The Wild Dead (The Bannerless Saga 2)

Someone was walking far out on the marsh, toward the tide line, which was creeping in with the high tide, filling the flats with water. A line of footprints sunk in mud showed the route she’d taken, straight out.

“Where’s she going?” Jess said wonderingly.

Away, away from everything. Enid let out a groan, “No, no . . . Teeg! Come on!” She ran. Probably shouldn’t have; she was still woozy, but she did it anyway.

Juni didn’t get to walk away from this.

Teeg followed her down the path, past the bridge, and out to the marsh. Enid was vaguely aware of Estuary folk following farther behind, as if they’d needed a moment to figure out what was happening. The dog was barking its head off.

The trek was hard. Even this late in the day, the sun beat down fiercely. The mud sucked at Enid’s steps. But she kept on because she had no choice. Not if she wanted to see this through.

Juni kept walking, all the way to where waves battered, devouring mud, seaweed, trash. By the time Enid and Teeg reached her, Juni was knee-deep, waves lapping around her, soaking her trousers.

“Juni, get back here!” Enid commanded, as if her authority still held sway at the edge of the world.

The woman slogged on, pushing through water, incoming waves shoving her back. She swayed, about to fall over. Then she stopped, rooted, and let the water flow around her. Her arms hung at her sides, fingers trailing in the wet, her face tipped up to the sky.

The waves swept up and over Enid’s boots. Still, Juni stayed planted.

Enid cursed and waded after her. Teeg followed only when she was already far out, as if he couldn’t decide whether plunging into the ocean to pursue a murderer was part of the job.

The water was cold, smelling of brine and rot, and Enid was thoroughly sick of it all. Part of her wished Kellan hadn’t seen Juni on the shoreline. That the woman had walked into the ocean and just kept going. She would have just vanished, and that was a mystery Enid might actually have walked away from.

But no. Enid chastised herself for being cruel. She was supposed to be better than that.

“Juni, come on, get out of there,” Enid said.

“No. I don’t have to go, I don’t have to do what you say.” Her voice was oddly calm.

Enid grabbed the woman’s arm, hooked her own arm under Juni’s shoulder in a bind, and hauled backward. Her own bruised shoulder twinged, and she winced. Teeg arrived and took up the other side; Enid didn’t have to ask him to.

Juni screamed.

Screeched and thrashed, kicking water, soaking them all. If she used words, they were buried in the noise of outrage and sobbing. Grimly, Enid locked Juni in a hold and dragged. Between the two of them, they got her back to the sand, all of them thoroughly drenched. Enid thought they might need to use tranqs on Juni. But once out of the water, she stilled. Went limp in fact, a dead weight dropping to the ground. Finally exhausted, Enid couldn’t keep hold of the woman and sank to the beach with her. Both of them sat there, wet sand plastered over them. Teeg, baffled, stood watch. Jess and Erik came running up. Bear trotted up as well, but skittered back from the water, wouldn’t come any closer. The most sensible one of the bunch.

Juni was crying now, wasn’t in any state to answer questions, but Enid had a lot of them. She stared out at the sea, catching her breath, putting her thoughts back in order.

Jess demanded, “What’s this about? Why’s she carrying on? What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Enid sighed. “It’s all her.”

“I don’t understand,” he said, lost.

“Juni of Bonavista,” Enid said, all patience and sentiment gone. “Did you kill the outsider woman Ella?”

Slumped in the sand, face red and eyes swollen, she nodded and managed to croak out, “Yes.”

Well, that was that. The party accompanying them had no response and just stared.

“Let’s get her back home. I’ll explain it all,” Enid said. Still not able to rest. Wouldn’t rest till she was back at Serenity with her family.

Nothing for it but to keep slogging.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

Juni wouldn’t look at anyone, not even Jess, no matter how much he hovered over her with hot drinks, dry towels, and deep concern. She wept, then finally quieted. She didn’t seem to have any energy left for crying, for denials. She’d wrung herself out.

Enid didn’t have a chance to change clothes, so her trousers, dried and crusted with brine and mud, chafed, making her feel even more hot and sticky. She imagined she stank as well. None of the households around here had a good shower. They mostly washed in the river. Didn’t matter, since she didn’t want to let the folk of Bonavista out of her sight, just in case they planned some great revolt. She had to stay right here until it was all finished.