Bone Witch (8 page)

A
laysha found the glade easily enough and waited uneasily.
What would she say to Yenic, how would she react? His inaction against his
mother that led to both her father and her sister's death had been the single
moment of true betrayal after several long days of mistrust and doubt, when
she'd stubbornly stuck to the belief that he loved her. The moment she knew she
even had a sister, that she wasn't alone; the moment she remembered, her long
memory releasing its stronghold, allowing her to recall touching the heel of
her twin as they slipped from their mother's womb, that moment was the one
Aislin chose to send her power dancing in flame through the girl's body.

That was the moment of her sister's death
and Yenic had watched it happen.

A step sounded, crushing dead leaf litter
and she turned to meet him. The time had arrived and whether she was ready or
not, she had to face him.

The moment she saw him, all doubt washed
away.

"Yenic," she said, unable to keep
his name from her lips. She wasn't prepared for his shock, for the way he fell
to his knees, his head bowed. He still had the same broadness to his chest, the
same beautiful skin, but the arrogance was gone.

"Not again," he mumbled. He
rocked back and forth, hugging his chest, refusing to look up. "There's no
need to torture me so."

She hurried to kneel next to him, gathering
him against her. "Yenic, love."

A gasp. "Alaysha?" He sounded
uncertain, but hopeful.

"Yes. Who else?"

He buried his face in her neck and inhaled
deeply. "Deities save me," he murmured over and over. "It smells
like you."

Then she realized that he'd believed her
dead, killed by his own mother. The last time she'd seen him, he'd been
horrified, watching her twin burn before his very eyes into a pile of ash.
Things had certainly escalated then. Bodicca stole him away to maintain the
surety that Aislin would not also kill Yuri's son, Saxon. It occurred to her
that he hadn't known it was her twin that died.

"How?" he said. "Is this too
some trick?" He cast about, searching for something that obviously wasn't
there.

"Trick?" Alaysha reached for his
cheeks and pulled his face out where she could see it. She searched the honey
of his eyes, trying to find the spark within that looked like liquid flame. It
too was gone. "No trick. It's me."

He searched hers, and seeming to find what
he was searching for, scrambled to his feet uncertainly.

"It's a good likeness, for sure."
He backed away carefully. "But you won't fool me again."

"Fool you? No. Yenic. You're confused.
The journey, the stress, it's addled your mind."

"My mind is addled by your magic,
Mother; but no more."

"Your mother, Yenic," Alaysha
said, confused at his rambling. "My—father. They used us. I know it's
impossible, but I had a sister," she choked on the words, trying not to
take in his haggard form; it was well fed, yes, but also drawn and fatigued.

"My sister died beneath your mother's
power that day. It wasn't me."

"Not you?" He looked wary.
"The flame, where is the flame?"

She shook her head. "No flame. The
fire is out and smoking only. How can I convince you when your eyes
can't?"

He raked a hand through his hair. "My
eyes have deceived me before."

"I had only one twin; they can't
deceive you again."

"Can't they?" He laughed but
without humour. "Tell me how we are bonded." He hid his careful
scrutiny beneath hooded eyelids, waiting.

She couldn't help smiling. "Such an
easy test, Yenic." She reached for him and when he would have avoided her
touch, she ran a finger beneath his eye. "My tears. You consumed them and
only then did I have reason to live again."

"She would know that." He looked
at her in panic. "Tell me more."

"My nohma thought you young to carry
the burden of being an Arm, and you thought yourself too young to be
bonded."

Something within him seemed to be battling
his instincts. Finally, one side won over the other.

"Sweet Deities." He fell against
her, pulling her so close she felt his heart, the length of his thighs, the
muscles trembling against her. Then he was kissing her neck; his hands were
rough as they searched her hair, pressed against her neck, washed down her
shoulders. His mouth commanded hers, and she returned his kiss with the same
hunger. She couldn't feel enough of him against her body, couldn't taste enough
of his tongue, feel enough beneath her hands.

