by Kelly Coon
I nodded as I slowly breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. “Yes, of course. First, little Rish.”
My abum once told me that you must excise the cause of infection for the good of the body or it would fester and spread. In Rish’s case, it certainly had.
Just like Uruku was infecting the city of Alu.
Filled with purpose, I stared down at the bone saw. The needle and thread. The sterilized dagger for the easier work. The myrrh, sikaru, and the clean cloths. I mentally worked through the steps I’d need to take to sever Rish’s lower arm from his body.
And when I was finished, I’d cut Uruku out of the body of Alu with the sharpest blade in the entire fertile valley: the Koru.
IN THE ABANDONED city of Wussuru, the Manzazu warriors lined up in neat rows like markings on a tablet, their copper helmets shining in the sun. In their fists were maces. Spears. Sickleswords. Battle-axes. Bows. Their armored cloaks glimmered like snake’s scales when they moved, shifting a battle-ax to a better hand. Repositioning a spear.
I would not want to be the recipient of this army’s punishment. In front of them, several of the army’s commanders stalked, their faces stony. And next to them walked Higal and Commander Ummi, gesturing angrily at one another.
Dagan stood in front of Assata, who’d changed into the Manzazu uniform. She looked lethal with the sickleswords in sheaths at her waist, an armored tunic on her back. Dagan’s face fell in grief as he finished telling her of Warad. When he stopped, hands on hips, head hanging, she screamed and shoved him hard in the chest, tears springing to her eyes and rolling down her cheeks in fury.
We’d debated telling Assata at all about Warad. But after talking with Arwia, we decided the only compassionate thing to do was to relay the news and pray it redirected her to join forces with us in our bridal scheme.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Assata pushed Dagan once more, slapped his cheek, and stormed away, howling and beating her chest.
Dagan stood there a second, kicking the sand, before walking back toward us. He rubbed his jaw where he’d been slapped and Nasu clapped a hand on his shoulder. Tears flooded my vision. That poor woman.
“Well, that was a terrible idea. She’ll never forgive us,” Dagan told me as he shielded his eyes from the sun. He and I had made the trip to Wussuru, leaving Nanaea to care for Rish and Kasha for the day we would be gone. While she did, she and the weaver friend would make the Koru’s bridal tunics. Rish’s skin had pinked up immediately when the infected arm had been removed, and I’d stuffed him full of enough poppy to sleep for a full day. There was once a time I wouldn’t trust her to the task of watching him. But now? She was proving herself competent and efficient. Startlingly so.
“Never is a long time.” Arwia inclined her head regally, tucking her long hair over her stitched ear. It was healing nicely, though she’d have a wicked scar for the rest of her life. “Assata has to realize it is not your fault.”
“She knows no such thing.” Dagan put his hands on his hips near his daggers.
“And she won’t care anyway.” Nasu glanced back at her wailing on her knees. “She wants blood.”
“And she’ll get it,” I told Nasu. “Tomorrow morning. We’ll send in a small band of the Koru dressed as brides for Uruku, and they can kill him. Once he is gone, Arwia can take back her city.”
Nasu shrugged. “You’re too late, Kammani. Look at them all.” I took in his warm brown eyes, flashing back to the moment he’d tried to slit my throat in the tomb while we’d kissed, and my hand instinctively went to the scar left behind.
“Higal and Ummi have been fighting about the delay that Ummi gave you. Half of the troops and their commanders support Higal, and want to march now.”
Nasu jerked his close-cropped head at the thick warrior who looked as ferocious as a lion.
“And to be honest, she’s probably right. It seems needlessly risky to continue trying to poison Uruku when Higal has a good plan. She’ll send in warriors to attack the gate and get through the city to the Libbu. Once she’s there, she’ll lure out many of the guardsmen with war, and a small faction will get inside and capture Uruku. They’ll kill his ensis, then parade their corpses, and him in chains, all the way back to Sarratum Tabni, where she’ll put his head on the Manzazu wall.”
