Dangerous Women

by Unknown

  She rammed her arm in farther. Sparks shot out its back, spraying like a bucket of wash water. Silence gasped at the horrid, icy pain. Her knife slipped from fingers she could no longer feel. She lurched forward, falling to her knees as the second shade fell backward, then began spinning about in a mad spiral. The first one flopped on the ground like a dying fish, trying to rise, but its top half fell over.

  The cold of her arm was so bitter. She stared at the wounded arm, watching the flesh of her hand wither upon itself, pulling in toward the bone.

  She heard weeping.

  You stand there, Silence. Grandmother’s voice. Memories of the first time she’d killed a shade. You do as I say. No tears! Forescouts don’t cry. Forescouts DON’T CRY.

  She had learned to hate her that day. Ten years old, with her little knife, shivering and weeping in the night as her grandmother had enclosed her and a drifting shade in a ring of silver dust.

  Grandmother had run around the perimeter, enraging it with motion. While Silence was trapped in there. With death.

  The only way to learn is to do, Silence. And you’ll learn, one way or another!

  “Mother!” William Ann said.

  Silence blinked, coming out of the memory as her daughter dumped silver dust on the exposed arm. The withering stopped as William Ann, choking against her thick tears, dumped the entire pouch of emergency silver over the hand. The metal reversed the withering, and the skin turned pink again, the blackness melting away in sparks of white.

  Too much, Silence thought. William Ann had used all of the silver dust in her haste, far more than one wound needed. It was difficult to summon any anger, for feeling flooded back into her hand and the icy cold retreated.

  “Mother?” William Ann asked. “I left you, as you said. But he was so heavy, I didn’t get far. I came back for you. I’m sorry. I came back for you!”

  “Thank you,” Silence said, breathing in. “You did well.” She reached up and took her daughter by the shoulder, then used the once-withered hand to search in the grass for Grandmother’s knife. When she brought it up, the blade was blackened in several places but still good.

  Back on the road, the city men had made a circle and were holding off the shades with silver-tipped spears. The horses had all fled or been consumed. Silence fished on the ground, coming up with a small handful of silver dust. The rest had been expended in the healing. Too much.

  No use worrying about that now, she thought, stuffing the handful of dust in her pocket. “Come,” she said, hauling herself to her feet. “I’m sorry I never taught you to fight them.”

  “Yes you did,” William Ann said, wiping her tears. “You’ve told me all about it.”

  Told. Never shown. Shadows, Grandmother. I know I disappoint you, but I won’t do it to her. I can’t. But I am a good mother. I will protect them.

  The two left the mushrooms, taking up their grisly prize again and tromping through the Forests. They passed more darkened shades floating toward the fight. All of those sparks would draw them. The city men were dead. Too much attention, too much struggle. They’d have a thousand shades upon them before the hour was out.

  Silence and William Ann moved slowly. Though the cold had mostly retreated from Silence’s hand, there was a lingering … something. A deep shiver. A limb touched by the shades wouldn’t feel right for months.

  That was far better than what could have happened. Without William Ann’s quick thinking, Silence could have become a cripple. Once the withering settled in—that took a little time, though it varied—it was irreversible.

  Something rustled in the woods. Silence froze, causing William Ann to stop and glance about.

  “Mother?” William Ann whispered.

  Silence frowned. The night was so black, and they’d been forced to leave their lights. Something’s out there, she thought, trying to pierce the darkness. What are you? God Beyond, protect them if the fighting had drawn one of the Deepest Ones.

  The sound did not repeat. Reluctantly, Silence continued on. They walked for a good hour, and in the darkness Silence hadn’t realized they’d neared the roadway again until they stepped onto it.

  Silence heaved out a breath, setting down their burden and rolling her tired arms in their joints. Some light from the Starbelt filtered down upon them, illuminating something like a large jawbone to their left. The Old Bridge. They were almost home. The shades here weren’t even agitated; they moved with their lazy, almost butterfly, gaits.

