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As he passed through their ranks unmolested, each boy bowed his head, unable to sustain the clarity of his brilliant silver gaze. Two Talisman pages leapt forward to raise the flaps of the tent as he entered. He memorized their faces and thanked them in a quiet voice.
Bewildered by this show of respect, they retreated without daring to speak. Daniyar sighed, the movement of his powerful shoulders shifting the Cloak to one side. They reminded him of Wafa, the Hazara boy under his care who distrusted any show of kindness.
Inside the tent, he was greeted by wary commanders, all of whom were armed. He searched out those who might recognize him as the defender of the First Oralist, sworn enemy to these men. The Talisman’s war was as much against the women mystics known as the Companions of Hira as it was against the Black Khan. Led by the One-Eyed Preacher, the Talisman sought to bring all of Khorasan under their ruthless law. None who defied that law were spared. Women faced a darker fate, sold in slave-chains to the north. Like the Black Khan, the Companions of Hira stood in the way of the Talisman advance. Daniyar had pledged himself to their cause, and to the cause of one woman in particular: Arian, the First Oralist.
The woman he loved.
He’d fought his kin for her; he’d killed for her without a second thought.
Now, as he searched the faces of the commanders, he wondered if any might recognize him not just as her defender, but also as the rider who had killed his own cousin at the frozen city of Firuzkoh. Or if any had witnessed his killing of the Talisman leader who had roused a mob against Arian in Candour, when Arian had taken the Sacred Cloak from its shrine. Or worse yet, if any might know him from the Sorrowsong, where he’d lied to his Shin War clan mates, to further Arian’s cause. The Lord of the Wandering Cloud Door had slaughtered the Shin War at the Sorrowsong, but there was always the possibility that one or more of the Shin War had escaped to sound the alarm.
But as he looked around the ring of hostile faces, no one accused him of being a traitor to the Shin War. Rather, he recognized two young men as boys he had taken into his care, now grown to manhood as soldiers capable of leadership. Though the others made no personal greeting, these two bowed their heads.
He stepped over the threshold, careful not to touch it with his boots, a sign of grave disrespect. The Talisman kept their hands on their swords. Daniyar lowered his to his sides, bowing his dark head in greeting.
The Talisman moved back, allowing him a view of the interior of the tent. Despite the exigency of the moment, the tent had been arranged for comfort, the walls lined with white felt, bright blue carpets scattered across the floor, and low cushions arranged around a steel stove for warmth, smoke from its long shaft escaping through a hole in the roof.
At the far side of the tent, a dozen women huddled together, their heads bowed, their soot-darkened faces streaked with tears. As Daniyar made his way closer to the stove, they glanced up at him quickly and just as quickly away. A closer look showed him that the women had been chained at the ankles, as were a pair of girls, although two of the women in the group had been left unrestrained to prepare food for the commanders. They performed the task ably despite their overriding fear. Rage flared behind his eyes, but Daniyar did nothing to betray it.
When tea was served in small metal cups, Daniyar was told to take a seat on the cushions. Judging from the Talisman’s grim expressions, he knew none of the men would move from their positions until he did so. The sound of the Black Khan’s army strengthening its defenses filled the night. Daniyar ignored it. Removing his sword and placing it away from his hand, he took his seat. The girl who served his tea glanced at him. He met her gaze frankly, not to convey disrespect, but on the chance that she might know who he was and take an instant’s comfort from his presence. Her hands trembled in response, spilling hot tea on his wrist. He jerked it away without a sound to betray her, but the Talisman commanders had seen. The man closest to her, an Immolan whose beard had been dyed dark red with henna, struck a blow to the girl’s back. She fell at Daniyar’s feet. The other women whimpered at the promise of violence to come. Daniyar placed his hands under the girl’s arms and gently raised her to her feet. This time when her eyes met his, they widened before she ducked her head. She had recognized him as the Silver Mage. The trembling of her body eased, but her dark eyes remained without hope.
“What is your name?” he asked her.
“Masoumeh,” she whispered, with a frightened glance over her shoulder. A pang of sorrow seized him. The girl’s name meant “innocence.” And from her accent and her finely formed features, he saw that she was a girl of West Khorasan, under the Black Khan’s protection, likely one of the refugees who had failed to find safe harbor at Ashfall.
The Immolan who’d struck her snarled at the girl to remove herself. Then he turned on Daniyar, the two men face-to-face, both powerful and dangerous, though Daniyar was seated with his sword set aside as an indication of his sincerity in seeking a truce. The Immolan’s gaze flicked to the Shin War crest that Daniyar wore at his throat.
