Blood Witch (9 page)

Gael shuffled
under her scrutiny and then huffed. "Do you think she did find her
brother and is working from within to help him?"

Alaysha shook her
head. "Her brother cut off her finger; she won't help him take over
the city."

"Blood is blood,
Witch."

Indeed, it might
be to someone who had a regular relationship with blood. Alaysha's
blood kin had sent her to kill hundreds of people in her short
lifetime, Aedus's blood had used her as bait to attempt to murder
an entire city. She couldn't imagine the girl remaining loyal under
those circumstances. Alaysha certainly hadn't.

She had to ask the
one question that lingered, regardless of how painful the answer
might be. "What about Yenic? Could he have been involved
somehow?"

A look passed
across Gael's face that Alaysha didn't understand. "That boy? He
wouldn't harm the man who was watching your back."

"Is that what you
were doing? Watching my back?"

His unshaven jaw
see-sawed back and forth as though he'd been caught at formulating
a lie. "You took a dirk in the belly for me."

"Hardly; I just
didn't want any of those men to escape." She remembered that some
had, and that the ones he'd attacked had died gruesome, painful
deaths.

She felt his hand
on her shoulder and wondered at the way the touch could make her
feel so small and so safe at the same time.

"You're brave,
Witch; I'll give you that. But you are not wise. That boy wants
you. It's clear, and if he's involved in this, he's better at play
than any man I've ever seen."

She wasn't sure
what to do with all that information, so she chose the least
bothersome. "You think I'm brave?" No one had ever told her so. No
one had given her much kindness, in fact, at least not until
lately. She had the feeling it couldn't last long.

"You're the
bravest witch I know." He started off in the direction of Saxa's
cottage, weaving a bit, and having to find his direction
constantly. Alaysha found herself following, watching his stride,
thinking how many steps she had to take for each one of his. His
shoulders moved easily through the crowds, despite being broad
enough that he could have pushed each person out of his way. She
had to hurry to keep pace while he seemed to be merely ambling
along. She caught up to him just as she realized the impact of his
words.

"Do you know many
witches?"

"You're the only
one."

They made it to
the main courtyard and were heading to the cottage to the right of
the keep, where Saxa had planted a few lavender bushes. The smell
crept across the breeze to greet them.

"Is Saxa a witch?"
She asked bluntly.

He stopped short
and peered down at her, making her belly flip-flop over on
itself.

"Saxa is a born
sagini."

"Sagini?"

"What you would
call a shaman."

Alaysha was
surprised to get so many words from the man and couldn't help
pressing for more. She imagined the carrion stretched out in the
bathhouse, waiting for her decision. "Do you remember the man who
flogged your father?"

"Corrin." The name
was acid in the air.

"Yes," she said.
"I am to decide if he lives or dies."

Gael made a
noncommittal sound.

"What would you
decide?"

"It would depend
on how badly he beat me," Gael said, and his chin quivered, just a
bit, then stopped with a defiant clamping of his jaw.

Her astonishment
at her companion's guess might have propelled her to ask more, to
find out what he knew of her youth, but she saw Yenic over his
shoulder, coming out of Saxa's cottage, and for a moment she
couldn't say anything.

He was holding
Aedus by the ear.

Chapter 7

"It was you," she shouted as she ran past Gael.
Alaysha wasn't sure if she was angry or excited, and she didn't
care which emotion got the blame. She just knew she wanted to pick
the little urchin up and squeeze her so tightly she lost her
breath.

On contemplation,
maybe it was anger.

"It was not me,"
Aedus said, avoiding Alaysha's arms and sidestepping very neatly
away from Yenic who had by then let go of her ear. Her hair had
been freshly washed and combed out; still, she found a way to make
it hang in globs about her head and neck. Alaysha wonder just what
kind of people Aedus's tribe really was. She looked so feral,
almost like a raw bit of flesh that hadn't evolved, and yet still,
there was a fierce sort of power about her that Alaysha hadn't
noticed before.

Fierce was a
perfect description if the girl's face was any indication. Best to
approach this cornered beast with caution.

