Aayu sat in a dark corner on a bench that looked too small for his frame. His mouth dropped as he stared. “Her shiny toy. Thank you, Rao, I didn’t expect such an expensive gift.”
Lucia entered the room, pulled back her hood, and removed the shield from her cloak. “Don’t lay a finger on these objects.”
Aayu jumped up and raised his hands in front of him as a reflexive defense.
“Everything is good. She and I are working together,” Rao said.
Aayu rotated his head to one side and then the other. “You’re wha-what?”
“We might not have much time. The storm outside is from the gods. It’s eventually going to break down our walls, perhaps within days. So she and I are going to go to her people first thing in the morning to negotiate a truce with an exchange of Lucia and Narayani.”
“Rao, I’m just going to say that I’m glad you’re holding the big sword right now.”
“I’ll take that back,” Lucia stepped forward and took the sword as she handed Rao the shield.
“I meant I’m really glad you’re holding the big shield, Rao.”
“I might actually need this one,” Rao said. “I haven’t healed as much as I’d like to.”
Lucia opened her coat and robe enough to show her heavily bandaged side. “I know the feeling. Though I have to admit, your healers have helped me.”
“Aayu, I need your help to conceal us. I haven’t been able to maintain your sadhana for very long. She and I need to remain hidden, but only throughout the night. Tomorrow, we need to be visible.”
“You want me to make the most valuable prisoner we have ever had, the royal daughter of Rezzia, invisible to all senses? Did I hear you?”
“Yes.”
“We could also hit her over the head with that shield and stuff her in a sack.”
Lucia interrupted. “Listen to your prince. We are going to speak to my brother and my father.”
Aayu threw up his hands and slapped his thighs. “Oh, well that sounds simple. Good plan.”
“If they want her back, they’ll talk to me,” Rao said.
“Then I suppose even if I did have a vote I would lose,” Aayu said.
“Please, bhai. I can’t explain everything that’s happened over the last few days. She and I have been speaking. Her brother never wanted the war. We completely misunderstood his intentions, as they did ours.”
“Are you kidding?” Aayu asked.
“No, and we don’t have time to talk this over right now.”
“Listen,” Aayu said. “If I do it, this was your idea.”
“I accept that. We’re going to leave. They will probably be looking for us throughout the night. Our best chance is to go into the canyon and head east.”
“I’m more than ready to get out of this dungeon.”
“Bhai, I’m sorry. I need to ask you to stay in the citadel.”
Aayu looked like someone punched him in the stomach.
“Indrajit ordered me to be killed at the prison. Briraji delivered the orders. I need you to tell my father what happened, and then I need you to watch over him. I was attacked by some of our own soldiers when I freed her. They were going to blame my death on her.”
“What?” Aayu stared with his mouth open, blinking hard. “My uncle did that?”
“We convinced the men to let us go. They’re going to say that I broke her out, that I used my powers to restrain them and escape. It’s going to look bad for me. It’s going to look like I’ve sided with the enemy, that I let her go.”
Aayu sat on the bench again and leaned over, staring at the floor.
“It’s very important that my father understands the truth. If Indrajit wants me killed, my father might not be safe either. I can’t risk talking to him now. I need to get out of here with Lucia right away. So I need you to talk to him—”
“I’ll do it, and then I’ll meet up with you.”
“Bhai, I need you to stay with him. Guard his life. Use your sadhana if you have to conceal him. Please. He’ll understand once you explain everything. If you don’t do this, I’m afraid he’s going to be killed.”
“You want me to let you go off into the desert with Rezzia’s royal daughter, and you’re planning on talking to the king and Haizzem of Rezzia, while you’re weak like this? They will kill you.”
“I would say I’m offended,” Lucia said, “but I don’t know how they’ll react. This will be very dangerous for you, Rao.”
“I understand that. But, Aayu, I need you to watch over my father. Even if I fail, their armies could be inside our citadel soon. They would come looking for him. But Indrajit is already here, and we can’t trust him. Please protect my father.”
