cat-quiet, her bow at the ready. Maati stayed behind her, but close. He
remembered that he had a blade at his belt and drew it.
The buck was in a small garden with an iron fence overgrown now with
flowering ivy. Its side was cut, the fur black with dried blood and
flies. The noble rack of horns was broken on one side, ending in a
cruel, jagged stump. As Idaan stepped near, it moved again, lashing out
at the fence with its feet, and then hung its head. It was an image of
exhaustion and despair.
And its eyes were gray and sightless.
"Poor bastard," Idaan said. The buck raised its head, snorting. Maati
gripped the handle of his blade, readying himself for something, though
he wasn't certain what. Idaan raised her bow with something akin to
disgust on her face. The first arrow sunk deep into the neck of the
onceproud animal. The buck bellowed and tried to run, fouling itself in
the fence, the vines. It slipped to its knees as Idaan sank another
arrow into its side. And then a third.
It coughed and went still.
"Well, I think we can say how your little poet girl was planning to get
food," Idaan said, her voice acid. "Cripple whatever game she came
across and then let it beat itself to death. She's quite the hunter."
She slung the bow back over her shoulder, walking carefully into the
trampled garden. Flies rose from the beast in a buzzing cloud. Idaan
ignored them, putting her hand on the dead buck's flank.
"It's a waste," she said. "If I had rope and the right knife we could at
least dress him and eat something fresh tonight. I hate leaving him for
the rats and the foxes."
"Why did you kill him then?"
"Mercy. You were right, though. Vanjit's in the city somewhere. That was
a good call."
"I'm half-sorry I said anything," Maati said. "You'd kill her just as
quickly, wouldn't you?"
"You think you can romance her into taking back her curse. I'm no one to
keep you from trying."
"And then?"
"And then we follow the same plan each of us had. It's the one thing we
agree upon. She's too dangerous. She has to die."
"I know what I intended. I know what Eiah and I were planning. But that
was the andat's scheme. I think there may be another way."
Idaan looked up, then stood. The bow was still in her hand.
"Can you give her her parents back?" she asked. "Can you give her the
brothers and sisters she lost? Udun. Can you rebuild it?"
Maati took a pose that dismissed her questions, but Idaan stepped close
to him. He could feel her breath against his face. Her eyes were cold
and dark.
"Do you think that Galt died blind because of something you can remedy?"
she demanded. "What's happened, happened. You can't will her to be the
woman you hoped she was. Telling yourself that you can is worse than
stupidity."
"If she puts it to rights," Maati said, "she shouldn't have to die."