The Rage of Dragons (The Burning Books #1) (36 page)

Jayyed was in the scale’s tent. He was sitting on the dirt floor with Anan. They had their heads together, talking. Tau moved through the room, ignoring the stares from his sword brothers. He went straight for Jayyed.

“Umqondisi, I need to speak with you.”

“Tau? You should be resting and, more than that, you should not be here. Armed and full-blooded Indlovu have been wandering through the Lesser half of the Crags all evening. I have little doubt they’d love to run across you.”

“It’s important.”

“Let it keep till morning. Let everyone’s blood cool.”

“Umqondisi,” Tau insisted.

Jayyed sighed. “Join us.”

“All respect, it’s a private matter.”

Anan’s brow creased at that, but he acquiesced. “Have your talk.”

“Umqondisi, here would not be a good place.”

“Mmm…,” said Jayyed. “The tent we gave you, then?”

“Somewhere else.”

“It’s been a strange day. This isn’t helping. Follow me.”

They left the scale’s tent and climbed farther up the Crags. Neither man said a word until they left the fires and noise of the melee encampment behind.

“What is this?” Jayyed asked.

“I followed you and Odili to the Crags.”

Jayyed brought a hand to his face, tugging the left side of his mouth like it itched. “You left the isikolo to follow me and a guardian councillor into the Crags? How many times would you like them to hang you, Tau? ”

Tau said nothing.

“And today you abandoned your brothers so you could kill the nephew of the queen’s champion.”

“You know why.”

“Have you learned nothing other than how to swing a sword?”

“When I first came to you, I came because it was my path to justice.”

“You didn’t hear me after Citadel City? Okar is a Greater Noble, and you know I have little love for them, but he’s not an evil man.”

“You’re the second person to tell me that today, which I find strange, since I am neither looking nor asking for opinions on the matter.”

“Do you trust the other person? The one who vouched for Okar?” Jayyed asked.

“I thought so.”

“Until they told you what you didn’t want to hear.”

“I know who he is.”

“No, you don’t,” said Jayyed. “You do know who I am. You do, I think, know who the other person is, the one vouching for Okar. Trust the people you know. Trust those who care for your well-being.”

Tau shook his head. “This is not why I asked you here.”

“I don’t imagine it is.”

“We can’t surrender. We’re Chosen,” Tau said.

“If we lose the war, there won’t be any Chosen.”

Tau gestured with his hands. “What do you think happens if we surrender? How much do we give up?” He pointed to Jayyed. “Already, your daughter has been bargained away. I saw that. I saw Odili’s face. I know he was part of that trade. He wanted you to suffer.”

“It would be difficult for me to deny that,” Jayyed said, his eyes locking on Tau’s face. “With the arrangement between our queen and the Xiddeen shul, Abasi Odili loses everything. He wanted to pay me back for the small part I played in pushing for peace.”

Jayyed paused, sighed, and continued. “When I was on the Guardian Council, I couldn’t convince them that the war was already lost, but Queen Tsiora asked to speak with me privately. She believed me. She doesn’t think our war with the Xiddeen is the one we should be fighting.”

“Odili had you removed from the council after you spoke with her, didn’t he?” Tau asked.

“The queen was too new to her throne to protect me, but before I left, she asked me to believe in her, no matter what came, and I did. I do.” Jayyed smiled. “And she’s done it. She’s making peace, in my lifetime. These should be the greatest days of my life, but Odili couldn’t have that.”

“Jamilah.”

Jayyed nodded. “I’m surprised the KaEid went along with it. She loves power as much as he does. It’s hard for me to imagine her giving any Gifted to the Xiddeen, and I would have thought it impossible for her to let my daughter go.”

“Your daughter is powerful,” admitted Tau. “I was out of the line of fire when she hit the Xiddeen with her enervation and I could still feel the force of what she did.”

With so much at stake, and Jamilah among the enemy, Jayyed’s voice was still pride tinged when he spoke of her. “Enervator? Jamilah is one of the most powerful Enragers, Edifiers, and Entreaters in all the citadel.” He looked down. “And she was given away. I thought the KaEid played for bigger stakes. Or, perhaps, in the face of what peace will bring to them, these petty punishments are all the Royal Nobles have left.”

