Tribal Dawn: Mordufa: Volume Three

by Cassie Wolf

  Instead of going past the beaches, the Kardier riders took the longer route for safety. This disturbed one of the young men. By the time they woke up in the morning, he had hung himself, leaving a note for his family saying he was ashamed of the atrocities he had committed and couldn’t live with the guilt. For the rest of the journey, his corpse was wrapped amongst their belongings.

  Soon, the smell of pine graced the spring air. The cooling breeze from the familiar mountains brushed their skin and had them covered up in blankets. Trees blossomed with white and pink petals. Spring newborns hopped and hid from sight as the cart rattled through.

  When they arrived at the Sun tribe, there was a small crowd of warriors waiting. They applauded the war-torn men, who wanted nothing more than to hide away, drink or write to their loved ones. Jabali greeted them, and when he came to the corpse of the one who’d committed suicide, he burnt the letter. Tau wanted to argue against it, but it wasn’t his right. When the people had separated, he pulled Rura aside before he went to the inn. “How are you feeling?”

  Rura itched his chin. “Thirsty. I need a drink.” He brushed off Tau and grinned. “I’ll see you back at our place. I’m going to celebrate.”

  Tau debated following him when he saw Ebhi from the corner of his eye, strolling towards his hut. He caught up, hip twinging. “Ebhi!”

  “Yes?”

  “I promised Unika I’d send something to his family. He said something about letters?”

  “Ah.” Ebhi motioned him to follow.

  The people around him felt different than before. There was something in the tone of their voices that made Tau angry. He overheard talk of how they didn’t get their sweet honey on time or their daughter wasn’t happy with the horse she was given for her journey, and heaven forbid we’re funding those warriors, what have they ever done for us? If it wasn’t for the tiredness in his bones, he would’ve punched a couple for their ungratefulness.

  They stopped outside Ebhi’s home. He went inside and came back holding a stack of papers. He gazed at them sadly before handing over. “He had a lot he wanted to say when the time came.”

  Tau smiled. “I can imagine so.” Looking at the house, he knew it was too big for Ebhi. It had been Mala and Unika who lived with him. It must have been surreal to come back to emptiness. At least he had Rura to vent to. “Ebhi, are you going to stay here now?”

  “I will probably move in the coming moons if something comes up. For now, I would like to remember the conversations I had with Unika. He was one of a kind.”

  Tau understood. He patted him on the back and departed to the messenger’s stables. The twelve sections were nearly empty except for one white horse at the back. He handed over gold, told the rider where to go and left.

  His plan was to join Rura, if for nothing else to keep an eye on him. His outbursts had been happening while he was sober, so he dreaded what he’d do when drink was in his blood. Yet Ebhi was calm. He’d killed his own kind, including his aunt, and returned to an empty stone dwelling as if it was nothing. Rura was going to be unbearable to live with, and Tau had to somehow hide his traumas to comfort him. He hadn’t lost his family. Rura needed help.

  He looked to the Sudaster building. Hopefully, seeing Sirlia would bring some normality. When he arrived, the cheap perfumes and the giggling women nauseated him. Some he’d laid with before the war blew him kisses. He couldn’t return them. He was ashamed to be there and had a strange urge to scrub his skin raw.

  Sirlia called him upstairs. Inside her room, she was dressed in a black silken nightdress, hair loose to her waist. He tried to return her seductive smile but couldn’t even manage a fake grin. He stared as if he was lost.

  She didn’t need him to speak when he laid down the coins. She approached slowly and wrapped her arms around his neck. Tau closed his eyes and focused on where he was. He wasn’t in a war anymore. Her scent of northern wine and mating made him tense. Her breath on his neck twitched his hand. The instant her soft lips pressed his jaw, he violently shoved her away and put his hands on his head.

  Sirlia straightened herself and folded her arms. “You’ve the eyes of a man who’s seen real war.”

  “Sorry, girl. I hoped I’d be alright here. Maybe I need a few days.”

