‘I have been damned as a witch,’ her mistress calmly observed.
Ina bowed to one knee, stricken. ‘Please do not be angered. It is your safety that concerns me. I must know. Do you intend to confront this demon goddess?’
The Enchantress tilted her head in a thoughtful expression. ‘Confront …’ she murmured. ‘Such a harsh word. Perhaps,’ she added, gesturing to the jungle, ‘we had better turn our concerns to closer threats.’
Ina spun, sword hissing free of its wooden sheath. Shapes moved through the thick brush all about them. She bowed her head to her mistress. ‘I am a fool!’
The Enchantress pushed back her wet tangled hair. ‘Later.’
Ina snapped a curt nod then stood, sword out. The lumbering heavy figures surrounded them. They pushed their way awkwardly through the undergrowth with slow cumbersome steps. As they came nearer she could see them more clearly and an atavistic loathing clamped itself at her throat. Naked they were, shambling forward on thick trunk-like legs — but there any direct resemblance to human stock ceased. The flesh of their stomachs and chests rippled like pale corrugated armour. Their arms were short yet powerful, ending in massive claws. Their heads were reptilian travesties, all jutting bent teeth, slit eyes and plated skin.
Yet she faced them relaxed and confident. None displayed any weapon other than their own teeth and claws. She would cut them to pieces. Her mistress’s hand, however, rested upon her shoulder.
‘Wait,’ the Enchantress murmured, then, louder, ‘What do you wish?’
The closest tilted its thick head, as if puzzled. It blinked slowly and coughed. ‘We thought … we sensed our Queen. But you are not she.’
Ina dared a quick glance to her mistress. The Enchantress was shaking her head. A small amused smile played about her mouth. ‘No,’ she answered. ‘I am not.’
‘And yet …’ the creature continued in a growl, ‘there is much of her in you.’
The Enchantress’s eyes narrowed, no longer amused. ‘Well. You see that I am not. You may go.’
The beast-men — Ina thought them perhaps Soletaken — grumbled and chuffed among themselves. Their leader pulled back its lips to bare its blunt yellowed teeth even further, perhaps displaying disgust or anger. ‘We do not answer to you. Why are you here? What is it you wish?’
‘I am come to see your mistress,’ the Enchantress announced readily enough. She added, ‘So do not interfere.’
The creature thumped a clawed hand to its chest. ‘We decide who sees the goddess. We are her guardians.’
The beasts all coughed and roared at this pronouncement, sending up a great cacophony of noise that impacted Ina’s chest. She eased into a ready stance once again, both hands on her longsword.
‘Tell me,’ the Enchantress began, her voice thoughtful, ‘should your mistress choose to walk through the jungle here, would you bar her way? Because if you wouldn’t,’ and her voice hardened, ‘then you mustn’t bar mine.’
The creature’s dark eyes widened and it ducked its head as if chastened. It waved a trunk-thick arm to its fellows. Awkwardly, stiffly, all the surrounding beast-men fell to one knee and bowed to the Enchantress.
Quite calmly, the Queen of Dreams gestured Ina onward. As they passed the group’s leader, it growled, its head lowered, ‘So very much alike …’
Ina shot a glance to the Enchantress who continued walking as if nothing had been said. She led the way into the denser brush and Ina had to dodge ahead, sword still ready, brushing aside branches and fronds. She turned the flat of the blade to do so, as it would be an insult to the years put into its cutting edge to use it on mere plants. Not long into the trek she found that she could contain her curiosity no longer. The creature’s suggestions of likenesses kept going round and round her mind. Among Ardata’s titles was Queen of Witches, and it came to her now that the Enchantress was also known as the Queen of Dreams. These beasts referred to Ardata as their ‘goddess’ — as the Enchantress was also regarded by her worshippers. They even seemed to think of her as their mistress — just as she so regarded the Enchantress.
As the canopy thickened and layered, the undergrowth thinned, starved of light. Ina fell back to the Enchantress’s side. ‘Mistress,’ she began tentatively. ‘Those creatures … they are Soletaken?’
The Queen of Dreams walked with her hands clasped at her back. She peered about at the jungle as if interested in every plant and tree. Her skirts hung mud-spattered, torn already. Her hair, drying without any attention from her, was an unkempt matted mess. Ina restrained herself from suggesting that the Enchantress ought to attend to it. Perhaps later, when they stopped for the night, she could simply offer her her comb. At her question the Enchantress had raised her brows, ‘Hmm? These inhabitants of Himatan?’
‘Yes. They are shapechangers?’
‘Shapechangers,’ her mistress repeated thoughtfully. ‘No. They are as you saw them. They do not change their shape. Few things are capable of changing shape — unless they be of the Eleint. Their blood partakes of chaos, you know.’ Ina did not know that. However, she remained silent as her goal was to get her mistress talking. After saying nothing for a time the Enchantress continued, ‘Once — long ago — there lived a species, a kind, who could change shape from beast to human. Or perhaps they occupied a place between. It was natural to them. This was not magic as you would understand it.’ Ina did not understand magic at all, but she maintained her silence. ‘This ability bred true with them. Over thousands of years they spread, parted into clans and tribes. Some lost the ability through interbreeding with other stock — or at least it became very diminished. Others held true to it. And so, over the centuries, that base stock gave rise to many differing forms and kinds of populations — even some indistinguishable from you.’
‘I believe I see,’ Ina said at last, genuinely grateful for the lesson. Any knowledge offered from a source such as the Queen of Dreams should be honoured.
‘Here in Himatan,’ the Enchantress continued, musing, ‘they have lived undisturbed for a very long time. They have obviously penetrated into differing areas of it. Humankind walk these paths very lightly, Ina. You do not rule here … unlike almost everywhere else.’
Ina said nothing but she was rather intrigued by that almost — she’d thought otherwise. ‘So they are a race, then. Yet they are not of the four founding races.’
The Queen of Dreams gave a very unqueen-like braying laugh. ‘The four founding races is a self-justifying myth. Just like all of your origin myths.’
Ina noted the your and merely nodded her masked head. Now for the real thrust, she decided. ‘And the likeness they spoke of? The similarities between you and … Ardata?’
The Enchantress’s gaze shifted to rest upon her while they walked. The Seguleh Jistarii, taught since infancy to search for the subtlest of hints in any opponent’s eyes, found it impossible to hold the woman’s gaze. They did not look like any other’s eyes. They seemed to lead on to an infinity of depth; she feared she would lose herself within them and never recover.
‘Well,’ the Enchantress said after a time. ‘As to that. The explanation is simple. You could say that she and I are sisters.’
Ina was struck immobile. It was as if she’d forgotten her legs. The Enchantress continued on apparently unconcerned by what she had just divulged. Sisters! By the First! She and this Queen of Monsters?
And so what did that make her? Another sort of monster?
Ina examined her thoughts. She was not a worshipper. To her the woman was powerful, yes, and thus indistinguishable from the multitude of gods and goddesses and other powerful spirits and phantoms that crowded the world. That was how it had always been. There were cults in the world that put their number in the countless millions. And as such, then, did that not make the woman’s position almost pedestrian? Why should she be surprised? There are gods and goddesses everywhere. One cannot turn over a rock without finding one. She’d heard stories that here in Himatan was preserved the ancient manner of seeing the world; that every tree, every stream and stone possessed a spirit.