  Her arms felt so sore. That body felt as if it were getting heavier every moment. Men often didn’t realize how heavy a corpse was. Silence sat down. They’d rest for a time before continuing on. “William Ann, do you have any water left in your canteen?”

  William Ann whimpered.

  Silence started, then scrambled to her feet. Her daughter stood beside the bridge, and something dark stood behind her. A green glow suddenly illuminated the night as the figure took out a small vial of glowpaste. By that sickly light, Silence could see that the figure was Red.

  He held a dagger to William Ann’s neck. The city man had not fared well in the fighting. One eye was now a milky white, half his face blackened, his lips pulled back from his teeth. A shade had gotten him across the face. He was lucky to be alive.

  “I figured you’d come back this way,” he said, the words slurred by his shriveled lips. Spittle dripped from his chin. “Silver. Give me your silver.”

  His knife … it was common steel.

  “Now!” he roared, pulling the knife closer to William Ann’s neck. If he so much as nicked her, the shades would be upon them in heartbeats.

  “I only have the knife,” William Ann lied, taking it out and tossing it to the ground before him. “It’s too late for your face, Red. That withering has set in.”

  “I don’t care,” he hissed. “Now the body. Step away from it, woman. Away!”

  Silence stepped to the side. Could she get to him before he killed William Ann? He’d have to grab that knife. If she sprang just right …

  “You killed my men,” Red growled. “They’re dead, all of them. God, if I hadn’t rolled into the hollow … I had to listen to it. Listen to them being slaughtered!”

  “You were the only smart one,” she said. “You couldn’t have saved them, Red.”

  “Bitch! You killed them.”

  “They killed themselves,” she whispered. “You come to my Forests, take what is mine? It was your men or my children, Red.”

  “Well, if you want your child to live through this, you’ll stay very still. Girl, pick up that knife.”

  Whimpering, William Ann knelt. Red mimicked her, staying just behind her, watching Silence, holding the knife steady. William Ann picked up the knife in trembling hands.

  Red pulled the silver knife from William Ann, then held it in one hand, the common knife at her neck in the other. “Now the girl is going to carry the corpse, and you’re going to wait right there. I don’t want you coming near.”

  “Of course,” Silence said, already planning. She couldn’t afford to strike right now. He was too careful. She would follow through the Forests, along the road, and wait for a moment of weakness. Then she’d strike.

  Red spat to the side.

  Then a padded crossbow bolt shot from the night and took him in the shoulder, jolting him. His blade slid across William Ann’s neck and a dribble of blood ran down it. The girl’s eyes widened in horror, though it was little more than a nick. The danger to her throat wasn’t important.

  The blood was.

  Red tumbled back, gasping, hand to his shoulder. A few drops of blood glistened on his knife. The shades in the Forests around them went black. Glowing green eyes burst alight, then deepened to crimson.

  Red eyes in the night. Blood in the air.

  “Oh, hell!” Red screamed. “Oh, hell.” Red eyes swarmed around him. There was no hesitation here, no confusion. They went straight for the one who had drawn blood.

  Silence reached for William Ann as th
e shades descended. Red grabbed the girl around and shoved her through a shade, trying to stop it. He spun and dashed the other direction.

  William Ann passed through the shade, her face withering, skin pulling in at the chin and around the eyes. She stumbled through the shade and into Silence’s arms.

  Silence felt an immediate, overwhelming panic.

  “No! Child, no. No. No …”

  William Ann worked her mouth, making a choking sound, her lips pulling back toward her teeth, her eyes open wide as her skin pulled back and her eyelids shriveled.

  Silver. I need silver. I can save her. Silence snapped her head up, clutching William Ann. Red ran down the roadway, slashing the silver dagger all about, spraying light and sparks. Shades surrounded him. Hundreds, like ravens flocking to a roost.

  Not that way. The shades would finish with him soon and would look for flesh—any flesh. William Ann still had blood on her neck. They’d come for her next. Even without that, the girl was withering fast.

