“I think,” she said, “I’ve seen it go sour enough times to have little interest in it.”
“Sure,” I said. “One sided bargains. That’s at the root of mankind too, isn’t it? Well, if it’s in your favor…”
“You’re assuming I want anything you have,” she said.
“You said it yourself. I have blood on my hands. I suspect you want that, if it’s the right blood. The lives I’ve taken already tonight have to count for something, given your agenda.”
“Killing is a service, more than deaths are a product,” Mara said.
“Okay,” Tiff said, quiet enough to not be heard by Mara. “Conversation taking a turn for the creepy.”
“You want deaths, then?” I asked. “In exchange for the lives of those here, I could promise-”
Mara was already shaking her head.
“No?” I asked her.
“No,” she said. She pointed a finger at the group, finger extended to point just over my shoulder. “I want those lives. One can leave my woods for every one you kill. For doing the deed and getting blood on that broken blade of yours, I’ll give you your life at no cost, and I’ll give you the answer you want.”
I glanced back over my shoulder.
I could see Evan, Green Eyes, Tiff, Peter, Roxanne, the satyr, the maenad.
The maenad tensed as I made eye contact.
Did she think I thought she was expendable?
Eight of us. Four would have to die to satisfy the crone.
“Decide,” Mara said.
She didn’t sound happy. She didn’t sound satisfied.
She didn’t sound sincere.
Weapon in hand, I turned to the group.
“Sorry about this,” I said.
“Um,” Evan said. “Um, no, Blake. No.”
Roxanne swiftly backed out of my way, bumping up against Peter.
I saw her put one hand on the front of his coat, clutching it, as if in unconscious fear.
I couldn’t, I realized, see her other hand. I stopped in my tracks.
“Put it away,” I said.
“Put what way?” she asked.
“Step away from Peter.”
“So I’m first?” she asked.
“Roxanne,” I said, firm.
“What are you doing?”
Answering every statement with a question. Evading, dodging.
Buying time.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I told her.
“Then why are you paying this much attention to me?” she asked.
“Because I know you’re armed and I don’t want you to attack me from behind.”
“Show me your hands.”
“Why should I?”
I touched the Hyena to her throat.
Slowly, gradually, she lifted up her hands.
I reached past her and into her pocket, and retrieved a small bottle with a scrap of gauze sticking through the neck, loosely corked.
“Peter too.”
He didn’t move.
“Peter.”
I jogged my arm while holding the blade steady at Roxanne’s throat, making it clear that I would attack her.
He raised his hands. Empty.
Why did they have to make this so hard?
I gently pushed Roxanne aside and pulled down his sleeves. I gave a light pat to each jacket pocket, then checked the ground.
He’d dropped it out of sight. A box of waterproof matches.
Held by Roxanne to be lit by him.
Once I had both match and bottle, I planted them in the snow. “Leave them. Trust me. I’m not going to hurt family.”
The two were mute as I turned toward the three less familiar Others in our retinue. I wasn’t counting Green Eyes among them. She was familiar.
The satyr and maenad were ready for a fight, spoiling.
I warded the satyr off with one wing, folded around half of my body, and held out the Hyena, pointing it at the maenad, ready if she lashed out. I knew how fast they could be.
I gave her a slight shake of my head.
She backed away, keeping a certain distance from me, and I walked between the two of the Drunk’s followers.
I reached Corvidae, at the rear of the group. Corvidae, who had hidden himself out of sight, sheltered by the crowd.
“You didn’t consider that I would take it as an insult if your first target was an Other so similar to my people?” Mara called out.
I considered a few things, I thought. Wanting to see Mara’s reaction was one.
Subtlety wasn’t one of her stronger points.
Which inspired a similar thought. I extended the sword toward Corvidae. He backed up, holding up his hand, two fingers touching the flat of the blade, as if he could hold it back with just that.
“Aren’t insults an invented thing?” I asked. “For you to be insulted…”
A distance behind me, she didn’t react.
“Hi Crow,” Evan said.
“Hello, Sparrow,” Corvidae said. “Will you just watch this?”
“Yep!”
“We’ve flown together,” Corvidae said.
“We flew together, and then you flew off, and then you lured an owl to come after me.”
“Mischief is in my nature. I didn’t let it harm you.”
“Scared the poo out of me,” Evan said. “I think meanness is in your nature. Rose said so, sorta kinda in a way.”
“She’s not wrong,” Corvidae said, quiet. Louder, he said, “Why me? Why walk past the others and come for me?”
Calling me on the fact that I was calling his bluff?
The tone and the cadence of the reply reminded me of when I’d turned on Padraic, just an hour or two ago. I didn’t feel it was a coincidence.
Had he been there? Was he teasing me in the same breath he was asking me to justify myself?
“You’re a bogeyman, you come back after you’re eliminated.”
“Not,” he said, “If you kill me with that. Probably.”
“Blake,” Tiff said. “What are you doing? Do you expect us to just stand here while you pick and choose four members of our group to just kill?”
“Yes, Blake,” Corvidae said. “Do you?”
“I’d like you to just stay back,” I said.
“If you’re justifying attacking him, because he can come back after being slain,” Mara spoke, her voice carrying across the clearing. “Kill the one on the ground.”
I looked down at Green Eyes.
“Or both?” I asked.
“Her first, to avoid insulting me,” Mara said.
And then when she’s eliminated, you renege on the deal?
Or keep to the terms on a technical level alone?
I returned the Hyena to the point that I was holding Corvidae at bay.
“No?” Mara asked.
“No,” I said.
Mara didn’t move. Didn’t do anything, not even exhaling, but the effect broke. Time resumed.
Snow started falling again. First by Mara, then as far as we could see.
The wind stirred, and the noise of it was disconcerting, branches touching branches, ice-heavy pine needles rattling like so many wind chimes, wood creaking.
It was the quietest things had been all night without being silent. Deafening us with a normal level of noise.
An entire forest came to life around us, and the puppeteer Mara Agnakak was pulling the strings.
Subtlety wasn’t her strong suit, she couldn’t keep a secret as simple as Corvidae, but she didn’t have to.
She existed as a static entity. A closed circle, not unlike the dragon.