by Jasmine Walt
"Ah, but do you know your man called for fire?"
She tried not to show interest. "Called for fire?"
"Yes, in the old tongue. The fire pit blazed so bright no one could get near it except your man."
Fire clan, he'd said. He did have an affinity. Alaysha had seen it herself.
"Eventually, my men had to charge through the heat, and they were glistening with the sweat of it—I swear, they looked like their juices were roasting right out of them, but your man never broke a bead."
He looked at her so thoughtfully, almost admirably, that she almost forgot she was conversing with a man who had harmed his own sister.
"I've never seen such a fighter in all my days."
She snorted. "You don't look a day over twenty seasons."
He shrugged. "My thanks to you. But you should know my tribe is taught to fight as soon as the moss is taken from our swaddlings. By the time we're four seasons old, we have contests each year where we're pitted against a fighter two seasons older. We learn to fight or we learn to die."
"And how is it you still live?"
The slug returned to his beard as he chewed the insides of his cheek. "I nearly died. Then I grew smart. And that's why I'm here to tell you. But I'm digressing."
"Your man had no weapon but for the things he found: rocks, tree branches, hot stones from the fire, once even a dead rat he'd somehow come upon." Edulph stared out into the woods as though he was reliving it. "It wasn't clumsy either. It was something almost magical, the way he used his body, how he intercepted their swings."
"Swings? They had swords?"
Edulph snapped back. "Oh, yes. You don't think I'd send my men to battle unarmed?"
Alaysha tried to imagine it and couldn't. Yenic had been beaten and bruised and cut up. She realized then that perhaps he was so battered because his body was the only weapon he had.
"So, how did they come to be the ones who lost their heads?"
He lifted a wiry shoulder. "They weren't winning, so I called them off and sent for Aedus."
"You took her finger, then, didn't you? Because you knew Yenic wouldn't stop fighting for her."
He nodded almost happily. "Worked like any magic I'd ever imagined. Even better. Your man became quite docile then."
"And you killed your men."
He raised a finger in objection. "I delegated their killing. Then I had Greetha ride your man out of camp and dump him."
"How thoughtful."
"Well, we did want him to get to you… eventually. Strong as he is, I doubt he would have made it the whole way in his condition."
She could barely believe what she was hearing. "So why are you telling me this?"
He chuckled. "I tell you all this to tell you this:
"With all his strength and determination, your man still wasn't able to best me. No. In the end, I beat him. I outsmarted him. I out-strategized him."
He pinned her with a stare that didn't move from hers. "You see, not all battles are about physical strength. And if strength isn't enough and it's the last best thing you have, and yet your opponent spares no one the blade—not even beloved warriors or sisters, how do you think you can win?"
He waved his hand in dismissal. "Now go. Collect up your little sister and settle yourself to do what is asked of you and remember who is leading this battle."
She stomped out of the clearing unmolested and with his braying laugher at her back.
She glared at anyone who looked at her and selected a horse to share with Bronwyn. There was no use in hoping Barruch was still at his post. Drahl would have collected him. She hoped he'd be in Sarum when she got there. She reached down to help the girl up.
"Aren't you hungry?" The girl offered Alaysha a burnt piece of squirrel.
"I'll eat when this is over. I don't want to spend any more time with these men than I have to."
Bronwyn murmured agreement and settled in front. Alaysha felt the warmth of her back and the weight of her head.
"Last night you told the man Yuri's daughters were warriors."
"I did."
"Are you, too, Yuri's daughter?"
"I am."
"From which mother?"
"My mother is dead."
Bronwyn went quiet for a moment. "Mine too," she said after a while.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I have many sisters, but only one brother."
"The young babe?"
"Yes. But he won't live the season."
This was news. "Why not?"
"The witch made him ill. He couldn't drink, so the guardsmen say, and when his mother could feed him, he acted as though her milk was sour."
It hurt, this news. It spoke of such malice from her father's tribesmen, the same malice she heard in this girl's voice, that she felt it in her chest. Alaysha spurred the mount closer to the last trailing rider.
"I am the witch," she said.
The girl squirmed against her, awkwardly, but continued speaking as though Alaysha had said nothing.
"They say the witch can drink a man's soul."
"I wouldn't find it so tasty. Most men's souls are bitter."
"They say the witch kills without care."
"I've been trained as a warrior. All warriors are trained to kill without care."
"They say the witch feasts on the eyes of the men she has killed and answers only to Yuri."
"What is left of the eyes when I'm done would make a poor meal, and what daughter does not mind her father, especially if that father is the great Yuri—Conqueror of the Hordes."
The girl fell silent, digesting the information in place of the food her stomach grumbled for. Alaysha had never heard those notions about herself in such condensed terms before, nor had she been given an opportunity to answer to them. Propaganda that had no doubt been spread by Yuri himself.
15
It was midday before Alaysha could see the white stone tower of Sarum's main gate through the trees. Her stomach burned with hunger. All the better to get the deed done, all the quicker. She expected Edulph to show soon. She reined in.
"We stop here," she shouted ahead to the men.
The train halted. Several of the men turned in their saddles, surprised to hear her speak.
