Free The Iron Swamp by J V Wordsworth Page B

experiment. I want to prove that a quilla can get in, kill two people, and get out in roughly 35 clicks."
    I could have just measured the distance and used the average sprint speed to work out the times, but when I saw Pyke a physical demonstration seemed like a good way to interact with her. I knew that women were basically the same as men, but that never made it any easier to talk to them. Possibly because I wasn't great at talking to men either, but there was something about women that erased my ability to reason. I became foolish and nervous, stumbling over words and saying stupid things. Worse, I became a toy for them to play with. Right from my early cycles, I let them own me.
    I used to carry Taena Richard's purse for her like a servant until someone taught her what a dwarf was, and suddenly I wasn't fit for the job anymore.
    I cried for weeks over that purse.
    As an adult, there was Holly Balastair, the only person I would ever say the word to. Two months we were together, but she was my first relationship and that was all it took. I spent everything I had on her, on us, and when I said the word she smiled. Her eyes burned green, her thin lips mischievous in a way I'd never noticed before. Not that emotionally involved was how she put it. She was seeing another guy and saw no reason to stop doing so.
    Even Sariah, the woman who I wound up in the basement for had used me. She feigned interest in my life, smiled and flirted with me so I would do her bidding. I stole for her because my parents' philosophy demanded it, but I would not claim that was the full extent. I was entranced by her short blond hair and stiff beauty, and perhaps that influenced my decision more than I realized.
    I was not so young now. Pyke couldn't own me as the others had, but I knew as I timed her running to the door that I wasn't safe. The loneliness that drove my desperation had not gone.
    Pyke took about five clicks to act out killing Lemus, who played the guard. Assuming the quilla managed to kill Kenrey almost immediately after blowing the hole in the wall, I calculated he had about 30 clicks to do everything else and escape. It took her another three clicks to grab the chair, which was probably not in the middle of the room like some weird center piece, then she had to pick up the body and get it seated. We had nothing of Kenrey's weight to use, and I wasn't sure Pyke could have lifted it if we did, but hoisting Lemus onto the chair took her another ten clicks.
    Peti's profile made it difficult to imagine how he might get Kenrey onto a chair at all. Not through weakness; the quilla evolved in the limitless savanna of Vas Bes, a land of giants. They herded donphan – wheat colored mountains with tusks the size of buildings and a temper that made an earthquake feel like puff of wind. I did not doubt he had the strength to put Kenrey on the chair, but the fronds in front of his mouth, which his species used as hands, did not appear to possess any of the requisite traits to shift something heavy with finesse.
    I knew this was incorrect. Quillan fronds could extend almost a met, like the tentacles of an octopus. They were boneless fingers with the tensile strength of bungee cord. Whatever Pyke might have managed, Peti could do it in half the time.
    Lastly, Peti had to pin the note to him, which was the only part where he would be slower than a human. The fronds above his mouth were not as dexterous as human fingers. Lemus sat on the chair and had Pyke pin a note to him. She took four clicks. Given practice, Peti could probably do it in about the same. Then that left about another ten clicks for the quilla to get out of sight of the first guard to arrive on the scene. Of course, the guards would probably be able to see the huge snake long before they reached the hole in the wall, but it still remained technically possible for it to be done. I was wrong.
    It still didn't make any sense why the killer would take the time to put Kenrey on a chair