White Road

possible.”
    “Maybe you should feed him, too,” said Alec. “Your blood is pure.”
    Rieser nodded and cut his finger, then fed Sebrahn as Alec held him.
    Alec leaned against Seregil, not taking his eyes from Rieser and Sebrahn. “He saved us all.”
    “Not all,” said Nowen, limping over to them, her sword arm bloody to the elbow.
    “How many of us are left?” asked Rieser.
    “Rane survived whatever those witches did with their cursed horns, but he’s weak. Taegil has an arrow through his thigh. Relian is weak but alive, thanks to Sebrahn, though he can’t talk. Allia and Morai are dead and Kalien is still missing.”
    “So many!” Rieser murmured grimly.
    “Sebrahn’s not strong enough to bring them back,” said Alec.
    “That’s just as well,” said Rieser. “It might be a temptation if he were.”
    Rhal came to join them, covered in blood and pressing a hand to a gash on his forearm.
    “How many men did you lose?” asked Seregil.
    “Not a man. There are some wounds, but nothing we need the rhekaro for. But we’d better get out of these woods. The fire’s spreading.”
    The entire clearing was bathed in the shifting red light now, and smoke was drifting over them in a grey pall. The surface of the pool below the waterfall reflected the color of blood; Seregil suspected that it wasn’t just a trick of the light. The wind was to the west, blowing away from the trail, but that could change in an instant.
    “Nowen, get the dead tied on their horses,” Rieser ordered.
    “Is there time for that?” asked Rhal, and got a cold look from the Ebrados captain.
    “Then my men will help,” Rhal told him.
    Rieser looked surprised, but nodded.
    Hâzadriën tended the wounded while the others dealt with the dead. Rieser saw to it that some of the bodies were doubled on one horse so that Alec could ride out with Sebrahn. Rane, Sorengil, and Taegil slumped in the saddle and had to be tied on, but Nowen and Rieser made a quick job of it.
    Meanwhile, Seregil and Micum went to where Turmay and the other witches had fallen. They lay just inside the trees, dead eyes staring up at the night sky, and still gripping the oo’lus. Seregil pulled Turmay’s away and ran his hands over it. “It isn’t cracked.”
    “He failed his destiny,” Micum said.
    Seregil gave him a tilted grin. “So much for fate. I think I’ll take these with us. Thero and Magyana will find them of interest.”
    They left the smoke and firelight behind, moving as quickly as Rhal’s men on foot could, their way lit now by the moon. They stopped only long enough to take up Kalien’s corpse, then hurried on to the edge of the forest.
    There was no question of taking the dead home, or burning the bodies without the proper resins and oil. Instead, Rieser and Nowen cut locks of hair for the families, placed the hunting masks each fallen comrade had worn in life over their face, and sewed them into their cloaks. Hâzadriën joined them as they carried the bodies just inside the forest and buried them side by side in the soft loam while the rest sat on the ground and wept. Seregil and the others had offered their help, but Rieser simply shook his head. When they were through, Sorengil and Nowen built tall cairns on top of each grave, then joined with the others in a keening song of loss.
    Seregil and the others watched from a respectful distance, then headed back to the night’s campsite.
    “Do your people do that, Lord Seregil?” asked Rhal.
    “Yes, but the songs are different. They’re guiding the
khi
to their next life.”
    “Khi? Is that a soul?”
    “Something like it, but not exactly.”
    “You believe there’s something after this life, then?”
    Seregil nodded. “I didn’t, most of my life, but an oracle showed me glimpses of my lives to come.”
    “Really? And what were they like?”
    Seregil gave him a wry smile. “I always have a weapon in my hand.”
    They set about making the evening meal. Alec had been silent, and he looked thoughtful as he tended the rabbits and grouse spitted over the fire.

    The moon was setting when Rieser and the remainder of his people returned to the camp.
    “Come and eat,” Seregil said.
    The wounded were healed enough to join them, and they all ate in silence out of respect for the dead.
    “I don’t think we’ll be able to go back the way we came,” Rieser said at last. “There will be more Retha’noi, and they don’t count us as friends.”
    “There are most likely plenty