The Desert Spear (15 page)

There were other tasks, less satisfying, less honorable. He spent hours each day learning to speak on paper, using a stick to copy the words of the Evejah into a box of sand as he recited them aloud. It seemed a useless art, unfit for a warrior, but Jardir heeded the
dama'ting
's words and worked hard, mastering the letters quickly. From there he learned mathematics, history, philosophy, and finally warding. This, he devoured hungrily. Anything that might hurt or hinder the
alagai
received his utter devotion.

Drillmaster Qeran came several times a week, spending hours honing Jardir's spearwork, while the
dama
loremasters taught him tactics and the history of war dating back to the time of the Deliverer.

'War is more than prowess on the field,' Dama Khevat said. 'The Evejah tells us that war is, at its crux, deception.'

'Deception'' Jardir asked.

Khevat nodded. 'As you might feint with your spear, so too must the wise leader misdirect his foe before battle is ever joined. When strong, he must appear weak. When weak, he must seem ready to fight. When near enough to strike, he must seem too far to threaten. When regrouping, he must make his enemies believe attack is imminent. It is thus he makes the enemy waste their strength while husbanding his own.'

Jardir cocked his head. 'Is it not more honorable to meet the enemy head-on''

'We did not build the Great Maze so that we could sally forth and meet the
alagai
head-on,' Khevat said. 'There is no greater honor than victory, and to achieve victory, you must seize every advantage, great and small. This is the essence of war, and war is the essence of all things, from the lowest
khaffit
haggling in the bazaar to the Andrah hearing petitions in his palace.'

'I understand,' Jardir said.

'Deceit depends on secrecy,' Khevat went on. 'If spies can learn of your deceptions, they take away all your strength. A great leader must hold his deceit so close that even his inner circle and sometimes even he himself does not think on it until the time to strike.'

'But why make war at all, Dama'' Jardir dared to ask.

'Eh'' Khevat replied.

'We are all Everam's children,' Jardir said. 'The enemy is the
alagai.
We need every man to stand against him, yet we kill one another under the sun every day.' Khevat looked at him, and Jardir was not sure if the
dama
was annoyed or pleased with the question.

'Unity,' the
dama
replied at last. 'In war men stand together, and it is that collective power that makes them strong. In the words of Kaji himself during his conquest of the green lands,
Unity is worth any price of blood. Against the night and Nie's untold legions, better a hundred thousand men standing together than a hundred million cowering by themselves.
Remember that always, Ahmann.'

Jardir bowed. 'I will, Dama.'

JIWAH KA

313'316 AR

THREE NIE'DAMAAPPROACHED HIM from all sides, and though he could not see her, Jardir sensed that the
dama'ting
was watching. She was always watching.

He embraced the moment as he did pain, letting all worldly concern fall away. After more than five years in Sharik Hora, the peace came effortlessly when he called it now. There was no him. There was no them. There was no her. There was only the dance.

Ashan came at him first, but Jardir feinted a block, then pivoted and leapt aside to punch Halvan in the chest, Ashan's kick meeting only air. He caught Halvan's arm and twisted him to the ground easily. He could have torn the arm from its socket, but it was a greater test of skill to leave his opponents unharmed.

Shevali waited for Ashan to recover before coming at him, the two attacking with a unity that would do any
dal'Sharum
unit proud.

It mattered little. Jardir's arms and thighs were a blur, their blocked blows a drumbeat as he followed the rhythm to its inevitable conclusion. On his fifth blow, Shevali left his throat exposed for an instant, and then, as it always was in the end, Jardir and Ashan faced off.

Knowing Jardir's speed, Ashan attempted to grapple, but the years had put meat on Jardir's bones. At seventeen, he was taller than most men, and constant training had turned his wiry sinews into lean, packed muscle. No sooner had they closed than Ashan was pinned.

Ashan laughed, his year of silence long past. 'One day we will have you,
nie'Sharum
!'

Jardir gave him a hand up. 'You will never find that day.'

