The Unfinished Song: Taboo (28 page)

Shula crossed her arms.

“Vio, unless you brought along your master’s bone flute, there is no threat, no torture you could use to make me invoke the Looking Bowl for you.”

“What about
a target
?”

“What?”

“Would you invoke the bowl to spear a worthy target?”

“No target of yours--”

“I want to kill the Bone Whistler.”

Vio the Skull Stomper could hardly have shocked his prisoners more than if he had announced his intention to lop off his own head.

Shula’s mouth dangled open. Quickly, she snapped it shut. “So you can replace him as the new Bone Whistler. What difference does it make if it’s the master or his dog who kills
Imorvae
?”

Rather than answer her directly, Vio traced his fingers along the polished rim of the looking bowl.

“As you all may have guessed by now, and as Shula well knows, this is no ordinary looking bowl, but one forged by the Blue Lady herself. It has many interesting properties. One minor use, for instance, is to tell how many Chromas a Tavaedi has. Lean over
the bowl
, Danumoro.” When Danumoro hesitated, Vio added, “Don’t make me order Vumo to thump you on the head.”

Danumoro leaned over the bowl. His reflection showed in the water, but something else showed too. A glow shimmered around him in four bands of color. The strongest was yellow, but blue, purple and green were also present.

“There, you see?” Vio waved at the bowl. “Even those of you, like Vumo, who have only one Chroma, can see all the other colors in his reflection.”

“It’s very useful for hunting down
Imorvae
, I’m sure,” said Shula. “How is that supposed to convince me?”

Vio leaned over the bowl. A halo of five colors surrounded his reflection:
Purple, blue, yellow, orange and red.
All the blood drained from Shula’s face.

“You’re a
n
Imorvae
?” she whispered.

Vio nodded.

“Five colors—Lady of Mercy!” She darted a query at Vumo.

“No.” He wriggled his hand over the looking bowl, showing digits surrounded by a solid emerald glow. “I’m a real
Morvae
.”

“You just found out?” Shula asked, bug eyed. “Is that when you decided to kill your master, when you realized your own neck risked snapping?”

“I’ve always known, Shula,” Vio answered seriously. “So has my brother. When we were just boys and had a chance to either join the Bone Whistler’s thugs or be killed by them, we had to decide what we would do. At first, I thought it would be best if Vumo turned me in, to prove his loyalty. That would guarantee his advancement in the ranks. I figured, at least one of us would survive.”

“I didn’t care for that idea,” growled Vumo.

“So we decided to kill the Bone Whistler instead. We would both join his ranks, biding our time until we had our chance. I would pretend to be a Purple
Morvae
. But there was still Nangi to worry about. The Bone Whistler had his daughter examine the thoughts of all new recruits. She could sniff out lies better than a dog could find meat. However, Vumo was clever enough to discover her weakness.”

Vumo grinned. “Green cancels out Orange. She can’t read thoughts on someone she’s all mushy over.”

“In other words, he seduced her. She was
quite young
at the time, just as ugly and, I fear, quite vulnerable to my brother’s blandishments.”

“How horrible to trick her like that,” said Finna, the Green Woods
woman.

“More horrible than her turning us over to be tortured and murdered?” Vio asked. “Still, you are right. Vumo married her a few years later even though all along our plan remained the same. Get close enough to the Bone Whistler to find out his weakness and kill him.”

“But all this time, you’ve been working for the Bone Whistler,” said Shula. “
Killing
for him—”

“When you led the resistance in the Rainbow Labyrinth,
Imorvae
would come to you, saying they had miraculously escaped through the underground maze,” said Vio. “They couldn’t tell you who had led them out and covered up their disappearance. All they knew was his Shining Name, and even that, they were to tell to no one but you, so that you would know him when you met him.”

Shula shook her head. “No, no, no, it’s not possible. Not
you
!”

“That name was ‘the Maze Zavaedi.’”

“You could have tortured that information out of someone. Nangi could have read someone’s mind—”

Vessia suddenly asked, “You said you were trying to learn the Bone Whistler’s weaknesses. Did you?”

“The answer to that,” said Vio dryly, “all depends on Shula.”

Shula rubbed her temples. “You want to ask the Looking Bowl.”

“Exactly.”

“Do you have any idea how difficult that is?”

“It requires a magic bowl, a water seer, and Tavaedies to dance all six colors during the weave,” said Vio. “Yes, I believe I know exactly how difficult it is. Will you help?”

“Yes.” Shula sighed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this to
you
, Vio the Skull Stomper, Purple Zavaedi to the Bone Whistler, but yes, I’ll help you.”

Shula instructed them in what parts they would dance. Each of them had a role except Vessia; Vio hadn’t anticipated her presence. Vio didn’t like loose ends, so he told her, “Your job will be to watch the looking bowl as closely as you can and remember every detail in case one of us misses it because we’re busy dancing.”

Vio would dance Purple, Shula would dance Blue; Vumo—Green; Danumoro—Yellow; Obran—Orange and Finna would dance Red. Vessia had to stand outside the circle when they clasped hands and began to skip and sway around the looking bowl.

