Bone Witch (Elemental Magic, #3)

by Thea Atkinson

  Alaysha searched for Yenic who was grinning madly as he set fires around the feet of his attackers. She found herself wondering how he could wield such power at all, knowing to do so would take an amount of blood. Then she saw him holding onto his side, and his fingers oozed with red. She looked at her own hands, covered in her own blood, swept a glance at Bodicca and Theron and Cai. Blood was to be found in abundance.

  But they were winning. At least it appeared so. Cai was chuckling with each man she felled. She barely moved as they came at her from all sides, and each time she did move, it was with such economy Alaysha knew was calculated by perfect harmony of her senses.

  It was time to dart for her pack and pull her sword. Alaysha lost all sense as she spun to meet one, two, three attackers. She sent her whole body into the swings, slicing into their stomachs, then she flung herself passed them to where Gael had engaged two of the burliest.

  There was something familiar about the way these men moved, the way they herded themselves into battle: without thought, as though fighting was one more chore they had to complete for the day before they settled in to their beds. They seemed almost slave like. Even still, they owned a strange sort of fierceness. Savage. Her father would've used such a crew wisely, she thought and realized the truth of it as it entered her mind.

  Her father had used them—or some of them. She thought of the word Cai, used to describe them.

  "Highlanders," she said. The tribe of people who were fierce at heart, but who did everything they worked at stolidly, like oxen. Edulph's clan.

  She stepped forward, hefting her sword and taking aim at the closest of Gael's attackers. He too fell into a heap, his head lolling to one side, cut, but not severed. She didn't have the strength for that.

  She knew the battle was dying around her. There were far less noises. Gael sent his last attacker to his knees, but spared him the final blow. Instead, he pressed the man's face down in the blood-soaked moss.

  Alaysha couldn't help smiling at him and pointed at the man she'd slain. "I returned the favor."

  His face when it turned on her was cold. "One man is equal to a dozen, witch? You're cheap with your favor, it seems." He glared down at the recumbent man. "You'll wish for your death when I hand you over to the Enyalian." Gael didn't look up, but Alaysha knew his next words were for her nonetheless.

  "Have the shaman tend to you. You look like you're ready to faint, and I'd rather not shrivel into a husk because you have no control over your power."

  It hurt. He had to know it did, and she didn't understand how he could save her life one moment and cause her pain the next. She turned to see where Theron was and noticed him tending to Bodicca's back. It appeared to have split again in spots. Alaysha staggered forward, feeling her strength waning. Yenic came up beside her and she reached for him, thankful to have the support. She'd expected Cai's people to come for them; this attack was a complete surprise.

  "Are you hurt?" She managed to get out.

  He twisted her around so he could look at her face, and in another moment, she felt his palm press against her belly. "It's not as bad as all the blood seems," he said, lifting her into his arms.

  "Are you hurt, Yenic?" she asked him again, fighting the desire to lay her head against his chest. A full night of sleep and she was still exhausted. Now what had this battle done for her stamina, she'd not know. "Tell me, Yenic," she pressed, thinking he had to be hurt because he wouldn't look her in the eye.

  "Yenic."

  "No," he said, striding to where Theron was busy digging roots from the dirt and stuffing them into a strip of leather. He patched up Bodicca's back again with strips of linen he must have stored away from Sarum.

  Not hurt. Good. Alaysha curled an arm around Yenic's neck, holding on as he squatted to ease her onto the Moss. Theron swiped his hands on his cassock and edged closer, poking at the wound in her forearm.

  "It's clean," he murmured. "Straight between the bones." He inspected her shoulders, where the gnat bites stung. The witch's back is the same. Already knitting back together. Such clean wounds, no tearing. The young witch was never good at healing, but today she has been given a gift."

  "Is it bad?" Yenic asked and Theron shook his head. "The blood would still be flowing freely if it was. Oh yes. But we should clean it." His eyes flicked over Yenic. "And yours too."

  "Her first." Yenic ran his hand over Alaysha's hair and offered her a short, encouraging smile. "She nearly passed out."

