The plaza was quieter now, subdued, and the goddess’s presence had faded from Lilla’s body, replaced with a cold rain that washed the blood and paint from his skin in long smears that stained his armour and kilt. It seemed fitting, somehow. The magic would linger in them, waiting until it was needed.
His Paw would be one of the first to leave, marching with five others to meet up with those already in Yaloh territory.
They would creep like the snake and the jaguar through the hills and jungle of Yalotlan and destroy every pyramid that reared above the green and living canopy. They would smash the supplies and free the slaves and only kill where there was no other choice. Those were the tasks for which Aez had died and for which they had begged Malel’s aid.
Ossa pranced towards him, his tail wagging furiously, and Lilla bent to scratch his ears, a smile curving his lips as the dog whined and wriggled with pleasure, collapsing onto his side to have his belly rubbed. ‘Wanton,’ Lilla murmured, but he obliged nonetheless.
Xessa hugged Lutek and Tiamoko for long seconds, kissing them both, before she clicked her fingers and Ossa sat up, alert. She pulled Lilla to his feet and then wrapped her arms around him too, standing on tiptoe to reach around his neck. He hugged her hard, a flower of anxiety blooming in his chest. If they go after the Drowned with both Tayan and me gone …
He pushed it away. Tika was leading the planning and practice; she would ensure they were ready before any attempt was made. He lifted Xessa off her feet and squeezed, then put her down and planted a kiss on her head. She was smiling when she looked up at him, but her eyes were shadowed with worry.
‘Be safe,’ she signed simply. Lilla nodded. She hesitated, then she licked her thumb and pressed it to his temple and he stilled, shocked, before a rush of affection and gratitude surged through him. She had gifted him a piece of her courage, her spirit, to aid him in the war. She had named him family.
He pulled her into another embrace, almost overwhelmed. Over her shoulder, he saw Toxte, Ilandeh, and Dakto approaching. Lilla let her go. ‘Look after this one for me when I’ve gone,’ he signed to Toxte.
Xessa’s eyes narrowed and her hands began to move, but Toxte interrupted, cocking an incredulous eyebrow. ‘She’s the one who looks after me and you know it,’ he replied. Xessa’s irritation turned to a blush of delight and Lilla hoped they would hurry up and become lovers before he got back. So much blood in their faces when it should be much further below. He grinned, but didn’t say it.
‘What’s wrong with those two?’ he signed instead, pointing at the Xentib who were arguing in low, intense voices.
Toxte shrugged. ‘They’ve been like it all morning, far as I can tell.’
‘Dakto,’ Lilla called, suddenly wanting to part with everyone on good terms and make sure Ilandeh did nothing to antagonise Xessa again while he was gone. ‘Everything all right?’
Dakto hurried over, Ilandeh trailing behind looking furious and bewildered and a little bit scared. His stomach turned over.
‘Fang Lilla,’ the Xenti said, ‘do you have room for one more in your Paw?’
Something that sounded suspiciously like a sob broke from Ilandeh’s mouth and she half turned away. Xessa, unsure what was happening, nevertheless went to her and put an arm around her shoulders.
‘You have been ordered to fight?’ Lilla asked, surprised.
Dakto shook his head. ‘No, but I want to. I’ve been out with you before. I’d like to fight at your side. With what’s coming – what you’re trying to achieve – I thought, well, I want to help.’
Lilla looked from Dakto to Ilandeh, staring at them from the protective circle of Xessa’s arms. Her expression was mingled betrayal and fury. He could see Ilandeh’s thoughts as clearly as if she signed them: Don’t say yes. Please don’t say yes. He stared around the plaza at the warriors scattered across its immensity with their families. The rain was steady and cold and they were all soaked, but few made their way to shelter. Time was slipping on, and at highsun they would form into their Paws and filter down through the city and out, down into the treeline, the jungle, gone.
Lilla still had to say goodbye to his mother and sisters, and yet here he was, dealing with the Xentib again. He swallowed his sigh. A flight of green and red parrots caught his eye, heading from someone’s allotment in the city down to the orchard. He watched them go, breathing in rain and stone and home. Ilandeh’s eyes were like coals on his skin.
‘It is dangerous, Dakto,’ he said eventually. ‘We risk much. We risk everything. Especially with the prohibition against fighting unless there’s no other choice.’
