We had to choose nine of these seventy-seven men for our team.
Outside, the sky was dark purple, and the castle gate had been closed for the night. Inside, bright paper lanterns decorated the walls, with candles on every table.
The back of the mess hall was filled with people. We'd invited the men we'd taken out for training, and they brought their friends, who'd brought their friends. Native women, veterans, sekɪwa and their vɪta'o, and all the recruits spilled out through the row of stone arches that sufficed for a wall. One of the conscripts tried to fit through a different arch, only to flail his hands about in front of him trying to pull the spider web from his face.
Bilal had several men clustered around him. I didn't see Ta'o, but his notebook was on the table beside Commander Gaedi. Commander Gaedi reclined in her husband's chest while his arm snaked around her body and reached beneath the silk flap of loincloth covering her lap. The goatherd's daughter who'd spent the evening talking with Geraln when I first came down from the mountains was in the corner talking to one of the recruits. Does she know Geraln was killed?
Among the recruits, Dax sat at one round table with Segay, Wan, and several other Kyoni. Jorven, Hereim, and the other Falcons clustered together, but while the Cougars occupied a few tables, Haron sat alone.
Blue laid his neck across my table with his lizard face turned sideways and jaws open showing triangular, serrated teeth. His breath filled the air with coconut liquor. Miyani pursed her lips at him and shook her head.
I'd asked John to sit with me. I wanted him on my team. Something about him, about the way he questioned things, his alertness, his focus, humility, his drive, as far as I was concerned, we only needed eight other men. Presently, he'd put his silver Wolf's head pin on the table, allowing his dark hair to cascade past his shoulders. He buried his face in his hands and rubbed his eyes.
Rolon sat to my right. "I learned to shoot like that from my step-dad. My mum she was working on the nut farm, trying to get by and we was getting by. This guy, he does deliveries, he takes the goods and carries them off to wherever the Baron tells him. Runs a bison train, he's pretty big he's got maybe twenty bison, he's the guy I was telling you about who was trying to get into cheese, that's my step-dad. Some of his stuff actually turned out pretty good. We got real sick that one time, but most of it was OK."
"Hey man," John leaned into me. "Is it alright if I go lie down for a bit? I've got a headache."
"Of course," I said, and he left his hair pin behind.
"Alright, listen up!" Gaedi stood in the center of the room with Ta'o's notes in one hand; she was short enough that she had to stand on the table to get everyone's attention. Her husband's hand trailed off from hers, only for her to hook her finger onto his before letting go. "I wanted you all here because as I was reading through this, I realized these were things you all needed to hear. And if you want to stay alive—"
"Excuse me," Ta'o and Iyemi squeezed through. Wherever they'd been, they came in holding hands and with glowing smiles. The big red-and-black striped lizard Kadelou followed, and they sat down with Shoyi and the other sekiwa.
Commander Gaedi smiled down at them. "Actually no. Get up."
Ta'o looked confused with his hand over his chest.
"Everyone," she raised her voice. "Right now, everyone, stand up. Good. Now, find a new table, but here's the rule: you are not allowed to sit with anyone you know. Let's go."
We all looked around. Miyani gave me a hug. Blue chirped and made a most peculiar squawk, and she answered him. "Yes. You too."
Kadelou and the other vita'o went around the room as well. I grabbed John's hair pin and snaked through to a table off to the side. Finn sat there; he was on my first shit pit shift, so I kept looking. I bumped into Rolon, who shrugged. "I know everyone here!"
I shuffled through bodies. The sweat mingled with heavy humidity, and the voices of people deciding at what point knowing someone is actually knowing them drowned out the crickets outside.
I found myself at a circular table across from Gaedi's husband, Jorven the Profane's cousin. To his right was one of the goatherds, an old Na'uhui woman with eyes the same white-yellow shade as Miyani's. She had to be in her sixties, but was surprisingly fit. To my left was Cutthroat, the Saeni man on shit pit with me, but we hadn't had a shift together yet. To my right were two men I didn't know at all, though one of them I'd seen smoking happy cabbage.
We all looked at one another.
"Shayen," Gaedi's husband reached his arm across the table with his hand in a fist.
I tapped my fist to his. "Caleb of Gath."
"Gath?" He sat up straight. "That's where my mother used to go buy things. We stayed up in the woods; she used to tell me horror stories about that 'infernal church.'"
"Oh," My eyes perked up. "I grew up in that infernal church!"
"Oh really?" he leaned in and nearly laughed.
"Someone left me there during the plague. That church was literally my home."
He smiled wide. "Oh, we're going to get along great!"
And while we both smiled that off, I turned to the old woman. "How much Herali do you understand?"
She scrunched her lips together and shook her head. "Nothing."
"OK, wait," the man whose breath presently smelled like happy cabbage leaned in from across the table. "My… name… is… Nickel. What… is… your… name?"
