Blood Red Road

The King’s here. The one who’s got Lugh. Maybe he’s here to take me. Maybe they caught Maev. Somehow found out our plan.

Don’t say a word. Don’t give nuthin away. Don’t look at DeMalo.

The King stops in front of my cel . DeMalo stands jest behind him, in the shadows. My heart’s bangin in my chest so loud, they must be able to hear it.

Miz Pinch rushes past DeMalo. She grabs hold of my cel bars an shakes ’em. I know she wishes she was shakin my neck.

What was that? she shrieks. What d’you cal that?

I says naught. Keep my head down.

You threw that ght! she spits. You might be able to fool them chaaled-up morons, but you don’t fool me. You threw it an I wanna know why.

Calm yourself, woman. The King’s got a voice like a mouth ful of damp earth.

A shudder ripples along my spine.

But I know her, son, says Miz Pinch. Vicar, I know this one! She’s the—

His arms fly up. He smashes her in the face with his walkin stick.

She cries out. She stumbles, grabs onto the cel bars to keep from fal in. She crouches on the ground. Her lip’s split open. She looks old.

Frightened.

I cain’t hardly believe it. Miz Pinch, the mother of this man.

The mother of the King. Vicar Pinch. But it al makes sense. The picture in Rooster’s book. The way Vicar Pinch looks. Why Rooster Pinch lied when I asked him if he had any kids.

How do you address your King? says Vicar Pinch.

She don’t speak. Jest cowers there.

Then he screams it, spit flyin from his mouth. How do you address your King?

Yer … Yer Majesty, she says. I address my King as Yer Majesty.

If you forget again, he says, he wil have you kil ed. Do you understand?

She nods her head, grabs a corner of his robe and kisses it. Yes, she whispers. Al I wanna do is please … Yer Majesty. It’s al I ever wanted.

He kicks her hand away. Do not dare to touch your King! he says. Now. What were you saying about this girl?

Yer Majesty, I only said that … that I know her, Yer Majesty. She ain’t like the rest. Her spirit’s too strong to let her be beat. She lost today because she wanted to lose. She’s a sly one. She’s up to somethin.

Miz Pinch glares hate at me.

Enough! He waves his keercheef an she scut les o into a dark corner of the cel block. The King wil speak to her, says Vicar Pinch.

This … Angel of Death.

DeMalo steps up to the cel . Come here, girl, he says. His Majesty wishes to speak to you.

It’s the first time I’ve heard his voice. It’s deep. Dark. Jest what I’d especk it to sound like.

Come, he says.

I git to my feet, real slow. I take a couple of steps. Stop.

Closer, he says.

I move. Then I’m right next to the cel bars. Right next to him. I don’t look up. But I feel him. The warmth of him. The cold of him.

Saba, I think I hear him whisper.

A strange weakness grips me. I sway towards him. Grab at the bars to stop myself.

Then he’s turnin away, he’s bowin to the King, he’s movin back into the shadows. Did he say my name? No … I must of imagined it.

Now Pinch steps up to my cel . His hands shoot out. Grab me through the bars. Grab me by the neck. His ngers is strong. They press on my windpipe. Jest enough to make it hard to breathe.

my windpipe. Jest enough to make it hard to breathe.

Is the woman right? he says. Did you deliberately lose that fight?

No! I says. I didn’t! I wouldn’t!

His ngers tighten. I grab his wrists. Struggle to git free. He’s too strong. I drag in air through my nose, frantic. He stinks like nuthin I ever smel ed before. Sour, sweet, rot en … al at the same time.

Your King has made a long and arduous journey to see you ght, he says. The miraculous warrior they’re al talking about, the Angel of Death. He would be vastly displeased to find that he was being deceived.

I ain’t deceivin!

Last chance! Are you lying!

No! I gasp. Losin means death! Everybody knows that!

Indeed, he says. Why would you lose on purpose? Why would anyone? It makes no sense.

Suddenly he lets go. I fal to the ground, gaspin, holdin my throat where he pressed on it.

You’re imagining things, woman, he says to Miz Pinch. You’ve had a good run. She’s made you a smal fortune. You’l just have to nd yourself another fighter once this one’s run the gauntlet.

I’m sure yer right, Yer Majesty, she says. Yer always right, you always know best. I shouldn’t of bothered you. I’m sorry fer wastin yer time, Yer Majesty.

Miz Pinch, a cowed dog at her master’s heels.

Slowly I git to my feet.

Wait!

Pinch grabs my wrist. Hauls me aginst the cel bars. He presses a cold nger on my cheekbone. Right on my birthmoon tat oo. He hisses in a breath.

What’s this? he says.

It’s a … tat oo, I says.

The King can see that. Where did you get it?

I think fast.

Where I come from, everybody’s got ’em, I says.

And where’s that? he says.

Out east, I says.

East, he says. I see.

He stares at me a long moment. His smal , dead eyes so much like his mother’s. He lets me go. He steps back an holds the kercheef to his nose agin.

DeMalo, he says, the King wil remove from this pestilent hole.

Majesty, says DeMalo an bows his head.

But not before I see it. The slight twitch of his lips. A flicker of somethin across his face.

He despises Vicar Pinch.

The Tonton bow the King out like they bowed him in. When they reach the cel block door, DeMalo lets Pinch an his mother go through first.

Then he turns back to look at me.

My breath catches in my throat. I drop my head. I mustn’t meet his eyes. I don’t dare. Not even in the gloom of the cel block.

I feel it when he leaves.

Somethin … lets go of me.

An I can breathe agin.

The word’s out.

The Angel of Death’s goin down.

Hopetown’s packed. The scum crawl out from whatever rock they live unner to be there, to bet on the next two ghts. The Cage Master’s only takin primo Wrecker junk as bets—coins, glass beads, gold rings, silver chains … they bring what they got to him an he decides what it’s worth, if anythin.

Looks like the prospect of my death’s worth plenty. To him. To Miz Pinch. An to anybody in Hopetown with a ea-infested bed goin spare. Em tel s me they’re rentin beds out by the hour, not the night.

Right now the Cage Master’s givin even odds on me or Epona to win.

He ain’t bin to see me since that rst day. When he told me he didn’t care if I lived or died. It’s true. We’re al the same to him. We’re al the same to al of ’em who come to see us fight.

While I’m waitin to go into the Cage, I look up to the Cage Master’s balcony. He’s there, along with DeMalo an the King.

The King leans on the railin, starin down at me. He’s dressed al in red today.

My birthmoon tatoo bothered him, that’s fer certain. It makes me believe that Helen’s right, that he’s holdin Lugh prisoner at Freedom Fields. He must of noticed Lugh’s tat oo. I can only hope that he bought my story about how I came by mine.

I lose my fight, of course. That’s two fights down. One to go.