Chapter 14

Zaidna

The Empire of Chalei

The Jungles

Sorai awoke to a sharp cracking sound that pierced the now familiar drone of the jungle. Before she could get her bearings, there was another crack, and then another. She opened her eyes to see Anoth holding one large stone in each hand as he sat by the fire, smashing the rocks together at intervals. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen him act strangely; he often whispered to the mysterious stone he kept in his rucksack, sometimes worshipfully, sometimes fearfully. This knocking together of stones was bizarre and new, but it was still better than listening to him rage on and on about ‘witnesses’ and bodiless gods.

The last few weeks had been a constant torture. Anoth had insisted on continuing their trek through the jungle despite her worsening condition, and she floated between restless parasomnia and fevered consciousness as he carried her in his arms and on his back. Now she was laying on the same filthy bedroll in another clearing next to another campfire, and Anoth’s rhythmic rock banging was depriving her of even the hope of sleep. “Please stop,” she muttered loudly.

Anoth didn’t respond.

Sorai attempted to sit up, but her arms and back spasmed, causing her to fall heavily to her side. “It hurts!” she wailed through her tears.

“She’s much worse today,” Zalas remarked from somewhere behind her. “I know it takes ages for the glyphs to heal, but this can’t be normal.”

Anoth didn’t slow his rhythm, although Sorai saw his eyes glittering at her in the orange flames. “She needs to feed.”

“Is this performance meant to be a dinner bell then?” Zalas asked.

“I’m not hungry,” Sorai lied. While the rest of them ate salted rations, Anoth had only allowed her to eat the most sour, unripe fruits and drink rain water directly from his hands.

Anoth’s expression hardened. “You serve two hungers now. Your carnal hunger is satisfied by the foods I’ve given you, but your glyphs require refined matter to sustain themselves, and you.” Anoth resumed striking his rocks together.

Davim chuckled darkly from behind the fire. “Those rocks best have something to do with making this refined matter.”

Anoth smiled a little too pleasantly back at Davim. “Oh no. This is not how we make refined matter. These stones are for luring.”

“Luring?” Zalas asked. “Luring what? A fish?”

Anoth snickered and continued the same rhythm, stopping between each set to listen for something with his deformed ears. After several dozen more repetitions, Anoth paused, and there came an echoed reply in the far distance, albeit in a quicker, angrier tempo.

“Something mimicked you!” Davim whispered loudly.

“A padu,” Anoth answered, an expectant triumph tugging at his lips. “A lone, pitiful padu, hunting for trophies. It has been tracking us all afternoon.”

“A padu?” Sorai hissed, fear squeezing her throat. “No! Don’t bring it here!” Padus never hunted alone, and dalanais were their favorite prey.

Zalas stood uneasily. “What’s she so scared for? What’s a padu?”

“A beast that walks on two legs. They’re one of this world’s lesser races,” Anoth replied nonchalantly as he smashed the rocks together in a new rhythm. “They’re not dangerous, at least not to me.”

Zalas seemed to relax a little, although his fists were still clenched. “Then they’re like the beshtats back in Yalet?”

Anoth shook his head. The responses from the padu were growing closer. “They’re quite different. Beshtats are like you but simply lack the gift of ormé. Had they been so blessed, they could easily best you in battle and in every other way, Zalas. These padus are another matter entirely. They might be sentient and walk around like men, but they’re just beasts. Even if Naltena and I had made a covenant with them, they’re too primitive to ever wield ormé. But regardless of their abilities, I suggest you stay on your toes; they make up for their stupidity with brute strength. Blink and you might find your skulls smashed in.”

“Why would you lure one of those things right to us?” Davim demanded, now on his feet as well.

Anoth grinned. “It’s the summer season here, and all the young male padus are out hunting trophies to prove themselves worthy of mates. Didn’t it seem odd to you that we’ve hardly seen any jungle creatures this week? They’re either dead or know not to come out into the open. Waiting for this opportunity is an act of mercy to you, Davim. If it weren’t for this padu, I’d have Sorai feed on you instead.”

Davim recoiled and said nothing more as the padu’s echoing responses grew louder and increasingly aggressive.

“Good, this one is angry over my insults,” Anoth mumbled above the clatter. “He will not call for his brothers. If he’s foolish enough to take this bait, he will prove a worthy sacrifice.”

