Crucible of Fate (6 page)

“Again,” I said on a huffed exhale, “he went to speak to a semel for me.”

“Yes, but where did he go specifically? I didn’t ask and you didn’t say.”

“You could have questioned Kabore.”

“It’s unseemly for me to make that inquiry of your steward when I should ask you.”

I grunted. “He went to Ipis to meet with the semel and the djehus.”

“Whatever for?”

“The semel of the tribe of Tegeret—”

“Ehivet Milar, yes?”

“He’s missing his son.”

Her eyes narrowed. “If Ehivet is missing his son, why on earth would Yuri be involved? And why would he go to Ipis? He needed to go to Minya, where the—”

“Ehivet sent his son to Ipis.”

“I’m missing something.”

“He and the semel of the tribe of Feran have a covenant bond for their children.”

“
Oh
, I see.”

“And he’s also speaking to two of Tarek’s djehus. There’s a land dispute or something. The catacombs figure into it.”

Her breath caught excitedly, which surprised me. “And is he going to see the catacombs while he’s there?”

“I would think so, yes. Why?”

“Oh, I always wanted to go to see the great cavern, but Ammon would never take me.”

“Why?” I was instantly on edge. “Is it dangerous?”

“No, quite the opposite. I understand the catacombs are gorgeous and quite safe.”

“So why, then?”

“Ammon said that until the petty feuding was forcibly ended that he would not dignify the semel with his presence or mine. He felt that—oh, and now I can’t think of his name—”

“Hakkan Tarek.”

“Yes, Tarek.” She seemed relieved. “He felt that as a semel he should simply discipline his tribe and take matters into his own hands.”

“I hate to agree with a power-mad tyrant, but, yeah. Hakkan Tarek needs to send his sheseru and khatyu to the homes of each djehu, bring them to his house, and everybody stays there until it’s fixed or he just executes them and starts over.”

“Domin!”

“What? It’s true,” I insisted.

“You have to understand the problems, not negotiate at knifepoint.”

“I think you’re missing the point. There would be no negotiating.”

“There are two distinct groups,” she pointed out. “They have to learn to coexist.”

“They’re all panthers; they need to get over it.”

“You realize that you’re not just talking about Ipis, yes? This scenario can be used on the whole world. Why can’t people just get along? They’re all human.”

I shook my head. “It’s not the same thing.”

“Of course it is.”

“Panthers must adhere to the law. We are all bound to our semels and our tribes. The semel made a mistake allowing these two factions to coexist within his tribe. He compounded his error by allowing them to elect their own people to take their complaints to.”

“Yes, but now they all have to learn to get along within what they’ve constructed.”

“That’s crap. If Yuri comes back and tells me that these two djehus are unreasonable, I will take men back there, sit everyone down, and talk it out. If that doesn’t work either––then I will discipline.”

She was glaring at me.

“What?”

“These things are not so simple,” she tried to impress upon me.

“Sometimes they are,” I said, and then something occurred to me. “So Ammon was aware of these problems as well.”

“Yes.”

“So it’s been going on a long time.”

“The struggles with these two groups are ongoing. Everyone knows that the tribe itself has a conflict going on within it, a civil disturbance. But the semel never reached out to Ammon.”

“He didn’t reach out now; it’s Ehivet Milar, who is being kept from his son, who has reached out to me. If Hakkan Tarek didn’t want someone in his business, he should have sent the boy back to his father.”

“Perhaps there is a reason for his silence.”

“Well, Yuri will find out or has already. He’ll have a full report for me as soon as he gets home.”

She appeared sad.

“Why are you making that face?”

“Oh, nothing, I just—I wish I’d known that Yuri was going out there. I would have loved to tag along and see the catacombs.”

“You can go once we know what’s going on.” I snickered. “I’ll send a delegation with you to keep you safe.”

“Maybe next time I visit,” she said, her eyes warm as she studied me. “So how many men would you send with me? The same as you sent with Yuri?”

She was being funny, but the question made me realize I had no idea how to answer her question.

“Domin?”

Why didn’t I know that?

“How many men did you send with Yuri?”

