A Time of Dying (Araneae Nation) (5 page)

Fingers trembling, I peered between my knuckles.

A dozen steps away, a pale hand shot from the ground, fingers clawing at the moonlight.

Hope set my pulse hammering. I slid through muck and grasped the icy hand. Dainty fingers wrapped around mine, yanking with supernatural strength. Her desperation to be freed left me mired in dreck. I was sinking into the mud faster than I could scoop it. Sludge squished through my hands as I discovered an elbow, clasped a shoulder. Picked slush from an ear, a nose, and then a gaping mouth. With the head cleared of muck, I stared into a face I never expected to see again.

Mud turned her hair stringy, clay dyed it red. Her eyes were milky white and empty, her skin stained. The plague had left her cadaverous. Her nails were jagged from digging out her grave.

“Maier,” I breathed her name.

Her head cocked to one side, and she lifted her other hand skyward. “Help me.”

“I’m here now.” I ran my palm over her hair. “It’s all right. I’ll take you home.”

She planted her palms on the ground and grunted, pushing until her knees cleared the slush. She flung her head back and issued a keening cry that broke my heart. Then she backhanded me. Blood exploded in my mouth as I flew backward. While I lay wheezing on the ground, she raised her hand to strike again. Before she swung, a low buzz began vibrating my teeth until they throbbed.

Then it occurred to me…if Maier’s mouth had been buried, then who had cried for help?

“Lepus turns chewy if you let it get cold.”

I shivered free of the past. “What?”

Murdoch wiped his mouth with a crumpled scrap of fabric. “Are you eating or aren’t you?”

My stomach tightened at the memory of Maier’s emaciated face. “No.”

Carrying a plate to the bed, he sat beside me and speared a hunk of meat. He pressed against my lips when my mouth stayed shut. Steam rose to tickle my nostrils. I coughed and dry heaved.

“My nephew knows that trick too.” Murdoch pinched a roll and held it out for me. “He used it when his mother cooked a meal he didn’t like. Though he sticks a finger down his throat first.”

Being compared to an unruly child tempted me to act like one, but if I opened my mouth, he would stuff it full of roll. Instead, I ignored him in favor of the hall. He’d left the door open, and I had a view of the room across the way. Leaned against its frame was Lleu, who blew me a kiss.

“Don’t encourage him.” Murdoch rose, stalked across his room and slammed the door in his friend’s face. “He’s worse than a case of fleas and twice as hard to get rid of. Trust me. I know.”

Since he stood across the room, it seemed safe enough to say, “I want no male’s attention.”

“Then you’re doomed to a life of disappointment, because no male will ever pass you by and not take a second look, or a third if he thinks you didn’t notice the first two.” He watched for a reaction. It satisfied me not to show him one. “Now. When I asked you if you were eating or not, what I meant was—are you feeding yourself or am I shoveling it in for you? My orders are to get food down your gullet, then escort you to the maven’s quarters for a bath and change of clothes.”

He leaned down and offered me the same bite of bread. Despite the unease churning my gut, I snatched the morsel from him with my teeth, gulping it whole. “Untie me and I’ll feed myself.”

Murdoch wiped the edge of my mouth with his thumb. “I’m going to regret this.”

Setting me free? Yes. I would make sure of it.

I wobbled like a filly on unsteady legs, my hands braced on the walls to either side of me. It took three times as long to reach Mana’s room as it would have if I had accepted Murdoch’s arm, but I was tired of being dependent on him. I was ready to stand on my own. He made no comment as I crept down the hall, just trailed after me, barking orders at any who came too close or stared too long at me. Ah. So this was how one treated mavens in Cathis. I couldn’t say I cared for it.

It must drive Mana insane to have a path cleared for her when she would rather blaze her own.

When at last I reached the end of the hall, Murdoch sidestepped me and rapped his knuckles on the door. It swung open to reveal a fresh-faced Mana. Steam poured from the room, the scent of lavender billowing past her to perfume the hall. Her pink cheeks stretched in a smile.

