Kingmaker

by Eric Zawadzki

CHAPTER 29

  “Don’t move.”

  Butu surfaced from the darkness into the pale light of pre-dawn, moaning. The pain had only subsided. He still could not feel his arm.

  Nolen appeared next to him. “Hey, how’re you feeling?”

  Butu tried to sit up, but his stomach knit in agony. Grunting, he rolled onto his side and with Nolen’s help got into a kneeling position.

  “I guess you weren’t talking to me,” he said. Someone else sat with them.

  “She’s tried to run away three times,” Nolen said. “I took her weapons from her and tied her up.” He flushed. “And gave her some water and food.”

  The girl wore a sordenu’s uniform, but she couldn’t have been older than Butu. Her skin was brown like sugar, and her defiant eyes were deep brown. Her hair was braided as Jani’s used to be.

  “Her name’s Amber,” Nolen offered. “She won’t talk. Look at this.”

  With his good arm, he dragged a sword over to Butu, who fingered the pommel. A four-sided pyramid with the Riphil etched on each side. She’s an Akdren. The Akdren controlled much of the Riphil Valley, but the river was hundreds of miles west of the shanjin. They were also the second most powerful clan, behind the Kadrak.

  “What are you doing here?” The question was more to himself, but she looked sullenly at her knees.

  He fought a wave of nausea and stood, looking around him. Maybe I still have a child’s resilience, after all. The dead sordenu was half-naked and sitting in a pool of something brown. Nolen followed his gaze and grimaced.

  “Our sordenu’s last desperate assault,” Nolen said. He checked Butu’s bandage. “I’ve heard that sometimes happens when a man dies. There.” The cloth tightened around Butu’s side.

  “Thanks. I feel better already,” Butu lied. “How are you?”

  Nolen touched his arm. “I can barely move it.” He handed a waterskin to Butu.

  Butu nodded and drank the warm liquid. He approached Amber, motioning with the skin. She nodded and tilted her head back as he tipped the skin over her mouth. She kept her eyes tightly shut, ducking her head and swallowing. The skin felt very light in his hand.

  “Did they have any water?” Butu asked.

  “No,” Nolen said. “I’d say they were much worse off than we are.” He frowned at their prisoner. “Might be the Ahjea aren’t the only ones who send sordenu to the shanjin to look for water.” He laughed without humor.

  “You were right. There’s something very strange going on that no one told us about.”

  The Kadrak are the allies of the Ahjea, and they hate the Akdren, so that makes her the enemy of my ally. There’s no reason to help her. Except we did already.

  Keeping his back straight, he crouched down next to her.

  “It’s time to answer questions, Akdren,” Butu said. “But we’ll do this fairly. I’m Butu and this is Nolen. Are you Amber?”

  Her eyes were darker than the stone she was named for, but they glittered as she finally met his gaze. They dropped to the sword at Nolen’s belt, and then she nodded.

  “We’re sorry about your friend,” he said, feeling stupid. If he hadn’t attacked us, we would have gone away. Something flickered across her face, but he wasn’t sure what it was. “We’re from the Ahjea, on a mission...”

  “To scour the shanjin for orphans,” Nolen interrupted, and Butu looked over his shoulder, hoping he looked as nonchalant as Blay did when Tirud spoke over him.

  “We were chasing Clanless,” the voice was low and soothing, though colored dark by fear. Butu turned back to look at Amber, who swallowed. “They raided a town at the edge of the Riphil.”

  She’s speaking very quickly. She must be lying. But, then again, so are we.

  Butu nodded, noting the square button on her shoulder, matching the brass stud on his. “And the rest of your squad? Was he your corporal?” Nolen took the hint and went to check. Butu shifted his feet and winced. He flexed his right hand. It moved but the arm was still numb.

  “I could ask you the same,” she said, shifting a bit herself. “What are two young — very young — Ahjea sordenu doing alone in the middle of this trackless wasteland?”

  Trackless wasteland? Butu sniffed, causing her to bridle a bit. “And have you fallen yet, Amber?”

  He said it with no real malice, but her back stiffened even further. The bonds snapped behind her and she leapt to her feet, almost immediately falling over as blood returned to her legs again. Butu leapt with childlike speed, regretting it instantly, and they tumbled across the sand.

  “He’s not a corporal,” Nolen called. “Hey, what are you doing?”

  “Hold still,” Butu whispered to her, using all his strength to hold her down. She froze. “I’ll let go of you if you promise not to run, right?”

  Amber hesitated before nodding. Butu slid off her, clutching his belly. She turned to him with something akin to worry on her face.

  “Butu,” Nolen said, appearing. “He was a sergeant, I think.”

  “We’re out here for different reasons,” Amber cut in. “But we’re in the same position. Why don’t we head back to where the rest of my platoon is? There’ll be water and help for you there.”

  “We’re not going to some stinking Akdren camp!” Nolen cried. “Shanubu, you know what they’d do to us?”

  Her smirk told them quite well she did know. “Come peacefully,” she said sweetly.

  Butu had to laugh. “You are our prisoner,” he said, slowly and firmly, “not the other way around. If we go anywhere, it’s to our squa — platoon. Besides, I don’t think your platoon is anywhere near us.”

  “It’s ...” She stopped, eyes narrowing. “Have you fallen?”

  He laughed again, knowing what they should do, and Nolen looked at him nervously.

  “You’ll come with us,” Butu said. She opened her mouth to object, and he shook his head. “If you could’ve found water or your platoon, you would have done it before now. Some of our platoon is less than a mile away.” He nodded at Nolen’s gasp. “Yeah, I just felt them.”

  He looked back at Amber. “Anyway, I like talking to you.” He grinned at her gasp.

  “Well, then,” she said, standing up and brushing sand off herself. “Maybe it’s because you like listening to me. And my brother Terril says I can talk the ear off corn, so you have made a lousy bargain.”

  Butu laughed again, then wheezed, then coughed, and Nolen helped him to his feet.

  “Let’s go,” he said. “The corp will want to meet our Akdren companion.”

  She frowned at that, but moved when Nolen prodded her.