“Jack. That’s a stupid plan.”

Corva watches Jack sigh in frustration. Why did she even bother asking him what his plan would be? She redirects her attention, putting her focus on keeping the roof clear. She has two grunts roaming the perimeter knocking back any new ones that want to crest over the edge. In her mind’s eye, she can sense the world around them and control their limbs as if they are her own. It takes some effort, but not nearly as much as she would’ve thought.

As far as anyone else can tell, though, she’s just standing there, glaring at Jack. Yeah, like anyone else would be crazy enough to be out here and see this.

“What’s so stupid about it?” Jack kneels at his pack and starts rummaging in it some more. Apparently he’s not deterred by her criticism of his plan and there’s something else that he thinks is useful in that bag of his.

For a moment, Corva wonders what kind of madness Jack has packed in her bag. And how much damage that stuff has taken in her last few minutes of falling through the sky and partially caving in a rooftop.

“Jack. Jack!” Despite her efforts to get his attention, Jack ignores her and continues burying himself in his pack.

Enough of this. She puts both batons in a single hand so she can grab his shoulder with her free one and pull his attention to her. “Stop that! What are you looking for now? Para! It’s a stupid plan because it’s not even a plan, even by your standards. You want us to play the part of blunt instrument here. Brute force.” Corva forces Jack to face her. It’s easy given the small size of his frame. “You’re not built for brute force.”

Jack rips away from Corva’s grip, but keeps his face pointed at her. Defiant. “I don’t need muscles, I’ve got—”

“You’ve got what?” It takes everything in her to resist laughing at his naivety. “You’ve got tech? Magic? This is Death. He’s been defeating the best of those weapons for over a century. You think you’ve got something he hasn’t seen?”

Finally, Jack looks away. Starts digging in his bag again. He’s still scowling, but his shoulders have dropped, more like he’s pouting. “It’s not magic.”

“Magic, fixins … whatever you call it. The Old Beard has seen it and beat it.”

“The Touch worked on him pretty good.”

Corva grabs Jack’s chin and directs his attention across to the other rooftop. Thegn is still sitting there with that rat on his shoulder, untouchable. “Yeah. How’d that work out?”

He jerks his face out of her hands. “It was my first time really usin’ it! I just need to get close enough. I’ll finish him right this time.”

“Take a good look over there. Look at him! Look at Death.” Corva points at the Old Beard with the two batons in one hand.

Moodily, Jack complies.

Corva continues, “Have you noticed that none of these grunts can get near him? He’s just sitting there, but do you see bodies piled up around him? Kind of a perfect ring. Anyone, grunt or otherwise, collapses if they so much as step on that rooftop. Even me. I was there. That rat of his can put anyone to sleep if they get too close. I was only able to get away because of Zeke. Even the grunts have gotten the message and aren’t trying to get closer. There’s no way you can get close enough to use the Touch.”

Jack stares across at Thegn and Caffiel, but his face is different. He’s still wearing a scowl, but he’s not pouting. It’s something else.

There’s no time for this.

Zeke adjusts his position on her shoulder. Give him a chance.

Now you want to stay and fight? Make up your mind, Zeke!

Don’t discount the boy entirely. The situation is different now compared to when I thought he and Lyia had made it down to Cliff City. At this point, I’m not sure that they’d be safe even there. So we have to improvise. If there’s anything Jack’s good at, it’s adjusting in the moment. Otherwise, he would’ve died years ago.

There’s no reasoning with either of you! She turns her head away from the monkey and settles her view on Thegn. She locks her mind on her grunt puppets, still diligently keeping their rooftop clear. Although their proportions are all messed up, there’s a certain rhythm in their movement. It’s too much to call it graceful, but there’s an easiness there. An almost pure lack of resistance. She thinks. They act. Natural extensions of herself, just like when she had extra arms. Comfortable. It’s as easy as breathing.

Finally, Jack speaks up.

“When you say that rat puts everyone to sleep, do you mean actual sleep, or do you mean that as a fanciful way of saying ‘dead’?”

Corva checks with Zeke on her shoulder.

It’s the former. Though I suppose if Caffiel concentrated, he could put someone in a coma.

She looks back to Jack. “Zeke says it’s just sleep, but it’s probably not a good idea to test it out.”

“And you’re sure it’s the rat doing that?”

Corva faces Jack. “Yeah. Caffiel. The sleepytime sigil.”

Jack tilts his head. “What’s a sig—never mind. Doesn’t matter. New plan.”

She crosses her arms and waits for him to explain himself. Jack doesn’t seem to notice. Apparently his next harebrained idea has him fully engrossed.

He crosses the rooftop so he’s at the edge closest to Thegn’s building and puts one foot on the low wall there. Corva maneuvers her grunts to keep the area around her and Jack clear.

Jack points in the direction of the other rooftop. “We start by taking out the rat. Slim, you still there?”

He pauses a beat, apparently waiting for Slim to respond on the other side of his comms.

