Quest for the Sun Orb (34 page)

“I have stolen nothing from you,” Tiari said firmly.  She stood up straight and pulled her shoulders back.  She would not cower before this madwoman, and she was mad, Tiari realized.  Completely.  If her dirty, bedraggled appearance and irrational words hadn’t given it away, her aura had. 

“Careful, Una sweet,” a gravelly male voice said from somewhere out of Tiari’s sight.  She did not look for the source of the voice.  She kept her eyes on Una, and the bony hand stealing toward the knife at her waist.  “She gots a blade on her back.”

Una grinned as a big brute of a man stepped up beside her.  He was nearly as filthy as Una, with dark bushy hair and a short, unkempt beard.  But his eyes, Tiari saw when she flicked her gaze to him, were sharp and clear.  He was dangerous, she realized as she noted the dark, reddish black of his aura.  Not crazy.  Just evil.

“It’s not real,” Una scoffed.  “It can’t be.  She’s blind most of the time.  How could she possibly learn to use a sword when she can barely walk without tripping over her own feet?”

“As you like,” the man replied with a shrug, though Tiari knew he didn’t believe Una.  Not for a moment.  She wondered what gave her away, then decided she didn’t care.

“Tiari, meet Pavid,” Una said, her voice suddenly, eerily, polite.  “You should be nice to him, Niece.  He waited a long time for you and wasn’t happy to find you escaped before he got to make you his.”

“His?” Tiari asked with a shocked grimace. 

“Call me sentimental,” Una said, smiling sweetly, all signs of her earlier rage now gone.  “I didn’t
want
to have to kill you, Tiari.  You are the only family I have left.  Besides, the villagers didn’t like it that I kept you locked up.  They would have been suspicious had you suddenly died.

“Since the Maiden of the Sun must be a maiden, I decided to give you to Pavid as a reward for his kindness to me these long years.  He just had to wait until your coming of age.”

“My coming of age was two years past, Aunt,” Tiari said curtly, wondering what game she was playing.

Pavid grunted in surprise, narrowing his eyes at Una.  “That so, Una?”

“She lies,” Una replied.  “Don’t believe anything she says.”

Pavid grinned.  “More like you wasn’t ready to lose the cash you got from the girl’s weaving,” he said, then laughed heartily.

Tiari felt a quick stab of hurt at this new knowledge of betrayal, but refused to let herself be sidetracked.  Una was glaring at her again, her hand fingering the knife handle.

“You have to die now,” Una said.  “I’m afraid there’s no getting around that after all you’ve done.  But I think Pavid deserves his reward first, don’t you?  After all, he has waited so very long.”

If Karma had not told her the secrets of relationships between males and females, she would not have understood what Una was talking about at all.  Now that she did know, she had to struggle not to vomit. 

“You will not lay a hand on me,” she said to Pavid, flicking another glance at him.  He leered at her and she reached for the sword on her back without thinking, moving so quickly that she surprised herself.  One moment she stood there, straight and defiant before them.  The next, her hand held a slender but deadly blade, her balance rested on the balls of her feet, her body relaxed and ready to spring.

“Leave now,” she said, giving them an out.  She really did not want to have to kill her own aunt.  But she would do it if she had to.  She would not go back to living in that hut.  She would not allow that disgusting man to touch her.  And she would not allow anyone to kill her like an animal for slaughter.  She would fight to her last breath.

Una laughed again, but Pavid’s eyes were wary as he saw the way she held the sword, her body position, and the speed with which she had drawn it.  He reached down, moving very slowly, and slid his own sword from its scabbard. 

He decided that he wanted her, and not just for a quick fuck before Una killed her, either.  No, that would not do at all.  She was pretty, this one, with her curly black hair, smooth white skin, and strange eyes.  Much prettier than Una had led him to believe.  Even better, she had spirit.  He would enjoy breaking that spirit more than he would enjoy breaking in her body.  He’d have to do something about Una, too, since she was so hell-bent on killing the girl, but that was easily handled.

As soon as Tiari heard the slide of metal on metal, she realized that Pavid was drawing a sword and knew she’d made a grave error.  She should not have given him time to arm himself, but she’d been distracted by Una and her knife.  There was nothing to be done about it now, though. 

