Page 41

W eary from the day’s events, Jai slumped into his throne with a heavy groan. An increasing familiarity was creeping into these long hours of rulership, and he found himself pining for the peace and solitude of his scarcely used bedchamber. Winter had already absconded there, and was snoozing.

His moment of quiet awaited Sindri’s arrival. Her banners represented nearly one-sixth of his entire army, even if her civilian followers formed a far smaller proportion of his peoples. It was crucial to keep her happy, especially because if Zayn chose to leave, there was no telling how many Valor would follow him.

Feng poked his head through the tent entrance. ‘Sindri is here.’

‘Enter,’ Jai said.

Sindri stepped in, her eyes widening in awe as she took in the grandeur of Jai’s chamber, for he had forgotten to shut the curtain behind the throne. It occurred to him that many among the Tainted had never seen the inside of another Great Tribe’s camp, let alone a royal tent.

She walked closer to him, her eyes downcast, head bowed. She looked... different. Her hair had been oiled and she had clearly made use of the baths. Her face was made up, not just with kohl, but other intricate designs, dotted and curling around her eyes with red henna.

It was alluring, and beautiful, more detail emerging with every second he stared. He averted his gaze, realising he’d been fixated for too long.

‘My khan, permission to speak?’

Jai put on as comforting a smile as he could.

‘Speak freely, Sindri,’ Jai said. ‘And please, no need for such formality.’

She glanced up at him, hesitant. Then matched his smile with a weak one of her own. Feng coughed, and she nodded.

‘I thank you for settling our dispute with the traders,’ she said.

‘They brought it on themselves,’ Jai said. ‘But I hope your warriors have not been selling their share of the weapons. They will have need of them yet.’

Sindri’s brow creased as she struggled to understand.

‘Teji is a neutered bull, without his khiroi,’ she said. ‘You need not fear him.’

Jai shook his head.

‘I speak of the Sabines.’

Her laughter resounded in the tent, followed by a dismissive shake of her head.

‘Fighting them... that’s madness.’

‘Watch how you speak to your khan,’ Feng admonished sharply.

Sindri’s jaw tensed, her gaze lowered once more in a show of deference. ‘My apologies, my khan,’ she uttered.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room until Jai broke it.

‘Just call me Jai, Sindri, unless we are in public.’

She looked up, offering a nod in response. His casual address seemed to ease her slightly, yet she appeared reluctant to speak further. The abrupt shift in their relationship was, undoubtedly, hard to reconcile.

Feng cleared his throat, and she glanced over to him.

‘I... it’s about Zayn,’ she said. ‘May we speak alone?’

Feng bristled at that, but waited for Jai to speak.

‘Feng is my trusted adviser, Sindri. His disdain for Zayn is well known, but he is first and foremost loyal to me. You can trust him.’

After another moment of hesitation, she blurted her truth.

‘He plans to leave – tonight if you allow it. Now that I am no longer a queen... his men... they will not follow me.’

Jai chewed his lip, confused. He had always thought the Sithia had as many female khans as they did men, by way of primogenitor. Yet he remembered Zayn’s camaraderie with his warriors in the bathhouse, a bonding that Sindri couldn’t partake in.

‘How many are loyal to him?’ Jai asked.

‘Twenty,’ she said. ‘But as many again will follow them, out of kinship, blood bonds or marriage.’

Jai cursed beneath his breath. That was half the Valor’s warriors. And almost a tenth of his entire force.

‘What do you suggest?’ Jai asked.

She hesitated yet again.

‘My lord, we must speak privately.’

Jai puffed with annoyance, but caught Feng’s eye. He gave Feng a reluctant smile, and shrugged. His vizier sighed, and inclined his head.

‘Call out if you need me,’ Feng said, bowing and backing away.

‘He won’t,’ Sindri snapped.

Feng shrugged himself. ‘I’ll be right outside.’

No sooner had Feng left, she stepped closer to the throne, Jai assumed in case they were overheard. He leaned out to listen, only to find her hand cup his face.

She kissed him, her lips soft on Jai’s own, pushing him into the back of his seat. He felt her hands rake his chest, and for a moment, he was lost in the bliss of it, feeling her hard body, with all the deliciously soft parts, pressing closer to his own.

He pulled away suddenly, the movement jerking Sindri back. Temptation to draw her close once more filled him, but he pushed it away, thoughts of Erica’s face steeling his resolve.

Sindri touched her face, her eyes wide with hurt.

‘Do I not please you?’

Jai stood. She was beautiful, true, but this... it felt wrong.

‘What is this?’ Jai asked.

‘I would make a strong queen,’ she responded. ‘Marry me, and I’ll reclaim my title. The men will stay for a Valor queen.’

Jai stared, horrified. ‘I hardly know you,’ he said. ‘How can you ask this of me?’

She lowered her gaze, locks of hair cascading to hide her face, but not before a solitary tear betrayed her anguish. It struck Jai then, the depth of her pain. Overthrown by her own brother, robbed of her legacy – her heartache was palpable.

And Zayn had struck her. More than once. A brute, through and through.

She straightened, lifting her chin, and pawed the wet from her face where it had streaked her henna.

‘A concubine, then,’ she bargained. ‘Queen consort.’

It made sense, in its horrible way. This was politics, not love, and it secured something for both Sindri and him. But it wasn’t the way. For one thing, he did not love her, and – perhaps naively – that mattered to him. More, though, it didn’t actually solve the problem of Zayn. If anything, it could exacerbate the issue.

