Tribal Dawn: Mordufa: Volume Three Page 21

  He hadn’t reached the square when Rura’s figure stumbled from the alley, clutching a bottle. Tau pushed through the crowds, ignoring the foreign slurs and cries. Rura grinned and staggered into a vase stall.

  “You missed out, Tau. She was fucking fantastic.” Rura laughed. Tau helped him to his feet and paid off the cursing vendor.

  “Get up, we need to get back.”

  “Woah, alright mister fucking serious. Ebhi will be threatened you’re trying to take his place.” Rura pushed Tau off and straightened his armour. “What the fuck has gotten into you?”

  “Something’s happened.” Tau kept his voice low.

  “Already? It’s day one!”

  Tau growled. The heat on his armour was insufferable, and the sickly smell of spiced ale on his friend didn’t help. He guided him back to the barracks, away from where he could destroy other small businesses. When they got inside, he helped him settle into a comfortable chair and poured cups of water. Ebhi sat in front of the fire, bracers laid before him.

  “Everyone is fucking happy here!” Rura laughed and chugged the bottle.

  Tau snatched it away. “Unika’s dead.”

  Rura frowned. He tried to focus, running his hands through his hair. “Unika’s not dead. He’s with the healers.” He looked at Tau’s serious face and then to Ebhi for reassurance. Ebhi didn’t say anything and resumed watching the fire. “How? He’s been in there for a few hours.”

  “The infection was bad. The healer said they applied the strongest concoctions. I guess…” Tau slouched into the seat beside Rura. “I guess it was too fierce and he couldn’t fight it any longer.”

  “Fucking hell…” Rura kicked off his boots. “I can’t believe it. I knew he was sick but fuck me…”

  Tau swallowed the spiced ale and rubbed his brow. “I never think of sickness taking someone down anymore. I’ve been expecting knife attacks, swinging swords and boulders. Not a fucking infection.”

  The three remained in silence. Words didn’t come easy when their group was reduced. In the morning, Unika had fought against the festering wound. He had a hidden strength and to be taken down by illness seemed impossible.

  They didn’t sleep well in the stone beds. Their backs ached and minds were unsettled. The healer informed them Unika would be prepared, his body preserved to be taken in a cart with others who’d fallen before they’d arrived. Tau tried to negotiate a separate cart. She told him that there were already shortages unless he miraculously built one. It was why her tribe lay rotting in the streets instead of being buried or cremated on a pyre for Donduma.

  As the days went by, Tau struggled to keep it together. The heat was dry and stuck armour to his skin, heating his scalp and bringing a shooting pain to his temples from dehydration. Water was in short supply, and the closest river was guarded by an Aqua camp, defending the waters from the ‘tainting of Inferno filth’.

  During the days, they were sent on patrols. Children cried, hunger burning holes in their bellies. Men and women in rags pled for money to help families. If they gave to one, a gathering followed. One man, a visitor from the west by his mousey brown colouring, took pity once and met his death after he was trampled. Every time Tau heard a whistle in the distance, apprehension ached his stomach. His eyes went to the sky, waiting for the rock to crush him to death. They couldn’t show fear. They were Sun tribe warriors. He faced it and calmed those around him.

  In the nights, it was worse. Every time they dropped off, any noise would startle them. The boulders were terrifying, although they were a fair distance away. Another Aqua camp was set on destroying the eastern side of Inferno land. If it wasn’t them, women screamed and cried for help in the streets. Tau heard men chasing after mates and thuds of punching. He was ordered not to intervene. Often they’d wake up to another body of a young battered woman by the door.

  While Tau suffered, Rura was bleaker. Bouts of insomnia had him whispering in his bed like a madman until early hours. Ebhi was emotionally unaffected. He took every day in his stride. He barely conversed and focused on the work at hand.

  They were given the day off when Unika’s body was ready to be sent back. Ebhi declined the offer and worked anyway, to the disgust of Tau and Rura. They didn’t argue and set off without him.

  When they arrived, the riders, Inferno men, impatiently tapped rickety carts. Crammed, mummified bodies were piled high, as many as they could possibly fit in without tipping. Each bore rough names in charcoal.

