Chapter 6
YUMA
Jed’s back was painfully twisted and his eyes were empty of life as he stood there. But a rattling breath escaped him, and his mouth opened, speaking words.
“Chief … run…”
Jed’s limbs quivered, and then his back straightened like a bowstring that had been released. He stumbled toward Yuma. The light had come back in his eyes, but it was a violet, inhuman light.
Calmly, Yuma placed her hand on her crossbow and lifted it toward Jed.
“Chief Herder of Danras. We meet for the second time.”
The Grim King’s voice was coming from Jed’s throat. It was not a voice to be easily forgotten. Rizona, perhaps still unaware of what was going on, was a dozen paces away and still had her back turned to them.
“Grim King,” she answered in a low voice.
She didn’t want to provoke him, but she had no desire to kneel before the one who had murdered Jed and was now desecrating his body. She did not lower her crossbow.
“It seems you have no desire to make offerings this year,” he said. “Is it because I took so many soldiers last winter?”
As if it hadn’t been enough to kill young Jed, he was now speaking through his dead body.
“Don’t you have enough corpses for your armies?” she growled.
The Grim King laughed.
“Do you think I have an unlimited supply of the dead? And what king doesn’t use his people as soldiers? Lansis and Iorca both gave me more soldiers than you did.”
“Danras does not overflow with people like those cities do. Winter is when we rest from our long season of herding. If we were to tear our herders away from the only time they have with their families to fight your wars, no one would be left to herd.”
The Grim King scoffed. “And that is your excuse for your disgruntlement? That is not a spirit befitting the governor of Merseh’s greatest city.”
“I am not your governor, Grim King. I simply look after the oroxen and the herders under the mandate of the traditions and citizens of Danras. You, however, are making such duties ever more difficult by the day. If you prevent us from raising our cattle, it will not be only Danras but all of Merseh that will fall. And that will spell the end of your skeletal throne.”
Even with her voice raised, Rizona was not looking her way. She prayed the girl knew to stay away. A rattling sound issued once more from Jed’s throat. Whether that was from the dead man himself or a sigh from the Grim King, Yuma could not tell.
“You na?ve little country girl. Too busy living among the beasts to realize heaven and earth are shifting all around you. The nations of the east and west, Cassia and the Empire, are clashing as we speak. If it weren’t for your king Eldred, Merseh would have been caught in the middle and your stinking oroxen wouldn’t have so much as a blade of grass to feed upon. ”
It sent chills down Yuma’s spine to hear the Grim King say his own name. Speaking it out loud was forbidden in Merseh. But of course, the very subject of the taboo wouldn’t mind such things. Yuma steadied her feelings before she spoke.
“We may be mere herders, but we know the world turns. We hear the news from the merchants who come from foreign parts.”
“How do you think these merchants have safe passage?” Eldred scoffed. “Do you know what sort of beast you have just killed?”
Yuma glanced at the horse that she had just put down. But she realized it was the long-necked monster she had slain earlier that the Grim King was speaking of, and she shook her head.
“A stormbird I brought from the northern land of Tythonia. I have others patrolling the borders creating storms and winds, blocking intruders. Without them, this land would be overrun by invaders and spies. But what would happen to Danras if the stormbird did not let the merchants pass and killed them all instead? Or if they made the river overflow with their rain? Don’t you see that there is nothing to be gained from the people disobeying their king? ”
Yuma said nothing. There was nothing to be said against such threats. In trying not to lose oroxen, a man and two horses had been killed. Her objection had already failed.
Jed’s body twitched. Despite being dead, the body seemed to be finding it hard to be a puppet. Rizona still had her back to them. Yuma lowered her crossbow.
“What is it you want me to do? Or is it your intention to harass us for the remainder of the herding?”
“You must make your tithes.”
Aidan had warned her that the Grim King could not be taught to behave. But she could not listen to someone who would not listen themselves. Even if they were the Grim King of Merseh. Giving a finger now would result in losing an arm later.
“I will not.”
“I have just declared I shall cut your trade and flood your city, but you persist in your disobedience?” His voice was full of scorn.
Yuma stood up straight.
“It has been hundreds of years since you conquered Merseh. We make our tithes, but the people of Danras value freedom above all else. If we cannot run our horses on the steppe under a blue sky, or winter with our families without fear of being pulled to fight someone else’s war, we would rather choose death. ”
A corner of Jed’s blue lips rose in a sneer.
