Isana said nothing, stunned by what she had seen, by Odiana's reaction to the sight of the collar, to her condition now. Isana looked down at her and brushed some of the dark, tangled hair from her eyes. "Are you all right?"
The woman looked up at her, eyes heavy and languid, and shivered. "It's good now. It's good. I'm good now."
Isana swallowed. "He hurt you, before. When he called you…" She didn't say the words.
"Hurts," Odiana whispered. "Yes. Oh crows and furies, so much hurt. I'd forgotten. Forgotten how bad it was." She shivered again. "H-how good it
was." She opened her eyes, and again they were wet with tears. "They can change you. You can fight and fight, but they change you. Make you happy to be what they want. Make it hurt when you try to resist. You change, holdgirl. He can do it to you. He can make you beg him to take you. To touch you. Make you." She turned her face away, though her body was still wracked with the long, shivering shudders of pleasure, and turned her face from Isana. "Please. Please kill me before he comes back. I can't be that again. I can't go back."
"Shhhh," Isana said, rocking the woman gently. "Shhhh. Rest. You should sleep."
"Please," she whispered, but her face had already gone slack, her body begun to sag. "Please." She shuddered once more and then went completely limp, her head falling to one side.
Isana laid the woman down as gently as she could. She knelt over her, testing her pulse, putting a hand to her forehead. Her heart still beat too quickly, and her skin felt fevered, dry.
Isana looked up, to where Aric stood next to a hod for coal, watching her. When she looked up at him, he ducked his head, turning to the hod, and began to dump coals into a bucket beside it.
"She needs water," Isana said, quietly. "After all of that. She needs water, or she'll die in this heat."
Aric looked at her again. He picked up the bucket and, without speaking, walked to one side of the ring and started shaking fresh coals out of it and into the fire.
Isana ground her teeth with frustration. If she was only able to Listen, she might be able to gain important insight. The boy seemed reluctant to follow his father's commands. He might be convinced to help them, if only she could find the right words to say. She felt blind, crippled.
"Aric, listen to me," Isana said. "You can't possibly think he's going to get away with this. You can't possibly think that he will escape justice for what happened tonight?"
He finished dumping out the bucket. He walked back to the hod, his voice toneless. "He's escaped it for years. What do you think happens to every slave who comes through here?"
Isana stared at him for a moment, sickened. "Crows," she whispered. "Aric, please. At least help me get this collar off." She reached down to Odiana's throat, turning the collar about and trying to find the clasp.
"Don't," Aric said, his voice quick, harsh. "Don't, you'll kill her." Isana's fingers froze. She looked up at him.
Aric chewed on his lip. Then said, "Pa's blood is on it. He's the only one can take it off her."
"How can I help her?"
"You can't," Aric said, his voice frustrated. He turned and threw the bucket at the wall of the smokehouse. It clattered against it and fell to the floor. He leaned his hands against the wall and bowed his head. "You can't help her. The way he's left her, anyone can tell her anything and she'll keep feeling good as long as she does it. She tries to resist and she'll… and it will hurt her."
"That's inhuman," Isana said. "Great furies, Aric. How can you let this happen?"
"Shut up," he said. "Just you shut up." Motions stiff, angry, he pushed off the wall and recovered the bucket and started filling it with coal again.
"You were right, you know," Isana said, keeping her voice quiet. "I was telling the truth. So was Tavi, if he told you that the Valley was in danger. That the Marat may be coming again. It could happen soon. It could have begun already. Aric, please, listen to me."
He dumped more coal out onto the fires and returned to gather up more.
"You have to get word out. For your own sake, if not for ours. If the Marat come they'll kill everyone of Kordholt, too."
"You're lying," he told her, not looking at her. "You're just lying. Trying to save your hide."
"I'm not," Isana said. "Aric, you've known me your whole life. When that tree fell on you that Winterfair, I helped you. I helped everyone in the Valley who needed it, and I never asked for anything in return."
Aric added more coal to the fire.
"How can you be a part of this?" she demanded. "You aren't stupid, Aric. How can you do this to other Alerans?"
"How can I not?" Aric said, voice cold. "This is all I have. I don't have a happy steadholt where people take care of each other. I have this. Men who no one else would take live here. Women who no one would want to be. He's my blood. Bittan-" He broke off and swallowed. "He was my blood, too. As stupid and mean as he could be, he was my brother."
"I'm sorry," Isana said, and found that she felt it. "I never wanted anyone to get hurt. I hope you know that."
"I know," Aric said. "You heard what happened to Heddy and you wanted what was right to happen. To keep her safe, and girls like her. Crows know they need it, with Pa around like some-" He shook his head.
Isana fell silent for a long moment, staring at the young man, an understanding dawning on her. Then she said, quietly, "It wasn't Bittan that was with Heddy. It was you, Aric."
He didn't look at her. He didn't speak.
"It was you. That's why she was trying to draw her father back from juris macto with yours. She wasn't raped."
Aric rubbed at the back of his neck. "We… we liked each other. Got together when there was a Meet or a Fair. Her little brother found us. Too young to know what he saw. I got out before he seen who I was. But he went running to her father, and how could she tell him she'd been making time with one of Kord's sons." He spat the words with disgust. "She didn't say much, I guess, and her old man made up his own mind what happened."
"Oh, furies," Isana said, sadly. "Aric, why didn't you say anything?"
"Say what?" Aric said, flicking a hard glance at her. "Tell my father that I loved a girl and wanted to marry her. Bring her here?" He gestured around the smokehouse with one hand. "Or maybe I should have been all honorable and went to her father. Do you think he would have listened to me? Do you think for a second Warner wouldn't have strangled me where I stood?"
Isana rubbed a shaking hand at her eyes. "I'm sorry. Aric, I'm sorry. We've all… known that your father was… that he'd gone too far. But we didn't do anything. We didn't know things were this bad at his steadholt."
"Too late for all of that now." Aric dropped the bucket and headed for the door.
"It's not," Isana said. "Wait. Just listen to me, Aric. Please."
He stopped, his back still to her.
"You know him," she said. "He'll kill us. But if you help us get out, I'll help you, I swear by all the furies. I'll help you get away if you want to. I'll help you settle things with Warner. If you do love the girl, you might be able to be with her if you do the right thing."
"Help both of you? That woman was trying to kill you last night." He looked back at her. "Why would you help her?"
"I wouldn't leave any woman here, Aric," Isana said, voice quiet, calm. "I wouldn't leave anyone to him. Not anymore. I won't let him keep doing this."
"You can't stop him." Aric's voice was tired. "You can't. Not here. He's a Citizen."
"That's right. And so is my brother. Bernard will call him to juris macto. And he'll win, too. We both know that." She stood up, facing Aric, and lifted her chin. "Break the circle. Bring me water. Help us escape."