by Orr, Krystal
Behind him stood Bela'luin, bow in hand. "Are you well?"
Arizira swallowed and nodded. "Where is my lana?" she asked.
At her words, D'jiira appeared behind Bela'luin. Fresh blood covered her neck and the front of her leather vest. "Arizira!" she yelled as she ran to her daughter's side. "We were attacked by the advance party when we scouted ahead. The Lat'sa'val march in full force. We barely managed to escape and doubled back for you, but you were already gone."
"I heard fighting and had to protect Tah-li," Arizira explained.
Bela'luin interrupted them. "We can not stay here. The Esu are upon us."
"The gates are closed," Arizira added. "We no longer have the option of entering behind the wall for protection. In the battle, we could be shot by mistake."
"Agreed," Bela said. "Our only option is to fight. You need to get your love to safety, some place where you can attempt to call to her spirit. "
D'jiira nodded. "Bela is correct. Talliea is the only way we can stop this bloodshed. I will fight with your sisters, but you must attempt to reach Talliea."
Arizira did not say anything immediately. Her mind was racing, as was her heart. Everything was happening too quickly. This battle was never supposed to have come to fruition. They had risked so much, sacrificed so much, in an effort to avoid this outcome and yet here they all stood.
It was not fair. There was not enough time! She did not even know how to reach Talliea, let alone if she even could. She was a huntress. That was her calling. Medicine and the spirits were not her area of expertise. They were Sed'dya's and Cynra's. What was she to do?
"Arizira!" D'jiira grabbed her by the shoulder and looked into her eyes. "Seek some form of refuge. Keep Talliea safe." Arizira nodded, her eyes appearing to D'jiira to be far away.
Bela'luin stepped closer. "I shall try to make my way through the fighting to let the gate guards know you are alive. Mayhap they can send others to see you safely inside the village."
"Keep her safe," Arizira said suddenly in a soft voice, pointing to D'jiira. "Keep her safe for me, Bela."
Bela nodded and held Arizira's eyes. "Of course, Child of Whispers."
D'jiira hugged Arizira and kissed her forehead before standing quickly and moving away. Before any further words could be said, a group of Esu, seeking a momentary respite, ran into the trees near their location. A volley from the archers on the rampart killed three, but the remaining four managed to dodge out of the way.
Both Bela'luin and D'jiira moved in front of Arizira and Talliea. "Go, Arizira! Now!" D'jiira yelled before yelling a cry and rushing the nearest Esu man. Her mace came down and caved in his skull. Bela'luin exchanged her bow for her sword and met a second man in battle. The man dodged her first two attacks, infuriating her, and managed to cut her left bicep with his own blade.
Angered, Bela'luin parried his next attack and buried the blade of her sword in his belly. She drove the blade in deep and jerked up and away, the action spilling the man's life blood on the ground beneath his feet.
Arizira waited only a moment more before she turned, grasped the two poles of Talliea's travois, and ran deeper back into the woods seeking shelter. As she ran, she thought she heard muted voices yelling in Arniran.
"The Child of Whispers lives! The Child of Whispers lives! The Child of Whispers lives!"
Chapter 35: The Eclipse War
Arizira Ahmanae did not run. She did not flee. She did not turn away from a fight and leave others in her place to brave danger while she withstood hardship. Yet here she was. Running. She had left one of her fellows and her mother behind, surrounded by four Esu men.
A part of her knew she was following the only course left to her, but the other part could not shake the sinking feeling that she was a craven. She was hiding and avoiding a war when the women she most loved and adored fought for her safety. What else was she to do, though? Her mother had been correct when she'd said her place was with Talliea. It was with the woman she loved and with the unborn child they both loved.
Rushing into battle and risking herself would accomplish nothing in the end. Deep inside, Arizira knew that. Once she had run a safe distance from the fighting, or what she assumed to be a safe distance, she stopped to catch her breath. Her silver-blue eyes looked around the area she and Talliea were in and she became aware of one thing: she had not traveled as far as she had thought. Carrying Talliea behind her had slowed her normally light and swift feet.