Moments later a foul odor, like the stench of putrefying flesh, flooded the clearing. The smell was strong enough to make Zalas and Davim’s eyes water, and Sorai could only cover her nose and mouth with her hands and weep. Dalanais had a saying that when you can smell the stink of a padu, it’s already too late.

Anoth stood up, simultaneously causing the campfire to dim until it licked meekly at the charred wood in the fire pit. He slowly raised the rocks above his head before rapping them together with ferocious force, showering the ground with pebbles. As he did so, the padu, a hulking, hair-covered monster, charged into the clearing on two muscular legs, its long arms swinging a large wooden club right at Anoth’s head.

Zalas cursed loudly, a pattern flashing in his palm, while Davim drew a weapon and dove behind a large tree root. Sorai, unable to move, shrieked in terror.

Anoth leapt deftly out of range of the beast’s attack, throwing the remainder of his rocks behind him, and lashed out his hand, flicking his fingers forward. The padu staggered on its thick legs, fighting for several seconds to stay upright, but finally fell to the ground with a large crash just a few feet from Sorai’s bedroll, its club flying from its fingers. When the padu tried to rise, Anoth stepped toward it and made the motion of striking a drum with his palm, and the creature’s arms and legs collapsed. The padu remained sprawled out and helpless, seemingly weighed down by the air itself.

Sorai pushed herself up with quaking arms and stared at the vanquished beast. The only padus she had seen before were locked in cages, and only the ones that were tame enough to perform in carnival troupes. This padu stared at her as if she were a fresh kill, its eyes burning with surprising intelligence and rage.

With one hand held out flat before him, Anoth paced around the fallen creature and kicked at the crudely beaded loincloth it wore. “What did I tell you about this time of year, Davim? It’s just as I expected. Pity it won’t be claiming a mate.” He coolly regarded Zalas and Davim, who looked pale and shaken. “Get some rope and bind its arms and feet tight. You would regret being lazy with the knots.”

As Zalas and Davim moved to bind the creature, Anoth stalked over and squatted beside Sorai. “You’ll feel better when this is over,” he muttered. He rested his free hand on her head.

Sorai drew in a quaking breath, not daring to shy away as his hand slid down to caress her jaw.

“Good,” Anoth said as Zalas and Davim finished their work. He lowered his hand, dispelling his immobilization pattern. The padu, sensing its release, struggled in vain against the layers of rope wrapped around its limbs. Anoth tilted his head and leaned forward, uttering something to the creature in a low, guttural growl, which caused it to roar in response.

Sorai felt a pang of sympathy despite her fear. There was antagonism in the padu’s grimace, but there were also tears welling up in its brown eyes, rolling down a mostly hairless face, different from the mass of red hair she’d seen on other padus. This one was a juvenile, she realized, and probably frightened by whatever awful thing Anoth had said to it.

Anoth motioned for Zalas and Davim to bring the padu closer to him. They obliged, dragging it bodily by its armpits until its snarling face was just inches away. Anoth chuckled and turned to Sorai. “Place a hand on its head.”

Sorai stared at Anoth then looked back down at the padu.

“Go on, the pattern will come naturally,” Anoth urged.

“I—I don’t understand what you want me to do,” Sorai mumbled weakly, shaking her head.

Anoth’s jaw hardened. “Did your teachers not even try to educate you in matters of ormé?”

Sorai averted her gaze.

“Ah yes, you were born under the first house. Of course no one would bother to instruct you.” Anoth crouched silently for a moment, then propped Sorai up into a half-seated position. His fingers moved to the nubby cloth buttons sewn down the front of the tunic he had given her to wear after destroying her clothes. “Do you not see its psyche? By now you should.”

“I don’t see anything,” Sorai whimpered.

Anoth finished parting her tunic, revealing the large heart glyph he had sliced into her chest. “The pain and weakness you feel now—it can all be remedied with a touch,” he said as he poked at the crusty scab, eliciting a wince of pain and disgust from Sorai. “The refined matter of psyches is what will sustain you now, far more than food or water. All you have to do is consume this creature’s psyche and the pain will cease.”

Sorai felt herself growing angry. This was insane. Why was he torturing this poor padu and making her watch?

“Go on. Even if you can’t switch focus yet, you can still apply the pattern.”

“I don’t know what you want me to do!”

