by Evan Winter
He heard the clang of swords, and one of the Indlovu tripped, falling on him. The Noble’s weight made it difficult to breathe and Tau tried to push the man away. He couldn’t. He had no strength left. Another Indlovu fell beside him. This one’s eyes were glazed, unseeing.
“Goddess’s mercy! Mercy!” called out a Noble, his voice tight. Tau was facing the man’s heels, which, as Tau blinked, turned into the soles of leather shoes. The Noble had gone to his knees and dropped his sword. Another blink and the man was pushed into the dirt, facedown, beside Tau.
“I’ll have your heads!” That was the laugher, no mistaking his voice.
Tau twisted his head in that direction, lights flashing behind his eyes in time with the throbbing in his head. The laugher was fighting Uduak, Hadith, Kuende, and Mshindi.
He was focusing on Kuende and Mshindi. Not surprising. The two men had shared a womb, they fought like they could read each other’s minds, and their preferred weapons were absurdly long swords that always caught an opponent’s attention. Still, Tau thought, the laugher was making a mistake, focusing on the twins instead of Uduak or Hadith.
Hadith smashed his shield into the laugher’s back, pushing him toward Uduak, who clubbed him, putting him down hard.
“Blood… will show,” Tau slurred, the words striking him as funny. They’d won, somehow. They’d beaten the Indlovu, made it into the Queen’s Melee, and it had been Hadith’s doing. Tau had, as far as he could tell from his position in the dirt, mostly taken a beating. He wanted to laugh, started to, and then the darkness took him.
“Never seen the like,” Tau heard a voice say. “There were eight of them. Eight! I wasn’t so close, but I was close enough to see him holding them off.” It was Anan speaking.
Tau forced his eyes open and had to squint. It was day and bright, but there was no sky. No, that wasn’t right. There was a sky. Tau was in a tent.
“I didn’t see it. I was positioned to see Hadith tackle the group with the Gifted.” That was Jayyed.
The only tents in the Crags this big, thought Tau, were the infirmaries. There were a couple for Lessers and one extra-large and well-equipped one for the Nobles.
“Foolish of them,” said Anan, “to send five Indlovu against forty-nine of us.”
The tents were open on the sides. Tau hadn’t turned his head, but he knew that. Still, it was bloody hot. Bloody bleeding hot.
“Truth? I thought it was clever,” Jayyed told Anan. “It would have worked on any other Ihashe scale. How many men would you use to assault a Gifted’s position, if you saw she had four Indlovu with her?”
Tau let his eyes close. His head still hurt and it felt like it was twice its normal size.
Anan grunted. “You think they expected more men to splinter off?”
“You would have sent more men,” Jayyed said. “I would have sent more men. Hadith, though, Hadith sent Tau, Uduak, and four others.”
Anan chuckled. “Goddess take me, but I swear I’d let a Sah priest snip away one of my seeds to have seen the faces of those five Indlovu when they dashed round the dune and charged into forty-nine Ihashe!”
“The entire crawl over they must have been thinking how easy it would be,” Jayyed said. “They’d show up, their Gifted would blast as many fighters as she could, and the five Indlovu would take care of the few she couldn’t hit. Then they’d go back to help the men they left as ambush.”
“Eight Indlovu,” said Anan, awe in his voice. “He ran after their inkokeli and into seven others. Then he fought them!”
Jayyed chuckled. “You say it like he won.”
“You didn’t see it, Jayyed. I know we’ve watched him in the practice yards. What he does… What he… It was eight Indlovu, though, eight… and he had me believing he could do it. A Noble lost most of his tongue. The other still hasn’t woken from the knock Tau gave him… and their inkokeli? Goddess wept, you can see into the fool’s mouth through the hole in his cheek.”
“Tau is exceptional, I’ll grant that. He’s no Ingonyama, though, and, being foolish enough to fight eight men, he’s lucky to have come out of it with little more than scrapes, cuts, and a demon of a headache. He’ll be fine, this time, but if the Indlovu had three more breaths alone with him we’d be attending a burning tonight instead of a celebration.”
