Thrall

by Barbara Ann Wright

  “And what did you discover?” another voice asked from the trees. Runa appeared behind Gilka, and Laret could almost sense her spirit poised, waiting to strike.

  “Houri magic,” Laret said. “I believe you call it fae.”

  “What do you know of the fae?”

  Maeve stepped forward and grabbed Laret’s arm. “Give us Aesa, and we’ll tell you.”

  Gilka took a step, too. “One of my crew does not betray me and then simply walk away.”

  “There was no betrayal!” Maeve cried. “Ask her, just ask. She only wanted to satisfy her own heart.”

  Gilka stabbed a finger in Maeve’s direction. “You seek to hang your fate with hers? Fine. She’ll speak for all of you, and then you’ll die.” She waved them forward. Laret heard footsteps behind and knew they were surrounded. To fight now would mean not only their deaths but Aesa’s as well. She took Maeve’s hand and followed Gilka, waiting for an opportunity to strike, perhaps when they had Aesa to help them.

  When buzzing started in her ears, she thought she must be sensing Runa’s magic. She whirled, expecting attack, but Runa had turned also.

  “Watch—”

  The ground erupted, throwing Laret off her feet. She heard Maeve fall, and then a jumble of shouting and the clang of weapons. Maeve hauled Laret upright to see people pouring from the trees, and someone was chanting.

  “Come on.” Laret dragged at Maeve’s arm, leading them away. Behind them, Gilka shouted a war cry, and Laret turned enough to see her fighting the same black-bearded man who’d attacked Aesa at the Thraindahl.

  Maeve skidded to a halt, and Laret thudded into her. Gilka’s fighters and those probably belonging to the bearded man were fully engaged, and Runa faced off against two other witches. Laret could feel their spirits casting back and forth, ruining each other’s chants so they couldn’t use wyrds or wylds.

  “Keep moving,” Laret said. When Maeve wouldn’t budge, Laret turned to see the blood witch Ari blocking their path.

  “What do you want?” Maeve asked.

  Laret nicked her finger again.

  Ari grinned, stretching the black lines in her cheeks. “You can come with us now or stay and fight on the side of those who captured you.”

  Laret glanced back. So far, the fight was evenly matched.

  “And what makes you a better captor than Gilka?” Maeve asked.

  “Ah,” Ari said, “we don’t want you as prisoners. We want you as allies. Or would you call Gilka ja’thrain?”

  Maeve glanced at Laret. She shrugged, not knowing all the politics at work, and bent to Maeve’s ear. “Either we try to convince Gilka that Aesa hasn’t betrayed her, or we try to rescue Aesa with an armed force at our backs. Words or weapons.”

  “I think weapons might be the only thing Gilka understands.” Maeve nodded at Ari. “Lead the way.”

  Laret hung on to her as they followed Ari into the forest. She didn’t trust this blood witch, but then, she didn’t trust Gilka either. At least now they had a little room to breathe.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ell stared at the hole in the back of her cave. Light trickled in from outside, the fading hues of afternoon. She could just see the glow below her. Maybe this was what all her days would come down to: waiting for darkness so she could watch a tiny patch of light and hope for the comfort Niall claimed it had given him.

  She thought again of the red-haired fini girl, wondering if her fellows had helped her recover quickly or if the shaptis had even noticed. And would they care at all if they did?

  Ell sighed and rested her chin on one palm. The fini couldn’t understand what she offered. The only way to get them to see was to order them away from the pools, just as Aesa had done. And would they obey another fini? Even as clan elder, Lida’s instructions had seemed more like requests. No fini gave orders.

  Seemed as if the grays would obey her, then, no matter what she told them to do. The thought sickened her stomach. Even Chezzo could disobey if he chose. Ell slid her fingers through his thick fur, and he wagged, the motion jarring her slightly where she pressed against his side. He’d stayed close that day, as if sensing she wasn’t well, like a fini in many ways. Still, he seemed to have his own mind, a less intelligent but clear will.

  Ell laid her head on his ribs, bobbing up and down with his breathing. “I’m glad you’re here, Chezzo.” He craned his neck and tried to lick her face until she chuckled and nudged his muzzle away. “Even if your breath is terrible.”

