Awakenings

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Awakenings Page 55

by C. D. Espeseth


  Prince El’ Amin arrived not long afterwards. A retinue of the Eternal Hand surrounded the prince and the field marshal as they made their way up the main thoroughfare lined by more than a few of the soldiers who had taken the Narrows, watching as their two would-be leaders met.

  Jonah saluted the prince with an open palm over a closed fist, and El’ Amin returned the gesture.

  A good start, Jonah thought. “Thank you for sailing all this way, cousin. I would have returned to Dawn once we secured this city properly.”

  “Would you have, cousin?” Prince El’ Amin asked, somewhat surprised.

  “Please, I have tea and food inside. Do you have a poison-tester with you?” Jonah asked politely.

  “I do.” Prince El’ Amin gestured to the thin man to his left who bobbed his head in supplication and ducked inside the tent ahead of the prince to begin his sampling of the food. “I’m sure you understand.”

  “Of course.” Jonah bowed politely as he held the tent flap open for Prince El’ Amin and his retinue. “If there is any doubt, I will happily sample any of the food myself.”

  The verbal sparring continued as expected while the poison-tester went about his business, and they finally sat down across from each other and began to eat.

  “You hid quite well, Ja’ Al Ona,” Prince El’ Amin said with a grimace. “I have to admit, of all the places I thought you might pop up, I never expected you to tag along on my expedition.”

  “You did not believe me dead?” Jonah quirked an eyebrow.

  El’ Amin laughed as he took another sip of wine. “Not for a minute, the empress knows what that would have done, and we all knew it was rival Houses trying to fan flames on those rumours. I always had my suspicions that your mother was just waiting for whatever it was that had consumed you to blow over, and when it did, she would welcome you back into the fold.”

  Jonah looked at his plate sombrely, shaking his head. “No, unfortunately, that is not true. My mother sent an assassin after me. Though it turns out she sent the wrong one, my would-be killer turned out to be a revolutionary.” The time for complex politics was over. They did not have time to dance around the truth. He took a deep breath. “I hid because my mind had cracked. I wanted to disappear completely, into oblivion and the part of me which was still functioning saw your foolhardy mission as a noble way to end my pain.”

  Prince El’ Amin looked taken aback at the honesty, but to Jonah’s surprise, his cousin, who he had seen as a dangerous rival ever since he was born, did not smile at the opening which had been given.

  “So, it is true then?” El’ Amin asked with genuine compassion in his eyes. “There were rumours about what happened in the palace the night you disappeared. Ilene did not die from red fever.”

  “No,” Jonah answered, not bothering to hide the tears that always came when he remembered that night. “I killed her.”

  The silence within the tent seemed to smother them all.

  Finally, Prince El’ Amin composed himself and asked, “And your daughter?”

  “Killed by Ilene as she slept.”

  El’ Amin’s hand quivered as it covered his mouth. The brutal honesty of Jonah’s answers had unsettled him. Jonah could see his cousin’s eyes darting back and forth as he put together the pieces of the puzzle.

  “So you really did come with me to die?” El’ Amin questioned.

  “On some level, yes. My mind had cocooned itself somehow, and I had always loved archery. The bow focused my mind. All else would fade away when you had to concentrate on a target. There is clarity in shooting, an emotionless void which embraces the mind and I retreated into a life which was dominated by that,” Jonah tried to explain.

  “So, what happened?” El’ Amin asked. “I’m more confused about what you want than ever.”

  Jonah told his cousin of the blossoming Fire Bloom in Dawn and of how it unlocked the memories and grief he had buried deep within himself. He told of how Fin voided his contract by not killing him because he saw Jonah as a means to changing the Empire. He told of the dark secret of how the Empire had been sterilising young men and women to keep the birth rates consistent and of how this new land they had found changed everything they knew and believed. He told him about it all.

  “And that’s it. Many within the army do not want to return to the way things were, and if we try to force them, there will be an uprising we cannot stop. This land is healing the men and women of Eura. There was a man back in Dawn who fathered a child with a local Dawnish woman who must have been close to forty-five years old. The old ways must change, cousin,” Jonah finished.

