The Past the Dawn #2
At dusk, when they were almost ready to move out, the lookout signaled that someone was approaching.
Kai walked down the path to see it was two figures on Arike horses.
He huffed in annoyance. Amabel was supposed to come back with Kai’s horse and ride with them for the first day or so.
Their affinity for fast travel meant they could carry messages back and forth between Kai’s group and the army as it advanced.
The light was too dim and they were still too far away to recognize, but if the second person was one of his cadre returning …
It was exactly the sort of thing Cerala might do …
Nightjar joined him, and stiffened abruptly. Then she threw Kai a look of forced amusement. “So you thought you needed help? Or perhaps you were lonely?”
Kai made a noncommittal noise. His ability to see night almost as clear as day had been left behind with Enna so he had no idea who was coming, which made Nightjar’s jabs stingless.
From the relative heights, the second person wasn’t Ziede or Tahren.
The figures approached cautiously, and he moved down the path and waved.
As they urged their horses into a trot, he realized that it was Cimeri with Amabel.
As they drew near, Amabel said, “Prince-heir Bashasa sent Cimeri, Fourth Prince.” They smiled and added, “Salatel said to tell you immediately before you got angry.”
“Good,” Kai said as Amabel dismounted. At least one Witch here would be on his side. He didn’t want to admit that it made something in his chest less tight, to have that support.
As Cimeri swung off her horse, Nightjar said, “So you return to us after all.”
Cimeri regarded her with a faintly challenging smile, and said, “Not you.” Nightjar’s expression was enigmatic and Kai didn’t have to glance around to know most of the dustwitches, no matter what they were occupied with, were watching.
This was why Witches didn’t like hierarchies, even the way the Saredi did it, with all the members having a say as to who led them and when.
Among mortals, shifting power balances could mean turmoil and violence.
Among Witches, with all the varied ways they could draw power from the world, it would be far worse. Kai signed to Cimeri, You volunteered?
Cimeri signed an assent. She said aloud, “Raihar stays behind. With children.”
Still trying to prod her, Nightjar said, “You fear for your precious children among the Arike mortals?”
Cimeri smiled at her again and flicked a series of signs in Witchspeak that Kai hadn’t seen before. Something something stop your mouth.
Nightjar took it with an ironic tilt of her head. Kai said, “No fighting,” and flicked the Witchspeak sign for yet.
With a nod, Cimeri said, “Fourth Prince,” and signed, Ziede says watch your back.
Watch my friend, too, Kai signed, with a head tilt toward Amabel. They are a sibling to me.
As one to me, Cimeri signed.
Nightjar, still pretending she found all this amusing, said to Kai, “When do I meet this great mortal leader of yours? Or are you afraid I’ll supplant you?”
Cimeri huffed a laugh and then clapped a hand over her mouth. Amabel pretended to be busy settling the horses. Kai just said, “You’ll meet him when we take the fort. But I don’t think he’ll like you very much.”
They rode through most of the night, with Amabel scouting ahead. At dawn, they stopped in the shade of a cluster of trees along a gully to eat and rest.
Most had put off their veils, with only other Witches and Kai around them. The group as a whole still radiated tension. Kai felt it was probably time to talk to them, and after they finished tending the animals and eating, he reluctantly called them together.
Their expressions were mostly curious and a little wary, though a few still seemed confused or mulish. Kai said, “How many of you have killed expositors?”
There was a little stir, but no one responded. Cimeri, seated on the dry grass near where Kai stood, looked over the group with a dubious expression.
Kai fought the urge to sigh. “Or demons?”
“Some of us tried,” someone muttered.
“You’ll need to try better next time,” Kai said. Then began to tell them what he had learned about killing expositors. He would save the lesson on what cantrips to use on demons for later.
The more he talked, the more interested they all looked, until one called Knifecrest said, “How are you any different from an expositor?”
Kai felt his jaw set. They obviously knew his sore point now.
He hadn’t wanted this body. He had reached for Talamines as a last gesture of defiance at the Hierarchs, thinking he and Ziede and Bashasa and Tahren and all the others were about to die.
That they hadn’t was mostly luck, but it had left him like this.
He made his expression bored and said, “We’ve gone over this before. If you need telling again, ask someone else.” That was probably enough lesson for now, anyway. “Get some rest. We’ll be leaving by afternoon.”
