“Let’s go fetch the hand and wake the Army of Crap and Incompetence,” Rune replied. She wasn’t holding out any hope the hand would actually be found, but she was willing to give it a shot.
They ducked, fought, and sliced their way through the overwhelming crowds of people to run finally through the gates of the city.
“Where’s Nadaline?” Rune asked.
“Already inside,” Z answered.
The city wasn’t safe, but it was emptier of the witch’s people than it had been. Not that it really mattered—there was no chance of sneaking in under the radar after the attack.
The city was destroyed. Little remained but crumbling walls, destroyed roads, burnt buildings, and muddy, filthy lands.
But as they ran through the rubble, she caught sight of other things.
People missing limbs and faces and, in some cases, heads, hung from tall poles. She saw the heads later, impaled on long, sharp stakes decorating the sides of roads.
Clouds of despair and dread floated in the air, sapping her strength, muddying her thinking, and squeezing her brain with a sort of depression she’d never felt before.
“Fight through it,” Blue said, as they jogged through the horror. “It’s a spell to control the people. It’ll get better.”
“Fuck you,” Rune managed, barely able to breathe. “I know that’s a lie.”
As long as Damascus the Witch lived, nothing would ever get better.
The scenery didn’t improve. If anything, it got worse. The entire city was bloody and reeked of rotting flesh.
“Rebels,” a woman yelled, and jumped a ditch full of sewage to run at the crew.
“She’s insane,” Blue murmured.
Rune stopped to watch, unsure how Blue would deal with one of her own.
Blue drove her sword through the woman’s heart, not even hesitating. Then she turned and jogged back to Rune and Z, wiping her blade on her pants. “All clear.”
“Why’d you kill her?” Rune asked, when Blue fell into step beside her. “She could have fought with us. We need all the fighters we can get.”
“She was insane,” Blue said, her voice flat. “She wasn’t going to turn against Damascus and the legislators anyway.”
“You knew her.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yup.” Blue didn’t elaborate, and Rune didn’t press her.
It was a strange world.
A terrible world.
She glanced at Z and thought that maybe she could learn to live in such a world. If Damascus died, it’d be just another world.
A world lacking her crew. Lacking Ellie, Gunnar, Bill, Eugene…
What were they doing right then? Were they in trouble?
Yeah. Likely, they were.
But Skyll held Z.
She blew out a hard breath. “Where the fuck are we going?” She didn’t care that she sounded angry. She was angry. “Is the plan to just run through the city until the hand jumps out in front of us?”
A small knot of men, battered and filthy, limped away as quickly as they could when they spotted Rune and the others.
The people who were actually able to fight streamed in chaotic groups toward the city gates as word spread. Maybe they wanted to fight, or maybe they just wanted to escape.
They left scores of crippled, sick, and dead.
“There’s a cemetery,” Z told her.
“Where the dead stirred,” Blue said. “Naddy will be there already.”
“She shouldn’t have gone alone,” Z said.
Rune slowed her pace, just a little, hoping no one noticed. Her monster was getting its ass kicked by the rotting disease and she was unsure how much longer she could function at a high enough level to make a difference.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the disease was overpowering her.
Some redeemer she was turning out to be.
“She’ll be all right.” Blue tossed a quick look over her shoulder at Rune, then slowed a little until she was once again beside her.
Z did the same, but he frowned. “Rune?”
She gave him a careless wave. Fuck them for noticing everything. “Just taking in the sights, baby.”
He nodded, but said nothing.
“Look,” Blue said. “Up there.” She pointed to the left and slightly in front of them, where a row of sharpened poles had been planted in a destroyed, scorched field. Tiny fires continued to halfheartedly burn, and the scent of ash and smoke hung heavy in the air.
Birds feasted upon the people who’d been beaten and lashed to the poles. People who’d likely still been alive when the birds had found them.
“What it is?” Z asked, still watching Rune.
“There’s one of them alive,” Rune answered, catching sight of movement on one of the tall poles.
Blue gave a nod. “I’ll put her out of her misery.”
“Wait,” Rune said, her voice sharp. “Give her a fucking