by J J Moriarty
“I’ve something to live for. I’ve something to love”, Hyzou said.
Aliya smiled.
“You do. Never forget to do your duty.”
“I won’t”, Hyzou said.
“I hope to see you in the future sometime, Hyzou of Nuyin. Remember Paten and remember your duty. Dead men don’t have duties”, Aliya said. “But you do.”
And with that, Aliya forced herself back onto her crutches, and slowly left the room. Hyzou let her leave by her dignified self. He stayed still, staring into the space she had vacated for longer than he wanted to. Finally, his mind was made up.
Hyzou turned back to the armour which he had been carefully placing in the corner. He lifted the helmet. It was a ridiculous thing and had been given to him to wear to every event at the Pharaoh’s court.
Summoning up his strength, Hyzou began to put pressure on the helmet. The painted leather and bronze bent and then snapped. Quietly, he continued with his task. The breastplate he broke into forty separate shards, the gloves he tore into leather strips, the bracers he rolled into balls. Then he jumped on all of it, kicking and tearing all the pieces.
When he was done, a pile of rubble was all that was left of his suit of ceremonial armour.
Hyzou took up a set of brown work clothes, the kind worn by tradesmen. Upon a hook hung his hood, which he placed over his head; and a worn pair of boots that had been given to him second hand. He returned to the bedchamber.
The alcohol was taking a toll on Pepi. She was laying clothed and spread-eagled on his bed, trying her best not to drift off. When he came in, she pushed herself up onto her elbows.
“Hyzou, you’ve gotten dressed”, Paten said.
“Shhhhh”, Hyzou said. “Go to sleep.”
“But don’t you still have to fuck me?” Pepi asked.
“Shhhhh. Sleep”, Hyzou said. “I was never going to fuck you tonight, Pepi.”
Hyzou reached out with his Qi, created the illusion of near complete darkness around Pepi. He hid himself, made it look like she was alone.
“Sleeeeeeeep”, Hyzou said.
Hyzou was trying to imitate Eanno, though he knew that she used sorcery more complex than illusion to make someone sleep.
Pepi’s eyes drooped, until finally they fell shut, and sleep fell upon her. Hyzou leaned over and kissed the bare side of her face.
“Sweet dreams”, Hyzou said.
He was a little sad now that he wasn’t going to be marrying her. But she would be fine - some wealthy man would fall for her one of these days. The Hyzou he would have become if he stayed wouldn’t have made a good husband in any case.
Hyzou left his apartment, and then the building, as quickly as he could without arousing suspicion. Darkness was descending, but he dared not be seen by passers-by. It wasn’t until he was well past his street, where no one would know him, that he pulled his hood up and began to jog. His steps were silent, his Qi alert. Hyzou ran down blank alleys and empty streets.
After several minutes, and without arousing any notice, Hyzou came upon it.
Far from the Sun Tower was another royal property. The Whisperer had brought him next-door on the night Hyzou made that fateful decision. It was well guarded, a long snaking building that doubled back on itself four times. The Royal Stables.
Hyzou took a deep breath and owned his envy. Two large guards were standing at the immediate approach to the stables. Hyzou reached out and touched the edges of their Qi.
“Boys, do you recognise my face?” Hyzou asked, once he had gotten near enough to speak with them.
Fear flitted across the eyes of the two men. They both bowed.
“Yes, Kyrios Nuya. Of course”, they said.
“You’ve heard that I am marching east. To Yobo?” Hyzou said.
“No. No, My Kyrios, I hadn’t heard”, one said.
“Pfft”, Hyzou said. “They don’t idolise the heroes enough in this city.”
“Agreed sir”, said the other, with a slight stutter.
“As you can see, I have my chariot”, Hyzou said, pointing to the empty space before him.
“Yes. Sir”, one guard said. “I can see that sir.”
“But I have some extra luggage. I shall need another horse to carry it. Not one built to pull a chariot. No, I shall need the finest freeriding horse you have. Do you understand?” Hyzou said.
“Yes sir.”
The guards leaped to do his bidding.
“Wait!” Hyzou shouted.
They turned and bowed again.
“It had better be the best horse in those stables. If you give me any other, I will know”, Hyzou said.
“Yes, My Kyrios.”
The guards bowed, then scurried to do his bidding.
Hyzou whistled while he waited. His illusion must have been effective, as he didn’t have that long to wait. Out came the guards, leading a giant brown stallion by the ropes.
