The Boys of Fire and Ash (14 page)

The young man nodded and spoke again.

“Aju Krepin welcomes Ikkuma boys,” said Gorpok Juga.

I was so flustered. The man's softly tanned face was full of kindness, genuinely welcoming us, while dozens of his followers watched me with wary eyes.

The man spoke again.

“The Beginning brings you home,” Gorpok Juga interpreted.

“Get on with it, Urgs!” Fiver yelled as Av drooped to his knees.

“Tell him I want my Brother,” I said.

Gorpok Juga nodded and turned to Aju Krepin, interpreting with less force than I would have liked. He pointed to Av and spoke.

“Your friend is badly wounded,” said Gorpok Juga.

“You can thank your disgusting Tunrar for that!” shouted Fiver.

Gorpok Juga didn't interpret that, and Krepin spoke again.

“Aju Krepin say, he prays Beginning keep him,” said Juga. “Aju Krepin asks, do not all Ikkuma boys be much older when leave home?”

“Having your Little Brother stolen changes things!” I shouted.

Gorpok Juga regarded me a moment, then interpreted for Krepin. I was sure she wasn't telling him exactly what I'd said.

“You are certain brother is here?”

“Yes!” I shouted. “The Tunrar took him away! Tell him what I told you, tell him what Cubby looks like!”

“Aju Krepin want know how three young Ikkuma come to Beginners' High Temple?”

He was scratching his chin thoughtfully, patiently waiting for my response. I thought of Blaze, his mark, his fall into the Pit.

“A Brother,” I said, hoping that would be enough.

“Who?”

I swallowed hard. “That's not important.”

Gorpok Juga made no move to speak. From the look on Krepin's face, I could tell that he knew I didn't answer the question.

“Please.” There was a swelling in my throat and my eyes became blurry with tears. They were ignoring me; it was like I hadn't said anything. “My Brother.”

Krepin sat back lazily, his arm reaching out to one of the nearby people holding a silver bowl.

“His name is Cubby,” I said, my voice breaking when I tried to say his name.

I watched a smile spread on Krepin's face, recognition there, as though he just liked something about the sound of
it. And something else. Something I didn't like behind those eyes. Like he was pleased with himself that he was keeping Cubby from me.

“Cubby!” I said again. “You know who he is!”

He pulled out a handful of brightly colored petals and dabbed them lightly on his neck, more concerned with his own stink than with what I was telling him. He sat there, staring at me, rubbing the petals between his fingers.

“Gorpok Karlone!” His crisp voice rung out suddenly, slapping against the walls of the room and echoing back to me.

The heads of Krepin's followers turned and I followed their attention to the back corner of the room. Standing in the doorway was a tall, dark man, his spine curling at his shoulders giving him a hunched-over look. But the hunch didn't make him any less intimidating. He rubbed the back of his left hand, his gaze narrowed and focused on me.

The man raised his head to Krepin, who barked at him in words I couldn't understand. At Krepin's order, he left through the back doorway and Krepin turned his attention back to me.

“Ha shu?”
he said.

My mouth trembled, unsure of what he had asked.

Gorpok Juga clasped her hands behind her back. “Who?”

“Nobody,” I said, though I could feel the tension in the air like the heat coming off a fire. “What does it matter?”

Aju Krepin grinned and rubbed his stubble.

“Come on, Av,” I heard Fiver say behind me. I turned and saw my best friend on his hands and knees, Fiver holding up his head and slapping his cheeks lightly.

“Av?” I hurried over and got down on the floor with him. His eyes were rolling backwards. “Av!” I smacked him. He focused on me a second.

“Wawksh,” he slurred. “Eyesh an' wawksh.”

“What?” He was such a mess, his eyes so far back that only the whites were showing. I looked at Fiver, who shook his head, frowning.

I heard a door open and Krepin speaking in a grand voice.

“Cubby is no more,” said Gorpok Juga.

My heart stopped and my stomach dropped into my feet. The world went white, like I'd been struck by lightning. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think.
Not Cubby
.

A line of children dressed in white, foreheads bearing the blue mark, were led by the man he called Gorpok Karlone to the front of Krepin's altar. Several Tunrar hissed at them, herding them after the hunched-over man.

The smallest, leading the line and clad in blue robes, was my Cubby.

“Urgle?” he said, his familiar raspy voice trembling.

A wave of relief rushed over me and my head felt dizzy.

“Urgle!” he cried out. Before he could run to me, a Tunrar leaped in front of him, hissing.

“Linerk!”
Karlone bellowed at him. Cubby hung his head and stepped back in line with the other boys. I watched as Krepin smiled with satisfaction and that other thing. I could see it now, it was like pride, happy that my Brother obeyed him so quickly. His grin turned my stomach.

“Tell him I'm taking Cubby home!” I shouted at Gorpok Juga. “Now!”

“Krepin say, is no Cubby. Is Passage Linerk, servant of the Beginning.”

“No!” said Cubby. “No! No! They said they'd kill me if I didn't do it!”

Karlone bellowed at Cubby again and several Tunrar began moving menacingly towards him.

I could see his little mouth trembling, his big green eyes begging me to help him.

Krepin turned to me, calmly saying words that I couldn't understand but knew I hated.

“Aju Krepin say,” Gorpok Juga began, “Cubby was Tunrar sacrifice to Beginning. Krepin is love, gave Cubby choice. To give himself back to Beginning in death, or service. Cubby decide on service, become a Passage.”

