Bone Witch (9 page)

"Thera calls for you, witch,"
Enud said. "She wants to ask you a question about your large man."

Yenic's face went from surprise to
sullenness and Alaysha glowered at the Enyalian in thanks.

"Gael is here," he said.

Alaysha reached for the hand he'd let drop
from hers. "Yes. And Edulph will be very soon. At least, I hope so."

"Edulph? You hope?" He didn't
sound convinced.

She shrugged. "They captured us in the
burnt lands. It's a long story."

He sighed almost unhappily. "Then I
suppose you can tell me later. It seems Gael has need of you." He tried to
wink but she noticed his eye made more of a furrowed glare than playful wink
and an obvious sense of victory fleeted across Enud's face. She wondered what
the woman would care if Alaysha had to defend herself. She put on an implacable
expression and turned to the warrior.

"Can you take us to him?" She
asked, then turned her attention to Yenic. "He's terribly hurt. He's with
the bone witch." She put emphasis on her next words. "The witch's
name is Thera. Have you seen her?"

Yenic gave a short nod. "When I first
arrived. She –" he sent a look at Enud. "She was with the other who
drove Bodicca out."

"The other?"

"A long tale of my own," he said
with a sad half smile.

Alaysha sighed. "We'll swap then. But
first: Gael." She stepped closer to Enud, expecting the woman to show them
back to Thera's dwelling. Enud didn't move.

"The man may not go."

"That's ludicrous. He is—he is mine
as is the large one. I need him with me."

"He
was
yours. He belongs to
Enyalia now. He can wander, if he so desires, but in view of my sword sisters
only."

"I want him with me," Alaysha
demanded.

"You don't matter silly witch. You are
not Enyalia."

It stung, especially after being called as
good as one just a short while ago by the komandiri of this awful outpost. It
stung, and Alaysha wanted to retaliate. She glared at the woman, taking in her
height, her brutish width and muscled thighs. She sneered at the bracelets
around the woman's thigh.

"Your komandiri thinks otherwise. She
as much as gave this man back to me until your quarter solstice. He goes where
I go. You have no authority over him. None of you do."

The woman was unaffected. She merely
quirked a blonde eyebrow. "Is that true, witch? And do you know about our
quarter solstice and what happens to the brood men?"

Yenic stepped closer to Alaysha, putting
his arm around her waist, reassuring her. Unconsciously, she moved closer to
him.

"I know they are—cast for." She
had a hard time with that, with knowing the two—yes two—men she loved would
be given to another woman, be expected to procreate. But if it was necessary to
get them set free of this place, then so be it.

Enud crossed her massive arms across her
chest and chuckled. "Yes. Indeed they will service our warriors quite well
for a short time."

"But that time is not now."
Alaysha pulled Yenic with her and as she picked her way across the clearing,
Enud's cold voice stopped her.

"So did Komandiri Cai fail to tell you
what happens to the men when the quarter is over, when their deeds are done and
their seeds are sown?" She looked at Yenic and pursed her lips. "Did
you fail to tell her?"

Alaysha spun on her heel, feeling a pebble
lodge itself in her arch. "And what would your komandiri fail to reveal
when this young witch can drain the entire village dry."

A quirked, but pleased, brow in answer.
"Enyalia would welcome the battle, little woman."

"Believe me when I say there will be
no battle."

"Have you not noticed our village?
Such poor powers for a witch, to ignore the fact that over half our tribe is
populated by the stronger sex only. A few male children, like pups scurrying
about."

Two men in the village, Cai had said. Two.
And it hadn't occurred to her to ask why only those two. Only to ask whether
the second could truly be Yenic.

"You have no men, I know this,"
she heard herself say and the Enyalian grinned nastily in answer.

"Only at the quarter solstice."

"And then?" Alaysha's stomach
began to hurt.

"And then we grind their bones to make
our blades." Enud chortled and started past them, slapping Yenic on the
shoulder as she passed. "We rid our land of them as we would any
vermin."

E
nud disappeared through the trees leaving Alaysha gaping
after her. She swung on Yenic.

