"Someone get me some hot water!" she shouted. The wound was caked with old blood, and it looked deep. Storm Water was pale under his eyes and around his mouth
"Branch in the River left the clan yesterday." Storm Water's voice was low and hoarse, as though he hadn't had enough to drink for a while. "Storm Water followed her. She went to a troop of soldiers from Narroways. She's bringing them here. Storm Water thinks there's a Skyman with them." He paused and swallowed hard. "A soldier did this to Storm Water as he ran back here."
"Nameless Powers preserve me," said someone.
The crowd was stirring. Some of them were retreating, but Aria barely noticed. She was trying to think of where to get a clean bandage and a needle and thread and…
Eric knelt beside her. "Let me," he said quietly, and he took Storm Water's arm out of her hands. "How far away are they?" he asked as he gently probed the edges of the wound with the fingers of his free hand.
"Two hours, maybe less." Eric touched a scab and Storm Water grunted.
"All right, Storm Water. You've done well. Hold still now."
He laid his hand over the wound and Aria realized what he was going to do under the eyes of the whole clan.
Storm Water gasped and stiffened. Aria grabbed his shoulders and held him still. Eric's breathing grew hard and ragged. He lifted his hand away and there was nothing on Storm Water's arm except some dried blood and a thin white line marking where the wound had been.
Eric slumped backward.
"You're a TEACHER?" cried Iron Shaper incredulously.
Aria let go of Storm Water's shoulders and stood up in front of the smith. "I vouchsafed him Iron Shaper dena Voice of the Wind, and I will not hear one word said against him." She raised her voice so the entire clan could hear. "Not one word."
"And there is no time for it," said Nail in the Beam flatly. "We must get ready to move. We have two hours at best."
Aria looked up at him, intending to say something scathing, but the look on his face made her stop. He was already punishing himself for again finding a wife who would betray the clan for her own purposes.
His words worked like magic. The crowd of men and children and the handful of women streamed toward the houses.
"Wait, wait." Eric climbed to his feet, but Teacher or not, no one paused to listen to him. "We don't even know what they're doing," he said somewhat helplessly to Aria and Iron Shaper. "Did you hear?" he asked Storm Water.
Storm Water nodded. "They are looking for the family of Stone in the Wall," he said, knotting his bloodstained head-cloth between his hands.
"The stones," breathed Aria. "Nameless Powers preserve me, they must want the stones."
"I don't think so," said Eric. "I think they want your genes."
"Either way"—Aria gripped her son's hand and raised him to his feet—"we need to show them our retreating backsides. There's places in the Lif that the upper ranks couldn't find, even if someone showed them where to look. We can wait this out."
"You'd just run?" Eric was genuinely shocked.
"We fight, Eric, and all of our own will pay for it." Aria squeezed Storm Water's hand. "It'll be bad enough as it is. And it's my fault."
"Yes, it is," snapped Iron Shaper. "And you'll be hearing plenty about it from me later. But now we must get ready. Keeper," he called as he stalked off toward the forge with his son.
"Aria," said Eric urgently in the Skyman tongue, "we can't just run from this. We need to find out what these soldiers know about what's going on in the cities:"
She bit her lip and forced herself to think. The part of her that was still a Notouch and would never be anything else said run, get away, get out of here. The part of her that formulated enough rebellion and heresy to take her over the World's Wall shouted against a retreat, especially now that they had drawn her family's blood, first her sister's, now her son's. Storm Water was watching her with a young man's anger in his eyes. She wasn't sure how to answer that.
"We need to find out who's hounding us, at the very least, and what side they're on," she said at last. "Maybe we can talk some sense to them. They won't listen to Notouch." Her gaze strayed to Eric's hands. "As a Teacher, you could…"
Eric snorted. "A Teacher and a Seablade talk down soldiers from the Heretic city? Not likely."
She curled her free hand around her pouch of stones. "We cannot fight them. It's been tried. The costs are…too much."
"This is not some harvest rebellion we're talking about here," he reminded her needlessly. "This is the Vitae, or the Unifiers, and it's for the entire world. If we lose, it doesn't matter. If we win, then it will be remembered that the Notouch helped, and no one will blame you for anything."
Aria gave him a pained look. "Which shows what you know." She sighed. "But you're right. I'll talk to my mother. She'll go along with it." Just don't ask me why I'm so sure, Aria pleaded silently. "That will take care of the Seniors," she went on. "I know all the clan malcontents. We should be able to put together something. It might even be something useful." She let go of Storm Water's hand.
"Especially since whoever's coming from Narroways doesn't expect a fight," Eric added.
"Would you expect one?" she arched her eyebrows.
"I can't say. After all, what do I know?" He turned his face away.
Aria reached one hand toward him. "We can't be self-pitying now, Eric. We're about to start a war."
"I don't think so, Aria," he said, turning around so she could see the tired smile on his face. "If anything, I think we're about to finish one."
A hole broke between the clouds, dropping a broad beam of sunshine onto the huts. Aria dipped her eyes automatically and had to forcibly stop herself from beginning the Chant of Thanks for Another Day.
The oldest and the youngest of the clan were loading themselves onto the rafts and pushing off for the deeper marsh. Everyone else had set to work with a speed and decision that, she could tell, disconcerted Eric. He had expected a few knives to be sharpened, not kettles of boiling water and fat set out on fires. He hadn't expected to see the men tightening up slings that could take down a wild dog or do serious damage to a human being, or to see the women running whetstones over sickles for harvesting rice.
He hadn't expected the Notouch to know exactly how much damage they could do.
"We've had to fight before," Aria told him. "Every now and again, you get a band of rovers that decides it's tired and knows no one cares what goes on out here. We don't keep the land we tame by running away from that kind."
A shrill whistle sounded over the noise of the wind and the babble of voices. The soldiers were coming. Aria took her place, busily stirring the kettle of fat.
See, she thought toward the coming band. There's nothing unusual here. Just tallow we need to waterproof door blankets and ponchos.
Around her, men and women were cooking, or washing, or harvesting more reeds. There was nothing unusual to be seen anywhere, unless some sharp eye noticed that the tiniest children were all somehow invisible.
The soldiers came in on bald-legged oxen. Aria counted fast as she dropped to her knees and raised her hands in homage to the higher ranks. A dozen of them. Narroways Heretics, by the clothes. They were armed with swords and clubs and shields, but they didn't look particularly alert. She noted that Branch in the River had had the sense to keep herself out of their ranks. She was probably lurking behind them somewhere, wondering if her absence from the clan had been noticed.
Aria raised her eyes a little and caught her breath. A Skyman rode in the ranks. She recognized him. He'd been the one who sank the needle into her arm when Cor had taken her to their shelter. She glanced involuntarily toward Shaper's steps, where Eric had taken up his position.