Warrior and Witch (6 page)

“Shimi has spread confusion among the witches in her care,” Arinei said. This much, at least, Satomi granted her: in public, in ritual, she showed no sign of her own doubts and dissension. “She has failed in her duty to lead them. For this, we censure her.”

And now it was Satomi’s time to speak, too soon, last in a series of four instead of a series of five. “For her actions, we hereby censure Shimi. Let it be known to all the witches of her Ray and of others that from this time onward, we suspend her authorities, privileges, and powers as the Prime of the Ray of Air, until such time as a majority of three Primes in agreement see fit to reinstate her in her position.”

Ruriko brought a small table forward and set it on the dais before Satomi. On the table were the foci for the spell. Though not as complex by half as the ritual that installed a witch as Prime, suspension was difficult enough to require aids.

Their four voices blending together, the Primes took up the foci and sang the spell that made their words into reality. Some of the powers granted to a Prime were magical; others were tradition and law. The ability to send to the Ray as a whole, to raise or dismiss Keys, to admit a new witch into the Ray. These things and more they took from Shimi, by the power of the spell they sang. Satomi took the part of Air in the chorus; the Void Prime always sang the missing Element, unless she was the one suspended, because there was no role in it for Void power. She wondered, briefly, if it would be rewritten some day, when witches like Mirei ruled.

The closing declaration did not take long, and then the Primes exited through a side door. Arinei immediately began stripping off the ceremonial robe of gold and red that she wore over her dress, with stiff, tight motions that communicated her mood better than angry words could. Koika and Rana did the same, more slowly, not looking at Arinei.

Satomi herself stayed by the door, listening to the snatches of conversation that emerged into audibility as the assembled witches filed out of the hall.

Among them she heard murmurs of discontent, and she was afraid.

Chapter Three

Jaguar backed away from the cabinet, allowing Mirei to move out into the room again. At a nod from the Grandmaster, she sat down in one of the chairs set before his desk. He remained standing, knife still in hand.

She let out a slow breath and laid her hands flat on her knees, stilling her nerves. “This is… delicate information. There are problems among the witches right now, and some people wouldn’t be happy that I’m telling you about them. But I owe allegiance as much to Silverfire as to Starfall, and besides—I need your help.”

“There have been witches here,” he said, after a moment’s pause. “Outside Silverfire, that is—not in the compound. We don’t
think
. Witches, or Cousins. They haven’t done anything yet, but it has us nervous. Indent’s hair has red in it, and many people know that Amas dyes hers. We suspected this had to do with them.”

“How long have they been watching, do you think?”

“Six days.”

Shimi hadn’t known where the doppelgangers were that long ago. It had to be Ashin’s fellow conspirators, following through on the instructions Mirei had given them right after her transformation, to keep the doppelgangers safe.
Best not to explain that to Jaguar, though; too complicated. Stick with the current problem
.

She ran one hand over her cropped hair, then made herself stop. “There’s at least one witch who is probably going to try and kidnap those two. Kidnap them, and later kill them. So, in short, I’ve come to ask you to let me take them away.”

“For what purpose?”

Protection did not need to be named. “Eventually, they’ll be like me. They’ll rejoin with their witch halves.”

“Or die.”

“Not if we can prevent it.”

Jaguar paced, wariness lining his body with tension. He was old, but still hard. “I knew when they came here that the past was repeating itself in some fashion. Not exactly, of course—Tari-nakana bought your training here, while these girls were both brought by their parents. But still, to see two more, with the kinds of gifts you have—you
had
—I wondered if there was Starfall influence I was not seeing.”

“Yes and no,” Mirei said. Certain witches would no doubt cheerfully beat her for airing their dirty laundry in front of an outsider. Then again, other witches—Ashin’s “heretics”—had paid her, an outsider, to investigate Tari-nakana’s assassination, to confirm their suspicions. Or were supposed to have paid her. She wondered if she would ever see the money, or the boons she and Eclipse were owed.

“Tari-nakana,” she said, leaning forward. “She paid for me to come here, yes, and talked you into taking me even though I was thirteen. She knew what I was. After that, she went and arranged for others like me to survive. They’re called doppelgangers. She got them fostered with false parents, and probably made sure the children would be sent to Hunter schools when they were old enough. But it wasn’t a Starfall thing. Remember how I was hired to Hunt her assassin, and whoever hired
him
? He was working for the Primes.”

