Page 29 of The Witch who Trades with Death

Chapter Twenty-Nine

It was a rest day, and a quiet evening. No training, no unit, and barely any guests visiting the inn. Khana beat out a cushion over the hearth as a new customer came in. Haz gave an over-exaggerated groan. “Ah, shit. Even on days off we can’t escape you.”

Serji Neta brushed the snow from her leopard cloak, like a giantess swatting at flies. “Fuck you,” she said evenly. “Is our usual spot open?”

“It is. Did your mother burn the dinner?”

“She’s visiting a friend, and I’d rather not try my father’s side of the family.”

“No Athicha?”

“Their unit needed a little extra training tonight. Do you have any of that spiced mead?”

Khana and Haz shared a look. “I’ll get you a horn, serji , ” she said. “Warm your cloak by the fire.”

The soldier nodded her thanks. “We’re off-duty. No need for the serji nonsense.”

“As you say, serji.”

Neta glared at her while Khana giggled, going into the kitchen. As she got Neta’s drink ready, she heard Haz cheer, and echoing cries from Lueti. When she popped back out, horn in hand, Lueti, Yxe, and Itehua had made their way to Neta.

“We ran into each other during errands,” Lueti explained, taking her customary seat in the back corner. She wore a faded pink cloak over form-fitting clothes. Khana had learned that pink was a whore’s color, almost like a uniform. “We all thought to have dinner here, take a break from cooking our own food.”

“And because our boy here hasn’t ever been drunk,” Itehua said, squeezing Yxe around the skinny shoulders.

“Whaaat?” Haz asked. “You whose mother works for an Old Family? You must have access to the best alcohol in town.”

The boy shrugged, wiping his large nose. “My parents don’t approve of heavy drinking. I had to promise them I’d only have half a cup of ale.”

“We won’t tell if you won’t,” Neta promised.

“And you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Khana stressed, handing the officer her horn. “I’ve never been drunk either.”

“Oh, I want to,” Yxe quickly assured. “I just don’t want to get caught. Or pass out on the streets and freeze to death.”

“It’s best for a person to drink under a safe roof,” Lueti said wisely.

Khana shrugged. “More mead, then?”

“Now we’re talking,” Itehua said, his grin stretching the pox scars on his face. “But I’ll take a tea. I’m the responsible one tonight.”

“ You ?” Neta laughed.

“We’re off-duty, so I can freely tell you to shut your mouth.”

She rolled her eyes. “Get yourself a horn, too, Khana. If you can.”

“Maybe,” Khana said, surveying what few customers there were in the rest of the room. It wasn’t that she was opposed to drunkenness. Plenty of other concubines had used that to deal with Yamueto, or opium, or other substances. But some of them had made terrible, fatal mistakes while under the influence, or drank so much they died, and had their corpses turned into night creatures, which was why Khana had abstained.

But Lueti had a point: she was safe here. Why not indulge a little?

“Do you need me and Haz?” she asked Heimili in the kitchen. “The rest of the unit’s here and…”

He waved her off. “It’s a slow night. You two have fun.”

Haz cheered and gathered the drinks. The younger hires went into the dining hall to wait on customers while he and Khana took their seats. They’d just asked for their food when the final member of the unit strolled in.

“Xopil!” Haz cheered. “Who’s the beauty?”

Xopil’s thick arm was wrapped around the shoulders of a heavy-set Reguallian woman with a toddler bundled in furs. The big man beamed. “This is my wife, Tlastisti, and our son Ponti.”

“I refuse to cook tonight,” Tlastisti said, settling herself next to Haz like she’d known the group for years. “And Xopil says nothing but good things about this place.”

“Best spot in town,” Haz promised, and then promptly started making faces at the toddler, who giggled at him.

Food and drinks poured freely for the next hour. With every horn of mead, Khana felt herself get a little looser, a little more relaxed, a little freer. Why hadn’t she done this before? Tlastisti shared the story of how Xopil – then a tongue-tied pig farmer – had tried to initially catch her eye by training a piglet to deliver her flowers, and it was hilarious .

Lueti shared some bawdier stories from her job, making Xopil cover his son’s ears and turning even Itehua red. Haz and Yxe held an eating contest to see who could consume the most chuta in five minutes, with Neta amusedly keeping time. Yxe won at three whole loaves. Where he put them in his skinny frame, Khana had no idea.

Haz switched between making faces at Ponti and flirting outrageously with Tlastisti, calling her “the reason we’re fighting” and “clearly descended from the goddess of beauty.” Every name was answered with a friendly swat to his shoulder and a laugh.

At one point, Khana got to chase after little Ponti while Tlastisti ate some soup, keeping him away from the fire and out of Heimili’s way. “He has your nose,” she said.

“Hopefully he’ll have my good sense too, instead of his father’s,” she teased.

Xopil pouted at her. “I bring home one wolf cub to raise–”

“And a turtle. And a baby alligator. More birds than I can count. One time he tried to bring an adult tiger home because it was injured!”