Aayu shook his head, looking to his right, and exhaled a defeated breath. He grabbed his nose, squeezed his eyes shut, and scrunched up his face. “How are you going to protect yourself from them? You know this is ridiculous.”
“I will protect him,” Lucia said. She walked toward Aayu and knelt two paces away from him. “I give you my solemn word, on the honor of our entire kingdom.”
Aayu raised his head and looked her over. “Curse the honor of your foul kingdom. It’s worth nothing to me.”
“I give you my solemn word. I will not allow any harm to come to your prince.”
Aayu sucked in his cheeks and looked skeptically at her.
“Bhai, we need to get out here before we’re found. Please do this for me. You and I came here to end this war. Let me try.”
“I’m all right with it, Rao, but you need me at your side.”
“I do. I won’t lie to you. But I trust her. I have talked to her every day. She wants peace, just as we do. She is powerful, too, Aayu. We have her sword and her shield. Her goddess’s powers are with us. And I can still use your sadhana for short periods of time. I’ve been feeling better every day. Tomorrow, I’ll be even stronger.”
“Rao …” Aayu dropped his head again.
Rao walked back across the room and cracked open the door. He looked down the hall. The old guard was seated, looking in his direction.
“Is everything all right, my Prince?”
“Perfect, actually. I’m nearly done in here.”
Rao closed the door again and walked over to Aayu. He sat next to him on the bench.
“I will owe you one.” Rao put his hand on Aayu’s shoulder. “I am going to get Narayani back.”
Aayu sat up and stared solemnly at Rao, remaining quiet for many breaths. “Promise me you will get her back and return here alive.”
Rao embraced his friend, feeling comforted by the warmth of Aayu’s thick frame. “Thank you, bhai. You are my true brother.”
Aayu pressed his lips shut and nodded many times.
“Thank you for helping us,” Lucia said.
Rao squeezed his heavy friend. “This is why we came here.”
“You’re right.” Aayu sounded like he was trying to convince himself. “Go do what you have to do.” He raised his voice as he said to Lucia, “And if anything happens to him, I will find you and kill you. I may not look like much, but I promise you I’ll do it.”
Rao pulled back and watched Lucia stare at Aayu. “She’s given her word. That’s enough for me. If not for me, she would’ve been killed. She knows I saved her life.”
“I do,” she said. “Now use your magic, Aayu.”
Aayu stood and took in a deep breath through his nose. “It’s not magic.” He closed his eyes and released the breath through his mouth. “Briraji won’t find you after I do this.”
Chapter 72: Faith
INDRAJIT SURVEYED THE EMPTY CELL where the royal daughter had been confined, grinding his teeth together. His vision darted around, unfocused from his rage.
The reckoning will come.
This was no time to think about cosmic forces. He took three steps back and drew the dagger from the inside of his left boot. He flung the weapon cleanly through the bars of the cell and heard the explosive thwack as it sunk into the l
ight wood of the bed.
“Get it,” he ordered the closest soldier and headed for Strategos Duilio’s cell, hearing and feeling his own boots clomping against the stone floor. He took the dagger back and tucked it into his belt.
There will be consequences, my Prince.
The old Rezzian lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He pushed himself up to a seated position with a hint of a smile.
“My former adversary.” Indrajit stood in the center of the room with a perfect view of Duilio’s cell. “Your war’s conclusion is near.”
Duilio also spoke in Pawelon, “Who do you think is going to win?”
“You and I have been scheming against each other too long. Your war is about to end. I will remain.”
Duilio cocked his head to the side, staring and listening.
“Why are Rezzians so stubborn? You continue to charge into the teeth of our defenses, battle after battle, year after year. Explain this stupidity and pride to me.”
“Ah,” Duilio raised his bushy white eyebrows and rocked forward and back, “we think and worship differently than you do. We have faith. We don’t want victory through cunning, or hiding behind walls, or guile. We believe in the courage to fight on no matter the odds. In doing so, we prove ourselves worthy.”
