by Jill Braden
Petrof had found her.
QuiTai milked her fangs and spread her venom liberally over her wrists and throat. Several of the villagers noticed and did the same.
She spoke quickly: He could attack at any moment, and she had to make sure her people got all the information.
“I know you are tired, my aunties and uncles. You have been brave, and it’s been an honor to be your guide. We have escaped much danger, but more lies ahead. Some is evil that I have brought on myself, and I must face it alone.” She nodded at RhiHanya, silently appointing her as the leader. “If you follow this trail along the rim of the gorge, you will eventually hear an engine to your right. To your left, there will be a stone bridge over the gorge. Cross the bridge. On the other side, soon, you will see a big house. Cat people from the Lisudtan Islands live there. One is named LiHoun. Tell them I have sent you, and they will see that you have a place to sleep and food to eat. Talk to no one else; be seen by no others. Trust no Thampurian except the one called Kyam Zul. He distracted the Thampurian soldiers tonight so that I could help you to escape, and he will pay dearly for that from his own kind. Always remember and honor his sacrifice.”
Slow clapping filled the air.
“Such a valiant speech, QuiTai,” Petrof said as he stepped from behind a flowering tree. “Is it from one of your plays?”
He pushed the plunger on an instant jellylantern and shook it. “Ah, a little light thrown on the subject.” Like the Thampurians, he couldn’t see as well in the dark as she could. The jellylantern actually made it harder for her to see, something he probably knew.
QuiTai motioned the Ponongese to rise with her.
“Did you think I wouldn’t smell you?” He lifted his nose to the air. “Especially when you’re so fragrant with fear.” Then he turned to the Ponongese. “Run away.” He bared his teeth and snapped at them.
“Should we go?” RhiHanya asked QuiTai.
“Yes. Go to LiHoun. But tell him that I will need him.”
“Tell LiHoun that she is already dead,” Petrof said.
“What about him?” RhiHanya jutted her chin at Petrof.
A wry smile crossed QuiTai’s lips. “I’m the Wolf Slayer,” she said.
The Ponongese edged away uncertainly. QuiTai wished they would move faster; she didn’t understand why they hung back. RhiHanya was the last to go, and she looked over her shoulder many times as she drew away.
QuiTai forced concern for them from her mind and focused on Petrof. The villagers would survive without her; the safety of the entire world did not rest on her shoulders. The deadliest threat was to her alone, and he stood before her.
“Tell me, my little bitch, what did the Ravidians smuggle onto this island? I’m sure you know, just as I’m sure that you decided to cheat me out of my take.”
“Nothing you could sell. Not without bringing the entire colonial government and Thampurian military down on you with a vengeance.”
Petrof circled. “You think you’re so smart, but you don’t know everything. I’m good friends with the colonial government right now, or at least a high-placed official. He paid quite handsomely to make sure you couldn’t help Kyam Zul.”
“Someone paid you to kill me? Is that what this is about? Then why take Jezereet?” Matters were more complicated than she had thought. Someone thought she was dangerous enough to want her dead. That someone also probably hoped she’d be enslaved with the other Ponongese on Cay Rhi. They wouldn’t react well to her escape.
“That greedy whore sold you out for a vial of black lotus. She knew I would kill you. She opened the window so I’d know you were there. She’s dead because she wouldn’t let me finish strangling you until she was paid. That’s all that whore wanted. And you thought she loved you.” He sneered. “No one loves you, QuiTai. Not even your own people.”
Get angry, she thought. His anger was the key to her survival. The thing she feared most was his wolf form. She’d seen what a wolf could do to a Ponongese. There was no way she could move fast enough to strike him with her fangs before he mortally wounded her. She had to provoke him into attacking her while still in his human form.
Get angry and grab my throat, and then we will talk of love.
“All your dumb dogs are hanging from the fortress ramparts, Petrof. Food for gulls until they rot and fall into the water. Then they’re shark bait. That’s hardly the heroic end werewolves sing about in your pathetic drinking songs.”