  Theron hummed and thought. "We see. Oh yes. We have seen it before." He peered down at her. "How long has the power been draining you?"

  She eased her eyes closed because it was easier to speak the truth without looking at anyone.

  "Always," she admitted. "But never like this."

  "Yes, oh yes," he said. "Not something a witch wants anyone to know. We understand. The stronger the power, the more it uses of you. And it is very strong in this witch. Your father knew it, planned for it, but he wouldn't know its cost, would he?"

  Alaysha shook her head. That Yuri had engineered her strength by killing her mother and grandmother simultaneously when she was born was not news to her now, but she'd never truly understood why. The discovery of how she'd come into so much power had sent her searching for his blood when she discovered it, but when Aislin had killed him instead, Alaysha suffered too much emotional conflict to give it more consideration. It was one more thing that she slammed down into the dungeon of her memory, hoping never have to think about it again.

  "The power grows, Theron," she said cautiously, opening her eyes to study his reaction.

  "As it should. It needs to mature." He poured water over a piece of his cassock he had ripped free and wiped his hands clean it. "The young witch must find a way to ground it, to stretch it past her own breath or when its fullness comes, as indeed will, it will use her up. Yes. Oh yes yes."

  "She needs an Arm," Yenic said. "But how, here with nothing."

  Theron's face split into a happy grin. "Warriors think little of shamans, yes they do. So little they go unnoticed right in their own eyesight." He chuckled and Yenic glared at him.

  "This isn't the time for foolishness, Theron. We need her mother's ashes and then we need a good candidate. We're lacking both."

  "We lack nothing. We have something better. Yes. Oh yes we do."

  Alaysha was about to ask when her peripheral vision caught Cai stooping over one of the felled attackers. She watched as the woman rammed the butt of her blade against the man's open mouth and extracted several bloody teeth, weighed them thoughtfully in her palm and then dropped them into an already large pile. Alaysha couldn't help the revulsion she felt, and both Theron and Yenic followed her gaze.

  Yenic let out a sound of disgust and hearing it, Cai turned. A fiery brow quirked and she shrugged. "I feel naked; a bit of filmy gauze is better than nothing."

  Alaysha felt a shudder pass through her, but she wasn't entirely sure with the chill of early morning. Theron ran his palm over her shoulders, much the same as he had to Bodicca in the burnt lands. "She is fierce, that one." His voice held a note of question.

  "No," Alaysha said.

  "Then who?" Yenic asked and she heard the dread in his voice. She thought it might be because he knew what it meant to be an Arm, the weight of it, but she suspected the real truth.

  "Not Gael either," she said, hoping to ease his worry.

  "Either warrior would die for a witch," Theron said. "And you can't find a better Arm than that. It must be one of them."

  She thought of being tied to Cai for the rest of her days, then imagined it with Gael, knowing how conflicting it would be for him when she was also bound to Yenic and how much the two men hated each other. The price would be too high for all of them.

  "Gael has already suffered too much," she said and heard Yenic's relieved exhale.

  Theron sighed. "The witch is a foolish one. There isn't a better choice, oh no. And there isn't time either."

  Alaysha tried to sit
up, fighting the wall of black that weakened her vision. She waited, letting it pass, and watched as both Cai and Bodicca picked a specific dead man one after the other and cracked into their mouths to extract trophies. She noticed Gael, on his side of the clearing trussing the last living attacker and hefting him against a tree. He was breathing hard, she could tell even from the distance, and she knew it was because he still wasn't fully recovered. He never so much as sweat when he fought, and here he was fighting to stay on his feet.

  They needed to eat to regain strength, and they needed rest. At least, they could manage one of those things.

  They settled quietly, each with a meagre amount of meat and nuts, chewing reflectively. Alaysha knew they were all surly, thinking the repast a foolish waste of time, but the bare truth of it was she didn't have the energy she needed even to climb atop Barruch and ride. She knew the others were equally spent. The Enyalia would come regardless and overtake them eventually. They would die if they weren't fit enough to face them. The few moments wouldn't matter unless they were used to refuel.

