The fish were slightly too humanoid and rank tasting to eat, apparently. I didn’t ask who had been desperate enough try it and Mishtaw didn’t elaborate. The Shore Eater was fair game, however. The other two squads set about cracking the white meat out the dead creature’s shell while we collected the fish bodies and their weapons. Trish was tending to Petra and the other wounded; Eliss had brought her to us as soon as the battle ended. Irritatingly enough, I was still in the top one or two of worst injuries—only Petra could potentially be worse off. The thick protective coats had done their job well for everyone else. From what I could tell the other injuries were a handful shallow cuts, a sprained ankle, and a concussion. Ento and Breck hadn’t come out of their fights unscathed but they didn’t have any serious injuries.
Trish had yet to pull me aside to check on me, however. She was more worried about her sister and the one time we did meet each other’s gaze she looked…uncomfortable. Understandable, but still unprofessional. Not that I wanted to be confronted with healing I wasn’t allowed to use so soon after our last meeting.
Once the fish were stacked in two piles and their spongy light pink and gray spears had their own pile, we began the work of packing snow into the large sacks two whisper women from the other squads had brought when Eliss retrieved Trish. I wasn’t entirely sure what we were going to do with the fish warriors. They didn’t deserve a funeral pyre, but there wasn’t another decent way I could see to dispose of the bodies. The waves would only bring them back to pollute the shore if we threw them into the ocean and the ground was too frozen for us dig a hole deep enough to bury them all. Digging the half foot or so hole to plant the new pine tree seeds was difficult enough for the tribes being punished in the area.
Mishtaw addressed Juniper and Ento as they added carved chunks of fresh meat from the Shore Eater to their bags. “I didn’t realize your blessings were so suited to battle.”
Which was hardly surprising. Juniper, Ento, Idra, and Breck had all been vague about their abilities when Mishtaw asked about them before the battle, just like they had during the show and tell in the Seedling Palace.
Juniper straightened. “We acted when needed.”
Eliss shoved some snow into her sack with more force than necessary. “But you didn’t care to share them before the battle. If you had, Petra might still be in fighting shape.”
Juniper flicked her a glare with more authority than a girl younger than me should be able to muster. “I decide when the pearl is used. No one else.”
Eliss tensed. “You belong to Mi—”
Mishtaw raised a hand and Eliss cut herself with a grudging expression. Mishtaw continued Eliss’s sentiment but in a calmer tone. “You belong in my squad, that means you’re under my authority, and I can’t tolerate those I can’t trust to obey in my squad. Disobedience is dangerous for everyone involved on a battlefield.”
I noticed Ento and Idra shifting closer to Juniper as the tense conversation continued and Juniper nodded. “No disobedience is given, but I still can’t give you authority over the pearl. That privilege was given to me by the Water Frond Snake and only she or the goddess can give it to another.”
“Of course.” Some of the tension left Mishtaw. “You belonged to the Swirling Waters Tribe?”
If anything, Juniper became more stiff. “The Waters do not leave the blood. The goddess requires our service for now but we will return to our duties on the shore.”
I held in the need to scoff. I had never heard of someone quitting being a whisper woman. Even if the goddess didn’t care enough about some random seedling to be possessive, I doubted the other whisper women would take kindly to spending time and resources on a recruit only to have them abandon it all later.
Mishtaw let her delusional claim pass by in favor of a more utilitarian point. “Then share the details of your abilities now so that we might kill more of the enemy and fulfill your duties on the shore, here, while you can. Usage of the pearl can remain under your discretion as well.”
Juniper took a few long moments to reach a decision. “We’ll share with you, but the others don’t need to know.”
“Good.” Mishtaw focused on Breck. “You were also quiet about your true capabilities.”
Breck shrugged from her spot near the squad leader. “There was nothing to wrangle.”
“An explanation in the future would be wise.”
A large hunk of meat went into Breck’s bag. “No one believes it until they see me wrangle something, anyways.” Then she looked up from situating the meat in her sack with a somewhat feral grin. “But now that you understand, I’ll wrangle whatever you need in the coming fights.”
