Bone Witch (Elemental Magic, #3)

by Thea Atkinson

  "Swollen, yes. Yes. "He laid an ear on her chest. "Losing her air, faltering heart."

  Edulph sobbed harder and Cai kicked at him with her booted toe. "She'll live, man." She said.

  "Perhaps not," Theron said.

  Cai sent a scathing look toward Gael as a way of responding to the shaman's declaration. "This one lived." She looked as though she wished it wasn't true.

  Theron scrabbled about like a crab, testing for other injuries. "That one is impossible to kill; oh yes. This one is like air, she's so weak."

  Aedus knelt next to Theron. "You have to help her," she said and he smiled at her.

  "This shaman knows a few tricks still. Indeed, yes we do."

  "I can help," she said and Alaysha's heart ached to see the maturity in the girl's face. It was almost too much until she recalled a time when she was similarly hurt and unconscious. When she'd come too, she'd been afraid, but in control enough to put a short, tenuous leash on her power. Would this small child be aware enough to do the same? Alaysha watched Aedus and Theron together and realized they could all be in danger if the child lacked even the small amount of control that Alaysha had.

  She knelt next to Aedus and put an arm around her. "She's lucky to have a blood witch like you."

  Aedus swiped at her cheeks and worked to keep her lip from trembling. Alaysha smiled at her. "My own blood witch was my nohma. It's a sacred thing. Your niece couldn't have asked for better."

  Theron took Aedus's hand and placed it beneath the child's head. "Feel the lump? She swells there."

  Alaysha watched Aedus nod and caught Theron's eye from beside the bent head. He would do what he could for the girl for now and hope Aedus's blood would be enough to keep the girl calm, and him safe if she lived. Alaysha wished she had the right words to say, but all that ran through her mind was that she'd harmed the girl's niece. Aedus was too grief stricken at the moment to remember or realize it, but soon she would.

  She turned and faced the horde Edulph had brought. "Collect yourselves and run. If the girl lives, she may well steal all your air before she knows what she's doing. None but her father and this girl are safe."

  Several of them sheathed the swords they still held aloft, but many more refused to move. Alaysha motioned to Yenic to hoist Edulph onto Barruch and as he strode over, Edulph rolled onto his back, staring up at the canopy.

  "Edulph," she said. "Theron will do what he can but your men are in danger."

  "You're all in danger," he said glumly.

  "You and Aedus are safe as you well know," she said. "You can stay, but your men—"

  "Go," he said, waving a limp hand at the group. "Let them take you to the village. If she lives, you live."

  "Cai snorted. "That's a hollow threat, man. You see the might we wield, the witch we own."

  Edulph's head rolled to its side. "Your witch is useless," he said, taking in Alaysha as she stroked Aedus's mud-slicked hair. "As long as you are all with her, she's as good as –"

  Bitter fury roared through Alaysha for all she knew of this horrible man and she wanted to strike him. "You're no better than Yuri, using your own daughter for your own gain, forcing her to kill so you can feel some sort of weak power. Have you thought of how much she'll hate you when she's grown? Have you thought what it will do to her, all this killing?"

  He curled tighter into his ball, facing the sky again, his arms pulled into his chest. "You know nothing, you stupid witch."

  Yenic motioned to Cai for help lifting the man, but Alaysha stopped him. "Leave him," she said. "We'll follow him to their village until Theron can meet us. It will get us out of these woods and away from the stink of trees.

  She heard Cai chuckle. "You've never been to the Highlands, then, have you, little maga?"

  Alaysha brushed leaf litter from her knees and scanned the troops. "No."

  The men had swollen in number, their ranks coming from all of the ambush sites, no doubt. They looked restless and uncertain.

  "How far is it?" she asked.

  "About a handful of sunsets north." Cai collected her packs and threw them onto her beast. "Then the trees get taller and thicker. Seven more from there until we reach the border." She threw a glance over her shoulder to where Theron had begun sharpening his blade. "He may need some of Meroshi's beetle, eh, little one?" She said this to Aedus and swiped at her neck almost absently, but with a purpose that made Aedus's eyes light up. The girl colored tellingly and then nodded. So Cai had seen the purple stain when Aedus had shot her in the glade and had known exactly what it meant.

