The Rage of Dragons (The Burning Books #1) (20 page)

The next morning, Hadith stopped Tau on their way to the practice fields. “You need to see Uduak,” he said.

Tau hadn’t slept. He’d lain awake thinking about what he’d done. Still, Hadith’s urging felt like chastisement and Tau brushed past him, resenting the request.

Hadith took hold of Tau’s arm. “You need to do it before it’s too late. I’m here as a friend.”

“Are we friends?” Tau asked, looking to Hadith’s hand.

Hadith released him. “I had thought we were becoming so,” he said, walking away.

The practice was even more rigorous than normal, and Jayyed was there, pacing the whole time. “We fight in the Crags! We fight Indlovu! We fight Enervators! Are you ready? Is this what ready looks like? Feels like?”

Tau had never seen Jayyed this anxious, and perhaps the umqondisi’s anxiety was justified. His scale would be put to the test and his methods would be under scrutiny. Jayyed had taken liberties, and the other umqondisi and their Indlovu counterparts would be quick to use a poor performance to pull him down.

Despite Jayyed’s prodding, when it came time to spar, Tau held back. He was still shaken up, but Jayyed wouldn’t accept a halfhearted performance.

“You think to move behind the Goddess’s back?” he shouted at Tau, his voiced raised loud enough to be heard by everyone. “Don’t dishonor yourself or our efforts with self-pity and guilt. You’re afraid you’ll lose control again? Good, you should be. You must have control, but this is not the way. You’ll watch brothers die and see your life wasted if you leash yourself to mediocrity’s post. Fight, damn you!”

Tau increased his effort and pace against a concerned-looking Chinedu.

“Not enough!”

Tau pushed harder, forcing Chinedu back.

“I want all of it,” Jayyed shouted, looking around at the rest of the scale. “Anything less is an affront to the time we’re given. Anything less and you’re waiting to die instead of fighting to live. Fight, burn you!”

Tau fired a look at Jayyed, and Chinedu took the opening. He leapt forward, shooting his sword at Tau. Tau reacted at full speed. He swatted the thrust aside, slapped his second sword against Chinedu’s neck, and twisted the blade of his blocking sword free, blasting it into Chinedu’s side.

Chinedu, taking near simultaneous hits on either side of his body, contorted as if he didn’t know which way to fall.

“Ack! Mka!” Chinedu dropped his sword and shield, grabbing for his neck to see if the sting meant he was bleeding. “Goddess’s mercy. Goddess’s mercy! Char to ashes!” he said, too fast to cough.

Jayyed nodded at Tau. “It’s never acceptable to be less than you are. Chinedu!”

“Umqondisi,” Chinedu said, nursing ribs with one hand and neck with the other.

“You tried to stab Tau when he wasn’t looking… a truly honorable and valiant effort, but you lowered your shield as you went in. Don’t treat combat like you do women. Keep it up next time.”

Yaw and Hadith were sparring nearby and both snickered.

“To Isihogo with both of you,” Chinedu hissed. “You fight him, then.”

“Why not?” asked Hadith, tapping Yaw with his sword. “Ready?”

The two men came for Tau.

“Two on one?” Tau asked.

“I see two swords in those soft hands,” said Hadith, pushing Yaw to one side of Tau while he moved to the other.

Tau was about to protest, until he saw Jayyed nod, allowing the match to proceed. He went for Yaw first. Hadith was the better fighter, but Yaw had a precision with his sword that a man would regret ignoring. Yaw saw Tau coming and shimmied back, blocking Tau’s first strike and second but taking the third and hardest swing full on the thigh.

“Goddess!” he yelped.

Tau spun, crossing his two swords in time to catch Hadith’s downcut, the same move he’d first used on Oyibo. He turned Hadith’s sword and forced him off-balance, then disengaged, elbowing Hadith in the chest.

Tau pushed away, squared up, and came at him with his swords whirling, attacking from two angles. Learning from Chinedu’s example, Hadith raised his shield high, but he couldn’t bring his sword to bear. He took a punishing hit on his sword arm, then helmet, and when he got his sword in position, Tau avoided it, hammering his blade flat into Hadith’s armpit.

Bent double, Hadith stumbled away. Swords still whirling, Tau swung for Yaw, who had been slinking over. Yaw’s eyes widened when he saw he was expected. He swung for Tau’s face, a well-aimed thrust, but Tau was faster. He leaned out of the way, spun in a tight circle, and pounded both swords into Yaw’s side.