Anoth’s expression darkened further, his grip upon her collar tightening enough that she felt the fabric cut into her skin. “I poured my blood into your heart glyph to catalyze your body’s new functions. The refined matter of my blood was sufficient to sustain you long enough to feed on your own, but will not last much longer. You’ll die if you do not feed now.”

“Good!” Sorai shouted. “You already murdered my husband and took me away from my child. I have no reason left to live.”

Anoth raised an eyebrow. “And what if you die then? Do you still think your psyche would rise to the so-called Mother Star to live like everyone else’s? I’m afraid the ‘Mother Star’ has no place for you. Not anymore.”

Tears streaked down Sorai’s cheeks. “I don’t care where I end up, so long as it’s away from you!”

Anoth drew back his hand to slap her. “Consume the damned padu!”

Terrified of being struck again, Sorai reached toward the padu. It snarled, snapping its sharp, yellow teeth up at her, and she fell back in a panic.

“What’s wrong with her?” Zalas asked with annoyance.

Anoth rose and kicked the padu’s jaw, causing it to yelp, blood pouring out of its howling maw. “It seems she doesn’t have a violent bone in her body. She will have to learn.” He knelt back down and gripped Sorai’s arm, pulling it toward the padu’s head once more.

“Let me go!” Sorai begged, afraid the padu might bite her hand off.

Anoth growled menacingly. “Do you truly feel and see nothing? Is there no inclination to kill?” When Sorai did not respond, he grasped her wrist and wrenched it. “You don’t have time to be spineless and stupid! Use your instincts. Work the pattern!”

Sorai gasped as Anoth thrust her hand forward with both of his own, her fingernails drawing blood from the padu’s scalp as he forced her to grip its head tightly. She wailed and struggled as Anoth painfully compressed his hand against the back of her own, pushing her fingers into the padu’s brow until she felt something give beneath them, the bony ridge of its skull fracturing as it shrieked.

Sorai’s glyphs began to burn horribly, and she knew that they were glowing. For a moment, she saw a flash of silver in front of her face and instinctively reached for it with her free hand. Whatever it was, she craved it, and knew it would bring satisfaction once she had it. Unable to resist, she took hold and yanked.

The padu made a sharp sighing sound, as if all the air in its lungs had been forcefully pressed out in one burst. A strange warmth spread up Sorai’s arm and settled in her chest as her heart glyph burned again, this time with soothing pleasure.

The padu dropped to the ground, its eyes staring in blank horror. It was dead, and she had killed it. She didn’t understand how; she only knew that she wanted whatever it had, and had taken it by force.

“Did you enjoy your first kill?” Anoth whispered in her ear as he released her bloodied hand. “The hadirs say that feasting on psyches can be quite addicting.”

In an instant she was on her feet, leaping away from Anoth’s awful, murderous grasp. But before she could get very far, she felt him catch hold of her tail, yanking her back into his waiting arms. “No, no!” she shrieked. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t want to hurt the padu! You killed it! You made me do it!”

Anoth pulled her arms to her sides, while Zalas and Davim watched on in grim fascination.

“You’re a freak of the ninth house!” Sorai continued. “It’s all a trick using ormé! You did something to my psyche to make me see—”

Anoth slapped Sorai hard across the face, rendering her silent. “Make no mistake about my station. I am a son of the tenth house. And while I could have easily killed that padu myself, you needed to learn how to sustain yourself on your own.”

Sorai gripped her cheek, blinking the tears from her eyes.

“Do you not feel the renewal of your body?” Anoth asked. “The pain should be gone now, and your strength has already returned.”

Sorai lowered her hands and stared down at them. They looked healthy and uninjured. How had he forced her fingers to break through that padu’s thick skull without being broken themselves? She did feel better physically, even though her mind was hemorrhaging.

Was it possible that this Anoth was actually the Dread God? The same Dread God who slaughtered scores of her ancestors? To her knowledge, no one had ever been born under the tenth house, and there was no chance that someone with that level of ormé could escape the notice of the priests into adulthood. So, what was he? The Anoth of legend was said to be strikingly handsome and charming, but this one was freakishly ugly and vile. And while the Dread God Anoth had persuaded many of the strongest Naltites away centuries ago, this Anoth resorted to mutilating bodies and performing callous acts of violence for no reason. Either way, she could not accept him.