It’s not a long pause, because almost immediately, Jack nods. The tinkerer apparently has been listening to them this whole time. “Good. I’m gonna need you to pilot your nanobots again. Break up the swarm into as many smaller groups as you can control. Position them around that rooftop. When I give the go-ahead, you get that rat. My guess is that the little pink-eyed bastard’s nighty-night mojo only works on things that are alive. Tech should get by without a prob.”

Another pause. The reply on the other end is more than a simple yes or no. Finally Jack responds, “We’ll have to risk it. Even if the tech can’t get through, hopefully it’s enough of a distraction for the rest of this.”

He reaches up and twists one of the kneaks behind his ear before turning to regard Corva. “Now you. I’m gonna need your help gettin’ me close once Slim takes out the rodent.”

Corva feels her face crinkle. “What kind of help?”

Jack takes a deep breath and tilts his head in the direction of the nearest grunt under Corva’s control. “That kind of help. I need you to get me close to ol’ Wrinkles.”

“How close?”

Jack reaches out his arm and extends two fingers, just like he had in the bar when he used the Touch on Thegn. “About that close.”

It takes a second for the full scope of Jack’s plan to sink in for Corva. If her surprise shows in her face, Jack isn’t reacting to it. He just lowers his arm and stares at her. Corva collects herself and narrows her eyes at him. “I didn’t get the impression that you liked it the last time I controlled you.”

“I don’t like it. But you can make me move in a way that I never thought I could. You saw me when I tried getting here. Damn near dropped my own ass in the alley. Can’t afford me fuckin’ this up.”

“What if your buddy Slim can’t get to the rat? I’m not sure I can control you if you’re unconscious.”

“I’d love to have some way to test that out, but there’s no time.” Jack stands up and stretches. It would seem that whatever he was after in his pack isn’t important anymore. “We’re just gonna have to hope for the best.”

Zeke adjusts his position on her shoulder. There’s a pretty large margin for error, but it’s not a bad approach. The Touch is powerful. Even if it doesn’t kill Thegn, it’s already incapacitated him once.

Jack groans and makes a face. “Oh c’mon. Not you, too! The vid wasn’t reliable. There aren’t very many folks about, and we couldn’t control where any of them was looking.”

Corva pokes Jack in the chest. “Zeke was complimenting you, idiota.”

“I wasn’t talkin’ to you. Or to Zeke. Can’t hear his monkey ass anyway. I got Slim an’ Lyia on comms in my head. They’re doubtin’ me, too. Askin’ why I just didn’t use the Touch through Slim’s surveillance rig.”

“You can do that?”

“Yeah. In theory. Lyia would know better. But Old Man V said that’s how the Fold was so effective in their mercies. They’d cruise in with a small swarm of drones. Each mage had a vid screen with live footage from a few of them drones. Most of a town would be cleared that way. Then they’d go in and do cleanup for anyone they missed.”

“Can’t you see vid from those nanobots or whatever?”

“Kinda, but the playback goes right through the kneak an’ it overlays what I see. I gotta be able to touch something in order to, you know, use the Touch.”

“But then why d—”

“I’m tired of always hiding! Tired of being afraid. I’m not gonna hide while my town gets torn apart and the folks I care about get hurt. Again.” Jack’s face is painted with a mix of frustration and impatience.

Corva sighs and refrains from sharing all her doubts. Instead, she packs it all into making one point, the only one that matters. “I don’t know the Touch. I can control your body, but I can only make you do things I know how to do. Even if I can get your body close enough …”

She lets the end of the sentence hang in the air between them.

“I know. You’re going to need to drop control once you get me there. If I’m awake, I’ll probably only have a couple seconds before Wrinkles ends my day.” Jack holds up his hand, brandishing two fingers. “Just get these two fingers on him. I’ll handle the rest.”

Corva.

“Já deu, Zeke! I get it.” She turns her attention to the little monkey on her shoulder. Only, he’s not looking at her. His face is pointed across the alley, toward the other rooftop. Toward Thegn. “What is it?”

Whatever you two choose to do, you need to do it now. Zeke’s paws dig into Corva’s shoulder through her pack’s straps. He’s starting.

Before those words echo across her mind, Corva is already following Zeke’s gaze to watch Thegn. The old man leans forward, and for a moment, he appears to be levitating, like there’s a swell of energy pushing up from under him. It’s enough to raise him from his seated position so he can place his feet beneath himself in a high squat. The rat scurries down Thegn’s arm to a new post at Death’s feet.

Thegn doesn’t lift his head at all. For a moment, a subtle shudder seems to work its way over his whole body.

Half a breath later, Thegn’s back bursts open, erupting with feathery darkness. Crows. An unspeakable, unimaginable number of crows spew from an enormous gash in Thegn’s back. The entire view before Corva, Jack, and Zeke is filled with the dark swarm of Death. It’s a living cloud of feathered shadows. Ominous. Sinister. And deafeningly loud.

Corva looks to Jack. His slack-jawed expression of surprise mirrors how she feels. He says something. Screams it. She can’t hear him at all. It doesn’t matter. His meaning is clear.

“We’re screwed.”