Interesting, women lit the pyre.
Then I sucked in breath when her torch was lit and her eyes came to me before her body started my way.
Oh shit. No. Was this a queenly duty?
She kept coming.
Oh God, it looked like this was a queenly duty.
Great, f**king great.
She stopped in front of me and spoke. “My golden queen, I watched as you held her gaze when her spirit moved to the next realm. It is my honor to offer you the torch which will send her ashes to the heavens so her body can join her spirit.”
Then she offered me the torch.
Crap.
Well, there was nothing for it so I took the torch and looked at the pyre. Then I looked at the healer and asked, “Do you know her name?”
She examined my face a second before her eyes warmed and her lips tipped up in a small smile.
“Her name was Mahyah, my true, golden queen.”
I nodded. Then I took in a deep breath and walked to the pyre.
Then I looked up at the body so high up I couldn’t see much except they’d changed the gauze, there was no blood to be seen and her face had also been shrouded.
Then I thought about a young Korwahk woman who possibly walked through the parade and looked over the warriors in their avenue while wondering which one would be hers, maybe excited about her life as a warrior’s wife and in three short weeks she’d been debased, defiled, beaten and abused.
Then I turned around and called to Diandra.
Quickly, she moved to me.
When she arrived, I whispered, “Can you translate?”
She nodded.
“You can say no if you’re uncom –” I started but she shook her head and touched my arm.
“I will speak your words, my queen.”
I smiled at her.
Then I wasted no time so I wouldn’t lose my nerve, turned to the crowd and spoke loudly in Korwahk, doing the best I could do and hoping I didn’t f**k it up.
“I am only recently Korwahk and I am new to your tongue. I have not yet learned it enough to honor young Mahyah on her pyre before we send her ashes to the heavens. So my friend Diandra will be translating for you the words to a song I sang to Mahyah some days ago in hopes of reaching her spirit and giving her a few moments of peace. Before her death, she told me the land that I sang of was the land where she wanted to go. Now, I will sing the song to you so you can know where Mahyah is and she is somewhere happy.”
Then I looked to Diandra who nodded to me.
Then I sang without accompaniment. I didn’t do great, I didn’t suck. I certainly didn’t sound like seraphs, though I didn’t know what they sounded like. The good news was, once I closed my eyes and gave my mind over to the song, I remembered all the words. And I was so into it, I didn’t even hear Diandra translating the words while I sang.
When I was done, I opened my eyes and saw a sea of faces, there were some women crying, their eyes wet, their hands to their mouths but every eye was on me.
“I don’t know what lemon drops are, Circe, and they don’t have chimney tops but I did my best,” Diandra whispered to me and I turned my head to her and smiled.
Then I grabbed her hand, squeezed and whispered, “I’m sure it was perfect.”
She smiled and squeezed my hand back.
Then I turned to the pyre and looked up at the gauze shrouded body.
Then I whispered, “I hope, beautiful Mahyah, you’re over the rainbow.”
Then I threw the torch into the flower strewn wood and instantly was pulled back by Zahnin as Seerim pulled Diandra back to stand at the front of the crowd some feet away from the quickly catching inferno, the flames coaxed to great heat swiftly by the wind.
The tears stung my nose as the flames licked Mahyah’s body then I froze as my eyes caught on something, lifted to the sky and my breath stuck in my throat as I heard gasps all around, felt the astonished shuffling of bodies and Diandra’s hand came to mine and held tight.
This was because, as the flames danced high, arching through the sky over the pyre, there was a brilliant, perfect rainbow.
I stared at the rainbow with my mouth hanging open.
Oh.
Shit.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Favor
Okay, it couldn’t be denied. Evidence was suggesting I held magic.
Shit.
Our ride home was silent, everyone in their own thoughts. It was also wired. This was because, for no reason at all since the rain had stopped in the night and the wind and sun were quickly drying the wet, there was no way a perfect arc of a rainbow should grace the sky.
Unless I commanded it.
Shit!
Maybe I did have magic, as completely insane as that seemed. Maybe I did command the heavens accidentally last night. Maybe I filled the sky with a rainbow so Mahyah’s ashes could drift over it to meet her soul.
And maybe this magic had brought me to this world in the first place.
Maybe it was me who was responsible for bringing me here.
Which would mean it was me who had the capacity to send myself back (somehow).
In my world, thoughts like this would lead me straight to my car where I would drive to the nearest psych ward and voluntarily check in.
But in this world, apparently anything went.
And the point was, I was in this world which meant I was not insane but instead, screwed.
As we rode back into the Daxshee, horses carrying my friends peeled off on a variety of trails winding through the chams, quietly called farewells the only things piercing our silence. When Seerim had lifted his chin at his wife before his horse took him down another path and it was only Diandra and I, I decided it was time to have a chat with my friend.
I didn’t get this chance. Zahnin barked an order, the four warriors gave him chin lifts, peeled away and Zahnin’s horse trotted up to me.
I looked up at him to see him glaring down at me, his gaze swung to Diandra then back to me and then I watched his jaw turn rock hard.
Oh man. I was thinking this wasn’t good.
Maybe he didn’t like rainbows. Or witches. Even those who held noble magic who didn’t know they were witches.
I braced before I asked, “Is all well, Zahnin?”
His glare turned to a scowl. Then a muscle jumped in his cheek.
Then he grunted, “Me.”
I felt my body get tight as I looked beyond him to the winding paths that led through the chams, wondering, if all wasn’t well, why he dismissed our guard.
“Um –” I started.
He interrupted me by forcing out between his teeth, “I request a favor from my golden queen.”
You could tell he didn’t wish to request this favor, like, he really didn’t wish to request this favor. Or, maybe, any favor.