There were more guards than usual in the upper courtyard. There weren’t as many as there had been for the arrival of the Youth Guard yesterday, but that had been ceremonial. Rudiger couldn’t be sure why there were more than usual now, but it was clear the whole Palace was on edge.
During the night, the servants’ quarters had been a hotbed of gossip. The Council had been in session with the Queen late into the night, with some of the nobles and priests who had been missing earlier showing up well past midnight. That meant people were coming and going from the servants’ quarters all night, too, which made it all the noisier and harder to sleep. After a month in the Palace, Rudiger still hadn’t figured out how people slept through the regular noisy conditions, never mind the conditions of last night.
Pure exhaustion, he supposed. It was what had allowed him a couple hours sleep in the end.
This morning, he had woken to talk that the Queen had excommunicated Fra-Atl. He hoped that wasn’t true, even though Xoco had said she might have to do it. Although he hadn’t seen Fra-Atl very often, he had seen her more often than most other priests or nobles, and had grown to like her. She seemed the only one interested in getting to know people who weren’t priests or nobles.
Two guards watched him as he went round the northeast corner towards the stables. He nodded to them; they scowled back. They didn’t try to stop him though, so he continued on to the stables.
There were Queen’s Guards at the stables. “There a problem?” he asked.
“You’re wanted inside,” one replied.
Inside, he found Fra-Ichtaca standing by Borisin’s stall. She was holding one hand in the other, squeezing one finger which had a few spots of blood on it, then pinching at the same finger, her face scrunched. Ses-Zeltzin stood nearby.
“You’re late,” the priest said, not looking at him, but continuing to work on her finger.
“Late, Reverence?”
“Yes, late.”
“Apologies, Reverence, but late for what?”
“Your job.”
Ses-Zeltzin smirked.
“Excuse me, Reverence,” he said, “but is everything all right?”
“The horse tried to bite me.” She pulled at her finger again, this time getting whatever she was looking for.
I snapped, but nowhere near close enough to bite her. You should have seen her jump. She grabbed the post and got splinters in her hand.
Fra-Ichtaca shook both her hands out, spraying a couple drops of blood about. “This horse should be ready at dawn every day in case the Queen calls for it.”
“Apologies, Reverence, but I always keep Buluc in a state that he can be called upon on short notice, and her Holiness always gives me at least some notice.”
She walked up to him and slapped him. “Do not talk back to me!”
Talk back? That’s what she called talking back? He probed the inside of his cheek with his tongue. The blow hadn’t been strong enough to cause anything more than a brief sting. “I apologise, Reverence.”
“These stables are a disgrace. I will give you one week to get them cleaned up and running efficiently. I expect you here every day at least an hour before dawn. You cannot rely on the Queen always giving you notice. You must have the horse ready on a moment’s notice. Finally, you are to remain at the stables every day until you receive word that the Queen has gone to bed. Understood?”
“Yes, Reverence.”
“When you are in her Holiness’s presence, you are not to touch her in any way, shape, or form. Do you understand?”
“Of course, Reverence, but I also need to be attentive in case she falls.”
“From this time forward, there will be a Queen’s Guard close enough to catch her in such a circumstance.” Fra-Ichtaca leered up at him. “You will also restrict all interactions to lessons only. There will be no gallivanting down to the river and dangling feet in the water. No snuggling close to one another, and most importantly, no kisses from her. Do you understand?”
Rudiger gulped. “I was following the Queen’s instructions. She asked me to sit beside—”
Fra-Ichtaca slapped him again. “You are too casual with her. If you were not, she would not do these things. So it will not happen again. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Reverence.”
“Never again.”
He nodded. “Never again.”
“It had better not. Ses-Zeltzin.”
The Queen’s Guard approached him. “Place your hand on the post, please.”
Rudiger raised his hand partway, but hesitated. “Why?”
“Do as you are told!” Fra-Ichtaca snapped.
With a nod, he placed his hand on the post by Borisin’s stall, and Ses-Zeltzin slammed a knife right through his hand, pinning him there. He cried out as pain shot through him. “Shit! What the hell?”
Borisin squealed and kicked at the back of his stall. The entire stables shook.
Ses-Zeltzin kneed him in the stomach and he doubled back, inadvertently pulling at his hand and tearing a wider wound. “Do not use such language in the presence of a Voice!”
