Women of War

by Alexander Potter

  What life for those without the binding? Sauri tried to imagine losing LaanaKendrisha but such emptiness and despair were too terrifying to envision. Leveraging herself up with the stave of her bow, Sauri regained her balance. Her turbulent thoughts centred on the tragedy of Idrian’s soul-bound partner.

  Once, KasashDanitai had been a Castelon—assigned to protect the outermost cliffs of the Kambarna. He had been part of the force that had kept the enemy Zarristas off the southwestern cliffs, saving the domain’s soul-silver mines. A talented warrior, KasashDanitai had been destined for greatness. Only the misdirected fall of a knife cut had shredded his mind by denting, not cracking, his medallion. Yet his wounding had severed him from the spirit of his bound partner, casting DanitaiEmryn into final death, and setting in motion a war more devastating than any the Zarristas could contemplate—a war whose prime actions now acquired the terrible ability to poison the present.

  Was the rampage of death then Kasash’s fault? The shattering of mind that led him to cross over to the enemy Zarristas to teach them the devastating weakness of his birth-born people?

  No. KasashDanitai had led a tragic life, not one of evil tyranny.

  At the last, KasashDanitai’s body had been given a quick first passage: a silver tipped arrow through the heart at the hands of his own First Castelon, LaanaKendrisha. Now, Sauri’s bonded demanded the second death—the permanent death of Kasash’s spirit. But SauriLaana’s former First Castelon partner’s historic quarry had not returned to take root in a killer, a deceitful child, or a liar. Instead, Kasash now lived again as the soul-bound spirit of her own young protégé.

  A swishing rustle across the marsh reclaimed Sauri’s attention. Returning her gaze to the granite monolith, she pulled a silver-tipped arrow from the quiver laced to her back. Soul-silver: the one substance that could guarantee a quick death, one without causing the dashing of spirit sudden death often wrought. Sometimes it was necessary; the Kambarna had its share of evildoers and soul sick. Better to kill the body without causing madness when the spirit returned. With a lucid host, often the second death came quickly, during the first moments of struggle between spirit and living soul. A host driven mad during the binding could not be controlled.

  Nocking the arrow, she edged back toward the willow, using its cascade of waving branches as a shield from her prey. Laana’s prey. At least by dying on her arrow, Idrian would be sheltered from the madness violent death caused. His spirit would return to the world fresh, while Kasash’s spirit would die its final death.

  Mud slicked boots came into view first; the tall leather boots of a Castelon but in the unadorned black of a non-sworn member. Her own by contrast were imprinted with the circle seal of the unit and threaded with silver etched lacing. The boots’ wearer crept through the marshland with the faultless steps of a specter, leaving his trail undisturbed as she had taught him.

  Has it really been less than a week since I ran him through tracking drills here?

  Seven days. A week in which Idrian of the Kambarna had turned sixteen years of age and made his momentous journey deep into the heart of the domain to receive the rite of soul-binding.

  Why him? Sauri cried silently, even as the rest of her protégé came into her sight.

  His best clothing, a knee-length jerkin and pants of sun-bleached wool with an undertunic of gray, was mired in dirt—dyed muddied brown from three days as a fugitive. An oversized leather harness wrapped his waist, holding two sheaths: short sword and dagger. His amber brown hair had been tied back, yet lanky wisps had escaped to edge his face—a face no longer the innocent youth’s she remembered. Lines of tiredness ribbed his eyes in tracks that aged him several years, and a haunted, fuzzed look glazed his brilliant lapis lazuli-flecked eyes. A bruise wound its way down his right cheekbone—the result of a desperate attempt to halt his escape.

  Following his soul-binding, Idrian had opened dazed yet lucid eyes and finished the ritual automatically, speaking his new name: IdrianKasash. Years without his bonded had allowed Kasash to evade the insanity of his victims, thus allowing for the successful bonding. While all in the Kambarna had expected the one bound to KasashDanitai to wake in incoherent, screaming panic, allowing for the safe completion of the cleansing rites, reaction had been swift. KasashDanitai’s spirit could not live. Sauri was still amazed at Idrian’s ability to win free of the Castelons guarding the bonding chambers. The loss of his raw talent tore her heart-strings.

  Wavering on the edge of pity, LaanaKendrisha’s voice prickled Sauri’s thoughts into kill fever. ::End it!:: The spirit demanded, her fury blasting Sauri’s nerves.

