Raging Star

A certain rotten apple in my Tonton barrel. A friend of yours, I believe, says DeMalo.

Jack. He means Jack. He cain’t do. Nobody knows Jack’s alive.

Lugh’s bin layin Emmi on the table. Carefully. Like she’s asleep an he don’t wanna wake her. I go to him. What does he mean? I says. What’ve you done?

Nothing yet, says DeMalo. He hasn’t delivered. I’m here at noon, he says to Lugh, as your message instructed. So where’s the traitor? I don’t see him.

Please, Lugh, I says, tell me you ain’t done a deal with this man.

She’d never of bin in that place if it warn’t fer you. Lugh’s breath shudders from him as he tenderly wipes mud from Emmi’s face with his kercheef. Her empty, dead face. She was so desperate to live up to you, she’d of done anythin, anythin to earn yer praise, he says. We should of gone west like I wanted to. Why couldn’t you have a care fer her? He smooths her rain-soaked hair. Why couldn’t you have a care fer me? Becuz of him, that’s why. He’s got you so in his spell, you cain’t think fer yerself, you jest do whatever he tells you. Don’t think I don’t know who’s bin callin the shots. This whole thing, it’s all bin his idea. Well, I’ve seen to him. I’ve seen to Jack.

Jack’s dead, I says faintly.

He looks at me. Give up the lie, he says. I’ve known all along.

I look at him. At Lugh. My brother. My golden heart. He’s betrayed me. As I betrayed him. My skin shrinks to my bones.

He’ll be here any time. As Lugh speaks to DeMalo, his eyes don’t leave mine. Saba’s message told him noon.

You sent a message from me, I whisper. With Nero.

I’m a busy man, I can’t wait, says DeMalo. No traitor, no land.

I don’t want yer gawdamn land, says Lugh. I wanna see him hang. He’s ruined our lives. He can pay with his.

The floor seems a long way away. I cain’t feel my hands or my feet.

DeMalo’s back at the window. He stares out. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow night, he says. I always look forward to seeing the blood moon.

He don’t hafta say no more.

If you keep on, more people will die. People you care about. Your sister. Your brother. My offer’s good until the blood moon.

Formal surrender. Hand in our weapons. Fer Lugh an the others, safe passage over the Waste to the Low China Pass. No doubt a small army of Tonton to escort them, an bound in chains all the way. But they’ll walk free into the mountains an beyond.

If I marry him. That’s fit. It’s just. I’ll atone every day fer Emmi’s death. I trade my freedom fer theirs. That, at least, I can give them. Since the moment I met DeMalo’s eyes at Hopetown, I knew. Somewhere, some day, somehow, it would come down to him an me in the end.

I’d of thought the red hot would of took me by now. Emmi dead. Betrayed by Lugh. Trapped by DeMalo at last. But I’m calm. It’s like I’m watchin everythin from a distance. Like I ain’t in my body. I know it’s the kindness of shock. I listen to myself speak.

Safe passage fer Jack as well as the others, I says.

DeMalo turns his head to look at me. I need to make an example of him, he says.

Jack too. Them’s my terms.

Terms? says Lugh. What’re you talkin about?

I hear but don’t hear him. I’m starin at DeMalo. I’ve jest realized. It was that turn of his head. Jest like Tommo turns his. Now I’m distant from myself, I can see it so clear. The eyes, so dark they’re almost black. The high cheekbones. The full lips. They are so alike. The silver bracelet on his wrist. It’s the same as Tommo’s, the very same. Of course. They’re father an son. Tommo’s dead father is DeMalo.

How impossible. How unmissable. I couldn’t see it before. I was standin too close.

Saba, says Lugh. What terms?

Terms to save yer life, I says.

All right, says DeMalo. Safe passage for your grubby little band of rebels and Jack.

Safe passage? says Lugh. He’s a traitor. A dead man. We made a deal.

DeMalo an me don’t take our eyes from each other. An I see them to the Pass, I says.

No treachery on some lonely road, he says. All right. Agreed.

What the hell is this? says Lugh. Saba, what’s goin on here?

DeMalo wants me. I believe he wants me unbroken. So he’ll keep this promise. Whatever else happens, Lugh will be safe. An Tommo. He believes his father dead. I won’t tell him otherwise. Mercy an Molly. Ash an Creed. Slim. Jack. I’ll make sure they go far far away from this place. Through the mountains an on. To the chance of a decent life.

Not Emmi though. Too late fer her. This world always comes to blood. I should know that by now.

We surrender, I says.

I accept, says DeMalo.

Surrender? Lugh breathes out the word in disbelief. You what? He grabs my shoulder an spins me to face him. Safe passage fer Jack? He spits out his name, digs his fingers in my arms. There ain’t no safe passage fer Emmi, he says. She ain’t goin nowhere ever agin. It’s his fault she’s dead an yer so blinded by him you cain’t see it. We’d be long gone out West if not fer Jack. We’d be safe an settled an she wouldn’t be dead. He’s stolen our future. He’s kept you here an he’s stolen our future an he’s ruined us. We was ruined the moment you let him in yer life. You think I wanted to do this? Make a deal with this man? I only did it to save you, to save our family. Everythin, all my life, all I’ve ever done is fer you an Emmi. An you’d give safe passage to Jack with our sister lyin here dead? Damn you, Saba. Damn you to hell!

He shoves me hard. I stumble an I fall. Nero caws an flies towards me.

Lugh’s rushin to the door, yellin, I’ll see to him myself!

At that moment, Jack appears. Brought in by two guards. His hands tied behind him. He takes in the scene at a glance.

Here’s the traitor, says one. He shoves him in the back.

Jack staggers forwards. Lugh dives at him. Jack twists aside an hits the ladder. As it crashes over, the hawk, still hooded, panics. His great wings flap. His talons slash at the guards. They cringe, cry out, fling their arms. A wild shot blasts the roof. Rubble showers down.

Stop! DeMalo runs to catch Culan. Stop! You’ll hit him, you fools!

I’m on my feet by now, grabbin Nero, tellin him, Go! As I launch him towards the fray, he screams vengeance on the hawk.

Lugh’s got Jack by the neck, chokin him. He hangs backwards, halfway out the window. But Jack’s fightin. He struggles, scrabblin, off balance with his hands trapped behind him. Rain pours down on them. Lugh’s enraged. Strong way beyond his strength.

I haul at Lugh’s arms. His coat. Tryin to pull him off Jack. I hook one leg an he staggers to the side. Jack tips. I grab fer him. Too late. No! I yell. I lean through the window. He lands in the river. It rages him, swirls him away.

What’ve you done? I shout at Lugh.

He’s on his feet, lookin dazed.

A gun thuds. A bolt slams him in the back.

No! I scream

as his arms fly up

as he twists

an falls

to my arms.

Then we tip

we topple

out of the window

down to the river below.

We hit the water. Lugh on top of me. Down we go

down

down

down.

I hold his shirt tight. We’re wrenched an turned. We’re ripped an tumbled apart.