Kingmaker

by Eric Zawadzki

CHAPTER 57

  Then Jani pushed Butu away from Zhek, placing herself like a shield between them. Jani leveled her sword at Zhek, first, and Blay arrived next. Zhek raised the broken remnant of his sword as if he meant to fight them with it, but Paka ran up with childish speed and touched it, turning it to powder that glittered as it floated to the ground.

  Lujo and Aesh looked equally angry at Zhek when they arrived with swords drawn, and Retus and Phedam ran out of the palace with hands on their swords. Butu could almost sense the murder in the air.

  They could call it execution for treason.

  “Wait!” he shouted. “Let him live.”

  They didn’t stab Zhek on the spot, but they didn’t take their eyes off him, either.

  “He just tried to kill the king under a flag of truce.” Aesh’s voice was cold, and his sword quivered in his shaking hand.

  “It was a test. I was never in any real danger.” Butu hoped the half-truth sounded like truth. Aesh’s eyes narrowed in disbelief.

  “Why else would Tirud bring you to Butu and leave you while he went somewhere he couldn’t protect his kingmaker?” Jani asked, picking up his train of thought. She sheathed her sword and looked at Zhek severely. Of all of them, Butu thought she looked the angriest. “Go to Jusep and explain to him why, when a friend of the Ahjea was made king, you thought it best to kill him and seize Pisor for yourself. Go to him and explain why you’ve disgraced the Ahjea like this. If you’re lucky, he’ll only remove you from the line of succession.”

  The fight went out of Zhek. At a command from Blay, Phedam and Lujo stripped the armor and weapons from Jusep’s son and bound his arms and feet in his shirt and pants.

  Tirud quirked an eyebrow at the bound Zhek when he, Amber and Philquek arrived. The ancient Akdren kluntra sniffed at the drawn swords, especially Aesh’s. Everyone sheathed their swords hurriedly.

  “Has there been trouble?” Tirud asked mildly.

  “Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Butu said.

  Philquek glared at Aesh, who gave him a weak, bitter smile.

  “Fine,” Tirud said, after staring hard at Zhek’s beaten expression. “He can explain to his father what happened.”

  “He will,” Jani said sternly. “If I have to say it for him.”

  Aesh and Philquek each snorted, and stared at each other afterward. Tirud’s lips pressed together.

  “I see you need no introduction,” he said dryly. “You know why you’re here.”

  “Because your majesty summoned us?” Aesh asked.

  Philquek scowled at Aesh, but his voice was deferential when he addressed Tirud. “What are your terms?”

  “It’s fairly simple. I am the king of the Turun.”

  The two kluntras met each other’s eyes for a moment. They nodded.

  “The rest of the clans ...” Philquek began.

  “You will inform them,” Tirud said. “I will be busy. Urgaruna, here, will be my seat of power.”

  “So no clan loses any territory,” Aesh said, bobbing his head in agreement.

  “All the clans are to withdraw their armies and return to their own territories without fighting each other. Anyone who stays in Urgaruna will have to forsake his clan and swear to serve me. In return, I’m granting amnesty for all treaty-breakers.”

  “The treaty doesn’t hold now that there’s a king,” Philquek said.

  Tirud took a deep breath and winked at Butu. “The clans will keep the Treaty of Mnemon. Punishment will be severe to any who break the Treaty.”

  “Agreed,” Philquek said. “Too much blood has already been spilled in this war. My men will return to their homes, your majesty.”

  “I can withdraw my army, or simam will kill most of my clan’s soldiers,” Aesh noted. “I must commend you, your majesty. You’ve thought of ... many things. You’ll make a fine king.”

  “If we’re agreed, I’ll return you to your men and oversee the withdrawal from up here,” Tirud said.

  “Would you be opposed to me leaving a Kadrak fosterling here in Urgaruna?” Aesh asked as he approached the basalt outcropping.

  “Who did you have in mind?”

  Aesh smiled and looked at Paka and then Butu. “My nephew is friends with your kingmaker. They’ve already been separated once. I’d like to reunite them.”

  Tirud considered this briefly. “Very well.”

  Philquek suddenly broke in. “And let Amber stay with you, as well. She’s become friends with your kingmaker, too. If Turuna is to be a kingdom, again, she could learn much as a part of your court.”

