“But I need to know now.”
“Don’t do anything stupid. Remember, this is just a rumor.”
Tereka bit her lip. Give favors to Relio to find out if this woman was Iskra? She wasn’t sure how she’d be able to explain that one to her mother. Or Da. And somehow she didn’t think the sky-god would go for that.
She narrowed her eyes as she watched Poales walk away. Da had always called him a slippery fish. He’d said something to make her want to live but she didn’t think he was lying.
Could she hold on? Just a little longer? Maybe the amulets would lead her to her mother. And show her how to survive.
44
That evening, Tereka slumped against the wall, arms wrapped tight around her knees. She let the rumble of the men’s voices bump against her ears without hearing the words. How could her mother still be alive? Her chest tingled and she absently rubbed the spot over her heart. She reached for the back of her head, but instead of soft hair, short stubble grazed her fingertips. She let out a huff. One more thing they’d taken away from her.
But in place of her freedom she might find her mother. There couldn’t be many village women who married a Risker whose name began with an X. Maybe the guard just saw a scar. Her heartbeat quickened and she chewed her lip. Iskra. What would it be like to meet her, the girl who braved Kaberco’s wrath to flee with the one she loved? Tears pricked her eyes. Maybe Iskra would love her. Her breath caught in her chest and the weight on her shoulders lifted. Tereka had never felt a mother’s love. She had to find her. If it really was Iskra. The weight fell back on her, bowing her head over her knees. The chances were slim. How could she find out? She couldn’t just march up to a guard and ask. Poales was right. She needed help.
Angry shouts cut the air and she jumped to her feet. Relio stood in the middle of the room, facing down the man who held the last place in line. He held a chisel in his upraised hand and brandished it at Relio. “Put me up a place or two. Or else.”
Tereka’s pulse drummed. She hadn’t thought it possible to smuggle a chisel out of the mine past the guards. The fellow had planned this well. Sebezh stood a few yards behind the man, his lips pulled back in a sneer. Tereka’s eyes widened. Sebezh had put him up to this. Five men flanked Sebezh, his band of followers. He’d chosen this moment to challenge Relio’s leadership.
Relio spat at the man’s feet. “Yanshyr.” Rage simmered as he flung his curse. “I make the rules. No matter what anyone tells you.” He took a step toward the man, his hands outstretched. “Right, Sebezh?”
“Not for long.” The man lunged for Relio and drove the chisel into his abdomen. Tereka gasped. Everyone in the room seemed frozen in place, eyes fixed on the confrontation.
“You sure about that?” Relio said. He clamped a hand on the chisel and nodded to Alikse and Naco.
Alikse strode forward. Relio’s attacker stepped back right into Naco’s grasp. Naco gripped the man’s arms, pinning them to his sides. Alikse seized the man’s head and twisted it. A sharp crack cut the air and Alikse flung the man’s lifeless body to the ground.
Her back against the wall, Tereka pressed a fist to her trembling chin.
“Give him to the guards.” Relio’s voice still held the authority of command, but it was weaker than usual. Alikse dragged the man to the door of the barracks and banged on it. A guard slid open a peephole. “We have a troublemaker for you.”
Savinnia darted to Relio’s side. She and Naco helped him walk to their pile of straw and lowered him to lie on it. He dropped onto the straw and lay on his back, his face pale and gray.
Tereka fell to her knees beside him. Savinnia had already undone his tunic. Blood flowed from the wound, surrounding the protruding chisel. Savinnia laid a hand on Relio’s face. “We have to pull it out,” she said.
He nodded.
If he died, Sebezh and his gang would take over. Tereka gulped down a breath. Relio couldn’t die. But who could survive a chisel to the gut?
Alikse strode up. “I’ll hold him down. Naco, you pull it out.” He shoved a piece of the dead man’s tunic at Tereka. “And you press that on the wound. Ready?” He grasped Relio’s shoulders and pushed down.
Naco took a deep breath, grabbed the chisel, and yanked it out. Relio let out a yell. Blood gushed out. Tereka pressed the cloth against the wound. Within a few heartbeats, it was soaked.
