Bone Witch (Elemental Magic, #3)

by Thea Atkinson

  Alaysha dared turn to examine the face of the crone and was instantly sorry she did.

  The woman's hair must have been white, but it was too full of wet chalk blended into ropes that reached down to bare sagging breasts with nipples coated in chalk residue. The face creased itself in hundreds of wrinkles caked with the same chalk. It was almost as though she'd painted her face so often into the same pattern that the wrinkles traced the lines for her now. It was the eyes that frightened Alaysha the most. She expected them to be filming with age but they snapped with life and vigour. Vigorous they might be, but they were not good-humoured. They narrowed as they bore into Alaysha.

  "You and this large man came for the boy Bodicca brought."

  "We did."

  "You know of her fate, then?"

  Alaysha nodded, deciding she wouldn't think of the mess Bodicca's back had been in, that this Uta had made of it.

  The crone eased her way to a doddering stand at Gael's bedside. "Best to leave, young one," she said. "We'll see you laden with beast and bounty."

  Alaysha meant to push the woman away from Gael, but when she moved, so too did Thera, side stepping as though there was something behind her that she didn't want Alaysha to see, but there was nothing but shadows in the gloom of the lodge. A few furs and covers on a cot at the other end. Perhaps it moved, that pile, rising slowly, falling again like a sleeper breathing during light dreams. She thought to take a step toward it but caught Thera's eye; she could swear her legs had somehow got stuck in mud. Her feet, always bare, had muck seeping out between the toes; she could actually feel it squishing between them until she looked down to confirm it and nothing was there.

  She darted a look at Thera. Alaysha could feel it already letting go, the sense of capture easing. Light flooded the lodge and a current of air washed over her arms.

  "Leave," Cai said to her as she entered. "Find your young man and—do whatever it is you do with your men."

  Thera took an almost conscious step forward; the look that passed between them earlier had returned. "The party –"

  Cai glared at Alaysha, but nothing short of death could move her. The raiding party meant Edulph, and though he wasn't exactly an ally, he was much too much of an enemy for Alaysha to be ignorant of his welfare. Alaysha stiffened her back stubbornly.

  The magnets never left Alaysha's face even when she answered Thera. "Only one remains. The man is gone."

  Gone? Only one?

  "I don't understand," Alaysha heard herself say."

  Cai crossed her arms and the playfulness, the flirtation, the easiness of before was gone. Back again was the impassive stare, the trained face of the warrior. Oh how well Alaysha knew it.

  "One Enyalian has returned," Cai said. "The rest are dead. Your man is nowhere to be found."

  Edulph couldn't have killed them. Alaysha knew it; she also knew Cai didn't believe Edulph had killed them either. In fact, she thought everyone in the room believed him completely innocent and that left one very big problem.

  Because no Enyalian she'd met so far seemed the least bit worried about attack. Until now.

  Chapter 14

  Alaysha looked from one woman to the next, thinking someone would break the tension, but ended up doing it herself when none of the Enyalia spoke.

  "What of the survivor?"

  The three looked at each other, then Cai strode toward her, with the obvious intention of herding her out. Alaysha planted her feet. "If she lives, where is she? She can tell us who attacked them."

  Cai's hand rested on Alaysha's back; she felt it there, pressing gently, but the woman was strong enough to move her. "There is no us, little maga."

  Alaysha stumbled along, doing her best to resist the woman's more raw strength.

  "Don't make me pick you up and carry you—my sword sisters would not look at you the same if they saw me do such a thing."

  Alaysha grabbed onto the only solid thing she could; the wooden bench just along the door next to the wall. "Maybe I can help."

  "How? You will knit her another hand?"

  The hand. So that was the peculiar reaction. "Her sword hand?" Alaysha forced herself on the bench, sitting down hard and wrapping her toes around the leg. She wasn't sure why she cared, except the woman's reactions were entirely unexpected. Cai reached for her hand to pull her off the bench and despite the best efforts to stay put, Alaysha sailed over the woman's broad shoulder.

