Crucible of Fate

by Mary Calmes

  “He fights five matches per day, my lord.”

  Hanif trailed off, and I felt a wave of anger sweep over me. It wasn’t mine; it was Jin’s. The thing about me was, I cared about Yuri, but as long as he wasn’t hurt, this semel could do whatever he wanted with his own family, his own tribe. But Jin… reahs weren’t made that way. Preying on the weak was bound to pull righteous anger from the reah, which would, in turn, ignite rage in the nekhene.

  “Would you father defile your sister himself?”

  “It is not defiling, my lord, it—”

  “Would he do it himself?” I repeated, willing my voice to remain level.

  “No, my lord,” he acknowledged. “He would watch Deoles take her.”

  It was as though a hot wind skimmed over my skin, prickling like tiny pins, and I realized everything I thought was crap. I shivered with my need to protect and shelter and save. I had to close my eyes for a second, let the surging feelings roll through me so I could hold it together and not scream. The change I hadn’t noticed, had told everyone wasn’t me, had nevertheless taken hold. I didn’t just want to rescue Yuri; I wouldn’t be content to liberate just him and Garai Milar. I wanted to free them all.

  “May I ask a question?” Jin requested sweetly.

  “Of course,” Hanif said, and I could tell that Jin had him completely charmed.

  “Is the semel-aten’s mate fighting in the pit in panther form?”

  “No, my father’s new yareah likes to see men sweat while they fight, and so they fight in human form in the pit.”

  “That is not permitted by law,” Kabore informed the younger man.

  “Yes, I know,” he agreed. And I realized then how timid he was, that the curve of his mouth was a reflexive action done out of nervousness. “But that is how we do things in Ipis, in the tribe of Feran.”

  “Okay.” I cleared my throat. “My sekhem, he had a phone with him. We tried from Sobek but were unsuccessful in our attempts to reach him on it. Was it removed by your semel?”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “His private property was removed?”

  “As I said, yes, my lord.”

  “All right, well then, please lead us to your fort, Hanif Tarek.”

  “Of course,” he said, but he didn’t move.

  My eyes narrowed.

  “Just as you do at home, my lord,” Jin said, his voice purposely high, “you must lead. No one moves unless you do.”

  But I had a question for Hanif. “Your father seems to have no use for propriety and observance of the law, so why do you practice it, along with those with you here, your tribe members and your khatyu?”

  “The people that you see before you now are all members of the shen faction, my lord. Their djehu, Chanzira Adjo, is a strict believer in the law. Also, the djehu of the peq, Ayaz Suyuti, he also would show you great deference were you to take a tour of any of the farms outside of town or higher in the hills. The djehus both agree on the law, and this is, I believe, another reason why my father has been unable to have them both sit down together and come to a resolution on the catacombs of Abtu.”

  “They don’t respect him,” Jin said.

  “No, they do not. They see him as an abomination and complained many times to your predecessor, my lord.”

  “But Ammon El Masry never responded?”

  “No, my lord, he felt it was something my father should deal with.”

  “Even though it was your father that they were complaining about,” I said, disgusted.

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Okay.” I suppressed the urge to snarl. “Lead us. I’ll follow you.”

  “You seem upset, my lord.”

  “It’s fine. Please escort us to your home,” I said shakily.

  “Yes, my lord,” he said, big limpid brown eyes locked on my face.

  “Now,” I said sharply when there was no movement.

  “Greet the people,” Kabore coaxed softly.

  Twisting around, I lifted my arms, and everyone went down to their knees. “Thank you, tribe of Feran, for the warm welcome into your city. I am honored to be visiting with all of you here.” The applause and cheering was instant.

  Hanif gestured me forward. “Come, my lord.”

  We were followed, everyone walking with us, children bringing me flowers, people waving from the shops that lined the route, and young girls strewing petals onto the path.

  “My lord, we are so honored to—” Hanif began.

  “Tell me about the catacombs of Abtu,” I ordered the son of the semel.

  He was startled. “Oh, yes, well, the caverns, of course, are here right above Ipis in those hills you see there. The entrance is about 2.4 kilometers away and—”

  “I believe my lord would prefer to know why the land is being contested,” Kabore advised the younger man.

  “Oh, of course.” Hanif cleared his throat. “The title of the land was granted to the family of Ayaz Suyuti back in the time of the Crusades, which was when the fort that we call our home was built.”

  “Then what’s the question?” I asked, quickening my stride.

  “But from that time to now, there had been much mating between the two factions, until the last fifty years, when the lines between the two became quite distinct.”

  “So there are two people who have equal claim to the land.”

  “Yes, my lord. Both have equal bloodlines and can trace back to a common ancestor. Brothers, actually.”

  “Was one of the brothers a semel?”

  “No, my lord.”

  “Does one of the lines link to a yareah?”

  “No, my lord.”

  “So… brothers with equal claim?”

  “Yes, which means that both the peq and the shen have equal claim to the land, even though the deed clearly states that the house of Suyuti should inherit.”

  “But it says heir to the house of Suyuti.”

  “Yes, not simply the name, but the heir to the bloodline.”