"Yenic told you
what we found?"

Gael didn't wait
for the answer; Alaysha got shoved rudely aside as the mountain of
man swept the girl onto his shoulder and carried her off towards
the center of the courtyard. He pushed through people, shoving them
aside, striding purposefully.

It dawned very
slowly on Alaysha where he was headed, and it seemed Aedus realized
it too. Her shouts were piercing ones that set Alaysha's bare feet
to a run. She didn't care if Yenic followed or not, but she heard
him behind her.

"What's going on?
Where you going? Alaysha. Stop. You've been hurt."

She bumped into a
woman carrying a round of fresh bread and a basket of apples. They
fell with a thud and rolled in a dozen directions. The woman cursed
angrily enough but when she saw the one who had damaged her bread
was Yuri's water witch, her face filled with renewed fury.

"Stupid witch,"
she shouted, and Alaysha felt the woman's grip around her elbow,
trying to pull her back. "The deities have cursed us with you."

The woman yanked
hard, twisting Alaysha to face her full on, and she lost the one
last glimpse she had of Gael's broad back as it moved through the
crowds. One last look, but she saw Aedus hanging down, beating him
in the kidneys.

Alaysha faced the
woman with a sigh.

"Please forgive
me," she tried patiently.

Rather than spit
more at her or accept the apology, the woman's gaze narrowed. "You
healed quickly enough for someone so injured. Part of your curse, I
suppose." Rather than keep her attention on Alaysha's side, where
she expected it to be, the woman stared at her tattau before she
bent to retrieve an apple. She threw it with such force that it
struck Alaysha in the neck and her hand went to the spot
instinctively.

"Filthy tattaus.
Mark of brown magics gone black." The woman scrambled for another
fruit and threw that too, muttering all the while about curses and
ill-gotten healing until Yenic drew close enough to pull Alaysha
behind him.

"Woman, control
yourself," he told the assailant.

She peered at him,
pointing. "You're one of her people." She could have been spewing
her own curses the way she emphasized each one of her words.

"I am," he said.
"And she has been recently hurt saving your people."

The woman sent a
glob of spit in their direction. "We wouldn't need saving if the
witch was dead as she should be."

Alaysha tried to
fidget out of Yenic's protective hold; when she discovered she
couldn't, she had to content herself with peering beneath his
arm.

"I want no
trouble," she said, the old shame coming back heavy on her
shoulders. The shame of having to veil her face in public, of
hiding in her nohma's hovel outside the city gates until her father
sent for her. She'd forgotten what it was like to be inside the
walls again in such close proximity to Sarum's people. It was like
living with a dog that enjoyed biting you when you least expected
it. Saxa's cottage had felt so safe; she had been enjoying the time
within as though she were like everyone else.

"Please, matron,
let us gather your apples for you."

Yenic pressed her
back. "We will do nothing of the sort," he told her, inching away
discreetly. "Let her gather her own if she can."

With a glare, the
woman reached for the apple closest to her. Just when her fingers
went around it, there was a sizzling sound and she yanked her hand
back, popping two fingers into her mouth. She sent a suspicious
look Yenic's way. Alaysha eased out from behind him and he took her
hand.

"Where is Gael
taking Aedus?" he asked, and Alaysha almost couldn't say the
words.

"The pillory in
the courtyard," she said, watching almost mesmerized as the woman
reached for her round of bread. The sudden smell of burned yeast
met Alaysha's senses, and the round went black. She looked at Yenic
who merely shrugged and pulled her along with him, leaving the
woman to the sounds of sizzling fruit and the stink of char.

Alaysha thought
she would have to kiss him later.

They found Gael
just as he was closing the yoke down over Aedus's neck. The tiny
hands were flailing about, trying to pull back out through the
holes.

"You can't do
that," Alaysha told him and rushed to heave the wooden thing back
up. She felt Gael's heavy and callused palm on her fingers.

"Do not
interfere," he told her.