The first, the one who appeared to be in charge, trotted back. He reined close to her mount.
"We do as Edulph bids."
"Edulph is not here."
"He wants us at the gates. He wants Yuri to see that one." He nodded at Bronwyn.
"To what end?"
"In case you are not what the tales tell."
"You think Yuri will trade his entire realm for one girl?"
"His daughter."
"A daughter—a thousand daughters—are nothing to Yuri."
"Then you better hope you're all the tales say you are."
Alaysha stared at him directly. "The tales are weak fairy stories told to fiddling children compared to what I am."
He blinked and tried to meet her gaze, but she could tell the vehemence of her tone shook him.
"I want to see Aedus. And then I want Aedus and Bronwyn to be saddled on this horse and sent two leaguas away."
"Edulph will never agree."
"You've gone to all this trouble to balk at one demand? You better find Edulph and see he gets my message."
The man turned his mount and Alaysha got off. She helped Bronwyn down.
"The witch has the spirit of three men, so they say," the girl said.
Alaysha smiled down at her and her throat felt tight. If she couldn't get this girl far enough away, she would never be able to live with herself.
She noticed the men around her had all dismounted and gone quiet. She followed their gazes off into the deep brush. Edulph, filthy from top to bottom with mud, strode from the thickest part. He had a leash of leather wrapped around his companion's neck. She noted Aedus's hair was hanging in her face and that she favored one hand, holding it close to her chest.
Alaysha had to force h
erself not to run to her. "Aedus," she said.
The girl looked up and the relief in her face was striking and quick and just as rapidly filled with regret.
"I'm sorry, Alaysha," Aedus said.
Edulph strode forward and faced Alaysha. "So. Aedus tells me you can drain a man without touching him. That you can empty the water from sealed vessels. You can bring rain."
She could do so much more, but if this was all he believed, she'd not correct him. She nodded. "All but that one thing. I cannot bring rain. It comes of its own."
"I don't care for the rain anyway." He pulled at the leash and Aedus jolted forward. "You will do this for me?"
"I will do it for Aedus."
He seemed satisfied. "I want my people out first. They're not to be harmed."
"I can't promise that."
"Then I'll have to persuade you." He yanked on the leash again and Aedus fell. She didn't whimper, but she stole a look from beneath her eyelids that bade Alaysha pay attention. The girl made a quick motion with her free hand, making a V with her fingers and sweeping them across her eyes. Alaysha made a quick decision.
"If you want your people safe, then call for them. But first you must get these two girls away from danger."
He took a few minutes to think, and Alaysha assumed he was considering all his options. She tried to make out if he had any strange residue beneath his eyes, but she couldn't tell from where she stood.
"What are you afraid of? That a few of your men can't watch over two young girls while a woman does your killing?"
He punished her by yanking on the leather leash so hard, Aedus bobbed forward, her hand going to her throat. "I fear nothing."
"And yet you need a small girl to protect you." Alaysha shook her head. She looked at him levelly. "I care nothing for Yuri's people or yours. I only care for Aedus and the girl. You have nothing to fear from me; it matters not one whit what happens to the people who enslaved my mother."
"But you wouldn't have killed those slavers unless I forced you?"
She shrugged. "I don't care if they live or die. Why would I care to kill them?"
"And you do have the power?"
"I do."
He turned to his first in command. "Take Yuri's daughter and tell him we have his witch. Deliver the message that if we do not have our people released by sunset, she will kill everyone within. If you are attacked, kill the girl. If you are not back before sunset, we will know you for dead and will attack whether our people are freed or not." He directed his attention to Alaysha.
"If the girl returns, you will do battle at dark."
"And if she doesn't return?"
"You will do battle at dark."
Alaysha nodded. She watched as the man hoisted Bronwyn onto the front of his mount. She knew Bronwyn would get into the gate fine, but whether she would get to Yuri was another matter.
She was about to speak to the girl, to offer her words of comfort if she could, when there was a shout from behind the group and several curses that stopped the riders and caught the crew's attention. The few words Alaysha didn't understand told her exactly who the person was that they'd caught in the bushes.
Yenic was pulled forward out of the underbrush by two men and Alaysha thought her lungs would not expand when she saw him. His hair was still loosed and muddy but with the addition of leaves and twigs stuck here and there. His eyes were no longer swollen, but held the mad look of someone who'd witnessed too many horrors to live through. So. The visions had stolen him after all. She felt incredibly sad.
Edulph found it all very funny. "Ah, the lover returns," he said.
Yenic stared around him, seeming to take in everything, but being able to respond to nothing. Alaysha guessed the visions still had him. She had to smother a groan. Now there would be far too many people she cared about to consider while she tried to end this game. Why couldn't he just have stayed where she left him?
Yenic blabbered a stream of incoherent words. He dodged at the air as though it held a demon trying to strike at him, but the holds his captors had on his arms just made him strain all the harder.
It would have been pathetic if Alaysha didn't feel such pain over his condition.
She looked at Edulph. "Let him go. He's far past harming you now."