“Shut up!”
“There’s nothing sadder than a lone cur eating garbage from the gutter.”
“I prefer the fresh, juicy liver of a young girl.” Petrof held the instant jellylantern near his face so she could see him smack his lips. “Your daughter was tasty, QuiTai.”
Rage washed over her with blistering heat. Old wounds ripped open in her soul. Harsher than the sea wasp’s sting, the memory of her daughter’s dying screams stabbed her heart. Tears poured down her cheeks.
She’d forgiven every betrayal. She’d handed him everything he’d ever asked for. She’d cared for him.
He hurt my QuiZhun.
She lunged at him with the machete.
His hand shot out and gripped her throat. Her machete fell to the ground as he lifted her from the ground and shook her.
Petrof’s grin mocked her. “Oh, QuiTai, QuiTai, my favorite little snake.” He put the instant jellylantern close to her face, nearly blinding her. “Your lips are turning blue. Soon your tongue will bloat. I’d eat it first, but then you wouldn’t be able to beg.
The fearless hatred, so quickly roused, drained from her as she struggled for breath.
Emotion led me into this mess. Only thinking can save me.
She thought desperately for something to buy time while her venom sank into his skin. “The Oracle! I’ll tell you –” Her voice was a harsh whisper.
QuiTai felt the charge in the air. His eyes went feral.
“I’m not falling for that anymore.”
QuiTai gasped for air as his grip tightened. She sucked on her fangs, filling her mouth with venom. Black spots slid across her vision. She spat in his face.
“You stupid bitch!” He smeared her spit off his cheek with the back of the hand holding the jellylantern. She kicked as hard as she could: the jellylantern flew from his grasp and shattered on the ground. Her mind swam. Her lungs were ready to burst. She was going to pass out. Gathering her last reserve of clarity, she filled her mouth with more venom and spat at him again.
He screamed as he dropped her, and clapped his hands to his eye. “What did you do? It burns!”
QuiTai doubled over and gasped for air. Tears welled in her eyes as her venom connected to his nerves. He made a wild grab for her, but she stumbled away.
“I can’t fucking see, and my face is going numb.”
He didn’t need to tell her. She could faintly feel everything he did, even his rising panic.
Petrof staggered like a drunk as he clutched his face. He tripped over a vine and fell to his knees.
QuiTai drew in deep breaths through her nose. She felt cruel and powerful as his fear overwhelmed his anger. “The Oracle is real, Petrof, and you’re going to meet her. Of course, you have many times before, even if you don’t remember.” She kicked his shoulder as hard as she could. He slumped to his side. She punched his jaw, sending him sprawling. Then she dropped her full weight onto his chest and pinned his elbows to the ground with her knees. She could see every step. She knew exactly what needed to be done, and how it would all play out. The clarity was exhilarating.
“Never say I go back on my word, Petrof.” She held up the vial of black lotus. “This is the Oracle. Can you see? Maybe if I put it in front of your good eye.”
He tried to spit at her, but it dribbled down his chin.
She unscrewed the top of the vial. “One part vapor, another part venom. Although the black lotus I used isn’t exactly vapor, so I’m not sure if it will work right. This could be extremely painful for you. Hmm.” As if de
ep in thought, she put her finger to her chin. “I’ll tell you what. You tell me who hired you to kill me, and I won’t force this on you. Or you can refuse, and we’ll find out how much pain the Oracle can put you through. I’ll be sure to take note of every scream. Is that a deal?”
It was a lie, of course. Black lotus never brought pain, and her venom only paralyzed, but from the fear pumping through him, he didn’t know that.
“Fuck you.”
QuiTai gripped his jaw. He thrashed back and forth. She crawled up his chest and trapped his head between her knees. He punched her ribs and tried to throw her off him. Then he clenched his jaw. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t pry it open.
