Bone Witch (18 page)

"Have the shaman tend to you. You look
like you're ready to faint, and I'd rather not shrivel into a husk because you
have no control over your power."

It hurt. He had to know it did, and she
didn't understand how he could save her life one moment and cause her pain the
next. She turned to see where Theron was and noticed him tending to Bodicca's
back. It appeared to have split again in spots. Alaysha staggered forward,
feeling her strength waning. Yenic came up beside her and she reached for him,
thankful to have the support. She'd expected Cai's people to come for them;
this attack was a complete surprise.

"Are you hurt?" She managed to
get out.

He twisted her around so he could look at
her face, and in another moment, she felt his palm press against her belly.
"It's not as bad as all the blood seems," he said, lifting her into
his arms.

"Are you hurt, Yenic?" she asked
him again, fighting the desire to lay her head against his chest. A full night
of sleep and she was still exhausted. Now what had this battle done for her
stamina, she'd not know. "Tell me, Yenic," she pressed, thinking he
had to be hurt because he wouldn't look her in the eye.

"Yenic."

"No," he said, striding to where
Theron was busy digging roots from the dirt and stuffing them into a strip of
leather. He patched up Bodicca's back again with strips of linen he must have
stored away from Sarum.

Not hurt. Good. Alaysha curled an arm
around Yenic's neck, holding on as he squatted to ease her onto the Moss.
Theron swiped his hands on his cassock and edged closer, poking at the wound in
her forearm.

"It's clean," he murmured.
"Straight between the bones." He inspected her shoulders, where the
gnat bites stung. The witch's back is the same. Already knitting back together.
Such clean wounds, no tearing. The young witch was never good at healing, but
today she has been given a gift."

"Is it bad?" Yenic asked and
Theron shook his head. "The blood would still be flowing freely if it was.
Oh yes. But we should clean it." His eyes flicked over Yenic. "And
yours too."

"Her first." Yenic ran his hand
over Alaysha's hair and offered her a short, encouraging smile. "She
nearly passed out."

Theron hummed and thought. "We see. Oh
yes. We have seen it before." He peered down at her. "How long has
the power been draining you?"

She eased her eyes closed because it was
easier to speak the truth without looking at anyone.

"Always," she admitted. "But
never like this."

"Yes, oh yes," he said. "Not
something a witch wants anyone to know. We understand. The stronger the power,
the more it uses of you. And it is very strong in this witch. Your father knew
it, planned for it, but he wouldn't know its cost, would he?"

Alaysha shook her head. That Yuri had
engineered her strength by killing her mother and grandmother simultaneously
when she was born was not news to her now, but she'd never truly understood
why. The discovery of how she'd come into so much power had sent her searching
for his blood when she discovered it, but when Aislin had killed him instead,
Alaysha suffered too much emotional conflict to give it more consideration. It
was one more thing that she slammed down into the dungeon of her memory, hoping
never have to think about it again.

"The power grows, Theron," she
said cautiously, opening her eyes to study his reaction.

"As it should. It needs to
mature." He poured water over a piece of his cassock he had ripped free
and wiped his hands clean it. "The young witch must find a way to ground
it, to stretch it past her own breath or when its fullness comes, as indeed
will, it will use her up. Yes. Oh yes yes."

"She needs an Arm," Yenic said.
"But how, here with nothing."

Theron's face split into a happy grin.
"Warriors think little of shamans, yes they do. So little they go
unnoticed right in their own eyesight." He chuckled and Yenic glared at
him.

"This isn't the time for foolishness,
Theron. We need her mother's ashes and then we need a good candidate. We're
lacking both."

"We lack nothing. We have something
better. Yes. Oh yes we do."

Alaysha was about to ask when her
peripheral vision caught Cai stooping over one of the felled attackers. She
watched as the woman rammed the butt of her blade against the man's open mouth
and extracted several bloody teeth, weighed them thoughtfully in her palm and
then dropped them into an already large pile. Alaysha couldn't help the
revulsion she felt, and both Theron and Yenic followed her gaze.