Edulph snorted. "He was unable to harm me before." He motioned that the rider and Brownwyn should set out, and Alaysha watched the young girl staring over her captor's shoulder, her mouth agape at the strangeness of this man and the green streaks beneath his eyes. She craned around the man's shoulder until they were both out of sight.
Yenic tried to bolt for the bushes, but Greetha made a grab for him.
Edulph pulled at Aedus's leash. "You certainly smeared a lot of slime worm on him, sister. Thank you."
Alaysha thought she caught a blaze of anger behind Aedus's eyes before her gaze was cast downward and she smirked.
Edulph motioned for Yenic to be released and Alaysha crept over to him to touch his shoulder. "It's me, Yenic, " she cooed. "It's Alaysha. We're back at the oasis, now. Can you see it?"
It took a few seconds while he stared off into the air before he nodded passively. "Meroshi is no longer here."
"Good," she soothed. "Good. Why don't we go gather some peaches for supper. The tree is full." She led him gently away from the gang toward the lofty ditch in front of the city walls, knowing the rest of the men would settle into the shadows of the trees as they waited for dusk.
It would be a long wait before they knew the result of Bronwyn's visit. She found a good-sized tree root to settle on once they were a few kubits from the city's entrance. The rest of the men found their own spots—a good distance from the witch, she noticed.
She smiled to herself.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded of him once they were out of earshot.
He sat cross-legged beside her, making a show of it being awkward and maddened, but she knew better. He smelled of manure and mud and some other thing she couldn't name. Nothing ever smelled as sweet.
"I am the Witch's Arm," he said.
She took him in: his ribcage was less swollen and the cut above his brow had scabbed over, but the bruises were still purple and his breathing was labored. "Some Arm," she said. "How?"
"Barruch found me. I was… quite mad when he did, but I recognized him. I let him bring me to you." He leaned closer so his shoulder touched hers. "Alaysha. You can't kill Yuri."
"I can't now," she said. "If I kill Yuri, I kill you too."
He shook his head and put his hand on hers. She felt a tingle, like a charge of lightening had gone off beneath her skin.
"I mean, you can't kill Yuri. He has your blood. He's protected. Even if you killed everyone, Yuri would still live and he would hunt you for betrayal."
She remembered all the times Yuri was not afraid when she let loose the power. It all made sense now. Not that it mattered.
"I'd have nothing to live for then, anyway."
"Alaysha, you are the most powerful witch of your kind. You have the culmination of dying generations in your blood."
"All the more reason for Yuri to end me."
"You are young," he said. "And ignorant."
She put her arm around him and squeezed, but angrily. "Then tell me, oh, Great Arm. What bits of wisdom do you have that can protect me, even from myself." Her tone and its fury surprised her.
He ignored her anger. "You need to get inside the walls and talk to Yuri."
"I thought Yuri was your enemy."
He gave her a queer look. "I am Yuri's enemy. That's not the same thing."
"It still changes nothing. Aedus, my sister, now you. To protect you, I must kill. To refuse to kill, means you suffer harm. Either from Yuri or Edulph. One is the same as the other. War is war."
"This is not war, Alaysha. It's slaughter." His voice was pleading, and she didn't dare look at him for fear they would give themselves away if she did.
"Who is your worst enemy right now, Alaysha? Your f
ather and his tribe or Edulph? Who is the worst?"
She thought about it. She remembered the way her father touched the heir's head, the fact that he saved its mother from a violent home and brought her to a place where she was revered. He was Yuri, Conqueror of the Hordes: fierce, unapologetic, but he was not evil. Cruel, yes, but not completely black-hearted.
Edulph would not spare his own sister pain to get what he wanted. And that decided her.
"I need to get into the city before dusk—before Edulph can find out what Yuri does to his emissary, Bronwyn or no."
"Yuri would let her die?"
She shrugged. "If they even made it past the gatekeepers and she still lives, Yuri would think first of the whole city."
"Even if it works, Alaysha, Edulph still won't let Aedus go."
"I know that."
He thought for a moment. "I'll get to her then."
"By sunset. I think she marked Edulph; I don’t know how she managed it, but I think she did and he should be about ready to undergo the same hell you just did."
He chuckled. "I suppose everyone has to sleep sometime. Maybe she convinced him to eat some and saved a few to grind down while he wasn't looking."
Alaysha smiled to herself. The girl was clever. She hoped the cleverness stuck with her for a while yet, but if it didn't, and she was gone…
"If you can't get to her in time, run. Don't linger, because I will loose all the power I can to reach to the very pit of Edulph's soul. I swear it."
"I'll wait for you, Alaysha. Until the end of it."
She couldn't kiss him there in front of them all, but she could touch him, and she did. She grasped his hand and prayed to the Deities he wouldn't let her go.
16
Sarum was the largest village within weeks of a horse's full gallop, and it lay in a crevice against a mountain of white stone with a broad river on one side and a dense forest on the other. The only place left open was a funnel of land that was flat and open. The city itself was surrounded by a reverse ditch with several small mottes stretching across it at strategic places and a main gate in the middle. Yuri had designed the village so the main keep lay in the center and wooden buildings created a maze around it. The only reliable way in was through the gate and past the death hole just behind it.