The Rage of Dragons (Book of the Burning)

by Evan Winter

  At dusk the Indlovu prepared to march. Jayyed was with them. The initiates, their training day over, returned to the barracks. Tau went too, and gathered his swords as Hadith joked and drank with the men. This was usual. Tau always trained in the evenings.

  On his way to the barracks door, Tau noticed Uduak watching him. Uduak had seen Tau sheath his real swords in the scabbards he wore. Tau had his father's razor-edged blade on one hip and his grandfather's sword on the other. Uduak's gaze lingered on the weapons and their eyes met. Uduak did and said nothing but Tau could feel the big man's stare on his back as he walked out of the barracks and into the hot night.

  Tau waited in the grasslands beyond the practice yards until he heard the convoy of Indlovu. Their armor, gear, and weapons clattered as they marched from the Isikolo and, seeing demons that weren't there, he followed.

  The men marched north. Tau gave them a good lead. The grasslands did not offer cover and he could not risk being seen. After a couple spans he realized they were closing in on the Crags and Citadel City. The rumors were right. Odili had come to bring Jayyed back to the Guardian Council.

  That made things difficult. Tau would have to sneak into the city and he was already having trouble keeping his head straight. He itched. It was the first night he had not gone to Isihogo and, lost in disturbing thoughts about his strange desire to go and suffer, he was almost seen.

  They'd arrived at the base of the Crags and the Indlovu had stopped marching. Tau was too close and had to crouch in the tall grass to hide himself. He heard the newcomers before he saw them, the sounds of their approach resounding off the rocky ground. He crawled closer and did not like what he saw.

  The Indlovu had been joined by another unit and this unit was guarding two on horses. Tau peered into the twilight, surprised that he recognized the riders. The horses carried the Queen's Champion and the KaEid of the Gifted Citadel. Behind them walked three hooded Gifted and two men wearing the blackened leather armor of the Ingonyama.

  Tau considered slipping away. Something far beyond him was taking place and it made him uneasy to think that the Chosen he was stalking, once joined by the Gifted, had enough power to take on four Scales of Ihashe.

  The Champion's horse made a noise with its nose and Tau almost leapt from his hiding spot. He worried the beast could tell he was there but none of the others seemed alarmed. Tau calmed his nerves and stayed put, watching the Champion for any signs that the animal had alerted him of Tau's presence.

  The Champion was as Tau remembered, tall and strong. His hair was edged with gray and he had his Guardian sword at his hip. The KaEid, of an age with Champion Abshir Okar, was graceful and attractive though stern. He could not see the faces of the hooded Gifted, worried Zuri could be one of them, and rejected the notion. She should still be in Kerem and these were some of the most important people in The Rend. The Gifted with the KaEid would be full-blooded, not initiates, not Zuri.

  Then, after a brief discussion that Tau could not hear, the eighteen Indlovu were left to guard the horses and gear as Jayyed, Odili, the Queen's Champion, and KaEid began to climb the Crags with the three Gifted and three Ingonyama. The group had split and the horses, whose capabilities Tau did not understand, had been left behind. He had to be careful but he would see the night through.

  Odili and his group took the easiest and widest path up The Crags. Tau could not follow that way. The horse-guarding Indlovu would see him. He had to sidle back and around the Crags until he found a section he could climb unseen. It wasn't a path but climbing the Crags was no challenge to a man born and bred in the Southern Mountains.

  Odili's group went up, past the battlegrounds and into The Fist itself. It was well past the middle of the night and Tau couldn't shake the feel that something was wrong. The feeling increased when he saw movement higher up the climb. It was a person, weaving their way between the larger rocks.

  At first Tau thought the group he was following must have a scout up there. That made no sense though. How had the scout gotten so far ahead? And, the scout seemed to be watching down the climb, towards Odili's group, instead of watching up and guarding against others.

  Tau picked up his pace, getting ahead of Odili's group and closer to where he had last seen the scout. He did his best to be quiet. He could climb well enough but he was no ranger and, if he was discovered, he was dead.

  He clambered over a large rock and was about to work his way over its even bigger brother when he heard his quarry send a loose stone skittering. She cursed to herself and Tau froze. He had not been able to understand her words.

