IT SAID AGAIN, AND ITS VOICE WAS tinny, fading away.I raised my sword above my head to finish it off.“All… your… fault,” it said, coughing. “Here… for you.”Was this creature telling me that Jayne had died because of me? That she was a lure to get to me?“Who sent you?” I demanded.It laughed, or tried to. It was hideous to watch it try to speak. Burnt flesh and armor fell from its beaklike mouth, crumbling into ash in the bitter wind.“Find out… soon enough,” it said.I heard the rattle of breath, the last exhalation of the dead. But I wasn’t taking any chances.I cut off its head anyway. Then I cut off its arms, and then its legs, and then I began hacking away at its torso, which was much more vulnerable to the slice of my blade now that it was burned up.After a while the red haze of anger receded. I realized I was dripping sweat over a pile of smoking insect parts. The wind cut through the holes in my battle-damaged coat, and I shivered.This was stupid on so many levels.
