Page 90 of Red Demon

“Mahakal,” she said. “I hate him. I need to remember why. Bria doesn’t want to talk about it, but she told me once.”

“Told you what?” I asked.

She’d found the page she was looking for. And the leather book shook in her hand as she tried to smooth the page. “He was one of the Chaeten-sa that raped my mother.”

I looked from her to Asher, his mouth open.

“How do you know that?” I asked her.

“Bria was there. Mahakal might be my father for all I know,” she said. “I don’t think I want to know.”

The horror of that left me speechless, my hands fisted. “I’m sorry” didn’t cut it.

We sat in silence. She seemed to remember herself with a shiver. “I need some water.” She gestured outside to the stream. “You both must be tired, but we should get moving again soon.”

Asher watched her go, his back still plastered to the wall. His fearful brown and gold eyes met mine. “We need to leave her. Now.”

I shook my head, mind racing. “You’re scared of her?”

“You’re not?” he asked, but my face must have been enough of an answer. He gripped his head with his hands, biceps tense. “You’re not. Fuck.”

“She’s evaded Mahakal and the empire for almost a century. We need her help.” I ran a hand through my short curls. “I expect we’ll have wanted posters up in temples soon, our code records posted in every hospital. Sorry I dragged you into this. I didn’t see another way.”

Asher sighed, head against the wall. “If you never showed up, I’d still be out there tracking and killing Asri rebels. Can’t stop thinking about it. I’ve only seen them defending themselves, Jesse. They hate the empire, but their crimes against anyone else, I’ve taken on faith.” His eyes lost focus. “Mahakal only tolerates us Asri—the queen demands we’re in the unit too. He doesn’t respect us. I’ve probably been killing innocent ka for him.” His body trembled against the stone.

I sat down beside him, my shoulder to his. “You didn’t know.”

He sighed, shook his head; kept shaking. “We still don’t know much. What I do know is that the Red Demon just tried to kill me.”

I’m pretty sure that anything I said next to reassure Ash didn’t work, but I tried to catch him up. He kept his thoughts to himself as we set to work, dousing the embers with the remains of my canteen and hiding the ashes under fallen leaves.

Faruhar returned, striding fast to put her journal in her bag. “Mahakal’s battalion is on the move. Let’s go.”

I came up alongside her, gesturing to see her arm, eying her ripped pants. “Shouldn’t we check your injuries first?”

Faruhar glanced down, pulling the gash of bloody fabric aside under her arm, her brow furrowing at the plantain dried to her skin. She brushed it off with a harsh scrub that made me cringe. “It’s fine.” A fresh pink scar under her arm was all that remained of the wound that almost killed her, a fresh line to add to the maze on her body.

My mouth dropped open. No wonder she thought nothing of my new healing abilities if this is what her body could do.

“Ready to go? We’ll forage for some breakfast on the way,” she said.

We rose. Ash grimaced, but didn’t argue. With a brisk pace, we plunged back into the brown leaves between bare branches.

We fell into a rhythm. Faruhar and I carried the bags, our movements silent, a dance in harmony. I tried to out-quiet her while matching her speed. Her yellow-green eyes darted between the path ahead and the undergrowth flanking us. Now and then, she’d fall into a crouch, plucking nuts that had fallen near her route, dropping them into an open satchel. My stomach growled when she came to a full stop, a tree with wide leaves still clinging, and oblong fist-sized fruits.

“Asimina.” She smiled, offering me and Ash the largest ones.

I peeled the yellow fruit with a knife as we walked, the cool, custardy flesh only taking the edge off my hunger.

“Hide the peels well,” she said to Ash, who was about to toss it. “Leave no trace.”

“No problem, Far.” I smiled at her.

She glared, guarded. “Far. Why do you say it like that? Are we friends?”

I weighed that. “I think so,” I said at the same time Asher said, “No.”

Ash scowled back at my raised eyebrow, a muscle twitching in his jaw. Faruhar laughed, picking her way over a branch.