Jaguar stared at her. “But you were hired by witches yourself.”

“Renegades. That’s why they turned to outsiders for help; they couldn’t trust their own. The Primes had Tari-nakana killed because of what she was doing with the doppelgangers. It’s a metaphysical thing; they thought doppelgangers were a threat to the existence of magic itself. Which turns out not to be true, and I’ve convinced them of that.”
Sort of
, her mind whispered caustically. “It doesn’t bring Tari-nakana back, though.” She had never thought of it before now, but Tari-nakana had died because of her. Mirei regretted that she had never had a chance to speak to the woman.

“So who are they in danger from?”

“Well, not everybody agrees with me yet. It’s going to mean some big upheavals in the way they do things, and of course you’re going to get resistance to that. That’s a general problem, though, not the specific one. There’s this one witch from Kalistyi who has fairly Nalochkan attitudes about the Warrior—” Mirei stopped, momentarily frustrated by the tangle of concepts packed behind her words, which she couldn’t find a simple way to explain. She had never expected to sit in the office of the Grandmaster of Silverfire and talk metaphysics.

But Jaguar was not a stupid man. He had risen to his position partly by virtue of his ability to take scattered pieces of information and link them together by intuitive leaps. Nodding, he said, “So these girls, these doppelgangers, are associated with the Warrior. Which is why they’re stronger and faster. Why they understand fighting, and learn it so well.”

Mirei nodded in reply. “Dancing, too—anything physical. Anything based on
movement
, I should say. Which is something I still don’t quite get yet; the Warrior’s Element is the Void, so why are they associated with the physical? But whatever it is, the doppelgangers are that part of the self, while the witch-halves are the rest of it. The four concrete Elements, the four Aspects of the Goddess that are stages of life.”

“And they used to kill doppelgangers. So this one witch believes they should still do so, and will attempt to follow through.” Jaguar walked to the window and gazed out over the compound. Mirei could hear the sounds, faintly, of Silverfire’s daily life, adolescents being trained to spy and kill for those who could pay them. The noise was as familiar as the ever-present singing at Starfall.

Jaguar nodded to himself, still looking out the window. “We can defend them.”

“No offense, sir, but I don’t think so.”

Now he turned to face her, and he did not look amused. “You don’t think we’re a match for a single witch?”

Void it
, Mirei thought wearily.
Why did I ever think I could get away without telling him everything? We’re bloody well trained to investigate. I’ll be lucky if I keep the decorations on the walls of Satomi’s office a secret
.

Hanged for a fleece, hanged for a sheep. If she didn’t convince Jaguar, no way in the Void was she taking those two doppelgangers without resorting to serious magic. “It might not be just a single witch. You see, the one we’re worried about is the Air Prime.”

Of all the Rays to be in danger from, that might be the worst. Like Silverfire Hunters, Air witches were itinerant They did different work and served out of charity, rather than for money, but the similarities were enough that Jaguar could visualize the situation without her coloring it in for him. Air witches were
everywhere
. They weren’t tied to specific places. They were mobile, adaptable, and therefore highly dangerous. They lacked the resources of other Rays, but anyone who had ever worked as a Silverfire Hunter knew how far you could still get without those, if you were creative enough. The real question was how many of them would follow Shimi, if she told them to cause trouble.

“The ones we’ve been seeing around,” Jaguar began.

“
Probably
not hers, though I can’t say for sure. I think they belong to the renegades I mentioned, the ones who hired me. They’ve been worried about coming out into the open, and what might happen to the other doppelgangers. I can find out. Silverfire’s not going to be safe, though; she knows your two are here. The Void Prime was all set to send witches in after these girls herself, to get them to safety. I talked her out of it because I know what response that would get. But Shimi, the Air Prime, may not have such compunctions. She gets a couple of witches to help her out, and she could burn this place to the ground.”

It wouldn’t solve the problem of the doppelgangers; they would just come back to life, as long as their doubles were still alive. Sharing a soul was an odd business. Mirage had died twice, Miryo once. Mirei remembered all three, and shuddered to imagine what burning to death would be like.