It seemed there was nothing to do but wait and watch. And even that time died as quickly as she realized it. Enud stood over her opponent's form already, her foot planted on the woman's back. Her arm raised, sword in the air. She turned her vengeful eyes to Alaysha and then kicked the woman away as if she were a roll of moss.
Alaysha searched for signs of exhaustion in the warrior's face and saw none. Even as her mouth went dry, three Enyalian soldiers came forward to collect the dead woman and they hoisted her onto a pyre laden with fragrant rushes and pine. Enud squatted in the pool of blood that had collected where the woman fell, and without taking her eyes from Alaysha's, she ran her hand through the fluid.
"Come, little witch. The ground is thirsty for your blood." She streaked her hand across her chin, leaving a trail of blood in a ribbon that mocked Alaysha's markings.
Strangely enough, Alaysha thought of Corrin. She'd been trained from the time she was small for battle, and the brutal men had done his job well. She knew how to shut out the fear, ignore the sounds of shouting, of weeping, of cheers. She'd learned under that brutal hand how to focus everything she felt and feared into the energies of her hand and her legs and each muscle and every fibre beneath that muscle.
She stepped forward, pulling her sword from her back, offering her enemy a confident smile.
She only hoped the woman believed it.
There was no fear. There was only a keen awareness. Alaysha knew every hair on her body was straining to feel the currents of movement, the subconscious knowledge that her opponent had shifted, that she had begun to attack. The din of shouting disappeared and in its place rose the sound of her own heart slowing at precise moments, pulsing, then flooding her legs with fuel. She stepped left; Enud's blade swung down straight to the empty space she'd been in an instant before. A small victory to have avoided the first blow, but there was no time to savour it. She was already swinging around, her sword in both hands, aiming it level, catching Enud's blade and biting into the metal. A jolt slammed into her elbow, telling every muscle and nerve in her hand to let go.
Deities, the woman was strong.
She danced to the right, kicking at the ground for purchase and leapt just in time to avoid the sweeping arc of Enud's sword trying to take her from the legs.
It was obvious the woman was playing with her. Testing her patterns. It could be her only advantage; the Enyalia all had similar training and understood how each of them would fight. Alaysha could use her own foreignness to keep the warrior on edge. It wasn't enough to keep her alive long, it wouldn't be enough to draw the battle out very long, but it might be enough for the others to get to Gael, and it might be enough time for the assassin to step forward. It wasn't that Enud could best Alaysha, it was more that Enud needed to make a quick death, one that wouldn't afford Alaysha the time to bring the power. Alaysha wasn't foolish enough to believe that Enud's blade would be the one to strike that blow. And so she had to fragment her mind, split her body awareness into two consciousnesses. One had to deal with Enud, the other had to lie in wait for the assassin.
Almost instinctively she exhaled as she swung, inhaled as she pulled back. She saw a flicker of movement from Enud's eyes; for one moment the warrior had taken her eyes from Alaysha's. It was one instant, but it spoke volumes. Alaysha knew it was the critical moment. She spread her arms, her sword held out to the right, ready to swing; her left arm waiting to feel the shift in the air. The attack was coming from behind. Enud was swift. Too swift. There would be no way to meet the assassin without exposing herself to vulnerable attack from Enud.
And then she felt it. The fine hairs on the back of her shoulders moved enough to lift her skin in tiny goose bumps. She swung halfway to the left, her right hand toward Enud, her left toward the assassin, spinning as Enud stepped left, stepped right, trying to confuse her, to let the murderer in close enough.
She took the chance. It was a mere fraction of her own heartbeat, but she took it. She brought her sword in a solid swing to the left, gripping the handle with both hands, using the weight of her body to arc powerfully to the left. She swung with everything she had, knowing that whatever her sword contacted, would go down if she swung hard enough, she could keep going back toward Enud. She'd have to find her feet, then. Wait for the attack.
Her sword bit into solid wood and Cai's green gaze flicked over her so quickly Alaysha barely had time to register the surprise in them. Cai? The assassin. Alaysha felt a moment of betrayal then of resignation. So be it, she thought and wrenched her sword away from the wood, readying herself to strike again.