  Instinctively, SauriLaana drew the arrow fully, bow creaking with tension.

  ::Now!::

  Sauri released, tensing against the distinctive crunch of arrow through flesh, when sharpened silver would tear a blaze through IdrianKasash’s body, annealing it in death.

  The spark of metal on rock met her ears as the arrow shattered against the granite, sending shards of wood flying. IdrianKasash yelped as slivers dug through his skin, slamming him into a panicked run.

  ::You missed!:: A shamed relief filled Sauri at the cursing of her bonded partner. ::Get him. Now! He can’t get away!::

  “Wait!” Sauri commanded aloud, grounding the silent threats and curses of LaanaKendrisha in a feat of motionless self-control.

  IdrianKasash halted a dozen feet from Sauri’s position. “First Castelon?” With a finely trained awareness that knotted the First Castelon’s stomach, Idrian turned toward her hiding place. “Why did it have to be you?”

  ::He must die. He’d murder the world!:: Laana’s arguments continued unceasingly, and Sauri’s hand tightened on the hilt of her short sword before she paused. She peeled her hand away from the grip, finger by finger.

  “Who else? LaanaKendrisha would force me to the deed.” With a harsh drawn breath against internal attack, the First Castelon took a step toward her protégé. “I see you haven’t lost your ability to go unmarked.”

  The First Castelon recognized the moment when Idrian’s eyes hazed over with gray, the indelible sign of one speaking with his bonded spirit. Her protégé’s head jerked back and forth as if he were fighting an inner demon. Which he is, Sauri realized. Never had she seen such potent denial in someone with a new soul-binding. Her own breath held in her chest as she willed him to succeed.

  ::He’s better off dead.:: This time LaanaKendrisha’s barbs aimed to persuade—to touch on sympathies to bring about the death of her bitter renegade.

  ::Not yet.:: Sauri noticed how Idrian’s hands tightened at his sides, knuckles tense and white. She had taught him well. Maybe he could overcome the binding of KasashDanitai’s spirit.

  “You still found me.” Idrian managed a weak smile, and Sauri choked off her cry. It was hard to imagine Idrian bonded with the one who had started the Spirit War. Yet even his posture was different. His back was rigid, poised for an ambush. Every few seconds his eyes clouded while he conversed with the one who shared his soul.

  “I knew where to look.” This time Sauri managed the words easily, Laana’s contentment flooding her veins as she took a few steps closer to their prey.

  “He says you’d kill me.” Idrian glanced toward the bent remains of the arrowhead, recognizing the soul-silver; he had seen her make the arrows himself.

  ::He knows I am here:: her bonded sent. Worse, the spirit of Kasash knew all Idrian knew. If he gained control, or turned Idrian to his purposes, he could easily begin a second purging. ::He has to die!::

  ::Idrian can fight him off—hold Kasash from doing harm. I must give him a chance!:: Sauri argued.

  ::Would you trust the lives of our people to him? To a green youth? Kasash is not evil—worse, he struggles for what he believes is right. How can anyone defend against righteousness? Kill the boy, at least then his spirit will be untainted for the next passing.::

  “I can’t!” Sauri’s vocal denial addressed both bonded partner and fugitive.

&nbs
p; ::You must!:: The ties binding her to LaanaKendrisha tightened. Sauri’s hand closed on her sword hilt. Idrian’s eyes hazed gray at her movement, his stolen blade in his hand before she could gasp.

  Without thought, born instincts and years of training had the sharp-edged steel out of Sauri’s sheath and headed in crosswise slant to match IdrianKasash’s oncoming thrust. She barely managed to block his cut, caught short by the innocent face of her protégé now taut with fury. Instead of pulling back, Idrian leaned forward putting his entire weight against her raised blade. Sauri’s arm shook as he pressed her back.

  “Idrian!” She shouted, desperate for the boy to throw off the mantle of Kasash’s domination. ::Please!::

  For a moment, the cloud shrouding his eyes lessened and the pressure on her arm withdrew. Sauri blinked her relief and made to withdraw.

  Gray returned to his eyes in a whirlwind. IdrianKasash knocked the sword from her relaxed grasp, then twisted around to throw her hard against the granite outcropping. Breath was pushed from Sauri’s lungs.

