Crucible of Fate

by Mary Calmes

  “No, never.” Yuri put his hand on the soft cheek. “Hurting yourself is never an option. And you did nothing wrong in any way. Always remember that.”

  Garai teared up, and then they were gone, all of them walking back toward a waiting helicopter that appeared military. It wasn’t noisy; it sounded more like a jet. As we watched them lift off, Yuri was smiling at me.

  “What?”

  “You have your first ally.”

  “Because of you.”

  “Because you allowed me to go, Domin.”

  “It won’t happen again,” I vowed. “Now, come on, I want a word with Constantine.”

  “You know, we should get helicopters,” he said, his hand on the back of my neck.

  “I was thinking the exact same thing.”

  I HAD no idea what had been burned in the fire pit that had created the smell in the fort, but I was too afraid that it was some kind of drug to chance it. I decided to demolish the building, level it, and then rebuild. In the meantime, a home would be built in Ipis for the new semel, Hanif Tarek, and his family.

  Ayaz Suyuti said that if he would be permitted to leave, he would bring bulldozers and earthmovers back with him.

  “You may come and go as you like, djehu; I simply need you to sit down with Chanzira to talk about the catacombs before I leave.”

  “Yes, my lord.” He beamed as he grabbed my hand and held it tight. “Whatever you want, simply ask and I will see it done.”

  He moved next to Yuri, who was standing beside me.

  “Thank you, sekhem. I can never repay the debt owed you.”

  Yuri seemed pleased, but his eyes were not as warm as they would have been if Koren hadn’t been there.

  In the midst of everything else, Yuri was openly hostile and ridiculously jealous.

  I was delighted.

  The way he stood beside me, the press of his chin to my shoulder, the scent marking, a continual action, his hands on me, the crowding—it was just so obvious.

  “I will be back with what we need to fill in the fire pit, my lord. I will also bring enough for a feast to welcome you to Ipis. Your coming has saved our tribe, and the peq cannot wait to show you the welcome you should have received when you arrived.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I will thank the reah when I come back.”

  I glanced over at the line twenty feet away from me.

  Jin stood under a makeshift tent beside the fountain in the center of town. He was now dressed all in white, the contrast to his dark hair and eyes quite striking as he greeted people one by one.

  The line to see him stretched for hours, and it wasn’t moving quickly because everyone wanted to hug him, touch his hair, shake his hand, and tell him how thankful they were that he had come. They then walked over to me, thanked me for bringing him, and went down on one knee and swore lifelong allegiance to the law and to me. It had been hours already, and again, I was being kept from the only thing I wanted to do, which was to take Yuri back to the Hummer with me and put him over the seat behind tinted glass. I wanted to have his skin between my teeth so bad I trembled every time he brushed against me.

  “You are wound very tight.” He rubbed his chin on my shoulder.

  I swallowed hard as I held the hand of a little girl before patting it and telling her to get up.

  “Thank you,” she said, lifting her arms for me. I knelt and took her into my arms. She put her little head down on my shoulder. “Thank you, semel, for saving us. Now my brother and sister can come home.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “In Giza, with my aunt.”

  “Yes, call them home.”

  “We have already,” a woman said from behind the little girl. She was shaking, and her husband was watchful, making sure she stayed vertical, his arm around her waist. “You have delivered us from a madman, my lord. You will be forever in our prayers.”

  I hugged the woman, and she clung to me like she was drowning and then took the man’s hand and let him hold tight.

  I checked on Jin after that, just glanced over at him, and got the wave. Completely in his element with the meet and greet, the action so engrained in a reah. He had a new question for every person, noticed something and commented. And the people loved him, stared like he was the second coming, and waited patiently for their turn.

  He was flanked by Taj on his right and Koren on his left, with Kabore moving people along, gesturing for them to step aside or come close. I had five members of the Shu there close-by, and ten khatyu keeping vigil over him.

  “Domin,” Yuri rumbled, “Hakkan’s family is here.”

  Seeing Hanif in tears was unexpected. He rushed forward and went to his knees along with his mother and sister.

  “Rise,” I ordered them.

  They all stood, and Hanif’s huge wet eyes were locked on mine. “My lord, you did as you said and did not kill my father.”

  I shook my head. “I lied to you.”

  “My lord?”

  “Your father is in breach in the law, Hanif, so that means that I will, in fact, execute him.”

  He took a faltering breath.

  “I don’t usually perform the act myself, but it will be done on my command. Either way, your father won’t live another three days.”

  “But,” he sputtered. “My lord, I—”

  “You must understand,” I sighed. “The moment he abused any guest in his house, disregarding all rules of hospitality, he was, at that moment, forsaking his life.”

  “My lord, I—”

  “He abused another semel’s son, he took another yareah and forced your mother to see her children and her house defiled, he—”

  “My lord, we have caught your quarry,” Rahim Dewidar, Jamal’s second, called out, interrupting as he came striding forward in front of two other of the Shu. They were walking Constantine Ordos between them. They shoved him to his knees down in front of me.

