Dai took a deep breath. “Some of us waited for you, Father, after it all happened. I don’t remember who or for how long. Then something called out to me—there was a breach in this boy’s body…”
“Gaven had wounded him before this happened,” Kefier spoke up.
Yn Garr looked at him, confused.
“Gaven. I think you and Enosh had used him as an experiment. He was resistant to the creature, but only to the extent that it started using him as a puppet. After he injured Dai, Dai slept for weeks. When he woke up, he was someone else.” Kefier took a deep breath. “You don’t fully understand how this all works, do you? Did you ever expect something like this to happen?”
Yn Garr didn’t look like he heard him. He returned to his desk, shuffling through the papers. “So Naijwa’s beast was able to call this specific soul back?” he murmured to himself. “I had suspected there was more to it than meets the eye, but I couldn’t prove…” He stalked back to Dai and now touched both of his shoulders. “Myar,” he began. “Tell me how this happened. What called you? How did you know how to find your way through the fabric, retaining everything you are?”
Dai’s face hardened. He tried to push Yn Garr’s hands away. “I’m Dai alon gar Kaggawa,” he said.
Yn Garr shook him. “Where’s Myar?”
“He doesn’t belong here,” Dai said in a low voice. “Tell him to leave me alone.”
“Call him back.”
Dai stared at him, unmoving.
“Call him back! Your king orders you!” He got up and struck Dai with the back of his hand.
Dai looked up, terror replacing the indifference in his eyes. “I can’t do that,” he said. “He comes and goes as he pleases.”
“Call him back, boy, before I make you do it.” Yn Garr grabbed Dai by the collar and lifted his hand.
Before he could strike him again, Kefier had drawn his sword and was on him. Caught off-guard, Yn Garr fell back, pulling up his arm as he pushed Dai away. Kefier’s blade struck him against his wrist armour. The dog barked.
“I am tired of your insolence,” Yn Garr snarled. He pulled out the ceremonial longsword strapped to his waist. He lifted his left hand. The sword glowed blue.
Kefier fixed his footing for a brief moment before he sprinted for him. The man was gone before he could move two paces. Kefier felt a flash of light around him before something shattered in the back of his head.
He fell to the ground, blood exploding with the shards of metal and glass around him. He saw the dog stepping towards him, its face a mask of concern. The last thing he felt was its warm tongue on his face before the darkness set in.
Chapter Nine
“There is a Gorenten saying, May we meet on these shores again, that many people don’t tell sailors before they depart,” Enosh said as they watched Bannal’s ship depart the horizon. “They think it’s cursed, an ill omen that brings down ships instead of actually helping the sailors come home. You could fill an entire book or two with such stories.”
Sume glanced back. “So you just gave him an ill omen.”
“I know,” Enosh said. “Isn’t it brilliant?”
Sume smiled as she watched him walk back towards Daro and a group of robed mages. Something about him had changed since the night he had spoken to her about marriage. The uncertainty that had marked his movements ever since his return from Gaspar, before Rysaran’s death, seemed to have vanished overnight. He was back in his element, bursting with his usual arrogance and air of command.
“You’re supposed to be his superior through Ceres’ orders, aren’t you?” Sume asked Sapphire, who had come out to inspect the guard towers with them. “Why do you let him push you around?”
“I dislike leading,” Sapphire said. “He makes it easier for me to focus on the important things.” She glanced at Sume’s finger. “I could say the same thing for you.”
Sume stuffed her hand into her pocket. “I had no idea it was that obvious.”
“A proposition like that, from a man like Enosh? Just make sure it’s registered at the local office in case he runs off on you. If that ring is Dageian-make, there should be a unique rune carved along the inside of it. It gives you some leverage over his properties—or whatever’s left of it.”
“Really, Sapphire, I thought it was just symbolical.”
“Love is symbolical,” Sapphire replied. “Marriage isn’t about love. It’s a contract. Would you marry that man for love alone?”
