by Evan Winter
"I've never seen such chaos," she told him. "Can you believe she's coming?"
The other handmaidens kept at their work, but Tau could feel their eyes on him, and the courtyard had gone quiet. "Handmaiden Uba, I've a request from Inkokeli Solarin. May I speak with you a moment?" he said.
"Of course, Common Tafari," Zuri replied, thinking his formality a game.
When they were out of sight, she kissed him.
He fell into the moment, anything to avoid what was to come. "I've missed you," he said.
"It's been such a day," Zuri told him, her face little more than a hand-span from his.
Tau took a breath. He had to tell her, but there was a tightness around her eyes. "What's happened?" he asked.
She touched his face. "Am I so transparent?"
She was worrying him.
"My testing day has been set," she said.
"It has? Goddess, when?"
"The new moon."
"Oh—"
"You'll be with Jabari for his testing. I know."
"The fighting circles aren't far. Half a morning's walk. I'll see you in the evening."
"Of course."
"You'll be a woman."
"I'm not already?"
"You're the most beautiful woman in the world," Tau said.
Zuri punched his arm. "Common Tafari, a proper compliment must be reasonable, if it is to be believed." There was that tightness again.
"Zuri?"
"It's almost over, isn't it? Common Tafari," she said, picking over each word. "It'll be Ihashe Tafari soon enough, and it'll be that for the next seven cycles as you train and then fight."
"Would you prefer something else?"
"Don't tease. I know what has to be."
Tau took her hands in his. "It doesn't have to be," he said. "We can make a few choices of our own. We wouldn't have much, but we could try to be happy, together." He hadn't meant to say all that. "Maybe a Common, marked for war, can contribute elsewhere."
"Tau..."
"I'm glad your testing is coming," he told her. "I'll help Jabari get through his and I'll come back to you — a newly made woman." He forced a smile, wanting a moment more of peace, of happiness. "Maybe you'll even give me proof?"
Zuri laughed out loud, covering her mouth at such scandal. "I think not!"
"Not yet, then," he said.
Zuri tilted her head at him and Tau could tell she'd heard the intent in his words.
"Not yet," she said.
"Not until it's right." It was as close to a promise as he could make, before she was made a woman. Her eyes searched his face, pupils large and deep, and he could have lived in that moment forever, but he had to tell her about—
"Zuri! Zuri, where are you?" called a handmaiden. "Mistress Chione will be back any minute. I won't do all your work for you, you wretch."
"Who's that?" Tau said, stepping forward.
"You're going to defend me against fearsome Kesi now?" Zuri asked, eyes twinkling. "She's about this high," she said pointing to Tau's shoulder, "and has a dangerously sharp tongue. I should leave now, before it comes to violence. Against Kesi, I'd fear for you." She paused, letting the weight of the earlier moment return. "I'll see you, Tau Tafari," she told him.
Tau hated himself for being weak. He hated himself for the rush of relief that he felt, knowing the tale of Nkiru's family would have to wait. "I'll see you, Zuri Uba."
"Coming, Kesi! I'm coming!" Zuri hastened her way to the courtyard, stealing a look at him as she went.
Tau smiled at her, still upset with himself. He was a coward. He would let himself become a Drudge, rather than fight. He would steal a kiss rather than tell the woman he kissed about a terrible deed that affected her. And, soon he would be standing within arm's length of the man responsible for that terrible deed. He was a coward.
QUEEN
Thousands lined the main path to the Keep. The gates had been thrown open and the Onai stood beneath their walls, ready to welcome their Queen. Tau was with the family, wearing the Second's tabard that had been loaned to him.
He was two strides back from a bathed and scrubbed Jabari. Jabari, in turn, was one stride back from his father, and his mother, the Umbusi of Kerem. Lekan was there too. He mirrored Jabari on Umbusi Onai's right-hand side. Tau did his best to ignore him, though his hand twitched near his empty scabbard. Chane Onai, Jabari's father, fidgeted too. The gouty old man was nervous.
