Rebel Heart

Tracker’s throwin hisself at Eli. Snarlin an snappin. Eli kicks at him.

Slim comes runnin, firestick at the ready.

I’ll kill her! yells Eli. Put yer weapon on the ground, yer hands up! Cover him, RiverLee!

Got it, Eli, says RiverLee.

Slim throws down his firestick an raises his hands.

Call off yer dog! yells Eli. The crow too! I’ll kill all of ’em!

Slim calls off Tracker. Nero’s bin attackin Eli, divin at his head an shriekin.

Eli eases up on my windpipe. Jest enough fer me to croak, No, Nero! Go!

Nero retreats. He circles overhead, callin out his alarm.

You ain’t no quack’s woman, says Eli.

He yanks my sheema back. His eyes widen as he sees my tattoo. He smiles.

I’m facin the side of the Cosmic. There’s a movement at the air grille.

Hey, RiverLee, says Eli, who d’you s’pose—

The thud of a bolt shooter.

Eli’s head jerks back. His arms fly out. He hits the ground.

Eli! RiverLee starts screamin.

I’m on my knees, gaspin fer air. Lugh leaps from the back of the Cosmic, bolt shooter in hand.

RiverLee fires wildly at him.

He shoots her dead.

An it’s silent.

Jest like that.

The shock of silence.

After noise an chaos an fear.

Lugh rushes over an helps me to my feet. Are y’okay? he says.

I nod. Yeah, I says.

Maev, Emmi an Tommo climb outta the Cosmic. They take in the sight of Eli an RiverLee lyin dead. Em starts to cry.

Don’t weep fer them, little sister, says Slim.

What now? says Maev.

I’d like to burn the whole place an these two with it, says Slim.

Too much smoke, says Tommo. People might notice.

We’ll hafta to bury ’em, says Slim. You lot do it. I cain’t.

That’s what we do. We dig a pit in the woods where Billy Six hid out. We don’t make Emmi help. She cries quietly, with her back turned, an shrugs Tommo off when he goes to give her a hug. The rest of us work in silence. Our faces drawn with our own thoughts. Lugh’s pale. He ain’t so used as the rest of us to the shock of sudden violence. Of quick, brutal death. It warn’t so long ago that I believed Hopetown had made me hard to it. But I ain’t. An from the look on everybody’s faces, they all feel the same. Apart from Slim.

As we start to cover Eli with dirt an leaves, Slim holds off Lugh’s shovel. With his other hand, he reaches fer his shooter, but I grab it. Stop him.

You cain’t kill a man twice, I says.

Slim looks at me a long moment. Then he spits in Eli’s face, sayin, That’s fer Billy, you sonofabitch.

We’ve jest about covered RiverLee with a thin layer of dirt when he says, Hang on.

He slides down into the grave. Feels in her pockets an pulls somethin from it. He pops it into the skinbag he wears around his waist, then holds up his hands fer Tommo, Lugh an Maev to help him out agin. I caught a quick glimpse as it went in his bag. It was the tiny brown bottle of tincture. Two drops twice a day so RiverLee could have a child.

That’s what he told her, anyways.

As everybody climbs in back of the Cosmic, dusk is gatherin aginst the day.

Jest over a couple leagues to go, says Slim. Didn’t I tell you I’d git you there by nightfall?

The huddle of mountains that looked so small when we first seen ’em now tower high an broodily dark. The storm belt, with the Lost Cause, lonely in the middle of the plain.

Meet me at the Lost Cause. Be there by the next full moon.

I’m comin, Jack.

I go to climb up front with Slim. Oh no, he says. Trouble loves you like flies love a dungheap. You wanna git to the Lost Cause in one piece? Ride in back with the rest of ’em.

I hesitate. I cain’t think, cain’t remember where he was when Eli seen my tattoo. It was all such confusion. But if Slim seen it too, then he—

He’s pointin at the mountains. Look, there it is! he says. I brought you all this way. I could of handed you over long before now, gun or no gun to my head. C’mon, time’s wastin.

Okay, I says. All right.

We’re gonna go like the clappers, he says. Hang on.

Tracker stays with Slim. Nero’s airborne. Hermes is gonna follow behind, untethered this time. I climb into the back of the Cosmic an squeeze myself between Maev an Emmi.

Slim yells, Gee up! an Moses takes off like a shot.

The Cosmic Compendalorium flies along. We brace ourselves aginst her walls. The road might be decent, but it’s still rough. Too rough fer a rickety, rackety cart held together with rope an a hope. As she bounces an rattles an shakes an bumps, gaps start to appear. Between the walls. Between the walls an the roof, the walls an the floor. We look at each other, eyes wide.

Is she gonna fall apart? says Em.

Of course not, I says.

The gaps suddenly widen. The Cosmic groans.

Hit the deck! yells Lugh.

We all dive face down in the straw. The Cosmic hits a hole. She flies up. Slams down. The floor cracks. Breaks. Emmi screams. We fall through.

Here it comes – the ground, the wheels, the pain, make-it-quick-oh-mercy-it’s-the-end-the-end-this-is-how-it-ends—

We don’t land in the road.

We ain’t on the ground. We ain’t trampled an mangled. Our limbs ain’t broke. Nobody’s dead. We’re still in the Cosmic, rattlin along. An we jest discovered her secret. She’s got a false bottom. A fake floor with a hidey-hole unnerneath. That’s what we’ve fell into.

As fer what we’ve fell onto.

Well.

I’m starin down the barrel of a firestick.

It’s wrapped in cloth. The top bit’s slipped back.

Cloth-wrapped bundles, all different sizes and shapes, fill the hidden nest. Its walls an floor is heavy padded to pertect the Cosmic’s secret cargo.

Everybody’s lyin on top of me in a jumble of legs an arms an straw an shattered floorboards. We untangle ourselfs an stare. Lugh picks up a small bundle an pulls off the cloth. It’s a bolt shooter. Emmi unwraps a blowgun. Maev, a sword. Tommo, a bundle of arrows. An there’s some weapons I ain’t never seen before. All clean an tidy an oiled an gleamin. Wicked. Ready fer action. My pulse starts to race when I see ’em.

But he’s a doctor, says Em.

Doctor an arms dealer, says Maev.

Nobody says naught fer a moment. Then. The penny drops.

Ohmigawd, I says. There’s a resistance.

What? says Lugh.

His friend back there, I says. Billy Six. Livin rough in the woods, sabotagin homesteads. Last night. We stopped there cuz he had a delivery to make. He went off when he was s’posed to be on watch, he came back with mud on his boots. I thought I was dreamin, but – he ain’t no friend of the Tonton. There’s a gawdamn resistance an he’s the weapons man.

Maybe that’s what he’s deliverin to the Lost Cause, says Maev. Maybe it’s a weapons drop.

Maybe Molly’s with the resistance, says Emmi.

Probly meant some fer Billy Six too, I says, essept he didn’t need none seein how he’s nailed to a tree.

Hang on, says Lugh, where’s the evidence? Jest becuz the guy runs weapons don’t mean he’s some kinda freedom fighter. Look at all of this, it’s a bloody arsenal. Jest as likely, it’s fer the Tonton. In fact, more’n likely. That’s who’s gonna be waitin fer us at the Lost Cause. Not jest unfaithful Jack but his nasty new friends in black too, I’ll warrant.