Amal El-Mohtar

They bring daughters of earth back down to the land of death—but death does not claim them.

Red knows only because Red is patient, solitary, careful. She studied for this engagement.

One spared life might be worth more to the other side than all the blood that stained Red’s hands today. A fugitive becomes a queen or a scientist or, worse, a poet. Or her child does, or a smuggler she trades jackets with in some distant spaceport. And all this blood for nothing.