Page 99 of The Iron Hex

“Yes?” Rhona pushed.

“Sir Rhona, I don’t feel much else.” His dead eyes watched her, unblinking.

Rhona backed up, feeling sick. What were they doing to these people?

A cane clicked as Rhona heard footsteps shuffle down the hallway.

“They’re not meant to feel much else,” Dr. Balet said.

48

Hugo

“No!” the familiar voice yelled.

Hugo painstakingly stood, turning himself toward the man yelling as he came face-to-face with Carth.

Hugo’s muscles screamed; his head hurt and his left eye was blurry and weeping from the spot where Lord General Kerrigan had punched him. Nevertheless, he picked up his sword.

“We don’t have to do this, kid,” Hugo sighed, exhausted.

The tavern keeper picked up a wayward sword from beside the decimated corpse of a knight and swung at Hugo clumsily.

Even with his aching body, it didn’t take much to block the man’s swing. “Carth, you can’t fight me and expect to win,” Hugo said, blocking another swing. He wasn’t going to attack this broken man.

“You destroyed my life,” Carth said, swinging over and over again. Clumsy strikes that may not have landed even if Hugo hadn’t blocked them.

“And I’m sorry for it,” Hugo said, meeting his sword with Carth’s again. “But I cannot turn back time and change what I did.”

“I know you’re not sorry,” Carth said.

Rage ripped through Hugo and he felt inclined to swing back for the briefest of moments. “You have no idea how sorry I am,” he answered instead, deflecting another blow.

Carth slowed his strikes, breathing labored as he realized it took stamina to fight with an iron sword.

“Carth,” Hugo said, grabbing the arm that held the sword as the young man dropped it, tears filling his eyes. “I will never forgive myself for what I did. Killing me would end my suffering. Believe me when I say that I will suffer more left alive.” Hugo knew Carth could hear the truth in what he was saying; he couldn’t lie, not about this.

“I hope you dream of the people you killed every night,” Carth said, a hitch in his voice as tears spilled from his eyes.

“The memories haunt me every minute of every day,” Hugo answered truthfully.

The man cried, racking sobs leaving him as he ripped his arm away from Hugo’s. “That witch, though.” He pointed to Eira as he wiped his eyes. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

The stones littered the ground around them. Hugo had never seen anything like it before, either. “That’s why we need her memory back,” Hugo said, sheathing his sword.

This man wasn’t a threat anymore; he was just hurting. Hugo could understand that more than anyone else. Hugo could see the conflict in the man’s eyes; tell them where the memory witch truly was, or leave Eira without her memories?

“The memory witch isn’t here. She’s in Giant’s Gate,” Carth said finally as he watched Eira. “I’m telling you forher, not for you. I hope you rot.”

“Shit,” Hugo said. It was treacherous to get there. If they went around the mountains they would extend their trip by at least a week, and if they went through the mountain pass they risked so much more: storms that could descend and freeze them before they could get their bearings, wild animals... or evenangry Giant’s Gate hunters who recognized him. That wasifthe mountain pass hadn’t frozen over completely yet, at this point in the year.

“The mountain path will still be traversable for another week—it’ll get you there in a day if you ride hard. Ask for the Old Witch when you get there, they’ll know you were sent,” Carth said, as if he could sense what Hugo was worried about. “There aren’t any storms coming either.”

Hugo nodded, not sure what to say.

“Get your things and get the fuck out of Luwha,” Carth said before turning and stepping away from Hugo.

“Yeah—” Hugo started before Carth turned around quickly and punched him in the face. The tavern keeper shook his hand and winced.