“There’s a place downriver, with a deep sink surrounded by weeping trees—”
“I know the place.” There was a grin in the voice. “Meet me there.”
And when next Tokela looked up, Našobok was disappearing into the mists, Mordeleg’s unconscious form slung across his shoulder.
14 – Daughter of Wind
Anahli flung open the door hide of her Clan’s tipo, and fled inside.
The tipo was deserted, quiet. Not even her sire’s elderly fleethound lay by the hearth’s well-banked embers. But the wide, scooped-out hollow brimmed with furs and blankets. She dove in, rolling in the remaining warmth and scents: her sire, all spice and sharp musk, the needlecreeper balm her dam used, the ever-present and powdery smell of sweated horse blankets, the sweetsage and grasstails offered to their temporary hearth.
No cold den with separate bed shelves. No disapproving playmates bound in skirts and headwraps and interminable strictures about what and who and how…
She wished her sisters had come. Niše, Samke, and Vinka would pet her, comb and braid her hair, make understanding talk. Particularly Vinka, who’d also never forgiven Našobok.
The worst of it? Anahli had obeyed him, instinctive as if he hadn’t long ago cast aside any rightful respect! As if she were a bare-cheeked ahlóssa! Her heart burned, her eyes seared with tears of humiliation. How was it her fault the otter-masked oških hadn’t been prepared for a fight? How was it her doing that Našobok thought she and Tokela had been courting?
Anahli lurched upwards, clenching her fingers into the bedding.
Tokela, whose heart lay in his eyes when they followed Našobok—and Anahli hadn’t had the chance to warn him off.
He’ll tear your heart out upon the ground and turn away. He will…
Tokela, Madoc’s fascination, whose eyes had flickered like Stars. Who had… pulled the sparks of light from the alien thing and set them to Dance upon Wind…
Anahli drew her knees towards her chest. The sparks had… landed upon her chest, sunk into her heart. Našobok’s accusation stung, for whatever had happened, it was not so simple. She’d heard—n’da, not heard, a silent not-talk making questions beyond any true hearing and begged answers she couldn’t supply. Still begged answers.
Her temples pounded with the pressure of memory; her heart thumped against her breast. She took in a deep, cleansing breath, hoping to quiet it to no avail.
Possession. It had to be; it was the only answer she knew. The Riverling had answered, tiny as She had been, and the strange cavern… Shaped thing or no, it obviously had some life, and responded to one with the ability to listen. An Elemental’s Power had begun to ripen in Tokela, which meant…
She had to tell her sire. He was Alekšu, he could help.
Shaking her head—with a wince, as it set her pulse to pound in her temples all the harder—Anahli growled against her knees. Help? N’da. Alekšu was oathbound to take any gift away—and it was a gift, had been, would be again somehow! Palatan’s existence was now predicated on eradicating such things. Foolish, to think he’d do any different with Tokela.
And it wasn’t only Alekšu. If they found out, here? Surely Tokela didn’t deserve that kind of punishment. The tribes upon River’s thighs were adamant: purge or exile. Našobok had been a chieftain’s son, but that hadn’t helped him.
Yet…
Hadn’t Tokela’s dam been possessed? Hadn’t they tried to help her, before River had taken her? Hadn’t her spouse drowned as well, trying to save her?
A shadow loomed in the door. “Are you well?”
Anahli started and leapt to her feet, holding her sire’s blanket against her like a raiding-shield.
Chogah came inwards, slow, head tilted. She refused to share a tipo despite the distance travelled, insisting upon her own small habitation—set apart, even if it meant an extra horse.
What is she doing here?—what spinningKin traps does she think to set? Immediately Anahli banished it as unkind, untrue. Chogah had likely seen or heard Anahli’s approach.
Indeed, the ancient eyes held concern, chiding Anahli’s suspicions. “What has happened, ehši, to send you running home as if huntingKin nip your heels?”
Home. These smells, this tipo… not a damp, unwelcoming, hard-hearted fish eaters’ Mound upon River.
And ai, but her eyes pounded in their sockets.
Eyes meet eyes to waken Spirit…
“My heart, whatever is the matter?” Chogah knelt, wrapping her arms about Anahli, who hesitated then burrowed grateful, heat-filled eyes against her aunt’s ample breasts.
Spirit wakens our Mother’s heart…
Chogah stroked Anahli’s braids, murmured, “Did your dam humiliate you so? But she shows kindness even so; precocious ways will earn you no friends here, ehši. You must learn restraint. Wretched outLand ways loom too close for tolerance, here. Even River takes as much as She gives.”
And the ebon cavern, squatting on the edge of their territory. Reminder. Threat.
Anahli squinched her eyes shut, surrounded by comfort though her thoughts sped panicky as unfriended horses. “River. River took Tokela’s dam. His dam was… possessed, wasn’t she?”
This seemed to confound Chogah. She pushed Anahli back; her eyes, ebon filmed here and there with faint, approaching clouds, narrowed like knives. “I do not speak ill of those who have walked on,” she finally answered. “This is all true, what I tell you. Lakisa a’iliq was possessed, a’io. Not to the Spirits of thisLand, but that of Chepiś sorceries. I could not help her.”
“But they let her live here. Stay.”
“They did. There was the unborn child, you see.”
“Tokela.”
“He was named Tohwakelifitčiluka. Eyes of Stars. They have even taken away his name, here, out of fear. No child deserves to be born outcast.” Chogah frowned suddenly, as if her thoughts unsettled her. “When he was born, the possession left Lakisa’ailiq. It was an oddling thing.” Then a huff. “When they could no longer prove she was possessed, they allowed her to stay. But she seemed always… fragile, after.”
The possession left her. Anahli’s own thoughts were just as unsettling. What if the possession went with Tokela? What if… it was his?
Chogah was watching, gaze too canny. “Why these questions, ehši?”
Anahli started to pull back; Chogah’s grip snugged at her
