“Yes and no,” Jonah said. “I am Jonah, but also Ona Hashi and still the Dokan. It is hard to explain.” He motioned for Branson to stop bowing and before his lifelong manservant and friend could stop him, Jonah wrapped both arms around the old codger and gave him a heartfelt hug. “Thank you,” he said into Branson’s shoulder as he fought a shudder of emotion. “You sacrificed so much for me. You didn’t have to. Why didn’t you go back to your clan?”
Branson smiled awkwardly and returned the embrace. He patted Jonah on the shoulder and gently pushed him back as he said, “Let me have a look at you.” Branson’s eyes scanned Jonah like those of a father.
Jonah rolled his eyes at the attention.
“Don’t give me that. I’ve been with you since you came squalling out from between the empress’s legs, I’m afraid you’re stuck with me,” Branson harrumphed.
Jonah smiled, glad that Branson was there, his reassuring and solid presence had lent him so much strength over the years, and he knew he would never be able to repay the older man.
“Ninth Division is he?” Branson nodded towards Fin who had wincingly got up and was rotating his shoulder back and forth with a grimace. “I should have seen it.” Branson sucked his teeth in anger. “Damn it, I let him get so close! Why is it that he’s still breathing?”
“Not quite sure.” Jonah tilted his head to the side, considering the big man. “He had the chance but didn’t take it.” He looked at Fin expectantly. “Explain why I’m still alive as I’m assuming the bounty to bring my head to my mother is still exorbitantly high?”
“It is,” Fin confirmed, but he pointed out of the dirty window to the city beyond. “I’m not stupid, this new world we found and the people within it change everything. They are healthy and fertile, and so is this land, not like back across the Barrier Sea.
“Most of our empire is dust and sand, with only the continent of Eura being slightly bearable to live on, where only one in every ten women can have children, and the effort required to cajole the land into providing food is ludicrous. We were sent packing with next to nothing because the generals didn’t want to waste resources on a self-imposed voluntary suicide mission.
“Besides, those of us who chose to go were all fleeing a world which we no longer felt connected to. We were given only the basics like bows, arrows and swords, some of them no doubt from museums, as everyone back in the empire thought we’d be dead and then finally out of their way. Yet we made it, and the Barrier Sea still remains calm. We have even had a vessel return from the continent.”
Fin held up a hand and pointed out the window at the city of Dawn. “The Empire is coming here, and in numbers. They will be bringing their house weapons and believe me when I say they are willing to use them to ensure victory in this land.
“These people don’t know the Empire like we do, they will resist, and the royal houses will use those damnable weapons to make examples of those who resist. I don’t want that to happen here.”
Jonah nodded, watching the assassin explain himself. “So not all of it was an act. Those moments of wonder–”
“–Were moments of genuine wonder, yes, wonder at the majesty of this land. I’m no poet, but I feel a reverence for this place and don’t want it ruined,” Fin tried to explain. “The man I knew as Jonah felt it too and saw what I saw.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t kill him once you knew he had changed. After I went and told you who he was! Damn, I’m such an idiot.” Branson huffed angrily from the corner. He had his arms crossed and had picked up the brass door jamb to use as a makeshift weapon.
“I volunteered for this mission because I knew Ja’ Al Ona Hashi had said ‘no’ to the empress, the Dokan himself had had enough and walked away from the Empire. Sure, it had taken a tragedy, but in that tragedy, you spoke the truth. Ninth Division has records of what you screamed at your mother in the days after Ilene’s death. There are many who feel that act was the spark needed to bring real change. They feel that if the Dokan no longer believes in our empire, why should they? Discontent within the empire is at an all-time high, and the empress only responds by closing her fist tighter around her people.” Fin was gesticulating with passion, his every word laced with emotion.
