Tau yelled in frustration. Kellan looked calm, fresh, as if he could fight at this impossible pace for an entire sun span. Tau was already near his limit, past it, in fact. His arms were heavy, his footwork clumsy, and he could no longer keep track of Kellan’s darting blade.
Tau skipped back, desperate for room and a moment to breathe. He glanced around. The circle was filling up. There were Indlovu, the ones who had come with Kellan and others.
There were also the men from his scale. Hadith had a sword in hand; so did Uduak. They looked like they wanted to help, but the Indlovu accompanying Kellan had their blades out as well, and the two groups were at a standoff. More to the point, all eyes were on the battle between him and Okar, and Tau saw his doubts reflected in the sorrowed faces of his brothers.
Tau blocked three, then four and five more attacks. He was a full step behind Kellan’s pace now and had no chance for offense. It wouldn’t be long until Kellan pierced his lackluster defense and killed him. Tau made space again, thought of calling for help, and rejected it. If he had to die, he’d do it like a man.
Then he saw Zuri running back into the circle. She had Jayyed with her. Tau felt shame, deep shame, because he was so grateful Zuri had found and brought him. Maybe Jayyed could stop this before Kellan killed him.
It wasn’t Jayyed who saved him, though.
“I said stop!” Zuri yelled, her hands aimed at Kellan. Tau saw her and leapt back as she doused Okar with enervation. Kellan had enough time to see Zuri and gawped at her. He had that much time, and then he was on his knees, caught in Isihogo and defenseless.
This was not how Tau had wanted it, but he’d take it. He ran for Kellan and lifted his blade for a blow that would, dull or no, take Okar’s head from his shoulders.
“No!” It was Zuri. She cut her enervating blast, Tau swung down, and, impossibly, Kellan had his sword up, blocking Tau’s cut. The Indlovu in the circle erupted in outrage.
“He’s trying to kill him!”
“The Lesser is insane!”
“Hang him!”
The surrounding Indlovu closed in. Scale Jayyed came to Tau’s defense, and Jayyed was there too. He got to Tau first, took him by the neck, and yanked him back and off his feet.
“Enough!” he roared. “Enough, damn you all. Enough!”
The Indlovu were howling for blood, their outrage mixed with disbelief. It shattered their worldview to think a Lesser would try to kill one of their own.
Tau struggled to get back to his feet but Jayyed had him.
“I said enough.” Jayyed squeezed Tau’s neck. “Was this a challenge? Blood-duels are not permitted between initiates.”
Kellan, still on his knees, was trying to shake off the vestiges of Isihogo. “Of course not,” he said. “I don’t even know this Lesser.”
Tau growled at that and Jayyed squeezed his neck tighter.
“Do you wish to press charges for the attack?” Jayyed asked Kellan.
Zuri gasped, and the Nobles who were close enough to hear raised their voices in a chorus of assent.
“What?” asked Kellan.
“Will you lay charges, nkosi?” Jayyed said again.
“Don’t. Don’t do this.” Zuri was facing Kellan.
Kellan looked at her like she was mad, but he schooled his features. “Are you ordering me to forfeit justice, Lady Gifted? How have I given such great offense that you would attack me and deprive me of my natural rights to restitution? Whatever it is I have done, tell me how I may make amends.”
“Don’t do this,” Zuri said, imploring Kellan more than instructing him.
“Remind me, Umqondisi,” Kellan said to Jayyed. “What is justice in this case?”
Jayyed answered in perfect monotone. “The offending Lesser will be hung, nkosi.”
“I see,” said Kellan to Jayyed, but looking at Zuri the whole time. “Then, you deal with him in whatever way you see fit. I’ve had enough madness for one day.” The Indlovu with Kellan protested, but he raised a hand, silencing them. “Are we done here?” Kellan asked.
Jayyed bobbed his head. “I believe we are, nkosi.”
Kellan gave Tau a strange look, turned, and sketched an unsteady bow to Zuri, his head still spinning from the underworld. “I beg forgiveness for any offense I have given you, Lady Gifted.” That done and with his back straight, he left the circle with all but one of his Indlovu entourage following.
The one who stayed behind spat in the dirt beside Tau. “Death? Death?” the Noble said, throwing Tau’s words back at him. “Nceku, stay in the dirt where your kind belong.”
Tau tried to go for him, but Jayyed wrenched him back in place.
“If you please, nkosi.” Jayyed said to the man by way of dismissal, his words respectful, his tone anything but.
The Indlovu smirked and left.
Jayyed turned to Zuri. “My thanks, Lady Gifted. We all thank you.” He dragged Tau to his feet and pulled him from the circle, shouting for the rest of the scale to follow. When they turned the first corner, Jayyed picked up the pace, almost running. “Scale Jayyed, we are leaving, now!”
JAYYED AYIM
Don’t look back, don’t slow down,” Jayyed told his men. He didn’t want to admit it, even to himself, but he was scared. He forced his voice to sound neutral, like he was mentioning the heat. “Tau, if the citadel umqondisi hear about the duel before we get out of the city, I won’t be able to save you.”
“I don’t need saving,” the scarred young man said, trying to be tough but sounding petulant.
Jayyed clamped tighter on his neck. It had to hurt, but the initiate bore it, walking tall. Jayyed wanted to squeeze harder, force Tau to bend. “You’re a fool,” he told him. “A damned fool!”
Jayyed had rushed to the circle when word came that a fight had broken out between Lessers and Nobles. On his way, he’d almost run over a Gifted initiate. She’d come looking for Lessers and, finding Jayyed, had told him to follow her.
He’d known that tensions were high after Oyibo’s death, but he hadn’t expected things to go so far. He’d come into the city with his men, ignoring common sense because he was also burning for a fight, and that was stupid.
“You have no idea how close to death you came,” Jayyed told Tau, struggling to keep his voice calm, a man commenting on the heat. “Dueling an Indlovu? Attacking a Greater Noble!”
And the Gifted had blasted Kellan Okar with enervation. Jayyed hadn’t believed his eyes, and that was before Tau tried to kill the man.
“If it had been anyone but him, you’d already be strung up,” Jayyed said.
“I will kill that man.”
“That man? Do you know—”
“You don’t know—”
“I do!” he screamed at Tau, losing patience and having to wrestle it back. “I know exactly what Okar did, and I know what he didn’t.” Jayyed could feel the vein in his neck throbbing and Tau shook himself free from his pinching fingers.
“My father—”
“Kellan Okar didn’t kill you father!”
“He attacked—”
“Under orders! Under direct orders by the chairman of the Guardian Council and perfectly in his right to kill him. Can’t you see? Okar did everything he could to follow orders and still spare him.”