“That’s my plan.”Isaac glanced in the direction of Berith’svoice.“I go out there and distract him.You run around the side and stab himin the back.”
Both pirates stared at him.For a moment, there was only thedistant sound of falling rock.
“It is rather inelegant,” Isaac admitted.
Soren stepped forward, shaking her head so hard her jawsnapped back and forth.She raised the bomb again, gurgling.
“Shut up,” Zaria said, stepping forward.“Isaac, do you seethis?”She gestured at the standing, half-headless body of her captain.
“It had caught my attention,” Isaac replied.
“Good.”She pointed at the wet bandages covering her eye.“You see this, as well?”
“You wear red very well, I must say.”
“Eat me, squire.”
He shrugged.
“Do you see the rest of this?”Zaria asked.
She waved at the ancient command room.She waved at thespilling mounds of ossein.She waved in the general direction of theearthquakes and squalls, where the colossus was still roaming, hanging like acomet above the sky.
“Isaac,” Zaria said.“A week ago, I was nicking purses off afrigate, and my only concern was whether my bunkmate was shedding lice again.Now, I’ve just ran through a black ruin of evil, places where bones are growingout the fucking walls, and there’s this giant cunt the size of a mountainsniffing around for me, and I’ve just lost a fucking eye, and it’s all a realfuckin’ terror, as you can imagine.”
“It is for me, too.”
“And, now, after all this shite, after doing all this withthe knowledge your arse-wiping wizards are gonna hunt me for it, you’re tellingme your plan is to offer yourself, like a lamb, right to the graveyard harlotyou call an uncle?”
“...yes.”
“No,” Zaria said, towering over him.“You’re not doin’ it.”
“It’s the only way.”
“I don’t care if it’d cure cock rot and famine.It ain’t agood solution.”
“Doyouhave a solution?”
“No!And I don’t need one to call yours stupid!”
“We need to do something!”
“Something smart!Not what you’re proposin’!”
“I’m going to do it, with or without your help!”
“I forbid you, squire!”
“I’m not your fucking squire!”
Soren stepped between them, waving frantically.After amoment of gurgling, she dropped the bomb to the floor.She formed a heart withher fingers, waving it back and forth.
“Fuck off!”they shouted together.
Soren made the heart again, nodding insistently.
“Look,” Isaac said.“He will hesitate.I know he will.Hecould’ve just killed me himself, before I’d even left the tower.He had everyopportunity, and he could never do it.He had to trick me into being swallowedby dragons.He said he would never be able to stomach the sight of my body.”Isaac took a moment to breathe.“He spared me in the extraction chamber.He’srefused to stand and fight.Now, he’s offering me a chance to live, when thecolossus could just sweep us away like dust.”
