The Desert Spear

the husband of a woman who tried to murder you?” Elona asked. “Is that too high a price to pay?” She snorted. “Ent stealing, anyways. These women share husbands like hens share roosters.”
    Leesha rolled her eyes. “Oh, to be so lucky as to be one of Ahmann’s laying hens.”
    “Better than the ones gone to slaughter,” Elona shot back.
    They reached Leesha’s apartments, and Elona followed her in. Leesha fell onto a pillowed divan, putting her head in her hands. “I wish Bruna were here. She ’d know what to do.”
    “She ’d marry Jardir and tame him,” Elona said. “If she had your body and youth, she’d’ve bent both Deliverers to her will by now, and gotten her toes curled to sweeten the pot.”
    “You can’t know that, Mother,” Leesha said.
    “I know better than you,” Elona said. “I was apprenticed to that miserable old hag before you were ever born, and there were a scant few alive then old enough to remember Bruna in her prime. Her legs never closed, to hear them say it, until she married late in life, and she ran that town even more surely than she did in her dotage. More surely than you run it now, because she had power, not just here,” Elona poked Leesha in the temple, “but here, as well.” She stabbed a finger to point at her own crotch. “
That
is a woman’s power, as much as gathering herbs, and only a fool chooses not to take advantage of it.”
    Leesha opened her mouth to protest, but for some reason her mother’s words rang true, and no rebuttal came to her. Bruna had been a filthy old woman, full of bawdy remarks and tales of her promiscuous youth. Leesha had dismissed many of the stories, thinking the old woman had simply liked to shock people, but now she wasn’t so sure.
    “Take advantage how?” she asked.
    “Jardir is obsessed with you,” Elona said. “Any woman can read it on him at a glance.
That
is why Inevera fears you, and why you have an opportunity to take this desert snake by the throat and turn it aside from your people.”
    “My people,” Leesha said. “The Hollow.”
    “Of course, the Hollow!” Elona snapped. “Rizon’s sun has set, and ent nothing for it.”
    “What of Angiers?” Leesha asked. “Lakton? Every hamlet between here and there? I might be able to protect the Hollow, but what can I do for them?”
    “From Jardir’s bed?” Elona asked, incredulous. “Is there a place in the world you could influence the war more? Slake a man’s lust, and he will give you anything you ask. Surely that big brain of yours can think of a few simple requests to turn the worst of his tide.”
    She bent close to Leesha, putting her lips to Leesha’s ear. “Or would you rather it be Inevera’s voice that whispers advice in his ear as he drifts off to sleep each night?”
    It was a terrifying thought, and Leesha shook her head, but she still felt unsure.
    “The gates of Heaven don’t lie between your legs, Leesha,” Elona said. “I know you wanted to wait for your wedding night, and truth be told, I wanted that for you, too. But it din’t happen that way, and life goes on.”
    Leesha looked at her mother sharply, and saw Elona’s defiant visage staring back at her, ready to stand by every word.
    “You see the world very clearly, Mother,” Leesha said. “I envy you, sometimes.”
    Elona was taken aback. “You do?” she asked, incredulous.
    Leesha smiled. “Not often, mind.”

CHAPTER 30
FERAL
    p.
333 AR SUMMER

    RENNA WAITED PATIENTLY AS the rock demon materialized. She had chosen her perch carefully, high in the single tall tree atop a hill where a large facing of bedrock jutted from the ground like a broken bone sticking through flesh.
    The pattern of tracks in the soil told her the giant coreling, some dozen feet tall, materialized in this same spot almost every night. Over the last six weeks, Arlen had taught her many things, including the fact that rock demons were creatures of habit, and lesser demons would have learned to stay clear of any rising place claimed by a rock demon.
    As the foul gray mist seeped from the bedrock, slowly coalescing into demonic form, she closed her eyes, breathing deeply as she embraced her fear and found her inner center.
    It was amazing how well the Krasian technique worked. It had been a challenge at first, but now it took only a moment to shift her perspective, going to a mental place where there was no pain, no fear of foe or failure.
    The world looked different as she opened her eyes