Crucible of Fate

by Mary Calmes

  She was studying me. “You really don’t know who went with your mate?”

  I never did. Yuri took care of himself. He could, of course—he had been a sheseru, he knew what he needed to do to protect himself. Didn’t he? “Yuri doesn’t need me to coddle him or second-guess him or oversee his preparations.”

  She furrowed her brow. “You’re being very defensive, and I’m not attacking you.”

  “I—”

  “And I beg your pardon, but, yes, he does. The man is your mate, the mate of the semel-aten. He does nothing alone anymore. You are responsible for him, you make the law, and he follows it.”

  But I had watched Logan tangle with Jin, and Logan never won. “A semel should not rule his mate. He should—”

  “A semel should talk to his mate and let them make decisions, yes, but the mate of a semel is a precious thing and should be treated as such.”

  “I know that.”

  She didn’t seem convinced. “You treat Yuri as I suspect you always have. You put no boundaries on him.”

  “I want him to know he has his freedom.”

  “At what cost?”

  “At no cost,” I snapped. “He’s safe, I know he is, and if his damn phone had reception, I’d prove it to you.”

  “I thought he had a satellite phone?”

  “He does.”

  “Then how is it not working?”

  “Just—never mind.”

  Her eyes widened. “Did he misplace it or—”

  “He took the wrong one.”

  “And you didn’t insist that he come back and get the right one?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he was already— Why are you questioning me?” I almost yelled.

  “Because even though Ammon was a monster, he was far more possessive of me than you are of Yuri. He never loved me, and yet took far greater care for my safety than you take of Yuri’s.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It is. You think because Yuri’s a man that the same confines are not needed for him, but you’re wrong. Your mate is your most precious possession; all care should be taken at all times. He doesn’t say, you say. You’re the semel, he’s the mate.”

  But, again, I had seen Logan and Jin wage the same war over and over: Logan holding tight, Jin pushing the limits. I didn’t want to have those same confrontations with Yuri, especially because I wanted the man to be my friend too, not just my mate.

  “Just think about what I said. I would never want you to have regrets.”

  “I will,” I promised.

  “Domin,” Koren chimed in from where he stood, still close to the door. “You’re not actually worried about Yuri, are you? How far away is this Ipis?”

  “Ten hours,” I said, not taking my eyes off Ebere, repeating what my mate had explained to me.

  “You can always have Jamal send members of the Shu after him, now that they are yours to command,” she suggested.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “You control the Shu?” Koren sounded surprised.

  I glanced over at him, interrupting my glaring contest with Ebere. “I do. So I don’t ever have to ask the priest to dispatch them, like other semel-atens have had to. I can do it all by myself.”

  “How?” he queried, closing in on me.

  “When Asdiel Kovo disbanded the council of Ennead, the Shu became mine.”

  “You lost me.”

  “The phocal announced to all that the Shu would no longer guard the temple of Satis, but would instead protect me.”

  “Why?” Koren wanted to know.

  “I just put it to Jamal to decide who he thought more valuable, me or the new priest.”

  Ebere sighed. “I remember thinking at the time that that was very clever.”

  “The second in command of the Shu, Shahid Alon, was having none of it.”

  “Oh yes,” she said, nodding. “I remember that. He said it was wrong for the Shu to abandon their sacred duty to guard the priest and to instead guard you.”

  “It was quite the speech.” I said sarcastically. “Who knew he was so devout?”

  “Oh, he was not devout,” she said, laughing, the tension from a few moments ago broken. “Or he would have never been in your bed.”

  “Who was in your bed?” Koren wanted to know.

  “That was ages ago,” I teased my mastaba.

  “And yet he found the priest more deserving than you.”

  “He thought the priest sacred and me profane.”

  “Who did you sleep with?” Koren was getting louder.

  “Which is funny, considering you became semel-aten in a sepat which was mandated by the old priest,” she mused. “And Kovo became the new priest right after he disbanded the council of Ennead, the very council that voted him in.”

  “I would never have disbanded them.”

  “But they didn’t know that. They thought you were the very devil.”

  “Even though the old priest, Hamid Shamon, trusted and liked me.”

  “Which just goes to show you that people really do fear what they don’t know. I mean, the council trusted Asdiel instead of you, and he removed them from the temple and left them outside, stripped naked, to rot. He said they were useless old men.”

  “You don’t know what he said.” I scoffed.

  “I do too. I’ve talked with each of the nine at length, and they all said the same thing. Asdiel thought they should have been placed in the tomb along with Hamid Shamon when he died. He decreed that they would never be counsel to another priest.”

  “And they won’t,” I agreed. “Now they counsel my sylvan.”

  “Yes, quite the coup, that.”

  “Whatever do you mean?”

  “When you took the council of Ennead into your home, the very men who had called you a defiler, and gave them shelter, that was when Jamal started to have doubts about guarding the new priest.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “No perhaps—that was your plan.”

  “You give me far too much credit.”

