Whisperworld
Chapter 12
I remembered to close the curtains this time, but it wasn’t long after dawn that the heavy drumbeat of bootsteps woke me. It was incredibly rude to just barge into someone’s home without announcing yourself, but Greenguard claimed the sole exception to this social rule, so I wasn’t surprised to find several of my fellow Blackthumbs storming into my apartment.
Well, actually… I was surprised. Very. What the hell were they doing here?
Five crossbows were cocked and loaded, braced against tensed shoulders, and steel arrowheads flashed in the narrow beam of morning light that knifed between the curtains. I kicked my way out from beneath my sheets with my gut knotted and blood rushing in my ears. I jumped to my feet, still in my underwear.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
Woods led the Greenguard pack, his fingers so tight on his crossbow that his knuckles had turned white. He looked me slowly up and down, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of blushing under his inspection.
“We have to take you to the High Gardener,” Woods announced. He actually seemed a little sorry about it.
“All he had to do was ask Gregory. He would have sent me out to Thorn before breakfast,” I said. I really didn’t like all of the crossbows pointing at me. “Must be important. Do you mind waiting outside while I get dressed?”
“Sorry, Reed,” Woods answered. He sounded less apologetic this time.
The other Blackthumbs stood over me with crossbows cocked and ready while I changed. I felt Woods’ eyes crawling over my skin like ants, but the other Greenguard watched me more warily — like Zach or I watched parents during birth control, to see if they would do something stupid.
Absently, I wondered how the Garzas were doing. Where was their baby girl now? Zach and I never actually went back to count their kids again.
I had no intentions of giving Woods a show, so I dressed as quickly as I could. I tied my hair into a quick ponytail and reached for my belt. My knife was sheathed there and I moved toward it slowly, just in case someone was feeling jumpy. Which turned out to be a good idea.
“Leave it!” barked one of the other Greenguard.
“No belt? Really?” I asked.
I wished that I’d learned the guy’s name, but I had always preferred to keep my own company or Zach’s. I guess I could have made a better effort to be popular among my fellow Blackthumbs, or at least talk to them once in a while. But it seemed a little late for that now.
“Fine,” I said. “But it’s on your head if my pants fall down in front of Thorn.”
They hurried me from my apartment without even letting me grab my goggles and bandana. Woods led the way and three more Blackthumbs walked just behind me. I swore I could feel the tension in their bowstrings. I threw them a smile over my shoulder, but my heart was pounding. What the hell was going on? I applied my considerable intellect to the situation, but couldn’t manage to come up with anything reasonable that wasn’t totally stormy. Thorn had to be really angry with me. Had I said something? Something worse than usual?
I slit my eyes half shut against the bright white daylight as my escort propelled me along the street toward the Greenguard base and the Houses. Ranks of Blackthumbs were training in the base yard, but they stopped to stare as I passed. I tried waving once, but the other Blackthumbs glared suspiciously, some making the sign of the teardrop over their chests or turning quickly away, unable to meet my eye.
My heart sank another inch. Even I wasn’t that unpopular.
The Whispers rose up around me, flitting through my thoughts as we marched past the Greenguard base and then into the Houses. Were they really calling for help? If so, I couldn’t hear them. But I was growing increasingly certain that I was the one who needed help right now.
My oppressively silent escort led me up the smooth white steps and through the columns of the Gardeners’ building. Their boots rang off the polished stone floor and then the stairs as we began to climb. No Gardener meant no elevator, I guessed. I tried to reassure myself that whatever Thorn wanted, he clearly wasn’t in that much of a hurry. But another part of me pointed out that maybe the High Gardener just wanted me tired by the time we arrived.
My legs ached as we climbed the last flight of stairs to Thorn’s office and I took some small satisfaction that Woods was breathing a hell of a lot harder than I was. He didn’t spend much time actually running down Whitefingers or hunting mutants through the dangerous ruins between the city walls and the edge of the Stormsphere’s protection.