  Prince El’ Amin sat for a long time, swirling the wine in his glass as he thought over what Jonah had told him. “I suppose it is my turn for honesty.” He put his glass down and grimaced. “When news of your reappearance came to me, I believed that I would have to kill you. I thought you had come to take this land for yourself, that this had all been some elaborate plot by you and the empress all along.”

  “And now?” Jonah asked, tensing himself in readiness to spring for the vase in the corner where he had hidden the White Spear. Branson looked at him, ready to jump on one of the Eternal Hand.

  El’ Amin held up a hand. “Please don’t. If I had wanted to kill you, Captain Elliash, who is positioned over my left shoulder and about a hundred yards down the street, would have shot you by now. You, of course, noticed I made sure to keep the tent flaps open. The good captain is an expert in his House’s weapon, I’m sure you remember the remarkable Girandoni rifles, don’t you? Captain Elliash could probably pick which eye to put the bullet through from where he is hidden.” Prince El’ Amin slowly grabbed the candle on the table and waved for Branson to move out of the way.

  Jonah, muscles screaming at him to lunge for the vase, now grit his teeth and nodded for Branson to do as he was told. The scowling older man took a large step to the side.

  Prince El’ Amin held the lit candle far out to his left.

  A crack-hiss snapped from somewhere down the street, and the flame of the candle blinked out in the prince’s hand. A small hole in the tent canvas behind the candle and the crack of something hitting the tree outside the tent were the only indications that any shot had been fired.

  “Remarkable weapon, the Girandoni rifle. No explosive powders of any kind and therefore no smoke. Capable of up to thirty shots within a minute with a replacement air canister. I’m sure Captain Elliash already has his next target sighted. Believe me, you don’t need to dive for that glorious spear I heard you brought with you.” Prince El’ Amin smiled apologetically as he held up a conciliatory hand. “Old habits, I’m sure you understand, but there is no need for this. I am not your enemy.”

  “Perhaps,” Jonah said, slowly putting his hands on the table to ensure another of the shots did not fly his way due to an over-anxious trigger finger. “Yet, you have the Sinu Padan in Dawn as we speak, do you not?”

  “I do,” El’ Amin smiled as he answered, “but it is better to have some control over what targets are picked and when to fire than to be a victim of and have no control of the very weapons we all fear. I trust the empress with them even less, you see?”

  “I suppose I do understand. However, I need to know if you intend to use them,” Jonah asked.

  El’ Amin grimaced. “It is hard to know the future, cousin. The fear of the Sinu Padan can be said to be more useful than the actual weapons. The terror of them has stopped over a dozen wars before they even began in the empire. Yes, they are abhorrent, akin to having a great demon held at bay by only a thin chain, but everyone in the room with you behaves very carefully because of that demon.” The prince waved a hand placatingly and said after a considered moment, “I cannot know to trust you enough to tip my hand completely. So, we are at an impasse, cousin.”

  Jonah sighed, the prince’s logic was hard to argue with, and Jonah knew his cousin had been politicking his entire life and the lifelong mistrust which went with it could not be erased in a da
y.

  “I believe I have a solution,” he said, holding up a hand. “We let the White Spear join us, you will know me, and I will know you. Your thoughts and abilities will be mine and mine yours. It is the Empire’s greatest secret. A ceremony used to hand down the mantle from one Dokan to the next.”

  Prince El’ Amin looked sceptical.

  “I will let the blade cut me and drink of my blood, you will do likewise at the same time. It is not pleasant, but when the spear releases us we will know each other better than brothers,” Jonah explained. “It is the only way for us to move forward.”

  El’ Amin studied Jonah for a long moment, trying to gauge the seriousness of this outlandish claim, but apparently found nothing to doubt on Jonah’s face. The prince laughed and slapped the table, “Ha! All these years you’ve been cheating! I always wondered what they did at that ridiculous monastery atop the mountain. I always believed those monks were some sort of divine teachers, but you’ve been cheating all along.”