  "I gave you a choice," Cai said and impassively made for the door.

  Only Uta's voice stopped the warrior, and it was a thoughtful, familiar tone that she'd heard hundreds of times in her life. Her stomach sent bile up her throat when she understood the words.

  "Perhaps we could use a powerful witch," Uta said.

  Without letting her down, Cai spun to face the old woman. "No," she said. "We have no need of such magic."

  Alaysha couldn't see Uta's reaction, but she understood the harrumph plainly enough.

  "This magic is different, Cai," Thera said. "It's of the land. It's brown, not black. Maybe we can use it."

  Alaysha wasn't sure how she felt about being talked about as if her very nature was wrong, but she had no chance to argue it. Thera and the chalk witch took to speaking both at once. Cai had to shout to get them to quiet down.

  "I know the power, sisters. Do you?"

  It seemed only Uta moved to answer. She slunk toward Cai. "You know I know it."

  Alaysha felt Cai's hands tighten against her hips. "Yes, Uta. The witch past the burnt lands who could move stone and earth. I know you think you know the power." She tapped once, twice. "It's for Thera and I to decide now, Uta; your turn is done."

  The old woman didn't complain so much as threaten when she responded. "My turn saw more power than you even believe exists."

  "Then what will happen if the little witch extends her full power? What then?"

  Talked about as an object again. So, so familiar. Alaysha hated the way, Cai was speaking of her, hated the way her tone revealed how she really thought, of Alaysha being a dangerous liability. Alaysha didn't want to stop herself when her fists began pummelling the warrior's kidneys as she hung over her shoulders.

  Cai set her down and spun her around to face the magnets of her eyes. She didn't seem hurt, only annoyed. "Stop. Stop it all. You don't know what they ask of you."

  Alaysha heard the impassive tone again, but this time it was coming from her own mouth. "I do know."

  Thera was next to her in an instant. "You know and yet you don't argue it."

  Alaysha faced her. "You want me to drain your enemies for you." She gave the witch a weary shrug as much to say she'd journeyed often on the same path. It was obvious now, Thera was not the witch she sought. If she was, even if she was and didn't know it, she would still feel the power, see the results. She'd know to move the earth would be as useful as moving water. No. Thera was not the clay witch. The clay witch had been past the burnt lands in Uta's time; this Thera would not—could not—be her daughter.

  Thera's silent appraisal unnerved her at first, but the woman seemed to make up her mind about something.

  "You will want your men in return."

  It wasn't what Alaysha expected; it was leaguas better.

  "I want both of them." Alaysha said it, not planning to keep her bargain, only seeing it as a way to get around the tricky business of escape.

  The discussion seemed to be running down to agreement when Alaysha held up her hand. After all, she was nowhere near done.

  "And I want the third one when he's found."

  "That's much to ask for."

  "My power is worth much more." She counted on the innate greed of any person to want more than they could afford. She expected a quick agreement: at the same time worried she'd get it. No one had been able to have such power at their command that she knew of and yet not take it.

  She didn't expect Cai to step forward. "No," she stated to Thera. "You can't make this decision alone." Cai was unmoved, as impassive as Ala
ysha had yet seen her except when she was punishing Gael.

  "The quarter solstice is one sunrise away." Thera said. "Our warriors will be occupied and then by all hope, they will be unfit for battle."

  "The Enyalia is never unfit."

  "Would you risk our future by sending them to battle, then?"

  "There is no risk. We are superior."

  Thera's eyes flashed in anger and Alaysha could see she was doing her best to keep her tongue.

  "Then we will cast tomorrow as tradition dictates, and the outcome of all of this will be on your shoulders." Thera turned, dismissing Cai, and Cai just as impassive as before, took Alaysha's arm to pull her from the lodge.

