Page 52 of The Merciless Ones
Ah… There it is again, that word. Any time pious men want to level an insult, they have to dredge it up. But I’m not bothered by it. “Her name is no longer Fatu, you know, it’s White Hands,” I say calmly. “She decided to adopt it as her new name for this new age.” I don’t bother addressing the other word, the insult. There’s no point, when I intend to do so using the sharpened edges of my atikas.
“Fatu, White Hands – it doesn’t matter what you call her. The first of the war queens is the same as she ever was: an abomination, a curse upon this empire,” Elder Kadiri sneers. It’s almost soothing, actually, seeing all that hatred pour out of him, watching as his true colours emerge.
“I spent countless years studying her, reading of her exploits,” he continues. “Of course, she would send you, the Nuru, to complete this task. She’s manoeuvring you, isn’t she? Building your legend, your power? But that’s what she does, which is how I anticipated her – except you did that little trick with the doors, tried to spirit yourself away… Thankfully, Idugu tracked you here. He has complete power over the city, you know. When He told us you’d returned, I knew we had to bring your father. He was the only one who could call to you like that, make you show yourself.”
He chuckles. “For all your faults, you’re quite the devoted daughter, aren’t you, Nuru Deka? The moment you heard his distress, every practical thought disappeared into the ether. Even though he’d cast you out, sanctioned your death.”
He glances at Elfriede. “He even beheaded her once, yes?”
When she nods in acknowledgement, something flares inside me, suspiciously close to anger. But it can’t be anger. Anger isn’t chilly and removed like this strange, ugly feeling splintering in my chest.
I watch her through narrowed eyes as she replies, “He did.
Then he left her in that cellar with the priests. He knew she was an abomination, an affront to all that is holy. But Idugu is merciful. He sees worth even in creatures like her.”
Her voice is suddenly like a nail, grating inside my skull. “Don’t talk,” I snap, unable to bear the sound any longer. “If you want to live, don’t say another word.”
I can almost feel her smiling behind her plain wooden piety mask as she replies, “If I want to live? You’re surrounded, Deka, both you and your foul bloodsister.” She sneers out the word at Britta, as if my friend is somehow beneath her. “There will be no escape for you. Just as there was no escape for your father, heretic that he was.”
With every word she says, the world fades, changing to a darker, more shadowed version of itself. I’m slipping into the combat state and now Elfriede is no longer a person – just a person-shaped shadow of bright white, her heart flaring brightest of all. I concentrate on it.
One beat. Two. Three.
Elfriede doesn’t notice the danger as she continues spewing her venom. “How I didn’t see the darkness in you, I’ll never understand.”
Elder Kadiri turns, pats her head paternally. “It’s not your fault, my child. Evil blinds us. But that is why Idugu is here: to shine the light of truth upon this world. To drive the evil back to the darkness.”
Grim laughter rattles in my throat. Evil? I glance back at Father, his lifeless body lying there in the broken shards of Britta’s fortress, so far from everything he knew and loved. All those years he spent faithfully reciting the Infinite Wisdoms, honouring its every pronouncement, only to end up like this, a forgotten body in a forgotten alley.
I turn to the priest. “We’re the evil ones?” I grate out.
“Deka,” Britta whispers warningly. She’s been glancing around the alley, no doubt trying to find a retreat, but there is none.
There’s only the Agbeni River behind us, but both she and Ixa are too weak to swim. Even if they weren’t, the river cows don’t look kindly on intruders at this hour of the evening: they’re known to gore strangers at night.
There is absolutely no avenue of escape from this dingy alley, and for once, the thought doesn’t frighten me. All I feel is a strange, perverse excitement.
Elder Kadiri smiles at me pityingly. “You are the foulest of all creatures, Nuru Deka, a blight upon this land, but Idugu, in His wisdom, feels you can be redeemed. You will come when He calls.”
“Or what?” I challenge. “What will you do if I disobey his call, execute me?”
“If that is what you wish.” Elder Kadiri gestures indolently to the jatu.
And the first wave of men comes rushing forward.
Even before they near, red has hazed my vision, instinct replacing thought. I’m a blur of motion as I cleave the nearest jatu straight through the middle, then move on to the next one. Within moments, sound and colour blur, heads rolling, arms flying, blood and viscera spraying the air. A distant pain stabs through one of my arms, and I look down to find it almost completely severed. I jerk it back into place before continuing on, cutting a swathe with my atikas. More heads fall, more guts, more viscera. But I just keep moving. Keep fighting. I don’t know how long I’m at it, don’t know how long I fight those jatu, only that I continue doing so with such ferocity, there are suddenly no more jatu bodies to cut through.
When I look up, startled, every inch of me is covered in blood, and of our enemies, only Elfriede and Elder Kadiri remain standing, both of them huddled in the centre of the alley, having been protected by the men who died.
The ground is so wet with blood now, my boots squelch as I walk over to them. Elfriede squeaks, retreating behind the elder when I near, but the priest lifts his chin defiantly.
I press the tip of my atika to his exposed throat.
“Remind me once again, if you will, of the words you uttered earlier,” I say. “I believe you called me evil, a blight upon this world or some such thing…”
Elder Kadiri walks deeper into the atika, not even flinching when the blade breaks through his skin. I’m amused to find that underneath the blue of his skin, his blood is red, just like every other human. But unlike most, he doesn’t cower when I press the atika deeper.
Brave man. Foolish man.