“You would decide the fate of your city with those words. Let us see if you can stand behind them.”
With the sound of bones breaking, Jed’s neck slowly twisted like a rag being squeezed of water. Yuma almost vomited. Jed’s right shoulder swung back implausibly, popping and dislocating. His finger pointed to Rizona, who sat on her horse with her back to them.
The Grim King said, “In Danras, there are at least a thousand such children, are there not? If you would rather die than tithe your oroxen, you will not mind if we start with this one. Since you care so little.”
Yuma quickly raised her crossbow and aimed for the back of Jed’s head. “Stop!”
“Chief Herder of Danras, do you already regret your hasty words?”
“Stop, I said!”
Jed’s head turned again to face Yuma. His unnaturally twisted arm dropped back to his side. A terrible smile was on his lips.
“Good. It remains to be seen how much further you would go to defy me. I will exempt the tithe this year. But there is a task you shall do for me instead.”
A feeling of dread made her blood run cold. “A task?”
“As I repositioned the stormbird here to warn you of your folly, a spy has crossed Crow’s Bone Peak.”
“That wall of ice? There is no path through it.” Not even birds could go over the Crow’s Bone. It surprised her that the Grim King was bothering to watch that peak at all.
“It seems he’s a resourceful one. Find him.”
Yuma thought for a moment before answering. “The steppe is vast. I cannot be sure to succeed.”
“I, too, pin no great hopes on a mere cowherd. But if it was not a deed you were capable of, I would not task you to it. Come closer.”
As Yuma reluctantly approached, Jed’s twisted neck unwound itself and he opened his mouth. Violet light swirled inside. Yuma frowned as she stared into the light. His mouth opened wider, bloodlessly tearing at the corners, his jaw unhinging.
From the swirling came forth an emaciated hand in a sleeve of shadow and ember. White unfamiliar gemstones sparkled on the sleeve. Yuma had never seen the Grim King with her own eyes, but this had to be him. The hand opened. On the palm were two iridescent stones, both a little larger than a thumb.
Yuma spread her palm underneath the hand and the stones were dropped into it. A feeling of uncleanliness spread through her whole body. The Grim King’s hand disappeared into Jed’s mouth before his voice began to speak through Jed’s mouth once more.
“The Empire uses a strange sorcery called Power generators. Should the spy resist, crush one of these nullstones. It should be enough to stop their generator for a while.”
Given that the spy was entering from the west, Yuma had already suspected that the spy was coming from the “Empire” that had risen near the western shores.
The Empire had quickly gained power in the past few decades, conquering at first the smaller kingdoms that surrounded it before recently overcoming the great Emperor of Thiops in the south, a monarch said to command the very gods. Yuma rubbed the stones in her hand.
“And if it’s not enough?”
“Then use both of them. Must you be told everything? They are more precious than a thousand oroxen, so do not waste them.”
She had told the Grim King she could not guarantee capture, but Yuma knew the steppe through and through. If there was anything to be found in the grass sea of Merseh, the herders of Danras would find it.
“And what are we to do once we find him?”
There was no answer. When she took a careful step forward, Jed collapsed in front of her.
She crouched down and looked closely at Jed’s body. It was twisted in places from the Grim King’s manipulations, the neck broken. Just as she was thinking of what to say to his parents waiting for him back in the city, she heard a deep voice behind her.
“Chief.”
Aidan was here, on horseback. Yuma stood up.
“The Grim King was just here,” she said. She could feel tears coming, but she suppressed the sobs choking up her throat and quickly wiped her eyes with her knuckles. “We do not need to make our tithes this year.”
Half of Aidan’s face almost looked amused. “Is that what the Grim King said?”
“Yes. But we have to do something else for him instead.”
Yuma looked over at Rizona. She was still looking away, her horse’s head turned in the opposite direction from them.
“Rizona!” she shouted. “Let’s go back!”
There was no answer. She shouted again, but still no answer. A feeling of dread came over her as Yuma approached the young woman. But before she reached her, Rizona leaned forward onto her horse’s mane. Yuma ran. Aidan called after her.
Rizona sat on her horse, dead. Her clothes, saddle, and hair were soaked with blood.