  He gazed up at me, and I saw that he was hurt. He was bruised and scratched, and his left eye was almost swollen shut.

  “You fought Yuri in the pit,” I said, holding out my hand to Rahim.

  He passed me a pistol.

  “No,” Yuri said quickly, pleading.

  I saw Constantine shiver.

  “You have a new choice. You may shift and fight Taj to the death in the pit, or you may remain here and become a servant of the house of Tarek and a member of the tribe of Feran.”

  He gulped, and I saw tears welling. “You would banish me here? You would strip me of my tribe that I was born into; I would no longer be of the first tribe, but part of the tribe that made me fight the mate of my semel in the pit?”

  “Yes,” I said, my voice level and hard, holding out the gun for him. “Or you can put a bullet in your head now; I don’t care which. But from this day forward, I will never see you again, because if I ever do, even when I visit here, I’ll have you hung. Do you understand?”

  “Please, my semel. I—”

  “Choose now!” I roared.

  “Here!” he cried out before his face crumpled. “I will remain here.”

  I had the almost overwhelming urge to strangle him to death.

  “My semel… please….”

  “Remove him from my sight, and if he says another word, take out his tongue as well. He can speak when we’re gone.”

  “Yes, my lord,” Rahim said, taking the gun from me, studying my face as he did so.

  “You have my leave. I want Deoles up here next.”

  “Yes, my lord,” he said before he had Constantine dragged away.

  “Domin.”

  My eyes moved to Yuri.

  “Thank you for sparing his life.”

  “He’s dead to me,” I advised my mate. “And I will kill him if I ever lay eyes on him again. Do you understand?”

  Quick nod.

  I gave my attention back to Hanif and his mother. There were two other women behind them. “Your sister and your cousin?”

  “Yes,
my lord.”

  I greeted both women, who thanked me profusely and then gushed all over Yuri. Hanif’s mother, Hakkan’s yareah, Alana Tarek, was next in front of me.

  “Will we be given the body of our semel to bury in the crypt of his fathers, my lord?”

  I studied her face. “I would think it would defile the others, yareah. What say you?”

  “I would like to tell you that because once he was a good man, only later bewitched by a belief in his own power, he could be forgiven.”

  “But he cannot,” I empathized.

  “No, my lord, he cannot. He turned on his own children.”

  I took her hand gently in mine. “There are no perfect men, but most try to make the right choices for their tribes. You must help guide your son on his new path.”

  “I will.”

  “You should return with me to Sobek until—”

  “With your permission, my lord, we will remain here and oversee the building of our new home. It will be built for a family, to receive friends and shelter travelers. You must visit often and check our progress.”

  “I will.”

  She thanked me again.

  “The woman he made his new yareah, was she a puppet or a villain?” I inquired.

  “She’s a child, my lord, and was given power over life and death. Please remove her from my sight when you leave. She was a laundress before she was elevated; perhaps she might find redemption in serving others.” The yareah of Feran was an amazing woman.

  “And the boy?”

  “He was forced as the girl was not. Please send him back to his mother.”

  “I will have it done.”

  She was close to tears.

  “I understand that if it weren’t for my mate, your daughter was to be a conquest of your mate’s sheseru.”

  “She was.” Alana shuddered, squeezing my hand tight.

  “He raped many of the young men and women, did he not?”

  Her eyes were turbulent, and I saw it then, that even Hakkan Tarek’s yareah had not been safe.

  “He let horrors befall his own house.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “He dies today.”

  “Bless you, my lord.”

  My eyes flicked to Yuri, and he, understanding, called over to Taj. “You are needed, sheseru!”

  Hanif caught his mother when she fainted.

  DEOLES could barely stand, still exhausted from the shift Jin had pulled him through that morning. But he was defiant when he was led up to the bench he had put both men and women across when he raped them in front of the assembly on the order of his semel. It sat now atop tarps, and he shuddered when he saw it as understanding washed through him. The area was covered in plastic for a very practical reason.

  “You would really kill me for following orders?” he railed as Taj pushed his head down onto the polished wooden bench.

  “If I were a madman, my sheseru would protect my tribe from me,” I reasoned as Taj lifted the heavy cudgel.

  “You’re a coward,” he hissed, his voice full of trembling fear and boiling rage at the same time. “You should perform the execution if you believe so much in what you’re doing.”

  “No,” Taj said, hefting the weapon to the height needed for the killing stroke. “A true sheseru protects his semel from filth.”

  The giant ax was heavy and it fell fast. There was a gasp as Deoles’s head dropped into the waiting basket, and then the body and the bench were wrapped in tarps and removed from the dais. I had my men take both a mile away into the desert and burn them.

  As I was walking over to check on Jin and Yuri, I stumbled, my knees nearly buckling.

  “My lord,” Kabore said, catching me under the arm and making sure I stayed on my feet.

  “I’m fine.”