  “If she wants to stay.”

  Amber grinned and nodded vigorously.

  “It’s settled, then.” He turned to his squadmates. “You have the same choice. I won’t keep you here if you’d rather go back to Jasper.”

  “I’ll stay,” Lujo said at once. “If I turn my back on a chance to serve the first king in centuries, I’ll never forgive myself.”

  “I’m staying,” Jani said.

  Blay knelt down in front of Tirud, his face solemn. “I will serve you even if it costs me my own life, your majesty.”

  Tirud looked embarrassed by the display.

  “I don’t have much choice, but if everyone else is staying, I don’t have any reason to leave,” Butu said.

  “You have a choice, too, but I’m glad you’ve picked the least awkward option.”

  They looked at Retus and Phedam expectantly. Surprisingly, Retus spoke first.

  “I’m glad I’ve had this adventure with you, but I’ve had enough excitement to last a lifetime. I think I’m going to see if Pater will let me return to my father’s herds.”

  That left Phedam. Butu thought he saw tears in his eyes.

  “I’m tired of adventure, too, but you’re the only family I have left. I’ll stay, but I think my soldiering days are done.”

  “You’re welcome, always,” Tirud said, and the rest of the squad murmured similar sentiments.

  “You’ll need more than sordenu,” Aesh warned. “I’d be glad to send some of my advisors to help you rebuild Urgaruna.”

  “Me, too,” Philquek said, glaring at Aesh.

  “I’ll consider it. For now, return to your armies and go home.”

  Philquek stepped onto one outcropping, and Aesh and Retus stepped onto another. Retus carried the bound Zhek over one shoulder like a sack.

  “There,” Tirud said, before the platform started moving. He gestured, and as they watched, the simam’s red cloud became still. “It’ll be some time before the dust settles, but its heart is quiet.”

  The kluntras nodded, more awe in their faces at his command of the deadly wind. The platforms descended.

  “Let’s go back to the shade,” Tirud suggested. “It’ll take hours for the Akdren to leave Urgaruna.”

  “I’m hungry,” Phedam complained. “There’s no food up here.”

  “The Kadrak still have supplies. I’ll bring some.”

  Before they could respond, he ran off the edge of Urgaruna and down the sheer cliff face. They watched him become a tiny figure on the shanjin before returning to the basalt palace.

  “What’s it like in the sordenu, shumi?” Paka asked timidly.

  Butu laughed. “Where do I even start?”

  He told Paka about the training and the other sordenu. He told him about finding water and the sandstorm and how he had met Amber. When he got to the part where the squad was uncovering the well, Phedam abruptly left the palace. Butu told Paka about Nolen’s death, but the memory was still too fresh, and his voice cracked.

  Lujo broke in to tell Paka about how Jani, Tirud, and he had scouted around Urgaruna, brushing aside Jani’s many corrections. He told Paka how he had suggested sneaking into Urgaruna to steal Pisor and had just explained how they had tricked Philquek into thinking they had given him Pisor when Amber finally corrected him.

  Jani explained how she had returned to the Ahjea to let them know their squad knew where Pisor was. She dwelled a little longer on Zh
ek’s attempt to keep her from leaving with the rest of the squad. She told him about how they had rescued Butu and Lujo before sneaking into Urgaruna and of all the terrible things they had seen there.

  When Phedam returned, Blay took over the story, describing the events that came before Butu made Tirud king. When the story was done, it was dark. A blue moon and a yellow moon hung in the sky among the stars.

  Tirlum and Galdera.

  Tirlum was the wandering blue moon. It rose in a different part of the eastern sky each night and disappeared to the north for a month before reappearing in the southeastern sky. Galdera was the yellow moon of hope. It rose in the west and set in the east, getting smaller as the night wore on until it disappeared completely. But most nights, it appeared in the sky again long before the sun rose as a promise that the night would not last forever and that day would come again.

  Butu could find no sign of Zheldesa — the green moon — or Quemney — the black moon that blocked light instead of shedding it. Butu remembered the stories about how each of the four moons had been made. They were all miramani, of course.

  Magic made the first children, and the children made everything else. Every star, every moon, every mountain, every river, every kind of animal and plant, and everything of beauty in the whole world is the wish of a child made manifest.

  And now that power lay in the hands of an adult.

  Have I made the right choice?