She didn't care that the trees had eyes or
if they cared to look; she only cared that he touch her, enflame her, take her
and erase all the doubts she had, the fears of his betrayal. She wanted him and
more, she wanted to trust him. She'd give herself over if she could let the
bond have its way.

When the earth shook this time, it was
enough to break them apart and for Alaysha to scan the ground, fearing it would
crack and pull them in. She clung to Yenic's elbow as it moved like a giant
groaning awake, then shuddering itself back to sleep. This time, when it
quieted, the earth felt different to her feet. The tremors ran through her like
her blood did, making a cycle that she could swear hummed beneath her skin.
Then it was over, and the earth felt as though it relaxed into submission.

They stared at each other,  breathless. The
life had crept back into his eyes.

"It's been happening all during my
journey here," he said. "It was worse before."

She looked at her toes, wiggling them to
test the current in case it wasn't over. She wanted to process how it felt,
consider the possibilities that it had to do with Thera, who most undoubtedly
was Theron's clay witch, and question why she would make the ground tremble so
if she wanted to keep a low profile. It was bewildering.

"Does my mother live?"

It hit her like a slap.

"You can't truly be asking that of
me."

"I have to. I know nothing more of
that day; only the things after Bodicca took me. Sweet Deities, the things they
did to her." He shuddered.

It was obvious his mind was racing as much
as hers. She worked to remember that he'd had no contact, knew nothing of what
had happened after he'd been taken. He must be starved for information. 
Alaysha chose to ignore the first question and instead spoke to the statement.
"We saw what they did."

"We?"

"Yes, Theron and Aedus have her in the
burnt lands. She saved us."

Yenic eased his eyes closed. "She was
in no shape to save anyone last I saw her."

"No, and yet she did." She told
him about how Bodicca led them to the well, and how Theron and Aedus stayed
behind to look after her until she was well enough to travel, hoping to heal
her. Alaysha spoke of the battle, how she'd unleashed her power, the breaking
of it to bring rain. By the time she'd expanded on the whole story, they were sitting
together on the grass, their hands clasped. She had the feeling things could be
all right. Then she remembered Aislin.

"What's wrong?" he asked. She
wasn't sure how long they'd sat together, but there were shadows beneath his
eyes.

"No matter how I run through it,
Yenic, I can't understand why you chose to deceive me. You hid Edulph, letting
us think he was still out there somewhere when all along you were feeding him,
keeping him for your mother; you knew Aislin had Saxon while we searched for him.
You let me think we—that you –"

"I do love you, Alaysha. I never lied
about that."

"But you lied about other things. Too
many things. Our bond isn't enough for me to forgive that."

"Yet you forgave your father many
things worse."

"He was my father." It pained her
to say it, but she still loved Yuri, no matter what he'd done. That she
couldn't help that love.

"And Aislin is my mother."

"Who is both cruel and greedy."

"As was Yuri."

"The difference is that Yuri never
wanted me dead."

"You don't understand the power of the
bond, Alaysha."

"What of our bond? Doesn't it matter
to you?"

He didn't answer for a long time. "You
wouldn't ask me that if you had an Arm."

"Then explain it. Tell me how you can
betray the woman you love for the sake of a woman who would murder hundreds of
innocent people."

He grinned wryly. ""And you've
not killed an innocent." His voice took on a nasty tone.

"I was different then. I'm not the
same thoughtless weapon I once was."

He shrugged. "She's my mother,
Alaysha. And I'm her Arm. I'm bound to protect her. Past my life if need
be."

"Past even me?"

He looked down, ashamed. "I don't want
to have to test it. Please don't ask it of me. When I thought you were dead, I
couldn't stand it."

"But you watched as I died and did
nothing to stop Aislin."

He plucked at a blade of grass. "It
wasn't you."

"But you thought it was."

"Again. You don't have an Arm. You
can't know."

"And if I did. If I had a bond with
someone else so strong I chose him over you—how would you feel about
that?"

"Don't." His expression grew
hard, hurt.

