Page 83 of Earthbound

‘I cannot comprehend your disquiet. I am certain she was the cause of your war. Laral was the only person who knew of the fraedia crystal in the Fae Lands–the Bleeding Field as you call it.’

Lettle reeled. Everything pointed back to him. He was like a spider that had wound its web through time. Her hands found their way to the hinge on the walking stick and she withdrew the blade with a shaking hand.

The metal was rusted and slightly bent, but the point was still sharp enough to kill.

Ajax growled beside her as she levelled the knife at Afa’s heart.

‘I will not be buried here,’ she said.

Afa looked shocked, then betrayed. ‘You think I would hurt you?’ He sounded wounded before she had even broken his skin.

‘You have proved it is in your capabilities.’

He looked at the blade trembling by his heart. ‘And you think that would stay my hand?’

The ground rippled beneath Lettle and she watched in horror as water seeped through the soil. She began to sink, the mud holding her fast. The more she struggled, the faster she sank. The bog had pulled her down to her waist already. Afa stood above, his eyes a tempest of rage and fury.

‘You forget who I am. I am the earth, I am a child of Asase come alive. I defy death.’

The blade fell from Lettle’s hand as she struggled for purchase. Her hand brushed something solid–a branch, she thought–and she pulled. It came free in her hands.

A bone. She hardly had time to register her disgust before the ground moved again. This time she was pushed upwards through the soil, the water retreating, the dirt drying out. In seconds everything was as before.

Except for the bone in my hand. She threw it away with a scream.

Ajax came to her and pressed his body against her trembling legs. She was scared, yes, but that was not why she trembled. She turned her wrath on Afa.

‘You seek to frighten me? You know my tale, I have lived with fear every day of my life. Kill me if you must, but do not toy with me. You defy death? Well, I defy fear.’

Her speech did not move Afa as she’d hoped. The storm she’d seen in his eyes had stilled, and his eyes glittered as he looked down at the bone she had thrown.

He went to retrieve it, picking it up gently in his hands.

‘Back home with you,’ he said softly, as though speaking to a pet or a small child–not a thigh bone.

He pressed the bone into the grave next to Lettle and she watched in revulsion as the soil reclaimed it, turning liquid briefly once more.

‘Sleep well, Varnya,’ he whispered.

Lettle was astonished by his change in demeanour. Gone was the immortal who had likened himself to a god; in his place stood a man grieving for an old friend.

It reminded her of her friend who she was determined to save.

Afa wiped at his tears and turned to Lettle. ‘I will not ensnare you within these confines, I vow it.’

‘Why? What makes me different from the others?’

‘Because you can fix it,’ he said quietly. ‘You can finally fix it all.’

‘Fix what? Is this about the obeah? Why are the ones here soulless?’

‘They were all soulless once. Though we had the power to create them, we did not have the power to spark life.’

‘Then why does Ajax have a soul? Help me understand.’

But Afa pouted. ‘I am famished.’ It was like he was a child again. ‘Might we break our fast first?’

Lettle was getting tired of his deflection. She pointed to the ground. ‘Fine, grow a plum tree, a tomato plant, a whole vineyard for all I care.’