“It’s cold.”
“Of course, it is. Hell, that water was snow on those white mountains a few days ago but here’s the deal. You get clean and then you can eat. One or the other.”
Tanner dropped his things and waited. The boy resisted. Then Carrion pulled more food from his bag and spread it out, looking as if he was trying to make up his mind of what to eat. Devlin went to the water’s edge and removed a boot too big for his feet. He wore no stockings. He finally pulled his shirt off and dropped his pants, placing them under his arm and he walked into the deeper water.
Once there he sat and began splashing dribbles of water at himself. Carrion shouted, “Wash that hair and I’ll cut it for you later. Use the sand to scrub the soot and dirt off. And work on those clothes, too.”
“You're sort of mean to him,” Tanner said.
“We don’t want him recognized when we take him back to town. We’ll get him something else to wear, too. In the meantime, we’ll feed him and try to find out whatever’s in that brain of his.”
Tanner said, “I expected you to feed him and run him off. I’m impressed that you’re taking such an interest.”
“And I’m just as surprised that you are not. As my appointed leader of this expedition, I am truly disappointed in you.”
The smile was still on Carrion’s lips, but Tanner knew he’d missed something. Instead of trying to figure it out, he said, “Tell me.”
“Tell you what? The critical item you failed to see about Devlin?”
“Which is?”
“Now that he’s cleaner look at his arms.”
Tanner turned. Devlin was washing his shirt, but his arms were now pale instead of soot-stained from too many fires. His arms from his shoulders to his wrists were tattooed with writhing dragons.
Carrion said softly, “He’s one of the others.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Tanner stood and kicked off his boots. He didn’t bother rolling up his pant legs. He waded to Devlin and took an arm. Looking at the designs. The ink was dark blue; the overall image was drawn crudely. The left arm depicted a dragon from the neck to head, thin as a snake. The other arm showed three heads, one above the other, each with an open mouth as if eating the next.
“What’s this?”
Devlin yanked his arm back. He looked ready to swing a fist.
Tanner took a step back, so he was out of reach. “Hey, I’m sorry. What is that on your arms?”
Devlin calmed. His fingers uncurled from the fist.
“We’ll talk later,” Tanner said. “Get yourself clean while there’s still time for the sun to dry you.”
Carrion walked into the water to his knees and said, “Come on over here, son. I might as well get that hair cut so you don’t have to wash it again.”
With a skittish glance at Tanner, Devlin went to Carrion, who motioned for him to sit down in the water. Carrion took hold of a fistful of hair and used his knife to slice it off. Then he continued, grabbing a handful and stretching it out before cutting it to the same length.
When he finished, it looked like someone had chopped it off with a knife. It hung wet, ragged, and choppy. Carrion said as if telling the truth, “There. Much better.”
The hair had reached past the boy’s shoulders. Now it was semi-uniform length about as long as a finger. Carrion said, “Wash it out and slick it back. You’ll look like a new man.”
A new man. He looked like a boy who had his hair caught in some farm equipment. Tanner suppressed a snicker as he decided that if he needed his hair cut, it would be done at home. However, Devlin stumbled from the water with his hair slicked back, his skin clean, and his clothing cleaner. Tanner finally admitted to himself the boy was hardly recognizable, which was the intent.
Carrion dug out the food they had stolen from the store in Shrewsbury and spread it on his blanket. Tanner did the same. Then, Carrion gathered wood and started a fire, grumbling the whole time that he was the only one who did any chores.
As they settled down, Devlin scooted closer to the fire. His pants and shirt steamed on the sticks they hung on, but he didn’t have any others. Tanner had a spare shirt. He handed it to the grateful boy. It hung on him like a nightshirt, which was good because it helped fight off the night chill.
“Tell us about Racine,” Carrion said. “Better yet, tell us about you.”
Devlin hesitated. Then he sighed and said, “I lived there.”
“Did you live in a house?” Carrion persisted.
“No.” Then Devlin glanced at Tanner and realized he needed to explain. “I found places to hide.”
“In the winter?” Carrion asked.
“The rain made me cold.”
Tanner said, “Friends or family?”
The boy shook his head and cast his eyes to the ground. He flinched when Carrion reached for more firewood.
The tattoos?” Tanner asked.
“I’ve always had them.”
Carrion gave an exasperated look to Tanner before saying, “There’s a lot of hills around here. I remember Racine has hills too. Are there places where we could be up high, and you point out the different parts of the city?”
Devlin smiled for the first time. “Yes.”
“Okay, then that’s what we’ll do,” Carrion said. “In the morning, we’ll find a place to sit and talk. Don’t let your clothes get too dry or they’ll catch fire.”
Tanner said, “Use that shirt over your other for tonight.”
The boy looked even younger, maybe sixteen was a stretch. His frail shoulders and spotty beard almost gave the appearance of an old man. Give him a cane and white hair and he’d fool anyone. Tanner considered those ideas, as well as understanding that most of his appearance was from poor nutrition. He probably only ate a few times a week, and then only what he could steal or forge from what others threw away.
Living in the city wouldn’t give him much time to learn to hunt. Most of the time he was the hunted, as people tried to keep Devlin away from what they owned.
Tanner went to sleep. Later, he woke as Devlin tried stealing his backpack. As usual, Tanner had slipped a strap around his arm. In the moonlight, he slowly shook his head. Devlin pretended to go to sleep again. So did Tanner.
Devlin carefully reached for Carrion’s pack. Tanner said softly, “How are you going to survive with only one hand?”
Puzzled, Devlin halted.
Carrion said, his eyes still closed, “He’s right. I’ll cut off any hand that steals from me.”
Later, Tanner woke when Devlin tried to sneak away. He said, “We won’t hold you here, but after the sun comes up and the two of us are eating our fill, you remember that you left us, and you are hungry. You will not be welcome back with us.”
When Tanner woke with the sun, Devlin was sitting off to one side where the morning sun warmed him. His eyes watched, but he said nothing. Carrion climbed to his feet and said, “We might as well get on with it. We can eat while we walk.”
Tanner looked at Devlin and said, “How long will it take to get to the edge of town?”
Devlin shrugged and remained silent.
“Oh, come on,” Tanner snapped. “It’ll take as long to walk there as it took you to get here. How long was that?”
His eyes drifted off to one side, and his lips silently moved, then he said, “Ten days. Maybe more.”
Carrion barked a laugh and drew the attention of both of them. He said, “Probably telling the truth. You assumed he walked right here, but he probably snuck around farms, stole what he could, and managed to remain out of sight until we found him. Ten days sounds reasonable.”