Still, it was slow work. Dain’s body could only produce blood so quickly. Laret eased the curse out, and at last, she felt she had it all.
When she opened her eyes, the tree and her knees were awash in blood. Dain was asleep, his color better but still wan. The sun had come over the horizon to turn the forest into a jewel of greens and browns. She had no way to seal the mark, so Ari could curse him again if he wasn’t vigilant, but then, they’d all have to pay attention.
Laret eased up slowly, her neck and back protesting. She lowered Dain to the roots. With Maeve’s power touching hers, she hadn’t been as tempted to drain him. Something to remember.
Maeve blinked sleepily at the forest canopy. As she sat up, she rubbed her head and swayed. “Laret?”
Laret held up one bloody hand. “We shouldn’t touch until we wash. Water captures a curse, but we didn’t have enough.”
They hauled Dain up between them and staggered through the trees until they heard the sounds of a creek. Laret and Maeve carefully washed the blood from their clothes and bodies, then helped a woozy Dain before Laret checked all of them for residue. When she pronounced them clean, Maeve hugged her fiercely.
“I felt you in there, fighting for me,” Maeve whispered.
“We fought for each other.”
Dain sat next to them on the bank. “Why did she curse me?”
“Is there anything you haven’t told us about Ulfrecht’s plans?”
He repeated that Ulfrecht was trying to keep the houri asleep. Laret found she didn’t care about the reasons, only that Ari’s curse had caught Maeve. The thought made her heart pound, and she relived the feeling of using blood magic against the woman with the fur-trimmed helmet, how she would have gleefully used it against Henrik.
She hadn’t hesitated, never mind that she still hadn’t killed. It could have been that she’d only wanted to save her own skin, but she knew it was more than that. She’d only cared for a handful of people in her life, and those had been her family when she was young and anyone suffering under a curse later.
Her life with the former had been over a long time. As for the latter, she entered their lives, fixed their problems, and then moved on.
The attack on Maeve had made her angry, though. If she met someone else who wanted to kill them, if she met Ari again, she wondered if she could stop at wounding, if she’d drain them all dry.
Chapter Twenty-two
Niall stared at Aesa while Ell told him what had happened between them, leaving out the kiss. She wouldn’t tell him about that even if he asked. The unexpected gift that came with free thoughts was that they could be private if she wished.
“Her people don’t want to free you, Ell,” Niall said when she was done, “they want to kill us.”
“Not this one.” She gestured to the fini. “She doesn’t abandon people.”
“Why would she care about you?”
“Until I learn more of her language, I can’t say.”
“You’re learning their language? How?”
“Apparently, I’m intelligent. Who would have guessed?”
He studied the floor as if he’d embarrassed himself in front of another shapti, but his stare rose to hers, defiant. “I want to free the fini, not her. I’ve seen some of what the other shaptis do to your people, and it isn’t right.”
“And you think the fini should be as free as shaptis?”
He lifted his arms, dropped them. “I hid you out here, didn’t I? I’m on your side!”
And he was the least of her worries at the moment. Aesa’s people were nearby, killing shaptis, probably killing fini, too. Maybe it was a kindness that her people couldn’t feel fear.
Or maybe Aesa’s people created the opportunity to act while everyone else was distracted. She told Niall about the veins of light, everything she’d felt from them and how they seemed to run between the pools underground.
He frowned at her description, her rage. “I felt peaceful when I stayed here, not overcome with emotion. Are you sure they’re connected to the pools?”
“Maybe the veins collect feelings for the shaptis.”
His mouth turned down as if the idea sickened him. “For what purpose?”
She shrugged. “Why strip us of our thoughts in the first place? Just so we will see to every shapti need without question?”
Now he frowned harder. “You seem angry with me when you should be angry with her.” He stabbed a finger in Aesa’s direction, and she glared at him. “Her people are rampaging through the island destroying everything they touch.”