Jayyed fixed Tau with a look. “Tau, I would give anything to have my daughter safe by my side, but I want my people to live without war. If Odili is so small that he must put my child in the dragon’s mouth, then I pray the dragon thinks Jamilah too wonderful to devour. Nothing Odili can do will make me forsake our chance for peace.”

“Its results might.”

“I won’t pretend things will be the same, but the terms of our agreement are set to protect the vast majority of the Omehi people. They will protect the Lessers from having to send their men to die on the hot sands of the Wrist, from being raided by the hedeni in the middle of the night, from starving to death in cycles with a poor Harvest. This war has deprived our people of so much, and peace could mean a better life for so many.”

“If that’s true, why is peace not all we talk about? Why has it taken so long?”

“Because the Nobles lose. They fall under the purview of the Xiddeen shul, and he will not permit castes. The Nobles will farm like Harvesters, teach like Governors, work like Commons.”

“Maybe,” said Tau. “Or we give up our swords and they kill us all. Or we Lessers exchange one master for another.”

“The Xiddeen are weary of war. They want peace and they want the Guardians gone, so the land can heal.”

“The land?”

“We have Gifted, the Xiddeen have shamans. Their shamans believe that the Guardians pour evil from Isihogo into our world. They think the dragons are poisoning Xidda, that they cause the curse.”

“That makes no sense. We live closest to the dragons and the curse begins at the edge of our valley.”

“The dragons send their poisonous energies out and away from their nests. We are protected from the curse precisely because we live so close to them. Have you never wondered how we sailed the Roar? The ocean wasn’t always as it is now. It could not have been. It would have been impossible to cross.”

Tau was doubtful. “The Guardians cause the Roar?”

“They do. Unintentionally, but they do. They are nomadic. By moving, always, they do not destroy any one place.”

“But they’ve found a reason to ignore their nature and remain on Xidda, with us,” Tau said, thinking of the secrets piled on secrets.

“They have, and they have been our best bargaining tool. The queen and her Ruling Council pushed the Xiddeen as far as they could. The Guardians leave and we are given much in return. It’s peace we’re founding, not surrender.”

“Peace…”

“Yes, after almost two hundred cycles, peace.” Jayyed looked old. Perhaps he had always been so. “We should be getting back,” he said. “Tell no one of this. We wait until a final agreement with the Xiddeen can be reached. The situation is fragile.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Tau said, worrying about what he had told Zuri. He hoped she would not tell it to anyone else. More, he wished he could take back his behavior.

“Thank you, Tau.”

Tau didn’t know what to say or how to feel. Peace…

“My hope is that, in the coming days, we’ll discuss this openly,” Jayyed said. “We’ll look to a better future for ourselves, our kin—”

The war horns blew, drowning out Jayyed’s hope. Tau had never heard so many. They came from high in the Fist, their call to battle belittling the night’s stillness. More horns sounded, calling all Omehi to arms, and Jayyed’s face went slack.

“Goddess,” he said. “It’s an invasion. We’re being invaded!”

Jayyed ran and Tau followed.

The Crags were chaos. There were people everywhere, watch fires had been lit to push back the dark, and full-blooded warriors, Ihashe and Indlovu, were arming themselves.

“We must gather the scale,” said Jayyed. “Put on your gear, don’t forget to bring water. Warriors new to a fight always forget water.”

Scale Jayyed were already assembled outside their tent. Anan was bellowing orders, getting his men ready to kill, and to die. He tried to hide it, but the relief on his face when he saw Jayyed was palpable.

“Umqondisi present!” he hollered, and the initiates stood at attention. Tau ran into an open space in the lineup of men.

“My scale,” Jayyed said to the men, “I know nothing more than you at the moment, but the horns are calling us to defend the peninsula from invasion.” A few of the men muttered at that. “It appears you’ll be graduating early, because every man that fights tonight does not do so as an initiate. They do so as a full-blooded warrior of the Omehi military!” A few cheered that. The rest, Tau included, were too chilled by the news to bring themselves to shout.

