Authors: Marie Harte
Jon
fired and a body fell. He fired again. Another thud.
Thais
felt the presence of someone creeping behind her and didn’t hesitate. She dropped
to the ground and rolled into a pair of long legs. A man swore. She didn’t give
him time to do anything else but gutted him with her knife, then followed by
cutting his throat.
Effective
for ensuring a body stayed dead.
She
crawled over him, but not before taking the heavy pistol from his hands. Every
man on Butch’s ranch had a gun. Just one more sign the UTs were nowhere to be
found in Morrow. Most towns regulated who could carry a weapon. She doubted the
UTO would sanction firearms for even one Nolan, let alone all of them.
Thais
killed another man sneaking by the other entrance to the barn on his way to Jon.
He made enough noise to wake the dead, but he managed to nick her with his
knife all the same. The small cut to her hand stung but didn’t hinder her
ability to defend herself.
Gunfire,
screams, and shouts filled the night as they rained justice down on Butch McKenzie’s
head. Now if Pilar would just play her part…
A
bright light and a burst of heat blew up behind her, where an oil lamp exploded
and set the floor and walls on fire.
Thais
shielded her face from the intense heat and backed away, into the shadows
behind the first stall, where a horse should have been but wasn’t.
Shit.
“Little
girl, where are you? It’s time to finish the rite. Time to earn the flower I’m
going to carve into your cheek.”
Finally.
Pilar.
***
Hinto
swore up and down when the barn caught fire, but before he could move he
tracked Wolf stalking a burly ranch hand sneaking around the side of the barn. So
far, Hinto had counted five men down. He sensed Jon, Wolf, and Thais, all alive
and well.
A
shot from Jon’s direction, forced him to keep his head down, and he dove for
the drying shed to his immediate right. Carefully easing around the corner of
the small building, he searched for the threat Jon felt a need to warn him
about. Butch McKenzie held a rifle, waiting, his form outlined by the fire
burning in the barn in front of him.
“Welcome
back, Hinto. We’ve been waiting for you.”
Gunfire
peppered the night beyond the ranch, Rudy and the guys making headway,
apparently. With a grim smile, Butch stepped back into the shadows of his porch
and disappeared inside the house. “Come and get me,” he yelled.
“Dammit.”
Hinto didn’t like walking into a trap, especially when he could feel the
presence of four people inside. He looked back at Jon, who shrugged before
pulling the trigger and felling another ranch hand close to stepping on him.
Jon
help up a three fingers. Yeah, three left by his count too. But four people
were inside the house. Maybe some servants? He didn’t know. If only they could
put out that damned fire. It lit up the ranch like a goddamn burst of sunlight.
He had a hard time thinking while trying to keep from being illuminated for
target practice.
With
no other choice, he ran like hell while Jon shot at the house and provided him
cover. Shots landed in the dirt around him. One grazed his arm and he dove
headfirst for the side of the building. He landed under a window and reached
out with his senses. He felt no one within the room next to him. Hinto
concentrated again. To his surprise, the four in the house suddenly became
three. Then two, as one of the bodies left the premises in a run. “Butch and
Gregor, you’re all mine.”
***
It
was surprisingly easy. Celia blinked at the bloody knife. The gunfire from
outside proved the perfect distraction. Instead of having to endure Gregor McKenzie
forcing himself on her, he’d turned at the sound of the first bullet. She
hadn’t thought. She’d simply reacted to the rage and hatred festered inside her.
Celia had struck him hard, right in his belly.
He’d
tried to choke her, but she twisted the knife. The agony on his face went a
long way toward mediating her suffering at his hands, though she knew it would
never be enough. She’d never forget what Gregor had stolen from her. Nor should
she. A lesson learned, she thought with a shrill laugh. She shoved him away
from her, intending to slit his throat.
Then
she hesitated. This was too easy.
She
rummaged throughout the room for the coarse ropes he liked to use on her,
because they abraded her tender skin. She tied him up, spread-eagled and naked,
and gagged him with his socks.
While
he bled out, she searched his room for as many expensive items as she could
gather. Gold rings, necklaces, a silver picture frame, and oh yes, his fancy
gun. She quickly dressed in the ragged gown she’d been given to wear, grabbed
the small sack carrying her treasures, and shoved her feet in wool-lined boots
stuffed with scarves so they’d fit. Grabbing Gregor’s fur jacket from the chair
where he’d tossed it, she turned to go.
A
muffled shout from Gregor stopped her.
Celia
turned to him and smiled. The dim light of the oil lamp gave her one last look
at the man who’d made her life a living hell.
“You
don’t look so powerful now, do you?” she whispered. “Not so mighty stuck like a
pig, losing that precious life’s blood.” Celia knew she had to leave, but she
had to finish this. She dropped her bag and leaned over him, dragging Pilar’s
knife over his thighs to rest against his shriveled man-parts.
She
enjoyed the fear darkening his eyes, the pain clearly etched into his cruel
features. “I’m not carrying your child,” she informed him with relish. “Got my woman’s
time today.” Then she stabbed his genitals and twisted the knife.
His
muffled screams gave her the closure she needed. The blood spray soaked the
sheets.
“Hurts
when someone plunges a weapon between your legs, don’t it?”
Not
wanting to chance his survival, she slit his wrists, wiped off the dagger, and
retrieved the small bag. She left without a backwards glance and crept into the
night, a free woman at last.
***
Thais
had waited so long for this moment. Pilar looked the same. Still tall and lean.
Still a nasty, dishonorable woman deserving nothing more than her loathing. And
yet the sight of a proud Amazon prepared for battle made her long for her
mother. The conflicting emotions tore at her as she used the rage to her
advantage.