“Your silence is answer enough,” Anoth said as he pulled that same awful dagger from his belt, causing her to recoil. He turned and hefted up one of the padu’s large, hairy arms. “Now that the matter of your higher hunger has been addressed, we can concentrate on your carnal hunger. I will not have you emaciated and bony.” With that, he plunged his dagger into the fleshiest muscle he could find.

Sorai watched with repulsed nausea as Anoth tore a large chunk of flesh from the padu’s arm and speared it on a small branch he had snapped from a shrub. He hummed softly as he began to cook the meat over the fire. As he finished and passed the seared flesh over to Sorai, she dry heaved.

“You’re going to refuse?” Anoth demanded. “This is what you eat, fresh and unspoiled.” He grasped her hand, forcing her to wrap her fingers around the stick.

Sorai let loose a shriek of rage and flung the meat into the fire. “Isn’t it bad enough that you made me kill the padu?”

Anoth was silent for a moment, then made a swift gesture to Zalas and Davim. “Go and take the padu’s corpse away from camp. If Sorai wishes to go hungry, she will do so. She will change her mind soon enough.”

“We’re not going out there by ourselves,” Zalas argued.

“Do it!”

Zalas cursed, but grudgingly went with Davim to heft and drag the large carcass out of the clearing.

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“Now.” Anoth took Sorai’s chin in hand and forced her to look at him. “Do you still believe I’ve been starving you all this time out of cruelty? Are you really so stubborn?”

Sorai said nothing.

“Here, allow me a demonstration.” He reached for his rucksack and pulled out a dried strip of meat, and Sorai’s mouth began to water. Anoth plucked a leaf from a nearby shrub and held it out in his other hand. “Look at them both. To you, they look like a potentially poisonous leaf and a tasty piece of jerky. But in reality, the configuration of primal matter in this leaf is stable—perfectly balanced and safe for the moment. There hasn’t been time for any rot to take hold since I just plucked it. This meat, on the other hand, would kill you faster than any poison. Its configuration is frayed, decaying slowly even in its preserved state.”

“Lies!” Sorai lunged hungrily at the meat.

Anoth yanked it away from Sorai’s grasp and calmly tucked it back into his bag. “This is something the mortals are aware of but don’t fully understand.” He nodded in the direction Zalas and Davim had headed with the padu. “They think that hadirs simply prefer the taste of fresh food due to their heightened senses, and that they avoid strong drink to keep their minds keen. But when you can shift focus, you will see that all foods, plant or animal, start decaying upon death. Your glyphs give you great power, but they must be kept untainted for you to survive. Your body can purify itself of minor taints, such as rot in the air, but I’ve seen many hadirs die from drinking wine or spending too much time around decay. Death by decay is excruciating, with all your glyphs clogging and bursting apart fiber by fiber. You must be vigilant. But don’t worry, I’ll teach you how to see the decay, and how and when to feed.”

Sorai found herself growing furious with his lies, each one more outlandish than the last. “The real Dread God wouldn’t allow hadirs to have such a flaw!”

“Binding ormé is imperfect in this plane,” Anoth explained softly. “My hadirs are my masterwork. You are the closest thing to immortal, whereas everything else dies. Even your beloved Naltena died.” He reached out and stroked Sorai’s cheek again. “When you learn to shift focus and see like I see, you won’t need my help to choose your foods. Yalet boasts many farms and grocers that cater solely to the needs of hadirs, and I will ensure that you have only the best.”

Sorai hung her head in misery. “I just want to go home,” she wept.

“There’s no home left to you but the one I provide. Even if you return to live without your fool of a husband, you know your power now. If you can kill a mighty padu with a touch, what do you think would happen if you touched your precious son?”

Sorai shut her eyes tight, trying to push out the image of Faro in place of the padu. “Please just stop this torture and kill me!”

Anoth let loose an amused snort before reaching into his bag and whipping out the dried meat again, offering it to her. “Go on then, if you want to die. Take a bite.”

Sorai stared for a moment, then reached for the jerky. But as she received it and stared at the gnarled, dry fibers of flesh, she felt herself growing sick with concern. She wanted death so badly, but what if he was speaking the truth? Oh, Goddess, what if it were true? She dropped the meat without another word.

Anoth picked up the meat nonchalantly and took a bite. “Sooner or later you’ll let go of your old life and embrace the gift I’ve given you.”