Yaw went down gasping and Tau returned his attention to Hadith, who ran forward, yelling at the top of his lungs. Their blades danced a few steps until Tau increased the pace beyond Hadith’s ability to match.

His loss inevitable, Hadith risked a sacrifice swing that Tau blocked, turned, and used to disarm him, sending Hadith’s wooden sword flying through the air. Hadith lifted his shield again, but Tau went low, knocking Hadith’s legs out from under him, putting him in the dirt. Tau stood over him, sword at Hadith’s throat stone.

“Cede,” Tau told him.

“Thank you, I’ll wait for the draw.”

“What?”

“Any breath now.”

Smiling, Jayyed came over. “This match is a draw.”

“What!” said Tau, and Jayyed couldn’t hold it in. He laughed, a full and infectious sound. The rest of the scale joined in. Tau looked from face to face, stopping on Hadith’s. Hadith was smiling broadly.

“If it worked for Uduak…” Hadith extended his arm. Tau grabbed him, wrist to wrist, and pulled his sword brother to his feet.

Jayyed was still chuckling. “A draw. Char to ashes, a draw. Well fought, all three of you. Well fought.”

Jayyed called the men back to sparring. “A draw,” he muttered to himself, and then guffawed, startling the nearest initiate.

“When will you see Uduak?” Hadith asked Tau.

“I don’t know that he wants to see me.”

“Only one way to find out,” Hadith said.

Tau breathed deep and nodded. He walked over to where Jayyed was watching Mshindi and Kuende, the two twins, spar. “Umqondisi Jayyed, permission to step off the fields.”

“Where to, Common Solarin?”

“The infirmary.”

“Eh, granted. We’ll be here when you’re back.”

Tau saluted and left the training grounds. It was past time to see the big man.

Uduak’s face and body were a rash of welts. His shield arm was in a splint and his left eye was swollen shut.

“Uduak…” Tau had no idea what to say.

“Tau.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Nceku.”

Tau bristled.

“Nceku.”

“Should I leave?”

“No, I want to insult you. Nceku!” Uduak said.

Tau glanced around the infirmary. Most of the other cots were empty, and he didn’t see any of the Sah priests, but three beds over, a thin initiate with a broken leg was watching.

“Would you stop?”

“Nceku!” Uduak said with vigor, like he was singing a fireside song.

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“Doing less than when you lost yours, neh?”

Tau softened at that. “You are my sword brother and deserved better from me.”

Uduak laughed and winced. “Might not survive better’n what you already gave.” Uduak watched Tau from the eye he could open. “Never happened.”

“What?”

“Not since I was small. Not since I grew and whupped that Petty Noble for being a wretch to my cousin.”

It was the longest sentence Tau had heard Uduak speak. “You whupped a Noble?”

“Whupped him. Whupped him good.” Uduak’s eye twinkled. “Could have had me hanged. Guess he didn’t want anyone to know a Low Common blooded him.”

“You beat a Noble…,” Tau said.

“Went on whupping everyone. Got good at it. Got to like it. Then you come along in the testing and I whupped you too, except you kept getting up. Thought it then, think it now, you’ve a demon in you.” Uduak went silent for a beat. He seemed hesitant. “Won’t let you stop, will it?”

“I’ve more to do,” answered Tau.

“Can see that.” Uduak shifted on the cot. “It’s in me too. Think mine’s smaller than yours, but it pushed me until I could stop that mka of a Noble.”

“It left you then?”

Uduak held Tau’s eyes with his own. The twinkle was gone. “No. There’s always more to do.” The mood had darkened and both men seemed uncomfortable. “Never been beat,” he said. “Not like that.”

“Two swords. Few people are used to it.”

“Wasn’t two swords that beat me. And when I knew I was beat, couldn’t surrender.”

“Your demon?”

“No. You would have killed me.”

That startled Tau. “I’ll be better,” he said, unable to deny Uduak’s words outright.

“You’ll try.”

“I’ll be better.”

Uduak grunted. “Strange not to be the strongest,” he said, changing the topic. “Been it for so long.”

Tau tried a smile. He meant it to be comforting as he issued a gentle challenge. “A bit more work and maybe you’ll be it again.”

Uduak stared at him for several breaths. “Not as long as you live, I won’t.”

