Separation

“It is not a noble sentiment, but I can only concur with your somewhat crude way of phrasing it. I had read the legends of the old treasures of the whitelands in the archives of our people, but I had thought the secret lost forever until I heard Barras tell this bitch about it. To know that he had kept the secret for long enough was bad, but to know that he was imparting it to an outsider and for pale ones was intolerable. It belongs to the Pilatans.”

“And of course you’ll be giving your half to them,” Elias said with heavy sarcasm.

“You know perfectly well that I will not,” Chan returned with an unexpected fire. “They do not understand what it is to be black. You do not. You think that it is acceptable to mix with outsiders. You think that it is so terrible to want to keep ourselves pure? And yet those fools and morons treat me as different because I am an albino. They treat me with contempt…worse, with pity. Because I have no skin pigment, they do not think of me as being black. You sought power for your views by marrying the baron’s daughter, and so did I— although a high yellow beauty like her would not condescend to the likes of me, still I had my brother. He, at least, they all see as a black.”

“Uh, excuse me, but strictly speaking, if you have no pigment, then you aren’t actually black, are you?” Elias said mildly.

“Of course I am!” exclaimed the albino. “Being black is not about the skin pigment!”

“Then why do you object so strongly to whitelanders?”

Mildred listened to the silence. Elias’s mocking tone elicited no verbal response from the albino but heavy breathing as he fought to contain his temper. If she was lucky, they might actually kill each other at this rate, and save her the worry of having to escape. Yeah, as though she should be that lucky. Desperately she sought some way of gaining an advantage over them once she had used the surprise card.

Their argument continued.

“You will use your half of the money to squander,” the albino said, sneering, “whereas I intend to set up a community where those such as myself can live in peace, apart from whitelanders and cartoon blacks such as yourself.”

“Interesting definition of squander, I would say,” Elias commented wryly. “But I really feel that we’re wasting time now.”

“Something I have been saying to you for some time,” the albino snapped.

“So I’ve suddenly grown weary of your tattle,” Elias commented. “I feel it’s time to complete step one. Once she’s chilled, we’ll get the treasure out and leave her corpse there. By the time anyone figures out that she’s a little more than just missing, we’ll be well away from this accursed island.”

There was a pause.

“So who’ll do it?” Chan said nervously.

Elias sighed. “Oh, really, do I have to do everything for you?”

The taunt worked. “No, damn you. I’ll see to it,” the albino snapped.

On her back, eyes still closed, Mildred heard him move near. She thanked her luck that it was the lighter and less competent of the duo that was approaching. He would be easier to take by surprise and to overpower. She could get his blaster and perhaps use him to shield herself to make a difficult shot for Elias. It was a slim chance, but the only one she had.

As the albino leaned over her and she felt the muzzle of the blaster rest against her forehead, she opened her eyes suddenly, ignoring the searing pain of the daylight—even shielded as it was by the albino’s body— and looked Chan straight in the eyes.

He gasped and started back, the blaster pointing away from her. Before Elias had a chance to ask him what was wrong, or for him to answer, Chan found himself kicked sideways as Mildred swung her leg up with as much force as she could muster. There was little momentum she could give it, and she was still weak from her head wound, but the kick was strong enough to catch him in the ribs and to catapult him sideways. She rolled after him, feeling the breeze of the first shot from Elias as it threw up splatters of damp earth where her thigh had been moments before.

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