Crucible of Fate

by Mary Calmes

  “All the others?”

  “His body is covered in scrapes and bruises and gouges. When he’s stronger, I’ll have him shift and most of it will be gone after the first time. You know our ancestors were a very smart lot. They knew that fighting in the pit should only be done in panther form, otherwise we could lose a lot of perfectly good men, like the Romans lost gladiators. Blood sport is just that. The pit was supposed to be used to settle disputes, not for pleasure.”

  I rolled sideways and reached out to put my hand on his left cheek. “He’s cold.”

  “That’s good, because he was burning with fever a few hours ago. He’ll regulate his own body temperature shortly.”

  “But he’ll be fine?”

  “Yes,” she cooed.

  Why did she sound like that? When I checked, her face was all blotchy. “What?”

  “He had the same concerned questions about you,” she said, making a noise like I was adorable.

  “Stop that,” I commanded to no avail.

  “He was so worried.”

  “Whatever for?”

  “Apparently you fainted, and when he saw Kabore carrying you… he came a little undone.”

  “I just needed some water.”

  “No,” she scoffed. “You needed a lot of fluids. None of you realize that you’re in a bloody desert. The only smart one I’ve seen is that reah out there.”

  “He’s drinking a lot of water, is he?”

  “Gallons, yes. He’s also standing in the shade.”

  I grunted. “That’s because Jin’s perfect.”

  She laughed. “Well, along with needing hydration, your blood sugar was upset as well, so I gave you some glucose. You should feel better soon, but you’ll need to eat, all right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Again, that knife wound would have killed a normal cat. Only because you’re a semel, only because he stabbed in and up and not down did he miss your heart. You need to heal. You need to lie in bed and not move.”

  I pointed at Yuri. “If I lay still, can he—” I coughed. “—you know.”

  She shook her head. “Gay or straight, it really is the only thing you think about, isn’t it?”

  I scowled. “Do you know how long we’ve been separated?”

  “Yes, you can go to bed with him as long as there is no pressure on your abdomen. Do you understand me?”

  “Yeah, all right,” I muttered, finally surveying the room. “Where the hell am I?”

  “It’s a field hospital.”

  “There’s only two beds in here.”

  “Okay, it’s a mini field hospital.” She laughed lightly.

  “When did I miss that you were such a smartass?”

  She beamed. “You allow so much freedom in our presence that all of us are ourselves, my lord. It’s a rare gift.”

  I grunted. “I should quit being like that.”

  “No,” she crooned. “Never.”

  “I’m not a nice man,” I said flatly.

  “Of course, my lord.”

  My focus moved away from her again, mapping the entire area. It looked like a hospital out of every war movie I had ever seen. The difference was that it was sealed in plastic and cool air was being pumped in from two enormous generators I could see in the corner of the room. There were five people there, counting the doctor, and I saw one of the men walk over to Yuri and give him a shot.

  “What was that?”

  “Tetanus,” Dr. Pakhom disclosed. “I’m not taking any chances.”

  “How long was I out?”

  Her brow furrowed. “For six hours, my lord. You gave me quite a scare.”

  “And you said Jin is outside and he’s safe?”

  “With Taj and Rahim, nine members of the Shu, and fifty or more of your khatyu milling around,” she teased me. “I suspect so, my semel.”

  “Where’s Kabore?”

  “Here, my lord,” he said from close beside my bed.

  “Tell me where Hakkan Tarek is.”

  “When Dr. Pakhom and her team were delivered, an eight by eight by eight steel cage was delivered as well, from Jamal. We placed it outside under a tarp, and he has shifted to his panther form and is in it.”

  “He’s like a zoo animal.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “How was a cage delivered plus five people?”

  “Eleven, my lord,” he corrected me. “Jamal sent six more of the Shu.”

  “How?”

  “By carrier helicopter, my lord.”

  “We don’t have a carrier—”

  “There are others that do, my lord.”

  “I want answers now,” I said, starting to sit up.

  “No, no,” Kabore ordered, placing a hand gently on my collarbone and then pressing me down into the bed. “You must be careful with yourself. We need you.”

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “What’s going on is that we have been waiting for a semel to trust for a hundred years, and it turns out to be you, Domin Thorne.”

  “Who’s we?”

  “If you clear the tent, I can tell you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He just waited on me.

  “Clear the tent, then.”

  He faced the others. “Would you excuse us a moment, Doctor?”

  “Of course,” she said and herded her team out through the plastic flaps to another zippered door before we were alone.

  I could see them outside, but between the hum of the generators and the distance, no one could overhear us.

  “Now,” Kabore said, turning back to me. “Ask me anything.”

  “Who is ‘we’? Who has a carrier chopper to lend me?”

  “The Iusaaset, my lord.”

  “What is the Iusaaset? Aset is throne, but what’s the rest?”

  “Throne of all, of the atum, of your ancestors, those who protect you,” Kabore revealed. “We are the ones who police the world, Domin Thorne.”

  The words hung in the air between us a moment before I slowly sat up. He let me, even though he seemed worried and moved one hand close in case he had to steady me.