  She slid the coins back into his hand and shook her head. “I’m sorry, darling. We can’t do anything for you in a few days, no one will. We can’t risk sharing our bodies with men that have regrets and images of death spinning through their minds. It’s too dangerous.” Sirlia sat on the chair by the window. “I don’t think you wanted to see me, did you?”

  Tau gazed at her. Seeing the comparisons between Ebhi and Rura played at him. Rura’s emotions were pure like his, but they’d almost cost him his life. Now he had unbearable grief he had to deal with. Ebhi didn’t change. Tau couldn’t return home early. Having been to one war, that wasn’t enough. There was fight in him, fight his grandfather never got to fully experience. He had to do it for a while longer. He had to focus on his duties without distractions. He could be there for Rura, too. Maybe it would rub off on him. “No.”

  She smiled sweetly. “Poor Tau. Come on, darling, let’s go see Palyria.”

  He didn’t argue and followed her across the hall, flinching when naked women touched his arm. The laughter, giggles and moans of pleasure were overwhelming. They shot him back to Inferno, the screams of parents, dying children in their arms.

  Sirlia opened the white painted door. It wasn’t like the other rooms. Everything was polar-white, pure, with a tint of innocence to it. The bedcovers were moon and star marked duvets, gems attached to them surrounded by white netting. Pieces of string hung from the ceiling strung with celestial animals and one grand full moon in the centre filled with lit, scented candles. In the centre, sitting on a cream fur rug, the pale woman he’d seen Ebhi with before they left was humming, legs crossed in concentration.

  “Palyria,” Sirlia interrupted. “He’s come back from Inferno.”

  The woman opened her electric blue eyes. She stood, her net dress revealing her porcelain skin. “You want to be under the medu trau?”

  “Yes,” Tau said and took out coins.

  “Mhmm. Put them on the side for now. We will talk first.” Palyria swept across the room to a stack of papers and ancient books.

  Sirlia signalled to Tau and stood on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. “It’s been fun, darling. I wish you luck.”

  Tau embraced her. “Thanks for everything over the years.”

  “It was nothing. I was happy to help the grandson of Pazade.” She smiled and left.

  Palyria spun extravagantly and pulled up another chair beside her. She pointed at it. “Sit now, warrior. We shall speak of your desires. Medu trau is a critical state of mind and not one to be taken lightly.” When he sat, she drummed her fingers on the table. “What do you know of the medu?”

  “Not a lot. My friend, Ebhi, he got it before we left for Inferno. He’s mentioned bits, but I never asked what it entailed.”

  “Mhmm.” She pursed her lips. “Medu trau can last as little as an hour or your entire life, depending on what it is you want. The warriors who come to us want the deepest part of it. They wish to be able to kill without guilt and reach the highest ranks at any cost. They don’t want the burdens of family or grief to disrupt their decisions. Is that what you wish for?”

  Tau nodded slowly. “I want the images to go away. I know I’ve just returned and not had time to rest, but I can’t get sent to another warzone like this. I’ve watched my friends die and couldn’t do anything to stop it. I’ve ended new life, children and families. Killing in the moment, I’m fine. It doesn’t play on me as much as it does others. But after? Fuck, I can’t cope with that, girl. I’m reliving corpses, body parts, the fucking stench of infection, and the screams.”

  Palyria narrowed her bright eyes and gestured to the bed. “I’m not suggesting we mate, warrior. That will never happen in my quarters. Before I do this, I need to see
how you sleep. I need to see with my own eyes what your subconscious does when it rests.”

  Tau took off his bracers, boots and helmet and moved the veils out of the way to climb on the bed. His hands sunk into the comfort of feather quilting. It was the type the Krenei lay in of a night. His hip burnt at the movement. He gasped and gritted teeth. Pulling the soft white covers away, he climbed into the warmth, melting immediately without the use of potions. For moons, he’d slept on sandstone beds, floors and wooden boards in carts. This was swallowing him whole, inviting him to relax, a scent of lavender hanging on a branch overhead.

  Palyria parted the veil, a cup in her hand. She smiled and fed him a spoonful of the contents before stepping back, parchments and charcoal ready. “Relax. Close your eyes. Don’t think of anything. Let your body rest. You’ve had a long journey here.”