Tau’s smile faded.

“It’s fine. Maybe now the thing inside me will quiet a bit.” Uduak rolled over, turning his massive back to Tau. “Thanks for coming.”

The conversation had been unsettling, but Tau was glad his sword brother would be fine, that they would be fine. He nodded and realized Uduak couldn’t see it with his back turned.

“Don’t let that demon go too quiet,” Tau said. “We’re for the Crags. It’s time to introduce the Nobles to Scale Jayyed.”

Scale Jayyed arrived at the Crags without Uduak. The big man had tried to join his brothers, but Jayyed had forbidden it, telling him to take the proper time to heal. Uduak’s absence was felt, and Hadith did what he could to lift the spirits of the men.

It was for that, as well as for his mind for military strategy, that Jayyed made Hadith the scale’s inkokeli, and Hadith took the responsibility seriously. During the march, he’d gone over and over his battle plans with Tau, Yaw, Chinedu, Oyibo, Runako, Themba, and Mkiwa.

Tau wasn’t sure why he was being involved. He had little interest in tactics or strategies and had told Hadith, “Point me in the direction you want me to fight and I’ll fight.” He didn’t need more than that.

Hadith had called him an ass and demanded he listen so he would understand. Tau had listened. He wasn’t sure how much he understood.

Besides, how much could they plan for something that had not happened yet? Their actions would depend on what the Indlovu did and on whom the Enervator hit. Itembe had gone into his skirmish with a detailed plan. Tau had seen how that went.

“Remember, Oyana is a brawler,” Jayyed told them as they formed up at the edge of the battlefield. “His Indlovu initiates will be too. We’re on the urban battleground and they’ll try to use that to their advantage. They’ll come out hard, fast, looking for quick kills and immediate victory. Hold off their initial push and you’ll make them doubt themselves.”

Tau eyed the battleground in front of him. In the spaces between the tightly packed adobe buildings he caught glimpses of the Indlovu lined up at its other end. All of them had their dulled practice swords out and ready. All of them wore shields.

He also saw their Enervator. She looked scared. Funny, she was the only person who would come out of this without a scratch, and she was unsettled. Chances were that it was her first skirmish. Though that was true for Tau as well.

Tau glanced at the men beside him. Hadith was there, ready to run in and take point as they wound their way through the pretend paths of a pretend city. Hadith wanted them to push deep into the battleground. He wanted them to make it to one of the two circles, built to reflect the much larger circles all Omehi cities had.

Hadith wanted enough fighting space for his superior numbers to have an effect. The circle he was targeting had three entrances, two that were on opposite sides and a thin path that was closer to the direction from which the Indlovu would come. Hadith wanted Tau, Yaw, Chinedu, and Oyibo to hold the thin path against any Indlovu who tried to splinter off from the main group to flank Scale Jayyed.

It would be difficult for more than two Indlovu to stand abreast in the narrow path, which was bordered by single-story buildings. This, Hadith hoped, would give the advantage to Tau’s group.

“When the war horn sounds, we make for the circle,” Hadith told the men. “Keep close. Fight as a scale. No heroics. We’re here to win and we’ll do that by taking the bastards down together!”

The men cheered.

“Watch out for the Ennie. You see that inyoka so much as twitch in our direction and you call it out.”

The men passed the message back, and Tau saw fear flicker across their faces. No one liked the idea of being hit by enervation.

“Make ready, he’s going to blow it,” said Yaw, a breath before Tau heard the war horn’s call. The Indlovu roared a call of their own and sped onto the battlefield, making Hadith curse.

“Go, go, go!” he yelled at his men, urging them on.

Tau ran with the others, racing into the winding maze of the false city. The paths twisted and crisscrossed and Tau was thankful Hadith had made him listen. It would have been an easy thing to make a wrong turn. Yaw, small and quick, kept pace with Tau, and they sped along, shoulder to shoulder, Chinedu and Oyibo just behind them. Tau could hear Chinedu coughing as they ran. Strange how much of a comfort that was.

It was one more turn and they emerged in the circle. They’d arrived first. Tau looked up to the building rooftops. Two aqondise, one from the isikolo and the other from the Indlovu Citadel, were up there. They would make sure the defeated men stayed out of the contest and would call fouls where they saw them.

Moving his eyes lower, Tau spotted three Indlovu thundering down the main path just a hundred strides from the circle. From the path nearest Tau, Hadith emerged with a dozen men.