“You
have dishonored the memory of our sisters by consorting with an enemy. You
disgraced your heritage, turned against your own queen, and helped aid in the
extermination of a once great people.” Thais spoke from the heart, truly
disgusted at the woman before her. “And for what? A life in the Territories? Sex
with Brian and Deke?” she mocked, glad for the information Brian had given her
before he’d died.
Pilar’s
face turned red. “You don’t know anything about what I’ve been through!”
“You?
What
you’ve
been through? How about Nina’s babe, not even a year old and
they ripped her open from her throat to her belly? The elders too weak to run
when the Territory men fired upon them? The queen, raped and then decapitated
while you, her guardian, watched in silence?”
Pilar
paled. Good. At least the bitch had some sense of shame for what she’d done.
“And
let’s not forget Princess Estefina. Defiled by the very bastard you pledged
your loyalty to. So how much have
you
been through, Pilar?” Thais spat
at her feet and gripped her knife, needing to return the pain to this woman
who’d caused it all.
Dry-eyed
yet visibly saddened, Pilar lowered the hand holding her spear. “Nothing like
that was meant to happen.”
“Well
it did happen! What’s wrong? You just wanted to kill the queen? Did you want
the crown for yourself, then?”
“It
was all about Aliane.”
Thais
blinked. “My mother?”
“You
don’t know, couldn’t possibly understand what it means to love so deeply that
you’re lost without him.”
Thais
gaped, wondering if Pilar had lost her mind. “You ruined a once proud tribe
because you loved Aaron Bartel?”
“Not
Bartel, you stupid shit. Thalen! He was mine! My love, the father of my son!
And Yasmin made me give my child away. You have no right to judge when you know
nothing of the facts.”
Thais
couldn’t stomach another word from the worst traitor her tribe had ever known. She
attacked, conscious that her knife couldn’t combat Pilar’s spear, but the fact
it came from her mother gave her the courage to use it with confidence.
They
jabbed at each other, but Pilar’s skill with her spear had not faded in time.
“You
puling child. I lost
my son
. I lost my heart to a man who had eyes only
for your mother. She had the girl
I
was meant,” Pilar raged, stabbing at
Thais with maddening strength. “While our sisters took my child and gave him
away, Aliane, always the queen’s favorite, gave birth to a healthy girl. She
had you
and
she had Thalen!”
They
battled back and forth. Thais would dive with her knife, only to have Pilar
block her time and time again.
Thais
argued, “She did not ‘have’ Thalen. They coupled, he left, and she never saw
him again.”
“It
didn’t matter. It was her he wanted, her he’d given a girl child.”
“This
was not a reason to kill an entire people,” Thais shouted as she launched
herself at Pilar. She pushed Pilar to the ground and jabbed her in the side
with her knife before Pilar knocked the weapon away. They fought to control the
spear, experience and strength against the power of youth and righteous anger.
Pilar
rolled over Thais and leveraged her weight to straddle her. They fought for control
of the spear, now lying across Thais’s chest. Positioned underneath Pilar,
Thais had a hard time gaining the upper hand.
“I
did not mean for the destruction of our village,” Pilar was saying as Thais
fought to breathe. “Bartel used me. He came into the camp with more men than
he’d promised. More than our entire village! They raped and killed while I was
forced to watch.
While I watched,
” Pilar screamed and suddenly tore
herself from Thais, the blood from her wound dripping down her side.
When
Pilar pushed off, she applied so much pressure Thais felt something snap.
Pilar
continued, her movements frenzied, and Thais wondered if she felt any pain. “He
took from me what I’d never intended to give him. And he took the crown. I’ve
been after him since.”
Still
trying to catch her breath, Thais rolled in search of her knife, and wavered at
the excruciating pain.
She
wobbled to her feet and saw Pilar clutching it in one hand, her spear in the
other. Pilar stared at the knife, transfixed.
For
the first time that Thais could remember, Pilar looked uncertain.
“The
blue stone, a reminder of The Cave, where we are born.” Pilar blinked, and a
tear trailed down her cheek.
Thais
was stunned to feel pity for this creature who had destroyed almost everything
she’d ever loved. Pilar had lost a child and a man she cared for. She had no
home, no more sisterhood. But did that excuse such malice toward those she’d
once called sister?
Pilar
wiped angrily at her cheek and tossed Thais’s knife at her feet. “Do you think
I don’t know I’ve made mistakes? That I don’t regret, every single day, what I
allowed to happen? At least I admit I’d done wrong. Renata, Marcela and Bruna
took up with Bartel and his men.” Pilar sneered. “Bartel isn’t even his real
name.”
“I
know.” Thais knelt, grabbed her knife, and had to force herself back to her
feet past the agony stealing her breath.
“I’ve
tracked his gold, the only thing that seems to matter to him. He runs loads of
currency along the railway. Amery Nore, that’s one of the names he uses. Last I
heard he’d vanished north of here, into Lost Territory.”
While
Thais appreciated the information, she didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to
empathize with Pilar or understand her. She wanted to avenge her tribe, her
queen, her
mother
.
“My
mother died protecting the queen. A guardian through and through. Yet you, who
wear the mark, turned on your duty,” Thais rasped, calm despite the tension
rattling her determination.
“And
where were you?” Pilar thrust the soft words as sharp as any dagger. “You don’t
appear to have suffered.”
“I
will always regret that I was not there to help defend my tribe. But I will not
take responsibility for what happened.” Not anymore. “It would never have come
to pass were it not for your selfish greed.”
“Perhaps
not,” Pilar said tiredly. She dropped her spear and spread her arms wide.
Thais
didn’t know what to think. Nothing about this meeting progressed the way she’d
anticipated.