“Relio? The men are restless.” Sebezh leaned on Naco’s shoulder. “You need to do something. Unless you can’t.” He sneered. “Then I will.”
“As soon as he stops bleeding, he’ll be fine.” Alikse ground out the words. “In the meantime, I’ll talk to the men.” He raised his eyebrows at Savinnia and Tereka, then stood and led Sebezh to the center of the room.
Tereka wiped the sweat from Relio’s face. His eyes were closed and he struggled to breathe. She looked at Savinnia, whose face was pale and her eyes wide. Tereka leaned forward. “Can you and Naco make sure no one comes near?”
“Why?”
“I can try one thing, but I can’t let anyone see.”
Savinnia narrowed her eyes. “You have about ten heartbeats. I’m not sure how long Alikse can keep them in hand.”
Naco shook his head. “Whatever you want to do, be fast. Before Sebezh decides he wants to fight us for control of the brigade.”
“Then turn around.” Tereka felt in her pocket for the largest amulet, the amulet of power. She gripped it with trembling fingers. “Please. Please.” She laid the amulet on the puncture in Relio’s abdomen.
One, two heartbeats passed. Was the bleeding slowing? She held her breath. Three, four. Oh, please, sky-god. She peeked under the amulet. The bleeding had ebbed to a slow ooze. And the puncture was shrinking. Now it looked like Relio had been stabbed with a stiletto. She gazeed into Relio’s pale gray eyes.
The big man took a shuddering breath. Tereka took his hand and squeezed it. “Just rest. You’ll be fine.”
“Warm. So warm.” His eyelids fluttered shut.
“What?” Her limbs weakened and her shoulders sagged. He couldn’t be dying.
“It was cold. Now it’s warm.”
In the center of the room, Alikse still argued with Sebezh. Tereka removed her hand from Relio’s belly and he opened one eye. “What have you done?”
“Nothing. I mean, I’m trying to stop the bleeding.”
“Huh. I felt my life draining out of me. Then you touched me, and it flowed back.”
Tereka put her hand with the amulet into her pocket and shoved it down deep. “I think that’s just because the bleeding stopped.” She half-turned. “Alikse,” she called. “Relio wants to get cleaned up. Can you heat some water?”
Sebezh stalked over. “How can he want anything? He’s— ”
“What, you thought I was dead?” Relio sat up. “Takes more than that little toy to stop me. Now, if you’d build a fire and help Alikse with the water, I won’t hold your friend’s assault against you.” He glared at Sebezh, whose face froze. Then he nodded, bowed his head, turned around, and stalked away.
“I’m thirsty.” Relio touched Savinnia’s shoulder. She jumped up and walked to the water bucket. Naco shifted to face the room, as if watching for more attacks.
Relio grabbed Tereka’s chin and pulled her face toward his. “I don’t know what you did. I just know it was impossible. Care to tell me?”
She struggled to meet his gaze. “I just stopped the bleeding. That’s all.”
“Fine. Keep your secrets.” He pressed his lips together. “Can’t you do something about the itch?”
“That means it’s healing. When it’s washed, you’ll feel better.” Maybe he’d be a little grateful and be willing to talk.
When Savinnia returned with a dipper of water, Relio drained it and pushed it back to her. “More.”
Tereka took in a slow breath. Maybe this was her chance. “If you please, think about something else so you don’t notice the itching.”
“What, you want my comments on the weath
er?”
“If you please. How long have you been here?”
He grimaced. “More than five years, that’s for sure. About your age when I was taken. Got greedy, that’s what I did.”
“How’s that?”
“I used to make my living liberating animals from their stalls in the markets in Litavye. One night, on a nice night for work—neither moon was out—I went to rescue some goats. The nanny goats came along quietly. I should have stopped with them. But I had to have the billy goat. Big mistake. He put up a ruckus.”
“And what happened?” Tereka leaned forward, eyes glued to Relio’s face.
“I led the guardsmen on such a chase, down alleys and up streets, over rooftops. Almost made it out, but there were too many of them.”
