The Wild Dead (The Bannerless Saga 2)

They all did, the whole gathering, and waited with such breathless silence, she could hear a faint rain pattering on the river at the base of the cliff.

Carefully, putting each foot down gently, holding on with both hands, and pausing to see if the structure was all going to slide out from under her, she crawled out to the body. Confirmed that yes, it was Hawk, with his floppy brown hair, though half of it was covered with blood now. She could see one of his arms, one of his legs, both twisted to awkward angles. But she guessed it was the blow to the head that had killed him. A piece of the roof might have come straight down on top of him. He likely had been asleep when it happened.

She held his wrist, waited for a pulse a lot longer than she really needed to, but she wanted to be sure. Wanted all the witnesses to be sure. In the rain, his skin was already cold. No life left in him at all.

With just as much care, she backed out of the ruin, testing each step, each broken board. When she reached solid ground again, she sat hard and caught her breath. She’d done a hell of a lot of work on this trip, she thought. More than earned her uniform. She really wanted that shower now.

“Enid?” Teeg put a hand on her shoulder, and she patted it reassuringly.

“I’m fine. Help me up.” Grasping his hand, she got back to her feet. Regarded the gathering. Yet another time when all the Estuary’s faces looked back at her, waiting for her judgment.

“Are you going to start another investigation?” Erik said, an edge to his voice.

Enid glared. “Why, you think you should be held liable for not knocking down this deathtrap earlier?”

The man stepped back, arm raised as if warding off a weapon. Enid—her voice, her presence—was sharp as a blade. The investigator shook her head. Exhaustion pressed her on all sides, and she couldn’t afford to give in to it, not yet. Still so many miles to go.

“No, I won’t start an investigation,” Enid said, rubbing the mist of rain from her face. “This was an accident. A stupid, stupid accident.”

“You want us to get the body out of there?” Teeg asked.

Enid shook her head. “Not till morning and full light. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”

With that, the gathering drifted off, knowing there was nothing more to be done just now. Anna touched Erik’s shoulder and drew him back toward the main house. Their real house. Far from angry, the man seemed relaxed, the knots gone from his shoulders and neck.

Well, good for him.

Enid turned, was surprised to find Mart standing there, his lantern hanging at his side. Light pooled at his feet, but his face was in shadow. The rest of his household hadn’t accompanied him; he stood alone, off the path. She stared stupidly at him for a minute, too tired to think.

“We’ll do the pyre for him,” he said softly.

She nodded. Her voice came out a whisper: “Good. Good.”

Teeg had to lead her off, a tentative hand on her arm.

Returning to Bonavista’s work house, Enid realized they’d left Juni unsupervised and half-expected that the woman might have fled. But no, they opened the door and she was still sitting in the corner, knees pulled to her chest and hugging a blanket. Maybe asleep, maybe not.

This gave Enid a little bit of hope for the long journey ahead, that at least Juni wasn’t likely to run away and cause more trouble.

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What little sleep she got didn’t seem to do Enid any good. Her body still felt drained, still moving only at half speed. She had to fight through a fog in her mind. She expected she wouldn’t get a good night’s sleep until she was back with Sam and knew how Olive and the baby were doing.

Some places still had working two-way radios, she’d heard. But Haven didn’t have one, so even if she could find one this far out, she couldn’t talk to home.

Enid and Teeg let Juni take a bag with her, whatever belongings she could carry. Wasn’t much. A hairbrush, a change of clothes, a knitted scarf, a carved wooden mug, maybe something that Jess had made. She got a few minutes with her household to say goodbye, but only Jess and Tom came to see her off. Enid offered a quick word to the boy.

“I’m still putting in a good word for your work. This isn’t on you,” she assured him.

“Not that it’ll do any good,” he said, frowning.

Enid and Teeg stood apart to give the household privacy, but Enid did listen in. As part of the investigation, she assured herself.

“Did you really do it?” the boy asked, his voice tight and tearful. Juni didn’t say anything. “But why? How could you?”

Unanswerable questions.

“I don’t know,” Juni said softly. Tom ran off, scrubbing his face, hiding his tears.