Page 98 of Taking Jenny
She straightened. “Come on. Let’s keep going.”
I followed her through the trees, parallel to the path. We walked along in silence for a bit, and the forest darkened even more. Discord’s shoulders receded and her steps were moregraceful. She moved between the branches, rather than moving them out of her way like she had before.
“What’s different?” I whispered.
She glanced over her shoulder at me. “What do you mean?”
“The way you’re moving,” I pointed out. “It’s like you’re dancing with the trees.”
“We’re hunting now.”
“So?”
She sighed and stood straight once more. “When you’re hunting, it’s different from hiding. Hiding means you’re trying to be invisible. Hunting, on the other hand, means you want everything around you to fear you, in case you’re not invisible. Move like a predator, animals think you’re a predator. If I can scare some of the beasts in here and they run, it will spook our hunters.”
I wasn’t following her logic. “What’s the point of scaring the hunters, when we can just kill them?”
Her grin flashed. “Why not do both?”
I shrugged. “Seems fair.”
“So, watch what I do, and do what I do. Okay?”
I nodded and mimicked her movements, at first. But I didn’t move like her. I couldn’t. I didn’t have Discord’s years of dance training or whatever else she knew. I was big and bulky, and it was awkward and in no way felt like a method of intimidation.
“Tiger, I have been curious about something that is none of my business,” she said after a short while had passed. “Would you mind if I were to pry?”
“We’ve been talking about killing people together,” I said in a derisive tone. “I think we’re well beyond propriety.”
“Good point.” She glanced back at me again. “Why were you and Jenny asking about Justice before you were arrested?”
I hesitated, unsure if I should tell her, but considering we might not make it through the night, did it really matter?Besides, I’d grown to trust Discord, and it was clear she had no loyalty to Justice whatsoever.
So, I gave her a small portion of the truth. “We needed to know if Justice was looking into my bosses.”
“The Ladrangs?” A small frown furrowed her brow. “But Valor is dead.”
“Valor’s son, Deacon, is not.”
She sighed. “It feels like a betrayal of Malice to say this, but Valor’s execution was one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Okay, so he is the executioner. Guess I’ll have to think about that later.
“He botched it?” I asked, wondering what made it the “worst” she’d ever seen.
Discord shook her head. “He…the regular executioner wasn’t there for the death sentence. Personal reasons. So, it was someone else who did it, and they were not as…efficient. All that aside, watching Valor’s whole family turn their backs on him—”
“Except for Deacon,” I interrupted her.
She nodded. “Over one hundred members of the Ladrang family, all turned their backs on him. All but his eldest son. Deacon’s scream as his father was beheaded was…” Discord shuddered. “I’ll never forget it.”
I didn’t want to think about it. “Why would it be a betrayal to Malice that the execution was so awful?”
“I should have thought of Valor Ladrang as the enemy,” she said as we continued moving through the group of trees and bushes. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do for your friends? Their enemies are your enemies.”
“Sometimes. But not always.”
She sighed heavily. “Seeing his execution…I couldn’t think of him as the enemy anymore. Even with what he did to Malice.”
