We Cry for Blood

by Devin Madson

  She had barely finished the words before she was off, heading in the direction of the south tower now looming its height alone. A single point in a broken crown.

  Rubble littered the ground, and we had to watch where we put our feet or risk tripping. “Shit, there’s nothing big enough,” Nuru said as we reached the stairs at the base of the tower. “Shall we go up and see if there’s a way down?”

  Sichi started up the stairs, her hair beginning to pull loose from the topknot she’d tied. Nuru followed, glancing back to be sure I was with them. Two at a time up the stairs to the top of the wall again, everything that had happened between the army’s arrival and now like a bad dream. They were still out there, still hammering their way in, still loading rocks into their catapults and raining them upon us, intent on our destruction.

  “Look!”

  Nuru pointed. A dark smudge sat on the horizon behind the Chiltaens.

  Sichi darted to the parapet, stepping upon a fallen rock to get a better view. When she turned, a broad smile stretched her lips, a little laugh tripping from her tongue. “Miko!”

  The dark smudge owned crimson banners.

  “Yes!” Nuru cried. “They’re coming!”

  “We just have to hold out until they get here.” I tried to measure the distance, but all I came up with was too far away. “We had better hope that gate holds.”

  A large rock sailed over the wall and smashed into the upper floor of the manor. Timbers splintered and a section of roof sagged, spilling tiles.

  “Yes,” Nuru agreed. “Because heading back to the house is out of the question now too.”

  The gate shattered, the end of the ram sticking through the hole like an iron fist. The courtyard filled with shouts as the Kisians and Levanti lined up, weapons drawn and ready.

  “Shit,” I said, as Sichi scowled at me and gestured angrily.

  “She says you need to stop talking,” Nuru said. “You said we should use the caves a moment before they caved in, now this.”

  “It’s not my fault!”

  “Tell that to the gods.”

  The ram tore the gates as it was withdrawn, and a shiver of mingled anticipation and fear moved through the waiting soldiers. At Edo’s command, arrows flew through the opening before the onrush of Chiltaen soldiers. Half a dozen fell, trampled beneath the feet of their own comrades, and my skin chilled.

  Leo was coming.

  “We have to get out of sight,” I said, looking around. The manor was out, as were the stables and most of the outbuildings, even the caves. Everything else was close enough that he might see us or hear us or whatever the weird mystical shit he did was. I pointed up at the south tower. “Up there. Quick, go!”

  I shoved Sichi toward the stairs as she exclaimed, and guessing her complaint, I said, “Yes, the very same sort of tower we just saw brought down by a single rock, now get going.”

  “Are you sure—?” Nuru began.

  “It’s a terrible idea, but we don’t have another one,” I said. “Leo isn’t infallible. He can’t be everywhere. All we need to do is get out of his range and hold out until the Kisians arrive.”

  Sichi led the way, the hammer of our footfalls echoing as we wound our way up each flight of stairs. Every floor was a small room, bare of all furniture or crammed with so much one couldn’t enter. At the first that looked liveable—a room with a small table and cushions and a long couch under the narrow window—Sichi stopped to catch her breath. The space was dusty and unused but comfortable, and Sichi leaned against the wall. From the window, I could see the courtyard, but it was too hard to make out any individuals in the moving mass of fighters, horses, dust, and blood. But I could have seen Leo’s banners from twice the distance. One was coming this way.

  “How far up are we?” I asked, gesturing at the next flight of stairs.

  Nuru and Sichi exchanged words. “Halfway.”

  “Only halfway?”

  “It gets rickety the farther up you go,” Nuru said. “This is safe.”

  “Safe from falling, but maybe not safe from Leo.” I peered out the window again. The banner had disappeared, sending my heart leaping into my throat. “We should keep moving.”

  Sichi held up a hand, seeming to beg a moment to rest. I couldn’t say my legs were looking forward to more stairs, but neither was I looking forward to more Leo. He might already have seen us. Have heard us. Have caught sight of Sichi’s bright crimson surcoat and followed it through the dust as I had. “Just a few more floors and we can rest again.”