The Enyalian pulled her shield away and slipped close to Alaysha all-in-one movement, grabbing her by the waist, pulling her hard against her. Alaysha could feel the woman's heart tremoring against her back. She saw the young warrior from the day before who had played at battle in the tiltyard so fiercely lying on the ground. A mace three times the size of any Alaysha had ever seen lay next to her. The chalk witch stood over her, glaring at Cai.
"This is not honourable, Uta," Cai said. "The maga said she would leave. She gave her word she would not harm us."
"You're foolish, Komandiri," Uta said. Her gaze fleeted over Alaysha's shoulder and she remembered the battle was not over. The sound from behind her reminded her that Enud was still fighting. Cai spun at the same moment Alaysha realized it, easing Alaysha behind her. "Back-to-back, little maga," she said.
They moved as one, Alaysha feeling each movement Cai made and mirroring it is best she could. It was no longer a simple casting battle, it ceased to be the moment the Komandiri stepped within it. There was no telling how many Enyalia would make this battle their own.
Enud struck out, forcing Cai backwards. Alaysha moved forward with the warrior at her back. Cai seemed loathe to engage and Enud took advantage of it. She hefted her sword much more fiercely, and Cai blocked each one, seeming to take great care not to strike to do damage. It was obvious she was the greater fighter, that Enud understood it, but that she also knew Cai was not fighting to the death.
"My sisters will not be gentle with the man, witch. Not his body, nor his mind." Enud laughed. She didn't sound the least winded, rather she sounded invigorated.
"Stand down," Cai told her.
"I won this right," Enud said.
"You won the right to battle this woman, but what you've done is dishonourable."
They shuffled, Cai careful to keep Alaysha's back close enough to feel each movement. Alaysha watched the faces of each woman she was spun to see. The pleasure in the battle had left their faces. Now they looked angry.
"Stand down, Enyalian," Cai said again. "We'll stop this madness and resume later."
"You protect a foreign witch over your own people?"
"I protect honour over all," Cai said. "My oath is to my sword sisters and to their honour. We celebrate women of power, we do not murder them."
Alaysha scanned the faces. She watched Yenic, his mouth working as though he was speaking, his eyes glazed over, staring into the fire pit. He managed to draw small fingers of flame from the smouldering logs. She flicked her gaze toward Uta, whose mouth was drawn in a tight line, Thera, standing next to her, whose hand went at the same moment to her neck with a look of confusion; both collapsed in a heap on the ground.
An arrow bloomed in the neck of another, but this warrior did not collapse. Instead, she spun to face her attacker, sword drawn, blade on the other hand. And several others, who in the same moment had begun gripping their throats with both hands, the mouth gaping open like fish landed on the side of the river.
In the same instant, Alaysha felt her lungs tighten. Power unfurled itself from beneath her breastbone, searching for the source of the attack, wanting retribution for it.
Because an attack it was. Not just from one enemy: but from three.
Chapter 23
Alaysha had one thought: to psych the fluid from whatever was stealing her breath. It wasn't a matter of fear or bravery; it was one of pure self-preservati
on. The power tingled beneath her skin even as she saw Cai drop to her knees. They'd been back-to-back when the battle began, but now as Alaysha spun, searching for breath to pull into her lungs, she'd fallen away from Cai. She knew she had mere heartbeats to stop the psyching, that within ten, all of the Enyalia, the boys even the one she'd come to recognize, Yenic Gael and Theron would be nothing but dried flesh.
If she could just focus it, she could at least save someone. But where? How?
Her lungs were starving for air and her legs lost their strength, unable to find the fuel they needed as the air was robbed from her lungs. Blackness was overtaking her vision; she could smell the stink from the sweat of the fighters, taste the water from beneath their pores. If she didn't do something immediately it would be too late. It wouldn't matter who took the lives: lack of air or lack of water had the same result, but if she did nothing they would all be dead.
A flicker of movement, there in the trees, past a collapsed Uta and Thera, several Enyalia on their knees struggling not to pass out. A heartbeat more and it would be over.