As he turned away, Kai heard a step behind him.
Cimeri cried out, “Hey!” as Kai felt the grit of dust on his skin.
He was already exhausted with the whole idea of dustwitches, and they had a long way to go.
He turned to find Knifecrest standing behind him with a challenging glare.
He tapped her cheek lightly, taking just enough life to make his point.
She stumbled back. Another dustwitch caught and steadied her.
Cimeri was on her feet, watching incredulously. “Stupid,” she said succinctly.
Kai let a little of his impatience show.
“We have an alliance. You’re not prisoners.
If any of you want to leave, go now, I won’t stop you.
Honestly, I can’t wait to see the back of you.
” No one left. He noticed a few, but only a few, looked at Nightjar to gauge her reaction.
Her expression was hard to read, but there was something there Kai recognized.
She looked like Lahshar did, when she was calculating her moment to interrupt Bashasa.
She started to speak but Kai talked over her, saying, “Anyone else want to test me?”
No one apparently did, and Kai went to find a place to rest.
Later in the day, when most of the others were asleep, Knifecrest took her riding animal and left with two companions. Kai was awake to watch them go, sitting back against a tree. Cimeri curled up asleep on a bedroll beside him, their horses tethered nearby.
Another dustwitch came over to Kai, her footsteps crunching in the gravelly dirt, loud in the quiet.
The day had grown warmer and even the flies seemed to be asleep.
She hesitated as the two Arike horses growled at her, and Kai motioned her to come closer.
She sat on her heels and, keeping her voice low, said, “We talked to Knifecrest and told her to leave.”
That was a little unexpected. Kai said, “You didn’t trust her?”
The corner of her mouth twitched in what might possibly be a smile. “We just didn’t like her.”
She started to get up, and Kai asked, “What’s your name?”
“Tangeld.” She shrugged, rueful. “I gave up my dust name.” Then she said, “The youngers ask if they can bathe in the stream before we leave.”
Kai stared at her. Next they would be asking him if they could piss and shit. He said, “They can bathe, they can do whatever they want as long as they’re ready to leave when it’s time and they don’t fall behind.”
She lifted her brows, thoughtful. “The Doyen made us get permission.”
“To bathe? No wonder you all stink.”
“You’re not fragrant yourself, Fourth Prince.” She hesitated again. “You shouldn’t trust us yet.”
“Oh, I’ll never trust you,” Kai assured her.
“Never’s a long time,” she said, and pushed to her feet and walked away.
Two days later, in the late evening as they rode by moonlight, Amabel returned from taking a message to Bashasa, and brought Hawkmoth with them.
They were riding along a low hill above a creekbed, and Kai decided it was time to rest the animals anyway. The dustwitches greeted Hawkmoth more enthusiastically than Kai had expected, and seemed astonished that she was still alive.
While Kai greeted Amabel and read Bashasa’s message, Hawkmoth stood patiently.
Finished, Kai closed his hand around the rough paper and leached the life out of its fibers until it crumbed to unreadable yellow fragments.
They never left anything with instructions on it intact, so it couldn’t be lost and stray into legionary hands.
He said, “The Prince-heir said you wanted to come.”
“I want to fight with you and my sisters against the Hierarchs,” Hawkmoth said, earnest and aggressive at the same time. “If you will allow it. And I apologize for my previous behavior.”
Kai managed to conceal some unflattering surprise. He said, “What brought this on?”
Hawkmoth shifted awkwardly and looked very young. She threw a look at Amabel, as if asking for their reassurance. They nodded kindly and she said, “Being with Mother Hiraga and Ibel. Sister Ziede. I liked it. And I want to show you I’m worthy of their company.”
Now it was Kai’s turn to feel awkward. He said, “Well, go and join the others.”
Hawkmoth nodded seriously. “Thank you, Fourth Prince. I have apologized to Raihar and her family, I’ll go and apologize to Cimeri now.”
As she left, Amabel lowered their voice and said, “Sister Ziede said all the child needed was to get that ‘monstrous creature’s claws’ out of her head.”
“Huh,” Kai commented. It almost made him feel optimistic. Almost.
The next morning, they rested in the caves and crannies of an area of water-sculpted rocks, while the animals grazed nearby. That was when Nightjar tried to kill him.