Yenic let out a sound of disgust and
hearing it, Cai turned. A fiery brow quirked and she shrugged. "I feel
naked; a bit of filmy gauze is better than nothing."

Alaysha felt a shudder pass through her,
but she wasn't entirely sure with the chill of early morning. Theron ran his
palm over her shoulders, much the same as he had to Bodicca in the burnt lands.
"She is fierce, that one." His voice held a note of question.

"No," Alaysha said.

"Then who?" Yenic asked and she
heard the dread in his voice. She thought it might be because he knew what it
meant to be an Arm, the weight of it, but she suspected the real truth.

"Not Gael either," she said,
hoping to ease his worry.

"Either warrior would die for a
witch," Theron said. "And you can't find a better Arm than that. It
must be one of them."

She thought of being tied to Cai for the
rest of her days, then imagined it with Gael, knowing how conflicting it would
be for him when she was also bound to Yenic and how much the two men hated each
other. The price would be too high for all of them.

"Gael has already suffered too
much," she said and heard Yenic's relieved exhale.

Theron sighed. "The witch is a foolish
one. There isn't a better choice, oh no. And there isn't time either."

Alaysha tried to sit up, fighting the wall
of black that weakened her vision. She waited, letting it pass, and watched as
both Cai and Bodicca picked a specific dead man one after the other and cracked
into their mouths to extract trophies. She noticed Gael, on his side of the
clearing trussing the last living attacker and hefting him against a tree. He
was breathing hard, she could tell even from the distance, and she knew it was
because he still wasn't fully recovered. He never so much as sweat when he
fought, and here he was fighting to stay on his feet.

They needed to eat to regain strength, and
they needed rest. At least, they could manage one of those things.

They settled quietly, each with a meagre
amount of meat and nuts, chewing reflectively. Alaysha knew they were all
surly, thinking the repast a foolish waste of time, but the bare truth of it
was she didn't have the energy she needed even to climb atop Barruch and ride.
She knew the others were equally spent. The Enyalia would come regardless and
overtake them eventually. They would die if they weren't fit enough to face
them. The few moments wouldn't matter unless they were used to refuel.

She could already feel the energy creeping
into her extremities as she chewed a piece of apple. When she looked around at
the group and saw the strained looks fading, she knew she'd made the right
decision. Her eyes were drawn to the captive repeatedly, and she caught him
staring at her.

"Why did you attack us?" she
asked and Gail harrumphed around a mouthful of salted pheasant that Cai had in
her tackle.

"I already tried to beat that out of
him."

"Foolish man," Cai said, rolling
her eyes. Bodicca murmured her agreement.

"What would a fearless Enyalian have
done," he demanded.

She shrugged, "killed him. Why would I
care why he attacked, only that he attacked."

"It doesn't matter," Alaysha
said. "He's alive. We might as well ask." She turned to him again.
"You heard the Enyalian. She would have you dead."

The man blinked but said nothing. Alaysha
pressed on, "You see those two stringing your comrade's teeth, would you
like to rattle about their thighs with them?"

He spit a gob of blood on the ground in
front of his feet.

Alaysha sighed, "I suppose why he
attacked doesn't matter. We’ll head on and leave him for your sisters."

She got up and stretched. She did feel
better now she'd eaten. Her shoulders still hurt, but like Theron said, the
wounds would heal. The others too.

"It's time to go, I think," she
said and collected her sword and bedroll. She heard the others doing the same.
Both Cai and Bodicca dropped the teeth they'd collected into pouches tied to
their waists. No doubt by nightfall the women would have full circlets around
their forearms and would feel a little less naked. Alaysha scanned the area
smelling now the stink of the dead that littered the forest floor. The wolves
and crows and other beasts would come soon to feast and would no doubt pick the
bound man to death. He must know it, and still he said nothing.

She and Theron sat Barruch while Bodicca
tried to get Gael to sit Cai's beast with her. The massive man refused and
Bodicca leapt up to sit with Cai saying it was just as well—a man had no place
on a beast unless it was as a body from a solstice raid.

