“You mean… Okay. You mean you don’t like the Koa Esher because…I don’t know. They use mages?”
The presence was displeased. One time in seventh grade, one of the actors had caught a stomach bug, and the teacher had put me in for rehearsals, because I was there and knew the lines. She’d given me that same vibe of deep displeasure. At the time, I’d hoped that maybe she’d caught the stomach bug as well, but no. It had been me. When the actor had said he was good enough to go on stage for the opening, the teacher had been so relieved.
Hoofbeats rang out through the fog, and I spun around, scanning the wavering tendrils of fog for the riders who’d been hunting the girl and had captured her friend. Her sister.
Not respect. They used you.
“The—wait. Used me. You mean back two years ago? At the Stone? The humans?”
Yes. The presence was relieved I’d gotten there. You were just anointed, unsure. Untrained. They would have kept you if you hadn’t listened and run.
“Wait. Wait, are you saying you told me to run? I don’t remember most of that day.”
Yes, I made you run. The kennings of fear helped. Even under ideal circumstances when they were watched and helped and supported, the anointing could be confusing for those who came before you. Draining.
The landscape shifted to a bright and sunny day, and I saw the Stone on the wide-open Hill like a three-dimensional photograph. There, just like I remembered, was what was left of a class of school children in their uniforms running past the Stone in a flurry.
What I hadn’t seen then—or didn’t remember seeing—were three broad-shouldered guys, their jaws set firmly, their eyes focused…on me.
I was on the other side of the students, looking pale and wide-eyed. I barely recognized myself. I was staring at where Cat and Jacob had been.
“You used the students to get between me and…those men?”
Yes.
“Okay. Okay. Thanks, I guess.” I swallowed, the visible reminder of that day making my stomach roil. “Can you get me back to my guys now?”
The pressure in my skull came back, and the scene shifted. We were in the fog again.
They want to use you still.
I turned, looking around. “The humans? Oh, you mean those people from back at the Stone? The ones that—” It hit me. “The cola ash people were teaming up with humans. Back in Esaka.”
That place is far away, but they shook hands here. Back home. It is difficult yet for me to know what happens where your mate was born, but the blood is bound. The more it mingles, the easier it will become to see there.
“You’re trying to tell me that the humans who want me are in cahoots with the cola ash people, and they want me now too? Or me and Vergis?”
In a way. They would cut you down your middle and each keep a piece of you, if they could.
Well, that was…not comforting.
“That means…if this Koa Esher isn’t lying, we want to talk to him, right?”
Since I wasn’t getting poked with a migraine, I was guessing the presence thought that was a halfway decent idea.
Humans do many things, and time stretches, makes grand efforts matter little. But when one of your kind is anointed, time is precious just as they are precious. It is good your mate binds life with life so both extend and grow more solid. Not as precious as a human life is for its brevity, but special.
The fogscape vanished, and I was back in the sunny garden. Fellisse was carrying me back toward the house. He’d gone maybe three steps. I could still see the raspberry bushes. I jerked in his arms as I came to.
“Hey, wait!”
Nokim and Fellisse clicked at me. Fellisse never let go, but he stopped and looked at me, startled. Behind his back, I heard Kinnek’s voice, low and threatening, speaking whatever language the Koa Esher spoke.
“Inki will be fine, you need not worry,” Nokim said with a smile.
“No. Kinnek! Wait! I think… I don’t know. I think the cola ash people and the humans who made me do the things back at the Stone two years ago are working together. Or something. The land said so.”
I couldn’t really see much, because there were still enough bagua between me and the Koa Esher to make me feel like a small, helpless human. Which I totally was. Or wanted to be. Kinnek was no longer talking though.
