Tribal Dawn: Mordufa: Volume Three

by Cassie Wolf

  Vakaar winced. “There’s a slight problem with that.”

  “Oh?” Jocelin raised her eyebrow. She looked ready to scream.

  “I’m not declining the offer.” He rested his elbow on his knee. He didn’t want to tell her. If he did, she could have him killed on the spot. Either way, he didn’t have the leeway to make deals. “The Velaquez line is already protected.”

  “How so?”

  “Your father sensed his shadow. When that happens, it’s called Mordufa’s last gift. We can’t decline it. His was for your family to be protected, extending to your mate, your children’s mates and so on.”

  There was a mix of sadness and happiness in her powerful eyes. She kept her posture proper. “I want to be informed who tries.”

  “There’s been one, and I think you’re intelligent enough to know who.” Vakaar kicked off his muddy boots and took off his gloves. “We’ve taken his money multiple times. He’s asked for you, Atsu and when his mother died, Tau.”

  “Tau had nothing to do with Turpu’s death.”

  “Believe me, I know.” Vakaar poured his drink. “The last time he tried was a couple of years ago. He went all out and asked for your entire line. I think he’s given up.”

  “Then there is one more thing I would ask of you.”

  “What is it?”

  “There may come a time when I will need your help. I don’t know when it will be. I’m no seer of the future.” She picked up her cloak and tied it around her neck. “You have a Chieftess’s promise that I won’t turn you in if you can return the favour. We don’t know what happens in the north down here. Tau may become a pawn in a war they’re set up to lose. Chika may struggle on his travels. I want to be reassured if I need your help, you will answer the call.”

  She was a smart woman, one Vakaar wished he hadn’t met. He didn’t like debts. “You have my word as long as I have yours. If I’m tricked by your guards, know that I will get out of it. If my kind is captured and killed, the Velaquez protection is no more.”

  “That sounds like a threat.”

  “It’s not a threat, Chieftess. If me or my brethren die, it’s killing Mordufa’s blessed. If you offered to keep safe another tribe’s member and they killed one of your children, would you keep your promise?” Vakaar stood with her at the door.

  “No, I wouldn’t.” She gazed at him. “I wonder if that protection wasn’t in place, could you look me in the eye and say you’d slice open my daughter’s throat as easily as my own?”

  Vakaar was taken aback and shook his head. “It’s very late, Chieftess. I won’t be here much longer and will be away from Zura within a fortnight.”

  “You’ve not answered my question.”

  Vakaar ran his hand through his wet hair. “Zura won’t be harmed by me. You can be assured of that.”

  “She will be devastated when you leave.”

  “Zura will move on. She is young, unstable and caring. She’s a warrior’s dream.”

  “And what of you?”

  “A shadow doesn’t settle. Even when they try, they become restless, as you know.”

  “I saw the way you held her at the feast. You care for her.”

  “I can’t afford to.” Vakaar twitched. “When people care for my kind, we’re no longer who we were born to be. We’d care when people died and grieve like the rest of the world instead of seeing the blessing of Mordufa.” He went to open the door.

  Jocelin waved his hand away. “Do you care for my daughter?”

  Vakaar turned away, patience wearing thin. “There was a fleeting moment where I considered your mate’s offer. That’s about as much as I’m willing to divulge.”

  Jocelin brought a hand to his cheek and rubbed her thumb beneath his eye scar. “Shadows can settle, child.”

  “I admire that you’ve tried, but I can’t do the same. Whoever had me took their advice. I’m too far gone. Look at me.” He grinned, motioning to his muddied clothes. “This is my life. I won’t change. I’d do more damage, not bring a life of happiness and binds.”

  “I could think of worse.” Jocelin lifted her hood. “May Luaani guide you, Kaari. Our conversation is one I won’t repeat to anyone, just as I expect of you. My word is promised.”

  Vakaar opened the door. “As is mine, Chieftess.”

  - CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX -

  Weeks dragged by in the Inferno tribes. Every morning the warriors were woken by the clusters of market stalls opening. Shrewd voices bragged about deals, nasal women’s voices flirted with customers and bells rang for the early hours. People shuffled by, putting visions of war behind them for the sake of their sanity and children.

  Aqua women had been caught sneaking over the walls in the night by the Sun tribe and the unorganised unit from the combined Chiefs of Inferno. Ebhi, blinded by his trance, dragged one inside the barracks. She screamed, dirty nails hacking him. Tau and the others woke up to see what the commotion was.

  The woman was strapped to a chair, spitting blood with every taunt she threw at Ebhi in their language. Her ebony skin glistened with sweat, and her braids were withered from weeks spent under the desert beams of Solianga. Her armour was made from animal bones, thick, clunky and damaged. While Ebhi circled and whispered in his tongue in a ritualistic manner, Tau read her movements. There was fear, shock and hate truly rooted within. She believed in her cause at any cost.

  Ebhi sliced her throat and carried off her body. There wasn’t any regret on his face. He hefted her like she was a sack in the way.

  The warriors returned to bed. Tau faced the wall. The women cried. The wounded begged. He pulled the sheet over his face and squeezed his eyes. He heard the calls. They wouldn’t stop. The queues of wounded never ended.

  Rura’s muttering started. They’d escorted his mother and sister to the other side of the districts. Keyah joyfully sobbed, and Lila was thrilled to live in safety. The trader Tau spoke to was reluctant to let the home go. It took Tau three hours of negotiating to find a price that wouldn’t leave him cleaned out. The businessman believed he got the better end of the deal. Keyah and Lila started work for him as seamstresses earning half pay as well as the roof over their heads. What he didn’t realise was that Tau, in agreeing to it, had provided Lila with an education by elders she’d never have for free. It was worth quarter the value of the home.

  Tau couldn’t figure if he’d slept or not when the morning bell rang. Groggy, he climbed out of bed, put on his uniform and slurped the unappetising bowl of porridge. His culinary experiences in this place cautioned against trying anything else.

  He sat opposite Rura, yawning. “Where are we today?”

  “Around here.”

  Tau pulled his face. “Patrolling the tiny gaps between the thousands. Fun.”

  Rura tied his laces and grimaced too. Patrolling during the day, specifically from dawn until dusk, was the worse duty. People asked them to shift debris, tend to wounds and swore if they said it wasn’t their area of expertise. Distributing weapons was the preferred duty. They’d spend the day in a cool, quiet room, training with the equipment, waiting for orders and gold from warriors.

  They opened the door and exchanged glances. A crack and a snap closer than usual. A whistle in the sky had their hearts racing. People screamed. They kept still. It was coming. Tau closed his eyes.

  The ground trembled under the impact. Stalls crashed and fell apart. There were ear-splitting screams. A wall opposite the barracks shattered. Tau dared to open his eyes. A wave of dust clouded his sight. He could see silhouettes running around but was stuck standing. He glanced at his fingers, shaking. Rura was in front, arm shielding his face. There were another couple of cracks in the distance and Rura bolted through the mess.

  Tau looked around. Red clouds were everywhere. The barracks hadn’t been hit. He heard the hurried footsteps of his brethren. They were yelling orders and dashing out one by one, unable to tell who was who.

  “The healers’ building was hit!” he heard one shout.
r />   He snapped out of his daze and tried to shield his eyes from the dirt. People held wounded children in their arms and begged for help. A woman cried in his face and clutched his leathers. The child she dragged was covered in blood and shards of glass. Tau couldn’t make sense of what she said. Her tongue was too quick.

  “Help my son! Help him!”

  Her words finally hit. He scooped the screaming boy up in his arms. A debris pile was all that was left of the healers’ building, so he could only turn and take him inside the barracks. Tau rested the boy on the floor. The handful who remained holding baskets of bandages and temporary potions did what they could.

  A shrill throat call from a group of women had him drawing his weapon. The guttural pleas of the civilians abruptly stopped. Tau tightened his helm and dashed outside.