It sounded like an intentional dig to
Alaysha but she noticed that although the warrior clenched his jaw, he said
nothing in counter.

"Where to?" Alaysha asked.

Cai spoke with an offhand shrug and nodded
toward the dead. "The vermin come from the high lands. Best we not go
there."

"Foolish woman," growled out
Gael, "That's exactly where we should head."

"Foolish man. My sisters, those who
are sent to kill us, will most assuredly be on their way to the highlands. They
won't let this go unavenged." She smiled almost nostalgically, "We've
not seen a decent war in many seasons."

The man stirred in his bindings.

"Having second thoughts?" Alaysha
asked him. Cai had seen no reason to gag him, saying casually that his cries
would only bring Enyalia or wolves to his aid.

"We were only one group of many,"
he said and Alaysha stepped closer.

"Tell me, and I'll loose you."

Cai and Bodicca both protested, but Alaysha
silenced them with a glare. She prodded the man with her toe.

"A dozen ambushes, set a day away from
the Enyalian village in every direction."

"What for?"

"To wait in case the young one didn't
succeed."

Alaysha could feel the hairs rise on her
arm. "The young one?"

"Yes. She and her father. Gone to kill
as many as they could."

There was no sound to give Alaysha warning,
but Cai was next to her in a heartbeat, her face leaning into the captive, her
blade pressed against his throat. "You highlanders forget
yourselves."

No fear sat in the man's eye as he
responded, and Alaysha's back tingled. "No. We are only just remembering,
Enyalian."

"Cai." Alaysha put her hand on
the woman's wrist and noted that the blade had pressed far enough into his skin
that the folds neatly met over it. "Cai, it doesn't matter."

Green eyes met hers. "It's the only
thing that matters."

"Not anymore. Why isn't important.
"She turned back to the man. "Where are they now, this young one and
her father."

He glared at her. "If you're here,
filthy Enyalian witch, then they are dead."

Alaysha pulled back and studied his face,
keeping her palm on Cai's forearm. She chewed her lip and noticed Cai tapping
her own arm as she too gave the man study. It was obvious he knew little except
to guard the escape routes and nothing more. It was also obvious he'd never
visited Enyalia, but had heard about Thera and her tattaus. He thought he had
the two powerful leaders just within his grasp. That must have been the reason
for the attack.

"What if I told you we spared their
lives only to be betrayed as they escaped?"

"I'd know you are lying. No Enyalian
has such pity."

Alaysha could feel the tension in the woman
beside her as she spoke. "What do you know about Enyalia, man?" Cai
said. "The little your foolish mother weaned you upon wasn't even enough
to fill a frog's tiny mind."

Alaysha squatted down to reach for the
man's lashings. "You're wrong," she told him. "Enyalia respects
a woman's power. The young one was spared because of it."

The man's eyes never left Alaysha's face,
but they were suspicious and wary. "And the father?"

The twigs crackled from somewhere behind
her and Alaysha knew it couldn't be from any of her mounted people. She and Cai
spun at the same instant to see a horde of men thickening the trees, bows
drawn, swords drawn, blades drawn. At the head of the throng stood Aedus, a
look of surprised pleasure on her face, and next to her, holding a limp and
tender looking toddler's blonde curls draped over his arm, stood Edulph.

"I
t was you," Alaysha breathed and he nodded. His
face was haggard looking, his eyes swollen and red-rimmed. Aedus would've
darted forward, but Cai had pulled her sword from her back and with a blade on
her other, was already poised to advance. Aedus was smart enough to speak
before making a move.

"We came for you," she said.
"I told you I could help."

"You nearly killed us, little
one," Gael's voice, closer. He'd snuck over unnoticed and stood on
Alaysha's right.

Aedus fleeted a gaze to her brother.
"We didn't mean to," she said, and Edulph hung his head. It was
obvious he'd tricked his sister yet again.

