Free Stonewiser by Dora Machado

tugged at her face scarf. Sariah wrapped it around her arm, concealing the glow under the fabric's multiple layers.
    A wild mane of dark hair bloomed around Delis's head like a smoky haze. “The light will burn through the fabric soon.”
    “Great.” Sariah forged ahead, but Delis couldn't keep up. She came to a stop and nearly crumbled.
    “Get up,” Sariah said. “We have to go.”
    The woman just stood there, panting like an old cow waiting to die.
    “And you called me a Goodlander weakling? The great Delis can't match a kitten's pace?”
    Blue and violet eyes flickered with righteous pride. Delis rose, stumbled a few more steps, and then waded with more assurance. Their pursuers were falling behind, fanning out in all directions, unable to locate them in the darkness without the red glow. After a few more moments, the mob halted as if stopped by an invisible line.
    “Nafa's boundaries,” Delis panted. “Can't follow us.”
    At last, a break in their favor. She spied the shapes of people from Nafa watching her burning deck. So much for keeping the deck dark. She crouched low over the water, as low as she could go considering that she was loaded, had an entire arm exposed to the dead water without her glove and was trying to support Delis as well. Sariah forded the settlement until she could no longer see her deck. She helped Delis climb an abandoned deck in a quiet part of town. As soon as they were out of the dead water, Delis tumbled over like a broken boulder. Sariah could hardly breathe. Now what?
    She needed to get Delis help and then she needed to find Kael and get out of Nafa. The deck was gone. How would they continue their journey without it? Panic. One problem at a time. Delis. Surely Nafa's people would render her assistance.
    The old deck had no shelter, but Sariah untied the assortment of sacks and bags she carried and piled them beneath a cover of rotting ropes. She looked around. Light flickered nearby, but for the most part, the area seemed dark and sparsely populated. The air smelled of neglect. It wasn't the most prosperous part of Nafa.
    She made up her mind and dragged the senseless Delis over a broken bridge to a more populated lane. The woman weighed more than a bull. The traffic was light, but she waited until no one was around to dump Delis's body on a lit deck. She rapped on the shutters before darting out of sight behind a nearby stack of broken crates. She wondered if this was how babies were gifted to the Guild, abandoned in the darkness at the massive threshold of the keep's gates.
    She had done what she could for Delis. Now she had to find Kael. She took a last look to make sure Delis got the help she needed. A man came to the door.
    “What do we have here?” He sounded half-drunk.
    A woman appeared from inside. “It's a body, that's what it is. Is it your drunk of a brother again?”
    “It's a woman. She's stuck with an arrow.”
    “Why, poor thing. Bring her inside, fetch the healer.”
    The man's tone had never been kind, but now it was down-right cold. “We ain't gonna spend no coin for a healer on this one. Look.” He pointed to Delis's forehead.
    From her hiding place, Sariah strained to see. A mark was stamped on the right side of Delis's forehead near her temple, a mark that had been concealed by her wrap before, three diagonal lines crossed by another trio of equal but opposing lines.
    “Lightning strike me, it's a net-stamped rot spawn,” the man said. “She's one of the executioners' mongrels.”
    “Don't let the neighbors see it.” The woman kicked Delis's inert body. “Bloody bitch, off my deck.”
    “I'll put her out to the flats. She'll be gone by morn.”
    The man dragged Delis over the bridge and back the way Sariah had come. Delis's body grated against the wood. Her weave caught an edge and ripped further. The man cursed. Soon thereafter, a splash broke the dead water's calm.
    By Meliahs. Delis was of the executioners, sent to kill her so that the mob