B0161NEC9Y (F) (16 page)

Kallon stepped around the rock as he felt Sayas take point with the
Gift,
creating a complex and potent counterattack. The Inkna wouldn’t last long. He met the first Graygual with a sword strike, catching the enemy in the side. He stepped back, drawing the Graygual in while the men behind him ran on. Mela popped out next as Kallon blocked a strike and then lunged, piercing the Graygual in the chest.

Kallon stepped wider, allowing more Graygual to stream by, some with terror clearly painted on their faces. He hefted a knife, tossed it up, caught it by the blade, and threw. The weapon lodged between the shoulder blades of a Graygual. The man screamed and arched before sinking to the ground, trying to grab at the blade.

Kallon turned, confronted by two Graygual. He snatched out a knife and stuck one in the neck. He yanked and then turned, moving the body in front of him as the man screamed his death. The other Graygual stabbed, hitting his own man before reaching for the shoulder to drag him away from Kallon. Kallon used the momentum. He wrapped his fingers around the man’s wrist and tugged, moving him off balance. He then whipped him around before pulling his blade free and giving it a new home in the chest of this other Graygual.

Before the body hit the ground, Kallon was away again, his sword finding purchase in a stomach.

A knife flew past his head, sinking into a shoulder of an oncoming Graygual. The man flagged before Kallon finished the job.

Another stepped up, a manic grin splashed across his dirty face. Kallon slashed him across the chest before kicking him, knocking him back into the man behind him. He threw another knife, sticking it in a chest as Mela danced forward to dispatch a deathly skinny man.

Another knife sprang out of a neck before blood gushed down the Graygual’s front, and Sayas ran forward to get into the fray. The three of them stabbed and cut, slicing through the enemy as though they were toddlers and weaponless.

Their power surged. A killing strike for the remaining Inkna.

“They are going down too easily!” Mela shouted. “These men are not trained.”

Kallon stuck his sword into a Graygual stomach before grabbing his shirt front and ripping to the side, clearing some room. He stabbed another, just as quickly. Just as easily. Mela was right. This wasn’t an army, it was a badly trained militia.

“Let some through!” Tulous yelled. “You aren’t the only one who wants to avenge our loss.”

Kallon moved backward, seeing Mela and Sayas peel off to the side, following Kallon’s lead. Graygual surged forward, stumbling and jerky. They jogged into the space, tripping over dead bodies and slipping on muddy ground, wet with blood.

As Tulous and the others moved forward to meet the enemy, Kallon took a moment to assess what they were dealing with.

Gaunt faces and sticklike arms badly waving swords caught his focus. Dirty and disheveled uniforms with only one or two slashes hung off malnourished bodies. Shifting eyes full of fear but driven by determination set off warning bells.

This wasn’t the enemy. These men were trapped in a destiny they hadn’t chosen.

“
Stop!
” Kallon yelled.

Already sensing their defeat, and clearly waiting for death, the Graygual probably figured they had nothing to lose. As the Shumas pulled away, following Kallon’s lead and stopping the assault, the Graygual slowed. One by one, they stilled.

Kallon’s mind whirled. Hardly knowing what he was doing, but somehow feeling the
rightness
of it, he lowered his sword. The Graygual man in front of him, bearing only a single slash, dirty and afraid, didn’t move forward. He stared as terror polluted the air around him.

“
Who is your officer?
” Kallon asked in the Graygual language.

The man’s brow furrowed. “
Officer…killed
,” the man answered in a bad accent. He glanced behind him.

“
The officer was killed a few days ago by an arrow,
” another man said as he stepped forward. His sword was held tightly in a quivering hand. “
We were cutting through a town. Chasing you. A little ways outside, we were ambushed by…townspeople, I think. They aimed for the officer and the other Graygual with at least three slashes on their breast. There were five in all. As soon as the officers were downed, the townspeople scattered. We…kept chasing you. That was our directive
.”

“What are you doing, Kallon?
”
Mela asked in the Shumas language.

“
Without an officer to keep you in line, why bother following the directive?
” Kallon asked, ignoring Mela. His gaze was rooted to the speaker. “
Why not return home?
”

The man looked at those around him. His mouth turned into a thin line.