  Jonah quirked a smile in response and shared in the laughter. “Yes!” Jonah smiled. “We have!”

  “You bastards.” Prince El’ Amin shook his head and let out another chuckle. “All right, well I have to try it now. So, will the knowledge of the ancestor’s flow through me? Will I be able to fight like the wind, as you do?”

  Jonah shrugged. “Maybe. You remember all of the tests before they chose who would go to the monastery when we were young? Well, those tests selected the most compatible match for the White Spear. The memories stay with me longer, some even stay permanently, but they are always clearer and more powerful when holding the spear. Some myths spoke of how it was the spear itself that would choose who it passed all of its secrets onto.”

  El’ Amin grinned confidently and held his hand up in a halting gesture to reassure the sniper behind him not to shoot. “All right then, let’s do it.”

  Jonah retrieved the White Spear from the vase in the corner. He gave Branson a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It is the best way. We need to evolve. The fewer secrets, the better.”

  He wasn’t sure Branson was convinced, but he took out the white blade and put it on the table between Prince El’ Amin and himself anyway.

  They gasped as the White Spear took hold of them through their blood, almost like a great hand squeezing them from within with a thousand fingers. Prince El’ Amin’s mind opened up to Jonah as he was sure his own did for his cousin and Jonah saw his kin’s life unfold in a blink of an eye.

  He was escaping the Empire as well. Jonah was shocked to find. It was his youngest sister, Mara. El’ Amin had watched as she gave birth to six children in six years and had watched as each child was given to a wet-nurse. There was a particular memory of El’ Amin’s that seemed to stand out in the prince’s mind.

  He and Mara stood beside a fence watching the horses beyond where a little foal was trailing after its mother.

  “I am treated worse than her,” Mara had said as she watched the mare. “They don’t let her in with the stallions for more than a year to ensure she is good and strong. With me, they didn’t even take the stitches out before the next man was ordered to give me his seed.”

  El’ Amin had not known what to say, the joy and life which had sparkled in Mara’s eyes as a child had been snuffed out. Her eyes looked void of any emotion.

  That was the last day Mara had spoken to him, and as far as El’ Amin knew, it was the last day she had spoken to anyone. He had been given the command to hunt down a band of pirates who had raided Port Barrier, but he had promised to find out what could be done. Six children was by no means a lot by Empire standards, but there were always exceptions which could be made. By the time he got back to Rakaisa, Mara had killed herself.

  Prince El’ Amin’s faith in his Empire shattered that day, so he set out to investigate the ludicrous claims of the pirates he had captured and hung. They had sworn that the storms of the Barrier Sea had disappeared right up to when the ropes snapped their necks.

  He had decided to gamble. He would find a land where they could start over, one where sisters and mothers were not treated like glorified sows.

  Jonah gasped with El’ Amin as the White Spear let them go. Their minds reverted back to their current selves, and both men pulled their cut hands away from the blade as if it were on fire.

  Once Jonah recovered himself, he looked at the man he now knew better than a brother. A kindred soul rather than an enemy. Knowing what he now did, he wished he had dared to speak to his cousin sooner, but his life in the empire had also made him wary and paranoid, just as it had the prince.

  “Oh, Jonah,” El’ Amin said with tears in his eyes. “You poor, tortured man. Yes, is the answer. You don’t have to ask the question as I saw what you are trying to build as you must have seen what I want to build.”

  “So, we can work together? A new beginning, one in which we grow together with the people of this land,” Jonah asked.

  Prince El’ Amin nodded, “Yes, we are strong enough that I do not believe the Salucians can push us back completely. Our initiatives in Kenz have proven successful, and reports indicate there are huge social injustices which can be rectified to win over more supporters in the lands we have not conquered. We are here to stay, cousin.”

  It was then one of the hanging lanterns shattered above their heads.

  “Why is your captain shooting at us?!” Jonah ducked down behind a chair for cover, his hand already on the spear.

  “He was signalling us, that’s the only reason he would miss,” El’ Amin said with panic in his eyes.

