Page 39 of The Last One
Jadon shouts, “I’m coming!” He looks back at us. “Please hide.”
Olivia grabs my dress.
I look in the direction of doors cracking and villagers shrieking, then to Jadon and his sister. “Fine,” I say, “but I’m not hiding. I’m protecting—”
“Fine,” Jadon replies.“Go!”
Olivia and I join a group of women and children hiding in a nearby barn. The inside smells of oily smoke and wet wool as weak light slips through the spaces between the barn’s wooden slats. A few scrawny chickens scratch at the dirt while puffy-coated sheep crowd at the water trough. Sharp, pointy, dangerous things hang from pegs and knobs, threatening to butcher every creature that bleeds—including those of us walking upright.
Some women rock and pray, their eyes squeezed shut. Other women hold small colures to their lips. The rest stare at me, and I feel their heated glares even in this stuffy hot air.
“Violent witch.”
“Barbarian bitch.”
“Vile.”
“Her fault the soldiers are here.”
“She’ll be the death of us all.”
I wish that I could counter these clucking, gossipy hens with the truth, but I don’tknowthe truth.AmI a witch?AmI a brute? Vile? My instinct is to fight for these people, and yet I know in my heart that they don’t deserve one drop of my spilled blood.
How will I make amends for my failures?Have I failed to defend someone in the past? Did I hide? Abandon them to their fate because I didn’t like them? Am I a coward? Is that what Sybel’s referring to?
Or does she think that I should first seek a more diplomatic solution before choosing violence?Let’s sit down and break bread together. Be reasonable. Now, how can we arrive at a decision that makes us all happy?
But soldiers like the men outside this barn don’t compromise or offer reasonable solutions. They don’t care about anyone’s happiness other than the emperor’s. They fight. And you meet fight with might. Unless that’s wrong, too.
Ugh.
One young woman giggles, interrupting my thoughts, and says, “You see her dress, Ma? She looks so ridiculous.”
“Don’t look at her.” It’s the hag who spat at me as Johny dragged me to that jail. “I can’t believe Olivia brought that disgusting Jundum with her.”
Ice fills my veins, and I blurt, “Call me ‘disgusting’ again, and my Jundum ass will turn you into a toad.”
Shocked, the hag holds her stomach. “She’s threatening me!”
“Shh!The soldiers will hear you,” Olivia whispers. “And remember what I told you about magic!”
“That was a bluff. I don’t know how to turn her into a toad,” I murmur.
Outside the barn, a man screams. It’s the kind of desperate shriek that chills your bones. We all go still. Near tears, someone whispers, “Who was that?”
All around the barn, the women forget about me, quaking with fear as they peer through the slats to watch soldiers fight their loved ones or kick down cottage doors.
“How did they find us?”
“Why won’t they spare us?”
“The sign of Supreme is everywhere.”
“Quiet down. You’re talking too loud.”
“You see Oric and Tomas on their fucking knees?”
“Hypocrites.”