“Ah, perfect”, Hyzou said.
Hyzou had never freerode a horse before in his life, he’d only ever been trained to use cariots. He knew that the Servants and the Zakuskans both freerode. Mak had told him that. He told Hyzou that no one in the crown cities freerode over any great distance, because freeriding was too painful, the horse’s back damaged the rider.
Hyzou reached out with his Qi, contacted the mind of the horse. It was a simple animal, a mind nowhere near as complicated as a human’s to manipulate. Hyzou bent the animal to his will and forced it to bend down and allow him up.
“My Kyrios, you are freeriding yourself?” One of the guards asked.
Hyzou ignored the guard, he just rode off along the road. Once he had left the stable behind, he abandoned the illusion, faded back into Hyzou. The main thoroughfare had a lot of people on it, mostly drunks and women and men of the flesh. Hyzou rode right through the centre of the street, and everyone moved out of his way when they heard the hooves approach.
Then he reached the main gate. The exit from Lamybla. Reaching out, Hyzou created another illusion. To the guard at the gate Hyzou was an old and hobbled merchant, riding a desperate-looking donkey.
“Where are you off to this evening?” The guard asked. “It’s late to be coming and going.”
“I’ve… I’ve been in Lamybla all day, good sir. I’ve been selling my wares. I didn’t make enough to find a bed though, good sir. So I’ll sleep outside the city tonight. Under the stars”, Hyzou said.
The guard snorted.
“I wish more vagrants had your attitude. Very well then, on you go. And stay very clear of the gates, else there will be trouble”, the guard said.
“Oh. I will sir. Don’t worry sir”, Hyzou said.
And so Hyzou left Lamybla. He moved the stallion at a slow canter until he could be sure he was out of sight of anyone in the city. Until night had fallen.
Once he was surrounded by darkness, Hyzou breathed deeply and found his Qi. He made sure that he had bound the stallion’s will to his own. Then he kicked the horse’s side and sped off into the night at a gallop.
CHAPTER 30
Here it was cold, colder than Hyzou had ever been. No luscious trees grew, no heavy green branches folding over in the sun. Instead, the forest was one of barren trees; made of heavy barks that hosted only green spines in the bitter air.
Hyzou’s horse wheezed, breath condensing when he breathed. The last few days had been a tough ride. Perhaps it was Pepi who woke to an empty bed, or a curious stable guard who asked a superior a question about Kyrios Nuya. It hadn’t taken them long to realise that Hyzou was gone.
Hyzou had sensed them. The giant collection of souls the Pharaoh had sent to follow him on his mad chase towards the mountain.
Hyzou knew they’d come, and that they’d be harsher and more disciplined than any normal team sent to catch a fugitive slave. Hyzou was well known, the most famous slave in Lamybla. If it got out that he had successfully escaped the evening after dining with the Pharaoh; well, a few other slaves might begin to think to do the same.
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Hyzou sensed his enemies through the earth and their Qi’s. There were dogs, chariots, and runners. A change of horses to pull the speedy vehicles they used.
Hyzou, however, had an advantage. None of his pursuers could freeride their horses for long without injury. Hyzou had been able to balance crouched on the back of the stallion he had stolen for the whole journey, making him lighter and quicker than anything the Pharaoh had sent after him.
Over the last three days, the stallion had begun to tire. Even forcing his will upon the horse, Hyzou had only been able to make the beast walk. The stallion was at death’s door.
It didn’t matter, because once he had gone due north-east far enough, Hyzou had reached safety. Talking to the locals told Hyzou that he entered the dominion of Uqing, the city of the Servants, and for Pharaoh Ganymedes to send men after him would be tantamount to declaring war. So, the chase had died off as Hyzou began to scale the mountainous terrain.
Now the stallion trotted through a forest so steep the ground rose up to meet them every step they took. Hyzou got off the horse and led it now by a rope.
Hyzou knew where he was due. Uqing was still many miles away, but Hyzou couldn’t help but see it. So many Servants of Qi in one place made Uqing a glowing collection of Qis, a shining beacon on the hill.
There were guards too. Hyzou could sense them – other Servants throughout the sparse forest. Their Qis were bright. But they didn’t intervene with him. Yet.