Rudiger grimaced and stood up straight.
“This is your punishment for yesterday,” Fra-Ichtaca said. “If you ever repeat the offence, next time will be worse. You will be watched constantly.” She glared into Borisin’s stall. “And keep this horse under control.”
Borisin kicked the wall again.
Enough, buddy, or you’ll bring the whole place down. I’ll be fine.
“Ses-Zeltzin, I am done here for now,” Fra-Ichtaca said and stormed out of the stables.
Ses-Zeltzin smiled up at him. “I’m curious which you’ll do. Will you spurn the Queen’s advances and provoke her anger, or disobey Fra-Ichtaca and take more of this. Either way, it’ll be entertaining.”
“Fuck you.”
“No, you’re already doing that to my sister.” She laughed and walked around him, stepping on his foot as she did so.
Izel was just coming in the door. Ses-Zeltzin stopped beside her sister. “Looks like your boy toy could use some help.” She laughed and continued out the door.
Rudiger ripped the knife back out. “Fuck!”
Izel rushed over to the storage shelves. “We need to stop the bleeding and sterilise the wound. Zeltzin would have made a point to use a dirty blade.”
“The jug on the top right has alcohol,” he told her. “Bandages beside it.”
She grabbed the indicated items as well as a brush, and came back over to him.
“These are supposed to be for the horses.” He tried to laugh despite the pain.
“Today they’re for you.” She handed the brush to him. “Bite down on the handle. Let me know if you start getting numb or feeling woozy, anything like that. I wouldn’t put it beyond her to have poisoned the blade.”
“Can I kill her?” Rudiger asked.
She looked up at him and smirked. “I think that’s the most violent I’ve ever heard you.”
“Yeah well, I’m pissed.”
“Before you engage in any killing, bite down. This is going to hurt.”
He put the brush handle in his mouth, bit down, then held out the wounded hand for her. She opened the jug and poured the alcohol into the wound. Again, pain tore through him, although it wasn’t quite as bad. Izel put the jug aside, tore off a strip from the bandage roll and wrapped it round his hand. She pulled it tight and tied it off.
“Keep an eye on that in case we have to cauterise it. I came to ask how things went with the Queen yesterday, but I think I can guess.”
“We had a nice heartfelt conversation by the river. They didn’t like that so much.”
“What about the letter?”
“Xoco promised to send it. With luck, Fra-Tepeu and Fra-Mecatl have it already.”
Izel smirked. “Xoco? That must have been a very heartfelt conversation. No wonder Zeltzin’s stabbing you.”
“I didn’t sleep with her. It was just a conversation. She said she thinks of me as a brother.”
Izel nodded and put a hand to her face, not quite succeeding at hiding her continuing smirk. She sat on the hay pile by the door. “How much have you heard about last night’s events?”
“Scattered rumours.”
“Fra-Atl has been excommunicated.”
Rudiger lowered his head and closed his eyes. “I heard that rumour. Hoped it wasn’t true.”
“Your friend is in prison.”
“That’s better than the execution rumour I heard last night.”
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“The Council questioned the surviving Youth Guards into the early hours of the morning.”
“Think you can get them onto your side?”
“Don’t know,” Izel said, then smiled. “You didn’t say our side.”
Rudiger shrugged. “Maybe I’m learning.”
“Nice. Anyway, I can’t be sure what to expect from them, but we should certainly try. If we can’t, our little revolution might fail before it starts. The problem is, I don’t know where they are at the moment. Keep your eyes and ears open for that information.”
He nodded. The bandage on his hand had turned dark red and blood was seeping out the edges. “I think I need a new bandage.”
She took his hand. “It hasn’t stopped bleeding yet.” She tore off a fresh strip of bandage, handed it to him to hold, and untied the old bandage. She tossed it aside, took back the new one, and tied it, pulling it tighter this time. “Let’s hope the bleeding stops. You’re feeling otherwise okay?”
He nodded. “I don’t think she poisoned me.”
She went back to the supply shelves. “We’ll probably need to stitch the wound. You’ll have quite a scar there and there’s no telling what kind of internal damage she did. You might lose some mobility.”
He groaned. “Just as long as I can still kill her.”
She shook her head. “You might have to get in line for that.”
Someone’s coming, Borisin said. Smells familiar, but not a scent I know well.
