“You’ll come out of it in a moment.”
“Why didn’t you just kill me?” Amuuth hissed. His face showed no fear. With the black eyes and hawk nose, he looked fierce. Cade could see why this one was the leader.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“About your brother?” came the quick answer. Cade just lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, I know of you. Cade. The local boy made good. I was warned you were dangerous. I misjudged you. I didnH think you’d make the connection between-“
“Between you and Terrel,” Cade finished.
“Precisely.” Amuuth shifted his shoulders; feeling was beginning to come back, but it was painful. He would not show that. He had lived with the pain in his hands all these years.
“So you’ve come to avenge your brother?”
“Why did you break his bones?” Cade replied.
“I thought I would finish the job I started so many years ago.” Amuuth kept watching the other’s eyes; the boy was no threat. Surely some of his own people must still be about. They would hear. He held onto that hope; he knew it was his only chance.
That’s why I didn’t kill you.”
“What?”
“I wanted to finish the job I started so long ago.”
Amuuth gasped. He could not help it. Cade couldn’t mean-
“It was me, Amuuth. Sixteen years ago I hunted you and the other three, with my brick and rope.” Cade shrugged. “I don’t know which one you were. When I caught you, I guess I should have killed you.”
“You,” Amuuth shouted, “you did this!” He held out his hands, trying to stand up, but his legs wouldn’t move yet. Cade smiled. “The legs take longer.”
Amuuth said nothing. He knew there would be no help, no rescue. He was dead. He looked up at Cade, his eyes burning with hate. This is the plan. The shadow he still woke up screaming from. The shadow from that night. Unseen, unheard. The whistling noise, the agony in his side, in his head, his legs, and finally his fingers. He wondered that he, himself, had not made the connection between his pain and Terrel’s.