Blood Witch (22 page)

"What of Yenic?"
Aedus asked.

"What do you
think?"

"I think you're
going to try to free him."

Alyasha didn't
need to provide an answer.

Chapter 21

Yenic looked tired and haggard by the time she made
it to the courtyard, where she knew Yuri had decided to dispense in
justice by the crowd that had gathered.

It was obvious that the battle between him and
Bodiccia hadn't ended in the cave; Yenic's face was bleeding below
the cheek, and Bodiccia stood beside him, holding the other end of
the chain that was wrapped around his neck. She had escaped battle
with the swollen and purple eye. Her nose was a squashed flat piece
of broken cartilage.

It pleased Alaysha
to see that he hadn't gone down without more of a fight. She felt
proud of him for a brief moment, then anxiety clamped down around
her when she saw Aislin step forward from the throng, pulling along
the girl from the parapet room, her face still swath in linens.

"My child for
yours," she shouted.

It took Yuri a
moment to respond and even from where Alaysha stood, she could see
that his mind was working even if his face gave away nothing.
Finally, he rattled Yenic's chain and shouted so loud the entire
crowd would be able to hear.

"Do you think I
would give up a killer to save a witch? You offer me nothing."

Alaysha's heart
sank, even if she knew he was merely strategizing.

Her father's face,
normally pale and solemn began to redden despite the obvious
working to keep his composure. She almost felt sorry for him.

"Where is my
son?"

Yenic shuffled his
feet and Alaysha's eyes went to Aislin's, whose expression turned
to something nasty looking. In the moment, she believed the witch
would set Yuri to flame and she wondered at Yuri's courage to stand
against her.

"That's a
dangerous accusation to make against a woman who can wipe you out
within a heartbeat," Aislin shouted.

Yuri's stance
never shifted. "You have Saxon. I know this."

Aislin lifted the
doppelgänger's arm to the air. "I seem to have your witch as
well."

The crowd shouted
out orders to kill, and even though Alaysha knew Aislin was merely
trying to outsmart Yuri, she still felt the snake of anxiety tingle
up her spine. She watched Yuri's face with interest.

"I want my son and
I'm not inclined to show mercy if I don't find him."

He motioned to
Bodiccia, who pulled the sword from her back and took a swinging
stance, ready to divest Yenic of his head. Alaysha wanted to shout
out to him, but the words choked off in her throat as Aislin pull
the linen from the doppelgänger's face.

The crowd within
view of the girl whooped their pleasure, some of them yelled at
Aislin to be done with it and kill the witch. Alaysha thought her
legs went to water. But for the fact that the girl's chin was a
mess of blackened skin and blistering sores, she could have been
her true double. She fleeted a glance to Yuri, who remained
impassive. Yenic, however, had buckled beneath the sight. He was
trying to maintain his feet under the weight of the chains.

Aislin stepped
closer to Yuri, pulling the doppelgänger with her and twisted
sideways to address the crowd. "My son, your son. We both want
something from the other but neither of these is the true
price."

She dropped the
girl's hand, and for some reason, the girl's eyes moved across the
crowds and found Alaysha's. Their gazes held, and her memory reeled
backward so far her ears were filled with piteous squalls of a
hungry infant. She felt again the warmth of another body next to
hers for brief moments, realized the sense of a tiny hand grasping
her heel.

Her sister. Her
baby sister.

Alaysha wanted to
cry out, and saw her own hand lifting to the air, reaching out to
her. How had she let that memory go to, that memory so full of
contentment and peace it would have been pleasurable in the dark
nights in the caverns to remember it. Alaysha took an involuntary
step forward, thinking to rush the space and grasp at her sister,
but something was wrong with the girl's face. It was crumpling.
Fire leapt from her tunic and danced up her arm. She shrieked with
such pain, Alaysha swore she could feel it in her own chest,
burning, such searing agony. In heartbeats, the girl was gone, and
all that was left was a smoldering pile of cinders.