“Watch for your brothers,” Jayyed said. “Keep them safe. They’ll do the same for you. Fight hard. The only surrender in war is death’s embrace, and I’d ask you to hold that cold touch away for as long as you can.” Jayyed looked down the line, meeting as many of his men’s eyes as he could. “March with me. We will learn our orders and then we execute them.”

The men clapped their feet together, standing tall, and they saluted their umqondisi, who, in live battle, would be their inkokeli. Jayyed turned on his heel and led them to the Nobles’ side of the Crags.

Hadith marched beside Uduak, and Tau joined them. Uduak had one set of bandages on his head and another up his shield arm. His face was puffy from a litany of bruises and his nose looked broken. He blinked at Tau in acknowledgment. Yaw was there too, next to Uduak. Chinedu must have been farther back in the marching line.

“By the Goddess, we are fortunate,” said Hadith to Uduak and Yaw. It seemed, Tau thought, Hadith was no longer speaking with him.

“Fortunate?” asked Tau, ignoring Hadith’s behavior.

“Think about it,” he said, tapping his head. “The hedeni have launched a major invasion from the ocean. They must hope to race over the Fist and then on to Palm. They’re trying to avoid our military by going over the water. They want to take the center of our valley and lay siege to our capital before our forces in the Wrist have time to react. And, with enough hedeni warriors, they could do it on any other grouping of days except for this grouping.”

Hadith smashed a fist into his palm. “They’ve picked the worst possible time to invade. They’re coming to take the center of our valley when every initiate and more than two dragons’ worth of full-bloods are gathered here for the Queen’s Melee. They’re invading and, by the Goddess’s blessing alone, we have an entire army here to block their path.”

“Fortunate…,” said Tau, mulling over the strange timing.

“Impossibly so. A quarter moon earlier or later, and the hedeni would have an unshakable foothold in our valley. They’d reinforce and we’d be wiped out within a moon.”

So, it was to be genocide instead of peace, thought Tau. He placed his hands on the hilts of his swords, their presence comforting him. Peace. It had been a short but pleasant dream. Time to wake up.

“You,” said a full-blooded Indlovu to Jayyed. “Take your scale and join up over there.” He pointed to a mass of men, Indlovu and Ihashe. “We’re forming several claws to head up the Fist. We’ll push the hedeni back.”

“Nkosi, what are the Edifiers saying?” asked Jayyed.

Talk of Gifted brought Tau’s mind to Zuri. He scanned the crowd of people, seeing Gifted among the Indlovu. He did not see Zuri, but spotting her among the hundreds would be no simple task. He did not see Kellan or the rest of his scale either. Zuri might already be with him and Kellan might be headed for a fight. That worried him.

“The Edifiers have nothing good to say,” said the Indlovu. “The hedeni are coming over the mountains in the North, the South, and they’re attacking through the Wrist.”

“They’re really doing this? Invading?” said Jayyed. He sounded bewildered, and Tau understood. Jayyed knew how close they had come to peace. The Noble, however, read Jayyed’s tone as fearful.

“Hedeni!” the Noble said. “You’d think two hundred cycles of facing us would have taught them. Well, tonight we’ll make the lesson take hold!”

It was meant to be the bold and aggressive talk that builds men’s spirits, putting them in a fighting mood. Scale Jayyed did not react. The night’s occurrences were too odd and it was too soon after the schism that the day’s skirmish had caused between the castes.

The Indlovu glowered at them, wanting to say something derogatory about their bravery or character. To his credit, he held back. War was upon them and he must have been aware that many of the men in front of him wouldn’t see the dawn.

“I’m with this wing,” he muttered. “It has a full complement of men and will hold the Crags. You need to find your place in the wing over there. Goddess go with you. I mean that. They’re putting a Royal Noble, fresh from Palm City, in charge of that lot and they’re going into the Fist to meet the hedeni head on.”