  Tau sipped the sweet pink liquid and couldn’t fight it if he wanted to. His eyes were heavy and muscles relaxed, warmth spreading throughout his body. Darkness swept him into nothingness. Tranquillity and peace. Nothing was going to harm him. He could stop anytime he wanted. He was in the depths of a forest, walking the path. There were blossoming flowers, different types he’d seen in the Sun tribe, his home and in the east growing together with beautiful, long petals that entwined and spilt colours.

  The rainforest birds called him home. They needed him there. His footsteps took him down the trail. A snarl in the branches made his head spin. Turning, a creature as black as night, razor claws and flicking whiskers, was prowling. It wasn’t after him. A swarm of butterflies flew through him as if he was light as air and a celestial himself. The panther growled and emerged from its hiding place. As it came out, the deafening sound of two fearsome roars on the opposite side took his attention. Two thick-maned lions at each other’s throats. A lioness, bruised and battered, lay beneath a rock, wounded. Claws sliced fur, one of the two fell to the ground, lifeless. The victor wasn’t done. He sprinted across the ground, threatened. The panther was intrigued. He stalked through the grasses. He climbed trees and blended with the shadows, confusing the lion while the lioness howled in agony.

  Tau wanted to help. There was a way he could. He knew there was. He stepped forward. Sharp claws dropped from above and raked his chest.

  “Don’t meddle with things you know nothing about, boy!” Vakaar whispered in his ear, a cold, black dagger resting on his throat. “You never know where you’ll be dragged!” As Vakaar took a step back, the scene changed.

  The dry, hot air of Inferno burnt his skin. The bodies of his brothers lay at his feet. The elephant stamping on the enemy shrieked as it crunched bones. Vakaar was gone. An Aqua woman clutched his back, screaming words in her own tongue down his ear. Tau couldn’t control it. He was back there. The woman was tearing his skin. It flaked away. He opened his mouth, and no sound came out. His throat was dry. Blood poured down his front, landing on dead faces. Rura’s, Ebhi’s, his parents, his siblings, rotting beneath his boots.

  “Enough!” a stern, feminine voice called.

  Drenched in sweat, Tau opened his eyes and sat forward, resting his head on his knees. A hand holding a flask startled him. He took it and guzzled the water, trembling.

  “You’re very distressed,” Palyria said, assisting him from the bed. She helped keep his balance to the chair. “You slept for two hours, calmly at first. Then something changed.” She gazed at her notes and added a couple of lines while Tau settled and came back around. “I’m willing to offer you medu trau. If you can sign these papers, I can give them to Jabali to excuse you if you miss training sessions.”

  Tau took the charcoal and signed something that resembled his name. He was flushed and disturbed. “Is that it? Do I begin today?”

  “Not yet. When you’re comfortable with the conditions. You know what happens: duty to whom you serve will come above everyone else. Celibacy builds up strength, focus and frustration. There is a way to get out of the state. A signal. It can be something as simple as a phrase or an object. People use that type of calling when it is the thing itself they desire. They will stop at nothing until they have it.” Palyria tilted her head to the side. “Warriors, however, have it different. Most will be under the medu up to their last breath. It takes longer to implicate. Some use a dead person, so they’ll never come out of it, maybe out of vengeance, or simply to help themselves. Some use the number of wars participated and survived. Others use a woman. Have you thought ahead to your signal?”

  Tau tapped his pocket and nodded. “Yes. I want to know what will happen to me if I come by it by accident. We’ve had to kill a couple of men…”

  “You can never plan a warrior’s release.” She flipped over the parchment and started writing on the other side. “It isn’t a nice sight. First, it’ll have to be as perfect as your mind wants it before it becomes an issue. You may be sick at glances of it and feel peculiar as well as drawn. When it forms into that required image, your defences will shatter. Men have described it as hearing a thousand screams at once. Everything you have slain, everything you have suppressed will spring to the surface. You may collapse, you may fight everyone you see to chase it away, but the only thing that seems to ease it will be the signal. You’ll need to take possession of it and guard it as your new duty, even at the cost of others dying. You can’t lose something that special. It won’t come around again. For the victors of war, it may be a medal that they wear.”

