Wolf's-own: Weregild (8 page)

He sighed, gave Vonshi a weary nod, and rubbed at the headache winding beneath his right temple. “Show her in, then."

He'd only caught a brief spark of his prospects through the little girl tonight, but it had been enough to show him what he had to work with now, before the veil had clamped down tight over her and hers again, even more impenetrable than it had been for all the months preceding. And no wonder—he was dealing with Kamen, Wolf's-own, already the strongest of the
Temshiel
, handed unprecedented power by his god when Wolf made him, and now in his own Cycle, apparently emerged from his retreat and taking up his place again. Tantalizing, to imagine all that power at Asai's own fingertips. The possibility was nearly torment for its lack of present reality, but that unease wouldn't leave him.

Kamen didn't take losing very well, and he'd lost spectacularly. And now he knew Asai was here, perhaps had known all along, and it was too much to hope he didn't know already what Asai was after. If he was still angry over Skel—and of course he would be; Kamen had petitioned to have Asai sent to the
suns
, for pity's sake—he might well do his best to interfere, would not hear the sense in the liberation of the Jin, and if Kamen learned that Skel's Blood had been instrumental in obtaining the Blood of others—
Skel's
Blood....

Asai couldn't help the shudder.

Still... he knew what appealed to Kamen, knew what set his too naked, mortal-bound heart to thumping, knew his rage, when all was said and done, was less on Skel's behalf than it was unreasonable emotional reaction to an affront to his senses of loyalty and justice. Knew why Kamen had loved Skel, what had attracted him. And Asai himself had built the Catalyst. Perhaps he'd foreseen more than even he'd suspected.

"This way, please,
misin
."

Vonshi's soft, creaky voice preceded Leu by mere seconds as she stormed past him and into Asai's study. Wet and bedraggled, a little bit bloody, and apparently altogether too angry for manners as she swung the door shut in Vonshi's face and advanced toward Asai. Hazel eyes were sliding yellow and cat-slitted then back to hazel again as she tried and failed to keep her temper entirely in check. Asai sighed again.

"You did not acquire the earth-bound,” he said bluntly, hoping to stem her apparent anger with an oblique accusation of failure.

Leu didn't appear to be inclined to cooperate. “How much of tonight did you
see
?” she demanded. “Did you know about the
Temshiel
?"

It was a difficult question to answer truthfully. In its broadest sense, yes, of course he had. It was the whole point, after all. But Leu might kill him for that, and she could, quite easily. She was in her own Cycle, too, and Asai was still a mere aspirant, still suffering the lesser powers of Raven while abiding Wolf, and always with the threat of
banpair
over his head if he ended up rejected by both. He couldn't allow it. He would accomplish great things; he'd foreseen it, and Wolf would welcome him. It would be Asai's
right
.

He chose to answer the question in the narrower spectrum of specific truth: “No, I did not.” Because he truly hadn't known Kamen himself would stoop to the rescue of a mere mortal—a waste of
Temshiel
power and resources, surely—and it only made that same unease tighten Asai's chest a little at the same time it stirred hope. It was all happening, what he'd foreseen, but it was too early, out of sequence, and the future had yet to set itself into unbendable shapes. The
Temshiel
was supposed to follow the Catalyst, damn it, not the earth-bound, and
not yet
.

Had Kamen done it for the earth-bound or for the Catalyst? And
why
? The earth-bound could be no possible use to
Temshiel
, but perhaps, if Kamen had done it for Jacin-rei....

The answers were imperative, and Asai had no illusions that Leu would have them. He wished she'd just leave, go back to the rock under which he'd found her, and leave him to his contemplation. Except she was the only one of Wolf's maijin who would suffer him in his “exile,” and he might need her. He'd wrung compliance from her through her mewling cries of completion, but women had an annoying tendency to gain clearer heads when they were vertical. Sometimes he missed Skel with burning regret.

Asai clenched his teeth and bowed his head respectfully. “I am sorry, Leu. I saw only—"

"I don't want to know what you
saw
,” she grated. “I don't want to know what you plan, I don't want to know
you
. I'm done, Asai."

He lifted an eyebrow, turned slowly, purposefully showing her his back as he angled behind the desk and sat down. Putting a bit of a barrier between them, however thin, but it wouldn't do to let her know it. “You would abandon your god's favored people so swiftly, Leu?"