Someone in the back staggered forward. Greasy black hair fell into his sunken eyes. “
They will kill our families. I know someone that deserted. When he returned home, his wife and children were hanging there for him. By their necks! His neighbors, too.
”

“
And your food? Do they not feed you in this army?
”

“
They’ve been taking the stores in the towns to feed the armies. There are many to feed. We were only called to fight recently.
”

Kallon raised his voice, trying to reach them all. “
We are not the enemy. We are not the ones starving you, or forcing you to fight. We are not the ones killing innocents. We are trying to stop all of that. The Chosen has come forward. We go to join her. Help us. Free yourselves
.”

“We don’t have the resources for them to join us
,”
Sayas warned.

“
What about our families?
” someone shouted. “
We’d just be trading one tyrant for another!
” someone else yelled.

“
Keep your tunics
,” Kallon said, his voice now booming. “
Pretend to stay enlisted. Check on your families. But when the time comes, remember who gave you a chance of freedom. And then look around you. Choose what to fight for. Don’t let someone else make that choice for you.
”

“We’re wasting time, Kallon,” Tulous said.

Kallon turned to Tulous. “Can you put them to sleep without killing them?”

He frowned. “I’ve seen the Chosen do it, but…I’m afraid I might kill them. I don’t have her deft touch.”

“I can’t either,” Sayas said. “I’ve tried before. I killed the man.”

Kallon turned back to the unsure army one last time. “
We are leaving you here. Think on what I have said. If any of you follow us after this, we’ll kill you. Your Inkna are dead. We don’t need swords to take you down.
”

A few people’s eyes widened. A few others looked behind them, probably wondering if the Inkna statement was true.

“
Are you really going to help the violet-eyed girl?
” someone asked.

Kallon turned to jog away as Mela said, “
She is the leader of our people. Together, we stand strong.
”

As Mela joined them, jogging away, Sayas said, “Poetic, Mela.”

“I thought they needed a better end note than ‘Don’t come after us or we’ll kill you.’ It’s all about presentation
.”

As Kallon and the others continued along the path, Sayas said, “That was genius, Kallon. There were a lot more of them than I’d thought. We would’ve taken wounds.”

“I wasn’t thinking about sparing us.” Kallon reached his horse, tethered loosely on a dead limb. He climbed up and swung his leg over the saddle. As his horse picked its way carefully to the top and then over the winding path along the hillside, he said, “Those men weren’t fighters. They weren’t trained, and they didn’t even know what cause they’re fighting for. Showing them compassion might change the tide. When they see what their leaders are capable of, they’ll think back and remember this.”

“
It might not help
,”
Tulous said.

“We had to take the chance and hope the Chosen can eventually turn them to our cause.
”
As Kallon led the way, urgency ate away at him again. The fate of the land lay at the Chosen’s feet. He only hoped she could live long enough to fulfill her destiny. That any of them could.

Chapter Fourteen

Shanti blinked her eyes open, then rubbed them, gritty from fatigue and begging her to go back to sleep. After squirreling those two Graygual bodies away last night, hiding them within a garbage bin where the eventual stink wouldn’t be noticed, she’d stayed awake to get one last look at the city with her
Gift
. Graygual dotted the perimeter and within the park, where they must’ve felt they were needed the most, but within the city, the gaps between watchers was often large. They didn’t view the women nor the older or workingmen as much of a threat.

Rolling her shoulders to try and work out some stiffness that had settled in her body, she started when she noticed the small face looking at her from the corner. Big, brown eyes with lush black lashes watched in silence. Barely blinking, the little thing didn’t even move when she saw him. He just continued watching from where he sat, his arms hugging his knees to his chest.

He’d make an excellent spy.

“Don’t your people have an issue with impoliteness and staring?” She pushed the hair from her face.

“Staring is caring.” His voice was little more than a squeak.

She let a smile bud. “So they say. What do you want?”

His little shoulders jumped in a shrug. He didn’t move any other part of his body.