Aedus started
bucking where she stood, ramming the bulk of her wrists into the
wood and yelling that she was innocent. It was painful to watch and
Alaysha took the girl's cheeks in her palms.

"Calm, little one.
You will not be here long."

"The deities she
won't," Gael said, looking to Yenic. "You said this one had the
quills?"

Yenic nodded,
sullen.

"You say this is
the one who shot me."

Again, Yenic
nodded, and Aedus wrenched her face from Alaysha's fingers and
started complaining her innocence.

In answer, Yenic
went to Aedus and pulled at her tunic, reaching up under the
bottom. It looked as though he was fishing around her calf and when
he pulled his hand out, it gripped a pouch. Aedus's voice rose in
pitch.

"It wasn't me,
Yenic. It wasn't. I swear."

He opened the
pouches and spilled out its contents. There were several porcupine
quills, all filled with a purplish substance. In the midst of it
all lay one long tube-like thing made of a hollow branch.

"Our Aedus has
been playing again. This time with beetles instead of worms."

"Playing, yes,"
Aedus admitted. "But not today. Count them."

Yenic's finger
went over the ground, his brow furrowed and smoothed.
"Fifteen."

"Fifteen," Aedus
repeated. "I had sixteen."

Yenic nodded
knowingly and Alaysha couldn't stand watching the exchange any
longer, not understanding what was going on. "So? Sixteen. What's
the importance of the number?"

Yenic came off his
haunches and faced Gael. "May I check your neck again?"

Gael twisted his
head obligingly and Yenic grunted in thought. "It's purple." He
studied Aedus and she squirmed where she stood.

"It may be purple,
but it wasn't me."

"Yenic?" Alaysha
said. "What's going on?"

"The girl made a
sleeping potion while we were in the forest and tested it on me
with her little quill blower." He nodded at the pouch contents that
were still spilled on the ground. "She collected quills from a dead
porcupine."

It was beginning
to make sense now. "She used one on you," Alaysha guessed. Poor
Yenic. Aedus so loved to test her warrior skills on the
unsuspecting – especially when the unsuspecting was Yenic. She
thought of the episode with the dreamer's worm during the night
they had run from Sarum and Yuri, thinking they would begin a new
life together.

"Let her out Gael,
it wasn't her."

Gael didn't move.
"She says she had sixteen quills, but she could be lying."

"I believe
her."

It took a few
minutes and a few dark looks, but Gael lifted the yoke. Aedus
responded by kicking him soundly in the shin. Alaysha thought Gael
would retaliate but he surprised her with a wide smile.

"You have courage,
little one," he told the girl. "Rather like a cornered ferret."

There was no way
he could have known the nickname her captor, and Yuri's favorite
lead scout, had given her, and both Alaysha and Aedus shared a
secret look with one another before Aedus kicked him soundly in the
other shin.

He didn't so much
as flinch, but neither did he smile. "Three insults would be the
voice of war," he told the girl and scooped her up again, letting
her hang over his broad back. His face was so calm, so
good-humored, Alaysha realized that the large mountain of a man
truly liked children. She couldn't believe he could be so indulgent
and yet so hard. He strode off, Aedus bouncing unceremoniously
against his back.

Alaysha turned to
Yenic and noticed several citizens holding fruit as though ready to
let fly.

"Looks like she
was saved in the nick of time," she said.

"Looks like."

"Would you like to
explain a little more?"

He heaved a tired
sigh. "There isn't much more to tell. She's pretty devious with her
little traps for me, and she does so like to set them. She had me
dangling by my foot one night on the trek to my mother's."

There were two
pieces of information she wanted more of in that statement, but
wasn't sure which one she wanted first. Yenic decided for her
before she could speak.

"Then there was
the sleeping potion, then there was the bird that kept calling out
to me pretending it was your voice. She taught it to say my name."
He shivered. "I was glad to be rid of her, in truth, by the time we
returned here."

It struck like a
flash flood. "She has a crush on you."

He quirked his
head to the side. "Besotted by me? Whatever for?" He pulled a
charming smile and reached for her hand, captured it before Alaysha
could pull it back.