Bone Witch (6 page)

Just when Alaysha thought the warrior
wouldn't speak, she addressed Alaysha impassively. "We're nearly home. I
need you to relinquish these men to me."

"Relinquish? You already took
them."

The woman smiled slowly, quietly.
"Indeed. They are ours now, but you must know this too."

"Why? What will it change?"

Cai cocked her head thoughtfully and her
eyes lingered on Alaysha's tattau. She really did have striking eyes, a dark
shade of green but outlined in an almost translucent yellow. Set like almonds
in skin that resembled young milk pudding.

"They're no longer yours, maga,"
she said. "They belong to the Enyalia now." She spoke slowly, working
hard to pronounce the words so Alaysha could understand. But it was the meaning
beneath that Alaysha thought Cai wanted her to grasp.

"If you do them no harm, I won't psych
your land dry," she said in return and grinned spitefully at the woman.

"Our bone witch will want to see
you," Cai said, ignoring the threat in the air.

"Bone witch?" Alaysha was
instantly wary.

"Our healer." Cai waved the
question away as though it was an obvious one, and Alaysha silly to ask it.
"When she's done with you, you will leave these men. They belong—"

"To Enyalia, yes." Alaysha
thought she heard Gael let go a bark of anger, but since none of the women
reacted, she supposed it was just her own wishful thinking. Still, she wouldn't
agree. She couldn't agree. She didn't own anyone.

"Maga?" Cai prodded.

Alaysha shook her head. "They're not
mine to relinquish."

Cai shifted subtly from one foot to the
other, and Alaysha felt a brief moment where her she thought the warrior would
change her mind. She dared to believe the woman would let them go. Then the
moment was over and Alaysha thought the Enyalian looked pleased, but certainly
not enough to let them go.

"If they belong to no one, then so now
even more they're ours, and you have no reason to remain when Thera is done
with you."

Cai stepped away even as Alaysha was trying
to decipher exactly what deal had been struck without her consent. The woman
stepped behind Gael and looked down at him, saying nothing for long moments.
Finally, she edged sideways so that she faced the warrior standing on his left.
The blur she created the next instant took Alaysha by surprise; the woman spun
hard, the velocity behind her body lending enough energy that when her foot
shot out sideways, it landed on the back of Gael's neck and he fell forward
without a sound. He lay, unmoving, while Cai looked down at him unemotionally.

Alaysha was already sprinting forward as he
fell, but she wasn't fast enough to catch him. Even with the full weight of her
anxiety propelling her forward, she landed against the flat of Cai's palm, held
outstretched almost lazily.

"He murdered five of my best, little
maga." There was a subtle pressure from Cai's hand as she pushed Alaysha
away. Her hair was in her face, but she did nothing to sweep it aside. What
Alaysha could see of the green gaze beneath was as cold as the waters of the
broad sea. "When he wakes, he'll find himself tied to my beast by his
ankles."

"You can't do that."

Cai motioned to the two guards who pulled
hemp rope coiled around the leather belts that hung on their waists and began
wrapping Gael's feet together.

"I can do whatever I like with him. He
belongs to Enyalia." She whistled with fingers in her mouth and the rest
of the women went into action almost as though they were connected mind to
mind. Cai set Alaysha away easily.

"You may ride," she said.

Alaysha watched as Gael was tied to Cai's
beast. Thankfully, he was tall enough that even being strapped to the animal by
his feet, it was only his shoulders that took most of the ground. Still, who
knew how long he'd be dragged along behind before they reached their
destination.

"If he belongs to Enyalia, then
Enyalia will end up with nothing but a useless bloody mess."

Cai merely shrugged.

"His back will be torn to
shreds."

"It's not his back I need to concern
myself with, maga."

"You should," Alaysha said, fully
aware she was pleading, bargaining. "He'll die."

"All men die eventually, little maga.
But we have a very skilled bone witch who will heal
any—troublesome—wounds." Cai crawled onto her beast and looked back at
her. "You may ride," she said again and indicated the spot behind
her.

