The Black God's War (51 page)

“I’ll walk with you, but then I must go to my yurt and check on Narayani. It’s been a long day.”

With a wave of his hand, King Vieri signaled for their entourages to follow behind them.

“Do you ever get accustomed to it?” Caio asked. “Knowing how many men died or were maimed?”

“No, but you harden yourself to it. Even so, I still see them in my dreams. It helps to have some release. That’s why the Pawelon whore was good for you.”

“She’s not a whore.”

“Did you have to force her?”

“Father!”

“Then I’m right. She is a valuable whore now. Her body belonged to the Prince of Pawelon. She has great value to us.”

“Don’t speak about her like this. I wouldn’t have been able to come with you today if she hadn’t healed me.”

“We’ve talked about this before. Let our spirits dwell on something else. You made our ancestors proud today. I will make sure the people of Rezzia know what you have done. Soon, you will destroy a Pawelon fortress that has stood throughout history.” His father turned his grave eyes to stare at his son.

“It is Mya and Ysa who should be thanked.”

His father shifted his glance forward and downward. His nose twitched. “Someday you will have your own children, and you will understand that fathers must do what they believe to be best for their sons and daughters—that they cannot always do what makes their children happy.”

“I know you seek the best for Lucia and me.”

“Yes. As the political leader of our people, I must sometimes do things for the welfare of our kingdom, even when it interferes with my children’s wishes.” His father looked at him intently again with quivering eyes.

An ill feeling washed over Caio.

“If you want to speak any more tonight, I will be here, dining with our soldiers. After that, I will retire.”

“Very well. I’ll come and eat soon. Tonight we can discuss Narayani.”

His father’s left hand rushed to scratch his beard, on both sides of his face. “Remember that above all, you are my son and I love you. Remember that I have a duty to uphold our proud lineage. You remember that.”

“Of course, Father.” Caio felt the tension in his father’s body. He decided to give him space. “I’m going straight to my yurt then.”

“Go and change. Make yourself presentable, then meet me for your meal,” his father finished with a hard slap to Caio’s back.

Caio completed the walk to his yurt, near the center of the complex, still feeling unsettled by his father’s emotions. The ten guards protecting the area knelt, but silently and without joy. Caio felt a great melancholy within them.

“Find joy in your service, my brothers, for Lux Lucis.”

One man raised his head just enough to look at Caio. “We have done as we’ve been told, my Haizzem.”

“Of course you have. Is everything all right?”

No one answered.

“I asked if everything is all right? Speak!”

The same soldier looked up frowning, with his neck and cheeks quivering. “We’ve only done as our king commanded us, my Haizzem.”

Caio opened the doors and heard the old hinge creak. He stepped into his dark, candlelit yurt. Only silence and emptiness met him.

“Narayani?” Caio forced a difficult swallow. “Narayani?” He felt the beds for her, finding nothing, then hurried back outside. The men were standing again. Caio addressed the same man, “Where is she?”

“My Haizzem, she was taken at the direct orders of the king.”

“Where? By the gods, where?”

Another soldier spoke up. “She was awarded to Pexaro.”

Caio’s gut split apart, as if a crevasse opened through his insides. He bent over and vomited on the ground. Two soldiers scrambled to check on him while another rushed to get a cloth and water to clean him.

“When did this happen?”

The soldiers hesitated.

“I asked you a question!”

“This morning,” one of them offered.

His father ignored Pexaro’s lecherous sins
because his province
recruited so many young men for Rezzia’s armies.

Caio took the clean cloth from the soldier and wiped his mouth. He drank from the offered waterskin and spit on the ground, his mind filling with rage. He began to run back to the tent where his father was dining, beset with nauseating pangs of betrayal. He heard the footsteps of the soldiers following him, but couldn’t bear to look at anyone.

Someday you will understand that fathers must do what they believe to be best for their children
, his father had told him.

Men fell to their knees and onto the ground as Caio ran through the camp, but he didn’t stop for any of them.

Remember that I have a duty to uphold our proud lineage,
his
father’s words careened around his skull.
You remember that.

Indignity flew through Caio’s veins.

He entered the dining tent and saw his father across the space, sitting between Manto and Alimene. Men began falling to the ground in respect. Quiet followed the chatter.

“You betrayed your own son?” Caio yelled across the assemblage.

His father stood, putting his hands on the table and shaking his head.

“You can forget your cursed war!
My
soldiers are leaving this valley.”

Before, the quiet still included rustling feet and bodies. Now, the silence hung over them like a smothering fog.

“Don’t make this about yourself, Caio. Think about the good of Rezzia.”

Caio ran toward his father’s table. “You betrayed me!”

“I do what I believe is best for my kingdom, whatever is for the glory of Lux Lucis.” His father threw down his spoon. It bounced off his wooden plate and landed on the ground.

“Handing over innocent young women to corrupt slobs? Whose divine glory is served by that?” Caio noticed his balled fists as he leaned forward.

“You will speak to me with respect!”

“I will not! You are fortunate we are related.”

His father’s face burned red, heaving with vigorous breaths.

“Then you are going to let your sister rot in a Pawelon prison?”