"Did you know?"

He looked sheepish.

"Yenic, you knew they'd require you
to, to—and then they'd kill you?"

"They can try to kill me," he
said, his sheepish grin leapt to light his eyes. "Bodicca told me there
could be but one chance for me, and that was the solstice." He shrugged.
"We talked of lots of things, really. You have to admit these women would
squash any enemy who thought to enter."

"Even your mother?"

"My mother will send men first; she
won't try to cross the burnt lands; only a fool would." He toed the moss
and gave her a teasing look that melted her resolve to scold him. "Lucky
for me, you're a fool."

She chuckled. "So says so many of
these Enyalia."

"I had no idea the price she'd pay for
bringing me here."

Alaysha thought of the state of the
warrior's back and shuddered. "And yet she paid it."

"I owe her," Yenic said.

"I think we all do," Alaysha
murmured but something else ran through her mind besides the debt she owed the
woman and Yenic caught her hesitation.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Now who's keeping secrets?"

"It's not a secret; it's just, I don't
understand why she did this. Would she place herself in such harm's way for a
vow she made my father, to keep Saxon safe?"

"A vow can be a powerful thing."
He took her hand and let his fingers roam hers. "You have to trust someone
sometime."

She chewed her cheek. "Trust has
proven a bad companion for me. Everyone I've trusted has betrayed me in some
way."

"Surely not everyone." He looked
hurt.

"Gael. Aedus." She took in his
face and the way the names sent a shiver of pain through it. "I'm sorry,
Yenic. But those two only. And it's only a matter of time before they do
too." She hated the sound of disappointment in her own voice and she
forced herself to brighten.

She tugged at his hand, taking steps from
the glade. "Come," she said. "This Thera asks for me and I don't
care what Enud says. What would they do to you—kill you?" She smiled
uneasily.

"Why didn't you tell me Gael and
Edulph were with you?"

"I don't really care about
Edulph," she said to him. "Not really. He hurt Aedus. He threatened
me. He nearly had the whole of Sarum murdered."

"But you care about Gael."

She couldn't lie. "Yes. Of course I
do. He has—" she was about to go through each of Gael's virtues but
remembered how much the men hated each other. Yenic would never care why Gael
should be saved.

They had left the clearing, were out of
sight of the young girls training to hurt each other; all the better to hunt
others when time came for them to be true Enyalia. Still, they were far enough
from the village proper that Alaysha felt she could speak.

"If Thera is asking for me, she might
want to reveal herself. I need to make use of the opportunity."

"You think she's the witch of
clay?"

She nodded. "Theron must have brought
her here. It would explain why he knows of this place."

"You heard Enud. Men don't leave
Enyalia."

"But what if he did?"

Yenic squeezed her fingers. "But
Alaysha, you would have—removed Theron's clay witch. In the village."

She stopped short. "Oh." She
turned to him, deflated. "Of course. I killed her. Didn't I?"

His face seemed to be trying to settle into
something between agreement and encouragement. "I'm afraid that witch is
long gone."

"But she would have had a
daughter."

He blinked. "Yes. Yes, she would. And
maybe Theron's part was to travel her here where she'd be safe."

"So, it's possible. You think
so?"

"I do."

She grew excited again. "Then the path
is clear. We need to get her and you and Gael out of here before these brutish
women do something I'll regret." She glowered at the ground, trying to
think of some way to accomplish it all but all she could think about was what
was going to happen to Yenic and Gael if she didn't succeed. "To think
they're healing Gael just to –"

"Don't think of it."

She nodded. To think that meant she'd have
to think of Yenic in the same trouble. "I shouldn't think of it. Thinking
of it makes me want to drain the village dry."

"Alaysha."

"I'll thirst their water and when it's
gone, I'll bring it back down on their dried out husks."

"Alaysha."

"I'll float them to the broad river
where the fish will pick at their skin, and swallow their eyes."