  "Keep her under," Cai told Theron. "If she seems afraid when she wakes, have the little one use one of her quills."

  Alaysha turned again to where Edulph was lying, staring blankly at the sky. It was entirely too contrived. Even if she left with Cai and Gael, would Edulph find a reason to harm Theron or Aedus?

  She recalled Yenic's plea that she had to trust someone sometime, thought of her father's teachings to feel for no one, trust no one. She stole a glance at the child with the honey hair, her fat legs lying still, knowing that small thing could take each one of their lives as easily as she breathed.

  The decision was easy after that.

  "Today is not the time for trust," she said to herself and strode over to where Edulph lay. His eyes followed her keenly.

  "Get up," she told him, kicking at his shin. "Your daughter needs you."

  "Leave him," Cai said and Alaysha kicked Edulph again, ignoring her.

  "Get up I said," this time she reached down and slapped him hard across the face. His eyes held steel, cold and sharp when he looked at her. "You have things to do while Aedus gathers her beetles."

  "Alaysha," Yenic said.

  She held up her hand. "You all go. Get to a safe distance. I'll stay here." She watched Aedus ease to her feet. "Find enough to keep her quiet, Aedus," Alaysha told her with a sick feeling she knew exactly why Theron was sharpening his blade so intently. She stole a peek at Gael, and she thought of the bandaged hole Thera had put in the back of his skull. Now, standing in the middle of the woods, hearing the metallic scrape of steel against rock, Alaysha realized why she had drugged him to unconsciousness and in the moment was incredibly grateful to the bone witch.

  She felt Yenic's hand on the small of her back. "If you stay, I stay," he said.

  "You can't," she told him. "Theron is taking a huge risk and if she comes to and is frightened, he'll need me to fight back for him."

  "If you can," he said and she read the anxiety in his voice. She knew where it came from.

  "I managed it before."

  "At great cost," he said. "I'm staying."

  Theron thumbed the edge of the blade and mumbled in disappointment. Alaysha took it from him and tested its sharpness for herself. "Seems pretty sharp," she said but he only shook his head.

  "We need much speed on the edge," he told her and spit on the whetstone in disgust. He reached again for the girl, smoothing her hair and leaning in to test her breathing. "We could lose this little temptress," he said.

  Edulph made a sound that surprised Alaysha. It could've been fear, but she couldn't be sure. When she turned to look at him, both Cai and Gael had stepped into place, blocking a now standing Edulph from going near Alaysha. His face was streaked with mud but had a determined look. He pulled a blade from his side that was more black than steel, translucent, with an edge that seemed so thin it couldn't possibly act as anything remotely dangerous.

  Cai had him by the wrist in less time than it took Alaysha to draw breath. She heard a crack and Edulph groaned in evident pain. "You should be dead by now, man," Cai told him.

  "It's for the shaman," Edulph gasped out. "The edge is sharper than anything you've seen. Take it."

  Cai's narrowed gaze didn't drop from Edulph as she took the blade. "I wouldn't have needed your leave to do so, man," she said and in a flash, she'd drawn the edge against his cheek, leaving a streak of blood that welled blood. He gasped, but he didn't pull away. She leaned
in and inspected the wounds. "Barely split the skin." She passed the blade to Gael who took it carefully. "Don't worry, man," she told Gael, "if you hurt yourself with it, we'll see Thera finds you to patch you up again."

  He glowered at her but passed it to Theron who seemed very pleased indeed. He poured water over the edge, washing Edulph's blood away. He would need to be quick. They were running out of time.

  Alaysha faced Edulph. "Tell them to go," she said. "My friends will leave too. It'll just be us: you, me, Theron, and Aedus with the girl. And if you're somehow tricking me," Alaysha crossed her arms. "I will kill you."

  "And I you, stupid witch," he said making both Cai and Gael shuffle threateningly. Edulph held his hands up in surrender. "You expect me to trust her? With the shaman, alone with my daughter? You think I'm a fool?"

  "We know all too well what you are," Yenic said. "We're not leaving Alaysha or Aedus or Theron alone with you."