Mya, cool my fever.
“My sister is there because of you. What if they have done to her what you did to the Pawelon girl?”

“Do not speak of such a thing!”

“You will free the Pawelon and bring her to me. You will never harm her again. Her welfare is my province—never yours. Agree!”

“Son, I am freeing you from her grasp, before she kills you, just as she got your sister stabbed on your own spear.”

That was Ilario’s spear!
“Go do what is right and do it now. If you don’t, not one of our men will march back into that valley to fight your war. Not a single one but you.”

Caio turned and walked away.

“I will give the whore back to you.” His father’s dejected words soured the uneasy silence. “She will be your prize then.”

Caio’s stopped. He turned and locked eyes with his father once more. “
Never
call her that again.”

His father stepped around the table. He lowered himself, first to his knees, then placed his head and hands on the ground. He stood slowly. “Will you forgive me, my Haizzem?”

Caio moved his gaze across the shocked faces of the hungry men surrounding him.

“No.”

Narayani lay nude, curled on her side, on a dirty rug inside the accursed Rezzian tent, staring at the sagging, white ceiling. The men behind her continued laughing and bragging about the number of times and ways they’d violated her. She tried again to focus on Aayu’s mantras, nearly visualizing the first syllable, but again her anguish ruined her concentration.

Commotion, outside. Yelling. Door flaps opened. Many more men entered. Many more.

No more!

“Stand!” a gruff Rezzian voice commanded her.

Her arms and legs shook from the trauma, but she leaned her weight onto her forearm and tried to sit up with her legs folded beneath her.

Two soldiers grabbed her arms.

“No more!” she cried.
Please kill me.

The fat Rezzian, the leader inside the tent, argued with the soldiers. She overheard the soldiers respond, “We come at the king’s direct orders.” The argument continued as they dressed her in her robe and carried her out of the tent.

She screamed in tortured bursts as they carried her, wailing out her suffering like vomit from her deadened heart. Her eyelids squeezed shut and she hoped they’d stay closed forever.

“Narayani?”

Caio?

Facing her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. “I am going to help you.” He yelled at the men carrying her, “Bring her in here. Put her on my bed.”

The door slammed after the gruff men put her down and she sobbed. Caio knelt beside the bed, his face next to hers.

“I am going to take care of you now. I promise, no one will ever harm you again.”

“Kill me.” She could barely speak through her crying. “Please. I don’t want to live anymore.” Her lips parted and quivered as she began to cry. Her eyes shut, ejecting a flood of tears.

“I am so sorry.” Caio placed one hand over her heart and the other over the crown of her head. She felt an almost searing heat from his palms, but it comforted her. She heaved a tortured sigh and sank down, onto the bed.

The tiny hairs all over her body stood up as a vibrant sensation washed over her flesh. She felt an invisible presence surrounding her, penetrating her heart, holding her. Images of lush vines flashed behind her closed eyes. The image shifted to a waterfall, pouring down on her, cleansing her body and soul.

Chapter 76: Hades’s Dark Processes

Earlier.

LUCIA AND RAO HURRIED to the western gate of the citadel, away from the brunt of the storm, and waited there for the gate to be opened. Lucia waited nervously; what happened to Rao’s lady during the duel told her that this power of concealment did not work on everyone. As Rao predicted, once the Rezzian army began its march down into the valley, the western gate opened to allow some Pawelon scouts to exit.

Lucia and Rao took the northern trail down to the valley, expecting fewer scouts along the route the Rezzian army didn’t take. Once they began their descent, they noticed the storm weakening. Lucia accepted that the goddesses’ power would be limited by her leaving the area; the gods could only perform their miracles in the presence of their devotees.

As they walked in silence, unaffected by the weather thanks to Aayu’s help, her mind worked to catch up. So much had changed in such a short stretch of time. Their prince seemed unlike everything she believed him to be, unless even her escape had been a complicated ruse. But she found it impossible to imagine Aayu wasn’t legitimately shocked by what had occurred. If they wanted her dead, the Pawelons could’ve already done it. Maybe Rao had an unspoken plan to use her to win major concessions, but she didn’t doubt Rao really was hiding from his general’s men.

Rao was persuasive enough to be able to trick her, but she still found herself believing in the sincerity of his ideals. The weight of that irony gripped her heart. When Caio wanted peace, Rao had wanted it, too. Lucia had rushed Caio into his first engagement as soon as he arrived, at a time when she still believed in an outright Rezzian victory. Maybe everything was her fault. Because of her, everything happened so quickly and both men assumed the other intended to fight. Neither side understood the other, and the cost …

She wondered if Ilario’s soul had found peace with his father and mother.

At least grant him that, Danato, you heartless monster.

The supernatural clouds dissipated more rapidly than real clouds would have, allowing some starlight to shine down. The moon would rise later. For now she had to trust Rao to guide her down the path that he himself didn’t seem to know all that well.

He was the first to break the silence. “I’m sure some of the things that happened when we initially fought frightened you. I want you to know my first intention was not to harm you. The first time, I wanted to defend my men. The second time, I wanted to speak to you.”