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‘To honour their dead’
‘The dead don’t care’
‘They do’
‘You talk to them?’
‘Sometimes,’ he replied
‘Huh … well, they shouldn’t What do they got to ask for once they’re dead?’
‘Honour Respect’
‘You and I both know that’s … what’s the word? Shnitz?’ She shrugged ‘If you believed that, you wouldn’t have watched this ugly thing’ – she kicked the eviscerated corpse – ‘do what he did’
‘He didn’t do anything You killed him’
‘Ah, see, this is where the overscu ‘You all talk about death like it’s a sole decision It takes two to die The person with the sword does the least aes
‘See,’ she elaborated, ‘these duht theestured to the river rushing beneath the cliff ‘Nohen I grabbed one, the others could have run away They all stood and fought, though They made the decision to die’
She looked up at him disdainfully ‘You could run now, too I’ve killed plenty today I can kill you later, if you want’
‘You could run, too,’ he replied
‘No, I couldn’t There’s nothing for a feround ‘You?’
He stared at her, unblinking He closed his eyes Darkness He inhaled sharply Quiet
‘Nothing,’ he replied
‘Didn’t think so,’ she said She rose fro it over her shoulder ‘You ready, then?’
He nodded She furrowed her brow at him
‘No weapon?’
‘Unnecessary’
‘Don’t knohat that means’
‘It means--’
‘Don’t care, either’
She howled, iron voice grinding against jagged teeth as she rushed hiroan to her roar as it clove the air, hungry for Gariath’s neck, or torso, or head A blade that big couldn’t be picky
He ducked, more fro her rush with horns to her belly It was impossible not to shudder at the blow, not to ainst as he shoved, driving her back only onestep
As he extended his last weary breath, hishard to remember a time when this had been easy, it was i … and even h
‘Co to kill me this way?’
It shouldn’t have hurt asoff blows like this before Yet her first ca to his knees effortlessly Shesound of disapproval, which he noticed less than the second strike she delivered It was an inti into his red flesh, finding a tender, affectionate spot between his shoulder blades
Not possible His thoughts ran wild, leaking out of his mouth as he hacked wildly, I don’t have tender spots
His spine disagreed His vertebrae rattled against each other, sinew bunched up painfully at the force that ran up his back and into his skull, sending brain sla to the earth
That’s never happened before …
That it had happened should have shocked hi Every scrap of consciousness was devoted to keeping his eyes open, to resist the urge to sleep into darkness, though he didn’t knohy At least if he fell now, he wouldn’t have to see the long, purple face leering down at hi’ Her voice was clear and sharp as a knife
Funny, but he hadn’t expected there to be a right way to die The fact that he had been doing it wrong did explain a lot He ht haveup
‘It’s fine for us to do this, you know,’ she said ‘But we’re netherlings We co We live We breed We kill We die This is all there is in life’ She reached down and tapped his red brow ‘Note that third part, though, about the killing That’s important’
Her throat looured, but it trembled, refused to rise
And why should it? he asked himself Whatever your body knows, you didn’t Now you’re both done There’s nothing left
‘But overscus on their minds, yeah? They talk to invisible people, spend their whole lives hoarding bits ofthem into weapons; they do stupid stuff like plant crops and store food and leave it all to wailing whelps who did nothing to deserve it Point being … you’ve got reasons to scream, don’t you?’
His breath ca throat, just enough to breathe, just enough to think
Kill her and then what? What’s left? Kill ness … but with nothing to think about, to speak about, no one left to disappear
‘But that’s what’s so fascinating to us To Carnassials, that is’ She glanced over the cliff ‘And some males We’ve never seen this before, a breed that worries about so s and lives in co they talk to and is concerned with things other than breeding and killing It’s like … watching ants That’s the correct ani to every little piece of dirt like it’s the greatest piece they’ve ever seen, even as a thousand more lie around Take that piece away, and what do they do? Sorab new ones, but most sit there … like you’
And howto? Grahta, Grandfather, the huone How et up, are you?’ She rose up, took her sword in both hands
This won’t be so bad
‘Noalone
‘Too bad’
She raised the weapon, angled the flat edge of it at his throat It would be messy
No ht about the whole invisible thing, yeah? If so, I’ht’
No reat …
‘Anyway …’
‘SHENKO-SA!’
He blinked Those words weren’t said by the longface That shrill, shrieking sound didn’t ery roar as she staggered away, clutching at the arrow embedded in her side, however, certainly did
Gariath was almost afraid to look across the river, afraid that he would see the pointy-eared one If she had placed the tiht then and there, hopefully taking her with him He was prepared for that possibility, prepared for the idea that it iven hi down and dying