  Alaysha groaned. "There's no more time for this. You have to gain some distance. Go. Please."

  None but the last of Edulph's men scrambled past them, disappearing into the trees. She sighed heavily and sent Aedus into the woods; Gael followed her, mumbling something about wanting to see the nasty sleepers with his own eyes.

  Theron hefted the girl into his arms. The poor thing's legs hung feebly over his elbow. "We need to sturdy this small one." He cast about for volunteers, but no one seemed up to the task of holding the frail thing while the shaman cut into her skull.

  Alaysha noticed that Edulph's face had gone the shade of new bone.

  "I'll do it," she told the shaman and could swear she heard audible exhales from everyone present.

  She knelt in front of him, working her knees into a bunch of Moss all the better to cradle her bones when the going got tough as it undoubtedly would.

  "This shaman would have used the ghost pipe," Theron told her, nodding toward a small patch of translucent plants that hung over at the top in a U. "Very potent mixture for stealing one's awareness. Too good."

  Alaysha knew he'd stuffed some into his pouch, roots and all, but she kept herself from looking at it. "Sometimes they don't wake again?" She guessed.

  In answer he took the care to lay the child over Alaysha's lap facedown so that her head hung over just a bit. "We haven't the time to measure correctly or prepare. This young one might well sleep the long sleep from haste if he used too much of the ghost pipe. Yes, yes, oh yes."

  "Best we leave it to Aedus, then." Whatever the consequences would be should the child live, would be nothing compared to those if she died. It made Alaysha keenly aware of her own mortality and its effects if she died without a daughter to pass the power to. She couldn't stop herself from running her palm across the child's back, comforting her, wanting desperately to hold her tightly.

  "We need to start, oh yes."

  Alaysha's heart pounded as she watched Theron part the girl's hair. "Now?" She said and he met her gaze with black determination.

  "Can this witch not sense the girl's departure? We have to start now."

  Edulph groaned from behind her. "Do something."

  Theron remained calm. "We are not as skilled at this as we should like."

  "Theron?" Alaysha said. "Are you sure this is right?" She eyed the black edge with anxiety. It had scored Edulph so neatly that the folds of flesh knit back together perfectly within seconds. That meant it was terrifyingly sharp.

  "Listen, little witch," he said and put her palm on the girl's back. "Listen with your hands."

  Alaysha felt that, the rise, the halt, and the long pause of the girl's lungs. Beneath just the spine, there was a chill waiting, one that made Alaysha's mouth go dry. She dug deeper into the Moss with her knees.

  "Do it, Theron," she said. "We haven't much time."

  To his credit, the shaman kept his hand steady, his movements were deliberate, not rushed or hasty. First he shaved a square away in the blonde locks. They fell to the Moss like petals from a bloom. "We shall cut here," he said, pointing to the top of her head. "No doubt the bones still knit together and so it will be softer, yes yes. Easier on the poor thing—less of an insult."

  The blade brought blood against the white scalp, and Alaysha knew from experience it would be lots of blood, enough to make Edulph sob and stumble to a nearby tree, his fist in his mouth, the other hand cradled against his shoulder. When the skin lifted away, the blade dug into the bone, and the sound of the scraping black edge against brittle bone, sent Yenic to join him. Alaysha could hear his retching and her stomach tried to rebel until she heard Cai complaining about the weakness of men.

  Theron had two lines drawn into the skull and Alaysha was beginning to believe they could manage it. She kept having to remind herself to breathe. Then she felt the girl's limbs twitch against her thighs. Theron must have noticed it too—his blade paused, his one hand filled with his cassock to sop up the blood, the other pressed into the corner, ready to etch another line. He said nothing but his black eyes were all pupil, making them seemed an endless pit of terror.

  A movement came from Alaysha's lap, muffled by pain and confusion but most definitely a child's sound.

  Even Yenic stopped retching at the noise. Cai stepped closer, her arm raised above Alaysha and it was only when the child twitched again, her whole body bucking upward, that Alaysha realized Cai's arm was filled with the handle of her blade. The Enyalian planned to strike the girl as she woke.

  And she was most definitely waking.

