There was no telling how much blood Patrick had lost or how dire his condition. It had been impossible to gauge in the tunnel. Luderman was blocking my view of Patrick as he fastened my bindings, and I tried desperately to lean around him.
The soldier chuckled knowingly. It sent ripples down his neck. “That your beau, is it?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. “Don’t seem to like you too much.”
Patrick’s eyelids had peeled back, consciousness finding him. And indeed, he groaned at the sight of me.
Luderman barked a laugh at that, then grasped my jaw hard enough to send bolts of warning down my spine. “Perhaps you’re in the market for someone friendlier,” he said. Then, horrifyingly, he descended to mash his mouth against mine.
And I tasted spit and decay. I bit down hard on the soldier’s lip, driven by panic more than bravery, and felt it split. I could hear the clink and rattle of thrown chain bindings, the pounding of my own blood. Beyond that, a roar. I reared my leg back then kicked without particular aim.
Luderman toppled to the floor, clutching his groin. He sprayed a litany of curses through the blood trickling from his lip, eyes bulging. “You fuckin’ bitch!” he yelled, the other soldiers laughing as he rolled onto his back, hands between his legs.
“Not bad for a city girl,” one of them said, grinning and passing a lighter to his comrade.
“Scurry” came a voice. Patrick spoke with eyes so maddened he looked possessed. “She’s from Scurry.”
He did not look at me, or the soldiers, but right at that panting, bleeding Luderman.
The soldiers chuckled and nodded, retreating to the end of the carriage as the train coughed to life.
But Luderman regained his footing, albeit with some difficulty. He spat blood and staggered in my direction, twitching with rage.
“Wait!” Theo called out, pulling at his bindings. “Stop—”
My heart sprinted. Instinctively, I curled up. The soldier’s boots stopped in front of me, and I waited for the blow.
“There’s one hundred pounds in my pocket” came Patrick’s voice, and I looked out from the crevice between my strung arms.
He stared back at me, his jaw tightened, his wrists ghost-white against the ropes. “It’s all yours if you leave the lady be.”
A moment of hesitancy, of silence. I peered up at Luderman to see a slowgrin spread over his cheeks. “Not really in a position to be makin’ deals, are you, Colson?” he said, and yet the soldier swung his large form in Patrick’s direction, already scanning his clothing. “But I might as well have me way with both of you, since you offered.”
Luderman looked back at me once, winked. “Won’t be a moment,” he promised, flashing his yellow teeth. He bent down to a waiting Patrick, fossicking through one of his trouser pockets, and then the other. “Ain’t nothin’ there,” he grunted, brow pinched.
Then Patrick threw his forehead so hard into the bridge of the man’s nose, the crack reverberated around the carriage.
The soldier’s head snapped back on his neck, and for a second time, he toppled sideways.
Patrick gave a loud groan. “Fuck,” he said, cinching his eyes shut.
“Patrick?”
He blinked rapidly, only to find the other soldiers converging in front of him, Luderman slumped lifeless at their feet.
“Hello, boys,” Patrick said warily, resting his head with a grimace against the wall. “Don’t suppose any of you want a hundred pounds?”
“Knock him out for the journey,” said the shorter of the two men. He lifted his bayonet until it was level with Patrick’s face, and the barrel shook. “Quickly,” he uttered, eyeing his unconscious comrade.
Patrick looked resigned, but as the taller soldier stalked toward him, I reared upward. “No,” I uttered without thinking. “Wait, please!”
“Gentlemen,” said Theo, his face and clothes as dirty as my own, but his voice far more polished. “This man is the very last Alchemist on the continent. Think about that for a moment. Far from me to tell you how to do your job.” Here, Theo paused, watching the soldier’s gun wobble dangerously close to Patrick’s eye. “But if you were to injure Lord Tanner’s most wanted man with any permanence, I doubt they’d let you wear that uniform to the gallows.”
The soldiers, both tall and short, hesitated. They looked to each other with matched indecision. Then the shorter one cursed and lowered hisbayonet. “If you get clever,” he said, jutting a finger at Patrick. “I’ll shoot you.”
“Will you?” Theo asked skeptically.
The soldier grimaced. “I’ll knock you witless, then.”
“Fair,” Theo consented, as though the business were concluded.