  She could already feel the energy creeping into her extremities as she chewed a piece of apple. When she looked around at the group and saw the strained looks fading, she knew she'd made the right decision. Her eyes were drawn to the captive repeatedly, and she caught him staring at her.

  "Why did you attack us?" she asked and Gail harrumphed around a mouthful of salted pheasant that Cai had in her tackle.

  "I already tried to beat that out of him."

  "Foolish man," Cai said, rolling her eyes. Bodicca murmured her agreement.

  "What would a fearless Enyalian have done," he demanded.

  She shrugged, "killed him. Why would I care why he attacked, only that he attacked."

  "It doesn't matter," Alaysha said. "He's alive. We might as well ask." She turned to him again. "You heard the Enyalian. She would have you dead."

  The man blinked but said nothing. Alaysha pressed on, "You see those two stringing your comrade's teeth, would you like to rattle about their thighs with them?"

  He spit a gob of blood on the ground in front of his feet.

  Alaysha sighed, "I suppose why he attacked doesn't matter. We’ll head on and leave him for your sisters."

  She got up and stretched. She did feel better now she'd eaten. Her shoulders still hurt, but like Theron said, the wounds would heal. The others too.

  "It's time to go, I think," she said and collected her sword and bedroll. She heard the others doing the same. Both Cai and Bodicca dropped the teeth they'd collected into pouches tied to their waists. No doubt by nightfall the women would have full circlets around their forearms and would feel a little less naked. Alaysha scanned the area smelling now the stink of the dead that littered the forest floor. The wolves and crows and other beasts would come soon to feast and would no doubt pick the bound man to death. He must know it, and still he said nothing.

  She and Theron sat Barruch while Bodicca tried to get Gael to sit Cai's beast with her. The massive man refused and Bodicca leapt up to sit with Cai saying it was just as well—a man had no place on a beast unless it was as a body from a solstice raid.

  It sounded like an intentional dig to Alaysha but she noticed that although the warrior clenched his jaw, he said nothing in counter.

  "Where to?" Alaysha asked.

  Cai spoke with an offhand shrug and nodded toward the dead. "The vermin come from the high lands. Best we not go there."

  "Foolish woman," growled out Gael, "That's exactly where we should head."

  "Foolish man. My sisters, those who are sent to kill us, will most assuredly be on their way to the highlands. They won't let this go unavenged." She smiled almost nostalgically, "We've not seen a decent war in many seasons."

  The man stirred in his bindings.

  "Having second thoughts?" Alaysha asked him. Cai had seen no reason to gag him, saying casually that his cries would only bring Enyalia or wolves to his aid.

  "We were only one group of many," he said and Alaysha stepped closer.

  "Tell me, and I'll loose you."

  Cai and Bodicca both protested, but Alaysha silenced them with a glare. She prodded the man with her toe.

  "A dozen ambushes, set a day away from the Enyalian village in every direction."

  "What for?"

  "To wait in case the young one didn't succeed."

  Alaysha could feel the hairs rise on her arm. "The young one?"

  "Yes. She and her father. Gone to kill as many as they could."

  There was no sound to give Alaysha warning, but Cai was next to her in a heartbeat, her face leaning into the captive, her blade pressed against his throat. "You highlanders forget yourselves."

  No fear sat in the man's eye as he responded, and Alaysha's back tingled. "No. We are only just remembering, Enyalian."

  "Cai." Alaysha put her hand on the woman's wrist and noted that the blade had pressed far enough into his skin that the folds neatly met over it. "Cai, it doesn't matter."

  Green eyes met hers. "It's the only thing that matters."

  "Not anymore. Why isn't important. "She turned back to the man. "Where are they now, this young one and her father."

  He glared at her. "If you're here, filthy Enyalian witch, then they are dead."