  “I knew it.” I swallowed hard. “It’s not the job of one man.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “So you, what, are all over the world in every city, every—God, just everywhere?”

  “Yes,” he affirmed. “Werepanthers would never remain hidden from the world if there was no greater organization at work. And while most semels govern their tribes well, and most fall into line and follow tribal law, there is still a criminal element as well as those who would expose us and make people aware of our existence.”

  “I remember once when I was young going to a magic show off the strip in Vegas, and there was this guy, and his assistant changed magically into a panther. I mean, I knew they were both panthers, and I thought, that’s fantastic, I never even thought to do that, but then when I talked Logan into going with me the next night, they were gone.”

  “Yes, I’m sure that was the Iusaaset.”

  “Did they kill them?”

  “No, that is still for their semel to decide. They would have been sent back to their tribes and disciplined there. And sometimes, depending on the crime, death is an option. But you know as well as I do, imprisoning panthers leads quickly to madness, and they can never go to human jails because of the shift. So that’s where the Iusaaset comes in.”

  It was hard to wrap my brain around. “And who commands the Iusaaset?”

  “Omar Turog, a strong military man, a great sheseru, if you will, and his partner Hsin Suen, more a sylvan, if you think of it like that. The Iusaaset is always led by two, one that commands the military component and one the civilian side. There are also the seven laws, as they are called, or simply the seven, who advise them. Now, both Omar and Hsin will report to you as well as their teams.”

  I shook my head. “No, it’s too big a responsibility for one man. It—”

  “As I said, just like here,
you have a sheseru and a sylvan who will offer you counsel, as well as the seven. You may also bring one man to be your private counsel.”

  “You lied to me.”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t come with Ebere.”

  “No.”

  “You’ve been in the villa since the time of Ammon’s father, waiting to see when a semel that deserved to be recognized by the Iusaaset would come.”

  He nodded. “Omar Turog has been waiting for my report on you.”

  “And I passed?”

  “Yes, my lord. Before we left Sobek, I left word that you were to be trusted and invited them to come. I sent word through Rahim, who has a completely different contact than me, that they needed to come now and make contact with you. They are on their way.”

  “Who, this Omar or Hsin?”

  “Oh no, my lord, their agents will come in their stead. If the top ones show up, then that will be Dov Yadin and Wickham Morris. I see them most, as they are both field operatives. Dov was with Israeli intelligence, and Wickham MI5 before they were both recruited to work for Iusaaset. As they are both werepanthers, they could not turn down the offer. So you know, all members of the Iusaaset are made members of the tribe of Rahotep, and so you are their semel.”

  I was reeling. “No one can expect me to rule over men who know more about everything than I do.”

  “You were born to be a semel, my lord; none of these men were. You must always remember that.”

  “Why me?”

  “Because you are changing everything, my lord,” he said bluntly. “Your plan is to remake Sobek; no one has gazed outward in over a hundred years. They become semel-aten and look inward at what they can have, and much like Hakkan Tarek, their greed and gluttony and depravity eats them from the inside out.”

  I searched his face for some sign that this was all a huge joke.

  “But you, you who appear to be floundering, every day you change something. Every moment you are semel-aten, and now akhen-aten, you alter a law or enforce another. You have dispatched the Shu, as I said before, four times already in only six months. You want to help everyone, make certain that everyone is safe, and now, with our resources, you can.”

  “I doubt that these men are going to listen to me.”

  “They want nothing more. Right now they simply react; you will allow them to be proactive as they put your new laws and plans into action,” Kabore explained. “All of them want to be directed by you, and the seven-man tribunal is there to convene or not. They would only offer advice, my lord, much like the old council of Ennead now advises your sylvan. It’s a new day, my lord, but everyone knows that it is your rule and that you will lead us to the future.”

  “I feel like I’m gonna pass out.”

  “Please, no, you’ve scared me enough for one day.”

  “Who else knows about the Iusaaset?”

  “No one except those that work for us and the tribunal.”

  “And how do you get a place on the tribunal?”

  “You’re invited.”

  “How many are on it now?”

  “Six. Since Hamid Shamon died, his seat has not been filled.”

  “The priest,” I said.

  “It was why he wanted Logan Church to be semel-aten; he felt that Logan would be the kind of man that the Iusaaset could follow.”

  “And he would.”

  Kabore shook his head. “I respect the semel-netjer, but Jin Church is far too unpredictable a mate for a semel-aten. Had Ammon been a different sort of man, with Ebere El Masry as his mate, he would have been an excellent candidate. And this is what happens, you understand? Good semel, questionable mate, or vice versa.”

  “Why would the mate matter?”

  “A good mate is key for the health and well-being of the semel. They are the person who you first seek counsel from, the person with whom secrets are shared in the bedroom, either on purpose or unwittingly. And they are the one who simply sleeps beside you at night.”

  “Jin is the best mate Logan could ever have.”

