Ilapara puts them out of her mind and moves to finish off the few tikoloshe caught within the ward. With Tuk, Mukuni, and the Asazi helping, it’s not long before the deck is clear and they’re all panting and staring at each other. Staring and panting.
The Asazi relinquishes her ravens and becomes corporeal, but she holds on to her Void weapons. Her pale beads and kitenges weave down her body in a manner that accentuates more than it clothes. She is dark skinned and bald, pretty like Asazi often are. A calculating gleam shows in her eyes as she watches Tuk, the totem, and then Ilapara.
Ilapara has never gotten along with Asazi, never liked their cunning and aloofly academic ways or their proclivity for deception, and she can tell straightaway that this Asazi fits that mold perfectly. For one thing, she’s certain she’s seen those ravens of hers stalking them several times over the last few days.
She holds her spear tightly in her hands, ready to move at the slightest provocation.
Tuk flashes the Asazi a grin, and the Asazi smiles back.
“Everything all right back there, Salo?” he says without ever glancing away from her. His right arm is bleeding, but Ilapara has seen him fight; she knows how quickly he could move if it became necessary.
The Asazi remains still, though she doesn’t take her eyes off Tuk and Ilapara.
“Salo?” Tuk says again.
“I’m fine,” comes Salo’s reply. “I just need to concentrate if this ward is going to stay up.” He’s leaning on his staff with both hands, frowning in concentration. Ilapara suspects his eyes are closed behind his spectacles as he battles to repair the patterns of his ward faster than the wraiths can destroy them with their pummeling.
“We have an uninvited guest, if you haven’t noticed,” Tuk says, which makes the Asazi smile again.
“Oh, I noticed.”
Tuk twists the shiny blades in his hands as he eyes the Asazi’s knives. “It’s just that I’d like to know if this is going to be another fight.”
“Look, I need silence right now,” Salo says. “Distract me, and we might all end up dead.”
Tuk obeys, and the three continue to watch each other, at least until the Asazi seems to get bored and slowly starts to wander the deck, admiring Salo’s ward. Beyond it the wraiths are a sea of pale limbs and waterweeds clamoring to break through, even though they keep bursting into mist every time they touch the ward.
Mindless creatures.
Even so, the ward is quite unusual to Ilapara. A physical barrier, so there must be space-bending magic involved, but the lightning means there’s Storm craft as well. But how is Salo doing this so soon after his awakening? Shouldn’t he be struggling with the most basic spells?
A flash as golden light washes across the world beyond the dome. The fog rapidly burns away, taking the horde of tikoloshe with it, and what was once an impenetrable blanket of mist gives way to a glittering lake that stretches toward an unbroken line of dense jungle.
“The second sunrise,” Tuk says, glancing east, where Ishungu, the yellow sun, has just peeked over the horizon. The crescent moon is a thin red sliver not far above it. “Does that mean it’s finally over?”
“Dear Ama, yes.” Salo relinquishes his ward and puts more weight onto his staff, sighing with relief. His shards are still pulsing furiously with magic, though. “Is everyone all right?”
“Just a scratch,” says Tuk.
“Do you know this Asazi?” Ilapara says, still watching the stranger.
“I do, actually.” Salo straightens and drifts closer. He grimaces at the sight of Tuk’s injury. “I’ll need to dress that, Tuk. You might have been poisoned.”
“I’m not worried about it.” Tuk nods at the Asazi. “I’m worried about her.”
The Asazi finally decides to break her silence. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard more fluent Sirezi coming from a foreigner. That makes you very interesting.”
“Interesting people make the world go round,” Tuk says with a smile. His eyes, though, are still gloomy. “You say you know her, Salo?”
“Yes, so everyone can calm down.” Salo puts himself in front of the Asazi with a raised palm. “I don’t think she means us harm. She wouldn’t have helped us if she did.” He raises an eyebrow in the Asazi’s direction. “Am I wrong?”
In answer, the Asazi returns her knives to the Void and clasps her hands demurely in front of her. “It is as you say, Yerezi-kin.”
With those knives out of view, Ilapara allows herself to relax a little. Not that she thinks the Asazi means Salo harm, but something about her presence here smells wrong.
Salo seems to study the girl like he’s thinking the same thing. “Tell me, Si Asazi, why are you spying on me?”
The Asazi raises a well-groomed eyebrow. “What makes you think I’m a spy?”
Ilapara cuts in before he can answer. “The fact that your ravens have been tailing us from Seresa, for starters.” She looks curiously at Salo. “Doesn’t the queen have a spell like that?”
“She does, in fact,” he says, still staring at the Asazi. “And I’d recognize it anywhere. Not to sound ungrateful that you stepped in when you did, but did you really think you could follow me all the way up here without me noticing?”
The Asazi’s sharp eyes briefly peer down at his arms, where his shards won’t stop dancing with lights. A hint of something shimmers in her gaze, but she doesn’t betray her secrets. “Maybe I let you notice me.”
“Doubtful. If AmaYerezi wanted me to know about you, I think she’d have told me.”
“Then why do you think I’m here?”
“She probably told you to reveal yourself only when necessary. My near death was probably a necessary condition. Clearly she wants me to get to Yonte Saire. But that begs the question . . . why didn’t she just tell me about you? More to the point, why didn’t she just send me with the protection I needed? Why all the secrecy?”
“Why do you think?”
“I think you’re avoiding the question,” he says, “but I’ll take a guess. Either she mistrusts me, or there’s something I haven’t been told. Which one is it?”
Ilapara exchanges glances with Tuk, and he seems just as intrigued as she is. Why does Salo think the queen would want to hide something from him? What’s really going on here?
“Do you think I’d tell you if I knew?” the Asazi says with a synthetic smile.
“I’d hope so,” Salo replies. “The more I know, the better I’ll do the job she sent me to do.”
“Which is what, exactly?” Ilapara says, deciding she can’t deny her curiosity. “I thought you were walking the Bloodway, but now it sounds like you have another agenda.”
“You know everything you need to know,” the Asazi says, and Ilapara gets the feeling those words are meant for her too. She looks at Salo, expecting an answer to her question, but he stares at the Asazi for a beat and then nods.
“I see. So what happens now? Do you disappear and stalk me from the Void, pretend I don’t know you’re there?”
“We all have our roles to play, don’t we?”
“A suggestion, then,” he says. “You want to spy on me, and I don’t want a shadow, so why don’t you just . . . travel with me? Stop being so mysterious. That way you can watch me as much as you want to, and I don’t have to get nervous about it.”