  “You are not fine,” he clipped his words. “You are barely risen from your deathbed and have spent the day doling out punishment while standing under the hot sun in scalding heat. It’s a wonder you’re still vertical.”

  I felt a little faint but I figured I just needed some water.

  “Stop, you’re fussing.”

  He walked me under an awning, and even the slight change in temperature was welcome.

  “Thank you.”

  “Water,” he barked at some of the servants, who rushed over.

  “I probably need to eat something before I see Hakkan Tarek.”

  He didn’t answer, and I waited.

  “I didn’t think it would be you,” Kabore said suddenly.

  “What are you talking about?” I grumbled.

  “It’s remarkable, really.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You interfere all the time.”

  He’d lost me. “I’m sorry?”

  “For a man who says that he believes in fate, you don’t allow it to play itself out very often.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “The Shu.”

  “Do you know what you’re talking about?” I squinted. “Maybe you need some water.”

  “Even before the Shu became yours, my semel, they were still yours to command. The Shu were the first line of defense of the priest, but they are also the most deadly assassins in the werepanther world, and at the discretion of the semel-aten, they are dispatched.”

  “Water for my steward,” I called out.

  He snorted out a laugh. “You have only been in power for six months, my semel, and you have dispatched the Shu four times. Did you know that?”

  I shrugged. “People needed help with their semels. I should have dispatched the Shu here, but because of Yuri, I had to come.”

  “But first you sent your mate.”

  “I allowed him to come,” I insisted.

  Kabore shook his head. “The truth of the matter, Domin Thorne, is that today you blew into this city like the Day of Judgment, and you saved Ipis from a madman.”

  “I wish I had known earlier.”

  “You’re not worried about the decisions you made here today. You know what is right and you were not afraid to make them.”

  “What decisions?” I said irritably. “I simply carried out the law.”

  “And how many semels before you have done that?”

  “I know Ammon didn’t.” I winced as the scar on my belly and chest throbbed with pressure. “But surely his father.”

  He shook his head as he tugged gently on my bicep, urging me over to a table. “Sit down on the bench.”

  I dropped down onto it faster than I would have liked, not steady at all. “How would you know?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “How would you know if Ammon’s father had or had not carried out the law here?”

  “I lived through his time as semel-aten.”

  I studied Kabore. “How old are you?”

  “Sixty-five.”

  I was stunned. “Are you kidding?”

  His eyes glowed warmly. “How old did you think I was, my lord?”

  “Maybe forty.”

  “That is very flattering.” He seemed pleased as I dropped my head down onto my crossed arms. “You appear to be flushed. Do you feel all right?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “May I touch you?”

  I was going to give him a sarcastic remark, but instead I just said okay. His hand was freezing, and I complained when he touched his palm to my forehead.

  “You’re burning up.”

  My eyes fluttered shut. “Just let me rest a minute.”

  “No, I will not come this close and—” His hands were on my back, and they were all that was keeping me vertical. “I will not lose you, my semel.”

  I felt my body getting heavy.

  “Go fetch me the sekhem!” Kabore barked at someone.

  And that was the last I heard before I fell to the ground.

  “MY LORD.”

  “I’m fine,” I assured my doctor, because I knew her voice and she was turning into such a— Wait.

  I pop
ped my eyes open and saw five people in white coats shuttling around me before I found the face I knew, the one the nagging voice belonged to. I was confused. “Dr. Pakhom.”

  “What did I say?” Her tone was razor sharp.

  “Not to exert myself,” I parroted, what she had said the day before. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was flown here to take care of you, my semel,” she said simply.

  “Flown here?” I snapped. “By who?”

  “I don’t know. I was informed that I was needed and I was put onto a helicopter, and here I am.”

  “Are you insane?” I berated her. “You could have been killed! What if someone was trying to kidnap you or—”

  “I was escorted to the flight by Jamal, spoke to Taj by radio for the entirety of the journey, and was met by him and Rahim the moment we landed. So, no, my lord, I didn’t feel as though I was in danger even for a moment.”

  “But—”

  “And I was needed. I am your physician. I came immediately when I was called and would do so again.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t ever just—”

  “I will come whenever I am needed, wherever,” she professed before chuckling, her eyes softening and the laugh lines around them deepening. “I find you very charming, did you know that, my semel?”

  Everyone had lost their mind.

  “Where’s Yuri?”

  “Here, my lord.”

  When she stepped sideways, I saw my mate. He was stretched out on the bed beside me, with IV tubes in both arms and one of those heart monitors attached to his middle finger.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “His body is fighting an infection,” she let me know. “He was not allowed to shift after his fights, and the wound on his arm was hot to the touch. When I removed the bandage, I found it oozing puss and inflamed.”

  “I didn’t even bother to—”

  “No.” She shook her head. “You’re not a doctor, and I’m sure he was so happy to see you that his endorphins disrupted the pain.”

  “Is he”—he appeared very pale, more so than usual—“going to be okay?”

  “Yes. I have fluids going into him, and an antibiotic, and I’ve cleaned and dressed all the other wounds I could find.”