Thensil bowed his head once. “All Hosmyr has native blood, of course. It’s what made us tenders.”
She grunted. That was why Vakayne rarely wanted us. Even after we conquered our valley and made it bloom with new power.
“Indeed,” she said. “But so many burned?”
“They are mostly valley… outer valley Mornae,” Sinnin said. “Beneath your concern, high matron.”
She twisted around, furious. “Nothing concerning my house is beneath my concern.”
Sinnin bowed deeply. “The seer merely wished to satisfy both requirements: arrest the taint and maintain the Mornae standard.”
“This tender trait is sometimes difficult to circumvent,” Thensil said.
“How so?” she asked.
“The seer says it is a complicated trait. He’d rather not deal with it if he can’t decipher it easily. He’d rather not guess wildly.”
“What does that even mean?” she boomed. “That he guesses, just not wildly?”
Thensil grabbed a chair lining the wall and sat beside her. “I have tried to get more information from him, including installing listening devices and other enchantments, but the man is an enigma to us. His kind may have studied us for cycles, but to us they were mere servants.”
She recalled Kandah’s face, so boyish, endearing even. How she wanted to scrape it off to the bone! Guessing? Guessing!
“What we know,” Thensil continued, “is that their kind have three types of power: one to identify, another to quantify, and the third to coax change. Kandah excels at the first and struggles with the second.”
“And the third?” she asked.
“He claims not to have that power,” Thensil said. “Few do.”
“What if their kind has truly perished in Uthkaea?” she asked. “What if he is the last?”
“We can only wait,” Thensil said apologetically. “Our agents have been searching beyond the Southern, but it has become more difficult since a new chieftain and his witches have united the tribes.”
“What? That’s the first I’ve heard of this trouble.”
“I explained it at the last minister’s council, high matron. Roturra has raised more troops and rebuilt parts of the wall.”
“An excuse, perhaps?”
“I think the threat is real. Our agents confirm it.”
“Your latest report on our efforts worries me. Will the next be just as bad?”
“Worse, I fear.”
“Is this what he means by the goddess’s fickleness?”
“I think so, high matron.”
“But that is all we have.”
Her pinhole vision darkened suddenly, and she flailed. She gritted her teeth, restraining the forbidden power that would show her the world by other means.
“I can’t see,” she cried out.
“Get her handmaids,” Thensil commanded. Bodies shuffled about, a flurry of concern.
Thensil leaned close and offered his hand. “Take what you need, high matron. I am here to serve. House above all.”
She calmed down and, without hesitation, drew life from him.
“Send out more agents, brother,” she said tenderly. “Find these green-eyed demons. Do whatever you can to get inside the seer’s mind. We must know!”
“Yes, high matron,” Thensil said.
She released his hand, and he cradled it in his lap. He was strong and skilled; his strength would return.
“It’s crumbling,” she said under her breath. All crumbling! Goddess, give me more time, she prayed earnestly.
A sudden warmth rippled up her calves and her spine burned.
The goddess heard her.
49
Taul’s heart pulsed in his throat, and his hands shook. He’d never ventured so deep into the world below Halkamas. With each step, his body dragged, laden with doubt and fear. He inched along, gripping the side of the tunnel, its sweaty surface refusing to help him. Darkness exploded around him with pale light. His eyes, not so attuned to the Dark, struggled against the unnatural gloom. He passed the boundary into Relkamas and lost track of how deep the tunnel went.
He shouldn’t have agreed to make the trade in such a dangerous place, but he wanted to end the ugly business.
