Alaysha watched as the strange hulking beast on the horizon grew bigger as it drew closer. With relief she saw that what Theron called an Enyalian was alone. What harm could come from a lone rider?
“Should we fear one Enyalian, Theron?” she asked him, and didn't feel so reassured when she saw his reaction.
“She'll have seen us,” he said, casting panicked looks around him. Alaysha noticed he took to stepping side to side anxiously, his filthy cassock swaying over his blue-veined feet.
“She?” Alaysha asked and glanced at Gael for confirmation. “Did he say she?”
Gael nodded and Theron edged closer, staring thoughtfully at the warrior.
“All Enyalia are shes.” He took measure of Gael, and seeming to decide something of importance, began pressing Gael to sit on the ground. At first, Gael resisted, but when Theron grew persistent, the warrior settled on his buttocks next to Barruch with a shrug. Despite his seemingly relaxed posture, Alaysha noted his fingers clenched the handle of his blade beneath his arm.
“What's going on Theron?” she asked as the shaman did the same to Edulph who had a harder time finding a dignified sitting position with his hands bound in front of him.
The shaman took Aedus's hand and led her closer to Alaysha.
“Any number of Enyalia is dangerous—life threatening, even, yes yes yes—especially for a man.” He moved them to stand in front of Barruch. “Let her see this witch first,” he told Alaysha then looked back at Gael. “Spring when she's noticed you, but only if she notices you. Otherwise, look weakened or dead or near dead.” He paused when he'd checked Edulph, seeming to decide the madman's fate. “If the foolish madman wants to live, he'll pretend he's dead.”
“And then what?” Aedus piped up. “If she wants to kill us, she needn't waste her energy, Theron. She just needs to pass us by and let this cursed land do it for her.”
Alaysha wished she didn't have to hear the note of sourness in the girl's tone. To have lived and thrived on your own as this girl had done only to be put in harm's way repeatedly because of Alaysha and all the messiness her life had become must be an insult to the girl's tenacity.
Theron glared at the girl. “The Enyalian won't take the chance, oh no.,” he said, looking past Alaysha at the approaching beast. Alaysha followed his gaze. Indeed, it was a beast—unlike any horse she'd ever seen, but the figure atop didn't ride so much as slump over it.
“We can protect ourselves,” she said aloud. “If we stick together.”
Theron shook his head. “Maybe if we weren't so weak. Maybe if we had more men...”
“She is one woman and we have a witch,” she said indignantly.
He grinned. “A witch without the control to be discreet in how her power works. Better the warrior out there than the witch right here, we say. Yes. Oh yes.”
Aedus threw her hands up. “Then what's the point, you fool?”
Theron looked at her. “Better than this small child has called us a fool. Indeed, a fierce Enyalian herself did so, didn't she? Yes. So long ago.”
Alaysha could swear he looked nostalgic. “How do you know these warriors? Who are they?”
He chewed his cheek, sent a furtive glance forward. The figure had come so close, Alaysha nearly staggered in surprise at the queerness of the beast. She could make out a long neck, and what had looked like two figures atop the one back she could now see was one woman slumped forward across a large hump. The legs of the beast, long as they were, seemed supple and strong despite the heat. The woman's legs hung down well past the belly of the beast but looked red and raw. Not bleeding—just raw.
That was the moment she realized it.
“We're not in danger,” she said aloud. “She’s hurt.”
Theron squinted, shading his vision from the sun with his palm. “It's worse than that,” he murmured. “Worse even than our deaths. Oh no no no no.”
Alaysha saw it the same moment he did it seemed. Both of them stumbled forward to help the woman from her mount.
“Oh dear deities,” Alaysha heard herself say, through the heavy breath of her exertion. She heard Gael's voice behind her as he spoke.
“Bodicca,” he blurted even as Alaysha's hand reached the woman's leg. It was indeed raw, covered in boils in a long strip of flesh that appeared to be from a trail of something wet and greasy.
“Sweet Liliah,” she heard Theron say. “Melted down. Poured on her, poor thing.”
Alaysha swept a look over his face. He looked stricken and it wasn't just from the wounds; it was as though he felt connected to the woman's pain.
