A moment later time snapped back into place. The chanting boys resumed and then faltered, startled; the leaping blur that was Eino landed and stumbled; the boys nearest the fire gasped and jerked in surprise when they found it suddenly extinguished and icy-cold.
And suddenly Eino stared at me, recognizing me at last through the boy-flesh and the dance-haze. “You.”
Whoops. “Oh. Um. Hello.” Everyone stared at me; for the first time, this was really uncomfortable. To distract them, I added, “I’m, um, supposed to warn you about something.”
Everything was quiet for long enough to make me squirm. Then Eino suddenly flinched and inhaled and looked away, toward the entrance to Yukur. His eyes widened. “Oh, slippy-dicked hells.”
Everyone looked where he was looking. There was nothing to see—but I didn’t need eyes to see, and clearly Eino didn’t, either. Along the half-hidden road that led to Yukur came a bunch of women, all skintight and teeth-bared and cruel-cold. I could not hear their thoughts because they weren’t thinking very loud, but I could taste their intent anyway, because that was not a thought but a feeling: anticipation. Hunting-lust, and maybe other kinds, too. For… for… I inhaled. They were coming for all the boys here!
Right in that moment, one of the boys near the edge of the terrace saw the women’s torches through the trees. We all heard his broken-voiced shout, though I couldn’t make out the words, and suddenly boys in that direction cried out and began to scatter—some down another set of steps toward the trees on Yukur’s other side, some toward us and away from the women, some down the main terrace steps and right toward them.
“No!” Eino’s voice had the deepness of a near man; most of them heard him. “No, don’t run! We have to stand together—face them—demonshit!”
No one was listening. I had no idea what was happening, but I thought maybe people should listen to Eino. HEY! I said with god-talk into all the boy-heads around. Not all of them heard me even then; some of them were too afraid. But most of the boys stopped or stumbled, and turned back to stare at Eino as if he’d been the one to yell at them.
Eino threw me a quick glance; I didn’t know if he was mad or what. But he waved his arms at the boys. “Here! To me!” He turned to the boys nearby, herding them toward the rear of the dance-terrace where the firelight did not reach and the shadows of the surrounding forest were flickery and subtle. Oh! I saw what he meant to do! I grinned and trotted along with him, as more of the boys who had heard me ran to join him, huddling together and whispering in harsh, fearful voices.
“Hush!” Eino’s hiss stilled them. He stepped in front of them, facing the stairs and spreading his arms as if to cloak the boys behind him, though there were at least twenty of them and he did not have hair that moved like Naha’s. And yet—hee! After a moment the shadows around us stretched, weaving together and becoming less dappled, more solid, more obscure… until when the first woman came up the steps, dragging a panting boy with her, she saw nothing. We were invisible to mortal eyes.
More women came up, some of them also hauling boys who struggled or stumbled along with heads bowed or faces tear-streaked. But as the first woman looked around and didn’t see us even though we were standing right there, her brows drew together in a scowl. “This is it?”
Another woman crouched by the boys’ fire, which had thawed out and looked as though it hadn’t been lit in ages. Clever Naha! “Looks like. Unless the others fled into the forest?”
“Bunch of untrimmed boys in the forest, at night, in a tither? We’ll never see them again,” muttered another woman.
“Demonshit. I don’t want to hear it in Council if one of them gets eaten by a jaguar. Spread out beyond the city, try to pick up trails.” The first woman glared at the cold fire. Then she yanked around the boy she held, to face her. “I heard more voices than just you few. Where’d the rest go?”
“I… I do not know, medre.”
She did something to his arm that I couldn’t see because of all his robes. He made a sound that was tight and terrible. She was hurting him! I almost gasped, but that would have given away Eino’s group—and already Eino was dripping sweat, his face tight with concentration and his arms trembling with effort. I did not know why. It was not a hard thing he was doing.
“I don’t know!” The boy did not show his pain much, but even the little that tightened his jaw and thinned his lips was terrible. “I didn’t see!”
“Stop that,” said the woman by the fire, glowering. “You want to explain away bruises to his mother or sisters?”
The first woman rolled her eyes, but stopped doing whatever she was doing; I relaxed as the boy did. Then she grinned. “Well, there’s other ways to find out what you’ve been up to. Right, pretty?” She stepped closer and put a hand down between them, feeling for something amid his robes; he gasped and jerked away, but she pulled him back. “No telling what you boys do when you’re alone, trying to play woman for each other. Maybe I should check to see if you’re still intact? Maybe I should make you less intact, take you to my house instead of yours.” She fumbled with his robes, trying to pull them up. He went rigid, his eyes full of tears. I did not like it at all and I wanted to do bad things to her! But if I did, it would give away Eino’s group.
“Brightness and shadows, Veiba.” The woman by the fire, who felt like a leader, came over and dragged the boy away from her; Veiba laughed, as the boy turned his face away and trembled. “We don’t have time for that sort of foolishness.”
With that, the leader turned and whistled in two tones. From steps and terraces and the nearby woods around Yukur—Yukur was really mad! All those womenfeet on its stones!—other whistles answered her in different tones, different tunes. The woman sighed. “No trails out of the site but those of the few we’ve caught. We lost them.”
“These few are enough,” said Veiba. “It’s proof they’ve been sneaking out, coming here.”
The other women murmured agreement; finally the leader sighed. Raising her voice, she called, “Hear the decree of the Warriors’ Council! By their word is this place of traitors forbidden now and henceforth. Come again and we will catch you, and name you traitors, too. Come forth now for amnesty; we will see you escorted home.” She glanced at Veiba in plain warning. “Safely.”
She paused for a moment, listening. That’s when I heard Eino panting really hard! He was going to give us away! I didn’t understand why, but he was almost out of magic. That was weird, so I touched his back and gave him some more. He jumped and looked at me in a surprised way, but it was enough. He stopped panting, and when the moment of silence passed, the leader shook her head and held up her fist in a signal. All the women turned and started heading back down the steps, bringing the boys they’d caught with them. But those were only a few of the boys who’d been in the dance-circle! We were the best at hide-and-seek.
When the strange women were finally gone, Eino let the magic go and sagged to the ground on his hands and knees. The other boys hugged each other and some of them cried a little and the rest went down next to Eino, praying or rubbing his back or whispering quiet, Thank the gods. (I poked my lip out at this. They should be thanking the godling! Stupid mortals.)
“Hey,” I said, hunkering down next to Eino to peer at him once some of the other boys had withdrawn. “You want some more magic? I have lots.”
He looked up at me with the strangest look on his face. “Wh-why?”
“Huh?”