"yamaŋi," the old woman nodded.
I went around the table. "Cutthroat, Yamani, Shayen, Nickel…?"
"Faibin of Ulum," the quiet man answered.
Shayen turned to yamaŋi. "ʃʊsi gaʒɪdesa. kaða mofo ʃa toto fayi?"
The old woman scrunched her eyes, and her body shook with laughter, showing everyone three missing teeth.
Shayen's eyes challenged me, so I glanced between Cutthroat, Nickel, and Faibin. "OK, so there are two words that both mean 'a lot': mofo, and toto. He's asking which one is more a lot."
The goatherd scratched her chin thoughtfully, and we all leaned in for her answer.
A line of native men and women burst from the kitchen, each carrying a large, silver tray with a steaming pile of food that delighted the nose with coriander, lemongrass, and a chorus of other jungle herbs I wasn't close to being familiar with. They set a tray in the center of our table. On it was a pile of steaming bundles wrapped in snake skin and tied at both ends like a sausage. Each was about the size of a fist and had charred scales top and bottom, and they glistened with butter and herbs.
"Alright gentlemen," Shayen announced with a big smile. "The rule is one at a time. I will go first."
While he reached for one, Cutthroat tapped my shoulder. His light-green hair and eyes were a contrast to everyone around me. Among the seventy-seven recruits, there were maybe three or four Saeni; there were more Saeni among the veterans than the recruits. He put one hand in front of the other, and the other in front, and again.
"What's that?"
He pointed to Shayen and gestured to his mouth.
Nickel asked with happy cabbage strong on his breath. "Something he said?"
The old woman explained, repeating the gesture with her hands. "One at a time. That's what that means."
I turned back to Cutthroat. "One at a time?"
"Like this?" Nickel repeated the movement with his hands.
Cutthroat nodded.
Shayen held his Snake's Secret in a tine and sliced through the outer layer. All five of us watched him peel the skin away.
It looked like a stacked salad of steamed greens with colors mixed in. While he took in the astringent smell of herbs, several small hair-legged worms peeked out the sides and wiggled around.
Nickel, Cutthroat, and Faibin looked at one another with wide eyes and gaping mouths, Shayen carved off a slice. On his tine was a small square with a tiny worm squiggling out from the side. He bit down, moaned in pleasure, and chewed it up.
Nickel's whole face scrunched up in shock and disgust—my first one of these things was gravied cockroaches.
I took one from the platter and brought it to my plate. I gently sliced along the skin from top to bottom and carved off the tied ends. Whatever it was, was solid beneath. I pulled the snake skin to the side to unwrap my dinner, a dark-yellow mass of gelatinized chunks of salted meat and stewed vegetables rich with lavender and honey.
Halvystra.
Only the most quintessential Herali dish there was. Back home, they held contests to see who made the best one, and secret recipes were a nefarious order. The Duchess of Heralia was forced through some political chicanery to reveal she substituted half the honey in hers for maple syrup. What followed was a splintering of rival factions who disagreed on the correct honey-to-maple syrup ratio. People have been killed over it; it's not even rare.
That dish.
Wrapped up, here in Uhui, in my 'ekivisepo. And it looked perfect, too. A chunk of meat on one side stuck out and you could tell they'd remembered to soak it first because the heavy salt crystals were gone.
"Ayo!" Gaius the Unformidable jumped up from across the room. "Oh gods it's moving!" He fished something out of his mouth and threw it onto a plate, then shook his head vigorously. "Gods it's still in there!"
When Cutthroat opened his, snail shells spilled out and filled his plate. Beneath them was a small, wooden ramekin filled with buttery green sauce. He skewered one snail of meat, a squiggly gray crumpled thing steaming with lemon and hellroot, slathered it in sauce, and ate it. He bobbed his head back and forth and finished with an approving nod.
After a while, Gaedi once again took the center with Ta'o's notebook in her arms. "Alright. Looks like most of us have gotten something to eat?"
Around the room, Blue sat with five recruits. Miyani had a guy at her table who sat unnecessarily close. Dax's plate had a fish skeleton alongside the snake skin, and Haron had three opened Secrets, none of which had been eaten.
"First point," Gaedi checked anyone who wasn't listening. "You made it as far as the coffee farm; she butchered you guys."
Muted laughter crawled among the men. Before their conversations could elevate, she continued. "Tomorrow, Shoyi will hunt while Miyani spots. I will choose the captain. Now. Hereim, and Gaius? Where are you? Stand up so I can see you."
Gaius the Unformidable stood back up, still picking at his teeth. Hereim was in the far corner in the back with his face in the shadows.
The dinner meeting was her idea; I'd come to her earlier to deliver my report. She took one look at Ta'o's notes and arranged this instead. "When she shot Jorven in the leg, you and Gaius carried him. Did you notice that both of you were… you're still wearing mountain clothes. Weren't you hot?"