The easy water had already gathered to a mist, was gathering still. The quick supply from buckets and gourds and water skins, it was all there ready to be used. It would have to be enough. Like she would strike with her sword at an enemy, Alaysha imagined the water as part of her arm. She swung, gathering it into a wide streak and at its apex, she sent it jabbing forward, toward the movement she saw in the trees. It gathered as it hurtled forward, picking up condensation from the psyched breath of each woman and child, and it turned to a sheet of water with enough force that it slammed into a tree, cracking it in two as it crashed into the woods.
Alaysha fell forward onto her chest, her hands splayed in front of her, trying to hold herself up. She couldn't breathe; she had spent everything she had in the attack. She lay there, trying to focus. The Enyalia who had reclaimed enough air to stand were doing their best to sprint into the woods, swords drawn. Alive then. Most of them. But staggering as though drunk.
She felt herself being lifted into warm arms. Strange. She hadn't realized she was cold until just then.
"We have to get out of here." Yenic's voice. "You have to get out of here if you want to live." Shouting at someone, everyone, it seemed. Fires had started somewhere near, she could hear the lightening striking wood and splitting trees. She could smell the stink of char and burning skin. A blur of flame from the edge of the woods where the tinder sword blazed.
Alaysha's vision blurred, but she could see waves of red flashes then of green. Moving. The feeling of awkward loping. "Come, man," she heard her Saviour say. "I know a place."
"It best be far away." Yenic said. He was breathless too, as though he was running and labouring at breath at the same time. But it didn't feel like they were running. It was too awkward, too slow.
A grumble of thought, then darkness. Alaysha couldn't stop shivering. She thought the shadows wanted her to sleep. They crept in from her side vision, threatening to steal even the unfocused power that she kept tightened and in check. But there was something she had to tell these saviours of hers. Something important.
"Gael," she croaked out and her throat burned at the effort. She tried to lift her head because that wasn't what she wanted to say. It had something to do with the movement she'd seen as she felt her power let go, and she needed to concentrate, to get it back.
"Gael," was what came again.
"Her man," came Cai's voice.
"I'll see to it." Yenic again. Sullen but agreeable.
"Use Bodicca and the beast to get him. Meet me at nightfall. She'll know where I'm going."
"Bodicca," Alaysha mumbled, and even that wasn't what she wanted to say, but it was closer. Gael. Bodicca. Theron. Aedus.
Edulph.
Yes. She could picture it now. Remember. Three attacks. A bloom of arrow. A swat to the neck. The loss of air. A complete triangle of attack and at its third point a small child—a girl no more than two seasons old.
The wind witch, surely. And with her two people Alaysha knew on sight. Aedus, her hair and body slicked in mud, holding a blower to her lips. Edulph with a bow. The only people standing, unaffected, by the child's power.
And that could only mean one thing.
They had her blood.
Chapter 24
Alaysha woke to warmth, but when she opened her eyes she saw nothing. So the shadows had taken her after all and she was dreaming. She listened to the fire crackling nearby. Behind her perhaps? She tried to move only to discover she was trussed up into some sort of torturous blanket too heavy to lift. She heard Yuri's voice commanding her to be calm, to stay resolute, stupid girl, and she worked to quell the instinctive panic.
She inhaled slowly as he would have bid her, and forced herself to imagine the air moving to her toes and fingers. There. Much better.
The darkness was merely night, not the gloom of Corrin's dungeon. The trussing material, a warm fur tucked tightly around her, covered her head. It let her face peek through and now that she understood what was happening, she knew that the fire was indeed crackling behind her. She'd rolled over in her sleep, evidently, and now faced the forest. She shook her head free of the fur and worked to unwind her arms from wherever they'd come to rest—crossing her chest, hands jammed into her armpits. Now that she was free, she could make out conversation, hear distinct words.
"She wakes," Cai's voice from somewhere near. Alaysha tried to roll over.
"Careful, little maga. Here. Let me help you."
Meaty hands burrowed beneath Alaysha and twisted, freeing her enough that she could manoeuvre into a semi-sitting position. Cai grew impatient with the floundering to get set right and pick her up, fur and all, then plopped her back down facing the fire.
"What happened?"
