Wilderness Untamed

by Butler, J. M.

  "As sure as anyone can be. And she will be fine. She is far from weak. She's just tired."

  "So she didn't shred the barriers to keep going over these past weeks?" AaQar's brow furrowed with surprise.

  "No." Naatos ate slowly. "She is incredibly powerful. Far more than she should be. The shade told the truth about her being scooped out. She was a mixing bowl of sorts. When Salanca made her, she went out of her way to ensure that every possible ability and strength was present. Not just Neyeb. And then they tore it out of her. She's been healing though, and the residue has been enough for it to regrow. Even with the mind shade eating her."

  "And the Ki Valo Nakar?" AaQar asked.

  "It looked to be sealed in."

  QueQoa leaned forward, nodding with contemplation. "And her mind would not lie about it? The shade said that she hid the Ki Valo Nakar."

  "She was a baby at the time, brother," AaQar said with dry amusement. "Not a mastermind. More likely the shade tried to take more, and she clamped down on what remained."

  WroOth scoffed. More than likely, she had let it in. Not that he wanted to think of her as an infant. She'd been in terrible condition when he found her as a baby. Little more than skin and bones. He'd almost crushed her too. But she'd tried to help soothe his mind as he mourned the loss of his own children.

  Those little butterfly taps at his mind. Butterfly taps and knife butt strikes. Mindreading wasn't always a comfortable thing, especially when one was dealing with an infant who was just responding to distress and instinct. It was humiliating being in such a bad space that an infant was trying to comfort you.

  And all those other children…

  Lately there had been so much more that angered him rather than cheered. It took great effort not to focus on it.

  "How does it change things if she did welcome it in?" WroOth continued to pace. As he pinched his brow, he sealed the memories back. Sometimes it felt as if the stitches in his mind were fraying. Certainly straining.

  Naatos lifted his arm as if to say he had no idea. "It might be deeper in. But there wasn't a way to get it out to start, which makes that less important. The Neyeb kept this knowledge very close and refused to let anyone else see it."

  That fire had destroyed most of the stores of knowledge. Whoever had struck at the Neyeb had coordinated a massacre which had not only destroyed them but also their knowledge. Similar in some respects to the Unato though simultaneous rather than staggered. Those had been dark days.

  "So the plan is we watch and wait, and if it looks like there's a problem, then we do something. Like stab her. Maybe we could drown the evil out."

  "WroOth, I know you're angry—"

  "Do you?" WroOth jerked his head to the side as he circled again. "Some days I'm not sure what you see and what you don't." He scoffed. "What about the children?"

  "I will tell you what I told her, this isn't the time to be worried about that."

  "So the mind shade did speak the truth." AaQar stoked the fire and then began refilling it.

  His frustration becoming apparent, Naatos pinched his brow. "Yes. It was telling the truth. She is barren. That is only for now though. We do not need to discuss it further."

  "Is she upset about it?" QueQoa pressed.

  Naatos hesitated. "Yes, but she doesn't want to admit it."

  "Of course she doesn't." WroOth kicked her foot lightly as he passed her. She wasn't moving. He hated that. She could at least snore. Snores were an easy method for telling when a person was still alive. And sometimes she had the very bad habit of breathing soft and shallow.

  "What matters though is she will be all right." Naatos helped himself to seconds and then returned to his place on the log.

  "Even with the mind shade?" WroOth demanded.

  "Yes." He dipped his head, his hair briefly hiding his face. "Hopefully."

  Hopefully. Hopefully! The fact that his brother even felt the need to admit that—even though he generally lied—made it clear just how uneasy he was on that point. He glared at him as he continued pacing. Naatos refused to acknowledge this.

  "I don't suppose any further insight has been gained into who Salanca was preparing those powers for?" AaQar stirred the hot coals, his manner as calm as if they were discussing what sort of lodging they would build once they reached Darmoste.

  "She named Osero at the trials," Naatos said. "But nothing else was found. The council did not reveal much of what they knew. Insisted that it would be told in time."

