That was sore true, but the funny thing was, Fie reckoned she wanted himnotto know, and that took priority.
Instead, she asked, “How is Jas holding up?”
Tavin’s shoulders fell. “He’s been better. It was worse when Aunt Jasindra died, but I think… he wanted to give his father a way out.”
“Aye.” Fie remembered it too keen, crouching by the fire, saying to the prince,You wanted to save him.
I still do, Jasimir had said,if he’s someone I can save.
She was not sorry the king was dead, and she supposed they’d all known there was no saving him any more than she could have saved Karostei. Still, as she watched Tavin send fire rushing along the walls of one more house, she was sorry for Jasimir, and for the death of the hope that there was aught left of the king to save.
They left the walls of Karostei once every house was ablaze, and not a moment too soon, as she’d grown a bit too appreciative of the way the heat made Tavin’s shirt cling to his back.
Lakima and Khoda had posted themselves as close to the gates as was wise, and Fie caught the corporal letting out a relieved breath once she and Tavin emerged.
Fie threw Lakima an exhausted grin. “Don’t fool with me. We both know if I’d met my end in there, you lot would be sent to sunnier posts.”
Usually, Corporal Lakima either ignored Fie’s jests or answered them with a bland “Yes, chief.” This time her jaw tightened, as did her grip on her spear.
“I promised your father I would keep you safe” was all she said.
Jade waited for them only a few dozen paces down the road, working through injured Crows with a Hawk’s tooth. Their ranks had thinned, but considering the trap the queen had somehow laid, it could have been much worse. Still, she counted five shrouded bodies laid out in the dust. Five too many.
Jade finished straightening out a sprain and stood with a wince as Fie walked over. “So that—those—those skins, the queen’s behind them, aye?”
“Aye,” Fie rasped.
“You ever see one come off anything still breathing?”
Tavin and Fie traded looks. “No, chief,” Tavin said.
Jade stared at the fields, grim. “Then we just found out why she’s telling towns to handle their own plague-dead, didn’t we? Make her a whole proper army of puppets.”
Fie hadn’t had the time to do that grotesque math, but the weight of its sum hit home. The ghasts could be sliced to ribbons, crushed under stone, even sunk to the bottom of a well, and they’d still never stop. Only fire could hold them off—and without Fie’s Phoenix teeth,there was only one witch in the whole of Sabor who could command fire outside the royal palace.
The boy standing at her side.
“Normally, when a chief passes, we let their band choose who they’ll join up with.” Jade planted her hands on her hips. “But it seems the queen’s got a shine for you. And it’s no fault of your own, but it doesn’t seem like she’ll spare us while she’s shaking the country down for you. So I’ll take Ruffian’s band to Gen-Mara’s shrine, and we’ll see who starves first: us or this storm.”
Fie nodded, guilt drowning even the glow of crossing paths with her Hawk again. “My band’s not two days off from safe harbor. You can take our spare cart, and we’ll split our rations. If this keeps up, that shrine could get crowded.”
“Excuse me,” someone said from the roadside.
The Crows parted and found a woman there in a stained Sparrow patchwork apron, holding an old iron kettle. It was filled to the brim with teeth.
“I’m the headwoman now,” she said. “Long as the lord lets me keep the name. So I’m here to pay viatik. This is all the teeth we have.”
Fie swallowed. She’d never seen so many teeth at once outside a shrine’s stores. Even when teeth were all a family could pay, they rarely gave up the entire store, keeping some back for another stroke of ill fortune.
It didn’t feel like payment. It felt like tribute.
“Khoda, help the lady,” she said slowly.
Khoda took the kettle from her, brows rising at the weight. The new headwoman clenched her empty fists in her apron. “What do we do now?”
“Let it burn to ash,” Jade said. “All of it. With this many survivors, you’ve decent odds someone smuggled out something plague-touched,so keep a sharp eye for the Sinner’s Brand. If you see it, carry the sinner into the ashes and light your beacon. We come when we’re called.”
“Isn’t thereanythingwe can save?” The headwoman’s voice shook. Fie noticed the red rims of her eyes and couldn’t help but wonder who of her family had burned.
