Zesiro Opio did not cry out in pain and he did not beg. Instead, he slumped forward and flopped to the ground, unconscious. Tau, trembling, shouted his victory at him, seeking satisfaction, finding none. He licked his lips, no spit to wet them, and looked for the next fight.
Hadith and the two men with him had downed their lone Indlovu. The man was on his knees and had a gash on his head. He gawped at Tau, flinching when Tau stepped in his direction. Tau ignored him. The man had surrendered. He was nothing.
There were two pockets of fighting left, three Indlovu and nine Scale Jayyed men. The odds were in their favor and Hadith pointed to two Scale Jayyed initiates fighting a single Indlovu. The four of them rushed over, and the Noble, seeing the count at six to one, surrendered. The six sword brothers joined Chinedu, Yaw, and Runako, who had been losing to the last two men of Scale Oyana.
They surrounded the holdouts, forcing the two Indlovu to go back to back. Tau, too tired to be effective but refusing to give in to his exhaustion, pushed forward.
“It’s done,” Hadith called out to the Nobles before Tau could engage the men. “We’re nine, you’re two. The Enervator is out of the contest and your inkokeli is down.” Hadith pointed to Zesiro Opio in the dirt. Seeing Opio broke the smaller of the two Nobles. He looked ready to drop his sword.
“We don’t lose to you!” the older and bigger of the two Nobles said.
“Not usually,” said Hadith. “Today is different.” He waved his nine men forward and they came on, swords bristling.
“I’ll take mercy from no Lesser,” the larger Indlovu told Hadith.
“Nor should you,” Hadith said. “Only the Goddess grants mercy. It’s Her I’d like you to ask.”
“Lutalo…,” cautioned the younger Indlovu.
“Shut it,” Lutalo told the man at his back.
“Goddess’s mercy,” Lutalo’s sword brother said, lowering his sword.
“To ash with you,” Lutalo swore at his fellow. “Rot in Isihogo, all of you!” He raised his sword to fight, and the circle of men, swords ready, pushed closer. Lutalo eyed the men, grimaced, and threw his sword down.
“Say the words,” Hadith told him.
Swordless or not, Lutalo looked like he was about to take a run at Hadith. “Goddess’s mercy,” he growled, and the circle of Lessers erupted in cheers.
LEGEND
Tau and the rest of the scale stayed to watch the next skirmish. Emboldened by the efforts of their southern brothers, the Northern Isikolo fought hard. At times it looked like they might force a draw, but the citadel Enervator waited, holding back her powers until the northern scale was crowded together.
She caught sixteen men in her blast, and the Indlovu ripped through the rest of the scale, punishing the Ihashe for daring to believe they had a chance. The match ended with more serious injuries than was typical for a skirmish.
Tau and his sword brothers attended to the northerners. They carried men to the nearby infirmary and helped those who had been sent to Isihogo to recover as best they could.
The loss, and the Indlovu’s brutality, cooled the heat the men felt from their win. But as Tau and Hadith carried a northern Ihashe, his leg broken by an Indlovu blade, the fires burned again.
“I saw you fight,” he said to Tau and Hadith. “By the Goddess, I’ve never felt so proud to be a Lesser.”
Hadith smiled so large, Tau thought his face might split.
“I wanted to win. I fought to win,” the northerner said, “because you showed us we can.”
Tau grunted, which the man took as encouragement. The northerner raised his voice, calling out to the men on the battlefield and beyond. “Victory! No enemy stands before the rage of dragons! Where we fight—”
Tau wondered if the man had taken a blow to the head, when the rest of the Ihashe, to a man, shouted the response to the ancient Omehi battle cry. “The world burns!”
The Indlovu, stowing their gear as they readied to leave for Citadel City, watched the shouting Lessers, a strange look on their Noble faces.
“The world burns! The world burns! The world burns!”
As the chanting broke down to general cheering and hooting, the man with the broken leg clapped Tau on the back. “They’ll splint this and then I’m celebrating with you!”
“Celebrating?” Tau asked.
“In Citadel City, we’ll drain the drinking houses dry!”
Hadith had that grin on his face again. “Yes, we must. What is Uduak always saying? I have a thirst!”
They dropped the northerner off at the infirmary, promising not to leave without him. Hadith gathered up the rest of the scale and even wrangled Anan and a visibly proud Jayyed into the group. Together, the combined forces of the Southern and Northern Isikolo invaded Citadel City, heading for the largest drinking house they could find.
Good to his word, Hadith bought Tau’s rounds and Yaw told the story of “Tau’s Path.”
“We’re in the path, thinking to hold it against an Indlovu, maybe two, and bearing down on us are four of the bastards and the Enervator!” Yaw paused, giving his audience time to be impressed by the odds. “I’m a fighter, no doubt about it, but I was near to soiling my breeches. No shame in it, not when facing those odds.”
Yaw pointed a finger in Tau’s face, a handspan from touching his nose. “Then, Tau here, he turns to us and says, ‘Charge them.’”
Tau didn’t remember it like that but stayed quiet.
“He gets onto the first Indlovu and does his thing.” Yaw waved both hands around in the air like they were swords. “And, like that, he beats the Noble to pulp. I’m over there with Chinedu and Oyibo and we’re giving the second Indlovu a good go. He’s a giant of a thing, bigger than Uduak by two or three heads.”
Tau didn’t think the man had been that large. Yaw had the audience, though, and even Jayyed, who had stayed to drink with them, was leaning in.
“So, we’re busy fighting this tree of a man, which leaves Tau with two Indlovu and the Enervator. She’s standing there, nose in the air, knowing her Noble protectors are going to break Tau’s head in two. Only thing is, someone forgot to tell that to Tau.”
Yaw raised an eyebrow and looked round the room, catching the eye of every man, making the story feel told for their benefit alone. Other than Yaw’s voice and Chinedu’s occasional cough, the place was silent.
“The Indlovu go for Tau and, I swear to the Goddess and my mother, Tau tells them, I swear it, he tells them, ‘I will give you pain!’”
For a breath, the room was silent, until, as one, the men went wild, roaring their approval and stamping their feet. Yaw let the cheers go, nodding like nothing less was expected or deserved. Then, patting the air for silence, he continued. “‘I will give you pain,’ Tau told the Noble bastards, and in sight of the Goddess and within Her will, as all things are… he did!”
The room exploded again and jugs were slammed on tabletops, backs were slapped, and masmas was spilled.
“He dropped two Indlovu while me, Chinedu, and Oyibo are doing all we can to avoid getting run through by one.”
Tau felt their eyes on him and tried to look stoic or something. He wasn’t sure what was expected. He wanted to explain that he didn’t fight the two Indlovu at the same time and that he only said what he had to make them angry enough to come at him one on one, but someone distracted him by shoving an overflowing jug of masmas into his hand. He had a jug in each.