"She won't wake," he mumbled and
the sob in his voice revealed more than Alaysha expected.

"You're her father?" She said.

Aedus answered. "We didn't think she
had that much magic. We thought she'd steal enough air that we could get in and
rescue you." She looked at everyone but Cai. "All of you."

Aedus might believe such a gallant thing of
her brother, but Alaysha didn't. "You knew how powerful she was," she
said to him. "You would have had to know. Did you kill her mother, Edulph?
Did you take her life as she birthed this weapon for you?" His
disappearance all those weeks ago from Sarum before Aislin and Yenic captured
him, not enough to count for a gestation period, but enough to return to kill
the mother, knowing Alaysha had rid the world of the grandmother.

"Look at him," Yenic said, coming
up behind her. "He grieves, Alaysha." He sounded amazed that the man
could be sad.

Thankfully, Cai remained unmoved.
"Answer her, man."

Edulph bent to lay his burden on the moss.
"She breathes," he said. "But she will not wake."

"Did you kill her mother?"
Alaysha refused to look at the child, afraid she'd soften. "All along,
you've known where this girl was. We knew you wanted her. We knew you wanted to
use her. You couldn't use the mother, so you murdered her. Now you have but a
small thing to control."

She could see his chest moving, watch the
bloodshot gaze harden then send a fury of wrinkles into his brow line. Still,
she couldn't expect his sudden primal shriek, or the speed he turned and
grabbed the sword from a fellow. He lunged forward, shouting, his face a mask
of pain and rage. He swung at the same time as he halted, just in front of
Alaysha, his blade neck height.

She dropped to her knees, catching her
breath. Metal ground against metal. Both Cai's and Gael's swords met Edulph's,
holding it captive between them.

But it was Cai who kicked Edulph's feet
from beneath him and sent her blade lunging for his throat. He lay on his back,
eyes gawking, chest rising and falling. Gael neatly swept his blade against
Cai's, diverting it at the last moment.

"The girl," Gael said and nodded
at Aedus who was biting her fingers.

His death averted, Edulph sobbed and rolled
onto his side, curling his knees into his abdomen.

No one knew how to react until Theron made
his way over to the child and began probing through her hair with deft fingers.

"Swollen, yes. Yes. "He laid an
ear on her chest. "Losing her air, faltering heart."

Edulph sobbed harder and Cai kicked at him
with her booted toe. "She'll live, man." She said.

"Perhaps not," Theron said.

Cai sent a scathing look toward Gael as a
way of responding to the shaman's declaration. "This one lived." She
looked as though she wished it wasn't true.

Theron scrabbled about like a crab, testing
for other injuries. "That one is impossible to kill; oh yes. This one is
like air, she's so weak."

Aedus knelt next to Theron. "You have
to help her," she said and he smiled at her.

"This shaman knows a few tricks still.
Indeed, yes we do."

"I can help," she said and
Alaysha's heart ached to see the maturity in the girl's face. It was almost too
much until she recalled a time when she was similarly hurt and unconscious.
When she'd come too, she'd been afraid, but in control enough to put a short,
tenuous leash on her power. Would this small child be aware enough to do the
same? Alaysha watched Aedus and Theron together and realized they could all be
in danger if the child lacked even the small amount of control that Alaysha
had.

She knelt next to Aedus and put an arm
around her. "She's lucky to have a blood witch like you."

Aedus swiped at her cheeks and worked to
keep her lip from trembling. Alaysha smiled at her. "My own blood witch
was my nohma. It's a sacred thing. Your niece couldn't have asked for
better."

Theron took Aedus's hand and placed it
beneath the child's head. "Feel the lump? She swells there."

Alaysha watched Aedus nod and caught
Theron's eye from beside the bent head. He would do what he could for the girl
for now and hope Aedus's blood would be enough to keep the girl calm, and him
safe if she lived. Alaysha wished she had the right words to say, but all that
ran through her mind was that she'd harmed the girl's niece. Aedus was too
grief stricken at the moment to remember or realize it, but soon she would.