  The dagger wouldn’t be enough to save William Ann. Silence needed dust, silver dust, to force down her daughter’s throat. Silence fumbled in her pocket, coming out with the small bit of silver dust there.

  Too little. She knew that would be too little. Her grandmother’s training calmed her mind, and everything became immediately clear.

  The waystop was close. She had more silver there.

  “M … Mother …”

  Silence heaved William Ann into her arms. Too light, the flesh drying. Then she turned and ran with everything she had across the bridge.

  Her arms stung, weakened from having hauled the corpse so far. The corpse … she couldn’t lose it!

  No. She couldn’t think on that. The shades would have it, as warm enough flesh, soon after Red was gone. There would be no bounty. She had to focus on William Ann.

  Silence’s tears felt cold on her face as she ran, wind blowing her. Her daughter trembled and shook in her arms, spasming as she died. She’d become a shade if she died like this.

  “I won’t lose you!” Silence said into the night. “Please. I won’t lose you …”

  Behind her, Red screamed a long, wailing screech of agony that cut off at the end as the shades feasted. Near her, other shades stopped, eyes deepening to red.

  Blood in the air. Eyes of crimson.

  “I hate you,” Silence whispered into the air as she ran. Each step was agony. She was growing old. “I hate you! What you did to me. What you did to us.”

  She didn’t know if she was speaking to Grandmother or the God Beyond. So often, they were the same in her mind. Had she ever realized that before?

  Branches lashed at her as she pushed forward. Was that light ahead? The waystop?

  Hundreds upon hundreds of red eyes opened in front of her. She stumbled to the ground, spent, William Ann like a heavy bundle of branches in her arms. The girl trembled, her eyes rolled back in her head.

  Silence held out the small bit of silver dust she’d recovered earlier. She longed to pour it on William Ann, save her a little pain, but she knew with clarity that was a waste. She looked down, crying, then took the pinch and made a small circle around the two of them. What else could she do?

  William Ann shook with a seizure as she rasped, drawing in breaths and clawing at Silence’s arms. The shades came by the dozens, huddling around the two of them, smelling the blood. The flesh.

  Silence pulled her daughter close. She should have gone for the knife after all; it wouldn’t heal William Ann, but she could have at least fought with it.

  Without that, without anything, she failed. Grandmother had been right all along.

  “Hush now, my dear one …” Silence whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. “Be not afraid.”

  Shades came at her frail barrier, throwing up sparks, making Silence open her eyes. They backed away, then others came, beating against the silver, their red eyes illuminating writhing black forms.

  “Night comes upon us,” Silence whispered, choking at the words, “but sunlight will break.”

  William Ann arched her back, then fell still.

  “Sleep now … my … my dear one … Let your tears fade. Darkness surrounds us, but someday … we’ll wake …”

  So tired. I shouldn’t have let her come.

  If she hadn’t, Chesterton would have gotten away from her, and she’d have probably died to the shades then. William Ann and Sebruki would have become slaves to Theopolis, or worse.

  No choices. No way out.

  “Why did you send us here?” she screamed, looking up past hundreds of glowing red eyes. “What is the point?”

  There was no answer. There was never an answer.

  Yes, that was light ahead; she could see it through the low tree branches in front of her. She was only a few yards from the waystop. She would die, like Grandmother had, mere paces from her home.

  She blinked, cradling William Ann as the tiny silver barrier failed.

  That … that branch just in front of her. It had such a very odd shape. Long, thin, no leaves. Not like a branch at all. Instead, like …

  Like a crossbow bolt.

  It had lodged into the tree after being fired from the waystop earlier in the day. She remembered facing down that bolt earlier, staring at its reflective end.

  Silver.

  Silence Montane crashed through the back door of the waystop, hauling a desiccated body behind her. She stumbled into the kitchen, barely able to walk, and dropped the silver-tipped bolt from a withered hand.