“So brave,” he murmured. “Poor brave thing.” He tutted and did more to ease her down than either Alaysha or Gael did. They were awkward trying to wrest her from the beast without causing her further pain. Theron was adept, gentle. He stripped away his cassock and laid it on the bare earth. He stood in his flaxen shift, with his scrawny arms hanging at his sides. Strangely enough, scrawny as they were, they looked to have some semblance of old sinew and muscle. The tattau on his ribs stretched and sagged with his skin.
“Check the other side,” he commanded. “She'll have water skins. Yes, oh yes, she will. Plenty.”
Aedus made for the other flank and whooped in victory, Then Alaysha lost sound of her as the girl presumably guzzled from the skin.
“Careful,” she shouted at the girl. “Not too much. Lots of little, Aedus, so you can keep it down.” She turned to Gael, who was already striding round the beast.
“I'll see to it and get you some,” he said, his expression shifting to barely hidden revulsion as he spied Bodicca's back.
“It's a mess, Theron,” Alaysha said. “Thank the deities she's passed out.”
He said nothing to that, merely began digging through the pack he'd been carrying since they'd fled the city and refused to relinquish to anyone even though it was no doubt a heavy parcel for him to manage. She doubted he'd have any medicines or herbs to heal the mass of bubbled flesh in splotches and streaks down the warrior's body.
“What did this,” she mused aloud. "Boiling water?"
“Boar fat, we should imagine. Melted down yes oh yes but oh so hot,” he mumbled, then choked and gagged loudly as he inspected the warrior's back.
Alaysha could stand no more. She turned in relief to Gael who held out a water skin.
“It's hot, but very sweet.” He flashed another, uncharacteristic grin. “Aedus is giving Edulph some.”
She kept her lips tightly closed thinking about that horrible villain finding relief. "And Barruch?"
“She's already cut a hole big enough to let him at it.” The large warrior looked back over his shoulder and Alaysha followed his gaze to see Edulph cupping his hands into the broad leather. Aedus was scolding him not to waste any.
Alaysha gulped at the mouth of the skin, watching them curiously. “Is this it?”
“There's two more. Looks like she hasn't been able to drink much.”
"I imagine not." Alaysha hated to do it, the reluctance to even think what was invading her mind was strong, but not strong enough to overcome the worry of it. She couldn't stop herself from wondering aloud what they would all need to know eventually.
“If she's here, where do you think Yenic is?”
Bodicca had taken him when the struggle between Aislin and Yuri had looked to go bad. Gael had told her back then that where Bodicca had taken Yenic meant and that he was undoubtedly dead. If she was here, alive but sorely injured, it must be true. She tried to force her lungs to expand.
“Do you think he's gone then?”
Gael sighed and nodded at Theron. “He'll do his best to find out for you.”
She met Gael's eye and saw something shift within the depths. Hurt, maybe.
“Not just for me, Gael," she said, trying to placate his pain. "For Saxon too. If Yenic lives we may yet get Aislin to release your nephew.”
He nodded mutely, but Alaysha could see he still felt miserable. Better she focus on something she could fix, something tangible. She made her way to the shaman and searched his face questioningly, hoping he would understand what she wanted without having to say it.
“She lives, “Theron said.
She breathed deeply, wanting to ask about Yenic. “That's good.”
“Perhaps,” he shrugged.
“What does that mean, Theron?”
He groaned as though he thought her simple and Gael stepped closer. “The Enyalia, Alaysha. They are a caste of fierce warrior women.”
“I assumed as much.”
“Did you miss the term 'women'?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Enyalia allow no man to enter their lands. I should have known by her height, her demeanour toward men that Bodicca was one of them, but it was so strange to see one in your father's city.”
“Gael, get to the point. It doesn't make sense that they did this to her. What does it mean?"
Theron scuffled his feet and made a furtive movement toward Bodicca, almost a feigned need to inspect her back again, and it made Alaysha even more suspicious. "Gael? Theron?"
The shaman rolled his eyes. "They allow no men," he said. "If Bodicca is here, then Yenic is dead."
Gael reached for her hand and held it next to his heart where she could feel the thudding within. “Alaysha,” he murmured. “I think he's saying that no man who enters Enyalia lives to leave.”