Spellslinger (Spellslinger #1)(54)

You wouldn’t think that people who had done the kinds of things to each other that we’d just done would be able to let it go so quickly, but my people are pragmatic. Nephenia didn’t want the conflict to escalate. Panahsi was so tired he just wanted it to be over for now, and Tennat, well, Tennat probably figured he could use this against me – or the others – somehow. Or both. In the end, Ferius just seemed to know how to pull each person’s strings and convince them that, for now at least, her solution was in everyone’s best interests.

By the time the first five or six men and women entered the oasis, glow-glass lanterns in hand, the deal had been struck. People were asking me questions, but I really had no way of answering. Once the fight had ended, whatever mixture of fear and shock had been keeping me going started to slip away. I was fading in and out of consciousness until Ferius declared that she needed to get me to my parents and the others should get home too.

The last thing I remember is Nephenia looking down at me just before she turned to leave. ‘You hit me, Kellen,’ she said.





23


Injuries


When you’re fifteen years old and nearly a man, waking up repeatedly to find yourself being carried home is kind of embarrassing. This time it was Ferius doing the carrying, which made it worse.

‘You’re strong for a girl,’ I said, cringing as the words came out of my mouth. Lately I was discovering that the more beaten up I got, the dumber my thoughts became.

‘Strong for a girl, I suppose, but just about average for a woman.’

‘I don’t know many women who can carry me,’ I insisted. ‘I’m not that skinny.’ Somehow it was important to win this point.

Ferius let out a little puff of air in a ‘pfft’ sound, which I gathered was meant to be dismissive. ‘Kid, the only women you have around here are born and bred to do their little magic spells and be pretty to look at. Kind of like what passes for men.’

I was fairly sure that was an insult to all my people but I wasn’t quite sure which part to argue against, so I just tried to focus my eyes on the street ahead of us. It was pitch black for the most part, families long having gone to sleep. We were halfway to my house, and normally the glow-glass lanterns on every corner would have illuminated our way, but Ferius didn’t have the magic required to light them and I wasn’t in the mood to try, so we proceeded in darkness. I wondered if this was what it was like for all the Sha’Tep servants who had to start their work day before dawn, shambling to whatever shops or households where they would perform their assigned duties in the dark. Did they carry torches? Ferius seemed to have pretty good eyesight because she walked sure as can be along the street towards my home.

‘What are you going to tell my parents?’ I asked.

‘The truth. I found you like this in the oasis with your three idiot friends and about a dozen squirrel cats.’

‘They aren’t my friends any more,’ I said reflexively. Ugh. I sound like a child.

Ferius glanced down at my face, which I gathered didn’t look very good, because she said, ‘Yeah, kid, I’m inclined to agree.’

‘I …’ I hesitated. There was something I wanted to say, or rather, something I wanted Ferius to say, but I wasn’t sure how to bring it up. ‘You haven’t said anything about what I did,’ I said finally.

‘Was there something you wanted me to say about it?’

‘No, I just thought …’ The truth was, I kept expecting her to say that it was brave of me to free the squirrel cat, that she was … I don’t know, impressed or maybe proud of me. I’m not sure why I cared what a Daroman wanderer thought when my parents were going to be furious with me, but it seemed unfair that I’d got so badly beaten up and wrecked my life and wasn’t even going to get complimented.

‘You want me to tell you that you did the right thing,’ Ferius said as we turned a corner. My family’s home was down the next block.

‘Well, did I?’

She stopped, her eyes still focused on the street ahead of us, not looking at me. ‘I don’t know, kid.’ She let out a long, slow breath before she spoke again. ‘When you see the world outside your home town, outside the walls of what you were brought up to see, then you discover that you almost never know if you’re doing the right thing. One action, brave and true, leads to war and destruction. Another, craven and greedy, leads to peace and prosperity.’ She let the words hang in the air a while, then seemed to come back to herself. ‘I’ll tell you one thing for free though.’ I could hear the smile in her voice even before she looked down at me. ‘You did what you did like a man.’

I felt my chest tighten a little, probably because my injuries were starting to flare up again. ‘You talk about being a man a lot,’ I said.

Ferius laughed. ‘I guess I do, kid.’ She resumed walking towards my home.

We were a few doors away when the pain from my various injuries really started to bother me. My ribs felt like they were breaking into bits, the inside of my mouth ached from where I’d been punched in the jaw, and even the skin on my right arm where I’d slid along the ground itched like seven hells. I scratched at it, which only made it worse. ‘Ouch,’ I said.

She looked down at me and laughed. ‘Ouch? “Ouch”? Is that what you were saying while they were punching and kicking you? “Ouch”?’