“They’ve run out,” Nuuma said flatly. “What’s this about eyeballs?”
“A disciplinary problem.” Ziha straightened. She glanced quickly at Xiala and then at the new woman, whose presence seem to fortify her against her mother. “I handled it.”
“Save me from the tyranny of daughters.” Nuuma rolled her own eyes heavenward. “I don’t want to know.”
“I’m Terzha,” the new woman offered to Xiala.
She had a smattering of freckles against her brown skin and dark brown eyes that danced in the light. She was tall, as tall as the matron and twice as broad, solid muscle underneath her white uniform. Her smile was wide and genuine.
“Xiala.”
Iktan leaned forward. “Terzha is Nuuma’s firstborn daughter, the next in line for matron.”
And now it made sense. The confident firstborn, the striving secondborn who could never quite please. They were a standard kind of family, after all.
“And the weather?” Nuuma asked.
“We scouted west before we lost all daylight, and I asked the boatmen. They’re always good at reading for storms.”
“And?”
“Clear skies tomorrow and the next day, but a storm follows next week. Rain likely on the grasslands, snow in the mountains, but we’ll be in Hokaia by then.”
“What’s this?” Iktan asked.
“I told you we must accelerate our plans. The river route will take too long. We fly to Hokaia tomorrow at first light.”
“We?” Ziha sounded wary.
“Myself, Terzha and Iktan, the Shield. You will stay and complete your mission of bringing your people down by river. Layat is a week behind us. He is escorting select Golden Eagle families from the Great House who did not wish to stay behind in an unstable Tova. Not all will make the passage to Hokaia. Those you will accommodate here. The rest will come with you.”
Ziha’s face was a mixture of disappointment and relief, as if the distance from her mother was to her liking but she understood the inherent demotion in being left behind.
“Xiala will come with us, too,” Iktan said.
Nuuma’s brow furrowed. “We have a dozen eagles and already thirteen riders. You will double with Terzha, but I would not ask one of my Shield to share their mount.”
“She comes with us, or I do not.”
The matron’s mouth tightened, but she did not gainsay Iktan. “Who is she, again?”
“A bargaining chip,” xe said, voice smooth and detached as she’d ever heard it. It was that killer voice, the one that shivered like claws dragged along her spine. “She is precious to the Odo Sedoh, which means she should be precious to you, Nuuma. If the opportunity comes to strike against him, she will be our weapon.”
For the first time, Nuuma smiled. “Not just a tool of my daughter’s, after all.” She stood. “Very well. She comes, too. Be on the far prairie before dawn.”
And then matron and Shield swept from the room, flickering the lanterns with their passing. Ziha stood to follow, but her older sister grabbed her wrist, holding her back.
Once their mother was gone, Terzha exhaled a hard breath. “Stars and skies, she’s in a mood.” She banged a gloved fist against the table. “I really am hungry,” she confessed to no one in particular, “but I’ll take balché over soup any day.” She raised her voice. “I said balché!”
A servant shuffled in from the now-unguarded back door with a barrel of the alcoholic drink. Once the container was breached and their mugs filled, she peppered Ziha with questions about their trip across the grasslands. It took a full mug to loosen the younger girl’s tongue, but eventually, she was sharing the trials of leading arrogant and contentious scions across unknown lands with only the vague decree to get them all to Hokaia as quickly as possible.
“And what of Kuya?”
Xiala, who was carefully nursing her balché, recognized the name. Kuya was the woman who had harassed her and whose eyeball rested in her pocket even now.
“She deserved it.” Ziha was defensive.
“I’m not saying she didn’t, but be careful who you make an enemy.” Terzha studied her sister. “I think Mother’s wrong to leave you here alone with them. But Layat’s only days behind, and he’s to offer support.”
Ziha’s face fell.
“You’ll survive it.” She patted her sister’s arm reassuringly. “Just take a few more eyeballs, if you must.” She barked out a laugh. “Skies, where did you even get the idea?”
“Speaking of survival,” Iktan cut in. Xiala noticed xe had not drunk from the mug. “The Shield captain is dead?”
Terzha swallowed. “You caught that, eh? That’s why Mother’s on a tear, among other things. They were lovers, you know. She’s heartbroken.”
“I don’t know what’s more disconcerting,” Iktan said, “the idea of Nuuma fucking or the fact that she might indeed have a heart.”
“It’s the latter, trust me.” Terzha took another drink.
“And who managed to kill him?” Xir eyes flicked briefly to Xiala, a reminder of the Odo Sedoh’s murderous potential.
“She won’t say. All I know is that she came back from meeting with the matrons raging about incompetence and something about ‘that damned Sun Priest.’?”
Iktan leaned forward, xir whole body suddenly alert. “What about the Sun Priest?”
“She wasn’t clear, and when I asked later, she denied she’d said anything. But I heard her.”
Iktan stayed primed another moment before relaxing. “Perhaps it was nothing.”
Terzha shrugged, and Xiala could see the woman was well on her way to drunk. She felt conflicted that for once she was not the overtalkative fool deep in her cups.
Iktan stood. “You’ll have to excuse me. If we are to leave at first light, there are some tasks I need to complete before then.”
“I’ll come, too.” Xiala rose quickly.
“Stay!” Terzha reached for her, but Xiala had already moved away. The woman’s hand flopped on the table. “I hate drinking alone.”
“You have Ziha.”
Ziha was quietly snoring, her head resting on folded arms.
Terzha sighed, disappointment wrinkling her freckled nose. “So I do.”
They left the heirs of Golden Eagle behind and made their way back to camp. Iktan was unusually quiet on the walk, but Xiala had much on her mind, too, and did not disturb the ex-priest. They reached the edge of the camp, and Xiala murmured a farewell, thinking to go to her tent.
“I don’t think it’s wise for you to sleep alone tonight,” Iktan said.
She turned, mouth in a scowl.
Iktan laughed, a low sound like the crackling of thin ice underfoot. “I mean, because you’ve made enemies, and you make an easy target without your Song, Xiala of the Teek.”
She flushed, embarrassed that she had thought xe meant more.
Xe nodded. “It is a difficult thing to have a heart, Xiala. Do not think I do not see yours and where your affections lie. I have sympathy for your affliction.”
Were her feelings for Serapio an affliction? Perhaps. “And yet you would use them against me.” She remembered Iktan’s casual offer to Nuuma to use her as a weapon against Serapio.
“You’ll have to forgive me, but it was the only reason I could think of that would convince her you should accompany us to Hokaia. If she did not see you as a lever against her enemies, you would be useless. It is the same reason she tolerates me, after all.”
Xiala folded her arms over her chest, suddenly chilled.
Iktan exhaled, xir breath fogging in the night air. “Who am I to accuse Nuuma of lacking the compassion I struggle to find in myself? Even I have a heart, although mine is well worn and inconstant. I am sure she does, too… somewhere.”
“Terzha said something about the Sun Priest. Do you think she meant your friend? That maybe she’s still alive after all?”
Iktan did not answer at first, and when xe did, it was like the wind through the canyons. “I don’t know, Xiala, but if Nuuma is hiding something from me, I will find it. And if it has something to do with Nara, I will carve her apart until I reach her lying heart, and then I will take great pleasure in carving her heart apart, too.”
CHAPTER 29
CITY OF TOVA (COYOTE’S MAW)