A Place To Bloom

Seeds

Sequoia seeds will not sprout until they are burnt.

I couldn't shake the image from my mind of her lying dead somewhere in the jungle, trapped under Blue with arrows sticking out from their bodies. That time at Carthia when I lifted her onto the ledge, bringing her to my height. The elation on her face when I kissed her. The ripples throughout my body when she kissed me back.

Those vudu birds filled the air with that terrible, low grinding caw as they fought one another for scraps of the dead. What if they were ripping her and Blue apart at this very moment?

Maybe she was still alive. The first time we'd lost contact with Yumi, it turned out to be some xatʌ about a wedding, and she showed up later that evening like it was nothing.

Maybe Miyani was out having an extremely difficult poop.

I had to hold it together; there were still ten recruits I needed to get back to safety.

Three were killed.

Under my command.

I'd cut the shaft from the arrow in Dannie's gut and pulled it through. From the smell of the wound his entrails hadn't been opened, which was a very promising sign, but he was too weak to walk back to the Lake of Doom without help. "Turic, I need you to carry him."

The big man covered in fatty muscle had spent the fight trembling with his knees to his chest while the rest of us were getting killed. He still hadn't moved.

"I'll carry him," Oma Right Hook reached his unbandaged arm out to Dannie.

"No," I said. "Turic is the only one strong enough."

The others looked at me in confusion. It wasn't true, obviously, but there was something the Baron of Gath had said to me once when I'd brought him yet another keg of wine: people need to feel needed. "Come on, man, we need you."

Turic lifted his evergreen eyes to me and his face shifted as he came back to reality.

"Yeah man," Orel, the pickpocket of Ulum, glanced among the others to gather their support. "You're the only one strong enough to carry him."

Finn's overstuffed backpack held more than Bazen's mum's arse, including enough rope to tie a sling around Turic's meaty shoulders that allowed Dannie Whats-This-Do to hang from him. As for shooters, we still had Bilal, myself, Finn, Kurt, Orel, and Charis. Daemon's fingers shook, but he could still hold a bow, and Ardou still cried over his friend Jenzui, who had two arrows in him.

Among all of us, we only had fifteen broadheads left.

I still can't believe I was stupid enough to wear that silk yithi Tani had given me to go meet her. The scar on my right wrist would never fade. zokedɪ. A scar. A memory. zokedɪsedu I remember you, literally, you scar me. Miyani would always be with me.

Maybe she was still out there.

Like Geraln?

Sarina, I don't need this right now.

You're right. You still have one missing.

"Kurt, Finn, help me track down Siddik. Bilal?"

He nodded. "We'll meet you back at the castle. Orel, Charis, Daemon, Ardou, bows out and arrows nocked. No talking, eyes and ears to the forest at all times."

"I can still shoot." Oma lifted his bow with his wounded arm, nocked an arrow, and drew.

"Don't waste the shot!" Bilal snapped at him and pushed his arm down.