“Someone’s coming,” Rudiger repeated to Izel.
They turned just in time to see a young woman with matching jaguar tattoos standing in the doorway, about to knock. She was dressed in the outfit of the Queen’s Guard. “Hi. Are you Rudiger?”
Rudiger nodded. “Yeah.”
“My name is Nin-Akna.”
She stepped into the room and two others followed her in. They wore the same outfit and carried spears, but were more girls than young women. One couldn’t have been more than thirteen or so.
“These are Fra-Chan and Ses-Iktan,” Nin-Akna said. “We’re the Youth Guard. Felitïa told us to find you. Can we talk?”
“We were just talking about you, so you might as well join in,” Rudiger said. “This is...” He hesitated, trying to remember the etiquette of introducing someone he no longer used the honorific for. He seemed to recall, when meeting Fra-Tepeu and Fra-Mecatl for the first time, Fra-Tepeu had introduced his sister with the honorific. “Ses-Izel.”
Izel came back over from the supply shelf. “It’s an honour to meet the Youth Guard.”
Nin-Akna glanced at Izel, then looked back at Rudiger. “Can she be trusted?”
Rudiger nodded. “We argue a lot, but I’d trust Izel with my life.” He made a point of using her name, knowing that the lack of honorific would strengthen his statement of trust.
Nin-Akna smiled at Izel. “Then I am an honoured to meet you, as well.”
Hey, I’m here as well.
“Oh yeah, and that’s Borisin over there. Although the Queen calls him Buluc and that’s the name you should use in her presence.”
Nin-Akna’s eyes widened and she grinned. “The talking horse! Meleng told me about him!” She rushed over to Borisin’s stall and leaned in. “He’s gorgeous. Why was the Queen riding him?”
I’ve been asking the same question for some time now.
“Long story,” Rudiger answered.
The other two Youth Guards hurried over to either side of Nin-Akna. “He’s so big,” the youngest said. “Why’s he not saying anything?”
I’m saying lots. I’m just choosing not to say them to you, kid.
“He only ever speaks to Rudiger,” Nin-Akna answered.
“Then how do we know he really speaks?” the other Youth Guard asked.
“You mention Meleng,” Rudiger interrupted. “How is he? Where is he? And how’s Felitïa? Apart from being in prison, I mean.”
Nin-Akna turned to face him again. “She’s...okay, I guess. We just came from visiting her. She wants to know what you’ve been up to.”
“And I think we’d like to know what you’ve been up to,” he replied. Izel nodded her agreement.
“Why don’t we start and then you can fill us in?” Nin-Akna suggested.
It took a couple of hours for them to tell their stories, which were interrupted on several occasions by someone with questions, in particular when Nin-Akna told of a locket Felitïa had found with an unusual picture in it.
“That’s Ses-Xipil all right,” Izel said when she looked at the open locket. “And that’s a Volg?”
“Definitely a Volg,” Rudiger replied. “I’ve seen a few before.”
“Not just any Volg,” Nin-Akna said. “That’s their prince.”
Izel exhaled a heavy breath and handed the locket back to Nin-Akna. “I knew the priesthood could be corrupt, but I never expected one of them to pose with a Volg.”
“Felitïa thinks Ses-Xipil might not be what she claims,” Nin-Akna said.
“She’s not,” Rudiger said.
Izel rolled her eyes. “You’re not referring to that belief of Borisin’s, are you?”
Rudiger was about to reply when Izel went on. “No, I’m not calling you a liar. I’m saying you’re mistaken. Just because she smells strange doesn’t make her not human. No, you know better than to argue with me. I don’t care how good your sense of smell is. I’m not denying that she smells weird. I’m saying—Oh for gods’ sake. Fine. Have it your way.”
Nin-Akna and the two other young warriors were staring at Izel. “Is she—” Nin-Akna started.
“I would have mentioned that when we got to our part of the story,” Rudiger said. “But yeah, Borisin talks to her, too. Blew my mind first time it happened. And yeah, Borisin doesn’t think Ses-Xipil is human.”
“Felitïa thinks she might be some sort of Volg shapeshifter or something,” Nin-Akna said.
Nah, doesn’t smell like a Volg, Borisin said. Although now I think of it, the smell’s not that different. Kind of how it has similarities to a human smell, it also has some similarities to a Volg smell.
