Kellan answered. “This is exactly my affair. I’m valuing my life and honor in the best way I know how.”
“That’s it, then?” said Jabari.
“It is.”
Jabari sighed. “I would be no kind of Noble to leave my inkokeli to this task alone.” Jabari joined them, though he did not look happy doing it.
“Nobles,” said Hadith. “They’ve abandoned you. Such loyalty.”
Kellan looked down and away. Tau saw it and could imagine what he was feeling. These were the same men Kellan had led for a cycle, the ones he’d taken to the melee.
“Are we sure we’re doing the right thing?” Jabari asked.
This time, Tau responded. “I’m going,” he said. “I need to speak with Odili about my father.”
“Very patriotic,” Hadith said. “I’ll go too. Not for revenge, but to try and save my people from annihilation.” He turned to what was left of Scale Jayyed, fewer than thirty men. “The Indlovu Citadel is that way,” he said, pointing toward it. “I’m going this way with Tau, this beautiful Lady Gifted, my close friend Nkosi Kellan Okar, and this other Indlovu initiate. I’m going to fight with them because, in spite of our differences, we would all like to see an end to this war that has taken our mothers, sisters, fathers, and brothers from us.
“We go to save our queen and queendom from a tyrant who’d happily let all of us die so he can call himself a Royal Noble for a few more moons. That’s what I’m doing, because it’s the right thing, and because it’s what Jayyed would have wanted.”
Hadith put his hand on the hilt of his sword and drew it from its scabbard. He held it aloft and examined the blade, blood still on it. He nodded to the weapon, as if to say it would serve, and he began walking toward the Gifted Citadel. Tau, Zuri, Uduak, Yaw, Kellan, Themba, and Jabari went too. Following them was every man left in Scale Jayyed.
KEEP
The city had obeyed Odili’s curfew. They saw no one along the paths, and every house was shut tight. The citizens of Citadel City were afraid. The Xiddeen were coming and Odili would let half the city burn so he could finish the queen.
“We’re almost there,” said Zuri. “Wait here, I’ll go around the corner and ask to be admitted. When they open the gates, rush in. Try not to kill anyone.”
“We’ll try,” said Themba.
“I mean it,” she told him. “These are our people.”
Zuri went around the corner and Tau heard her speaking. The voice that responded was gruff, male, an Indlovu. No doubt one of Odili’s men, which meant he had already stationed fighters in the Gifted Citadel. Tau wondered how many and if their small party could take them.
He heard the gates creak. It was time. Hadith, who was in charge since the men were almost all Lessers, signaled the charge, and everyone rushed the gates.
Kellan, Jabari, and Uduak, using their long strides, got there first. Tau, Hadith, Yaw, and Themba were right behind. The lone Indlovu opening the citadel’s bronze gates yelped as Kellan cracked him across the head, and the scale streamed into the citadel.
Tau had expected the Gifted Citadel to look like the isikolo. It did not. Its adobe buildings had been painted black, and at night they looked more like shadows than structures. Many of the buildings had a second floor and many were domed. Most of the buildings appeared to be interconnected, and Tau guessed an initiate could travel much of the citadel without having to venture outside.
“Weapons down!” Kellan hissed at the four remaining Indlovu on guard.
“What’s this, then?” one of them asked.
“Respectfully, nkosi, there is little time to explain. We’re here on orders by Abasi Odili,” Hadith told them. “The siege is taking too long and we’re to join the attack. We’ll use the tunnels that lead from this citadel to the keep.”
The Indlovu looked at Hadith but spoke to Kellan. “We have Lessers fighting with us?”
“We do,” said Kellan.
“Why do we need more men? Why did you hit Alinafe?” The Indlovu had not lowered his sword. “And did you say you spoke with the inkokeli? Odili has already gone through the tunnels.”
Uduak looked at Tau. Tau nodded. They attacked. Tau had two of them down, including the talker, as Uduak, Kellan, Hadith, and Themba took on the last two.
“I didn’t kill them,” Tau told Zuri when it was over.
She looked at the others. They all nodded, except for Themba, who looked down at the Noble by his feet and shrugged.
Zuri closed her eyes for a breath. “This way,” she said.
“Close the gates and you five stay here,” Hadith told a few of Scale Jayyed’s fighters. “We can’t leave the citadel completely undefended. Actually, one of you come with us to find these tunnels. If the citadel is overrun, gather up as many Gifted as you can and take the tunnels to the keep. Hopefully it’ll still be standing.”
The plan set, they carried on. Zuri led them deep into the grounds, to a small common area, a circle in the citadel. The buildings surrounding the circle looked alike enough to be replicas; there were many doors, and several paths leading out of the circle. Zuri chose one of the doors and they went inside.
Tau had never seen anything like it. From the outside he’d thought the building had two floors. He was wrong. It was one floor, but the ceiling was two floors high. It made him uncomfortable and he felt as if the whole thing could come crashing down at any moment.
The room was also larger than anything he could remember being in. They were in a rotunda; the edges of it had columns and hallways leading into darkness. The space had no adornments and the floor was pristine. It was the statues that held his attention, though.
In the rotunda’s center was a statue of a familiar and beautiful woman dressed in black robes. Towering over her, its head reaching past the height of the building’s two floors and extending into the rotunda’s dome, was a dragon. The statues were made from bronze, lifelike, and the woman stood twice as tall as the average Noble, but the Guardian, no doubt due to the limitations of space, was a fraction of the size of an actual dragon. Still, the proportions on both woman and dragon were perfect.
Of course, there was no way to capture the eye-bending effect of a dragon’s scales, but the artist had created a reasonable facsimile by bending the bronze this way and that in minute variations. It must have taken an eternity. The result was worth it. Light hitting the dragon statue reflected at a thousand angles and the thing’s beauty and power stole Tau’s breath.
“The Goddess?” asked Yaw, whispering.
“No, it’s Queen Taifa and the Guardian that burned back the hedeni after we made landfall,” said Zuri. “Quickly now. If they’re expecting the hedeni attack, the preceptors and Gifted initiates will be in this network of buildings. They could hear us and come.…”
“Lead on, Lady Gifted,” said Hadith. “I have no desire to meet a scale’s worth of angry Gifted.”
Zuri guided them across the rotunda to a heavy door.
“Is it wood?” asked Tau, touching it and pulling his hand back. It was wood, but unlike any he knew. It was heavy, dark, and solid.
Zuri pulled a necklace from her black robes. “It’s wood from the Targon, Queen Taifa’s warship. It’s wood from Osonte.”