She completed her search and returned to the main camp, set aside from the battlefield. She found Sooni there, fortunately uninjured. Sooni looked up from a piece of paper as Alena entered her tent. “I take it you didn’t find anyone?”
No one, Alena signed. Sooni let out a small sigh of relief. “I think everyone has been counted, then.”
Alena saw that the paper held all the names of their family, with markings beside each name. “How are the other families?”
Sooni gave her an exhausted glance. “The Lolani focused their defense near the center of the charge. Those families took the worst of it.”
She didn’t need to add that her family had been one of those families. Even if Alena hadn’t seen the battle herself, the truth was written in Sooni’s features. A glance at Sooni’s list revealed that nearly half her family had died in the fighting. It would take a generation to recover from the battle.
Alena’s exhausted mind couldn’t comprehend the loss of life. Though the Etari had won a victory, the Lolani had given better than they had taken. Far better
Against the Etari, who could walk over empire forces that far outnumbered them.
Questions plagued her thoughts. How many Lolani existed on this other continent? Why had they returned? And why hadn’t she known anything about either before now?
She left Sooni to her grim tasks. She needed rest. Muscles throughout her body ached, but she didn’t think she would find sleep anytime soon. Her hands shook whenever she lifted them.
Without any particular purpose, she wandered through the battlefield again, this time to examine the Lolani. Perhaps some answers could be found among the dead.
An initial glance didn’t reveal any remarkable details. On average, the Lolani were taller than imperials and Etari, but the difference wasn’t great. They did have very pale skin, lighter than any Alena could remember seeing before.
The warriors all had dark tattoos around their forearms. The markings were similar, but different enough that Alena assumed they represented something important in Lolani culture.
Something bothered her, worrying at the edges of her awareness. Where were the women?
Alena walked among the bodies, searching for a woman’s brighter robes. She found none.
The women weren’t there.
Alena swore.
She ran to Sooni, drawing stares as she did.
Fortunately, she found Sooni already meeting with Rotger. She burst in on them, not bothering with etiquette. “We didn’t kill them all.”
I don’t understand, Rotger signed.
“There are no women among the dead.”
Sooni understood first. She had seen the soulwalkers herself. She looked at Rotger. “The others were only a distraction. They were protecting their women.”
Alena had reached the same conclusion. Why the Lolani would keep their women from battle was a mystery, but their reasons must be important. The Lolani women had to be at the center of whatever the tribes intended.
Rotger stared over the battlefield, watching his own people lick the wounds they had suffered.
Alena’s thoughts jumped from one to the other. What destination did the Lolani women seek?
It occurred to Alena that ever since they had encountered the Lolani, the invaders had traveled almost due east. Their course had never deviated.
She thought of the confidence of the Lolani warrior Sooni had attempted to bargain with.
The guess was little more than intuition, but the pieces fit. The Lolani were a people who made straight for whatever they targeted. “What is east of us?”
Rotger frowned at the question, then looked out to the east. “Nothing. Leagues of grassland, and then the border.”
Sooni, more well-traveled than their commander, had a different answer. “Landow.” She seemed to check her surroundings, then answered again with more confidence. “We’re almost straight west of Landow at the moment.”
A storm of emotions swirled through Alena.
Despite all her years of voluntary exile, Landow still felt like home to her.
And she felt certain the Lolani were heading there now.
Alena wanted haste, but the Etari refused to permit it. Rotger agreed the remaining Lolani headed toward Landow, which frustrated her even more. They had different priorities, though. Rotger didn’t care if the Lolani made their way to Landow. As soon as the invaders left his land, they were no longer his problem. He had the dead to honor and an alliance of families and clans to lead.
Sooni, although more sympathetic, agreed with their commander. She reminded Alena that they had horses and the Lolani did not. If they decided to pursue the remaining invaders, they could afford to wait a day or two.
Alena built her arguments while she waited. Looking around, she agreed with Sooni and Rotger on one truth: the Etari weren’t in any condition to ride today. Beyond the physical exhaustion, a deeper weariness had settled upon the families. Everyone alive had lost a friend or loved one on the battlefield.
The surviving Etari dug graves for those who fell, backbreaking labor after a battle that had already demanded much of their strength. Alena lent what energy she had to the task.
She had observed the Etari death rites before. Unlike her own people, Etari wept openly. As in all aspects of their lives, their grief was physical and public. Years ago, such displays had discomfited her. But she had grown to appreciate them.
When her own family members were laid to rest, her tears finally came.
This had never been the life she dreamed of as a child.
Jace had been the one who wanted to fight, who wanted to see battles.
She had just craved some break from the safe routines of home. She traced cause and effect, all the way back to Landow, to the night she had decided to steal from the Arrowoods.
She had brought this all on herself.
Anger bloomed in her chest. She watched as the others began covering the dead with dirt. Now, of all times, all she thought of was herself?
She didn’t deserve the company of the Etari.
She helped toss dirt on the bodies, the storm of emotions lending her one last burst of strength.
When the task