First, the water in the looking bowl clouded from clear to milky. Once it shone as white as polished nacre, the water suddenly turned crystal clear again, only this time, beneath the surface, as if they were looking down into another world, they saw people moving.

All of them saw the images, but Vessia stared intently, as she’d been instructed. A man in a mask and costume made entirely out of bones played a flute. Vessia didn’t have any trouble identifying him. All she could see was his back; he appeared to be seated upon some sort of divan covered with furs. A large room with high placed windows stretched out before him, and below him, as if the divan were mounted upon a platform.

Six people were dancing for him. No—they weren’t dancing of their own accord. The flute he played jerked them up and down like puppets in a macabre imitation of true dance. Vio and Vumo were there, as were Shula, Danumoro, Finna and Obran. Finna was still pregnant.

Light flashed across the surface of the water and the scene in the depths of the bowl shifted. A brief flash of a great crowd, outside in a public square… A baby’s cry… A being appeared, blocking everything else out, so bright that face and form could not be detailed. It wasn’t human, whatever it was. It was a faery lifted upon
six
dazzling rainbow wings. The Bone Whistler honked the flute as hard as he could, growing more and more desperate. But no matter what tune he played, he could not control the rainbow faery. As the faery flew toward him, another flash of light washed out the scene for a moment
. Th
en they saw the Bone Whistler dead in
the
dust before the dancing platform.

The vision in the
Looking B
owl dissolved back into ordinary water.

“That wasn’t as helpful as I’d hoped,” admitted Vio.

“I’ll say,” said Vumo. He kicked the bowl in disgust. The water sloshed over the side. “We spend years trying to make this stupid thing work, and when it finally does, it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know. Only an Aelfae can kill him. The White Lady is the only one left.”

“As I said, it wasn’t as helpful as I’d hoped,” said Vio. “I wish it could have at least also shown how to get the White Lady to help us.”

“Let’s do it again,” said Vumo.

“We can’t,” said Shula. “That spell cannot be used more than once by the same seer.”

“Wonderful.”

“We haven’t time, in any case,” said Vio. “Your wife will be back soon, and so will Gidio.”

“Now what?” asked
Vumo.

“Nangi and Gidio don’t know that the Bone Whistler instructed me to take the tribehold regardless of the outcome of the parley,” said Vio. “So I will tell them when they return that he’s sent a runner calling me back to the Labyrinth. All of you can ‘escape’ before I return. I’ll pretend to chase and come back empty handed, saying Vumo and I killed you.”

“No,” said Shula. “We have to stay with you.
All of us.
Well, except Vessia. You can let her go, poor girl.”

“Are you mad?” Vio demanded. “Shula, I know you want to help, but the Bone Whistler already knows you. You have to escape
now
. You won’t have another chance. If you return to the Labyrinth, even I wouldn’t be able to protect you. I’m not his only Zavaedi, you know.”

“Skull Stomper, we have no choice. We all saw the Vision. All of us were there. If we aren’t, the Vision might not come true.”

Vio frowned.

“You know I’m right,” she said.

He lowered his head. “I cannot ask this of anyone.”

“I will stay by choice,” Shula said. She looked at Finna and Obran.

“My baby…will it survive?” Finna hesitated. “In the Vision, I heard a newborn cry…”

“Finna, we cannot be certain that the Vision will come true,” said Vio. “No matter what we do. The looking bowl can only tell us what
could
kill the Bone Whistler, not guarantee that we will achieve it.”

“The Bone Whistler’s reign of terror threatens all the tribes of Faearth,” said Obran. “If he is not stopped, he will conquer the Yellow Bear tribe. The Green Woods will be next to fall. If we do not make our stand now, when we have a chance of stopping him, when will we?”

“Yes,” said Finna after a deep breath. “If you truly need us, we’re with you.”

“Let me also be named as yours,” said Danumoro.

“Me too,” said Vessia.

“No, not you,” said Vio at once. “We don’t need you, so there’s no reason to put yourself in danger.”

“I want to come.”

“I don’t care what you want. You’re not coming.”

“Yes, I am.”

“No you aren’t.”

“Yes I am.”

“Excuse me, big brother?” interrupted Vumo. “We’re pressed for time.”

“Fine,” said Vio. He glared at Vessia. “The only way you’re coming with me is if you let me protect you—as my wife.”

The others fell silent, shocked. Danumoro clenched his hands in his lap until the fingers turned white.

“Vio, are you sure about this?” Vumo asked urgently. “You don’t have to propose to a captive girl just because you drank from her
cup
one night.”

“Spoken like a true minion of the Bone Whistler,” sneered Shula.

Vumo flushed.

“I’ll be with you as your wife just as it was with us last night,” said Vessia, meeting Vio’s challenging gaze with her own.

“It’s a bargain,” he said soberly.

The starry night melted, shimmered and clarified. The moon had jumped across the sky, yet Svego was still just a few paces from her, striding determinedly toward the healing hut. Dindi listened, but heard neither flute nor drum.