“Well, that is not what I want at all.” Arwia crossed her arms over her chest. “I only want Uruku dead. We can get the rest of the city’s allegiance another way. With gifts! Or even food. Kammani says they’re starving!”
“My lady.” He bowed slightly, pressing his lips together. “The nobility stand to lose if Uruku is taken, so they will not go willingly into your service. They must be killed, or they may rise up against you one day. Same for the guardsmen who serve him. I want to listen to you, but I believe you’re wrong.”
“You supported us before, Nasu. What changed?” Dagan asked him.
Nasu blew out a breath. “I suppose I owed you the chance. But you couldn’t accomplish it. Why keep risking your lives? Let’s move on. Sarratum Tabni will march whether you succeed or not at this point.”
We continued to debate as Assata wept herself dry near the warriors. But after a while, she came to her feet with great care, the weight of her grief trying to press her into the ground. At once, as if deciding something to herself, she dried her eyes with the backs of her hands, squared her shoulders, and marched up to Higal, speaking desperately into her ear.
After a few moments, Higal nodded, her mouth hardened into sandstone. She broke away from the greater regiment and stood next to Ummi. Assata took Higal’s spot in line, her face twisted with ache.
Higal raised her hands to the warriors in the Linaza salute, and nearly half of them snapped to attention. The other half looked confused.
“Warriors! This is your call to arms!”
Next to Higal, Ummi gritted her teeth. “Stand down, Higal!”
Higal ignored her. “Our sarratum has commanded us to war against Alu! We march tonight!”
The warriors raised their weapons in the sky, roaring in response to Higal, and my spine tingled with the memory of the vision of the Boatman. The hallucination. Whatever it was I’d experienced. The warriors in my vision held tinctures, though. Not weapons. Fighting the innocent was not the way forward.
“Higal!” I yelled. My heart was screaming that harming the innocent to get what you wanted was foul. Indecent. Unforgivable. I may go into Alani’s claws for attempting to kill Uruku, but I’d accept that fate. Killing the innocent was not the same. My hands up, pleading, I strode over to her.
“No, Higal, no war. Send in some of your Koru to go in dressed as brides, as we’ve explained. They can sneak in and remove the threat.”
Coiled like a snake, Assata broke rank and ran up to me, unsheathing her sicklesword. She grabbed my shoulder and flung me down to the ground while the warriors behind her yelled. Dagan rushed up behind Assata, his daggers already out of his belt, but Ummi launched herself between Assata and me, her eyes hard.
“Step back,” Ummi told Assata.
Assata’s eyes grew cold. “I’m helping you remember your sarratum’s bidding, Commander.”
Ummi leveled her battle-ax at Assata’s throat. “We owe the A-zu the delay, and I will not back down on that promise. We do not act until I give the command.” She stared hard at Higal. “In case you have forgotten your rank.”
“No, Manzazu will have WAR!” Assata cried, the warrior she once was still present in her mother’s hands and belly, sloped shoulders and threads of gray at her temples. Maybe more present because of those things. “This army with their warrior hearts will follow Higal because she is following their sarratum’s orders!”
“Not if they want to please Linaza.” Ummi stepped up to Assata and drew the other battle-ax from her belt. The blade flashed in the sun as she rotated her wrist. �
��We do not have to come to blows, but we will. The A-zu saved our lives. We owe her our debt.”
Assata’s lip curled. “Your allegiance should be to your queen. And my allegiance is to my son! My husband! The warrior who lives inside me! She has consecrated us for bloodshed, and I will have it on the morrow. This girl does not control me!” She pointed her sicklesword at my chest. “Everyone who stood there and watched my son die deserves to meet the Boatman.” Her eyes were hard with rage. “Everyone.”
I shrank back into the sand, holding up a hand to ward off an attack, and the brick wall of Dagan stepped next to Ummi between me and Assata. He held both his daggers in his massive hands, his eyes hard.
