For long moments she stood, afraid to let the power so much as seek out a droplet of dew. In those long moments she counted her heart beats, thinking it would distract her enough to avoid doing the usual sniffing divination she always did before letting the power take her. She always went somewhere when the gift came. It came; she went. Perhaps that was the reason she had no control; she wasn't truly and fully present when she psyched. The guilt of killing forced her to distance herself.
No matter how long she stood, nothing happened. She remained on her feet for so long, she got a cramp in her calf and had to bend to rub it out.
She knew then that she'd have to give in. She'd have to back off and let the psyching come forward, but she wouldn't travel the paths, no. Not into the pores of grass or that short bit of cactus. There wasn't enough water in any of it to take anyway. There wasn't enough water anywhere to pull from. She wasn't sure why she was so nervous; no water existed near enough to thirst from. No water except the broad body to the east, the river so wide they said it had no other side. So wide it had no end and so deep it had no bottom.
She felt hot, and she felt so cold, she could swear she had fallen into that broad river. A curtain of water could have cascaded over her in those seconds she felt so wet. It was then she knew she had done it.
She had brought the rain.
And no finicky, sparse drizzle either, but a deluge only accompanied by wind and lightning, and only in the rainy season during the rare times when the air was too hot to breathe.
A rain so heavy she could barely see. So hard it landed on the earth and sent plumes of dust in the air until the dust became mud and the water started to collect in the hollow places.
A rain so fierce it gathered itself into a river much the same as the one with no end and no bottom.
A rain so commanding it raised the level of panic within her chest. Yes. She brought the rain, all right, but she brought too much, too soon, too hard, and she had no idea how to stop it. Too late, she realized there had been other water she could have recalled, pulled from. A body of water much smaller than the broad river: the waterfall in the oasis. But she'd not thought of that, only the bottomless, endless river and so now the deluge had begun.
It had already started to sweep past her calves and even as it ran, she felt the strength of the current and knew it was rising fast. All too soon it was to her knees and she saw the leg of one of the leathered crones, the one she and Barruch had freed, go floating past. As far as she could see in each direction, the rain beat against the surface of the shallow lake that used to be a plain. Everywhere she looked.
Barruch.
She stole a frantic and harried glance toward the oasis. It looked like an island from where Alaysha stood, fighting the current. She'd never make it to him in time. She knew he could swim, all horses could, but if the oasis got swallowed by the ever-growing lake, he'd never be able to swim far enough to save himself.
And neither would she.
A sob broke through her throat. She couldn't tell if she was crying because her face was streaming with the water the heavens were unleashing. She forced her legs to move against the weight of water and current. To get to Barruch, she had to go parallel to the movement of water. Perhaps if she could get to him, then they could ride the current to dry land. The water would have to meet an end sometime. Somewhere.
The thought made her think of the river she'd imagined. They said it had no end. No bottom.
If she'd psyched the water from there and brought it here, it was very likely there would be no end.
She could barely see even if she squinted into the rain, and the only thought that would come to her was that she couldn't even psych the land dry again because the water would just collect in clouds above her and ultimately let go when they grew too heavy.
The only other thought that came after that, before she started paddling desperately toward the oasis, was that she'd rather lose control than risk bringing such devastation again.
One hundred mount strides to the oasis. She'd counted them that first day. How many arm strokes in water would that be? She was already waist deep, the water roaring in her ears. She thought in the distance she could see a blur of black. She struggled to hear anything besides water slicing into water. No sounds of whinnied protest or fear met her ears, but she knew it was Barruch. She knew he would come for her. To be with her.
She forged on. It was him. She knew it. He was coming closer, but he was struggling, she could tell. Off course and working hard to stay in line, the current was doing its best to bring him where it wanted. Forward. To the north. Away from her.
She shouted at him but she didn't think her throat was even able to make a sound. She certainly couldn't hear her voice to the fierceness of the storm. She watched, helpless, as he went under, came up again, and then began to move so quickly north with the current that she knew he'd filled his belly with fruit.
It was possible his stomach was twisted.
It was very possible the pain would keep him from being able to swim.
It was possible he'd lost his energy.
And it was very possible he was going to die.
Chapter 19
She thought she heard a shout, but she knew she'd been too paralyzed to open her mouth. She was treading water, sobbing soundlessly and watching him stream away.
Then another shout sounded and ripples appeared in the water, large circular waves that made her think foolishly that a mountainous finger had dipped itself into the lake. The oasis shivered like a heat wave and then, between her and Barruch, a movement.
Her mount seemed to be gliding backwards against the current; Alaysha found herself standing again. Her toes reached into the mud, feeling small cracks that reminded her of the veins across Theron's nose.
Then she wasn't fighting the current anymore. The water everywhere began to ease up.
She imagined she'd somehow managed to stem the power, stop it somehow. Her fear for Barruch, her worry at causing worse devastation than draining. The elation of it filled her chest and spilled out in laughter as she saw Barruch stop moving altogether. He found his legs.
And it seemed the water was obeying her.