  Nuru translated, and with a reluctant nod, Sichi agreed.

  Three more floors brought us to another furnished room, where I knelt on the sagging couch beneath the window. “The Kisians are almost here,” I said, eyeing the broadening shadow approaching the back of the Chiltaen lines. They had surely seen them coming by now, and I could imagine the confusion as the rearguard became frontline fighters.

  “Can you see Leo?” Nuru was at my shoulder, her hair tickling my cheek. She pushed closer to the window, but it wasn’t wide enough to stick her head through so she settled for pressing her cheek to the stone. “I can’t see anyone.”

  “A banner was coming this way before, but it disappeared.” I itched to look again and had to sit on my hands to keep from pushing her aside. “Hopefully he didn’t see us.”

  Sichi spoke, giving me a look.

  “She says everything else you’ve said has come true so far.”

  “I am not trying to curse us, the worst possible things just keep happening on their own, all right?”

  “That’s not very comforting.”

  A door banged far below us, followed by distant footsteps. “Dishiva?” called a voice we all knew so hatefully well.

  Nuru glared at me. “Maybe stop talking from now on.”

  “It’s not me, I—”

  “Dishiva,” he called again. “I know you’re up there. You can’t stop me taking her.”

  Behind me, Sichi let out a harsh puff of breath. I turned to find her hands shaking. “Do you have a knife?”

  “She has one of mine,” Nuru said. “I have my other and my swords.”

  “Well, that’s something.”

  “Do we hold our ground here, or…?”

  The room was not large, but large enough for a messy scrap. Better still, being above him meant he’d have to stick his head above the edge of the stairs and risk attack before he could see us.

  “Here seems as good as anywhere.”

  “Planning to kill me again, Dishiva, Defender of the One True God? It hasn’t been working out very well for you so far.”

  My hands clenched to fists. We had killed him twice now, but the shit just kept coming back. I let out a hard exhale and gripped my sword hilt. Not usually a good choice for close confines, but I wanted to slice his head off the moment it appeared, while keeping as far away as I could.

  “My dear Sichi,” he called out when I made no answer, his voice seeming to come from a few floors below us. “I am desolated you would hurt me so. I thought we had something, you and I.”

  Sichi stepped closer, Nuru’s knife in her hand. By her grip she’d never been trained to use it, but anger can make up for much. Gesturing for her to stay where she was, I stepped forward, a slow heel to toe on the creaking floor.

  The battle outside sounded very far away.

  “You and I could achieve so much together, Sichi,” he said, Nuru translating for me in a low hiss as he went on, earnest rather than mocking now. “I know you want a powerful position from which others cannot control you. I can promise you that. No one tries to control a man chosen and beloved of God.”

  “Except for God,” I muttered, quiet enough there was no way he could hear me.

  “Yes, but everyone is part of God’s purpose, Dishiva,” he called back. “As you ought to have accepted by now. How much stronger you would be if you did.”

  I suppressed a shiver and crouched by the railing where his head would soon appear. “I got a
copy of your holy book, you know,” I said. “And had it translated. Fascinating read. Man dies in a throne room. Dies in a cave. Keeps coming back. But honestly, I don’t see how all the dying is helping you. No one is even seeing you do it.”

  “Your expert opinion is greatly appreciated, Dishiva.”

  More a snap than the boastful answer I had hoped for, but he was close now, maybe only two flights down. I leaned forward, peering through the railing. I glimpsed him, head turned up, eyes on me, an instant before the screaming hit me like a club. The floor slammed into my back and I pressed my hands over my ears, sound ripping through me on a tide of voices.

  And was gone. I lay sucking breaths, Nuru and Sichi staring in mingled horror and fright as Leo’s footsteps kept approaching up the stairs.

  “Did I hurt you, Dishiva? It’s only fair after everything you’ve done to me, don’t you think?” Such anger in his words, such bitterness, but I could do nothing beyond feel a flicker of pride that we had pushed him so far.

  Sichi held down her hand to help me up. “I think…” I began as I took it. “I think you have to look him in the eyes for him to do that.”

