by Amy Cross
Before I have time to react, the man's fist slams into the side of my head. I slump to the ground, and for a couple of seconds I can barely even see properly. I quickly roll away, and I feel the ground shudder beneath my feet as I get up and turn to look back at the man. I can see again now, but he's already coming to me and when I try to duck out of the way, my feet stay planted to the ground for just a moment too long.
His knife slashes across my chest, but the blade doesn't quite tear through the fabric of my shirt. Still, as I pull away, I know I can't count on that luck forever.
“Run!” I yell at Nissa, who's staring at us with a terrified look on her face. “Get back to Steadfall! Right now! Run!”
She turns to run, but the man spots her and tries to grab her throat. Pulling away, Nissa stumbles and falls, and I watch in horror as she slips over the edge of the outcrop.
“No!” I yell, rushing to help her, only for a bone-armored arm to swing against my face and knock me back.
I fall to the ground, momentarily too stunned to react, and then I start hauling myself up. Before I can get to my feet, however, the man lunges at me again, and this time I let out a pained gasp as I feel his knife slice into my shoulder. I try to pull away, but the blade has caught on a bone and for a moment I'm powerless to fight back. I need to think of something, but -
Suddenly something slams into the back of the man's head, causing him to let go of the knife and cry out as he stumbles away.
Shocked, I see that Iris is right behind him, and she quickly hits him again with a large rock.
“The joins!” I stammer, stepping back and then slipping as my damaged ankle buckles. Dropping to my knees, I feel a twinge of pain at the base of my back. “Aim for the joins between the bones!”
The man swings his fist at Iris, and she barely ducks out of the way in time.
“I'm too slow!” I yell, sliding the knife over toward her. “Go for the joins!”
She picks the knife up, but I can see from the look in her eyes that she has no idea what to do next.
“Help!” Nissa yells, and I turn toward the edge of the outcrop. There's no sign of her, but she has to be hanging just out of sight. I step toward the edge, but the armored man lunges at me and slams into my shoulder, quickly pulling his knife away and then shoving me to the ground.
“Go low!” I shout, turning to Iris as I realize I'm going to have to tell her what to do. “Go for the exposed sections between the bone plates on his legs!”
She looks down at the knife in her hands, and then she looks up as the man lumbers toward her.
“The knees!” I scream. “Go for the knees!”
She swipes the knife at the man's knees, but she misses by a mile and then she has to duck out of the way as he tries to grab her.
“Again!” I yell. “You've got to slow him down!”
I start hauling myself up again, but the pain in my back is getting worse. Pain is one thing, but these old injuries have left me way less mobile than before and I can tell that I've lost a lot of the speed I used to use in fights. I've been avoiding combat for years, and how it's clear that was a good choice.
“Get his goddamn knees!” I shout at Iris, as I realize that maybe she's even worse than me. “Hobble the bastard!”
Chapter Thirty-One
Iris
“Get his goddamn knees!” Asher screams. “Hobble the bastard!”
Before I even have time to try again, the bone guy stumbles toward me and flashes his knife toward my face. I duck down and try to stab his right knee, but my blade scrapes harmlessly against one of the bones that's strapped to his legs. Instead of rolling away, however, I decide to try again, and this time the blade slides perfectly into the gap and straight into his knees.
He lets out a howl of pain, and I quickly pull the knife out before stabbing him again and again in the same spot.
Suddenly I feel something slash against the back of my neck. Scrambling out of the way, I touch the spot where I felt the pain, and sure enough there's blood running from a wound. Still, he didn't get me too deep, so I turn and duck out of the way as he comes at me again. This time, however, his leg buckles and he drops to his knees, letting out an angry roar in the process.
“Finish him off!” Asher yells, as she crawls toward the edge of the rocky outcrop. “Do it!”
I look for another gap in the guy's armor. He swings his knife at me and I step out of the way, and then I realize that my best bet is going to be slicing the knife between his rib-cage helmet. That means getting much closer, of course, and I can't help thinking that Asher would be a lot better at this. Still, as the guy mumbles something and struggles to his feet, I figure I don't exactly have time to stand around debating the issue, so I run at him and slash at his face with the knife.
I miss, and he swats me aside with a bone-armored arm, sending me crashing to the ground. I roll out of the way just as he slams the knife toward my face, and a fraction of a second later I hear a brief, loud snapping sound. Turning, I'm startled to see that the guy's knife actually broke when it hit the ground, leaving him with just a short, sharp stub of metal attached to the handle. Maybe I can -
Suddenly he comes at me again. I slash at his face, but he grabs my shoulder and slams the knife into my chest. Gasping, I feel a sharp pain digging into my left breast, although fortunately the broken blade is barely half an inch long. Still, he twists the handle and I cry out again, but then I turn my knife around and drive it between two of the ribs that cover his face. When that doesn't stop him, I pull the knife out and stab him again, then again and again, over and over until blood starts dribbling out between the ribs. Finally, feeling him starting to lean against me, I try to pull away, but he falls on top of me and we crash down to the ground together.
