PRISONERS
It had been a moon cycle since Scale Jayyed’s win over Scale Osinachi, and, bolstered by their brethren’s accomplishment, Scale Chisomo left the Southern Isikolo to compete for one of the final spots in the Queen’s Melee. The isikolo saw them off and several scales accompanied them to the Crags, thinking to see history made again.
Scale Jayyed, their position secured, remained behind to train. Jayyed and Anan agreed the men could not afford to attend. Tau was glad. Time was too short to let any go to waste, even if the past moon cycle had taken a toll.
Every night Isihogo and its demons tempted Tau, offering him his greatest wish in exchange for agony. Every night he accepted their offer and they brutalized him. The horrors of countless deaths lingered and, during the day, he fought to hold on to his sanity. But when the sun fell beneath the earth, Tau embraced the madness. He needed it to fight the monsters.
The Queen’s Melee was almost upon them and Tau Solarin, a Common of the Omehi, man of average height, strength, and aptitude, and born without any particular gift for combat, had suffered the underworld and its demons in preparation. The path had its costs, but he had traveled it, coming out the other side with an intuition for fighting that was more like instinct. Tau had gone to the demons as a man, but under their ministrations he’d been transfigured.
On difficult nights, when the underworld came close to breaking him, he tried to remember that. And on that night, a moon cycle from the melee, he had to tell it to himself over and over again.
The evening had been grueling. The demons were hunting in packs and his deaths had been harrowing. Tau was shaken up, but the day’s torture was done and he was near the barracks, ready to fall into his cot, hoping for a dreamless sleep. It was his weariness that allowed the thing in the isikolo’s main courtyard to get as close as it did.
Tau saw it late but with enough time to snap his hands around the hilts of his swords, ready to draw. It spoke with a human voice.
“Tau? I’ve been looking for you,” said Aqondise Fanaka. “You’ve been summoned to the umqondisi quarter.”
The words made no sense, and before speaking, Tau shut his eyes, hiding the demonic face he saw in place of Fanaka’s plain features. “Summoned?”
“You’re needed in the dignitary rooms.”
Tau didn’t know they had dignitary rooms, and though he knew where the umqondisi quarter was, he had never been there. It was where the isikolo’s masters had their beds, baths, and meal halls.
Tau forced himself to look at Fanaka’s glowing yellow eyes, snout, and dagger-long teeth. “I don’t know the way,” Tau told him, working hard to keep the distaste from his voice.
“Go into the quarter. The dignitary rooms are the third building on the right.”
“Thank you, Aqondise.”
“Tau?” the man said, stepping closer, and causing Tau to draw a fingerspan of bronze. Fanaka, eyes wide, retreated, raising empty hands. “Are you well?”
Since Scale Jayyed’s last skirmish Tau’s reputation had taken on a life of its own. Yaw’s stories played some part in that, and it seemed even the aqondise were unsettled around Tau. He let his sword fall back into its scabbard. “Apologies, Aqondise. Apologies. It has been a… a trying night.”
“Of course,” Fanaka said. “You train hard. I understand.”
Tau inclined his head. “It’s late. Am I expected tonight?”
“You are,” Fanaka said, eyes flickering to Tau’s scabbarded sword.
“Thank you, Aqondise, for the message and advice.” Tau pressed his palms together and touched his fingers to his forehead, saluting. It wasn’t necessary, but he hoped the extra respect might repair any damage his odd behavior had caused. Fanaka did a slow blink, recognizing the salute, and he left. It was getting harder, Tau thought, to hold himself… together.
The umqondisi quarter was hidden from plain view behind walls and a gate. The gate was open and there were no guards. They weren’t needed. Initiates would not go in uninvited.
The inside of the quarter was well kept, if cramped. The buildings were scrunched together to provide enough living spaces for all the umqondisi and aqondise. Tau counted the buildings as he walked past them. The third on the right was less cramped than the others and it had a bronze door that an artisan had worked over with a map of the peninsula. It showed the peninsula, widest at the door’s base and coming to a point near its top.
The metalwork illustrated how the Northern and Southern Mountains separated the land from the Roar. The door also had raised areas, representing the Central Mountains and the Fist. Its knocker was where Palm City would have been.
The whole thing was meant to be impressive, but it reminded Tau of his conversation with Jayyed, who believed the numbers of hedeni to be far greater than estimated. It reminded Tau that, after almost two hundred cycles, the Omehi still had no idea what lay beyond their peninsula. The door depicted their home. It also outlined the borders of their prison.
Tau knocked. He heard footsteps. Light ones. The door’s bolts were pulled and it opened without a sound. It must be well oiled, was Tau’s last thought before seeing Zuri.
UNMOORED
Zuri looked more beautiful than ever and Tau felt his heart soar. “Why are you here?”
She tensed and her hand whipped out, coming fast for his face or neck. There could be a weapon, he thought, slipping inside the blow, rejecting his swords. There was too little space to wield them. He pulled free the dagger he kept on his belt. Zuri’s attack, her open-handed slap, connected with empty air. Tau realized she had no weapon but was already shoving her into the room against the closest wall, his dagger pressed against the soft skin of her neck.
She looked like she might scream. Tau whisked the dagger away, back into his belt.
“Zuri,” he said, horrified, retreating. “I’m sorry! I thought…” She was trembling, her lips pursed, her eyes locked on his face. “Zuri?”
Her hands flew up. Tau could have closed the distance, could have knocked her unconscious. He stood there, letting her blast him with enervating energy that sent his soul spinning into Isihogo. On arrival, his swords were out, dual blades reflecting his spirit’s golden glow.
He could see Zuri, two strides off, shrouded in darkness. He heard a demon roar to his left, adjusted his stance, fight ready; then Zuri vanished, and he went with her, returned to Uhmlaba.
“Zuri, please,” he said, adjusting to the realm switch. She stared at him like he’d returned from the dead. Her reaction confused him. Then he understood. She expected him to be incapacitated by being pushed and pulled into and out of Isihogo.
Her voice was pinched. “Tau, what have you done?”
“What I had to,” he said.
She put a hand over her mouth. “What have you done?”
He’d already answered that. “Why did you attack me?”
“Attack you? Attack you? You put a knife to my neck! Have you gone mad?”
Tau could not understand any part of this. She had attempted the first strike and he’d defended himself. Then she’d used her gift against him. She was the aggressor. He was about to tell her that, but some small part of him warned against it. He held his tongue.