Bone Witch (3 page)

A
laysha was pretty certain her hunger and thirst had made
her delirious. Yes. Seven days across the burnt lands with barely any
water—rationing what they did have, baking in the unyielding sun, worrying
about accidentally killing those of her companions that she loved. All of those
things had sent her over the edge into full blown sun sickness.

It had to be so. Bodicca did not lie at her
feet, covered in sores from some horrible burning. She wasn't there lying alone
without Yenic whom she herself had taken captive from Sarum in retaliation for
Aislin's kidnapping of Saxon. She did not lie there, a massively huge woman at the
feet of the strangest beast Alaysha had ever seen, letting Theron do his best
to tend to her pains when she knew, just knew, that the man she'd saved was
dead. And that she was to blame.

No. It was the sun. It had to be. She was
certain of it when the ground trembled beneath her feet, nearly imperceptible
at first, but when her soles vibrated, she was sure of it. Sun sickness. It
made sense.

She stared mutely at Gael for a moment,
wondering if he was sharing the delirium.

He twitched his shoulder helplessly. “I'm
sorry, Alaysha. I know it's true.”

Bodicca groaned quietly and Theron began
babbling again in his nonsensical way as he crouched over her. Alaysha didn't
understand half of what he said, but then, she rarely did.

“It can't be true.” She toed the woman's
skin closest to her. “She wouldn't have left Yenic there.”

Theron slapped her foot away. “This warrior
would have had no choice. No. Not this one.” He looked at Alaysha, glaring with
unexpected vehemence. “She earned this pain long ago.” He ran his hands over
the length of her back, never touching the skin, only sweeping the sheerest bit
of air currents toward her feet. “You earned it, did you not, warrior?”

Before she could ask what he meant, Aedus
crept up next to her and pressed the water skin into her hand. Alaysha glanced
down at the dear ferret-like face with its tiny black eyes, and hair in ratty
strings of caked and dried mud. She couldn't help a smile.

“You drink, little one,” she told her.

Aedus shook her head and Gael shuffled
closer. “The girl is right,” he said. “You need to drink your fill.”

Alaysha's mouth twisted in self-loathing.
“Why, because I'm more important?” She thought of the shaman's confession
before they'd started this cursed journey that she must be the goddess Liliah.

“No, because I'd rather not end up as a
pair of rolling eyeballs on this cracked earth.”

"Some humour then, to lighten the
load, Gael?"

He shrugged. “I guess you don't know me.”
Gael grinned and squeezed her shoulder. “No,” he admitted. “Because you're more
dangerous this thirsty.”

“Ah,” she said with a sigh. “Lest I drain
you all of your life-giving fluid to save my pitiful self.” She upended the
skin and gulped greedily, forcing herself to pause every now and then so she
didn't get sick and waste the fluid. “Barruch,” she gasped at last, holding the
skin out.

Aedus took the skin from her. “Barruch is
already doing better.”

Alaysha nodded. “Good.” She sighed, loving
the feeling of sloshing that took over her belly. She glanced again to the
horizon. “We've passed the zenith,” she said.

Gael nodded in agreement. “It will get
easier for a while.” He turned his attention to where Edulph was still sitting,
his hands bound in his lap. “Did you water him, Aedus?”

She toed the dirt. “Not enough.”

“Come then,” Gael said, reaching for the
girl's arm. “I'll protect you while that particular beast drinks his fill.”

Alaysha watched them go then reached to
feel Barruch's neck beneath her palm “Well, old man,” she said. “We live
another day.”

He snorted at her and shoved his nose
beneath her chin. His breath felt hot, but no longer dry and smothering. She
gave his nose a pat on the white patch. “I wouldn't have let them do it, you
know.”

He brought his nose hard against her cheek,
bumping it a little more than a loving touch would be.

“Maybe if you were more of a gentle mount I
wouldn't have even considered it.”

He gave her a baleful stare that made her
sigh. He was in a temper. And rightfully so.

“Nothing a few peaches won't cure, old
man,” she whispered before kissing his white spot, then she turned to the sight
she least wanted to face.

“How is she, Theron?”

