by Devin Madson
“I am very sorry for your loss, Captain,” he said. “I understand the young man was a good friend of yours as well as being a very capable translator. Useful when there is something you wish to understand.”
Though he looked solemn and spoke pious words, I could not rid myself of the feeling he was laughing at me. “Yes,” I said. “Very useful. But I have just this moment left His Majesty and he is in agreement that all Levanti must learn Kisian. We cannot build a new empire without being able to understand one another, after all. I look forward to learning all the… stories of your people as well as theirs.”
He smiled, and without hesitation exclaimed, “Oh, that is good news!”
“I thought so. Lord Nishi will be pleased to be able to share copies of your holy book once we barbarians can read them.” I forced a bright smile. I could feel Massama and Esi staring at me as I went on: “Would it not be the perfect book to learn your written language from? He could read aloud to any interested in hearing it.”
Leo met my bright smile with one even sunnier. “Why did I not have that idea myself? Understanding is the first step on the road to tolerance. Shall I organise it while you are away?”
“I…”
I had not told him I was leaving. That meant he was even deeper in Gideon’s confidence than I had thought. There was no other logical explanation, yet his eternal smile renewed that nagging itch of doubt, and a truly mad idea blinded me. Even as I thought it, I smothered it with a smile vapid enough to challenge his.
“A brief scout of the area hardly counts as being away, Dom Villius,” I said, waving an airy hand though my heart thudded like a galloping herd. “But by all means you may organise a reading of the holy book. Both Nuru and Oshar are capable of translating the spoken word for any Levanti interested in attending.”
As I spoke I concentrated upon a very different mission, the maddest and most foolish mission I could imagine—being sent north to Koi, taking Leo’s head to the Chiltaen forces entrenched there, a warning from Emperor Gideon that should they refuse to surrender the city we—
Leo’s smile hardened to a fixed grimace. I tried to hold his unblinking gaze as it flicked from one of my eyes to the other, side to side like a man reading.
“Of course you would do best to seek His Majesty’s approval first,” I said. I sounded weak and breathless, but he didn’t seem to be listening to my voice anymore.
If I can just keep him standing here talking until the others arrive, I thought, fixing my smile in place though it hurt my cheeks. He’s gotten so complacent thinking he has us all under his thumb, he’ll never see it coming. But Gideon is too smart for him. Are those footsteps? Come on, Esi, grab him. The others are here. Grab—
Leo spun on Esi in a flutter of white linen. She leapt back, but Massama stepped in and rapped her knuckles on the back of Leo’s hand, making him spill the dagger into her waiting palm. And all the while I stood caught to the floor, too shocked to move.
He could hear my thoughts. There was no other explanation. The gods-be-damned little shit could hear everything, could read my mind like a book, and now he knew that I knew.
Leo raised his hands in surrender. “My apologies,” he said with a little laugh, turning first to Esi, then to Massama, who still held his blade. “I thought I heard someone behind me and after all the attacks on my people I cannot be too careful.”
Massama accepted his apology with a murmur but slid his knife into her belt, daring him to ask for it back.
I needed to leave. I needed to get out of there. He could read my mind and he knew and—
“Captain,” he said before I had taken more than three steps along the passage. “A blessing before you go.”
I turned back, grateful for the protection of our unwitting audience as Leo caught up, that hard, brittle smile back. “May God follow you wherever you go,” he said, standing before me. “May he keep you from making costly mistakes. May he have mercy upon your fallen soul.”
A murmur of thanks parted my dry lips and I had no choice but to turn my back to him and walk away—to walk, not run, though I wanted to give in to panic and flee. I tried to stay calm, to think, but the moment I considered doubling back to see Gideon, or telling my Swords, my panic rose afresh. Leo might still be listening, still be reading me. How close did he have to be? Did he have to be looking into my eyes?
No footsteps followed, though my heart hammered so loud I couldn’t be sure. Don’t turn. Don’t check. Keep looking ahead. Keep moving.
The passage had never seemed so long.
