In that moment, I suddenly realized that it was me they were fighting over. I was astounded.

Olikea froze. Epiny remained as she was, crouching over Soldier’s Boy, the cold iron of the hatchet not quite touching his throat. She looked feral and predatory, hunkered over my body. Then she caught her breath, gave a small grunt of pain, and put her hand on her belly and rubbed it softly, almost reassuringly.

“You won’t kill him,” Olikea asserted after a moment. “He is your cousin.”

Epiny stared at her and then looked at me. I translated for her. “She says you won’t kill me because I’m your cousin.”

“No,” Epiny retorted bluntly. “Right now he isn’t. My cousin is over there.” With her empty hand, she pointed to my disembodied essence hovering near Lisana. “This, this creature in his body is something that Tree Woman and the magic made. It might have been part of my cousin once, but she twisted it into something completely foreign to what Nevare is. And rather than see that creature masquerading as Nevare, I will kill him. Without compunction. I will not let this beast pretend he is Nevare Burvelle.”

I watched Olikea listen to the flood of foreign words. None of them were needed; she knew all she needed to know by the blade that hovered over my throat.

Lisana spoke. “Soldier’s Boy is as much your cousin as Nevare Burvelle is. When he came to me, sent by that old Kidona to be his warrior-champion, I captured him and divided his soul. Deny it as you wish, but Soldier’s Boy is not a separate creature from your cousin. Both parts of him are needed to be a whole. You cannot cast him out of the body. Kill him, and you kill your cousin, the Nevare you know, just as surely. Have you the will to kill Nevare to keep Soldier’s Boy from using the body?”

Olikea could not hear Lisana’s words. She had risen and was slowly circling Epiny, her knife low and ready. “Now what will you do, you skinny Jhernian wretch? Kill him and I’ll kill you. I’m bigger than you, and stronger. You know I’ll win. How long can you crouch over him, threatening him? What will you do when he wakes up?”

“I don’t know,” Epiny replied, but she answered Lisana, not Olikea. “It seems we are at an impasse.” After a moment, she added, “If my cousin Nevare is never to regain his body and his life, and I am to be attacked and killed anyway, then neither of us has anything to lose if I kill him now. Do you agree with that?”

I was silent, considering the question. I didn’t know what would become of me if Epiny killed my body. Did I care? Just the fact that I had no immediate answer to that question made me mute. For most of my life, I’d had goals that had driven me. What did I have now? Perhaps, like Epiny, I’d reached a dead end. Briefly, my cousin’s gaze met mine. I saw love in her eyes, but also resolution and resignation.

It did not look good for my body. Slowly I nodded at her. She shifted her gaze to Lisana. “You see?”

Lisana was quiet for a time. Then she asked abruptly, “What do you want, Jhernian? What will it take to make you leave this place and never return?”

Epiny was silent for a moment. I could see her hand trembling. I think the hatchet was getting heavy in her grip. “I assume you mean without killing him,” she said after a pause.

“Yes.” Lisana bit off the word.

“Talk to ME!” Olikea abruptly demanded. “I am the one who is here. I am the one who can kill you!” She made a menacing motion with her knife.

“Shut up!” Epiny barked at her, and touched the hatchet blade to Soldier’s Boy’s throat. He made a small sound in his throat. Olikea took a step back, glowering at her.

“She’s dangerous, Epiny. Be very careful. She’ll kill you if she can.”

“I know that,” Epiny said hoarsely. “I may have to kill your body.” Tears filled her eyes and spilled but only anger showed on her face. “How can it be any worse, Nevare? Shall I go down whimpering and begging for mercy? I doubt any would be shown. If I must lose it all, then at least I’ll extract a price from them. They’ll know I was here; I won’t be stepped on like an ant.”

The desperate courage in her words moved me. “You should have been your father’s soldier son,” I told her quietly.

“He’s waking up!” Likari cried aloud. I’d almost forgotten the boy was there. He’d hovered at the outskirts, watching everything but saying and doing little. Now he pointed at my body. My eyelids fluttered and Soldier’s Boy’s hands twitched against the mossy ground.

Epiny might not have understood Likari’s words, but the tone alerted her. She lowered the hatchet until its blade rested against Soldier’s Boy’s throat. He made an incoherent sound. I did not know if he protested the bite of the sharp edge or the burn of cold iron against his throat. Epiny leaned forward over him, so close that all he could see was her face. I watched his eyes blink bewilderedly and then focus on her. She spoke in a low growl.

“Don’t move. Listen to me. Tell that woman with the knife and the boy with the water skin to go away. Tell them that you don’t want them to hurt me. Send them down to wait by the stream. Tell them to stay there until you come to them. Say only those words. I will know what you say. If you say any more than that, or any less than that, I’ll kill you. Do you understand me?”

He licked his lips and rolled his eyes to look at Olikea. Epiny didn’t hesitate. She pressed the blade more firmly to his throat. Distantly, I felt it slice my skin and, more intensely, I felt the hot/cold kiss of iron against my flesh. It made my magic bleed, and that was more painful than the fine cut it scored on my skin. “Please, don’t!” Soldier’s Boy croaked. Epiny eased up but didn’t move the blade.

“Tell them,” she said quietly.

“Olikea. Likari. Go down the ridge to the stream. Wait for me there. Don’t do anything else right now, just wait down there until I come.”

Epiny’s glance flickered to me. I confirmed that she’d been obeyed. “He did as you told him. He’s ordered them to go down to the stream and wait.”

Olikea looked rebellious. Likari wriggled in an agony of indecision, torn between curiosity and obedience. “Shall I leave you here, at her mercy?” Olikea began in protest, but Soldier’s Boy broke in on her words with, “Go. Just go now, or she’ll kill me. I can manage this situation better if you are not here, Olikea. Go down to the stream. Wait for me there.”

“Oh, you look so much in control of the situation!” Olikea snarled. She glared at Epiny and kept the obsidian blade at the ready as she backed away. “Someday, Jhernian woman. Someday it will be just you and me.” Then she turned angrily on Likari. “Why are you still standing there? He told us to go wait by the stream. And that is what we must do.”

“He told her to go away, and she and the boy are leaving,” I hastily interpreted before Epiny could look at me. I wanted her to keep her wary gaze on Olikea. “But she threatened that someday she’d get back at you.”

“That’s fine,” Epiny said almost absently. There was strain in her voice. She kept her gaze fixed on Olikea and Likari, watching them until they were out of sight. Crouching over me, pressing the knife to my throat, was uncomfortable for her. Her pregnant belly got in her way. I could see that it was hard for her to remain still, the hatchet blade pressed lightly to my throat, and all her weight on her bent knees.

“And now what?” Lisana asked in a low voice. “What will you do now? Do you think this is over? That Soldier’s Boy will let you just walk away after you have threatened the forest?”

Epiny blew the hair away from her eyes and then looked up at Lisana. “And do you think it’s a good idea to ask me that question while I’m in this position? The simplest way for me to resolve it would be to cut his throat and go my way. By the time they realize he’s not coming, I’ll be long gone.”

“Do you think the forest would allow you to escape that easily?” Lisana countered.