Without stopping his strange ministrations,
he made veiled comment as usual.

“She thought she'd escape it then, but they
don't forget. Oh no.”

“Forget what?” Alaysha asked him. 
“Theron?” Alaysha eased closer and dropped to a squat. She still felt
light-headed, but the heat didn't feel so brutal anymore. “Theron?”

He swept his palm over the warrior's back
without being close enough to disturb even a hair. “They will remember us if
they remember her, surely.” He trailed off mumbling about herbs and broths and
twins. None of it made sense to Alaysha, but she did catch one word that made
sense: Youngblood.

“Youngblood, Theron? Who is that?” She
thought it must mean Yenic, especially when the words around the name seemed to
talk of battles and burning flames.

“Do you think she left Yenic to those
warriors? Do you really think they'll kill him?” She could barely say the
words.

“We have time,” he said without looking at
her.

“We?” she asked. “Do you mean we or you?”
Damn the man and his muddled speech.

He glared up at her, pausing in his
movements that seemed to only brush air away from Bodicca's body and no more.

“The moon gives us all time,” he said. “But
when it meets itself on the other side, he will die.”

“No,” she heard herself say, not sure what
he meant, but sure of one thing. “She can take us there.” She looked down at
the ravaged warrior, so haughty before, when Alaysha knew her as Yuri's most
dedicated warrior, so helpless now as she moaned in what had to be fever.
Alaysha knew even as she spoke that the woman was of no use.

She looked over her shoulder at the three
others. They sat stretched out on the ground. Bodicca's strange beast rested on
its knees beside them. She stole a glance at Barruch, whose belly was twitching
in an effort to acclimate the heat. Bodicca was of no use, no. And Theron,
deities help him, was needed by the warrior more than with the band.

But the beast. If it had brought Bodicca
this far, could it make it back? Would it know the way?

She reached for Theron's hand. “Can you
magic a cool place in the earth for her?” They'd been interrupted in the
possibility before, but it seemed prudent to ask it again.

He looked at her, confused, and she had to explain.

“Can you create a deep enough hole to
escape the heat, to find water?”

“Such magic needs blood; we told you that,”
he said and put his palm on the back of Bodicca's neck. She moaned, but not in
pain this time. The shaman smiled. “The air steals the pain.” He rose and shook
his hands. “It is all a poor Clay Arm can do. Yes, sadly, yes it is.”

“Theron,” she said again. “Can you?”

He quirked his head. “We need blood.”

Alaysha said nothing, merely glanced at
Edulph as he sat sullen, and the shaman seemed to catch her meaning as he
followed her gaze. “That madman may have secrets we need to hear,” he said.

“You mean like this madman?” Alaysha asked,
touching Theron's chest.

He sighed. “Our witch had that power. Our
witch could build monuments with stone. This madman has only residual power;
who knows how much left since we lost her. We doubt we can make a hole wide
enough to hide in from the sun.”

Alaysha huffed. “Then just dig a small
hole, far, far down till you reach water.” It was desperate, she knew, because
if water was within a kubit deep, she'd have been able to draw it. But maybe
she'd just been too far gone with fear to try.

“Such magic takes much blood.”

She quirked her brow at him.

Gael came forward, overhearing. He looked
back over his shoulder at Edulph as he sat sullenly on the ground. “Then take
it from that one,” he said.

“That madman -” he began and Gael
interrupted him.

“That madman is good as dead eventually
anyway.”

Alaysha squeezed her eyes shut. This
couldn't be happening. Not after they'd made it this far.

Theron groaned, frustrated. “The blood from
such a madman is useless,” he sighed sadly.

“Then what, Theron,” Gael commanded. “What
blood will do?” He stuck out his forearm, poised beneath a blade in his other
hand so quickly Alaysha hadn't seen it move.

Again, the shaman shook his head. “If
warrior blood was enough for us, we'd bleed the useless one.” He eyed Bodicca
as she lay in delirium.

Alaysha already knew what blood worked best
even before Gael guessed it, his face altering to a storm of fierce rage. She
put her hand on the outstretched arm, feeling the hot pulse beneath her palm.

“He means a witch's blood, Gael,” she said.
"Mine."

