Bone Witch (7 page)

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Like I've been drug behind a
horse." He coughed but tried a weak smile on her.

Lifting the water skin for him, she said as
he drank, "You need Theron."

He coughed on a bit of fluid.
"Yes."

"How bad do you think it is?"

She could tell he was trying to shrug.
"Bad enough. I think I might've cracked a rib or two. It hurts. But it
could've been worse—except for you."

She looked away, unable to meet the bald gratitude
in his gaze. She was weary. Every muscle in her body ached and burned
simultaneously. The thought of facing his gratitude when she knew she'd not
been able to keep him aloft the whole time, that she dropped him at all when
she knew he needed her—that alone was more painful than any soreness. She felt
him try to shift to his side, realized his cheek had burrowed into her lap. His
breath was hot on her thigh, then his lips, burning against her skin in a kiss
as delicate as a moth landing.

"My goddess," she thought he said
before his body tensed briefly and he passed out again. She searched the group
frantically, thinking there must be someone who could help her. One woman,
smaller than the others, more squat than tall with only a double circlet around
her left thigh, leaned against a pack, chewing a piece of dried fruit. She was
eyeing them carefully. Alaysha thought she recognized the grief-stricken
warrior from the battle.

"Help me," Alaysha shouted her.
"Something's wrong with him. He keeps passing out."

The woman shrugged indifferently.
"Then he'll be less trouble." She popped the rest of the fruit into
her mouth, lazily, but at least she got up. When she stood over Gael, it was
with an inspecting toe prodding him here and there. Finally, she made a
smacking noise and sent Alaysha a hopeless look.

"His head swells." She pressed
her bottom lip into the top, thoughtfully. "I've seen it before. He won't
make it." Then she smiled.

"Won't make it? He has to."

The woman lifted a shoulder. "No, he
doesn't. We'll use what we have. If he dies, we'll leave him to the
vultures."

"Use? What are you talking about? He
has to live."

The woman's face grew hard and for the
first time, Alaysha could see true brutality there and something else she
didn't expect or understand: hatred.

"Then your man shouldn't have killed
my sword sisters. He deserves death." She kicked him in the ribs and he
let out a soft groan. "A small shot for Yoliri," she grumbled.
"Would that it were more."

Alaysha didn't have time to argue the finer
points of defending oneself against attack. She went straight to the one tactic
she thought she had.

"I tell you, for your sake, and the
sake of all your remaining
living
sword sisters, this man needs to
survive or I swear to you, I will take great pleasure in drinking your every
drop of moisture from every tiny hole in your skin until you are nothing but a
leathered husk."

"The Enyalia does not threaten
easily."

"Then they are fools. If this man
dies, you will have no time to pull a sword. Trust me."

The woman glared at her, and in her stoic
expression, Alaysha knew she was plotting something; she gave in far too
easily. She had the shifty look of someone who wasn't done arguing.

"I will tell Cai." The woman gave
him a scrutinous examination with eyes hooded by something Alaysha thought was
cold assessment.

"You'd better hurry, woman,"
Alaysha told her, letting the inflection of the word show her revulsion. The
soldier said nothing more, but at least she headed toward Cai's beast where the
redhead was inspecting her packs. Alaysha let her fingers run again through
Gael's thicket of tangled and bloodied hair.

"Hold on, Gael," she said to him.
"Please hold on."

In the end, Cai herself hoisted Gael onto
her beast and bid Alaysha sit behind him to hold onto him. Enud, the warrior
who had fetched Cai, insisted on following, with the excuse that if the warrior
was faking, she wanted the leave to kill him. Cai said nothing to the
affirmative; Enud acted as though it was a foregone conclusion. With Cai in the
back, and with the animal loping awkwardly through the brush, Alaysha had time
to reflect on things. It was obvious the Enyalian didn't trust leaving Alaysha
with the others; she must have realized that her tribe's safety meant Gael's
life, and that if she removed Gael altogether she couldn't be certain Alaysha
wouldn't retaliate on those left behind.

So it seemed manipulating a witch had its
benefits and limitations—something her father had discovered long ago and used
to his advantage. Alaysha finally understood she could use it to hers as well.

Trees began to appear as the silver light
of a thumbnail moon shifted quietly to a waking sun, becoming more and more
frequent. The further they travelled, the stronger the quakes were when they
came. Three times, the beast stumbled and Alaysha had to grip the woman's waist
to keep from falling. The warrior's stoic posture told Alaysha it was a common
thing to feel the earth move so, and she wondered at how such a thing might
form a woman into a hard and cold thing in the face of such loveliness she was
beginning to see.