  I’d looked at him in the garden house. He’d goaded me into looking up before the ceremony too, it just hadn’t felt as strong. Not as much anger behind it, perhaps.

  “You’re right,” he said, not having to shout now he was so close. “I was not as skilled in my younger bodies. A pity really; so much more I could have achieved.”

  Once more, I edged toward the stairs. He appeared before I could get close enough, and I flinched back, bracing for the pain and the noise, for the voice that never came. Recovering, I lunged, but he had hurried up the last few steps and blocked my blade with his own, grinning hatefully over the sound of the metallic clang.

  “You think you’ve angered me, Dishiva?” he said, advancing a step. “You’ve caused me considerable pain and annoyance, but how can I hate you when you keep doing everything I need you to do? The cave was the greatest gift you could have given me. And letting Sichi stab me in the back—I couldn’t have planned it better myself.”

  He stepped forward, pressing me back. “Get on the stairs,” I said to Nuru, looking over Leo’s shoulder rather than risk his gaze. “Stay behind me.”

  “Is that your plan?” He advanced another step. “To keep standing between me and what I want?”

  “Whatever it takes.”

  The stairs creaked behind me. Slowly backing up however many flights of stairs were left was not the best plan, but once again, it was the only one I had. That and hoping he would give me an opening. Or that the Kisians would somehow guess we were up here and save us.

  Leo chuckled, and it was such an effort not to look at him. “They are never going to know. And won’t get the chance anyway.”

  He slashed at my face, and had my reflexes been slower he would have sliced my cheek. I backed onto the bottom step, heart hammering my panic.

  Nuru and Sichi hissed desperate words behind me, but I couldn’t focus on them, only on the man I watched out the corner of my eye.

  “What a waste of time this is, Dishiva,” he said, advancing slowly. “You are going to run out of stairs.”

  “Before you run out of mocking things to say?”

  “Oh, I have an unlimited supply of those.” He jabbed at me and I leapt back, catching my foot awkwardly on the step and almost falling. Hands caught me from behind, steadying my retreat as he lunged again, the flash of a grin all I saw above his blade.

  Sichi cried out, and I had to fight the urge to turn and see what was wrong as Leo advanced another step. An open floor yawned above us.

  “She said you’re running out of floors,” Leo said, matching each of my steps back with one forward. “There are only three above this. Oops. What was that about hoping the Kisians would save you?” His gaze flicked to the window, and mine followed as he looked back.

  The strike to my mind was fast and vicious, a fist clenched over all thought. I stumbled back, crying out.

  Just let go. It is pointless to fight. It only puts Sichi in danger.

  Hands gripped me. Pulled. I jolted and wriggled and fought to be free of them, sure they were the claws of monsters dragging me into an abyss.

  Just lie still. Don’t fight. It will soon be over.

  At a sharp cry, the dense fog faded and I was lying on the top step, battered from thrashing. Something flew over my head. Leo cried out again and snarled as a broken table leg hit his raised arm. Someone helped me up. Nuru, from the smell and the tight grip of her long fingers. Sichi’s hurried footsteps behind heralded another flying table leg.

  “You’re going to run out of furniture even sooner than you run out of stairs,” he said, speeding the last few steps and sending us scurrying across the dusty floor toward the next flight.

  “Stay behind me!” I called to Sichi and Nuru, unable to turn. “Don’t look at him.”

  “You’ll look at me eventually. It’s what we do, look into each other’s eyes; that’s why people find the mask so uncomfortable to be around, because you can’t see the eyes behind it.”

  He kept approaching, not bothering to swing his blade now, his smile and his continued approach all the threat he needed.

  Until he leapt two steps and slashed at my face. Pain ripped across my eye and the bridge of my nose, and heat leaked down my cheeks. I couldn’t see and blundered back, everything a blot. Nuru swore. Her shaking hands touched my shoulder. My arm. My cheek. “Fuck! Dishiva? Look at me.”

  I could turn toward her voice but couldn’t see her. There was red and darkness and a blur of shapes, but no Nuru. No Leo.

