Water Witch (14 page)

"You have no idea," she said.

"I have some idea. Enough idea to know
you have magic. Aedus has said the same."

It was Yenic's turn to interrupt. "She
told us there is no such thing as magic." He shot Aedus a scolding eye.
"So why would you believe any exists?"

Alaysha had enough of the diplomacy. She
didn't care what the hooligans believed. "Just let the girl decide and be
gone." She stomped over to Barruch to get her sword. A dozen men stepped
from the shadows.

"Careful, fools," she said.
"I'm trained."

She heard a laugh come from Edulph and she
whirled to face him. "It would not do to provoke me."

"Or what? You and your boy will fight
my fifty men? Please do. Please show me."

Aedus spoke in a shaking voice.
"Please, Edulph. You have no idea."

"Oh I do have some idea, Aedus. And
more since your little stories."

"How much did you tell, Aedus?"
Alaysha asked. She traveled the days of memory to see how often and how much
the girl might know of her power.

The girl shrugged helplessly, and Alaysha
guessed that, excited to see the brother she'd been pining for, she told him
everything she knew, never guessing or caring what Edulph's plans would be. And
just what were those plans?

"What is it you want, then?" She
demanded.

"You."

Yenic was there in a flash, holding his arm
against her chest, and for a moment, Alaysha barely cared that his fingers were
digging into her shoulder.

"You think I'll kill my entire tribe
for you?" She wouldn't think about the irony of it. She just wouldn't.

Edulph grinned. "I don't think. I
know." He tapped his temple and made a grab for Aedus's hand. Before
Alaysha or Yenic could do anything, he had shoved the whole of her palm deep
into the flames.

Alaysha wasn't sure if the piercing scream
came from Aedus or not, but she was painfully aware that her own mouth was open
wide and that her chest hurt. Her ears hurt. Her throat hurt. And just like
that, she tasted the mold of the dampest parts of the ground, the copper tang
of blood that she knew in the instant was from a squirrel in a tree nearest
her. She felt the moss beneath her feet start to crackle. And then just as
those things entered her consciousness, something covered her mouth and her
tongue tasted the moistness of another's and she felt arms around her waist and
the beat of a thudding heart against her chest.

And the thirst was gone.

Yenic pulled his lips from hers and
searched her eyes. She took a deep breath, watched him do the same. She could
only give the barest of nods.

He took her hand and turned to face Edulph.
"We'll go with you."

Edulph nodded, and he let go of Aedus's
arm. But Alaysha noticed he licked his lips, and that when he noticed no
moisture could soften their cracked surface, he sent an inspecting glance
around the rest of his party. One or two of the men reached for their water skins
and couldn't conceal their surprise when they found them empty.

Aedus pulled her burnt hand close and
cradled it against her chest. Alaysha expected to hear her whimper, but she
made no sound.

Yenic stepped towards her before Alaysha
could. "Someone bandage her," he said to no one and Alaysha rushed to
beat any who thought to fulfill the task. She needn't have bothered: nobody had
taken the steps, instead the shadows that had emerged, crossed into the light
of the clearing and followed into the woods behind Edulph's retreating back.

"Are you all right?" Alaysha
reached out for the girl, and Aedus let go a sob. "Tell me Aedus, are you
all right?" She had to kneel to look into the girl's eyes.

"She could have been worse,"
Yenic said from behind her.

Alaysha looked back over her shoulder.
"What do you mean?" He sounded as though he was scolding her, not
blaming Edulph.

"I mean you could have killed
her."

"I would never –"

"Not intentionally."

It struck her that yes, she would indeed
have killed Aedus. She would have annihilated everyone within a leagua,
including Barruch, and Yenic. All unintentionally.

"As long as they have her, she is not
safe." Yenic said. "Not from them or from you."

Alaysha nodded.

"Unless you can walk away from her,
leave her to the mercy of her brother."

