Dawn

Chapter 23

THE KROTE MACHINES had already started to die.

Most of the surviving Shantasi went north, pursuing the fleeing enemy and preparing to meet the future waves of Krote warriors that must surely come. There would be more fighting, for this war was far from over, but at least now it would be on equal terms.

Fifty warriors went east, back to New Shanti, where they would arrive victorious, ready to gather and lead the full might of New Shanti’s army north to aid the rest of the land. There would be issues to resolve, and blame to be meted out. But the politics would wait until after the Krotes were once again driven from Noreela.

Kosar persuaded a Shantasi captain to lend him twenty warriors to take into Kang Kang. None of them were keen to go, but they were buoyed by the sun’s reemergence, and many of them had seen Kosar with O’Gan Pentle. The thief had taken on something of a mystical quality himself.

THEY TRAVELED FOR a day and a night, camping deep inside Kang Kang and lying awake, listening to noises that none of them knew and imagining creatures that no one had ever seen. The next morning, tired and drained, one of them almost put an arrow into Hope when she wandered into their camp.

KOSAR AND HOPE sat away from the Shantasi, cooking a rabbit over an open fire and drinking water.

“It’s not so bad,” Hope said, nodding up at the mountains. The peaks were smeared with snow, the lower slopes wet with rain. The sun had risen again that morning. Kosar would never take the dawn for granted.

“The tumblers helped us fight the Krotes too,” Kosar said. Hope had relayed her story in one long talk, staring into the flames, stroking and sniffing her fingertips. Kosar had touched his own fingers-brands sore from the fighting-and listened.

“Did you see the Nax?” Hope asked, eyes wide.

Kosar shook his head. “That doesn’t mean they weren’t there. It was confused. And when dawn came, it got more confusing still.”

“How so?”

“Some Krotes fought on, some didn’t.” He thought of the scarred female warrior riding away, saying that her fight was moving on.

They ate the rabbit in companionable silence, both so loaded with questions that neither really knew where to begin. At last, the beast little more than bones in their hands, Kosar asked the question.

“Where will you go?”

He saw how the witch had changed. Her tattoos were still there, forbidding and angry, but a darkness had lifted from her eyes. For the first time ever, her name seemed to suit. “Back through Kang Kang,” she said. “I’ll avoid the Womb of the Land, though I doubt I’d even find it again. And then, into The Blurring.”

“But there’s nothing there,” Kosar said.

“How do you know?”

“Well…”

“It’s called The Blurring because it’s never been mapped,” Hope said. “And if the male Mage does manage to evade or defeat the Nax, that’s where he’ll go.”

“What makes you think that?”

“His ex-lover is dead, his magic weakened, and when whatever Alishia planted is birthed, it’ll be driven away completely. If I need to, I’ll be able to fight him on equal terms. He has nothing left to live for, but somehow I don’t think an old monster like that will lie down and die. So, my guess is that he’ll go south. Away from everything.”

“Toward nothing.”

“Maybe. But if he survives the Nax, I’ll follow.”

“Why?”

“Magicchose me, Kosar! Just for an instant, but itchose me. And now I owe…so much.” Hope licked meat juice from her fingers. “Besides, who knows what’s there? I heard rumors that a mad Sleeping God is awake down there. And other stories, all of them fantastic. So much to see and discover. And I don’t think Noreela’s for me. I did things…I hurt people…” She did not finish, and Kosar did not wish to pursue that route.

“You?” Hope asked. “Where are you going?”

Kosar raised his eyebrows and smiled at the witch. “In all honesty, I hadn’t even thought about it.”This is when she asks me to go with her, he thought. But the witch stared back into the flames, a strange look on her face.

“Well…” she said.

“Well what?”

“Kosar, while you’re thinking about where to go, I can do something for you. You’ll maybe hate me for this. I wouldn’t blame you if you did, but I can do this now, and I want to, and I insist you let me.”

“What the Mage shit are you talking about, Hope?”

“Give me your hands.”

“Why?”

“Those brands. I can cure them. If you’ll let me.”

Kosar looked down at his bleeding fingertips, made more raw since dusk fell. He had a dozen other wounds on his body, but now these seemed to hurt the most. “How long have you known you could do this?” he asked.

Hope looked away. “Quite some time.”

“Oh.” He fisted his hands, but remembered the change he had seen on her face. And it was no longer the time for hate. “Here,” he said, and he showed her his fingers.

LATER, HOPE WRAPPED his brands with strips of cloth torn from her already ragged dress. The Wilmott’s Nemesis root was burned and powdered, and she told him to keep the wrappings on for two days. “False magic,” she said, smiling at him.

“Not for much longer.”

Hope wrapped the last finger. “It’ll stay sore for a while,” she said, “but the bleeding should stop soon, and they’ll have a chance to heal. Try not to aggravate the wounds. No wars for a while.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I can do those as well.” She touched Kosar’s neck. He had almost forgotten about the wound there, pulled shut by sand rat teeth.

“Lucien did that.”

“A Red Monk stitched you up?” Hope pulled the teeth out one by one, dabbed Kosar’s throat, nodded in satisfaction. “He did a good job.”

“There was so much more to him,” Kosar said. He touched his throat and winced.

After a pause Hope asked, “So have you decided?”

He shrugged. “I’m a wanderer,” he said. “Perhaps I’ll just wander and see where I end up. But first I have to visit where A’Meer died. Maybe I’ll find her wraith. Maybe I can chant her down.”

Hope nodded, her face severe. “It won’t be easy for a long time, Kosar,” she said. “The Krotes are still in the land, and there’s no saying they’ll just turn tail and flee. They might regroup and fight. Without the bastard Mages to lead them, perhaps they’ll have their own designs for Noreela.”

“I know,” Kosar said. “But as you said, there’ll come a time when whatever Alishia seeded comes to fruition. Who knows what the new magic will be like? Perhaps the Shantasi will build their own machines then, hunt down the Krotes. Whatever happens, those Mage shits will lose.”

“I hope so.”

“I know so.”

They stood, kicked out the fire and returned to the group of Shantasi. The warriors eyed Hope warily, but the story of what had happened was already on their lips, and Kosar also saw a level of respect for the witch in their glances.

They gave Hope plenty of food and water, some new clothing and a bow and arrows. She also had Trey’s disc-sword, newly sharpened and sheathed in a make-do leather scabbard. Kosar thought it suited her well.

Hope and Kosar shared an awkward hug before parting.

“Take care,” Hope said to the thief, and that surprised him for a while. Here she was readying to journey into the unknown, andshe toldhim to take care.

But later, as he gratefully made his way out of Kang Kang and headed back toward whatever remained of the Noreela he knew, he began to understand.

Tim Lebbon

Dawn