“It had to be me who volunteered, as then I could prevent any others from Ninth Division from killing you if you turned out to be the man we need. I am not alone in how I feel either. Many of those who set sail with Prince El’ Amin had been scheduled for exile or had given up on finding fairness or opportunity within the Empire. Now, here you are, the man who stood up to the empress, a man of power and ability. A man we could follow. A man whose banner could shatter the old order as the masses flocked to support a new way of life. A life where we live alongside and learn from the people of this land. A life of peace and prosperity rather than war and conquest.” Fin, his eyes filled with hope and righteousness, held an open hand out to Jonah.
Yet Jonah didn’t know what to think now.
Branson began to laugh, and they both turned to look at him. “Oh, you stupid naïve bastard! I bet you think you are the first one to come up with this, right? Somehow, you’ve all seen the better way, ‘the true path’. Phaw.” Branson waved a dismissive hand. Then, daring Fin to take a step towards him. “I liked you better when you were playing the loveable idiot, rather than being some fallen assassin with the heart of an idealistic moron.” Branson shook his head. “Do us a favour, Jonah, kill this idiot quick so we can be on our way.”
“It’s not as simple as that!” Fin growled. “The resistance has already begun back in the empire. There was a schism within Ninth Division and at its heart was a dark secret. That statistic which everyone in the empire has heard since they were born is a damn lie. Maybe at some point in our history, ‘one woman in ten could have children’ was true, but it’s not anymore.”
Jonah’s hands dropped to his sides, “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that the Empire has been sterilising people to maintain the status quo. The Great Sickness has been fading for at least five generations. Our fertility pills work! Each generation was becoming healthier and more fertile when those pills were mandatory. That’s why the program was cancelled. It was too effective!” Fin waved a hand in disgust. “The real statistic is more like one in four women now.”
Jonah squinted sceptically at him.
“Don’t look at me like that, I know the truth of it, Jonah, because it was during my time working for the Ninth that I started to piece it together. I was a logistics officer before I started to work for the Ninth, and I could feel the health of the people whom I tested. They were fertile after taking the early pills, then, when the program ended and the new medication came in, people started losing that fertility. Then when I got into the Ninth, more and more of my assigned targets were doctors, nurses and attendants at the fertility clinics, and one time a nurse was waiting for me. Just sitting there in the dark.
“You’ve finally come,” she had said. “I stopped talking about it after Beth disappeared, but somehow I knew you’d eventually find me too.” Fin paused as he remembered then, his eyes haunted as he continued. “She took a drink then, with her hand shaking, but she didn’t try to run. “Was it you that killed Beth?” And for some stupid reason, I answered. “No,” I said, which startled her. She turned to look at me then. “It’s evil what they make us do. That’s why I stopped. I just couldn’t stand by and watch those mothers losing their babies anymore.” She seemed to think I was there to take her confession, but I was frozen, watching her cry as she took another drink. “It’s in the food and medicine we give. The same ones which for nearly a hundred years had helped to promote healthy growth in infants. It’s so perverse, you see? These women come in, hopeful because they tested positive for some logistics officer, hoping for a chance to become that bit closer to royalty, hoping for the Empire to help them out of their sad lives, and then we poison them. Slowly, methodically and thoroughly poison them so that
they lose any baby they might have and end up sterile. The most horrible part is that most of them would have fallen pregnant on their own. They had no need to come to the clinics as, by all other tests, they were perfectly healthy.
“The nurse had tried to see the shock on my face, or to see if I already knew, and on some level, I did. I just hadn’t been able to accept the truth of it until that moment. It was her eyes which ripped my faith in the Empire away forever.” Fin glanced over at them, and Jonah no doubt wore the same look of horror Fin had worn that night.
Ilene went to those clinics, Jonah thought. She had seemed fine before we went in and then ... He remembered the treatments Ilene used to get. The odd looks as they watched her drink her tonics or as they gave her a shot. They had known all along. The Blood had never approved of his ‘obsession’ with her, and so they had poisoned the woman he loved.
Branson threw up an interjecting hand. “What rubbish. That can’t be true, it’s too big a secret. People would have talked. I repeat, Jonah, kill this idiot so we can get on with the rest of our day.”
