Vessel

well. She wondered who he was looking for, her or Bayla. He offered her a strip of meat. Their fingers touched briefly as she took the meat. They stared at each other.

Ask Korbyn if he remembers our first meal together.

Liyana asked him.

“Of course I do,” he said, looking back at the fire. “She dared me.”

I do not like to be spoken of in the third person, Bayla said. I am here.

Liyana repeated this. Still stirring the fire, Korbyn said, “You told me you would poison me for stealing Sendar’s horses, and you dared me to eat with you.”

“You stole horses?” Liyana asked.

“Only a few,” Korbyn said. “I wanted to teach them to fly.”

He said it as if that were a sensible reason. “Did it work?” Liyana asked.

Clearly not, Bayla said. Do you see any horses flying across the desert?

“Almost,” Korbyn said with the trace of a smile. “All right, no, it didn’t. Even with hollow bones and a significantly reduced mass, the required wingspan was impractical. But I did create a flying rodent.”

I always hated your bats, Bayla said, and Liyana felt a wave of fondness roll over her.

“Bayla had . . .” Korbyn looked at her and corrected himself. “You had prepared a meal with dozens of sauces and flatbreads for dipping. There was spiced wine. And you had made baked chocolate for dessert. You said that if I ate with you, I would worship you and be in thrall to your every whim. I replied that there was no magic that could enslave a man’s mind.”

And I said, “Yes, there is.”

Before Liyana could repeat Bayla’s words, Korbyn said, “And you said, ‘Yes, there is. There are women.’ ”

I poisoned you with love.

“Per your request, I returned the horses in the morning,” Korbyn said. He reached toward her, and his fingers brushed Liyana’s cheek. “Bayla . . .”

Liyana turned her face away. It felt hard to breathe. Her heart was a fist inside her rib cage. She felt her hand tremble. Liyana wasn’t causing it to move.

Why do you value this ephemeral human? Bayla asked. We could be together! Liyana’s hand reached toward Korbyn.

Clamping down on her wrist, Liyana thought at Bayla, You will be together in the Dreaming for all eternity. Please . . . A shudder wracked her body as Bayla tried to force her hand to move again.

“In my nightmares I search and cannot find you,” Korbyn said, cupping her face in his hands. His eyes searched hers. Feeling his touch on her cheeks, Liyana remembered all the nightmares she had calmed over their journey. I’m keeping him from her, she thought, deep where Bayla couldn’t hear. She felt her insides twist with guilt.

Raan moaned. Her eyelids fluttered open. Both Liyana and Korbyn peered at her. Raan smiled broadly. “She weakens!”

Maara.

Liyana recoiled. “It isn’t necessary to sound so gleeful about it.”

“Her presence is an unnatural offense,” Maara said. “One soul per body. And we take priority—our magic will save an entire clan.”

“Bayla has worked magic with Liyana,” Korbyn said. He gestured to the cacti.

Maara fixed her eyes on Liyana with an expression that said she thought Liyana was worse than a venomous snake. “You’re still here. Bayla, the key is to disorient her so badly that she cannot focus. Then push the areas where she’s weakest.”

Liyana felt chilled. “You’re torturing your vessel.”

Korbyn squeezed Liyana’s hand. “Bayla.” He stared into Liyana’s eyes. “Please. If you love me . . . do not harm Liyana. We will find a way to be together.”

Bayla was silent for a long while. At last she said to Liyana, You do not kiss him again.

Liyana started. I wouldn’t . . . I mean, I . . . She stared at Korbyn’s lips and remembered how safe and warm she had felt in his arms—how right it had felt and how wrong it was. Never again, she promised her goddess.

* * *

By midday the next day Maara had lost control to Raan. Liyana and Korbyn carried Raan into the tent. She’d woken as herself while they rode but had been unable to move. They laid her down onto the blankets.

“I still cannot feel my legs,” Raan said.

“What can you feel?” Liyana asked.

“Hands, but not so much fingers. It’s tough to turn my head.”

“How about your lungs? Any trouble breathing?”

“I can feel myself breathe, but not deeply,” Raan said. Tears leaked out of her eyes. Liyana wiped her cheeks for her. “I think I am slipping away, Liyana. I can feel her, nesting in my body. She has more control, doesn’t she?”

“Can you hear her?” Liyana asked. “Does she talk to you?”

“She’s never spoken to me. I didn’t think . . . I never thought my goddess would hate me. Why does she hate me? Is it so wrong to want to live?”

Korbyn knelt next to her. “Concentrate on your breathing. Let’s see if we can regain some control. Inhale, and feel the air expand your lungs.”

As Korbyn worked with Raan, Liyana slipped out of the tent. She needed to fetch both food and water so Korbyn wouldn’t have to. She scanned the desert around them. Away from the border, the land was desolate. Still, a few stubborn plants gripped the dry earth.

Maara does not hate Raan, Bayla said quietly. I do not hate you.

Liyana did not know how to reply to that. She wasn’t certain she believed her. Locating a tuber plant, she sat beside it. She touched the brittle stalklike leaves. I’m ready for the magic.

She waited while Bayla’s presence receded. Since Liyana didn’t need to be in a trance while Bayla fetched the magic, her thoughts drifted to Korbyn. He didn’t want her dead—he’d made that clear—but she wished she knew what he was thinking when he looked at her, and who he saw.

The power flooded into her. She shut off her thoughts and worries, and focused instead on the tasks at hand. Fattening, the tuber ripened. She shifted her awareness to the next tuber. It plumped. And another. She then dug the ripe tubers out of the sand and carted them back to the tent. Silently she poked her head in. Korbyn was deep in concentration, and Raan lay still, either sleeping or unconscious again. Liyana entered and stretched out beside her.

Raan’s eyes opened.

“Maara or Raan?” Liyana asked.

“Korbyn helps the vessel. Why?”

Maara. Sitting up, Liyana wrapped her arms around her knees. She studied Raan’s face, trying to see a hint of her friend within. “The vessel’s name is Raan. And why don’t you ask her? She says you haven’t spoken to her.”

“She is a body,” Maara said.

“She’s a person,” Liyana said. She spoke softly so she wouldn’t disturb Korbyn, though she wanted to shout. A thought occurred to her. “I think . . . perhaps you are afraid of discovering that.” Inside, she felt Bayla listening. “If you admit she deserves to stay in her body, then you have to admit that all those deaths of all those vessels in all the generations before were unnecessary.”

“I act for the good of my clan,” Maara said.