Bastial Explosion (The Rhythm of Rivalry: Book 3) (34 page)

“Where exactly are we right now?” Javy unfolded his map.

“Here.” Queen pointed.

Javy clicked his tongue then hummed.

“What is it?” Jack asked. “What’s around there?”

“We’re right underneath the southern side of Tenred castle. Unfortunately, there are many people living west of here, and we don’t know whether or not they fight with the army.”

“How many?” Jack asked.

“In the castle alone there must be thousands,” Javy said. “Most of whom work directly for King Tegry Hiller. Nearly all of them would be good targets, as most would be warriors and mages protecting the castle from a siege. But all around here is the unknown.” He made a small circle with his finger. “There’s probably a few hundred people living here, and we don’t know who fights and who doesn’t.”

“May I see?” Queen was too short to look at the map.

Javy leaned down and made the same circle with his finger.

“What’s that circle supposed to represent?” Queen asked.

“The size of the explosion…” Javy’s voice trailed off, no longer confident.

“No,” Queen stated firmly. “This is more accurate.” She made her own imaginary circle with a claw. It was twice the size of the one Javy had indicated.

“Bastial stars,” Jack whispered. “How many is that?”

“Could be over a thousand,” Javy answered.

“And how many are part of the army?”

“It could be all of them or half of them. We don’t know.”

Jack and Javy fell silent, expressive eyes and tilts of their heads taking over the conversation.

“I had a feeling there would need to be some discussion,” Queen said. “There are some other matters I need to attend to before I sleep. Why don’t you take a rest and decide when you wake up. We need some time to prepare the explosion if that’s what you choose. Once the ground opens, we need the rest of our colony closed off from the outside so that enemies can’t come down and attack us. They shouldn’t know we were responsible if we do it right.”

“That’s right, they won’t realize that we caused the explosion,” Javy said, mostly to himself.

“They’ll have to assume it, Rayvender!” Jack flailed his arms. “And think about all the innocent people killed. They’ll die gruesome deaths. Can you imagine what it’ll be like for them? You have to reconsider doing this.”

“This isn’t your decision, Rose. Just be silent as I think.”

“I won’t just be silent.”

“Men,” Queen interrupted. “Sleep and decide after you rest. I know how tired you must be.”

Their stiff backs and shoulders loosened. Javy nodded. “We do need rest. Thank you, Queen.”

“You’re welcome. Now follow me out of the tunnel and I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.”

It was so nice to escape the heat, that Steffen felt no fear as he squeezed his way around the turns this time. Marratrice was asleep on the dirt, curled up with her bag as a pillow.

“We’re done,” Steffen woke her with a light shake.

She grumbled and sat up. “What was in there?”

Before Steffen could explain, he overheard Javy yelling at Jack in a frustrated tone, “Leave it alone for now!”

Queen was right,
Steffen realized as he thought of how to answer Marratrice.
It is hard to explain.

“I’m too tired to even know how to start,” he admitted. “But we could be exploding the land beneath Tenred.”

Marratrice seemed either confused or too tired to understand. One of her eyes was squinted, and she had trouble keeping her head up.

“I’ll tell you more in the morning. We’re following Queen to our sleeping quarters.”

Chapter 28:

STEFFEN

At some point, Steffen awoke to someone stepping over him. He shut his eyes again and thought nothing of it…until another pair of footsteps followed. When he heard whispers, his curiosity was piqued too much to go back to sleep.

He sat up, something telling him not to make a sound as he looked around the wall of the cove they were sleeping in to see who it was.

Javy Rayvender and Jack Rose were walking away from him. When they made a turn and escaped from view, Steffen decided to follow.

He used the tall clay pillars as cover until he found them again. Javy was leaning against the wall while Jack had his arms folded with his back up against a pillar. Steffen squatted behind his own pillar and strained his ears to listen.

“I already know what you’re going to say,” Javy complained. “You don’t want me to do it.”

Steffen could hear Jack take in a slow breath. “It’s more than that, Rayvender. We need to talk this out, figure out what’s best.”

“You mean convince me that you’re right.”

“Look what happened last time we took aggressive action,” Jack whispered.

Javy scoffed. “I knew you were going to bring that up. You might as well say it. You blame me for what happened.”

“Haven’t I said that aloud yet? Of course I blame you. It’s your fault. You chose to send that raven and signal Dex Polken to take the shot.”

“Will you quiet your voice?” Javy’s tone was irritated. “I may have sent the raven, but everyone wanted that except for you. You were the only vote against it.”

“And for good reason,” Jack said. “Westin’s son came after Dex and Lena Polken. Aggression only leads to more aggression. They’re dead now because of the decision you made.”

Bastial stars, what am I listening to?
Steffen considered leaving before he heard more. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Two deaths compared to…who knows how many if Dex didn’t kill Westin. You were on the underground council before I was—” Javy stopped himself. Steffen figured it was to glance around, to make sure no one was close by.

What would he do right now if he found out I overheard?
Steffen knew he had to leave before they were done. He couldn’t let them come back to find him missing. But he couldn’t go just yet. He needed to understand what they were saying.

They were talking about the late King, Westin Kimard. Steffen thought no one knew who’d killed him, but here Javy had admitted it was Dex Polken. Steffen had heard the name, though he didn’t remember how he knew it was Cleve’s father.

Then it came to him. Reela had mentioned it, also telling Steffen not to bring it up around Cleve. Although Steffen was known for his inability to keep secrets, it was the opposite when he had absolutely no reason to discuss something. He had no reason to talk to Cleve about his father. There was nothing to say.
Well, until now.

