Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor 1)

‘—a—’

It was a small sound to express so much pain but it was all that could be squeezed from a throat as narrow as a straw. Nothing had changed. Nona was still pinned. She still could see nothing. Still had hands about her throat. Still had her arms pinned. But she could breathe. Everything had changed!

Nona drew and released a few more breaths, each one agony but delicious even so. The hands at her throat just lay there. She struggled and got her arms out from beneath Yisht’s pinning elbows. Reaching up, she pulled the woman’s unresisting fingers from her throat. ‘Got. You.’ Small words. Painful. Triumphant.

Nona started to wriggle out from beneath the warrior. For a small woman she seemed to weigh an enormous amount – as if her bones were made of lead. Nona struggled with one limp arm, finding it almost impossible to move. With sudden horror she realized that the boneless solution soaking Yisht’s chest had started to work on her. Panic lent her strength. Even so it took several minutes to wriggle out from beneath the warrior and by then Nona felt as weak as a baby and had lost all sense of direction.

‘Think, Nona. Think.’ Hessa’s words, penetrating Nona’s fog of terror.

Nona drew a deeper breath and stretched out her hands, hunting for Yisht. She took her cue from the orientation of the warrior’s body and staggered away, trailing a hand against the wall.

She moved on through the ancient subterranean night, hoping with each passing yard that she would spot Yisht’s abandoned lantern. As she covered more and more ground and still failed to see Yisht’s light her desperation began to grow again. Surely she hadn’t escaped throttling to die lost in the wormholes of the Rock!

Nona called on her clarity mantra, seeking the calm and open mind that Sister Pan had shown her. She advanced more slowly, every sense extended.

Smoke. She sniffed. Sniffed again.

A minute of hunting on her hands and knees and she found the oily residue around Yisht’s burned-out lantern. From there it took another minute to recover her own, standing where she had left it, hooded and with the ghost of a flame hovering over a short wick. Picking it up felt like lifting another novice and her limbs trembled with weakness but the comfort of a light in a dark place cannot be overstated.

‘Ancestor! You look terrible.’ Ruli grabbed Nona’s arms and, pulling her forward, wiped her forehead with a handkerchief. ‘Oh hells! Your neck!’

‘Is she following you?’ Clera, eyes wide, peering over the barrel.

‘She’s down.’ Nona whispered the words.

‘We’d better hurry.’ Ara stepped forward, giving Nona a quick hug. ‘Lead the way.’

They found Yisht face down on the tunnel floor, her sword in two pieces against the wall, two deep grooves sliced into the piece of blade still attached to the hilt.

‘How in the …’ Clera picked it up, holding it towards the lantern in Nona’s hand.

Nona pulled the lantern away. ‘We have … to move her.’ A pained whisper. ‘No time.’

Clera knelt at the warrior’s side. ‘I need to give her the rest first.’ She took out another of Ara’s old perfume vials and held Yisht’s mouth open while she tipped the contents in. Given orally it was the maximum safe dose. Safe-ish. According to the tables the Poisoner had made them memorize it should keep a small adult incapable for several days. The main danger apart from suffocation was dehydration.

While Clera made sure Yisht swallowed the dose Nona made a quick search of the warrior, removing two daggers and five cross-knives for throwing. She didn’t want to leave the ice-triber anything that would help her escape or encourage her to return. Reaching into the front of Yisht’s tunic, Nona’s fingers brushed against something cold. She pulled it out. An amulet, a sigil cast in black metal, small enough that she could just curl her thumb and forefinger about its circumference. Like the sigils Yisht had drawn in the air outside the dormitory it drew the eye, twisting Nona’s vision about it. Yisht’s fingers twitched and some deep sound escaped her throat, a threat perhaps.

‘Is that stuff working?’ Nona yanked the sigil and it came free, trailing a broken thong. She slipped it into an inner pocket.

‘Give it a few more seconds.’ Clera frowned. ‘She’s tougher than she looks. And she looks pretty damn tough!’

It took forever to drag Yisht all the way back. The scariest part was when her dead, shark-like eyes happened to point Nona’s way.

They met their only real problem where the fissure ran between their tunnel and the tunnel from Shade cavern to the recluse. Ara and Clera had had a hard time squeezing through, even with Nona’s constant assurance that it widened out any moment. Clera lost her nerve and would have started to scream but for Ara’s hefty shove popping her out of the tightest neck and into the wider section.

‘How are we getting her through there?’ Ruli asked.

‘Well we can’t get her up there!’ Ara pointed at the tunnel in the ceiling.

‘Rope?’ Nona reached out to tug the rope that Yisht had let down. Ara had already been up to the room above to ensure the excavation would be noticed.

‘We’d never heave her up,’ Clera said. ‘And if we could, how do we get her out unseen?’

‘So,’ Ruli returned to her theme. ‘How do we get her through this crack? She weighs as much as Darla!’

‘Cut bits off?’ Clera suggested.

‘She’s not that big,’ Ara said. ‘And if we scrape her a bit … well, does it matter? We can leave some clues that lead the Poisoner to the digging. After that she won’t be coming back, will you, Yisht?’

In the end they dragged her. Clera and Ara at her feet – Clera too scared to take the head end in case Yisht got stuck and blocked the way. Nona and Ruli pushed the ice-triber’s shoulders. Though really it was Ruli pushing the shoulders and Nona pushing Ruli’s as there was only room for one to fit and Nona had no strength. Inevitably Yisht got stuck.

‘Turn her! Turn her shoulders!’ Clera, close to hysteria.

‘We’ve turned them,’ Ruli called back. ‘It’s her head.’

‘Well cut her ears off! Anything! I don’t know. I can’t stay down here.’

Nona pushed but Yisht’s head had wedged between the two faces of the rock.

‘Let me have a go again,’ Ruli said.

Nona backed out, seeing that Ruli had a small open earthenware tub in her hand. ‘Grease?’ The whisper hurt.

‘Yes.’

‘Why,’ Nona whispered. ‘Do you. Have grease?’

‘I have lots of things in my pockets, Nona Grey,’ Ruli replied primly and recommenced her wriggling.

In the end the grease worked and Yisht came free with a sudden lurch.

Getting her up the stairs was a nightmare. So was getting her into the barrel, and wedging the padding around her. Getting the lid on was a nightmare too and Ruli managed to crush her thumb with the coopering hammer.

‘You’re sure she’ll be able to breathe in there?’ Ara asked as they heaved the barrel onto its side, preparing to roll it to stand with the others in the winery yard.

‘No,’ said Clera.

‘No she won’t be able to? Or no you’re not sure?’