When she'd left D'jiira and Bela'luin, she had run back west and followed the gentle slope of the land as it had curved around and away from the Arniran perimeter. The location she found herself in was wide and open. A small enclosure surrounded by rock offered her the chance to clear her head of its heavy thoughts and formulate some course of action to bring Talliea back to her.
Arizira carefully dragged the travois behind her and into the opening of the three-sided rock formation. She wondered if the structure had once been a cave of some kind or some long forgotten altar of ceremony. Lowering Talliea to the ground, Arizira took stock of herself and supplies. She still had a skin of water and half of another left. Her weapons were secured at her sides and over her shoulders. Checking the supplies she'd laid next to Talliea, Arizira was gladdened to find her quiver of arrows, a number of dried meats and nuts, and a few pieces of cloth wrapped over dohethra. Nothing had been lost as she'd absconded.
"Thank-you, Aitla," she whispered. If she was to be away from her loved ones, at least she had enough supplies to be made comfortable while she attempted to reach Talliea. "Failira?" she whispered as she sat down next to Talliea. Her love's brow was slightly furrowed and she espied a light sheen of sweat along her hairline. Arizira brushed her fingers through Talliea's dark hair and trailed them down her cheek.
"What does your mind descry, I wonder? Do you dream of me or do you perceive some wisdom from these women who dwell inside your mind?" Talliea's eyes moved rapidly behind her closed lids, as though her heart was aware of Arizira's presence and longed to be able to confess her desires. Arizira sighed and gently moved her fingers along her love's eyebrows, trying to sooth away the worry she saw present. "I do not know how to help you, Tah-li. These powers you possess do not reside within me. How am I to bring you back without knowledge of your gift? What do your eyes see?"
No response came from Talliea.
Arizira sat herself with her back against the far wall of the rock formation. She kept her fingers stroking the soft skin of Talliea's forehead and nose and tried in vain to come up with a solution to her current lot.
* * * * *
"Any sign of Arizira?" Talyn asked one of the archers on the western parapet. Around her, women moved from one end of the village to the other, passing on fresh arrows, tending to the wounded, or offering new blades to the groups of warriors passing beyond the gate.
Thus far, defenses were holding. Barely.
The young archer who had been watching for Arizira looked over the parapet at Talyn. "None, Nai'iris. Sometime ago my eyes very nearly convinced me I saw her, but no sign has been glanced since. If Arizira is in the forest below, she hides herself from my sight."
Talyn sighed in defeat and motioned for M'kesei across from her. She had been hoping that Arizira would arrive soon, if truly alive she was as Cynra claimed. Such an appearance from the Child of Whispers would surely bolster the Arniran in battle. M'kesei quickly weaved through several other hunters and came before Talyn. "Am I to lead my hunters into the fight?" she asked.
Talyn shook her head, "I need for you to gather two of your sisters who are fleet of foot. I am sending you on a mission of paramount importance." With Bela'luin on her own mission, M'kesei, her second in command, had taken over as a lead huntress.
"I shall follow your command, Nai'iris. What task of import do I embark upon?"
From across the courtyard, Talyn noticed Cynra moving toward her. "Find Arizira with all due haste."
M'kesei faltered in her enthusiasm. Apart from Talyn, she was
the only one among them who was aware of the truth surrounding Arizira's death. She had been present the day of that first battle and she had seen Arizira fall before her eyes. She had seen the Esu woman's despair, felt her heartache. She had been witness to the horrifying powers the woman wielded. When Talyn had begun spreading the word that Arizira lived, that she was approaching them from the west, M'kesei had not known how to process that revelation, nor reconcile it. Now she was being charged with bringing the Child of Whispers home?
"Finding Arizira will be no easy task," Cynra interrupted when she came before Talyn and M'kesei.
"Why is that?" Talyn asked.
"There are things of which you are not aware."
"What things?" This asked by M'kesei.