I cry out as the stub of his knife digs deeper into my chest, but all I can do is keep stabbing his face, hoping against hope that finally he'll die.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Asher
“Nissa!” I shout, scrambling to the edge of the outcrop and leaning over.
To my relief, I see that Nissa is clutching an overhanging piece of rock, holding on for dear life.
Reaching down, I grab her arm.
“It's okay!” I tell her. “I'm going to help you up!”
I haul her up and over the edge, and then I pull her several feet away from danger before finally letting go. Turning, I see that Iris is wriggling out from underneath the bone-armored man. It looks like she's finally got the better of that asshole, although she's bleeding from a wound on her chest. Still, right now my main concern is Nissa, so I turn back to her and see that she's shivering on the ground.
“It's okay,” I tell her, reaching out to take her hand, “I'm only -”
“Don't touch me!” she screams, suddenly pulling a knife from her belt and slashing it toward my face, missing by just an inch or two.
“Hey!” I hold my hands up, to show her that I'm not going to hurt her. “It's okay, you're safe now.”
“Who are you?” she stammers, before looking past me and watching Iris for a moment. “Iris, what are you doing here?”
“Who am I?” I ask, shocked that she doesn't recognize me. After all, we look so similar.
And then I realize the truth.
She was born and raised on the island. She's probably never seen her own reflection.
“If you move,” she sneers, with her knife still aimed at my face as she gets to her feet, “I'll kill you!”
“I'm not going to hurt you,” I reply.
“Yeah, well I'm going to hurt you if you make a move!”
“I'm not going to make any moves,” I tell her. “Let's just calm the situation down, okay? Iris and I are friends. We've known each other for years.”
“Then how come I've never seen you around Steadfall?”
Turning, I see that Iris is limping this way. There's blood on the front of her tunic, but the bleeding looks to have stopped. When I turn back to Nissa, I realize
that she's staring at me as if she genuinely sees me as her enemy.
“I came to help you,” I explain. “I heard you crying out and -”
“Fine, you helped me,” Nissa replies, interrupting me. “Thanks, but it doesn't mean I owe you anything. You can leave now!”
I open my mouth to tell her that I'm her mother, but the words catch in my throat. After all this time, I never expected to come face to face with her like this. I thought I'd simply watch her from afar, and that I'd never need to let her know that I'm alive. After all, I'm better off alone and she doesn't really need me, not when she has so many people at Steadfall.
“I'm just someone who was passing through,” I tell her cautiously, before turning and seeing that Iris is watching me. She doesn't seem impressed. “That's all,” I continue, before turning back to Nissa. “Just a passerby who saw two people who needed help.”
Nissa stares at me for a moment.
“I'm just a stranger who was glad to help,” I explain, before taking a step back. “Nothing more, nothing less. I'll be on my way now.”
I hesitate for a moment, before glancing at Iris and then turning to walk away.
“You're a liar!” Nissa says suddenly.
I stop and look back at her.
“Two minutes ago,” she continues, “you said you know Iris. You used her name and you said you've been friends from years. So you're not just someone who was passing by.” She pauses, and now I swear I can see a hint of fear in her eyes. “Who are you really?”
“I'm just someone who used to hang around at Steadfall,” I reply, although I'm aware that my excuses must be getting painfully thin by now. “I'm not anyone important.”
“If you were at Steadfall,” she stammers, “why did you leave?”
“Some people don't like being around other people,” I point out. “People come to the island to get away from rules and laws, not to follow different ones.”
“Who is she?” Nissa asks, turning to Iris.
Iris glances at me, and I can tell from the look in her eyes that she thinks I should come clean. I don't know whether this is something she works on, or something that's come naturally from her being mute for over a decade, but Iris can often say so much with just a glance.
“I already told you,” I say finally, turning back to Nissa, “I'm no-one.”
“I don't believe you.”
She doesn't know.
She can't know.
She's just a very smart kid who's had to grow up fast.
“Fine,” she adds, crossing her arms. “We don't need you anyway. It's not like you were even very good in that fight. It was Iris who killed the bad guy.”
“Oh yeah?” I reply, before realizing this really isn't the moment to start defending my honor. What little honor I've got left, at least.
“Go on,” Nissa continues, “get lost. You're holding us up. Isn't that right, Iris?”
Iris doesn't reply. She's still watching me intently.
“I have places to go,” I say with a sigh, turning to walk away. “Go back to Steadfall, little girl, and make sure you don't run off again.”
“I don't need your advice,” she replies, “I'm fine with -”
Suddenly she lets out a gasp of pain.
Turning, I see that she's stumbled, and a moment later I spot a patch of blood soaking through the left knee of her tunic.
“Let me see that,” I tell her, hurrying over to get a closer look.
“I'm fine!” she gasps, although – as she rolls the fabric up – I see that there's a large gash on her leg, with blood already dribbling down to her ankle.
“Sit down,” I continue, “and we'll take a look at that.”
“It doesn't hurt!”
“Of course it hurts, and it could get infected.”
“So? Olivia can look at it when we get back to Steadfall.”