  Her skin continued to pull tight, her body shriveling. She had not been able to avoid withering, not when fighting so many Shades. The crossbow bolt had merely cleared a path, allowing her to push forward in a last, frantic charge.

  She could barely see. Tears streamed from her clouded eyes. Even with the tears, her eyes felt as dry as if she had been standing in the wind for an hour while holding them wide open. Her lids refused to blink, and she couldn’t move her lips.

  She had … powder. Didn’t she?

  Thought. Mind. What?

  She moved without thought. Jar on the windowsill. In case of broken circle. She unscrewed the lid with fingers like sticks. Seeing them horrified a distant part of her mind.

  Dying. I’m dying.

  She dunked the jar of silver powder in the water cistern and pulled it out, then stumbled to William Ann. She felt to her knees beside the girl, spilling much of the water. The rest she dumped on her daughter’s face with a shaking arm.

  Please. Please.

  Darkness.

  “We were sent here to be strong,” Grandmother said, standing on the cliff edge overlooking the waters. Her whited hair curled in the wind, writhing, like the wisps of a shade.

  She turned back to Silence, and her weathered face was covered in droplets of water from the crashing surf below. “The God Beyond sent us. It’s part of the plan.”

  “It’s so easy for you to say that, isn’t it?” Silence spat. “You can fit anything into that nebulous plan. Even the destruction of the world itself.”

  “I won’t hear blasphemy from you, child.” A voice like boots stepping in gravel. She walked toward Silence. “You can rail against the God Beyond, but it will change nothing. William was a fool and an idiot. You are better off. We are Forescouts. We survive. We will be the ones to defeat the Evil, someday.” She passed Silence by.

  Silence had never seen a smile from Grandmother, not since her husband’s death. Smiling was wasted energy. And love … love was for the people back in Homeland. The people who’d died to the Evil.

  “I’m with child,” Silence said.

  Grandmother stopped. “William?”

  “Who else?”

  Grandmother continued on.

  “No condemnations?” Silence asked, turning, folding her arms.

  “It’s done,” Grandmother said. “We are Forescouts. If this is how we must continue, so be it. I’m more worried about the waystop, and meeting our payments to those damn forts.”
r />   I have an idea for that, Silence thought, considering the lists of bounties she’d begun collecting. Something even you wouldn’t dare. Something dangerous. Something unthinkable.

  Grandmother reached the woods and looked at Silence, scowled, then pulled on her hat and stepped into the trees.

  “I will not have you interfering with my child,” Silence called after her. “I will raise my own as I will!”

  Grandmother vanished into the shadows.

  Please. Please.

  “I will!”

  I won’t lose you. I won’t …

  Silence gasped, coming awake and clawing at the floorboards, staring upward.

  Alive. She was alive!

  Dob the stableman knelt beside her, holding the jar of powdered silver. She coughed, lifting fingers—plump, the flesh restored—to her neck. It was hale though ragged from the flakes of silver that had been forced down her throat. Her skin was dusted with black bits of ruined silver.

  “William Ann!” she said, turning.

  The child lay on the floor beside the door. William Ann’s left side, where she’d first touched the shade, was blackened. Her face wasn’t too bad, but her hand was a withered skeleton. They’d have to cut that off. Her leg looked bad, too. Silence couldn’t tell how bad without tending the wounds.

  “Oh, child …” Silence knelt beside her.

  But the girl breathed in and out. That was enough, all things considered.

  “I tried,” Dob said. “But you’d already done what could be done.”

  “Thank you,” Silence said. She turned to the aged man, with his high forehead and dull eyes.

  “Did you get him?” Dob asked.

  “Who?”

  “The bounty.”

  “I … yes, I did. But I had to leave him.”

  “You’ll find another,” Dob said in his monotone, climbing to his feet. “The Fox always does.”

  “How long have you known?”

  “I’m an idiot, mam,” he said. “Not a fool.” He bowed his head to her, then walked away, slump-backed as always.

  Silence climbed to her feet, then groaned, picking up William Ann. She lifted her daughter to the rooms above and saw to her.