“No!” the woman yelled. Nova stuttered in her steps, surprised, head snapping up toward the porch just in time to see the woman fling her arm outward, sending Nova crashing backward through the reeds by means of some invisible force. The woman then turned her hand slowly in a rising gesture, and the assassin floated upward, feet kicking inches off the ground and hands scrabbling at an invisible nothing around his throat. With a flick of the woman’s wrist, the soldier’shead spun around in a rapid series of loud cracks. He dropped to the ground with a sodden thud and promptly burst into purple flames.
“Nova!” Yemi shrieked and stepped out onto the trail to search for her, skirting the heap of burning flesh and trying not to gag on the smell. Nova stumbled groggily back out of the reeds, and Yemi grabbed her arm to help her onto solid ground.
The woman leaned against the doorframe and curved her finger in a come-hither gesture. Yemi and Nova approached cautiously, Yemi in particular scowling and ready to let her spear show her displeasure. The woman was younger than Selah. Maybe the Bear Queen’s age, a glowing brown with full lips, green eyes, and long braids the color of brick dust. Slowly, she began to change, however, growing shorter, grayer, familiarly crotchety.
“Selah?” Yemi said tentatively.
“We don’t spill blood here. Nothing will grow,” she said when they were closer.
Yemi nodded.
“Come to take me up on my offer, then?” she grunted, heading back into the house before they could respond. “Come on.”
Yemi nodded. She and Nova exchanged wide-eyed glances before they followed.
The other guy?Yemi mouthed.
I don’t know,Nova mouthed back.
They climbed the stairs and entered a courtyard teeming with plants. It smelled of sandalwood and damp earth, and the ceiling was open to the sky. A birdbath overflowed with rainwater, and small frogs and lizards darted among thick, dark leaves.
“That’s the third patrol this week. They’re persistent,” said Selah as she led them along a walkway made of cedar slats to the interior of the house itself. It was a large, square room with open porticos leading to three other courtyards, a short staircase descending beneath one. The walls, too, were made of cedar and peppered with potted plants and loaded bookcases with bowing shelves. A fire roared in a brick fireplace bordering a small kitchen. Yemi was grateful for the warmth.
“How do you know it’s safe to invite us in?” Nova asked.
“Oh, if you meant to do me harm, you’d have taken root in the courtyard. Isn’t that right?” And here she stroked the chin of a tree whose branches angled into an open window as she passed it on the way to the kitchen. Embedded in the bark was a human face, barely recognizable and contorted in drooling agony as it gasped its ragged breaths.
Yemi casually searched the potted plants and courtyard entrances for other faces, afraid to touch anything. She was certain something had reached out to graze her ankle on the way in.
“Tea?” Selah offered.
“Yes. Also, why the disguise?” Nova asked.
“I am old and occasionally need the speed of a more youthful body,” Selah replied, lighting a thin cigar and puffing vanilla-scented smoke into the room. “Now would you like something to eat? Or are you in a rush to get your throne back?”
“We came to ask—” Nova started.
“It can wait,” Yemi cut her off. Nova needed rest. They both did.
“It isn’t safe to stay too long,” Nova protested, though she looked tired.
“We won’t. Just long enough,” Yemi assured her.
“You have a day and a half, maybe two, before they try again with more force. Just as well. You two smell like a week’s worth of outside.” Selah sighed. “This way.”
She led them down the half flight of stairs beneath the western courtyard. It was a broad, smoke-hazed corridor with doors on either side. A network of interlocking grids and spiraling glyphs were burned into the floor.
“Bath is there, with hot water as long as you don’t overdo it. Spare bedroom there. There’s a closet in the pass that you can pick through,” Selah explained, pointing to the doors on the left wall. She said nothing at all about the ones on the right.
“I’m going first, if you don’t mind,” Nova said, inching toward the bath. “Try to stay out of trouble?”
“No promises,” Yemi replied as the door shut. “You host a lot of guests?” she asked Selah.
“I make myself useful where I can. Wartime, usually. And you are in your first war.” Selah plucked debris from Yemi’s hair. It was the first real time she could see the world-weariness in her eyes. Yemi’s mother had had it, too. “You have a lot of questions for someone who should be passed out from exhaustion.” The witch inspected her. “Why did you come here?”
“I need to find the sea witch. Ursla. She said you’d be able to point me in the right direction.”
She recoiled slightly, blinking her surprise. “Did she?” she asked, looking unnerved for the first time since their arrival. She pulled deeply on her cigar, the glow of the cherry reflecting strangely in her eyes. When she exhaled, the cloud wrapped around them in vague white tentacles before disappearing.