  "How long would it have taken for someone to scoop all of that out of her?"

  Again Naatos shook his head. "I do not know, AaQar." His tone had taken a sharper note. He hated being pressed on his lack of knowledge. The fact that he'd been unable to solve this mystery when it first arose had driven him into fury on more than one occasion. It had been all too easy for WroOth to provoke him to wrath and kuvaste, though at the moment, he felt as if he were the one about to spiral off. "What I can tell you though is that if Rasha is alive and is the one making contact with you, Amelia will be able to reach her whether there's another Neyeb there or not."

  "Only after she has rested." The calm hadn't changed in his manner except for the faintest twinge of tension that passed through his shoulders and face. He continued stirring the fire a moment or two longer than necessary. "After all this, the best thing for Amelia is to let the more challenging mindreading tasks be for a week or so."

  She had no business doing any mindreading. But she wouldn't listen. She was terrible at listening. WroOth glared at her again.

  "If you can convince her," QueQoa said. "She seems somewhat challenging to reason with."

  "Just a little," AaQar admitted.

  Naatos set the plate in the basin. "We should leave as soon as possible. Once we reach Darmoste, we make a home. Then we sort out what happens next. We'll figure Rasha out as well and take that as it comes. The same with the Ki Valo Nakar. Everything will be fine." He set his arms akimbo as he returned his focus to WroOth. "Kuvaste?"

  WroOth scoffed. Everything being fine meant his family being whole. Even the infuriating ones. He struck Naatos in the chest. "Kuvaste!"

  42

  The Bargain

  Amelia stirred, her body stiff from Tacky sleeping on her hip but under the blanket. He really was like a cat. As she opened her eyes, he moved higher up on her shoulder and tapped at her neck.

  She shuddered a little. Unfortunately he still looked a little too spidery for her to completely relax. Even with those big dark-blue eyes.

  Something thudded and cracked. A loud bellow followed by another roar tore through the relative silence.

  She bolted up.

  "There's nothing to worry about." AaQar sat at the fire, stitching large squares of leather with a thick needle. "Naatos is just kuvasteing."

  "Oh." She pushed her thick hair out of her face, sighing as Tacky protested beneath the blanket. He scrambled out, then retreated just far enough to avoid being in the early morning sun. "Why? And what are you making?"

  "Foraging packs. And lots of reasons. In this case, Naatos did not tell us about the Ki Valo Nakar."

  "He didn't tell me either." Amelia stood and scrubbed her hands over her face. There had been strange dreams last night, but they were all fading too fast. Something with the Dry Deep and white moons. "I thought you all kept lots of secrets from each other. That that was part of your culture."

  "It's like everything. You make the choice, accept the consequences. Keeping secrets is not the problem. But sometimes people become angry when they learn what they should have known. So you accept the consequences and kuvaste if necessary. Today it is." AaQar tossed her the sealed canteen. "Drink that. All of it."

  Twisting the lid, she caught the familiar scent at once. More roars shattered the morning air. They were over by those thorn trees again. Several branches had been shattered, and there were dents and grooves in the ground. A deep path had been cut through some of the bushes and shrubs which previously had been part of th
e wall around the clearing. "No one kuvasted you about Rasha?"

  "We did. WroOth is angrier with Naatos at the moment though. But that will pass. And I don't need kuvaste as I once did."

  She sipped the tea. The warm flavor flooded her mouth, a little greener than before. The little aftertaste expanded into something she couldn't really identify. But it made her feel better, easing the tension in her head and reducing the throbbing. "So… Rasha…"

  "So Rasha." He cast an almost coy glance her way. "Unless you have specific questions, I'm not speaking further on the subject. I don't want to talk about it any more than you want to talk about last night. You are not going to even attempt to contact her until after you have taken two weeks to heal at a minimum."

  "Even if she's currently being tortured."