  ::Kill him before we die!:: Laana’s voice bit through the dizziness shaking Sauri’s skull. The First Castelon twisted to reach her dagger. Before her hand got there, Idrian’s came down on her own, his other reversing his dagger’s grip. The hilt came down hard on her nape, sending a flash of stars across her vision. Sauri tried to move but IdrianKasash tightened his grip, tugged her around. Still blinking her eyes clear, Sauri missed the dagger’s hilt come slamming toward her chest.

  Shattering pain mushroomed out from her chest and reached through every nerve, kindling them to finely honed agony. Convulsions wracked her body, bringing her down hard on the wet, jagged rock. Someone shrieked unceasingly, unintelligibly, as pain, confusion, and bereavement echoed into vast emptiness. Utter despair reached out with chill fingers and carried her off into silence.

  Ravaging absence shocked Sauri to waking. Something missing. Someone. Missing.

  “Laana?” Bleak emptiness jarred where once calm presence had been. “Laana!” This time Sauri screamed, her bonded’s name reverberating off the walls with jarring force. Her head ached with devastation. Even the thought of opening her eyes brought wracking contractions of fearful reality.

  Footsteps on wood flooring caught her attention. Hands came down on her head. Cool hands. A hot liquid rushed down her throat, bringing ease to the headache, but not to the internal wounds. No, nothing would ease that pain.

  “First Castelon? Can you speak?” Soft words sounded under the din of internal confusion.

  The Kambarna. Even through the wrenching disorientation, Sauri recognised the soft cotton sheets of the Castelons’ infirmary, and the bitter scents of alcohol and asprea tea.

  Scrunching her eyes tight, she managed, “Who?”

  “TathroiAmbars.”

  Sauri blinked her eyes open, bile choking her throat. The round face of the Castelons’ chief physician came into focus, his fingers pressing his spectacles higher on his nose. When he noticed her open eyes, he withdrew his hands and came to rigid attention. “The midday patrol found you—you were unconscious, but they found no sign of injury. Even your weapons were left.” His eyebrows rose in silent question, hoping for but not demanding an explanation from his commander.

  Ignoring him, SauriLaana saw she still wore her undershirt, though her other clothes had been removed. Tathroi didn’t know, then? Shivering, she wondered that he couldn’t see the ever-evolving cacophony of pain reverberating through her body. She shuddered with heart-wrenching loss, barely able to see for the darkness threatening to overwhelm her with the knotting contractions of a soul torn to pieces. Surely TathroiAmbars, the head physician, should be able to tell.

  “First Castelon? Are you all right? You had a mild case of hypothermia—a warm bath should halt the shaking.”

  ::Laana!!!!:: Still focused internally, Sauri cried her bonded’s name. With the deafening lack of response, she knew she would never be all right.

  “First Castelon? The Second is anxiously waiting for word on your health—” the physician prompted.

  As soon as the Second heard of her loss, he would be honor-bound to accompany her to the binding chambers in the heart of the Kambarna. His would be the hand to end her life—before the loss twisted her as it once had KasashDanitai.

  No. I must bring him down first. A deep hatred twisted in her gut as the face of her tormentor rose in her mind. “I am fine,” she said in a voice that brooked no question. “A bath, then sleep—I will be good as new in the morning.”

  TathroiAmbars nodded grimly, not pleased at her response. “Very well, First Castelon. But let me help you to your rooms.”

  Rather than argue, Sauri let him haul her up and wrap her in a lambswool robe. Her body quivered as her balance wavered under the strain of Laana’s absence. She gritted her teeth and staggered out of the infirmary, refusing Tathroi’s offer of help.

  Up through the Castelon headquarters, they tread slowly. Castelon barracks were built into the sides of the mountainous Kambarna domain, adjacent to the most compromising locations. Here, at the mouth of the Escraen, the Castelon headquarters stood watch over the area most beleaguered by Zarrista attacks. The southern people yearned for the mystical soul-silver only found in the Kambarna, and rarely a year went by without a major assault.

  This is where KasashDanitai held off the raiders before he went mad. Even thinking about Laana’s enemy made real her own grievous injury. Instead, Sauri kept her eyes firmly fixed on the spartan corridor walls of a compound grimly built for war. Every twenty feet, arrow slits cut through the rock, bracketed by glowing oil-filled lamps, which over centuries had added a dank sooty odor to the barracks. Only the elite Castelons could live poised for war at all times without breaking under the need for constant vigilance. They passed startled Castelons in the halls, both patrols and those off duty. Sauri ignored their surprised glances with the aloofness her position allowed.