"He shouldn't have to be inclined
toward mercy for his own sister."

"And yet it would seem that's not the
case."

Alaysha touched the top of the head that
was burrowed and whimpering into her chest. "No. It would seem he is not
as loving a brother as she is a sister."

"So can you leave her?"

"No."

"Then it would seem you are going to
war."

At first, Alaysha thought she could merely
wait until an opportune moment to steal away. She and Yenic tried hanging back
in the riding queue; Yenic behind her on Barruch's back as they left the oasis
and headed toward Sarum, but Aedus had been slung over a beast and tied to a
pommel, and she wasn't remotely close enough to rescue. The second plan was to
wait for nightfall and attempt rescue then.

That was when Alaysha realized how right
Aedus had been about the power of the dreamer's worm.

They were sitting a way off from the fire
pit when darkness set in the first night. Neither of them spoke to each other,
both lost in their own thoughts. Alaysha watched Edulph's men as they lumbered
about with gourds full of ale. She thought it was the perfect opportunity.
Aedus sat next to the fire, her owlish eyes alight in the roaring blaze. She
couldn't have been more than a few second's dash from them.

But for the squat, barrel-chested men next
to her, Aedus was unguarded. And that guard seemed more bent on trying to catch
the attention of the only woman in the group. She too was short, but broad
shouldered with a tangle of mucked hair that could have been blonde or black
when clean. Alaysha supposed it hadn't been clean for months.

They seemed the perfect pair to Alaysha.
She decided to tell Yenic that they should become matchmakers.

And then she saw, and was reminded of the
power of the dreamer's worm – even a full day since application and rinsing
off.

"What?" he asked her when he
caught her staring.

She shook her head, changing her mind. Best
he not know, she supposed. She felt his hand against her back. "Are you
cold?"

She tried not to let the green stripes
mesmerize her. They danced in the dark as he moved his head, and the darker it
became, the more they glowed.

The man next to Aedus let out a bellow of a
guffaw. He pointed across the fire at Yenic.

"He's got Meroshi's curse," the
filthy warrior shouted. "Look. He's been marked. Greetha, look," he
said to the woman and she stood from her spot a few feet away to peer at Yenic.

"Are you mad?" she asked Yenic
and laughed. "Do you see night terrors, little man?"

By then everyone was staring. Even Edulph had
found a spot next to the fire to gape and laugh. He lifted his gourd in Yenic's
direction. "Long live Meroshi's magic," he shouted and everyone with
a gourd of ale lifted it and chorused the cheer.

Alaysha wouldn't look at Yenic, trying to
save him the shame. Instead she reached for his hand, but he brushed it away
and bolted to his feet.

"You think this is magic?" He
made a good show of sounding unaffected, but Alaysha could hear something
different in his voice. She tried to catch his eye and failed.

He laughed. "You have no idea about
magic." He moved toward the fire and it leapt brighter with each step. No
one but her seemed to notice the new light to the fire, the radiance of the new
heat.

Greetha eased herself up and threaded her
way around the blaze and reached out to touch Yenic's face. She was murmuring
to herself as she traced the marks. Alaysha could see Yenic stiffen, bracing
himself for her touch even as the barrel-chested warrior on the other side
braced from anger. He jumped to his feet, hands clenching and unclenching.

"Leave the pup be, Greetha," he
shouted. "What would you want with a fool who gets tricked by Meroshi's
magic?"

"I think he's pretty, Spate," she
said back and looked into Yenic's face. "He has fire behind his
eyes."

This infuriated Spate even more, and had
several of the men laughing and mocking at the thrown-over lover. Yenic seemed
to realize the potential for distraction, same as Alaysha had. Without even a
word or glance in her direction, she knew he was going to press the issue until
Alaysha could sneak away. She was ready, waiting for the opportunity.