“Ack, an inyoka has warmer blood,” Anan said, “but I know you, and I’ve never seen you as proud.”
There was a pause. It was long enough that Tau thought it might be a good time to let them know he was awake.
“I’m not sure I have been,” Jayyed said.
Maybe it wasn’t the best time. Tau heard footsteps and then shuffling feet as Jayyed and Anan turned to face whoever was approaching.
“Umqondisi. Aqondise.” That was Hadith.
“Hadith, Uduak, Chinedu, Yaw, well met,” said Jayyed.
“Awake?” Uduak asked.
“Not yet.”
“Why is his head wrapped?” said Yaw. “Was his skull cracked?”
That was, Tau realized, why his head felt so damned heavy. It was bandaged.
“Nothing broken,” said Anan. “The bandages are to hold down swelling and to stop the bleeding. Scalp cuts bleed like a woman on her moon.”
Tau had had enough of people talking about him. He turned his head toward the voices. “I’m awake,” he rasped. “Can’t sleep with Uduak’s booming voice in my ear.”
“Not near an ear,” rumbled Uduak.
“Tau!” said Chinedu, coughing. “We… did it!”
Tau knew, wanted to hear it anyway. “What?”
“The Queen’s Melee!” answered Yaw, throwing a fist in the air. “The Queen’s Melee! We’re in!”
“First time in…,” started Hadith. “How long has it been?” Tau was sure Hadith knew how long it had been to the day.
“First time for Lessers in twenty-three cycles,” Jayyed told them. “And the Ihashe have never placed at the melee. Never.”
“Time for new traditions,” Hadith said.
“The world burns,” said Yaw.
“It will,” Tau promised, receiving broad smiles from everyone but Jayyed, who looked away.
“Goddess’s eyes, Tau,” Yaw said, “why’d you charge into eight Indlovu?”
“I was chasing one,” Tau told him. “Didn’t know he had friends.”
His sword brothers laughed.
“Good to know you’re not completely mad,” said Hadith.
Yaw wore a large grin. “I’m telling it the other way. In my story you see all eight of them and you charge! I was there, wasn’t I? Who can say it went different?”
Hadith shook his head. “You and your stories.” He turned to the big man. “Uduak?”
The big man nodded. “Thirsty.”
Hadith stroked his chin. “Thought you might be.”
“Only one thing… for it,” said Chinedu, coughing and grinning.
“Only one thing,” echoed Yaw.
Hadith looked to Tau. “Drinking houses and celebration. We achieved something that may not earn us a page in the history books, but it merits a footnote and a hangover, at least. Tau, if you can stand, you can drink.”
“You’re not at risk of punishment for the duel,” said Jayyed. “Kellan Okar did not seek restitution and the time allowed for him to do so has passed. Make no mistake, if you go to the city, and I’m not sure I should allow it, you need to be careful.”
Tau considered going. He needed to see Zuri, but Jayyed’s mention of Kellan Okar took him to darker places. He thought about the beating the laugher and his seven Indlovu had given him. They’d intended to kill him and he’d been unable to stop them. He needed more time in Isihogo.
“Not sure I can handle enough liquor to split costs with you drunks,” Tau told his brothers.
They looked disappointed, and Hadith wasn’t ready to surrender. He tried another angle. “Tau, take the day to yourself. It’s earned. We have time. It’s two moon cycles to the melee.”
“Yes,” Anan added. “Today you lot secured our place. Means we don’t skirmish again until the melee. That’s good for us. We can focus on training hard and careful. No injuries and a well-rested scale, ready for the real show.”
“Both the Northern and Southern Isikolo as well as the citadels will attend the melee,” Jayyed told them. “It’s the largest gathering of initiates in each cycle. The Guardian Council will be in attendance and even the queen will come to observe. It’ll be a difficult contest but I can’t say I’m not excited to be participating instead of watching.”
That settled it. “Aqondise Anan, are any of the other scales returning to the isikolo?” Tau asked.
Anan hesitated, probably thinking Tau should celebrate with the others. “Some of the scales that came to watch will leave soon. The second skirmish is under way and I imagine they’ll march once it’s over.”