“Your timing is excellent.” She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “Your bath is ready.” She gestured toward an enormous metal tub perched on clawed feet. “Come in, come in.”

Murdoch grasped my arm, and I snapped at him, “You can’t believe I would hurt her.”

“You would do whatever necessary to escape being part of Hishima’s welcome party.”

He had me there. “I’m in no condition to run, and I have no weapons left.” Thanks to him.

“While I’m relatively certain of the former, I don’t buy the latter for a minute.” He looked to Mana. “One of us has to search Kaidi. She’s clever with her weapons, and she can’t be alone with you until I know she’s unarmed.”

Mana was already shooing him. “I’ll handle it.”

“I won’t leave until it’s done, Maven.” His grip on me tightened.

As if realizing all her precious steam was escaping, she dragged Murdoch into the room and me along with him. She pointed toward a stool tucked in the far corner. “You, go sit. Back facing the tub.” He followed orders without complaint. “Now, Kaidi, let’s get you out of those clothes.”

Though I had shared a bathing room with Mana before, it was only now occurring to me that she ought to have a servant for such hard labor. Even with the lack of females, Mana was maven.

Doubt trickled in, and I wondered if our cozy privacy wasn’t meant to foster sharing secrets.

But I was so sore and stiff, my clothes so filthy, I appreciated her helping hands. I doubted I could have lifted my arms over my head and removed my shirt or bent to tug my pants down my legs or yanked the muddy boots from my swollen feet myself. Without the weight of those bleak clothes, I almost felt…normal. For a moment, I pretended I was the old Kaidi, visiting my friend.

Except the old Kaidi would never have ventured inside Cathis. She had better sense.

“Here.” Mana took my elbow. “Let me help you.”

“Thanks.” Leaning against her, I was able to crawl into the tub and sink beneath the water. I surfaced with a moan. “I forgot how fresh a bath makes you feel, sparkling from the inside out.”

When Mana didn’t reply right away, I twisted around to see what held her attention.

Pinched between her finger and thumb, Mana studied the broken clasp on my silken chain. Without comment, she dropped it in a leather pouch she wore on her hip. Though I was tempted to cry foul, Murdoch waited in the corner, and the last thing I wanted was to draw his attention. I gritted my teeth and slumped under the bubbles.

“She’s unarmed,” Mana announced. “You can leave now, Murdoch.”

Wood scraped as he pushed back his seat. “Are you sure you want to be alone with her?”

“Would you rather explain to Paladin Hishima that you shared a bath with his future bride?”

Seconds passed while I imagined Mana giving him the imperial stare he had credited to me.

“I’ll be outside.” A chill draft swept past and raised gooseflesh on my arms.

“Thank you.” Mana’s boots clicked over the stone floor. She must have escorted Murdoch to his post because the door closed softer than I imagined Murdoch knew how to. A bucket hit my lap with a splash. “It’s going to take work, but I think we can untangle your hair before dinner if we get started now.” She had scooped and dumped water over my head before I could splutter at her insult. While I sat choking, she began lathering my hair. “While we have time on our hands, I want you to explain how you went from being a crystalier’s apprentice to decapitating corpses.”

She made it sound as if I had chosen this new occupation when it had chosen me.

“Did the paladin put you up to this?” Feed me, bathe me and pry secrets past my lips.

“You met my husband.” Her fingernails felt divine on my scalp. I almost purred as I craned my neck. “Do you really think he believes the way to earn cooperation is through kindness?”

Since she sounded mildly perturbed and not outright insulted, I told her the truth. “I think he will do whatever is necessary to get what he wants. If it means a hot meal and putting his wife at my disposal, that’s what he’ll do. Perhaps your affection blinds you to Vaughn’s true nature.”

“Yes, Kaidi, I am blind to
all
of my husband’s faults.” Mana’s burst of laughter shamed me. “Has any wife in the history of the second world ever uttered those words? I somehow doubt it.”

“You can’t enjoy being married to him.” I set my shoulders. “He’s
Mimetidae
.”