“Assata, I do not want to fight you, but if you make any more threats against Kammani, I will. Warad and my ummum were dead the moment Uruku took them. We will likely not get my ummum back alive, either. It’s a fact that kills me. But the only thing that is important now is removing Uruku from that throne and putting her back on it.” He pointed to Arwia. “People will be loyal to her. They know Uruku is a monster who lusts for blood and power. It would be different if he’d made the city prosperous, but he has failed the citizens of Alu.”
Dagan held his arms out to all of us. The warriors, too. “You think we haven’t been doing our duty, but all of us have been working hard. Kammani poisoned Uruku. Iltani gains inside information from Gala. I’ve been counting the weak and the strong and ensuring the ensis will let Arwia rule. There are more poor than rich in Alu now by a lot. Maybe eighty percent! All but a handful of the nobility are starving. Many of them are angry, Assata, and they would likely take Manzazu’s side if they came in as saviors. There is no reason to go in slaughtering.”
Assata laughed long and loud. “You stood by while Warad was killed, and now you want Higal to have mercy on his murderers?” she roared. “His head likely joins his abum’s on the wall, and you want her to stop this?”
“Yes.” I held my hand up in defense. “Higal can take a troop of bridal warriors in to capture Uruku and kill him. Then you can parade his body all the way to Manzazu and Enlidu and Kush and anywhere else you see fit.”
At that, Arwia pointed to Assata. Then Higal. “All of us need to work together or we will not succeed. How can we be fighting among ourselves and hope to win? We must be a force united! Please listen!”
Assata studied Arwia, smiling at her mirthlessly. Then she nodded to Higal. The Koru warrior thrust one meaty fist into the air. “Those warriors who are with me and your sarratum, meet me in the courtyard. We. Will. Wage. War.”
She jogged out of the Libbu walls, and nearly half of the women followed her. Assata spat on the ground near my feet and jogged behind them all. Nasu stood next to Arwia, his hands on his hips, a look of indecision on his lean face. Arwia tugged his elbow and he lowered his head, their conversation too quiet for me to hear.
Ummi stood there, watching them go, her features turned to stone.
Dagan reached down and helped me stand. “They won’t be stopped, Kammani.”
“Commander, will you help us? We could leave here with a small band of the Koru. Right now. Go to Laraak for disguises, then enact our scheme before she brings war. If we already have Uruku dead by the time she arrives, she won’t need to march!”
“I promised a delay, A-zu.” She gritted her teeth, her eyes flashing. “Now this is causing me trouble with my own warriors.”
“Trust yourself, Ummi. You know in your heart that this is right. You know it. It will prove your Koru wise and strong when you quietly show your strength as you said before. You and Nasu can command the team. With his knowledge of the Palace and your skill in battle, you can lead these Koru in, overtake him, and stand victorious. I know it!”
Dagan looked over my shoulder. “What does he think he’s doing?”
I looked over to Nasu and Arwia, but Nasu was striding purposefully away. Toward Higal and Assata. Higal’s barks of commands could be heard echoing off the city walls.
Arwia cast worried eyes over at us, her long hair falling over her shoulders. “Nasu stands with Higal. He believes she is right and that I will be challenged for the throne if I do not attack brutally. He is loyal to me, but…he says he’s tried it this way long enough. He believes we must use force.”
Nasu exited out the Libbu archway into the courtyard, and an exultant cry rose from the warriors standing out there. But there were still half of the warriors in here and all of the Koru except Higal. Many souls willing to listen to our way of thinking.
“What do you want, Arwia?”
She blew out a breath. Looked hesitantly at me, then over her shoulder to where Nasu had gone. “If Ummi agrees, then I choose to protect our citizens. I’ll go with you, and we will take down Uruku quietly. I’d rather try once more this way.”
“Ummi, please say you’ll do this. Please help us end this war before it begins.”
She dropped her head and looked at me with fierce determination in her eyes. “If Linaza is directing your vision, I will.”
I wasn’t so sure it was she who had put this spark in my belly and fanned it into a flame, but if saying that it was Linaza meant saving the lives of innocents, I would. I’d say it a hundred times.
