Warrior and Witch (37 page)

It could be that the witches had successfully located the dissidents’ base in Kalistyi, and hadn’t told him. And they could be preparing to deal with the problem their own way.

Hunters against witches. The two groups had never come into open conflict; Eclipse tried to think through how it might work. Killing a witch could be done; Tari-nakana’s assassination had shown that. To kill a lot of them, though, you couldn’t pick them off one by one; the others would become alerted far too quickly. A full-on attack, though, threw away the advantages the Wolfstars would have and put them right up against magic. They would have to find a way around that.

Poison? Wolfstars didn’t use it as much as Stoneshadows, their bonded counterparts, but that didn’t mean they didn’t know how. They’d have to get in close, though, to make that work, and surely the dissidents had defenses just as much as Starfall did.

So they would need the help of witches. Which Satomi could provide for them.

He couldn’t ask anyone if his speculations were right. All he could do was put the report in the stack of things he
wasn’t
going to report to Starfall. It was a delicate game he played, convincing them he wasn’t a threat to Mirei; exposing a plan to assassinate their own people wouldn’t help him any.

In the meantime—just in case he was wrong—he went back to trying to find where the dissidents had gone to ground.

Indera didn’t mind the witch showing up to make them practice. She would have done it anyway. She wasn’t like the others; she had drive. She
definitely
wasn’t like the witch-girls, who grumbled every time they had to do something physical.

But it wasn’t as satisfying with the witch there. However much Indera despised Mirei, who claimed to be Mirage but wasn’t, at least that woman knew how to make them work. The witch just waved vaguely for them to do their “usual things,” and left it at that. Even Ashin—Indera refused to think of the woman as her mother—had been better.

When practice was done with and the others were wandering off, Indera hung back. If she couldn’t have a proper practice, she could at least have a longer one. Hone her body into a weapon, the way it was meant to be. She had to savor every moment while she could, before she lost it all.

The witch didn’t leave, though. She waited, too, as the other girls went back to the main halls, and then spoke to Indera.

“I’m impressed by the skill you girls show.”

“Thank you,” Indera began without enthusiasm, and then realized she’d forgotten the witch’s name and Ray.

“Tajio,” the witch said with a faint smile. “Void Head.”

“Tajio-ai,” Indera finished.

“I’d never seen a doppelganger before, you know, and I haven’t seen you girls much since you arrived. You truly are… interesting.”

The woman was looking at her like she was some kind of new bug. Indera wished she would go away; the air was chilling her muscles rapidly. At this rate, she’d have to warm up all over again if she wanted to practice more.

Yet Tajio kept talking. “If you don’t mind my saying so, though—”

I do
, Indera thought furiously.

“You don’t seem entirely happy.” The Void witch gave her a sympathetic look. “Is there anything I might do to help?”

Indera threw her towel down and glared at the woman. “Not unless you can convince somebody to let me go back to Silverfire, where I could train for
real
.”

Tajio’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, ‘for real’?”

“I mean that if I were there, I’d be training every waking minute to be a Hunter. Not this slow, stupid—I’m not even going to get to
be
a Hunter. They could have at least left me there until it was time.”

“As I understand it,” Tajio said, coming closer, “you were in danger there.”

Indera scowled. “Oh, yeah. Danger. Just because one stupid Windblade disappeared. And she’s not even
dead
. If these other witches hate her so much, why haven’t they killed her?”

Tajio smiled thinly. “Oh, I’m sure they’d like to. But they can’t.”

“
Can’t
? What, you’re telling me a bunch of big magical witches can’t kill one girl? Or that some stupid Wind-blade is so amazing she defeats everybody they send against her? Or that they’re afraid of what’ll happen if they
do
kill her?” Indera snorted in contempt. “They’re already in trouble with the Void Prime. I doubt they care what anybody would think if they killed some girl.”

“No, of course not. What I meant is that they can’t kill
Naspeth
. Not without Urishin.”

That made no sense. “What?”

The Void witch’s eyes widened again. “You mean—Haven’t they told you?”

Now Indera was getting suspicious. “Told me what?”

“That you can’t be killed.”