To avoid having Lekan in his field of view, Tau stared at the press of people stretching into the distance. Aren was beyond the gate, dressed in full fighting gear. He had his men standing at attention along the sides of the path. They were there to keep the crowd a respectful distance from the Queen, but like the Keep Guard, spaced out across the top of the Keep's wall, it was for show. Afia Onai was doing her best to impress the Queen.
Tau saw dust rising. The Queen's procession had come to the last rise before the Keep. His heartbeat quickened. He was a man now, he told himself, not a child to be excited by nonsense. The dust cloud grew bigger, the first men of the Queen's Guard marched into view, and Tau's pulse raced.
The Queen's Guard were outfitted in maroon, a blend of red and black, the royal colors, a Dragon's colors. They marched in lockstep and, behind them, were some of The Rend's most powerful. The Queen, her Champion, the Gifted Leader, and Abasi Odili, the current chairman of the Guardian Council, rode down the path to Kerem on horses.
Tau had heard of horses, but he'd not expected to see one. The animals were huge, nothing like Dragons, of course. A Dragon could eat one of these animals in two bites, but people didn't ride Dragons and here were four Chosen moving across the earth on horses, as if it was the most natural thing.
A thousand voices thundered. The people of Kerem were in a fervor for their new Queen. They pushed against Aren's Ihagu, trying to get closer. It seemed lining the path with fighters hadn't been for show.
As the procession neared, Tau made out more details. The first, and most astonishing thing, was the Queen. She couldn't have had her testing for womanhood more than a cycle ago. That wasn't it though. It wasn't her youth. It was her beauty.
Her skin was dark as a moonless night and she had lips like the sunrise. Her face was framed by delicate cheekbones and, beneath long lashes, she had eyes shaped like almonds. She wore a black and red riding dress, cut to be form-fitting, but flowing in the arms and legs. It also had a neckline that exposed enough skin to be gossip-worthy in a small fief like Kerem. She gazed out at the crowd, smiling as if pleased to see an old friend.
"Goddess be praised," Jabari muttered.
The Queen's procession came to a halt and her Champion, Abshir Okar, stood while astride his horse. Tau saw that the champion, armored in the red of blood, fire, and mourning, had his feet in a rope contraption that wound its way around the horse's body, forming a seat on the animal's back.
"Queen Tsiora Omehia," said Champion Okar, his voice deep as a mountain well, "second of her name, first among the Goddess' Chosen, and Monarch of The Rend seeks Kerem's hospitality."
Okar was no longer young, but only a fool would underestimate a man who looked like he was carved from rock. The Champion, Tau remembered, had placed first in all three cycles at the Indlovu Citadel. Upon graduation, he was made an Ingonyama and had fought in countless campaigns. When Queen Ayanna's champion died in battle, she'd asked Abshir to take up the mantle.
It was the Umbusi's turn to speak. "I, Afia Onai, Umbusi of Kerem and vassal to Queen Tsiora, would consider my house and lands blessed by the Goddess, if my Queen permitted me to wait upon her."
There was no higher honor, or status, for a Chosen male than to be made Champion. It meant a direct line to the Queen, a seat on the Guardian Council, and other privileges.
It wasn't forbidden, but Queens did not marry. They were wedded to their people and loved none more than the Goddess, so the saying went. Instead, Queens took great care in the selection of their champions. The Champion was more than a military
leader. He was also the seed for the next generation of royalty and, in ideal circumstances, a true partner to the Queen.
It was awkward then, the transition from one Queen to another, if the old champion was still in place. Before long, Queen Tsiora would need to graciously retire Abshir and select a champion of her own. Monarchs must have heirs.
The greetings done, the procession wound its way into the Keep and Tau was close enough to see that Abshir wore the two Guardian daggers and Guardian sword he'd won from his time at the Citadel. The Dragon-scale weapons were incredible, none more than the sword.
The black blade was belted at his side. It had no scabbard and was dark enough to have been shaped from obsidian. But, even from a distance, there was something alien about the weapon. It drank in the light and, no matter how hard he looked, Tau was unable to make out any details on its surface. It was as if the weapon hid in plain sight, like he could see its outline rather than its whole.
It reminded Tau of what it had been like to watch the Guardian at Daba. Dragon scales stymied the eye, tricking it into underestimating the Dragon's position and speed. The eye-bending properties were useful to a massive flying predator, moreso to an accomplished swordsman.