  If the comment offended him, he gave no sign. Ell’s stare settled on the hole again. She’d forced herself to go outside that morning but hadn’t wandered anywhere, and she tired of waiting for darkness. Cleaning out the hole sounded better than sitting and thinking. She sat up and scooted closer, knocking debris down into the softly lit darkness.

  When she bent to examine it, the hole seemed wider than she’d thought, only clogged with mud and bits of trees that had filtered into the cave whenever it rained. She leaned across, tugging at a pile of leaves.

  The ground shifted, throwing her forward. She tried to catch herself, but her hands sank into dirt and twigs that slowly gave way. She threw herself backward, trying to scramble away, but her knees slid, and the support beneath them perished.

  Ell screeched as she slid down the hole, arms banging on the sides. She tried to curl into a ball, but pain vibrated through her back as she smacked hip-first onto stone.

  Above her, Chezzo was barking, and the sound echoed around the damp, cool rock. Ell sat up slowly, rubbing her aching hip, her arms. “Chezzo, cease!”

  Even with the pain, the new cave was a wonder. A glowing rock—like a vein under the skin—passed overhead, near the hole, and ran along this cave, highlighting spikes of rock that hung from the ceiling and globs of stone that looked like mud. She stood and shuffled along underneath the light, favoring her aching hip. A forest of crystals nestled in one dark corner, near where the vein of light crossed into another hole, this one wide enough to walk through.

  A thud behind her made her whirl. Chezzo had leapt down the hole and was shaking his head, searching for her in the dim light.

  “Chezzo,” she said, kneeling as he ran to her. “Brave hound. I’d kiss you, but we’re both filthy.”

  He gave her cheek a lick as if to say he didn’t mind. She glanced at the hole that led farther into the rock and then the one she’d fallen from. Maybe she could jump and pull herself up, but how would Chezzo climb out?

  She hugged him again. “I won’t abandon you. If we can’t find a way out, I’ll come back here and fetch help.” She swallowed. “From the grays if I can, from Niall if I have to.”

  She followed the light, Chezzo on her heels. His ears stood out rigidly, and he scanned any hollow pockets in the stone. Ell heard only the distant drip of water and the scrape of her feet as she walked. The humid, chilly air penetrated her robe. The slick rocks froze her fingers, and when she emerged from the narrow passage into a larger chamber, she buried her hands in Chezzo’s thick ruff.

  This space felt larger than the last. The light followed the cavern wall up, far above her head. The tunnel they’d come from must have sloped downward. She tracked the light along the ceiling to where it joined another light vein in the distance.

  She wound around cones of rock that stuck up from the floor and groups of the thick, slick crystals. Water had gathered in wide, shallow pools that were dead-still in the gloom. Distances were hard to sort in the dim light, but she finally found where the two lights joined.

  Another light crossed the ceiling from a different cavern and joined the first in a larger vein that continued through another wall. She forged ahead, following the larger light to where the ceiling stood close enough to touch if she stood on tiptoe. Up close, the veins seemed more like tree roots than part of the rock, and the light flowed through them like glowing water. With shaking fingers, she reached forth and touched them.

  Rage, fiery hot, slammed into her, and she bared her teeth w
ith a growl. When Chezzo barked, she turned on him, ready to rip his throat out, but as soon as her hand left the vein, the feeling departed like smoke, leaving her weak. She sank to her knees, horrified, and buried her head in Chezzo’s neck. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  He whined, and she petted him, more than willing to comfort someone who truly didn’t understand what was happening. She wasn’t sure she understood, either.

  Standing, she hovered a hand near the light but didn’t touch it. Great sorrow flowed under her palm, along with anger, joy, fear, every emotion she only knew words for because she’d seen them in one shapti or another. All the feelings denied to the fini moved through these veins, and even without her newfound clarity, she thought she might know what this was.

  “The calming pools.” Somehow, this light took everything that was cleansed from the fini and pulled it away to…somewhere. And there were more than just emotions. She felt hope, vague dreams for the future, things she hadn’t contemplated since childhood, before regular cleansings and lessons on how to please the fini, when she’d last wondered if there might be something more.

