Tother Hand, Chapter 7 part 2

She took one camel and some provisions back along the road her father and she had taken to get there. It took several days to travel, and during the time she planned her revenge on her traitorous uncle. At night, she preferred to sleep alone out in the open under a blanket, sleeping against her camel for warmth and shelter. This way, she would not have to meet anyone close up and blow her cover as a farmer boy.

When she came near the metal making compound a few days later, she veered off the road far into the adjoining pomegranate orchard on the side of the road. She walked a long way around the area, hiding between patches of trees and huts. She tied her camel to a tree some distance downwind of the bloomery. She would use the smell of the fires to guide her to the compound after dark.

She waited until the quarter moon had moved overhead, which indicated midnight. She removed the turban and used her female headdress to cover her face and head. There was just enough light to manoeuvre and she tested the air to make sure she was headed in the correct direction. She came up to the back of the bloomery where they had secured their camels previously. She paused for a long time, listening for any movement or people about. It was perfectly still.

Her father said: Do not do this.

She started and looked around. She asked: Why are you still here?

He said: You did not curse my body. My _fravashi_ does not know where I am. I did not get scared away from the worldly arena and now I follow you around.

She said tearfully: Father, I miss you.

And: I’m scared.

She felt him nod. He said: My brother did not mean any harm. I am sure of it. He did not betray us. I believe he meant to warn the Masked Ones and the Elders. He did not mean for them to ambush us and kill me. I think he is innocent.

9001 felt the anger and shame building in her from her encounter with her uncle. She said: He is a bad man, full of _druj_, deceit, and lies. I do not believe he is innocent. He must be guilty of harming you. He did send a messenger ahead of us to set a trap to get us killed. That must have been his intent. He delayed us with the new blade he created, which was false and he gave specific information about how to prepare defences and when we would arrive and who we would target.

9001 suddenly sneezed, twice in succession.

Her father said after a long pause: My brother was right. You are not a Healer. I must have made a grave mistake when I chose you.

She asked: You chose me? You said the Elders chose.

She waited for a response. After a while, sensing his presence was gone, she gripped her triangular bronze blade and drew it out in her right hand. She pulled her headdress wrap more closely around her face and snuck around the wall, peering each way and behind her as she moved noiselessly. As she rounded one corner of the clay walls, she peered into the compound and could see and hear nothing moving inside. The fires were all covered with sand and dirt, but provided enough gentle light to verify the place was empty.

She entered and searched the workbenches for her father’s original iron blade. She wondered where it could have been. She focused her mind and crinkled her forehead in concentration. She unexpectedly entered the space between light and darkness, but something was different about this spell that she had created. As she looked around, she saw the same compound scene before her, except it was too bright. It seemed to be early morning.

She saw her uncle and one of his younger apprentices walking away from one of the clay bloomeries and reach down to a table to pick up a piece of dull grey metal. This was her father’s original rondel, she realised. He placed the blade into the bloomery with wooden tongs while his assistant operated the leather box they used as bellows.

Each movement was slow and watery, as if viewed from a distance, but still perceived close by. There were orange and blue waves of light rippling at the edges of her vision and she could not look away to see other things in the periphery of her vision clearly.

Her uncle turned in the slow methodical motion of the vision and she was shocked to see herself and her father entering the compound. Her uncle waved a casual greeting to her alternate self and her previous father, then he brought them over to another table and showed them something.

The spell ended abruptly and 9001 nearly fell to her knees, breathing heavily.

Her father said softly: You have achieved the Perfect Sight. I misjudged your talents.

She spat out venomous words, saying: Do you see now, father? Your uncle did betray you. When he presented the blade he was working on, he had already destroyed yours. Do you not see?

Her father said: The Perfect Sight allows you to see things as they were, not as you wish them to be. I cannot argue with that.

9001 exited the compound and followed the edge of the road to the house where her uncle lived with his wife. The moon was lower in the sky to the west. It indicated almost two hours had passed. She moved around the house to the front entrance and prepared to enter.

She took two deep breaths and forced herself into the space between light and dark just after she had blinked. She had entered the frozen time almost perfectly. The light from the moon was bright as midday. She moved with perfect timing and rhythm to lift the deer hide curtain across the doorway. Inside, the orange glow of the fire spirits dancing in the wood gave the hut enough light to navigate.

She moved towards the wooden divider behind which her uncle and aunt slept. She planned to kill them both if necessary; it would be very difficult to keep the frozen time long enough to move around the hut and she needed to escape afterwards. She noted a large man sleeping next to a slighter person under several pieces of hide stitched together.

A lonely wind blew across the plain. It meant: Behind.

She struck swiftly and too viciously at the necks of both people. She had lost her concentration and the glowing lights flickered dangerously. Her eyes had begun to close in the space of one full blink. Black bands moved slowly, sped up, slowed down, and then covered everything as she fell out of the spell.

A bright light exploded in front of her and she fell to the ground. Her training kicked in before she realised she had been hit. She vaguely realised her blade had fallen onto the floor somewhere. She rolled over onto her shoulder and drew her knees up. Someone collapsed on top of her, grabbing at her neck. She was grateful for the training her father had taught her because this was exactly the same escape she had practiced several times.

She reached across to her attacker’s far shoulder with the arm closest to the ground. She pulled the shoulder and arm down against her opposite ribs, trapping the elbow and upper arm. Then she used the leverage of her other hand to push against the ground and used her bent knees to push off the ground with her feet. Her attacker lost all contact with the ground and rolled onto his face with her now on top of his back.

She quickly reached under the armpit and reached under his chin to grab his opposite shoulder. This formed a triangle arm choke across the neck. She gripped her wrist with her other free hand and pulled back as far and as hard as she could lean. Her attacker tried to gain leverage with his legs and arm, but lost consciousness too quickly.

She held the choke for far longer than she thought possible, pulling as hard and leaning back as far as she could. Sweat stood out on her forehead and rand down her armpits. The man jerked several times, until he stopped moving completely. Only then did she let go. She quickly scrabbled for her blade and found it in the dark. She plunged it into the back of the neck of the attacker, pointed at his eyes to drive the blade into the brain stem.

She collapsed onto the floor and knocked over the divider. After catching her breath, she stoked the fire in the middle of the hut and examined the area. The two bodies she had struck behind the divider were merely wooden blocks carved to be round and the size of a human head. The man that had attacked her was unusually large and heavyset. His long bushy beard was unmistakable as her uncle.

Her father said: Breathe. Clean the blade. Curse the body.