Rebel Heart (24 page)

Long life to the Pathfinder, says Slim. What can I do fer you?

I gotta have a baby. She speaks fast, her voice low. It’s bin too long. If I don’t git with child soon, he’ll ask fer another woman an they’ll slave me. She hesitates, jest fer a moment, then pulls a silver chain from her pocket an hands it to Slim. Will you take this in trade? she says.

Slim’s one eye looks it over keenly. Nice, he says. Family heirloom?

The girl pulls herself tall an proud, firms her chin. My only family is the Earth, she says. The Pathfinder has chosen me to heal her.

Of course he has, says Slim. I got jest the thing. Now, where did I put that tincture? He starts checkin through his bottles.

The girl casts a quick look over her shoulder. The man pullin the shoulder plough’s stopped work. He’s makin his way over the fields, headin towards us.

Hurry, please, she says.

Slim says, I seen that fella nailed to the tree back there.

Oh, the vermin, she says. Eli caught it settin fire to the new bridge. Eli an the night patrol. About a week back.

Night patrol, eh? says Slim. Folks around here bin breakin curfew?

The girl’s keepin nervous watch on Eli. But she rattles on, like she’s glad of the chance to speak to somebody. She don’t take no notice of me.

We bin havin trouble after dark, she says. Not jest us, other homesteads too. Ever since we got here. Wells gone bad, beasts missin, broke ploughs, fires, all sorts. Our horse disappeared last month. That’s how come Eli’s handploughin. So, he got everybody together an organized night patrols fer our sector. You sure you got that cure?

Slim starts lookin in the drawers. It’s here somewheres, he says. So you figger this fella to be the cause of yer troubles?

Well, we ain’t had none since Eli spiked it, she says. He says it must of bin livin rough in the woods.

Did Eli deal with the, uh . . . vermin hisself? says Slim.

I helped some. She gives a nervous giggle. It did make the most awful fuss.

Did it indeed, says Slim. Ah! Here we go. You take two drops in water twice a day. An not jest you, ma’am, yer, uh . . . Eli too. Not to be personal an you’ll pardon my sayin so, but it takes two to make one.

He hands her a tiny brown glass bottle. She shoves it in her pocket. Two drops twice a day, she says.

Fer the next ten days, says Slim. It won’t work otherwise.

RiverLee! Eli shouts her name as he charges up the path. Hair like straw. Built like a bull. Thick lips. Red-faced. He’s holdin a firestick. There’s a bolt shooter stuck in his belt.

RiverLee! he yells. Whaddya mean, hailin this scum?

I was jest askin fer news, Eli, she calls. Thought they might of heard somethin from along the road.

You! Eli grabs Slim. Quack man. Lemme see yer mark. What the hell’s this yer wearin? He shoves up the right sleeve of Slim’s pink frock, grunts when he sees the brand on the outside of his arm. He gives him a hard shove. Go on, clear off! I don’t want yer kind on my good land. If I see yuz agin, I’ll deal with you, d’you hear?

Slim an me’s rushin about, foldin the Cosmic’s flaps, tyin her up.

Loud an clear, mister! Slim calls out in a quavery voice. Long life to the Pathfinder!

I’ll give you long life! Eli shoots the firestick at Slim’s feet. Slim dances back as the shot slams into the ground. Eli laughs. Narrows his eyes as he notices Hermes tied to the back of the Cosmic.

That horse there’s way too fine fer the likes of you, he says. I believe you stole him. Jest like some vermin stole mine. I lay claim to that beast, in the name of the Pathfinder. Untie him, RiverLee.

She hurries to do his biddin. My chest’s gone tight. They cain’t take Hermes. I won’t let ’em.

Please, mister, don’t take my horse! Slim whines.

Shut up! Eli jerks his head fer Slim to move beside me. He keeps the firestick aimed at us. Tracker growls. He stops when I press my hand on his head.

I shoot mean dogs, says Eli. How come yer woman’s all covered up? She too ugly to look at?

She’s got the weepin pox, mister, says Slim.

Maybe I oughta shoot her, he says.