  “What if I want to pick a woman?”

  Palyria stopped writing and turned around. “A woman is dangerous to use. Personally, I won’t embed a living one. There have been too many times they have been raped and killed. That is not what I do. I ease the pressures of your job, I don’t make rapists.”

  “What if she doesn’t exist?”

  “It’s still a risk unless you’re incredibly precise. In my early days, I had a warrior ask for an elegant woman with green eyes and red hair. Seven days later, he forced himself on eight of them.”

  Tau took out the tattered piece of paper and slid it on the desk. He waited as she uncurled it. “A lioness with all limbs and three graces.”

  She pursed her lips and sipped her crushed juice, little finger sticking out. “Do you know how many times I’ve been asked for a lioness? They are protected by the Moon tribe. I can’t allow that either unl—”

  “I’m a lion,” he reassured her.

  “Ah.” She rested back on her chair and inspected the drawing. “That changes things. A lioness with all limbs and three graces? You may as well pick someone dead, warrior. You’ll never find that.”

  “I was told at a young age I’d never settle for less. My father said that I wouldn’t return home unless I found a mate. If I’m going to be picky, this is how picky I want to be. I want her to look like that, dimples in her smile, big, curly hair like a mad woman. Someone who can’t be described as less than beautiful. Wide hips, small waist, nice breasts and fiery. I don’t want someone completely defenceless.”

  Palyria sniggered and shook her head. “You’re going for the impossible. Why not pick the deceased for qualities that particular?”

  “Because I’ve carried that picture around since I was fifteen, girl. I’ve grown attached to it. I imagine she’s waiting for me when my duty is done. If I’m going to break into madness, I want to know it’s because I met her.”

  “And what of the forced nature when a lion meets a lioness, let alone the medu influence? Lions meeting never ends well. Add the medu to the mix, and you have a bloodbath.”

  Tau ran a hand through his locks. In Inferno, his lust had been overpowering for a woman he hardly found attractive. If he met the literal woman of his dreams, she wouldn’t stand a chance. “Can you suppress that instinct?”

  “I can try. We’ve never had a lion come to us for this. They’re too proud… usually. Mind you, the lions we get are Sun tribe arrogant fools who believe they can take on the world.” She smiled sweetly. “Since the man with his redheads, I’ve attempted to impress a supp
ression. Sometimes it works, others it doesn’t. It depends on the circumstance. If she walked around naked or even if you caught her undressed by accident, that’d be too strong to fight. If it broke, say in casual conversation or someplace hosting a grim event, that’d be fine. But again, I’m not certain.” There was a knock on the door. “That’ll be my next client.”

  Tau took the hint and strapped his equipment back on. “When should I return?”

  “If you want to do it, I’ll give you some advice. Spend a night thinking about it. When you wake up with a clear head, write to your family. It’ll be the last time your mind and soul will be in this condition. After the first trau, things change.” Palyria stood by the door. “Also, think of your signal. Carefully.”

  Tau bowed graciously, “I will. Thank you for your time.” As he left, he glanced at the women passing him. Nothing. No arousal or interest. Outside, the bitter cold sent a chill down his spine. The blood, the copper scent, it was too real and new. He took another look at the picture. The next time he’d consider mating, it was going to be with her, wherever she was, and that was if she even existed. Until then, he had wars to participate in, friends to help and trophies and scars to earn.

  - CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE -

  Darkness gathered around Nuru for an unknown time. He was appreciative of the generosity from the stranger. In his slumber, visions twisted into things he didn’t understand. A voice, one hidden in the void, encouraged him to keep moving. It was the charm of the stranger. He could see him ahead between the trees. They’d stop, and Nuru would be fed and rested, as if he had no control. As the days went by, Vakaar pulled him from place to place.

  There were huge men, gathered by fires. When Vakaar pressed a finger to his lips, Nuru’s body knew what to do. He was bait. Snarls, howls, wet bursts and flashes of silver from abrupt conflicts happened in seconds. Next thing they had a camp to rest in. Every time he closed his eyes, it got heavier until he lost complete control.