  Tau climbed aboard the corpses. The rider spun around and aimed his whip at him. Tau grabbed it and threw it on the floor. He carefully pushed the weight of the dead out the way.

  “Shut up. It’s not like your passengers are in a fucking rush to get anywhere,” Tau said, holding his breath against the stench.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Rura asked, rubbing the unruly beard he’d acquired since arriving.

  Tau knelt down. He smiled bleakly at the one marked ‘Unika’. He took out a crystallised moon charm and clipped it onto the bandages. Jumping off, he threw the whip back to the driver. “Moon tribers believe in having a piece of Luaani on their bodies if they die away from home. It’ll protect their souls.”

  The horses were thrashed into action. They both watched the carriage travel down the path, back to the Sun tribe. For a fleeting moment, a part of Tau thought of jumping on board and returning too. When he turned around and saw the dismay and fear running through the people, it vanished. He despised it, but he was needed here, more than the north.

  “You know, a part of me thought the fucker was immortal,” Rura abruptly said, breaking the quiet.

  “Unika?”

  “Yeah. Remember how easily he carried those barrels of bricks and metal on the first day? It wouldn’t have surprised me with the Moon tribers.”

  Tau laughed dryly. “I remember. I thought he’d inhaled a wonder herb or something.”

  Rura paced. He looked at Tau and hesitated.

  “What?” Tau asked, leaning against a wall. “I’m not going back to that whore inn.”

  “I wasn’t thinking there. I got something the morning after we arrived.” He rifled through his pockets and took out a piece of parchment. “It didn’t seem right to ask to come to this place yet.”

  Tau squinted at the letters, some familiar. Most of them had extra dots, lines, flicks and repeated scribbles that didn’t make sense. “I can’t read it. What does it say?”

  “It’s from my mother. Her and my sister aren’t far from here.” Rura ran his foot in the sand and kicked a rock. “I want to go see her, but I’m shitting myself at what I’ll find.”

  Tau gave him back the piece of paper and patted him on the back. “Come on, let’s go.”

  “What?” Rura pulled his face. “She’s at the worst of it.”

  “More reason to go, brother. Whereabouts?”

  “To the east.” Rura gulped and walked to the market stalls, Tau behind. They grabbed food and water flasks. Tau stopped and packed a bag with clothes, smaller weapons and other items away from Rura and kept tight hold of it, wary of thieves.

  The further east they went, the smaller the buildings became. At first, only a few crumbled buildings had been reduced to piles of dust, debris and body parts. Scavengers climbed barefoot amongst them. Others yelled, threatening them for stealing their hard-earned belongings when they’d already lost their livelihood. Two huge buildings, upper corners smashed, towered over a shady alleyway, a respite from the heat. When they reached the end, Tau grimaced.

  Everything had fallen apart. Homes were heaps of splattered red and dust, a nest for the boulders. Stalls that lined the path had been demolished in the impacts. Leather scraps were still attached to skeletons, fingers, feet and ribs scattered around and underfoot. In the north quarter, cloth tents had been erected to house the homeless. Children played together, laughing and joking. Adults basked in the sun, hung out wet clothes or sat at low tables.

  Rura slowed and squinted, checking th
e faces. “I think it’s here. It coul—”

  “RURA!” a young girl screamed at the top of her lungs. With thick black hair and a red floral dress, the teenager sped across the rocks, barefoot. Tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks.

  Rura caught her as she jumped. “Lila!” He held her close and squeezed her tight, hiding his face in her hair. She sobbed on his shoulder.

  “Brother, you’re home!” she cried.

  “Look at you, Lila.” Rura pulled away. “Last time I saw you, you were up to my knees. You’re a young woman now.” He glanced at the camp. “Where is Mother? Is she here?”

  “Yes! Yes, she’s here! Come see our new home! Mother says we’re staying for a short while.” Lila eagerly pulled Rura.

  Tau kept silent and followed, happy for his friend. The wars between Inferno and Aqua never seemed to end. This one had Rura on edge daily. There was nothing Tau could do to reassure him that they would be alright like before. Not when he didn’t know the land nor experienced being told his family was in the midst of war when he was miles away.