Her eyes narrowed, gone to slitted-yellow once again. “I would abandon
you
and whatever you've done to draw Kamen's interest. Bloody
Kamen
, Asai.” She stepped over to the front of the desk, propped her hands on it, and leaned in. “He sends you ‘greetings’ from Skel."

Asai rolled his eyes, though his stomach dropped a little. “And isn't it just like Kamen to hold on to that old grudge to justify his opposition?"

"His opposition to
what
?” Leu snapped then held up her hand and pushed her back straight. “No. I don't want to know. I'm finished, Asai. Find yourself another of Wolf's to plead your case. If you can."

"You know I cannot.” And the more he thought about it, the angrier it made him. He was in the position he was in now
because
of Kamen. Forced to supplication, forced to seek acceptance with Wolf, when it should have been
offered
centuries ago, forced to kowtow to an inferior maijin to help him achieve what should have been given him. “I would bring glory to Wolf, Leu, you know I would, but I must have the earth-bound to do it. Your failure tonight has set back Fate—"

"Bloody
hell
, you're an arrogant piece of work.” Leu shook her head, eyes gone back to mere hazel again. Asai couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not. “I'll admit I thought perhaps you'd been banished unfairly,” she said evenly. “I'll admit I thought your skills and your hopes for the Jin would please Wolf. But you cannot think to pursue whatever it is you're pursuing now. Kamen has taken both the earth-bound and the Catalyst to himself. He all but challenged you to try to take them from him. You cannot continue on this course, Asai. I have no desire to see another war between maijin and
Temshiel
, and I won't stand by and watch you start one. As Wolf's, I cannot allow it."

And there it was again—rubbing his nose in his status, or lack thereof. And this one was no better than a mercenary. Nothing—she was
nothing
, and she
dared
.... Didn't she know what he would be when Wolf accepted him? What difference could it possibly make to her how he did it? And what could possibly make her think she had the right? The bloody gall of the woman. Did she think he'd taken her to his bed because he'd wanted her? Was smitten with her?

Asai took a long, deep breath to quell his rising anger, stood, and paced slowly to stand beside Leu.

Perhaps it was only Fate that had put Kamen in his path as a too-wrathful barrier. Kamen was the most powerful of the
Temshiel
, yes, but Asai was... had been the most powerful of the maijin. And he would be again. And once he had Heart's Blood—Heart's Blood of not just
Temshiel
, but a
Null
....

A fair exchange for leading Wolf's favored tribes out of bondage, was it not? Asai was more than certain that Wolf would see it that way, even if Wolf's-own refused to. Heart's Blood might wobble the Balance a little, but what Asai did with it would set it back where it belonged, set it in stone for ages to come. Wasn't that worth the loss of one
Temshiel
and a few insignificant mortals? This apparent accord between Kamen and Leu was an obstacle, but not an insurmountable one.

Asai allowed a rueful smile to curl at his mouth. “You're right, of course,” he told Leu, reaching out to take her hand, pleased when she allowed it; he curled both of his own around it. “The war years were hellish, and their reflection through the mortal realm only hastened the Jin's subjugation."

It had done more than that—it had made it inevitable.
Temshiel
and maijin choosing sides, defining mortal boundaries to complement their own, and using their dupes as proxies in their own war. Pitting Jin against Adan, removing all too easily the centuries-old brotherhood between the two peoples. Except no one had foreseen the Jin unleashing their magic, knowing their mortal war for a thinly disguised divine one. Razing their own lands to rid themselves of the troublemaking trespassers of the gods, and sacrificing countless Adan in the process. And all with the justification that it would reinstate their own balance, while the minions of the gods battled over the world's. Charged with using their magic only to serve the Balance, forbidden from ever using it against those who had none, they'd thought the Adan would understand, would approve when all was said and done—they were brothers, in the end, were they not? They'd allowed the Adan to bind with them through their Blood, after all. They'd almost become different tribes of the same people. The end of a war that wasn't their own would surely justify the means.