“Tau, hold the side path. We have the circle!”

In the time it took for Hadith to speak, ten more of his sword brothers had reinforced the circle. Tau hoped they would be enough, as the two dozen Lessers engaged the three Indlovu, who had backed up into the path, where they could not be surrounded.

No time to waste, Tau ran for the side path with his men, getting there at the same time as four Indlovu and the Enervator.

Yaw skidded to a stop. “Mka!”

“At them!” screamed Tau, charging.

“Really?” said Yaw, running after him.

“Touch the Enervator! Take her out of the skirmish!” Tau yelled, launching himself at the first Indlovu.

Their swords smashed together. The Indlovu, bigger than Uduak, had on a thick leather gambeson that would have cost Tau’s stipend for his entire cycle at the isikolo. The Noble’s face was flat, nose broad and flared, and he snarled at Tau, teeth out.

They exchanged a flurry of attacks, the Indlovu battering at Tau with all his might, seeking to bury him under the weight of his much greater strength. Tau deflected each strike, shifting the force of them down and away. The Noble growled in frustration, coming at Tau again, but Tau danced back and Yaw was there, ramming the point of his dulled bronze sword as hard as he could into the Noble’s side.

“Gah!” the Indlovu roared, a rib broken. He swung at the much smaller Yaw, who skipped out of reach.

Tau gave the injured man no second chance. He thundered his two swords into his helmet, chest, side, and arm. The Indlovu seemed to weather the first hits, then collapsed when Tau delivered a more violent blow to his head.

A woman screamed. It was the Enervator. She had her hands over her mouth. She looked horrified by the violence, as if she wasn’t there with the intent to yank their souls from their bodies.

Tau moved his head on a swivel, saw that Oyibo and Chinedu were losing their fight. Oyibo’s shield was on the ground, his shield arm limp, his sword wavering. Chinedu was giving all he could, but the Indlovu he faced shrugged off his attacks.

“Help Chinedu,” Tau told Yaw.

“There’s two more Indlovu coming.”

“They’re mine,” Tau said.

Yaw looked at Tau like he’d lost his mind, and then, with little better to do, he followed his orders, dashing to Chinedu and Oyibo’s defense.

The two remaining Indlovu came on, and Tau smiled at them. “I will give you pain.”

The leading Indlovu, a head taller than Tau, stopped, shook his head, and laughed. “Let’s see if I can knock your brains back in place, Lesser.”

He charged, and Tau grinned like he was sun sick. The Indlovu, in his eagerness, had left his partner behind.

The first touch went to Tau, who ducked under the Noble’s head strike, blasting him in the shin with the edge of his strong-side sword. The Noble fell and Tau spun, whipping his blades in a shining arc that ended in dual hammer strikes across the falling man’s back.

The citadel fighter hit the ground in a clamor of bronze and expelled breath. Tau kicked him in the face and smashed the pommel of his weak-side sword into the man’s temple. That done, he rose to face the next Indlovu.

“I will give you pain,” he told the man, and this time, his words were given weight.

The Indlovu tightened his grip on his sword and his eyes thinned to slits. Tau rushed forward and the Indlovu jerked back, surprised by the suddenness of Tau’s movement. Tau was on him then, and so were his swords. He swung them with hatred, smashing the dulled blades into the Noble’s body and shield. Every time the Indlovu sought to bring his weapon to bear, Tau slapped it aside and hurt him.

That was when he heard the woman scream again.

I’ll be with you shortly, he thought, but then the whole world went dark as she engulfed him and everyone else in the narrow path in a torrent of enervation.

Tau was still in the path, in the fake city in the Crags, and yet he was not. It was as dark as night, but he could see, though what he saw made him wish he couldn’t. The Enervator was there, but she was cloaked in shadows as dark as dragon scale. She was hidden. The others, though, shone bright with the golden energy of their souls, and this had attracted demons.

The closest one was a mass of shard-like bones that pierced the shell it had in place of skin. Its eyes were bulbous and red and its razor teeth were as long as Tau’s fingers. It shambled toward him and he scrambled back. It gave him no thought, choosing to fall on the Indlovu Tau had been fighting. The young Noble opened his mouth to scream, but the beast had already clamped its jaws around his face and ripped the man’s nose, lips, and tongue away. The Noble fell, what was left of his mouth open but voiceless, eyes darting in terror.

