The Wild Dead (The Bannerless Saga 2)

“And everything dies. I get it. I just . . . I hate seeing it there. If we can’t fix it, it’s just . . . useless.”

Enid said, “I’m not an engineer”—that was Sam, and she thought he would know exactly what to say here, what would put this in the right light for Erik—“but there’s got to be a way to get what you can from it. Salvage. Not so violent, yeah?”

“My dad would be so disappointed. I couldn’t save it. I should have been able to save it.”

Enid glanced back to the beach and the ruins there, the sections of pipes that had washed down and been half-buried in sand, fallen walls and shadows of tall buildings, reduced to scaffolding. The wrecks of another world. Erik didn’t want this house to be just another wreck, Enid guessed.

“You can’t always save it all,” Enid said, sure she was explaining something he already knew. “You can’t sacrifice the rest of what you have to save a scrap.”

He wiped the back of his hand across his face. “It just . . . I mean . . .” He screwed up his face like he might cry. Sweat, not tears, streamed down his face, but he turned away. “We do everything right. We do our part, and look what happens. And then that body washes up. Somebody knows what happened—Last House, yeah? They see those outsiders all the time, and they’ve been hiding from the rest of us for years! Who knows what all they’re hiding? You know about Neeve, right? What she did?”

“That was a long time ago,” Enid said patiently, not liking where this was going and hoping to stifle it. “No one’s ever made a complaint about them since.”

But Erik wanted to point his anger somewhere, and if he couldn’t chop down his house, he’d find another target. He straightened, set his mouth in a line. “I’m telling you, they know what happened to that girl.”

“Oh?” Enid asked. Was this bluster, or was there more, and could she draw it out?

Seemingly taken aback, he tried to explain, but there was little to explain. “I told you, we see them sometimes, coming down to scavenge—”

“You see them? Wild folk in general? Or would you recognize them? Do you see the same ones?” Had he been lying about recognizing the young woman?

“I don’t know, I didn’t pay much attention!”

“Really?”

“I watch them just to make sure they don’t get too close. You can’t trust them, they might come through, take anything—”

“And how do you make sure they don’t get too close?”

Erik looked at the ax in his hand. The blade, with a good solid chop just like the ones he’d made on those supporting logs, could have made that wound. She’d assumed a slicing knife had done it. Maybe not.

“Tell me, Erik—did any of the outside folk ever get too close? You ever have to do more than threaten?”

He shook his head. “No . . . really, no! I couldn’t ever. I couldn’t.” He took a breath. Tried again. “All I’m saying is those people never would come here at all if Last House folk didn’t deal with them.”

That was another question, wasn’t it? Did the folk of Last House invite outsiders to trade with them, or had the outsiders come looking for it? And did it matter?

Erik was pointedly holding the ax at his side now, its head resting on the ground. As nonthreatening as he could be without just dropping it. Pushed hard enough, though, she was pretty sure he could use that ax on someone.

“All right,” she said in a neutral tone. “There’s still plenty of questions to ask. Thanks for your help.” They started off, but Enid looked back to add, “And get some help to take down the house for salvage. Don’t let it fall on you.”

“Yeah. Okay,” he said, and reached down to scratch Bear’s ears.

Enid and Teeg headed back down the road. A couple of the folk at Pine Grove paused in their chores to watch them pass.

“Do you believe him?” Teeg asked. “If we’re looking for a murder weapon, someone strong enough to actually kill—he fits.”

Erik had known investigators were coming. Was already feeling upset because of the house, what everyone was saying about it. He was already angry when the body turned up.

“I don’t know,” Enid said. “I wouldn’t have thought so. But people do strange things when they’re angry. We might want to do some defense practice with that staff, if we’re spending more time here.”

“How long do you think we’re going to be here?” She didn’t know, and Teeg scowled at her silence. “We’ve got to get our report in about the house. You know, what we were sent here to do.”

“Yeah. Just seems a little pointless right now.”

They arrived at the bridge when Enid spotted another group coming down the road, a hundred yards or so behind. She shaded her eyes, made out two men and a woman. Her hair was braided, a kerchief over it. Neeve.

“They coming to look at the body?” Teeg asked.