G
ael gripped her so suddenly by the shoulders she heard her
teeth clack together. “No; we've been through this, Alaysha,” he groaned. “No.
I won't let you.”

He met her eyes with his and held them,
trapped by his revulsion. It took effort, but she made herself reach up to
touch his jaw, to cup it in her hand. His beard found gaps in her fingers and
tickled the webbing.

“No,” he mouthed without so much as
relaxing his hold or shifting his gaze.

“If we don't find more water, we'll die out
here. All of us.” She licked her lips, and mercifully, her tongue didn't stick
there. The water Bodicca had was enough to begin coursing through all their
bodies but it wasn't enough, not near enough to bring them all safely to the
other side. “Theron will take what he needs, and that'll be all. I—” she
swallowed hard. “I trust him.”

Gael's gaze finally unlocked from hers,
this time traveling down her face and lingering on her mouth. She knew he was
remembering the feel of his lips on hers, the way their tongues danced
together, the way she was remembering it now, and he relaxed just enough for
his grip to move from her shoulders to face, holding and cupping it so
delicately she couldn't believe he was so fierce in his resignation just a
moment ago. She felt his fingers kneading the back of her neck, pressing into
the hollow her skull made as it connected to her spine. The hilt of the blade
on her back touched to her head. She watched as the struggle worked its way
across his face and finally, he let go altogether and stepped away.

His chest heaved and he planted his feet,
determined, shoulder width apart. He held his blade tightly, clenched in his
sword hand.

“If a warrior's blood isn't rich enough,
then you'll have to have a lot of it,” he ground out and even as Alaysha leapt
forward to halt the knife in its path to his throat, she thought she heard the
croak of surprise come from Theron. She ignored it in favor of throwing all her
weight at Gael. He was as solid and as moveable as a mountain and she ended up
knocking the wind from her lungs, but at least the blade dropped to the earth.
She kicked at it, and caught the end of the hilt between her toes. The pain
spread like fire through her foot and she fell, grasping at her foot, to the
ground.

She rocked back and forth, trying to
distract her body from the insult and realized as she did so that the knife was
lying next to her ready to be picked up. She fell onto it so she covered it. If
he wanted it, he'd have to move her. Only, don't let it be yet; the pain in her
foot was nowhere near ready to let up.

She heard him chuckling.

“What's so funny?”

“You thought I was going to do myself
harm.”

She peered up at him. “Weren't you?”

He cast his eyes down and shuffled his
feet.

“Gael?”

“I was going to kill the she-demon.” He
peered sideways at where Bodicca was moaning softly.

“Bodicca?” she asked, then it dawned on her.
He didn't believe the shaman could save her. And how could he? She was
delirious. In obvious pain. It might even be a mercy to kill her. She stopped
rocking, the pain subsiding. Gael reached down to help Alaysha up and as he
did, he pulled her close, so close she could feel his heart beating against her
palms. The earth trembled again, this time enough that she felt it in his
chest, and made her legs quake. He must have felt it as she had; it was too
strong a movement not to. She looked up, so far up because he was so large.
Then he was leaning over, his mouth against her ear.

“Mark me, Alaysha. Not today, perhaps, but
I would die for you if I had to. You were right to think so.”

She couldn't speak, only nod, her heart
pounding in her ears. He waited until she gathered her footing and her
composure and then spun her to face the shaman and when he spoke it was with
obvious relief.

“I didn't think he could do it, but he
seems to have managed some small magic after all.”

Indeed. Bodicca's eyes were open, her mouth
working to pull liquid from the ragged edge of Theron's cloak. The shaman
pulled the corner from her mouth and dipped it back into the water skin, then
pressed it to her lips again.

“This warrior spoke one word,” the shaman
said, explaining. “More water will lubricate the rest.”

“What word?” Alaysha asked, wondering what
one thing could make the shaman so happy.

“Well,” Gael said for him.

“Well?” She was confused. “Well what?” And
then it dawned on her, the secrets the Enyalia had of crossing the burnt lands.
“Dear deities. They have a hidden well.” She shouldn't have shouted, she knew
she shouldn't, but she was so excited, she couldn't help herself. “That's why
she had full skins,” Alaysha said. “She filled them.”