She felt like a goddess in the moment. She believed she was capable of anything.
And then she saw the cracks in the earth where the water was draining away. A score of crevices so many she couldn't count them, and at least a dozen chasms so wide a man could lie in them and still have headroom.
The Earth had split itself apart to save her and her trusted beast. And she knew the power had not come from her spirit. The land around her was a sodden mess of new muck and fissures filled with water. The rain was still heaving itself downward, and it seemed the cracks were deepening to accommodate the volume. Her only hope until the power waned was to get Barruch to the mound of Earth that once was the oasis. If the rain kept coming she wasn't sure even if it would be able to withstand the torrent of matter how deep the cracks went. They would have to fill some time.
She tried to whistle for Barruch, but found doing so in the rain more difficult than she'd expected. She settled for shouting and waving her arms. She hoped he could find a way through the muck.
When he finally swung his long neck in her direction, she thought it moved a little too slowly. Fatigue beyond measure, she realized. The oasis for now was out of the question.
She had to work each step to pull her feet through the muck and against the sucking draw of each step forward. Focusing on the movement, she was able to ignore the way the rain felt striking her skin. Twice she reached fissures too wide to step over and had to put all her strength into jumping across them. The closer she got to Barruch, the wider they grew.
When she finally made it near enough to her beloved mount, she could tell how exhausted he was. He stood on the opposite side of a chasm wide enough she'd have to swim it to reach him. Alaysha noticed far fewer crevices on his side. For some reason, this wide channel had opened near enough to hi
m that it drained the water without need of further splits.
She was grateful but thoroughly confused.
"We are lucky, old man," she shouted to him and felt relief rush over her when he neighed in return.
"I'm coming."
She plunged into the newly rent and swollen river and swam, hand over her shoulder for several minutes before climbing with effort onto the other side. She couldn't stand straight away; her legs and arms were trembling from exhaustion. All she could do was stretch her hand forward on the ground so she could touch his hoof. She could have wept when she felt his nose against her fingers.
"I couldn't leave you, could I?" Alaysha felt her eyelids close from tiredness, not the need to block out the rain.
In fact, if she thought about it, the raindrops did seem less intense.
"I think the rain is stopping."
Barruch blew air on her arm and she could swear it was the last thing she felt before her face grew warm and her eyelids bright enough she had to shield them.
She'd fallen asleep, obviously. The sun had found its way through the mist of old humidity left over from the torrent. She rolled over, still sore, but grateful. The ground was oily from the wet surface and she could see, as she sat up, that muck covered her from head to toe.
She sent a thoughtful glance to the river next to her, but shrugged. She'd just get filthy again. Maybe she'd wait the night at the oasis and head back to Sarum with the new sun. Her stomach growled irritably.
"Did you save me any food, old man?"
Barruch stomped. She was pleased to see he'd recovered enough to do so. "You must have had a good nap, too. Shall we?"
She stood shakily, but decided against lifting herself to his back. Instead, she reached for his lead and sent her feet in the direction of the oasis. He came with her almost reluctantly.
"I know. I can think of no better place than our little cavern or Saxa's cottage or Yuri's stables where you have so many fillies you enjoy, but it will have to be the open stars tonight."
They would get a decent rest, some honey, and maybe a few eggs if the rain hadn't washed the oasis clean of food. A quick wash in the waterfall, and then sleep through the night.
She doubted anything would wake her.
Twice through the night she woke to the sense that someone was watching her. Each time she grumbled to Barruch in the dark to go to sleep. When she woke with the sounds of birds filtering their song through the branches, she doubted her trusty mount would have been so sentimental as to watch her sleep, but she couldn't find anyone lurking close enough to warrant the belief that someone else had been there.
"Leftover magics," she decided aloud. The crones had wrapped this place in spells to keep Yenic safe even as they sacrificed themselves to Alaysha's power.
The thought made her freeze midstride. Three powerful women letting themselves be murdered, knowing their lines would disappear with them made no sense. As it turned out, Yenic's mother had been secreted far enough away that she could continue the line and so the sacrifice of the fire crone was successful. The babe who controlled the air was smuggled too, no one knew where; that made the elder of air's sacrifice assured if not totally impractical. It made sense that the elders had made provisions, yes, but it didn't make sense that they would only protect two of the three.
Three witches dead at her hand. Three left alive. Wind, water, fire. But where was earth? Without the fourth there could be no balance, and she stared at the cracks in the soil, the fissures now turned to brooks, the chasms turned to rivers.
She recognized the power now as surely as she recognized her own hand.
The witch who commanded the clay was alive.
Chapter 20
Aedus met her at the gate looking breathless with excitement. Even from a dozen mount strides away, Alaysha could make out the glow of exertion on her face beneath the strings of muddy hair. She shifted one foot to the next impatiently and grabbed Alaysha's leg when Barruch reined in close enough.
The girl wasted no time delivering her news.
"I know where he is. I know where Edulph is."
Alaysha's gaze went to the gates with a feeling of certain dread. "Inside?"
