Book One – Chapter 18

“I … Well, I … I mean … The Shaira … There was this one time … They made someone sick, I think, I mean, and then they sent him into a settlement. And when, and when the people took him in …”, Yu’s gaze shifted to the selder and back. “So when they took him in, the sickness got to the people. To all the other people.”

“A truly unsettling ploy indeed,” the mask inclined. “And one not unfamiliar. I have also known those who infest the bodies of others, albeit not with sickness, but with their young. Their captives carry them until the hatching.”

And then, for the second time, Yu saw the shaman’s body smile. A ripple passed through her scales, and her shoulders and chest curled upward. It was a terrible parody of compassion.

Yu pressed his talons flat against the floor to keep his claws from raking the stone. He fought to flatten his feathers, to still the tremor under his skin, but each quill revolted. He forced his eyes away from the shaman, past her, first to the door Bubs had gone through, then to the hallway exit. Both were closed.

“It is a justified consideration,” the shaman said. With those words, she shifted. Toward him — no, aside, to his left, toward the cupboards along the back wall. She halted there. The mask turned back to him first. Only after a beat did her upper body follow; a delayed imitation of what should be natural alignment.

Yu understood the motion still. She wanted him closer.

“Yes, well …,” his words scraped out thin and brittle. “I remember what you said. He’s not marked by a witch. So, well, it can’t be the Shaira.” He stayed where he was.

“So I said,” the shaman agreed. She raised one arm and beckoned.

Yu’s eyes shifted to the hallway door again. The brass handle gleamed in the orb-light.

“Come now,” she said.

And he did. He had to. He forced his steps forward, each one pretending: One. Nothing was wrong. Two. There was no voice twisting frost around his thoughts. Three. No unseen maw waited inside her to split wide and take him whole. Halt. He was normal and she was normal and all of this was normal. Pretend, pretend, pretend.