Another punch knocked her off balance enough that she had to put a hand down to steady herself. Pain sliced through her palm. She lifted her hand: a glowing shard of the broken instant jellylantern glowed across the sea wasp scar. She gripped the slippery chunk and ripped it from her skin. Blood spilled from the wound.
Petrof’s shifting energy gathered. He began to change.
QuiTai shoved the shard of glass into his throat.
As he howled in outrage, she poured the black lotus mixture into his open mouth and clamped her bleeding hand over it.
Petrof grabbed her neck again with both hands, but his fingers couldn’t keep their grip. He looked at his hand as if he’d never seen anything so terrible before.
Forcing his mouth open was easier this time. She leaned close enough that her lips brushed his while she milked the last drops of her venom into his mouth.
“I tried to be exact about the dose, because you know how much I hate sloppy work, but it’s pretty much a guess at this point how long it will take all this venom to work through your system. It could take hours. I, of course, would prefer it take days.”
She tore strips from his shirt and bound each of his forearms tightly. Another strip bound her blood-soaked hand.
“What are you doing?” His voice broke.
“Making sure you don’t bleed to death. I can’t possibly carry your entire body back to the den by myself, after all.”
Real fear opened his eyes. It quickly changed to anger.
“I kept you alive, you ungrateful bitch! The man from the colonial government paid us to kill the Qui clan. You were supposed to die too, but I protected you! And for that, they tortured me. They said they’d let me go if I killed you or gave them the secret of the Oracle. But you – oh no, you wouldn’t tell me. They were going to torture me again, all because of you!”
The rising terror in his babbling voice would have been enough to convince her, but she felt the depth of his horror too. She wasn’t about to bargain with him for the name of the man who set the wolves loose on her daughter and family. She would make it her life’s work to find out who he was, but without Petrof’s help.
QuiTai picked up the machete and slowly wove it back and forth in the hypnotizing dance of a snake charmer. She chose her words with great care, so she could relish them when she repeated this story to herself later.
“The paralysis will spread slowly. You’ll feel everything, and you’ll be conscious for most of it, but you won’t be able to move.”
“Please, don’t.” His voice slurred as the venom spread to his tongue.
He had interrupted her story. How very rude.
“You expect mercy from me?”
The fool had a faint glimmer of hope.
“I warned you who I was when we first met.” Her face drew into an awful smile. “I am vengeance.”
He whimpered as his eyes followed the machete’s moving blade.
Now she could finish her story.
“The flies will find you first, and take little nips of your skin while they plant their eggs in you. Birds will peck out your eyes. The land crabs will find you, and when the wind spreads the stink of your blood and fear, the small predators will slink out of the darkness to dine on your flesh. This island will devour you over days, Petrof, and you’ll feel every second of it. But before any of that happens, the ants will find you. Millions of them.”
His memories crowded into her thoughts as a jumbled rush so violent she almost fell from his chest. Thampurian soldiers laughing as he struggled against a net. A small timbergrass cage at the edge of the jungle where he liked to hunt. Shifting into his human form to plead for mercy. A man Petrof didn’t look at holding a bowl of water just beyond her reach. Her tongue felt thick and dry. She wanted that water more than she’d ever wanted anything.
“You promised me the Oracle, Petrof,” the man with the water said.
“I need more time.”
“Zul is making his move. Bring us the Oracle now, or kill your whore.”
“Just a little longer!”
Petrof looked at his arm. It was black. The black moved. She gasped and drew back even though she knew it was his arm, not hers. Her skin prickled under tiny crawling feet. She wanted to tear off her clothes and run. She took deep breaths. It was his fear, not hers. She wasn’t the one in danger. It wasn’t real.
She brought the blade down on his forearm.
He screamed and screamed as she hacked through the bone. His pupils, once large, imploded to pinpoints. He convulsed and sputtered bloody foam.
When he spoke, it was in the voice of the Oracle. And it only confirmed what she already knew.