  “I think not,” she whispered. “You are very clever, my lord. I heard that you met with Asdiel Kovo and swore that as long as the council was still with him at Satis, he would never hold true power alone and you would never truly fear him.”

  “I said that? Me?”

  She giggled. “Yes, you, my lord.”

  “Huh.”

  “And when Kovo betrayed his own council like the jackal he is, you were there to take those old men in.”

  “Well, that was kind of me, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, it was. And now they teach in the forum, work in the great library, and counsel your sylvan in all matters of the law. He has those men with all those years of knowledge at his disposal and now calls each by their first name, and they address him as master.”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  “You gave them each a home and a new purpose. I have not seen them so happy in years.”

  I shrugged, because that had been Mikhail’s idea, his doing.

  “Who are you talking about?” Koren barked. “Who did you sleep with?”

  He would keep asking until I answered. I knew he would. I knew him. “Why do you care about something so—”

  “Shahid Alon,” Ebere said, supplying the name, “one of the many conquests of Domin Thorne.”

  “Oh, I remember you telling me about… I thought this was a new—” Koren muttered.

  “No.” Ebere made a face. “Unlike the previous semel-aten, our new lord sleeps only with his mate.”

  “You make it sound so important.”

  “It’s a greater quality than you think,” she said seriously. “Loyalty is never to be undervalued.”

  “And I need it from everyone now that the priest is gunning for me,” I said, chuckling.

  “You should take his vendetta more seriously,” she cautioned.

  I rolled my eyes. “Like it matters what he does. The priest h
as no say over anything and no resources since he was banned from his old tribe.”

  “I was surprised when his brother denounced him.”

  “I wasn’t,” I quipped. “He declared open war on me. His brother, Selem, leader of the tribe of Dosret—he sent his maahes here to speak to Crane. Selem wanted to be sure that we knew that his brother’s sentiment was not his. He didn’t want he, or his tribe, painted with the same brush of treason.”

  “How sad to be abandoned by your family.”

  “It’s what a real semel does, though, right?”

  “I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully. “Does a true semel put his tribe before anything or anyone?”

  “Yes.”

  “So in your mind, Selem had no choice?”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  Koren broke into our conversation. “I wonder about the role of a semel sometimes.”

  “What do you mean?” My tone had an edge it didn’t have when I was speaking only to Ebere.

  “I mean, would a semel who loved his mate still put the tribe first?”

  “I think so.” I said. “A good one, anyway.”

  He smirked. “In that case, the tribe of Rahotep trumps Yuri.”

  But even the sound of the words seemed wrong.

  “Well?” he posed.

  “Do you think I would?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “I do.”

  Ebere spoke up. “I don’t. I think it’s Yuri first and then the tribe.”

  “That’s not the way of a true semel.” Koren was adamant. “A true leader always puts the needs of the whole before the needs of the few or the one.”

  I was quiet and his eyes met mine.

  “I think you’d do what was best for the tribe, Domin.”

  “Why doesn’t that feel like a compliment?”

  “I think every true semel would. Even Logan.”

  “You think Logan, if it came down to a choice between his reah or his tribe, would pick the tribe?”

  “Yes,” he said, sounding very certain.

  “Why?”

  “Because if he chose Jin, he would have to see the disappointment on Jin’s face for the rest of his life and know that he failed his reah. I think if push came to shove that Logan would choose the tribe.”

  “I think you’re wrong.”

  “Well, God willing, we will never have to find out,” Ebere offered, before her eyes glowed softly.

  “So, will you have dinner with me later?”

  “Of course.”

  “Good.” She smiled as she moved forward into my open arms, coming to give me a kiss before she took her leave, giving Koren a little wave as she did so. The first time the servants had seen her do it, they had been stunned. Apparently she showed me greater affection than she had ever given her mate, the former semel-aten.

  As she was going out, Samani was on her way back in, and the women clasped hands quickly as they passed one another.

  “What?” I grumbled at my hathen, sitting on the edge of my desk as she moved to step in front of me.

  “Nothing, I just wanted to tell you that everyone’s fine—the semel’s son just thinks he’s in love and was trying to sneak Salome out of the villa.”

  “Which one is Salome?”

  “The one with the dark black curls and green eyes,” she jogged my memory.

  I couldn’t recall her, but that wasn’t surprising. I had met the harem once, and that was it. “Does she want to go?”

  “Who?”

  “The girl, the”—I snapped my fingers“—Salome. Does she want to go?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “Then let her go,” I said quickly. “If the semel’s son wants her, and if she wants to go, and if it’s okay with the semel—let her go. I’m trying to decrease the number, remember?”

  “Of course I remember, but—”

  “If there’s no harem, then you don’t have to be here and you can actually go and live your life out of this hellhole. Don’t you want that?”

  “I—”

  “Don’t you?” I pushed.

  “I… you…,” she began. “It’s not a hellhole. We live in luxury, and I—”

  “Domin.” Mikhail clipped my name as he walked in. “I need you in the courtyard immediately.”

  “I am speaking to him,” Samani said indignantly, her voice rising as she glared at Mikhail.

