Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
B eans gently wakes me, a finger to his lips to keep me silent. I sit up quietly, hoping Bitty isn’t ill again, but they are waking Tovi as Beans moves to wake Riley. Once we’re all awake and confused, Beans uses the hand gestures he’s been teaching me since Nemoris to communicate.
Bitty, who was feeling well enough by the evening, was on watch after Beans. They’d heard approximately fifteen men closing in on us thanks to their Gift. We’re surrounded. From what I can decipher with my limited knowledge of the hand gestures, they intend to kill Beans and Riley, taking the rest. They are most likely skin traders looking for new people to force into sex work, though many are just never seen again.
Beans gestures for Bitty to take their throwing knives and climb a tree to the north. He then directs me up a tree to the south with my hatchets, making my bedroll look like I am still in it. The other three move into their bedrolls, their weapons in hand as they pretend to sleep. And we wait. And wait. I am starting to think that maybe Bitty was wrong when I hear the distinct sounds of movement around us.
I make eye contact with Bitty who gestures for me to take the three men directly to my left. If I dispatch them, then I’m to help Tovi. More hushed sounds of people moving about the forest filter up to us. Bitty holds up a hand, slowly counting down on their fingers.
When they finally put their last finger down, chaos erupts.
I throw my first hatchet at a man’s neck while jumping onto the back of another, using the blade of my second hatchet to slice his throat. I leap off him, swinging my hatchet at the man directly behind. He blocks with a sword, but on his second swing, I maneuver myself and duck, so his blade is lodged in a tree. My hatchet comes up and around, slamming directly into his eye. He screams, giving me time to flip backward and retrieve my first hatchet.
A man charges me, and I use both hatchets to defend myself against his sword. He’s much stronger, but he underestimates my speed, and I slam a hatchet into his sternum with a crack and gurgle. The surprised look on his face as he drops to his knees is replaced by a death stare before he slumps to the ground.
Quickly surveying my surroundings, I fling a hatchet into the back of a man raising his sword at an unaware Beans. I pick up a dropped sword and run it through the man I hit in the face earlier, as he still cradles it, wailing.
Turning around, I find a man trying to climb the tree Bitty is in, and I throw my last hatchet at him. It makes a loud thunk as it lodges into the side of his skull. Gripping the heavy scavenged sword with both hands, I swing it at one of the men Tovi is fighting. He dodges in time and swings his sword at me, but I stomp his ankle and he trips to one knee. I swing the sword and decapitate him easily, but had he been ready to fight me, it would’ve been tough given his size and the unfamiliar sword in my hands .
The night falls to silence as I move to recover my hatchets. The four of us whip around to see if anyone else is coming. Bitty jumps down from the tree.
“It’s over.” Bitty points to the man at mine and Tovi’s feet. “He’s the last one alive,” they say with a small grimace.
I stab the sword through his back and end his life.
Seventeen men in total, dead at our feet. The smell of blood and vacated bowels and bladders cuts through the air. Beans asks if anyone is injured, and we all mutter that we’re fine. I’m walking toward the hatchet near Beans when Riley laughs breathlessly.
“I knew you could fight, and I knew you were fast—but that was something else entirely, Firecat,” Riley says, with another breathless laugh.
“Now I understand why Bitty was complaining about getting their ass handed to them every time you spar,” Tovi adds, breathless and wide-eyed.
I pull my first hatchet from the back of the dead man at Beans’ feet, wanting everyone to stop looking at me and forget what they saw. Other than Jaena, no one has seen me kill another person, let alone…seven of them, with ease. Eight, if you count finishing that last man with a sword through his back.
“I guess allocating you only three men to dispatch was mildly condescending,” Bitty says with a grunt, struggling to get my hatchet out of the man’s skull at their feet.
“Not at all, Bitty,” I reply quietly, heat flaming my cheeks at the way they’re all looking at me. I take over the task of removing the hatchet, the awful creaking sound of metal on bone is loud enough to make me cringe.
We drag the men into an area fully under the sky. It’s too risky to burn them in windstorm season with this many trees and dry brush around. We’re also not going to waste time or honor them by digging holes to feed them to the trees either. The sun and animals can have their fill until only bleached bones remain.
Unfortunately, some of our belongings are covered in the signs of death. We take everything to the almost dry creek bed to wash off what we can, as none of us want to go back to sleep at this point.
Packed up, we travel a distance downwind and set up camp again. It’s still the middle of the night, and much too dangerous to be trekking in the dark with cracks in the earth big enough to swallow a horse.
I offer to take the next watch as I am too wired to even think of going back to sleep. No one disagrees. Beans comes to check on me before retiring for the second time tonight. He doesn’t say a word, only rests his hand on the edge of my shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. And then, after a few seconds of silence together, he gives it a pat and gets into his bedroll.
I check our perimeter, and when I’m satisfied that we aren’t being snuck up on again, I take up a spot on a high ridgeline with an excellent view of the camp and surroundings.
After a couple of hours, I can see Tovi is awake, and I let her relieve me. Before she passes, she pauses in front of me. Just when I think she’s not actually going to say anything, and I make a move to continue back to camp, she opens her mouth.
“Thank you for your help tonight. That could have been a lot worse without you.”
