Beyond Redemption (32 page)

Solitude is indeed dangerous for a working intelligence. We need to have around us people who think and speak. When we are alone for a long time we people the void with phantoms.

—G
UY DE
M
AUPASSANT

B
edeckt limped past Stehlen as she settled their account with the Ruchlos Arms.

“Don't kill anyone,” he whispered, and she shot him an annoyed look.

Wichtig followed close behind, guiding Morgen with a firm hand on the young lad's shoulder. The boy sported a bruised chin and a look of hurt betrayal. Wichtig, lost in his own doubtlessly shallow and self-centered thoughts, was oblivious.

“Are you sorry you hit me?” Morgen asked.

Wichtig grunted a laugh. “Apologies are for people who don't know they are doing what must be done.” He gave Morgen's shoulder a friendly squeeze.

“Then I'm sorry,” said Morgen.

“We can't all be me,” said Wichtig.

Bedeckt, focused on his many small pains, was only peripherally aware of their conversation. The street greeted him with the familiar stench of dysentery and poverty. The same wretched air he'd breathed in a dozen city-states. The scent of hopelessness. Watching the soiled earth, he sidestepped a heap of horse droppings swarming with dark flies, fat and wet. Bedeckt heard Wichtig swear as he narrowly avoided the same steaming pile.

Stehlen, having paid the innkeeper, followed Wichtig and the boy. Later, she promised, she would return, take back her hard-earned money, and kill the innkeeper, ensuring he didn't talk about his odd guests. Bedeckt still walked about with that cat-turd face like something bothered him and he couldn't let go of it.
Thinking too much never gets you anywhere and Bedeckt can overthink taking a shite
. The old man was growing soft and sloppy, but she would take care of him. Then, once they sold the boy and collected their loot, perhaps she would kill him for making her worry.

As they stopped at the tavern's entrance, Stehlen's nostrils flared as she took in the street's many scents. Her Kleptic-tuned senses muttered of danger and the need to hide. She looked past Bedeckt as he limped across the street directly toward a group of four people huddled in conversation. She could warn him, but not without giving herself away. She watched as the largest of the four looked up and saw Morgen. When the thunderous roar split the air, she'd already disappeared into the shadows.

“The boy is mine,” commanded Asena. “Kill the other two.”
Wasn't there a third?
She couldn't remember.

Torn between her need to obey Konig and her desire to talk
to Morgen, she hesitated to
twist
. Bär, Stich, and Masse suffered no such hesitation, the latter two collapsing as reality succumbed to their delusions. Bär moved fastest, and a colossal grizzly bear charged the ugly scarred man who was stopped in the center of the street. Stich, a swarm of glistening black scorpions, and Masse, a writhing knot of vipers, followed. Asena stood rooted, staring at Morgen, unable to decide. Obedience, loyalty, and love vied for dominance.

Bedeckt stopped dead in the middle of the street, startled by the deafening bellow. An enormous bear, towering easily three feet over his own considerable height, charged from across the street.

A bear? What the hells?

He swung the ax from its place on his back. It hung surprisingly heavy in his hand.

Behind the bear swarmed a throng of snakes and glistening black insects. He checked over his shoulder; Stehlen was nowhere in sight. Was she still inside? He had no idea. He saw Wichtig draw his swords and step in front of the boy. Bedeckt didn't have time to question what went on in the Swordsman's head. Wichtig's actions would no doubt be self-serving.

The earth shook as the bear charged.
How do you fight snakes and insects?
It didn't matter. One thing at a time.

Bedeckt forgot the weight of the ax.

Asena watched, astounded, as Bär crashed to the ground, his skull split by a thrown ax. He hadn't made it halfway to the man. Such a towering icon of vitality and strength dropped dead in a fraction of a second. It occurred to her they might have underestimated their opponents.

She saw the man with the matching blades—this must be
the Greatest Swordsman in the World—step forward to protect Morgen from the charging Tiergeist assassins. Never for a moment had she thought they might fail at their task, that she might not have to face the choice of killing Morgen or obeying Konig.

Asena stepped forward and then stopped as she caught the scent of sour body odor.

The snakes and insects—scorpions, Bedeckt could now discern—swarmed unhindered over the still-twitching corpse of the grizzly bear. His ax protruded from the monster's skull, tantalizingly near but far from reach. He found himself thinking back to when they had been attacked by albtraum, to the day he had not abandoned his companions. He'd saved both Stehlen and Wichtig's lives. He thought about Wichtig's endless attempts to manipulate him since.

To hells with them.

Bedeckt turned and fled.

Wichtig saw Bedeckt sprint away as fast as his ancient knees would carry him.

“You goat sticker!” he screamed.

Every nerve and sinew in his body begged to follow. Bedeckt was no fool, and if the bastard fled, there'd be a damned good reason for running.

Morgen stood behind him. They boy would never keep up.
Shite on it, leave him. Run, gods damn it, run!

No
.

This wasn't it. His destiny was not to die in this filthy piss-bucket city. Morgen said Wichtig would be the World's Greatest Swordsman. Hadn't he? Wichtig snarled a curse and charged. All he had to do was trust in his destiny.

Morgen watched Wichtig draw his blades and charge forward to confront the approaching snakes and scorpions. He watched the Swordsman go down as hundreds of vipers coiled about his legs and dragged him, screaming and thrashing, to the ground.

What had Wichtig been thinking? Had he meant to protect Morgen? Had he given his life in a selfless act just to buy Morgen time to flee?

Run. He should run. He should run now.

Why wasn't he running?

Because he knew these scorpions and snakes. This was Masse, and Stich! They would never hurt him.

Would they?