. Then the man is bled of energy. It’s sapped from him and he has no idea how. He just feels very tired. On and on until he finally succumbs.”
“We don’t have that kind of time,” Shanti said.
“It’s already in the middle stages,” Molly said as she delivered cups of tea. “Men are already feeling tired. Strained. They think it’s stress, or just the climate. When you and the Captain take to them with your swords, they won’t be nearly as able to defend themselves.”
“Yet they will have no idea of their limited ability,” Rohnan said, a smile budding. “That is cunning.”
“Well.” Eloise sipped her tea. “We couldn’t just start killing people. The Hunter is far more cunning than we are. He’d figure it out. Even now he is annoyed with some of those who are sleeping a little later and not jumping to his commands with the same enthusiasm.”
“Did you give it to
the Hunter?” Shanti shook her head at Molly, not wanting tea.
“Oh, go on,” Molly pushed, letting the offered cup hover in front of her. “Have a cuppa tea. It’ll make you feel better. Go on!”
Shanti took the cup as Rohnan quirked an eyebrow. “She’ll just keep telling me to drink it,” Shanti mumbled, taking a sip. “I lived with her for a time. I was waterlogged by the time I could leave.”
“She has no sense of what’s good for her,” Molly said with a determined set to her jaw.
Shanti rolled her eyes as Rohnan smiled, his eyes twinkling. “I think I like these new friends,” he said.
“We didn’t give it to the Hunter, no. He is keeping this city reasonably safe for us,” Eloise said. “He is insane, I think we can all agree on that, but he’s as hard on his people as on ours if rules aren’t followed.”
“He’d know right off,” a woman in the back said. “He’d sense something was off and worry at the problem until he solved it.”
“You know him well,” Shanti said as she tried to see the speaker. All she could tell was that it was a younger woman with brown hair.
“We’ve tried to keep track of guard positions and the times they change out,” Eloise explained as she motioned at the map. “The problem is, they keep changing. They don’t stay in the same place in the city, and they don’t always change at regular times. It’s all haphazard.”
“That’s the Hunter.” Rohnan pushed forward to see the map. “I saw him change how the guards worked within his camp. He is excellent at strategy and diligent about defense. I often—”
The front door burst open. A terrified woman glanced around the room in panic. “Molly, your guard is coming!”
“Shit!” Molly threw an apologetic glance at Eloise, and ran for a basket of clothes by the door. “I’ll run out now.”
“It’s too late!” The woman shut the door and pushed Molly away. “He’s suspected these meet-ups, Molly. He means to catch us. Why didn’t you just go home when you should’ve?”