  He swung his head in the direction of her voice and, unable to believe his eyes, he slid behind a large rock, hiding. He heard more voices, these ones on their way up the mountain, these one's speaking Empiric.

  Odili's group had arrived. They were walking into the clearing below the rock behind which Tau hid. The clearing rose to a crest and they were entering it from its lowest point. They couldn't see over the rise. They couldn't see the Xiddeen raiding party.

  ABOMINATION

  Tau's heart hammered. He had to warn Jayyed. By the Goddess, he'd have to warn Odili. He swore under his breath. Even if he saved all their lives, they'd hang him for being here. Time was short, the Xiddeen were a few steps from view and their party was larger than Odili's. Odili had Gifted and Ingonyama. That made some difference though not enough if the group was ambushed. Tau made his decision and began to draw bronze, he'd take out the scout first.

  "We are here," shouted Abshir Okar, the Queen's Champion, as Tau's swords were halfway from their scabbards.

  "You are here," came the response from the man at the front of the Xiddeen raiding party, in broken Omehi Empiric.

  Tau held, hoping the scout had not heard his bronze whisper against his scabbards. All was quiet beyond the large rock where she hid. A good sign. Tau checked the clearing. Kellan's uncle had stepped into its centre.

  "We have come in good faith," Champion Okar said.

  The hedeni were expected.

  "We shall see," the Xiddeen man replied, stepping into the clearing as well.

  Tau started. It was the burned man who had led the raid at Daba.

  "Well met, Warlord Achak."

  "I see you, Champion of the Fire-Demon Queen," Achak said, as a few members of his party crested the rise.

  Warlord Achak, as Abshir named the burned man, had more than sixty warriors that Tau could see. The fighters were mixed, men and women. Most carried cruel-looking spears, their shafts tipped with jagged bronze.

  Abshir stopped a few strides from the clearing's centre. Achak did the same on his side. The Xiddeen warlord wore leathers, but unlike the Indlovu, it held no bronze plate for protection. He had no helmet and held his spear well, a fighter.

  "My Queen accepts the terms, the timeline," said Abshir loud enough for the warlord, his party, the Ingonyama, and the Gifted to hear. "She will gather our military leadership to arrange for a drawing down of our forces. We will have peace with the Xiddeen."

  Tau had been swallowing and almost choked on his spit.

  The Champion cleared his throat and continued. "As agreed, upon peace, Queen Tsiora will proclaim Kana, son of Warlord Achak, to be the regent of The Rend. He will share power with Queen Tsiora during the merging of the Omehi and Xiddeen." The warlord nodded at this. "Once done, Queen Tsiora will swear fealty to the Shul, who will counter swear, in the presence of his entire Conclave, to protect and care for all Chosen, all Omehi."

  There was a pause, the warlord waiting for more.

  "With peace secured and Chosen safety promised," Champion Abshir said, "the Guardians will leave Xidda."

  Tau sat back on his haunches, leaning against the rock behind him for support.

  The warlord spoke, his accent and warped Empiric difficult to understand. "The greatest Conclave in memory has gathered. All Xiddeen stand together to see peace done or enemies destroyed. You, in small valley, cannot count the people, more than the sands that
touch the endless water, who stand against you."

  Abshir did not react. Tau imagined he'd expected a speech of this sort.

  "Heed," the warlord continued, his voice rumbling like falling stones, "the fire-demons must leave. There can be no peace without this."

  It took Tau a breath to understand that the burned man was using the Empiric word for demons to describe the Dragons.

  Abshir Okar had something else on his mind. "The Queen requires proof of your claims."

  The warlord signaled behind him and, on cue, a skinny hedeni man came forward. The skinny man was with a warrior. The warrior was male, well built, and just a head shorter than an Omehi Noble. He looked familiar, resembling the warlord, but with no burns, fewer Curse scars, and much younger.

  It was Kana, the warlord's son, and Tau had seen him at Daba too, when he'd captured the Gifted there. The same Gifted he now led, bound and blindfolded, into the clearing. Tau's stomach turned and it was a fight to stop himself from rushing the clearing.

