When she got to the KaEid, she fell into her arms and Taia Oro held her. Her face was hidden by Nsia’s soiled hair, but Tau saw the powerful woman’s shoulders shaking. The KaEid was crying.
Fixated on the Gifted women, Tau did not notice that Kana had crossed the clearing with Nsia.
“The shul honors me,” Warlord Achak said, his tone sounding anything but. “He chose Kana to finalize terms with your queen. He chose my son to rule with her, over your people.” Achak spoke as if reciting an unpleasant but memorized lesson. “Sanctified by the gods, the shul has declared the peaceful joining of our people to be my firstborn son’s xanduva, his lifelong duty. My son joins your people in deed and blood. He will marry your queen.” Achak was breathing like he’d run a race. “May the gods bless their union.”
The same Ingonyama as before made the dragon’s span at Achak’s blasphemous mention of gods. Champion Abshir Okar, face impassive, nodded at the warlord’s words. Jayyed looked aghast. He was focused on Jamilah and nothing else. The KaEid, holding Nsia as if to shield her from the world, eyed the hedeni with hate.
Tau took it all in and couldn’t help but think that Hadith would have admired the Xiddeen shul. From the warlord’s words, it was clear that the shul’s power was not absolute. To make peace work, the hedeni ruler needed Achak on his side, but Achak wanted to eradicate the Chosen. To have his peace, the shul had made Achak need it too, and in so doing, he had turned an opponent into an ally.
By arranging a marriage between Kana and Queen Tsiora, the shul had, in a single move, found a way to honor his warlord’s son, shame the Omehi by polluting their royal bloodline, and neuter Achak’s ability to oppose peace by committing Kana to its success.
Abshir, certainly seeing this and more, was gracious. “All that has been offered has been accepted,” he said to Achak. “The shul will have his marriage and today you will have one of our most powerful Gifted. She will teach everything she can.”
Hearing his words, Jayyed’s daughter made her way to the Xiddeen side of the clearing. Jayyed came after her.
“Be still!” ordered Abshir, and the nearest Ingonyama grabbed Jayyed, stopping him.
“We make peace, Jayyed,” Guardian Councillor Abasi Odili said, his lips curled, showing teeth. “Is this not what you wanted?”
Jayyed, restrained by the Ingonyama and unable to go to his daughter, ran his eyes from person to person, seeking hope from any corner. Finding none, he turned to the source of his distress, calling to her. “Jamilah!”
Jamilah kept walking.
The warlord kept an eye on Jayyed but continued to play his part. “Hear me,” he said. “Your queen chooses to delay peace until the moon is full again. She says she must close these terms with her councils. The time will not come without cost.”
Tau counted the days. Peace would come a quarter moon after the conclusion of the melee.
“Understand that the attacks on your people, your villages, your warriors, will not end until peace is made,” the warlord said. “Peace waits on your queen, and every person who dies from this moment dies because of her delay.”
“Jamilah!” Jayyed begged. “Jamilah!”
Abasi Odili sneered. Jayyed was too distressed to notice. Jamilah had crossed the clearing. She stood next to the skinny Gifted man, who still had Nsia’s leash and other bonds in hand.
“If we break your defenses, there will be no peace and surrender will be rejected,” Achak said.
Here was, Tau saw, Warlord Achak’s unhidden hope. Queen Tsiora’s need to deal with her Ruling Council, and the delay that caused, was one final opportunity for the warlord to kill them all. It had to be why the hedeni had been attacking in such strength for the past few moons.
This was the shul’s concession to a powerful political opponent. For as long as peace was not confirmed, Achak could wage war, and if he conquered the Omehi, the Omehi would die.
“Know this,” Achak said. “If harm comes to my son, there will be no peace, no surrender. We will drown you in blood for what you, your demon whores, and your fire demons have done to Xidda. We will—”
“Jamilah!” shouted Jayyed.
“Shut him up,” Councillor Abasi Odili said to the Ingonyama holding Jayyed.
The Ingonyama raised a fist.
“Leave him,” commanded Abshir.
The Ingonyama withheld his blow but pushed Jayyed to his knees and kept him there.
“KaEid Oro,” said Champion Abshir Okar.
The KaEid raised her voice, addressing the warlord and the Gifted hedeni man. “Our Gifted, like Kana, is not to be harmed. She will cooperate.”
“The demon whore will be well treated. So long as she will teach.”
“She’ll teach you the full extent of our power,” the KaEid told Achak. “We’ll see what the hedeni learn.”
The warlord smiled without mirth. “You still don’t understand what we are.” He turned away and walked out of the clearing. The skinny man blindfolded Jamilah, leashed her arms and neck, threw a sack over her head, and led her away. The rest of the Xiddeen vanished over the rise. Jayyed, still on his knees, moaned, putting his head in his hands.
“Be still, Jayyed,” the champion told him. “This is done for peace.”
“And you thought I wasn’t a friend,” Councillor Odili said, “when I did so much to help you achieve your dream.”
Jayyed lurched to his feet, hand going for his sword. Dejen Olujimi, Odili’s Body, had his sword out and pressed into Jayyed’s neck before Jayyed could pull free more than a fingerspan of bronze.
“Odili!” cautioned the champion.
Councillor Abasi Odili was focused on Jayyed. “Something you need, Common Jayyed Ayim?”
Jayyed let his hand fall from his sword hilt.
“Put it away, Dejen,” the queen’s champion ordered and, fast as thought, Dejen’s blade disappeared into his scabbard.
“Remember, you wanted this,” Odili told Jayyed as he walked away. Dejen followed.
Jayyed turned in the direction the Xiddeen had gone. He began to walk up the rise, across the clearing.
“No,” said Abshir. “If they see you they’ll cut her throat and you’ll have made peace impossible. Jamilah chose this duty.”
Jayyed shook his head, unable to accept it.
“It was offered and she chose it,” Abshir said. “She was not forced. She was not ordered. She risks herself for peace.”
“No… Not like this.”
The champion laid a hand on Jayyed’s shoulder. “She does this for all of us,” he said, guiding his anguished brother-in-arms away from the clearing and back to the Crags.
Tau waited for everyone to leave, trying to process all he’d witnessed and finding himself unable to reconcile the idea of peace as possible. The Omehi and Xiddeen were enemies and had been so for generations. The bloodshed, on both sides, was—
One stone clicked against another as someone behind him moved closer. Tau swayed to his left, desperate to avoid any incoming spear thrusts, and, swords ready, he swung round to face the Xiddeen scout.
BLESSED
Neither Tau nor the Xiddeen scout moved. She was taller than him, slimmer, would have been pretty if not for the weeping sore that ate away at the skin on the right side of her neck. Her eyes were wide and her spear was point down, its shaft held in loose fingers. She had not expected him.