Chapter 28 #2
Shayim was right, Kasik thought. Her Seeing was coming to pass, and she didn’t even know it. At some point, Kasik had leaned forward to match
Maicu’s position. They were two childhood friends again, boys plotting against the world once more. “I can take my men to
find them. Samaq and the others, they—”
Maicu interrupted with a sigh. He hung his head and folded his hands together between his legs. Kasik swallowed his words,
his stomach filled with dread. “We haven’t heard word from your contingent since they left.”
It felt as if his ears were filled with cotton. His racing thoughts poured out of his mouth. “They should have sent a missive halfway. I can find out what’s happened. I’m sure it was just the weather holding them up. I fought against the rain for the first part of my journey, and it was—”
“Kasik,” Maicu interrupted gently, his eyes soft. Pitying. “I need you here. I cannot afford to lose one more walla.”
He felt Atik’s judgment piercing him, waiting for him to be weak, to argue, to show himself for who he thought Kasik was.
Kasik had never wanted to prove him right more than he did in that moment. Samaq was his only true friend, the best person
he knew, and it was possible that he was waiting for Kasik to find him, to save him. When Kasik didn’t show, Samaq would think
the worst of him. That he had been forgotten and abandoned.
“I cannot turn my back on my men,” he said ardently.
“You cannot turn your back on your emperor. Nina and her safety are your priority right now, until the sacrifice can be made. After that, everything will be set right.
You can choose new men and lead them as you please.”
“Sacrifice?” Kasik asked. It was a practice born from the gods’ thirst for praise and obsession, one that had been used to beseech them for mercy and
favor and abandoned after the gods were banished to the upper realm. Surely, he didn’t mean to give life to it once again.
“An animal offering? For what?”
“Not an animal, Kasik.” Maicu glanced at Atik again, a question in his eyes, but Kasik didn’t dare remove his attention from his emperor.
Even if the strange power dynamic at play made him nervous, made him wonder if it had always been this way and he had gone blind to it, or if it was something new and dangerous.
“The appearance of the white man was foretold to my tayta many years ago. He knew that he had to unite the people of Amaru, Icosa, and Uwaco to stand against them. Thus began the expansion of his new empire, Tawantinsuyu, and the Harvest. We needed men to fight—”
“And the acllas? Will they fight as well?” Kasik asked, feeding into the facade of his ignorance. He wondered if Maicu would
tell him about the Ikara, if he would admit to stealing and hoarding that power for himself.
“Some, if necessary. But it is Nina who we have been searching for all this time. It is Nina who will appease the gods and
earn their favor, whose blood will bless and protect the land. Your tayta sensed her all those years ago.” Maicu’s eyes grew
distant. If Kasik didn’t know any better, he might have thought there was a sheen over them. “My tayta died before he could
see his plans come to fruition, and my brother could not do what needed to be done to ensure that our people survive.”
“That’s what you meant.” Kasik was remembering Maicu’s hand on his shoulder. The smell of blood that filled the room. Rumi’s
body in a puddle next to his tayta’s lifeless body in bed. His tayta watching from the corner. “You meant that Rumi wasn’t
willing to murder an innocent child?”
“She’s not a child, and this isn’t murder,” Maicu said harshly, his golden eyes shining with fervor. He stood so that he was now towering over Kasik, his loose
hair falling over his shoulders as he looked down at him, the power he possessed on full display. “She is dangerous. The gods demand her blood, and we will gain their favor and the strength to defeat these foreigners who threaten our lands.”
“We don’t need the gods to protect our lands,” Kasik said pleadingly.
He stood to be at eye level with Maicu once again.
Atik took a step forward, hand on the hilt of his blade as if he would cut down his own son if necessary.
Kasik believed he would. “We have the people. The whole of the empire we’ve been building.
Send me to Uwaco and let me convince Juac to join Tawantinsuyu.
Their people are fierce and ruthless warriors, but they are smart.
I can speak sense into Juac, and he can convince the other ayllus that it’s in their best interest to unite against the kukuchi. ”
Kasik realized his mistake too late. The word had slipped from his mouth with ease.
“Where did you hear that word?” Maicu asked, his voice disturbingly calm. Kasik could feel Atik’s attention like a blade at
his throat.
“They are the color of the dead. I thought it fitting.”
Maicu hummed, his eyes pensive, and then he came back to himself, the features of his face hardening once again. “No. There
is too much at stake,” he said. Just like that, he had moved on. “Plans have already been set in motion. The ceremony will
take place during Inti Raymi. Until then, you will escort Nina to and from lessons and meals. It is essential that her blood
and body remain untouched. Do you understand, Kasik?” Maicu stepped closer, his eyes boring into him. “She will be treated
like royalty. Fed the richest foods. Taught by a royal scholar. Dressed in the finest fabrics and gold. The gods demand only
the best. Can I trust you in this?”
The emperor clamped a hand onto his shoulder, the pressure gentle but firm. A reminder of who Kasik was. A friend, a kamayuq,
a murderer, loyal. A storm raged inside Kasik’s mind, one that he felt keenly beside the loss of everything he had ever known.
Maicu had been his friend. They had played together, learned together, grown together. For all their lives, they had been
inseparable. The difference was, Kasik had been ignored by his tayta and cast aside as his attention was mainly given to Maicu,
and for the first time, Kasik couldn’t help but feel that he had been spared.
Behind him, Kasik heard the shift of fabric. The whisper of metal. He could imagine Atik taking a step closer, ready and willing to remove his son’s head from his body. Kasik would give him no reason. He would play his part perfectly, just as his tayta wanted. “Yes, Emperor. I am yours to command.”
Maicu, back to that young and affable persona that Kasik knew so well, smiled brightly and clapped him on both shoulders.
“Good. Now I command you to go take a bath. You smell like an animal.”
Kasik laughed lightly and stepped aside, avoiding his tayta’s heavy attention as he made for the door. He swung it open, prepared
to dart out of the room, and ran straight into a wall of flesh. He braced himself against the body, the small upper arms in
his as he held them both upright.
It was Chaska, the empress, with her hand raised in a fist as if she was just about to knock. The gold circlet adorning her
head tilted to the side as she stepped back and out of his hands. She fixed it quickly before smoothing her hands down her
dress and giving him an exasperated look, but he saw the flash of panic before the composure. A look that appeared as if she
had been caught listening.
“Chaska,” the emperor called from behind him. “What a surprise.”
Chaska bowed and leaned around Kasik to speak directly to the emperor. “Your Majesty, I was coming to offer my aid in settling
your betrothed.”
Feeling as though he was in the way, Kasik opened the door fully and reluctantly stepped back into the office. Chaska breezed
in as if she owned the place. Kasik couldn’t say he didn’t like her; he hadn’t spent enough time with her or given her existence
enough thought to form such an opinion, but he saw the way she carried herself, how she did as she pleased. Chaska was aloof
and spoiled. A princess through and through.
“Your timing is impeccable,” Maicu said, and the smile he gave her was genuine. Though they had been a political match, their relationship seemed to have flourished under mutual aspirations of power. “You can bring her the morning meal and tea. I’m sure she’ll enjoy a woman’s company.”
“Hmm,” Chaska hummed in agreement. “Much preferrable to his, at the very least.”
They laughed in unison. Chaska shot Kasik a smug smile, and he pressed his lips together.
He left the room holding his tongue, the empress’s words echoing in his head.