Water Witch (20 page)

"Ah, but do you know your man called
for fire?"

She tried not to show interest.
"Called for fire?"

"Yes, in the old tongue. The fire pit
blazed so bright no one could get near it except your man."

Fire clan, he'd said. He did have an affinity.
Alaysha had seen it herself.

"Eventually, my men had to charge
through the heat, and they were glistening with the sweat of it – I swear, they
looked like their juices were roasting right out of them, but your man never
broke a bead."

He looked at her so thoughtfully, almost
admirably, that she almost forgot she was conversing with a man who had harmed
his own sister.

"I've never seen such a fighter in all
my days."

She snorted. "You don't look a day
over twenty seasons."

He shrugged. "My thanks to you. But
you should know my tribe is taught to fight as soon as the moss is taken from
our swaddlings. By the time we're four seasons old, we have contests each year
where we're pitted against a fighter two seasons older. We learn to fight or we
learn to die."

"And how is it you still live?"

The slug returned to his beard as he chewed
the insides of his cheek. "I nearly did. Then I grew smart. And that's
what I'm here to tell you. But I'm digressing."

"Your man had no weapon but for the
things he found: rocks, tree branches, hot stones from the fire, once even a
dead rat he'd somehow come upon." Edulph stared out into the woods as
though he was reliving it. "It wasn't clumsy either. It was something
almost magical, the way he used his body, how he intercepted their
swings."

"Swings? They had swords?"

Edulph snapped back. "Oh yes. You
don't think I'd send my men to battle unarmed?"

Alaysha tried to imagine it and couldn't.
Yenic had been beaten and bruised and cut up. She realized then that perhaps he
was so battered because his body was the only weapon he had.

"So how did they come to be the ones
who lost their heads?"

He lifted a wiry shoulder. "They
weren't winning, so I called them off and sent for Aedus."

"You took her finger, then, didn't
you? Because you knew Yenic wouldn't stop fighting for her."

He nodded almost happily. "Worked like
any magic I'd ever imagined. Even better. Your man became quite docile
then."

"And you killed your men."

He raised a finger in objection. "I
delegated their killing. Then I had Greetha ride your man out of camp and dump
him."

"How thoughtful."

"Well, we did want him to get to you…
Eventually. Strong as he is, I doubt he would have made it the whole way in his
condition."

She could barely believe what she was
hearing. "So why are you telling me this?"

He chuckled. "I tell you all this to
tell you this:

"With all his strength and
determination, your man still wasn't able to best me. No. In the end, I beat
him. I outsmarted him. I out-strategized him."

He pinned her with a stare that didn't move
from hers. "You see, not all battles are about physical strength. And if
strength isn't enough and it's the last best thing you have, and yet your
opponent spares no one the blade--not even beloved warriors or sisters, how do
you think you can win?"

He waved his hand in dismissal. "Now
go. Collect up your little sister and settle yourself to do what is asked of
you and remember who is leading this battle."

She stomped out of the clearing unmolested
and with his braying laugher at her back.

She glared at anyone who looked at her and
selected a horse to share with Bronwyn. There was no use in hoping Barruch was
still at his post. Drahl would have collected him. She hoped he'd be in Sarum
when she got there. She reached down to help the girl up.

"Aren't you hungry?" The girl
offered Alaysha a burnt piece of squirrel.

"I'll eat when this is over. I don't
want to spend any more time with these men than I have to."

Bronwyn murmured agreement and settled in
front. Alaysha felt the warmth of her back and the weight of her head.

"Last night you told the man Yuri's
daughters were warriors."

"I did."

"Are you too Yuri's daughter?"

"I am."

"From which mother?"

"My mother is dead."

Bronwyn went quiet for a moment. "Mine
too," she said after a while.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I have many sisters, but
only one brother."

"The young babe?"

"Yes. But he won't live the
season."

This was news. "Why not?"

"The witch made him ill. He couldn't
drink, so the guardsmen say, and when his mother could feed him, he acted as
though her milk was sour."

It hurt, this news. It spoke of such malice
from her father's tribesmen, the same malice she heard in this girl's voice,
that she felt it in her chest. Alaysha spurred the mount closer to the last
trailing rider.

"I am the witch," she said.

The girl squirmed against her, awkwardly,
but continued speaking as though Alaysha had said nothing.

"They say the witch can drink a man's
soul."

"I wouldn't find it so tasty. Most
men's souls are bitter."

"They say the witch kills without
care."

"I've been trained as a warrior. All
warriors are trained to kill without care."

"They say the witch feasts on the eyes
of the men she has killed and answers only to Yuri."

"What is left of the eyes when I'm
done would make a poor meal, and what daughter does not mind her father,
especially if that father is the great Yuri – Conqueror of the Hordes."

The girl fell silent, digesting the
information in place of the food her stomach grumbled for. Alaysha had never
heard those notions about herself in such condensed terms before, nor had she
been given an opportunity to answer to them. Propaganda that had no doubt been
spread by Yuri himself.

It was midday before Alaysha could see the
white stone tower of Sarum's main gate through the trees. Her stomach burned
with hunger. All the better to get the deed done, all the quicker. She expected
Edulph to show soon. She reined in.

"We stop here," she shouted ahead
to the men.

The train halted. Several of the men turned
in their saddles, surprised to hear her speak.

The first, the one who appeared to be in
charge, trotted back. He reined close to her mount.

