Blood Witch (26 page)

"He's a good
mount," Gael said.

She looked him
over, trying to assess how much damage he had taken, and noticed a
long cut behind his ear. She touched her neck where the wound would
be on him knowing her voice couldn't be trusted.

His regretful
smile crept across his face. "Avarice," he said. "He was always a
better fighter than me."

He stuck his free
hand against the wound and pulled it away sticky and red. "It won't
stop bleeding." He gave Alaysha hopeful look and Alaysha shook her
head.

"No Saxa."

She wished she
could tell him otherwise; she looked at her feet.

He said nothing
about that; his face took on the stoic expression of a fighter. He
cleared his throat. "This one came through the thicket with flame
on his heels."

Edulph hung his
head, but Alaysha caught him peeking out from beneath his hair. She
would have to make sure he was tied from now on. Mad or not, it was
possible he would kill them while they slept. They would be fools
to think otherwise.

Gael tied the end
of the rope to Barruch's pommel so Edulph wouldn't run again and
swept his hand over the mount's flank.

"He's a very good
piece of horse flesh."

"I know," she
finally managed, and once the words dislodged themselves she found
more just behind them, jammed up like a beaver lodge holding back
the river.

"How did you get
out?" She started. "Has the witch left Sarum?"

Gael chuckled,
holding up his hand. "She's still in Sarum as far as I know.
Avarice was the last of a dozen fighters. He escorted me through
the tunnels as his prisoner so I could escape. At the last, we were
too much in the open, too many eyes, and I had to fight for my
freedom."

He rubbed at the
wound, poking at it tenderly. "I hope I gave him a quick death.
He'll never forgive me otherwise."

"You killed
him?"

"I had to or the
witch would have."

"What is it like
now in the city?"

"As you would
expect. Citizens mill about as though nothing has happened, but the
guard is smaller. Those who refused to side with the witch are
cinders." He looked over the river. "There are dozens of piles of
ashes."

"Any others?"

"They guard the
witch, though she needs none. She puts to flame those who oppose
her. The tunnels are guarded."

Alaysha considered
the information and looked Edulph over. Aislin had spared this
miscreant but not Yuri. She wondered if Aislin could have truly
pried information from a hardened warrior like her father or
whether she'd discovered he actually knew nothing and sent him to a
long wished-for death.

"If Yuri told her
where Yenic was, wouldn't she have sent scouts to fetch him?"

Gael followed her
gaze and rested on Edulph, who sat on the ground as best he could,
tied to Barruch, looking out over the river.

"She may
have."

"I've seen no
soldiers following us."

Gael chewed the
inside of his cheek. "The only trail I saw indicated a small group.
There might be only a few select assassins."

"Or we brought the
assassin with us."

She caught his eye
and held it.

He strode a few
paces away nonchalantly and she casually followed, lowering her
voice as she went.

"She may have
already put scouts on their way to retrieve the wind witch, and has
left Edulph to distract us. But why?"

Gael shrugged and
moved closer, close enough that she could feel his shoulder against
hers. "It's possible we are leading her to Yenic, yes."

She was pleased he
followed her line of thinking without her having to say it out
loud. "Then we can't go to him, even if we do find out where he
is."

"Oh, we know where
he is."

She didn't dare
look at him and barely kept herself from grabbing his arm in
surprise. "We do?" Her voice came out loaded with gravel.

"I do. At least I
know the most likely place Bodiccia would take him."

There was
something strange in his voice, and Alaysha decided it must be the
turmoil he would feel about her being able to rejoin Yenic. They
would be lost to each other then. Once Yenic and she were reunited,
Gael must've wondered where his place would be. She dared turn to
him.

"Know it or not,
you can't take us there. Not until we know what Aislin has
planned." She expected to see relief on his features. What she saw
was a kind of sorrow. "What's wrong?"