“How many did it take to catch you? Fifty?”
Relio snorted. “No, girly, just twenty. But I almost got away.”
“You probably escaped many times.”
“Why are you asking me this? Are you thinking of trying to escape?” He scowled, studying Tereka.
She rubbed her sweating hands on her dress. “Escape? Oh, no. I just thought you’ve probably had some interesting adventures and telling stories can distract you from the itch.”
Savinnia returned with another dipper of water and held it as Relio drank. “You haven’t heard his best story. Tell her about the girl.”
“Girl?” Relio pondered for a moment, then nodded. “The girl. She was a right feisty one, that girl.”
“What girl?”
“From a village up north, past Trofmose. Not sure what she did to get the ephor so mad at her, but seems they’d arranged a marriage for her when she was just sixteen. She wasn’t having any of it, not that one.”
Tereka’s heart beat faster. Was she about to hear her mother’s story? “Why not?”
Relio turned to his audience, who laughed appreciatively. “Imagine this: a young pretty girl set to marry some scrawny old chicken farmer, twice, three times her age.”
“Why would they do that to her?” Tereka asked.
“Like I said, who knows what she did wrong? Anyway, she didn’t want nothing to do with the chicken farmer. Maybe he smelled, or slept with the roosters. One night, she took off.”
“Where did she go?” Tereka knotted her hands to hide their shaking.
“It seems she’d made friends with some Riskers, if you can believe that. She married one and they fled.”
“What about the chicken farmer?” Tereka’s stomach fluttered. She could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“Oh, he wasn’t about to let her make a fool of him, not for some savage. He and the ephor were smart. They knew winter was coming, and the girl and her husband would head for the Risker camp on the other side of the high pass. Altiad, I think they call it. Come spring, they’d be on the move again, hoping everyone would have forgotten about them. No such luck.”
“No?”
“Nope. The ephor and farmer tracked them to the camp near Litavye. They caught them in the mountains.”
The blood surged through Tereka’s ears.
“They killed the savage,” Relio continued, “and took the girl captive. Gave the chicken farmer a few days with his bride. He used her a few times. Then he decided he didn’t want her after all, since she’d tainted herself by having a Risker’s baby.”
Tereka’s heart raced as if she’d been running. “She had a baby?”
“That’s what they say. But it died, like all half-breed trash.”
“I heard it was deformed,” Naco said. “Three arms.”
Savinnia frowned. “I heard no head.”
Forcing herself to keep her expression bland, Tereka wondered what they would think if they knew they were talking to the deformed half-breed trash. “What happened to the girl?”
“They sent her to work, just like us. That was almost twenty years ago. I’m sure she’s long dead by now.” Relio shook his head. “Wish I’d known her. Must have been a brave girl, to lead that ephor on such a chase.”
“This can’t be true. No one marries Riskers.” Tereka crossed her arms. “How did you hear this story?”
Relio scratched under his arm. “I heard it from my da, who knew one of the guards that northern ephor hired to help catch them.”
“Everyone around Litavye heard the story,” Savinnia said, then she shivered. “But we all knew not to talk about it openly. That was a taking offense.”
Tereka turned to hide her face. It might be true. That her mother didn’t die right away. Alikse approached, bearing a pot of water. He set it down near Savinnia. He took the rest of the dead man’s bloody tunic and tore off the sleeves, the only part not soaked in blood. Then he handed them to Savinnia. She dipped the rags in the water and dabbed at the blood around Relio’s wound, now no more than a small puncture. She raised an eyebrow. “Should I not ask what you did to heal him?”
Tereka shook her head. “Better not. Not here.” Savinnia shrugged and turned her attention back to cleaning the blood from Relio’s abdomen.
A vein pulsed in Tereka’s throat. She swallowed hard and tipped her head to the side. “What is it with these Riskers? She wasn’t the only one.”
“What do you mean?” Relio asked.
“I heard a rumor that there’s a woman here who married a Risker,” she said, her heart hammering in her chest.
He nodded. “I heard the same one. She has the mark of the wedding tattoo on her wrist. They burned it with acid, though. But the guy who saw it says you can still see a faint X.”