Toxte signed his response for Xessa and she tightened her arms on Ilandeh as the woman sagged. She was too shocked to cry.
‘I understand, Fang. This is … this has begun to feel like home, and we haven’t had that in a very long time.’ Dakto’s voice was low, but Ilandeh heard him anyway.
‘Then stay,’ she begged, on her knees in the rain now. Ossa licked her neck; she shoved him away. ‘Stay, Dakto. Please. I have no one else.’
‘You have Xessa and me,’ Toxte said immediately, signing the words. Xessa nodded.
Dakto crossed back to her and pulled her to her feet. ‘This is home,’ he repeated. ‘And I have the skills to defend it. I have to do that. Let me do that. Let me fight in Yalotlan, for our gods. Our future.’
‘We need all the help we can get, Ilandeh,’ Lilla said softly.
Ilandeh’s face crumpled. Dakto wouldn’t stay for her; he’d made that clear. Maybe if a Toko made the decision for them, it would be easier to live with.
‘Take him and go, and Malel watch over you both,’ Xessa signed, maybe coming to the same conclusion. ‘I love you.’
‘I love you too, crazy eja,’ Lilla signed. He wanted to tell her that Tayan would be back soon with news of the peace-weaving, but he feared the words might conjure his husband’s ghost. That perhaps a ghost was all that was left to them. ‘Come on then, Dakto,’ he said and Ilandeh finally began to cry.
Lilla looked to Toxte. ‘Look after her,’ he signed again and this time Xessa had to press her lips hard together against the storm of emotion.
‘I will,’ Toxte said aloud. ‘I swear. You just come back, Fang Lilla. We need you. Xessa needs you and him both.’
Lilla flinched that Toxte had conjured Tayan after all. Please, Malel, watch over my husband. Send him back to me alive. That’s all I ask.
Dakto extricated himself from Ilandeh’s grip and returned to Lilla’s side. ‘She may never forgive me for this, but I feel it, in here.’ He rubbed his chest. ‘This is the trail I’m supposed to walk. This is right.’
‘I make no promises to you, nor have I made any to the rest of my Paw – I cannot promise you will come back alive. I can promise I won’t risk you unnecessarily.’
Dakto looked at him; they were of a height, and the Xentib face was calm and clear. ‘That’s enough.’
The city was behind them. The best part of the day was behind them and they were deep in cultivated jungle, the trail just wide enough to walk two abreast as the cloud and the trees combined to steal the light. They’d have to rest soon.
‘Do you know any of our touch-sign?’ Lilla asked quietly, breaking the comfortable silence between him and Dakto.
The Xentib warrior skipped over a tangle of vine that crept across the trail, brow furrowed. ‘Touch-sign? What’s that?’
‘We’ve taught most of the Yaloh warriors; you should know too. It’s sign language for the dark.’
Dakto scowled, slowing. ‘But if it’s dark …’ he began. ‘Do you take me for a fool?’
‘Well, you did volunteer to destroy pyramids when you could have stayed at home.’ Lilla laughed as the man’s scowl deepened. ‘No, look, let me show you.’ He squinted down the trail. ‘Looks like we’re making camp anyway – there’s a clearing up ahead that should squeeze us all in. Come on.’
They pressed forward until the trail lightened and they could see the sky aga
in, filtering out into a clearing and finding a rotting tree to use as a lumpy seat. ‘Give me your arm. All right, touch-sign can never be as eloquent as full sign, but it’s still really useful. Here.’ He held Dakto’s forearm in his left hand and with his right drew a long straight line and then a triangle at the end – a basic arrow – with his fingernail. ‘Direction.’ Next, he drew a big cross. ‘Negative. So the arrow and the cross mean don’t go that way.’
Lilla drew a large loop from inner wrist, up the forearm and down to outer wrist. ‘What do you think that one is?’
Dakto looked up, biting his lip. ‘Apart from ticklish?’
‘Apart from ticklish,’ Lilla confirmed with a grin.
‘Well, supposing we are at the start point, it might be … go in a circle? Circle around?’
‘Retreat. See? You’ve gone back to the start. Circle is just that, a circle,’ and he drew on Dakto’s inner arm. He showed him a few more, making the Xenti close his eyes to really understand the feel of the instructions.