“May I return with them? I hope to rest and return to training as soon as possible.”
It was Jayyed who nodded assent, and Hadith, his opportunity to sway Tau gone, sucked his teeth. Tau appreciated that his sword brothers wanted him with them. He had to go back, though. He had to be ready if he was going to kill Kellan Okar in the Queen’s Melee.
CHAPTER TEN
PRISONERS
It had been a moon cycle since Scale Jayyed’s win over Scale Osinachi, and, bolstered by their brethren’s accomplishment, Scale Chisomo left the Southern Isikolo to compete for one of the final spots in the Queen’s Melee. The isikolo saw them off and several scales accompanied them to the Crags, thinking to see history made again.
Scale Jayyed, their position secured, remained behind to train. Jayyed and Anan agreed the men could not afford to attend. Tau was glad. Time was too short to let any go to waste, even if the past moon cycle had taken a toll.
Every night Isihogo and its demons tempted Tau, offering him his greatest wish in exchange for agony. Every night he accepted their offer and they brutalized him. The horrors of countless deaths lingered and, during the day, he fought to hold on to his sanity. But when the sun fell beneath the earth, Tau embraced the madness. He needed it to fight the monsters.
The Queen’s Melee was almost upon them and Tau Solarin, a Common of the Omehi, man of average height, strength, and aptitude, and born without any particular gift for combat, had suffered the underworld and its demons in preparation. The path had its costs, but he had traveled it, coming out the other side with an intuition for fighting that was more like instinct. Tau had gone to the demons as a man, but under their ministrations he’d been transfigured.
On difficult nights, when the underworld came close to breaking him, he tried to remember that. And on that night, a moon cycle from the melee, he had to tell it to himself over and over again.
The evening had been grueling. The demons were hunting in packs and his deaths had been harrowing. Tau was shaken up, but the day’s torture was done and he was near the barracks, ready to fall into his cot, hoping for a dreamless sleep. It was his weariness that allowed the thing in the isikolo’s main courtyard to get as close as it did.
Tau saw it late but with enough time to snap his hands around the hilts of his swords, ready to draw. It spoke with a human voice.
“Tau? I’ve been looking for you,” said Aqondise Fanaka. “You’ve been summoned to the umqondisi quarter.”
The words made no sense, and before speaking, Tau shut his eyes, hiding the demonic face he saw in place of Fanaka’s plain features. “Summoned?”
“You’re needed in the dignitary rooms.”
Tau didn’t know they had dignitary rooms, and though he knew where the umqondisi quarter was, he had never been there. It was where the isikolo’s masters had their beds, baths, and meal halls.
Tau forced himself to look at Fanaka’s glowing yellow eyes, snout, and dagger-long teeth. “I don’t know the way,” Tau told him, working hard to keep the distaste from his voice.
“Go into the quarter. The dignitary rooms are the third building on the right.”
“Thank you, Aqondise.”
“Tau?” the man said, stepping closer, and causing Tau to draw a fingerspan of bronze. Fanaka, eyes wide, retreated, raising empty hands. “Are you well?”
Since Scale Jayyed’s last skirmish Tau’s reputation had taken on a life of its own. Yaw’s stories played some part in that, and it seemed even the aqondise were unsettled around Tau. He let his sword fall back into its scabbard. “Apologies, Aqondise. Apologies. It has been a… a trying night.”
“Of course,” Fanaka said. “You train hard. I understand.”
Tau inclined his head. “It’s late. Am I expected tonight?”
“You are,” Fanaka said, eyes flickering to Tau’s scabbarded sword.
“Thank you, Aqondise, for the message and advice.” Tau pressed his palms together and touched his fingers to his forehead, saluting. It wasn’t necessary, but he hoped the extra respect might repair any damage his odd behavior had caused. Fanaka did a slow blink, recognizing the salute, and he left. It was getting harder, Tau thought, to hold himself… together.
The umqondisi quarter was hidden from plain view behind walls and a gate. The gate was open and there were no guards. They weren’t needed. Initiates would not go in uninvited.