“It is so, Ummi. Linaza is the goddess of war, but also of love. And I love my city. Help me protect those who live there.”
She put a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Then we will do it.”
“Good.” Arwia looked from me to Ummi, flint in her eyes. “Now let us go pry that wriggling maggot from my throne.”
THE HALF-DAY RIDE back to Laraak was made faster by the speed of the stallions beneath us, the hands of the Boatman on my shoulders urging me onward with cold dread. He was there. He was ready to take souls to the Netherworld. And I couldn’t let him.
Arwia raced her white steed through the night next to Dagan and me. The horse’s muscles strained and stretched beneath its ivory hide, and her hair followed after her in silken waves as we galloped hard. The warriors who were with us sneaked stealthily in twos and threes, seamlessly disappearing in the crowds on the great road that passed between city-states. Only Ummi and the Koru brides stayed with us on their horses, their faces resolutely forward wherever we might lead.
“Faster,” I breathed into Dagan’s ear, and he tightened his hand over my arms that were encircling his waist as we sped, together, toward the safety of the encampment.
Toward Nanaea and Kasha and little Rish.
Toward a plan that would hopefully secure Alu for Arwia and restore the city that had raised me, had chewed me up and spat me out, but still resonated in my heart. Still beat within my breast. Still held the bones of my family.
I was a healer, and I had an entire city counting on me to get rid of the infection that had festered for far too long.
I couldn’t let them—any of us—down.
* * *
They were the most powerful brides I’d ever seen, and my heart practically leapt with hope, something I desperately needed. Rish had been awake when we’d arrived early this morning, and his stitches had not only looked good, but he was in bright spirits for someone who’d been told they could never use an appendage again. He’d shrugged his shoulder and said he was glad it was gone because it had hurt him something awful. After stuffing him with honeyed dates and all the sweet figs I could find, I left him with the young woman who suffered from moon-blood pain. She was telling him a story about their night goddess at Laraak, and Rish, his eyes wide, was enraptured.
His stump, however, nearly broke me. For the rest of my life, whenever I saw it, it would remind me of how I’d hurt him. But I left my worry behind for the moment. I couldn’t let it deter our plans.
The brides standing before me made me believe they might actually work out.
Ummi looked fit for her wedding day, as did the other Koru. Ummi’s hair was brushe
d into a short tail at the base of her neck, and her lips were painted gold. Thick strokes of kohl outlined her big eyes, which peered out from her filmy veil with more ferocity than was safe. She’d refused to remove the bracers about her forearms, so Nanaea tied silks over them down to her wrists. All of the Koru looked mildly uncomfortable, poking one another and laughing shyly. Humusi, the lean Koru warrior who’d discovered the assassin in Manzazu with us, bobbed around like a cat until Nanaea practically had to tie her down to dress her. Ummi’s face flushed red as a trader walking through the camp whistled, but Arwia scolded him.
“What an unusual situation to be in,” Ummi grumbled. “I’m not used to being at anyone’s mercy. I am in charge.”
“I know.” I laid a hand on her arm. “But this is temporary.”
“And necessary for the entire region.” Arwia surveyed Nanaea’s work. “For your citizens, Commander. When I’m back in the Palace, I will restore trade to the north.” She blinked, her nerves bubbling through. “Somehow.”
“We will all support and help you, Arwia.” I twisted to get at my healing satchel, which was situated strangely under my robes.
“Hold still, Lady Trader.” Nanaea knelt in front of me, lacing one of my sandals. She finished and stood.
“Lady Trader. What a sickening thought. Any woman who could give her own sisters away to be used however a man would like is a shame to all humanity.”
“But why?” Kasha asked. “If they are going to be wives? Why wouldn’t they want to be married to their husbands?” He stood next to Nanaea, his eyes wide, holding a stack of linens from which Nanaea would occasionally pull and tuck into different places on the Koru’s bodies, accentuating a hip here or adding color to bring out their eyes there.
Nanaea combed her fingers through the front of his hair. “There are things you don’t know about marriage, Brother.”