  “Stolen.” The land itself was a thief. But were the shaptis the ones who’d created it, or was it their masters, the aos sí?

  Ell stared down the tunnel at the continuing vein of light. Where were all these emotions going? Maybe the shaptis didn’t drain the fini simply to keep them obedient. The veins might not be discarding fini emotions; they might be collecting them.

  Ell glanced toward the other light coming through the rock. If she was right, it would take her to a calming pool. Who knew where the greater vein led? She had no food for her or Chezzo, only the water from the cave pools. She needed to find a way out.

  With a last look toward the greater vein, Ell followed the smaller. Without the sun, she couldn’t tell how long she’d been walking, but even small sounds grew large inside her ears until silence itself seemed loudest of all. When the ground began to slope upward, she knew she’d followed the right path. Fading daylight ahead showed the way out, and she spotted a cave mouth, one idle shapti leaning against the side, the pool and forest beyond him.

  Ell ducked back around a corner, staying out of the light. She knew where she must be, at the calming pool near the town Niall had taken her from. The shapti had no doubt been ordered to keep any fini from wandering inside the cave and hurting themselves.

  And he didn’t look to be going anywhere anytime soon.

  Ell tried to recall everything she’d seen of shapti movements. They never worked the same area from sunup to sundown. They took their guarding in shifts. So, if this one was here now…

  Ell put on a tranquil expression and marched forward. The shapti glanced her way with a bored look and then stared, mouth dropping open.

  “How…” He glanced behind her as if to make sure no more of her were coming. “How in the names of the aos sí did you get in there?”

  Ell gave him a happy smile. “A shapti commanded this morning that I find his hound.” She patted Chezzo on the head. “I found him in the hole.”

  “In the…” He glanced back and forth from her to Chezzo. “A shapti sent you into the cave?”

  She kept her smile in place, enjoying it for once. “I found the hound in the hole. The shapti will be pleased.”

  This shapti rubbed his forehead. “Of all the stupid things, sending one of them into a cave. You could have been killed!”

  She took a step toward him, reaching out in comfort.

  He nearly leapt away from her filthy hands. “And you’re covered in muck. Who was the stupid bastard who ordered you to find his hound in a cave?”

  Ell’s smile didn’t slip an inch. “I don’t recall anyone named stupid bastard, shapti. The one who sent me to search was named Aiden.” She felt her smile begin to go wicked at the name of the shapti who hated fini, but she kept the look sweet. “He will be pleased.”

  “Aiden, eh? I’ll remember that for the elders. Get on with you, then. And don’t get any of that mud in the calming pool.”

  She bowed. “Your will, shapti.”

  Ell walked toward the town, waited until she was out of sight, and then started toward her cave again, the way cemented in her memory.

  *

  Aesa’s head was pleasantly swimmy. She heard someone puttering around the house, probably Maeve. Maybe she was making breakfast. Aesa’s stomach growled; she could destroy a plate of sausages. Maeve would want help cooking, but if Aesa feigned sleep, she’d grow tired of waiting and make do on her own.

  “Do you think it was just her bondmate, then?”

  Bondmate, yes. Hers, all hers. Maeve with her lovely smile, her gentle touch. Lately, though, lately…

  “Has to be. I can’t think of anything else that could turn one of my own. Someone’s poisoned her mind.”

  Turn. It was important to turn the sausages before they burned. Now, who did she know who knew something about poisons?

  “Do you think Aesa would be so easily led?”

  “I looked into her eyes, Runa! I saw myself reflected there. How many times have I seen it? Fifty? A hundred? They want to be heroes, and I can make them that. I know that look.”

  That wasn’t Maeve shouting. Gilka. It was Gilka. Hard to believe there’d been a time in Gilka’s life when she wasn’t a hero but a dreamer. Not fair, but it seemed to make her less somehow.

  A heavy weight settled beside Aesa, and a large hand rested on her head. “Tell me it was them, bear cub. Wake and tell me that your pretty bondmate and her new friend magicked you into betraying me.”

  New friend?

  “Her bondmate is a healer.”

  “And what of the blood witch? Do you know the extent of their powers, Runa?”

