The Black God's War (8 page)

Aayu continued, “They think his ability has unlimited potential. And I’m really good at what I do, too. Rao and I have taught each other things over the years.”

“I wouldn’t go down to the citadel without Aayu, Narayani. He and I are more powerful when we work together. I’m confident we can help our army. If this Haizzem chooses to fight us, I’ll fight him on a plane of existence he doesn’t even know exists. They brought this war to us, and we have to defend ourselves.”

Narayani seemed to be weighing her options. She walked behind Rao, put her hands on his shoulders, and remained quiet for a long time. “I’m sorry for what I said … I was being immature.” She paused again. “But I have one request. I want you to come back and see me once every moon.”

“My love, it takes five days to travel between the citadel and Kannauj in good weather. Maybe I can come every three moons.”

“Every two moons.”

I’m going to regret saying this
. “All right. If I can, I promise I will. We agree that you can never go down to the valley?”

“Fine.”

Aayu sat up and looked at his cousin. “You’re doing the right thing. Rao and I would be distracted, worrying about you the whole time. And your father would
hate
me and Rao for bringing you there. We’re going to be taking orders from him.”

“I can accept all of that. And …” Narayani rubbed her chin and exhaled a long breath. “I’m really proud of you for all you’ve accomplished—even you, Aayu. I’m sure there’s a lot more I don’t know.”

Rao reached up to his right shoulder and held her hand there. Narayani’s skin was flushed and her jaw tight. “We have to leave tomorrow. Their Haizzem must still be in Remaes. That’s where they do all their official religious ceremonies. He could join their army in six or seven days. If he’s traveling by horse, he could be there much sooner. We’ll try to arrive before he does.”

“Get out of here, Aayu,” she said. “Rao and I need some time alone.”

“All right. We’ll leave at dawn tomorrow, Rao. I’ll make sure we have enough soldiers and servants for the journey.” Aayu moved toward the door, then turned to Rao again. “I don’t know how you feel about this, bhai, but I’m excited to see more of the world.” Aayu’s face bloomed with a childlike grin.

“Me too, bhai. Thank you. I owe you for arranging the details.”

“Make sure you can still walk tomorrow. I’m not carrying you down there.”

“Get out of here,” she pointed to the door.

As Aayu turned to the door, he swung his arm with dramatic flair.

Once the door closed, Narayani grabbed Rao, squeezed him with all her strength, and released the first flood of her tears.

Chapter 8: Interlude: The Journey to Ilium

RAO AND AAYU WALKED EASTWARD through lush country on their way to the mountains and the high desert beyond. Women carrying wicker baskets, farm workers, livestock, and beggars crowded the muddy thoroughfare as always, but on this day after the solar flash, streams of would-be warriors merged with the human river.

Some fighters arrived in groups, representing their tribes and villages. Others showed up two or three at a time. Many fathers came with their sons. A great number looked too old, too young, or too skinny to fight, but they came raising their improvised spears and simple bows, shouting for the death of the Haizzem and the expulsion of the Rezzians back to their eastern lands.

On the brink of subjugation, Pawelon had been shocked into action.

Rao and Aayu traveled with an impenetrable wall of men around them. The full regiment of soldiers protected the rajah’s only son at all hours.

The procession grew as the day went on, with newcomers flocking around the professional fighters. Behind them, dozens of servants in soiled clothes carried supplies and directed water buffalo pulling overloaded carts.

The miniature army camped at the base of the green peaks of the Mahayana Mountains. In the morning, they marched again. A ravine cut through the towering landmass, with a river, fed by trickling streams and thin waterfalls, running through its center. The water flowed west to the farmlands and forests where the masses of Pawelon struggled in poverty.

The caravan journeyed deep into the mountains. Two days in, the riverbed transformed into a swath of dry, smooth stones. Once they advanced beyond the range, modest hills took over the land from gorges. The greenery gave way to shrubs. Cliff walls surrendered the sky to desert panoramas.

