Chapter 29

Anjatta var Dosha watched her friends, guarded by the patch-men, pass through the gate of The Fangs. She watched them walking toward Sanjaba until she lost sight of them in the distance. Escorted by a garrison officer and two soldiers, she descended the defense walls of The Fangs and passed the gate in the opposite direction.

They carefully set foot on the damaged drawbridge. Anjatta halted when they reached the twenty Ibanee soldiers, still in the middle of the bridge. A few were sitting upright, with their backs leaned against the bridge banister, but most of them were slumped down or just lying around on the ground. She looked at their faces. Faces with thin, cracked, gray skin; blood was leaking from their mouths, nostrils, and even their eyes - unseeing eyes, staring at nothing. She saw faces, not to be seen on living people. Faces of death.

“Princess Anjatta,” the officer carefully approached. “These men are clearly befallen by a plague. I worry you are too close and will contract the disease.”

Anjatta turned from the faces of the dying men and looked at the officer. He evenly returned her gaze but when one of the diseased men coughed, his focus on the princess wavered. The two guards by his side didn’t even try. They fixedly stared at the men on the ground and flinched every time one of them let out a stertorous breath.

“Thank you for your concern,” she replied with a gentle smile. “Please, take me to the palace. I want to talk to my uncle.”

The officer signaled and the drawbridge of The Little Brothers was let down. On the way to the palace main entrance, the officer addressed Anjatta once more.

“I’m certain our healers will be able to help the diseased men,” he said. Although a statement, the tone of his voice made it sound like a question.

Anjatta sighed. “What is your name, officer?”

“My name is Sallas Kharjos,” he answered. “I’m from the Anshabi province.”

“Do you want the truth or do you want me to lessen your fear?”

The eyes of the officer flickered. “The truth, please, my Princess,” he whispered.

“The truth is there is only one who could help those men and my cousin declared war on him.”

Sallas Kharjos nodded. “I heard the rumors and I saw what happened on the bridge today. The Nameless Son is walking among us and no man, not even a king, should declare war on a god.”

“You’re right, we shouldn’t, especially not kings,” Anjatta replied. “But it’s always the most powerful men who can’t comprehend there might be someone more powerful than they are.”

As they reached the palace main gate, Luwani var Dosha was awaiting them.

Her mother dismissed Anjatta’s escort and took her into a nearby room, where the two were alone.

“Anja, you shouldn’t go to the throne hall,” Luwani warned. “Khalib is raging in the throne hall and I fear when he sees you, he’ll imprison you like your brother.”

“One of Khalib’s tantrums won’t help at all!” Anjatta cursed. “I must talk to Uncle Hassunabi immediately to prevent the worst.”

“Your uncle retreated into his chambers,” her mother replied. “He is sick, Anja, very sick.”

Anjatta stared at her mother. “Is he too sick to talk to me or is it just that you don’t want me to talk to him?”

Luwani smiled. “Everything happened much better than I had any reason to hope!” She answered. “You, the Princess Sybelien, Khalib, your uncle, the Nameless Son - everyone played the role they were supposed to play. I couldn’t have planned it that perfectly. Hassunabi is dying. Khalib will probably manage to get himself killed as well and even if he doesn’t, he’s not much of a hindrance to our goal. Soon Agon will be the King of Ibanee. Why do you want to interfere?”

“Do you believe everything is happening to favor your plans? Let me ask you, mom, do you plan for Agon to become the King of a graveyard?”

Luwani clicked her tongue. “You’re always so full of gloom, daughter of mine. You handled the Nameless Son exceptionally well. I very much doubted you’d have the attitude and abilities but now I trust you to do whatever it takes to stay in his favor. That’s an honest compliment of a very proud mother. Keep him happy and he’ll do what you want him to do. I don’t believe gods are any different from other men in this regard.”

Anjatta watched her mother intently and shook her head. “Jabbit would now ask how many gods you know. I don’t have to ask; I know the answer. You, Agon, and countless others - you look at Jabbit and see a guileless, good-hearted, even a little infantile, young man; easy to manipulate, practically begging to be exploited. You couldn’t be any more wrong. Jabbit is a lone being, a god among mortals and we’ll never truly understand the thoughts or the motives behind the things he does. You think you can trick him into doing what you want him to do? Look into a mirror, mom.”

“Look into a mirror?” Luwani asked. “What are you trying to tell me? Sometimes you’re too mysterious to be understood.”

“No, mom,” Anjatta answered. “Look into a mirror and you’ll see what I see. Your eyes are glassy, your skin pale and sweaty. You too are sick, mom.”

“What?” Luwani screeched and frantically looked around for a mirror. She didn’t find one but wiped off her brow and stared at her now sweaty palm. “This cannot be! I stayed away and out of sight to avoid the ire of the Nameless Son. This can’t be happening to me!”

