Blood Red Road (19 page)

The fighters in the big cage next to me, they’re all doin like I am, crowdin up to the bars of their cell to git a good look at him.

The Tonton bow their heads. Your Majesty, each one murmurs as he goes past.

A man follows a little ways behind him. It’s DeMalo. My heart clutches. No. Please. Not him. Right away, my body goes all tight.

After DeMalo, comes Miz Pinch. What the hell’s she doin here?

Suddenly I realize. They’re comin straight down the cellblock. Straight towards me. I scramble back onto my cot. Push myself into the corner. Feel the cold stone of the wall through my thin tunic.

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 cell. 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 cell bars an shakes ’em. I know she wishes she was shakin my neck.

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

I says naught. Keep my head down.

You threw that fight! 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 full 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 cell bars to keep from fallin. 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 all 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 will have you killed. Do you understand?

She nods her head, grabs a corner of his robe and kisses it. Yes, she whispers. All I wanna do is please … Yer Majesty. It’s all 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 scuttles off into a dark corner of the cellblock. The King will speak to her, says Vicar Pinch. This … Angel of Death.

DeMalo steps up to the cell. 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 cell 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 cell. His hands shoot out. Grab me through the bars. Grab me by the neck. His fingers is strong. They press on 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 fingers 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 smelled before. Sour, sweet, rotten … all at the same time.

Your King has made a long and arduous journey to see
you fight, he says. The miraculous warrior they’re all 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 fall 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 small fortune. You’ll just have to find 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 cell bars. He presses a cold finger on my cheekbone. Right on my birthmoon tattoo. He hisses in a breath.

What’s this? he says.

It’s a … tattoo, 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 small, 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 will 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 cellblock 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 cellblock.

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 fights. 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 flea-infested bed goin spare. Em tells 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 first day. When he told me he didn’t care if I lived or died. It’s true. We’re all the same to him. We’re all the same to all 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 all 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 tattoo.
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.

Tomorrow’s the day.

It’s him. Jack. Legs crossed at the ankle, arms crossed over his chest, leanin aginst a wall in a corner of the male fighters’ exercise yard. Starin at me.

When he sees me lookin at him, he pushes off from the wall an wanders over to the fence. Without my tellin ’em to, my feet start movin an all of a sudden I’m standin in front of him. His long hair’s gone now. Shaved off, like the rest of us.

Angel, angel, he says. He’s smilin an shakin his head. What’re you up to?

I dunno what yer talkin about, I says.

You don’t lose fights, he says. Not unless you want to, that is.

His silvery eyes flick over to where Epona’s standin, talkin to some of th’other girls.

I saw you talkin to yer friend th’other day, he says. Looked like a mighty innerestin conversation.

I dunno what you mean, I says. Heat’s startin to crawl all over my chest. The heartstone feels warm aginst my skin.
The same thing that happened the last time I talked to him. I frown.

He shrugs. All right, he says. Don’t tell me. I’ll find out eventually.

You won’t find out nuthin, I says. Cuz there ain’t nuthin to find out.

Suddenly he’s got hold of my wrist. I didn’t even see him move. A tingle shoots up my arm. Like when Lugh an me was nearly hit by the lightnin that day.

The smile’s gone. His face looks dead serious. Looks to me like yer playin a dangerous game, he says.

Why should you care what I do?

We stare at each other a long moment. Then, No reason, he says. Jest … be careful, Angel. That’s all. He lets go of my wrist slowly. Almost like he don’t want to.

As I move away from him, the heartstone starts to cool down.

Darkness. Hard to see. Smoke fills the air. Burns my throat, my nostrils, stings my eyes
.

Where are you? I scream
.

No answer. Hungry flames lick at wood. Embers pop an hiss
.

I hafta find him. Cain’t leave him here
.

The sound of a heartbeat. My heartbeat. Over an over. So loud. It fills my brain, my head. I cover my ears with my hands. Panic grips me. I turn in circles, blind
.

Where are you? I shout. Where are you?

Another voice now. Whisperin. Mercy’s voice
.

The heartstone lets you know
 … 
the heartstone
 … 
heartstone
 … 
hurry, Saba
 …

Bright sun. Exercise yard. Epona smiles. We’re gonna burn Hopetown to the ground, she says
.

I gotta find him. Before it’s too late
.

Too late
 … 
too late
 … 
too late
 …

I wake, mutterin to myself. I’m soaked with sweat, my blanket twisted around my legs, my heart poundin in my chest.

That was a new one. I ain’t dreamed of fire before. An it warn’t Lugh I was searchin fer so frantic. I dunno who it was.

I do what I always do to chase the nightmares away. I sit on my cot, hug my knees to my chest an close my eyes.

I think of water. Clean, clear water. A lake. I dive in. It washes over me, around me. My tired body, my tattered soul, my heavy heart. As I swim, it washes me clean.

An so I make it through to another dawn.