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“Let her go first,” I said calmly.
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”
“I think we both know I’m the more honorable of us.”
The younger twin hissed through his fang-like teeth and growled. He was crazy enough to slit Agatha’s throat and run at me with the blade. The twins were known to do a lot worse.
Agatha ended the stalemate with a hard stamp of her foot on the twin’s boot, twisted, and separated herself from him.
It was only a moment of distraction but it was enough for her to rush to my side.
“Good work,” I said.
Afzit the younger took a step toward us.
I cut a small slit in the elder brother’s throat to match the one he gave me. It was enough for the younger brother to stay his hand.
“Drop the shiv,” I said.
“You said you would let him go if I let her go,” he said.
“You didn’t let her go. She let herself go. Drop the shiv or I’ll murder your brother with his own blade. Drop it.”
The twin ground his teeth and placed it on the ground. I didn’t remove my eyes from him until he stood up again. If I thought that was the only blade he had on him, I was a fool. He could easily hurl a blade at our backs as we fled.
“Lie down,” I said. “Face down. Hands on the back of your head.”
The twin just glared at me, then slowly got down and did as I told him.
“Hand me the bedpost,” I said to Agatha, not taking my eyes from the other prostrate brother.
Agatha did. Now I had a shiv in one hand and an effective cudgel in the other.
“Stand over there,” I told her.
It was far away enough from both brothers in case either one was preparing to attack.
I stepped forward and struck the second brother across the back of the head, the unseen blow knocking him out cold. His body went limp, knocked unconscious for the second time from the same weapon.
I drew the cudgel back high and, with five or six hard blows, smashed his skull open like a ripe qualli. I slit the neck of the elder brother. His blood seeped from his neck and pooled over the floor.
Agatha stood aghast.
“I-I thought you were going to let them go?” she said.
“And risk them coming after us again? I don’t think so. I gave them a second chance. They won’t get a third.”
I tucked the twins’ shivs in the band of my pants.
“Trust me, the prison is a better place now.”
Not that that was saying much.
I took Agatha by the hand and was surprised with how little friction she put up.
We drew up to the pit where three, maybe four, figures lay sprawled faced down in the sand. A terrible fight had taken place down there and for a moment, I wished I had been there to witness it.
I could have placed a bet and earned a few credits. I’d always been pretty good at spotting the stronger fighter, although I was certain sometimes the fighters threw their fights. I guess there were cheats in every enterprise so it wasn’t surprising.