  The Gifted had been tortured. She was missing a hand, she dragged one leg behind her, and when the blindfold was removed, Tau saw that one of her eyes had been burned away. Her hair was dirty, knotted, and she was hunched in a way that told him it was more than fear that kept her back bowed. Tau thought back over the past cycle since he'd seen her at Daba. He thought over all that had happened to him, in the many days, and realized that her days had been worse. He had suffered in Isihogo, but when he was cast out so was the pain. She lived with hers, constantly.

  "You filthy Nceku," cursed the KaEid at the warlord, coming forward into the clearing as she did. "The Goddess' Curse is too little!"

  Achak's back stiffened, the burned side of his face quivering. "Leash the demon-whore," he said to Abshir.

  The KaEid took another step. "You believe any man could hold me? You believe yourself safe?" Abshir placed a hand, palm out, toward the KaEid, asking for calm. She took no notice, closing in on the warlord, about to cross the clearing's center.

  Kana, the warlord's son, had a spear in his hand and several of the Xiddeen warriors moved forward. Achak, himself, showed no signs of worry. He was waiting. Waiting, Tau knew from experience, for an excuse to do violence.

  "Taia," Guardian Councillor Abasi Odili said to the KaEid, "this is not the place, or time."

  Abasi was chairman of the Guardian Council and Tau had limited knowledge of military politics but he knew Odili could not command the KaEid. Yet, she heeded his call for calm. She stopped advancing and turned her gaze to the tortured Gifted, her face softening. In reaction, the warlord's son lowered his spear and the other fighters, who had come into the clearing, slipped back to their places.

  "Champion," said the warlord, "I have your proof. You will bear witness and take word to your young Queen, telling the tale with a tongue cold with fear. And, I would have your demon-whores prove their worth as well." The warlord flicked a hand at the tortured woman behind him. "This one has no more to give."

  Then, his body still square to Abshir, still ready to draw down and fight, Tau noted, the warlord turned his head to his son and the skinny Cursed man. He nodded at them.

  The skinny man, bare-chested with a body thin as a whip, jangled as he raised his hands, the large golden bangles on his wrists clattering. He pointed to the warlord's son, Kana, and began chanting in the savage tongue. It took a breath, no more, and Kana began to change. His muscles multiplied and grew. The bones on his face thickened, hardening and protruding, stretching the skin that covered them to its limits. The skinny one began chanting louder and Kana groaned as the enraging worked its twisting Gift on his body. His spine went rod straight and Tau could swear he heard it creak as it stretched out, increasing his height by two or three hand-spans.

  The Omehi in the clearing shuffled back but not from Kana. Omehi understood the nature of an Enraged man. They moved away from the skinny savage who wielded the Gift. He was the abomination.

  Abshir couldn't contain his horror. It was writ large on the stoic Greater-Noble's face. The KaEid was in worse shape. She stared in disbelief, a child whose nightmares had stepped into the world.

  "The Goddess wept," said one of the Ingonyama, intertwining his thumbs, fingers outstretched, making the Dragon's Span. If the religious warding symbol had any power it was not in evidence in the clearing. Kana's transformation was completed, and he'd become monstrous. He towered over everyone else, his muscles bunching and rippling.

  Tau heard crying. It was the tortured Gifted.

  Achak spoke. "You see. We found a way back to Nyumba ya mizimu. The Xiddeen can touch the spirit world again!"

  TERMS

  The KaEid could barely speak. "How many can—"

  "We can end you," the warlord said, speaking to Champion Abshir and over her. "You see now." He made his next demand. "Send us the one who will teach the magic that makes warriors kneel."

  "What you have done violates natural law," KaEid Taia said. Achak ignored her and the KaEid seethed. "Are you ready, hedeni?" she asked. "Are you prepared for what we bring?"

  The KaEid signaled one of her Gifted. The Gifted dropped her hood, entered the clearing, and Tau found himself looking at a familiar face. The woman, a little older than he was, resembled Jayyed. It was his daughter, Jamilah. It had to be.

  Tau looked away from her, finding Jayyed at the edge of the clearing. The sword master looked like he was being strangled, like he was close to running into the clearing after her. Jamilah's hood had been up. He must not have known she was with the KaEid, and Jamilah had said nothing to the father she hadn't seen in so many cycles.