  Alaysha looked over her shoulder at Gael, certain she heard a sound come from somewhere in the back of the gloom; he lay perfectly still. Asleep. Unconscious.

  More than likely pretending. Awaiting the prime time to act if she knew him well. And now she'd been shut down from making a bargain that could see them all free, she'd need him awake when she came for him. She'd find a way. Her and Yenic.

  She caught Uta's eye and what she saw there made her uneasy; a witch past the burnt lands who could move stone and earth Cai had said to her. The real temptress of clay, not Thera at all.

  "You mentioned a witch," Alaysha asked her.

  Uta nodded. "From past the burnt lands. A woman of incredible power." She sounded impressed.

  A woman of incredible power from past the burnt lands. It didn't matter who the witch was, all those witches had encountered the same fate and telling this crone of that fate just might force a little fear into the old bones.

  "I think you should know," Alaysha said to her. "That woman of incredible power you speak of—I killed her."

  Chapter 15

  She left with Cai on her heels. The warrior was too disciplined to ask what was burning in her throat, Alaysha knew, and with luck, she could use the information to get some of her own. She intended to do so immediately.

  Once outside, she spun on the warrior before they even made it a dozen paces from the lodge. Young boys hustled about, carrying water and tinder, and the occasional tinder bundle.

  "Who is it that has your people so afraid?"

  If she expected a straight answer she was more foolish than she'd been accused of.

  "The Enyalia aren't afraid. We don't fear death."

  "Looked like fear to me."

  "Resignation. Exhaustion. Nothing more."

  "From what? Who?"

  "I don't owe you an explanation, little maga."

  "You have two of my men prisoner. You owe me more than an explanation."

  "By your admission they are not your men. We won them in battle." Cai gave her a peculiar look. "We own you as well."

  It was a shock to hear it. Alaysha hadn't for one moment thought of herself as a possession.

  "No one owns me."

  "You're wrong." Cai's mouth turned up at the edges ever so slightly but Alaysha couldn't have called it a smile.

  "I said no one owns me. Have you forgotten what you saw in the burnt lands?"

  "I saw a witch afraid to use her power for fear of killing a man." Cai lifted one broad shoulder. "That alone makes you ours. You'll stay because your men live. Only remember your promise and I'll let you live in return."

  The commander's mask had gone up again. Cai was impossible this way.

  "Don't you want to know why I killed that witch Uta so revered?"

  Cai waited as a young boy passed her a flatbread. It smelled of char. She sniffed at it. "I already know why."

  "You couldn't."

  "But I do. You killed for the same reason we all do: survival, greed, hatred. Love."

  It was Alaysha's turn to smile. "No. I killed her because a man asked me to."

  "Then you are a foolish witch." Cai bit into the bread and chewed thoughtfully. "We have plenty of enemies. We always have, but this one Uta wants to be free of is an enemy generations old."

  "You took their men," Alaysha guessed.

  "Some, yes. But there's more to it than that. We thought them weak because they were so accepting of the fate. Every komandiri thought so. But the witch you killed was not the only one of her kind."

  Alaysha's heart raced. Did she dare say more or just wait. She opted to wait and was rewarded with Cai's further reflections.

  "The komandiri of Uta's time pressed into many lands in search of the solstice men. Her komandiri before her, too. We've seen many peoples, but nothing like the witch we met past the burnt lands. She was very powerful, so Uta says. She grew to hate a woman she'd never met. A woman who was powerful enough to change everything we knew about ourselves without so much as stepping on our soil."

  Alaysha fidgeted, wanting to ask a thousand questions, but she realized to prod the woman might be to stop the well.

  Cai tore a piece from the flatbread and offered it; when Alaysha shook her head, the woman continued. "The people from the frozen lands rose against us before, during Uta's time. Very early, you understand. Alkaia was very young then. They both were."

  "Alkaia?"