  Branson darted his head out of the tent to see what was happening, then spoke gravely, “He was trying to warn us of the dozen Eternal hand marching up the road! We have to get out of here!”

  “What?” Jonah and El’ Amin said together and joined Branson at the edge of the tent.

  “Prince El’ Amin! Did you really think you could conspire against the Empress?!” The captain of the Eternal Hand bellowed down the street as he tossed the dead sniper’s body onto the ground in front of him.

  It looked like nearly a dozen of the Hand had come along with him. The elite royal guard in their red-lacquered armour spread out around their captain and blocked the exits from the small garden. “Your letters were intercepted, my Prince, your code was quite good, but other members of your family were easier to break.”

  The Eternal Hand all drew swords, bowmen fell in behind the Hand and notched arrows.

  “This is pretty damn bad,” Branson growled.

  “And Ja’ Al Ona Hashi, grand duke, and Dokan, your mother always knew where you were.” The captain laughed. “It was always part of my job to report back to her. Apologies to both of you, but the empire has big plans for this new land. Both of you are, unfortunately, not in it. Will you both meet an honourable end? Or are we going to have to come in there?” The captain challenged as he stopped his march towards the tent and waited with sword drawn.

  “You bastards come in here, and I’ll rip the guts out of each and every last one of you!” Branson called back from behind the table he had toppled over for cover.

  “I suppose there is only one way to find out the extent of the gifts bestowed upon me by the spear, isn’t there?” Prince El’ Amin grasped Jonah’s arm and smiled.

  “If this is the end, know that I am glad to have known you, cousin.”

  Jonah smiled sadly as he got up, “and I, you.”

  “Jonah, what are you doing?!” Branson hissed.

  “We’re going to find out just how much a hundred generations of Dokans knows. There is no way out, but through, my friends.”

  Branson smiled wickedly, “Well, I guess we’ll all be fucking glad I brought these, then.” In his gnarled hands, he held two sapper brick-eater greanados in his hands.

  “Do you let Fin carry those yet?” Jonah asked.

  “Nope.” Branson grinned.

  “We’re coming out!” Jonah said.

  “My archers have orders
to feather you if we see that white blade of yours so much as twitch, Ja’ Al Ona,” the captain called to them.

  “Understood.” Jonah made sure the blades shaft was retracted and placed the now dagger-like blade back in its sheath at his hip.

  They walked out with there hands up. All except Branson.

  “Let’s see those hands, old-timer,” the captain said, pointing at Branson.

  Too late Jonah understood what was about to happen. “Branson, don’t.”

  “Exit to the far right, you both better run really bloody quick,” Branson whispered and then began to pretend to cough and stumble towards the captain.

  “Hey, old-timer let’s see the hands!” The captain yelled.

  Branson coughed, and when he was a few steps away, he fell to his knee as if the coughing had overtaken him.

  A few seconds later, the pair of Eternal Hand near the exit Branson had indicated yelled, “Grenado!”

  “Move!” Branson yelled as the first arrow hit him in the ribs.

  The ground shattered beside the two royal guards in a flash of dirt and fire. Everyone turned away from the blast, and before Jonah knew it, Prince El’ Amin had pulled him into a run towards the exit.

  The white blade was in his hand as the next Eternal Hand rushed them to fill the gap, Jonah’s instincts took over, and he used his weapon as a dagger and ended the would-be blockers life in two moves.

  “Stop them!” The captain yelled.

  Branson got to his feet.

  Another arrow thumped into his back, but he somehow stayed upright and ran towards the captain.

  In the end, the captain didn’t have to do anything other than hold his sword out as Branson fell upon it.

  “Call me old-timer one more time. I fucking dare you,” Branson said through bloody lips to the horrified captain as he finally held out his other hand, letting the metal pin fall to the ground.

  The captain tried to pull his weapon free, but Branson grabbed hold of the hilt with his free hand and closed his eyes. A bloody smile was on his face as he and the captain left the world at the same instant.

  Jonah felt the blast right down to his bones as he and Prince El’ Amin escaped into the city.

 

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