down the slope and into the rapids below.
Liv froze. She held her breath.
Creedmoor’s face went red, and the veins on his neck bulged. He drew his Gun and he fired again and again into the rocks, shattering them into bloodred dust; he was screaming in rage and the Gun was screaming, too, in its way; she could not tell which one controlled the other.
Suddenly it was over.
—What shall we do what shall we do? All of them dead! Fanshawe dead! First Abban then Fanshawe! And Keane and whoever-the-fuck else! They were to spirit us to safety what shall we do now?
The place inside Creedmoor’s head where he spoke to his master was still again, dark again. It stank of powder, and the darkness echoed dully and throbbed with blood; but their rage was exhausted. The voice came back to him:
—We are thinking.
—You were supposed to have thought before we embarked on this venture my friend now where are your plans?
—We are thinking. It is hard. It is . . . noisy in our Lodge. Our siblings’ bodies were broken. Belphegor, who rode Fanshawe. Yblis, who rode Mary. Gorgon, who rode Black Roth. Their spirits released in pain. You cannot imagine how we feel pain. Their spirits have returned to us; now they must be reborn in new hosts and rebirth is painful and noisy. We can think of little else but vengeance. The flames rise.
Creedmoor waited.
—Stephen Sutter fled Greenbank. He would not return to battle. We struck him down by the Goad, and he died in a ditch. We were angry and in pain. It was unwise.
—I don’t care I don’t give the least fraction of a shit what happened to Sutter what will happen to me?
—We are still thinking. For now, you must flee.
—The Line is all around me! My time is running out!
—You must flee west of here.
—There is nothing west of here.
—We know. You must go into uncharted lands. Nameless and unmade lands. Unsettled lands. It will be . . . strange.
—No.
—They will not expect it.
—And if they do? If they follow us? We will go farther and farther from any allies.
—And so will they. They will pursue you, but the western lands will wear them down. It will be hard for you but harder for them. You will not be coming home for a long time. It is the only choice. We have decided.
—West of this place is uncreated land you bastard the lights and the sea and the storms and the wildness and the nightmares and the monsters I will go mad I won’t go.
—Of course you will go, Creedmoor. It is the only way out of this trap. Go now.
—You piece of shit Marmion you pieces of shit all of you I pray the Line destroys and devours you but only after I am gone safely to my grave so so be it then: west it is.
Liv’s horse had fled a little way when the shooting began. Not far. Now it waited nervously, and Liv waited with it.
She watched Creedmoor lower his Gun. He put his head in his hand and his chest rose and fell as he breathed slowly, deeply.
She didn’t dare move.
At last he lifted his head and turned to Liv.
“Liv? Still here? Good. Our plans have changed. We will not be continuing to Greenbank and to old dear friends and east to civilization and to warm baths and a change of clothes and the councils of our betters. We will be fleeing west, into uncharted, uncreated lands. We will be pioneers.”
He pointed with a grand flourish across the valley below, in a direction that Liv supposed was westward. He smiled as if he were trying to sell it to her.
The river below was wide and white-rushing. Its banks were stony and the river itself broke around sharp black rocks. Her heart clenched at the thought of fording it. Beyond the river were sandy plains of yellow grass and a dark forest of tangled oaks; hills and a forest of pine; sharp hills like broken teeth for miles and miles, under a haze of heat and clouds; blue mountains wreathed in white—And Creedmoor’s grinning teeth were discolored and uneven, and his eyes bloodshot.
“Let me go, Creedmoor.”
“No.”
Lowry got nothing out of Fanshawe. He worked Fanshawe over, and the old man just kept laughing through bloodied broken teeth. Lowry’s satisfaction in the task didn’t last long, and after it was gone, the job still stretched out ahead of him through a long, long afternoon