GUNPOWDER MAGNOLIA Chapter 9: The Madwoman (Patreon)

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Here's the ninth chapter of Gunpowder Magnolia ahead of the newsletter. Not caught up yet? Find links to previous chapters here.

Most of Lanthe’s body had grown mannish through training. But no matter how much muscle she put on, she retained her rather reedy wrists, flexible like her mother’s. Keeping track of the pistol beneath her back with her left hand, she twisted to her right to find the knots that bound her arms. They hadn’t been well done in the first place and had had a day to slide about and loosen. It wasn’t hard to get her thumb into a loop near the end of the rope and then subtly tug, tug, tug with the movements of the wagon until the end slipped free. Within minutes, she had all the knots undone, the ropes looped uselessly about her arms, and her attention turned more intently to her surroundings.

Now that she had the option of attack, Lanthe had to consider her timing. She obviously didn’t want to wait until they reached the place of execution, where there would be more soldiers. But that didn’t mean immediate attack was the best course of action.

There is good timing and there is perfect timing, General Chang would say. Lanthe had held those words in mind as Dalin called the graphemancer’s shielding spells and she had counted one, two, three… up to Suya’s moment to shoot. For every maneuver, there is a good time and there is a perfect time.

Lanthe waited for a quiet street. The fewer people who witnessed her escape, the better. The last thing she wanted to do was draw attention that turned a three-on-one fight to ten-on-one or worse. She had also noticed that the Yao liked to string their clothing between buildings to dry, as people did in the sunnier parts of Ro. Lanthe waited, eyes on the sky, until the wagon rolled onto the perfect street. No human voices. Just the flap, flap of laundry in the wind.

She sat up and looked around, just to confirm that the location suited her purpose–it did–before Rendai turned in her direction and said, “Hey!”

Lanthe was standing in the bed of the wagon, gun at the ready, before the other two men noticed anything amiss. The only one of the Yao Lanthe really wanted to shoot was Gwalo, but she had set emotion aside and considered which soldier was most likely to outrun her. With a twinge of guilt, she took aim and blew out Kagu’s right knee.

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