City of Lies - Lian Tanner [70]
Guardian Hope staggered and fell. But before the hounds could catch her, she dragged herself to her feet again and limped around the end of a warehouse. The hunters and the hounds raced after her, yodeling with the thrill of the chase, and the Big Lie disappeared around the corner and out of sight.
The whole thing had happened so quickly that Goldie was dumbstruck. She looked at Toadspit, and he looked back at her, equally shocked.
Behind them, Cord chortled. “Hee hee hee, poor old Flense. She weren’t expectin’ that, were she?”
“D’ya think we should go after ’em?” said Smudge uncertainly. “Try and help ’er?”
“Try and help Flense? When did she ever help us? Nah, I reckon she’s done for. Which means I’m second-in-command now. And I say we carry out Harrow’s orders. No more, no less. Then we go to Jewel to collect our pay.”
Cord shooed the snotties over the rail. “Rightio, Smudge, take us out into the bay.”
As Smudge shifted the tiller, the Piglet slid slowly away from the wharf. “Where are we goin’, Cord?”
Cord grinned, his eyes as hard and bright as bullets. “We’re goin’ back to my boyhood. We’re gunna introduce this lot”—he pointed his chin at Goldie, Toadspit and Mouse—“to the shark nursery.”
There was no weapon inside the bags that the bandmaster had sent on board. Nor was there a message. There didn’t seem to be anything in them except pastries. Goldie watched as Cord ate his way through them, his jaw working with a mad and violent purpose.
“Um—Cord?” said Smudge, eyeing the children uneasily. “Are we really gunna—you know?”
“Yep,” said Cord, through a mouthful of pastry.
“All three of ’em? Do we ’ave to?”
“ ’Oo’s the boss ’ere, Smudge? You or me?”
“You, Cord!”
“And don’t you forget it.”
As the Piglet surged toward the edge of the bay, the wind began to pick up and the clouds lowered. Above the children’s heads the rigging cracked against the mast.
Goldie stared at the clouds, hoping to catch some sign of Morg. Had the slaughterbird been driven away by Cord’s gun? Or was she still up there somewhere?
Whichever it was, she could not help them. The children were at the mercy of a man who was about to throw them to the sharks.
Right up until that minute, Goldie had been able to hold her growing fear at bay. But now it sidled up to her and showed its pointed teeth. Her lip trembled. She closed her eyes, unable to bear the thought of what was coming.
Deep inside her, Frisia’s voice whispered, A warrior learns to see past her fear.
Goldie swallowed. Herro Dan had once said something similar. Something about treating your fear politely and doing what you had to do in spite of it.
She took a deep breath. “Mouse,” she whispered. “Could your pets chew through my ropes?”
The small boy nodded.
“Mine too,” murmured Toadspit.
Mouse whistled softly, and the front of his jacket rippled. Tiny feet ran down Goldie’s arm. The ropes around her chest twitched.
Goldie leaned back against the mast, breathing hard. So. It looked as if they could get free of their ropes. But what then? They were still trapped. Cord had his pistol; Smudge had Frisia’s sword. They were both grown men and very strong, and there was no way that the children could beat them in a direct fight.
In the back of her mind Frisia whispered, Know your enemy.…
Cord brushed the last of the crumbs from his lips. Then he stood up and stretched until his joints cracked. “Better let them sharks know we’re comin’,” he said.
He lurched toward the children. Mouse hummed under his breath, and his pets ran down the mast and disappeared. Goldie stood as straight as she could, hoping desperately that Cord wouldn’t notice the half-chewed ropes.
But Cord didn’t even glance at the two older children. Instead, he untied Mouse, scruffed him by the neck of his jacket and began to drag him toward the ship’s rail.
For one terrible moment, Goldie thought that Cord was going to throw the little boy overboard right there and then. She cried out