During their earlier excursion through the river after arriving through the mat-trans unit, Ryan had discovered that the river held several forms of mutie fish. Some of them were damn near as big as a man.
“Bad place to go in the water,” the sailor commented above the creak of the mast and the crack of sailcloth. “Docks attract scavenger fish and other things. Got mutie crawfish in there longer than a man’s arm that have developed a real appetite for meat. Don’t mind working for it, either. Seen men and women dragged under, they get too close to the water when they’re fishing from the banks.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Ryan said. He watched the Slaggers disappear to their rear. “What are the chances they’ll be able to find us?”
The man smiled at Ryan.
“Think something’s so damn funny?” the one-eyed man growled.
“Be kind of hard to hide the river, wouldn’t it? And they know which direction we headed out in.”
Ryan felt the back of his neck burn from anger. Too damn many things going on, and he wasn’t thinking straight. Krysty’s situation wasn’t leaving him much room for thinking about other things. She seemed to be getting around better, but she still wasn’t herself.
“Where are we going?” the sailor asked.
“Upriver,” Ryan answered.
“Got a destination in mind?”
“Know it when we get there,” Ryan said.
“Them Slaggers following us,” the sailor said, “you go far enough up this river till we reach the rough country, they ain’t gonna be so apt to follow. They live off the easy pickings around Idaho Falls.”
Ryan nodded, catching Jak’s eye and letting the albino know watching the sailor was his responsibility. The albino gave him a short nod. Ryan reloaded the Steyr, noticing how low his ammo was getting, then went back to join Krysty. She still held the little girl as she cried.
“Her father,” Krysty said, emotional herself.
“I know.” Ryan looked down at the little girl but didn’t let emotion touch him. They were still running for their lives, and getting overly involved could mean the death of them all. He was surprised Krysty was so obviously overwrought.
“Not myself, lover.” Krysty glanced up at him and wiped at the tears on her cheeks. “Carrying a lot of extra baggage in my head right now.”
“It’s okay.” Ryan touched her shoulder, then resumed scanning the river. “We’ll fix it.”
Krysty put her hand on the little girl’s head for a moment, then grimaced. Abruptly the little girl passed out, every muscle relaxing. “Better for her this way,” the redhead said. “Took away her pain for a little bit. She’ll sleep, then mebbe we’ll be in a better place.”
“How’d you do that?” Ryan asked.
“Don’t know, lover. Just knew that I could.”
“Did you decide to do that, or did…”
“Phlorin?” Krysty supplied.
Ryan nodded.
“You know I’ve never done anything like that before in my life. It must have been Phlorin.” Krysty smiled, touching the child’s face with her fingers. “Hard to imagine a crusty old bitch like that caring enough to do something like this.”
Ryan saw through to the darker side, though. “Being able to do something like that would make it a lot easier to steal children away in the dead of night,” he pointed out. “Doesn’t mean being able to do that is necessarily all good.”
“Never really seen anything in the Deathlands that was all good.” With the wind pushing at her, blowing her hair around her face, Krysty looked almost normal. But there was a haunted look in her bright green eyes. Mildred came and took the little girl away and went to join J.B., giving them room.
“I can’t live like this, lover,” Krysty said quietly.
“I know,” Ryan said.
She turned to face him, placing a trembling hand against his scarred temple. “I mean what I’m saying, Ryan. If I have to live like this, I’ll chill myself to get it over with.”
He didn’t say anything, feeling the powerful emotion thinking of her loss triggered within him. It felt like somebody had strapped iron bars across his chest.
“Can’t have anybody in my head like this,” she went on. “And I can feel her. Wandering around in the back areas of my brain, learning everything she can. She’ll use it against me when she gets the chance.”