groaned deeply, and gasped, 'Fingers… slipping!'
The villagers frowned and began to jabber in confusion, and Atreus realized they had not understood the ogre's warning. He shouldered his way into the crowd, grabbed the ankles of the man under the stone, and jerked him out backward.
'In the name of the Five Kingdoms, take care!' the hero cried, twisting around to glare up at his handler.
'Rishi?' Atreus gasped, surprised to find himself staring down at his sly guide. 'What are you getting out of this?'
'Nothing,' Rishi, flushed with embarrassment, answered. 'I am as surprised as you are, but no one else believed Yago could hold the stone.'
At that instant, Yago cried out in alarm and jumped back. The granite slab crashed down, shaking the whole talus slope, and Atreus thought for an instant that the rockslide would begin again.
Rishi's eyes widened at the near miss, and he spun to glare at Yago. The ogre merely shrugged and turned away, stooping over the other onlookers to peer down at Timin's father.
'Is he gonna live?'
The father's glassy eyes grew round, then he began to shake his head in fear.
'Yeti devil!'
Yago's heavy brow rose. 'Me?'
The man tried to push himself away. 'Thief of daughters!' He scraped his fingers across the rock, searching for something to throw, crying, 'Where is my Lakya?'
Atreus stooped over the man. 'Is that what happened to your daughter?' he asked. 'Did a devil steal her?'
When the man's gaze shifted to Atreus, he screamed in terror and cried, 'Devils everywhere!'
He struggled to escape, flailing around so hard that the old healer could no longer hold him.
'You must step away,' ordered Kumara. His glower slid from Atreus to Yago. 'Both of you.'
Yago scowled. 'You guys are the ones that asked me-'
'Please, my father means no offense,' said Timin, moving to block the injured man's view of Yago. 'He is delirious.'
Atreus nodded and pulled the ogre away, but even that did not calm Timin's father.
'Return my Lakya!' the man screamed. 'Give her back!'
Kumara reached into his satchel and removed a small, clear vial. The liquid inside looked remarkably like water, save that it seemed to catch the light like a fine diamond and cast it back in a sparkling aura of radiance. When Atreus made the mistake of gasping, Kumara frowned and shifted around to hide the vial from view. There was a small popping noise, then the sound of liquid being poured. A silvery halo rose around both the healer and his patient, and Timin's father grew instantly quiet.
This time, it was the villagers who gasped.
Atreus's heart began to pound faster. He leaned over to Seema and, as casually as he could manage, whispered, 'What was that?'
Seema hesitated, then said, 'Water.'
Atreus risked a doubtful frown. 'Water?' he asked. 'No water I've ever seen-'
'It comes from a special place!' Seema hissed. 'Only healers may go there, and now you must ask no more.'
'Why?'
Seema scowled at him. 'Because it is the Sannyasi's wish, that is why!' She moved away, kneeled down beside Kumara, and said, 'Is there anything I can do to help, Old Uncle?'
The old man gave her a glare that could have melted granite. 'Have you not done enough already?' he asked.
Seema recoiled as though struck.
'What do you mean?'
Kumara nodded toward Atreus and Yago. 'It is you who brought this evil on us.' He ground a leaf between his fingers, then pushed the dust into the spurting wound on his patient's ankle and added, 'You angered Fate by trying to cheat her, and now we must all pay.'
Atreus could not stand the sight of the tears that welled in Seema's eyes. He squatted down across from Kumara, his misshapen face taut with anger.
'Speak how you wish about my friends and me, but Seema is not responsible for this,' he said, gesturing at Timin's wounded father. 'Nor is she responsible for the missing daughters. Only a coward would blame a woman for a devil's doing.'
Kumara returned the threat with a black-eyed glare, then hissed three times. An invisible force as soft and powerful as the wind struck Atreus in the chest, knocking him to his haunches and leaving him gasping for breath.
The old healer narrowed his eyes. 'In this place, you are a devil.' He glanced at Seema and added, 'Women who consort with devils are witches.'
Seema gasped in outrage, then met Kumara's eyes and locked gazes. Atreus sensed that some contest neither he nor the villagers could quite perceive, much less understand, was taking place. The two healers glared at each other for what seemed an eternity, neither blinking nor seeming to breathe, until Seema finally began to tremble.
Kumara sneered, then raised his chin. 'Do you hear it, Seema?' he asked.
Atreus heard nothing, but Seema's eyes darted toward the head of the basin.
'You see?' Kumara sneered. 'Even Jalil's ghost knows what you are.'
Seema's eyes flashed with fury, but she seemed unable to keep from turning her gaze in the direction of her own hamlet. She cocked her head as though listening. Her shoulders slumped and tears began to spill down her cheeks. She spun away and bounded up the boulder field, leaving Kumara to smirk at her back.
Atreus glared down at the old healer and said, 'If Seema did bring evil to Langdarma, she is not the first There is enough wickedness in your heart for ten devils.'
Kumara did not even look up. He simply hissed, and Atreus felt an invisible hand pushing him away. Yago scowled and started to step toward the healer, drawing an alarmed murmur from the crowd of villagers. Atreus quickly raised his hand.
'Seema wouldn't want that.'
He motioned Yago and Rishi to his side and led the way a short distance up the talus pile. He spent the next several minutes glaring down the slope while Kumara tended to Timin's father, until he finally felt calm enough to speak.
'That old terror is right about one thing,' he said. 'Tarch followed us.'
Yago's eyes grew round with fear, though it would have shamed the ogre to admit this, and Rishi shook his head.
'Such a thing is impossible,' the Mar insisted. 'You were not conscious, so you do not know…'
'I know that two girls have disappeared since we've been here,' Atreus said. 'It was no coincidence that Timin's father was babbling about devils. He must have seen Tarch before the landslide.'
Rishi closed his eyes and said, 'And you want to capture him.'
Atreus shook his head. 'No, we've tried that,' he said. 'I want you two to track him down. We'll let the Sannyasi take care of the rest'
'Us two?' Yago could not quite suppress a knowing smirk as he added, 'You going after the girl?'
Atreus nodded. 'I'd only slow you down… and besides, you're not to get into a fight.' He started to limp off, then paused. 'Be back by dark, even if you find nothing. We promised Seema no killing, and I suppose that includes you two.'
'The good sir is most generous,' said Rishi. 'I am certain he will reward us well for this danger.'
Atreus smiled, then waved his hand around the valley. 'You're seeing Langdarma,' he said. 'What more do you want?'
By the time Atreus hobbled up the slope to his yak, Seema had disappeared down the trail. He untied the lead and started after her, expecting to find her waiting a few switchbacks below.