  A sickly woman came out of a tent, raven hair tied back in a ponytail and wet clothes over her arm. She dropped them and nearly collapsed, weeping, when she saw her son. He fell to the ground with her, the three of them sharing an emotional embrace.

  “My proud lion cub,” she whispered, shaking. “Ten years ago, you left a boy. You’ve grown into a man! Every night I feared the worst, Rura. I thought they’d take you to a land so far away. I had nightmares of warriors coming to our door and having to bury my boy!” She broke down and clung onto Rura.

  Tau turned away to give some sort of privacy. The words rang in his ears, and acid burnt his throat. Unika’s mate and daughter were going to receive that devastating news. His mother often wrote when she begged him to return that she feared hearing the news of his demise. She told him having only her last memories of him as a teenager rather than seeing the man he had become in the past seven years pained her. Jocelin believed if his body were sent to her, she wouldn’t know what to do. He’d be a stranger.

  When she calmed, Rura wiped away her tears. “I promised you I’d survive and return.” He sniffed and motioned to Tau. “This is a friend of mine, Tau. We were born on the same day and hour.”

  Tau stepped forward, smiled and nodded to the pair.

  “This is my mother, Keyah and my little sister, Lila.”

  Keyah scrambled to her feet and grabbed Tau’s hand. The women in Inferno had similar dark, hypnotising eyes. Even those that were narrow were powerful to gaze at. It was one of many reasons Jocelin was accused of being a witch. “Another Inferno lion? I was told only my son was born with such a blessing in our region.”

  Tau removed his helm, showing his dreadlocks. “I’m not from here. I’m from the Blood tribes in the south.” He graciously bowed and kissed her hand.

  “Ah, a gentleman. We don’t have much of that here. Let us go inside, where it’s quiet.”

  Lila held onto her brother, a wide grin on her face. Tau lingered behind, letting the family have time together. Rura was the type to dismiss him if he wasn’t needed. As much as he felt like a spare part, he was enjoying time away from the grim barracks. Solianga had spun around the world twice since the last time he witnessed a truly joy-filled moment.

  The beige-stained cloth had tears and holes in the material. Sand rested on the top and sprinkled on their heads when they entered. Inside, the ground was hard. Blankets were bundled in a corner to make a shared bed. In the centre, there was a small cooking fire.

  Squashed together in the close space, Tau and Rura sat down by the fire. Lila stayed by her brother's side. Keyah grabbed cups to fill with cloudy water. “This is the best we can get. The well was destroyed in the last assault, and the healing district charges us to use theirs.”

  Tau coughed and nudged his pack to Rura when his mother's back was turned. Rura glimpsed inside and waited for Keyah to sit down. “We’ve brought you some things.”

  “No, no, no.” She cupped Rura’s face and smiled. “I am your mother. I provide for you. I’ve told you before, Rura, you have sent us enough.”

  Tau looked at Rura. For the past year, he’d had no money to pay for food or their home. Whenever Tau asked about it, Rura pointed to a bottle of ale and leaves, blaming them for the expense, despite Tau never seeing him drink or smoke that much. If he did, he’d have been dead months ago. Sending his earnings to Inferno made sense. Sun tribe warriors were considered wealthy in the western lands. Their coins in Inferno, however, weren’t worth much. The richest people were the traders and stall owners.

  “You’re in a war zone. Please, take it. It’s not a lot,” Rura urged.

  Keyah reluctantly took the bag. She peeked inside. Tau worried when she burst out crying. He thought he might have bought something offensive. “Rura, I can’t take these things.”

  Rura shook his head and pushed her hand away. “Take it. Call it a small treat for you and Lila for a couple of days. Keep it hidden.”

  She hugged her son and took out the clean clothes and sewing items. “Thank you. My lion, never let me down.”

  The rusty pan on the cooking fire sizzled, and the smell of burnt grain came from it. Tau took over and stirred it while they talked. He had no idea what he was doing. When it softened, he took it away from the heat. Lila and Keyah reminded him of his mother and sister when he left. Jocelin and Zura were around their ages when he said goodbye. Zura didn’t want to let go of his arm. Jocelin kept her proud aura until the last moment. He’d never forget her tears.