But my heart plunged right through the floor when Woods finally prodded me into Thorn’s office. Zach was already there, down on his knees with his head bowed. When he looked up at me, his dusky skin was sallow and there was a bright red mark on his cheek that was darkening into a nasty-looking bruise. Five more Blackthumbs stood surrounding him, crossbows pointed down at my partner.
The flowers potted all around Thorn’s office, even the colorful paintings on the walls — none of it seemed beautiful anymore. The air in here was too damp, too close and the plants felt alien. The floral scent was too thick and too sweet.
Woods shoved me down to my knees beside Zach. I understood me getting into trouble, even if I wasn’t really clear on what sort of trouble it was yet. But Zach? He was the perfect Blackthumb. What could he possibly have done wrong?
The door opened behind us and Thorn swept into the lush office. His robes swirled around his tall, gaunt body like black storm sands closing in around an execution post. Gregory hurried in after him, brushing at the front of his own robes with shaking fingers. His hands left sweat stains on the dark cloth.
“Tell me about your meeting with the Whitefingers,” Thorn commanded as he seated himself behind the flower-strewn desk.
“Damn it, I would have come if you just asked,” I said. “No need to march us here under guard, Thorn.”
“Tell me about your meeting with the Whitefingers,” the High Gardener repeated.
“We didn’t meet them, sir,” Zach answered. “They captured us.”
“And how exactly were you captured?”
“We were outnumbered,” Zach said. “A storm was coming down on us.”
His voice was unsteady. Weariness and anger were all jumbled up with embarrassment and something else I couldn’t quite read. Was Zach actually frightened?
“And what did the Whitefingers say when they took you in?” Thorn asked.
“They didn’t take us in. We were captured,” Zach growled again.
“They knocked us out,” I said. “One of Whitefingers admitted to the murders of Byron and the two Greenguard. She said she was sorry and they sent us back with a warning.”
“Ah,” Thorn murmured. He sounded satisfied, like we were just getting to his favorite part. “A warning. The Whitefingers sent you to deliver their threat.”
“No!” I barely managed to keep myself from adding you idiot. Our situation was bad enough and I hadn’t been exactly polite so far. “The Whitefingers only wanted to help. Their yin dreameaters heard a call from something inside the Stormsphere. They don’t know what’s in there. But whatever it is, it’s dying. And you know what happens when the Whispers go silent, Thorn!”
Around us, the Greenguard shuffled their feet and muttered. Bridge and Sun City had already met that fate. If the Tear failed in Angel City, the closest Whisperward was Boulder City and that was a very long journey through some of the worst storm-torn lands.
“No doubt that was why those Whitefingers were trying to gain access to our Tear of God,” Thorn said, nodding. “To silence the angelic voices inside.”
“Weren’t you listening, asshole?” I asked. I half rose to my feet, but Woods shoved me down again and I felt the cold steel of his crossbow against the back of my neck. “The Whitefingers didn’t do anything to the Bridge City sphere! The Whispers were begging for help and they were only trying to find out why!”
“And who told you that?” asked Thorn.
“The Whitefingers,” I admitted.
Thorn smiled indulgently. I knew that smile. It was the one I had gotten all my life in Sunday school, when I gave the Gardeners my best but still wrong answer. At least, the answer that they said was wrong…
“Of course the Whitefingers told you that,” Thorn said. “A lie which, if we were foolish enough to believe, would let them right into the heart of our Whisperward.”
“I don’t think they were lying,” I argued. “We kill all of our dreameaters… our psychics and there’s no one left to hear the call. Liam did, and he was trying to tell us that before we gave him to the storm. That’s why he was in the Houses the night Byron was killed. Something is dying inside the Stormsphere and we have to help it!”
I looked to Zach, silently begging him to back me up. Thorn watched my partner, too.
“Sir, we’ve been to the edge of the ‘Ward. We’ve seen the storm line,” Zach said. His big shoulders were as taut as a bowstring. “It’s moving. Not quickly, but the perimeter is shrinking. The Stormsphere is losing its power, High Gardener. The Whitefingers are right about that.”
