The Ballad of Little Bird

Galira was shaking her head. "I tried to warn the fools. They wouldn't listen. Goma doesn't bless people. He only feeds on blood, and he does not care whose."

The words washed over her. Again, they seemed severed from meaning. Cailin looked back over at Oga's body and willed it to move.

She felt a spark of fury in her breast and looked back at Galira. The Wineg woman lingered a moment more and then said: "You're a tough one, I'll give you that. I am sorry I called you a 'toy.'" She sighed, worked at a crick in her neck and said: "See you on the other side, Cailin of the Temple."

With that she was stalking away. The Adani woman in armour called out a farewell to her and came over in her turn. Close up, the woman had tight-curled hair greased and bound back beneath her skull-cap, little wiry strands escaping here and there. Her skin was a weather-beaten nut brown and she had the beak nose and hard eyes of a bird of prey. There were dents and splashes of blood on her coat of plate.

"I'm S'dana Lal of the Tigress Brigade," she said. "You're Agamo's 'Little Bird,' yes?"

Cailin returned her gaze defiantly and said nothing.

Lal shrugged indifferently. She said: "I've a message for you, from a mutual friend. He asked me to tell you if I should meet you still alive, that he was sorry. I told him it wasn't likely, but here you are." The woman was looking at the crossbow bolt in Cailin's side as she spoke. "You know him fairly well, I think. The ramanga they call Buki, yes?"

Bana stirred on the ground nearby, croaking in rage. The Deaconess felt her vision dim as the spark of fury grew hotter, the tears blurring her vision now those of betrayal, her hands clutching painfully at her sides.

Lal marked this with a bleak smile and said: "Ah, don't judge him too harshly, lass. Poor little bastard was tired of dining on nail parings and drinking from spittoons, no doubt, and who can blame him? Besides, he had his finger to the wind. He knew who was coming out of this with a throne and who wasn't."

Something in the woman's offhand manner fanned the fury higher yet. But it was hard to sustain it. The numbness was making it hard to swallow, and everything inside was hollow desolation.

Oga is gone. The wail caged inside Cailin grew keener as the awful reality of it began to spread like the poison. Suddenly she was very tired. Oga is gone.

"Anyway, you have your message." Lal looked down at the crossbow bolt again. Nodded at it: "That's probably mortal. The poison's a bad way to go. I can call you a physick anyway, your chances aren't good... or I can offer you mercy right now." She tapped her hand against a dagger sheathed at her waist, raised an eyebrow. "You wish it?"

Oga is gone. The last of her fury ebbed away. Cailin looked at the dagger. Swallowed. Nodded resolutely.

"Right, then." Lal pulled the blade free and knelt over her. "Prepare yourself as best you can." The woman began to murmur a quick prayer to the Merciful Lady.

Cailin gave Bana a last look, took a breath and closed her eyes.

The last thing she heard was her companion croaking the words: "An rana... fuan... harenin-ha..."

And then she was free.