“We don’t owe anyone a debt,” Frankie says, his lip curling around the words.
“Clearly, someone disagrees with you,” Willow says.
“Shut your mouth.”
“That’s enough, Frankie,” Drake says calmly. “We’re all upset about this, but turning on each other won’t help.” He looks at me. “What possible crimes could we have committed that would cause someone to kill our guards and leave a message like that?”
Rachel lets go of my hand and begins ticking items off on her fingers. “We didn’t run after the Commander and beg to be under his control again. We have the tech he wanted to steal from Rowansmark, and we know Rowansmark was committed to getting it back.”
“How do you know that?” Ian asks.
“Because they posted a ridiculously high reward for my father’s capture, and then once I’d recovered the tech, they came after us with trackers and a battalion of soldiers.”
“And you escaped all of them?” He gives her an admiring look, but she doesn’t seem to notice.
“We killed almost all of them. The ones we missed were too busy running for their lives through the Wasteland to bother with us again.” Her voice is cold, as if the memory of being surrounded by a Rowansmark battalion while the Cursed One tunneled up beneath our feet is a thing of little consequence, but her fists are clenched hard enough to turn her fingers pale and bloodless. “The point is that both the Commander and Rowansmark have reason to believe we wronged them.”
“If the Commander catches up to us, he isn’t going to bother killing a few guards,” Nola says. Her dusky skin glows beneath the sunlight, but her dark eyes are haunted. She slides her arm through Drake’s and leans against her father. “He’ll come straight for us and make an example out of us that no one will ever forget.”
“Not if we make an example out of him first,” Rachel says. “But I agree, this isn’t the Commander. And I’m not sure it’s one of us, either.” She looks toward the camp as if she can still read the bloody letters slowly drying on the porous surface of the rock. “I think it’s Rowansmark.”
Frankie leans forward. “A battalion wouldn’t—”
“Not a battalion. A tracker. Maybe more than one, though one would suffice. They have the skills to quietly murder eight guards without any of them raising an alarm.” Rachel looks at me. “And I think the message is a twisted example of pain atonement.”
“What’s pain atonement?” Frankie stares her down.
“Rowansmark’s system of consequences. Honor and loyalty mean everything to them. They don’t even have a prison. If someone dishonors the city, their leader, or their family, they are immediately sentenced to pay for their crime with increments of pain atonement. If the accused can survive the punishment, honor is restored.” She looks toward camp again and shudders. “If the accused can’t survive, the debt is considered paid by death.”
A hawk soars overhead, its piercing cry puncturing the silence that follows Rachel’s words.
Quinn says, “What was done last night took skill, and the message does mention both a debt and the need for atonement.”
“But to kill a few of us and then just disappear again?” Drake frowns. “That’s a cat-and-mouse game. Why would a Rowansmark tracker do that instead of going straight for Logan and Rachel to reclaim the stolen tech?”
Rachel says, “Maybe he doesn’t know which of us has it. Maybe he really believes he has to punish us first. Or maybe—”
“Maybe he’s got rocks for brains.” Willow shrugs her arrow brace into place. “Doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that this stops now.”
“How are we going to stop someone when we have no idea who he is?” Ian asks.
“I don’t know,” I say quietly. “But the message makes it clear whoever did this thinks we still owe a debt. Which means he’ll come after us again. We have to be ready.”
“So you think a professionally trained Rowansmark killer might be hiding in plain sight among us?” Nola asks, her voice trembling a little.
I shake my head. “If it really is someone from Rowansmark, the theory that it’s one of us becomes harder to support. We checked everyone’s wristmarks before the funeral. They’re all from Baalboden. We also checked clothing, but found no bloodstains. I think Rachel’s right. It’s a tracker, and he’s disappeared back into the Wasteland. I don’t know why he’d play with us like this, but we won’t find him until he decides to come after us again.”
“I could find him,” Willow says. “And then I could kill him and put an end to this.”
A muscle along Quinn’s jaw clenches, but he doesn’t say a word.
“You’re a girl,” Frankie says. “He’s a trained killer. One decent confrontation with a Rowansmark tracker and you’d crack under the pressure.”
“Want to have a confrontation with me and see if I crack?” Willow asks, her dark smile back in place.
“Enough, Frankie,” I say. “We aren’t living by the Commander’s rules anymore. If Willow says she can find him, we’re going to let her do it.”
“I’m going with her,” Quinn says.
“Okay. You two track the killer while we take the camp north.” I pull Jeremiah’s map out of my cloak pocket and unfold it. Using my index finger, I trace the route we’re going to take. “We’re going here, veering east after this large hill, and then we’ll turn north again when we reach this point.” I tap the map. “Jeremiah says it’s a ruined city from the old civilization. Considering how slowly we have to travel, it should take us three or four days to get there. You should be able to catch up to us without a problem.”
“If there’s a tracker in the woods, we’ll do our best to find him,” Quinn says.
“And then we’ll make him wish he’d never decided to slit the throats of those boys.” Willow’s voice shakes with fury, something I’ve never heard from her.
“You aren’t even a Baalboden girl,” Frankie says. “What do you care?”
She’s on her feet and in his face before I even realize she’s moving. Her fists clench her bow, and her dark eyes blaze. “Those boys were kind to me.”
Frankie swallows and says nothing. For once. Nola lets go of Drake and steps forward to slide an arm around Willow’s waist instead. Willow stiffens and glances sideways at Nola like a rabbit judging the best way to run from a predator.
“They were kind, weren’t they?” Nola’s voice breaks. She doesn’t seem to notice that Willow isn’t sure what to do with her affection. “They adored you. Going after their murderer is the right thing to do.”
Willow nods once, a sharp, choppy movement that sends her ear cuff swinging, and then she turns and walks into the forest without another word. Quinn meets Nola’s eyes and mouths “thank you” before he silently follows his sister.
I’m about to give the rest of the group instructions for doubling the guard along our flanks as we travel when Thom runs up to us, his craggy face flushed and his fists clenched.
“Had two of the men up in the trees as lookouts.” He pants heavily between his words. “Said they saw something. Went up the tree myself to have a look. Took my spyglass.” He pats his cloak pocket.
“What is it?” My hand is already reaching for my sword.
“Carrington. Whole mess of red uniforms just pouring over the top of that hill we crossed late yesterday afternoon.” Thom waves to the south of us. “At the rate they’re traveling, they’ll be here in less than three hours.”
“Get everyone on the road. Whatever isn’t already packed up gets left behind. Let’s go.”