Teeth of the Gods

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  All thought of the glorious vista below the cliffs of Canderabai was gone and I spent the rest of our journey in moody silence. There was no escape from my doom. My life was what they chose now, and that could be anything. If Amandera had much to do with it, it would be filled with humiliation and pain.

  When we reached the inn, Jakinda ordered Buhari to find a healer for Rusk and she and the others carried him up to my suite, laying him on my bed and leaving me stuck within eight feet of the bed at all times. He woke as they laid him down.

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  “At the inn. We have been ordered to move my retinue to the Grand Hall of the Doves. I’m asking Jakinda to send the retinue along ahead of us while we wait for a healer for you,” I said. Might as well forget keeping secrets from him. As long as he was conscious I would never be able to hide anything I was doing from him again.

  He grabbed my arm, his eyes wild, as if he was somewhere else.

  “Calm down,” I said harshly, pushing him back to the bed. Was he reliving the moment he watched my mother die?

  “Don’t send them all ahead. Keep three elephants and your six best guards with you,” he gasped, “and all the money.”

  “I’m not interested in your preferences,” I said. My voice could have frozen the Penspray.

  His eyes closed and his mouth clenched hard, clearly a result of his pain, but he didn’t let go of my arm.

  “You’re hurting me!” I said. His pain echoed in my mind, but his grip digging into the muscles of my arm hurt worse.

  He relaxed his jaw after a moment and looked at me intently, “Please. They will hurt the ones I love if I don’t give good advice. Please, don’t stop me from giving it.”

  “He’s going to make his injury worse if he stays so worked up,” Jakinda said from where she was looking out the window.

  “Fine,” I said, trying to sooth both Rusk and Jakinda. “Jakinda, send our entourage to the Grand Hall of Doves, but keep our eighteen best, six elephants, Alsoon, and our money with us.”

  “And trail packs with water and emergency supplies,” Rusk said between groans.

  I threw up my hands. “Whatever he wants.”

  Jakinda nodded, not just in acceptance, but in approval, and left the room.

  Fortunately, Buhari arrived moments later with the Healer and I managed to pry Rusk’s iron grip off my arm so the poultice could be applied and the wound treated.

  “Keep him rested,” the wizened old woman told me, as she worked. “Don’t over work him or give him cause to worry.” She didn’t seem to notice the tether, or maybe she just didn’t care. “Infections are difficult to predict. I will leave you more poultices to draw out the taint, but you must be careful. He could heal in days or die in hours, it will all come down to how carefully he is attended to.”

  Great. One more concern on my already over-loaded mind. Now I’d have to keep my enemy from joining my mother in her early grave. I sighed. My life had just become even more complicated.

  I accepted the poultice with as much grace as I could muster and the Healer poured some sort of restorative brew down Rusk’s throat before taking her leave.

  “We’re ready,” Jakinda said, peering into the room.

  “I think I’ll need help,” I said, gesturing to Rusk.

  “Don’t worry,” Jakinda said. “I rented something to help with that.”

  Chapter Seventeen: The Race Is On

  She motioned and my guards came in and helped Rusk to his feet, supporting him on either side. I trailed them like a pony on a lead. Chaos filled the courtyard below as the slaves and extra guards of my retinue took their leave. Surges of citizens flooded the streets increasing the chaos and in the middle of it all, like an island in a heaving sea, Alsoon stood with a palanquin on top of him. Jakinda flashed a quick smile before she and my guards lifted Rusk up into the palanquin. His head lolled from side to side. The rejuvenating drink must have put him to sleep.

  I scrambled up awkwardly behind him. With every movement and tug of my guards I had to keep up or risk being dragged up Alsoon’s broad side. Eventually, we were both settled into the palanquin, and I felt rather like Amandera sitting up in the curtained enclosure, although Amandera didn’t usually have an unconscious man laid across the other seat, and I had no tea to brew. Jakinda slid in beside me, taking the only spot left in the palanquin. Ever the perfect guard, she was ready to defend me from anyone who could scale an elephant and try to plant a dagger in my heart. Fortunately, Alsoon had no need of a driver, so no one needed to act as mahout.