‘Good,’ he said a few minutes later. ‘Of course, we’ll have to practise, but—’
‘Let me try,’ Dakto interrupted and Lilla obediently extended his arm and closed his eyes. Dakto’s fingers were gentle on his arm and then his fingernail scratched a crossed arrow.
‘Don’t go that way,’ Lilla said, pointing and grinning. Dakto let out an annoyed huff and drew another sign. Lilla frowned. ‘Again.’ The sign again, lighter this time, even harder to read. He started to open his eyes when Dakto’s lips touched his, soft and hot and faintly salty. He sucked in a surprised breath and jerked away, his eyes flying open. ‘Dakto,’ he breathed.
Confusion flitted across his features. ‘But I thought …’
Lilla pulled his arm out of the man’s grip, embarrassment flaring hot. Had he missed the signs? Had there even been any signs? He didn’t think so. ‘No. I’m sorry if I led you to believe … but no. You know I’m married.’ He stood up, wiping flakes of bark from the seat of his kilt, flustered.
Dakto scrambled to his feet, too. ‘We’re going to war,’ he said in a low voice, his hand on Lilla’s arm to stay him. ‘We could die. Tayan might never come back from the Singing City.’
Lilla managed a small, pained smile. ‘I know.’ Dakto leant forward again, but Lilla put his hand on his chest, firm. ‘I know all that. And yet I am married. I’m sorry, my friend, but that’s all we can be. There are enough warriors around you who are free, though. Both Lutek and Tiamoko, for two. I could—’
‘I don’t want Lutek or Tiamoko,’ Dakto said and there was such despondency in his tone that Lilla almost felt guilty. ‘Forgive me, Fang, I have misread … everything. It won’t happen again.’ He moved to the other side of the clearing and stood there with his head bowed, ignoring the quiet industry as the camp was prepared.
For an instant, Lilla was tempted to call Dakto back and apologise again, but didn’t. Doing so would only give the man fresh hope and there was none to be had.
Tayan’s quick mouth and lively eyes flashed across Lilla’s mind, and his absence was suddenly sharper than obsidian. The words Lilla had spoken at their parting came back to him: ‘You’re taking my heart with you. Make sure you bring it back.’ And Tayan’s reply, whispered against his mouth as he stretched up for a final kiss: ‘I leave mine here, my love. Look after it.’
‘I will,’ he promised quietly. ‘Always.’
XESSA
Sky City, Malel, Tokoban
168th day of the Great Star at morning
Otek’s house smelt of chillies and honey: the scent of her childhood.
Xessa sat with Otek, Kime, and Toxte around her, her first father draped in the heat of three big dogs, each trying to cram into his lap or under his arms or against his neck. They were as gentle as ever, but Xessa watched closely to make sure Otek didn’t just give every morsel of food to the drooling animals. He was too thin these days, barely eating unless someone was with him, and the Wet had increased Xessa and Kime’s duties so that he was alone for long periods.
But as always, Otek’s face relaxed when he was around the dogs, and the animals all understood; they were never exuberant around the old man, instead sitting close, in Otek’s lap if they could manage it, heads pressed against the thin chest or under his chin. And Otek’s old hands would stroke them and fondle their big ears and a little of his spirit would return to his flesh.
It was a special duskmeal, and she was warm in the love of her family and quietly delighted that Toxte had agreed to come along. Tika had stopped by earlier as well, to check Xessa and Kime were ready for tomorrow. When they’d attempt to capture a Drowned.
Will. When we will capture a Drowned.
She pushed the thought away and clicked her tongue when Ossa tried to steal food from Otek’s hand. The dog’s ears went low and he gazed at her as if he’d never been fed in his entire life, but he didn’t try again. Xessa made sure her father ate it instead and was rewarded with Ossa’s wounded betrayal. The corner of her mouth twitched up despite herself.
‘Do you understand?’ Kime was signing, and Xessa focused back on the conversation. There was a good chance, after all, that neither of them would come back from the Swift Water tomorrow; she hated the thought of Otek not understanding where they’d gone.