The inside of the quarter was well kept, if cramped. The buildings were scrunched together to provide enough living spaces for all the umqondisi and aqondise. Tau counted the buildings as he walked past them. The third on the right was less cramped than the others and it had a bronze door that an artisan had worked over with a map of the peninsula. It showed the peninsula, widest at the door’s base and coming to a point near its top.
The metalwork illustrated how the Northern and Southern Mountains separated the land from the Roar. The door also had raised areas, representing the Central Mountains and the Fist. Its knocker was where Palm City would have been.
The whole thing was meant to be impressive, but it reminded Tau of his conversation with Jayyed, who believed the numbers of hedeni to be far greater than estimated. It reminded Tau that, after almost two hundred cycles, the Omehi still had no idea what lay beyond their peninsula. The door depicted their home. It also outlined the borders of their prison.
Tau knocked. He heard footsteps. Light ones. The door’s bolts were pulled and it opened without a sound. It must be well oiled, was Tau’s last thought before seeing Zuri.
UNMOORED
Zuri looked more beautiful than ever and Tau felt his heart soar. “Why are you here?”
She tensed and her hand whipped out, coming fast for his face or neck. There could be a weapon, he thought, slipping inside the blow, rejecting his swords. There was too little space to wield them. He pulled free the dagger he kept on his belt. Zuri’s attack, her open-handed slap, connected with empty air. Tau realized she had no weapon but was already shoving her into the room against the closest wall, his dagger pressed against the soft skin of her neck.
She looked like she might scream. Tau whisked the dagger away, back into his belt.
“Zuri,” he said, horrified, retreating. “I’m sorry! I thought…” She was trembling, her lips pursed, her eyes locked on his face. “Zuri?”
Her hands flew up. Tau could have closed the distance, could have knocked her unconscious. He stood there, letting her blast him with enervating energy that sent his soul spinning into Isihogo. On arrival, his swords were out, dual blades reflecting his spirit’s golden glow.
He could see Zuri, two strides off, shrouded in darkness. He heard a demon roar to his left, adjusted his stance, fight ready; then Zuri vanished, and he went with her, returned to Uhmlaba.
“Zuri, please,” he said, adjusting to the realm switch. She stared at him like he’d returned from the dead. Her reaction confused him. Then he understood. She expected him to be incapacitated by being pushed and pulled into and out of Isihogo.
Her voice was pinched. “Tau, what have you done?”
“What I had to,” he said.
&n
bsp; She put a hand over her mouth. “What have you done?”
He’d already answered that. “Why did you attack me?”
“Attack you? Attack you? You put a knife to my neck! Have you gone mad?”
Tau could not understand any part of this. She had attempted the first strike and he’d defended himself. Then she’d used her gift against him. She was the aggressor. He was about to tell her that, but some small part of him warned against it. He held his tongue.
Zuri did not. “You abandoned me! Abandoned me after attacking a Greater Noble in the streets of Citadel City. You do something like that and then slither away like… like an inyoka in the grass!” She looked him up and down, as if she saw the inyoka there, wrapped around him. “I thought Okar would kill you. I thought the Indlovu would hang you. You avoid both those fates and I’m foolish enough to feel relief.” She poked him in the chest. “I prayed to the Goddess that night, thankful for the mercy She showed to the man that I… that…” She clenched her fists, hit his chest, and made a strange sound in her throat. She glared at him. “Then you avoid me!”
“That’s not how—”
“I needed you. I looked for you after the next skirmish, waited in that circle all night, like a fool. Then, not learning my lesson, I was back the next skirmish. I heard you won? They talk about it as if you did. They talk about Tau, who could be Tsiory reborn. Uduak, the Indlovu breaker. Hadith, the military mind to rival a guardian councillor. They talk like you won. I’m not sure, though. I did not see you, to hear it from your lips.”
“I have reasons,” he said. “The first skirmish, after the duel, I was not allowed—”
“I needed you.” Zuri pushed off the wall, bumped him on purpose as she walked past and sat in a chair. It was a nicer chair than Tau had seen anywhere else in the entire isikolo.