She’d had the same thought. And she was angry with him, more so than with Aesa, more than with Aesa’s people. At least they were honest in their intentions. “You look as if you could use some rest. You all do.”
Aesa had her chin on her arms and those resting on her knees. She tried to keep a constant glare on Niall and a wary eye on Chezzo, but her eyelids kept slipping shut.
“Come on.” Ell led the way into the cave, and the fini followed, though Niall and Aesa paused at the mouth. They glared at each other, neither wanting to go first. Ell sighed, took Aesa’s hand, and led her inside.
“Rest,” Ell said. “Chezzo and I will watch over you.” She had to push before Aesa would finally lie down. When everyone settled, they fell asleep in moments. Ell bent to Chezzo’s ear. “What will we do with them?”
He only wagged, having no more answers than she.
After a few hours, Niall’s eyelids fluttered open. “I had the most beautiful dream.”
Ell didn’t try to hide her frown, and Aesa’s scowl matched her own. She looked as if she’d had nightmares.
“I need to find an elder,” Niall said as he stood, “and help fight the invaders, but I don’t want to leave you here with her.”
“Good. I don’t want you to go.” His face brightened, and she hurried to say, “I want you to see the veins of light.”
“Oh.” The air seemed to go out of him until he cleared his throat. “All right.”
“Once we get down there, we might not be able to get back up, especially with Chezzo. If we’re going to find where the light goes, we might have a long walk.” This time, though, she’d bring supplies. “Ready to have an adventure?”
Aesa smiled at her, matching her expression, though with confusion and happiness mixed.
When Ell began putting together her pack and rounding up the other fini, Niall asked, “Why are we bringing them?”
She gave him a black look. “They won’t know what to do here alone, and we might not come back this way to help them.”
He shut his mouth quickly. All his talk of freeing the fini and he still didn’t think of them when the time came. She shepherded them toward the hole, and Aesa showed them how to brace against the sides and roll to the ground. After watching her, a few of them tried, the others learning until the last had mastered it. Niall helped lower Chezzo down, and Ell and Aesa caught him. When it was Niall’s turn, he leapt, rolling as he landed and giving Aesa a smug look. She rolled her eyes.
When Niall skidded in the mud, the fini clustered around him, and the way he let them pet and comfort him made Ell want to roll her eyes, too. It seemed a useful gesture. Aesa sneered at him and said a few words in her own language. When she studied the cavern though, she had eyes as wide as the fini and stared at the light vein in open-mouthed awe.
When they moved into the cavern with the larger vein, Aesa reached out to touch it, but Ell grabbed her arm and shook her head the way Aesa did. Aesa pulled back without question, and Ell felt like kissing her again.
Niall stopped by the light and breathed deep, a tranquil smile on his face. “You don’t feel this?”
“I felt much, all the emotions, the dreams of the fini.”
He had the grace to look away. One of the other fini shuffled forward. “What do you mean, dreams?” Behind him, one of the others passed out, and the rest carried him along.
She looked deep into the face of the one who spoke,
peering into his eyes, the frown lines surrounding them. “When was the last time you bathed in a calming pool?”
“Days,” he said. “Then the shapti kept us from going.” He looked to Aesa, who had taken off the gray robe, but even with it on, Ell bet they’d called her shapti. They wouldn’t have cared if a shapti put on a fini robe even if they didn’t understand it.
“What’s your name?”
“Wil.” He clutched her hand. “I feel strange.”
“You’ll feel stranger before everything becomes clear, but I’ll help you.” He just peered at her questioningly. She smoothed his brow as she’d done for many a shapti, and he sighed at her touch. “We must all help one another.”
Whether Aesa had kept them from the pool or not, they bobbed in agreement. She wondered how long their fellowship would last. When their feelings returned, some of them might not want to help each other; some might not like the others. They might even want to hurt those around them. It seemed the price of being able to feel.
As they walked, she looked to Niall. “What do shaptis do if they hurt one another?”
“What?”
“If one shapti hurts another, and the elders say that it’s wrong, what happens?”