She didn’t answer, because Enosh was stepping towards them now, his face pulled into a scowl. “Prefect Lodan does not desire to break them up. Says that the mages are trained to function as a group of five. Fifty mages means we’ve got only ten groups to launch against the beast. We’ll lose flexibility and leave everyone vulnerable to arrow fire.”
“And we also need some for the guard towers here,” Sapphire grumbled. “A group of five? That means they’ve been trained in an archaic formation that’s been losing ground the past couple of decades.”
“What do you mean?” Enosh asked.
“The effect of three people keeping an eye out while two others scribble down spells in the slowest, most painful way possible. Those men have not been trained to think on their feet or fight back themselves. They’ll rely on the soldiers to protect them.” She caught Prefect Lodan’s eye. “You! Did you at least teach your mages to fight with a weapon?”
“That’s not my responsibility,” Lodan said. He was a tall, gruff man who was clean-shaven all around, including his head. “Eheldeth sends them to me, I keep them fed. That’s it.”
“A post as far as Lon Basden…these would not be Eheldeth’s finest, either,” Enosh broke in.
“No,” Sapphire said. She looked troubled.
“You could at least start,” Enosh said, turning to Lodan. “We have a few days, if we’re lucky. Let’s not waste them complaining. Give each a sword and teach them not to poke themselves.”
“Have you seen some of those people?” Lodan said. “Arms that would tire out after two strikes, at most.”
“Well, whose fault is that, I wonder?” Enosh snapped. “I’m starting to appreciate your people from Enji, Sapphire. Now, those were warriors.”
“I’m sure now you wish you didn’t kill them all,” Sapphire grumbled. She pointed at the closest guard tower. “Forget putting mages up in those. If we had a few to spare, perhaps—but I think archers will do.”
“We’ve got ballistae in those,” Lodan said.
“You should’ve told me that sooner.” She turned to Daro, who had arrived to join them. “There’s no point separating the mages if they’ll just be picked off cleanly. Strength in numbers. Put them all on the battlements.”
Daro’s eyes widened. “You’re going to allow the creature to get that close?”
“If containing it away from here is an option, I wouldn’t even consider it.”
“She’s right,” Enosh said. “If Yn Garr’s strategy is to use it to breach the walls, then we need to concentrate our defenses on it. If we try to intercept it on the way, the mages will all get killed before they reach the creature—and that’s supposing they find it. We have to be where we know it’s going to be.”
“I don’t know if Tribune Amiren will agree,” Daro said. “After what happened at Fort Oras, she was counting on your mages bringing the creature down before it ever sees Lon Basden’s walls.”
“Speak to her,” Sapphire said. She glanced at Enosh and Sume. “Both of you, a moment, please.”
They drew away from the soldiers. “Something on your mind?” Enosh asked, in a voice that said he had already half of it figured out.
Sapphire took a deep breath. “The Agros Technique—that’s what these mages are using. You could get an untalented mage in and out of Eheldeth in a year or two if that’s all they specialize in. These people are the scum from the bottom of the barrel.”
“Then we wait for Bannal’s reinforcements,” Enosh said.
Sapphire shook h
er head. “They won’t come. Did you happen to look through that Prefect Lodan’s records? Drunken foolery, no accomplishments whatsoever…son of a high-ranking official, of course. Can’t risk offending his family so they ‘promote’ him by sending him off as far west as they could. If Drusgaya didn’t see fit to outfit Lon Basden with anyone remotely competent…”
“Don’t let Prefect As’ondaro hear you say that.”
“I’m not trying to slight his princess,” Sapphire grumbled. “What I’m saying is that Tribune Amiren is the reinforcement. And her entire cohort was wiped clean from Fort Oras two weeks ago. It looks like, from Drusgaya’s point of view, that Lon Basden is a lost cause. I can’t see those mages doing anything else except get themselves killed. Do you?”
Enosh gave a soft sigh.
“Are you suggesting we pull back?” Sume broke in.
“It might be viewed as treason,” Sapphire said. “There’ll be an inquest. It is, however, a viable option.”
