CHAPTER 24
Blay picked up the canteen from Butu and idly stuck his finger in it.
“Any idea what the delegation wants to discuss with the Nankek, Blay?” Lujo asked. “Didn’t they kidnap the last Ahjea who came to Tranugal? I hear they kept him in a mountain tower so high it rains all the time, and the only reason he didn’t die of hunger is because his three sons sent their pet eagles to him with parcels of food. Even then, the Nankek shot down his youngest son’s eagle. The first-cycler was so upset that he and his brothers crossed the shanjin and rescued their father. Otherwise, he’d still be there.”
Stunned, disbelieving silence answered him. Lujo spread his hands. “I said some stories are true, not all of them. But I still want to know, don’t you?”
“There was a reception for an emissary from the Kadrak, a few months ago,” Jani said quietly. “And we’ve been guesting an el’Nankek — the kluntra’s wife’s first cousin — for almost half a year.”
“Are you sure he’s just a guest?” Lujo asked. “Maybe he’s a prisoner. I heard about …”
Blay jumped in. “Speculate as much as you want, but understand it’s not your place to know. We’re sordenu, and we will follow our orders.”
Tirud glared at Blay. “You should tell them now, corp.” He sat forward a little more, gesturing with his knife. “The problem with secret missions is that if something happens to the ones who know about the real mission, the people who don’t know better might complete the wrong mission.”
He leaned back again, picking at his teeth.
“The other sordenu probably think we’re deserters,” Jani said, earning a scowl from Tirud. “If I saw another squad abused the way Zhek and Puro ...”
“It was just Zhek,” Butu said quietly. She spoke right over him.
“... treated us, and then they vanished during their watch, I wouldn’t have trouble believing they deserted.”
“I wouldn’t blame them,” Retus muttered.
“That won’t stop them from doing their duty if they catch us,” Phedam said. “They execute deserters.”
“But we didn’t desert!” Retus objected, looking suddenly afraid. “We’re following orders.”
“Phedam is right,” Tirud said with a vicious smirk, eyes glued to Blay. “If the mission fails and we get caught, Jusep can claim the Ahjea had nothing to do with our actions. It also means we have to succeed no matter what.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Butu said.
“Of course not, mouse.” Tirud’s smirk faded. “Because if you knew...”
“Tirud, why don’t you check the camels?” Blay said, a twinge in his voice. Butu’s head snapped his way. The corporal’s face had flushed.
“But I haven’t finished ...”
“Now.” The corporal’s voice was harder than any other time Butu had heard it.
“Yes, sir!” Tirud stood up, saluting half-heartedly, and loped off. Blay watched him until he was over by the camels. Tirud stood there, knife still out, staring back at them. Butu shuddered.
Lujo swallowed the last of his water and stood up, stretching. “I’m going to rest my eyes until it’s time for my watch. I’ll definitely find water tomorrow.”
“Night,” Butu called to him. He glanced back at Tirud, who had disappeared behind the camels. Blay leaned back, staring up at the stars, canteen on his finger. There’s too much to pay attention to, he thought. “I’ll be turning in soon, I’m thinking.”
Blay waved at Butu as if shooing him. “Go practice your magic before Nolen falls asleep. We all appreciate that you’ve been so careful not to get caught, but we’re in the middle of the shanjin, though, so it’s a bit ridiculous to try to keep it secret from us.”
Only Phedam looked surprised by this exchange. Butu flushed, ashamed for letting Nolen keep their secret from him.
“The rest of you are welcome to join us,” Butu suggested.
“I’m kind of busy here,” Blay told him, pulling his finger out of the canteen to show the stream of water flowing from it.
“And I’m too old,” Jani reminded him.
“You’re younger than you seem to think,” Blay said, sitting up again. One of the camels brayed. “Tirud and I will watch the camp. The rest of you practice until it’s time to sleep.”
“What’s the point, if we’re going to lose it?” Retus asked.
“I’m still young enough to enjoy watching you use magic. A bit jealous, too, maybe, but it brings back many happy memories. Besides, I’ve already told you our squad was chosen for this mission because most of you can still use magic. Start with hide and seek.” Blay smiled wistfully. “That’s an order.”
They saluted. “Yes, sir!”
Butu, remembering his promise, asked Phedam to go get Nolen, but Jani pulled him away because he had shown some talent with hide and seek chants. Shrugging, Butu went and kicked his friend awake, and Nolen became more excited than even Butu was. He ran out of the tent as if he had a full night’s rest, catcalling until Blay shouted at him to be quiet. Tirud had come back to camp, and the two of them spoke with heads together by the fire.
They played hide and seek, using chants. Butu was caught first, making him seeker, but when he found everyone instantly, even Tirud’s interest grew. Butu tried to explain it.
“It’s a lot like sensing water or minerals. Bodies aren’t like anything else. They feel really different. In a town like Jasper, though, where there are a lot of them together, it’s hard to feel the ones that are far away because there are so many nearby. But out here…” Butu screwed up his face as he tried to think of a better way to explain it.
“A town is like a mess hall with a bunch of smells competing with each other?” Lujo suggested. “And the shanjin is freshly baked bread in the kitchen when nothing else is cooking?”
The metaphor clicked. Butu nodded. “Yeah.”
Lujo shrugged. “It’s like that for me in the mines, sometimes. It’s easier to find a vein than to follow it.”
They practiced that, failing often, until Blay finally said they had to sleep.
The next three days passed in a haze. Get up with the sun, look for water until about noon, eat lunch, and then plod on — sometimes over dunes, sometimes around them — until the sun nearly set. Make camp, eat dinner and then practice magic until it was time to sleep.
Tirud and Blay seemed to have come to some level of compromise, and everyone seemed a little more relaxed. Phedam trailed Nolen and Butu more, now that everyone practiced magic, and their friendship seemed on the mend. Jani smiled more often at Butu, and he sometimes wondered if the rules against them reliving their past were as flexible on this mission as the one against using magic.
That’s not really our interest in each other anymore, though, is it? Butu thought as he watched her help Tirud water the camels. Maybe it was the long marches or the secrecy of the mission, but Butu was having trouble thinking too hard about the future, these days. Strange that this might be the only chance we have of getting away with it, but neither of us is making a move.
Butu had once known exactly what Jani wanted from him, but now he wasn’t sure he did. Whatever the next cycle brings, no one will tell us whether or not we can be together. The choice is ours in a way it never was.
Kingmaker Page 24