All the roads and paths along the mountainside led to one individual. Hyzou could see this Qi at the end of any possible routes. It was impossible to go further north without walking by where this Qi stood still. The guardian of the mountain. It shone many times brighter than Abe or Aliya had, and Hyzou knew that whoever it was, their powers far outshone Hyzou’s too.
Tense, Hyzou approached the spot. The trees thinned out here and formed a copse. A small stream ran through the copse and on the banks sat an old man fishing. He was wearing the grey robes of the Servants of Qi, and his hair was the white of age. The man was singing:
‘She milked cows by the brook of the stream,
But she fell in love with a man who made butter and cream’
Hyzou led the stallion with him out to the centre of the copse. The fisherman stopped singing, his neck tensed. He couldn’t see Hyzou, who had entered the copse behind him.
“Do you want a fish?” The fisherman asked.
Hyzou wondered whether this was a riddle or a test. Just like those in the stories about the gods.
“Er… I’ve nothing to cook it with”, Hyzou said. “So no, thanks.”
The fisherman shrugged. Hyzou stayed silent.
“Well there’s no need to be so tense, did you think we were like to want to fight you?” The fisherman said.
“You’re some kind of guard. I thought you might want to fight, yes”, Hyzou said.
“A guard? I’m fishing, and if you hadn’t noticed, not much to guard here. Only trees and birds.”
“All paths lead this way”, Hyzou said. “When I sensed your Qi I thought you must have been guarding the entrance to Uqing.”
The fisherman laughed.
“You’re walking up a mountain. Mountains end in a peak. There’s only a certain amount of spaces a path can go through.”
“Oh. Yeah. I didn’t think about that”, Hyzou said. “Well, I am sorry for intruding, but…”
“You aren’t intruding. You were expected, Hyzou of Nuyin”, the fisherman said.
“I was?” Hyzou asked.
“We have embassies in Lamybla, and word can travel faster than any runaway slave on a horseback”, the fisherman said.
“The ekstasis plant”, Hyzou said.
“Precisely”, The fisherman said.
Hyzou walked towards the figure, but the fisherman raised his right hand.
“Wait, I wish not to lay my eyes on you just yet. Why did you turn north? Most slaves that run from the Crown Cities head south to the vast expanse of the rainforest. Harder to be caught in the south”, the fisherman said.
“I have come to learn to be a Servant of Qi, just like my father was before me”, Hyzou said. “What word has spread of me?”
“Oh, we heard of this apprentice of Abe’s that had strangled a Colossus. I, and the others who make up the Archai, we were rather alarmed. The story seemed dubious”, he said.
“Dubious? But I did strangle him”, Hyzou said.
The fisherman laughed. “Oh no, not that part. The part where you had been trained by Abe. I trained Abe myself. He wouldn’t know how to instruct you.”
“You trained Abe? Then… You must be the Sparrow”, Hyzou said.
“Ah, that is what they call me, yes. So, Hyzou of Nuyin, will you tell me the true story of how you came upon your powers? It was only a few short weeks ago that I was preparing to go to bed, when I felt you cast your presence out to Uqing. Your awakening was almost instantaneous”, Sparrow said.
“I didn’t know you could see me”, Hyzou said, embarrassed.
“Only I could, as only I was listening for such whispers on the wind. Yet I sensed the burning light that had been lit in Lamybla. It was not the broken Abe that did it, I knew, no there was something more, divine at play. I didn’t inform any of the others here, as they would not take well to gods meddling in their affairs. If you tell me what woke the power within you, it would never be shared in these lands again”, Sparrow said.
“Will I be trained?” Hyzou said. “I won’t tell you anything unless you agree to train me.”
Sparrow sighed.
“It is with great trepidation that I agree. It is my duty to train, so train I shall.”
“That’s good”, Hyzou said.
“Will you tell me the whole story of your powers?” Sparrow asked.
“If I can become a Servant”, Hyzou said.
“Welcome to the Servants of Qi”, Sparrow said. “You’re my new pupil.”
“Is that it?” Hyzou asked.
“Were you expecting a ceremony?” Sparrow asked. “You’re a pupil, not the new Protakyrios.”
Hyzou smiled.
“I’ll tell you everything”, Hyzou said.
The old man arose and turned to face Hyzou. The old face, which had been blank upon turning, darkened with surprise. Then it lit up with joy.
“Hyzou of Nuyin”, Sparrow said. “You look just like your father.”
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30