  Maeve. Poisons. New friend. Blood witch. They all went together somehow, but Aesa couldn’t remember, couldn’t think.

  “No, and there aren’t any close enough to fetch, at least that I know of. There was another with Ulfrecht when he attacked.” She cleared her throat. “She’s waking up.”

  “I know.”

  Aesa’s thoughts began to fall into place. When she opened her eyes, the light was far too bright. Before she had a chance to clear her vision, Gilka hauled her upright. “You have one chance, bear cub. Use it wisely.”

  Aesa licked her lips and tried to get her mind in order. She sat on top of some furs, a bed. She’d been lying there. She didn’t know whose room it was, probably Gilka’s, who sat beside her. Runa stood against the door, arms crossed.

  “You said something about Maeve,” Aesa said. “And…Laret.”

  “Gone,” Runa said. “Fled when Ulfrecht’s crew attacked us.”

  “Ulfrecht attacked you?”

  Gilka raised an eyebrow. “You seem surprised.”

  “Surprise can be faked,” Runa said.

  Aesa glared at her. “I want nothing to do with the man who broke my ribs. Besides, I thought he was your secret ally.”

  “Was,” Gilka said. Her fist knotted in the furs. “And now he has his own plans for Fernagher.” She leaned close. “What are your plans, Aesa?”

  Aesa kept Gilka’s eyes, deep blue depths she’d so respected and admired. “I would never betray you.”

  “You stole from me.”

  “Yes, ja’thrain. I had to know what the magic was.”

  “So you could tell Ulfrecht?” Runa asked.

  Gilka gestured for her to be quiet, stare never leaving Aesa.

  Aesa swallowed. “I wanted to know if the magic was the same as the one that controlled the sheep people.”

  “The sheep?” Runa cried. “You betrayed your crew for the fucking sheep?”

  “I would never betray you!” Aesa shouted as she leapt to her feet. She took a step toward Runa, but Gilka caught her arm. “I couldn’t betray myself, either! I couldn’t just…” Under their stares, she crumpled. “I couldn’t just leave them to their fate.”

  Gilka shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense, bear cub. The
y’re not your people.” She looked to Runa. “She must still be under their power.”

  Aesa fought the urge to jerk her arm back, not wanting to give Gilka an excuse to pull it from the socket. “I’m not under anyone’s power.”

  Runa stepped closer, eyeing her. “Except maybe the sheep. How close did you get to that pool you spoke of?”

  Aesa shrugged, but by the dead gods, that idea made so much sense. All the torment she’d gone through, all her pity for the fini, her desire to free Ell, what if it had all been because of the pool? But, a nagging voice suggested, hadn’t she felt this way since she’d first laid eyes on them?

  “Who wanted to see the staff?” Gilka asked.

  “Laret,” Aesa said without thinking.

  Gilka glanced at Runa as if she’d won something. “The pool makes her thoughts muddy. The blood witch already had her bondmate tricked. It was simple enough to do some magic on Aesa, especially with two blood witches.” Runa still eyed her warily. Gilka gestured toward the door. “Give us a moment, Runa.”

  When Runa left, Gilka shoved Aesa back down on the bed and then took up Runa’s post against the door. “Do you know how I became a thrain, Aesa?”

  “You took over from Jhanir, and she became an arbiter.”

  “Do you know why she chose to become a thrall again instead of forcing one of her captains to kill her?”

  Aesa shook her head, often wondering why anyone would choose that path. Everyone knew the saying, “We are born thralls, and we die thralls, but in between we can be anything.” It was meant to remind children that their lives were short and deserved living as best they could, but many warriors added, “Unless we die in battle.”

  “Jhanir knew she was getting too old to be a thrain. Her mind was still sharp, but her body…” She shrugged. “So she set up tests, as many thrains do, making her captains fight for the prize. She knew that whoever won would be respected and obeyed by the rest of the crews. Two captains retired early from the contest, knowing they were beaten. One didn’t wish to compete, preferring to remain a captain. One died.” She balled a fist then released it slowly. “Finally, there were three of us left, and she told us to make our way through a swamp. She’d be waiting in the center.”