She could smell balsam and lavender and
what she thought were peach blossoms. Her heart ached for Barruch. How he loved
peaches. She hoped, not for the first time, that her comrades had made good use
of the rain she'd psyched from the well. She prayed to the deities they were
well, and that they'd follow and find them before whatever these women planned
to do with them could be done.

As the trees and wildlife grew thicker, she
began to realize how breathtaking the land was: lush and heady with fragrance.
Birds called to each other in the early morning. Twice, she saw deer race
across the path. And then she caught sight of a village. Through the trees,
only a few almost natural type formations for lodgings, and then as they drew
closer, lodges made of animal hide and some of wood. Finally, the dwellings
stretched as wide as they seemed long. A large smouldering fire pit sat in the
middle, hides being tanned across racks beside it. She thought she could make out
an open-air forge far to the right, a bread oven being stuffed with dough by
young boys. There were people within, too, but no one rushing or bustling
about. Each step they took seemed purposeful and planned.

Eventually someone caught sight of them and
hooted loudly, sending dozens of women finally bustling about. Several small
children, boys it looked like, hustled toward the fire pit, seeming intent on
scooping broth into a beaten metal bowl. Alaysha could smell spices and broiled
meat even from this distance and it made her mouth water instinctively.

Cai reined in her beast and a boy with long
white hair and owlish blue eyes took them without comment. The Enyalian leapt
from her beast and hoisted Gael over her shoulder, barking at the boy all the
while.

"Get me the bone witch," she
growled. "And be quick."

The boy darted off as quickly as he'd come.
He disappeared into a squarish lodge tucked into a lush garden of herbs and
strange flowers. When he returned, it was with a wiry woman about the same age as
Cai, her black hair twisted into ropes that piled on top of her head, held
there with bits of twig and bone. The hands that wiped themselves on a flax rag
were marked with black pictures very much like a tattau. Above the delicate
nose, sat two wickedly black eyes that rested on Alaysha in an expression that
put Alaysha in mind of Theron; the rest, the face, the width of the woman, her
hawkish nose and arched brows reminded her of someone else, but no woman she
knew. Rather, she thought she could detect a bit of Yuri to her posture and
deportment; her profile certainly had that haughtiness her father wore so
often.

But that was the least shocking thing: that
this woman reminded her of two people she knew. It was the other quality to her
features that made Alaysha's mouth gape and her speech escape her. This bone
witch had a tattau on her chin, sloppily done, perhaps, with much less finesse
than Alaysha's, and a few uneven symbols, but that was only a fraction of what
made her speechless.

Because only a witch with similar powers to
Alaysha's would have a mark like that, and that had to mean that Theron's clay
witch was right here in Enyalia.

T
he bone witch wasted no time in her attempt to help Gael,
which meant anything Alaysha wanted to ask of lower priority; she sent a scurry
of boys to fetch a litter made of woven thatch and tied by aged sinew to some
sort of hollow poles. She was probing Gael's body with deft black-marked
fingers even before the litter was settled next to him.

"His ribs are cracked in three
places," she said to no one. "A few wounds that could use
threading." She continued her examination and made a small sound of
discovery. "The other wounds will heal with attention, the swelling will
retreat." She eyed Cai suspiciously, her furrowed brow an indicator that
she thought Cai responsible and she wasn't the least bit pleased. "But
this knot needs draining."

Alaysha already liked her.

Cai shrugged as though an answer to a
question was left hanging in the air without being voiced. Her leathers creaked
as she leaned over him. "He would be worth saving." It sounded to
Alaysha like an admission.

Thera gave an almost imperceptible nod,
Alaysha caught it, believing she knew what they were thinking.

"You can save him, then?"

The witch moved closer to Gael, leaning in
so that she could listen to his heart, then feel for his breath. She inhaled
deeply, exhaled very slowly as though she had become part of Gael's breath.
Then she squeezed her eyes shut pensively.

The wait was unbearable.

"Please," Alaysha said. The
pleading was in stark contrast to her threat of before, but she didn't care.
She watched his chest move, his eyelids with their smoky lashes resting like
smudges at the top of his cheeks, and she thought if she lost him too, she wouldn't
be able to keep the peace within herself long enough to care if Aedus and
Theron had crept within power's distance of the camp. Or if Yenic was here,
somewhere. She knew better than anyone that the threat of unleashing the power
was not an idle one.

Without answering, the bone witch grunted
in satisfaction. She looked up at Cai. "He'll be ready."

Cai nodded, looking pleased. "Good
enough. Take him."

The boys who stood around quietly made to
grab for the litter but couldn't lift him. One of them ran off and came back
with another half dozen and they struggled their way to the witch's lodge.
Alaysha watched them go with trepidation. She waited to see if someone would
explain what Gael would be ready for, and ended up having to ask.