“I’m not going to give up Lon Basden,” Enosh said.
Sapphire cast him a glare. “I don’t think it’s yours to give up at all.”
Enosh chewed his lip.
Sapphire laughed. “Those delusions again? Is that why you decided to get married, so you could get settled here somewhere?”
“I thought congratulations was in order.”
“Congratulations,” she said in an even voice, “for finding yet another way to complicate our situation. Can’t you let your personal life wait until after the crazed madman and his pet is no longer at our doorstep?”
“I’m sorry if this upsets you, Sapphire,” Sume said.
“You,” Sapphire said, “stop being a doormat. You…” She added, pointing at Enosh. “You have to remember what you promised us you were going to do. It is the only reason you’re free to walk around instead of rotting away in Eheldeth’s dungeons for what you’ve done in Enji. Or have you forgotten?”
“Do you have such little faith in me that you think I’ll jeopardize all of this because I decided to think ahead?”
“Yes,” Sapphire said, without missing a beat.
“See,” Enosh continued, turning to Sume. “Even when I don’t talk about myself, people talk about me anyway.”
“You can’t blame them,” Sume murmured.
“Doormat,” he snorted. He looked up. “Sapphire, you have my word. I want the threat of Yn Garr gone, his pet included. My personal agendas will not get in the way of this. I just happen to think that giving Lon Basden up is a bad idea.”
“Arguing about it won’t help,” Sume said. “In the end, it’s Tribune Amiren’s decision. Does she look like the sort who gives up without a fight?”
Sapphire was quiet for a moment. Eventually, she sighed. “There is that,” she said. “Still, I don’t see the wisdom in dying with her if she should choose to go down that route. I’m convinced that those mages would be nothing more than a passing annoyance. A thorn, if you could even call it that, that Yn Garr could easily pluck from his heel. We need proper mages.”
“Rotten Donkey Droppings himself said that you can’t get people from Eheldeth in time,” Enosh said.
“Not for Lon Basden, no. You must see by now how little the High Council thought of this threat until the events at Fort Oras. They considered having you under my thumb as sufficient safeguard against Yn Garr.” Sapphire snorted. “Shows what little lofty ideas and fancy titles can do for intelligence. I told them you weren’t much of a hostage.”
“See, I don’t even know how to respond to that,” Enosh said.
Sapphire sighed. “Don’t bother. I just…I don’t feel right knowing that the only thing standing between us and certain death is Kastor rog-Bannal’s promise of reinforcements.”
“When you put it that way…” Enosh replied.
“Will he keep his word?” Sume asked.
“Maybe,” Sapphire said. “If he makes big announcements like this, he ought to know that all of Dageis would be looking at him. In a situation like that, he has more sense than when we were in Enji.”
“I sense a hint of I hope so in your voice.”
Sapphire swallowed. “I would not have predicted his actions in Enji. Why he did what he did. It was senseless, needless. Killing my sister—his sister—to get to your brother, when it was not even his death he wanted in the first place. What good did it do? Now I must work with him, and rely on him, and pretend that none of it ever happened. My sister’s life, wasted on a mistake, her memory amounting to nothing more than an unfortunate by-product of war. I still do not know how to deal with it.”
“The man’s a coward,” Enosh said. “You don’t have to know what he was thinking. Just know him for what he is: a pompous, good-for-nothing ass.”
“Empty words,” Sapphire murmured.
Enosh flashed a smile. “But they help, don’t they?”
She looked at them both and cleared her throat. “I will talk to Tribune Amiren.”
“Are we allowed to leave together?” Sume added. “Or would you prefer to throw a bucket of cold water on us?”
“While tempting, I do wish you the best,” Sapphire replied. “Your timing may be misguided, but I suppose one can take comfort from such things. Our lives are not nearly long enough.”
That same afternoon, Tribune Mahe Amiren (known to some as Mahe Shirahe-sa-Shi-uin, but not in official Dageian documents), of General Takas’ Second Cohort and Tribune Alerio’s successor, ordered the citizens of Lon Basden to evacuate.
