Chapter 26: Babro Du Zhang
“EM. . . Uh—They—They’re already dead,” Peter stammered in English when the wild-looking man turned to him. “They . . . died painfully! Yeah, um . . . painfully.” His fright was understandable. He just hoped the huge man wouldn’t recognize him as the fellow who’d earlier refused to commit murder with a particular Hun.
“Who are you?” the wild man demanded in Hunnish.
“What?”
“Which clan do you come from? Pure Blood is my clan.”
“Em. . . I’m Mo Shi, the . . . from the Unknown!”
“Never heard of them, but you are welcome all the same.”
Other fighters of this marauding tribe were turning back with their bloody swords and satisfactory booty, which they had stolen from their targeted enemies after killing them. It was like this was never an invasion as Liu Hang had thought. Just a small incursion by armed robbers.
Peter’s new friend studied the apparently dead ‘Chinese’ at his feet one by one. “They’re naked,” he suddenly growled.
“What?”
“They’re naked,” he repeated, glaring at Peter. “No jewelry or foodstuffs or other goods?”
“Oh, that,” the Jewish boy replied in a language that still sounded strange to him. “They must’ve left everything behind! You know. . . . Run for your lives?”
“But you killed them.”
“And?”
“You must have followed them from their home. You should know whether they left in a hurry.”
“Met them running,” Peter blurted out to save face.
But the Hun wasn’t convinced. He thought he saw Stephanie move and turned his frowning gaze on her for a long time. Nora’s beauty finally caught his fancy and he shifted his eyes to her head with its flowing black hair. Her mouth twitched. “I think she just moved,” he exclaimed.
“No way she did not,” Peter opposed as if the strength of his frightened voice alone would rubbish this fact. Some of the other Huns coming back had gathered around them wondering what could be wrong, and he’d been trying to remain calm. This was getting out of hand. Nora, please, please don’t move!
His crazy instigator was not ready to give up, though. Placing a foot on Nora’s stomach, the wild man pressed it down. “Holy Christ!” Peter muttered under his breath. Nora struggled to breathe while keeping still and every time she breathed out, she gasped for air while trying to inhale. Now, sweat freely poured down Peter’s forehead.
“She breathes, eh?” the man snarled, pointing at Stephanie while closely watching Peter’s reaction. “She’ll die better with my sword, eh?”
“She’s already dead, you know,” the fat boy quickly said in English.
But the Hun had noticed Matthew’s face and had turned all his attention to it. Peter knew what this meant. The nomad must have realized they were the ones with Liu Hang.
“Look, I’ll—I’ll fight you for her if she still lives!”
“What?”
“I’ll . . . fight you for her?” Peter asked himself in astonishment, beginning to appreciate the gravity of what he had just said.
“Brave words,” the barbarian agreed, nodding. “Foolish ones, too! You know I am Babro Du! I will fight you for all of them if they still live.”
Nora started writhing with flailing hands.
“All of them?”