  The adrenaline that he hadn’t felt since arriving surged. Shadows in the dust cut down figures in front of them. Body parts flew as the Aqua warriors sliced everything in their way, all the while singing their call.

  One pounced on his back. She grabbed his helm and went to cut his throat. Tau back-peddled until he smashed his attacker into a pillar. She yowled in his ear and dropped her crude blade. He spun around and slashed her stomach. Her entrails poured to the floor. She gave him a bloody grin, dying beside two Inferno tradesmen.

  Tau kicked her dagger away. The dust was beginning settle. He caught sight of Ebhi fighting two women beside a stall. Another Sun tribe warrior clutched his wounds but kept on going. Tau jumped over the debris and bodies quickly falling to the ground, mostly those they were trying to protect. The woman fighting his comrade was heavily pregnant. She played on his reluctance and stabbed him between the eyes. She wiped her blade on her swollen stomach and smiled at Tau.

  He didn’t want to fight her. He didn’t want to end the life of an unborn child. It wasn’t their fight. She was running towards him. He kept his sword in front. She couldn’t run like the other women. He couldn’t do it.

  “DIE TRAITOR!” another screamed. Ebhi was pinned to the ground, disarmed, unwilling to fight the woman on top of him.

  Tau sprinted towards him, vaulting over corpses, and the remains of buildings and stalls. He sliced the spine of one attacker dragging a woman by the hair across the square, her wail ear-splitting. He nearly slipped in puddles of blood as he drove his sword through the head of another. He kicked his weapon out, picked up the dagger laying beside her and threw it at the head of the one on top of Ebhi. He thought he’d missed but then she went limp. Ebhi threw the corpse off him and picked up his sword, cutting down the second.

  The pregnant woman caught up with Tau. His blood was pumping high. The rage at seeing his brethren fall as well as innocents killed overcame his morals when she clumsily thrust her spear. She kept trying to hit him, deflections ringing every time. He made a sudden reverse with the blade, twisting her arm, and cut her weapon hand off on the follow-through. She howled and spun in circles, blood spurting from her wrist.

  “My baby!” she cried, clutching her stomach. Tau grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head back. “Please don’t kill me! I have my girl! Please!” He slashed her throat, blood soaking her front, and threw her into the rest of the dead.

  The clashing of swords, spears and daggers continued. Tau, Ebhi and other Sun tribe warriors defeated most of the women pouring through the walls. Those wounded who could walk were directed to the barracks to heal. The Aqua women fought relentlessly to leave as much devastation in their wake as they could, until they were finally overwhelmed by the Inferno warriors, stationed two districts away, who charged into the fray as reinforcements. The rest scarpered.

  When the last had disappeared, Tau dropped to the ground, exhausted. His skin poured with sweat like water beneath his thick leathers. The sun burned his skin and the bodies surrounding. He was riled with adrenaline, shaking and angry. A warrior threw him a flask and patted him on the back.

  “Well done, Velaquez,” he muttered before helping the wounded into the barracks.

  Tau pulled off his helm and dampened a clean cloth to cool his skin. Bloody corpses lay wherever he looked. In the first few years of training, he’d learned to deal with it. The empty stares and distress in lifeless faces was part of the job. This time, it was excruciating. The pregnant woman was a short distance away. Her round brown eyes stared at him, hand guarding her stomach. After the carnage, it was hard to justify killing her. Maybe he could’ve kept her wounded, dragged her back and had a healer take the infant out. There was some expectant father out there about to have his world shattered. He stood and stepped over those around her, the children, the men and the women from both sides. He tried to tell himself that was the reason why. For a female to leave her home in that condition and risk her unborn, what type of life would it have had anyway?

  Tau shifted the body of another and crouched beside her. His head pounded. The remains motionless before him, unable to fight innocents, weren’t enough to take away the guilt.

  “She was a warrior, Tau,” Ebhi’s well-mannered voice mumbled behind. “There was only one way she became pregnant. Force. Force on our men and the Inferno they capture.”