"Did you see?" asked Jabari. "She's... she's..."
"Perfection?" offered Tau.
"Yes! Well said. Perfection."
"You'll sit near her at dinner?" asked Tau.
"Not too near," Jabari said, chewing his lip. "She'll be closest to mother and father. Lekan as well. I'm a second son. I'll be further back."
"Don't worry, I can speak to her on your behalf," Tau told him.
Jabari laughed. "Point taken. I'll be closer than most. I just... did you see?"
"I did."
"Then, you know." His eyes followed Queen Tsiora as she rode her horse down one of the paths inside the Keep. A Keep Common, looking ready to soil himself, led the entourage to the hastily constructed stables.
Tau took the opportunity to examine the rest of the Queen's party. The KaEid, riding close to the Queen, was the leader of the Gifted and served as both a military and religious official with powers that paralleled those of the Guardian Councillors and the High-Priests of the Sah order. "What's the KaEid doing here?" Tau asked Jabari.
Jabari's head swayed in sync with the Queen's body as she rode deeper into the Keep. "The who? Oh, KaEid Oro? She'll make the opening statements at the awarding ceremony."
"In Kigambe?"
"No, on a boat on The Roar. Of course in Kigambe."
Tau waited until the Queen disappeared around the bend before asking his next question. "Was that Guardian Councillor Odili?"
"Hmm?" The Queen was lost to sight, but Jabari had his neck craned, trying to catch a last glimpse.
"The Guardian Councillor?"
"Yes, it's him," said Jabari. "He'll be watching this cycle's testing."
"You didn't tell me the Chairman of the Guardian Council will be watching?" Tau tossed the concept around in his head.
"I don't tell you everything," said Jabari, accepting that there was no more of Queen Taifa to see. "Hey, did you notice the two beside him?"
"The hulks?" Tau said. He'd noticed the men.
"The bigger one is Dejen Olujimi. He's Abasi's Body, his personal Ingonyama."
"Goddess," muttered Tau. The man was a behemoth. Tau couldn't fathom what he'd look like when Enraged.
"He's supposed to be the best fighter in all the Rend. Which is precisely why Abasi made him his Body."
"You could handle him," Tau joked.
"Easily," Jabari said, with a wry smile.
Tau grew serious. He was thinking about Lekan. "Do blood-duels happen often?"
"Blood-duels? What's this about?"
"Nothing, my father... uh... one of his men mentioned them," said Tau.
"Why?"
Tau shrugged.
"No, they don't happen often, but any full-blooded military man, any Ihashe, Indlovu, or Ingonyama can challenge any another. Caste makes no difference."
Tau found the idea ridiculous. The average Noble was bigger, stronger, and faster than the average Lesser. And, if a Noble was in the military, it meant they were an Indlovu or Ingonyama. They would destroy any Lesser.
"Most blood-duels happen when two soldiers are drunk and one gets caught with the other's woman," continued Jabari. "There's too much to lose for reasonable men to go around compelling people to fight them to the death. And, they almost never happen among Royal-Nobles."
"The Bodies," said Tau.
"Challenge a Royal and they can have their Body fight in their stead. Hence, Dejen. Councillor Abasi Odili prides himself on having the most deadly Bodies in The Rend. It's the reason he has that slightly smaller beast in tow. He's grooming him."
"Who is he?"
"Greater-Noble Kellan Okar. He won his first cycle at the Citadel and that won him Odili as a patron. This cycle, he placed first again."
"Okar? He's the Champion's son?" asked Tau.
"The Champion has no children. Kellan is his nephew."
"Then... Kellan is the coward's son?" said Tau, remembering the Greater-Noble hanged for treason.
Jabari hissed, looking around them.
Tau leaned in, whispering. "His father was the one they hanged?"
"The Battle of Kwabena," Jabari said. "One of our worst losses. Coward Okar was Inkokeli for an entire Wing. They ordered him to hold the flank for the Rage. He was engaged by a larger force and panicked. He ran."
Tau sucked his teeth.
