“Announce yourself,” she said again. I did nothing.
In the moonlight they were all plume and shine. Their armour silver in the dark light, the feathers in their headdresses ruffling like a meeting of birds. Their dark arms pointed spears at me. They couldn’t tell who I was in the night. But I could tell who they were.
“Tracker,” I said.
“He does not speak our language,” another warrior said.
“Nothing special about the language of Fasisi,” I said.
“Then what is your name?”
“I am Tracker,” I said.
“I will not ask again.”
“Then don’t. I said my name is Tracker. Is your name Deaf One?”
She stepped to the front, and poked me with her spear. I staggered back. I could not see her face, only her shiny war helmet. She laughed. She poked me again. I gripped my ax. Panic felt a day away, then it was right behind me, then it was in my head, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Maybe your name is Deathless, since you seem to have no fear of me killing you.”
“Do what you must. If I take just one of you with me, that is a good death.”
“Nobody here would hate to die, hunter.”
“Do any of you hate to talk?”
“For a man who looks like river folk, you have quite the mouth.”
“Pity I know no rebel Fasisi verse.”
“Rebel?”
“No Fasisi army has made it to the south border of Wakadishu, or you would have been corpses on a battlefield. No women walk in Fasisi ranks. And no Fasisi guard could have ever landed this far south, not with war here. You are Fasisi born but not loyal to Kwash Dara. King sister guards.”
“You know much about us.”
“I know that this is all there is to know.”
The spears moved in closer.
“I am not the one being rude in the face of seventy and one spears,” she said.
She pointed at me.
“Men and their cursed arrogance. You curse, you shit, you wail, you beat women. But all you really do is take up space. As men always do, they cannot help themselves. It’s why they must spread their legs when they sit,” she said.
The men laughed, all who heard whatever kind of joke this was.
“How great your brotherhood of men must be that all they think about is men spreading their legs.”
She scowled, I could see it, even in the dark. The men grumbled.
“Our Queen—”
“She is not a queen. She is the King sister.”
The warrior chief laughed again. She said something about how I must either seek death or think I cannot die.
“Did he teach you that as well, the one who rides with you? You would do good to keep him up front with you, for his kind prefers to kill from behind,” I said.
He rode his horse right up to the front until he was beside the warrior chief. Dressed as they were with the feather helmet taming his wild hair, he seemed not only odd on the horse but that he knew it. The way a dog would look riding a cow.
“How it goes, Tracker?”
“Never seems to go away, Leopard.”
“It’s been said you have a nose.”
“Under your armour, you stink worse than them.”
He gripped the bridle harder than he needed to, and the horse jerked her head. His whiskers, which rarely showed when he was a man, shone in the night. He took his helmet off. Nobody moved their spears. There were things I wanted to ask him. How a man never interested in long-term hire found long-term hire. How they got him to wear such armour, and robes that must drag, and tear, and chafe, and itch. And if part of the bargain was that he never changed to his true nature again. But I asked none of that.
“How different you look,” he said.
I said nothing.
“Hair wilder than mine, like a seer nobody listens to. Thin as witch stick. No Ku marks?”
“They washed in the river. Much has happened to me, Leopard.”
“I know, Tracker.”
“You look the same. Perhaps because nothing ever happens to you. Not even what you cause.”
“Where do you head, Tracker?”
“We go where you come from. Where we come from you go.”
The Leopard stared at me. He would have known who I searched for. Or he was a fool. Or he thought me to be one.
“Tell them that you are headed home, Tracker, for your sake.”
“I have a home? Tell me where, Leopard. Point me where to go.”
Leopard stared at me. The warrior chief cleared her throat.
“Let me state it clear that I tried to help you,” he said.
“‘Let me state it clear’? From where did you get this tongue? Your help is worse than a curse,” I said.
“Enough. You two fight like people who have fucked. You came upon us, traveler. Be on with you and … Who are those two?”
Behind me Nyka and the Aesi were at least a hundred paces away. The Aesi covered his hair with a hood. Nyka wrapped his wings tight around himself.
She continued, “You and your kind go. You already delay us.”
She reined her horse.
“No,” the Leopard said. “I know him. You cannot let him go.”
“He is not the one we look for.”
“But if the Tracker is here then he’s already found him.”
“This man. He is just some man you know. You seem to know many,” she said.
I hoped she smiled in the dark. I really hope she did.
“Fool, how do you not know who this is? Even after he said his name. He is the one who insulted your Queen. The one who came to kill her son, but he was already gone. The one who—”
“I know who he is.” Then, to me, “You, Tracker, you come with us.”
“I go nowhere with any of you.”
“You’re the second man to think I am offering choices. Take him.”
Three warriors dismounted and stepped towards me. I held both axes in hand and gripped them tight. I had just cut a child’s throat and split a woman’s head in two, so I would kill anyone here. But I looked straight at the Leopard when I thought it. The three stepped to me and stopped. They lowered their spears and approached. Before, I could not smell it anymore, the fear metals had for me. I could stand tall like the person in the storm who never got hit by hail. Now I looked left and right, thinking who I should dodge first. I looked up and saw Leopard watching me.
“Tracker?” he said.
“Have all my men gone deaf in the night? Take him!”
The warriors would not move. They shook and strained, forcing their lips to speak, their hips to turn, to say that they wanted to do as she wished, but could not.
Nyka and the Aesi came up behind me.
“And who are these two?”
“I am sure they have mouths. Ask them,” I said.
Every man holding spears lifted them away. The chief looked around in shock, and spooked her horse. She rubbed his cheek hard, trying to calm him.
“Who is …” Leopard said, but his words vanished.
The Aesi came to stand by me. With both hands he pulled back his hood.
“Kill him! Kill him!” Leopard shouted.
The warrior chief yelled, “Who is he?” The Aesi’s eyes went white. Every single horse jumped and kicked, throwing themselves up in the air, throwing off the riders, and kicking whoever they could strike. A warrior got struck in the head. Those who held on to their horses yelled in fright as the horses ran into each other and attacked those on foot. Three horses ran, trampling two men underfoot.
“This is his will! This is his will!” Leopard shouted to the chief.
She grabbed Leopard by his arm and both fell off their horses. Most of the horses ran away. Some of the men ran after them but stopped, then turned around, pulled their swords, and attacked each other. Soon everyone fought someone. One killed another by driving a sword into his chest. A warrior fell from a sword in his back. Leopard punched the chief and knocked her out. He rose and snarled at the Aesi. The Aesi stared at him as he approached. He touched his temple. He tried to work his mind on the cat, but Leopard changed into beast and charged. He leapt at the Aesi but horses ran straight into him, cutting him off and knocking him down. Nyka spread his wings, walked through the fighting men, and stopped at one on the ground bleeding from a mortal wound. I know he told him that he was sorrowful. And that he was quick. He punched straight into the man’s chest and pulled out his heart. He did it to two more wounded soldiers before all the men, alive and near-dead, fell asleep. All except the chief, who had a stab wound in the shoulder. The Aesi stooped down beside her. She flinched, tried to hit him, but her hand stood up in the air.
“When your brothers awake in the morning, they will see what was done here. They will know that brother raised sword against brother in madness, and killed many,” the Aesi said.
“You are the living evil. I have heard of you. You set yourself against women and men. The wicked half of the Spider King.”
“Do you not know, brave warrior? Both halves are wicked. Sleep now.”
“I will kill—”
“Sleep.”
She fell back on the ground.
“And have a sweet voyage to the dream jungle. It will be the last pleasant dream you shall ever have.”