Page 70 (1/2)
Perhaps it was that doubt that no shict could ever feel for the Howling that brought the tears to her eyes Perhaps those caether She didn’t dare think on it She brushed thean weeping now, over a hue would becoht of descending and finding her kinsreeted her in the vast ship’s hold, however, was one of emptiness Benches and cots lined the hull, presuhting, crushing, killing, shoving jagged blades into throats froed on blood-choked screams …
Stop it, she told herself
Stop it, the Howling agreed
And she did It was powerful here, speaking to her with greater clarity, greater urgency It needed only to speak once, and she knew it to be true She felt her eyes drawn to the darkness at the end of the cabin, the great void that ate the light of overhanging oil lae’s cold iron bars, and while she could see nothing beyond that, she could hear so
A heartbeat A thought A knowledge that was hers A knowledge that was theirs
A shict
She had barely taken another step when she noticed the lone netherling in her path, and then only after she noticed the jagged blade hurtling towards her She fell to the deck, hearing the blade’s frustrated wail as its teeth sheared only a few hairs fros corunted
Kataria’s answer carowl
The arroas up and in the bow, drawn back as far as she could force the rigid thing to go, and launched a face’s shield to go up, sending theoff
Stupid piece of … Kataria thought irately, glowering at the weapon Who the hell would call this stick a bow?
The netherling, apparently, agreed, if the broad grin hich she raised her sas any indication Still, she refused to advance, holding her shield up defensively as she watched Kataria draw her final arrow back Such lack of a willingness to have a piece of iron wedged in one’s brow, the shict figured, was likely what led this one to be below
And yet it served her frustratingly well as Kataria aiface’s shield to find an unyielding iron breastplate below It was clear, then, that what the black bow lacked in accuracy it face was driven back a step, nothing e upon the now-defenceless shict
Still, Kataria sreen fingers that ca out between the bars would handle the rest
The longface’s cry was brief as the long fingers, attached to longer hands and longer arms still, wrapped around her throat in five tiny pythons They scarcely trembled as they intertwined and pulled her back towards the bars, possessed of a cold passionlessness that suggested this was just one led Cold hands Killer hands
Shict hands
Kataria forced herself to watch as the crown of the long-face’s head was pulled between the bars, her screa ironand popping as, hairsbreadth by agonising hairsbreadth, she was pulled between bars that would not accommodate her thick skull
This, she reminded herself, hat shicts did Shicts did what they had to The world, filled with diseases of pink and purple, left the, purple face was consue Her body twitched soundlessly for but aher back at an aard angle as she lay still, thick neck wedged between the bars and suspending her in standing, artificial rigour
Cold, killer fingers slipped out and calface’s belt A few ht-iron key that was drawn out neatly between two green digits A faint clicking noise ee door groaned as it swung open, dragging the corpse frozen in its grip across the deck with it
He stepped out of the void, a great green plant out of dark earth, stepping lightly on feet bearing thu to stunt his stature as he rose high enough for his bald pate to scrape the underside of the oil la line of syth of his body, each one a story
And each one a death Of wife Of child Of their er than a thumbprint, but each sorrow and every hatred was condensed into a pattern of lines that only a shict would know
Kataria knew
‘What is your name?’ she asked
He stared at her with even blue eyes
‘You already know’
Upon his lips, the shictish tongue, their tongue, sounded so eloquent She wondered absently if he could hear the dust on her own tongue
She searched herself, listened to the Howling
‘Naxiaw,’ she said, looking up at him ‘I am … pleased you are well’
‘Pleased?’ His lips peeled back into a broad s aret they had just been used to pull a longface through bars ‘Sister We are not strangers’
She would have been shocked to find herself laughing, possibly a little worried to find the sound so hysterical That thought was lost in a sea of e feet to leap into him His arreat weight had fallen from her, evidenced by how easily Naxia her up off her feet
In his arms, she foundher after her ears were notched She found the scent of rabbits cooking and fires She found the dirge of bows and the song of funeral pyres She found memories of her father, his sternness, his words, his speeches, his htness
She found everything the Howling said she would find
‘Little Sister,’ Naxiaw said, holding her closely, ‘you are far from home’
‘The world is our home,’ she replied ‘No matter what round-ears say’
‘It heartens me to hear such words’
Her father’s words
‘The creature above,’ the greenshict said, ‘that caused you such sorrow I felt hiht, he wouldn’t die so soon He’s above, bleeding out under a rusty knife Right where I left him
Not that creature, stupid, she scolded herself
‘You are worried,’ Naxiaw said
Watch what you think, moron, she hissed h the Howling, it’ll be obvious once he sees your face
‘I was,’ she replied, keeping her voice steady ‘But I draw strength from my people’
‘As all shicts should’
Her grandfather’s words
‘It is well now, Sister,’ Naxiaw said, easing her down and laying her head upon his chest ‘I live You live We are safe’
Her ear against his chest, she could hear the sound ofwith every pu to hear, at least at first
The more she listened, however, thebefore She had heard nothing so slow, so certain, so sure And it caused her to pull away, her ears attuned to her own body There was no more thunder in her ears; there had been, she was certain, when the Howling spoke to her, had urged her to hear it