“This is no gift!” Sorai spat, gesturing to the scabs lining her body. “You mutilated me!”

“Mutilated? I’ve turned you into a work of art!”

Sorai shook her head in fury, unable to respond.

Anoth sighed. “Very well, the parting itself will be proof enough,” he said, pausing to lick his fingers before putting the remainder of the jerky back into his bag. “Once you see the sky of Yalet, you won’t be so quick to reject the truth.”

“You will never convince me that you are Anoth or that your imaginary world exists. What god only has two followers and worships a worthless stone? You are no god. You’re demented—insane—an ugly, half padu freak!!”

Anoth emitted a low growl. “I grow weary of you calling me that. I am no half-breed. I am a—”

He was interrupted by a loud rustle as Zalas and Davim emerged from the deep jungles and reappeared inside the firelight. They stunk of the padu and were covered in its blood.

“We got rid of the body,” Zalas mumbled. “But we should leave quickly. I don’t want any retaliation for killing that thing.”

“What we need to do is get out of this cursed place and set sail for Judath,” Davim grumbled. “How far are we from the boat now?”

Anoth’s glare eased, but he continued to eye Sorai carefully. “We’re very close to the coast—perhaps another day now that Sorai can walk.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Zalas pressed. “Let’s break camp right now. I’m willing to walk all night if we have to.”

“Forget it. This jungle is too dangerous for you at night,” Anoth countered. “I have enough liabilities as it is.” He looked at Davim pointedly.

Zalas sat back down and murmured unhappily beneath his breath.

Anoth finally stood. “Enough. You fools wish to be in Judath now but will be begging to be back here once we’re there. Once we arrive your task will be to accompany the Orb as you infiltrate the noble summit and retrieve the witnesses. I’ll travel with you as far as Judath, but then I will be taking Sorai back to Yalet and rejoin you in Marin later.”

“What?” Zalas yelled. “How are we supposed to collect the witnesses without your help?”

Anoth shrugged calmly. “The Orb will identify and guide you to suitable witnesses.”

Zalas slammed his fist against a tree trunk. “This is madness! If this mission is so important to you, you can’t just leave us to do it on our own. If you must take her to Yalet, at least send an army to back us up!”

“This isn’t a hadir raid where some village is razed to the ground. There will be no weapons, no fires, no violence whatsoever. The entire point of this mission is to get in and out while remaining unseen.”

Sorai drew in a sharp intake of breath. The raids! They had always been blamed on padus or engstaxi pirates, but were these men actually responsible for all those coastal attacks on Chalei? Tashau hadn’t wanted to discuss them, but from the rumors of their savagery, it seemed unlikely that they could be caused by just three men alone. Anoth must have had more followers—many more if he was responsible for the coastal raids in Judath and Xeshun as well. How many others were there that believed Anoth and worshiped him as a real god?

“You’re trembling,” Anoth noticed, removing his mantle and wrapping it tightly around her shoulders. She sneered as he leaned forward and placed a kiss upon her brow, before turning to address Zalas and Davim again. “It’s late. We will sleep here for the night and set out at dawn. If we make good time, we’ll reach our boat and set sail by tomorrow night.” He pointed at Davim, who flinched, his face still caked with rust-colored padu blood. “You take the first watch. Keep your nostrils open for other padus and wake us at the first sign of trouble.”

Sorai watched as both Anoth and Zalas began to smooth out their bedrolls. Anoth pulled Sorai’s next to his, and when he motioned for her to join him, she grudgingly obeyed. She repressed her revulsion, remaining emotionless, as he reached out to stroke her ear. After a few minutes of gazing at her, his eyes slowly closed and his hand slipped down to rest on her makeshift pillow.

***

Sorai woke to a low chortling sound. She eased her eyes open and turned her head just enough to see Davim’s back as he sat by the waning fire, a flaccid wineskin clutched in one sporadically swinging hand. Many hours had passed, by the look of the night sky.

“Well, aren’t you a pretty thing? Do I know you from somewhere? I think I know you!” Davim suddenly slurred.

Sorai sat up. Davim would never dare speak to her that way, not with Anoth around. She looked to confirm Davim was facing completely away from her. Just who was he talking to?

“Don’t be coy. We’ve met before, haven’t we?” Davim swayed back and forth, obviously having a great deal of difficulty staying upright.