Except it was merely a horrible beginning. They'd been warned by their Untouchables, and the Voices of the Ancestors had, for the first time ever, been ignored. Because no one—not even Wolf's own
Temshiel
—had understood until then that the Ancestors had not merely bound their magic to their people, but had bound themselves to their people through the lands. And when the Jin had turned their magic on their own lands to evict the sentinels of the gods—rent earth from bedrock, broke forests from their beds and burnt whole cities—it was more damage than the Ancestors could take. It wrung their sanity from them and took their guidance from their people, sent their Untouchables shrieking, made them living Ghosts, and opened a chasm between the Adan and the Jin that could not be repaired or forgotten.

The two peoples would not come together again, they would be forevermore out of balance, one enslaving the other. And now Wolf was in his Cycle, the prospect of freeing his people from their bondage never more possible—and Asai was in a position to hand it to his new god. And he
needed
the twin to do it. Because if Asai held the earth-bound—Jacin-rei's
heart
—in his hands, not even Kamen would be a match for the Ghost.

Considering all of that, everything that was at stake, everything Asai had done to bring about this particular future....

Did Leu really think Asai would pause to await her
permission
?

"Asai?"

Asai blinked, frowning for a moment while his mind came back from its wanderings. Leu was looking at him with a mix between irritation and concern, her hand still trustingly between his, her guard almost nonexistent.

With a smile and a self-deprecating chuckle, Asai shook his head, patted Leu's hand. “My apologies, I seem to have wandered.” He let the smile falter. “I had such hopes for the Jin, you see."

Leu sighed, slumped, and closed her eyes. “Asai, I think—"

She never saw it coming, the fool. One quick jerk of his arm inward, and two fingers set swiftly to her temple. Hazel eyes flew open, already blooming with petechiae, and then Leu merely crumpled at Asai's feet. Boneless. Soundless. Lifeless.

Asai stepped back, prodding her ribs a little with the toe of his slipper until her body rolled to the side. A temporary measure—she would be back and there would be others—but it would take time, and perhaps it would be enough. She would never plead his case to Wolf now, but she probably wouldn't have done anyway, and if Fate conformed to the paths Asai set, he'd hardly need her to. And by that time, there would be little choice but for all to see her folly and the necessity of her removal.

"Nothing personal,” he told the corpse. “You made a lovely obstacle, but an obstacle nonetheless."

At least there was no danger now that she might ally with Kamen and—

Kamen. Damn. Asai had almost managed to put Kamen out of his mind for a few moments. Almost, but not entirely, which was good, he supposed—Kamen was a danger to everything Asai hoped to accomplish, and Asai still had no idea yet if Kamen's presence was part of the future-possible he'd foreseen, that had led him here, or if he was to be the destruction of it. Asai had wanted
Temshiel
, but not this
Temshiel
, damn it. Why couldn't Jacin-rei ever do anything bloody
right
?

Asai shook his head, sighed. Back to the cards, he supposed. Back to his meditations. Back to the bones and the stones, and every divination tool he had, and the frustration of too-vague allusions and not enough distinct auguries. Another long night. And he didn't intend to spend it with Leu's empty shell.

"Vonshi!” he called, shoulders slumping wearily as he slouched back around the desk, and threw himself into the chair. “Vonshi, I need you!"

Not at all the same tableau as the one he remembered so fondly, and yet it had only been yesterday. When had he gotten so soppy? It wasn't even long enough yet to be considered nostalgia, for fuck's sake.

Samin set the tray in the middle of the table, watching little Caidi's eyes light up at the sugary lumps of fried dough and the mound of fresh fruit. He quirked a smile and dropped her a wink when her shining eyes met his.

"Rice and fish first,” Joori chided as both Morin and Caidi made grabs for the treats before he'd even finished pouring them their tea. Morin glowered for a moment, mutinous, but Joori death-glared him into compliance. Morin reached for the paddle sullenly, dropping a mound of rice into Caidi's bowl before he got his own.

Samin only shook his head, exchanged a smirk with Yori over the teapot, and let it broaden when she rolled her eyes.

"Let them have them.” Yori reached over to ruffle Morin's blond mop with a challenging smile at Joori. “When's the last time you had anything fresh-cooked, eh?” Still smiling at Joori, she reached out and dropped two dough balls onto each of the children's plates, along with an oblate each, widened the smile to a grin, and propped her chin in her hand. Batted her eyes.