Rinnet of King's Helm (COMPLETED)

Chapter Twenty-three

Rinnet didn't like the way Riuza shook as she spoke. It looked as if the Hatawan might fall apart, or lash out at any moment.

"The leaders, the ones with a strong connection to the Passage, wrote down their findings," Riuza said. "They tested the limits of what the spirits might do for a person. How close they could get to the brink of death." She paused. Her long, slow breath hitched. "How far beyond it, too."

"You're lying," Rinnet scoffed. "You can't go beyond death and stay alive."

"I'm only telling you what Kozua says," Riuza replied, though even she seemed disbelieving, if not a bit frightened. The shocks of black hair hanging over her forehead and around her jawline trembled. Her closed eyelids flickered.

Rinnet sat back on her heels. Drummed her fingers on her thigh. "Go on," she grumbled.

"He says only two leaders ever succeeded in putting a spirit from the Passage back into a living body." Riuza said this with wonder, tripping over the words as if each one surprised her. "The first was a man named Sunayin, from one of the northernmost tribes. He understood that a willing host could trade places with a willing spirit, so long as the trade took place quickly and perfectly."

"What does that mean?" Rinnet asked. Riuza's head tilted as she, too, waited for a clearer explanation.

"Sudden," she said at last. "The death had to be sudden, and total. No slow death, and nothing recoverable, though the body could not be in pieces. The living participant had to die almost instantly, or else the old spirit may still be tied to the chance of survival." Riuza stopped. She shuddered once, a steady roll through the smaller tremors in her limbs. "Or the living host might cease to be willing. If they experience extreme pain, or come to understand exactly what they're giving up.

"Sunayin's grandfather was ready to die, or as ready as any living person can be. And while Sunayin himself could not understand the spirits that spoke to him, his younger brother could, and agreed to the experiment.

"The brother found a spirit. An ancient relative, but one who had died young—very young. Six years old." Riuza murmured the last part. Then she cleared her throat and continued. "He had all the timeless knowledge of a spirit in the Passage, but longed to be alive again. He wanted to be with his great-great-grandchildren as a living, breathing person—"

"This seems unimportant," Rinnet muttered through her teeth.

"—not just a shadow amongst shadows."

Rinnet was astonished to see a line of tears forming on Riuza's closed eyelashes. Her drumming fingers ground to a halt. "As I said. Is this important? Kozua wasted enough of my time when he was alive."

Riuza wiped her eyes with the back of one quivering, smooth hand. "Hatawans have long been pacifists," she said, "especially once they saw how war drove their Coretian and Tevarian cousins from the Passage. So Sunayin wasn't sure, at first, how best to...aid his grandfather's death." She stopped again, this time with a huff. "Kill, Kozua. How best to kill his grandfather."

"And?"

"Palsa poison."

This time Rinnet held her breath.

"Coretian traders brought it from the southern highlands. Said it grew wild there and could burn through a person's skin like the sun burns through mist. The fruit was edible, but the sap was so deadly they had to cut it down with knives.

"A small amount in the bloodstream, the traders said, could kill a person instantly. The tip of a needle would contain enough to do it."

"I've seen it," Rinnet said. "The brushbirds drop out of the air if you hit them with a poisoned blade. Paralyzed. You have to clean the blade right away if you get any of the sap on it. But carefully, and thoroughly."