  An incredibly fierce komandiri. She is legend, even now, besides being one in her own time. Uta's time. She took many teeth from many men. She also took from women. The only komandiri ever to do so. Men, you see, their only value lies in their teeth, and only as war trophies. But when the people from the frozen lands came, we had to fight. They were not content to have us use their men and so sought to rescue them."

  Alaysha thought the story had more to do with the men who were here now, warning Alaysha in subtle ways to be careful, more so than the men of yesteryear. She kept her own counsel, though. Let the woman continue.

  "Those women fought fiercely enough, but of course they were slaughtered. Alkaia took their teeth in memory of their bravery. Those who did survive, didn't go back to their lands. They spread out, letting us think them wiped out. Some of them went to the highlands and stoked the fires of vengeance."

  "And they've returned."

  "Yes. And much more able to do damage."

  "What could be such a challenge to the Enyalia?"

  Cai gave her a knowing look and when Alaysha didn't seem to understand, finally answered the question. "They have a witch of your making in their arsenal."

  "That can't be."

  Cai swallowed the last bit of flatbread. "But it is."

  "I tell you it can't be true."

  "And why do you feel so certain?"

  "Because I killed her too."

  Cai quirked her brow to show her surprise but no more. "So much killing for one from the other lands."

  "It's true."

  "Then it is you who are wrong, little maga."

  "I tell you, I killed them both. At the same time. Both old women were nothing but leather when I stood over them at the end." Alaysha decided not to speak of the third, that would be a secret she could use later. If she needed it.

  At this, Cai laughed. "So now we both know that the woman you killed is not who you think it was. This witch I speak of is but a mere babe and already powerful enough to suck the wind from a dozen Enyalia."

  Alaysha tried not to betray her thoughts at the revelation. She hoped she succeeded but the warrior watched her face with keen interest even so.

  It was true the wind witch could have died at Alaysha's hand and still, there be a witch in her place. It was obvious Cai had no idea what created a witch of her kind, that it was passed down through her mother and initiated only at the mother's death. Alaysha did some quick processing. She'd killed all three of the other witches by order of her father, not knowing who it was or why she was doing battle. All three were old women even by the time Alaysha had taken their lives. That meant each passed down their full power to the daughters they had somewhere in hiding. The crones sacrificed themselves in order to pass their powers onto a daughter somewhere too far for Alaysha to reach. One of those women was Aislin who had murdered Alaysha's sister and abducted Saxon and now held Sarum in her
grip.

  Now to know that the wind witch was somewhere near, was being used already as a weapon the way Alaysha had been most of her life both excited her and repulsed her.

  Cai interrupted her thoughts, pointing out a fur-lined hut with smoke rising from the top.

  "Come, little maga. Best we rest. The casting can be difficult and the day will be long. You should sleep." She headed off, assuming Alaysha would follow.

  Alaysha made her feet move, but she knew she'd never sleep. The wind witch so close.

  Too close, really, because as long as Alaysha stayed in the camp of the wind witch's enemy, she too was in danger.

  Chapter 16

  Inside, the hut smelled of rushes and sage. Two young boys scuttled to the corners when Cai entered, Alaysha but one pace behind her. She watched as they pulled fur blankets from a chest made of cedar. In moments they had a comfortable, almost decadent bed made for Alaysha, thankfully across the room from Cai. They never once showed their faces, rather kept their eyes and heads tilted down at their feet. She had no idea how they could manage to do so many things without looking ahead at where they were going, but she supposed a few seasons of forced practice can do wonders for a person's skills.

  She thanked the boys profusely and touched one of them gently on the forearm. He let out a squeal and then went rigid, apparently working hard to keep from running away.

  "I don't bite," she said and grinned, hoping to ease the boy's fear. The other looked wary, but seemed less apt to bolt than the first.

  Two sharp claps sounded, catching Alaysha's attention. She looked up to see Cai glowering at her. "You have much to learn little maga."

  "You don't thank the boys?"

  "There is nothing to be grateful for."

  "Everyone likes to be appreciated; even an Enyalian boy."