Mishtaw eyed her. “I’d still like to discuss your blessing in greater detail.”
Breck’s grin slipped into a frown. “If you need to.”
Mishtaw took Juniper, Idra, and Ento off to the side first, so that we couldn’t hear what was being discussed. I wished I could casually drag my sack closer to them and eavesdrop on the details, but there wasn’t any subtle way to get closer when I was surrounded by perfectly good snow on an open scrub plain. And that was besides the fact that we now had less hands with just as much meat being brought over to be packed and a stream of people with meat deliveries would only give those in the secret meeting even more reason the shift further from me.
I did notice, however, that the other two squads had six fire starters between them, half of which were male. I hadn’t thought of fire starters fighting before with the whisper women but, between the three squads, doing so was clearly the norm. I supposed it helped lessen the number disadvantage between the fish and us but, even more than that, the skill I had seen displayed between Creed and Petra had been surprising. Did all fire starters have to go through combat training like the seedlings?
I mentioned my question in passing to Creed after he joined us from watching Trish patch up his wife and he took it all wrong.
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“Already thinking about teaming up with your own fire starter?” He grinned. “That’s likely two or three years off for you yet, little miss.” I bristled at the title but he continued on, uncaring or oblivious. “All of us get basic training, self-defense and the like, because you whisper women tend to get into dangerous situations, but the rest depends on the sect you hope to be paired with. Petra and I both liked the fighting power associated with the Peacekeepers, so we kept on with the combat training. ‘Course Mishtaw isn’t a Peacekeeper, but she and Eliss paired up, and we paired up, and it all worked out.”
I kept my expression carefully neutral as I prompted, “Oh? What sect does she belong to then?”
He chuckled more heartily than I thought my question deserved as he slung two full sacks over his shoulders. “Clever girl. You’ll have to ask her that and let me know what she says.”
He ambled off to drop off the sacks near the tree the whisper women were using to transport the meat back to camp. I decided I didn’t like him and his brute strength and unnecessary remarks.
We kept an eye out on the ocean as we worked, but no ambushes rose out of the vast water. All it provided was the taste of salt on a chill wind and the lap of waves as a backdrop to the cracking-crunch of the squads breaking through the Shore Eater’s thick shell.
It turned out that the fish weren’t thrown into the ocean or burned in funeral pyres or buried. Instead, the whisper women gathered around the two piles we made and pricked their marks or wrists. As the blood dropped onto the corpses they spoke a prayer I hadn’t heard before.
“Heliquat!” More than one of us flinched as they cried out Her name. “Your blessed gift you the blood and bone of the enemy who nibbles at your shores, so that you might remake them into what they would take!”
Nothing moved or changed for several long moments and then the drops of blood from the whisper women began to glow red hot, golden yellow, black. A pulse of energy burst from the droplets and fire matching the color of the now black blood razed over the bodies. A handful of seconds later and the display disappeared only leaving a large pile of fine yellow sand behind.
I stared as the whisper women repeated the process with the unusable parts of the Shore Eater’s body, but the only sign they noticed something amazing had happened was a brief respectful silence after the second display of the goddess’s power. Then they gathered up the spongy spears and the remaining sacks of meat as well as the pieces of shell that were going to be used to make something I didn’t know about and that was that. Business as usual in an unusual line of work.
I was gratified to note that, at the very least, I wasn’t the only one among the seedlings who seemed shocked and off kilter. Sure, we had all unique abilities and fought against walking fish and Juniper had exploded one with water, but I hadn’t expected them to turn to sand, of all things, with a bit of blood and a prayer. That wasn’t what you did with the dead.
But I should have known the goddess wouldn’t be merciful with those that dared to challenge her authority, even if the knowledge that the next Shore Eater that attacked this beach could very well end up eating its former comrades was nauseating.
