Greatorex shouts to Sophie, a new trainee fighter, “Go get the foragers and the others! Tell them to hurry.”
I can’t see Marcus anywhere. I want to concentrate on the hissing noise but there are bodies of Hunters here, all with mobiles. I’m standing in the middle of it, trying to work that out, when Nesbitt comes out of the tent with a different problem. He’s pushing a prisoner in front of him. “Look what I found hiding in the back.”
The Hunter has his head down and his straight blond hair has fallen forward.
Nesbitt shoves the prisoner to his knees and the young man looks up.
I haven’t seen him since I was thirteen but I’d know him anywhere. And he recognizes me too.
“Nathan.”
My first thoughts aren’t about him but of Annalise. I know she cares for Connor more than her other brothers. I know he helped her escape. I try to think positively about him.
But then he says, “Nathan, they made me do it. My uncle made me join the Hunters. I don’t want any of this.”
And that makes me mad. I’m knee-deep in dead bodies and he’s complaining about being made to join them. He’s still as cowardly and pathetic as I remembered. I walk over and spit at him.
Nesbitt puts on a mock reasonable voice, saying, “Hold on, Nathan. He’s telling the truth, you know. That’s why he was hiding in the back. He doesn’t want any of this.”
I back off, trying to control myself, but then Gabriel comes over, asking what’s going on, and I tell him, “Oh, Gabriel. Let me introduce you to an old friend of mine. This piece of shit is Connor. Connor O’Brien. Annalise’s youngest brother. I used to be at school with him. He’s a Hunter, but don’t worry about him, Gabriel. He doesn’t want to be one. He doesn’t want to hurt anybody. At least not until they make him. And, when he does, he’s really, really sorry about it. So that’s all right.” I turn away from him to control myself but I can’t and I turn back and kick at Connor’s stomach, shouting, “Isn’t it, Connor?”
He doubles over and is on his knees with his face in the ground, groaning.
“Oh! I’m sorry, Connor, I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s just part of my job. I don’t want to do it really.”
Gabriel stands between me and Connor, though he doesn’t need to. I don’t want to kick Connor again, even though I’m still mad. I say to Gabriel, “I’m OK. I just lost it for a second.” But I lean round to Connor and say, “Connor is the one that put the powder on that burned the cuts into my back. Not the B, just the W.”
“Then I’ll carve my name on his back,” Marcus says. He’s striding toward us now. He pulls Connor up by the hair, the Fairborn at his throat. Connor stares at me, his eyes wide.
“Or do I just cut his head off?” Marcus asks me. “Yes or no?”
“Connor!”
It’s Annalise. She’s at the head of a stream of people coming through the trees, running the last few steps closer. She shouts, “Let him go!” She picks up a Hunter gun that’s been dropped in the fight and points it at Marcus.
I step between them, holding my arms out. “Annalise. Put the gun down.”
“Keep away from me, Nathan. Tell Marcus to let Connor go.”
I’ve stopped. I’ve still got my arms out. I’m trying to keep my voice low and calm. “Annalise. We won’t hurt Connor. Please put the gun down. This isn’t helping. Put the gun down. Please.”
I can see she is shaking now but she says, “Not until you let my brother go.”
I turn to Marcus and say with as much authority as I can, “He’s a prisoner. We give him to Celia to deal with. She’ll want to question him. He’s her problem.”
I turn back to Annalise. “Please put the gun down.”
“Promise me,” she says. “Promise you won’t hurt him.”
“Yes. I promise. He’s a prisoner.”
She lowers the gun.
I turn back to my father and say, “We give him to Celia.”
Marcus says, “I’ll carve my name in his back when she’s finished with him.” But he lets go of Connor’s hair and Connor collapses forward.
And at that moment there’s a gunshot from my left and one of the foragers near me falls to the ground. There’s another shot, a scream, and another forager drops.
“Hunters! Hunters!” someone shouts, and the shout is taken up by others. Already the foragers are running away, back the way they came, but I see the black shapes of Hunters beyond them. That was the hissing noise. They were hidden in the trees all the time. Invisible. But now we can see them and we’re surrounded. The whole thing is a trap.
Gabriel shoots at the Hunters but more are appearing.
Greatorex shouts, “Everyone, get down! Stay low!” But we can hardly hear her for shouting and gunfire.