Blood Witch (24 page)

"Edulph."

Gael nodded.
"Edulph is mad, yes. But he speaks the same truth that Theron
does."

She wanted to
snort, but kept her depressive thoughts to herself. "Theron himself
is mad."

"Theron is mad
when the wind is Nor'south. He was taken in the first campaign; did
you know that?"

She shook her
head.

"Well he was.
While Saxa and I were born in Sarum, Theron has always been here.
If he says war is coming, it's coming."

Then I'd say we
best get Edulph out of that pit before he decides to tell Aislin
where the baby is."

Chapter 24

It would be easier if they knew what was truly going
on, what her father and Aislin wanted, or even Edulph. One thing
was for certain: Yuri and Edulph were mere men and could be
controlled if necessary. The fire witch could not.

Alaysha so wanted
to believe Yenic's mother was at the mercy of Yuri and not the
other way around. It would be so much easier. She hated that the
man who could show her only contempt and pain might be totally
ignorant of the machinations going on about him.

Still. When it was
all over, his ignorance would not spare him from her wrath.

They trod through
the tunnels, hoping to come out somewhere that they'd recognize.
The difficult thing then would be to re-enter the city, the Keep,
and then find the crystal room again in time to get Edulph out.
While she thought they had been walking into the mountain, small
alcoves broke open here and there to reveal light, and she realized
that they were close to the outside. When they came upon a small
cavern with ages of layers of bat guano, she knew they'd reached
the end. They darted through a haze of wings and furry bodies
furious and frightened at being disturbed.

The fresh air
smelled divine.

"Where do you
think we are?" she asked Gael as he prodded Aedus awake and set her
on her feet in the early morning sunlight.

"My guess would be
the southern forest at the back of the mountain."

It would've taken
days to travel up or around the hulking stone from one end to the
other, but somehow they gone clear through in a night.

"Does Yuri know
about these tunnels?" she asked him.

"Some. It's why he
didn't build on top. He didn't want to leave them open for
attack."

"Or
investigation."

Gael nodded.
"There are many. Although I only thought there were the tunnels
that opened from the Keep. If he'd known about all of them, he
would have extended the city. You can bet on that." He seemed to be
looking at her with fresh eyes. His own hair was coming unplaited,
the brows that were usually smoke and silver mixed, were streaked
with dirt. She remembered how he'd buried that unshaven and
beautiful face into her neck and left a trail of masterful kisses
down to her navel. When she recalled what happened next, she had to
look away.

"Aedus do you
still have some of your sleeping potion?"

The girl fumbled
into the pouch she had tied her waist. Out she pulled a small
knife, stolen obviously, a dried apple, and a roll of leather. She
passed the roll to Alaysha, who peeled it open.

"Quite ingenious,"
she said when she saw the hollowed out branch used as a blower and
at least a dozen quills. All were translucent but one.

Aedus apologized.
"The beetles aren't easy to find."

Alaysha glanced
Gael's way. "Let's hope we can get in and out without too much
hassle." She spent a few minutes looking over Aedus's hair and
wondering if the girl's natural slinkiness could be of use enough
to warrant letting her accompany them.

Aedus seemed to
know what was going on behind Alaysha's crumpled brow.

"I'm coming," she
said.

"I didn't say you
weren't."

"You were thinking
about it."

"Only because I
want you safe."

"Safe means with
you two."

Alaysha waited to
see what Gael would say, and when he nodded, she let go a breath of
anxiety. She didn't like the thought of re-entering Sarum, even
through the tunnels: she had no idea whether Yuri or Aislin would
be in control of them, and she wasn't sure which one she rather run
into. Gael pulled the sword from its scabbard across his back and
inspected the edge.

"If we encounter
the witch," he said to Aedus. "You must dart her."

Aedus jiggled her
head up and down.

"And if it's
Yuri?" Alaysha asked as he studied her face.

"If it is the
Emir, she will dart you."