Xessa, Tika, and Kime had spent a lot of time with him, explaining what they were going to attempt, and a few times the conversation had sparked something in him. He’d told tales then of his days as eja and the battles he’d fought, the nets and spears and dogs he’d lost. The friends. Xessa had listened, joyous despite the subject, despite knowing all of these stories better than he did now, just glad to have him back for a while. Her father.
When he finished signing, she’d leant against his side, tucked into his armpit as she’d done as a child, even though now she had to scrunch down to fit, and she’d pretended she was that girl again, and her father still existed in the flesh world, and nothing could hurt either of them, despite the duty he performed and the risks he took.
Though now the duty and the risks are mine.
‘It is a very good plan,’ Toxte signed and said at the same time, the movement bringing her back to her surroundings, small and cosy and filling with the particular, heady scent of the man who every day burrowed his way a little deeper into her heart.
She put her hand gently on Otek’s knee, nudging Ekka’s haunch out of the way as she did. The dog shifted in his lap and her rump slid onto the mat. They were all far too big for laps anyway, not that it stopped them trying.
‘We have built a cage, a strong but light cage,’ Kime was signing as Xessa’s eyes flicked from his hands to Otek’s face. ‘… a Drowned, and take it to the—’
Otek’s hand grabbed Xessa’s; she started and met his gaze – his present, entirely-in-the-flesh-world gaze. Her heart flooded with love and relief and she smiled, raised his hand and pressed her lips against it; then she held it to her cheek. It shook. ‘Capture?’ he said and she nodded. She suddenly didn’t want to think about it, talk about it, not while Otek was here with her.
Kime had taken his other hand and Otek looked between them, his wrinkled brow creased further by a deep scowl. And then he took his hands away from them both and pointed at Toxte. ‘Who is this?’ he signed.
‘Toxte is my duty partner,’ Xessa signed and caught a glimpse of his mouth drop open. Confusion flittered over his features. ‘And my friend,’ she added hurriedly. That didn’t seem to work either. ‘My …’
‘We are becoming intimate,’ Toxte signed and Xessa felt a blush creep up her neck. ‘I care for your daughter very much, honoured ejab,’ he said, looking at Kime as well.
She waited for more, but Otek was wandering again, the brightness of his eyes beginning to fade. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘None of you die.’ He was gone before they could even raise their hands to assure him they wouldn’t – whether or not that might be a lie.
Still, he’d seen Toxte. Known him and what they meant to
each other, even if she had fumbled the admission so badly. That was something, a small precious pearl more valuable than any traded by the coastal villages.
Kime tapped her knee. ‘“Becoming” intimate?’ he asked with a grin that made her blush come back. ‘Then why are you here with two old men? Go on, off with you.’ He shooed them away with a smile and Xessa thought she might burst into flame from the heat of her embarrassment, but Toxte seemed more than willing to do as they were told.
He rose to his feet with a fluid grace that nearly stole her breath, and then held his hand out to help her up. He grinned and signed something to Kime and Otek she didn’t see, then whistled for the dogs and dragged her through the curtain and out into the evening. He turned abruptly so that she collided with him and wrapped both arms around her and kissed her thoroughly until she was breathless for real.
Toxte let her go long enough to sign. ‘What does my duty partner and my friend want to do now?’ he teased and Xessa bit her lip. The thought of taking Kime’s advice was both embarrassing and deeply appealing. Maybe he realised that, because he signed ‘Drink?’ and she accepted gratefully. Hand in hand, their dogs ranging ahead and behind, they wandered down through the city to the entertainment district.
Despite wanting it to chase away the anxiety, the beer was too sweet and Xessa didn’t dare risk the hangover that came with honeypot. Instead, they strolled again as night fell and the late markets lit up with braziers and candles. There were more people than usual on the streets; the whole city knew what the ejab were going to attempt the following morning and more and more people came to offer blessings and prayers for her when they saw her pass. Eventually, Toxte read the growing panic in her eyes and led her firmly and quickly back to her home.
It was one of four houses in a square around a communal garden and firepit, and though the pit was red with embers, no one sat in its meagre light. Xessa breathed a soft sigh of relief and ducked under the curtain and in. She lit a couple of candles and then Toxte’s arms wrapped around her waist from behind and he kissed her neck. She leant into it and then he was turning her to face him.
The Stone Knife Page 20