She turned and faced the horde Edulph had
brought. "Collect yourselves and run. If the girl lives, she may well steal
all your air before she knows what she's doing. None but her father and this
girl are safe."

Several of them sheathed the swords they
still held aloft, but many more refused to move. Alaysha motioned to Yenic to
hoist Edulph onto Barruch and as he strode over, Edulph rolled onto his back,
staring up at the canopy.

"Edulph," she said. "Theron
will do what he can but your men are in danger."

"You're all in danger," he said
glumly.

"You and Aedus are safe as you well
know," she said. "You can stay, but your men—"

"Go," he said, waving a limp hand
at the group. "Let them take you to the village. If she lives, you
live."

"Cai snorted. "That's a hollow
threat, man. You see the might we wield, the witch we own."

Edulph's head rolled to its side.
"Your witch is useless," he said, taking in Alaysha as she stroked
Aedus's mud-slicked hair. "As long as you are all with her, she's as good
as –"

Bitter fury roared through Alaysha for all
she knew of this horrible man and she wanted to strike him. "You're no
better than Yuri, using your own daughter for your own gain, forcing her to
kill so you can feel some sort of weak power. Have you thought of how much
she'll hate you when she's grown? Have you thought what it will do to her, all
this killing?"

He curled tighter into his ball, facing the
sky again, his arms pulled into his chest. "You know nothing, you stupid
witch."

Yenic motioned to Cai for help lifting the
man, but Alaysha stopped him. "Leave him," she said. "We'll
follow him to their village until Theron can meet us. It will get us out of
these woods and away from the stink of trees.

She heard Cai chuckle. "You've never
been to the Highlands, then, have you, little maga?"

Alaysha brushed leaf litter from her knees
and scanned the troops. "No."

The men had swollen in number, their ranks
coming from all of the ambush sites, no doubt. They looked restless and
uncertain.

"How far is it?" she asked.

"About a handful of sunsets
north." Cai collected her packs and threw them onto her beast. "Then
the trees get taller and thicker. Seven more from there until we reach the
border." She threw a glance over her shoulder to where Theron had begun
sharpening his blade. "He may need some of Meroshi's beetle, eh, little
one?" She said this to Aedus and swiped at her neck almost absently, but
with a purpose that made Aedus's eyes light up. The girl colored tellingly and
then nodded. So Cai had seen the purple stain when Aedus had shot her in the
glade and had known exactly what it meant.

"Keep her under," Cai told
Theron. "If she seems afraid when she wakes, have the little one use one
of her quills."

Alaysha turned again to where Edulph was
lying, staring blankly at the sky. It was entirely too contrived. Even if she
left with Cai and Gael, would Edulph find a reason to harm Theron or Aedus?

She recalled Yenic's plea that she had to
trust someone sometime, thought of her father's teachings to feel for no one,
trust no one. She stole a glance at the child with the honey hair, her fat legs
lying still, knowing that small thing could take each one of their lives as
easily as she breathed.

The decision was easy after that.

"Today is not the time for
trust," she said to herself and strode over to where Edulph lay. His eyes
followed her keenly.

"Get up," she told him, kicking
at his shin. "Your daughter needs you."

"Leave him," Cai said and Alaysha
kicked Edulph again, ignoring her.

"Get up I said," this time she
reached down and slapped him hard across the face. His eyes held steel, cold
and sharp when he looked at her. "You have things to do while Aedus
gathers her beetles."

"Alaysha," Yenic said.

She held up her hand. "You all go. Get
to a safe distance. I'll stay here." She watched Aedus ease to her feet.
"Find enough to keep her quiet, Aedus," Alaysha told her with a sick
feeling she knew exactly why Theron was sharpening his blade so intently. She
stole a peek at Gael, and she thought of the bandaged hole Thera had put in the
back of his skull. Now, standing in the middle of the woods, hearing the
metallic scrape of steel against rock, Alaysha realized why she had drugged him
to unconsciousness and in the moment was incredibly grateful to the bone witch.