They were all there, sitting around the flame: Yenic, Theron, Gael, Bodicca. They all looked sullen. Full recall struck Alaysha like cold water.
"The girl," she said. "What happened to her?" She had a quick image of a toddler knocked backwards, her body broken against a tree, her hair hanging down, wet, against her tiny body. "She's dead," she heard herself say.
Yenic poked at the flames, the light dancing on his brow. "We can't say that for sure."
"She will be dead," Cai said and Yenic looked at her.
"I know the Enyalia are fierce, but you saw what happened. You can't say for sure the girl is dead."
"My sisters would have killed her if the little maga didn't."
He chuckled humourlessly. "Your sisters could barely move."
It took a moment, but Cai did agree. "True," she said. "We were much—drained—but a child? Well, she wouldn't have taken much energy to kill in her broken state."
Alaysha thought of the girl again with dread and imagined the limp body. In her mind's eye she saw someone reaching for the girl and lifting her, even before the Enyalia managed to gain her feet.
"Edulph," she said and Theron's beady black eyes rested on her. "It was Edulph. He took her."
"That madman, he's dead. Surely the Enyalia killed him in the burnt lands." The shaman said, and Alaysha gave him quiet study as she listened to his words. There were too measured. Too careful. Too altogether clear.
"Both he and Aedus saved her. I saw them."
"Alaysha," Yenic said. "You couldn't have. If they were there, they would have been in the same condition as the rest of us. As it was, even the Enyalia struggled to gain their strength. The loss of air, and fluid." He shrugged. "None of us could manage more than an hour's walk even with the beasts. Cai could barely carry you."
"I tell you, they were unaffected."
His brow furrowed and Alaysha turned to Gael. He would understand. The warrior was mostly quiet.
"She shot Uta with a quill. You know how she does it. Uta collapsed. That was it. Edulph left an arrow in Saxon's bed when he stole the boy for Aislin. An Enyalian was shot in the neck with the same." She waited for Gael to support her but it was Cai who replied with a di
sgusted snort.
"A traitor's weapon, that. No honour in it."
No response from Gael and he wouldn't even meet her eye.
"Gael?"
It was Theron who spoke, and he seemed to be taking great care in putting his words together. "A madman such as that one would use the witch for ill."
"A madman such as that one had no reason to fear the witch, Theron. Why would that be?"
"The blood. Like your nohma. Like Yuri."
"Yes. The blood. He's related, and so must be Aedus."
"Closely too," said Yenic thoughtfully.
"Very close. Yuri and my nohma where the only ones safe from me. My father and my aunt."
Yenic kicked at the fire. "Doesn't make sense. He used you to free his people from Sarum because there were no others left. He wanted them back. He hated the servitude. That's why he forced us there. Remember?"
Cai rose to dig at the fire, and Alaysha realized there was a spit over it, some sort of rodent roasted there. "The highlanders have never been warlike. Only subservient. In my time. In Alkaia's. I would expect it from those in the frozen lands, but they are long gone. Enyalian justice before I was born."
Alaysha tried to pull her gaze from the long tail hanging down from the spit. "Scattered, you'd said. Slowly rebuilding themselves."
"Perhaps to relocate in the highlands as we suspected." Cai said thoughtfully.
Yenic shifted as he sat. "Gathering strength."
"To make war on Enyalia."
"Not Sarum," Alaysha said. "Edulph wanted his people so he could build an army. Even Aedus said so when I first met her."
"To drive Enyalia to oblivion," Cai said. She sighed. "So at least that war is over. We needn't worry about that."
"Why not?"
Cai shrugged. "My sisters would not have let them live."
Gael sniffed haughtily and tried to stand. It took a few long staggering moments for him to catch his balance, but when he did he wrapped his cloak tighter around his chin, staring into the fire, and then he strode off into the trees. Alaysha watched him go with a curious foreboding sitting in her chest. It seemed the drugs had worn off and he was able to move about, but he certainly was unsteady on his feet, nor swift. Each of his movement seemed full of effort. She got up to go after him, only to discover her legs wouldn't hold her.
Bone Witch (Elemental Magic, #3) Page 15