His face marked by a thousand cruelties, the Immolan said, “As a member of the Shin War, a woman taken as a slave should be beneath your notice.” He jerked his head in the direction of Ashfall. “Or do you solicit the weak as your companions?”
The storm continued to gather in the depths of Daniyar’s eyes, though his voice was even when he answered, “In violence, I seek my equals.”
The insult was subtle yet unmistakable; the tension in the atmosphere deepened.
Then laughter rippled through the men.
The Immolan sliced a glare at the others, but the men fell silent only when a white-bearded elder raised his hand. He took a seat on one of the cushions. When he was settled, the other commanders copied him. The elder was in his eighth decade. He carried a staff instead of a sword, which he closed his hand around and kept near to him. His thin face was alert, eyes of charcoal gray betraying a steely intelligence as he made his assessment of Daniyar.
But it was to the Immolan he spoke.
“Have I not warned you against your misuse of the weak? The One entrusts them to our care, and this girl is nothing but a frightened child.” His disapproval was plain. “You bring dishonor to your name, Baseer.”
The insult was keen, Daniyar realized, for Baseer meant “one of great vision.”
Baseer was undaunted. He sat across from Daniyar, close enough to convey menace.
“She is one of the enemy. I give the enemy no quarter.”
To see what the Talisman elder would do, Daniyar ventured a response. “I thought you came here to test your strength against that of the Zhayedan army. Are your talents better suited to vanquishing an innocent girl?”
He laid a slight emphasis on the meaning of Masoumeh’s name. And he knew that by involving the girl in his scheme, he had no choice but to ensure her escape with his own. She had shrunk down beside the other women at the back, and though the women were frightened, they had come together to shield the girl from Baseer’s malevolent gaze.
Baseer spat at Daniyar’s feet. Close enough to insult him, but not enough to comprise a transgression of the loya jirga.
“Baseer!” The Talisman elder issued a rebuke that Baseer met with surly disrespect, when the elder went on to add, “We have a guest in our midst.”
“We have an enemy in our midst,” Baseer rejoined. “Remember it, Spinzhiray.”
The title referred to the elder’s white beard, yet also encompassed more: the elder’s courage, his wisdom, his skillful use of rhetoric. Though a loya jirga was a consultation of equals, the Spinzhiray held a position of seniority, one of status among the Talisman.
Daniyar observed the reaction of the men in the circle to Baseer’s disrespect. The two he knew kept their eyes on him, while several of the others were openly angry at Baseer. Now and again, a few of the commanders would let their gazes drift to the cloak on Daniyar’s shoulders, a touch of wonder in their eyes. Two other men shifted closer to the elder, who seemed to take Baseer’s arrogance in stride. His personal guard, perhaps, but others stood at Baseer’s back.
The Spinzhiray didn’t respond to Baseer, his focus on Daniyar. He advanced a small clay bowl into the center of their gathering. He took a ring that featured an eagle carved from a block of blue stone threaded with streaks of white from his finger.
“A gesture of trust.”
Daniyar understood. He removed the ring of the Silver Mage from his finger and placed it in the bowl. Its piercing light arrowed up through the hole in the tent’s roof.
Then, obeying the rites of consultation, he waited for the Spinzhiray to speak.
The older man captured his gaze with his own, his gray eyes shrewd and deep-set in his battle-scarred face.
“I’d hoped I would not pass from this earth without meeting the Silver Mage, the Guardian of Candour. Tell me—why do you stand with the Black Khan’s army?” He noted the torn crest at Daniyar’s throat, the stroke of black on a field of green.
Baseer interrupted before Daniyar could answer. “How do we know he is one of our own? Or that he holds to our code?”
Again Daniyar waited for the Spinzhiray to speak. But in this case, the elder tipped his staff at Daniyar, an indication for him to answer.
Looking from the Spinzhiray to Baseer, Daniyar offered, “The Shin War I know recognize melmastia, and I am a guest in your tent.” He acknowledged their hospitality by taking a sip of his tea. “Nanawatai—forgiveness. Turah—courage. Musaawat—equality. Wisa—trust. And ghayrat—self-honor.” He nodded at the elder. “I place the ring of the Silver Mage in your bowl, and the sword of the Silver Mage at my side, because I have no fear in your company. I rely upon your honor.”
Something in the men settled at those words. They sat back on their heels, their hands easing off their swords.
“You forgot badal. What is a member of the Shin War—of any of the Talisman tribes—without his commitment to revenge?”