It was like descending a staircase and thinking there would be one more step at the bottom. The ground thudded up unexpectedly beneath Indera. “I can’t
what
?”

“You share one soul,” Tajio said, and her tone took on the lecturing quality Indera was getting so very sick of here in Starfall. But this time the subject interested her, and so she paid attention. “Two bodies, one soul. If one body is killed, but the other survives, then the dead one will come back to life. They can’t kill Naspeth without Urishin.”

“You mean they need to, what, kill both at once?”

“Yes,” Tajio said. “Or else to get one to kill the other. That’s what they sent Miryo to do; did they tell you about that? If the witch and the doppelganger share a soul, then they are the only ones who can kill each other separately.”

Indera was fascinated against her will. “What happens if they do?”

Tajio shrugged. “The witch has always killed the doppelganger, so far as I know. When she does, then her magic stabilizes; she comes home and takes up duties as usual. She has to do that; if she doesn’t, then her magic will be out of control, and will kill them both.” She caught herself, and smiled thinly again. “At least, that’s how it used to be. But I’ve never heard of an instance of a doppelganger killing the witch.” Her expression became distant as she considered it. “Well, I can only imagine that it would eliminate the magic, since the witch-half is the one power is channeled through. I expect the doppelganger would continue on as it has up until that point, just as the witch keeps her power when the doppelganger is dead.”

Then the woman’s eyes cleared, and she looked back to Indera, no longer lost in the airy land of speculation and theory. “But of course the entire point of this is to keep you both alive. And, eventually, to make you one person.”

“Yeah,” Indera said, losing her enthusiasm for the conversation. Her muscles had gone stone cold; there was no point in trying to practice more. She’d have to wait for tomorrow. “I should get back inside.”

“Yes, of course,” Tajio said, and gestured for the girl to precede her down the path. Indera picked up her towel and headed for the buildings, thinking about what the witch had said.

Chapter Sixteen

Ashin had jammed a wad of cloth into her mouth before Mirei began the translocation spell, so when they came out of the Void she bit down hard on it and mostly muffled her screams. Mirei lurched off to one side the minute they reappeared, feeling none too well herself.
Damn. Pulling people through hits me harder than just moving myself
. She leaned against a rock and convinced herself not to vomit.

Falya had provided them with the perfect destination, she saw when she finally lifted her head. A stream wound its way down between the heavy granite knobs of the mountains, and plunged over a man-high precipice just to their left. In front of them, a gnarled cherry tree had taken root firmly enough that it formed a small, stubborn island in the middle of the stream, which flowed around it to either side before rejoining and continuing down into a meadow. This had been Falya’s favorite place to come when she was shirking chores. It was sheltered, with a jutting ridge of stone between it and her family’s cottage, and unless you went around the long way and came right up into the meadow, there was no way to see anyone here.

Ashin was regaining control of herself; her hyperventilation slowed, and she took the gag from her mouth. Righting herself from where she’d curled up on her side, she managed a shaky laugh. “When I first heard you could do that, I thought you could make yourself the most popular woman in Starfall, ferrying witches to wherever they needed to go. I’m sorry to tell you, but I don’t think people will be lining up for this.”

“It was brave of you to volunteer,” Mirei said.

Ashin shrugged with a growing semblance of her usual composure. “We used you in our schemes. Saved your life, as it turned out, but still—we used you. We owe you a debt for that. And I owe you for Sharyo’s life.” Another shaky laugh. “And Indera’s. Although I’m still not used to thinking of her as mine.”

“Do you talk with her often?” Mirei asked, picking up the bundle Ashin had dropped.

“Indera? No. She doesn’t like me very much.”

“Nor does she like Sharyo. I thought getting the two of them to meet would put her fears to rest, but I don’t think it has. Indera’s too fond of being a doppelganger, with all the associated benefits.”

Ashin shrugged again. “She’ll have to get used to the idea of losing them. But she has years before that will happen, at least.”

I hope time does the trick
. Mirei pinched the nerve between her thumb and forefinger, trying to combat her headache, then gave it up as a lost cause. “Do you feel up for a little healing? I’d rather not be off my game while we’re here.”