Jabari would never forget the day. Tau had sparred with the spoiled Noble from a neighboring fief, and he’d embarrassed the fool in front of Guardian Councillor Abasi Odili, one of the most powerful Royal Nobles in the peninsula.
To punish Tau for his insolence, Odili tried to get him to fight Kellan Okar, an Indlovu initiate who was already a legend, and at the last moment, Tau’s father had taken his son’s place. The match was as uneven as a mountaintop, and Aren lost his hand. Jabari could see that Kellan was trying to spare Aren’s life. Anyone Noble could have seen it, but Tau was just a Lesser, and he’d pointed a sword at Kellan’s back, pushing Abasi Odili to teach a sterner lesson. Abasi Odili had Aren killed, and seeing it done had broken Tau.
On the march home, Tau accosted Jabari’s older brother, accusing Lekan of creating the circumstances that led to Aren’s death. It had broken Jabari’s heart, but to save his friend’s life he’d been forced to banish him from the fief. It was the only way. Lekan would have seen Tau dead otherwise.
Tau’s voice pulled Jabari from the memory. “They killed my father that day and I wanted to make them pay. I was going to join the military so that I could challenge each one of them to a blood duel. I wanted to fight and kill them all, and it was the only way I could do it without the Nobles coming for my family. Can you imagine? I thought I could become enough of a fighter to challenge and best an Ingonyama like Dejen Olujimi.”
Jabari could still see the soldier who had killed Aren. Dejen Olujimi was more muscle than man and had been one of the Omehi’s best fighters.
“I was so angry,” Tau said. “I went to see Lekan before leaving the fief. I went to tell him that when I came back it would be to kill him.”
Jabari couldn’t concentrate. The pain was overwhelming him.
“Lekan came at me with a knife. He’s the one who gave me the scar,” Tau said, drawing a finger over the mark that ran from his nose to cheek. “I fought back. I defended myself and he died.”
Everything flew back into focus and each one of Tau’s words echoed in Jabari’s head. His mother had cried for days over the accidental fall that had taken Lekan’s life, and she hadn’t been the same since losing her firstborn.
“I fled to Kigambe, tested in the Ihashe trials, and made it into Jayyed Ayim’s Scale. I was lucky and couldn’t have asked to be under the tutelage of a better man.”
Jabari wanted to shout at Tau to tell him more about Lekan’s death. Jabari wanted to strangle the person he had called a friend.
“I gave my life to training. I was determined to be enough of a fighter to find justice for my father’s death. It was the only thing on my mind and in my life before I saw Zuri in Citadel City.”
Jabari’s body burned and the medicine in his system pulled at his mind, offering oblivion. He fought it. He wanted to hear everything Tau had to say.
“She saved me, Jabari. The life I’d made wasn’t worth living. Finding her in this city saved me.” Tau paused. “And then… we found one another in… in other ways.”
Tau let go of his hand and Jabari thanked the Goddess. It galled him to lie helpless while his brother’s murderer coddled him.
“It was here that I had my first chance at Kellan Okar. I was goaded into a fight with him in one of the city’s circles. I wanted to tear his insides out and thought I could do it,” Tau said. “I’d already learned to fight with two swords, and I was good, very good.” Tau laughed. It was bitter. “Kellan destroyed me.”
He should have killed you, Jabari thought.
“I’d given every waking moment to my training. I’d become the strongest fighter in the Southern Ihashe Isikolo, and I was still no match for the legendary Kellan Okar. Zuri had to save me again, and I had to flee Citadel City like a runaway Drudge. I’d given my life to become the fighter I needed to be, and it wasn’t enough. I had to give my soul to the cause too, and I did.”
Jabari’s breath caught in his throat as he waited for Tau to say more.
“What I discovered is more curse than gift, and it waits for any who dare reach for it. You see, we all have demons,” Tau said, “I just learned how to use mine.”
He was speaking in circles. He wasn’t making sense.
“I learned how to use mine, and like an enraged Ingonyama, I was turned into something more than a man.”
“How?” Jabari screamed from inside his broken shell of a body, “How?”
“Our scale, a scale of Lessers, made it to the Queen’s Melee for the first time in a generation. I’d been part of doing the impossible. I’d become the impossible, and now I was ready for Kellan Okar. But we both know that the world has never cared about what a Lesser wants.”
Necku! How did you do it? Jabari thought.
“In secret, Queen Tsiora had brokered a treaty for peace with the Xiddeen, and I was finally out of time. Peace would mean too many changes. I didn’t know if I’d be able to challenge Dejen Olujimi and Abasi Odili. I had to move fast.”
Tau must have been uncomfortable with where the story was about to go. He shifted in his chair, making its legs scrape across the floor.
“Scale Jayyed fought well, and we made it into the semi-finals where we were matched with Kellan’s scale, with your scale, and I had my chance. I could kill Kellan in the tournament, and it would be nothing other than an unfortunate accident.”
More chair shifting and scraping.
“You saw me there,” Tau said. “You know that I sacrificed the needs of my sword brothers to get to Kellan. I gave them up to kill a man, and when I had my chance to do it, I hesitated. We lost the match and were knocked out of the melee. The men in my scale hated me, and both Zuri and Jayyed tried to tell me that Kellan wasn’t to blame for my father’s death, but I didn’t want to listen and there was no time to be convinced. The Xiddeen had begun to invade.”
Jabari remembered it, the sound of the war horns that night.
“It made no sense—peace was so close,” Tau said. “It made no sense until I learned that the queen’s Royals had planned a coup and betrayed her. They couldn’t imagine submitting to people they saw as savages. So, instead, they did what they had to do to maintain… civilization.” Tau did nothing to mask the acid on his tongue. “They used a Gifted to call down a dragon and burn the Xiddeen conclave, their historic gathering of tribes, to the ground. So, the invasion wasn’t the Xiddeen abandoning peace. They were retaliating for an unprovoked surprise attack on the women, men, and children.”
Jabari didn’t want to hear that. He’d lost friends in the invasion.
“In the battle in the Fist, Jayyed, Chinedu, and most of my scale died. Most of yours too, if I recall it right,” Tau said.
Scale Osa, Jabari’s scale, had been massacred.
“The Xiddeen had us beaten and we fled down the mountain, retreating to Citadel City where Odili and his treacherous Indlovu were trying to kill the queen so they could secure the throne for her sister. That’s when we fought together again.”
Jabari breathed out as hard as he could. They had not fought together. Jabari had almost gotten himself killed several times over and Tau had been forced to keep him alive each time.