I had no idea. “I’m not sure, besides Constantine. He was the only Yuri mentioned.”

“So it’s possible that your mate left simply with one of your khatyu.”

“He’s the captain of the house guard.”

She was studying me. “You really don’t know who went with your mate?”

I never did. Yuri took care of himself. He could, of course—he had been a sheseru, he knew what he needed to do to protect himself. Didn’t he? “Yuri doesn’t need me to coddle him or second-guess him or oversee his preparations.”

She furrowed her brow. “You’re being very defensive, and I’m not attacking you.”

“I—”

“And I beg your pardon, but, yes, he does. The man is your mate, the mate of the semel-aten. He does nothing alone anymore. You are responsible for him, you make the law, and he follows it.”

But I had watched Logan tangle with Jin, and Logan never won. “A semel should not rule his mate. He should—”

“A semel should talk to his mate and let them make decisions, yes, but the mate of a semel is a precious thing and should be treated as such.”

“I know that.”

She didn’t seem convinced. “You treat Yuri as I suspect you always have. You put no boundaries on him.”

“I want him to know he has his freedom.”

“At what cost?”

“At no cost,” I snapped. “He’s safe, I know he is, and if his damn phone had reception, I’d prove it to you.”

“I thought he had a satellite phone?”

“He does.”

“Then how is it not working?”

“Just—never mind.”

Her eyes widened. “Did he misplace it or—”

“He took the wrong one.”

“And you didn’t insist that he come back and get the right one?”

“No, of course not.”

“Why?”

“Because he was already— Why are you questioning me?” I almost yelled.

“Because even though Ammon was a monster, he was far more possessive of me than you are of Yuri. He never loved me, and yet took far greater care for my safety than you take of Yuri’s.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is. You think because Yuri’s a man that the same confines are not needed for him, but you’re wrong. Your mate is your most precious possession; all care should be taken at all times. He doesn’t say,
you
say. You’re the semel, he’s the mate.”

But, again, I had seen Logan and Jin wage the same war over and over: Logan holding tight, Jin pushing the limits. I didn’t want to have those same confrontations with Yuri, especially because I wanted the man to be my friend too, not just my mate.

“Just think about what I said. I would never want you to have regrets.”

“I will,” I promised.

“Domin,” Koren chimed in from where he stood, still close to the door. “You’re not actually worried about Yuri, are you? How far away is this Ipis?”

“Ten hours,” I said, not taking my eyes off Ebere, repeating what my mate had explained to me.

“You can always have Jamal send members of the Shu after him, now that they are yours to command,” she suggested.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“You control the Shu?” Koren sounded surprised.

I glanced over at him, interrupting my glaring contest with Ebere. “I do. So I don’t ever have to ask the priest to dispatch them, like other semel-atens have had to. I can do it all by myself.”

“How?” he queried, closing in on me.

 “When Asdiel Kovo disbanded the council of Ennead, the Shu became mine.”

“You lost me.”

“The phocal announced to all that the Shu would no longer guard the temple of Satis, but would instead protect me.”

“Why?” Koren wanted to know.

“I just put it to Jamal to decide who he thought more valuable, me or the new priest.”

Ebere sighed. “I remember thinking at the time that that was very clever.”

“The second in command of the Shu, Shahid Alon, was having none of it.”

“Oh yes,” she said, nodding. “I remember that. He said it was wrong for the Shu to abandon their sacred duty to guard the priest and to instead guard you.”

“It was quite the speech.” I said sarcastically. “Who knew he was so devout?”

“Oh, he was not devout,” she said, laughing, the tension from a few moments ago broken. “Or he would have never been in your bed.”

“Who was in your bed?” Koren wanted to know.

“That was ages ago,” I teased my mastaba.

“And yet he found the priest more deserving than you.”

“He thought the priest sacred and me profane.”

“Who did you sleep with?” Koren was getting louder.

“Which is funny, considering you became semel-aten in a sepat which was mandated by the old priest,” she mused. “And Kovo became the new priest right after he disbanded the council of Ennead, the very council that voted him in.”

“I would never have disbanded them.”

“But they didn’t know that. They thought you were the very devil.”