The decision was met with disbelief, at first, and then hostility almost immediately afterwards. A handful of Dageian elites had made their fortunes in Lon Basden and did not want to leave their estates at the mercy of the barbarian Hafed. The rest of the citizens, working class people—merchants, storekeepers, tradesmen, and the like—did not know whether to take the threat seriously enough. Were they not in Dageis? Was it not Dageis who brought war upon other nations? Would not the rest of the army come and protect them?
Sume found the indifference almost comical. In eastern Jin-Sayeng, in cities and towns under the rule of a warlord, one announcement was enough to get most people moving. Here, she heard words like letters of appeal thrown around as if it would protect them from an incoming Hafed sword. One business owner who owned a string of restaurants near the harbour planted herself in the lobby outside Tribune Amiren’s office, proclaiming that her scribe, at the very moment, was making contact with some important councilman in Drusgaya. Mahe had to drag her out of the compound herself.
By evening, there was chaos out on the streets. Sume peered through the shutters and caught sight of a fight breaking out between what appeared to be a ship owner and a group of confused citizens.
“I’m told the consul himself is sending an envoy to request that Tribune Amiren be relieved of command. He thinks that the traumatic circumstances of her defeat at Fort Oras has severely affected her judgment,” Enosh said, smirking. “He didn’t say this to her face, of course.”
“Of course,” Sume said with a smile. “He’s still got his teeth, right?”
“Dageis is amazing. Such disillusion, when you know that an army is marching right for you. A comfortable life does that, I think.”
“I think it’s the idea of the giant monster that they can’t wrap their heads around. Remember, they kept insisting it was a dragon in Jin-Sayeng.”
“All these people,” Enosh breathed. He took Sume’s hands in his. “I’ve arranged passage on one of the ships. It leaves for Drusgaya two mornings from now.”
Sume pulled away. “You’re just telling me this?”
“My lady, there is no sense for you to be here, too.”
“I will not leave. Rosha could be—”
“We can’t help Rosha if we’re both dead. I would certainly find it a lot easier to move about if I don’t have to worry about you, too. Sapphire and I have some ideas about how to extract her, all of which don’t involve you.”
She swallowed. “I unders
tand my uselessness in situations like this. I could stay out of the way.”
“My decision is final,” Enosh said.
She frowned, but said nothing. She looked back through the window again and noticed that the crowd had dispersed. The sailors were panicking. Soldiers were marching across the pier, heading for the road.
In the distance, they heard horns blaring.
“Shit,” Enosh said.
“That must mean the Hafed army has arrived,” Sume murmured. “Didn’t the scouts say we had several days, at least?”
“An estimate, given the time it would take for them to make preparations and surround us…” Enosh said. He shook his head. “They must have been marching all day.”
“Are they attacking tonight?”
“I don’t know.”
“So much for your final decision,” Sume said.
He grabbed his cloak. “You stay here,” he said.
“I know,” Sume replied. She sat at the edge of the bed. Enosh stared at her for a moment, as if he was about to say something, and then thought the better of it and walked out of the room.
She exhaled before pulling her hand out to stare at the ring on her finger. A promise of a warm home and a complete family, in time. A contract. Not quite, but almost nearly, what she had done with K’an Mhagaza. Except of course she loved Enosh, so it couldn’t be the same. She enjoyed his company. They already had a daughter together. He was charming, intelligent, and good-looking—almost everything she had ever wanted in a man, back when she would think about such things.
Kefier’s voice, with all its venom, came back to her. Play the indifferent sister-in-law. As if he knew, somehow, that it was coming down to this. She didn’t know why the memory of it made her feel ill.
A certain truth became clear to her. She agreed with Sapphire that marriage wasn’t—shouldn’t—be about love. Her mother Oneira married for love. Hana and Oji had married for love. Yet in both cases, their love ended in sorrow. She should consider herself lucky enough to have the proposal of a man she would’ve chosen herself, anyway, so many years ago.
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