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Rose stepped forward and Steve immediately stepped back, hunching his shoulders up around his
ears like a child expecting a blow. “You want to run away from one little steamhead girl? After all
these years, you want to turn tail and run from a rube?”
No one answered her, least of all Steve, but Rose saw the truth in their eyes. They did. They
actually did. They’d had a lot of good years. Fat years. Easy-hunting years. Now they had run across
someone who not only had extraordinary steam but knew them for who they were and what they did.
Instead of avenging Crow Daddy—who had, along with Rose, seen them through good times and bad
—they wanted to put their tails between their legs and go yipping away. In that moment she wanted
to kill them all. They felt it and shuffled further back, giving her room.
All but Silent Sarey, who was staring at Rose as if hypnotized, her mouth hung on a hinge. Rose
seized her by her scrawny shoulders.
“No, Rosie!” Mo squealed. “Don’t hurt her!”
“What about you, Sarey? That little girl was responsible for murdering the woman you loved. Do
you want to run away?”
“Nup,” Sarey said. Her eyes looked up into Rose’s. Even now, with everyone looking at her, Sarey
seemed little more than a shadow.
“Do you want payback?”
“Lup,” Sarey said. Then: “Levenge.”
She had a low voice (almost a no-voice) and a speech impediment, but they all heard her, and they
all knew what she was saying.
Rose looked around at the others. “For those of you who don’t want what Sarey wants, who just
want to get down on your bellies and squirm away . . .”
She turned to Big Mo and seized the woman’s flabby arm. Mo screeched in fear and surprise and
tried to draw away. Rose held her in place and lifted her arm so the others could see it. It was covered
with red spots. “Can you squirm away from this?”
They muttered and took another step or two back.
Rose said, “It’s in us.”
“Most of us are fine!” Sweet Terri Pickford shouted. “I’m fine! Not a mark on me!” She held her
smooth arms out for inspection.
Rose turned her burning, tear-filled eyes on Terri. “Now. But for how long?” Sweet Terri made no
reply, but turned her face away.
Rose put her arm around Silent Sarey and surveyed the others. “Nut said that girl may be our only
chance of getting rid of the sickness before it infects us all. Does anyone here know better? If you do,
speak up.”
No one did.
“We’re going to wait until Deez, Annie, and Dirty Phil get back, then we’ll take steam. Biggest
steam ever. We’re going to empty the canisters.”
Looks of surprise and more uneasy mutters greeted this. Did they think she was crazy? Let them. It
wasn’t just measles eating into the True Knot; it was terror, and that was far worse.
“When we’re all together, we’re going to circle. We’re going to grow strong. Lodsam hanti, we are
the chosen ones—have you forgotten that? Sabbatha hanti, we are the True Knot, and we endure. Say it
with me.” Her eyes raked them. “Say it.”
They said it, joining hands, making a ring. We are the True Knot, and we endure. A little resolution
came into their eyes. A little belief. Only half a dozen of them were showing the spots, after all; there
was still time.
Rose and Silent Sarey stepped to the circle. Terri and Baba let go of each other to make a place for
them, but Rose escorted Sarey to the center. Under the security lights, the bodies of the two women