  Alaysha pulled back and studied his face, keeping her palm on Cai's forearm. She chewed her lip and noticed Cai tapping her own arm as she too gave the man study. It was obvious he knew little except to guard the escape routes and nothing more. It was also obvious he'd never visited Enyalia, but had heard about Thera and her tattaus. He thought he had the two powerful leaders just within his grasp. That must have been the reason for the attack.

  "What if I told you we spared their lives only to be betrayed as they escaped?"

  "I'd know you are lying. No Enyalian has such pity."

  Alaysha could feel the tension in the woman beside her as she spoke. "What do you know about Enyalia, man?" Cai said. "The little your foolish mother weaned you upon wasn't even enough to fill a frog's tiny mind."

  Alaysha squatted down to reach for the man's lashings. "You're wrong," she told him. "Enyalia respects a woman's power. The young one was spared because of it."

  The man's eyes never left Alaysha's face, but they were suspicious and wary. "And the father?"

  The twigs crackled from somewhere behind her and Alaysha knew it couldn't be from any of her mounted people. She and Cai spun at the same instant to see a horde of men thickening the trees, bows drawn, swords drawn, blades drawn. At the head of the throng stood Aedus, a look of surprised pleasure on her face, and next to her, holding a limp and tender looking toddler's blonde curls draped over his arm, stood Edulph.

  Chapter 25

  "It was you," Alaysha breathed and he nodded. His face was haggard looking, his eyes swollen and red-rimmed. Aedus would've darted forward, but Cai had pulled her sword from her back and with a blade on her other, was already poised to advance. Aedus was smart enough to speak before making a move.

  "We came for you," she said. "I told you I could help."

  "You nearly killed us, little one," Gael's voice, closer. He'd snuck over unnoticed and stood on Alaysha's right.

  Aedus fleeted a gaze to her brother. "We didn't mean to," she said, and Edulph hung his head. It was obvious he'd tricked his sister yet again.

  "She won't wake," he mumbled and the sob in his voice revealed more than Alaysha expected.

  "You're her father?" She said.

  Aedus answered. "We didn't think she had that much magic. We thought she'd steal enough air that we could get in and rescue you." She looked at everyone but Cai. "All of you."

  Aedus might believe such a gallant thing of her brother, but Alaysha didn't. "You knew how powerful she was," she said to him. "You would have had to know. Did you kill her mother, Edulph? Did you take her life as she birthed this weapon for you?" His disappearance all those weeks ago from Sarum before Aislin and Yenic captured him, not enough to count for a gestation
period, but enough to return to kill the mother, knowing Alaysha had rid the world of the grandmother.

  "Look at him," Yenic said, coming up behind her. "He grieves, Alaysha." He sounded amazed that the man could be sad.

  Thankfully, Cai remained unmoved. "Answer her, man."

  Edulph bent to lay his burden on the moss. "She breathes," he said. "But she will not wake."

  "Did you kill her mother?" Alaysha refused to look at the child, afraid she'd soften. "All along, you've known where this girl was. We knew you wanted her. We knew you wanted to use her. You couldn't use the mother, so you murdered her. Now you have but a small thing to control."

  She could see his chest moving, watch the bloodshot gaze harden then send a fury of wrinkles into his brow line. Still, she couldn't expect his sudden primal shriek, or the speed he turned and grabbed the sword from a fellow. He lunged forward, shouting, his face a mask of pain and rage. He swung at the same time as he halted, just in front of Alaysha, his blade neck height.

  She dropped to her knees, catching her breath. Metal ground against metal. Both Cai's and Gael's swords met Edulph's, holding it captive between them.

  But it was Cai who kicked Edulph's feet from beneath him and sent her blade lunging for his throat. He lay on his back, eyes gawking, chest rising and falling. Gael neatly swept his blade against Cai's, diverting it at the last moment.

  "The girl," Gael said and nodded at Aedus who was biting her fingers.

  His death averted, Edulph sobbed and rolled onto his side, curling his knees into his abdomen.

  No one knew how to react until Theron made his way over to the child and began probing through her hair with deft fingers.