Alaysha quickly snapped her mouth closed. So, the scouts had known Bodicca was there in the desert after all. How much more did they know, she wondered. She cast about for something to say, unsure where all this disclosure was coming from, but knowing she could never let these women realize Theron and Aedus were out there too, working to save Bodicca's life.
She was spared further comment when Thera leaned towards her. Alaysha couldn't help inspecting the tattau symbols on the woman's chin and thinking how poorly done they were compared to the beautiful ones her nohma had created.
"Tell us. Does Bodicca live?" Thera's eyes were very black, nearly no pupils at all. Alaysha could see the age in her eyes at that moment.
"She may," she hesitated to answer, trying to decide how to reply.
"May."
"Yes. She told us about the well because she knew we were dying. Then we left her to find it. She was pretty bad off." It was true, at least the first and last half. What did the middle matter?
Thera's face didn't so much as shift expression, but Alaysha knew the witch suspected there was more.
"Does she live?" Thera asked again.
"What does it matter? Surely the burnt lands will take her if the wounds don't."
Cai started to speak, but Thera held up her hand, silencing her. "You've had your turn, Komandiri." The witch leaned back, studying Alaysha, letting whatever things turned over in her mind travel her face. Alaysha had the feeling the woman could read her every thought but that was ridiculous, wasn't it?
"Tell me," Alaysha said finally, thinking to turn the tables. "Why does it matter?"
"She left us your man, knowing it was quarter solstice, perhaps thinking to buy her way back to her sister land after all these seasons, but knowing she would have to pay the price."
"Yes, Yenic," Alaysha said, grasping at the only thing she understood. "His name is Yenic."
"And this Yenic also has my symbols." Thera's black brow quirked. "Same as you do."
"Yes." Alaysha gave the wary answer but watched the bone witch's face and thought there might be even more behind her questions that even Cai suspected. The witch wouldn't look the warrior's way; her torso was turned away from her co-leader, almost absently saying there were things in her face she didn't want Cai to see.
"And this other man of yours," Cai said. "He has the Enyalian Mark."
Alaysha noted that Thera's expression grew impatient as Cai spoke, as though the Enyalian mark was less important to her than Yenic's marks. Her hand even went up as though to swat the warrior's question away.
Thera captured Alaysha's gaze with her own black one. "You met our sister upon the journey."
Alaysha nodded, her mouth dry.
"A woman who brought that marked man into our village."
Alaysha smiled, thinking perversely that she'd force them to speak either Gael's or Yenic's name. "And which marked man do we speak of now?" She wasn't prepared for Cai's slow, understanding smile.
"The large one, of course," she said, and Thera groaned under her breath as though it was not the name she wanted to hear. Alaysha turned her attention to the witch.
"You want to know of Yenic's mark or Gael's?"
"Uta wants them," she said, dodging the point.
"The deaths take Uta," Cai said and faced Thera who glowered silently. "It's not Uta who wants them. Uta knows more than she tells us; no doubt she has the answers already and lets us flounder here like babes trying to wield warriors' swords. No doubt she grins at us in secret as we piece it together." She shuffled her feet absently. "Since the quaking you have not been yourself, and I tire of it."
Thera's glance fell to her feet and Cai pressed on. "A man is brought to this village just at quarter solstice by a sword sister in exile and he wears your marks so you give him shelter and food and a solid watch, but a man with our mark—my mark is brought in by me and this little maga—who also wears your mark, and you leave him to Uta. Uta, Thera. Think on it." Cai turned fully to the bone witch, touching the woman's chin. "You are the bone witch now, Thera. Not Uta. You give her too much power."
A moment of silence descended and Alaysha used it to grapple the one thing she'd thought she understood. "Quaking?"
Thera turned away quickly, but not before Alaysha saw the way she closed her eyes in alarm; she'd struck a chord, surely. "Cai?"
The warrior's russet brow rose. "Little maga, surely you've felt the trembling."
"I have," she said thoughtfully. Could it be that Thera was releasing power without realizing it? Could she not know what she was and be wielding her power unconsciously out of some fear for the solstice?
It was time to test it, see what the woman knew. She touched her tattaus and caught Thera's eye. "And what is this?" she asked. "I could ask you the same. It's obvious my and Yenic's marks are more striking than yours. Why don't you tell me how you came to carry my marks. Why don't you tell me what you know of Etlantium."
She'd struck something, she knew, but she didn't have time to assess it. Both women clasped at their necks as though bitten, first Thera, then Cai, and then in unison they fell forward, landing heavily on the forest floor.
Alaysha's body went into high alert. She leapt to her feet and spun this way and that, searching for an attacker. She could see nothing through the trees, and stepped closer to Cai, all the while watching the foliage. She tried to kick the huge Enyalian over with her foot, but the woman in dead weight was too much for her.
Alaysha let her gaze leave the forest for a fraction of a moment, darting down to the woman's neck. She checked for signs of attack.
She heard her breath leave her lungs in relief. There, about a fingernail apart were twin quills leaking a purple viscous liquid onto the woman's skin.
She turned back to the woods, a smile playing on her lips.