  “You’ll get no argument from me. We’ve watched the semel-netjer and his mate, seen trials of separation that we could have prevented or ended but had to watch play out. We have seen the growth in both, but again, while there is no better mate for a semel than his destined reah, the nekhene that Jin Church is, is not a good mate for a semel-aten. The nekhene cat is safest in that small town up on that mountain, away from prying eyes. To have Jin here for an extended amount of time invites danger,” he said ruefully. “I once listened to Ammon rant and rave about how dangerous Jin Church is. And while I disagreed with what he thought should be done, I couldn’t fault his logic. As Jin’s power grows, how combustible will it become?”

  “Jin will never hurt anyone as long as he has Logan there beside him.”

  “Precisely,” he agreed. “So the semel-netjer can do only that for the rest of his life. He will lead his tribe and love his mate. The fact is, that’s all he wants to do—he has no desire for power. It’s a great blessing that the nekhene cat wound up with a mate like Logan Church and not a madman. Think of the horror that could have been.”

  “Now I understand why the priest wanted Logan.”

  “Did want.” Kabore exhaled. “In the end, he agreed with me that fate had stepped in and given us the gift of you. You must know that he truly embraced your reign before he passed.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “When I suggested to him that we reveal ourselves to you, he agreed that it was for the best. And he also proposed that we offer his seat on the tribunal to the semel-netjer.”

  I could have Logan with me? My safety net intact? “Is that an option?”

  “Yes, it is. We’ve all agreed that he would make a fine addition.”

  “As my counsel, I would want you.”

  He was surprised. “My lord, I am only a steward. Simply a vehicle to help you reach your destiny and no—”

  “It’s you, Kabore. Tell them.”

  He was nodding. “Thank you, my lord. The trust and faith is—” He was touched, it was evident in his tone. “You honor me.”

  But I didn’t have time to wallow in sentiment; my mind was racing. “If you police the world, how was Jin ever kidnapped? How was the sepat allowed to go on? How was Ammon El Masry allowed to abuse Ebere? How was the travesty I just interrupted allowed to continue? I don’t understand.”

  He shook his head. “Just like any military operation. I mean, are soldiers sent to stop domestic violence? Are they sent to punish corrupt politicians or find missing children? This is what we’re talking about. We prevent someone from going on the news to out themselves on live TV as a werepanther, but we don’t investigate a semel using his power to defile young girls.”

  “That’s why the priest had to call the sepat, the honor challenge, against Ammon El Masry, when all those parents came to him for justice after what Ammon did to their daughters?”

  “Yes. We could do nothing. Not then. But if you will take the reins, then we will do as we do now and serve you and your cause of change and rebuilding. There are so many things that need to be ratified, but there are also laws that are set in stone, and both must be upheld.”

  I was starting to get it. “You want to be like Yuri, an extension of me, so panthers the world over will see the office of the semel-aten and truly believe I am the most powerful werepanther in the world. It won’t just be in name, it will be because if I say something, it will happen, because I have the muscle to back it up.”

  “Yes.”

  “And what if the power goes to my head and I go nuts?”

  He tipped his head to one side. “It seems to me that you’ve already had your epiphany, have you not, my lord?”

  “In having my original tribe ended, you mean?”

  “Yes. Your original line, your original house, was ended by a man who you call brother. The tribe of Menhit can never rise again. If you were to fall into darkness, would it not have happened then?�
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  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Your mother died when you were still an infant. Your father was abusive, he controlled his tribe through rage and jealousy, and when you came to power, all you had to try to hold it together with was a feud with your friend’s tribe. You were different then, vengeful and mean, bitter and full of self-loathing. That you are now able to still think selfish thoughts or tell yourself you don’t care and then act in a completely opposite way, in a way that has been—from the time Logan Church pronounced you maahes to now—one of thoughtful introspection and faith, is to me a miraculous thing. You lifted yourself from—”

  I cut him off. “Stop, I’m gonna throw up. I am not that good. I do a lot of stupid crap, and you know I do. But I have Yuri, I have you and Taj and Mikhail and Ebere to keep me on track.”

  He cleared his throat. “Do you know how many men who lead listen to those around them every single time, my lord?”

  “All of them?”

  “None of them. Most men in power listen but don’t hear and do what they want anyway. You actually listen, mull things over, and sometimes you do what you think is best anyway, but a lot of times you change what you thought or you temper your response based on what one of us in your inner circles has recommended. It is a rare and excellent quality in a leader, to know his own mind but to allow counsel. Don’t ever second-guess your true quality, Domin Thorne. You are remarkable.”

  I was quiet and so was he.

  “I think you would need to travel.”

  We both focused on Yuri, who was awake and listening in.

  I was so happy to see his eyes open. “How long have you been awake?”

  “Since Kabore asked the doctor to step out.”

  “You’re such a jerk,” I said softly, reaching for him and sliding my hand into his hair, then pushing it away from his dark eyes. “So you heard all that stuff about a good mate, huh?”

  “I did,” he murmured, so very pleased.

  “And?”

  “And could you have picked better?” He scoffed. “I don’t think so. Man, did you hit the jackpot with me. You couldn’t ask for steadier or more loyal.”

  I had to smile. “No, I couldn’t.”

  He winked at me and I groaned.

  “Okay, so, where the hell am I going?” I checked with Kabore.