She thought Gael
would avoid the question but it turned out he didn't need to. Aedus
and Theron emerged from the forest, both side-by-side, both
carrying armloads of bounty.

Gael left her
there without further word and moved to help the old man with his
burden. Alaysha watched the three of them build a small, but
comfortable looking encampment with neat places to sit, and later,
to sleep curled into balls that might leave indentations that to
the casual observer might be deer beds. They had several broad
leaves filled with berries and fern roots, and Aedus had even
managed to find a salmon that an eagle must have dropped but not
found again. The fish had dried in the sun to a near translucent
fillet that she had torn into pieces and placed in the middle of
the leaves.

Because Edulph
refused to eat, Gael tied him to a tree far enough away from the
three of them that they could speak in whispers without fear of
being heard, and close enough to them that they didn't need to fear
his escape.

Alaysha ate the
berries and fern roots, but left the salmon. It smelled too fishy
and beneath the dry translucence of the top layer of meat, worms
had begun to make their way through the moister bottom flesh. She
noticed neither Gael nor Aedus worried about this small
compunction, but that the shaman also left his on the leaf.

No one spoke
despite the ability to do so without worry of being overheard.
Alaysha watched Theron rise from his haunches to wash his hands in
the river and she took the opportunity to ask a question of Gael
that she still wanted to know desperately.

"Where is Yenic?
You said you know where Bodiccia would have taken him. Is he safe
there?"

She wasn't sure he
would answer, but she refused to take her eyes off his until he
did. The shaman was already striding back to the fire when Gael
finally spoke and he only did so when he had stood and could walk
away once he delivered the message.

"If Bodiccia has
indeed taken him to this place, it is entirely possible they are
both dead," he said, then turned and strode into the woods.

Chapter 29

Alaysha thought she had lost all the air in her lungs
and had to work at keeping her composure while they sat around the
small fire, only lit because the ample breeze lifted the flame to
the air without smoke. She had a hard time focusing and could hear
Edulph behind her muttering to himself. In her mind, he became
everything that had gone wrong with her life over the last few
moons. If not for him, she would not be on this quest. If not for
him, Aislin would never have found a reason to enter Sarum. She
would not have fooled Alaysha into believing she could find
harmony, that she could control her power, that there was a reason
for it. If not for him, she wouldn't be worried right now about
whether the man she was bound to was dead or alive, and whether or
not she should be trying to save him: a man who she wasn't entirely
sure she could trust but who she loved all the same.

Even if she
couldn't trust Yenic, she would give Edulph's life for his. If she
had that choice.

She found herself
bolting to her feet and storming to the tree. She looked down at
the ugly face, the broad moustache and ferret-like eyes. She
imagined taking the muddy strings of his hair and pulling them so
hard that he came with her as she strode across the mossy ground,
over to the river, down into the water where his face would take in
so much his lungs would fill with liquid and he would die. What
would the fire witch do then, without her mad scout? Without her
covert assassin?

With no one left
to do her bidding no matter how mad or sane they were.

And she would
shout at him, she would tell him how useless he was, how vile a man
he would have to be to harm his own sister, to ally with a ruthless
witch who would no doubt kill him when her bidding was done so she
could do whatever it was with the world that she thought she could
do when she controlled the elements. How ludicrous it was for him
to aid her, because surely he knew Alaysha would kill him herself
in the end, pull the water from him where he stood so slowly, he
would beg for the fire witch to set his heart alight.

Oh yes, she would
pull his face from the river by his hair and let him feel her feet
in his stomach, her heel against his ribs. She would scream in his
ear that if he had come with them only to kill them in their sleep
after he'd found Yenic then he was indeed mad; they weren't fools.
They knew what he was about. Feigning madness, acting contrite and
afraid of his own master. Oh, yes, they knew his master was Aislin.
How could they not know?

She felt a hand on
her back and a second grip on her hand, pulling at her, wrenching
her fist free of something muddy and wet. She blinked and saw Aedus
at her feet, knee deep in water, pulling a sputtering Edulph to his
feet. She felt the frigid wetness of the river rushing about her
thighs.

