“By the Goddess, we are fortunate,” said Hadith to Uduak and Yaw. It seemed, Tau thought, Hadith was no longer speaking with him.
“Fortunate?” asked Tau, ignoring Hadith’s behavior.
“Think about it,” he said, tapping his head. “The hedeni have launched a major invasion from the ocean. They must hope to race over the Fist and then on to Palm. They’re trying to avoid our military by going over the water. They want to take the center of our valley and lay siege to our capital before our forces in the Wrist have time to react. And, with enough hedeni warriors, they could do it on any other grouping of days except for this grouping.”
Hadith smashed a fist into his palm. “They’ve picked the worst possible time to invade. They’re coming to take the center of our valley when every initiate and more than two dragons’ worth of full-bloods are gathered here for the Queen’s Melee. They’re invading and, by the Goddess’s blessing alone, we have an entire army here to block their path.”
“Fortunate…,” said Tau, mulling over the strange timing.
“Impossibly so. A quarter moon earlier or later, and the hedeni would have an unshakable foothold in our valley. They’d reinforce and we’d be wiped out within a moon.”
So, it was to be genocide instead of peace, thought Tau. He placed his hands on the hilts of his swords, their presence comforting him. Peace. It had been a short dream. Time to wake up.
“You,” said a full-blooded Indlovu to Jayyed. “Take your scale and join up over there.” He pointed to a mass of men, Indlovu and Ihashe. “We’re forming several claws to head up the Fist. We’ll push the hedeni back.”
“Nkosi, what are the Edifiers saying?” asked Jayyed.
Talk of Gifted brought Tau’s mind to Zuri. He scanned the crowd of people, seeing Gifted among the Indlovu. He did not see Zuri, but spotting her among the hundreds would be no simple task. He did not see Kellan or the rest of his scale either. Zuri might already be with him and Kellan might be headed for a fight. That worried him.
“The Edifiers have nothing good to say,” said the Indlovu. “The hedeni are coming over the mountains in the North, the South, and they’re attacking through the Wrist.”
“They’re really doing this? Invading?” said Jayyed. He sounded bewildered, and Tau understood. Jayyed knew how close they had come to peace. The Noble, however, read Jayyed’s tone as fearful.
“Hedeni!” the Noble said. “You’d think two hundred cycles of facing us would have taught them. Well, tonight we’ll make the lesson take hold!”
It was meant to be the bold and aggressive talk that builds men’s spirits, putting them in a fighting mood. Scale Jayyed did not react. The night’s occurrences were too odd and it was too soon after the schism that the day’s skirmish had caused between the castes.
The Indlovu glowered at them, wanting to say something derogatory about their bravery or character. To his credit, he held back. War was upon them and he must have been aware that many of the men in front of him wouldn’t see the dawn.
“I’m with this wing,” he muttered. “It has a full complement of men and will hold the Crags. You need to find your place in the wing over there. Goddess go with you. I mean that. They’re putting a Royal Noble, fresh from Palm City, in charge of that lot and they’re going into the Fist to meet the hedeni head on.”
Jayyed pointed to a wing of full-bloods who were already geared up and about to march. “What about them?”
“Them? They’re for the city. They’ll keep our people safe if the hedeni break out of the mountains. ”
Jayyed’s eyes narrowed. “That so?”
“It is. Move out!”
Tau took stock of the defensive wing. It didn’t take long to spot what had thrown Jayyed. The Omehi military was as caste oriented as the rest of Omehi culture, but all war groups tended to have a mix of Lessers and Nobles, and Tau did not see a single Lesser in the defensive wing.
“You heard. March!” shouted Anan, giving Tau no more time to consider it.
“Who are you, then?” the tall inkokeli of their new wing asked when Jayyed strode up, scale in tow.
“Jayyed with Scale Jayyed.”
The inkokeli was young, thought Tau, and pretty enough to be the type more familiar doing battle amid a woman’s skirts than in a skirmish. Tau could tell he’d recognized Jayyed’s name, though, and Tau hoped that would mean he’d recognize the umqondisi’s experience as well.
“You’re Jayyed Ayim, former adviser to the Guardian Council?”
“I am.”
“With your scale too? Yes, yes, it is. I see the Common of Kerem. The scar gives him away. Very good. Glad to have you here. We’re going up into the Fist. Could be a half-decent fight.”
“Could be,” said Jayyed.
“Yes, yes. I’m Inkokeli Oluchi. We’re breaking the wing into three claws. We’ll climb the Fist in a prong formation. There are flatlands up there. If we move fast, if we stay in time with one another, and if we catch the hedeni on the flats, we can pincer them there and crush them.”
“Lot of ‘ifs,’” whispered Hadith.
“Jayyed, you and your men are with me and my Indlovu. We’ll form the center prong. We have a Gifted assigned to us as well.” Tau listened close. “She’s good. An Enervator with experience. Seen combat in the Wrist.”
Tau exhaled. It wasn’t Zuri. Almost as bad, the inkokeli of their wing was less than new. He had to be fresh from one of the Royal Noble academies in Palm. He’d probably never seen live combat, even in a skirmish.
“This is it!” Oluchi said, walking up a small rise so he could be seen by the whole wing, unknowingly continuing where the other Indlovu’s speech had ended. “We are Omehi, the Goddess’s Chosen. What we do this night will shake the halls of history. We go to meet the faithless hedeni, and where we find them, we fell them. Where they find us, they find death! Follow me! Follow me to victory and glory!”
Oluchi turned toward the Fist and went. The wing went with him and, for a full span, the only sound was men’s feet falling in concert.
“Not bad,” said Uduak.
“What?” asked Hadith.
“Speech,” Uduak said.
Tau had been lost in thought, but Uduak’s remark had to be commented on. “That was over a span ago.”
“Not bad,” the big man repeated.
“He’s going to get us killed,” said Yaw.
“Not me,” said Hadith. “I didn’t come all this way to die under some blue blood just days off Palm’s teat.”
“Quiet, there,” said Anan. He was coming up from the rear of the scale and moved past them to march alongside Jayyed. The men hushed, Chinedu coughed, and Scale Jayyed marched to war, to fight, to kill, to die. And Tau realized he couldn’t keep up with his emotions. Just spans ago nothing had been more important than the melee, than facing Kellan Okar, and now—
“Swords out!” screeched their inkokeli, his cry chased by the sound of an entire claw, one hundred and sixty-two men, clearing bronze from scabbards.
“I’m Omehi! I’m Omehi!” said a voice from up ahead.