“They did try!” Fin yelled, “That’s what Ninth Division was used for, to cover it all up!”
“Stop, both of you,” Jonah commanded, and Branson froze in mid-stride, lifting a questioning eyebrow and lowering his fist. Jonah shook his head as more and more things began to make sense. The tension within the Imperial Palace, the increase in special operations he had been commanded to approve with no questions asked by personal decree of his mother. The increase in public announcements about the Sickness and how dire their situation was. It was all propaganda to keep the Blood in power, the special ops were probably assassinations of anyone who was getting too close to the truth. And Ilene, who had been deemed very fertile before they met had nothing but still-births after she had refused to couple with any other partners. It was the treatments which had driven her mad.
Jonah’s legs felt weak, and he had to lean against the wall as he slid down to the floor. His whole body vibrated with anger and shock, but within his anger, a cold core of clarity began to grow.
“I’m going to go over there,” Branson said to Fin, pointing to the spot beside Jonah. “If I even see you twitch in my direction I swear to the empress and all the gods on this side of the sea that I’ll chew through your damn knee cap before you kill me.”
Fin offered a placating wave of the hand as his familiar grin crept onto his face as he let the old man pass.
“You all right?” Branson put a hand on Jonah’s shoulder as he knelt beside him.
Jonah nodded, still feeling rage coursing through him. “He’s right, Branson, he’s bloody right. A thousand little eccentricities and fragments of memories from my time at court and with Ilene suddenly clicked into place as he explained.”
Branson nodded absently as his hands checked over Jonah. He wore the look of a concerned parent as he lifted Jonah’s chin and softly wiped the blood spot on his neck with a cloth from his pocket. “Well, you’ll have to wear a scarf for a few weeks,” he said and tilted Jonah’s head so that they met each other’s gaze, “but that’s really you in there isn’t it? All of you, I mean.”
“Yes. I remember it all,” Jonah said, shuddering as he spoke.
“And we’re not going to kill him?” Branson hooked a thumb back at Fin.
“No, Branson, we’re not.”
Branson sighed and rolled his head to look at Fin. “Is Fin even your real name?”
“It is my name, actually. Easier to avoid mistakes that way. Fin is a common enough name in the empire, so why bother, right?”
“So, what now?” Branson asked. “We all just walk out of here and pretend everything is all fine and dandy?”
“That’s up to him.” Fin nodded at Jonah. “What’s the call, boss?”
Jonah sat against the wall for a moment longer, replaying all the moments of betrayal, reliving his life since enlisting in Prince El’ Amin’s expeditionary force. Seeing a future that he would have wanted for his baby girl.
He stood up, truly awake for the first time in his whole life. A smouldering core of anger settled within him, one which he knew would not go out until he either did what needed to be done or died trying. He set his jaw and looked at Branson. “Tell me you still have it.”
Branson’s eyes widened as he realised what Jonah meant.
“It’s true then.” Fin said with awe and amazement. “You did take it!”
Branson growled in frustration. “Ja’ Al Ona, is it wise to–”
Jonah held a hand up, stopping any further objections. “He is part of this now, and call me Jonah, please. I am more than the soldier who originally set sail here, but here in this land, I feel as if I have been reborn, and here I will be known as Jonah. Do you still have it?”
“Of course, I bloody do!” Branson snapped.
“The White Spear,” Fin whispered.
“Yes, the damned spear, just shut up for a moment.” Branson met Jonah’s eyes and his hands clenched in frustration as he stomped over to him. “Just last night you were comatose because you smelled a bloody flower. You’ve spent most of the last year in some sort of mind cocoon, half-mad and thinking you were a foot-bowmen. Not to mention you were actually a good deal happier that way, I might add. If anyone within El’ Amin’s circle finds out who you are, they won’t hesitate to gut both of us and send our heads back to the empress unlike this self-righteous moron.” Branson pointed at Fin.