~ ~ ~
QuiTai stumbled toward the Devil’s den with the hem of her sarong gripped in her hand. Blood dripped through the fabric onto her toes. Rivulets of sweat pasted her hair to her face. Petrof’s rage and fear coursed through her. She wanted to cry from the exhaustion.
The Thampurian military would continue to hunt her down. If Kyam were still alive, he was probably in chains, because they had to blame someone for the Ponongese escape from Cay Rhi. Oh, and someone in the colonial government wanted her dead and a Zul was somehow involved; she mustn’t forget that. Still, her heart was curiously light as she crossed the timbergrass bridge.
Despite the stink in the Devil’s house, she drew in a deep breath and smiled with satisfaction. It was good to be alive.
She pushed back the sliding door that led to Petrof’s room. She climbed onto his bed and balanced on the pillows as she faced the intricate puzzle on the headboard. She had all night to move the hundreds of pieces in the right combination to reveal Petrof’s safe. The puzzle really was a marvel of craftsmanship. She’d enjoyed working out its secrets over the past year.
Piece by piece, the picture formed. Blonde and dark woods combined to form the Devil’s chop. He was predictable.
The panel slid away to reveal the safe.
She took Petrof’s dismembered hands from her sarong and pressed them to the biolock.
The lock opened.
Someday, I’ll tell Kyam it worked... No. It’s the Devil’s business.
Gold and jewels spilled onto the blood-splattered pillows under her feet. She tossed aside his hands and gathered his fortune together: It wasn’t enough to do everything she planned, but it was a good start. Petrof never had any vision; hers was as vast as the sea.
Chapter 19: The Devil
QuiTai sank into Petrof’s ornately carved high-backed chair. It felt good to sit. She was so weary.
She heard the footsteps of a lone person on the timbergrass bridge. Relief spread through her. Still, she propped the machete handle-first into the corner of the chair with the point behind her heart, so she would only have to push against the blade if her visitor were a Thampurian soldier. She would not be taken prisoner.
LiHoun stepped into the room. His eyes widened when he saw her on Petrof’s throne.
“Greetings, favored uncle. Have you eaten?” QuiTai asked.
His gaze darted around the room, pausing briefly on the discarded hands. No matter where he tried to look, though, his eyes seemed drawn to the blood smeared down her blouse and sarong. “I have, auntie. And you?”
She supposed it would be rude to mention how distracted he sounded. “Yes. Th
ank you for asking.”
He seemed concerned. “Are you... well?”
“This blood is not mine.”
LiHoun smiled, showing his few teeth. “I am greatly relieved to hear that.”
Perhaps she wasn’t as friendless as she’d thought.
“I take it that the Ponongese reached your home,” she said.
“Yes. The woman RhiHanya” – he traced a curvaceous figure in the air – “led me to where they’d left you with the wolf.” His catlike eyes slid back to the curled fingers of the dismembered hands on the floor. “I followed the blood trail here.”
“Excellent work, as always. Forgive my terrible manners, uncle. I don’t even have a kur to share with you. But I invite you to stick your finger into this rice bowl.” She tossed a heavy bag of coins to him.
For such a bandy-legged old man, he caught it easily. “Rice, and meat.”
“Tomorrow, before dawn, the Ponongese in your house must be spirited away where no one can find them. If they wish to live on one of the outer cays, so be it. Buy them anything they might need: fishing boats, food, clothes, cooking utensils, anything within reason. Or if they need more time to decide, take them to my estate. But do not let them stay on this island.”
He bowed. “I understand.”
“I have another request, but it has me in a bit of a personal quandary. The soldiers who tried to stop me and the other Ponongese from escaping Cay Rhi are still somewhere in the western jungle. As of this moment, the colonial government has no idea if they found us or not, and it is to my advantage to keep my enemies guessing for as long as possible.”
“Do you want me to hunt down the soldiers and kill them?”
QuiTai grimaced. “I gave my word to Kyam Zul that I would harm no more Thampurian soldiers. An unfortunate promise given the current situation, but once word gets out that your word is no good, business suffers. No, I must honor that pact.”