The Wild Dead (The Bannerless Saga 2)

“Thanks,” Enid said. “Sounds lovely.” They took the offered rolls, the mugs of water. Smiled blandly at her. Enid ate because she knew she ought to, because Olive wouldn’t put up with her not eating. A slight breeze made being outdoors marginally bearable.

“Was that Neeve I saw walking out a minute ago?”

“It was.”

“What did she want?” Juni failed to sound casually curious. Her interest in Neeve was pointed.

“I think she didn’t like that the body was here alone.”

“I’ll never understand her,” Juni said bitterly. “What does she care, what happens? Not like she ever cared about anyone before.”

It seemed a harsh assessment. Enid suspected that Neeve cared a lot. Just not about the same things.

Juni wasn’t finished. “You’d better watch her. Make sure she didn’t steal anything from the girl. You sure she wasn’t down here taking something—”

Enid sighed. “Juni, please—”

“Is that Kellan out there?” Teeg said suddenly. He was looking out to the mud flats, far past the bridge. Gulls called and wheeled. Not as many as yesterday, when a dead body drew them in. The tide was out now, and had left behind a patchwork of shining pools.

A figure was moving in the distance, splashing in ankle-deep water. Stopping and star

ting, it crouched over the mud, then trotted on a few steps, erratic, seemingly distressed. Enid recognized the loose tunic, the big floppy hat of the scavenger from Last House.

“What’s he doing?” Juni asked. They were all standing now, hands at their brows, looking out.

Enid set down her cup and half-eaten bread and pounded down the steps. Kellan was digging out there, and it seemed to be the spot where he’d found the body.

He was searching for something.

“Teeg, come on.” Enid set off, jogging first, then running as much as she could without slipping on the muck. Teeg followed, grabbing his staff.

It seemed to take a long time before Enid was close enough to call out, “Kellan!”

The man didn’t look up. He might not have even heard her.

“Kellan!” Even when she was close enough to knock him over with a stone, he didn’t acknowledge Enid’s presence. Teeg trotted up alongside her, ready to swing the staff, but she held out a hand to stall him.

“What are you doing?” she asked again, and still Kellan didn’t answer.

He kicked a couple of lumps of mud out of the way, then fell to his knees and dug with his bare hands. After digging a few scoops out of one spot, he moved to another. There was nothing careful or systematic about what he was doing. He moved back and forth across this patch wildly, his eyes wide, hands shaking.

Enid had been right; this was where the body had been found. Any signs of it, any depression it might have left behind, had been washed away by a cycle of tides. In fact, if Kellan hadn’t found the body yesterday, it likely would have disappeared forever. And she and Teeg would be on their way home, instead of standing ankle-deep in muck. She tried not to wish for such a thing. If she could have a wish granted, it would be that the young woman hadn’t died at all.

Kellan muttered, his words rushed, sharp, running together. “She had it, then she didn’t. It wasn’t with her, so she must have dropped it. Unless she lost it, unless she gave it away—”

“Kellan,” Enid said sharply. “What are you talking about? What thing?”

Whatever Kellan was looking for, he’d never find it the way he was searching, at random, digging in the same patches of mud and blinking blindly through tears. Cautiously, she stepped closer. She expected him to lash out and prepped for it, ready to grapple with him if need be. He lurched from one spot to the next, dropped to kneel again, and she took this chance to put her hand on his shoulder. “Kellan, stop. You’ve got to stop!”

Finally he looked up at her, eyes round, and let out a shuddering breath. He slumped, sobbing, inconsolable, hands covering his face, streaking himself with the sticky brown mud. It clotted his hair, matted his clothes. He didn’t seem to notice, or maybe he didn’t care.

Enid put an arm across his shoulders, trying to comfort him, not knowing why he needed comforting. Maybe he’d known Ella a whole lot better than he’d let on.

“Kellan, hush,” she said, to soothe him. Tried not to be impatient, but she really wanted to know what was going on here, and he didn’t seem inclined to speak. “What’re you looking for?”

He leaned into her, but she still wasn’t convinced he was really aware of her, that he recognized exactly who she was. He was responding to the presence of another person, that was all.

“Help me understand,” she said. “What are you doing?” She was about to ask Teeg to run up the hill to get Mart or Neeve. Maybe one of them could calm the man down.