“Stoic?” I asked him. “I could really use some help here.”
“What is it?” Stoic said, his eyes not really focused on the beast, instead slack and uncomprehending. “The fuck is it?”
“Help,” the man said again, his voice weaker and barely audible this time. Strained with the effort of keeping the not-lowrunner at bay. “Help, please.”
I gripped the sword’s hilt tight in my hands. I had killed before. A person. I could take care of this beast. It didn’t even seem aware of us. It seemed focused on the man and totally oblivious to the fresh meat that had just arrived. I held my breath and ran at the beast.
It never even noticed my approach. Whatever was wrong with it, whatever had turned it into this abomination, had dulled its senses. I lifted the sword above my head and swung down in a solid, forceful arc, aiming at the neck of the beast while it struggled with the man on the ground. Aimed it at the same place I had hit the Daughter so long ago. What felt like a long time ago. It had only been a few months.
The sword struck true and stuck itself in the neck of the beast. The creature turned its head toward me; it couldn’t turn completely toward me, not with the sword stuck in its neck. But it was still alive. The man slumped backwards onto the forest floor and held his stomach. Trying to keep his guts in place, it looked like. I gagged, still holding the sword’s hilt attached to the beast’s neck. It was still alive. I pushed toward it, applying more force onto the sword, and pulled it out of the not-lowrunner’s neck in a downward swing, freeing the blade while also widening the wound. It stood there, not moving but still alive, seemingly making eye contact while bright blood poured out its neck. The amount of blood was incomprehensible. The blood was blue.
Its blood was the same color as neon.
It looked at me, and after a second it slumped to the floor, still bleeding from its neck. The man still grunting and crying on the floor next to it. I had saved him.
“Its blood,” Stoic said, still in the place I had left him. “It’s… it’s…”
“It’s neon,” Nano said. “Not exactly, but close.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I said. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. I had saved the man. His wounds being what they were, he might still die; Nano had said that the blood was poisonous. But I still had saved him for the time being.
“Whisper,” the man said. I turned around. He was crying. Maybe. The tears mixed with the beast’s blood on his face and dirt from the forest floor. “My daughter… Whisper… she’s at the camp…”
And that’s when he passed out. From blood loss, from shock, I don’t know. But that’s when he closed his eyes and we were forced to look side to side, wondering where his camp was, wondering where his daughter was hiding in the tight, deep, glow wood forest.
SUGAR HOLSTER, DAUGHTER OF DESPAIR Two weeks after Candle left for Backdraft, we finally had to admit that she wasn’t coming back. Something had gone wrong. During those two weeks, we debated about what we should do if Candle didn’t return. I thought we should head back to Backdraft to see what happened to her. Banquet disagreed, claiming that Candle told us to wait and that she was the leader and we should listen to her. After two weeks of waiting, after two weeks of nothing happening, after two weeks had passed and Candle still hadn’t returned, I finally convinced her that we should go back to Backdraft.
“This is a bad idea,” Banquet said. “What if they recognize us? What if they put two and two together and realize that we killed the Librarian?”
“They won’t recognize us,” I said. “All the Backdrafts cared about was Mal and Prince Stoic’s arrival. No one even realized we were there. And you heard the drifter. They think Nano and Stoic killed the Librarian.” We were at the outer limits of Backdraft and Banquet had stopped, refusing to go any farther. She was afraid and I was getting frustrated. Daughters shouldn’t feel fear.
“What if they found out the truth and arrested Candle?” Banquet said. “What if they arrest us too?”
“If that’s the case, then Candle needs our help,” I said. “And you’re proposing that we leave her there to die.”
“I don’t like it,” Banquet said. “I think we should go back.”
“You can stay here or go back,” I said, “but I’m going to find out what happened to Candle. I think you should come with me, but I can’t order you to.”
“Fine,” Banquet said. “Fine. Let’s go.” We started walking again. It was the middle of the night. I figured it would be safer to go back at night when most of the Backdrafts were asleep. Stop by the pub, maybe the jail. We could handle a few drunk backwoods. We could handle the lawmen of this sleepy town if need be.
We didn’t take the main road. We walked through the alleys, behind the buildings where we would be less likely to be seen. We arrived at the pub having not seen anyone on the roads. I wasn’t worried about being seen but I knew Banquet was.
“‘Ey, ladies,” we heard a voice say. “You lookin’ for somebody?” The voice startled us. We turned and saw an older woman splayed out on the floor in front of the pub. We were slacking. We hadn’t noticed anyone there.
“Yeah, in fact,” I said. “We’re looking for—”
“You related to that girl came in, fortnight ago or summat?” she said. The woman was filthy, covered in grime with clothes that looked like they were the only ones she owned. Slurring her words and speaking slang with an accent I couldn’t place. Not Backdraft proper. Homeless, probably. A homeless drifter. Homeless was good. She knew what we needed to know and the townspeople wouldn’t give anything she said credence if she talked about us later.
“Yes,” Banquet said. “Yes, we are. How did you know?”
“Y’all look like ‘er,” the woman said. “Same hair, same robe. Name’s Rush. Macabre Rush.”
“Uh, nice to meet you,” I said. “I’m… Hotter. And this is my sister, Hunter.”
“Nice to meet ya,” Rush said, sitting up. She put her hand out. Banquet and I pretended we didn’t notice. She put her hand down after realizing we had no intention of touching her.
“I got bad news for y’all,” she said. “You mi’ wanna sit down for this.”
“No,” I said, eyeing the floor near where she lay. It looked exactly how you think the ground outside a pub would look. “I don’t think so.”
“Well,” Rush said. “Yer sister’s dead. Sorry to say.” Banquet visibly recoiled. I stayed more stoic in my demeanor but I was similarly surprised.
“How?” Banquet said, putting her hand over her chest. “What happened?”
“Well,” Rush said, “them boys jailbroke and killed her on the way out. Killed all of the lawmen too. Was very surprisin’, them. I thought them good boys. One of ‘em a prince. But they killed Rude and ‘is deputies so they can’t be that good. Killed yer sister too.”
“Prince Stoic?” I said. “And Nano? That’s impossible.”
“You know ‘em?” Rush said. “Aye, I woulda said the same ‘fore it happened. But people can surprise you, I s’pose.” I grabbed Banquet’s arm, started to lead her away from the pub.