We were almost to the tree’s shadow to make our way back to camp when Mishtaw’s head cocked to the side. The last of one of the other squads quietly began to take our sacks of meat and the few bits of shell we carried as Mishtaw listened to her silent message. She responded affirmatively before facing us.
“The commander is determined to drive us hard today. Single squad mission—scout and report back. Petra, you’re going back to camp with that shoulder.” She surveyed the rest of us. “Too many of us will draw attention. Eliss, return to camp with Petra. Creed, Prevna, Breck, you’re with me.” Mishtaw gave Juniper, Idra, Ento, and me a second glance. “Rest and recover. There’ll be more for you to do later.”
The exclusion grated deep in my gut, especially after all my recent failings, but I knew better than to argue. Mishtaw had only been able to bring three people with her through shadows earlier. With the nature of the mission she likely wanted to be able to get in and out quickly without having to double back to get whoever remained behind. And while I had my doubts about Creed’s ability to sneak, Prevna and Breck had certainly been trained in it.
Prevna gave me a wan smile before the four of them disappeared into the shadow. Eliss took Petra and Ento back to camp first. She could only take two people at a time. Idra and Juniper talked quietly as we waited for her to return and made no attempt to include me. I eavesdropped with half an ear as they discussed the battle and what could have gone better or worse, but the rest of me was surveying the land around us, trying to answer a question that had been pushed to the back of my mind in the rush before and during the fight: why this beach?
The goddess’s great southern forest ended two hundred or so yards behind us, where it intermixed with the scrubland that served as the intermediary before the land sank into the short stretch of beach. The forest dipped towards the shore further to the east and the weird wall shielding the battle camp loomed in the distance to the west.
The beach was in the open within clear view of the camp despite the distance. Nothing about it that I could see made it an easily defensible spot or supported covert missions to attack the camp. There wasn’t even truly a lot of beach for the Shore Eaters to eat if they were given all the time they wanted to scoop up the sand. Sure, they could supposedly start on the scrubland next, but carving a path here from the ocean didn’t seem all that smart. It was too far away and too visible to make the effort worth the inevitable cost unless the Lady Blue had a truly abyssal amount of Shore Eaters and fish to throw at us and no remorse about their loss. But if that was true, why wasn’t there a constant influx of the monsters at the beach?
Eliss returned and collected Idra and Juniper. Apparently, she liked me the least or thought I was the least valuable member of the group. Or, since she likely knew I couldn’t die, I was expendable since I would survive whatever happened in the two to three minutes it took her to return.
Shore Eaters to the east and west, clearly spottable despite their ability to travel underwater and enough numbers to cause a challenge but not overwhelm. The whisper women had been confident that they would come to this beach because it had been attacked before. The only anomaly had been the giant clawed fish, but I could fit him in as extra insurance to make sure the Shore Eater made it back out of the…diversion.
My stomach sank.
That was the only way I could find that made the attacks fit. Lull the whisper women into predictable and challenging battles while the true threat was readied elsewhere. But surely, one or more of the whisper women had to realize the same thing. They had been fighting these things a lot longer than I had.
And perhaps why they could be lulled into familiar rhythms of battle.
I glanced back at the pine tree’s shadow. The whisper women might know and were preparing their own secret rebuttal, but on the off chance they weren’t this was likely my only chance to investigate on my own.
I was tasked with ending the conflict in a month if I wanted to continue on the path of becoming a whisper woman.
No time to waste. I carved ‘return soon’ in the snow and hoped she could read it. Eliss would see my footprints in the snow, but if I hurried I could sprint to the forest and lose her in the trees. I hurried.
I watched through the needles of a sturdy pine at the edge of the forest as she appeared from the tree’s shadow further into the scrubland. She looked down at my message before twisting about and locating my footprints. She didn’t follow them. Instead, she crossed her arms, shook her head, and stepped back into the shadow.
I grinned. I had followed orders. I had ‘rested and recovered’ for a good three or four minutes before I made my mad dash to the forest.
Now I was on my own.