“You’re not wearing that. It will drown you.”
“But I have to bring my—”
“That thing is going to absorb enough water weight to equal two of you. I’m not dragging it through the currents as well.”
As I stare down at the folds of ugly brown wool, I wonder how many more parts of myself I’ll have to jettison during this journey. The idea of leaving the thing behind makes me sad in the same way I feel when I think of my nook beneath the stairs.
“You’re not actually going to argue with me, are you.”
I shake my head. “I’m just thinking about how habit will turn even a hovel into a home, and a rough cloak like that into comfort.”
“You’re going to dosomuch better in this world, as soon as you drop the sentimentality.”
“I’ll keep my emotions, thank you very much.”
Looking at the pack, I decide to leave it behind. After thinking things over before I fell asleep, I’ve decided nothing that Mr. Lewis told me made any sense, and I’m not heading off on any quest just because he tossed a bunch of lore around. I’m going to try to hide and survive in a town of outlaws under the theory that there’s a kind of safety in numbers, especially with people who have good survival instincts. Surely that’s a better option than being alone in a landscape where demons are escaping the Fulcrum. Or some half-cocked story spit out at me by a man trying to save his business—by making sure I leave his establishment and do him the kindness of either getting myself killed, or at the very least, never, ever darkening his door again.
This was why I didn’t bother to look in the satchel or the box. I don’t care what’s inside either of them—
“Hold on.” I glance up to Merc’s chest level. “Do you have a compass?”
“No. Why?”
“How—ah, how sure are you that you know the way to the Badlands?” Although it isn’t as though we have a map—
“I know the way.”
And what if we get separated? I think. Or something happens where I have to go on my own? I’ve heard it’s to the south and west. How will I know which directions they’re in if I get turned around, or it’s at night?
Glancing down, I decide I could use a compass. And even if I don’t need the thing for navigating, I could maybe use it to barter.
Grabbing the pack, I slip the straps on my shoulders, and before he can argue, I flash my palms at him. “Hands free.”
I just hope the water doesn’t destroy the mechanism of the instrument.
Merc is muttering as he ropes his own waist, straps his broadsword onto his back, and slaps at various places on his body, all of which have some kind of weapon secured by some kind of belt or holster. Then he nods as if he’s both his own master and protégé, and this is part of his training.
“Well, come on. Let’s get this over with.”
As he turns away, I grab his forearm. His head snaps toward me, and I open my mouth. Except what is there to say?
“I don’t know,” he drawls with a shrug. “Maybe we make it, maybe we don’t. But I’d rather die trying, wouldn’t you.”
“I’d rather not have to do this at all.”
“Talk to the crescent moon, then. Destiny and its exigencies are far, far above anything that has to do with me.”
Merc wades into the pool, bending his prodigious height until he can proceed no farther without going under the surface. As I measure the taut rope that connects us, my lungs start to pump and then I shift my eyes to the black water. I look back at the torch. It’s almost out of reed to consume. Soon, there’ll be nothing but darkness, rats, and the moon knows what else in here.
“I’m not waiting for you much longer,” he says impatiently.
One foot in and I feel as if I’m being consumed already, the cold wetness chewing through my soft-soled slippers and going right for my flesh. Something about the way the fetid, viscous tide rises up my calves without my going a step farther makes me want to scream.
“I can’t do this—”
“No choice, remember.” Merc holds out his hand. “And I’ll be with you all the way. I’m not going to leave you in there.”
As if to prove the point, he tugs on the rope that links us. “No more wasting time, though. This is not getting any easier, the longer we stay here. You’re just going to get more and more afraid.”
