“She celebrates the demise of her clan!” Pia said.
“I rejoice that the goddess wants us to find another way to live,” Raan said.
Korbyn stepped between Pia and Raan. He laid his hand on Pia’s shoulder, as if to prevent her from charging bull-like at the larger girl. “We need her, and she needs us, whether she knows it or not.”
“I don’t need anyone,” Raan said. “That’s the whole beauty of being free.” She spun in a circle with her arms raised in the air, and she kicked at the clothes and blankets at her feet.
“You are
Raan quit dancing and stared at them.
Pia rolled up her sleeves to display her tattoos. “Fennik, Liyana, show her.”
Flexing his biceps, Fennik showed his tattoos.
“Our goddess chose not to come,” Raan said. “She granted me life!”
Liyana didn’t move. By the tent flap, she watched the others argue with Raan, trying to convince her that this was the correct course, explaining their mission and their reasons, and resorting to guilt (from Pia) and threats (from Fennik) and reason (from Korbyn). Raan refused to believe them. When Korbyn poured her waterskin out, Raan pummeled his chest. She then shouted obscenities until Pia covered her ears with her hands and screeched as loud as a whistle.
Liyana backed out of the tent. She let the flap fall down, muffling the sound only slightly. Men and woman clustered at the foot of the boulder, listening to the drama and taking bets on the outcome. She walked past them. A few men whistled at her. A few women laughed. A few children ran up to her and tugged on her sleeves. As before, she ignored them all.
She marched directly to Runa’s tent and barged inside.
Runa was dunking her fingers into a bowl of honey and then licking them, slurping as she sucked at her knob- like knuckles. “Excuse me, child?”
“You aren’t as drunk as you were pretending,” Liyana said. “I’ve seen drunk before. You wanted to throw liquor at Korbyn because it was fun. I’ve wanted to throw things at him too. He can be infuriating.” She thought of how closemouthed he was about their final destination. “But this isn’t about him. Or me. Or Raan. It’s about whether our clans survive. Our deities have been kidnapped, and Korbyn says we need the deities’ vessels in order to rescue them. He won’t want to leave until Raan joins us.”
Runa blinked at her. “Let me guess. Raan is refusing.”
“You forced her to submit to the ceremony, didn’t you?”
“It required three of our warriors to ensure her presence.” Runa dug her fingers back in the honey and scraped the bowl with her nails. “We had to threaten her cousin’s life before she would dance. But she danced while I filled the words with magic and sent them to the Dreaming. Yet still Maara didn’t come. Perhaps . . . you speak the truth.”
“You need to force her again,” Liyana said. “You must exile her. She has a strong self-preservation instinct. She’ll know the only way to survive is to come with us.”
“And when the time comes for her to give up her body for our goddess?”
Liyana hesitated. “We outnumber her.”
Runa chuckled. “Your friends are in her tent trying to convince her, aren’t they? But you, you are here. You are a determined one. And clever.”
“The needs of the many outweigh the desire of one.” Liyana felt as if Talu were here, whispering words in her ear. “She can’t be allowed to kill your entire clan simply to hoard a few more years of her own.”
“Ah, the certainty of youth,” Runa said. “You care a lot about a clan that is not your own. I wonder. . . . Is this out of a sense of what is right or out of a fear that you may be wrong?”
Liyana thought of Jidali. Of Mother and Father. Of her cousins. She wasn’t wrong. “Will you do it for your people?” she asked. “Or if not for your people, then for Korbyn, for whatever he was to you and whatever you felt for him.”
Runa didn’t answer. She dunked her fingers into the honey again.
Liyana waited, wishing she could scream like Pia. She hated the taste of the air inside Runa’s tent. It was thick and smelled overly sweet. She felt as if the smell were pouring down her throat and permeating her skin. It made her skin itch, and she longed to run outside and let the desert wind scour her clean.
“Yes, I will,” Runa said at last. “But I will regret it, as will those who love you. And perhaps even Korbyn himself.”
Liyana fidgeted, and her horse shuffled beneath her. Up the hill, Runa was breaking the news to Raan, and Raan was not taking it well. Her reaction echoed through the camp.
Raan rattled off a string of expletives that caused Pia to wince. “You were wise to interfere, Liyana,” Pia said. “She will realize that this is the right course of action.”
More shouting, and then a crash. Raan had begun to throw pots and pans. “I am not certain she will realize that anytime soon,” Korbyn commented.
Liyana wondered how long they could afford to wait. She thought again of Jidali and how her clan must feel with despair pressing down on them.
“Do you think she’ll try to flee?” Pia asked.
“She won’t be allowed to jeopardize our mission,” Fennik said. “I’ll guard her myself.”
“But how will you prevent it?” Pia asked. “We cannot harm a vessel. Her deity needs her body to be pristine.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Liyana said.
Pia began to object.
“Her goddess only needs her alive and able to dance,” Liyana said. “If Raan tries to run . . . we blind her. She can’t run away if she can’t see where she runs.”
Pia paled.
“You are . . .” Korbyn paused, clearly searching for the appropriate adjective.
“Mother called me practical,” Liyana said. “Fennik, I am sick of delays. Will you fetch her? Carry her if you have to. And if she protests, we can tie her to a horse.”
“She isn’t going to like us very much,” Pia noted.
“I won’t let my family suffer because she wants to throw a temper tantrum,” Liyana said. She noticed Korbyn was staring at her. She refused to meet his eyes. She didn’t want to see what he thought of what she was saying. “We are leaving, whether she likes it or not. Fennik?”
Fennik strode toward the tent. A few minutes later, he emerged with a sullen Raan. His hand was clamped around her arm, and he was nearly dragging her.
Runa watched from on top of a rock. From where she stood, Liyana couldn’t read her expression. But she did notice that the clan’s warriors fanned out on either side of her. The rest of the clan huddled by their tents, watching and whispering. When Raan tried to run back toward Runa, the chieftess signaled to the warriors. Standing on the rocks all around the camp, the warriors raised their bows and spears.
Scooping Raan up as if she were Pia, Fennik lifted the Scorpion Clan’s vessel onto a horse. She kicked him once before she sank into the saddle.
“Fennik, tie her to the saddle,” Liyana said.
Raan shot her a glare. “Don’t. I will ride.”
No one spoke again as they rode out of the hills.
Slumped in her saddle, Raan refused to meet any of their eyes, which suited Liyana fine.
As the sun set and shadows stretched around them, they pressed on. By unspoken agreement, they wanted as many miles between them and the hills before they camped. On unfamiliar ground, Raan would be less likely to make an escape.
As the stars speckled the sky, they selected a stretch of baked clay punctuated by rocks and cacti to be their camp. Pia commenced her nightly ritual of brushing her white hair. Fennik tended the horses while Korbyn put