After that,
nothing made sense. Alaysha noted bursts of fire leaping through
the crowd, people screaming, scattering. She thought she saw Yenic
collapse to his knees; Yuri's guards stormed the fire witch only to
catch flame before they took five steps.

More fires began
to hopscotch through the remaining crowd, dancing from one head to
the next. Flames leapt from a man's tunic and danced up his
arm.

All of this she
saw but could not process. She watched Yuri draw his blade and push
Bodiccia out of the way, as he hefted his own blade towards Yenic's
neck.

Aislin's cold
smile was the only thing that did register.

Alaysha had wanted
Yuri dead, but in the moment that he froze beneath Aislin's power,
in the heartbeat when she swore she reached out to his heart, it
had begun to grow feverish with blood. She thought she felt regret
there, grief as well, as she reached out to him, drew her psyche to
his sweat and pores and the liquid in his body. She thought of the
broad river so deep it had no bottom, so wide it had no banks, and
she thought how cold it must be there.

Then she thought
how absolutely she hated Aislin. She had the vague sense that it
was raining, that the courtyard had emptied of people, that both
Yuri and Aislin were watching her with some odd expectation, and
then they just fell, both of them, where they stood. Alaysha felt a
prickly tension in her neck. Her hand went to it, not thinking, and
came away purple and sticky.

She thought she
was falling and thought it odd that following would feel so much
like being scooped up and carried.

Chapter 22

She woke to the sound of dripping water. It seemed as
though the bed she was lying on was made of stone. The air held so
much dampness she could have believed she was sleeping beneath the
broad sea except she could still breathe. Each inhale smelled like
she was dragging in a dog's breath, but still, she could
breathe.

She rolled over to
her side and groaned. A scuffling sound came from behind her and
she tried to jump to her feet, ready to face whatever sweating
beast was fouling the air. She didn't make it to her knees before
she teetered back over.

"You're awake." A
voice came from the shadows, and she felt around in front of her
wondering why she couldn't see, then realized she was facing a
wall.

"I am," she said,
trying to figure out why she was so disoriented and why the words
had such a hard time moving across a tongue that was as thick as it
was. Her ears too must have grown excess flesh; she could swear she
heard Gael's voice answering.

She twisted onto
her bottom so she could see where she was. There was no panic. That
must mean something. A pool of light played with the shadows on the
floor. She realized the shadows were tree branches.

She knew where she
was.

Her little cave in
the woods. She was home. That must mean these blurry creatures
shuffling about in the half dark were Aedus and – dare she believe
it – Gael.

"How long?" she
asked, knowing as she did the skylight told her early evening. The
moon loved to dance over that hole. It was why she'd chosen this
cave.

"A couple of
hours." Aedus's voice.

Alaysha leaned
back and closed her eyes, trying to create some sense in all that
had happened. When she opened them, Gael's furrowed brow had
somehow crept close to hers. She reached out to run a finger across
it. She thought she saw him ease his eyelids closed, but she
couldn't tell in the light.

"It is you," she
said.

"Yes," he said.
"Did you sleep well?"

She smiled,
thinking about the time she'd asked him the same question. "At
least I don't snore."

"The Deities you
don't."

Alaysha tried to
stand and felt Gael's hand on her back. "Careful," he said. "You'll
be dizzy."

"Can you walk?"
Aedus's voice again. She stepped into the pool of light where
Alaysha could see her.

"Of course."
Alaysha took a step and wondered why so many stars had suddenly
come out. She heard Gael chiding Aedus.

"Why did you have
to shoot her anyway?"

"I told you; I
shot them all. I had to."

He grunted and
hefted Alaysha into his arms. She felt safe, comfortable, and
thoroughly miserable. Her complaints sounded weak even to her own
ears.

"We have to get
moving," Aedus explained. "If you're coming around, so are they,
and we don't want them – either of them – finding us here."

By them, Alaysha
assumed she meant Yuri and Aislin. For some reason she had the
feeling she should remember something and then it flooded into her
consciousness.

"They have
Yenic."

