Read Online Gods and Warriors by Michelle Paver - Free Book Online Page B

bowl?” she said.
    “A salve, Favored One.”
    Favored One. He only called her that when he was angry.
    Without a word he passed her the bowl, then sat back on his heels. She dipped her finger in the sludge. She touched it to her cheek. Pain flared. She willed herself not to cry.
    “You’re doing it wrong,” he muttered. Snatching the bowl, he soaked a strip of linen in the salve, tilted her head sideways, and laid the wet dressing on the burn. She clenched her jaw so hard that it ached.
    Userref’s scowl deepened. “You’ll have a scar.”
    “That was the point,” she said.
    “
Why?
Why do such a thing?”
    “I thought no one would want a girl with a ruined face. I thought they’d send me back, and on the way I could escape.”
    “
Tcha!
How many times have I told you? You can’t fight your mother! You’ll never win!”
    She didn’t reply.
    Her mother had shown no emotion at what she’d done. Calmly, she’d appraised her daughter’s face. Then she’d said, “You know that this changes nothing.”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Pirra had retorted. “The Lykonians will take one look at me and say no.”
    “No, they won’t. They can’t. Keftiu is too strong. You’ll go to Lapithos as agreed. All you’ve achieved is to make yourself into a creature no one wants to look at.”
    Userref fastened the dressing in place with a band of clean linen tied under her chin. “There. That’s the best I can do.”
    To keep him talking, Pirra asked what was in the salve, and he told her poppy juice and henna and a little
wadju.
    That cheered her up a bit. He couldn’t be that angry with her if he’d used some of his
wadju.
It was a specialkind of rock, ground very fine, and to Userref it was very precious, as it was the same fierce green as the face of his god. He used it as powerful medicine, and when he was homesick he smeared a little on his eyelids, to make himself dream of Egypt.
    Men’s voices drifted through the fog, and she asked him what was happening. “It’s the Crows coming back,” he said. “They lost the boy in the fog.”
    “Who was he anyway, and why were they after him?”
    “They say he’s just some goatherd. They say he tried to kill their Chieftain’s son.”
    “‘They say’?”
    His lip curled. “You know I never believe what strangers say; only Egyptians.”
    It was an old joke between them. She would have smiled if it hadn’t hurt so much.
    “Two fishing boats have put in as well,” he added. “They were scared of the Crows, but they got over it when we bought their catch.” He made to withdraw, but she held him back.
    “Userref? You will still be with me, won’t you? I mean, at the Chieftain’s stronghold?”
    Something about his hesitation made her go cold. “I was to have gone with you,” he said gently. “But then you did this to your face, and now your mother says I must leave you and return to Keftiu.”
    A black chasm opened before her. “But—I can’t be without you.”
    “It isn’t up to me, Pirra. You know that.”
    “But—
why?
”
    “I told you. She means to punish you for spoiling your face. She knows this will hit hardest.”
    “No!” Pirra clutched his arm. “No, she can’t do this!”
    “I’m sorry, little one. I—I said I’d look after you. And I can’t.”
    “Userref!”
    But he was gone.
    Pirra huddled in the dark, clutching her knees. She felt hollow and sick. Ever since she could remember, Userref had looked after her. Her first memory was of toddling along the top of a high wall, and him hauling her off it just before she fell. He’d caught lizards for her to play with, and told her stories of his animal-headed gods. He was more than a slave. He was the older brother she’d never had.
    The walls of the tent pressed in on her. She couldn’t breathe. Without stopping to put on her sandals, she ran out into the dark.
    Fog stole down her throat, and stones were sharp beneath her feet. She stumbled past shadowy figures in long