“I want to look at it now!” I say firmly, putting a hand on her shoulder, only for her to push my hand away. “Listen, Nissa, even just the walk back to Steadfall could cause more damage. You're going to sit down and let me check there's nothing lodged in there!”
“No!”
She pushes me away again, and this time there's real anger in her voice.
“Iris can look at it!” she continues, turning and limping over toward Iris. “It's only -”
Suddenly she gasps again, and this time she stumbles, dropping onto her knees. I hurry over to steady her, and this time it's abundantly clear that she's in more pain than she's letting on.
“We need to clean that wound,” I point out, before turning to Iris. “I know a place, not far from here. We need to get some water on the wound and then clean it before an infection can set in.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Iris
“That stings!” Nissa gasps as I pour more water onto her wound. “Stop!”
“Let her do it,” Asher says firmly, watching over my shoulder. I know she wants to be the one cleaning Nissa's injury, but of course Nissa refused point-blank. “It's keeping you alive.”
“I could have walked back to Steadfall!”
“Do you have any idea how bad an infection can get?” Asher continues. “We don't have treatment gels or Inumoprofen here!”
“What are treatment gels and Imuno... Inuma... Whatever it's called, what is it?”
“Medicine from the mainland,” Asher says with a sigh. “The kind of stuff we agreed to live without when we chose to come to the island.”
“I don't need medicine,” Nissa mutters. “Olivia knows how to clean wounds using things she finds in the forest. She's really good at helping people.”
“Not people with infections,” Asher replies, sounding more and more tense now. “Listen, can you just keep your mouth shut for five minutes while Iris finishes up? Then you can leave. You're giving me a headache.”
“Yeah,” Nissa sneers, “well you're giving me a headache.”
I hear a sigh, followed by the sound of Asher wandering away across the clearing.
“I don't like her,” Nissa continues, lowering her voice a little. “I don't like her face.”
Glancing up at her, I see more or less the same face staring back at me. Sure, Nissa's only nine years old, but there's plenty of Asher in her features. Not that she'd know that, of course, since we don't have any mirrors on the island.
“You're not going to invite her back to Steadfall, are you?” Nissa asks. “I feel like she's someone who makes trouble. We should just leave her out here to wander around by herself. It's obvious that's what she wants, anyway, and -”
Suddenly she gasps again, as I snag a thread of torn skin on her leg.
“Is it going to take much longer?” she continues. “It really hurts.”
***
“When you get back to Steadfall,” Asher says a short while later, as she and I watch Nissa limping around to check her leg, “make sure Olivia cleans the wound twice a day.”
I nod.
“Maybe even three times.”
I nod again.
“And you have to monitor for a fever. If her temperature starts going up, tell Olivia to -”
I put a hand on her shoulder, which causes her to stop talking for a moment.
“Sure,” she mutters, “I know, she's going to be fine. But she wouldn't have been, not if she'd insisted on walking all the way back to Steadfall without getting that wound dressed. What was she doing out here all alone, anyway? It's a miracle we managed to rescue her from that freak.”
She pauses for a moment, watching Nissa, and I can tell that something's troubling her.
“She doesn't know who I am,” she adds finally. “I thought she'd see the resemblance, but she's never seen her own face, has she? It's crazy, the things we don't have here on the island. I haven't seen my own face, either, not for more than a decade. I guess I must look older. More weathered.”
As she says those words, I feel a shudder pass through my chest. I've been very aware for a while now that I do
n't know what I look like since my injuries. When Vargas cut my tongue out, I suffered some small extra injuries around the edges of my mouth, and I'm pretty sure I have scars. I was never exactly beautiful to begin with, but these days I occasionally catch people looking at me as if I'm some kind of monster. Even if I had access to a mirror now, I'm not sure – after more than a decade on the island – that I'd want to look.
“You should get her back to Steadfall,” Asher continues, as a few drops of rain start fall. “There's bad weather coming in.”
I nod.
“And don't let her run off again,” she continues. “It's a miracle we managed to save her, and we can't rely on miracles. She needs to be safe, she needs...”
I wait for her to finish that sentence, but I think I know what she was going to say.
She's wondering whether Nissa would be better off on the mainland. Not that there's any way to get her there, of course, but I've got to admit that it's hard to imagine Nissa spending her entire life in this place. Never seeing the mainland, never seeing the rest of the world, never knowing what's out there. The rest of us chose to come to the island, but Nissa was born here.
And one day she'll die here.
“This rain's getting bad,” Asher says, as a torrential downpour starts. We both step back under the bough of a nearby tree, and a moment later Nissa runs to join us. “I know a place we can shelter, but only until the worst of the rain has passed. Then you both have to go back to Steadfall.”
“Says who?” Nissa asks.
“Says me!”
“Yeah, but you're not in charge of anyone,” Nissa continues. “If I want to go and explore the island, that's up to me.”
“Let's just get to the caves,” Asher mutters, turning and hurrying away through the forest. She says something else, but the sound of pouring rain drowns her out.
“Are we really going with her?” Nissa asks, sounding annoyed. “I don't like her one bit.”
