The Witch's Daughter - Laken Cane Page 0,49
others as though nothing had happened.
There were fewer of them, and some of them looked like they’d been hit hard, but they were there.
“What the fuck,” Rune murmured, “can they do against the witch?”
What could she do against the witch?
“It isn’t just the zombies,” Owen said. “It’s the zombies and the rebels and every enemy she ever made who dares to stand up and fight.” His smile was slight beneath the brim of his hat. “And there’s you.”
She shook her head and drank the coffee Ian handed her. “I don’t seem to be much of a savior here, cowboy.”
“It’s your destiny,” Ian said. “The killing of the witch is your destiny.”
“I’m a lucky girl.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “You are.”
“Strangers approaching,” one of the men called. Mel, she thought, though neither he nor Olson talked enough for her to differentiate between their voices.
She and Ian strode toward the guards who had left earlier to check out the area. The uneven circle of zombies never moved.
“Must be okay,” Rune guessed. “If they sensed danger, they’d attack the strangers.”
“Probably,” Ian said. “But let’s be careful just in case.”
She frowned. “I’m not a careless person, Ian.”
“I’m sorry. I never meant—”
She waved impatiently. “Not important. I’m in a bitchy mood.”
“There they are,” Mel said, pointing.
A small, ragged group of people stood just beyond the line of zombies, waiting. They didn’t seem terrified of the strange lookalikes, but neither did they seem overly calm.
“They want food,” Jim said, appearing suddenly beside Rune.
“Shit!” She put a hand to her chest. “Don’t fucking sneak up on me.” She took a breath. “How do you know what they want?”
“Nomadic, shimmerless bands always want food,” Ian explained. “Some of them survive by hunting what they can, but mostly they just travel around, trying to avoid the lords’ attention, and beg for food, clothing, whatever they can get.”
“Are they criminals?” she asked. “Wanted?”
Ian gave her an odd look. “Everyone here is a criminal in some way, Princess. And the only time a person is wanted is if a shimmer lord thinks it will gain him something to retrieve them.”
“Skyll is a fucked up place,” she said.
“Yeah. But it doesn’t have to be. Peace, equality, the rights of the shimmer subjects…all those are things Skyll once possessed.”
“But over time, the lords got greedy and the people grew weak,” Jim said. “And Damascus…she spends her days thinking up ways to make everything just a little bit worse.”
“That’s what all the shimmer lords do,” Ian said. “Fight and plot and attempt to destroy each other. And all they will succeed in doing is destroying the people who must live here.”
They approached the band of people cautiously. Ian, Jim, and Mel had their weapons out, but Rune kept her claws sheathed.
She counted six people, and she could tell from the way their torn, ragged clothes hung on their extremely thin frames that not one of them was healthy. They were starving.
“Hello,” she said. “Can we help you?”
There were four women and two men. The women had their hair and faces covered, with only their eyes showing. They were dressed in identical, threadbare skirts that reached their knees, worn brown leather boots, and gray, shapeless tops.
The men wore loose pants and the same shapeless gray tops as the women. Their faces were half covered by scruffy beards and mustaches.
One of the women stepped forward. “Would you share some scraps of food? Leftovers, garbage, we’re not picky. Anything you don’t want, we’ll take, and gladly.”
They were all too skinny, with lackluster hair, pale, waxy skin, and sunken eyes.
One of them sniffed the air like a wolf, and the woman who’d spoken closed her fist and hit him in the temple, sending him reeling. “We’re not wild animals,” she snarled.
Ian had cut thick slices of pork to fry for their breakfast, and the scent still lingered in the air.
Rune’s stomach tightened with pity. “Follow me. We’ll feed you.”
The strangers vibrated with eagerness.
“Feed us?” the woman asked. “You want us to come into your camp?”
“Yes,” Rune said, ignoring Ian’s sharp look of disapproval. “That’s exactly what I want. Follow us.”
The strangers exchanged quick looks.
“We thank you,” the woman said.
Rune turned around, motioned to her men, and began to walk back to camp. After a few seconds, she threw a glance over her shoulder. The shimmerless were creeping along behind her, silent and still a little disbelieving.
“What makes people shimmerless?” Rune asked Ian, her voice quiet.
He shrugged. “Lots of reasons. Some of them refuse to align themselves with a lord. Some