Jayyed pointed to a wing of full-bloods who were already geared up and about to march. “What about them?”

“Them? They’re for the city. They’ll keep our people safe if the hedeni break out of the mountains. ”

Jayyed’s eyes narrowed. “That so?”

“It is. Move out!”

Tau took stock of the defensive wing. It didn’t take long to spot what had thrown Jayyed. The Omehi military was as caste oriented as the rest of Omehi culture, but all war groups tended to have a mix of Lessers and Nobles, and Tau did not see a single Lesser in the defensive wing.

“You heard. March!” shouted Anan, giving Tau no more time to consider it.

“Who are you, then?” the tall inkokeli of their new wing asked when Jayyed strode up, scale in tow.

“Jayyed with Scale Jayyed.”

The inkokeli was young, thought Tau, and pretty enough to be the type more familiar doing battle amid a woman’s skirts than in a skirmish. Tau could tell he’d recognized Jayyed’s name, though, and Tau hoped that would mean he’d recognize the umqondisi’s experience as well.

“You’re Jayyed Ayim, former adviser to the Guardian Council?”

“I am.”

“With your scale too? Yes, yes, it is. I see the Common of Kerem. The scar gives him away. Very good. Glad to have you here. We’re going up into the Fist. Could be a half-decent fight.”

“Could be,” said Jayyed.

“Yes, yes. I’m Inkokeli Oluchi. We’re breaking the wing into three claws. We’ll climb the Fist in a prong formation. There are flatlands up there. If we move fast, if we stay in time with one another, and if we catch the hedeni on the flats, we can pincer them there and crush them.”

“Lot of ‘ifs,’” whispered Hadith.

“Jayyed, you and your men are with me and my Indlovu. We’ll form the center prong. We have a Gifted assigned to us as well.” Tau listened close. “She’s good. An Enervator with experience. Seen combat in the Wrist.”

Tau exhaled. It wasn’t Zuri. Almost as bad, the inkokeli of their wing was less than new. He had to be fresh from one of the Royal Noble academies in Palm. He’d probably never seen live combat, even in a skirmish.

“This is it!” Oluchi said, walking up a small rise so he could be seen by the whole wing, unknowingly continuing where the other Indlovu’s speech had ended. “We are Omehi, the Goddess’s Chosen. What we do this night will shake the halls of history. We go to meet the faithless hedeni, and where we find them, we fell them. Where they find us, they find death! Follow me! Follow me to victory and glory!”

Oluchi turned toward the Fist and went. The wing went with him and, for a full span, the only sound was men’s feet falling in concert.

“Not bad,” said Uduak.

“What?” asked Hadith.

“Speech,” Uduak said.

Tau had been lost in thought, but Uduak’s remark had to be commented on. “That was over a span ago.”

“Not bad,” the big man repeated.

“He’s going to get us killed,” said Yaw.

“Not me,” said Hadith. “I didn’t come all this way to die under some blue blood just days off Palm’s teat.”

“Quiet, there,” said Anan. He was coming up from the rear of the scale and moved past them to march alongside Jayyed. The men hushed, Chinedu coughed, and Scale Jayyed marched to war, to fight, to kill, to die. And Tau realized he couldn’t keep up with his emotions. Just spans ago nothing had been more important than the melee, than facing Kellan Okar, and now—

“Swords out!” screeched their inkokeli, his cry chased by the sound of an entire claw, one hundred and sixty-two men, clearing bronze from scabbards.

“I’m Omehi! I’m Omehi!” said a voice from up ahead.

“What is it?” said Tau. He was too close to the middle of the column.

Uduak, tallest among the Lessers, told him. “Indlovu. Bleeding. A lot.”

“What’s going on?” demanded Oluchi. “Who are you?”

“I’m Scale Osa, under Kellan Okar. We were with Inkokeli Odihambo’s wing. We were with Prince Xolani.”

“The prince? Where?” asked Oluchi.

“Ambush. The hedeni must have a dragon’s worth of fighters. Odihambo’s dead.… Half the wing is dead. You have to help!”