Zach drew a deep breath to finish.
“I think they were telling us the truth.”
I let out a sigh of relief. Zach wasn’t a mouthy little problem like me. Thorn knew that and so did Gregory. Zach would always do what was best for Angel City. He was a faithful man and just about worshiped the Gardeners, but the safety of our people was the one thing he cared about more than their approval. I looked up at Thorn. That had to be enough to satisfy the High Gardener.
Thorn stood. He hung his head and shook it slowly, sadly. He put some real pain into his resonant voice.
“The Whitefingers have compromised two of our best,” he told Gregory and his office full of Blackthumbs. “The dreameaters have devoured their minds and very souls, filling them with lies and turned them against us.”
“What?” I cried. “What the hell are you saying?”
“No!” Zach tried to rise, but four Blackthumbs held him down. “No one is controlling us, sir! We’re only telling you the truth!”
“Is that not exactly what your Whitefinger masters would have you say?” Thorn said gravely. “Until all of the Whitefingers are dead and gone to dust, we can never be certain that anyone is cleansed of their ungodly influence.”
Gregory nodded along with Thorn. “I’m real sorry about this, Dias, but it must be done. The High Gardener is right. You’re compromised.”
“This is bugshit!” I shouted. “We’re not under anyone’s control!”
I jumped to my feet. Fuck it. Nothing I said mattered anymore. Thorn would only twist every word and claim that some Whitefinger dreameater made me say it. I had no proof. Neither did Thorn, but he was the High Gardener. I was just an annoying problem that finally had a permanent solution. The other Blackthumbs descended on me and seized my arms before I could hurl myself at Thorn. They grabbed Zach and hauled him to his feet, too.
“You’re lying, Thorn!” I shouted.
“High Gardener,” Zach said only a little more calmly. “Please! We’re telling you the truth. We’re innocent! I swear it to God on His Tears.”
“Yes,” Thorn told him. “You are innocent, my child. And the greatest evil of the dreameaters and their Whitefinger masters is how they use the innocent as their tools,” Thorn said. He turned to the Greenguard. “Take them out of the city. Let the storms cleanse them and return them to God.”
“The Whispers are dying, you idiot,” I screamed. “You’re killing everyone, Thorn! Everyone in Angel City is going to die if you don’t listen to us!”
Thorn’s face reddened. “Enough!” he shouted right back at me. “We are the chosen of God, charged with tending His garden. No one will drive us back into the waste to wander like beasts, homeless and at the mercy of mutant abominations!”
“Sir, please!” Zach begged. “Don’t do this!”
“Take them,” Thorn ordered.
The Greenguard hauled us toward the door, but I stomped down on the nearest foot. The Blackthumb it belonged to probably didn’t feel much through his boot, but it made him stumble and I twisted in his grasp. I drove my knee up between another man’s legs and felt the satisfying double impact of my knee in his balls and then smashing into bone. His hands went slack on my arm and I ripped free.
“You’re a fucking prick, Thorn,” I said.
It seemed important the High Gardener know that before I ran, but then something cracked painfully across the back of my head and darkness swallowed the world. Not again…
When the darkness receded, I was watching my own feet hover a few inches off the ground. It took me several moments to understand that I was being held up and dragged through the dusty streets of Angel City by two other Blackthumbs. Collecting my scattered thoughts was like trying to clutch at sand that kept crumbling away. My head throbbed back and forth between the new lump and the older welt Kiyu had put there.
I finally got my neck working well enough to raise my head and look around. The western city gates loomed up ahead of us like an open maw and people were crowded all along the street. Most of them wore the travel-tattered clothes of the refugees, but there were more than a few local faces. Familiar faces: Harrison, who sold me snakes and lizards for dinner; Jin, the man who bartered candied ants; Greta, the mother of the girl who died in the elevator all those years ago.