Jai shook his head slowly, and took her hand. It was shaking. Behind that hard facade, there was a sensitive heart.

‘What else can I do?’ Jai said.

She sniffed. Pulled back her hand, and stared away, as if she could see through the tent wall, and deep into the very steppe itself.

‘Those men follow Zayn because of his ambition. They want to be famed warriors. Scourges of the Great Steppe. Some even wish to become soulbound, as he is.’

Jai nodded, slowly.

‘Well, there will be plenty of battle with the Sab—’

‘No,’ Sindri said, cutting him off. She caught herself, though, and softened her tone.

‘Even if your five hundred could prevail over five thousand. They covet... all this.’

She gestured expansively at the grandeur of the tent, the throne – their present surroundings.

‘The Sabines lack khiroi and everything our people prize. Even Sabine weapons are ill-suited for khiro-back, and they would rather be stabbed than shoulder the disgrace of donning Sabine armour.’

‘The legion will have gold,’ Jai said. ‘Wages for the soldiers.’

Sindri threw her hands up, her frustration evident.

‘What use is gold?’

‘Every possible use,’ Jai retorted, his own irritation mounting. ‘Enough to purchase whatever they could desire.’

‘Did the incident with the traders earlier today escape your notice?’ Sindri questioned, her voice soothing. ‘They are ignorant of its value. Just ask Feng... he fleeced them worse than the traders did.’

Jai grimaced, knowing it to be true. He conceded the point, burying his face in his hand and giving a reluctant nod.

‘You want to confront the Sabines?’ she queried. ‘Then you need more warriors. Which means conquering other tribes.’

Jai gritted his teeth. His father had not been a conqueror, even in the face of Leonid. Jai wished to follow in his father’s footsteps. To earn alliances, unite the tribes.

Leonid was the conqueror. Jai would not become what he hated most.

‘How do you think the Valor became what it is today?’

Jai looked up.

‘Pull up a seat,’ he begrudged.

Sindri did so, dragging a cushion over, and wiping off the makeup with her sleeve – which told him all he needed to know about how much she had wanted to be married too.

At least that’s something we can agree on.

‘Zayn and I began with nothing,’ she began, her voice steady. ‘We were just two fettered escapees from a Phoenixian trader, sold there by a rival Tainted tribe before I could even form memories. Zayn recalls it – he was already a boy, but I was barely more than an infant. He does not speak of it.’

Jai listened intently. Even Feng did not know the whole story of the Valor. But now he knew why the Valor raided traders, ignoring the Pact.

‘We had but one khiro, an old nag we stole from our master. It could barely hold our weight, but it let us travel the steppe. We scavenged, scratched out a life. Zayn... he...’

She sniffed, and then composed herself.

‘He was big, even then. And he’d tended our master’s khiroi, knew their ways. So when we escaped, and the nag fell sick, he went out, alone. Left me in an oasis. For months, I waited, eating what our forebears had planted for me. And then he came back, soulbound to his Alkhara.’

Now she had Jai’s full attention.

‘Don’t you see, Jai. Strength begets strength. Whenever we encountered Tainted, they would join our cause. These were the outcasts of the outcasts. They wanted Zayn’s strength. His power.’

‘So I let other tribes join me,’ Jai said. ‘Is that not what we did with you?’

Sindri shook her head.

‘Just listen.’

She inhaled deeply, as if revisiting the memories was a struggle in itself.

‘We hunted khiroi with them. That’s how it started. Turned two khiroi into five, into ten, twenty. And then they came. The Valor.’

Jai stared at her, not understanding.

‘We lost many people that day. King Harpal, he abandoned those he deemed worthless. The children, the wounded. He tossed them aside like spoiled fruit.

‘But we swore our oaths. And we followed him. He married me, Jai. And Zayn became his right-hand man. When Harpal died of fever, I became their queen.’

‘What are you trying to tell me?’ Jai said.

‘That what happened to us was inevitable,’ she said. ‘The bigger tribes absorb the weak. It is the way of the steppe. We understood that. So too will the tribes you conquer. An alliance is a fragile thing, subject to the changing whims of those who make them. Oaths and khiroi, Jai. That is the true currency of the steppe.’

It was hard not to see the truth in these words. But it was easy to know this was not what he wanted.

‘The Valor had nearly a third of your army’s khiroi count when you met us in the field. That is because we understood this principle. We confronted our adversaries, vanquished those we could and held our ground against those we couldn’t. You must do the same.’

‘I have no need to,’ Jai snapped.

‘You are one of the so-called Great Tribes, diminished though your people have become over the years,’ she snapped. ‘That means your army is the weakest among them. Teji was a coward king, everybody knew it. The riteless did not flock to him. Traders circled him like vultures. What little your father left behind, he squandered in petty dealings and baubles.’

She sniffed, then stood.

‘You are not even rited. And that stands for something, even among the untainted, I’m told. I know for sure the Valor will never follow a riteless king.

‘As I said, Zayn will come in the morning, and demand his release, with many among the Valor at his back. I shall speak my case, but it will only carry so much weight.’

‘Again, I ask you: what do you propose I do?’ Jai asked.

Other than marry you , he thought.

‘I suggest you give them a reason to stay.’

Jai meant to reply, but she had already turned her back, stalking out with a feline air. He sighed, and called for Feng.

Sleep would have to wait a little longer.