She felt Yenic's hand on the small of her
back. "If you stay, I stay," he said.

"You can't," she told him.
"Theron is taking a huge risk and if she comes to and is frightened, he'll
need me to fight back for him."

"If you can," he said and she
read the anxiety in his voice. She knew where it came from.

"I managed it before."

"At great cost," he said.
"I'm staying."

Theron thumbed the edge of the blade and
mumbled in disappointment. Alaysha took it from him and tested its sharpness
for herself. "Seems pretty sharp," she said but he only shook his
head.

"We need much speed on the edge,"
he told her and spit on the whetstone in disgust. He reached again for the
girl, smoothing her hair and leaning in to test her breathing. "We could
lose this little temptress," he said.

Edulph made a sound that surprised Alaysha.
It could've been fear, but she couldn't be sure. When she turned to look at
him, both Cai and Gael had stepped into place, blocking a now standing Edulph
from going near Alaysha. His face was streaked with mud but had a determined
look. He pulled a blade from his side that was more black than steel,
translucent, with an edge that seemed so thin it couldn't possibly act as
anything remotely dangerous.

Cai had him by the wrist in less time than
it took Alaysha to draw breath. She heard a crack and Edulph groaned in evident
pain. "You should be dead by now, man," Cai told him.

"It's for the shaman," Edulph
gasped out.  "The edge is sharper than anything you've seen. Take
it."

Cai's narrowed gaze didn't drop from Edulph
as she took the blade. "I wouldn't have needed your leave to do so,
man," she said and in a flash, she'd drawn the edge against his cheek,
leaving a streak of blood that welled blood. He gasped, but he didn't pull
away. She leaned in and inspected the wounds. "Barely split the
skin." She passed the blade to Gael who took it carefully. "Don't
worry, man," she told Gael, "if you hurt yourself with it, we'll see
Thera finds you to patch you up again."

He glowered at her but passed it to Theron
who seemed very pleased indeed. He poured water over the edge, washing Edulph's
blood away. He would need to be quick. They were running out of time.

Alaysha faced Edulph. "Tell them to
go," she said. "My friends will leave too. It'll just be us: you, me,
Theron, and Aedus with the girl. And if you're somehow tricking me,"
Alaysha crossed her arms. "I will kill you."

"And I you, stupid witch," he
said making both Cai and Gael shuffle threateningly. Edulph held his hands up
in surrender. "You expect me to trust her? With the shaman, alone with my
daughter? You think I'm a fool?"

"We know all too well what you
are," Yenic said. "We're not leaving Alaysha or Aedus or Theron alone
with you."

Alaysha groaned. "There's no more time
for this. You have to gain some distance. Go. Please."

None but the last of Edulph's men scrambled
past them, disappearing into the trees. She sighed heavily and sent Aedus into
the woods; Gael followed her, mumbling something about wanting to see the nasty
sleepers with his own eyes.

Theron hefted the girl into his arms. The
poor thing's legs hung feebly over his elbow. "We need to sturdy this
small one." He cast about for volunteers, but no one seemed up to the task
of holding the frail thing while the shaman cut into her skull.

Alaysha noticed that Edulph's face had gone
the shade of new bone.

"I'll do it," she told the shaman
and could swear she heard audible exhales from everyone present.

She knelt in front of him, working her
knees into a bunch of Moss all the better to cradle her bones when the going
got tough as it undoubtedly would.

"This shaman would have used the ghost
pipe," Theron told her, nodding toward a small patch of translucent plants
that hung over at the top in a U. "Very potent mixture for stealing one's
awareness. Too good."

Alaysha knew he'd stuffed some into his
pouch, roots and all, but she kept herself from looking at it. "Sometimes
they don't wake again?" She guessed.

In answer he took the care to lay the child
over Alaysha's lap facedown so that her head hung over just a bit. "We
haven't the time to measure correctly or prepare. This young one might well
sleep the long sleep from haste if he used too much of the ghost pipe. Yes,
yes, oh yes."