There were some others with whom I had traded some words or goods over the years. Did they recognize me? Remember me? Probably not, but they all turned out to see a pair of Blackthumbs executed. All my neighbors would ever remember of me was my death. I guessed it was a little late to start worrying about my legacy, but I would have been lying if I said it didn’t sting.
I tried to move and found my hands cuffed behind my back. Zach was bound the same way, though he still walked under his own power. There was blood running from his nose, but the Blackthumb gripping his arm had a swollen lip, too, and paused to spit blood into the dirt. Craning my head over my shoulder, I saw Woods and another man following us, crossbows aimed at our backs and fingers ready on their triggers. At least we had made an impression.
They must have been in a hurry to see us dead… We were still wearing our uniforms. Those things weren’t replaceable and even the resilient carbon microfiber couldn’t stand up against the power of a storm.
“Zee?” I mumbled.
“Don’t worry, Julia,” Zach said. “We’re loyal Greenguard. Thorn knows that.”
Sure, Thorn knew that. But he didn’t care. He just wanted us gone and I couldn’t bring myself to be surprised. I never believed in the Gardeners like Zach did. They were always the ones who refused to answer my questions in school, who always told me that I was going to come to a bad end. But then they recruited me to the Greenguard, even though I never wanted it. They kept me close, kept an eye on me. It was Thorn and Gregory who had controlled me my whole life, not the Whitefingers. And now that a privileged position and nice green uniform had finally failed to keep me in line, the Gardeners were cutting me loose.
The Greenguard dragged us through the crowd of onlookers, moving in a circle of empty space carved out by loaded crossbows and superstitious fear. One of our escorts spoke briefly to the Blackthumbs at the city gate. They darted angry, terrified looks back at Zach and me. They really believed it, didn’t they? Thorn’s bugshit about dreameaters taking over our minds, about us joining the Whitefingers…
I could use my legs a bit now as we were marched out of Angel City. I considered making the other two carry me every inch of the way, but decided that a modicum of dignity probably outweighed that petty revenge. I sneezed as dust rolled over us, but the winds were mild today. The high, white sky was blank, the horizon clear. I wasn’t sure if we were lucky or not. Death by storm was second only to having your brain melted by a dreameater for horrible ends, but at least it didn’t take long. No storms meant that Zach and I would hang from the posts until we died of thirst or some mutant got hungry enough to come take a nibble. Despite our duty to keep the area around the city empty of dangerous monsters, Blackthumbs seldom interfered when they were just sampling prisoner kebabs.
The metal rods thrust up from the sand ahead, tall and pitted and hung with well-worn chains. It was still early in the day and their shadows were long, dark stripes pointing imperiously to the west. The other Blackthumbs spread out, keeping their crossbows directed at us while Woods exchanged our cuffs for the manacles dangling from the posts. It was slightly less uncomfortable having my arms held over my head and there was some slack in the chain, but not enough to do anything useful. Not with my arms, at least.
Woods inspected his work with a frown twisting his lips. The slick little rattler probably thought he would have won me over in the end. Woods and his fucking apples. He lingered after the other Blackthumbs secured us and began pulling back toward Angel City.
“Come on, Woods!” one of them shouted over his shoulder. “We’re done here!”
Woods nodded once and slowly turned his back on us. I glanced at Zach, who leaned against the post with his eyes closed and lips moving in prayer. Woods was only a dozen yards away. The others were halfway back to the city.
“Hey, Woods!” I called out.
Zach cracked his eyes open and Woods looked back at me.
“Come here,” I told him.
Woods paused. He glanced at the retreating Greenguard, then made his way cautiously back in my direction and stopped about ten feet away. His crossbow was still slung over one shoulder, but he fiddled nervously with the strap. I wasn’t too worried about him shooting and being able to hit me, even at this distance and with me chained up.
“Do I get to make a final request?” I asked.
Woods considered for a moment and then nodded. “What is it, Reed?”
“Can I get one last fuck before I die?”
“Uh… what?”