Aedus started to
protest, but Gael held up his hand. Alaysha knew he had seen her
re-acquaintance with her sister.

"I need to know
you won't open up the heavens on him, and so us."

Alaysha found her
bare toes very interesting. "I won't. Not now."

"But another
time."

She couldn't stop
the nod. "I will kill him at some point."

He said nothing in
argument; she was grateful. When he started away without comment,
she followed him with a sigh, knowing the entrance they took would
bring them to the crystal cavern.

"But you knew too,
didn't you?" she asked him. "You knew my father has kept her all
this time."

"I did."

She watched his
back begin to disappear into the darkness ahead of her. "Why didn't
you tell me, back at the well. Why didn't you say she was my
sister?"

"And what would
you have done?"

She didn't need to
answer; he grunted then spoke over his shoulder. "I would not want
to have known that pain for Saxa."

"So you kept it
from me to spare me."

His shoulders
moved in a short shrug. "There was nothing you could do."

"I could have
killed him," she said, meaning her father.

"And so all of
us." Was his response before he stepped faster and went ahead
enough she realized he didn't want to speak about it anymore.

The going was dark
and wet. They fell into step together without thinking, and Alaysha
found herself wondering what Gael's warrior training had been like,
if he had suffered similar torments through Corrin as she had.
Thinking about it made her recall the feel of his skin on hers and
how the scars felt beneath her fingers as she traced them across
his chest, over his shoulders, down his back. Her mind wandered to
the feel of his hands on her skin and how delicious the calloused
roughness of his palms felt. She wouldn't let herself think about
what came next, but the memory at least eased her anxiety as they
trudged through the dark.

She could tell
when they drew near to the cavern because the air went to a deathly
quiet that something seemed to come beneath the air currents. She
hadn't noticed it the first time, how it fairly vibrated with
dignity. All thought dissipated like so much steam as she drew
close. The hair on her arms stood to rapt attention and the back of
her neck went cold.

"Do you feel it?"
she asked aloud, not sure who she was speaking to, but certain
someone else would understand. It was Aedus who answered, the small
voice drifting from her elbow.

"It's the gods'
place," she said and Alaysha felt herself nodding, unsure what that
even meant.

"Gael?" Alaysha
heard herself murmur.

"I'm here." His
voice came from behind her; when she turned to it, she saw his
broadsword held to the ready, what she could see of his face in the
gloom and shadows of sputtering torchlight was guarded and
pinched.

"Do you feel
it?"

He nodded.
"Death."

Indeed. One word
spoke of all the energy she couldn't name, and whether it was a
death past or a death to come didn't matter.

"Be ready," he
said as he took deliberate steps to pass them, through the
blackened maw of what proved to be the last round of turn. Beyond
the darkness, Alaysha could make out the winking brightness of the
smooth crystal within.

She realized that
none of them had thought beyond reaching Edulph to actually
wresting him from the clutches of the pit, and then it struck her
that Gael had no intention of milking Edulph for information and
then pulling him to safety.

He planned to
extract the information and then kill him on the spot, leaving him
useless to anyone afterwards. Assuming, of course, that Yuri's men
hadn't already done so.

She turned to
Aedus. "Perhaps you should wait here."

Gael made a sound
that indicated he was not in agreement. "We need her. Come." He
waggled the fingers of his left hand behind him and Aedus went
forward obligingly.

"Sneak forward.
See if he's still there. If he's alone."

The girl nodded.
"I'll wave you in when it's clear."

Alaysha waited
with lungs full of air. She wasn't sure what the chances were that
the guard Yuri had left with Edulph was still in the cave. She
hadn't seen them in the courtyard, but she'd been preoccupied then.
Whatever the chances, Aedus would be in full view of danger, yet
here the girl was ready to accept such duty as though she was born
to it.

"I don't like
this." Alaysha protested. "She might not be safe."

Gael grunted. "She
is safer than we are."