“To your gods?” Indrajit began pacing in front of Duilio’s cell, keeping his eyes upon his enemy. His footsteps beat out a hypnotizing rhythm.
“Yes, and also to ourselves. You see, we know we can always push ourselves to do more, to be stronger than you or any other enemy.”
“Are you really that simple?”
“We are singularly focused on the very greatest things, on faith and courage.”
“Strategos, you will be glad to know the royal daughter escaped from our prison. Though it embarrasses me to say this, she was aided by our prince.”
“Well, isn’t that a surprise?”
“Unfortunately it was a surprise to me, too. Just today, because of the storm, I had ordered her to be killed.”
Duilio frowned and his eyes nearly shut. “Where is Lucia now?”
“We don’t know. I have sent men to find and kill her and our prince. Because of her interference in her brother’s duel, her death is owed to Pawelon.”
“I couldn’t possibly talk you out of that, could I?”
“No. I’m here because, in the meantime, Rezzia must pay interest on its debt. Beginning with you.”
“I see.” The old man rotated his jaw as if he were chewing something, but he seemed to accept Indrajit’s statement.
“I won’t risk losing two prisoners. Before I end this war for you, is there anything more you would like to say?”
“Would you allow me such an indulgence? My final words?”
“After this long,” Indrajit said as he began walking toward a flimsy wooden chair against the left wall. “You deserve to speak your piece. What will it be?” He pulled the chair back to the center of the room and sat, waiting.
“This is it, then?” Duilio’s eyes looked up to the right, up to the left, and then back to center.
Indrajit nodded once.
“Understood.” Duilio came to his feet and dusted himself off. “All these years, I found you a suitable foe. Congratulations on your victory. It has been good to spend these final days in solitude. You have my eternal gratitude for that gift.”
Duilio became more animated as he spoke, walking in front of his bars like a veteran orator, moving around his left hand, often holding up a single finger. “Now for that indulgence, General. I worship The Lord of Miracles. Of course, I have prayed to him while here, and naturally I have asked him for help. His grace must not be coming to me, then, but I know that men do not control the gods. Perhaps the miracle has gone to Lucia instead.”
“We’ll see.”
Duilio nodded and continued, “You asked me about our stubbornness. Let me tell you about our faith. My god, Lord Cosimo, has taught me what faith really means—yes, he has. We have a word for faith in our ancient tongue. Originally, faith did not have much to do with belief. The ancient meaning of the word has to do with loyalty and commitment to something.” He paused for dramatic effect. “To an ideal. It meant to deeply value something noble, to do your best to uphold those values. It is when we have such faith that we attract miracles.”
“Then perhaps I, too, could be blessed by a miracle,” Indrajit said, enjoying the sarcasm in his voice.
Indrajit pulled out his long dagger from his belt, focusing on the center of Duilio’s chest. He brought his arm down, his hand forward, and released the handle. The knife flew to its target and passed between the iron bars, landing deep within the old Strategos’s gut.
Duilio released an involuntary, wet scream and fell to his knees. Blood ran down his legs and pooled around him on the stone floor. The old man crumpled.
Indrajit watched until his adversary closed his eyes and stopped twitching.
“Get my dagger,” he yelled to the soldiers outside the room. He started for the prison’s exit and the tower. He was late for his meeting. Devak would be, too.
Chapter 73: The Old Dagger
INDRAJIT CLIMBED THE TOWER STAIRS to the second floor. There he expected to find his highest-ranking officers waiting to discuss the day’s events. Quiet conversations echoed above and below him in the stairwell. Despite having worn a heavy cloak in the rain, his uniform dripped streams of water onto the stone steps. His body still shivered.
His strongest guards surrounded him. For this, more than ever, he was glad. He stepped into the conference area and saw each person he’d hoped to see. Around a wide, crumbling stone table lit by tall candles sat his six brigadiers, but no Devak. The officers stood and raised their fists. Indrajit saluted them as he walked to his high-backed wooden chair. The seats to his left and right—Devak’s and Briraji’s—were empty.
