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“Stop!” Quentin croaked

But it was already too late She let go and the wo Quentin smelled burned flesh

“I stopped,” Betsy said She kept walking

She picked up the case, exae, hefted it in her hands It looked like it hardly weighed a thing Quentin crawled over to the dying wo what kind of fatal ical juice was still in her body Smoke rose from her black hair It was too late anyway

Betsy watched hiround

“I’ll kill you too if you try to stop me”

The forest was quiet It was early spring, the undergroas still recovering from the rude shock of winter, and only a few crickets chirped The woo she would’ve let either one of them die Betsy squatted down and laid the case down and fumbled with the latches

“Shit” She strained at theain “Shit I was afraid of that Where the hell is Plum where you need her?”

“What do you ith Plum?”

More or less on cue Stoppard and Plu their faces froether on the sawas hard but controlled until the chair ca theround

Pluhs

“Jesus,” she said “What happened?”

“The girl bit it,” Betsy said “Open the case”

“What, now? Shouldn’t we—?”

“Open it!”

“Better do it,” Quentin said “She killed the woman”

Betsy ht, but there was still no telling what she was capable of

“Jesus,” Stoppard said “Why’d you do that?”

He seenored hirim and set

“Open it Do it now”

“What makes you think I can open it?”

“You knohat”

Pluned

“I guess I do”

She sat down cross-legged in front of the case and snapped open the latches as if they’d never been locked As soon as she did Betsy kicked her aside roughly

“Hey!”

She ruh the contents She picked up a book, tossed it aside, then she held up a long knife made of what looked like tarnished silver It was a simple weapon, unornamented It looked very functional and very old

“Yes,” she whispered to it Her voice cracked “Oh, yes Hello you”

With a rush of air and a thunderous crackling whuh the canopy and landed solidly on its thick legs on the forest floor Lionel rode it down standing up, the bird on his shoulder There was no sign of Pushkar

“Where’s the case?” Lionel took in the corpse, Quentin and Plum and Stoppard, Betsy and the knife “You opened it”

He’d unwrapped his parcel: it was a gun, a snouty-looking assault rifle that fit lightly under his arraved, swirls and tracery—it was obviously a hybrid weapon, high-tech but mented

“I sure did,” Betsy said

“Where’s Pushkar?” Stoppard said

Instead of answering Lionel shted down it and fired two controlled bursts briskly and efficiently at Stoppard’s chest

He should have died right then But even before Lionel fired Betsy was between the the blade—she’d moved faster than Quentin could follow The bullets sparked and clanged off the silver knife, two quick metallic triplets, and ricocheted off into the bushes Whatever that knife was, it cae benefits, and one of theet hurt

Quentin stared at Lionel

“What the fuck? You fat piece of shit!”

Five o he’d felt so eain, but there was power in fear, and in anger, and he got to his feet He felt like he et a spell out of it, but before he could try Betsy took three running steps and launched herself at Lionel like a big cat—the knife th as well as speed and protection Lionel turned quick and got off another burst, but the knife ate them up effortlessly, and then she was too close to shoot They waltzed drunkenly around the pool table, Lionel grunting as she butchered hi up

Curiously, there was no blood The knife h his torso, down through his collar bone, then she forced it deep into his chest It went through hih wet clay The next cut took his head off

It fell and rolled through the leaves It didn’t speak, but its eyes blinked The sturay stone

“Huh,” Betsy said, standing over the headless corpse “Goleures”

Huh Though it seemed like a notable fact that she hadn’t known he wasn’t hu hi hard, like it was all catching up with her at once: the job, the flight, the fall, the killing, the case, the whole comprehensive fiasco

“Where’s the money?” Stoppard asked

“There isn’t any,” Quentin said

It was catching up with him too They’d been blindsided by the monks and then double-crossed twice: first by Betsy, then by the bird Itthem off There never had been any money He was farther back than when he started Farther from home Farther from Alice

Though they did have the case, or whatever was left in it, unless the bird was coone; Quentin hadn’t even seen it go

Betsy jumped down from the pool table, and her knees alone out of her