Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1)(70)

My eyes flicker to Kai. He’s the one who has a way with words, and Mósí was interested in him in a way she didn’t seem to be with the rest of us. Maybe he can get the Cat on track.

Kai catches my look. He clears his throat and takes a step forward.

“Is this your prey?” he asks, gesturing to the various rodents hanging from the ceiling. Mósí stops stock-still and looks at Kai. For a moment I think she’ll pounce on him, but instead she bursts out laughing. It’s a high abrasive giggle that goes on long enough for Kai to look over at me, a puzzled expression on his fine features. Damned if I know why the Cat’s got the hysterical giggles, so I just shrug.

“No, silly child,” Mósí says, once her laughter dies off and she’s caught her breath. “These are the gifts from my darlings.” She motions toward the numerous domestic cats that wander freely around her den. “I hang them to show proper respect.”

“Sort of like a creepy mother hanging up her kid’s paintings on the refrigerator door?” I ask.

She smiles, an unpleasant look that exposes her elongated front teeth.

“My apologies, Mósí,” Kai says, not missing a beat. “I should have known a great huntress like you would have much more valuable prey.”

“Mmmmm,” Mósí agrees. Her eyes flash to me, then back to Kai, listening.

“We’ve come because Coyote told us you had something that may help us find out who is making the monsters that are terrorizing Dinétah.”

Kai joins us on the rabbit furs. He reaches out, taking her hand and gently pulling her down to sit among the soft mass of dead rodent skins. He gestures at me to sit too, and I begrudgingly join them, sinking down to rest on my heels. Kai makes a motion with his free hand and Clive sits down too.

“Hmmmm . . . you are a fine young man,” Mósí murmurs, eyes still on Kai. She rubs a hand up and down his arm across the soft velvet of his shirt before weaving his fingers in hers again. “Yes, a fine young man. Strong medicine you will give to the People. Yes, you will. If you survive.” She looks at me and giggles, like Kai’s survival is a joke.

Kai blanches, but maintains his smile. He squeezes the crazy Cat’s hand like this is a normal conversation. “Have you heard of these monsters?” he asks.

“I have heard.”

“They are evil, mindless. They have killed children. Mothers and fathers. Brothers and sisters.”

“And you wish to kill the one who has made them?”

“Yes,” I say.

Mósí’s eyes turn to me. “Just so, battle child. You are a hunter, like me. You crave to taste the blood of your enemies, to hear their necks snapped between your jaws.”

Kai coughs at her vivid description and I have to admit that it’s not how I would have put it, but it’s close enough. “Will you help us?”

She purses her lips, the picture of consternation. “It is not so easy. You see, another has laid claim to this thing you desire.”

“Who?” Kai asks.

“This one came to Mósí, first with threats. But I said no, it is mine by rights, brought to me as a gift. To take a gift from one that it was freely given to? The Mother would not allow it. So this one promises to pay great sums of riches for it, but what are riches to a cat?”

I bite my lip, holding back the obvious. This particular cat is a bookie.

“I told him the same thing I would tell you,” she says.

“Which is?” I ask.

“You must fight for it. In my pit.”

“That’s it?” I ask. Nothing more than I’d planned to do anyway before Kai showed up with tickets.

“Maggie, wait,” Kai says. “We don’t know—”

“I’ll do it.”

Kai stands, pulls me up and away from the Cat. She gives me a predator’s smile.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Kai says in a whisper, his voice uneasy. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Ma’ii said this was the answer to finding the witch.”

“And you trust him?”

“No, but isn’t that why we’re here?”

“I just think it’s a bad idea for you to go into that arena.”

“I can handle myself in a fight, Kai. Of all the things to worry about, that’s the one that least worries me.”

“This will be the final bout of the night,” Mósí says.

It doesn’t really matter which fight it is. And there’s a little part of me that’s been craving the arena since I first saw it. The violence is familiar, simple. Something I understand. I step away from Kai, back to Mósí.

“I’ll do it.”

“Yes,” Mósí purrs, her eyes glittering. She raises her voice as she calls to her guards, “It is witnessed. Neizghání’s battle child has promised herself to the pit. This is a promise that she cannot break, lest she risk the displeasure of the Diyin Dine’é.”

“It is witnessed,” intone the guards formally in one voice. Mósí’s smile is so self-satisfied that I expect to see feathers drifting from her mouth. Something’s up.

“What am I missing?” I ask Kai.