The Wittering Way (6 page)

“Ahh, a strong wit. Strength is beautiful, too,” it said. Its black eyes disappeared momentarily behind white membranes as it...blinked? A small black tongue appeared between a front gap in a mouthful of small, pointed teeth. It wasn’t repulsive, exactly, yet I found no affinity to this creature.

“You are a water sprite?” I asked, seeking distraction.

The Neisi cocked its egg-like head to one side and studied me. “I am. The water obeys my will. I am very powerful. If you join with me, then you, too, can be very powerful.”

I felt anger tap against the back of my neck. “And why do you believe I’m not already powerful in my own right? I am the daughter of DaisyFir Widdershin of Widdershin join. She is one of the most powerful of wits. She, as peyton, asked for me at Lake Feidlimed so that her join could be strong from her teachings and her legacy. For the past fifteen ages, she has taught me and I have learned well.”

Afton began to glow with my anger, and I allowed heat to rise up and seep from me. The Neisi recoiled when it sensed my rising internal fire as I encouraged magic to grow within me. The doubt on its face gave me much satisfaction. The doubt changed rapidly to fear, however, when a thin cord, a vine glowing with restraint magic, slipped over the Neisi’s head and shoulders and bound its arms to its sides.

The Neisi hissed loudly and tried to turn to see its attacker. The cord came around once more and in its light, I could see RoseIII’s grim face.

I shoved Memo roughly, awakening her as I scurried out from under the Neisi. She scrambled behind me as RoseIII pulled the creature upright. It was small in stature, yet strong, but the binding cord held well.

“What shall we do with it?” RoseIII asked.

I had no idea. “Afton, give me light,” I said as I dug my mother’s grimoire from my bag. Surely there was something addressing Neisi magic in there.

“No, don’t,” the Neisi whispered hoarsely. “I must go back to my tribe. They will miss me and come looking for me soon. You will let me go!”

RoseIII shook the Neisi roughly. “Silence, water sprite.”

Afton glowed brightly at my shoulder, and I placed my palm on the open book. I sought guidance from our foremothers, and my hand turned pages until the right one was found.

“It says here that a captured Neisi must do our will for one sun only then peacefully return to its people without harming us. If we do not release it at or before that time, the Neisi will die and a curse will follow the wit all her days.”

The commotion had wakened all the sleepers and they gathered around, gawking at the captive creature. They were a silent lot, surely amazed by their first view of a Neisi, and the Neisi regarded them patiently, slowly blinking. I took the opportunity to study it as well. More frog than Meab, there was yet an elegance to the creature. The skin was smooth, with a soft, leather-like texture. The hands and feet were wide and webbed, yet equipped with malleable claws on the tips. Most disturbing to me were the eyes—deep-set, black and lacking in merriment. And then there was the small, pointy teeth set into a pouty mouth. I shuddered.

“Hold it, RoseIII. It may try to escape as the magic takes hold,” I said. Following the directions in Mother’s book, I circled deosil three times as I chanted the holding work.

North south east west

A magic cord shall bind it best

East west north south

Hold its limbs and stop its mouth

Seal its eyes and choke its breath

Wrap it round with ropes of death.

An’ it harm none, for the good of all

I stepped away and studied the creature. It was suddenly limp and docile, eyes dimmed.

“You can let it go now, RoseIII,” I said. “It will help us until tomorrow night.”

“Can’t we just let it go now? Leave it?” Yewsy said. She was wringing her hands together nervously. “I don’t like holding another living creature this way.”

I wrapped one arm around her shoulder and pressed my palm to Memo’s hand to reassure them both. Afton dimmed and darkness fell but for the moonlight through the trees and the glow of the dying fire.

“We’d be harming it more now, leaving it defenseless in the wild,” I told her. Neisi didn’t have fammies for protection as we did and would wander aimlessly if left alone. Or perish from being too far from their watery home.

“I can’t sleep now,” Talew said loudly. “Not with that...that thing here with us.”

I understood his sentiment but knew we might get lost if we moved forward at night. Stunned by indecision, I jumped nervously when Afton connected with me. “Afton says we light our own path and move on. Upstream, so we can release the Neisi back into the water when it’s time.”

“That’s a good plan,” Talew agreed.

“Lem, will you look after the Neisi, please? Just make sure it doesn’t get hurt until we let it go.”