  The First Castelon’s apartment crowned the highest section of the Kambarna’s southwestern cliffs. Deep in despair, the climb up the rough-hewn staircases lasted lifetimes, an infinite number of moments to remember she was alone.

  Alone.

  Tathroi paused at her doorway, waiting. Lost in depression, it took a touch on her shoulder and a whispered, “First Castelon,” before Sauri remembered where she was. She rolled her eyes. Most thought her rooms booby-trapped, and obviously the physician gave credence to the rumors. With an annoyed grimace, she pulled open the unlocked door.

  No light met them. Keeping the lamps lit had been Idrian’s job. A stab of recollection knifed her soul wound, wrenching the sickness deeper. Shuddering, she braced a hand against the doorframe.

  “Will you be all right? Should I send someone?”

  “I’ll be fine.” Sauri managed.

  TathroiAmbars’ eyes shaded with gray mist as he spoke with his bonded. As she noted the interaction, a blistering hatred rose in the remnants of her soul. How could he not see how it made her feel—what it did? How could he not realize Laana was gone? Gone.

  “Go!” She grasped his arm and pushing him back toward the entry.

  “But First ...”

  “Go. I’ll be fine—I’m going to bed. Out.”

  The physician was shoved, protesting, from her chamber. Sauri slammed the door, and pressed her back to the oak panel as if she could barricade away the outside world. Finally alone, the First Castelon yanked off the borrowed robe and pulled her undertunic over her head. Her spirit medallion lay seamless within her breast, offering the unspoken but torturous truth. A light indentation marred its once perfect silver. A ripple. How could such a tiny mark have torn her soul apart—ripped her to such shattered pieces?

  ::Laana. Laana. Laana.:: Sauri’s wrenching call sparked agonizing pain through her broken soul-bond. Crumpling to the floor, she lost all sense of time as she pleaded senselessly for a response.

  As the new day dawned, tears gave way to stunned realization. If only I had listened to
you, Sauri offered to the memory of LaanaKendrisha, stomach knotted with horror. I should never have trusted him.

  Gripping fingers tight into fists, relishing the sharp tingle of nails digging into her palms, the First Castelon knew she should accept death. She should tell her Second, allow him to escort her to the spirit chambers, take the offered respite, and hope for a clean return. But Kasash still lived. Still offered threat to those she had sworn to protect.

  In a way, the possibility prodded her sympathies. She relived the moment of intense hatred for the physician who had not noted her sickness, the chilling depression as he used the tie rent from her. Surely for not recognizing her pain, he deserved treatment in kind. She imagined slashing a medallion from TathroiAmbars’ skin—lingered on the desire to strike an indent off a pure medallion, as hers no longer was. The shocking picture captivated thought and imagination, offering heady visions of revenge and retaliation.

  No. I will not be the catalyst of a second Spirit War. As she once argued against LaanaKendrisha, Sauri now argued as strongly against the insanity the torn binding cast upon her—the bitterness, violence, and hopelessness.

  Only one face did she allow the seeds of hatred to cast as an enemy. Only one name did she allow on her lips as a curse. IdrianKasash.

  When a page came knocking at her door, she drafted a quick note to her Second, delegating him to assign the patrols for the day and to draw up a plan for capturing IdrianKasash. Anything to keep them out of her way—IdrianKasash was hers. As Sauri stood at her room’s one vice, a large window overlooking the cloud covered marshlands, a bitter coldness swept through her.

  I will find you, IdrianKasash. I’ll scour the marshes and drag your screaming carcass through the mud. You think you can ruin me? I’ll break you so far you’ll be begging me to stop before I put you out of your misery.

  Determined steps and movements saw her dressed. She pulled on her linen undergarments, her black leggings, and her black Castelon boots. A light gray shirt went on before dress tunic, embossed with the silver circles of the Kambarna. Dressed, she laced her leather bracers onto her forearms, fastened on sword and dagger, and grasped her Castelon bow from its stand. IdrianKasash might have the innate strength and stronger build, but she had speed and agility. Even without LaanaKendrisha, Sauri was First Castelon.