"Bodiccia has
Yenic," Aedus corrected her.

"What was going
on, Aedus?"

The girl shrugged.
"I don't know, but none of it looked promising."

Gael's steady rise
and fall of his chest was nearly as mesmerizing as a lullaby;
Alaysha had to work to keep her eyes open and her mind focused. She
let her head fall into the crook of his elbow.

"Something isn't
right."

"You're finally
talking sense," Aedus said, and Gael murmured his agreement.

"It didn't look
like anyone was going to be living through that."

Alaysha realized
somehow he'd been there. She didn't care how or why. As events
began flooding back, she was just relieved they'd both been there.
A few heartbeats more and she wasn't sure what would've happened.
Just recalling the sense of controlled, but very fierce power
slithering from her in tendrils of incredible emotion made her
realize how much the energy could take and give. How powerful it
really was. It unnerved her.

"The city –"

"Is wet but not
flooded. I must have got you out in time." Gael gave her a squeeze
as Aedus said it, almost as though he was grateful.

"You were there,"
Alaysha whispered.

"At the last,
yes."

Aedus seemed to
grow impatient. "We have to move. We're not safe here."

Thinking made
Alaysha's head hurt, but she knew the safest bet was within the
tunnels. "There's a tunnel over there. It goes for long time. I've
never reached the end but I've never run out of air either." As a
suggestion, it was weak and she knew it, but she also figured no
one would be interested in following a tunnel very far.

"I can walk," she
told Gael, but he ignored her and forged ahead. In truth, she was
still terribly tired, and she welcomed the chance to close her
eyes. It was testament to Gael's robust strength that he had been
able to shake off Aedus's sleep darts before so easily. It made her
wonder what effect they would leave on Yenic or Yuri or Aislin.
Yuri and Aislin. They'd wanted each other dead, but there was
something more in the undercurrents of that exchange. She just
couldn't fight her way through the grief or betrayal to decipher
it. She wasn't sure which emotion she should feel, and decided
neither was the best choice. At least for the time being.

She must have
dozed because her mind stopped working and instead she dreamed of
her seeds. She came to consciousness telling herself she wouldn't
forget to collect them, then realized they were no longer walking.
Instead of being cushioned in Gael's arms, she was lying between
him and Aedus in the deep dark. A draft of air stole its way from
the bowels of the tunnel, raising the hair on her arms. Aedus was
snoring. Gael was not.

"Feeling better?"
he asked, his lips close to her ear.

She nodded. "How
did you know I was awake?" She realized his palm was on her belly
as she asked it.

"I could feel the
shift in your breathing."

She reached to
touch his fingers with her own, and thought better of it. The last
thing she wanted to do was hurt him any more. She was finally
beginning to understand the pain of loss and love and it was too
much to stand against; she couldn't offer him false hope knowing
he'd grieve later.

"Gael," she
started to say but his palm moved to cup her chin.

"I hated this
tattau before," he murmured. "Now it haunts me."

She reached to
take his hand from her face gently. "Please," she said, not sure
what she meant by it, but hoping he'd understand her
hesitation.

"I'm fine," he
said. "We've made our choices, and I understand them."

"You don't sound
fine."

The only sound for
a short time was Aedus's soft snoring, but when he did speak it was
with a voice thick with emotion. "It's only because I still ache
for you. I worry for you."

Two very different
emotions, and yet Alaysha understood them both. The worry, the
lust, the sense that both could become so tangled together. She
thought of Yenic and felt a stab of regret, then of longing. Still,
knowing he was so completely his mother's tool, she loved him.

She knew she would
be lying to herself if she didn't admit to feeling a similar want
for Gael. There was something primal about having another person
want you so badly they would offer their body in protection for
your own, about another's willingness to take even a shadow of you
if you would offer it. It was a different need than the one she
felt for Yenic, but it was no less strong. She reached for his hand
in the dark and held it. The flesh of his palm was hot and
callused, so much so that she couldn't stop imagining how it would
feel smoothing out her skin, catching against the fine hairs of her
body.