Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky, #2)(59)

“Water,” Xiala croaked.

“Beside you,” Ziha said, and Xiala looked to her right to see a pitcher and cup.

She drank, and it soothed her somewhat, but she needed something else.

“Iktan is here?” she asked.

“Somewhere in the camp.”

“Xe had salt before.”

The girl frowned. “I have salt.”

“Good. I’ll take yours. And I need pumpkin seeds, crushed. Wild spinach. And fish bones, or bone marrow if you don’t have fish.”

Ziha stood. “I’ll have the cook make a broth.”

Xiala whispered a thank you and fell back into the blankets. She awoke to Ziha proffering her a steaming bowl.

“What is it?” Ziha asked, as Xiala drank.

“I cannot go to the sea, but perhaps I can bring a little of the sea to me. It is seawater, or as close as I could approximate this far inland. My hope is that it will stave off some of the land sickness.”

Even as she drank, her headache began to lessen, and after she had finished the bowl, a measure of vitality had returned to her limbs.

“Is that what made you ill? I found you collapsed beside your tent.” She picked at the skin of her thumb with her teeth, a nervous habit Xiala had not noticed before.

Tonight Ziha looked very young. She had seemed somewhat formidable before, but now Xiala saw the things of which Iktan had accused her—privilege, inexperience, bravado.

“I’m fine now. Thank you.” She shook her head at how easily the lie came. “I just need to get back to the sea.”

“I’m glad you’re better. There are things we need to discuss.”

Xiala’s grip on the bowl tightened. “Perhaps not that much better.”

Ziha bit at her finger, looking undecided. “I’ve sent Iktan on a mission,” she blurted. “Xe won’t be occupied for long, but I knew it was the only way to talk to you without the tsiyo interfering.”

“What is it you need to say to me that Iktan cannot hear?” she asked, wary.

“You cannot trust Iktan, you know. Xe is not your friend.”

Xiala set the empty bowl down carefully, then poured herself and the girl each a cup of water. She offered one to Ziha. She stared at it a moment, as if it might contain poison, before seizing it and swallowing a mouthful. The girl paused, as if waiting for any ill effects to commence, but when they didn’t, she dropped to the place across from Xiala with a tentative smile.

“And we are friends, Ziha?” Xiala asked. “Is that what you came to say?”

“I think we could be friends,” she said, her face sincere.

Xiala did not believe for a moment that they could be friends, but she had no doubt that Ziha believed it. Iktan had warned her that Ziha would be looking for a proxy to punish for her cousin’s death, and her relationship to Serapio made her a prime choice. But Xiala wondered if Iktan had the wrong of it and it was that Ziha was looking for a replacement for her cousin herself.

“I wish to tell you something, as a friend. About Iktan. You heard xir speak of having a man in the Carrion Crow Shield, but it is more than that. Xe conspired with this man to kill their matron.”

Xiala remembered Aishe telling her the Carrion Crow matron had died and that there were rumors that it was not an accident, but she hadn’t thought of it again since then.

Ziha continued excitedly. “The way I hear it, there was an attempt on the Sun Priest’s life. Some foolish attempt by an outspoken contingent in the Odohaa that failed before it was begun, but it alarmed Iktan’s Crow conspirator—”

“Do you know his name?” Xiala interrupted.

“I do not. Only that he took it to his matron, who refused to act. Said the Odohaa were harmless and did not see the danger such actions posed for her clan. This Crow was so distraught that he reached out to Iktan as the Priest of Knives to beseech leniency, worried at what the tsiyo would rain down on them should the Watchers decide to retaliate. I do not know what transpired between them, but the decision was made that the matron must go. She was known to indulge the Odohaa, but her daughter, the one who would inherit her place, was less tolerant. She is known to have a pragmatic nature.”

“And so Iktan killed her.”

“Not before xe brought it to some of the other priests, my cousin included. I think that is where the idea came from for the second attempt on the Sun Priest’s life.”

“The Odohaa tried again?”

“No, the second attempt was not the Odohaa.” She worried her thumb. “It was my mother.”

“The Golden Eagle matron?”

“It was an opportunity she could not pass up. The pressure from Cuecola has been increasing, willing us to action against the Watchers. But the merchant lords are far away on the other side of the sea. They do not understand the delicate balance between the Sky Made. They would have us act outright, not understanding how Winged Serpent and Water Strider would turn against us. No, it was best to frame Carrion Crow. But then that failed, too. Mother had kept the second assassin secret, thinking the less people knew, the better.”

Mother waters, these people! Xiala thought. She had always considered Teek politics an entanglement, but Tova and her Sky Made clans were raveled in their own nets.

“It was after the second attempt that Iktan killed the matron and the Watchers began to plan their retaliation after all. Which also gave Golden Eagle the perfect excuse to take over leadership. We were so close, Xiala, so close!” Ziha had sat forward, face flushed with excitement and eyes shining. She leaned back abruptly, as if remembering to whom she was speaking.