"They're bigger than your average enemy, Aedus," she said, spinning slowly. "You don't know how long they'll be out."
The trees to the right of her seemed to shift and Alaysha was surprised she even recognized the spindly frame that showed itself—even if it was just barely. Aedus had spread mud all over her body, not just in her hair as usual, and then stuck moss and leaves and detritus to it.
"The bird nest is a nice touch," Alaysha told her, grinning.
Aedus came forward, craning her neck sideways to peer down at the nest she had tied onto her shoulder with dry grass.
"I ate the eggs," she said then blinked at Alaysha, seeming to be thinking. A moment later, she rushed headlong across the clearing, her scrawny arms flung around Alaysha's waist as they met. It was the best thing Alaysha had felt in days.
Sweet as it was to see the girl, there were others to worry about. "Theron?" Alaysha had to ask.
Aedus mumbled into Alaysha's belly. "Tending to Bodicca a day's journey from here."
"And Bodicca?"
Aedus peered up. "Getting better." She swallowed as her eyes left Alaysha's face and traveled to the warriors she'd felled so quietly and efficiently. "And what of my brother?"
Alaysha shook her head. "Edulph's captors haven't returned yet."
The girl said nothing and Alaysha's heart ached for her. No matter what he'd done, the man was still her brother. And she loved him.
"I'm sure he's fine. After all, he's with the Enyalia. Unless he's angered them, he's safer with them than anywhere else."
Aedus let out a dry grumble. "If," she said. She peered off into the woods as though something waited there, and Alaysha followed her gaze, squinting into the dense brush.
"Is there something else, Aedus? Is someone with you?"
"No. No one," Aedus said, and if Alaysha didn't know the girl better, she'd swear the shuffling that took over the girl's feet were from guilt. But that couldn't be. No doubt the girl was anxious for her brother, for Yenic, for Gael.
Best to shift things, Alaysha thought. "Yenic is here. And Gael."
The girl squeezed and let go, stepping back quickly. "He's all right?"
Alaysha couldn't help but smile. "Yes. Both of them. Well. Gael will be." She didn't know how to explain why and for how long.
"But there's something else?"
Alaysha touched the girl's chin because everything else was too covered in filth for her to reach any skin. "You don't miss much."
"What else is there?"
Alaysha sighed. "I'm not sure I can get them out of here."
"I'll help."
"No. I just need time to think."
The nest quivered as Aedus stomped her foot. "I can help."
"I know you can."
The girl fleeted a look over her shoulder and turned back, the guilty look resting again on her face. "I know things, Alaysha. I can help. And my beetles—"
"Are untested on such large foes. Remember Gael?"
The girl hung her head. She'd darted Gael with enough to put two men down because he was so large, but he didn't stay out as long as she'd thought.
A soft groan came from behind them and before Alaysha could even warn Aedus to run, the girl had already disappeared into the foliage so completely Alaysha couldn't say which direction she'd gone. She turned toward the two still lying on the ground. She knelt next to Cai and swiped away the quills, then moved to Thera to do the same. Just as she was wiping her palm on the moss to get rid of the dye, she had the eerie sense she was being watched. Prickles went up her neck to her hairline and she sent a casual look around the glade, expecting Enud, poised for battle.
There was no one.
Still, the wariness remained. She checked her palm to be sure the purple was gone, and when she did she caught out of the side of her eye, a flutter of movement. Cai, sitting up, her gaze hard and suspicious on Alaysha's hands.
"What happened?" Alaysha asked her, thinking misdirection was the best tactic.
Cai 's eyelids shuttered down suspiciously. "You tell me."
Alaysha eased to her feet, offering the Enyalian her hand. "We were talking, and then you just fell. Both of you. "It was the truth, and Alaysha had no trouble keeping the warrior's suspicious gaze, even when Cai brushed the offered help away and stood, her circlets chattering.
"Thera?" she said.
Alaysha turned to the witch who is still on the ground. "Still out, I'm afraid, but breathing as you were." It was hard not to chew on the insides of her cheeks, especially when Cai began a grid like search of the surrounding foliage for the attacker. Alaysha watched her, feeling her heart racing like a bird's. She hoped Aedus had been smart enough to leave. When Cai finished, she strode back to the glade and stopped in front of Alaysha. The assessing stare reminded her of Yuri—and how he could deliver a threat without saying a word.
Alaysha tried to make her posture seem less fidgety. "What do you think it is?" she asked the woman.
She thought Cai would never answer then was spared the silent examination when Thera gave a short groan of exertion. She was on her feet as quickly as the warrior had been.
"What happened?" she asked; Cai squared her shoulders and held a hand toward Alaysha. "Ask our witch."
"I'm not your witch," Alaysha said, using the chance to continue leading them away from the real question.
Neither fell for it. Cai sucked on her front teeth thoughtfully then said, "Apparently we simply passed out simultaneously."
Thera's arched brow quirked. "Indeed?" she said, but she didn't question any further. Instead, a look passed between them that sent a shiver down Alaysha's back.
She could swear the two massive Enyalian looked afraid.