“No need. Protecting you all and helping save the princess is what I was…bought for.” It comes out sounding bitter, though I didn’t mean it like that. “I mean?—”
“I know what you meant.” She smiles and moves to walk past me, and I feel a sudden slap to my ass. I turn in shock and give her a what the fuck look, and she grins and shrugs .
Why does everyone slap my ass?
My mind whirring through tonight’s kills, I stretch out in my bedroll, but I’m still unable to sleep.
“Are you okay?” Riley whispers, startling me because I didn’t realize he was awake.
“I’m fine. Go back to sleep.”
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” he says through a quiet yawn, stretching onto his back. He slaps at my foot when I don’t answer immediately.
“I’m too good at killing. It keeps me awake sometimes,” I whisper, hoping no one else can hear my confession. I disconnect from the reality that is taking a life. Pretend. Detach. Let my rage take over.
Riley is quiet for long enough that I assume he’s fallen back to sleep, but then he quietly says, “It would be a problem if it didn’t give you pause to end someone’s life, Firecat.”
Contemplating Riley’s words, I try to get comfortable. It’s a bit chilly, so I put my hands in my pockets. I pull a hand back out, and with it come petals—the ones Riley showered me with. They’ve lost most of their pretty smell, but they still look beautiful.
Riley, with his head at the end of his mat closest to me, breathes softly. I sprinkle the handful of half-dried yellow petals slowly over his face until his eyes snap open in confusion. And then he’s frowning with a grin and closing his forest green eyes, letting me finish.
“You kept them?”
“Never know when they might come in handy. Goodnight, Riley.”
“Goodnight, Mika.” My name is barely audible through his whisper.
When his breath finally falls into the rhythm of sleep, I quietly voice one last question. “But what if it’s not ending a life that gives me pause, but not being bothered by it…that bothers me?”
A soft whisper from the leaves in the nearby trees is my only answer. But I have always known the answer. I’m a monster.
“Come on, Firecat . Your hatchets against my swords?” Tovi says the next evening when we stop for camp, using the unfortunate nickname Riley favors for me.
“Only if you promise not to make that ridiculous name a thing,” I groan, trying to hide my surprise and delight that Tovi has approached me to spar.
Once again, I’m grateful to Frankie for creating the leather guards on my hatchets that allow me to train safely with someone. Riley and Beans are sparring down by the creek while Bitty watches them, so it will be Tovi and I with no audience.
Tovi is bigger than me, and her reach is much farther, especially with her short swords. Her powerful strikes take everything for me to block with my hatchets, but I am constantly smacking her with the face of my hatchets.
“Bitch, again ?” Tovi hisses, after taking a leather-covered hatchet to the stomach. She jumps back ready to go again, shaking her head with a smile and showing her perfect teeth—both dangerous and beautiful.
I twirl with my hatchets as if I’m a princess and not a mud-covered slave assassin, flourishing into an exaggerated bow, which causes Tovi to laugh. I grin at her in response.
When both of us are covered in sufficient bruises and cuts, we call a truce (I won, but we weren’t technically keeping score…). Lying in the mud and grass as we catch our br eath, I watch the Kauri trees covered in Clematis vines. The trees themselves are large, with small almond-shaped leaves dotting their strong branches. Almost no trunk and barely any of the branches are visible, with the Clematis vine covering it entirely. The small white blooms attract thousands of busy bees, the low drone of their buzzing the only sound besides our breathing.
Riley comes to block our view, standing above us with his hands on his hips. “Dinner?” he asks with a wild grin and pink coloring his cheeks.
“Is that an offer, or are you asking where it is?”
“Offer!” Riley announces, turning his grin mischievous. “Beans and I accidentally killed a couple of ducks…”
Tovi coughs through her scoff while I ask, “How do you accidentally kill a couple of ducks?”
“When you disarm someone with such force, their axe goes flying into a flock of them.” He shrugs as both Tovi and I gape at him and then share a glance.
“Waste nothing. They’re on the fire now, almost ready!”
Riley reaches his hands out to help us both up, however, Tovi and I get up without assistance, leaving Riley bent forward holding his hands out awkwardly. Tovi smacks his ass as we bypass him, winking at me as she jogs toward camp, announcing we should wash up before dinner. These two and their ass-smacking.
Tovi reaches the creek before me, and I see her with her hands on her hips and shaking her head slowly. I’m about to ask her what she’s doing when I see a literal blanket of feathers coating every surface. As soon as we make eye contact, she bursts into laughter, which sends me into fits as well.
Back at camp, I hear a shout behind me and spin with knives ready. Tovi is cackling and trying to hide behind Bitty as Beans scoops handfuls of duck feathers out of the back of his pants and throws them at her. Riley is watching me with a frown, and his eyes note my fighting stance and knives in hand. He cocks his head in a question I ignore.
Later that night, when Tovi is on watch and everyone else is asleep, I watch the stars. It’s a mostly clear night, with barely any trees to obstruct my view where we camped. Restless, I roll over to try and sleep on my side instead.
Riley’s sleeping form is closest to me, his hands in front of his face obscuring it from view. He has nice hands. I almost laugh at that thought. Since when do I appreciate hands? I’m drifting off as I study Riley’s hands in the dying light of the fire. Big, attractive hands.
I am afforded a sleep not of nightmares but of pleasant dreams instead.