Madam Butterfly took hold of the forked dagger where it stood out of Kervyn’s mouth, and began to twist it.

The blades turned inside him, carving through the flesh of the mouth and the throat, and more blood came gushing from his ruined face. Then she tore the dagger out, one hard upward pull — and it split Kervyn’s face and brain and skull into two as it came, rising free slick with blood and pus and grey matter.

His face and his skull hung open down the middle now, the two halves lolling to either side from the base of his neck, and what oozed out of them spattered across the bedroll and the floor.

She kicked the lifeless body, and it flew back into the reed wall of the house and dropped in a heap in the corner.

" That will be no accident. But I do not give a damn. "

She looked to Saana — still unconscious on the bedroll, drenched — and took up the upper garment Kervyn had thrown off, and cast it over her bare body.

The cloth landed on her with a soft weight, and Saana’s eyes came open. The sight of Kervyn’s impaled face rushed back, and her mind snapped alert, and she sat up and looked wildly around — and found Madam Butterfly standing over her head with a dagger, and their eyes met, and her throat went dry.

Just then came the sound of loud running footsteps, and both their faces turned to the entrance.

A Rakshasa with black skin and black hair, in a full-sleeved garb, came running through the door. Blood covered his face, still trickling down from a wound somewhere on his head. He halted at the sight of the two of them — and then ran straight at Madam Butterfly.

She tightened her grip on her daggers and set herself to strike — came forward to meet him — and stopped short at the strangeness of what he did.

The black-skinned noble threw himself flat on his stomach before her, bare hands stretched out in front of him in a posture of prayer.

" Lady — please. Do not hurt my wife. " His voice came hoarse. " I love her more than anything in this world. If harm comes to her, I will die. She is the one good thing that ever happened to me. I cannot imagine my life without her. Hurt me, kill me if you wish — but spare her. Please. "

And he stayed down, and muffled sobs came out of him, as though he wept silently against the floor.

Saana looked at the figure lying there, and now, by the voice, knew him — Markus. She had not recognized him with all the blood on his face.

Her own voice was hoarse from screaming and crying, but she forced it out.

" Markus — your friend Kaiser forced himself on me, he tried to — "

" Stop. " Madam Butterfly cut across her, and then turned her hard gaze down on the prostrate noble. " Fine friends you keep. That one was trying to violate your wife. And where were you? How dare you claim to love her, if you cannot protect her when she is in danger? "

Markus lifted his face, still lying flat, tears cutting tracks through the blood on his cheeks.

" Lady — Kaiser is no friend of mine. I met him only today. He said he needed help — and he betrayed me. Struck my head from behind, outside this house. I lost consciousness, and a great deal of blood. I came to a few minutes ago, and ran here in terror that he had harmed my Saana. "

He turned his head to her.

" Saana — I am sorry. I put you in danger. Forgive me. I do not care now what my family says, or anyone. I will tell them all you are my wife, that I love you, that I cannot be parted from you. "

Saana was still piecing it together. There were holes in what Markus was saying, she could feel them — but she held her tongue.

She was still wary of the old female Rakshasa with the dagger, and understood that whatever Markus was spinning, he was spinning it to keep them both alive. So she joined the ruse.

" Husband — I am only glad you are safe. Nothing else matters, so long as you are safe. And do not ask me to forgive you — you were only helping a fellow noble, and he turned out a betrayer. I know how much you love me. You would never knowingly put me in harm’s way. "

And she buried her face in her hands, and made the sounds of weeping.

Madam Butterfly watched the emotional drama in silence.

She drew from it the notion that these two had married in secret — obvious enough, a commoner female and her noble husband. And in the two young lovers she saw, for a moment, herself and her own husband, and her eyes softened.

She eased. She put her dagger away into her storage bead, and looked down at Markus.

" You are pathetic — making your wife weep. " A pause. " But you have both seen my face now. And that carries consequences. "