Tau took another step back, desperate to hide, desperate to get away. He could feel the Enervator’s hold on his soul, locking it to this evil place. He sought her out but had lost sight of her among the swirling mist.

“Tau!” It was Yaw, his voice a thin and distant thing, like a deadened echo. Tau looked over. Yaw was only a dozen strides away, suffused with a golden glow. Tau looked down at himself; he was lit too. He moved to go to Yaw and held. A demon had found his sword brother.

The thing shared nothing with the one still feeding on the Indlovu. It was squat, not quite reaching Yaw’s shoulder, but it bristled with muscles, like a perverse rendering of an Enraged Ingonyama. It snarled at Yaw, its thick lips dripping ichor and revealing blunt, crushing teeth. Yaw fell backward, calling for help with his underworld-muted voice, and the demon went for him.

Tau resisted every impulse he had and ran away from his fear and into combat. He raised his strong-side sword, surprised to realize he still had it, and swung it onto the neck of the demon attacking Yaw. The blade struck true, biting into the meat of the thing. It howled, reared, ripped the sword from Tau’s grip, and clawed at him, catching his forearm and tearing away the skin there like it was paper.

The pain was instant and furious. Tau drew his arm back, near to blacking out from agony, and lashed out with his remaining sword, slicing the demon across its chest. It reared, roared, dropped to all fours, and charged him. Tau braced himself, thrust hard for the place he imagined the creature’s heart to be, and was bowled over as the demon crashed into him, sending them both tumbling along the swampy muck of Isihogo.

Tau lost his weapon and his sense of up or down. He tried to kick the demon away but was like a child in its grip. He prayed he’d killed it with his last sword thrust, but its eyes centered on him and it dove for his neck.

Tau raised a blocking arm to stop it. It clamped its jaws around his elbow and bit down, crushing through skin and bone. He screamed as the pain, horrifying in its intensity, hit. Then the agony threatened sanity itself when the beast swung its head back and forth, jerking his whole body about and tearing his destroyed limb to shreds as the light came back to the world.

“Tau! Tau!” Yaw was standing over him.

Tau scrambled away, his back banging into the wall behind him.

“Run! It’s on me.” Tau shouted, looking at his arm and expecting to see a ruin. It was whole. He searched himself for the pain that had tormented him. There was nothing.

“Tau, listen to me, we’re out,” said Yaw. “You… you saved me from it.”

Tau took a steadying breath and, wide-eyed, looked around the path. The Enervator was on her knees, crying. The last Indlovu Tau had fought was scrubbing his hands across his face and gibbering on the ground in front of her. The one Oyibo and Chinedu had faced was lying in a fetal position, his body wracked with tremors.

“What in the Goddess’s name,” Tau said, his voice shaking.

“She held us too long,” said Yaw.

Tau stood on weak legs and took a step toward the Gifted, ready to risk the wrath of the citadel, Nobles, and isikolo. He would give this incompetent wretch a piece of his mind. She heard him coming and looked up from her knees. She was young, more child than woman, and she looked small, lost, scared. She was a… she had been a Low Common, and the curses Tau had been ready to sling slipped away.

“What did you do?” he asked, but she just wept.

Yaw came over. Through her tears, the Gifted saw him and raised an arm as if to ward him off or maybe cast another wave of enervating energy. It was too soon. Her powers wouldn’t be back, but Tau couldn’t help it and backed away in fear.

“None of that, Lady Gifted,” Yaw said as his fingers brushed the top of her shoulder. “I’ve touched you. You’re out of the contest, neh?”

She didn’t speak, but she did nod.

“Brothers,” Yaw said, “let’s get back to the circle. We’ll help the others and tell them the Enervator is down.”

“I can’t,” said Oyibo.

“What?” asked Yaw.

“Oyibo took the Goddess’s mercy before… before the rest happened,” Chinedu explained. “This one”—he indicated the quaking Indlovu—“he was… a thing got him and it…”

Tau had trouble finding his voice. “All right, us three, then, let’s go,” he said, gathering up his fallen swords.

“Lady Gifted,” Yaw asked, “you’ll see to the Indlovu here? You’ll call for the aqondise when we go?”

She didn’t answer and her eyes were shut tight.

“I’ll call out,” Oyibo assured them.

“Let’s go,” Tau said a second time, and the three men trotted down the path, back the way they had come and toward more fighting.