Javy continued. “Everyone knew Westin was going mad, and he was teaching his son terrible things. A few more years and our king would’ve turned out worse than his father. Then, who could say if Kyrro would even still be around by now. Our relationship with Tenred has been like dancing in quicksand. The more we’ve tried to work our way out of trouble, the deeper we sink. With an inept king, this war would’ve begun and been lost years ago. But we actually have a chance with Welson Kimard. I know you know this, and it frustrates me that you choose to ignore it.”

Jack sighed. “It’s always the same argument when we discuss this. You already know what I’m going to say next.”

“That there were other ways to make Westin step down besides having Dex shoot him. I know you think this, but even Dex knew the risks and still agreed it was worth it.”

“But he had no idea that you’d sent the raven on your own without the consensus of the rest of the underground council.” Now Jack seemed to be irritated as well. “And you knew Marie Fyremore was close to changing her mind. Kerr was the only one as decisive as you about the decision.”

“He was the closest one to the King,” Javy argued. “He knew better than all of us, which should tell you that it was the right decision.”

“I don’t think you should make this decision on your own now,” Jack said. “You should bring it back to the King.”

“You only say that to delay the inevitable. Welson Kimard would send me right back down here as soon as I explained it. And do you know why? Can you guess what he would say?”

Jack grumbled, then asked, “What?”

“He would ask me what Tenred would do if the situation was reversed. Under Tegry Hiller’s command, they lied about us to the Krepps, telling them we knew where the Slugari were. Tenred did this. Now tell me honestly, do you think they would leave this trapped Bastial Energy alone, or would they explode it beneath our towns?”

From the long breath that Jack took in, it sounded as if he had no retort.

“I thought so,” Javy said.

Steffen knew he’d been there too long. They had to be ending their conversation soon. He dashed behind another pillar, then another, quickly making his way back to the cove.

Close now, he took a peek back at Javy and Jack. Fortunately, they were still distracted with each other. Steffen jumped out from the pillar and hurried into the cove, making sure not to look at Javy and Jack just in case they glanced his way during that moment. He could always claim he went somewhere to relieve himself if they asked.

“Where did you go?” Marratrice mumbled as he lay down near her.

Might as well practice my lie.
“Had to relieve myself.”

As he closed his eyes and tried to sleep, he wondered whether he should tell anyone about what he’d heard. His first instinct was to wait for Cleve and then make a decision. But then he realized that if he did see Cleve again, he certainly would reveal this information.

Cleve deserves to know, simple as that.

Chapter 29:

ZETI

Seven days and seven nights it took them to reach Tenred. Not a day went by without Keenu picking up signs that an ambush was ahead of them and changing the route. Zeti never saw the signs for herself, though she stopped looking early on when she realized she wouldn’t notice them before Keenu.

She was thankful for Grayol’s company. After the incident with Vithos and the Humans, Keenu had stopped speaking unless it became necessary. He walked ahead of Zeti and Grayol, making it much easier for Zeti to ignore her anger. But whenever memories came back of Paramar, she could hear Keenu’s offer to slay him.

On the sixth day, Grayol finally brought up Zoke. His tone was nervous, and she could tell he’d been thinking about it for a long while.

“I don’t know who Zoke is anymore,” Grayol admitted. “I don’t want you to be upset with me, but I’m beginning to believe he would rather be with the Humans than with us.”

Zeti couldn’t stand when Grayol spoke like this—not about Zoke being a traitor, that hadn’t happened before. It infuriated her when he made it plainly obvious how strongly her opinion mattered to him.

“Why do you care if I get upset with you?”

“Because…”

Zeti waited, but she seemed to have scared him from saying any more. “Tell me,” she insisted.

Suddenly Grayol exploded with anger. “I hate how you’re like this!”

Shocked, Zeti froze.

“You’re friendly with me when I hardly say a word, but as soon as I say anything about how I care, you get annoyed.”

The little Krepp wasn’t so good with words, but Zeti still understood what he meant. In fact, he was right. Grayol had been unusually distant during this trip, and she
had
been friendlier with him until now.

But why?
Zeti wondered.
Why does it frustrate me when he’s nice?

“So I want you to like me,” Grayol said, his frustration nearing a whine. “What’s wrong with that? It doesn’t mean I think I’m going to be your
seshar
.”

With her thoughts recently on Paramar, she suddenly recalled what he’d told her before he died.
“You fear what other Krepps want. That’s the weakness I found in you when we first fought.”

She understood now.
Krepps need others to like them, whether it be to gain power within the army, to have someone ready to stand up for them, or to simply have someone to pass the time with.
But Zeti couldn’t stand when other Krepps made an attempt to please her.

Paramar must’ve seen this in her the first time they met—when he claimed she treasured the bow more than the sword because she was afraid of getting close. Some part of her knew it was true even then, though she didn’t know why.

I still don’t know why,
she realized. “Grayol, I should appreciate when you’re nice. I don’t know why it bothers me, but for some reason it does. Zoke is the only Krepp who can be nice without me wanting to claw him across the face. I understand the struggle to figure out his actions. But he’s the same Krepp who was taking care of me during my shedding. Think about everything he’s done for you, how many times he’s brought you food, how much time he’s spent teaching you to use the sword. What did he do when you came to us with an embarrassing rip on the rear end of your pants? You must remember.”

Grayol faced the dirt. “He stitched them for me.”

“Not just that. What else?”