Alaysha scanned the group. Edulph had been
hoisted like a sack onto another beast with two humps and he lay across it
facedown. Undignified for a man who a few fortnights ago commanded an
admittedly bedraggled but dedicated group of soldiers, and uncomfortable for
any conscious person.

Gael still hadn't come to. At least he
hadn't seemed to. Alaysha took some comfort in that.

She took note of Gael as he lay on the
ground and crossed her arms stubbornly. There was no way she'd let him be
dragged while she sat on a beast for the rest of the trip. She either got him
untied or she carried him.

"Untie him," she said to the
leader.

The woman turned her back on Alaysha and
made a short movement with her hand; the beasts nudged forward. Alaysha
scrambled to grab for Gael's shoulders and missed as he moved inches ahead. She
shouted, begging the woman to stop and was rewarded. The redhead turned again
but with a smirk.

"You want on, little maga?"

Alaysha shook her head and grappled for
Gael's torso. It took several grunting moments but at last she managed to heft
Gael's weight onto her shoulder. The woman pursed her lips and waved her
comrades on; the shambling motion of the beast started again and as Alaysha staggered
forward she realized something Cai said that had struck a quiet niggling part
of her mind.

She'd called the bone witch Thera.

She knew well that Saxa's people named
their sons for the mother. Saxa had named her son Saxon even though he was
Yuri's heir. And Theron himself was from Saxa's tribe. And Theron had been this
way before. It had to be coincidence. Had to be.

Alaysha worked to get at the pivot point of
Gael's body as she worked considered the bone witch, twisting and working
beneath his deadweight frame so that she managed to get him draped across both
of her shoulders and upper back rather than just on one. Even getting him
successfully hefted, she didn't think she could take one step with him let
alone an entire journey. She wanted to sob in frustration and indeed thought
she let go a brief gasp of breath before she caught herself. She had opted for
this and she would do her best to see it through. She knew Gael would do the
same for her. Except, she thought sourly, Gael was at least three hands taller
and weighed at least double Alaysha's nine stone. He could carry her over one
arm, draped like a piece of rag and still walk a leagua.

"Put me down."

Gael's voice, groggy, but most definitely
aware. They hadn't taken two staggering steps and her thighs were begging her
to do as he asked. She couldn't find the energy to answer and him at the same
time.

She forced her feet to move, commanded her
knees to hold her. Her legs trembled, but she made some progress. Three steps
at least. The beast he was tied to never faltered, it's rhythm a shuffling,
shambling kind of movement that made each step torture.

"Drop me."

"I won't." There. Another step.
Now that he was better balanced, she found she could move, even if it was
incredibly difficult. She began to hope.

"You'll kill yourself trying to carry
me," he said.

She didn't answer. He was likely right, but
what choice did she have. There. Ten steps, ten faltering, painful steps.

The pace of the beast kept on without
stopping. She bit the fear back.

A grunt came from behind her left ear and
then she was stumbling, falling to her knees; the line went taut and she was
free of her burden before she realized she was in danger of losing it. Gael, on
his side, and then on his back, slid along the ground—no, drug along the
ground behind Cai's beast, his heels in the air and his shoulders making a
sickening line in the hard earth. She watched his head bobbing away from her as
he tried to keep it held aloft.

If she only had her full control as Aislin
did, that cursed witch of flame who could contain fire to a man's own body,
these Enyalia would be nothing but husks of leathered flesh. But she didn't;
the power leak during the battle proved that she didn't have control. She would
have to continue; she couldn't harm these women without harming Gael. And they
knew it.

So she might not be able to bear all of his
weight, but she might be able to pace herself closely enough with Cai's beast
that the animal could do the biggest part of the work. Much like two people
carrying a large sack, one on each end. If she kept the line taut enough, yet
slack enough, the animal would do the greatest share.

She stumbled to her feet and rushed to
catch up. She grabbed for Gael's shoulders and, with a great deal of effort,
managed to hoist him. She grinned down at him in victory, only to see he'd
passed out again.