“The shapti who did the hurting is punished. It’s called a crime.”
Like the elder who wanted to punish young shaptis for marking fini. Somehow, Ell thought their punishment would be harsher if they maimed other shaptis instead. “There will be fini crimes.”
That set him back on his heels. “I didn’t think of that. Fini are so…”
She laughed. “There will be all kinds of fini now.”
*
Aesa watched them talk, picking out words here and there. The huge dog stared at her all the while, and she did her best to avoid meeting his gaze.
She put her arms over her head and stretched as they walked. The nap had done her good. Only a few hours, but she felt alert for whatever might come. And who knew what that would be? Underground, they followed lines of light that looked as if they’d been carved in the rock, rivers caught in stone. Even before Ell had cautioned her not to touch them, she’d known they must have something to do with the pools. Like Runa had said, they were all connected. By the vague feelings she’d gotten, Aesa bet the pools drained the fini of thought and then carried them somewhere. Hopefully, the rivers would lead to the source of the magic, and then…
Then what? She wasn’t a witch. The fini probably couldn’t do anything to stop it, and if the shapti had magic, he would have used it by now. Traveling underground was a great way to avoid being caught by Gilka or more shaptis, she supposed, but they had no magic to fight with once they’d reached their destination. Maybe she’d get lucky and find that the light rivers ended in a handle she could turn or a block she could crack.
But even if she broke the pool’s influence, the fini wouldn’t really be free. They’d have the shaptis and now Gilka to deal with.
Maybe Aesa could convince Gilka to leave after she’d plundered the island, but no one knew if Gilka wanted to settle here. Aesa thought she might sell Fernagher, but the land was good, fertile, and close to their shores. Gilka might settle some of her people here, and with the shaptis dead, the fini would become beggars to Aesa’s folk or be pushed into the sea. Learning to be afraid might even hurt them where Gilka was concerned. Some might fight back, and Gilka would exterminate them. At least then they’d be making a choice.
Aesa thought of how Ell had greeted her at the cave, happy surprise and then anger and then kisses, as if she didn’t know how to react to what she was feeling. The anger stuck in Aesa’s mind, understandable though it was. Ell had probably experienced emotions she’d never felt or had forgotten about, and then she’d been alone.
Not quite alone. Aesa glanced at the shapti. Someone had hidden Ell out here, given her the dog, probably this shapti since they seemed so familiar. So, there were sympathetic shaptis, but how many? Could they help the fini, or would the bulk of them turn on their former slaves?
The fini would need someone to teach them, to give them advice, to rally them if needed. Gilka would make the perfect choice, if only she stood on the right side of this fight. Who wouldn’t be inspired by her?
Aesa nodded to herself as she walked. The trick was to gather enough information about the pools to pass on to Runa, then show Gilka that some of the fini could even be heroes, an island of clay waiting to be molded by her hands.
The plan made her walk straighter, gave her something to focus on besides rock, rock, and more rock, rock in every shape, all adding up to more rock.
The crystals were interesting, at least. Maeve might like them. As she passed a narrow crystal clump, Aesa snapped one off and put it in her pocket. Having escaped Gilka, Maeve and Laret were probably wandering the woods near Skellis, wondering what had happened to her. No, once they’d heard that Gilka had sailed, they would have assumed Aesa had gone with her. They’d find someplace to hide and wait for news, spending each night in each other’s arms.
The thought created little spirals of hurt in Aesa’s heart, but not as many as expected. Ever since her dream of sailing with Maeve had been broken, Aesa’s feelings had changed, little shifts in thought that led to larger ones, like a snowball careening down a mountain peak, growing as it went. She’d never thought of them parting, not really. Most of the witches she knew had wyrds, so it seemed natural that Maeve’s would simply develop, and it seemed fitting that it would have come during the Thraindahl. They would have been characters from an old tale, two lovers who realized their potential at the same time, who both attracted the eye of the strongest thrain.
