Page 48 of Earthbound

Motogo began to speak, spittle glinting in the star glider light. ‘You already killed one of ours—’

Malak cut them off with a sharp glance. ‘Perhaps not at first, but we would give you time to investigate the crime thoroughly before reaching a conclusion.’

The crowd had gone silent, and Yeeran took her own opportunity to smother the flames. ‘Furi, I don’t think they would have intentionally targeted the obeah.’

‘There must be a penance,’ Zayed said to Rayan and Furi. ‘We disrespect her legacy if we do not take what was taken.’

His words were mead poured over a dying ember. The fae began to shout, ‘Penance! Penance! Penance!’

Furi raised her voice to be heard above the cacophony. ‘Was this all a ruse, to distract us from the violence beyond our borders?’

‘Why would I accept your invitation and then order the killing of an obeah?’ Motogo’s lips curled in scorn.

‘You have never wanted peace with us; you came here to browse your bounty. Admit it, you have no intention of signing the treaty.’ Furi had stepped forward until she was less than a foot from Motogo’s face. Only now did the chieftain realise the threat.

‘T-t-that is not entirely accurate,’ Motogo said, their gaze flickering to the boundary. ‘Let me speak to the coalition, find out how the obeah died—’

‘Murdered!’ Zayed screamed. ‘She was murdered.’

‘What is the sentence for murder in your land?’ Furi said so softly Yeeran almost didn’t hear her.

Motogo took a tentative step backwards. ‘A trial, we always set a trial.’

‘There are no trials on battlefields, just one soldier facing the other. And you have already stated you think Mosima a battlefield.’

The crowd began to close in on the elves and Yeeran found herself pushing through the mob to stand in front of them.

How has it come to this?

‘Stand aside, Yeeran,’ Furi said.

Yeeran’s gaze was pleading. ‘There’ll be no going back,’ she said.

‘We have no choice,’ Furi said. Rayan, who hadn’t seemed present for the encounter, now spoke.

‘She’s right,’ he said quietly. ‘They will do it anyway.’ He nodded to the undulating crowd.

Yeeran’s shoulders drooped in defeat and she stepped aside.

‘Yeeran, wait—’ Those were the last words Motogo ever said.

Furi’s magic wound tight around Motogo’s neck. The crowd began to cheer as the elf’s face grew red, then purple, then blue.

Malak looked on, his expression one of utter horror. He couldn’t use magesight, but if he could, he would have seen more threads join Furi’s.

One by one, those who were faebound wove their magic around Motogo’s neck, each partaking in the death sentence.

Yeeran’s hand went to her own throat. She remembered how it had felt when she too had been subjected to the same verdict. Only binding with Pila had stopped them before snapping her neck.

Motogo had no such luck.

Yeeran looked away as she heard the snap of death. Malak’s expression had turned impassive, shock rendering his features slack.

The crowd went silent.

‘I’m chieftain now,’ Malak whispered to himself. She felt a wave of sympathy for him. Neither of them had asked for this.

Badum, badum, badum. Anyah had arrived with a retinue of soldiers at her back, their footfalls the only sound in the woodland. Even the animals seemed to have quietened.