Jonah put his hand on Branson’s shoulder and looked into his friend’s eyes, “Branson, my oldest and most honest friend, if what Fin says is true, and I feel it is, no ... I know it’s true, then I want the life which is left to me to have some meaning. I need to try and change things for the better. You have felt the rot back home just as much as I have. I’m doing this, but I’m not going to make you go with me. You’ve done enough, you’ve sacrificed enough for me ...”
Branson stared at him for a long time, and then lifted a hand to cup the back of Jonah’s neck just like he had done ever since Jonah was a boy. “This is what you want? We ran away together, across the sea that can’t be crossed to find a way to escape and now you want to dive right back into that quagmire? My boy, my Duke. Are you sure?” Branson asked.
Jonah returned the clasp to the back of Branson’s neck and dipped his forehead to rest against the old man’s. The comfort of the familiar gesture brought an immediate calm to his soul. He owed this man so much he could never make it up to him. “This is right. This is why we took the spear with us, instead of just cutting and running. The Empire must be held to account for what they have done to our people. I need to do this, but I want you to be safe. You should go, get on the next boat home, re-join your clan.”
He felt Branson’s head swivel back and forth as the old man began to chuckle, “How is it you can have had so much school, I mean you physically have the memories of your ancestors within you, yet you are still so dumb?” He pulled back so they could look at each other. “Safe? Get on the next boat home? Damn it, my boy, if you say this is the right move. I’m in. Hells, the whole bloody Delegoth clan will be in. Old man Branson still has some pull back home. Not everyone gets to help raise the Dokan, you know.”
They turned to look at Fin.
“You mentioned others?” Jonah stood a little taller. Purpose was something he hadn’t felt for a long while.
“Yes, but we can’t just go announcing our intentions just yet.” Fin put up an excited but halting hand. “We do actually have to pretend everything is ‘fine and dandy’, as Branson says. The Black Rain has been selected for retraining. Apparently, the engineers have got us an upgrade from simple bows and arrows. Thousands of engineers have landed, and they brought some sort of steam-powered projectile weaponry with them.”
“Don’t dismiss the old bow and arrow, big man. It’s done us pretty damn well so far. We don’t need all those fancy toys they keep concocting back in the capital,” Branson scoffed.
“Well, it’s not up to us
yet, is it? We have to stay undercover until I can get enough people around Jonah to protect him. We have to build the resistance movement before we can make a move on El’ Amin and those who would stand in our way,” Fin explained.
Jonah nodded in agreement. “We carry on as normal for now. Fin’s correct, we have to choose the right moment to reveal the White Spear and challenge El’ Amin. Let’s get into uniform and report for training.”
“Just like that?” Branson asked, squinting in suspicion.
“Just like that.” Fin grinned.
It was both comforting and eerie to see the same smile Jonah and Branson had been fooled by for months.
“Let’s go then, Commander Naseen will have our arses if we’re late,” Branson said as he stood, and with that, the three took their first determined steps down a path of no return.
* * *
A man, or, seeing as gender had long ago ceased to matter for itself, a being with metal skin which called itself Wunjo, watched the three Kutsal soldiers through the window from its perch atop the rooftop across the street. Its red-eyes circled inwards as the three left the room, no longer needing the extra focal length for its vision.
The three remained on the same path. The currents seemed to be carrying them together through this, but to what end, Wunjo could not see. Still, the push had been needed to allow the convergence to proceed. The flowers’ pollen had unlocked the old memories and allowed the Broken Prince to become what was needed.
The next steps were uncertain, but Wunjo knew it was needed elsewhere.
The being sprung from the rooftop as easily as a giant cricket might and landed on the next rooftop with an eerily noiseless crouch. It was off to meet the giant roc hiding in the mountains outside the city of Dawn, then back to New Toeron.
That’s where the currents of the Tiden Raika were taking them. Eddies swirled around that old city, more than Wunjo had ever seen before. Which was saying something as Wunjo had been here since the beginning, that is if it counted the time when it had been flesh.
Awakenings Page 2