'That is true,' Dama Khevat said. Jardir turned as the ring of boys and instructors broke and the cleric strode in, the
dama'ting
at his side. Jardir felt his face grow cold.

The
dama'ting
carried black robes.

The
dama'ting
led him to a private chamber and with her own hands unwrapped his bido, pulling it away. Jardir tried to embrace the feeling of her hands on his bare skin, but she was the only woman who had ever touched him so intimately, and for the first time in years, he could not find peace. His body responded to her touch, and he feared she might kill him for his disrespect.

But the
dama'ting
made no mention of his arousal as she wrapped a black loincloth in place of his bido, then dressed him in the loose pantaloons, heavy sandals, and robe of a
dal'Sharum.

After eight years in a bido, Jardir expected any clothing to feel odd, but he was unprepared for the weight of a
dal'Sharum's
armored blacks. Plates and strips of fired clay were held tight in sewn pockets throughout the garb. The plates could absorb a great blow, Jardir knew, but they shattered on impact, and needed to be replaced after every hit.

So distracted was he that he did not notice at first that the veil she tied about his throat was white. When he did, he gasped aloud.

'Did you think your time among the
dama
meaningless, son of Hoshkamin'' the
dama'ting
asked. 'You will rejoin your
dal'Sharum
brothers as their master, a
kai'Sharum.
'

'I am but seventeen!' Jardir said.

The
dama'ting
nodded. 'The youngest
kai'Sharum
in centuries. Just as you were the youngest to bring down a wind demon, and the youngest to survive
alagai'sharak.
Who can say what else you may accomplish''

'You can,' Jardir said. 'The dice told you.'

The
dama'ting
shook her head. 'I have seen the fate your spirit reaches for, but it is a path fraught with peril, and you may still fail to reach it.' She drew the white veil about his face. Her touch seemed almost a caress. 'You have many tests before you. Bring your focus to the now. When you return to the Kaji pavilion today, one of the
Sharum
will challenge you. You must''

Jardir held up a hand, cutting her off. The
dama'ting
's eyes flared at his audacity.

'With respect,' Jardir said, recalling the gruel lines of the Kaji'sharaj, 'the world of
Sharum,
I understand. I will break the challenger publicly before any dare follow his example.'

The
dama'ting
regarded him a moment, then shrugged, a smile in her eyes.

Jardir strode with pride into the Kaji training grounds, followed by Dama Khevat and the
dama'ting.
The
dal'Sharum
paused in their training at the sight, and there were murmurs of recognition as they saw Jardir's face. One of them barked a laugh.

'Look! The rat returns!' Hasik cried, his
s
's still whistling after all these years. The big warrior planted his spear with a thump. 'It only took him five years to change out of his bido!' Several other warriors laughed at that.

Jardir smiled. It was natural for
Sharum
to test the mettle of a new
kai,
and it was
inevera
that it should be Hasik. The powerful warrior was still larger than Jardir, but he felt no fear as he strode forward.

Hasik stared him down coldly, unafraid. 'You may have a white veil loose about your throat, but you are still the son of piss,' he sneered, too low for the others to hear.

'Ah, Hasik, my
ajin'pal
!' Jardir called loudly. 'Do they still call you Whistler' I would be happy to remove a few more teeth and cure your affliction, if you wish.'

All around,
Sharum
laughed. Jardir looked among them and saw many who had served under him when he was
Nie Ka.

Hasik growled and lunged, but Jardir sidestepped, spinning into a kick that knocked the big warrior onto his backside in the dust. He stood patiently as Hasik scowled and scrambled back to his feet unharmed.

'I will kill you for that,' Hasik promised.

Jardir smiled, reading Hasik's every movement like writing in the sand. Hasik charged in, thrusting hard with his spear, but Jardir pivoted, slapping the point to one side, and Hasik stumbled past, overbalanced. He turned and swung the spear like a staff, but Jardir bent backward like a palm tree in the wind, avoiding the blow without moving his feet an inch. Before Hasik could recover, he whipped upright and grabbed the weapon with both hands, kicking up between his hands and breaking through the thick shaft of wood. He followed through on the kick, taking Hasik in the face.