“Even though the old priest, Hamid Shamon, trusted and liked me.”

“Which just goes to show you that people really do fear what they don’t know. I mean, the council trusted Asdiel instead of you, and he removed them from the temple and left them outside, stripped naked, to rot. He said they were useless old men.”

“You don’t know what he said.” I scoffed.

“I do too. I’ve talked with each of the nine at length, and they all said the same thing. Asdiel thought they should have been placed in the tomb along with Hamid Shamon when he died. He decreed that they would never be counsel to another priest.”

“And they won’t,” I agreed. “Now they counsel my sylvan.”

“Yes, quite the coup, that.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“When you took the council of Ennead into your home, the very men who had called you a defiler, and gave them shelter, that was when Jamal started to have doubts about guarding the new priest.”

“Perhaps.”

“No perhaps—that was your plan.”

“You give me far too much credit.”

“I think not,” she whispered. “You are very clever, my lord. I heard that you met with Asdiel Kovo and swore that as long as the council was still with him at Satis, he would never hold true power alone and you would never truly fear him.”

“I said that? Me?”

She giggled. “Yes, you, my lord.”

“Huh.”

“And when Kovo betrayed his own council like the jackal he is, you were there to take those old men in.”

“Well, that was kind of me, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was. And now they teach in the forum, work in the great library, and counsel your sylvan in all matters of the law. He has those men with all those years of knowledge at his disposal and now calls each by their first name, and they address him as master.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“You gave them each a home and a new purpose. I have not seen them so happy in years.”

I shrugged, because that had been Mikhail’s idea, his doing.

“Who are you talking about?” Koren barked. “Who did you sleep with?”

He would keep asking until I answered. I knew he would. I knew him. “Why do you care about something so—”

“Shahid Alon,” Ebere said, supplying the name, “one of the many conquests of Domin Thorne.”

“Oh, I remember you telling me about… I thought this was a new—” Koren muttered.

“No.” Ebere made a face. “Unlike the previous semel-aten, our new lord sleeps only with his mate.”

“You make it sound so important.”

“It’s a greater quality than you think,” she said seriously. “Loyalty is never to be undervalued.”

“And I need it from everyone now that the priest is gunning for me,” I said, chuckling.

“You should take his vendetta more seriously,” she cautioned.

I rolled my eyes. “Like it matters what he does. The priest has no say over anything and no resources since he was banned from his old tribe.”

“I was surprised when his brother denounced him.”

“I wasn’t,” I quipped. “He declared open war on me. His brother, Selem, leader of the tribe of Dosret—he sent his maahes here to speak to Crane. Selem wanted to be sure that we knew that his brother’s sentiment was not his. He didn’t want he, or his tribe, painted with the same brush of treason.”

“How sad to be abandoned by your family.”

“It’s what a real semel does, though, right?”

“I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully. “Does a true semel put his tribe before anything or anyone?”

“Yes.”

“So in your mind, Selem had no choice?”

“No, he didn’t.”

Koren broke into our conversation. “I wonder about the role of a semel sometimes.”

“What do you mean?” My tone had an edge it didn’t have when I was speaking only to Ebere.

“I mean, would a semel who loved his mate still put the tribe first?”

“I think so.” I said. “A good one, anyway.”

He smirked. “In that case, the tribe of Rahotep trumps Yuri.”

But even the sound of the words seemed wrong.

“Well?” he posed.

“Do you think I would?”

“Yes,” he replied. “I do.”

Ebere spoke up. “I don’t. I think it’s Yuri first and then the tribe.”

“That’s not the way of a true semel.” Koren was adamant. “A true leader always puts the needs of the whole before the needs of the few or the one.”

I was quiet and his eyes met mine.

“I think you’d do what was best for the tribe, Domin.”

“Why doesn’t that feel like a compliment?”

“I think every true semel would. Even Logan.”

“You think Logan, if it came down to a choice between his reah or his tribe, would pick the tribe?”

“Yes,” he said, sounding very certain.

“Why?”

“Because if he chose Jin, he would have to see the disappointment on Jin’s face for the rest of his life and know that he failed his reah. I think if push came to shove that Logan would choose the tribe.”