It was Kana, the warlord’s son, and Tau had seen him at Daba too, when he’d captured the Gifted there. The same Gifted he now led, bound and blindfolded, into the clearing.
Tau’s stomach turned when he saw her, and he had to stop himself from rushing the clearing. The Gifted had been tortured. She was missing a hand, she dragged one leg behind her, and when the blindfold was removed, Tau saw that one of her eyes had been burned away. Her hair was dirty, knotted, and she was hunched in a way that told him it was more than fear that kept her back bowed. Tau thought back over the past cycle since he’d seen her at Daba. He thought over all that had happened to him, in the many days, and realized that her days had been worse. He had suffered in Isihogo, but when he was cast out, so was the pain. She lived with hers, constantly.
“You filthy hedeni nceku,” cursed the KaEid at the warlord, coming forward into the clearing as she did. “The Goddess’s curse is too little!”
Achak’s back stiffened, the burned side of his face quivering. “Leash the demon whore,” he said to Abshir.
The KaEid took another step. “You believe any man could hold me? You believe yourself safe?” Abshir placed a hand, palm out, toward the KaEid, asking for calm. She took no notice, closing in on the warlord, about to cross the clearing’s center.
Kana, the warlord’s son, had a spear in his hand, and several of the Xiddeen warriors moved forward. Achak himself showed no signs of worry. He was waiting. Waiting, Tau knew from experience, for an excuse to do violence.
“Taia,” Guardian Councillor Abasi Odili said to the KaEid, “this is not the place or time.”
Abasi was chairman of the Guardian Council, and Tau had limited knowledge of military politics, but he knew Odili could not command the KaEid. And yet, she heeded his call for calm. She stopped advancing and turned her gaze to the tortured Gifted, her face softening. In reaction, the warlord’s son lowered his spear, and the other fighters who had come into the clearing slipped back to their places.
“Champion,” said the warlord, “I have your proof. You will bear witness and take word to your young queen, telling the tale with a tongue cold with fear. And I would have your demon whores prove their worth as well.” The warlord flicked a hand at the tortured woman behind him. “This one has no more to give.”
Then, his body still square to Abshir, still ready to draw down and fight, Tau noted, the warlord turned his head to his son and the skinny cursed man. He nodded at them.
The skinny man, bare chested, with a body thin as a whip, jangled as he raised his hands, the large golden bangles on his wrists clattering. He pointed to the warlord’s son, Kana, and began chanting in the savage tongue. It took a breath, no more, and Kana began to change. His muscles multiplied and grew. The bones on his face thickened, hardening and protruding, stretching the skin that covered them to its limits. The skinny one began chanting louder, and Kana groaned as the enraging worked its twisting gift on his body. His spine went rod straight and Tau could swear he heard it creak as it stretched out, increasing his height by two or three handspans.
The Omehi in the clearing shuffled back, but not from Kana. Omehi understood the nature of an enraged man. They moved away from the skinny savage who wielded the gift. He was the abomination.
Abshir couldn’t contain his horror. It was writ large on the stoic Greater Noble’s face. The KaEid was in worse shape. She stared in disbelief, a child whose nightmares had stepped into the world.
“The Goddess wept,” said one of the Ingonyama, intertwining his thumbs, fingers outstretched, making the dragon’s span. If the religious warding symbol had any power, it was not in evidence in the clearing. Kana’s transformation completed and he’d become monstrous. He towered over everyone else, his muscles bunching and rippling.
Tau heard crying. It was the tortured Gifted.
Achak spoke. “You see. We found a way back to nyumba ya mizimu. The Xiddeen can touch the spirit world again!”
TERMS
The KaEid could barely speak. “How many can—”
“We can end you. You see that now,” the warlord said, speaking to Champion Abshir and over the KaEid. “Send us the one who will teach the magic that makes warriors kneel.”
“What you have done violates natural law,” KaEid Oro said. Achak ignored her and the KaEid seethed. “Are you ready, hedeni?” she asked. “Are you prepared for what we bring?”
The KaEid signaled one of her Gifted. The Gifted dropped her hood and entered the clearing, and Tau found himself looking at a familiar face. The woman, a little older than he was, resembled Jayyed. It was his daughter, Jamilah. It had to be.
Tau looked away from her, finding Jayyed at the edge of the clearing. The sword master looked like he was being strangled, like he was close to running into the clearing after her. Jamilah’s hood had been up. He must not have known she was with the KaEid, and Jamilah had said nothing to the father she hadn’t seen in so many cycles.
Jamilah, dressed in the black robes of the Gifted, stood next to the KaEid, and without ceremony or announcement, she raised her hands and blasted every hedeni that Tau could see in a tidal wave of enervation. All of them but the skinny Gifted man dropped like they’d been cut down.
Then, in less time than it took to blink, Jamilah cut the wave. The skinny Gifted man, already half in Isihogo, was the only savage still on his feet. Even Kana, fully enraged, had gone down. The warlord, one knee in the mud, fought to get himself under control. He was furious.
“We should kill you all,” he hissed.
The KaEid readied herself. She wanted to fight as much as he did. Abshir stepped forward, throwing a hard look her way, before sinking to the earth in front of the warlord. They were both on the ground, both on their knees.
“Peace is what has been asked of us. Peace,” Abshir said.
The warlord, swaying, regained his feet. He looked like he might strike the champion. Abshir did not move away. He waited a breath, ceding power and dignity by staying down.
“Queen’s Champion,” the warlord said, voice shaking. “Were I the shul, did I lead my people, I would feed this valley’s soil with the blood of every invader I could find.”
The venom in the warlord’s words unsettled Abshir and he stood. “Will you honor the peace?”
Tau saw it then. The warlord did not want it. He wanted to exterminate the Omehi. The meeting was not his idea.
“The Xiddeen,” Warlord Achak told Abshir, “will uphold the terms.” He looked to the KaEid and Jayyed’s daughter. “We offer this because we are not evil.” He rolled his shoulders, shrugging away the last of Isihogo. “The shul wishes an end to the war. He wishes the fire demons, who poison our earth and throw the spirit world into turmoil, gone. He wishes for Xidda to be as it was.”
Abshir inclined his head. “Let us do our leaders’ will, then.”
Achak waved a hand at his shaman, who released the tortured Gifted and gave her a push. She stumbled and looked back at him, unsure if she could trust his intent.
“Come, Nsia,” said the KaEid, her face filled with worry. “Come home.” Nsia didn’t move. “Come home, my child.”
Nsia glanced once more at her captors and, as if she feared being stopped, limped as fast as she was able to the KaEid. She cried as she went, the sounds almost inhuman.