“He had them killed, that nceku!” Aren marched off.
Tau jogged after. “Who!”
“Lekan,” Aren growled.
Tau didn’t want to know. “W-who… who’d he kill?”
“Ekon’s patrol found them. Their bodies had been thrown from a cliff. Nkiru, his wife, Anya, her brother… the baby… the baby.” Aren drew his sword, moving faster.
Tau ran to catch up. “Father, what are you going to do?” He grabbed his father’s arm, forcing him to stop. “Father!”
“I’m going to kill him.” Aren pulled his arm free.
“Ekon!” Tau said. “Do something!”
Ekon, hands fidgeting with the ties on his tunic, tried to talk sense into Aren. “Inkokeli, uh… Aren, we… we should think about this. We don’t know for sure it was—”
“Don’t!” Aren said, rounding on Ekon, making him cringe. “We know who did this. We know! A baby, Ekon. Nkiru’s baby girl!”
“You can’t fight him,” Tau said, joining Ekon in front of his father, blocking his path.
“I’ll kill him.”
“He’s a Noble,” said Tau.
“Mka! He’ll die the same as a Lesser when my sword is through his neck.”
Ekon looked about them, head jerking left and right, to see if anyone else had heard that.
“Father—” Tau started, but Aren pushed past.
“They’ll hang Tau if you kill him,” Ekon said. “They’ll hang him and then his mother. They’ll cut their bodies open and leave them in the sun to rot. Aren, they will.”
Tau’s father was no longer moving.
“They’ll hang Tau,” Ekon said again. “You know it.”
Aren sat like the bones had gone out of him. He dropped his sword in the stunted grass and placed his head in his hands. Tau went to his father and Ekon followed. Aren’s shoulders bounced up and down. He was crying, without sound. Tau couldn’t remember the last time his father had cried.
“Da,” he said. “Da.” Tau knelt nearby and put his arms around him.
“I’m sorry, Aren,” Ekon said. “I’m sorry.” He kept saying that, over and over. Like the thing that had happened was uncontrollable and inescapable, like it was something more than the act of one man.
“We’ll give them a proper burning,” Aren said a while later. “We’ll do it in secret. Lekan mustn’t know we found them.”
Ekon nodded.
“Tau, Jabari will come up to train. He’ll wonder where you are.”
“I’m with you,” Tau said.
“Go,” Aren said, standing. “And don’t tell Jabari about this.”
Tau glanced at Ekon. He didn’t like the look on his father’s face.
“I won’t do anything. I can’t.” Aren choked on the word. “Lekan isn’t military and Ekon is right. I can’t kill him. They’ll come for my family, for you and Imani, for Imani’s daughter.… Go, train. I’ll be in the hut.”
Aren strode away and Ekon placed a hand on Tau’s shoulder. “I’ll stay with him,” he said. “I’ll stay as long as it’s needed.”
When Tau got to the fighting circle, Jabari was already through most of his forms. He saw Tau and his face stretched into a wide grin. “The boots look great!”
“Thank you,” Tau said, feeling sick to his stomach.
“Ready to fight?” he said.
“In a while,” Tau told him.
“No chance. We’re well into Hoard. No days off with testing so close. And you missed even bigger news by sleeping in.”
Tau looked at Jabari, muscles tensed.
“The queen is coming,” Jabari said.
“What?”
“The queen! She’s coming to Kerem. Well, more to say, she’s passing through Kerem on her way to Kigambe. Still, she arrives this afternoon.”
The queen visited the northern or southern capital every fifth cycle to personally present the citadel’s highest honors. The ceremony also honored the women who had tested as Gifted. The Chosen tested every woman. It was a rite of passage, announcing the transition from girlhood to womanhood.
And, with only one in ten thousand possessing the gift, their abilities marked them as part of a caste of less than five hundred. They outranked all but Royal Nobles and were duty-bound to serve. Tau had heard stories of the citadel catching women who held back in their testing, failing on purpose. They were branded, then taken to serve anyway.
Tau pulled his practice sword free of its scabbard, wishing he could plunge the blade into Lekan’s seeds. “I guess we’d better get started if we’re to finish in time to see the queen.”
Jabari let him get a toe into the fighting circle before engaging. The first round was painful, the second excruciating, and Tau had to concede the third so he could throw up his breakfast.
“The gaum?” Jabari asked as Tau wiped half-digested cabbage flecks from his mouth.
He didn’t answer. He saw Jabari, but not really. He was focusing on the features his friend shared with his brother, Lekan. “Let’s go again.”
The two men battled back and forth in the fighting circle, and Tau caught out the Petty Noble every eighth or ninth match. It wasn’t enough. Tau wanted to teach Jabari a lesson, because he would never have the chance to teach one to Lekan.
He moved through an offensive form as fast as he could, forcing Jabari back. Then Tau caught Jabari on the thigh with a glancing strike that would leave a welt. The contact encouraged Tau, and he brought his sword up and around to slam the blade into Jabari’s side.
The swing was clean and fast, but Jabari was faster. The Petty Noble whipped his sword at Tau’s legs, smashing his ankles together and dropping him in the dirt.
Tau groaned. His head had hit the fighting circle’s floor and there were spots blinking in front of his eyes. Beyond the spots was Jabari, standing tall, his sword tip pressed against Tau’s throat stone.
“Goddess’s mercy,” Tau said, ceding the match.
Jabari stood down. “Cek! You nearly had me. You’re faster than a desert scorpion.”
Tau was angry. “I’m done.”
Jabari didn’t notice his tone. “After that last match, I’m good for a break too. You really went for me. Hey, let’s get down to the keep. I’ll get changed and ready for the queen’s procession. Tau, come with me. Be my aqondise for the formal nonsense where I’m expected to have one?”
“Your aqondise?” Tau said. Jabari was honoring him, giving him a chance to act as his most trusted. As Jabari’s aqondise, Tau would be as close as a Lesser could get to the royal procession. On any other day, Tau would have been overwhelmed by the gesture. “Yes, of course… nkosi.”
“Don’t call me that. And I need you. Standing beside Lekan for that long, without anyone else to talk to, is torture.” Jabari was grinning like a fool. “Will you come?”
Tau nodded, face grim.
PROMISES
Tau accompanied Jabari to the keep. It was filled with people and everyone was frantic, doing their best to prepare. Kerem had not expected the royal visit, and it had been a surprise when the queen’s vanguard had arrived, requesting an evening’s accommodation for the queen and her retinue.