  On either side of me, the guards mounted the other six elephants with the gear and money carried in packs as if we were headed on a long journey. I almost chuckled at the power Rusk held even while unconscious. No one ever saw to my whims that way.

  We rode through the street, the crowd pressing in on every side and slowing our movement. I felt irritation at first, but then I drew back the curtain, hanging my head out the side and watching as every race and fashion of the Crystal Coast were displayed in the surging crowd. Here there were the crossed swords of Galaher over the back of one man, and there the traditional braided cuffs of the Chocuri on the sleeves of a pair of women. In all the excitement I had almost forgotten the delight of the Race. That had to be why the crowd was so exuberant. Was it here already?

  The surging crowd must mean they were all getting ready to assemble in the main square and pledge their devotion and determination to find the Teeth of the Gods for this cycle. Would we ride close enough for me to see it? Of course, no one would find them—no one ever had. But, oh to be part of it! Could anything be more thrilling? We were part of something great and awe-inspiring. We were a part of history. And maybe this cycle someone really would find the Teeth of the Gods and we would all see wonders return.

  My heart began beating faster, and I ignored the pair in the palanquin with me and just let the wind fly through my hair and imagined what it would be like to be one of these fated racers chasing glory and bound by honor and magic. We entered the main square just as the huge bronze bell at the top of the Square Tower chimed twice. I was going to see the swearing for myself! This was it!

  Atop the high towers around the square, priests were stationed, ready to weave together the warding that would bind all the questers to the hunt for the Teeth of the Gods.

  If only I could join them! If only I could swear with them and feel that powerful magic bind me to my promise. It would ward off all who would prevent me from my quest for thirty days, like the others here. Tradition said than no man had the right to stop a racer—not even the High Tazmin himself. He probably didn’t like that much! To have anyone be free of his rule must put an itch between his shoulder blades that didn’t stop for that full thirty days.

  Beside me Jakinda yelled at the guards ahead to hurry it up, but there was no moving in the thick crowd. Angry yells and curses around us told me that we would be stuck until the ceremony was complete. Perfect!

  The Lesser Tazmin was taking a place up on one of the lattice bridges stretching above the square. Beside him, I thought I saw Amandera in a filmy peach sarette. Of course it was her. Amandera would never turn down an opportunity to do something that made her seem important. What did she think of looking out over this crowd? Did she see nothing but rippling waves of grain waiting to be harvested by the High Tazmin or was she aware that we were people?

  I would never be anything like her. I was like these people in the square, passionately awaiting their chance to race for the ancient artifact. They jostled against each other on the other end of the square, by the Bright Gates, outfitted for their race with packs and animals in hand. The gates, though closed for the ceremony, would be opened and the racers would pour through. I would have a great view from my palanquin. Maybe I’d even be able to guess who would win. Maybe it would be someone like Rusk—foreign and desperate. Someone reckless who knew this was their only chance...

  “When the Gods themselves founded Al’Kari
da and our great nation they gave us a great treasure,” the Lesser Tazmin declared from his lattice bridge. Even with amplification his voice was hard to hear in the huge crowd.

  “Honor to the ancestors,” we said together by rote. I felt my heart soar at the words as they left my mouth. Even outlanders knew the catechism, it was so ingrained upon the people of the Crystal Coast. On the ground, beside me, someone cheered. He was hushed by the others, but they looked at one another with glowing eyes, cheeks flushed and hands wrapped tight around belongings and walking sticks. Most of the fast horses were by the gate.

  “Over the years and through the generations the secret of its hiding place was lost. But we have not forgotten that the treasure lies in wait for us.”

  “Never forget,” we intoned as people checked their boots or stirrups one last time, cinching belts and straps, whispering excitedly.

  “And so, on this day every seven years, we in Al’Karida honor Canderabai, the High Tazmin, our ancestors, and the Gods by joining in a noble hunt for the Teeth of the Gods.”