  I understood the problem. There had been so much intermarriage at this point that there was no single person who could be singled out as the heir apparent. “And this has been going on for how long?”

  “The clashes between the two clans have been escalating over the last ten years, but lately, since Ayaz Suyuti found gold in the caverns, it has reached a—”

  “He found gold?”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  It was all clear. “And he wants to mine the gold.”

  “Yes,” Hanif replied.

  “And Chanzira wants to keep the catacombs as they are, untouched.”

  “Yes,” he assented. “Exactly.”

  “Ayaz, because he is a farmer, a man devoted to the land, sees the gold as a way to improve not only his way of life but the life of his family and friends.”

  “You understand perfectly.”

  “And Chanzira, as a person already from wealth, wants the land left undisturbed and not dredged and destroyed.”

  “Exactly. How did you know?”

  “It’s obvious,” I said, even as I wondered how in the world that dispute was going to play itself out. “But the answer isn’t.”

  “No, it’s not, and the problem is that my father, if he decides either way, will be hated by one of the groups.”

  I would have divulged to him that his father was already hated, but Hanif already seemed way too fragile, like one more horror and he would break. I had no idea the amount of therapy it was going to take—or if it was even possible—to help him.

  “Eventually my father will have to make a decision, but if they refuse to follow him, either side, my father’s base of power would be upset.”

  “Sure,” I agreed.

  “I mean, if he is not trusted by the peq, then crops are upset, livestock, and so the wealth of the tribe is affected. If it is the shen who do not follow him, then trade is upset, tourism—and we have a thriving tourist business here in Ipis, as panthers come from all over the world to see the catacom
bs.”

  “You have an excellent grasp of the inherent problems.”

  “I just—it seems to me that whatever choice the semel makes will be wrong.”

  “Maybe it will, but that’s part of being in power, making those hard choices.”

  “But if you were to choose instead of my father….”

  “Then I would be the bad guy in that scenario.”

  “Yes.”

  “But in Ipis your father is the law; no one would believe that he granted me this power.”

  “Unless he gave it to you.”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll speak to him.”

  But it didn’t matter if he did or didn’t, my path was set. “How much further?” I inquired of Hanif.

  “Right up ahead, my lord.”

  I saw Taj emerge from the side of the building when we got closer and saw the men with him fan out along other walls, close, but not obviously so. They were doing their damndest not to resemble an occupational force.

  “My lord, I still can’t allow your sheseru inside.”

  “Of course,” I agreed. “Will you excuse me for a moment while I tell him?”

  He breathed a sigh of relief that I was going along. “Yes, my lord.”

  Darting over to Taj, I questioned him about the Shu.

  “Rahim is in charge, and he and the other nine men are already inside. He’s in position; he says that he can see Yuri and the two djehus. He is concerned with how you will extricate everyone without loss of life.”

  “Taj,” I said, staring into his eyes. “Tell him not to do anything, just to wait for you. I don’t want to lose anyone; it sounds as though they’ve lost enough.”

  “Are you certain? That’s not like you.”

  “I know.”

  “What’s your thought, then?”

  “I have to either make Hanif Tarek the semel here or end the line and Mikhail will be here permanently. I don’t know yet. How Hanif reacts when I kill his father will make the decision for me.”

  “Okay. So we have the okay on the semel and his sheseru?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right, then, as soon as we breach the walls, we’ll take them.”

  “If you can get to them before Jin.” I was concerned. “This was a hasty decision, and I’m going to regret it, but for right now, I suspect that Jin will eviscerate the semel on sight. We’ll have to wait and see on the sheseru.”

  He cleared his throat. “If, or when, I guess, Jin’s power rises—without Logan here, what is your plan to calm him back down?”

  “I don’t have one.”

  “Okay, so we’ll hope for the best.”

  “Send word back to Crane. Have him send Logan here.”

  He was shaking his head.

  “What else would you have me do?”

  “Nothing, I’ll see it done. How long after you go in do you want me?”

  “Does he have a lot of khatyu?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Taj sounded annoyed.

  “I don’t want any of my men hurt.”

  “Your men will not be hurt, Domin.” He groused like I was trying his patience. “But to answer your question, from what Rahim can see, there are barracks for a hundred men. He and his men released gas canisters inside already; they have all of his khatyu immobilized.”

  I was surprised. “There were no soldiers inside?”

  “There are maybe ten in the main room with the semel.”

  “I thought this would be difficult.”

  He shrugged. “I did maintain that none of us would be hurt, if you recall.”

  “Okay, then, I’ll see you inside.”

  “When?” he inquired. “I want to know precisely when you want me.”

  “Ten minutes after I go in.”

  “Okay, good.”

  “Does Rahim know where Constantine is?”

  “No, I had them check everywhere, and there’s no sign. You’ll have to ask Yuri what happened, and I don’t know how many men he took with him. I don’t know who else is missing, because I think I’ve accounted for everyone.”

  “No, Hanif advised me. It was just Yuri and Constantine.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  I shook my head.

  “You need to talk to him about that.”

  I put it on him. “That’s your job, sheseru. The protection of the mate is a duty of your station.”