“I want it to be you.”
It was a lie big enough to eclipse a Stormsphere, but it was just what Woods wanted to hear. He tried to glare suspiciously at me, but his eyes dropped hungrily down to my chest and then along my long legs. Chained up, I couldn’t pose very well, but I did my best to arch my back and bat my eyelashes enticingly.
“Julia?” Zach hissed at me. “What the hell are you doing?”
“You had your chance, Zee,” I said.
I made awkward little shooing motions at Zach with my cuffed hands that I hoped that Woods couldn’t see. I kept my eyes on the eager young Greenguard.
“I’m going to die here.” I said it softly so that Woods had to come closer to hear me. “Is it too much to ask to get laid one last time? You can even come inside, if you want. Not like it’s going to matter anymore.”
Woods closed the distance between us, still wary, but not even trying to disguise his naked lust anymore. I looked him straight in the eye and licked my lips, hoping that it wasn’t too much. I was never any good at the seduction game. What, did you think my bed was always empty by choice?
But apparently I was good enough for Woods. He yanked the bandana down off his face and put his hands around my waist. He leaned forward and kissed me. I tried to pretend that his lips were softer, his chin more delicate and not prickly with stubble… That he knew what the fuck he was doing. I kissed him back, teasing his lips with my tongue and teeth. Woods eagerly opened his mouth and mashed his tongue artlessly against mine.
Woods slid his hands up my sides to grab my tits. I pulled my mouth away, but lifted my chin and encouraged him to suck on my neck. Woods yanked at my pants until he could get one hand down my underwear. I tried to make convincing oohing and aahing noises as he fumbled around my cunny and hoped he wouldn’t notice how dry it was.
Zach stared as if I had gone crazy. He knew me better than this. Over Woods’ shoulder, I watched the other Greenguard. They had almost reached the gate. I probably should have waited until they vanished into the city once more, but Woods wriggled his fingers like thrashing worms, trying to get them inside me. I wasn’t going to be able to fake interest for much longer.
“Come on. Just fuck me, Woods,” I breathed in his ear and gave it a nip for good measure. I shuddered.
He took a step back and started unbuckling his belt with hands that shook in excitement. I reached up and gripped the chains holding me. While Woods’ attention was fixed on fishing out his cock, I lifted my legs off the ground. He looked up just as I wrapped my legs around his neck.
I swear he smiled at first. Maybe the poor idiot thought I was up to something kinky. But I locked my ankles together behind Woods’ neck and squeezed his throat with my calves. His smile vanished and his eyes bulged.
I twisted my hips as hard as I could, but his damned neck didn’t break. It’s a lot harder to snap a human spine than anyone will tell you. There are bones and muscles and people tense up impressively when they’re frightened or angry. I jerked my hips again and again, hoping to hear that fateful snap. Woods grabbed my calves and tried to yank them apart as he stumbled.
Zach was shouting… something. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the Greenguard on the wall saw what was happening and our execution detail came running back. I squeezed harder, but my legs were locked around the sides of Woods’ neck, not really on his airway. His face was darkening, but the Blackthumb wasn’t going to pass out any time soon. Not before help arrived or my arms got too tired to hold me up.
Woods stopped trying to pry my legs open and pulled his knife. He slashed at my stomach, but I yanked him by the neck, grunting with the effort. His fucking spine still wouldn’t break, but Woods staggered and his blade sliced along the back of my leg instead of through my guts. I felt a hot line of pain down my thigh and gritted my teeth against a cry.
Woods slashed again. I jerked and his knife left another painful cut along my hip, but I pulled as hard as I could and Woods’ ankle turned. He toppled down at the base of the stake and my legs fell from around his neck. Woods coughed loudly once, but I couldn’t let him stand again.
I heaved myself up by the chains and then smashed both my feet down on his head. Woods hit the ground hard. I stomped on his neck and he gurgled. The Blackthumb grabbed his throat, so I kicked his head and blood pooled in the dust, garish and bright red. Woods went limp on the third blow, but I gave him one more kick, just to be sure.