I sped up as I reached the corner, and as soon as I was out of sight, I ran. Pelting along the next passage in a storm of footsteps and panic, I almost crashed into a maid, almost shouted at her to run, but she was safe as long as she didn’t know. Anyone I told was dead.
I ran into my door, but it wouldn’t slide. “Jass!” I hissed, thumping upon the wooden frame with the flat of my hand. “Jass, it’s Dishiva. Quick, unlock the door!”
Nothing.
“Jass? Jass!” I pounded again and looked around, sure I’d heard footsteps. No one. “Jass!”
A distant voice spoke a greeting. The maid. I turned, pressing my back to the locked door that hid my only ally as Leo replied. A blessing upon her. Slow steps followed, solemn and pious and frighteningly inevitable. “Fuck!” I spun back, pounding the door again. “Jass! This isn’t funny, I need you to open this door.”
The footsteps drew closer, slow and steady.
“Jass!”
Getting no answer, I punched through the pane closest to the bolt and reached inside, the thick paper scratching my arm. The approaching footsteps filled my mind as I drew back the bolt and threw the door wide, only to catch sight of Jass lying on the floor. “Shit!” I slammed the door closed and bolted it. “Shit!”
Breath wheezed between Jass’s swollen lips. Dry foam flecked his chin and the whites of his eyes were mere flickering slits, but though his arms and legs were stiff and trembling he was not dead. Not yet.
A knock shook the door. “Captain Dishiva?” Leo’s voice filled the room as he peered through the hole in the paper. “Ah, were you too late to save another friend? How sad.”
I hauled Jass’s head onto my lap, and as the paper screen crackled, I prised open his jaw and thrust my fingers down his throat. It was swollen and choked with foam, but not caring if I hurt him as long as he lived, I pressed deep, digging until at last he gagged and retched. His body took over and I rolled him from my legs as foam burst from his lips, followed by the entire putrid contents of his stomach.
A sash snaked around my throat, yanking my head back against Leo’s leg. “You just had to be too clever, didn’t you, Dishiva,” he said, the words an ugly growl. “Too suspicious. All because you blamed me for Rah’s dissent. But I can assure you, he was quite able to be a traitor all on his own.”
The sash tightened and I gasped breaths through an ever-shrinking hole. In front of me Jass retched over and over, lying in a spreading pool of vomit, but even if he survived, I would be dead before he could move.
Leo tightened the sash as I scrabbled to get fingers under it. “You’re right and he will get the blame whether he survives or not,” he said, gleeful. “Because being found beside a corpse never looks good.”
This was not the way I was going to die. If I could edge a foot out and spring up…
Leo laughed and pressed his weight onto my shoulders to keep me down.
“What’s your next bright plan, Capt—”
I rolled, the tight sash about my throat dragging Leo with me. He cried out amid a confused flurry of linen and sick-soaked reeds, and the sash around my throat loosened. I staggered up gasping and gripping my neck, every breath full of knives. Leo had landed on Jass, his back arched over the groaning Levanti, but though the God’s child had cried out in pain he rolled clear, one sleeve soaked in sick and clinging to his arm.
I drew my dagger and faced Leo across the small room. He had lost his weapo
n to Massama, yet he owned no fear as he stood ready to fight, unarmed and smiling. He spread his arms, inviting attack. “Come on, Dishiva, why hesitate? Strike down the unarmed priest and suffer the weight of such dishonour.”
“You are no priest,” I snarled, and snarl it was, the words coming hoarse and broken from my throat. And the fool just stood there and smiled, giving me the perfect opening to stick my blade in his gut.
I stepped in, thrusting for his unprotected stomach and ready to slit his throat in the aftershock. But Leo moved fast as a river snake. His fingers closed around my wrist, forcing the dagger down before twisting it from my hand. Instinct dropped me beneath his thrust, but when I kicked at his knee he leapt back with a triumphant, boyish laugh.