In reply, Cai put a massive palm on
Alaysha's shoulder, leading her away even as Thera led the litter across the
compound and disappeared behind the leather flap. Alaysha watched over her
shoulder as Gael disappeared inside behind her, then she turned to Cai, who had
been talking all the while. Alaysha must have missed most of it, but she caught
one word now: solstice.

"What does that mean?" She'd
heard Theron say it in the burnt lands when the Enyalia was but a mere threat.

Cai extended her arm, sweeping the air in
front of her to draw Alaysha's attention to the village. The dwellings were a
mishmash of styles from animal skin to stone and thatch, to mud bricks. The
trees on the outskirts formed a border where beyond lay such beauty and
lushness, Alaysha immediately thought of her oasis where she'd first met Yenic.

"Yes," she said, thinking she
understood what the woman was trying to tell her. "It's beautiful."

"Beautiful, yes, but do you not notice
anything else?"

Alaysha pursed her lips, considering.
"You have a forge. An oven. Your people are tall, broad." She
shrugged. "A village like any other except for your stature, of
course."

Indeed, there was a tiltyard were soldiers
practiced. Young boys came through the trees from gathering wood, the smell of
roasted meat hung in the air. But for knowing these women were the best
fighters she'd ever seen, she couldn't imagine what the secret might be. She
pulled away from Cai, who was obviously the chief here. Too many of the women
avoided her eye—all but the warriors, at least. Those met Cai's gaze with
respect and deference. Each woman who rattled past as they strode through the
village, their thigh circlets dancing together like teeth. Each woman –

And then she realized what it was that was
different about the Enyalia. She watched as a slow smile spread across the
woman's full mouth as she saw Alaysha's comprehension.

"Are
all
your warriors
women?"

"You are observant, little
maga."

"Don't you worry about attack?"

Cai seemed to want to avoid the question
but offered an answer eventually. "Who would attack the Enyalia?"

"Anyone."

The woman shrugged. "Generations ago,
I suppose. Every now and then, now. But most of those who know of the Enyalia
also know our ferocity. Once, more than a dozen full seasons ago, a man did
come with warriors. I was young myself, then. Nowhere near old enough to take
up a sword."

"And?"

"And we lost a good deal of women. One
or two warriors. He was said to have come from here, but who knows the real
truth of it."

Alaysha found this intriguing. "You
didn't kill him?"

"He should have died several deaths at
our hands." Cai's expression turned stormy. Alaysha didn't dare press her
further. Instead, she scanned the village, mentally counting the faces she saw,
the number of weapons, all things she did instinctively because of Yuri. There
were plenty of women who didn't look like warriors, and she knew at least a
handful were behind them by at least a day. Still, not so many Enyalia that the
village couldn't be taken by a large army. Assuming a person had a large army.
Which she didn't. If she was careful, that could work in her favor. If she was
careful.

"Your numbers –"

Cai nodded. "Not as plentiful as of
late. And with the solstice coming and us not being able to complete the raid
–"

Alaysha wasn't sure which word was more
surprising, but she thought one would be more likely answered than the other.
"Unable?"

The woman had a habit of tapping her
fingers along her biceps when she was considering how much to reveal. She was
doing it now. "We counted three men for solstice."

"Three?"

Two more taps against her bicep, and this
time the woman's lips tightened into a long thin line. Alaysha waited.

"You risked yourself for your large
man," Cai said finally.

Alaysha hadn't thought about it that way;
it hadn't been that much of a risk. Riskier would have been to let him die, but
she couldn't explain that to this woman. What she could explain was the real
truth.

"There was no other choice for
me."

Cai halted at the tree line where a gaggle
of young girls fought each other to the point of bringing blood. Alaysha made
to stop them when Cai held her back. She eyed Alaysha with some speculation,
the deep green seemed to move as the pupil kept adjusting to the variance of
light, the thick russet lashes like a dying flame. Alaysha was lost for a
moment, brought back from her worry about Gael and her sense that this
warrior's eyes were more soulful than she let on, by the voice that was as
emotionless as Yuri's could be when he wanted something difficult.

"I see you care for your man, little
maga, but you must let him go."

Alaysha stomach grew tight. "I told
you; if he dies –"

"I believe you. Trust me. I know your
power. But that's not why."

"Why then?"

The woman sighed and turned back to the
girls where one still stood, but surrounded by others sitting, nursing sore
knees, bloody noses. "We are not all Enyalia from birth. Our madres
consume the sister flesh that worms its way from between her legs along with
us. When we first suckle, she ensures we taste the death of our own weakling
sustenance and so it shows us that we must find a way to live without her. The
only women who would do such a thing are warriors. Warriors beget
warriors."