This wasn’t the first time Sorai had seen Davim ramble drunkenly during his watches, but his babblings were usually made up of complaints about being stuck in the jungle. Something different was happening this time; there was a strangeness hanging in the air.

“Sh-shh! You have to be quiet, though. You know this . . . is kind of a seedy place for a girl like you. You should come with me. We could have fun.”

Sorai looked over to Zalas. Usually a heavy snorer, he was now lying in complete silence on his bedroll, eyes shut tight. She briefly glanced back at Davim before looking down at the unpleasant face of Anoth. He, too, lay unnaturally still, with only the steady rhythm of his breathing disturbing the air around him.

“My wife? The bitch would never know a thing.” Davim threw out his free hand, as if trying to grasp something in front of him, but managed only to slosh some of his wine. “What? You’d like some more? Here!” He poured the remainder of his wine on the ground, dropping the wineskin with it. After a moment’s pause, he swayed and fell face forward out of Sorai’s view, landing with a splatter in the spilled wine. There was no movement or sound from him after that, only the crackling of the fire.

Sorai stared in shock, wondering fleetingly if Davim might choke on his own vomit. What was going on? That prickling strangeness in the air almost felt like it was thickening. Sorai rose, careful not to make any noise. She took one tentative step off her bedroll, but then froze as a faint humming sound filled the clearing. She looked over her shoulder, and there she saw an angry light pulsating through the weave of Anoth’s rucksack. Anoth’s glyph-covered stone!

Sorai briefly considered sliding back to her bedroll, but a momentary flash of silver light outside of the clearing drew her attention away from the camp. It was help! Someone was out there! Without thinking twice, she jerked her legs forward into a fast sprint, heading toward the silver flash and away from the frantically pulsating stone behind her. It wouldn’t be long until Anoth and the others woke and gave chase.

Sorai quickened her pace as she hit the deeper jungles, too afraid to shout for help. Everything around her was near pitch black, and she stumbled over rocks and exposed tree roots. Every few seconds, that faint flash of silver reemerged off in some other direction, and she steered herself toward it in desperation, praying to find a search party of wardens. She hit a clearing and began running faster and faster until the flash suddenly reappeared right in front of her as she took a flying leap over a log. She shielded her face as the brightness of the light all at once consumed her, making her almost feel like she was airborne as everything grew hot all around her.

She landed awkwardly on the downhill slope of a grassy knoll, causing her to stumble and stagger bodily into a large, bent tree. She paused to regain her wits and catch her breath. Where had her flight taken her? Where had the light gone?

She looked behind her and noticed that the clearing she had been racing through was gone. In fact, the trees now seemed much thinner and taller, with a little more moonlight shining through the sparser canopy. There was no more sound of Anoth’s stone and no sign of the silvery flash she had been chasing. Had she escaped? She wanted to call out in hopes that the source of the light would answer, but couldn’t alert Anoth or his men.

Sorai took a deep breath, then started walking in what was hopefully the same direction she had gone so far. She glanced periodically for bigger breaks in the canopy as she went, hoping that she would be able to spot the stars and read them for direction.

As she passed by a particularly tall tree, she heard something skitter up in the branches. She gasped and backed away slowly. There were all types of creatures beyond padus here in the jungle, and there was no telling what they might think to do to her. As she skirted around this set of trees, she could hear the skittering feet giving measured chase, accompanied by a soft hissing sound.

She didn’t want to die like this—not in the jungle—not in the mouth of some blood-thirsty monster. She had to get back to her people somehow to warn them about Anoth’s designs against Judath and the noble summit.

The hisses above her were slowly turning into wails, louder and louder with each step she took. After she couldn’t take the unseen stalking anymore, she turned to run, but the creature above her made its move and dropped right in front of her—something hairy and moaning with large, wickedly glowing eyes.

Sorai fell away from the monster, shrieking and holding up her hands to defend herself, but it did not attack. Instead, her cries of terror were met by only a shrill cacophony of laughter. She drew in a shuddering breath and lowered her arms. There, directly in front of her, was a fat male sazi hanging upside down, his long, prehensile tail wrapped several times around a low tree branch. The sazi was swinging back and forth from his tail and pointing a thick black claw down at her, cackling with mischievous malice.