She flicked her eyes back to Una just in time to see the older woman fling her knife.  Tiari blocked the blade speeding toward her without thinking, a small twitch of her sword was all it took to send it flying harmlessly away, but it was enough for Pavid to take advantage of the distraction.

He leapt forward and swung his sword at Tiari’s, his intention to knock the weapon from her hands.  He didn’t want to actually injure her.  Yet.

Tiari sensed more than saw the powerful strike aimed at her sword and blessed Tomas for his lessons.  Just yesterday he’d taught her how to respond to such an attack, telling her it was likely to happen considering her size.  She would have to thank him again, if she lived through this.

She allowed Pavid’s sword to strike her own even as she followed the momentum down and around in a circular motion, making no effort to resist.  Since Pavid had braced himself for resistance, he was slightly off balance when she allowed her blade to follow through his strike.  Tiari continued the circular motion all the way around, turning the sword slightly in her hand as it came back up and leaping forward so that the tip of her blade sliced across the big man’s chest.

Tiari swallowed hard against nausea at the instant gush of blood that poured from the wound she’d inflicted, drenching Pavid’s clothing.  But she didn’t hesitate.  She followed through once more, bringing her sword back down and around in a half circle before slicing the man from right hip to left shoulder.

She leapt back out of sword range and waited, hoping that would be enough for Pavid, that he would decide his life was worth more than whatever Una had promised him.  She had deliberately kept her slashes shallow enough that, while they bled profusely, they were not necessarily lethal.  So long as he took proper care of them.

Pavid was furious that the half blind little female had bested him so quickly and so easily.  Of course, she’d managed it only because he was not trying to hurt her.  Pretty or not, spirit or not, he would not play nice now.  She’d drawn his blood.  She would die.  Perhaps he would hang her hair on his wall as a trophy.  With a wordless roar of fury, Pavid gripped his sword in both hands and charged forward. 

Tiari saw Pavid’s decision to kill her in his eyes, and knew that her reluctance to kill him outright might now cost her life.  His strength and size would win the battle for him if she did not act fast.  She sidestepped his furious charge neatly, avoiding his sword with no effort at all as she brought her own blade up and around in a strike that Tomas had not taught her.  She didn’t even think about what she was doing.  There was no time for that.  She acted purely on extinct, almost shocked when she felt her blade slide smoothly between his ribs, jerking once with the last beat of his heart.

Una began screeching so loudly that Tiari turned her head to see who was murdering the woman.  Instead, she saw Una a few yards behind her along the beach, bending over to pick something up.  The knife she’d deflected, Tiari realized. 

She’d turned her attention from Pavid for only a moment, but when she looked back she saw that the big man was toppling over like a felled tree.  She pulled on her sword, but found that it was stuck on Pavid’s ribs.  The thought made her blanch even as she continued to pull, suddenly worried that the blade would snap if she didn’t get it free before he hit the ground. 

Una continued her wordless screaming, but Tiari’s hearing was exceptionally fine tuned and she heard the sound of Una’s footsteps beneath the screams as she raced toward her back.  She gave the sword one last, futile pull, then gave up and spun around to face her aunt.  If Una was going to kill her, she’d have to look her in the eye as she did it.

Una skidded to a stop a mere two feet from Tiari when she saw that her niece was unarmed.  She stopped screeching and lowered the knife she was holding over her head, ready to plunge into Tiari’s back.

“Are you going to kill me now, Aunt?” Tiari asked in the calmest tone she could manage.

Una glanced at Pavid, who lay motionless on the ground behind Tiari, then shrugged indifferently as she returned her gaze to her niece.  “Probably,” she said.  “It depends on how helpful you choose to be.”

“Helpful?” Tiari asked warily.

“Tell me of these people you travel with,” Una said.  “Tell me how to make them take me in your place.  If you do that, I may decide to let you walk away alive.”

Tiari thought quickly.  A plan suggested itself in her mind, but she recoiled from it and searched for another. 

“I’m waiting, witch,” Una warned.  “Speak quickly, or die now.  Actually, now that I think of it, once you’re dead they’ll have no choice but to take me, anyway.”

“Here,” Tiari said quickly as Una began to raise her knife into the air again.  “You’ll need these.”  She reached for the metal ring hidden by the long sleeves of her blouse, slipped it off over her hand, then held it out toward Una.