Aedus nodded. "Inside but not where you think. Inside the mountain." She took in Alaysha from head to toe. "What happened?"
"I'm not sure," she said. "Something – something very strange."
"Here too," Aedus said.
"How so?"
"You'll see."
The girl looked incredibly old in the moment. If it weren't for the strings of matted hair, the bare feet, and the filthy face, Alaysha would swear she looked at a woman grown.
"Tell me," she said.
"I'll do better." Aedus grinned broadly. "I'll take you."
Alaysha expected the girl to go back to the gates, but she pushed through a thicket of shrubs in the same direction as her nohma's cottage. She climbed down from Barruch's saddle and gripped his lead.
"How far?"
"You'll be amazed." Aedus said from over her shoulder. "I watched Yenic like you told me to and soon enough after a couple of days I noticed he left the city to come out here. Always with a trencher bread, sometimes a cauldron of broth."
"Food for someone."
"Food for Edulph."
"You're sure you saw him."
The girl stepped over a log that had fallen onto the path. By daylight, Alaysha found herself seeing the old terrain with six-year-old eyes. She could have led Aedus directly to the cottage but when Aedus veered right and headed back toward the city, Alaysha got confused.
"I thought it was at the hovel."
She saw the girl shook her head.
"Better than that." She peered over her shoulder again. "Maybe you should leave him back there." She nodded toward the ruins of the cottage. "It gets a little snaky."
Alaysha considered going back but now she was so close she hated to do so. She took Barruch's lead and wrapped it around a tree.
"We won't be long," she told him, then faced Aedus. "Let's get going."
The girl continued on, ducking beneath low hanging branches and continuing the chatter as she went.
"When I remember that night you were with him, I couldn't recall seeing him coming through the way we'd both come." She halted suddenly, cocking her head as though she'd heard something but after a few moments spoke again. "I came out to the ruins and looked around and noticed a subtle path that led away from the cottage but toward the mountains. I knew it wasn't deer. The ground didn't tell that tale."
"It was too recent."
"No. Too old."
Alaysha gave her a queer look and then studied the ground. "It looks like it was once a well-worn path."
"Right. So I watched Yenic one morning, stuffing bread into his tunic. He came out here."
I thought began to dawn on Alaysha, one that made her feel queasy.
"He didn't follow me that night; he was coming back from Edulph."
Aedus gave the briefest of compassionate nods. "I'm sorry, Alaysha."
She tried to shrug it off and appear as though it didn't bother her, but she couldn't help feeling a grimace had frozen on her face. She had to say something to get rid of it.
"Did you go in?"
Aedus looked at the ground. "No."
Alaysha guessed she'd not wanted to see the brother who had betrayed her. Not by herself.
"You want me to go?"
She looked like she took a deep breath, bracing herself. "I'll go with you."
"Are you sure?"
It took a moment, but the girl nodded. "I'm ready."
Alaysha went first, entering the mouth of the cave, a cave very much like the one she'd holed up in herself after nohma died. It was of a height that made walking upright easy, almost as though it was a dug tunnel. Every so many feet for a long while, there was a natural skylight varying in size from that of a fist, to a head for any available light to get through. The further in they went, she noticed corroded discs that
were somewhat convex in shape. She wasn't sure at first what they were until she spied an old oil lamp next to one of them.
"Whoever use this time to use these to bring the light," she murmured.
"What?"
Aedus stepped close and Alaysha scraped at the surface to show her. "See? Polished copper beneath." She looked back and could clearly make out a line of discs that in their day would have reflected one to the next.
"Why not torches?" Aedus held hers up and it sputtered. Alaysha peered further down the tunnel.
"It goes for a long way. Maybe they were worried about losing the air."
In fact, the more she looked, the more directions she could see the tunnel branching off into.
"We're going to get lost," Alaysha said. "I should have brought something to mark as we go."
Aedus peered into the darkness. "If Yenic can find his way, we can." She ran the torch across the floor of the cave, then along the walls. "All we have to do is follow the sconces and the discs. I bet if Yenic has Edulph in here somewhere, he would need some markings to get around. And I bet he used what was here."
Alaysha shot her a proud smile. "Good thinking."
The girl shrugged. "Common sense."
As they moved along, and the tunnel got more humid, Alaysha sensed they were heading toward the center of the mountain. It grew so hot she felt the sweat run down her spine, and just as she was about to give the escapade up for ridiculous, the tunnel broke into a room twice as wide as the bathhouse.
That was where the similarity ended.
Inside, the chamber caught the light of their torch and reflected it repeatedly by itself, lighting the room as though it had an open roof to the sun. The walls were smooth and polished and as white as any tooth on Bodiccia's arm bracelet.
"Dear deities, it looks like the inside of the skull." She said as she stepped in. She expected Aedus to say something and when she didn't, Alaysha turned to her.
The girl stood there paralyzed. Her face held shock and recognition, and a queer seesawing of her jaw had begun making the girl's teeth grind. She began to tremble, her scrawny shoulders moving as though someone was shaking her.
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