  He studied me. “And will you relinquish it to me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Consider it done,” he said forcefully, and I realized that even right there on the street, I had learned something. Instead of doing everything, I had to let others help me. I couldn’t be everywhere at once. I needed the support.

  “Thank you.”

  “Of course.”

  “Okay,” I said, squeezing his shoulder. “Be careful when you come in.”

  “You be careful. If Jin’s power rises and it’s unstable, the Shu will run instead of being caught in it. They won’t allow themselves to ever be pulled through a shift.”

  “All right,” I said before I walked back to Kabore, Jin, Koren, and Hanif.

  “He won’t come in with us,” I notified the semel’s son.

  “Thank you, my lord.”

  “Will you show us inside?”

  “Yes, follow me.”

  I was expecting a palace, a villa, something. I thought when Hanif had said “fort” that he meant just not as artful as other homes. But it was truly a fortification and seemed like many of the others the crusaders had built that I had seen in Egypt.

  The walls were twenty feet high, made of white limestone, and when we walked through the open doors, I noted they were easily three feet thick. I would have posted armed sentries on the outer wall and men carrying high-powered rifles with pistols in holsters on their hips. But there was no one. When we passed though the iron gates of the inner wall, there were no armed guards anywhere in the courtyard. It felt medieval, the interior no more lavish than the exterior until you reached the archway that led from the rest of the common areas into the home of the semel.

  The enormous pillars were all carved with different Egyptian gods, beautifully rendered.

  “Come, my lord,” Hanif called, leading me deeper into his father’s home.

  The floor was done in brightly colored mosaic tile that formed an enormous sun. The scattered gilded chaises added to the sumptuous surroundings, and the entryway opened up to a marble floor with a deep pit of steadily rising flames. At the other end of the room stood an enormous throne on a raised dais much larger and more lavishly decorated than mine back at the villa.

  A man sat there, flanked on his right by a stunning woman and on his left by just as beautiful a man. The woman was draped in dark-blue silk that contrasted perfectly with her alabaster complexion. The man was barely covered, but what there was of his outfit was gold silk. Both were awash in sparkling jewels. In front of the dais stood an older woman, another younger woman, and a man about the same age. There was also another man with such defined, grotesquely carved musculature that it seemed as though he’d been carved from stone, the heavy muscles in his chest, arms, and legs all taut and defined. If I had to hazard a guess, I would have suspected he was the sheseru.

  “Here is my father,” Hanif said proudly, stepping into the room. “May I present the semel of the tribe of Feran, Hakkan Tarek.”

  “Welcome to Ipis!” the man on the throne called out.

  He was sort of lounging on the throne, one leg draped over the arm of one side, reclining back into the corner of the ornate piece of furniture. He was dressed in a red silk galabya with a matching abaya over the top, and he could not have been any more at ease in my presence.

  “Thank you,” I called back.

  As I stood there, unsure how to proceed, I noticed the smell, a sweet almost citrusy scent with undertones of smoke and sandalwood.

  “What is the odor?” I posed the question to Hanif, something I would
have normally never done, ignoring a semel to speak to someone else.

  “Semel-aten, please address any questions to me,” he said from his throne.

  I ignored him, kept my attention on his son. “Hanif.”

  “You should speak to my father,” he said, trying to redirect me.

  “Your father will not be semel after this day, Hanif Tarek; it will be you. So I am speaking to the man I should be.”

  I was not a stickler for the law. I allowed challenges, was making changes in it myself, but still, as I watched Hakkan Tarek rise when he heard my words to his son, I understood that there was no saving him. He had hurt too many, done too much damage. We would start again.

  I turned my head to Jin and found him surveying the room.

  “What?”

  “I think it’s a drug,” Jin said. He walked up the dais and everyone gasped, but he did it like it was not an enormous breach of law. He felt like I did—there were no rules in the home of Hakkan Tarek, so why even attempt to follow customs that were so engrained in both of us?

  Striding over to the woman, he pointed at her face and then returned his gaze to me. “There’s a stench in here, her pupils are huge, look at them, and everything feels coated,” he said, touching the throne the woman was on. “It’s like there’s oil on everything.”

  “Where’s it coming from?”

  He tipped his head at the open fire pit in the center of the room.

  “Smother it?”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Pouring water over it will just create a huge gust of steam; just get people in here to fill it with sand.”

  “How dare you come into my home and—”

  “Silence!” Jin roared, and everyone froze because the sound could not have come from him, but it had.

  Hakkan Tarek rose fast and charged toward Logan Church’s mate.

  I had not seen Jin in six months, so I wasn’t prepared for the increase in his power.

  Vaguely I was aware of shouting, boots pounding across the floor, a wave of people coming into the throne room, all of it. I knew Taj was there, but my eyes were on Jin.

  It was physically painful, and because I was already weak, the pain was acute but only for a moment. I felt a scalding wave hit and then break around me, slip by, and move on. It only touched me for a moment, but it was enough to drive me to the marble floor on my knees. Hakkan Tarek was not so fortunate. The burning, devouring heat was all aimed at him.