Soon, other sazis crept close as well. They were all around in the trees, pacing back and forth atop the larger branches. There were both males and females—even tiny little cubs covered in downy fur with pinfeathers on their wings. Each one was laughing as hard as the fat male, their frightful eyes shining like hundreds of fire-lit opals in the canopy.

“Just sazis. Thank goodness!” Sorai stood shakily. “C-can any of you understand me? I need help!”

The fat male, who wore a necklace of bones and tattered feathers, blinked several times at her before swinging himself back up onto the tree branch. He regarded Sorai for a moment or two, tilting his head. His coloring reminded Sorai quite a bit of Rao’s, but this male’s fur and feathers were not as clean, and the bridge of his nose was bald and scarred.

“Do you speak my language?” Sorai pressed, fighting the urge to run again. “I’m a dalanai. See? Friend!”

The fat male thrust a paw into the air, and the sazis ceased their crowing, only to hiss and scold at the cubs who continued to laugh.

When the others were finally silent, the fat male, obviously the leader, made an unpleasant gagging sound and snapped his tongue against the roof of his mouth several times. “Me speak,” he said, although he seemed uncomfortable doing so.

“Oh, thank goodness! Please, you’ve got to—”

The sazi thrust out his paw again, although this time it appeared he meant to silence Sorai. “Why you here?” he demanded. He then lowered his paw and stood on all fours, pacing back and forth on the branch a few feet above Sorai’s head. How he maintained his balance with such a fat belly, she didn’t know. “We sleep and eat. Pop! You here. We think, ‘Maybe bad. Steal babies.’ Then think, ‘Maybe fun.’ Why you here?”

Sorai stared for a moment. She didn’t have time for games. “What? I ran here! Listen, I’ve been abducted by this terrible man, and I escaped from him! But I don’t know how to get home. I need to get out of the jungle and find someplace safe!”

The sazi grimaced in bewilderment.

Sorai let loose a grunt of exasperation. “Please just listen! I—I mean—me taken by scary man.” She paused, pointing to herself, before she made a grabbing motion with both hands. “Me run—see, run?” She quickly walked her fingers through the air. “Me want go home. Home? Safe?” She hugged herself tight.

The male cackled sharply, blinking wide eyes down at her, while the others began to chatter excitedly. “Ooh! Fun paw game!” He tried to mimic her motions, but when he failed he gave up and spat. “Hmm . . . safe? Home? Ah! Nest. We no take to nest. Pointy-ear steal babies.”

Sorai shook her hands and head. “No! A safe place for dalanais. I don’t want your babies.”

The fat male scratched at his chin. “For pointy-ear? Eh . . . oh! Blue pelt pointy-ears! Have big nest! Give us pretties.” He gestured to his bone collar, looking rather smug. “Safe for pointy-ear?”

“‘Blue pelt’?” Sorai mumbled. “What do you mean?”

The fat male pointed down at her and the tunic Anoth had given her to wear. “You red pelt. Pretty pelt. They blue pelt. Have long ears but pelt blue, not red.”

Sorai gnawed on her lip a moment. What dalanai would come into the jungle wearing blue? “Wait, do you mean to say you’ve seen wardens?”

“Whaahrrr-danzz?” the fat male asked. Many of his fellows mimicked him.

Sorai shook her head. “Never mind. The blue pelt pointy-ears. Where are they?”

A slow grin curled the fat male’s mouth, his eyes darting momentarily to his collar. “Maybe know. Maybe not know.”

Sorai’s hands balled up into fists at her sides, anger flaring within her. “Please tell me!”

The fat male’s ears flicked back and forth as he listened to the shrill chattering of his fellows. When he had heard enough, he threw out his paw and they were silent once more. “I tell for trade,” he said.

“A trade? W-what do you want?”

The sazi hummed to himself a moment, his brethren all screeching eagerly down at him again. “Pelt,” he said. “You give pelt?”

Sorai sputtered a moment and looked down at herself. She hated wearing the ill-fitting tunic, but without it she would be wearing nothing. “I can’t trade this ‘pelt.’ I don’t want to be naked.” She was uncomfortable enough with her tail out in the open, swinging between her legs.

The sazis all looked back and forth at each other, not seeming to understand. Many of them began to slick their fur or tug upon it in the way Sorai held up the hem of her tunic.

Finally, the fat male shook his head. “Only this trade. Pelt for blue pelt pointy-ears.”

