we should go down again.” He gestured toward the shadow of the woods below.
“So the ghosts can kill us and the kueh peck our guts out? Not that it matters, when we’re going the wrong bloody way!”
Riuh’s eyes narrowed, but Xinai waved him silent. Her jaw slackened as a thought kindled. She pushed herself up, scrubbed sweat off her face, and clambered down the rock-strewn slope in the direction they’d come.
“What is it?” Riuh asked as he caught up.
The fourth ward she’d seen hung in front of them, rattling softly. She frowned at it, knelt to examine the rain-soft earth beneath the trees. Just enough light left to see without a charm. “Ha,” she muttered. “Look.”
Riuh crouched beside her, looked past her pointing finger toward a line of kueh tracks. No more than a day old; she could smell fresh droppings somewhere close. They’d passed half a dozen such tracks, but it had taken her this long to realize what was wrong.
Riuh stared, frowning. “They pass the wards.”
All the tracks they’d seen crisscrossed the line of markers, wandering in and out of the blighted spot. Kueh, like tigers and dogs, had no love for ghosts.
“The wards are real enough, but I wonder how much blight there really is behind them.”
“I’m fool enough to find out if you are.”
She glanced up at the shadow of the mountain, the stars blossoming all around it. “In the morning. A little foolishness goes a long way.”
The western sky caught fire and lined all the clouds in orange and violet as Isyllt and Asheris returned to the Khas. Weariness dragged at her limbs, slumped her aching shoulders. Asheris hadn’t spoken since they left the village, and she had no will to draw him out. The fierce exultation of the fight was long drained from her, leaving only a sick hollowness behind.
She sent Li away and drew her own bath, shedding her filthy clothes on the bathroom floor and sinking into the warm water with a grateful breath.
When she’d scrubbed dried mud and gore from her hair, she drained the cooling water and refilled the tub, then reached for her fallen coat and pulled the wrapped mirror from her pocket. She could all but hear Kiril’s chiding voice—good mirrors were expensive and hard to replace at a moment’s notice.
“Adam,” she whispered, trailing her fingers across the surface; water streaked and beaded in the wake of her touch.
A moment later an image resolved, the mercenary’s face focusing in the glass. His skin was pasty, eyes bruised, green vivid behind purple-shadowed lids.
Isyllt let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “What happened to you? And where are you?”
A smile twisted his mouth. “The local wildlife. But Vienh promises the worst has passed.” Isyllt raised a brow at that, remembering her missing scarf, but she knew Adam wouldn’t trust carelessly. “She found me a smuggler’s cache to hide out in for a while,” he went on. “You look more comfortable. Not to mention cleaner.”
She snorted, tilted the mirror upward. “It’s very pleasant, for house arrest. But I think someone will try to kill me soon.”
“Who?”
“An assassin posing as an apprentice mage—maybe she really is both. The Viceroy uses her to clean up messes.”
“Then you’ve got more than one problem. The Dai Tranh has someone in the palace posing as a servant, and they’re planning some entertainment during the execution tomorrow. Anhai’s maid helped frame you, and it sounds like she wants a more permanent solution now.”
“Lovely. Something to look forward to. What’s her name, the maid?”
“Kaeru—I don’t know the clan. The other woman’s I didn’t catch.”
“Good work. Have you heard about what happened in Xao Par Khan?”
“I’ve been keeping my head down today. What happened?”
“Ghosts attacked, killed everyone, but I don’t know why. Let me know if you hear anything useful.”
“What do you want me to do tomorrow if trouble happens at the execution?”
“Stay close and watch. If I have to run, I’ll try to meet you at the docks by sunset. I should go. Be careful.”
“You too.”
She broke the connection and his face faded into black. The water had cooled, and her fingertips were wrinkled. She ached for sleep, but instead she combed her hair and dressed and went to find Asheris.
He answered the door in a robe and loose trousers, the smell of soap and water still clinging to his skin. The hollow look around his eyes lingered.