I stood, clenching and unclenching my empty hands. He had known what I would do and been waiting to perform an almost perfect disarm. If I hadn’t dropped I would be dead on the floor beside Jass. Only instinct had saved me.
“Going to try again with your sword?” he jeered, his eyes flashing with excitement. “You know it would be easier if you gave up and died.”
Out beyond the window the yard buzzed with activity. There were Levanti everywhere, enough Swords to beat Leo a hundred times over, but even if I called them they would not be here in time, and who would believe Leo could read my mind? Even Jass was no help, but he groaned and rolled when my gaze darted to him, the last of the vomit having been purged from his stomach.
I was on my own. Me against Leo, and he had my knife.
The God’s child lifted his brows. “You’ve finally figured that out. You have been on your own since you arrived. This camp is mine. Gideon is mine. The empire is mine.”
“Horseshit. You are all lies and trickery, and if you want me dead then come and kill me.”
Mimicking his action, I spread my arms, inviting him to strike. I feared death, and I forced that fear to the front of my mind, focusing on it in the hope it would choke his thoughts.
Leo licked dry lips. “That isn’t going to work.”
“Then kill me. Now, before there are two against one and you’re done for.”
Jass had rolled clear of his mess. If Leo tried to attack him, I could strike. If he went for the door, he’d be dead before he slid the bolt. Leo’s only option was to kill me and fast.
A smile solidified on the young priest’s face. “You think I can’t? I was trained by the best teachers in Chiltae.”
“Then stop talking and do it.”
He leapt, stabbing at my neck, but I threw up a deflecting arm and twisted it around his. With his elbow locked I forced him face first toward the floor. I dodged away as he slashed at me with the other hand, and he rose with blood leaking from his nose and an ugly sneer. His gaze flicked to the door.
“Why did you kill them?” I said.
Leo wiped the blood from his nose with his clean sleeve. “Why ask questions you already know the answer to?”
“Why don’t you want me to read your holy book?”
“Again with the stupid questions.” He stepped as he spoke, a slow sidestep toward Jass. The start of an attack or a feint? If he took another then—
No, don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t let him win.
Leo leered. “You kill me and I’ll just come back and return the favour.”
He lunged, switching the blade to his off hand as he came at me. I fell back a step, and giving myself to the calm that lay beyond the rising panic, I moved without thought. I stepped as I had done thousands of times in practice, blocked as I had been taught, and twisted his arm. This time I slammed my palm into the back of his locked elbow, exulting at the snap of bone.
The God’s child howled and hissed, but he caught his dropped dagger in his other hand. His left arm hung useless, but still he faced me, spitting fury. “I am Veld Reborn,” he said, spittle bursting from his lips. Pain seemed to have melted away his calm facade, leaving something more animal than human beneath. “This will be my empire, and the more you enrage God the more pain he will pile upon you until you beg for a quick, dignified death.”
“Do you even believe any of this stuff?” I said. “Or do you just use it for your own ends?”
Jass hauled himself onto his knees, trembling like a branch of storm-blown leaves. A glance was all I could spare him for Leo lumbered forward, his broken arm swinging and his smile fixed. Like the inevitability of his steps in the passage, here stood a man who would not quit, who would return the moment he was dead and come after me again. And next time I might not be so lucky.
Grinning, he took a second lumbering step. Then he lashed out, whip fast, and all I could do was fall back, dodging the tip of the blade as it slashed the air before my eyes. He pressed his advantage and thrust again, nicking my arm. Hot blood stung as I backed up, almost stepping on Jass’s leg. He seemed to be speaking, but his hoarse whisper was nothing over the thundering blood in my ears.
“I only need to get you once,” Leo said, teeth gritted against the pain of his broken elbow. “You have to be lucky every time.”
No, I thought, just long enough for Jass to recover.