Nero’s flyin tight circles a little ways overhead.

Here he is, Eli, says RiverLee. But he’s awful nervy.

She’s leadin Hermes. She holds his rope too high, too tight. He tosses his head, pulls an dances.

Yer holdin him all wrong, says Eli. Dammit, RiverLee, yer too stupid to live. Loosen up his rope a little.

He’s still got us covered with the firestick. But he’s distracted. He flicks a glance their way – jest fer a moment – but it’s enough fer me to show Hermes my hand. I waggle it. He goes crazy, squealin an stompin. With one mighty tug, he yanks hisself free. RiverLee falls to the ground. She shrieks an covers her head as Hermes rears above her, flailin at the air with his front legs. Eli looks. I move.

I grab his firestick. Both hands. He hangs on. Both hands. Nero falls outta the sky at him, screechin. Tracker snaps an snarls at his legs. His hands loosen. Jest a bit. I smash the firestick into his face.

He reels back. The stick goes flyin.

Go go go! I yell at Slim.

As he hurries to jump in the front, I run to git Hermes. He’s skittered outta harm’s way. But RiverLee’s on her feet. Bolt shooter out. Aimed at me. She shoots. She misses.

I’ve pulled my own shooter by now. I raise it. A huge arm grabs me from behind. Hooks around my throat. Eli. He presses on my windpipe, chokin me. I struggle an scrabble, but he’s too strong. He chops my shooter from my hand. Digs his into my temple.

Tracker’s throwin hisself at Eli. Snarlin an snappin. Eli kicks at him.

Slim comes runnin, firestick at the ready.

I’ll kill her! yells Eli. Put yer weapon on the ground, yer hands up! Cover him, RiverLee!

Got it, Eli, says RiverLee.

Slim throws down his firestick an raises his hands.

Call off yer dog! yells Eli. The crow too! I’ll kill all of ’em!

Slim calls off Tracker. Nero’s bin attackin Eli, divin at his head an shriekin.

Eli eases up on my windpipe. Jest enough fer me to croak, No, Nero! Go!

Nero retreats. He circles overhead, callin out his alarm.

You ain’t no quack’s woman, says Eli.

He yanks my sheema back. His eyes widen as he sees my tattoo. He smiles.

I’m facin the side of the Cosmic. There’s a movement at the air grille.

Hey, RiverLee, says Eli, who d’you s’pose—

The thud of a bolt shooter.

Eli’s head jerks back. His arms fly out. He hits the ground.

Eli! RiverLee starts screamin.

I’m on my knees, gaspin fer air. Lugh leaps from the back of the Cosmic, bolt shooter in hand.

RiverLee fires wildly at him.

He shoots her dead.

An it’s silent.

Jest like that.

The shock of silence.

After noise an chaos an fear.

Lugh rushes over an helps me to my feet. Are y’okay? he says.

I nod. Yeah, I says.

Maev, Emmi an Tommo climb outta the Cosmic. They take in the sight of Eli an RiverLee lyin dead. Em starts to cry.

Don’t weep fer them, little sister, says Slim.

What now? says Maev.

I’d like to burn the whole place an these two with it, says Slim.

Too much smoke, says Tommo. People might notice.

We’ll hafta to bury ’em, says Slim. You lot do it. I cain’t.

That’s what we do. We dig a pit in the woods where Billy Six hid out. We don’t make Emmi help. She cries quietly, with her back turned, an shrugs Tommo off when he goes to give her a hug. The rest of us work in silence. Our faces drawn with our own thoughts. Lugh’s pale. He ain’t so used as the rest of us to the shock of sudden violence. Of quick, brutal death. It warn’t so long ago that I believed Hopetown had made me hard to it. But I ain’t. An from the look on everybody’s faces, they all feel the same. Apart from Slim.

As we start to cover Eli with dirt an leaves, Slim holds off Lugh’s shovel. With his other hand, he reaches fer his shooter, but I grab it. Stop him.

You cain’t kill a man twice, I says.

Slim looks at me a long moment. Then he spits in Eli’s face, sayin, That’s fer Billy, you sonofabitch.

