The curtain moved again and Lilla and then the two Xentib crowded around her low cot. Tayan spared an instant to glare at Lilla before fixing his gaze back on the eja and sitting carefully next to her. He stared into her face, sickly grey with venom even now. The smile she managed was alarming rather than reassuring, and by her side Ossa lay in twitching, whimpering misery. Her gaze roamed over the three behind Tayan and she managed a grin and a raise of the eyebrows towards Lilla. The warrior nodded that he was healthy, which Tayan had at least managed to ascertain for himself that morning, and then flickered over the Xentib. She smiled again, but looked quickly away. Neither had learnt more than a few signs for the most basic communication, and Tayan knew their incomprehension made Xessa uncomfortable. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed.
A ripple of twitches ran from her scalp to her toes and he peeled back the edge of the cotton bandage swathing her from ankle to knee and sucked his bottom lip as he examined the wounds. While Drowned venom was rarely fatal in an adult, the medicine was slow-acting and it’d be a week before the burning in her bones faded and she stopped praying for death. Xessa’s fingers clenched at a spasm of pain and then she laid her hand on the dog’s head; he flopped onto his side against her flank, curled so his triangular skull was on her hip bone, tail thumping weakly into her armpit. Another shudder racked her and Ossa whined.
Tayan squinted down his nose at them both. ‘You look like shit,’ he said. ‘Want to tell me about it? Tika says you nearly died.’
‘Didn’t though,’ Xessa signed.
Tayan rubbed the back of his neck. ‘Only because your duty partner has more common sense than you do. Two Drowned? You tried to draw water when there were two of the fuckers circling you?’ He sat back and resisted the urge to shake her. She hadn’t followed everything he’d said, but she understood enough.
‘What other choice was there? We share the city with two thousand Yaloh now, plus our old Xentib friends. We need the water.’ She signed it simply, with the fatalistic calm common to ejab, and one that made him clench his teeth every time he witnessed it.
‘We’ve had early rain, in case you hadn’t noticed. People are already hanging gourds from the eaves. We’ll manage. And you’re too important to lose.’
Xessa rolled her head on the mattress. ‘Not enough rain yet. You know that. And it’s not like it was in our ancestors’ time. There are too many Drowned now; we have to cull their numbers where we can. That’s just how it is.’ She paused to cough. Ossa whined again, his pink tongue licking her belly beneath her tunic.
‘Have any more Yaloh agreed to be tested for the snake path while I was gone?’ Lilla asked, signing as he spoke. ‘It would be so useful, even if they just did it for a year or two. Once the Wet is here, all the ejab will have to work harder to keep so many of us safe and the spirit-magic … well, we cannot ask them to use it more often than they do. The toll is already too great.’
‘A hundred have,’ Xessa signed and Lilla repeated it in a low voice for the Xentib. ‘Tika’s taking charge of their training and is giving them the magic one at a time. Sixteen failures so far. Two successes. And another eight who are deaf or partially deaf have joined. They only need a weaker type of spirit-magic or none at all, like me. It might eventually make up for the four we lost this last sun-year when the magic faded during their duty.’
She didn’t need to elaborate. Those ejab, knowing all they did of the Drowned, knowing everything, would have walked into the river with open arms to embrace the teeth and claws of their enemy. Tayan shivered and the rock walls seemed to grow colder and tighter around them.
Ten thousand Tokob kept safe by the efforts of one thousand ejab. And now two thousand Yaloh to add to the burden.
Every problem seemed bigger than the last. We’re losing two wars, not just one. We’re losing everything.
Still, a hundred Yaloh volunteers showed a huge shift in their guests’ thinking. Before fleeing to Tokoban, the Yaloh had lived in small, independent villages of no more than a hundred or so. They had gathered water exclusively from bamboo and water vines, which they cultivated in dense stands around their homes. They dug fire breaks and burnt back the forest half a stick from the edge of any water source, a warning not to approach within hearing distance. It was rare for a Yalotl to come to the Sky City and ask to take the snake path. If a drought came, they had always preferred to trade with the Tokob for the services of an eja – and to pay a stiff price in meat and jewellery – rather than take the risk themselves. Until now, anyway.
‘What did Eja Elder Tika have to say about what happened to you?’ Tayan asked.
Xessa grimaced. ‘That I’m going to get myself killed sooner rather than later if I’m not more careful. Not that there’s anything more I can do. Too many people, too many Drowned, not enough ejab. And it’s getting worse. Tika wants us doubling up whenever we can, but …’ Her hands fell still.
‘But there simply aren’t enough of you, and it takes time to recover from the spirit-magic.’
Xessa shrugged and nodded as a grimace twisted her lips. Sweat popped out on her brow; she’d need to rest soon. And she doesn’t need me making her more worried, Tayan reminded himself. He started to stand up.
‘Why don’t more of your people become ejab?’ Ilandeh asked. ‘Your warriors, at least, who already know how to fight? Why not ask them?’
‘Our people choose their own paths and there’s no shame in that,’ Lilla said, his voice sharp. ‘We won’t start forcing them to take on one of the most dangerous tasks in our society. If we were like that, we’d have asked you to try the spirit-magic by now and sent you off to the river with a spear and a net.’
The Xentib looked away hastily and Tayan tried to feel some sympathy for them, but it was hard. They were good people and good friends, but they’d arrived with nothing and while Dakto was a decent fighter and Ilandeh could weave, neither had made a huge contribution to the city that had fed, housed and clothed them for most of a year.
‘That said, a lot of our people take the test, myself included. I spent my childhood convinced Malel had put me in the world to walk the snake path. When I was old enough, a shaman gave me and the other candidates the spirit-magic. I was so excited at the prospect of the spirits deadening me to the Drowned’s call. And it worked – at first.’
Lilla fell silent and Tayan realised Xessa was watching the warrior. ‘Can you see his lips?’ he signed and she nodded.
‘What happened then?’ she asked, even though she knew the story. It was important the Xentib understood why the snake path was not stepped upon lightly. Tayan shifted on the bed so he could see the rest of the room’s occupants. Lilla gave him a wan smile. Ilandeh and Dakto were silent, rapt.
Lilla signed as he spoke. ‘I heard the spirits. A sort of high, ululating whine. It was all I could hear, just that, and I was so happy, because it was working. I was going to be eja.’ He paused and bitterness chased regret across a face too gentle to be a warrior’s. ‘But then it changed. I could see the spirits too, not just hear them, and they weren’t friendly. They were angry.’
‘What did they look like?’ Ilandeh asked and Tayan translated for Xessa.