“It happened, it will happen and I knew it would happen, mom,” Anjatta said as a tear ran down her cheek.

Luwani var Dosha grabbed her daughter’s shoulders. “You can do something!” She yelled. “He’ll listen to you. He’ll heal me if you tell him to. I know he will!”

“I’ll do everything I can, mom, but you have to stop your scheming so I can at least try to save you!” Anjatta screamed in return.

“But I didn’t do anything!” Luwani shrieked but suddenly she paled even more. “He can’t know... , “ her voice trailed off and she let go of her daughter.

“Gods, what did you do, mother?” Anjatta asked, whispering and almost as pale as her mother.

“Nothing,” Luwani answered, wringing her hands. “I did nothing. No one was hurt.”

Anjatta stared at her mother. “No one was hurt?”

“Just talk to him. Do whatever he wants you to do but tell him he can’t let me die,” Luwani pleaded. “I’m your mother!”

Anjatta closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she looked at Luwani once more. “I need to prevent Khalib from making the situation any worse than it already is. And you will help me, mother!” She commanded. “Accompany me to the throne hall. If we can’t stop Khalib, we need to talk to Uncle Hassunabi.”

“YES! Yes, I’ll help,” Luwani eagerly agreed. “But we need to hurry. You need to talk to...”

“Let’s go,” Anjatta harshly interrupted.

The former state guests of the royal Ibanee’s family meanwhile had taken seats around the table of a small tavern at the outskirts of Sanjaba. It was a warm day, the autumn sky was sunny and the shadow under the tavern’s sunshade as welcome as the refreshments brought by a young, and friendly waitress. She wasn’t as friendly to the twenty-one imperial Alorian guards sitting down at nearby tables but tried, at least, to keep up her smile.

“Boss, what do we do now that the King kicked us out of his palace?” Sybelien asked, then corrected herself. “Well, he kicked you out; I could have stayed.”

“Yeah, what do we do, boss?” Evanis questioned, almost sweetly. “Maybe in the woods where you came from you just had to wait until your war against the hares and squirrels was over but in the real world it doesn’t work like that. People, especially soldiers, don’t just lay down and die; they’ll attack us.”

“We’re on an island but I didn’t visit the beach, yet,” Jabbit answered. “That’s what I want to do.”

“Are you trying to goad me?” Evanis hissed. “I tell you they’ll attack us and your answer is to visit the beach?”

“We could build a sandcastle to make you feel safe,” Jabbit replied.

Anseyla’s and Kuwasi’s hands were on her shoulders before Evanis could jump across the table.

“Calm down, Eva,” her sister soothed. “Yes, he is goading you; don’t let him.”

“I still say we need to find a new place to stay and knowing there is a ship waiting in case we want to leave quickly would also be nice,” Rhaseris opined.

“Kuwasi, you’re from Ibanee,” Sybelien noted. “Don’t you know where we could find a place to stay? Maybe something where they won’t search for us first.”

Kuwasi, his big hand still on Evanis’ shoulder, shrugged with his own. “It’s almost ten years since the last time I was in Sanjaba,” he answered. “Back then I knew many places like that - I had to,” he added with a grin. “Some of them and the people who ran them might be still around.”

“Places run by old friends or by people you owe gold and hate your guts?” Evanis asked with a grin.

Kuwasi returned her grin. “Is there a difference?”

“I think we should visit some of Kuwasi’s old friends,” Sybelien suggested.

Everyone but Jabbit agreed.

“No one wants to come with me to the beach?” He asked.

Anseyla clamped down on her sister’s shoulder once more. “I’ll go with you to the beach!” She laughed. “But please don’t mention it anymore until we’re out of Eva’s hearing range.”

Luwani and Anjatta entered the throne hall. Looking around, they noticed a number of exhausted, probably sick, guards, leaning upon their spears to keep standing upright. The throne was empty but a large group of people had gathered at the Eternal Flame and surrounded someone within their center; someone who shrilly asked questions and issued a wide spread of commands. As they approached the gathering they noticed several of the people were sick as well, to diverging extents. Some just seemed to be tired, feverish and sweaty, whereas others looked like death warmed over. When the first people noted their approach, they parted, opening a sight line into the center of the gathering. Of course, that also opened the view out of the center.

“You dare to come here?” The Ibanee Crown Prince screeched. “You traitorous whore! You’re worse than your brother.”

He stormed toward Anjatta, grabbed her necklace, and ripped it off her neck.

“I saw what you did!” He screamed. “The soldiers of The Fangs told me the blinding light came from your necklace. Was this magic trinket the payment for your betrayal?”