"Alaysha, don't," he said,
gathering her finally into an embrace where she wept silently, trying not to
let her shoulders shake, trying to keep him from knowing her despair. She felt
his palm on her hair, smoothing it. His lips warmed her ear, his breath heating
her neck as he nuzzled her closely. His voice lowered as he caught sight of a
few women milling about as they gained the village proper. He talked into her
ear, careful to lean close so nobody could hear.

"All is not lost, Alaysha. We have
time yet to formulate a plan. I don't plan to go to this easily or passively.
Enyalian or no."

Her throat burned too much to speak, the
effort of trying to stem the anxiety and fear. She let him talk on, encouraged
as he spoke.

"I'm sure Gael has no plans to be a
broodmare either. Do you really think we'd let a few warriors take us so
without a fight?"

"No," she squeaked. An image of
Gael in the burnt lands, hair matted with blood: his attackers'; of the
half-dozen Enyalia dead at his hands. "No," she said, feeling
stronger now, more certain. "You, me, Gael, Edulph. They'll truly have a
war to contend with."

"There's my girl." He eased away
far enough to touch her lightly on the forehead with his lips, and she felt
calmer the moment he did. "There's hope yet we can get out of this place
with our dignities intact."

"They're strong, though. It'll take
all we have."

"Yes. Maybe more."

"A plan," she said.

"A good plan."

They arrived outside Thera's hut, only to
notice a boy sprinting from the door, headed past the fire pit and off into a
lodge that was both wide and squat. Alaysha recognized Cai's tackle next to the
beast tethered outside. Thera's frame filled the doorframe in front of them,
and another woman, old, with chalk etched all over her face followed her,
taking her place as though she commanded fealty.

"What's wrong," Alaysha asked
Thera.

Thera levelled her with a look that made
Alaysha nervous. "Your man has the mark." She didn't sound pleased
with the information. Whatever The Mark was, it had made the witch beside Thera
angry; that much was obvious from the way she glared at Thera as though The
younger woman had put the mark there herself.

"What mark are you talking
about?" Alaysha asked, suddenly afraid it would be something that could
ruin the already tenuous plans.

"What does it matter?"

Thera's black eyes nearly disappeared
behind her squinting eyelids. "The Mark of the Enyalia. Under his
chin." She pointed to the hollow where her throat met her jaw. Alaysha
noted the brand burned into the flesh there. "Only an Enyalian can receive
this mark." She squinted suspiciously at Alaysha.

"What have you done, foolish
witch?" The old chalky woman came forward and stabbed a finger into
Alaysha's chest.

"I don't understand."

"The Mark." She slapped Thera
beneath her own chin with the back of her fingers.

Alaysha looked to Yenic for help explaining
something that shouldn't require lengthy explanation but that seemed to have
offended the old woman terribly. "It's his warrior's brand," she
explained.  "All my father's soldiers have them."

"Your father? What is this word?"

Now was Alaysha's turn to be frustrated.
"The man who sired me. He is—was—a great leader. A—a conqueror."

The old woman nodded to herself. "Yes.
I know the type of man." It sounded as though she was choking back a
laugh. "But who is he that would he know our Mark? And why would it be on
your man?"

"I have no idea how your Mark came to
be so similar to ours."

"It's not similar. It's the
same." The crone's impatience showed through and Alaysha noted Thera
shuffled foot to foot, anxious to speak.

"It can't be the same," Alaysha
said.

The old woman spat on the ground. "I
know our Mark, woman; I make it. I burned it into her skin." She grabbed
Thera's chin and tilted her head to show Alaysha. "No one knows of this
practice. No one but an Enyalian and her bone witch."

"So
you
are the bone
witch?" Alaysha was disappointed at the thought.

The crone glared at her. "I
was
the bone witch. Now I mentor this one, whose forging arts are even weaker than
her healing arts." She sounded disgusted, but Thera merely looked smug, as
though she had a secret the old crone wouldn't approve of.

Alaysha pursed her lips, chewing the inside
of her cheek thoughtfully. She didn't want to answer right away, but with the
crone staring her down, she had no choice.

"I had nothing to do with the mark.
Gael was marked by Corrin. The same as all my father's warriors were—any who
made it through the training."