Alaysha held onto her gurgling stomach at
the description.

"The Enyalia war like we breathe. No
man, no one-man, no dozen men, can stand against us and live. No one man
against one Enyalian. No ten men against one Enyalian."

"But Gael did."

"Gael? What is this word?"

"His name. Like you are Cai, he is
Gael."

"Oh," she murmured thoughtfully.
"You name your males?" Then she swatted away the question and smiled
down at Alaysha. "It doesn't matter. Your man stood against us. He killed.
He very nearly won." There was something strange moving behind those eyes:
respect, perhaps. Desire? Maybe. Whatever it was, it was quickly replaced by
the implacable composure again and the moment was gone. "Rest assured,
your man will not be cast for."

"Cast for?"

"The reason for the solstice. Every
warrior who wishes to, has the right to choose a man."

Alaysha let her eyes wander toward the
girls who had risen again to best the winner. None of them made a sound as they
struck out. Their movements were fluid even as children.

"And you have only three men to cast
for?"

Cai's green eyes settled on Alaysha.
"It's not every woman who would risk her life for a man. No woman that I
know of. No Enyalian. And yet you carried your man at great risk of exhaustion
and fatigue. It speaks more of you than it does of him. Only an Enyalian would
have suffered so greatly without complaint."

Alaysha had the brief sense she was being
complemented. The woman's palm ran down the length of her arm and Alaysha had
to work not to pull it away.

"And so while we have three for
solstice, which would already be a pitiful lot, we have two to cast for. As I
said, your man will not be included."

Alaysha floundered about, trying to
subtract Gael and add an invisible man to Edulph in order to come up with two.
It was an impossible task. She didn't dare hope. She didn't, but Bodicca had
mentioned the solstice. She had taken Yenic from Aislin to save him.

"Who is this second?"

Cai spoke carefully, as though she wasn't
sure how much to reveal. "A sister came with another. Not as fierce as
your man, but still very capable. He, too, had marks like these." She
touched Alaysha's chin so tenderly, she barely felt the thumb run along her jaw
and flick over her earlobe. "He must also be yours, little maga. It's only
fair to warn you that he
will
be cast for. The lesser warriors who want
to, will fight for him."

"So he lives?" Her stomach
clenched, waiting for the answer, bracing against the negative possibility.

Cai nodded. "He lives. Any other time
of the year and he would not." She made a face. "Nor would your men
today have lived. We meant to take them alive and hale, but—well, they spoke
to the Enyalia soul."

Alaysha's mind was racing. Yenic was here.
Safe. Gael had been certain he'd be dead, but he was here, right now. Alive and
well.

"Might I see this marked man?"

Cai shrugged impassively. "It's not
forbidden, but then no woman has wanted to visit a man before the quarter
solstice before." She furled her russet brow in thought. "Nor has an
outlander woman visited us before. He is free in a sense, to do as he wishes
while he's here. But that doesn't mean it would be a good idea."

"But you're their leader, surely
–"

"I am the komandiri. Together with the
bone witch, I lead. Not alone. Never alone."

The bone witch. Clay witch, to Alaysha. The
other one of her own kind. She must have recognized Alaysha's tattaus the same
as Alaysha knew hers for what they were. Had she been hiding here all along,
deep within the land no man could penetrate? It was clever. Very clever. Now it
made sense why Theron said he'd been this way before, why he'd worked to get
through the burnt lands: his witch was here.

"May I meet with your witch?"
Alaysha asked and touched her own markings absently.

Cai noticed and nodded. "I'll see to
it."

"Good." Alaysha felt the small
padding of hope creeping along her spine. So much to do, and all finally within
her grasp. Cai turned to walk away, Alaysha presumed to bring her to Thera, but
it wasn't the time. Gael needed the witch. Right now, the best thing was to
tend to the other matter.

"Can you take me instead to the man?
The one with markings like me."

"Little maga," the Enyalian said,
almost affectionately. "There is no other man capable of moving but the
marked one. And we don't go to a man. We bid him come." She nodded toward
the clearing to the left of the girls where the fire pit sat, sooty and black.

"You'll find a good spot there,"
she said. "I'll have the young ones send him to you." She began to
leave but halted. "First, if I do this for you, you must promise not to
use your power when the large one dies."

Alaysha ignored the phrase:
when he dies
,
choosing instead to believe Thera would manage to save him. "Of
course," she said. "I promise."

"Good," Cai said, showing very
even and perfectly white teeth in a smile that would have enraptured a dozen
men. "I would hate to have to kill you."