Leo’s gaze snapped to Jass, increasingly dangerous despite his weak state. I didn’t need to read his mind to know his intention, and leaving no time for doubt I darted in low, catching the God’s child as he lunged. My shoulder met Leo’s gut, and carrying him back, I slammed him against the wall in a crack of wood. His fists pummelled my back. His sandal struck my shin. In a tangle of limbs and linen we fell, and however well the best Chiltaen masters had taught him to fight with a blade, they’d never taught him to scrap on the ground. I pinned him easily and smashed my fist into his pretty face. Blood spurted from his nose, then from a split lip as I hit him again and again, pounding him into the matting floor.
He tried to buck and bite and fend me off with his one good arm, but I caught it as he reached for my throat and broke his wrist. Never had the snap of bones been so joyous. Leo howled and my soul sang. I had dreamed night after night of getting free of my chains and beating Commander Legus to death while he slept. Such dreams had sustained me through our forced march south, through the memories I could not escape, but now, faced with the chance to see them through, I lowered my fist. The sight of Leo’s broken, bloody face sapped my fury to a simmer. If he died now, he would just come back.
Jass watched me, still trembling, his bloodshot eyes owning more life than I had thought to see.
“Are you all right?” I said, keeping my weight on Leo. “I mean, as all right as…”
I trailed off, but Jass nodded, seemingly unable to speak.
“I’m sorry.”
As I spoke he looked over my shoulder, and my heart leapt into my throat as I turned to find Nuru and Lady Sichi standing in the doorway. Before I could manage a word, the lady strode in and kicked the prostrate Dom Villius in the side of the head with her sandalled foot.
“Hey! We don’t want him dead!” I threw out my hands as his head lolled into unconsciousness.
Unabashed, Lady Sichi spoke and Nuru said, “In fact we do, Captain, but I take your point that we do not want him to come back again if that’s something he truly does. I have not been sure who I could trust, but it has been increasingly clear Dom Villius has a dangerous level of control and needs to be stopped.”
“But you’ve been having tea with him almost every day.”
Nuru didn’t bother translating this, just gave me a look.
“We have to get him out of here,” Lady Sichi went on. “But I’m not sure—”
“Caves,” Jass croaked, and we all stared at him.
“There’s somewhere we can hide him where no one will find him?”
Another nod followed by a convulsive swallow and a gasp for air. A second nod as he regained control of himself. “Through the cellar,” he whispered. “There are caves. They lead into the mountains.”
I leapt up. Someone could come by at any moment. Gideon could send for me or a servant might peer thro
ugh the hole in my screen and Leo couldn’t be here if they did. He had used his own sash to strangle me, and I snatched it up to tie his broken arms.
Lady Sichi began to speak again.
“The lady says I will keep watch to be sure you get out unseen,” Nuru said. “And she will stay behind to clean the mess so no one suspects.”
“I have to be back by morning,” I said. “I have a… mission, and it will be noted if I am late in setting off.”
Jass shot me a searching look, but said nothing.
“Then hurry back, Captain,” Lady Sichi said through Nuru’s lips. “And when you return from that mission I think you and I need to finally have a proper talk. If we cannot trust one another after this, when could we?”
Weak though he was, Jass helped me truss up the unconscious priest and stuff a ball of fabric in his blood-filled mouth. Then, when Jass found enough strength to walk, I slung Leo over my shoulder. It was time for Veld Reborn to disappear.
“Where are you going?” Jass asked in his rasping voice after we had left Lady Sichi behind, Nuru striding ahead to be sure the way was clear. “This mission.”
Perhaps I ought not to tell him, but I rebelled against the idea I had to live in a world without trust and said, “Gideon wants me to deal with the deserters.”
He turned and looked at me, and in the seriousness of that gaze I recalled that he had begun to tell me he hadn’t joined my Swords to protect Gideon. Or for me. What better way to walk around the manor unquestioned than to be an Imperial Guard?
“You have connections to the deserters, don’t you?” I said to him. “That’s what you wanted to tell me. You joined my Swords so you could smuggle supplies and people in and out. That’s how you know about the caves.”
Jass nodded.
“I could call that treason.”
He met my gaze, his half-lidded eyes unblinking.