“N-no. I didn’t think... that.”
“Could’ve been better,” I said. “But that’ll do. You’re free of him now.”
“Yes,” she whispered, still not trusting me.
I indicated the heap of clothing. “You needn’t pack all that if you plan to return to your father. You could wait for him here.”
She shook her head. “My father never treated me well.”
“Have the witches?”
“Not Talivane. Not most of them. But—” She glanced at me.
“Dovriex is a good fellow,” I said.
She smiled shyly. “Yes.”
“You’ll come with us, then?”
“No. I’ll find a place of my own, I think.”
I nodded. “I can understand that.” I tried to think of something more to say. I pointed at a stack of dresses. ‘Take the red. It’ll go better with your hair than the pink.“
“Do you think so?”
“I don’t know. I’m the fellow who’s been wearing a brown belt with blue and burgundy.”
She took the red, which confirmed my decision to keep the matter of the Spirits a secret.
Chifco was sleeping when I opened his cell. I spoke his name.
He turned and glanced at me. “Kill me, Seaprince. I will not beg.”
I scratched my head. “You amaze me, Chifeo. Two sentences and three stupid ideas. Who were you taking lessons from, Talivane or Avarineo?”
“Huh!” He turned and looked away.
“One,” I said, because I had been counting things that night. “I’m not here to kill you. Two. I’m not Izla. Three. If it’ll help you stay alive, beg desperately. If you die anyway, you haven’t lost anything. And if you live—”
“What do you know of honor?”
“That it can’t be summed up in a sentence or two, Chifeo.”
He squinted. “Why’re you here?”
“To free you.”
“Why?”
“The witches are leaving.”
He looked around. “You try to trick me.”
“No.” I watched him stand and walk to the open door.
He stopped. “I can go?”
“Sure.”
“Where?”
“Home to the Spirits, if you wish. They’ll treat you badly, of course. They aren’t fond of failures, or witches.”
He thought, then said, “No.”
“Or you could come with us.”
He stared. “You trust me?”
“No.”
“But I can still come with you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I am very tired of killing, Chifeo.”
“It’s easy.”
“I know. That’s part of the reason I’m tired of it.”
“Where are you going?”
“Witchhold,” I said.
“It doesn’t exist.”
I shrugged.
“Who else is going?”
“Whoever wants to.”
He nodded. “I’ll come too.”
In the courtyard the witches waited in traveling clothes. Eight adults on foot, bearing packs. Two adults in stretchers that we would carry. Five sleepy children and two babies in the arms of the oldest children. The kitchen hound. The hearth cat.
Kivakali stood away from the others, waiting while Feschian and Livifal opened the gate. Dovriex saw Kivakali’s pack and said, “Will you come with us?”
Kivakali shook her head.
Dovriex took a step forward and said, looking down, “With me, then? For a ways, perhaps?”
She smiled slightly. “For a ways, perhaps.”
The front gates opened. Naiji glanced from Chifeo to me and back again. “I’ll vouch for him,” I said. Naiji nodded. I took her hand, and we set out in search of a myth.
We found it, of course. But that’s another story.
* * *
* * *
TK scanned and proofed. (v1.0) (html) June 2012
Will Shetterly - Witch Blood Page 21