Lemon nodded slowly as he watched the Neisi. “So beautiful in the water but so clumsy on land,” he said.

Yewsy moved closer to me. “Why do we need the Neisi? I don’t understand.”

“It’s not malice, Yews. It’s for our own protection. We don’t

need it telling its tribe that we are here,” I answered. “Do you really think they’d hurt us?” she asked. She

stumbled and her fammie lit dimly.

I shrugged as I glanced at her pinched face. “I don’t know for certain but I don’t want to chance it. At least after the binding, it shouldn’t remember us except as a very faint recollection.”

“I’m really tired,” Capel said. “Can we rest?”

“We can’t,” RoseIII answered. “Here.” He lifted her onto his shoulder. Her fammie lit and the higher light helped brighten our path more thoroughly. “We have to keep moving. We want to be far upriver when we let the Neisi loose.”

“You know, Neisi can be a nasty lot,” a piping voice said, just above our heads. A new light flashed into being and I could see an all too familiar Jana.

“Tsisi?” I asked.

“I heard that they take dead Meabs below the water. You know, to soften them, then they suck out the insides,” Tsisi said.

Yewsy shuddered. “Eww,” she whispered.

“Why aren’t you looking after your father?” I asked her.

She flashed away once. “And miss this adventure? You jest. Father should be just fine on his own. Once he gets out his sopore, he forgets I exist anyway.”

“Doesn’t it affect you, the sopore?” I asked curiously.

The Jana flew rapidly to one side. I got dizzy trying to track her with my eyes.

“No, Janas seem to rise above it. Honey water makes us giggle though. And tell secrets that shouldn’t be told.”

“Secrets? Secrets? Tell us all your secrets,” Memo said, clapping her hands together. Higen lit happily, increasing visibility further. Tsisi also flashed repeatedly, causing my vision to blur as light overlaid dark and vice versa.

“I don’t think so,” Tsisi said. “Telling secrets for Lore join is like shouting it from the top of Ziv Mountain.”

“Hey,” Memo objected, frowning. “That’s not true!”

RoseIII turned and he and Capel eyed Memo disbelievingly.

“Just walk on,” Memo muttered, shooing their stares away with both hands, her fammie bobbing merrily.

I was increasingly disoriented by all the bobbing lights around me, so I turned and looked ahead into the darkness. The Jana was chattering on as Janas are wont to do, the Neisi was stumbling blankly next to Lemon, and my fellow travelers were tiredly conversing.

I hated that we’d had to move on with so little rest, but I felt the urgency of my sister’s fate. Time passing was an unknown danger. Normally, I would not have felt this fear but, after seeing the tragedy that had befallen my join, I realized that anything could happen to her. I was also unsure about why they had taken her. To what end? The longer we dallied, the greater the danger could become.

“What’s next, Yewsy? You’ve gone farther into these woods than most.”

Yewsy turned a quizzical gaze toward me. “No, not really. I usually go the other way around and south, to avoid the Neisi. Mother has burned the hazards of Felshea Falls into my very breast.”

“Ahh,” I agreed. It was common knowledge that crossing the falls was the closest way out of the forest but it was fraught with danger, both from the Neisi and from the Gobbyes, who often camped beneath the bridge. Rumor had it that children were the favorite food of both creatures.

I thought of my own mother, heard her repeated warnings and felt a flash of pain rip through me. Thankfully, this mission was helping me place her death to one side. I firmed my jaw and mentally repeated again—I would grieve later.

A SMALL HINT of sunlight brightened the eastern sky some hours later and I breathed a sigh of relief. The wooden bridge across the top of Felshea River loomed large against scattering clouds. It was a welcome sight. I was fatigued from the many legs we had traveled through the forest during the night and knew my companions were as well. Though well past atrebud stage, they were nevertheless young and had even less stamina than I.

I narrowed my eyes together, creating slits. I shut out all surrounding sound, especially Tsisi’s chatter, and listened for my sister. She was talking to...a young woman. A very thin young woman, of Brinc clan. The glimpses I saw of her face showed shadowed, gaunt cheeks with sharp cheekbones and sunken, gleaming blue eyes. Oddly enough, I sensed feelings of affection radiating from Avapeony.

I snapped my eyes wide as we trod forward toward the river. This was a puzzlement indeed. How could Avapeony feel anything other than hatred for her captors?