Daniyar considered how best to answer Baseer. A tribal society that defended its lands from warfare found revenge necessary not only to uphold their honor, but for survival.
“What is meted out in self-defense, I see as a matter of justice, not of dishonor or revenge,” he said at last.
“You think to recalibrate the foundations on which the Shin War have stood?”
Daniyar shook his head, realizing that nothing he could say would win Baseer’s favor. Turning to the Spinzhiray, he said, “Honor is the foundation of everything we stand for.” Flicking a steely glance at Baseer, he added, “You point out my omissions, but what of yours? You chose not to mention naamus.”
Baseer made a show of grasping his sword.
“The honor of women?” He pretended to laugh. “Women have no honor.”
Unexpectedly, the Spinzhiray said, “They are garments for you, and you are garments for them.”
And having just had his involvement with the Black Khan questioned, Daniyar now wondered how a man who would recite this verse of the Claim could be in a position of leadership at this loya jirga. Encouraged, he nodded at the corner where the women in the tent had taken shelter.
“The Shin War code that I was taught defended the honor of women. Violence against those weaker than ourselves is outlawed by that code.”
A murmur in the tent. He sensed the tacit agreement of the orphans he had taken in.
“Are you the champion of the weak, then?” the Spinzhiray asked, with a look Daniyar couldn’t read.
His answer was straightforward. “Such was my trust as Guardian of Candour.”
“Yet you are not in Candour. And I think Baseer is right to ask why the Guardian of Candour makes his stand at the Black Khan’s walls.”
The mood in the tent tautened once more, the canvas like the lungs of a living being, inflating and deflating with each syllable. A curl of victory shaped Baseer’s lips. Yet when Daniyar made another slow sweep of the men gathered for the loya jirga, he observed a range of responses: admiration and respect from some, uncertainty and fear from others. If he was honest with them, if he spoke the truths of the Silver Mage, some might choose to ally with him. He could see from the way a few paid heed to the women at the back that the taking of slaves unsettled them. Perhaps they could still be persuaded to his point of view.
His voice rough, he said, “I am tired of war. I am tired of the desolation of our lands.” He motioned with a hand, something of his grief in the gesture. “What Candour was compared to what it has become—you must feel it as deeply as I do.” He turned his head to indicate the city of Ashfall. “It is not the way of Shin War, nor of any of our tribes, to wage war against those who do not act against us. The Black Khan seeks to hold his capital. His armies have not ventured into our lands; they haven’t sought to conquer.”
Baseer leaned forward so that his forearms were braced on his thighs, his face close to Daniyar’s. In its harsh lines and powerful certainty, Daniyar understood that this was a man who thrived on war. And to whom the Shin War code was a tool exploited for his own purposes or discarded when it failed to serve him.
“The Black Khan’s truce is a stratagem. You are a fool to believe otherwise.”
Daniyar’s gaze flicked to the Spinzhiray.
“Would you not hold your walls if there was an army at your gates? An army that takes your women captive?” Though it galled him to speak on the Black Khan’s behalf, he added, “The Khan has his own sense of naamus.”
He pointed to the young men he had tutored. They snapped to attention, their spines stiff with pride.
“Why waste their lives on this cause? Gather your men and take them home to engage in work with purpose. Allow them to build their future—restore the glory of Candour.”
He made no attempt to hide the depth of his longing for this outcome.
The men began to debate among themselves, but Daniyar watched the Spinzhiray. Despite the egalitarian structure of the council, its hierarchy would prevail.
“You think our war unjust?” he asked Daniyar, under the cover of the others’ voices.
Daniyar stared at the pulsing light that spiraled out from his ring. The silver light had wrapped itself around the lapis lazuli stone of the other man’s ring. The carved eagle appeared ready to take flight. He took a steadying breath: an honest answer would be seen as an insult, yet the Spinzhiray would see through a lie. With great care, he posed a question instead.
“How many of the Black Khan’s people have you killed or enslaved on your route to Ashfall?”
The Spinzhiray’s nobbled fingers stroked the soft wool of his beard. “To spread the message of the One across these lands is an act of justice.”
The Talisman commanders nodded one by one. In their renewed silence, Daniyar’s sharp ears picked up a sound that filled his thoughts with urgency. The actions of the Zhayedan were intensifying: they were preparing to attack.
He’d known better than to trust the Black Khan, but what other choice had there been? Arian was behind those walls. She was determined to take on the One-Eyed Preacher, even if she did so alone.
He sought a truce with the Talisman because he’d taken on her cause as his own. He had turned from her once, then promised himself he wouldn’t fail her again.