Cynra looked around them before quickly ushering them into a more secure area. "When I departed from Arizira's company," she began, "I left her not alone with her love, but also with Bela'luin."
Talyn smiled. "She found them? I worried for her when Sed'dya returned and she did not."
"Yes." Cynra nodded. "However, there was another who remained with her and offered her protection."
M'kesei lowered her brows. "Who is this other?"
Cynra looked from Talyn's face to M'kesei's before answering. "Her mother."
"Her mother?" Talyn gasped. "You told me her nurture mother had died in birth."
"She did."
"Her spirit mother?" Talyn asked, intrigued and Cynra nodded again.
"I can not recount the full tale, but you must be made aware of who this woman is, as well as what she is. Do not ask questions, Talyn, when I tell you this. Time is short and we have it not in plenty." Neither Talyn or M'kesei said anything. Both women were just as interested in what Cynra had to say as the other.
"Who is her mother, Dream Speaker?" Talyn asked at length.
Cynra met her eyes and replied, "Her name is D'jiira. She is an Esu woman from a clan far removed from the one we now fight."
"Esu?
"How is that possible?" Both Talyn and M'kesei asked at once.
Cynra looked around her and took in the sounds and sights of war occurring. She noticed the smell of smoke and witnessed the emotion and desire present for hope and survival that permeated the air. She could hear screams, cries, and yells. She could see arrows being sent into a starry sky, as well as archers dodging return fire and healers covering and dressing wounds. Her sense of smell noticed the coppery tang of blood mixed with sweat and oil, and she could feel the state of panic that touched the hearts of all involved.
"It does matter how it is possible, only that it is so. Her history is not as that of the Esu on the other side of the wall. Her people have borne witness to the travesties of their brothers and thus lived a life of veiled secrecy from all save themselves. She met Iolirthas many, many moon seasons ago and they fell in love. Arizira was the product of that love, though she only recently learned of her own nature."
Cynra paused to gauge Talyn's and M'kesei's reactions before continuing. "If D'jiira is among those outside the wall, she is an ally but will view any who attempt to approach Arizira as a potential threat if the two are near to one another. Allow precaution to shoulder the weight of your decisions, young hunter. Do not harm her, for her loss would be of great upset to Arizira."
M'kesei nodded, though her thoughts were harried and without any common ground. She could not allow herself to fully believe that Arizira was half Esu. All the years she had known the other woman, all the seasons the two of them had practiced archery and tracking, it was difficult to believe that one of Esu parentage had been among them. A creature of myth and legend and fantasy.
Arizira was viewed as the truest of their people, praised by all the northern tribes, and she was only half Arniran.
"There is one another matter afore you take your leave," Cynra said.
"What is that? Some other news?" M'kesei asked.
Cynra nodded. "Yes. Should you come upon Arizira and find her alone without Bela or her mother, you must still approach her with good intentions in your heart."
"How else would I approach her? She is one of my sisters."
"A war is being fought outside these walls, young one, or did that escape your keen notice?" Cynra countered harshly. "Arizira is likely protecting her love and now seeks some shelter from the fighting. If the fighting should find her, she will not ask for mercy. She will fight. Whoever moves against her, she will fight. You are aware of her nature."
"Of course," M'kesei responded.
"What you are not aware of is the unique condition the Child of Whispers is in. She is not just protecting the woman she loves. No, she protects something more than that, though her love is important enough."
Talyn leaned forward and looked into Cynra's pale purple eyes. "Speak quickly, Dream Speaker. What else do you know of?"
"The Child of Whispers is with life," Cynra said without preamble. She took in the astonished faces before her and silently congratulated her ability to still leave the younger generations speechless. "I see that got your attention."
Talyn felt a smile begging to grace her face as her breath caught in her chest. M'kesei could only shake her head in wonder at the news. “A baby? With the day walker?" Talyn asked.