"We do as Edulph bids."

"Edulph is not here."

"He wants us at the gates. He wants
Yuri to see that one." He nodded at Bronwyn.

"To what end?"

"In case you are not what the tales
tell."

"You think Yuri will trade his entire
realm for one girl?"

"His daughter."

"A daughter – a thousand daughters –
are nothing to Yuri."

"Then you better hope you're all the
tales say you are."

Alaysha stared at him directly. "The
tales are weak fairy stories told to fiddling children compared to what I
am."

He blinked and tried to meet her gaze, but
she could tell the vehemence of her tone shook him.

"I want to see Aedus. And then I want
Aedus and Bronwyn to be saddled on this horse and sent two leaguas away."

"Edulph will never agree."

"You've gone to all this trouble to
balk at one demand? You better find Edulph and see he gets my message."

The man turned his mount and Alaysha got
off. She helped Bronwyn down.

"The witch has the spirit of three
men, so they say," the girl said.

Alaysha smiled down at her and her throat
felt tight. If she couldn't get this girl far enough away, she would never be
able to live with herself.

She noticed the men around her had all
dismounted and gone quiet. She followed their gazes off into the deep brush.
Edulph, filthy from top to bottom with mud, strode from the thickest part. He
had a leash of leather wrapped around his companion's neck. She noted Aedus's
hair was hanging in her face and that she favored one hand, holding it close to
her chest.

Alaysha had to force herself not to run to
her. "Aedus," she said.

The girl looked up and the relief in her
face was striking and quick and just as rapidly filled with regret.

"I'm sorry, Alaysha," Aedus said.

Edulph strode forward and faced Alaysha.
"So. Aedus tells me you can drain a man without touching him. That you can
empty the water from sealed vessels. You can bring rain."

She could do so much more, but if this was
all he believed, she'd not correct him. She nodded. "All but that one
thing. I cannot bring rain. It comes of its own."

"I don't care for the rain
anyway." He pulled at the leash and Aedus jolted forward. "You will
do this for me?"

"I will do it for Aedus."

He seemed satisfied. "I want my people
out first. They're not to be harmed."

"I can't promise that."

"Then I'll have to persuade you."
He yanked on the leash again and Aedus fell. She didn't whimper, but she stole
a look from beneath her eyelids that bade Alaysha pay attention. The girl made
a quick motion with her free hand, making a V with her fingers and sweeping
them across her eyes. Alaysha made a quick decision.

"If you want your people safe, then
call for them. But first you must let these two girls away from danger."

He took a few minutes to think, and Alaysha
assumed he was considering all his options. She tried to make out if he had any
strange residue beneath his eyes, but she couldn't tell from where she stood.

"What are you afraid of? That a few of
your men can't watch over two young girls while a woman does your
killing?"

He punished her by yanking on the leather
leash so hard, Aedus bobbed forward, her hand going to her throat. "I fear
nothing."

"And yet you need a small girl to
protect you." Alaysha shook her head. She looked at him levelly. "I
care nothing for Yuri's people or yours. I only care for Aedus and the girl.
You have nothing to fear from me; it matters not one whit what happens to the
people who enslaved my mother."

"But you wouldn't have killed those
slavers unless I forced you?"

She shrugged. "I don't care if they
live or die. Why would I care to kill them?"

"And you do have the power?"

"I do."

He turned to his first in command.
"Take Yuri's daughter and tell him we have his witch. Deliver the message
that if we do not have our people released by sunset, she will kill everyone
within. If you are attacked, kill the girl. If you are not back before sunset,
we will know you for dead and will attack whether our people are freed or
not." He directed his attention to Alaysha.

"If the girl returns, you will do
battle at dark."

"And if she doesn't return?"

"You will do battle at dark."

Alaysha nodded. She watched as the man
hoisted Bronwyn onto the front of his mount. She knew Bronwyn would get into
the gate fine, but whether she would get to Yuri was another matter.

She was about to speak to the girl, to
offer her words of comfort if she could, when there was a shout from behind the
group and several curses that stopped the riders and caught the crew's
attention. The few words Alaysha didn't understand told her exactly who the
person was that they'd caught in the bushes.

Yenic was pulled forward out of the
underbrush by two men and Alaysha thought her lungs would not expand when she
saw him. His hair was still loosed and muddy but with the addition of leaves
and twigs stuck here and there. His eyes were no longer swollen, but held the
mad look of someone who'd witnessed too many horrors to live through. So. The
visions had stolen him after all. She felt incredibly sad.

Edulph found it all very funny. "Ah,
the lover returns," he said.

Yenic stared around him, seeming to take in
everything, but being able to respond to nothing. Alaysha guessed the visions
still had him. She had to smother a groan. Now there would be far too many
people she cared about to consider while she tried to end this game. Why
couldn't he just have stayed where she left him?

Yenic blabbered a stream of incoherent
words. He dodged at the air as though it held a demon trying to strike at him,
but the holds his captors had on his arms just made him strain all the harder.

It would have been pathetic if Alaysha
didn't feel such pain over his condition.

She looked at Edulph. "Let him go.
He's far past harming you now."

Edulph snorted. "He was unable to harm
me before." He motioned that the rider and Brownwyn should set out, and
Alaysha watched the young girl staring over her captor's shoulder, her mouth
agape at the strangeness of this man and the green streaks beneath his eyes.
She craned around the man's shoulder until they were both out of sight.