“I didn’t think it would actually work,” Sheaconfided. She was still jittery from the adrenaline rush.“Actually, I wasn’t sure any of the plan would work. I’m kind ofsurprised it did. I definitely didn’t expect it to be so hard tosaw through its neck once I was up there.”
During her confession, Eamon’s eyebrows hadarched higher and higher until they almost disappeared into hishairline, and his frown got darker and darker.
Buck shook his head. “You’re fuckinginsane.”
“Would you rather I just let you two bebeetle food?” Shea snapped, feeling a little defensive.
“Now, don’t go getting defensive. He’s notarguing with what you did. We’re both rather attached to ourlimbs.” Eamon grimaced in the direction of one of the bodies.
“Nope, not saying that all,” Buck agreed.“Appreciate it, but doesn’t change the fact that you got a couplescrews loose.”
Shea lifted one shoulder. He may have had apoint. “So are you two the only ones left?”
Eamon turned on his heel and strode to theclosest body, the one that had been ripped in half. Shea wrappedher arms around her knees as he turned the torso onto its back andthen dragged its lower half over to arrange it in a macabre parodyof a whole person.
Guess that answered that.
“It ambushed us on our way back to thehorses,” Buck said above her head. He had finished examining theshadow beetle and now watched Eamon with his arms folded over hischest. “It got John first. Lorn tried to run. You see how well thatwent.”
He nodded his head at the body missing itsarm and half its torso. Shea could just make out the back of Lorn’shead. After a moment, she realized she recognized the clothes hehad been wearing, though they were a different color now.
“We took shelter in the rocks. Didn’t thinkwe were going to make it out this time. Not 'til you showed upanyway.” He ruffled her hair briefly. She nearly fell over inshock. “Guess you’re not such a waste of space after all,Daisy.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Eamon dragged Lorn’s body to join the otherand bent down, fussing with his neck.
“What’s he doing?” Shea asked.
Buck looked down at the top of her head witha thoughtful expression. “You’re not Trateri are you?”
Shea’s shoulders stiffened.
He was asking the sorts of questions shereally didn’t need him to be asking. For her disguise to work,people couldn’t be curious about her. They couldn’t look twicebecause if they did they might see that her bones were too small,even for a seventeen-year-old boy. That even a boy would have anAdam’s apple and that her cheeks were entirely too smooth, missingthe pimples and baby fine hair that came with puberty.
“Is that a problem?”
He pursed his mouth and shrugged. “Juststrange is all. Normally the Scout’s trainers don’t take any but aTrateri as an apprentice. They don’t usually trust throwaways.”
Shea shot him a sharp look.
He smirked at her. “That’s what we call thosethat we take from the villages. Because their people threw themaway for a few months more of safety.”
Throwaways.
Huh.
Shea crooked one side of her mouth.Unbelievable. Cruel but true.
“Thought us being integrated into your armywas the whole point of us becoming ‘throwaways’?”
He nodded. “In theory, but in realitythrowaways aren’t trusted. They’re used as filler. Most of you goto the frontlines or work as cooks or launderers. You’re the firstto die in battle with your own people, or you’re given jobs thatyou can’t cause a lot of damage in.”
“So we’re thrown away twice.”
“Not you, though.”
Shea slouched and looked away. She needed himoff this topic.