“Julia, what the hell did you do?” Zach shouted.
I looked up. Our Greenguard escort — plus several more from the wall — were sprinting toward us. They would cover the few hundred yards between us in short order. I toed Woods’ body over and searched for his keys. He had fallen on top of them and I had to work my toes underneath to get them out. I trapped the key ring between my boots and tried to pull it off his belt. My arms ached and my legs burned, but I worked desperately.
At last, the keys came free. Carefully, I nudged them onto the top of my boot. A crossbow bolt whizzed past me, but I did my best to ignore it.
“Get ready, Zee!” I warned.
I kicked my foot up and sent the keys flying out toward him. Zach lunged and his chains rattled, but my aim was good and he caught the keys on one fingertip. He swore and fumbled for a better grip as another bolt slammed into the ground a few feet away. Two of the Blackthumbs had stopped to reload their crossbows, but the others were charging full speed toward us. We were out of time.
But then Zach was there next to me, jamming Woods’ key into my manacles. My hands fell out of the chains and my limp arms burned like I had sleeves full of fire ants. I squatted down over Woods’ body and grabbed his crossbow in shaking hands. I shoved it at Zach, then tossed him the quiver.
“Are you okay?” Zach asked, staring at the blood sheeting down my leg.
“No,” I said. “Of course I’m not okay!”
“You… you killed a Greenguard, Julia. Woods was one of us!”
“They tried to kill us, Zee. Do you want to die for Thorn’s lie? I sure as fuck don’t!”
I seized Woods’ knife from the sand where he had dropped it and snatched up his belt. Luckily, he had already unbuckled it. His cock was still horribly hard in his half-open fatigues.
“God forgive us,” Zach said.
But he checked the bolt in Woods’ crossbow, spun and fired back at the swiftly closing Greenguard. Zach’s bolt hit one of them in the thigh and the Blackthumb fell to the sand, clutching his leg.
Seven more Greenguard were still charging toward us. Too many… We turned the opposite direction and ran. A bolt thudded into the ground behind us; hitting a moving target is hard unless you’re really good. Zach could do it, but not very many others. We ran in a sidewinder pattern — anyone could score a lucky shot, after all, and I was limping — until we could dive behind the husk of a long-dead train sprawling through the sand like a discarded snakeskin.
Zach and I put our backs to the pitted and peeling train hull. Blood ran down my leg to leave dark stains in the sand. Zach worked the lever on his stolen crossbow, dropping a new bolt into place, and there was a metallic thunk as another one punched into the far side of our cover.
“We have to split up,” I said. “Make them divide their numbers.”
Zach considered, then nodded reluctantly. “Make them chase and search for us.”
“We’ll meet out there,” I said. I pointed west, toward the pale expanse of Pacific Desert.
“In the wastes? Julia, we can’t,” Zach protested. He paused to lean through a window and fire. There was a shout and then a thump. Another bolt shot past our cover as Zach ducked back down next to me. “We’ll die out there.”
“We’ll die here,” I pointed out. “We can’t go back to the city, can we?”
“Fair point,” Zach said. “Alright, we’ll meet where we lost the Whitefinger’s trail.”
“Good luck, Zee.”
“Stay alive, Julia. I’ll find you.”
He leaned out and fired again. When the pursuing Greenguard recoiled from his shot, Zach broke cover and ran for it. The pack shifted aim and loosed a storm of bolts at my partner. Way too many of them. I picked up a broken piece of concrete and heaved it as hard as I could. I didn’t hit any of the Blackthumbs, but it did get their attention.
I ran back down the length of the ancient train and slipped into the space between two cars, pressing myself against the corroded metal. My thigh and ass screamed in pain where Woods had cut me and my fatigues were sticky with blood. It was seeping down into my boot and my leg was shaking hard. Running was a losing game.