  Tau glanced over his shoulder. Ebhi was surprisingly calm, considering he’d been nearly strangled to death by one of his own. He was no less covered in blood and guts than Tau was. “I know that. I’m trying to face it until the shock wears off.”

  “Even when you believe it has faded and you are accustomed to it, it will haunt your mind in your slumber, regardless.” Ebhi squatted beside him. He trailed his fingers across the girl’s eyes, closing them.

  Tau peered at the corner where Ebhi had been fighting. The piles of Aqua women were neatly stacked. “I can see the regret in your face Ebhi. That woman almost killed you. Is the medu working?”

  “I was told it would take several months for it to work fully. I have gone against the advice not to partake in war. For the most part, I am under the command of our Krenei. I suppose my mind was not ready for my aunt to attack me.”

  Tau brought his hands to his head. “Ah, shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have thrown a fatal hit. I would’ve wounded her or something.”

  Ebhi raised his hand. “Please, Tau. You did what was right. She’s fighting for the wrong side, and that is how we must see it. You saved my life where love for my relations would have cost me. To see a woman who baked us pies when we were children try to kill me has strengthened my belief that we are fighting rightfully.”

  “If you killed my aunt, I couldn’t be so calm.”

  “Then I am reaffirmed that medu is working.” Ebhi patted him on the back.

  Tau nodded along, his face burning with shame. Some of those already stitched came out, praising the warriors for their efforts to keep them safe. They whispered how it was a shame some had fallen. He dared to look further afield. Here and there were gold-decorated warriors on the ground. Men who he’d shared jokes with the night before. He stood up and wiped his armour down. He looked at each Sun tribe warrior on the floor, dread twisting his stomach. They had a pale complexion. He moved some of their helms to make sure. Some of their skins had browned in the sun.

  “Ebhi, have you seen Rura?” Tau shouted.

  “The last time I saw him, he was with you.”

  “He’s not… here?” Tau motioned around.

  “Not that I have seen, no. He might have gone to help the other district that was hit.”

  Tau furrowed his brow. Another bombardment began. He barely registered it for the commotion in his immediate surroundings. He grabbed his sword and wiped it down as he sped through the alleys. Buildings collapsed into puffs of dry dust. People cried for their losses. They asked him for help, and he directed to the barracks. Inferno tribesmen were aiding those stuck and escorting them, bloodied.

  He reached the rich quarter he’d visited a few days earlier. It wasn’t how he remembered it. The stalls made of glass and marble were smashed, slivers coating the corpses behind them
. The neat, quiet paths were lined with destruction. Multi-storey homes were reduced to rubble just like they were in the poorest districts he’d seen. Velvet and silk blankets wrapped those caught in the debris, stained brown and red.

  Tau held his breath. Sickness stuck at the back of his throat. The home he’d bargained for had been hit. The building was a mess of belongings and warriors desperately searching for survivors. The crying and wailing made him dizzy. Lines of dead had been covered in white cloth to the side, beneath a pillared archway.

  His heart sank. Rura was sitting in the line, covered in dust, armour tattered, clinging to a young girl. He sobbed and kept her close like he was consoling her. Tau didn’t want to disturb the moment and turned away. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lila’s head flopped unnaturally. She was dead.

  He closed his eyes for a moment. He walked over to Rura. The warrior was weeping into his sister’s locks. Her face was splattered with blood and her nose was bent. The dust covered her wounds from a distance, but not up close.

  Tau crouched. “Rura…”

  Rura’s bloodshot eyes looked over her shoulder. His face was flustered, and his grip tightened on her defensively. “They were holding each other beneath it all.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.”

  “All my line, gone. She didn’t deserve to die.” He brushed the hair away from Lila’s face. “She had so much promise. Fourteen, fucking fourteen. That’s barely a life.”

  “Do you want me to get anything? Water? Or help to gather belongings?”

  Rura shook his head. “No, what’s the fucking point in possessions when the beautiful souls who owned them have gone?” He glanced at his mother's blanket and held her hand. “I want to stay with them until I know they’ve been seen to. I don’t want them piled like shit like the rest. I want to stay with them alone.”