  Jamilah, dressed in the black robes of the Gifted, stood next to the KaEid and, without ceremony or announcement, she raised her hands and blasted every Xiddeen that Tau could see in a tidal wave of enervation. All of them, but the skinny Gifted man, dropped like they had been cut down.

  Then, in less time than it took to blink, Jamilah cut the wave. The skinny Gifted man, already half in Isihogo, was the only savage still on his feet. Even Kana, fully Enraged, had gone down. The warlord, one knee in the mud, fought to get himself under control. He was furious.

  "We should kill you all," he hissed.

  The KaEid readied herself. She wanted to fight as much as he did. Abshir stepped forward, throwing a hard look her way, before sinking to the earth in front of the warlord. They were both on the ground, both on their knees.

  "Peace is what has been asked of us. Peace," Abshir said.

  The warlord, swaying, regained his feet. He looked like he might strike the Champion. Abshir did not move away. He waited a breath, ceding power and dignity by staying down.

  "Queen's Champion," the warlord said, voice shaking. "Were I the Shul, did I lead my people, I would feed this valley's soil with the blood of every invader I could find."

  The venom in the warlord's words unsettled Abshir and he stood. "Will you honor the peace?"

  Tau saw it then. The warlord did not want it. He wanted to exterminate the Omehi. The meeting was not his idea.

  "The Xiddeen," Warlord Achak told Abshir, "will uphold the terms." He looked to the KaEid and Jayyed's daughter, "We offer this because we are not evil." He rolled his shoulders, shrugging away the last of Isihogo. "The Shul wishes an end to the war. He wishes the fire-demons, who poison our earth and throw the spirit world into turmoil, gone. He wishes for Xidda to be as it was."

  Abshir inclined his head. "Let us do our leaders' will then."

  Achak waved a hand at the Gifted man, who released the tortured Gifted and gave her a push. She stumbled and looked back at him, unsure if she could trust his intent.

  "Come, Nsia," said the KaEid, her face filled with worry. "Come home." Nsia didn't move. "Come home, my child."

  Nsia glanced once more at her captors and, as if she feared she would be stopped, she shuffled to the KaEid. She cried as she went, the sounds almost inhuman.

  When she got to the KaEid, she fell into her arms and Taia held her. Her face was hid
den by Nsia's soiled hair, but Tau saw the powerful woman's shoulders shaking. The KaEid was crying as well.

  Fixated on the Gifted women, Tau did not notice that Kana had crossed the clearing with Nsia.

  "The Shul honors me," Warlord Achak said, his tone sounding anything but. "He chose Kana to finalize terms with your Queen. He chose my son to rule with her, over your people." Achak spoke as if reciting an unpleasant but memorized lesson. "Sanctified by the Gods themselves, the Shul has declared the peaceful joining of our people to be my firstborn son's xanduva, his lifelong duty. My son will join our people in deed and blood. He will marry your Queen." Achak was breathing like he'd run a race. "May the Gods bless their union."

  The same Ingonyama, as before, made the Dragon's Span at Achak's blasphemous mention of Gods. Champion Abshir Okar, face impassive, nodded at the warlord's words. Jayyed looked aghast. He was focused on Jamilah and nothing else. The KaEid, holding Nsia as if to shield her from the world, eyed the Xiddeen with hate.

  Tau took it all in and couldn't help but think that Hadith would have admired the Xiddeen Shul. From the warlord's words, it was clear that the Shul's power was not absolute. To make peace work, the Xiddeen ruler needed Achak on his side, but Achak wanted to eradicate the Chosen. To have his peace, the Shul had made Achak need it too and, in so doing, he had turned an opponent into an ally.

  By arranging a marriage between Kana and Queen Tsiora, the Shul had, in a single move, found a way to honor his warlord's son, shame the Omehi by polluting their royal bloodline, and neuter Achak's ability to oppose peace by committing Kana to its success.

  Abshir, certainly seeing this and more, was gracious. "All that has been offered has been accepted," he said to Achak. "The Shul will have his marriage and, today, you will have one of our most powerful Gifted. She will teach everything she can."

  Hearing his words, Jayyed's daughter made her way to the Xiddeen side of the clearing. Jayyed came after her.