  “You are here to fight these nasty women?” Keyah asked both, serving the meal.

  “We’re here to try.” Rura raised his eyebrows. “Or at least get some peace agreement.”

  “These women cannot be reasoned with. They have dark thoughts. We can’t access water, Lila can’t be taught by the priests. It’s been hell, Rura.” She lifted her skirt and showed the swollen bruises on her leg. “I’ve been working all I can, but it’s simply not enough. The men, they want young women. They offered Lila a place and beat me for saying no. I can no longer work for them. I’ve been cleaning and cooking for those who live in this row, but they have nothing to give.”

  “You shouldn’t have to, Mother. The Chiefs should be looking after you.”

  “Since your father died, they don’t care for us. We are two women. There is nothing we can do.” Keyah gave them a bowl, sprinkled with brown powder. “Sometimes I wish your father was still around. He was a bastard, but he’d never let his own live like this.”

  Tau inspected the food and took a mouthful. The spices burnt his mouth. His eyes watered. Flinching, he grabbed his flask and guzzled it. It wasn’t enough. His fists clenched and face burnt up. Spluttering, he banged his chest. “What is this?”

  “Basic spices, vegetables and camelwheat.”

  Tau swallowed what was sticking to the back of his throat and pointed outside. “Apologies. I’m not used to spicy food. I’ll get some air.” He dashed outside and gasped, sticking out his tongue and drenching it with water. He dropped to the ground, closing his eyes, and savoured the coolness.

  “You’re not from around here, are you?” a weak, elderly voice said.

  Tau jumped and put his tongue back in his mouth. He squinted until he saw a woman sitting on a chair in the shade, hands trembling around a porcelain tea cup. “No. I’ve come from the other side of the world. Your food takes a bit of getting used to, eh?”

  She chuckled dryly and motioned with her hand. “Come here, young one. We don’t get visitors now.”

  It was either in a chair with an old lady or on the hard, roasting sandy floor. Taking the comfier option, he kept his eyes on Keyah’s tent.

  “You have star-callers in the west, yes?” She laid herbal leaves at the bottom of her chipped, matching cup.

  “Yes, we do. I’m not a big believer in them myself. My brother is a star-caller.”

  “I was a tea oracle back then. Past an
d future.” She pushed the cup forward and held out her hand. “Let me read.”

  Tau looked at the tea and then his hand. Full of doubt, he gave her his palm. Least he could do was let her feel useful. In this part of the world, women had few options in life, especially reaching the age she had. “Sure. Why not.”

  Her wrinkled fingers spread out his palm. Her small eyes were confused. She leant her head down to take a closer look. Tau thought she’d fallen asleep and felt her breathing on his wrist. He took the cup and enjoyed a sip. It was the first thing he’d tasted since arriving that hadn’t sent a shock down his spine.

  “Hmmm. Your father, tainted by fire.” She jabbed him repeatedly. “Here, yes?”

  Tau raised his eyebrows. He’d humour her for now; he was drinking her tea after all. His mother and Chika had taught him anyone could get access to the stories of other tribes easily, especially those in positions such as oracles, star-callers and witch doctors. She’d probably overheard his name. “Yes, he was.”

  “Your mother, she is mixed.” She motioned to her face in circles. “Different bloods.”

  “Yes, she is. She is Blood, Sun, Inferno, Hartcoriyo tribe mixed into one great bundle. I believe there is some Moon tribe in there, too.”

  “One sister, younger than you, and three brothers, all tall, dark.”

  Tau narrowed his eyes. “I have two brothers.”

  The old woman chewed her gums and clicked her lips. She tapped his palm as if waiting for a response. “Three. I count three. Sometimes, my old eyes can’t see like they used to. Blood link, you and eldest.”

  “Blood link? Now that’s an old phrase. Intertwined decisions, I take a piss, he takes a piss, am I right?”

  “Yes and no. Bigger decisions in life. You affect the other even with desert, forest and jungle between.”