Page 30 of Queen Demon
Confused, she hesitated. “Yes, but…” Her gaze hardened and she lifted her chin. “We forge our own way.”
“Who decided what that way would be?” Bashasa’s brow knit in slight consternation. “Did you all speak of it together and come to a decision on how you would live, like other Witches do?”
“The Doyen and the elders decided.” She looked away, tilting her head at an angle that Kai didn’t quite read as a lie, but as reluctance.
Kai didn’t need to glance at Bashasa to know that he had seen it too. Bashasa asked gently, “Why is it so at odds to the old way? That you would attack us, who had no idea you existed before now?”
She met his gaze, more secure in this answer. “The old way didn’t work, it fell to the Hierarchs.”
“Did it not work?” Bashasa countered. “It worked for uncounted years, long enough for Witches to spread over the earth and buildlovely places like the Khalin Islands. Is it not the Hierarchs who are to be blamed for destroying it, the way they destroyed all the south and east? Without the Hierarchs, everyone, Witches included, would continue to live as they always had, and decide things for themselves.” He added, “This is what Amabel, the young Witch person your people tried to kill with their magic, fights for. What the three Arike vanguarders your people killed fought for. Would you like to know their names?”
The dustwitch looked away, shaking her head stubbornly.
“What is your name?” Bashasa had judged his moment well. “I am Bashasa bar Calis of Benais-arik.”
She frowned at the worn ground cloth. “I will not give you my true name. You can call me Hawkmoth.”
“Hawkmoth,” Bashasa said. “If I release you, would you ask your Doyen to meet with me, so we can discuss our interactions here as equals?”
She looked up, startled. She obviously hadn’t believed him earlier when he had said he might release her if she answered his questions. But clearly this was too tempting, Bashasa’s manner so candid, that she wanted to believe it. She hesitated, as if wary of a trap, but unable to see it. Sounding surprisingly honest, she answered, “I… I don’t know.”
Kai took Bashasa’s arm and said in Imperial, “Can I speak to you for a moment?”
They withdrew outside the tent, leaving Baram and Ibel to watch the dustwitch with the soldiers. The night was quieter now, just a little noise from the still wide-awake camp, most of it covered by the wind rushing through the grass past the paddocks. It had taken most of the damp out of the air and kept the night insects from clustering around the lamps, and Kai suspected if they could see the sky past the lamplight, the clouds would be breaking up.
Kai told Bashasa, “You can’t seriously mean to release her.”
“I do mean to,” Bashasa assured him. “We cannot afford to fight on two fronts at once, not now. I need to meet with her people. They must agree to leave us alone or they must join us, there is no other choice.”
“Join us?” Kai was startled by how visceral his reaction was. “You think that’s remotely possible? After what she said?”
“I agree, there is something odd there.” Bashasa tapped his chin thoughtfully.
“That’s putting it mildly.” Ziede seemed honestly disturbed by the dustwitch’s story. “I’ve never heard any hint that there were northern Witches that behaved this way. She didn’t even believe her leader would agree to a meeting to get her back.”
Kai had noticed that too. It made a vivid contrast to Kreat, running into the dark after Amabel. Even if in her panic she had doubted them later, her first impulse had been to come to Kai and Ziede because as Witches she knew they would help her.
“Interesting.” Bashasa frowned. “Hawkmoth reminds me of the young people from the far south, across the Belith straits, who would come to the Hostage Courts. They had been taken from their families as children and were being raised as high servants for the Hierarchs. They were very sure in their convictions that everything the Hierarchs said and did was moral and righteous to an extreme. Trying to talk to them was like talking to a myna bird, except a myna bird listens to you and has more ability to retain information.” He shook his head, dismissing the thought. “This Doyen seems to have imposed their own way of thinking on Hawkmoth’s people, but we can’t know that for certain until we speak to them.”
“It sounds pretty certain to me,” Kai disagreed. If Hawkmoth had come up with it all herself, she would at least be able to argue her vile points more effectively. “The Doyen could be a Hierarchs’ Servant, an expositor, pretending to be a Witch.”
Bashasa’s glance at Kai was sympathetic. “Or just a Witch who desired power over others.”
Kai looked away, setting his jaw to hold back his first knee-jerk response. Because he didn’t want to believe it was possible didn’t make it an unlikely answer.
“If they want to sit in the windy plains and complain to each other about what’s left of the rest of us, that’s one thing.” Ziede flexed her fingers on her folded arms. The candlelight outlined the hard cast to her expression. “But directing children like that to attack and kill mortals and other Witches is… a vicious distortion of what we are.”
Ziede said it much better than Kai had. He said to Bashasa, “And you think this Doyen, the person who would do this, is worth meeting with?”
Bashasa said patiently, “Perhaps not, but the others may be a different story. Hawkmoth is a young person, naive and obviously under the influence of stronger wills. These dustwitches… their way of life seems divisive, and I must think relatively new to them, if even Hawkmoth knows of the Saredi and the treaty and the way things were before the Hierarchs.” He shrugged. “People, all people—mortals, immortals, for the most part—like their lives to be secure and calm, they do not like the constant tension of fear and uncertainty and death coming at any moment. If they are made to understand that a better life is possible, they can be reasoned with, they will cooperate to get it.”
Ziede regarded Bashasa with a flat stare. Kai pressed his hands to his face, trying to control his immediate impulses. Yelling would do no good, stamping away would do no good. Killing Hawkmoth would do no good, and now that he saw she was about as sensible as a confused goat, it wouldn’t even feel good. Ziede said pointedly, “You think these people can be reasoned with.”
“Most people can be reasoned with, when they understand that there is nothing to fear from reason and cooperation.” Bashasa was completely serious and completely undeterred. “Particularly if you remove anyone who causes divisiveness for their own benefit from the conversation, if necessary.”
Kai looked up. “Like cutting the heads off Hierarchs.” He was still skeptical, but this was starting to sound more practical.
“Exactly, Fourth Prince.” Bashasa looked pleased. He squeezed Kai’s shoulder approvingly.
