Chogah?
Her breath behind her teeth, Anahli crept closer. Her sire kept company with Chogah only when he was forced to.
“—not so simple!” Chogah hissed. “Being Alekšu means not only responsibility to our People, but ourselves.”
“And well you know the latter!” Palatan’s voice, hushed, snapped like a braided quirt. “I’m still cleaning up the remnants of your self-interest!”
“I told you, when you were Marked child-no-longer, that you would need me.”
“I’d little choice, as you were then Alekšu.”
“With the obligation—n’da, the right”—mockery ran like silkweave along Chogah’s voice—“to make the cure for those possessed of Elementals. I could have done so with you. Instead, in secrecy, I blooded you to Lapis Council and owlClan.”
Lapis Council, Anahli knew. Those were the elders of the duskLands tribes, their gatherings every third Moons. But owlClan? She’d heard nothing of such lineage.
“I told them I hadn’t seen a talent like to yours in many turnings. Then you squandered it, running wild with that Riverwalker outcast, not learning at my side as you should.”
“Some things”—a hiss—“cannot be taught.”
A pause. “Do you smell fishKin?”
Anahli froze.
“Don’t change the subject, old one; the entire compound reeks of silvers.”
Chogah laughed, soft and mocking. “Yet you insist on letting these hidebound fishmongers throw away more… uhn… unteachable things. Despite that your Riverwalker lovemate has found another of shamanKin to cosset and ruin, an oških that bides even more powerful than you. And you would merely watch as your Riverwalker takes him from us?”
“What choice do I have? You know as well as I, he is not of us. His Spirit is tainted by Chepiś, forbidden.”
Anahli’s eyes widened. Tainted by Chepiś roiled itself under by another of shamanKin…
But their like were long gone. Purged.
“So it’s said. And enough that many deem him ehšehklan—even his own hearth-mother!” Chogah shifted, a creak of leathers, and her next words proved to Anahli of whom they spoke: Tokela. “Hunh! Inhya always was a heart-blind fool, believing what Lakisa’ailiq cobbled out of Spirit-lost dreams.”
“I need your experience, not your bile. Only cowards mock another’s pain. My sister is afraid.”
“And she should be. But not for what reasons she thinks. Call upon your heart and your Spirits, Palatančokašanli.” Anahli had never heard Chogah say her sire’s blessing-name in such a tone. “Realise the possibilities.”
“Possibilities.”
“One of shamanKin, and Shaped by Chepiś! Tell me, Alekšu, that you don’t wonder at it. Did Lakisa’ailiq lie with one? She lost every other child of Talorgan’s; how did this one survive? How did Chepiś taint Tohwakeli’fitčiluka, eh? How has he survived it? His mother didn’t.”
“He still might not.” Bleak. “I wish we knew more of how it happened. All those who know the truth are dead.”
“Galenu knows.”
Palatan snorted, and Anahli had to agree with the assessment. That old midLander knew more about his own visage in a clear pool!
“He knows what happened, I tell you.” Chogah’s voice lowered, venomous. “It is not the only secret he holds that belongs to owlClan.”
A rustling from within the tipo; Palatan rising and brushing at his leather leggings. “You say I cast away unteachable things—you fixate on impossible things. Galenu has nothing of yours. His dam—your sister—told you things to torment you. That practice runs deep, it seems, in your lineage.”
“Hunh. I believe, now, that Anahli also knows.”
This did suck Anahli’s breath from between her teeth.
No more rustling. Only silence, holding for so long that Anahli leaned sideways—carefully, more carefully—to peek through a crack in the door flap.
Chogah sat on the ground, stirring at a pot of steaming spicebark. Her sire stood rigid; the only thing moving were his hands, clenching and releasing by his hips as if they longed to be about Chogah’s throat.
“You,” he finally said, hoarse, “twist your talk as it suits you.”
“Huh. As does your spouse’s eldest. You have a blind spot two Suns running about Anahli. Yet you’ve wondered why she covered for Tokela at arbitration, haven’t you? I’ve no doubts the River outlier did—that one’s always thought with his bits when it comes to pretty boys with Fire behind their eyes. Only this one has River as well… Two Elementals, Alekšu. Two co-tenants in one host. Isn’t that another pretty puzzle?”
“This,” Palatan gritted, “is no mere puzzle. And what do you know of Anahli?”
“How do such as we know anything?” Scornful. “I know she saw Tokela use his Power. She was ill in your tipo after the incident with the midLander oških, who just happens to claim, nextSun, that Tokela tried to use ‘witchcraft’ against him. Why Anahli decided to shield Tokela, who knows? But I do believe something tried to wake in her, then. You felt it too. Didn’t you?”
“A mere whisper.” Palatan’s hands were tightened, tendons and bone sallow beneath bronze. “Sluggish, feverish. A passing thing.”
“Like a breeze faltering in the heat.”
“A breeze.” His whisper came faint. “A swarm of bees, with the Wind of their wings cooling a hive.”
Wings. Wind. Waking. Feel. Fevered breeze, rippling River as She washed through dreams not Anahli’s own, calling not her but Tokela. Calling Našobok. River’s voice like Wind in the trees, whispering:
Eyes meet eyes, to waken Spirit.
Spirit wakens our Mother’s heart…
A breeze played with the ends of Anahli’s braids, rattled Rain against the hide flaps. Anahli blinked, refocused upon the odd tableau within.
“But nothing, now,” Palatan murmured.
Chogah hummed agreement. “I thought I’d imagined it, too.” A snort. “No doubt you sired her; both of you can cloud your eyes as easily as breathing.”
“Insult me as you like, Chogah, but leave Anahli alone. Why do you think she’s here? To be away from you.”
Aylaniś had said it, more than once: Predator and prey is the way of things. Eventually, all of us are hunted in some fashion. Yet I do not have to allow it in my tipo,