"Yes. She only now begins to show, though she is still swift and lithe. I have judged her to be nearly at her third month, though I admit I have no understanding of Esu pregnancy. If you advance too swiftly, M'kesei, Arizira could very well attack you and your hunters without realizing you are allies first. She will be scared, lost, and fearing for both her love and her child. You must near her delicately, however you find her. Do you understand?"
Swallowing her now heavy nerves, M'kesei nodded slowly and tried to process everything she'd just been told. Not only was Arizira half Esu, she carried life, and her mother fought in the battle outside. Her mission was of paramount importance.
"Gather your sisters, huntress," Talyn said as more light flared into the dark sky above them. "Go quickly and keep to the west. Mind the words of your elders."
M'kesei bowed to both women and moved away without another word.
* * * * *
Arizira's ear was pressed against Talliea's chest as she listened to the rhythm of her heart. Her silvery-blonde hair fell down her back and over Talliea's neck. "You heart beats," she whispered before lifting her head and turning to look at her love's face. She pressed a finger under Talliea's nose and felt air touch her skin. "You breathe."
Outside the small area the two of them were in, the sounds of the battle escalating were picked up by Arizira's alert ears. She could hear battle cries from her sisters, their voices fair and musical, as well as the harsher yells and outcries from the Esu men. Every time her eyes looked toward the sky or surrounding forest, bright flashes of light greeted her. It seemed ages that the fighting had been happening, but Arizira knew in truth it had most likely only been minutes.
Time seemed to pass differently when in clashes of hostility.
"Tah-li, people are dying," Arizira pleaded. "This is our destiny. To stop this. To aid those that have a need of us. Come back to me, failira."
As Arizira whispered, she placed her hands on Talliea's chest and concentrated on the sound of Talliea's voice, the timber of her laughter, the scent of her skin, the taste of her lips, and the feeling of her embraces. She tried to envision her love before her, awake and alert. She tried to see the dark hue of her eyes, the tug of a smirk on her lips, the way her face became so achingly beautiful when she smiled.
Arizira remembered the first time she had seen Talliea. She remembered how her eyes had been unable to see anything or anyone else but her. She recalled how innocent and pure and good Talliea was, how unsure of herself she had been early on. She thought back on how Talliea had been upset over Lao'dahn's abuse and then how empowered she had been after the two of them had bonded for the first time.
As she thought and remembered and recalled and envisioned, Arizira kept her hands on Talliea
's chest, over her heart. She could feel the warmth of her love's skin kissing her fingertips where they had slipped into the material of her shirt. She remembered the first time she had touched Talliea and how it had felt as if a memory long buried. She recalled how her heart had pounded inside her chest every time Talliea looked at her with such beautiful satisfaction and reverence.
Arizira did not know if what she was doing was helping Talliea or proving to be of any use at all. Her hands did not glow like her love's had. There was no energy interrupting the air around her, and she did not feel as though she was directing some omnipresent power. She was at a loss as to what she was supposed to be doing.
War was happening around her. People were dying. Her sisters and her village were being attacked and she had never felt more helpless and useless in all her life. She was a warrior, a huntress. That was where her strength was. She would protect Talliea with everything she was, but she needed to be doing something. She needed to feel useful and as though she were contributing in some way.
A lone tear slipped from her eye and trailed a wet shade of sorrow down her cheek. Was this it? Was this her destiny? Was she meant to watch those she loved die while Talliea faded away from her, lost to some dream or malice? What good was she?
"Wake up!" she yelled at Talliea. "Please, my beautiful failira, please."
Despairing, Arizira fell against Talliea's body and cried. She did not know what to do. She did not know how to make things right nor how to protect those she loved. Was she meant to sit by idly while everything in her life was slaughtered? Was that some price she was meant to pay to be with her love and their baby?
No, no. She could not believe that. Her faith and love of life had always served her well. It had seen her through hard times and good times. Always it had directed her courses and decisions and guided her throughout her childhood and into adulthood. She could not abandon that sense of self now, but oh, how she felt alone was nearly enough to cripple her in that moment.