“He's coming home with me.” My voice cracked as I struggled for the same kind of authority as Krepin.

“Aju Krepin say, Passage Linerk
is
home.”

My pulse kicked up again, my stomach twisted and heaved. I had no idea what to do. I looked to Fiver. He was busy holding up Av, slapping his face, calling his name.

The room began to spin as my mind raced. I needed Blaze. Blaze would know what to do.

“Ha shu,”
came the foreign words from Krepin again. He wasn't asking this time.

Cubby's eyes were turned to the floor, the ugly blue mark blaring at me like the numbing glare from the sun.

“Ha shu!”
he shouted. He raised his right hand and Karlone seized Cubby by the scruff of the neck. Cubby cried out.

“Hey!” yelled Fiver.

“Don't touch him!” I took a step towards them but Juga stood in front of me.

The other boys cowered away from Cubby and Karlone, huddling together, knowing something I didn't.

Karlone threw Cubby to the ground; two of the Tunrar crouched over him, hissing and spitting with glee.

“Stop it!” I begged. “Leave him alone!”

“Ha shu!”
Krepin shouted again.

“Maybe Krepin,” said Juga, a glint in her eye as she pushed me back, “should give Beginning sacrifice after all?”

Karlone strode towards a brass stand with ornate staffs and blades resting within it. He pulled out a glinting silver edge and stormed back towards my Brother.

Cubby cried out, covering himself beneath the excited Tunrar. “Urgle!”

A tremor overtook my entire body, and from somewhere inside me I felt a powerful rumbling, as though the world around me was about to crumble to the ground. The Tunrar screamed and I closed my eyes tight.

Fiver cried out behind me. “Urgle!”

And then his name. It rose in my throat like a violent cough, and without a thought in my head I shrieked, “Blaze! The Brother's name was Blaze!”

When I opened my eyes, the heads of all the Beginners were swiveling from side to side, murmurs passing between them. But Krepin was still.

Karlone let the blade drop on the floor with a loud clang, and a smile oozed across Krepin's pristine face.

My breath came back to me and I gulped in air as I watched Karlone wave away the Tunrar. He lifted Cubby by the arm and threw him at the group of terrified boys, never taking his merciless eyes off me.

“Where is traitor Blaze?” said Juga. Her eyes were wild, looking at me like my head was about to pop off. They all were. Every face in the room was staring, like they were waiting for me to just burst into flames or something.

“I—I—I don't know,” I stammered. I didn't.

“The thief come here?” Gorpok Juga pressed.

“Thief?”

“Blaze! He come here?”

I shifted on my feet, everybody in the room leaning with keen interest towards me.

“How long?” Juga growled.

“What?”

“How long he was here?”

“I—I don't know. He left just before we swam the river.”

Gorpok Juga interpreted this to Aju Krepin, who barked commands, staring at me as he did so. Tunrar screamed and I cringed. Dozens of them climbed the walls, crawling out windows and running for doors. A hunt had begun.

Aju Krepin descended the altar, the people in the room murmuring low to one another as they stared at me.

I began to panic as he approached, the water at his feet parting wherever he stepped. It was just like Blaze's story, the gift of the twins, Ardigund and Belphoebe.

His icy-blue eyes locked onto mine, and I trembled. If it hadn't been scratched out, would Krepin's be the face above the girl in the Baublenotts?

He placed a hand on my arm. He spoke to me quietly.

“Aju Krepin give you Passage Linerk,” translated Gorpok Juga. “After you help him.”

“What?”

“Forget it!” yelled Fiver.

“What does he want?” I asked desperately.

Aju Krepin turned to Gorpok Juga and spoke quickly.

“He has many troubles. His Holy War on the blasphemers makes Aju Krepin no sleep.”

I didn't understand. I needed Blaze to explain.

“The Belphebans raid supply lines to Aju Krepin's armies.”

“I don't—I don't know what you mean,” I told her.

“Aju Krepin plans big attack on blasphemers. Belphebans must not cause problems.”

Hot tears rolled down my cheeks.

“I don't understand!” I cried. “What does he want me to do?”

“If Belpheban Head die, Belphebans must mourn until full moon. No more trouble from them for one month.”

Aju Krepin's grip on my arm became tighter.

“You kill Belpheban Head.”

My whole body was shaking. I'd never killed anything but Slag Cavies. “I—I can't kill anyone!”

“You are Ikkuma. If anyone want to kill Belphebans, it is Ikkuma boys.”

“Who are these Belphebans?”

She tilted her head, surprised I didn't know. “They are you Mothers.”

I could taste the bile in the back of my throat.

“You kill Belpheban Head, Aju Krepin give you Passage Linerk.”

I remembered Blaze, his warning. One decision.

I was just Urgle. I was Useless. How could anything I did change anything?

“Why me?” I barely managed to squeak out.

Krepin squeezed my shoulders and smiled.

I looked at Cubby, tears streaming down his cheeks, the fresh blue mark on his forehead screaming at me. I would not abandon him here; there was only one choice.

“I will,” I said, and nodded.

Aju Krepin took my face in his hands. Gently he pressed his forehead to mine, blessing me, his Ikkuma orphan assassin.

I can still remember the pain. The crumbling bits of rock of the Ikkuma Pit walls pressed hard against my naked back. I remember because I was mad, so mad, at my Big Brother.

“Time's come, Urgs,” he'd said. “The little one's been dropped by the South Wall. I gotta go to make room.”