She blinked again
and saw Theron's face and his mouth working, saying something,
speaking, but her ears were too clogged with her own shouts to
hear.

She dragged in a
breath and found it came with a sob. Two. She grasped for the
shaman, catching the edges of his cassock near the neck. "I'm death
to you all, aren't I? It's all I know. It's what I do. I bring
death."

She thought she
would stumble against him and fall into the water, but he was
strong for an old man; his legs had iron bones. He caught her and
held her close to him, letting her fall against his chest. She felt
his light kiss on her forehead, his voice setting her chest aflame
with renewed sobs.

"No, our dear
witch, not the death. Not in that way." He gripped her head,
cupping her ears with his hands and twisted her so gently, she
didn't realize he was whispering into her ear until she registered
the words. Words so stunningly clear for once that they stopped her
cold in mid sob and made her stare at him in confused
astonishment.

"You are our
mother goddess, dear child. Liliah herself re-fleshed."

Chapter 30

They had settled Edulph back against his tree,
although he no longer muttered to himself, but periodically cursed
at them and spit in their direction. Theron ground something from
his pouch and mashed it into fern root that Aedus fed him. In
moments, the cursing shifted to loud snores that competed with the
mating calls of the frogs at the river bank. But for the worry of
being discovered, Alaysha thought the snoring far less unnerving
than the vile things the man had taken to shouting at her. Aedus
seemed apologetic.

"He was never this
bad," she said. "Even the Edulph who took my finger was not the
Edulph I knew before all this started."

It seemed the girl
had forgotten that it was Edulph who started the troubles. "You did
tell me he would bring soldiers," Alaysha reminded her and the
stricken look on the girl's face made Alaysha wish she could have
swallowed the comment before it escaped her mouth.

The girl looked
thoughtful in the dying firelight, and Alaysha realized she was
recalling the abduction by her brother's band and the savage
removal of her finger. For the first time Alaysha gave real
consideration to how this all might have been affecting her. To
discover your older brother could be essentially ruthless had to do
horrible things to a young girl's spirit. No wonder she didn't
trust Yenic; she'd trusted blindly and poorly in her past.

Alaysha knew
exactly how it felt.

Gael cleared his
throat and reached across to the girl, something Alaysha hadn't
thought of doing. "Your people are a fierce one," he said. "We can
thank the deities you are on our side."

Aedus offered a
tremulous smile and settled closer to the fire, reaching her hands
out to it. Gael's mention of the deities brought back the shaman's
whisper, one Alaysha hadn't dared to believe she'd heard. She'd
tried to brush it away from her mind, but here it was, returned
again. She stole a look at Theron and tried to make out whether he
would offer more, but the man had retreated into his cassock and
stared mindlessly into the fire. Once in a while, she could see him
take the measure of the three of them and then sigh quietly as
though he were working out some problem.

Alaysha found
herself wondering how old he must be.

"Tell me of your
people, Theron."

He looked startled
at hearing his name and looked out over the fire with such longing,
Alaysha felt his need to be free and roaming the wilderness. Then
he gave one last glance at Aedus before he plunged into speech as
though he'd been waiting for an invitation all along.

"We were taken
young so our story is too long to tell, and we are old. Young ones
don't want to hear all of that which has come before. But there is
much to tell. Oh, yes, we have stories to tell, don't we?"

He unlaced the
front of his cassock and lifted his tunic from his midriff. With a
twist, he stretched toward the fire so that his ribs caught the
light. Symbols danced on his skin in the shadows that played
through the light it cast. Alaysha was astounded to hear her breath
catch in surprise.

He looked at her
and a slow smile formed on his face. "She didn't know, did she, and
we surprised her, yes?" he chuckled softly. "We certainly did. But
then, very few know. Those are dead now. Her blood witch, her
father."