“The people of West Khorasan have long adhered to the message of the One. They named their western gate the Messenger Gate after the Messenger of the One.”
The Spinzhiray’s eyes sharpened … hardened … and Daniyar knew the battle was lost. There would be no truce with the Talisman this night. Or any of the nights that came after.
“Their court is corrupt, their practices a barbarity. The Black Khan’s scriptorium houses works of the profane.”
Daniyar fought not to show his outrage at this characterization of a place dedicated to the preservation of knowledge. “I have visited the scriptorium myself. Treatises on medicine and mathematics are anything but profane.” He debated the wisdom of mentioning the Bloodprint, then decided to keep his knowledge to himself. “The rest is for the One to judge.”
The elder’s grip tightened on his staff as Baseer rose to his feet.
“The One has judged. We have come to carry out the judgment.”
“Spinzhiray, I beg you to put the lives of your men before these notions of judgment.”
The elder shook his head in disapproval. “The dunya is of no value compared to the rewards of the Akhirah.”
A standard Talisman formula: the present world was only a means to gain the bounty of the afterlife. The Talisman used the formula to justify oppression. They would spend the lives of the boys in their army, boys he had once sheltered in Candour, without counting the cost.
“There will be no truce,” he continued. “No retreat.”
The Talisman commanders assisted the Spinzhiray to his feet. Daniyar collected his sword and sheathed it. Before he could bend to reclaim his ring, a roar shattered the night. The wind was in Daniyar’s eyes as a giant boulder tore through the roof of the tent, obliterating the stove, killing the commanders closest to it.
Screams filled the air. Orders were shouted across the tent, but what Daniyar’s keen hearing picked up was the cranking noise of the mechanism that raised the Zhayedan’s catapults. He called out a warning to the others to flee, his eyes on the women who crouched at the back of the tent. He wasn’t swift enough to act. A second boulder followed the first, its terrifying heft bringing the tent to utter silence. When the sound of the crash receded, Daniyar looked across to the back of the tent. The corner where the women had sheltered was ripped away. No one had survived, blood and bone strewn across the carpets.
He was seized from behind by two Talisman commanders who pushed him before the Spinzhiray. The elder’s white robes were flecked with blood and bits of flesh. But the Spinzhiray was used to death. His hands were steady on his staff, his charcoal eyes aflame with rage.
“The Guardian of Candour engaged in rank deception—you called for the loya jirga knowing the Zhayedan would strike!”
“No!” Daniyar protested, struggling to free himself, but the two men who held him were strong. They pinned his arms behind his back. “I could not wear the Sacred Cloak and lie—you know this!”
The Spinzhiray moved close enough that Daniyar felt his breath on his face. He ripped the Shin War crest from Daniyar’s throat, leaving it vulnerable and exposed.
“I know only this: you are a member of the Shin War without honor. Kill him, Baseer.”
Baseer, too, was covered in the blood of others, but his eyes gleamed with unholy satisfaction. He nodded at Daniyar’s captors, who forced him to his knees. He heard the sharp, metallic scrape of a well-honed sword pulled from its sheath.
He raised his head, finding the young men who had known him in Candour.
“It isn’t true,” he said. It mattered to him to convince them, even if he were to die here. “I came to you in good faith for the sake of our people. To barter for their lives and yours.”
Baseer poised his sword at the nape of Daniyar’s neck. “You have no people now. You are a traitor expelled from his clan. But that won’t matter to you soon.”
He raised his sword for the killing blow just as flaming arrows whistled into the tent. Fire licked up the felt walls, collapsing what remained as the Talisman tore them down. Screams scraped against the vastness of the sky. Baseer was taken by an arrow. The two men who held Daniyar released him, fleeing outside into the night.
Daniyar came to his feet in a powerful lunge.
“Run,” he said to the young soldiers he knew. “Find your way to Candour.”
Smoke thickened the air, slicked over his skin, and coiled up into his lungs. Flames devoured the tent, and all around him were the sounds of the Talisman regrouping for war.
One of the young soldiers looked him in the eye and spit out, “Khaeen.” Daniyar flinched from the viciousness of the word. But unable to hold the gaze of the Silver Mage after naming him a traitor, the soldier turned on his heel and fled.
Daniyar knew that his own would turn against him now. They would, as the young man had, consider him khaeen; they would erase him from the history of his people. The loneliness of being severed from his clan was a wound that throbbed in his chest, achingly familiar and dull.
My course was honorable, he told himself. No matter what they say about me, I did not betray who I am meant to be.
