Chapter 33 #2
"My lord," the guard repeated, his voice trembling. "Forgive the intrusion. Your sons are here."
A long pause.
Number Three did not move. He held the silence the way Navuh held silences when he wanted his subordinates to shake in their boots.
Finally, Number Three said, "Send them over."
He pitched his voice low, flat, and slightly dragging, and the crashing of the waves below layered over the consonants, smoothing over any discrepancies between Navuh and Number Three's voice.
The guard didn't register the slight imperfections in the timbre.
"Yes, my lord."
The guard backed away, then turned to the brothers and gestured them forward.
Following the pretend Navuh's instructions, he retreated along the path to where the second guard was waiting, and then the two of them retreated even further.
The brothers walked toward Number Three.
They came together, three abreast, with Kolhood half a step ahead of the other two. Hazok and Hocken were tracking Kolhood's lead. Their footsteps stopped at the unspoken mark ten meters from the bench.
Kolhood bowed his head.
"My lord."
Number Three did not turn.
The hood kept the face hidden. The robe stirred slightly in the wind.
"My lord, I beg forgiveness for this intrusion," Kolhood said.
His voice was steady. The collective gave him credit for that. Kolhood had walked into this knowing he might not walk back, and yet his voice didn't waver.
"We came here because we have been concerned about you. There have been rumors. We needed to know that you were well. We brought a gift as a token of our apology for the breach."
Number Three did not answer.
Kolhood's voice grew slightly less steady.
"My lord. We would not have come if we had not believed it was necessary. We came as your sons. We came in devotion. We came to confirm with our own eyes that you were here. We are kneeling at your feet. Please forgive us."
Kolhood sank to his knees, and Hazok and Hocken followed a beat later. The three of them knelt with their heads bowed, and Kolhood set the wrapped bottle carefully on the rock in front of him.
Number Three turned, standing at the cliff edge with his back to the drop and his front to the brothers.
"How dare you?"
The voice was lower than Navuh's and rougher, and the imperfect imitation would have been audible to anyone listening for it, but the wind was up, and the waves were crashing on the rocks below.
The brothers heard what they expected to hear, and the thrall the collective laid down on top of the words filled in the rest.
"You dare to come here?" Number Three raised his voice. "To my sanctuary that is forbidden to all immortal males but me?"
Kolhood's head went lower.
"My lord. We—"
"You encroached on what is mine alone."
"My lord—"
"Your transgression is unforgivable."
Those were the words preceding the action.
The Eight seized Hazok and Hocken's minds.
The compulsion the collective could project was not as powerful as Navuh's, but it was enough.
Distributed across the merge, it performed a coordinated act of compulsion against minds that had already been weakened by the confrontation with the being they believed was their father, and who had just sentenced them to death.
The Eight reached into Hazok and Hocken's minds and commanded, seize Kolhood and throw him from the cliff.
Hazok and Hocken stood up.
Kolhood tried to rise, but he'd registered his brothers' movement too late.
They were on him in an instant. The two of them seized Kolhood by the upper arms and lifted him.
Kolhood struggled.
He was a strong immortal. He twisted, getting free of his brothers' grip, he slammed his elbow into Hazok's throat and drove his knee into Hocken's side.
The other two were not deterred. Ignoring the pain, they grabbed him again and carried him to the edge.
He shouted and fought like a lion, but he was overpowered. Hazok and Hocken threw him over.
The collective registered the long second of the fall, and the impact on the rocks below, and the silence that followed.
Then Hazok and Hocken were compelled to follow their brother.
They did not resist.
The compulsion took them. They walked the four steps to the cliff edge and stepped off.
Two more impacts on the rocks below.
The two human guards had held their position throughout, their backs to the cliff as their lord had commanded. They had heard the exchange between who they believed was Navuh and his sons, they had heard the shout, and they might have even heard the three impacts, but they hadn't seen any of it.
The collective reinforced everything with a thrall.
Lord Navuh had come to the cliff to meditate. His sons had arrived without invitation. The lord had been furious. The lord, who was the most powerful compeller in the world, had compelled his sons to kill one another for the unforgivable transgression of breaching his sanctuary.
The lord had remained on the cliff afterward, and the guards had not turned, because they had not been told to turn.
Number Three looked down at the angry ocean as it claimed its three tributes. The broken bodies were swallowed by the currents, and they were not likely to ever float up.
The collective felt no triumph, no satisfaction. There was a sense of completion, an operation that had been executed as planned. Losham's position was secured, the island's inhabitants were safe under his leadership, and Dave could leave with a clean conscience.