“I had some business to deal with,” Indrajit said as he sat. “Any news?”
Stern-faced Brigadier Karikala put his calloused hands on the table. “There’s been no change in the storm since the Rezzians retreated to their camp. In some areas, the stone is actually crumbling and falling.”
Curse you, Rao.
Indrajit nearly screamed involuntarily as he said, “If it goes through the night, and if the storm’s power should increase tomorrow, we may have to worry about tens of thousands of Rezzian dogs climbing over that wall.”
“Then we’ll be ready for them,” said his youngest brigadier, Sudas, a man who still believed sheer force could accomplish anything.
“Perhaps, but we cannot let this happen. Today, I gave Briraji the order to kill the king’s daughter. Unfortunately that did not happen. Before he could do it, Prince Rao freed her and used his powers to assault our men and escape the prison with her. He left one Pawelon soldier dead inside the prison. Based on my conversations with Rao and the things he has told the Rezzian woman, I am certain he intends to go to Rezzia’s king and exchange the king’s daughter for mine. I don’t know where he is.”
No one wants to follow my words. Good.
“I gave Briraji a new mission, to hunt them down, most likely outside the citadel, and kill the royal daughter.”
“What do you intend to do about Prince Rao?” asked Samudragupta, his darkest-skinned general.
“Prince Rao has committed treason. He probably believes he is doing the right thing. This is exactly my problem with our young prince. He possesses the ignorance of youth, which leads him to believe that Rezzia might actually give up the war after they give us a simple girl in exchange for a woman who commands their gods, a woman who appears to be another Haizzem. Rao should have never joined the fighting here.”
All eyes remained on Indrajit. Two of his men nodded.
“Our rajah is not here yet because I wanted to speak to you all first. I am concerned that Devak will not take this news well. He listens too much to Rao, and I fear this has made him soft.” Indrajit laughed. “He believes Rao was sent to save us.”
Chanakya, his most veteran brigadier, spoke in his venerated tones, trying to be a voice for reason. “Let’s hope Briraji can find them. Once she is dead, the storm may weaken.”
“Agreed,” Indrajit said. “Strange times are upon us. Unfortunately, at this time our rajah cannot be relied upon. Until this storm is defeated, I must ask you all to follow my command, regardless of what your rajah tells you. Do we agree that he cannot be objective about his son at this time?”
The men nodded in affirmation. A few of them said “Yes.”
“Good. We are going to need a strong leader to get us through this, for the good of Pawelon. I will not allow a rogue boy to undo all that we’ve fought for.”
“General, I mean no disrespect by this question, but Rao has helped us in our fight, hasn’t he?” young Sudas asked him.
Of course you mean to disrespect me.
“At times, but he’s never intended to see us actually win. In his first battle, he wouldn’t attack our enemy until we were nearly routed. Even before then, he was pushing for some kind of passive settlement. He still believes the Rezzians can be reasoned with, and he is about to take this notion and destroy us with it unless he is stopped. He’s going to give Rezzia their royal daughter, who bears the markings of a Haizzem, at a time when we cannot afford to give any ground.”
The six officers either looked at the table or looked Indrajit in the eye, but no one disagreed.
“Does anyone have a problem with following my orders?”
“Of course not, General Indrajit,” Sudas said.
“Then be prepared for anything. You all know our assignments should Rezzia breach our walls, but let’s go over them again tonight. I will meet with you all here when the moon rises. In the meantime, let’s hope our sages find a way to stop the storm.”
Indrajit stood and gave his salute. The brigadiers did the same.
“You are all dismissed.”
The six vacated the room and took their guards with them. Indrajit took slow steps around the circular table, reflecting on what was to happen once Devak found him.
He brought his left boot up to rest on one of the other officers’ chairs. With two fingers, he felt the cold, black metal handle of his grandfather’s dagger tucked into the fabric.
The Black God's War Page 32