  Chapter 26

  The next few moments passed in a blur. Alaysha heard a sound like a shout, but it wasn't the noise that made her cringe, expecting pain or breathlessness. It was the feeling of having a massive weight fall against her back and the feeling that if she gave into the heaviness of it, that she crushed the frail body that was even now coming to and squirming in confusion. Moments more and the child would know the pain she felt. Would know it and strike out against it in the only way she knew. Another shout came, even as she had the fleeting thought that she'd have to unleash her power and that this release would surely kill them all. This shout sounded like Gael. If only she could wrest herself from beneath the heavy form, she could hear better. And it was a form, she realized now. Cai's body atop Alaysha's shoulders, her sword dropped on the ground. Were they under attack? What was all the shouting? She tried to find Theron who should have been right there in front of her. She worked to make sense of it when the girl's moaning grew louder, turning to a stifling sob. Oh dear deities. It would be soon. If it hadn't started already—maybe that was why Cai had fallen onto her, maybe –

  Then she felt the weight ease and the shouting clarify. Aedus and Gael both yelling at her to move. Theron at her side, pulling the Enyalian by her feet to the ground. Aedus slipped in and blew a Quill into the child's neck.

  The squirming halted.

  "My hero," she said to Aedus, smiling, and the girl wiped muddy locks away from a harried face. Gael stood next to her, holding a handful of blackish beetles. His palm was stained purple.

  "Save me a few quills," he told the girl. "I think I found a way out of listening to that brute's infuriating pomposity."

  "Such words," Alaysha said, relieved to see them both. She lifted the girl back onto her lap. "How close, Theron?"

  The shaman's eyes were glassy with exhaustion. "Soon," he said and then bent again to his task.

  "We'll need to cover the hole once he's done," Alaysha said, thinking about the hunk of bone that they cut and that they could never thread back into place. It was a small square but still, it would need protection.

  Aedus peered over Alaysha's shoulder. "We could wrap a gourd over it, or a nut casing."

  "The young one would make a good shaman," Theron mumbled. "Find one of these—not too round." He was on his last cut, the black edge was indeed terrifyingly sharp but it was more brittle than steel.

  "We'll need Aedus near when you're done, so she wakes to a familiar face."

  "She won't be waking," Thero
n said and Alaysha heard Edulph curse. The shaman ignored the nasty things Edulph called him. "This little witch needs to stay asleep while she heals," he said.

  "Stay asleep," Alaysha repeated. "So we'll need more of Aedus's beetles then."

  "Just until this shaman can measure his ghost pipe roots." He put a critical finger on the girl's neck where the flesh rose and fell irregularly. "Far more predictable when measured than these beetles."

  Alaysha felt the prickle of someone leaning over her shoulder, someone who smelled of onions and sweat.

  "You're a lucky father," she told Edulph, not trying to disguise the coldness in her voice.

  "She'll live?"

  "She has a better chance now than before."

  "No thanks to you."

  "You shouldn't have attacked us."

  "We were saving you."

  She snorted. "Your rescue nearly killed us, but then you would have known that." She would never be convinced he wasn't using the child for his own means. "At any rate, she'll need to recover. And you'll need Theron. We're coming to your village." She had no intention of letting this small witch out of her sight now she'd found her.

  Edulph said more, but Alaysha wasn't interested. Instead, she told him to sit down and when Theron had the girl safely wrapped, she eased out from beneath the small body and let Edulph take his turn holding her.

  She caught sight of Gael edging his way toward the furthest tree. He looked weary and the bandage Thera had wound around his head showed red. When he leaned against the trunk, she could see his legs trembling and noticed that the tree he'd selected was a good distance off. While it was in good view of the group, it was well out of personal distance.

  It was time she spoke to him. She brushed the leaf litter from her leggings and took a bracing breath.

  "We'll need to set off soon," she told him when she got close enough. "Theron wants to get the girl back to her village while Aedus still has beetles enough to keep her asleep."

  He eyed the spot where Cai was just coming to with a curse. He smiled, but said nothing. Alaysha reached out to touch his arm and he recoiled, electing to drop to his haunches and stare morosely ahead.