  Rusk stirred and sat up, rubbing his face with his hands. “Where are we?”

  “Shhh!” I said. The words of the Lesser Tazmin had my breath coming quicker and my heart racing in anticipation.

  “In the great square listening to the Lesser Tazmin ask for the Binding Oath. We were delayed on our way to the Hall of Doves,” Jakinda whispered.

  “If you say the next line of the catechism,” the Lesser Tazmin said, “in this time and this place you will be bound by magic and honor to fulfill this duty for the next thirty days. After that, if you have failed, you may return to your daily lives.”

  “Tazminera,” Jakinda said, laying her hand on my arm. I refused to look at her. My eyes were glued to the Lesser Tazmin and my heart beat so loudly that I thought Amandera might be able to hear it from her spot next to him.

  “No hand may hinder you, great or small,” the Tazmin said. “No bond may hold you, great or small. From the moment you speak the words you bind yourself in the quest. None but the Gods themselves may stop you in your quest. You know the words.”

  “Tylira!” Jakinda said, more urgently. It was almost a shout.

  “Speak them together if you dare.”

  “We so swear,” I yelled out over the crowd of voices speaking the same rote.

  As I spoke the words, Amandera’s gaze fell to where I sat, leaning out of the palanquin. Jakinda and Rusk were cursing together like twin brigands. Who would have thought they’d have so much in common?

  The magic of the priests tapping into the common settled down on us and I felt a tightening over my skull with a strange tugging sensation. Together we gasped with a thousand throats, joined by oaths that made us one in a common cause. The horn blared once, long and loud, as the gates were thrown open and the crowd stampeded out.

  Amandera’s gaze was locked on me. I waved at her enthusiastically and then settled back into the palanquin.

  “I think we’d better get moving, Jakinda, don’t you? We’re at the back of the crowd and the race is on.”

  Chapter Eighteen: Heartless

  “You’re going to get us all killed,” Jakinda said, a look of horror on her face. “You’ll find no honor now!”

  Rusk sat completely still, his gaze flickering from my face to hers and back.

  “I’m going to give you something fun to do. Something other than just shadowing a royal descendant around from palace to inn to palace like a tame dog,” I said. “And don’t talk to me about honor. There will be no honor greater than finding the Teeth of the Gods where all others before us have failed!”

  Did I really just do that? Was I truly in the race for the Teeth of the Gods? It was the stuff of legends—no!—I was the stuff of legends and for generations to come they would speak my name with awe and respect because I defied the High Tazmin in the pursuit of the glory and honor of the Hunt. They would never be able to take it from me, not with a thousand brands or a thousand chained generals.

  Jakinda must be thrilled to be set loose. I was so excited that I couldn’t stop grinning. I didn’t care what anyone thought. I was racing now. I was more than an orchid grown carefully in a sheltered place. I was a star, streaking across the sky in a ball of fire and power. If anyone could find the Teeth it would be me.

  Jakinda’s face was pale and little droplets of sweat lined her forehead.

  “Stop looking so ill, and tell your men to ride!” I demanded.

  She stared at me, her face melting into a sickly look, but she said nothing.

  “Agh!” I said, shoving between her and Rusk and thrusting my head out the front of the palanquin to call to the guards on the other elephants. “Ride! As soon as you see a space, ride! We race for the honor and glory of Canderabai!”

  They looked at one another in confusion. How could they not know what I meant? Wasn’t it obvious? No one else had any problem understanding. Around us racers streamed past like shoals of fish, darting between the legs of our elephants to find a quicker path to the open gates. Tradition said that anyone still within Canderabai borders on the fourth day was no longer allowed to leave the country to race. They must search for the treasure here. After so many generations no one believed that the Teeth of the Gods were in Canderabai. It would be a hard four days’ ride to any border.

  I fell back to my own seat. Jakinda was still sweating and staring at me as if I had grown a second nose.

  “Jakinda!” I grabbed her shoulder and shook it. “Go to the other elephants and tell them to ride. We have ground to cover and we are already behind!”