She got off the bed and moved to sit beside him, taking in the room from his vantage point. Large windows let the soft morning sunlight in, sprawling across the ground and warming her disposition. Two beds occupied the room, one rumpled where she’d slept, and the other made where Rohnan had been.

“Is this your room?” she asked, hugging her knees to her chest like he’d done.

“Yes.”

“And I took your bed, didn’t I. I’m some jerk, I know.”

His knees fell to the sides as he tucked in his ankles, relaxing enough to sit cross-legged. “It’s okay. I get lonely in it, anyway, but Vale hates when I get in with him. So I got to sleep with Ruisa last night. She used to live here, too, but then she got to go with the Captain.”

“Have you lived here long?” Shanti dropped her knees and crossed her ankles under her, mimicking him again.

“A year.”

“What happened to your parents?”

He hunched a little. “I never knew my mom. My dad left. He didn’t come back. Where are your parents?”

“My parents died when I was about your age. My grandfather took care of me until he died. So I’m an orphan. Like you.”

He nodded with half his body, his chest rising and falling like his head. “Yeah. That’s what Rohnan said. He said you’re his sister because you were raised together. But if that’s true, all the people in this house would be my brothers and sisters.”

“And you wouldn’t like that?”

He chewed his lip for a moment in thought. His legs flopped out before him, now straight. “I don’t know. Saburo hits me all the time. And I get pushed around a lot. But I don’t really have anyone else.”

“I used to push Rohnan around a lot. He didn’t have anyone else, either. Eventually we just started depending on each other.”

He nodded with his body again, his legs spasming, making his heels thump on the floor. Shanti smiled with his energy.

“Well, I have to get up,” she said in a put-upon tone. “They’re going to try and dress me like a girl.”

“Ruisa always hated when they tried to dress her like a girl. She likes wearing pants.”

“I like wearing pants, too. That way, no one can see my knickers when I kick someone in the head.”

The boy started laughing, hopping up when Shanti did. “I’m too small to kick someone in the head.”

“Nah.” Shanti pulled open the door, pleased when he followed behind. “You just need to learn the right way.”

“But my foot can’t reach.”

“Then learn to jump.” Shanti traveled through a corridor to the stairs. As she made her way down, she heard the boy’s loud steps behind her. “What’s your name?”

“Arsen.”

“Hi, Arsen. I’m Shanti.”

She rounded the corner, making her way to the large dining area. There, she found Rohnan in the middle of the kids, gesturing wildly. A peal of laughter greeted her.

“What’d I miss?” she asked, grabbing a bowl and slopping some porridge into it. “This stuff is the pits. Don’t they feed you anything else in this place?”

Rohnan scowled at her. “As I told the
children
earlier, porridge is good for you. It gives you lots of energy and makes you grow up big and strong.”

She sat down, looking at it dubiously. “It tastes like wood.”

“You have only a few minutes,
Chulan,
”
Rohnan said, turning his focus back to the kids gathered around him.

Shanti grimaced as the gruel squished between her tongue and the roof of her mouth. A door opened and shut at the front of the house. Shanti choked down more of her breakfast as Molly bustled in with a harried expression.

“C’mon, dear, we have to get moving,” Molly said to Shanti as she glanced over the children. “Good morning, everyone! Are you being welcoming to our guests?”

“Yes!” they chorused.

Rohnan rose as Molly shooed her into an airy room and made her stand next to a giant pile of bright yellow fabric.

“No way, Molly!” Shanti exclaimed. “The Graygual will have to shade their eyes when they see me.”

“Well then, they won’t recognize your face, will they?”

“No. I’ll wear the blue one.”

“That one is for Rohnan.”

“What’s this now?” Rohnan stepped out of the horde of children who had gathered in the arched entryway in observation. He wore a comical yet disbelieving smile on his face.

“You can’t very well walk around wearing trousers!” Molly scoffed as she yanked down Shanti’s pants. She turned to Rohnan with a warning in her eyes. “You have long hair and you’re pretty enough to pass muster. So take those off or I’ll take them off for you. C’mon. I have to hurry. My guard is waiting outside.”