  He flinched, his brow tweaking and his expression wavering. "It is tempting to rush in on a matter like this, but, as my brothers have pointed out, there are certain inconsistencies. Even if I knew for certain she was there, I would ask you to wait. We have no way to reach her unless I use the Para band, but it is unlikely I would be effective. If she is a prisoner, it is more likely that this is a trap designed to lure me out. If she is not a prisoner, it is also a trap. And if I am losing my mind, it will not harm anyone to wait."

  That was hard. "If there isn't any risk to me—" She screwed the lid back on and went to retrieve the book.

  "No."

  "But—" Amelia started.

  A strong force struck her onto the ground. A very familiar force.

  "You still don't remember to look up."

  She twisted her face out of the dirt, coughing. "Good morning to you too, WroOth. Get your knee out of my back."

  He slid his weight off her though he kept her pinned. "What's this I hear about you leaving the camp to kill a casket weaver?"

  She drove her hands into the ground. "First, in my defense, I never said I wouldn't. I acknowledged that I understood you didn't want me to leave. Second, are you saying you would rather I have let Naatos die?"

  "No." He sounded annoyed.

  "So what do you think I should have done differently? Recognizing, of course, you weren't there and I literally had no other options except let him die and fight the spider." Digging into the dirt, she pushed herself. "Tell me now, WroOth."

  He at last relented, stepping away. "You need to be more careful, little sister. This world is vicious. You need to pay attention and remember you aren't invincible."

  "I haven't really suffered under that delusion." Dusting herself off, she glared at him. More roars and snaps followed from the clearing. "I thought you were kuvasteing Naatos."

  "No, and you can count your blessings I'm not kuvasteing you." He folded his arms as he regarded her.

  "If you want to kuvaste, I'd be more than happy to stab you a few times." She lifted her arms at him. "Otherwise, if you're just trying to tell me that you were worried about me, you could try saying that. Or I love you."

  "Neither are as cathartic," he said dryly.

  It was odd to see him so stern. Whatever was bothering him had gotten deep. "Do you want to kuvaste me?"

  "No. And you'd break. I want you to get better and stay better and not put yourself in harm's way. And it's not that you didn't do well. But you could have gotten killed. Then who would have helped you?"

  She shrugged. "So what would you have done? Would you have left him there?"

  "No." WroOth leaned forward, looking her straight in the eye. "But he's my brother."

  "Well, he's my—" She stopped, then narrowed her eyes at him. She'd rarely referred to Naatos as her husband or veskare. But that was what she had been about to say. Turning, she picked up her canteen and took another drink. "You shouldn't have tackled me anyway. What if I'd spilled my tea?"

  "I never attack anyone who is drinking tea, dear heart. I'm not a barbarian. But please, you were saying something earlier. He's your what?" Whatever perturbed mood had seized him had apparently passed. Pure mischief danced in his turquoise eyes. His mood changes could be fast. "Are we actually to the point of you seeing us as family yet?"

  She narrowed her eyes at him. "If you have to ask."

  He grinned. "I'm going to assume that with you up and fighting you're feeling better from yesterday?"

  "You're asking that now? After you dropped me like a sack of potatoes?"

  "I was careful." His expression grew sober again, the light fading in his eyes. "But you are all right?"

  "A little tired. A little stiff. But nothing I can't handle. I still don't understand everything I saw. But the mind shade is gone. So… no more spectral woman tormenting me."

  "All good. And no other nightmares?"

  "I actually don't remember anything after Naatos left." Something had happened, but it was all dull and faded. "Maybe I dreamed about Dry Deep."

  "Dry Deep is the last place you need to be," WroOth said. "When I mentioned holing up there, I meant it as a place of last resort that is quite terrible."

  "What makes it so much worse than all the rest of Ecekom?"

  "The atmosphere is different," AaQar said. He shook out the bag he had been making, then resumed stitching. "It's a deep gouge in the surface of the earth that has developed an entirely different ecosystem. Two or three miles down in some cases. The deepest parts haven't been explored here. And the creatures are different. What makes it so treacherous though is that the trees trap in this atmosphere with all its gases, and it is toxic if you go in immediately. Even for us, it is difficult but not impossible. But you, it'd kill you if we took the fast route."