By now the light was nearly gone, the sun
laying pools of crimson across everything it touched. His face, where the
sunset bathed it, showed bruises and swelling. She swallowed hard. It would be
a long trek, but she'd see he got there as undamaged as she could.

Six times, she had to let go, but she did
so as easily as she could so that he didn't suffer the jolt of falling. It was
a blessing for him, she thought, that he was unconscious most of the journey.
He'd taken a bad hit from Cai, and even before that, had fought fiercely
against at least half a dozen of the Enyalia. There was no telling if he was
injured from his fall, or even if most of his injuries had come from the
original fight.

It was also a blessing that the terrain had
begun to shift. Gradually, the ground became thick with brush and grass and
made dragging him any further more trouble than it was worth. The caravan
halted.

Alaysha eased his shoulders onto the
ground. Her own shoulder blades felt as though they'd stretched out a fathom,
that her knuckles would touch the ground if she stretched them out. She was
sweating, she was exhausted, she wished she could just collapse, but she wasn't
sure her knees would remember any other state but straining to keep her legs
from breaking.

She had to force herself to sit, to gather
Gael's head onto her lap while she reached to untie his wrists. She didn't have
the energy to go for his ankles and his feet still hung off the ground until
the great beast itself groaned to its own knees.

Cai came back to her with a water skin. She
looked composed and rested. Alaysha wanted to swat the skin out of her hands.

"Drink," Cai said and held the
skin out.

Alaysha accepted it without a word. She remembered
her vow not to drink from it, but she knew by now she couldn't be so picky. She
pulled at the leathers tying it closed and worked Gael's mouth open, tipped his
head up from his chin.

"It's for you, not the man," Cai
said, reaching to take it back.

Alaysha bared her teeth at her. "He
will drink," she growled and dribbled what she could into his mouth. The
bruises showed already on his neck, stretching onto his collarbone from behind,
and there was blood caked in his hair. She wished Theron was with them: he'd
know what to do. She ran her fingers through Gael's hair, close against his
scalp to feel for cuts and bumps. There was one huge knot at the base of his
skull, and an abrasion on his forehead just at the hairline that had already
coated itself closed with blood.

For one heartbeat, Alaysha wished him dead.
She wished him gone and left his body so she could drain each and every one of
these women of their water.  Then she felt a knot of grief twist into her belly
and took it back before the power could realize she'd thought it. She reached
again for the water and took a large pull from the mouth of the skin. She
gulped three times, swallowing with purpose, giving herself a moment to calm
down. When she had, she peered up at the Enyalian.

"You better hope he lives," she
said quietly.

A twitch of a russet eyebrow, not much more
than that, but the woman responded at least. "Oh I do hope he lives,
little maga."

"Then I suggest you send for your bone
witch. He'll never make it to your village."

"Oh no?" The Enyalian looked
surprised even as she managed to sound teasing. "I think he'll make it;
won't you, man?" She toed Gael in the ribs a little too hard for Alaysha's
liking, but when she saw an involuntary flinch streak across his face, she knew
what the Enyalian had guessed.

Gael was hurt, yes, but not unconscious,
not at the moment. He might not have been for the past few, but not now. The
woman chuckled and strode off, leaving Alaysha to dig into the packs for a
blade to cut his ties. She did his ankles first, then returned to his side to
cut the ones on his wrists. She peered down at him as she rubbed blood back
into the fingers. He was looking up at her.

Without thinking, she leaned forward and
kissed him full on the dry, cracked, and swollen lips. They burned her mouth,
and his breath had no vapour. She felt the tip of his tongue dart in between
hers and touch her palette playfully just behind her front teeth.

"I'm dead," he said into her
mouth. "I've died and received my warrior's due." He sighed in
contentment, and she could feel a quick tremor run down to his chest. She flung
her arms around him in relief to hear him speak, pressing closer until she
realized she was undoubtedly covering over his face—his nose and mouth and
that he probably couldn't breathe.

"Sorry," she said.

"Don't be." His voice held a soft
rattle.