  “Ride?” she asked, her tone so mocking that I felt the urge to slap her. Had she gone out of her mind? “To where?”

  “Al’Toan,” I said, pulling the name of the coastal city to the north of us out of thin air. After all, it wasn’t like I’d planned for this. I’d have to pretend I had. My allies were melting like the fabled ice of the mountains. And I’d never see ice, or anything else from legends, if I sat around waiting for them to pull themselves together.

  Jakinda nodded stiffly and climbed down from Alsoon, walking unsteadily to the lead elephant and climbing up to talk to the men there. I crossed my arms in a huff. What was her problem?

  Alsoon, when the other elephants run, you run with them. We are racing!

  Race!

  Good boy.

  At least someone seemed to get it.

  Rusk shifted in his seat, a look of pain flooding his face. He favored his ribs. I bit my lip. He was going to hurt when Alsoon started running. Palanquins weren’t made for racing, and elephants weren’t made to carry injured men.

  “Your Captain of the Guard is upset,” he said, wincing.

  “I don’t know why. This has to be better than cooling her heels while I train for my role later in life. I can’t imagine a more boring job for a trained warrior.”

  “Is that why you did it? Because you are bored?”

  “No,” I said, a little too quickly.

  “It’s only that—”

  “Tazminera Tylira Nyota!” Amandera called from the bridge.

  I poked my head out and waved to her. Even from so far away I could feel the chill of her gaze. Jakinda waved to me, indicating that my warriors were finally ready to ride.

  “By the authority of the High Tazmin...” Amandera began.

  “Ride!” I yelled to Jakinda, and with a lurch her elephant jolted forward, followed by the other guard elephant. Alsoon didn’t hesitate. As soon as the other elephants moved he was hard on their heels. I felt his joy at the surge of excitement running always brought him.

  The curtains in the palanquin fluttered and Amandera’s voice faded out in the sound of tack jangling, elephants’ feet pounding on the cobbles, and the voices all around us screaming or cursing as the elephants surged forward. I gave a whoop of delight, scrambling forward to Rusk’s seat and sticking my head out the window to watch as we passed through the gates of Al’Karida into the wilderness beyond. The road wa
s clogged with people, but as we cleared the gates Jakinda veered to the North West, off the road but parallel to it. In minutes we were running across the open terrain with nothing but the wind in our hair and the sun at our backs. We were free! We were really doing it!

  I sat back in my seat. Rusk was still staring at me with a calculating look in his eye.

  “What?” I asked irritably.

  “I wouldn’t have felt so bad about trying to kidnap you if I knew you were heartless.”

  “Heartless? Ha! They chained you to me. What do you care if I take you off on a race or off to Azaradi?”

  “I wasn’t talking about me, although I would have preferred the capitol. My family were taken there—the ones who still live.”

  I looked at the rug while I shifted irritably.

  “Jakinda said you were trying to kidnap me as payment so they wouldn’t be executed.”

  “Yes.”

  “So will they die now?”

  I let my gaze study the rolling hills and sparse dryland foliage, pretending I was keeping watch so I wouldn’t have to look at him.

  “When I agreed to be your san’lelion and swore oaths to teach and protect you, they agreed not to kill the rest of my family.”

  “I thought they beat you to make you agree.”

  “No, they did it to stop me. I tried...I tried to fight them when they made their point. A lesson.”

  “A lesson on what?”

  “The price of failure.”

  I paled. I thought I knew what he meant, but I had to be sure. “They killed someone?”

  He looked at the ground.

  “In front of you?” I asked.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  I risked a glance to his face. He was studying the landscape out the opposite window, but a tear slid down his dark face.

  “In front of you.”

  My chest felt tight. They killed his loved one in front of him for no other reason than to make him compliant and no threat to me. I should hate him. I should pity him. I didn’t know what I should do. I didn’t want to think about any of it. How could anyone do that to someone? And then they tied him to me, and somehow that made me a part of it. I would never have chosen for that to happen.