Briar stopped, turned, and showed the soldiers her hands. She raised Rune’s with hers.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“It’s better this way. Let them approach.”
He cocked his head, listening.
“Where are they?”
He was too new at this. He couldn’t orient himself by sound.
Briar untangled her hand from his and flexed her fingers, sighing at the release of tension.
“I’ll take care of them,” she said. “Stay out of my way.”
The soldiers approached, two men younger than her. She was twenty-four, and they looked like boys, barely old enough to shave. They wore iron gray and black uniforms, their tall shakos stuffed low on their foreheads. She gave them a smile, and the one on the left lowered his musket an inch.
“Who are you? Where do you think you’re going?” the one on the right asked.
“Is that–” the other one uttered, staring at Rune, slack-jawed.
Briar didn’t hesitate. She pulled her daggers from under her cloak and went for the most distracted of the two. Between the shock of coming face to face with a revenant and being attacked by a woman, she had the advantage.She drove her shoulder into his chest and knocked his musket aside with her forearm.He grabbed for her cloak, but she was already inside his reach, and she buried her dagger into his side, just below the ribs.
The other soldier swung his musket toward her, but his partner was between them, and he hesitated with his finger on the trigger. Briar ripped her dagger free and shoved the wounded soldier hard into the one still standing. He jerked his musket to the side so the bayonet wouldn’t skewer his own man, and the momentum carried his partner past him, staggering, arms flailing, straight into Rune.
Rune caught him.
Before either Briar or her opponent could make another move, Rune wrapped one arm around the man’s torso, the other around his hips, and pulled.
He started to scream, but it was cut short by Rune’s biceps forcing the air out of his lungs as he pressed and twisted. Thespine snapped cleanly, then there was the wet, fibrous ripping of muscle and cartilage. Blood and guts spilled onto the frozen ground, steaming in the winter air. The lower part landed on the left, and the torso landed on the right when Rune let go. For a moment, it seemed like the man might try to crawl away, his dying brain still clinging to hope, but his arms only twitched a few times before going still.
The smell of partially digested food, bile, and fecal matter slammed into Briar, making her stumble backward and drop one of her daggers to cover her mouth and nose with her hand. The other soldier could’ve easily taken her down, but instead, he let out a howl, clutched his musket to his chest, and started running in the opposite direction. His continuous howling, punctuated by shrieks and breathless gasps, bounced off the walls, bringing Briar back to her senses.
“Why did you do that?” she whispered. “Why did you–” She found her fallen dagger, sheathed both weapons, and gave Rune a wide berth. “You didn’t have to...”
“I... I...” He ran his hands through his dark hair, smearing himself with sticky blood. “You were... I couldn’t let you...”
He was a demon with two hell pits for eyes, hands drenched in blood, fresh guts on his boots.
What was she doing? She knew what he was. What he could do. What he’d just done.
The soldier who’d escaped would soon bring the whole company. There was no time.
“Leave me behind,” he said.
There was despair in his voice. He was begging her, reaching out and showing her his hands, proof that he was irredeemable, a wretch, a creature made from death. Who could only bring more death.
“N-No.” Briar spotted the walking stick and picked it up. “We have to go. Now.”
He shook his head, but she ignored him and carefully navigated the massacre in the snow to reach and grab him by the sleeve. No more handholding. She pulled him toward the postern gate. He didn’t fight her, trudging behind her with his head held low. Briar slipped through the gap, but he didn’t fit.
“Sideways,” she whispered. “You’re too broad.”
They were separated by the curtain wall, ten feet of tunnel between them. Briar had the forest at her back, Rune was still in the courtyard. If he wanted to turn away and disappear before she could fling herself into the narrow space and catch him, he could’ve done so easily.
“Where are you taking me?” he asked.
In the tone of his voice, she heard what he wasn’t saying. He knew she wasn’t doing this to help him, because he was blind and she pitied him. The question was,“What do you need me for?”,“What will you do with me?”.