"This Corrin is your father's bone
witch?"

"Was. And no, he had no magic."

"He?" The crone looked indignant.
"A 'he' does not deliver a mark."

"And yet he did." Alaysha wanted
to goad her now, just because of the indignant way the woman looked and the way
she felt at the woman's patronizing tone.

"And without magic?" The woman
huffed. "Impossible. What gave him the right?"

Alaysha shrugged. "My father gave him
the right."

The woman threw up her hands in disgust and
eyed Thera eyed thoughtfully. "A man does not give rights to anyone."
She shouted for the boy who had run toward Cai's cottage and who was now
sprinting back. "Where is Komandiri Cai? You should know better than to
return without her."

The boy sprinted off again and Thera turned
to Alaysha. "We best hear more about this father of yours. Uta will want
to know all of it."

Uta sent a scathing glance Yenic's way who
had stood quietly during the entire exchange but who eyed the old woman
thoughtfully nonetheless.

"Find a place away from here, man.
This is woman's business."

Instead of acting as though dismissed,
Yenic sent her a broad, bright smile. "Your merest desire is my
command." He sauntered away, whistling a lark's tune, but Alaysha knew it
was all show. His arrogance would never allow him to be brow beaten. He'd take
a fight, but not much else.

Cai passed him in the compound, but she
neither looked at him or swerved to avoid him. It was as though he simply
wasn't there. In fact, every woman in the village treated him as if he was
invisible. Cai took her elbow when she got close enough and with Thera steered
her toward a hewn log meant as a resting place for a weary gardener out at the
back of Thera's garden where privacy from passers by could be found. The trees
surrounding the garden stood about a dozen paces away and framed it like a
border, its dense underbrush masking it effectively from peekers-in.

"Sit, Alaysha. There's no reason we
can't talk without fear."

"I don't fear you."

Alaysha caught the look Cai sent Thera, one
that said she thought she was foolish, but to her credit, the warrior never
said it. What she did was to stretch her legs out in front of her, letting her
circlets she wore rattle against each other. Alaysha couldn't take her eyes off
them as Cai flexed her thigh muscles. They weren't stones, not exactly. Not
even shells. Fragments of bones, perhaps, but far too regular. She tasted sour
bile when she realized what they actually were.

"Those are teeth," Alaysha said.

"Taken from our enemies. I told you
this."

"No. You told me a girl earns a
circlet in war."

Cai nodded. "And takes the teeth of
each man she kills. Yes."

"And what of the women?"

Thera answered, looking Alaysha up and
down. "The women are allowed to come here."

"To be slaves."

"No. Never slaves. To be part of us.
To breed our children, to nurse our young. They're welcome. Never
chattel."

"And if they refuse?"

Cai chuckled. "It is been many seasons
and at least a generation since the Enyalia have been refused such sanctuary.
In truth, we don't need to war so often either." She rattled her circlets.
"Young ones have less teeth for their circlets these days. These are
becoming as thin as our tribe." She looked up at Alaysha with a piercing
gaze. "We don't seek war—it comes to us. Men have always wanted to win
Enyalia. Imagine a world where the women are alone. Where they have no men to
compete for attention. Where a single woman is as good as ten regular females.
It's an intoxicating notion for them." She shrugged. "And they
come."

"And you kill them."

"Wouldn't you?"

Yes. Alaysha would, she had to admit.
"Then why raid for men at all?"

Again, the shrug. "We choose what is
best for Enyalia, not simply take what comes calling. Enough of this." She
leaned forward, her elbows on her knees.

"I don't know any more about Gael's
Mark. I swear."

Cai nodded. I know. I believe you. You
believe her too, don't you, Thera?"

Theron neither nodded nor shook her head
and Cai continued. "You see, it makes perfect sense that you don't
know—no one should, but it doesn't explain how he came by it. So you must
instead tell me about your—father—is it? Do I pronounce that right?"

Alaysha bit her tongue at the comment that
wanted out. "Why is it so precious to you?"