Gaius grinned wide and chuckled. "Ayo, yeah, man. It's hot as hell down here!"
"And you see how she targeted the man who would be carried uphill by the two men dressed in mountain clothes."
Gaius and Hereim looked at one another.
Shayen raised his hand and stood. His wife nodded him on. "Look the same when you go out there, same clothes, same equipment. Carry the eupin bows, those who have them, but other than that try to look as similar as possible."
At some point, I needed to let out a load, so I got up. I made my way past the table where Miyani sat, and she batted her eyelashes at me. That guy was sitting awful close to her; he tracked me with his eyes as I left.
I stepped out into the dark courtyard with a paper lantern and crossed the matted grass towards the round building; someone had cordoned off a section of extra torn-up grass with rope on two sides. I found an open stall, but quicklime had spilled on the seat.
I tried the next one, and a woman's voice came from within. "zɪkoθide!"
"Sorry."
The one after that was open. After I shat, I wiped my arse with a rag from the clean basin and dropped it into the one that reeked of vinegar.
Back inside, everything was cast in mild yellow. I pushed between bodies, and Gaedi was in the middle of asking Haron something about the map.
I didn't hear the full question, but he replied. "I tried to tuck it away, but I think she saw me take it."
"Yes, I see!" Miyani's high-pitched melodic voice called out to me like a siren, and that man had his arm around her shoulder.
He was some recruit with hair like mine, and he watched the rest of the conversation with her, with his arm around her.
Gaedi was in the middle of speaking when I rushed up to him. My heart was thundering. My breath was full. "Excuse me!"
He looked up at me. "Oh, hey."
He didn't remove his arm. Miyani looked up at me with a big smile.
She didn't push him away, either.
She I could understand. Ta'o did that, so did Gaedi, so did all the Na'uhui. They were just physical like that, but this man was from my culture; he knew what he was doing.
"Take your arm from my girlfriend," I growled.
She looked at him in confusion. He pulled his arm away and moved down a seat.
Gaedi was explaining something to one of the men on the other side of the room. "What's going on?"
I couldn't let this go. I had to think about how that would look to the other recruits if I'd just accepted that and walked away, so I answered her. "Just talking to this Chicken-Clan Herali."
"The fuck did you call me?" The man jumped from his seat and rounded the table, snorting and huffing, eyes ablaze.
"Eh?" Miyani gazed at me wide-eyed.
"Not in here!" Ta'o shouted. "On the circle."
"Fuck yeah," the man cocked his neck to one side.
"Let's go."
Gaedi sighed. "I guess we're doing this, now."
The whole crowd followed us out of the mess hall and towards the rear of the castle grounds. Several people brought paper lanterns and fitted them into sconces scattered throughout the arena.
The man had three of his friends around him, patting his muscles while one punched him in his hardened stomach. He flopped his head left and right. Renou stretched one of my arms behind my back and helped me hold it before alternating. Iyemi sat on one of the logs and took names while money flowed into each of her two bags.
Ta'o commanded the center of the stone circle. "On this side we have Caleb of Gath, Miyani's lover, and over here is Oma of Kolymou. In their culture, a man can't put his arm around a woman without everyone thinking he's trying to own her."
The recruits didn't understand a word, but the natives laughed. Miyani rolled her eyes at me and let out a sharp breath, shaking her head. "We talk later. I talk, you listen. First you beat."
"You want me to beat him?"
She helped me remove knives and things from my belt. Then her fingers groped at the muscles in my sides and teased over my butt. "ti! You beat!"
Ta'o checked Oma over while a friend of his held a handful of knives and pointed out another hidden in his boot. Oma acted surprised and handed that one to his friend, too.
We were surrounded by people. Native women, veterans, and recruits weren't quite so segregated as they'd been before, and all of Gaedi's captains came out to watch. The quartermaster and his wife sat together at the bay window above with goblets of wine and charred snake skin on their plates.
I couldn't wait to launch into him. I was ready. My heart was pumping, I took some deep breaths, and I had my fists up. As soon as Ta'o called "go!" I lunged.
A right fist swung around and thudded against the left side of my face.
I landed a fist square in his gut. Oma wrapped his arms around and tried to pull me to one side, so I caught his neck in my elbow. His fists flailed about, landing all over my back, and I squeezed. His sweaty head nearly slipped from my arm, but I held on tight, locking his neck in place with my other arm.
After trying once again to shift me to one side or another, I felt fists punch against my thigh and upwards towards my groin. Oma almost hit something important, so I had to let him go. Another right hook caught the left side of my face, and a solid thud echoed through my whole head. I pulled a fist back and slammed it into his nose. His head bobbed back, and his mouth was covered in blood.
