Chapter 24
YUMA
The Herd Meet was held in a large chamber deep within the Feast Hall.
Precious fragrant wood had been carved into a large table, which was surrounded by chairs made of excellent-quality leather.
The walls were hung with plaques bearing the names of the Chief Herders throughout time.
The names went back for hundreds of years, though not to the very beginning of Danras—before there was a Grim King, before there was even an alphabet, Merseh had oroxen, herders, and a Chief Herder.
Twice a year—when the herding was over and when it began—the community leaders of Danras gathered in this room for the Herd Meet, to discuss matters of the oroxen. Yuma had attended many of these meetings, but this was the first time she was presenting a matter that had nothing to do with herding.
The people of Danras had been fascinated by the emissary who had entered their city on horseback with a giant machine horse trailing behind him.
Yuma, during the three days they had spent so far in Danras, had not let Lysandros go outside, to avoid any incident.
The rumor of the Grim King wanting this man had spread all over Danras even before they’d returned.
And now the time for the Meet approached.
The two of them arrived early, and so they were the only ones in the room.
After taking a close look at everything in the room, Lysandros sat down—since this was the first time he would be presented to the leaders of Danras, they had given him a seat of honor at the end of the table, and Yuma sat down next to him, against usual protocol.
Lysandros turned to Yuma and said, “Wouldn’t it be better if I spoke? ”
Yuma denied him outright. “No. You can’t speak formal Mersehi, and the people we’re about to meet are very particular about rules and manners.”
“But Chief Herder is still supreme?” Lysandros smiled.
Yuma smiled back. “My word has weight, but they are all important people. They need to be persuaded. Danras has never made a decision like this. To go against the Grim King…”
The dread she had been trying to keep down began to rise in her again. Defying the Grim King was unthinkable for anyone in this country. Yuma herself had taken a long time to come to this decision, and now she had to convince the other leaders of Danras in the course of one gathering.
“Don’t worry. Once we have the support of Danras, and then the whole of Merseh, the Empire will be indomitable.” He reached out and grabbed her hand. She gripped back and nodded.
For the first time since they had entered, the doors to the Herd Meet opened.
The two let go of each other’s hands and stood.
Each person took off their hat as they entered, pressed it to their chest, and bowed to Yuma, who reciprocated each time with a bow of her own.
Just as he was taught, Lysandros bowed with her.
Usually about twenty leaders were invited to this meeting, half of whom showed up in person and the other half by proxy.
But this time, there were more people than invited.
Because of the rumors, most likely—that the Chief Herder had brought the Imperial prisoner who was to be sent to the Grim King.
That she had become very intimate with this prisoner.
There wasn’t anyone in Danras who hadn’t heard the rumors, and so she knew they had all come to see for themselves.
But this was another reason Yuma had kept Lysandros hidden, letting everyone’s curiosity build—she wanted as many people as possible to come today and hear what she had to say.
“Who is the man across from us?” Lysandros whispered.
“Old Man Bruden. He owns the most horses in all of Danras. Your Kentley is one of his.”
“I see.” He cleared his throat. “And the woman to the left? Those white clothes…”
“Granny Jesska. A leather trader. Her family are some of the only people who ever leave the country. She’s wearing white because…
” She couldn’t find the words. Jesska was Rizona’s grandmother, and the robes meant she was in mourning.
When Yuma told her of her granddaughter’s death three days ago, Jesska had not shed a single tear.
She had simply said she needed to tell the family and that the Chief Herder could leave.
Yuma knew the slight trembling in Jesska’s voice hadn’t been from sadness but from rage.
But whether it was toward Yuma or the Grim King, Yuma couldn’t tell.
She could only say that she was sorry she could not protect Rizona and then leave as she was told.
“The woman who just walked in?”
“Katerin. The older sister of the Host.” She exchanged nods with her. They were old friends who had learned to ride and shoot together. Until Dalan had become the Host, Katerin had raised her little brother in lieu of their parents, who had been dragged off to the Grim King’s war and killed.
Lysandros asked about a few more of the guests, and they were precisely those whose favor would guarantee him safety. Yuma answered each inquiry in a low voice, silently marveling at how he managed to pick out the most important people—were all emissaries of the Empire as keen as he was?
There were so many uninvited guests that the later arrivals had to stand along the wall behind the chairs.
A murmur filled the room, and words like “Grim King,” “Empire,” and “war” reached Yuma’s ears.
In Danras, staring too intently at someone was considered poor manners, but many couldn’t help giving the outsider a furtive glance or two too many.
Lysandros seemed unfazed, meeting each stare with his own.
Yuma stood. The usual signal was to ask for the doors of the gathering room to be closed, but there were so many people in the room—or trying to get into the room—that the door was blocked. So instead, Yuma cleared her throat. The murmurs died down, and attention gathered on her.
“Welcome. I see many have come today. Unprecedented as it may be, it is precisely because of the importance of what we are about to—”
“Chief Herder, because it is so unprecedented, let us get to the heart of it,” said Bruden in his hoarse voice.
His stony expression was clearly evident even from all the way at the other end of the table from Yuma.
“The oroxen are fat and their hides shine in the sun. And not one head was tithed to the Grim King, so nothing more needs to be said about the herding. Let us move on to this guest who sits there beside you.”
The murmurs started again. Yuma looked around at the almost one hundred people who were in the room. She could sense their hopes, worries, fears—feelings were running high. It felt like Yuma’s own feelings had been shattered into a hundred pieces and handed out among them.