Yenic took Greetha's hand and pulled it to
the soft spot at the base of his hairline. A quick surge of jealousy fired
through Alaysha when she saw Yenic slip his hand onto the woman's back. He
murmured in a language Alaysha didn't understand, but in a tone she recognized.
Greetha's fingers went to Yenic's ribcage, tracing the tattaus, trailing down
the ink line to his hip. Alaysha's mental fingers went with hers as they moved,
and she had to fight to keep the envy from tightening her throat. She knew the
feel of that skin, how heated it was, how each muscle met the other with the
sharpness of a steel blade. She had to pull her gaze away from Yenic and
Greetha, seek out Aedus, nod toward the darkness and hope the girl understood.

Then Yenic declared to Greetha in a voice
that lifted to the trees that even a pup was better for a bitch than a pig.

It all fell to chaos after that, and
Alaysha took the chance to melt into the darkness.

She could hear the arguing, could hear
Greetha's taunting, using Yenic as bait to instigate further fury in her
spurned lover. Alaysha tried to block it out as she eased her way through the
darkness, around the horses, past a few unconscious men.

She heard the clang of metal on metal and
supposed the pig had taken enough taunts. She didn't care. She only cared that
she get to Aedus. She imagined Yenic could take care of himself. She thought of
him letting Greetha's touch and thought it would serve him right anyway.

She glanced at the fire from the shadows,
hoping to catch Aedus's eye, hoping even against hope that she had slipped
away. Her space was empty. She must be close.

"Aedus sends her regrets," a
voice drawled.

Alaysha had been so intent on the fire she
hadn't noticed the shadows next to her were too thick. She turned to face
Edulph.

"I have a few regrets of my own."

She felt him shift in the darkness, and he
was closer to her than she expected. She could smell the oil and mud in his
hair, hear the rustling of his beard as he ran his palm down his chin. If he
could be measured by his voice alone, it would be pleasant; a person might
think him agreeable.

"I've honored my promise," he
said.

She felt his breath on her shoulder and
rubbed her arm where it touched.

"You mean you haven't held her other
hand over the flame"

"To what end would that be useful?
You're here with us. We'll be in Sarum in three days, maybe less."

"And so long as I cooperate, she will
be fine."

He said nothing for a long while; Alaysha
wanted to press his answer, but she knew better. Finally, he spoke again and
his tone was harsher than before, more business like.

"Your man has power like you?"

She wasn't sure how to answer that: make
him fear or make him wonder? Alaysha said nothing, just turned on her heel and
found her way back to the fire, Edulph's annoying chuckle following.

By the time Yenic saw her, Greetha had
already found a more accommodating companion than either Spate or Yenic.
Several men nursed cuts and a few were clapping Spate on the back.

Yenic sported a good-sized cut on his
cheek. He looked at Alaysha and shrugged. "Couldn't let him lose," is
all he said, but there was fire still behind his gaze and he glared at Spate as
he sat down.

That fire stayed in his eyes for the next
two days and even as the glow dissipated, no one in the crew forgot he'd been
marked. Each night, Spate found a way to challenge him; each night Yenic
suffered through it. Alaysha could see the tension building around the fire.

"What are we going to do?"

"I think we have two choices: we could
follow Edulph to Sarum and pray the war he plans to bring causes so much
commotion we can steal away with her –"

"Or?" That plan didn't seem very
likely, and Alaysha had the uncomfortable image of Edulph doing harm to the
girl and forcing Alaysha to use her power. There really seemed no way around
it.

"Or we just leave."

"You asked me to do that before, back
at the oasis," Alaysha said. "I won't do it."

Yenic lifted a gourd of water to his mouth.
One thing they hadn't lacked since joining the rogue tribe was food and drink;
they had been fed and watered twice just in the first day. Alaysha didn't want
to think about where it might have come from. She glimpsed a few desiccated
hands hanging from saddles, the odd cloak made of linen rather than the
traditional fur. She guessed they looted and killed in every village they came
across, adding the violent outcasts from each to their ragged number.