  "Problem is that the slow route is still rough on Neyeb," WroOth said.

  "Rough on everyone," AaQar countered. "But especially on Neyeb."

  "How so?" Amelia finished the last of the tea. "Not that I need to be convinced to stay away." She shuddered. Why did it make her so uncomfortable to think of going there? It wasn't as if it was something anyone had planned.

  "The atmosphere is unpleasantly intoxicating to Neyeb."

  "Like the huanna for you?"

  "Oh, no." WroOth laughed. "No. That could have actually been pleasant if it weren't for the fact we were being held captive. No. You'd be hallucinating inside a few days. And not pleasantly."

  "Which is why we aren't going there." Naatos strode in on one of the newly-cut paths, QueQoa behind him. "Why are you even talking about Dry Deep? There's more than one way around it to Darmoste."

  Amelia wrapped her arms around herself, turning her elmis inward once more. A flare of warmth spread through her. "Did you spend all night fighting? I mean kuvasteing." She shook her head.

  "No." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Answer my question."

  "I think I might have dreamed about Dry Deep. That's all." She eyed him cautiously. He appeared fine. In more ways than one. It was uncomfortable to realize she was now seeing Naatos.

  Had her own emotions not begun changing before this, she might have questioned whether only lust influenced her now. Because, regardless of her other feelings, she couldn't deny now that he was remarkably handsome and distinct from the cut of his cheeks to the brightness in his eyes and the strength in his stance. Then she realized she was still staring. "That's all," she said again, stepping back. "Nothing important."

  He made some strange noncommittal sound that she was too flustered to identify. "You'll need to tell us what you dream about though in case there are signs that the Ki Valo Nakar is trying to break free. Even if it doesn't seem important. But today you rest. Sleep if you can. No work. Don't leave the camp."

  She scoffed. "Naatos—"

  He gave her a stern look. "I don't care what you say. You just ripped out a mind shade."

  "And I feel fine."

  "Good. Then you can rest and feel more fine."

  She clamped her mouth shut. Having her fatigue noticed bothered her. But the conversation soon turned to other things. Not about yesterday, the mind shade, children, kuvaste, Rasha, or anything that really mattered.


  That was nice.

  Until everyone agreed that despite her thoughts on the matter, she needed to rest. They were very well coordinated on this point too.

  When she went to read the Neyeb texts, they took her books. She spent some time with the bavril and named him Proteus. But AaQar refused to let her help finish the harness for the sledge. Nor would he let her handle the skins or oil down the runners on the sledge that allowed it to move easily without snow or ice beneath it.

  All of them had apparently gotten on the same page on this point. Cooking, sewing, cleaning, packing, and whatever else might have been interesting was off limits. Aggressively off limits. Pointing out the irony of convincing someone to rest by threatening and sometimes enacting violence on them did nothing to move any of them.

  She at last convinced QueQoa to let her take a switchblade to cut reeds to make a bed for Tacky so that he had somewhere to ride rather than just under a blanket. Though he was reluctant, he made her promise to not overexert herself and then returned to his own tasks.

  Of the four, he was the easiest one to convince about anything. And it really wasn't going to cause any harm for her to do something mildly productive.

  After about an hour or so though, she sensed someone drawing close. A shiver cut along her spine as all her nerves alerted her to the fact it was Naatos.

  Obviously.

  Naturally.

  And she wasn't even sure that she minded.

  As he arrived at the bottom of the hill, she avoided looking in his direction and continued with her own tasks. For a moment, he just stood there.

  Though she continued to cut the reeds for her basket, her pace slowed. "Are you going to tell me to stop doing this, or are you trying to get me to read your mind to figure out what you're up to?"

  Chuckling, Naatos strode toward her. "You shouldn't do any mindreading for the next few days. AaQar is right on that. And you should be resting."

  "Hmmm. Then talk to me. And blink occasionally. As far as my resting, this is the best I can do."

  "All I am thinking of is how beautiful you are."