After the earth flattened out and only bare-branched trees stood taller than men, the troop caught sight of their destination. They spied Pawelon’s great fortress as a square speck on the horizon. The citadel’s majestic size was increasingly realized over the next two days. By the fifth nightfall, only a short march remained between them and the ancient structure that had kept the invaders at bay for nearly ten years.

They pitched camp for the last time under the light of the bright, waxing moon. Rao and Aayu found themselves too anxious for sleep. They lay beside their campfire, enjoying the enchanted desert and speaking of their dreams for themselves and their people after the war’s end. Rao envisioned a more educated and enlightened Pawelon society. Aayu dreamt of traveling the lands beyond Pawelon.

The next morning, excitement, pride, dread, and awe hushed the men as they bent back their necks and beheld the mountainous fortification. Throughout Pawelon, parents told their children stories of the great desert canyon dividing the lands of Rezzia from Pawelon, and of the mammoth fortress on the western rim which rivaled the valley’s grandeur. Scholars still debated whether men built the citadel in a long gone era, or whether the fabled race of giants constructed the monument. Enough heavy stone to bury a small city thickened the curtain walls, so much that men felt as small next to the structure as they did against the backdrop of the stars.

As the elephantine gates opened, the vibrations of creaking metal shook the air like a belching whale. Pawelon’s two great leaders awaited Rao and Aayu in the courtyard: Devak, Rao’s father, the giant rajah of Pawelon, and his steel-eyed general, Indrajit, Aayu’s uncle. The young sages feared what their reunions might bring.

A woman in the guise of a servant hurried forward for a better view of Pawelon’s titanic leaders. A ragged brown robe covered her completely, just as it had for the last five days. Narayani peeked out from behind the hood and stared at her father—a man she barely knew—and Rao’s father beside him.

Chapter 9: Fury of Priam

AAYU LOOKED UP AT RAO’S FATHER and tried not to stare at the rajah’s pockmarked face. The man hulked over Aayu and Rao in the shadowed courtyard. Aayu tried to shake a disturbing image from his mind.
I’m going to try not to think about how many harlots you’ve crushed with that big body of yours, Devak.

“Why are you here?” The rajah demanded an answer from his son in his deep, rumbling voice.

I’ll let you handle this, bhai
, Aayu thought.

“Aayu and I finished our assessments. After we saw the solar flash, we had to come. We want to help.”

Devak and General Indrajit had waited to receive them at the gate. A third man, a high-ranking sage, stood beside Indrajit looking annoyed; he too wore a saffron uniform, but with seven green stripes at his collar. Thousands of clamoring troops marched out of the fortress through the opposite gate in the east, to the sound of deep-bellowing horns.

A brisk morning wind swept through the courtyard. The sun would not rise over the citadel’s curtain walls for some time. Devak stared expressionlessly at his son.

Aayu pulled at his uniform’s collar.
I wish I could thank the tailor who decided to constrict the blood flow to our hands, feet, and neck all at the same time
. He decided that Uncle Indrajit’s stern face made Rajah Devak look, in contrast, like a whimsical seven-foot boy. Indrajit’s aquiline stare reminded Aayu how intimidating his uncle could be; if he were half as good at waging war as he used to be at scaring children, Pawelon’s military was in expert hands.

Indrajit made a fist and held it up in the air. Rao quickly matched his salute. Aayu clenched his right fist too, after recovering from the awkwardness of the greeting.
So wonderful to see you again after all these years, Uncle Indrajit.

The third man, whom Aayu decided must be the world’s most sullen and ugliest sage, stepped forward. He might have been forty, or thirty with ten years of constant stress. The sage’s dark eyes quivered as he pronounced his judgment on Rao: “You’re not ready for this.”

“Who are you?” Aayu shot back.

“He is your superior,” his uncle said. “He has been defending your freedom since you were a boy, and you will address him with respect.” He turned to the sage, “My nephew still has not made the acquaintance of the virtue of discipline.”