"He ran, letting the hedeni decimate the Rage. Four thousand men and nine Gifted killed. Nine, Tau! Our worst loss in a dozen cycles. At his trial, Okar claimed the hedeni had Gifts. He claimed they appeared out of thin air. He—"
"Gifts?" said Tau.
Jabari cupped his hands near his crotch. "He had big bronze stones, to stand in front of the Guardian Council and tell them—"
"At Daba—"
"That was different—"
"—It was a raid, but the hedeni tribes were working together. Things are changing. Maybe their Gifts have returned."
Jabari gave Tau a hard look. "Don't interrupt me." He said, pausing, making it a point to hold Tau to silence. "The Goddess blasted the Gifts from the Xiddeen when they decided to fight against us. Everyone knows that, and the Xiddeen haven't had Gifts since—"
"They hung him for saying—"
"They hung him for cowardice!" Jabari said, raising his voice over Tau's.
Tau had known Jabari for a long time. He knew when the Petty-Noble was annoyed.
"They didn't hang him for lying about savages working together or having Gifts," Jabari continued. "They hung him for cowardice."
It had been a difficult day and Tau was in no mood to play the obedient Lesser, but he knew a potential rock slide when he saw one. "For cowardice," he repeated.
Jabari faced Tau, standing closer than was comfortable. "We are Chosen. We don't surrender and we don't run."
Tau couldn't stop himself. "Then why are we on Xidda, instead of Osonte?"
Jabari's face twitched and he balled his right hand into a fist. "I'm going in. I have to change for dinner."
"Of course, Nkosi," Tau said, waiting for Jabari to tell him not to call him that.
"I'll see you tomorrow for training, Common Tafari. Be ready. I can't afford to go easy on you anymore. The testing is close."
CHAPTER THREE
TEST
Queen Tsiora left for Kigambe the next day, and her beauty was the topic of conversation for the rest of the moon-cycle. She had captured the hearts of the Keremese men and the imagination of its women. On the morning of Jabari's testing, as they marched to the fighting fields on Kerem's borders, Jabari was still talking about her and Tau was feeling guilty. Aren had asked Tau not to tell Zuri about Nkiru's family, and every moment Tau spent with her was tainted by the omission.
That, coupled with Jabari's lack of focus and having Lekan with them, instead of Jabari's father, who
was suffering an attack of his gout, meant Tau had less patience than usual for talk of the Queen.
"I believe she was made in the Goddess' image," Jabari said. "It's the only explanation. She's an earth-bound version of—"
"Jabari," Tau said, keeping a careful eye on the distance between his father and Lekan, "think on the testing. Go over forms in your head, or something."
"How can I think of forms, now that I've seen her?"
"Are you serious?" asked Tau. His father had managed to avoid Lekan since finding out about Nkiru. This was the first time the two men had been near one another, and it made Tau nervous. "In a few sun-spans you'll cross swords with some of the best Noble fighters in the South!"
"I know," Jabari said, dropping his hand to his sword's pommel. "I'm saying it to vex you. I'm focused."
Jabari wasn't focused and Tau wished the Queen had picked a better time to cross their path. Jabari's future was on the line and so was Tau's. If Jabari made the Citadel, Tau would go to his mother. He would ask Imani to put in a word for him, to help him gain Drudge work in the Keep. If she accepted, he wouldn't have to work in the fields of some far-flung hamlet. And, if Zuri could love a man without status, they could begin their lives together.
Aren drew apace with his son and Jabari. "How's the knee?"
The day before, Tau and Jabari had collided in practice and Jabari had fallen. "It's strong," he said. "The swelling is gone. I feel fine."
"Eyes on the Goddess," Aren told his student.
"Always. I'm ready. You've made me ready," Jabari said. "Both of you. I'll not fail."
"It's luck that determines who you draw in the first rounds," Aren told him. "Remember what I said."
Jabari tapped the side of his head. "I have it. If I face Lanre, I'll watch his overhand swing."
"You'd better, it's a feint and he'll crack those pretty teeth of yours with his shield while you gawp at his sword. And?"
"And, Sizwe is quick."
"Quick? The skinny bastard... uh no disrespect to the Nkosi. The skinny bastard is an inyoka, except he strikes twice as fast."