She gave Bruden a nod. “All right, Old Man Bruden. This man,” she said as she laid a hand on his shoulder, “is from the Empire in the west, an emissary named Lysandros. The Grim King tasked us to bring Lysandros to him, but I decided against that and have brought him here instead.” Yuma left out the details of her consultation with the Host. If what she suspected would happen did actually happen, she wanted all complaints and objections directed to her and her alone.
The proportion of fear increased in the room. Ignoring this shift, Yuma continued.
“The Empire asks for Merseh’s help in their war against Cassia to the east. They wish to build a camp near Danras and to break the Grim King’s barricades blocking the Dead Man’s Pass, building a permanent road through the southern edge of Rook Mountains. I want to allow them.”
Murmurs again. Bruden, his arms crossed, was nodding. Jesska sat expressionless as she gazed in their direction. Hoping to find encouragement, Yuma glanced at Katerin, but she found only worry and fear on her friend’s face.
Someone asked, “What do we get in return?”
Yuma answered without hesitation.
“Freedom from the Grim King’s tyranny.”
Shouts this time. The dominant emotion in the room was now horror. People kept raising their voices over each other, and Yuma understood no one. But she could guess at what they were asking.
She held up both her hands to quiet the crowd and shouted, “I am aware of everyone’s concerns! But I am also of the belief that the Empire has the strength and the willingness to drive out the Grim King for good.”
Jesska stood. She was a little younger than Bruden, but perhaps because of her trading travels, she looked much older.
“Chief Herder. At this year’s herding, my granddaughter Rizona was killed on the mercurial whim of the Grim King Eldred.” Mention of Eldred’s name elicited another terrified reaction from those present, but Jesska continued. “Do you know who this is behind me?”
His face looked familiar, but Yuma was unaware of the man’s name or trade.
He stood there in silence, his hand on the back of Jesska’s chair.
Seeing that Yuma was unable to answer, Jesska said, “This is Jed’s father, Klide.
This is not a gathering to which he would normally be invited, but he lost his son on the same day I lost my granddaughter.
And we are united in one thing, which is why we came here today, despite the difference in our standing in the community. ”
Yuma remembered then. Jed’s father was a slaughterhand, who lived outside the city walls.
She had Aidan deliver the news of Jed’s death to Klide.
The grieving man met his gaze with Yuma’s.
She averted it reflexively, guilt hitting her for not paying her condolences personally. She gestured to Jesska.
“Please continue.” Yuma knew Jesska was no friend to the Grim King, but she was conservative in most matters.
While often she had been Yuma’s ally, she was sure to bring up the fact that it was Yuma’s refusal to pay tithes that caused the deaths of the two young herders.
Yuma braced herself for a condemning speech.
But Jesska sat back down. “I have traveled much in my time. Is there any place in this world where there is no suffering, no worry? Some places flood every year and their houses are washed away; others have beasts that could swallow a man alive on his way home. This country gets its wealth stolen and its people murdered on a whim. But we are born here, not anywhere else. This is our lot in life.”
The seething rage in her voice from three days ago was gone, leaving only fatigue and sorrow.
It was only too understandable. All of the hostility toward the Grim King, the resentment she had felt toward Yuma, would’ve burned away in the past three days.
Rizona was dead, and no matter what they did, she would never come back. Rage was short; sadness was long.
“I understand what you mean,” Yuma replied, “but how long must we accept things as they are? In a land where floods are frequent, they build canals and dams. In countries where beasts are lethal, they hunt them. Even wars that last a hundred years must end in victory for one side or the other. Even if those who think this is our destiny would keep living as we are—”
Jesska slammed her hands against the table. There were no murmurs this time as the room fell dead silent.
“Chief Herder. You say, then, that we can do this? With a four-legged box and a foreigner who isn’t able to walk on his own—we can defeat the Grim King?”
Even in those words, there was no anger. Rizona’s death had exhausted Jesska’s capacity for it. If Lysandros had not appeared, would Yuma have been the same? Given up and kept her head down for the sake of one fewer death?
“Granny Jesska—” Yuma started.
“Chief Herder! Chief Herder!”
Someone was pushing through the crowd around the table—Aidan, despite having now entered the gathering room, did not take off his hat. He looked more panicked than when the stormbird had appeared over the herd. Even the hardened side of his face showed fear.
“What’s the matter?” Yuma asked immediately.
“The Grim King is here.”
There were gasps around the room. Aidan’s face twitched with fear, perhaps for knowing better than all of them the true terror of the Grim King.
Yuma tried to sound as dispassionate as possible. “This fast … and himself personally?”
“Not in his own body, but…”
Yuma remembered the last time she met the Grim King, when he had possessed Jed’s corpse to speak with her.
Aidan continued. “His general demands the handover of the Imperial spy.”
She must stay calm. Yuma repeated this to herself a few times and looked around the table at everyone.
“Evacuate the children to the catacombs, and the elders somewhere deep in their houses, as they may be required to fight,” Yuma said with every ounce of authority she could muster. “Everyone else, be ready with your weapons for the ringing of the bell.”
The crowd hurried out of the gathering room, Jesska being helped by Klide.
The two of them, before they went out the door, looked back at Yuma.
She knew what they wanted from her, but she could not give it.
So instead, she turned to Lysandros, wondering what he must be thinking in this moment where his destiny was to be decided.
Lysandros sat exactly where he was, unmoving and calm. Then, he licked his lips, and smiled a smile more savage than she had ever seen on him before.