You old flatterer
.

Indrajit continued, “Prince Rao, Master Aayu, this is Briraji. Watch and learn from him. I recommend you observe his conduct and model yourselves after his subservience to his duty.”

Briraji’s eyes wouldn’t stay still; the black orbs seemed more attuned to another plane than the here and now. “
Neither of you
is prepared for this.”

Rao’s father sounded detached as he said, “Briraji may be right.”

“We have earned the chance to fight for Pawelon, have we not, Father?”

“My Rajah, if I may.” Aayu bowed his head. “Rao finished his training with the best assessment since you’ve ruled Pawelon.”

The rajah’s deathlike eyes yielded no ground.

Briraji’s voice broke to a higher pitch. “Is that right?”

“As I said.” Aayu stared unflinchingly into the high-ranking sage’s dark eyes.

General Indrajit and Briraji shared a skeptical glance. Rajah Devak’s stony face held steady.

“Congratulations,” Briraji reached out to shake Rao’s hand. The sage stood almost a foot shorter than Rao.

“Briraji, I have so much to learn.” Rao sounded sincere, but Briraji’s heavy staring made Aayu want to smash an elbow into the sage’s gloomy face.

A voice called out behind them amid sudden whistling and shouting. “Rao! Aayu!”

Aayu knew that woman’s voice.

“Wait for me.”

He knew that woman’s voice.

“I’m coming.”

He knew … Narayani’s voice.

She walked toward them in that revealing green sari she loved. Every soldier around, thousands of them, ogled her.

I’ll kill every one of you if I have to
, Aayu thought.
Nice choice of dress, Narayani. The stone walls are probably staring at your breasts too.

Indrajit asked, “Is that … my daughter, Master Aayu?”

“Yes, sir.”

Indrajit’s tone betrayed his rising anger. “Why in death’s name is she here?”

Think fast
.

Aayu scanned Rao’s face. Both were trying not to look surprised. Narayani walked up to them with a smile that said nothing could possibly be wrong, as if butterflies fluttered all around her and pink flowers bloomed at her feet.

“You should have waited for me. I told you I was right behind you.” Narayani knelt and touched Indrajit’s feet. “I’m honored to be in your presence, Father.” She stood again and turned to Devak. “My Rajah, I am Rao’s lady, Narayani. I’ve come to help, too. I am a healer.” She put her hands together in front of her heart and bowed before him, looking up at the giant with her long eyelashes.

Devak squinted and tightened his face even more.

“Uncle Indrajit, you told me to make sure she stayed safe. I couldn’t leave her alone in that city.”
Now I’m just hoping you won’t notice these thousands of soldiers drooling over her.

“You bloody fool, are you insane?” Indrajit asked. Aayu remembered that Indrajit almost always managed to keep his voice cool and controlled. Here was an exception: “This is no place for a young woman, especially not her!” Meaning, the most beautiful woman most of these men had ever laid eyes on, a perfect fantasy at seventeen.

Aayu tried to respond, but Rao spoke over his words. “I fully agree with Aayu. General Indrajit, you must have loyal men you can trust to guard her. She can stay with me in the tower, so you won’t have to allocate more resources, except when I’m in the field. That is, assuming Aayu and I can stay.”

As Devak stomped toward Rao, the full power of the giant’s voice exploded. “You’ve insulted our general!”

Rao flinched and looked down and aside.

Aayu took a step toward Devak. “I must stand by my idea to bring Narayani here, my Rajah. I had to convince Rao, but I’m glad he’s come around. I know she will be safer here.”
Now will anyone believe this?

Briraji smirked at all of them. Aayu decided the sage needed a heavy fist to correct his lopsided face.

“You are an idiot. A born idiot,” Indrajit said.

Narayani was nearly in tears. “I didn’t mean to cause any problems. My Rajah, I can help the wounded—”