RoseIII approached closely behind me. “Cleome, what say we rest a time before we make the crossing? We will need powerful wit about us.”

I nodded and lowered my bags as we moved deeper into the trees that were nestled against the foothills of Ziv Mountain. In the brightening dawn, the nuances of the Neisi’s form were even more evident. I saw now that gill slits laddered up the sides of its torso. They moved as it breathed in air but it was heartily evident that the creature needed to return to the water and soon.

Tsisi buzzed by my head. “I’m off to get food,” she said. “I’ll bring back some for all.”

“Wait! There’s no way you can carry enough,” I said wearily. I turned and spied tiny Capel watching me with bright brown eyes. “Would you go with her, Capel?”

Her fammie, Walsh, brightened and broke into happy tendrils which she wrapped around Capel’s head, making a tall hat. Capel knocked the fammie aside absently and smiled at me, one cheek dimpling in as if touched at birth by a Jana finger. “Of course! Come, Tsisi, we’ll sing as we work.”

I smiled as I watched her skip away, the Jana and the fammie spinning in dance above her head. I knew Tsisi would protect her from any Morri magic so turned my attention back to our rudimentary campsite.

Lemon and Saffron, fammies limp, sat together to one side, murmuring to one another, the Neisi standing slack behind them. I marveled again at how similar their appearance, with matching short golden curls and huge clear, green eyes. Twinning did occur from Lake Feidlimed but it was greeted with a sense of awe. Only very powerful magic received twins. I thought about their mother, Airgialla, who certainly fit that criteria. She was a daughter of RoseIII’s Thorn join before entering into the Basil join as a young woman. Once settled in, she had worked hard to foster her household skills and was now one of the most powerful hearth wits out there. Even my mother, so powerful in her own right, had sought advice from Airgialla’s hearth.

“So, what’s next,” Yewsy said. “Shall I pull out the food from home?”

“No, the forage they bring back should be enough to sustain us,” I said and sighed deeply.

Yewsy nodded then called out to the dark youth sprawled against a tree trunk. “Talew, can you and RoseIII fetch us some water?”

Talew lifted the basket from RoseIII’s pack and they set off down a slope toward the river.

“Memo’s gone,” Yewsy said suddenly, alarm etched into her tone.

I spun around. “What do you mean, gone?” It was true, neither Memo, nor her small blue linen pack was there.

“Oh, Goddess,” I breathed, my heart thumping in my chest. “When did we last see her?”

“Moments ago. When we stopped,” Yewsy answered. “Memo!” she called out, walking toward the river.

I set off toward the bridge, also calling out for her. I kept my voice low, however, not wanting to alert the slumbering Neisi to our presence. I felt frustration bubble up in me. What was the little Meab thinking, wandering off by herself?

I walked some way, angling toward the river, and I came upon a small cave that yawned wide beneath an overhang, no doubt hollowed out by past floods. I thought it might have beckoned to a curious wit so I crept close. Muffled sounds reached my ears so I paused, new fear filling me. It sounded like a struggle.

“Ha! Is this what you’re looking for?” A Gobbye strode from the shadowed interior of the cave, Memo dangling from one stubby hand. Her eyes sought mine and I saw her regret, her apology.

Gobbyes are terrifying, rawboned creatures who have large, square-jawed faces, which they begin scarring religiously at a young age. This one had rubbed red color onto the intricate spirals carved into each cheek and centered on his forehead. Gobbyes also forced their fammies around their waists, pinning them there with binding magic. His fammie, imprisoned thus, was the dark gray color of misery. I could sense the fammie’s pain battering at me, as well as Memo’s fear.

“Yes,” I choked out, mind whirling with possibilities about how best to proceed in freeing Memo and maintaining harmony. “Thank you for finding her.”

The Gobbye let Memo go and she scurried up the embankment to me. I hugged her briefly then shoved her behind me as other Gobbyes stepped from their river boulder and tree hiding places. They were a populous, motley crew, dressed in ragged clothing and animal leather. Even the atrebuds were scarred and fierce in appearance. The Gobbyes seemed to live together in one large clan, not separating into smaller joins as the Meab did.

“I see you have the Morri mark of safe passage,” the Gobbye next to the cave opening said, squinting at my forehead.