We’ve jest about covered RiverLee with a thin layer of dirt when he says, Hang on.

He slides down into the grave. Feels in her pockets an pulls somethin from it. He pops it into the skinbag he wears around his waist, then holds up his hands fer Tommo, Lugh an Maev to help him out agin. I caught a quick glimpse as it went in his bag. It was the tiny brown bottle of tincture. Two drops twice a day so RiverLee could have a child.

That’s what he told her, anyways.

As everybody climbs in back of the Cosmic, dusk is gatherin aginst the day.

Jest over a couple leagues to go, says Slim. Didn’t I tell you I’d git you there by nightfall?

The huddle of mountains that looked so small when we first seen ’em now tower high an broodily dark. The storm belt, with the Lost Cause, lonely in the middle of the plain.

Meet me at the Lost Cause. Be there by the next full moon.

I’m comin, Jack
.

I go to climb up front with Slim. Oh no, he says. Trouble loves you like flies love a dungheap. You wanna git to the Lost Cause in one piece? Ride in back with the rest of ’em.

I hesitate. I cain’t think, cain’t remember where he was when Eli seen my tattoo. It was all such confusion. But if Slim seen it too, then he—

He’s pointin at the mountains. Look, there it is! he says. I brought you all this way. I could of handed you over long before now, gun or no gun to my head. C’mon, time’s wastin.

Okay, I says. All right.

We’re gonna go like the clappers, he says. Hang on.

Tracker stays with Slim. Nero’s airborne. Hermes is gonna follow behind, untethered this time. I climb into the back of the Cosmic an squeeze myself between Maev an Emmi.

Slim yells, Gee up! an Moses takes off like a shot.

The Cosmic Compendalorium flies along. We brace ourselves aginst her walls. The road might be decent, but it’s still rough. Too rough fer a rickety, rackety cart held together with rope an a hope. As she bounces an rattles an shakes an bumps, gaps start to appear. Between the walls. Between the walls an the roof, the walls an the floor. We look at each other, eyes wide.

Is she gonna fall apart? says Em.

Of course not, I says.

The gaps suddenly widen. The Cosmic groans.

Hit the deck! yells Lugh.

We all dive face down in the straw. The Cosmic hits a hole. She flies up. Slams down. The floor cracks. Breaks. Emmi screams. We fall through.

Here it comes – the ground, the wheels, the pain, make-it-quick-oh-mercy-it’s-the-end-the-end-this-is-how-it-ends—

We don’t land in the road.

We ain’t on the ground. We ain’t trampled an mangled. Our limbs ain’t broke. Nobody’s dead. We’re still in the Cosmic, rattlin along. An we jest discovered her secret. She’s got a false bottom. A fake floor with a hidey-hole unnerneath. That’s what we’ve fell into.

As fer what we’ve fell onto.

Well.

I’m starin down the barrel of a firestick.

It’s wrapped in cloth. The top bit’s slipped back.

Cloth-wrapped bundles, all different sizes and shapes, fill the hidden nest. Its walls an floor is heavy padded to pertect the Cosmic’s secret cargo.

Everybody’s lyin on top of me in a jumble of legs an arms an straw an shattered floorboards. We untangle ourselfs an stare. Lugh picks up a small bundle an pulls off the cloth. It’s a bolt shooter. Emmi unwraps a blowgun. Maev, a sword. Tommo, a bundle of arrows. An there’s some weapons I ain’t never seen before. All clean an tidy an oiled an gleamin. Wicked. Ready fer action. My pulse starts to race when I see ’em.

But he’s a doctor, says Em.

Doctor an arms dealer, says Maev.

Nobody says naught fer a moment. Then. The penny drops.

Ohmigawd, I says. There’s a resistance.

What? says Lugh.

His friend back there, I says. Billy Six. Livin rough in the woods, sabotagin homesteads. Last night. We stopped there cuz he had a delivery to make. He went off when he was s’posed to be on watch, he came back with mud on his boots. I thought I was dreamin, but – he ain’t no friend of the Tonton. There’s a gawdamn resistance an he’s the weapons man.