She looked to Theron for confirmation and
his grin broadened. Aedus skipped over, her long hair swinging despite the
cakes of dirt in it.

“Water?” she asked. “Do I hear right? Have
we found more water?” She looked back at her brother and lowered her voice. “He
needs more. He's even more mad with the thirst than he was when we took him.”

Gael grunted at that and the girl sent him
a hurt look.

“He is her brother,” Alaysha said, trying
to ease the tension, but she felt exactly the same as Gael. Edulph, mad or not,
could not be trusted, not even with his little sister.

Gael took his place next to Theron and
squatted down. “Where is the well?” he asked Bodicca. She lay half on her side
in order to drink but it was obvious from her face that the small contact her
sore skin made with the rest of Theron's cloak was painful.

“Halfway,” she croaked, then worked to
bring her features under control.

“Halfway,” Gael mused. “If her skins were
full, halfway must be somewhere back where she'd come.”

Alaysha groaned. “Halfway. Halfway could be
anywhere. In any direction.”

Gael gave her a reproachful look. “Halfway
is better than you think. It means we've come far enough with the stores we had
that we can make it the rest of the way.”

“We nearly didn't,” she said. “Except for
Bodicca.”

“But we did,” he said stubbornly. “We need
to press forward while the sun has lost its power, while the moon is up. We'll
rest at the well and rejuvenate ourselves.”

“Then what?” She flapped her arms against
her thighs, frustrated and hopeless.

“Then we press on. We find the other witch.
We kill the woman who wants your pain.”

Oh yes. All of that. She'd been so filled
with just the thought of survival, she'd nearly forgotten the reasons she was
here in this unforgiving land to begin with. For one sweet moment she could
feel pleasure of nearly being in reach of living. Now she had to think again of
vengeance and war.

She sighed. “Then find a way to get Bodicca
back onto her beast, Theron with her, and let's get moving.”

It occurred to Alaysha as they pressed on
that she hadn't seen much in the way of life in the burnt lands. A few
scorpions scuttled across the plain, one or two snake trails, but no birds flew
or called out to each other. Even vultures had abandoned the area. The only
sounds she heard were of the shuffling of feet against parched earth and the
occasional moan of hunger.

They reached the well just before dawn. The
ragtag band, as Alaysha had begun to think of themselves, had shuffled forward
steadily, if not painfully slow for her taste. Theron and Bodicca and Aedus
were mounted on the Enyalian's strange beast, Bodicca stretched as delicately
as possible across its back in front of a large hump of flesh, and the shaman
and girl sat behind it.

Gael had tied Edulph to the beast, where he
trailed behind, a staggering, reluctant prisoner who occasionally shouted
obscenities at nothing. It seemed a bit contrived to Alaysha who believed for
all he appeared mad, that Edulph was more in control of his faculties than he
let on. His madness had the one benefit that she could see, past that of
keeping him alive, and that was of Aedus's growing concern for her brother. It
all made Alaysha terribly uncomfortable and hyper vigilant. The last thing she
needed was for Aedus to suddenly begin trusting her brother again.

Alaysha and Gael walked on either side of
Barruch, watching for signs that Bodicca recognized the terrain.

Twice more, the ground shook as they
travelled, and the last time, it was enough to make the others leap from their
mounts onto the ground, their arms held out to balance themselves. All eyes
shifted to her as though she'd somehow managed the magic the shaman couldn't.
Alaysha had to admit to herself it had never been delirium; she'd felt it long
before they had, her bare feet able to sense the minute tremors through her skin.
Something was shifting inside the ground, something that made the shaman send
his gaze heavenward and mumble to himself more than usual.

"What is it, Theron?" she asked
him.

He blinked at her. "The clay
weeps," he said and she could see that his face was smudged from his
fingers working at tears that couldn't come. She assumed he too had eyes that
burned from the heat, and once more, she hoped the journey to the well would
end soon so they could all drink their fill and splash their faces clean.

"If it weeps," she said.
"Let's hope the water is fresh."