“And I nursed her back to health, despite her trying to claw me!” he declared.

Tlastisti gave a good-natured sigh. Her amusement faded when she turned back to Khana. “Anyway. I need to apologize.”

Khana blinked. She looked at the toddler, wondering if he’d have any answers, but Ponti just batted at the hem of her dress.

“You saved my husband’s life, when he got stabbed, and I told him not to have anything to do with you,” Tlastisti said. “I worried that if he was seen with the witch, he’d get hurt again. That wasn’t fair.”

Khana shook her head. “You were protecting your husband. I don’t blame either of you. Besides, it all worked out.”

Tlastisti’s mouth thinned, but she didn’t argue. Just took her baby back and resumed the dinner conversation. Khana refilled her horn, warm with both company and alcohol. She was having what was probably the best night of her life, until Haz turned to the door and went white .

Even in her state of hazy drunkenness, that didn’t seem right. She followed his eye and found Bhayana, Sipah, and a handful of soldiers standing at the door.

Bhayana’s black eyes gleamed. “Service, please!”

“No,” Heimili growled. He’d gone to clean one of the spots across the room, and the clay teacups fell from his hands with a clatter. “Get out.”

She pouted. “Oh, don’t be that way, Baba Heimili.”

“I am not your baba. Get out. Now.”

“I wouldn’t talk that way to a Pinnsviri,” Sipah threatened.

Heimili pointed to them all, limping closer. “None of you have any right to come to my inn after what you did to my family. Now. Get. Out.”

“Mmm… no,” Bhayana said. “Hi, Haz!”

Haz’s hand was shaking so much his mead looked like an ocean in a storm. He was too afraid to move.

But Khana wasn’t. For the first time in a long time, she felt strong. She felt brave .

So, she took her own horn of mead, and threw it at Bhayana’s smug face. Her aim was off, and the horn arched toward one of the Pinnsviri men. He ducked, and it smashed into the wall, spraying mead everywhere.

“She attacked me!” Bhayana shrieked.

“Oh, shut your face!” Itehua said, getting to his feet. The rest of the unit followed, Neta and Lueti standing in front of Haz. “What did you expect coming here?”

“Some respect for your betters,” Sipah said, leading his group further into the room. “We’re Pinnsviri men. You obey us . That’s why we’re the predators, and you’re the frogs.”

Khana grinned, alcohol flushing her head. “Did you know that poison dart frogs can kill a fully-grown man just by touching them?”

“P-Please leave,” Yxe stammered.

“No one’s talking to you,” Sipah snapped, “Reguallian brat.”

“Actually, I’m Tlapharian,” he muttered.

“Shut up!”

Even though Yxe had drunk more than Khana, the mead hadn’t given him the same bravery. He shrank into himself, hiding under his cap. Out of the corner of her eye, Khana saw Xopil gently push his family toward the back kitchen before joining the unit. “You aren’t getting service here,” he then said. “So please leave.”

“Absolutely not,” Bhayana snapped from behind Sipah. “Haz, do you have any idea what I’ve been through since you spread those lies about me?”

“I said shut your face,” Itehua snapped. “We’re not buying that yak shit here.”

“You’re only making it worse for yourself,” Neta warned. Her short sleeves revealed powerful muscles, and with her back straight and eyes flashing, she looked more assured than most royals Khana had met. “There might be eight of you against seven of us. But you’re all unarmed and we have a witch. Do you expect this to go easily for you?”

“No one threatens Mistress Bhayana in the presence of her guard,” Sipah growled.

“Oh, that’s not a threat,” Khana jeered, blood and alcohol roaring in her ears as she got right up to Bhayana’s face. “I would love just five minutes alone with you.”

“That’s it!” Sipah punched her.

The exploding pain in her nose shocked sense back into Khana. Itehua retaliated and kicked Sipah in the chest, sending him into his men. Bhayana shrieked and went after Neta, and it all descended into chaos.

A Pinnsviri guard swung at Khana, but she managed to dodge, if a little sloppily. She kneed the woman in the gut, then grabbed her ear and twisted, making her yelp. A guard got Yxe into a chokehold, which the drunk boy escaped by biting into his arm like a feral rat. Lueti armed herself with a horn of mead, splashed it into a man’s face, and then beat him over the head with it. Itehua and Xopil both grappled with multiple opponents; the ex-criminal drove one into a wall only to be punched in the ribs by another, while Xopil bodily picked up and threw a man into two others with a roar.

Bhayana and Neta traded blows, and it was only an even fight because Neta had a few horns of mead in her. Haz toppled the scales by throwing his plate like a disc, and unlike Khana, hit his mark. The plate slammed into Bhayana’s temple and sent her reeling back. Sipah avenged his lady by tackling Haz and punching him in the face.

The few other customers in the inn gave them a wide berth, even cheering them on. But Heimili, prosthetic or not, had no intention of being a spectator. He came out of nowhere and attempted to drag Sipah off his son, but the soldier shoved him away, pushing him onto the floor, and resumed hitting Haz.