Una’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at the rainbow colored ring lying on Tiari’s palm.  “You had it all this time?” she demanded, screeching so loudly that Tiari’s ears throbbed.  “How?  Where?”  She reached out and snatched the ring from Tiari, her face purple again as she stared at it, still stunned by its sudden and unexpected appearance.  While she was distracted, Tiari slipped Kapia’s ring from her finger, her heart pounding with regret as she gave the golden snake a little twist.  Then she placed the ring carefully in the palm of her hand and offered it to Una. 

She knew that the best, smartest, surest action on her part would be to toss the ring to Una, forcing her to catch it, but she couldn’t make herself do that.  Una would have to do this herself.  Tiari could not cold bloodedly murder her own aunt, no matter what the woman had done, or intended to do.

Una tore her gaze from the bracelet to glare at Tiari for a long moment before glancing at the golden ring in her palm.  She was obviously surprised, never having seen the ring before, but that didn’t stop her from reaching for it. 

“Be careful,” Tiari said, unable to prevent the warning from leaving her lips at the last moment.  But Una ignored her, as always, and snatched the golden ring from Tiari’s hand, squeezing it in her fist with a triumphant grin.  Then she raised the knife with her other hand, murder gleaming in her muddy eyes for one brief moment before they widened in surprise.  She opened her fist and stared at the twin droplets of blood on her palm next to the golden ring.  Her eyes flashed to Tiari in sudden understanding, but she was not dead yet.  The knife, still gripped tightly in her other hand above her head, came down with the last of her strength.  But it was not enough.

Tiari stepped back out of the way so that the knife hit nothing but air, though it was moving so slowly she doubted it would have broken her skin had it managed to touch her.  Una glared at her with such hatred that Tiari took another step back.  She watched as the hate-filled eyes glazed over, and Una fell to her knees, then to one side, her knife slipping from her hand to clatter on the stony beach along with the bracelet and Kapia’s poison ring.

****

Lashi returned to the women’s tent just a couple of minutes after leaving to help Karma find her heavy cloak that had been packed in the wrong basket.  She saw that the water bucket was gone, along with Caral, so she began packing up the remainder of the cooking utensils in the front chamber while she waited for water.  She was nearly done when she thought she heard Caral’s voice.  Only it sounded like it was coming from the wrong direction.

Lashi turned around, frowning in confusion when she saw Kapia and Caral walk through the doorway from Kapia’s chamber.  If Caral was here, then where was the water bucket?  She gasped in sudden understanding. 

“Highness, I think Hara Tiari went to fetch water.  Alone,” she said.

“What?” Kapia asked.  “Explain please.”

“I was called to assist Lady Techu just as I was getting ready to fetch water for the dishes,” Lashi said, speaking quickly.  “I asked Hara Tiari to ask Caral to fetch the water if she came in before I returned and she said she would.  When I came back a few minutes ago, the bucket was gone, so I assumed that Caral had gone to get the water, but now I see that Caral is here.”

Kapia raised her hand to her mouth and, using two fingers in the way her brother had taught her when she was a child, she blew three short, piercing whistles.  Within seconds Zakiel and Tomas both charged into the tent, with several more Hunters at their heels.  Kapia didn’t bother with the long explanation.

“It seems that Tiari went to the river, on her own, to fetch water,” she said.  “How long ago, Lashi?”

“From the time Timon came to get me for Lady Techu,” Lashi said, knowing that she had no good sense of time. 

“One half hour,” Timon said from the doorway without waiting to be asked.

Tomas spun around and raced out of the tent, Zakiel just behind him.  Garundel barked quick orders, then followed Zakiel and Tomas with a handful of men, while the remainder positioned themselves around the women’s tent.

Kapia, Caral, and Lashi stood staring at each other for a long moment.  “What’s going on?” Karma demanded, startling the other women as she entered through the connecting doorways.

Kapia told Karma everything that had happened, then she turned to Caral and Lashi.  “You two should go ahead and finish packing up,” she said.  “Chances are that Tiari is just fine and we are all overreacting.”

Lashi and Caral both bowed and went to their tasks, though they all, including Kapia, knew better.  The river was only a few minutes walk from the camp site.  Tiari could have fetched two buckets of water in the time she’d been gone, maybe even three.