“Please, something else!” Sorai cried. She was desperate to get as far away from Anoth and his men as possible.

“Pelt. Want pelt!”

“Wait! I know.” Sorai swept her tangled, greasy hair back behind her ears, revealing a pair of gold earrings with little dangling jade baubles. “Here, these are the only other things I have. Do you want these?” Anoth had destroyed her clothes and the rest of her jewelry—even the armlet she wore as a symbol of her marriage to Tashau. He had left her only with these earrings as a cruel show of compassion because he somehow knew how much she loved jade.

The fat male’s eyes instantly swelled with greed, his pupils swallowing up his irises. The other sazis let loose squeals of rapture and began bouncing about. “Shiny!” the fat male cried, trembling so much that he looked as though he’d explode in a cloud of feathers. “You have shinies! Want! Give!”

Sorai felt her lips twitch into a smile. Finally, she had the upper hand. “I’ll give you ‘shinies’ if you take me to the pointy-ears.”

“Yes! Trade! Give!” The fat male jumped to a lower branch and again hung upside down, reaching for her earrings with greedy paws.

Sorai stepped back, and in her wisdom removed only one earring. She dangled it before the fat male amidst “ooh’s” and “ah’s” from his flock. “Only one now, so you don’t run away. I’ll give you the other when you’ve taken me to the pointy-ears.”

The sazi readily agreed, reaching out for the earring as Sorai moved to hand it to him, but he let loose a snort when she got close and leapt back up onto the tree branch. “Pew!” He shook his head and bore his teeth down at her. “Stink like—like something bad!” He turned and mewled up at his fellows, and they let loose horrified gasps before they took to screeching and crowing down at Sorai.

Sorai gaped up at the sazis, uncertain of what had startled them, or what to do to appease them. She had been in the company of three stinking men and a padu, and hadn’t bathed in weeks. It was no surprise that she smelled bad, but surely, it couldn’t be as awful as they were making it seem.

“No trade!” The fat male and his minions began to climb higher, many starting to leap away.

As she watched them go, panic flooded her throat. She couldn’t make it out of the jungle alive if they didn’t help her. “W-wait. No!” she screamed, reaching out and waving her hands for them to return. “Don’t leave me out here. I’ll die!”

The sazis did not listen to her pleas.

“No! Please, I’ll do anything!” Sorai dropped to her knees in her despair. “I’m the empress! I’ll give you more shinies than you’d know what to do with!”

Even the promise of shinies fell upon deaf ears.

“Food! Do you want food? I’ll bring you fish!”

All at once, the sazis halted in their flight. They began to hiss back and forth at each other excitedly, although they would not turn back to face Sorai until the fat male shimmied back down the tree and glowered down at her suspiciously. “Fish?” he asked.

“Yes! If you take me to the wardens—I mean—the blue pelt pointy-ears, I’ll give you fish.”

The fat male still seemed uncertain by the way he toyed with his bone collar with a flicking paw, although he was visibly drooling. The chattering around him increased in volume until it reached a ragged chorus of clicks and hisses, in which those sazis who could pronounce the word began to chant, “Fish! Fish! Fish!” Soon the air was soupy with their greed.

The fat male thrust out both of his front paws, and the chanting for fish ceased. “You smell big bad, but you have star on face. You important pointy-ear?”

“Yes!” Sorai pointed at her tattoos. “Yes, empress. I am the empress.”

“Ehm-prez. Important? We get much fish?”

“Yes! I’ll give you as much as you can eat!”

The fat male again seemed to consider his options, while the other sazis began to shriek in an eager frenzy.

Sorai looked over her shoulder again, worried that Anoth would appear at any moment. “I-I’ll give you both of my shinies as well!” Sorai held out her earring again. “I just want to get out of here. Please.”

The fat male squealed. “Yes! We trade. Fish and shinies for take you to blue pelt pointy-ears.” He scurried lower and snatched the earring from Sorai’s outstretched hand, skittering back up into the tree in a hurry, where numerous tiny cubs tackled him in order to get a better look at their new shiny.

The fat male batted the cubs away, before he turned to Sorai and said, “Stinky pointy-ear no touch us. No touch! But we go. You follow.”

With that, the fat male fastened Sorai’s earring to his collar and leapt onto an adjacent tree branch. The other sazis and Sorai hurried after him.