He gave her a strange look before climbing
back onto the Enyalian beast behind Aedus.

When they finally did stop again, Alaysha
doubted there was a well at all. Just another encroaching flat plain of cracked
earth for what looked like an eternity. Except here and there, a few cacti
grew, short and spindly, as though they were exhausted from fighting the battle
of drought. Thankfully it was more than she'd remembered seeing since the first
days they'd crossed the boundary into the burnt lands.

“Cactus, yes,” she said to Gael. “So there
must be water somewhere, but no well.”

His grin flashed white at her in the
encroaching light. “Look harder.”

She strained to see through the gloaming
shadows. Theron and Aedus were already easing the warrior from the beast, and
Edulph stood kicking at the soil from his spot behind it.

Her nose twitched, tellingly. Yes. Water.
Plenty of it. The power started to stretch awake within her breastbone.

“Don't you see it?” Gael poked her with his
elbow. “Some water witch,” he laughed, and without waiting for an answer,
strode to help the shaman with the awkward burden of lowering Bodicca from the
beast. Alaysha followed, pulling Aedus away as Gael grunted the woman into his
arms and squatted next to a wide and flat piece of earth that was smooth of
cracks. Then he eased her onto her side where she braced herself and propped
herself up with her arm.

She sighed heavily, as though she'd been
holding her breath a long time, then her eyelids fluttered open.

“Thank you, man,” she murmured and nodded
to the smooth bit of earth just beyond where she lay.

Alaysha crept closer to give it further
study. As the sun leaked onto the horizon, bathing the land in blood, she
noticed the earth wasn't exactly earth. It was a stone the same color as the
ground, smooth and presumably flat. Anyone could stumble past it and take
little notice, focusing instead on the cactus, thinking to draw fluid from the
flesh, or digging beneath to hope for a small puddle of water.

“The secret of the Enyalia,” Alaysha
breathed, and Theron smiled at her.

“Shamans such as us always wondered, even
traveling with the damned women.” He made a face of distaste. “The beasts'
innards are not such delectable drink.”

Alaysha could swear she saw him shudder,
and she wondered what he was even talking about. Then something, a very strong
desire, shivered inside her and she found herself licking her lips, not caring
about Theron's linguistic mysteries in the least.

“Open it,” she said to Gael.

He didn't need telling twice. He pressed
his fingers into the ground, feeling around, finding an edge.

It wouldn't budge.

“What's the trouble?” She heard the edge in
her voice and knew it was thirst and impatience. “Hurry.”

He shook his head. “No purchase.”

“Wedge.”

It was a croak, but at least a clear croak.
Alaysha looked at Bodicca. Of course. They'd need to pry it up. Alaysha reached
for her sword from Barruch's back and when she brought it close enough to the
stone she could swear she heard the Enyalian grunt condescendingly.

“What?” Alaysha demanded.

“It's sure you're no warrior,” the woman
answered and rolled her eyes.

Alaysha turned to Gael and lifted her
shoulders in question.

He shrugged. “No warrior would use their
sword for a wedge.”

“You have a better idea? It's pretty big.”

Bodicca flailed at Theron. “Shield. Girl.
Shield.”

Theron hustled Aedus over to the strange
beast where she emptied a placard of wood and bronze. The top edge was pointed
enough to dig, jab, or stab. The bottom was perfectly straight and flat, but as
Alaysha grabbed it, she could feel that the edge was honed like a knife blade,
something that could dig in and lift.

She was about to fit it into the groove
around the stone when Aedus let go an exclamation.

Alaysha paused even as she was hunched
over, Gael at her side, ready to help her put her back into it and grab the
stone as she pried it up. She heard Aedus nudge her again, this time with
Theron's own exclamation.

“What?” Alaysha asked, looking at the girl
who pointed to the horizon where black, hulking shapes had come into bare view.

“Sweet deities,” Alaysha said. “Saved.”

“Not safe, us,” Theron said, rushing about
to gather everything he could into his pouches and bags. He hurried over to
Edulph and stuffed a filthy bit of leather into the man's mouth.

Alaysha searched for Gael's eyes and,
finding them, saw steely resolution within the grayish green.