This had to be her mother. Tereka pressed her lips together to keep from panting. “Where is this woman?”
“They say the commander took her for his own, when she was still young and pretty. If she’s still alive, who knows what job they stuck her with? Probably cleans the piss pots for the officers.” He looked around at the people listening to him. “Enough. Time for sleep.” He stood up, with a little help from Alikse. “You.” He pointed to Tereka. “I’m moving you up ten places. Now come with me.” Leaning on Alikse’s arm, he shuffled to his pile of straw.
Her stomach heaved. So much for giving her some time. She’d gladly give the ten places he’d moved her up in exchange for not having to give herself to him. She followed Relio, desperately searching for some excuse to give him so he wouldn’t use her tonight. She sat down near his straw and hugged her knees to her chest.
Relio chuckled. “You don’t have to look so scared, girly. I meant it when I said I’d give you time. You still have one day.”
“Then what do you want?”
“You were pretty interested in my story. I’m flattered. I thought you stopped breathing at one part.”
“It’s kind of shocking, you know, that someone would marry a Risker.”
“I don’t think that part of the story shocked you.”
Tereka dropped her gaze. Had it been that obvious, or was he just perceptive?
“I think you know that woman.”
She swallowed. “I’ve never met her. But I do have a relative whose story fits that one.”
“And you’d like to know if she’s here.”
“How did you know?”
“I’ve been here long enough. I can tell when someone wants something bad but doesn’t want to say. You want some help? I’ll see what I can find out from the guards. You know what I want in return.”
This was her chance to find her mother, but at what price? She looked at the floor. “I need to think about this.”
“You’ve got till tomorrow,” Relio said. “Just remember, if that woman’s been here twenty years, she may not survive much longer.” He shuffled himself to lie on his straw. “Tell Savinnia I’m ready.” He closed his eyes, a smirk on his lips.
Slowly, Tereka stood up. She knew he thought he had her. Could be he was right.
45
The shadows lengthened, shielding Tereka’s head from the relentless sun as she toiled. She glanced at the sky and scowled. How could the d
ay be nearly over? Her shoulders slumped. The hours were racing until the time she’d have to make a choice.
Relio, Alikse, Naco. She tapped her hammer against her chisel with each name. Eliminating Alikse was easy. She shuddered. The crack of the man’s neck he’d broken echoed in her mind. He’d snapped it like the man was a toy. No, he was just too terrifying.
Naco seemed the kindest of the three. She pursed her lips. And he seemed genuinely protective of Savinnia. I could use a defender like that.
Then there was Relio. He was a rough one. Sharing him with Savinnia would have its advantages. Maybe he wouldn’t bother her every night. Her throat tightened. She couldn’t believe those were her choices. Once, she’d wanted Juquila’s approval and to be accepted by the trade guild. Now, she had to decide which criminal to belong to. She blinked the tears from her eyes. Think, Tereka. Relio, as leader of the brigade, would be a more powerful protector than Naco as long as he held on to his power. But that could change in a heartbeat.
The whistle blew and she joined the others in the weighing line. Sweat trickled down her neck. One glance at Relio made her shiver.
After her bucket was weighed, she took her place in line and sidled up close to Savinnia. The lead guard announced that the brigade leaders were to report to the commander. Everyone else was to remain in formation until they returned.
Tereka crossed her arms and tried to think, her heart pounding a relentless rhythm in her ears. Naco. Alikse. Relio. Naco and Alikse stood like statues, staring at the ground. How would they want me to choose? A sour taste filled her mouth and she pressed a hand against the amulets in her pocket.
Another whistle blew and the guards gave the order to return to the barracks. Tereka trudged behind Savinnia, tremors shaking her hands. She still didn’t know what to do.
In the barracks, Relio was already sprawled in his chair. Tereka couldn’t read his face. Emotions flitted across it like autumn breezes, this one blowing cold, this one hot. Clearly, Relio wasn’t sure what he thought about whatever the guards had told him. He sat up and scowled.
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