  “Am I invisible?” Koren yelled, throwing up his arms.

  “Is your concern a matter of life and death?” Mikhail rasped.

  “I—”

  “A simple yes or no will suffice.”

  “No, but—”

  “All right, then.” His eyes flicked to me. “I need you in the main courtyard now.”

  “Why?”

  “I was disciplining those that opposed me, and several have challenged me. You need to come be a witness.”

  My stomach clenched. “Mikhail.”

  “Just do it,” he said, heading toward the door and catching sight of Koren. “What are you doing here?”

  “That’s my greeting?” He scowled at my sylvan. “You’re not happy to see me?”

  “Why on earth would I be happy to see you?” he growled, charging toward the door.

  “Since when does he hate me?” Koren was at a loss.

  I snickered. “He’s always hated you.”

  “He has?”

  I gave him a patronizing nod.

  Samani ran after Mikhail and caught his arm before he could get out the door. He stopped and their gazes locked.

  “A sylvan does not fight in the pit. You have those to champion you,” she insisted.

  “I do my own fighting,” he said through clenched teeth.

  The animosity between them from the very first day had been palpable. They were like oil and water—there was no mixing. The hatred amused me, but Yuri said I was wrong, that what I saw as cold and frosty was everything but.

  “You shouldn’t fight. What if—”

  “I’ll be fine,” he muttered, easing his arm loose as he continued toward the door.

  She slipped around in front of him, bringing him up short. “You cannot.”

  “I need to,” he said firmly but gently.

  Her hand lifted toward his face but stopped, froze and then lowered. “I could not bear it.”

  “Don’t watch,” he ground out, stepping around her.

  “You should be careful!” She was almost shrieking.

  He stopped again and leaned his head back like she was simply exhausting to deal with. “You should mind your station.”

  She was still fuming as he left the room.

  “Samani?”

  “That man!”

  Her anger startled me as she charged toward the door, picking up speed like she was going after him. “Why does he always have to prove something?”

  Normally, she was unflappable. I didn’t even know she could get mad. The open hostility was really only ever directed at Mikhail.

  “Samani?” I repeated.

  When she was facing me, I saw that her lips were pressed tightly together, that her beautiful teak-colored eyes were red-rimmed, welling with tears, and that her hands had balled into fists.

  “Why can’t he just give in? Why can’t he just… rest?”

  Dear God, I was so blind. “You want him,” I whispered, thoroughly stunned.

  She caught her breath. “More than anything.”

  You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had completely missed it.

  “Does he want you?”

  “Yes!” She started crying.

  I really needed Yuri there to deal with—

  “But he wants me to see the world and complete my education that I started but was not allowed to finish because of my father’s debt. He hates me being here as your hathen. He wants me but he won’t allow me to settle.”

  I gestured at the open door. “How is being with him settling?”

  “Tell him, not me!” she complained bitter
ly.

  “That’s why you won’t let all those girls—”

  “I have to go see what he’s doing,” she rasped, rushing from the room without my permission.

  I hurried after her and saw her bolting down the hall. Following fast, it took me a minute to realize Koren was running beside me.

  “Your home is kind of exciting,” he teased me.

  “You don’t know the half of it,” I muttered.

  Because I was moving, suddenly everyone else was too. There were guards clearing the hall for me, and Kabore was sprinting at my side as well.

  “Where are we going, my lord?” he asked pleasantly even while jogging.

  “After Samani and Mikhail.”

  “Excellent,” he said, like it was all perfectly normal.

  Lush papyrus and shower trees trimmed both sides of the main courtyard, shading it in the afternoon. When I reached it, I saw Mikhail on one end and another man maybe fifty feet away. Taj was behind my sylvan, who was stripping off his clothes.

  “Wait!” I yelled from the top step that led down to the cobblestone quad.

  Samani was on the first landing, bent over the railing, crying. “Please!”

  “I said no!” Mikhail barked.

  I stopped beside her and put a hand on her back. “What?”

  She was trembling. “I’m forbidden from going down there, and he can order me to stay here because a hathen is below a sylvan and so he—”

  “I give you permission.”

  She moved fast, wheeling around and then flying down the steps. I leaned over the side to watch her descend.

  “Do you love him?” I called after her.

  “Oh, you have no idea,” she shouted back as she reached the bottom and then ran over to him.

  My sylvan pivoted around, and Samani froze, shivering, every part of her, I could tell, screaming for her to move, to go to his side.

  “Mikhail, you dick!” I yelled. “Why didn’t you fucking tell me?”

  All eyes on me, every single one.

  “It was not my semel’s affair, and is still not,” he assured me as he yanked off his shirt, flung it at Taj, and then started on his belt.

  “Who is the challenger?” I inquired as I came down the stairs, followed closely by Kabore. My guards kept Koren from trailing along.

  “Traore Uago, Ammon’s old sylvan.”

  I couldn’t see Mikhail for a few seconds while I descended the winding stairs before arriving on the sandy ground, but I heard him and started toward where he and my sheseru stood.