  “Oops.” He laughed. “What happened to your eyes?”

  One moved when I shifted my gaze, the haze of darkness shifting with it as though something was trapped in my sight, but the other… I touched my face with my free hand, fingers finding an empty gash where an eye should be, hot, wet blood and fluid dripping down my face.

  “Stay back, you piece of horseshit,” Nuru snarled in front of me, her footsteps loud on the stairs. Was she standing in front of Leo? I couldn’t tell. Couldn’t think. I kept trying to open my eyes like they were stuck closed.

  Nuru screamed, the ragged sound I had heard torn from my own throat. “Changed your mind yet, Sichi?” Leo said. “I might spare her life if you do.”

  For a glorious moment, angry heat seared away all my pain and fear, and I lunged toward his voice. The blur of a figure flashed before me and I hit him, sweet-scented woollen fabric and the smell of wax sneaking between breaths of my own blood. We tumbled, limbs slamming against steps, everything a whirl of different pains and the gasp and blow of his breath so close it warmed my skin.

  We hit the floor below in a tangle, him beneath me. Feeling for his collar I hauled him up and smashed his head down on the wooden boards. “Fuck you,” I snarled. “Just die. Die and leave us alone.”

  He laughed—a weak, breathless, mad sound. “That’s not going to happen. You can’t escape me, Dishiva.”

  I made to slam his head again, but his knee rammed into my chest, knocking breath from my body. Feet scuffed as he got up, his outline flitting across my good eye. I tracked him through the haze, a joyous possibility occurring to me as I got shakily to my feet. “You can’t get inside my head now,” I said, lunging after him. “You’ve fucked up your own biggest weapon.”

  Floorboards creaked beneath him. I followed the sound, adrenaline all that kept me moving like a stalking lion.

  “I am going to be the end of you. I am—”

  Noise slammed into me. The floor trembled. Stone scraped and tumbled and someone screamed. It might have been me as a board snapped under my feet in a rip of timber. Leo cried out and the floor fell away, casting me into emptiness and pain.

  25. MIKO

  My horse stood as steady as a rock. Its stillness helped me be calm, or at least appear so. There was no being calm anymore.

  Before us the city of Kogahaera stood proud
upon its plateau, the governor’s manor beset by a Chiltaen army. One of the great towers had fallen, leaving only one reaching for the sky. I wondered if it would ever be rebuilt. If Mei’lian would ever be rebuilt, or if we would leave the ruins of this war scattered like scabs across the land.

  “Might I take this opportunity to dissuade you from ordering us into this fight?” Manshin said. We had stopped a little distance back, waiting for everyone to gather, he my only companion at the head of my army.

  “No,” I said, not turning to look at him. “You may not.”

  For a moment there was no sound beyond the growing restlessness of the soldiers behind me, all shifting feet and murmuring while their comrades gathered along the ridge.

  “It’s dangerous.”

  “Hardly. We outnumber them.” I turned to look at him. “I told you, I will not sit by and watch another of my cities get destroyed. Or more of my people be slaughtered.”

  He met my gaze, no smile in his eyes. “They aren’t interested in the city. If they were, they wouldn’t have attacked at the most defended part. The part filled with Levanti warriors. They want the same thing we do, the end of this false emperor, though why is something I would very much like to know. It bodes ill to have so many Chiltaens seemingly rogue this far into our lands.”

  “Shall we wait and ask them? After they’ve defeated the Levanti and turned around to man the walls themselves? If they get in, they will be harder to root out, and I would rather not exchange a Levanti court allying itself with the local Kisian lords for a Chiltaen one intent on our further destruction.”

  Whether because one of my points had finally found weight with him or because further argument was pointless, Minister Manshin made no answer. I had gotten so used to heeding his advice these last weeks that to sit there and spit on it felt churlish. So far had we fallen from our mutual respect, had it ever been mutual at all.

  “It is safest not to fight powerful men,” Ryoji had said, and gods how I wished he was here now, no matter how much more I needed him to fulfil his mission.