Safer? How could
that be? The small form had entered the cavern and already seemed
as large within it as an ant on forage. If someone was indeed
inside…

Alaysha's breath
let go in a noisy rush as she realized someone was lying in wait.
Several men from all directions moved as one toward Aedus, and
Alaysha's immediate thought to rush to her aid was thwarted by the
hulking movement of a blur of black leather swooping through the
entrance and swinging in one wide arc.

The head of the
first man rolled toward Alaysha's feet and the insane thought that
she recognized the face rattling through her mind got chased away
by an instinct so ingrained she forgot who had trained her to it.
She grabbed the head and launched it toward the second man who had
dodged Gael's sword and was feinting forward to take out the
mountain at his knees.

The mass struck
the assailant's chest and Alaysha knew the fleeting emotion that
crossed his face was one of revulsion. He didn't have time to shift
expression; Gael lopped off his head and sent it flying
sideways.

She had only the
time to think Gael had been right all along when he'd said Aedus
had never been in danger. It was true that Gael was making such
short work of the ambushing guards, that he'd sent her in fully
expecting to kill, knowing he would do so down to the last man.

She had a few
moments to watch him swing, rest, step, swing again until she
thought what she was witnessing was less a battle and more an
orchestrated training session. He seemed to sense where each
opponent would be before his opponent did. A dozen of them came at
him, and a dozen fell, each taking a chance of leaving their mark
on him.

Some did, but even
Alaysha could tell they were glancing blows at best.

She came to
understand how his height became his greatest weapon.

Even as the last
two fell, Alaysha could see Aedus running to the pit and realized
Edulph was still inside, shouting at whoever was above him.

The last man to
stand against the tide of Gael's swinging blood rush was a sole,
hooded man who stood paralysed on his feet. His hands clasped
something in front of his thighs. Gael halted, panting in front of
him, his chest moving from effort. The men faced each other for
several heartbeats before Alaysha realized that the man facing Gael
was Theron and that the thing he held in front of him was Yuri's
head.

Chapter 25

She wasn't certain how she ended up at Theron's feet,
staring up into her father's lifeless eyes, a flood of tears
captured in her own refusing to fall, but she was certain that
Gael's hands were on her shoulders, pulling her away.

She tried to shrug
them off.

"He was mine," was
all she could say, whether she meant mine to kill or her father
didn't matter.

"We have to get
out of here," he told her, and Theron dropped the head into her
hands.

"Take it," he
said. "The witch needs it, yes, she does, more than the city does
now."

Gael's hold grew
insistent. "She's coming. We have to get Edulph out."

Alaysha stared
down at the white hair turned pink from blood. "She can't harm us
here. She hasn't the power." Even as she spoke, she remembered
Aislin's quick hand streaking a macabre red grin across Corrin's
throat.

Theron pushed at
her. "The witch can't be seen with us when she comes, oh no, she
can't. And she's coming. Oh yes she is. With another dozen
men."

Gael snorted
derisively, and Theron touched him on the shoulder. "Men afraid of
death have no other fear. The death you offer will be swift, but we
know, oh yes we do, that her deliverance will be one of agony.
Spare them if you can."

"They're ours,
then?"

Theron smiled
humorously. "They were ours."

Alaysha wanted to
rid herself of Yuri's head, and discovered it had made its way to
entanglement within her fingers.

"Take it for us,
witch," Theron said.

She couldn't look
him in the eye. He looked so aggrieved. She sought out Aedus and
noticed the girl had already unclothed several of the men of their
tunics and had begun tying them together. Gael caught the direction
of her glance and followed it with his own.

"Help get him out
of there," he told her. "Then take Theron."

Without further
word, he pushed Alaysha towards the pit, and with one last
lingering look, captured her eyes with his. He said nothing more,
just stepped behind Theron into the darkness of the middle
tunnel.

She knew he would
face Aislin and her men, and she knew he would meet each one with
all the strength he could, until he could no more.