“Tau, easy,” Kellan said, “It’s me.”
“Where’s Odili?”
“Odili? We didn’t see him.”
Kellan was with Hadith and Uduak.
“My queen.” Kellan dropped to a knee, facing the ground in front of his foot. Following his lead, Hadith and Uduak did the same. “We came as soon as we could,” Kellan told her.
The stern Gifted woman spoke first. “Have we won the keep? Is the queen safe?”
“How is Abshir?” Queen Tsiora asked.
Kellan raised his head. “My queen…” He paused, mouth opening and shutting a time or two. “Champion Okar has been killed, fighting in your defense,” he said. “I am his nephew, Kellan Okar, third-cycle initiate of the Indlovu Citadel.”
“Abshir is dead?” Tsiora asked, still shaking but hands clasped tight, as if to hold herself together. “He was your uncle? I’m sorry.”
The Gifted walked over to Kellan, pulling his attention to her. “Has the attack been repelled?”
“Vizier Nyah,” Kellan said, addressing the Gifted woman, “the Queen’s Guard holds the keep, but it is under siege by Odili’s Indlovu.”
“My queen,” the vizier said, “we must rejoin the guard. We must see to the defense of the keep and ensure the safety of the warlord’s son. Odili has shown his hand and will be punished, but if we lose the warlord’s son, if Kana dies—”
“How did you not see him?” Tau asked a kneeling Kellan.
“Lesser,” the vizier said, “when in the presence of Her Majesty—”
“He can’t have gone far,” Tau insisted. “I have to find—”
“Lesser!” the vizier shouted over Tau.
“Tau, kneel,” hissed Kellan.
Tau did not. He rounded on the vizier, taking a long step in her direction. “Call me Lesser one more time.”
The vizier seemed unable to believe her eyes. She gulped, opened her mouth, then shut it.
Tau spoke to Kellan. “I’m going to find Odili.”
“Nyah is right, Ihashe,” the queen told Tau. “We must go to the battlements. The men have to know that we are alive and that there is still value to this fight. We do not believe we can make it alone. Will you accompany us? Will you protect your queen?”
“We will, my queen,” said Kellan.
Tau could not allow Odili to escape.
“May we know your name?” Queen Tsiora said.
He didn’t want to admit it, but every time she spoke to him it was a shock.
“Name? My… Tau. Tau Solarin.”
“Will you come too, Tau Solarin?”
Tau’s pulse was racing. He’d come so close. So close and his chance was lost. He nodded to his queen.
“We thank you,” she said. “Rise, Kellan Okar. Rise, men in his company. We ask that you take us to the battlements of our keep. We would see this coup crushed.”
GATES
They marched past the bodies of the fallen Indlovu, Dejen, and the KaEid. The queen closed her eyes, letting Nyah guide her beyond the carnage. The vizier did not seem able to believe the scene before her.
“The KaEid is dead from a demon-death,” Nyah said, describing what she saw to the queen. “Ingonyama Olujimi must have been enraged, but he… he appears to have been killed by a sword.” Nyah turned to Tau. “He was enraged and you were alone. How did this happen?”
“The KaEid’s shroud collapsed. She was first to die. Dejen was not enraged when the blade took him through the chest,” Tau told her.
“Not enraged when the blade took him through the… you fought an Enraged Ingonyama until his Gifted’s shroud collapsed? Is that what is being suggested here?”
She emphasized the word “shroud,” bringing attention to the fact that Tau had used it first. Tau ignored that, saying nothing more, but could feel Nyah’s eyes on him, her stare making his back itch.
As they rushed toward the battlements, Kellan told the queen and her vizier everything they knew. He told them about Jamilah and what they believed had taken place at the Xiddeen Conclave. The news seemed to age the vizier. Queen Tsiora was more stoic but also couldn’t hide her alarm.
“Abasi and Taia have doomed us,” the vizier said. “They’ve killed us all.”
“We will tell the Xiddeen we were betrayed,” Queen Tsiora said as they arrived in the keep’s central courtyard.
Tau wasn’t sure they had to worry about that. Throughout the courtyard was scattered fighting. The Queen’s Guard were winning, and that should have been encouraging. It wasn’t. The keep’s heavy bronze gates shook and buckled every few breaths.
“Battering ram,” Kellan said.
Hadith pointed to the battlements. “Up there.”
There was fighting. A few Indlovu had scaled the walls, and the Queen’s Guard, battling alongside the warlord’s son, did their best to send them back down the way they’d come.
“Kana,” said the queen.
“By the Goddess!” exclaimed the vizier. “If the savage gets himself killed…”
“They need help,” Kellan said.
“Stay with the queen,” Hadith suggested to Kellan, looking to Tau and Uduak. Uduak grunted his assent and the three men ran up the stone stairs to the top of the battlements, Tau’s injured side torturing him with every step.
At the top, Tau looked out and down. Odili’s men were everywhere. The keep was surrounded and it would not take long for the Indlovu to breach it. A swarm of them were using roped hooks to climb its walls, and there were two units of Indlovu driving a bronze-tipped battering ram into its gates. Behind the fighters manning the ram, a few hundred Indlovu waited, their weapons flickering with reflected torchlight. The hot night stunk of burning pitch, leather, sweat, and blood.
Tau dashed to the walls and cut at one of the roped hooks, doing his best to dislodge it. The rope was thick as an arm and taut with the weight of climbers. It was difficult to cut and Tau had to abandon the attempt to kill a man.
“Leave it!” yelled Hadith. “Get to the Xiddian.”
Kana was fighting heavy odds. In pain, Tau staggered to his defense, splitting an Indlovu’s face as he went.
Uduak got there first. He faced down a full-blood and they battered at each other’s shields. Hadith joined the fight, coming in low, driving his sword through the crotch of Uduak’s opponent. The Indlovu fell away, screaming.
Next to Hadith, a Queen’s Guard died to a straight thrust, and Kana, the man they were trying to protect, stepped into the gap.
“Get back!” Hadith ordered.
Kana shook his head, his long braids flying around his shoulders like angry serpents. Then one of Odili’s Indlovu swung for him. Tau was not close enough and Kana had his shoulder turned to the man.
“Watch!” Tau screamed, and Kana ducked, losing a braid instead of his head to the Indlovu’s blade. Kana thrust his short spear at the man. The Indlovu blocked the attack with his shield and Tau buried his blade in the Noble’s throat.
The four men, Tau, Uduak, Hadith, and Kana, along with a few of the Queen’s Guard, held their section of the battlement, killing the remaining Indlovu who had made the climb. Uduak went so far as to disarm one man, then throw him from the walls, onto another climber, dispatching them both. Area clear, they chopped at the rope hooks, dislodging them.