"Why not? It's what you're telling
me."

"I'm telling you it's not the same,
Alaysha. I love you. I don't want you to have to suffer the agony of choice.
It's too horrible."

"So I should go without the same
protection you offer your mother—the woman who would see me dead."

"Please. It's not that simple."

"It is that simple, Yenic. Am I to do
all this alone? I don't even understand my own power, where I came from, what
I'm meant to do—and the man I love won't work with me." She was breaking
down, she knew she was.

"I didn't say that. I can work with
you. I can teach you the things I know. Please, Alaysha." He reached out
to touch her and for a heartbeat she wanted nothing more than to let him. She
wanted to forget everything and just be the woman he could love without the
added pains of the machinations of power: hers, Yuri's, his mother's.

His fingers trailed down her arm, then
found place at the small of her back. She felt herself arch into him even as he
pulled her gently forward. His mouth found hers, but only for a breath, then it
was roaming freely over her throat, down to the cleft between her breasts where
he grew impatient with the tunic covering too much of her skin.

"I've dreamt of this for so many
nights," he said, pulling her shift to one side, exposing her nipple to
the air and to his fingers. "I thought I'd never see you again. Never feel
your skin, hear your voice."

She gasped as he pinched a little too hard
and he smiled up at her, the honey shifted in his eyes like it was moving in
heated waves. "If this is a dream, it's the best yet."

His fingers moved from her breast to her
waist, and finally, easing over the skin of her thighs, rose up under the tunic
and joined with her in a way that made her breath move fast, faster as his did
until she clung to him, tight against his body, her heart racing.

"A good dream for you, too,
Alaysha?"

She didn't trust her voice to speak for her
and he smiled at her silent nod.

"The bond
is
strong," he
said. "Never doubt it."

She eased her eyes closed, all the better
to catch her breath and find her voice.

"So what do we do now, Yenic?"

"You tread carefully, Alaysha. Trust
me, but only so far. Question me. Doubt me where you need to. I won't lie to
you, I swear."

"But you won't endanger your
mother."

"I can't. I'm joined to her through
her magic. But I'm also joined to you through yours." He kissed her
fingers.

"And so you must balance as if on a
knife's edge." Alaysha heard the frustration in her own voice, but could
do nothing to offer him any comfort.

"Your nohma knew that, Alaysha. She
understood that to protect you, she needed to find a way to join you to
Aislin." Her strengths can be yours that way."

"And that strength is you."

"It's me."

Alaysha thought for a moment. She suspected
he knew more but could only say so much. She had to ask him the right
questions, so he could balance the knife edge. "But Aislin should have
known what that connection would mean."

"I suppose she thought it would be
worth it."

"How so?"

"That connection should work both
ways, should it not? It would be a price worth paying, to let me love you so
she can have that visceral connection to you. Have you never felt that,
Alaysha?"

"A connection to Aislin? No."

"Never? Not once? She would have used
it, I know she would have. Fire and water. So opposite but so connected to each
other. If it existed –"

It took a moment for the realization to
strike, but when it did, it took Alaysha's breath. "The desert. The flood.
She came to me in the flames."

"Pyromancy," he said
thoughtfully. "The same as she's used on me all these days" he broke
off in a choke and regained his composure when she looked confused. "It's
a form of scrying, of seeing past your own state to another's." His amber
eyes turned to hers excitedly. "Surely if she initiated the connection,
Alaysha, then so can you."

Yenic took her hand and pulled her to her
feet. "They keep me at night in a lodge past the village. Now I have you,
I don't want to let you go."

"Keep you?"

He rubbed his biceps absently. "I'm not
a prisoner, but they watch me." I imagine we're being watched now."

She felt her face flush. "Please say
that's not true."

He shrugged playfully. "Maybe not that
closely, but someone is near. They're always near."

"So how will I come to you?"

"You'll find a way."

There was no sound to warn them someone was
near, but Alaysha knew it when her skin crawled up her back. She swung around
to see Enud.