I run, scuttling away as quietly as I can. Searching for Pip but steering clear of the women now stalking through town. Sidling along walls and clinging to shadows, I make my way to the wharf. There I see a gangly creature with thin limbs and an oversize head, pacing up and down the stone pier. Pip, in a panic and veering dangerously close to where the wharf drops to the water below. On the moonlit ripples, I see the sailfin of the monster break the surface.

Bolting into the open, I snatch my brother away from the edge just as the water churns and boils. She surfaces in the sea foam, glaring with those double-lidded eyes as I drag Pip to safety.

Pip is ragged with tears. He sputters and babbles, making no sense. The only word I can decipher is our sister’s name. Did he witness our father’s murder? Did he watch the desecration of his body?

I pull him close to stifle his trembling. His runny nose dampens my collar as he shrinks into a shivering kitten. His voice hitches into a single question, repeated over and over.

Why?

When the first of the village girls steps into view, I clamp a hand over his mouth to silence him.

They make their way to the pier in a silent procession. Their bare feet on the cobblestones are painted red. Every daughter of our little hamlet passes by the shadow where Pip and I squat in terror. Every unmarried girl, every widow.

Pip buckles and goes into a fit when he sees what they are carrying in their clenched fists. I cannot hold him still with my ruined hand and he turns, seeing the horror in full. He sees the husks dripping gore along the stones. Heloise clutches her father’s severed head by the beard, Sabine holds Ulric’s noggin by one large ear. Father’s head is gripped at the scalp by our sister. I see Agnet stride past with Gunther’s head tucked under one arm like a gourd harvested from a garden.

Pip goes limp, fainting in terror. He slips through my useless hands like an eel. I want to scream, but my mouth is chalk and will make no sound. All I can do is watch the procession file out onto the pier where the mermaid glides across the bay. She is waiting for them.

A plop and a splash. The first head is tossed in. Then another and another, until the decapitated heads of all the men are pitched into the harbor in some pagan tribute to the sea goddess.

I unstick my tongue and hiss at my brother. “Pip, wake up. We have to get out of here.”

There is no reply. My hands are empty. Pip is gone.