Cheers erupted from all around us.
He looked up at me with his fists raised. I controlled the center while he tried to sneak around to my left but I cut him off and caught another right hook to the side of my face. At the same time, I punched him hard in the center of his chest. He fell back, and his foot nearly fell off the edge of the circle. He caught it in time and shifted to his left to put space between us.
I kept him close, throwing punches, but he kept dodging and blocking. Then another right hook came around and thudded into the left side of my face.
I jabbed him square in the nose.
I was starting to feel dizzy.
Once again I closed the gap. I caught another right hook but I had leverage on him and threw him to the ground. I was on top of him, and I just clobbered him. Alternating fists, I punched him in the mouth, in the side of his jaw, in his nose, his eye, his other eye. He tried feebly to keep his hands up.
"tiyo!" someone called out from the side.
I smacked his jaw and punched him in the eye again before Ta'o grabbed my arm. He leaned down to ask Oma, "do you say tiyo?"
Oma had blood all over his face, and his skin was black and blue everywhere else. One eye was swollen shut, and his head flopped to one side.
I don't remember what happened next, but I was sitting on the edge of the stone circle with Miyani's arm around me.
Rolon was there. "Man, that was some walloping you gave him!"
Oma lay in the center of the ring surrounded by people. His hand moved, but that was it. Miyani pressed her body into mine and leaned in. Her face was blurry. "I want sex."
She narrowly came into focus long enough for me to hear that. "I wa…" and I lost my balance.
Blue lightly squawked somewhere in front of me, and I felt his long muscular neck in my hands.
"pʊ xeŋise," she brought me to stand.
Immediately, the blood rushed out of my head, and the sky fell around me. Miyani steadied my hand while I leaned heavily onto the huge lizard on the opposite side. His long, even strides kept my face from kissing the ground, and we meandered past the mess hall where some blurry thing moved.
Blue guided me to a dark stone building with a frosted-glass lantern hanging from an iron sconce outside before the wall gave way to four open archways. Inside, several beds on one side rose up from the floor and came at me while more beds fell down, and they kept rising and falling until Miyani made me lay down on one of them.
Her face was the most beautiful thing in the universe. Her light yellow eyes fixed upon me from the middle of her dark-green face, and her smile stretched across her cheeks. Then things started drifting away.
Something slapped my cheek. "Wake up. You no sleep."
Renou's light tenor came from the other side of the room. "He's over here."
A small, hunched, old native woman with a cane and several herbs and talismans for necklaces filled my view. She looked around my face for a moment and nodded, then stood.
A girl appeared. She was also Na'uhui and much younger with large, doe eyes, and her face kept twisting around in a circle. She probed my face where that man kept hitting me, then glanced into my eyes with an evanescent smile.
The old woman croaked in Uhuida. "What do you think?"
The girl's eyes scanned the world above in thought. "dosawu, leech him for one hour, then check the bone."
"Very good" the old woman nodded.
So there I was in the medical ward with leeches all over the left side of my face. The drink they gave me felt like some kind of energy that made all my veins and arteries vibrate. Felt weird. Felt like I could run a thousand miles. I was ready to lift off my bed and float above the castle, above the jungle, and fly through the night sky; I was ready to witness Eternity.
Blue had gone back to his stall, and Miyani lay down in the medical ward with me.
The light was low. Paper lanterns clung to wall sconces throughout the room. Elsewhere, bandaged men lay still. Our cot sunk in the middle, and her whole weight fell through her hips into my groin. Her taut nipples on my skin brought that thing she'd said earlier back into focus.
Her arm rested over my stomach with her hand over my heart, and she gazed at me in the candlelight.
My whole body fluttered. "You like that, huh?"
"tixede. You strong. mofo I like." She winced at the slimy leeches clinging to the side of my face and giggled. "This I don't like."
"I don't know," I tilted my face side to side. "Maybe I could walk around like this. The new style!"
Her whole body shaking with laughter on top of mine was a slice of heaven.
"But I talk, you listen."
"OK?"
"No you fight for this, OK? In my culture—"
"Miyani, this is my culture. If I don't…"
"I talk, you listen," she nodded. "I understand your culture; Ta'o explains. Now you need understand. You listen?"
"I'm listening."
"I no feel protect-ted, I feel coddle-ted. Na'uhui way is, eh… I handle. You know this, I am OK. Do not, eh… for this, OK?"
"I'm still confused…"
She switched out of Herali completely. "Seeing you fight, you have no idea what that did for my body, watching you up there. But there's a part I don't want. I don't want you to become the reason they respect me. They warned me about this, about how women in your culture allow themselves to live beneath her man's authority. I don't want to get caught up in that; I want to have my own respect out there."
That made me laugh. "I think that you have because training—"
"ŋaŋa," the girl shouted from across the room. "The man with the headache is dead."