Khana’s vision turned red. She abandoned her own opponent, ran up and jumped on Sipah’s back, winding her elbow around his throat and squeezing. Sipah wheezed, stepping away from Haz as he tried to shake Khana off. She stubbornly held on and breathed in.

He fell to his knees as she drank his life force, then dropped to his hands. Her bleeding nose healed and the drunken fog in her head lifted as her skin glowed.

“Khana, don’t! Give it back!”

She blinked at Neta’s order.

“Please…” Sipah begged. “Please don’t kill me.”

“I should make you crawl back to your hole like this,” she growled.

“Khana,” Neta ordered.

She looked up. The rest of the fight had stopped, and everyone stared at her. The Red Frogs Nine unit looked at her with fear.

She pushed the aji back into Sipah. Not all of it; she reserved a small amount as she climbed off his back.

Lueti helped Haz sit up, wincing at what she saw. Blood covered his whole face, at least one black eye already forming. Khana pushed the aji into him, clearing it right up. “Anyone else badly injured?”

“We don’t need your help, witch,” Bhayana spat.

“I wasn’t talking to you .”

“In that case, get the fuck out of my inn,” Heimili huffed from his spot on the floor.

The Pinnsviris helped each other up, Sipah needing to lean on another soldier, despite not being injured and Bhayana tried feebly to stem the bleeding from her temple. She glared at them on their way out. “You’re all going to regret this.”

When they finally left, there was only silence. Lueti turned to Xopil. “Where’s your wife?”

“She went to get help,” Amati said, coming out of the kitchen and leading Ponti by the hand.

Neta hissed. “Even disgraced, Bhayana has supporters. Are you sure that was wise?”

Xopil made the noise of an insulted elephant. “She knows better than to get more porcupine men.”

As if on cue, Tlastisti ran back into the inn, breathing hard. To Khana’s embarrassment, it was Sava Bvamso on her heels, looking around the room with naked concern. “What’s going on?”

Yxe threw up on the floor.

Heimili sighed. “What’s going on is you’re all helping me clean up.”

“Sorry about this,” Haz said as they finished cleaning up Yxe’s mess and replacing torn or stained floor cushions with clean ones. Since no one was in need of aji, Khana tended to people’s injuries with bandages and ointment. The other guests who had not been involved in the fight were sent away with Heimili’s apologies and promises of a discounted meal next time – although most had shrugged it off and said it’d been fun to watch.

Itehua laughed. “No one gets through life without at least one drunken brawl. That was fun!”

“Yeah. Fun,” Yxe hiccupped. Tlastisti tended to him while Ponti slept on a cushion, giving Yxe tea and a bucket as needed. Khana was thankful that the aji had cured her own drunkenness, saving her from the same fate.

“If you get it all out now, you won’t have to deal with it tomorrow morning,” Neta sagely said to Yxe, sitting still so Khana could wrap her bleeding knuckles.

Sava helped Heimili gather up and divide the dishes into salvageable and non-salvageable piles, even though his presence was no longer necessary. He’d already interviewed everyone, participants and witnesses alike, his normally cheerful face growing more and more grim.

He tossed another broken horn into the trash pile. “I’m just amazed Bhayana had the gall to do this.”

“It’s what she does,” Haz said. “She’ll never admit defeat, never go away, she’s like a wound that just festers and gets worse and…” He drifted off, turning red as everyone else stared at him. Even Itehua looked sympathetic. Heimili limped over and gave his son a hug.

“I’ll talk to my mother,” Sava promised. “Bhayana was specifically ordered to stay away from you.”

“The first infringement is only a fine, though,” Itehua pointed out. “She’s rich, so what does she care?”

“She came here once before,” Sava said. “I had to kick her out. The second infringement can get up to a month of unpaid community service. The third is imprisonment or exile. She’s not getting away with this again.”

Haz’s smile was tight. “Thank you, Sava.”

Itehua nudged Neta. “Maybe next time don’t order Khana to show mercy?”

“A corpse would’ve made this a hundred times worse,” the serji defended. “I don’t want to get us kicked out of the army a week before training ends.”

Khana choked on her spit. “We’re done in a week ?”

Neta nodded. “That’s when the weather turns, and the snow starts to melt. The mountains become passable for invaders.”

The blood drained from Khana’s face. “Have we heard from…”

Sava shifted his feet, hesitating before saying, “The king just sent word: Emperor Yamueto sent an ultimatum. Join the empire or face utter destruction.”

The inn was completely silent. Haz’s snort broke the tension. “With charms like that, it’s a wonder he’s not married.”

Khana ducked her head, hoping to hide whatever was on her face. Sava very carefully did not look at her.

“We’re telling him to fuck off, right?” Itehua asked.

Sava’s smirk was a feral thing. “Of course. After all this training, it’d be a shame not to fight.”

“Damn right!” Itehua cheered.

Khana wished she could share their enthusiasm, but all she felt was dread.