There was a satisfying crack as Hasik's jaw shattered, but Jardir did not stop there. He dropped the speartip but held on to the butt, advancing as Hasik struggled back to his feet.

Hasik punched at him, and Jardir marveled that he had once found those punches too fast to follow. After years among the
dama,
the fist seemed to move at a crawl. He caught Hasik's wrist and twisted hard, feeling his shoulder pop from its socket. Hasik screamed as Jardir swung the spear butt, shattering the warrior's knee. Hasik collapsed, and Jardir kicked him over onto his stomach. He was well within his rights to kill Hasik, and those gathered likely expected him to, but Jardir had not forgotten what Hasik had done to him in the Maze.

'Now, Hasik,' he said, as all the
dal'Sharum
of the Kaji tribe looked on, 'I will teach
you
to be a woman.' He held up the spear butt. 'And this will be the man.'

'Watch to ensure he does not fall on his spear in shame,' Jardir told Shanjat as Hasik was hauled off to the
dama'ting
pavilion, howling in pain and humiliation. 'I would not see any permanent harm befall my
ajin'pal.
'

'As my
kai'Sharum
wills,' Shanjat said, 'though they will have to remove the spear before he can fall on it.' He smirked as he bowed to Jardir and hurried after the injured warrior. Jardir followed Shanjat with his eyes, marveling at how quickly they fell back into old patterns, despite Shanjat having earned the black years ago, and him just this day.

Jardir had planned his revenge on Hasik for years, while he danced
sharusahk
in his tiny cell in Sharik Hora. It wasn't enough for the man to suffer defeat; Jardir's revenge had to be an abject lesson to any who would ever seek to challenge him again. If Hasik had not challenged him, he would have sought the man out and initiated the challenge himself.

By Everam's infinite justice, every step played out exactly as he had imagined it, but now that his triumph was complete, he found no more satisfaction in it than when he fought Shanjat for his place in the
nie'Sharum
food line.

'You seem to have things well in hand,' Dama Khevat said, slapping Jardir on the back. 'Go to the Kaji pavilion and take a woman before tonight's battle.' He laughed. 'Take two! The
jiwah'Sharum
will be eager to bed the youngest
kai'Sharum
in a thousand years.'

Jardir forced himself to laugh and nod, though he felt a clench in his stomach. He had never known a woman. Except for a few glimpses of the
jiwah'Sharum
that one night in the Kaji pavilion, he had never even seen one without her robes.
Kai'Sharum
or no, he had one last test of manhood in front of him, and unlike the crushing of Hasik or the killing of
alagai,
this was one none of his training had prepared him for.

Khevat left him, and Jardir took a deep breath, looking toward the Kaji pavilion.

They are only women,
he told himself, taking a tentative step forward.
They are there to please you, not the other way around.
His second step came with more confidence.

'A word,' the
dama'ting
whispered, grabbing his attention. Relief and fear clutched him at once. How had he forgotten her'

'In private,' she said, and Jardir nodded, walking to the edge of the training grounds with her, out of earshot from the
dal'Sharum
in the yard.

He was much taller than her now, but she still intimidated him. He remembered the blast of fire from her flame demon skull, and tried to convince himself that her
alagai
magics would not work in the day, with Everam's light shining down upon them.

'I cast the
alagai hora
before bringing you the blacks,' she said. 'If you sleep among the
jiwah'Sharum,
one of them will kill you.'

Jardir's eyes widened. Such a thing was unheard of. 'Why'' he asked.

'The bones give us no 'why,' son of Hoshkamin,' the
dama'ting
said. 'They tell what is, and what may be. Perhaps a lover of Hasik will seek revenge, or some woman with a blood feud with your family.' She shrugged. 'But sleep among the
jiwah'Sharum
at your peril.'