I fought to silence my rasping breath. The other Blackthumbs rounded the end of the train and began creeping carefully down its length. Their heavy boots crunched loud in the sand, but my hiding place wasn’t very good and they would see me soon. I gripped Wood’s belt in my mouth, then inched down into a painful squat. The pitted metal of the train was rough through my shirt and my injured leg threatened to drop me unceremoniously onto my ass.
I forced out the quietest hiss of labored breath I could and then rooted around the ground for another stone. The one I found wasn’t terribly large, but it was large enough. I leaned against the ruined train and pushed myself back up, using my good leg as much as possible. The footsteps were getting closer. I threw my rock over the roof of the train car and it rattled off the ancient metal, then thumped down into the sand.
The other Blackthumbs froze for a second and then started off toward the sound. If they had only looked to their right, they would have seen me, but their goggles were pointed straight in the direction of my rock. I leapt onto the closest one, half to surprise him, half just to make him bear my weight for a moment. I clung to him with one hand and jabbed my knife into his side with the other. I twisted the blade so the suction wouldn’t trap it in his body, ripped it out and stuck him again. The Blackthumb slumped and I let go to keep him from pulling me down to the ground.
The remaining Greenguard turned toward me. Her crossbow came up. At this range, even Woods couldn’t have missed. I grabbed the belt from my mouth and swung it at her. It was damned awkward with the added weight of Woods’ canteen, but the belt’s free end tangled around the crossbow and knocked it down. It made a muted twang and the bolt fell out into the sand.
The Blackthumb dropped her weapon and backed away. She drew her knife in a swift motion and held it out point-first. Her grip was disappointingly experienced. She circled me slowly, moving toward my wounded side. I pivoted on my good foot to keep her in front of me.
“I’m not a traitor,” I said.
“You just killed two Greenguard,” she answered.
“Well… yeah,” I admitted. “But they were trying to kill me. I’m not a Whitefinger and I’m not being controlled by their dreameaters. Thorn is lying!”
The Blackthumb’s only response was a low lunge with her knife. I jumped back, slapping at her wrist with my free hand. Her blade flicked past and only barely avoided slicing a chunk out of me. I slashed at her arm, but the other Greenguard leapt away much faster than I could limp after her.
I would have kicked sand up into her eyes, but she was wearing goggles. Good idea out here… Well, I would just have to be better than her. I feinted to one side and cried out as I put weight on my injured leg, faking a stumble that came way too close to being real. The other Blackthumb aimed a stab at my stomach and I let her arm pass under mine, then trapped it against my ribs. I switched my blade into my other hand and thrust it over her shoulder, into her neck.
The Blackthumb jerked back and pulled herself off the blade, but as soon as the obstruction was gone, bright blood spurted freely from the wound. She sank to her knees, but I didn’t approach until she dropped her knife. I reversed my grip and stabbed over her collarbone, down into her heart to finish the job.
I felt sick, but I buckled Woods’ belt around my waist and quickly searched the two new bodies. There would be more Blackthumbs hunting for me soon. I picked up one of the crossbows and collected all of the bolts. They had fired their quivers nearly empty during the chase, but each of the Greenguard carried a canteen of water.
I unhooked them from the other Blackthumbs’ belts and hung them on my own. The extra weight made me waddle and one of the canteens bumped agonizingly against my injured leg, but the water was too precious to leave behind. I took the fallen woman’s goggles and untied her bandana, too.
I crept back along the train and looked around. The shadows had grown shorter under the execution stakes, but not by much. Maybe twenty minutes had passed since Woods tried to grant my final wish, thinking to score with a dead woman. I spotted a knot of Greenguard moving back toward the city, dragging another green-clad shape between them. One of the Blackthumbs that Zach had wounded? I saw no sign of my partner, though. Time to go find him.
I turned my back on Angel City. I wasn’t welcome there anymore. To the west, the land stretched off into the vast white Pacific Desert. There wasn’t anything left for me in the Whisperward, but what else could possibly wait for me out there in the wastes? I didn’t know, but I began walking.