“I can, and I do.” She emptied a second bucket of water over my head. “Marriages are about compromise. Trust me when I say for each slight to his clan’s reputation hinted at by my friends, there are five Salticidae slurs spat at me when I wander the city streets without Vaughn’s escort.”

Her prickly reception as maven hadn’t occurred to me. “How can you stand living here?”

“Each dawn I pray the gods give me strength to be the maven our people need, then I turn to face my husband and know all my trials are worth enduring if they mean I can wake in his arms.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Exactly how long have you been wed?”

She tugged my hair playfully. “One day you’ll marry, and then I’ll laugh at your expense.”

“I don’t plan to.” What prospects did I have? I was poor and outcast, not exactly a catch.

The scrubbing of my hair slowed. “Does Hishima realize that?”

“He is aware of my reservations.” I smoothed the stump where my ring finger should be.

Her easy rhythm faltered at the sight of my hand. “Why did you run from him?”

“Does it matter?” I hid the ugly reminder of his cruelty under a cluster of bubbles.

She sighed. “If you’re asking if I can change Vaughn’s mind, then no, I can’t.”

“Then it doesn’t matter.” I slid lower in the tub. “Why talk about what we can’t change?”

“Fine.” She shoved my head below the suds. “Keep your secrets.”

I shot upright spitting mad, scooped up bathwater with the bucket and hurled its contents at Mana. Water splashed down the front of her dress and pooled at her feet. Her mouth dropped open, arms lifting to shield her face.

“Put that down.” She peeked at me through her fingers. “Before someone hears.”

I slowly lowered my weapon under the bubbles, refilling it to the brim as I went to my knees.

“Kaidi.” She used her sternest
I am maven
voice. “Put the bucket down.”

I took aim. “No. I don’t think I will.”

“Maven?” Murdoch’s bellow through the door made me pause. “Are you all right?”

While I was distracted, Mana dove at me, knocking me underwater. Suds plugged my ears. I still heard her winded laughter. When I surfaced, she hurled a cloth at my head, which I caught. I mopped my face and rested my cheek against the tub’s curved rim. The ache in my chest was so stark, I pressed a hand over my heart and rubbed until the skin was tender and Mana was staring.

My sisters and I had done this, laughed this way. We made our kitchen floor slick with soap and squealed while slipping and sliding over the tiles. I’d give anything to be that carefree again.

“We’re fine,” Mana called, patting her face dry. “We’ll be out in a minute.”

The knob rattled. “Are you sure?”

She scowled. “Twist that knob again and you’ll be dining at my table come suppertime.”

Sudden silence made my waterlogged ears ring. “What’s wrong with sitting at your table?”

“No meat.” She rubbed at her gown, then seemed to accept the need for a change. “For days after the plague passed, we ate vegetable soup. There was no safe game to eat. No stores of food that hadn’t been consumed. You’d think I was trying to kill them, when they’re perfectly capable of eating vegetables.” At my doubtful look, she sighed. “They don’t eat people. Well, not as food at least. Cannibalism is a spiritual act to them. They’re consuming the strength of their enemies.”

I waved my hand. “I don’t want to know.” A thought occurred to me. “The paladin said your clan lost the majority of its females, but there is an abundance of males who seem…unaffected.”

Though popular opinion was that the plague only infected females, I knew better. I had seen males infected as well. The weak ones vanished from their homes, never to be heard from again. The strong ones were found with their necks broken. Why more people didn’t ask how a plague snapped a neck was beyond me. I suppose they slept easier blaming rival clans for those deaths. I envied them their blissful ignorance. I wish I could rest without hearing the rustle of wings in my nightmares, without hearing that low droning hum that signaled death itself had taken to the air.

Her lips pursed. “Cathis was fortunate.”

Casting back on old rumors, I dredged up a memory. “Beltania was likewise blessed.” Beltania was the Salticidae clan home. What were the odds two cities connected by a walker would weather the plague so well compared to other clans? “You’re hiding something from me.”