47 Chapter 45 (1/2)
What I want to know is what happens when you are killed in the Afterdeath? Is there an Afterafterdeath? How long does this go on? Who dreamed this insanity?
—EINSAM GESCHICHTENERZÄHLER
A crowd of thousands stood before Erbrechen. He looked them over appraisingly. This was no gathering of the weak unwashed. These were warriors, dangerous, each and every one.
”Well, well, well. This is handy indeed,” he said.
A short scrawny woman with yellowy eyes, a sickly complexion, and teeth that made him want to avert his gaze stepped forward. A c.o.c.ky-looking dandy with a matched pair of swords peeking over his broad shoulders stood at her side, as perfectly beautiful as she was hideous.
The woman spat at Erbrechen's feet. ”And how is this handy, you jiggling puddle of fat?”
Erbrechen smiled his best innocent and disarming smile. ”Why, to have you all waiting. Though I've caused my share of death, I never expected so many.”
”He thinks we're waiting for him,” the dandy said to the woman.
”It doesn't really matter who you're waiting for,” Erbrechen said gleefully. ”You're here, and now so am I. You are mine. You are all mine. You love me, don't you.”
Stehlen killed the fat slug, spinning a knife into an eye socket, before he annoyed her further.
”Why did you kill him?” Wichtig asked. ”He seemed nice.”
”Idiot. Bedeckt killed him.”
”So?”
”So I didn't want to listen to him prattling on about himself while we wait. It's bad enough I have to listen to your inane drivel.”
”Inane?”
”Ask Bedeckt what it means. And look how big the fat sow is. No way he . . . she . . . it can walk far. Someone would have had to carry it.”
Wichtig examined the fat slug. ”What a corpulent corpse,” he said, das.h.i.+ng a smirk at Stehlen.
She rolled her eyes. ”I watched you think that one up. Your face gets all scrunchy when you're concentrating.”
”Is he going to be long?” Wichtig asked, ignoring her.
She pointed downhill. ”He's lying in the mud there.”
Wichtig glanced in the direction she pointed. ”Just looks like a big pile of dirt.”
”It's him.”
”Shall we say h.e.l.lo?”
She turned and strode down the hill without answering and heard Wichtig follow behind.
”What are you going to do?” he called out. ”Are you going to kill him?”
Truth be told, she wasn't sure.
Bedeckt lay in quiet peace. A soft breeze smelling of fresh clover caressed his skin. Nothing hurt, a blessed relief. The wind tickled the toes of his left foot. d.a.m.n. Where had he left his boot?
The left boot. s.h.i.+te. The one with the money in it.
A boot nudged Bedeckt in the ribs.
”What is it with you and losing your boots?”
Wichtig's voice. No, couldn't be. Wichtig was—
Bedeckt cracked an eye open and looked up at Stehlen and Wichtig. The two stared down at him, Wichtig looking c.o.c.ky as always, Stehlen . . . he wasn't sure what her expression was.
”You going to lie in the gra.s.s all day?” Stehlen asked.