Instead, Aesa walked an extremely different story, bond broken with the thrain of her dreams, scrabbling underground, seeking a way to free a group of people who were under a stupidity curse. Still, it had been a journey worthy of song. It just wouldn’t be Maeve who sung it.
As if summoned by her thoughts, Ell’s chilly fingers eased into Aesa’s. She shivered and said a word, probably one for how frozen she felt. “Yes,” Aesa said in her own language. “Cold.”
Ell repeated the word, and they smiled at each other, Aesa unable to keep from doing so. She could feel the shapti’s stare boring into her and knew he wanted Ell, too. Maybe that’s why he’d helped her in the first place.
The dog trotted to Ell’s side, making it clear whom he preferred. “Smart dog,” she muttered. When Ell glanced at her, she pointed down. “Dog.”
“Chezzo,” Ell said. The dog wagged his stumpy tale. A name, then.
“Chezzo. Dog,” Aesa said.
Ell said his name again, and then another word in her language, this one harder to pronounce. Aesa tried it several times, but Ell made some hard to copy sound, and Aesa floundered. Finally, she laughed at how badly she failed, and Ell chuckled along with her.
Behind them, the shapti growled something.
Ell gave him a cool look and responded. Aesa caught the words, “no” and “laugh.” It sounded like a telling off. Aesa gave him a look, too, hoping it conveyed promised violence. The fini followed without comment, most of them with their normal, placid expressions, but a few had looks of wonder and one that might become fear given time.
At last, Aesa spotted a brighter glow ahead. She waved at Ell and the others to stay where they were and sidled forward. A tall gap in the rock ahead sported a rounded top, looking suspiciously like an open door, though almost three times the height of anyone Aesa had ever known, Gilka included. The larger light river passed overhead, straight through a hole above the door that seemed designed for it.
Aesa stepped through and had to shade her eyes from the glow. She looked up at a dome-shaped ceiling and saw light rivers running above many doors, all around a huge, circular cavern. The rivers met in the center of the ceiling and curled downward together, emptying into a huge vat that glowed like a blacksmith’s forge.
The underground air still had a cool tinge despite the image. Squinting against t
he light, Aesa couldn’t see the floor. A ledge ran the length of the gigantic room, and she spotted sets of stairs leading downward.
Something brushed her back: Ell, the shapti, and some of the fini peering around her. Aesa had to laugh. Well, the shapti she had no control over, and she couldn’t be mad at Ell and the fini for disobeying orders when pure obedience was one of the traits she hoped to cure them of.
She pointed to the stairs. “Should we go?” She mimed walking down. Ell smiled, and Aesa stepped into the cavern, but the shapti tried to grab her arm.
She shifted out of the way, conscious of the drop behind her, and drew one of her swords. Ell stepped between them, and Aesa barked at her to get out of the way just as the shapti said something sharp.
Ell glared at both of them and had a few quick words with the shapti. To Aesa, she just pointed at the sword and said, “No.”
The shapti gestured at the vat and said a few more words. Ell slashed a hand through the air. Aesa put her sword away, and Ell pointed to it and said something to the shapti in a tone that seemed to prove something.
The shapti snarled and dropped his arms. Aesa stepped around the ledge toward the stairs but kept her hand on one blade.
*
Ell followed in Aesa’s footsteps. The fini trailed them, all of them shivering. Niall kept muttering to himself. “What is wrong with you?” Ell asked as they stepped carefully along the ledge.
“There are stories some of the elders tell…” He frowned hard as if trying to remember. “There are things we don’t learn until we’re elders, but this all seems familiar.”
They descended the staircase slowly, and Ell looked over the side, trying to see past the glare. The bottom of the cavern was a huge circle, and she could make out shapes in the floor, long rectangles filled with something white and milky. And set in the walls below were the same large, door-like holes that had let them in here. As they passed the glowing cauldron, she spotted more light veins running from the bottom of it, hundreds of them, tiny ones, each leading to one of the milky rectangles.
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