But that means Zandrue... Rudiger replied.
The similarity’s there too. Didn’t even occur to me before. One spot where I let my vision override my smell. Sorry.
Nin-Akna waved her hand in front of Rudiger’s face. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, sorry, just listening to Borisin. He says there is a similarity in smell to Volgs.”
“You’re serious about this?” Izel said.
“It was hard for us to accept, too,” Nin-Akna said. “Perhaps we should finish our tale.”
Izel nodded. “Of course.”
They had to pause a short while after that when Izel remembered Rudiger’s hand and demanded to check it.
“The bleeding’s stopped,” she said. “We need to stitch the wound closed, but you don’t have any suitable materials here.”
“We have some,” Nin-Akna said. “Fra-Chan, collect some from the barracks.”
The youngest snapped to attention, grabbed her spear, and hurried off.
“It should only take her a few minutes,” Nin-Akna said.
“Do you mind if I ask how old she is?” Rudiger said. “How old you all are?”
“She’s twelve,” Nin-Akna said. “She’s the youngest of us.”
“Twelve? A twelve-year-old warrior?”
“I’m fifteen,” Ses-Iktan said.
“Twelve,” Rudiger breathed.
“They are a training organisation, Rudiger,” Izel said. “They’re not meant to see real action. It’s disgraceful they were even sent to that island, and horrifying they were forced into action. My condolences on your losses.”
“Thank you,” Nin-Akna said. “I’m nineteen if you must know. I’ll be twenty in a few months, which is when I’ll be inducted into the Queen’s Guard.” She frowned. “If I’m alive, that is.”
“Sorry for prodding,” Rudiger said. “And my condolences too.”
“Those of us alive owe our lives to Meleng,” Nin-Akna said. “Felitïa too, but mostly Meleng.”
When Fra-Chan returned, she set about tending to his hand, first recleaning the wound and then stitching it. “Don’t worry,” the young girl said as she started, “I’m trained in first aid.”
Once Rudiger’s hand was stitched and bandaged again, they resumed their tales.
“We’re hoping the disruption of your return will destabilise things here enough for the Resistance to act,” Izel said once she and Rudiger had finished their side of the story. “Can we count on the Youth Guard’s assistance?”
The three Youth Guards conferred with each other for a minute before Nin-Akna said, “We’ve done some things to deliberately stir things up. It’s clear someone arranged specifically for us to die. We want that person or persons brought to justice. However, we have all vowed to protect the Queen at all costs, with our lives as necessary, and we will honour that vow. If you can promise us that no harm will come to her, then you have our support.”
“The Queen is a symptom of the problem, and not the problem itself,” Izel said. “The priests hold the real power, and that’s where we seek change. We seek to remove people like Fra-Ichtaca and Ses-Xipil. If Ses-Xipil really isn’t human, she has no right to be there in the first place. We mean no harm to the Queen. Besides, killing her would not win us any public support. People hate the priests and the rest of the government, but somehow still love her.”
“The Queen is a good and reasonable person from what I’ve seen of her,” Nin-Akna said.
“Then I’d suggest you’ve not seen much,” Izel said, “or you’ve not been paying attention. She’s petty, self-absorbed, and vindictive. Once we remove the corrupt priests controlling her, we may find ourselves with just as bad a situation with her, but at least—”
“Or a better one,” Nin-Akna said.
Izel sighed. “Look, are you with us or not?”
Nin-Akna scowled, but nodded. “We’re with you.”
“What about the warriors who returned with you? No offence, but the three of you will not be enough military support.”
“We had lots of time on the trip back to know where they stand,” Nin-Akna said. “They will follow us.”
“Good. And what if the Queen gives you a direct order to turn against us? What will you do?”
Nin-Akna grimaced. “We hope she will see that we are doing the right thing. She’s already questioning the loyalty of the priests, and—”
“And excommunicating one of the few good ones,” Izel said. “But that’s not answering my question. If she doesn’t agree that you’re doing the right thing, what will you do?”
Nin-Akna jumped to her feet. “I’ve already told you, we will not harm the Queen.”
Izel stood as well and faced the Youth Guard, who stood only a little taller than her. “And I’ve already told you we won’t harm her either. But will you disobey an order?”
Nin-Akna took several seconds before replying. “Only if absolutely necessary, but yes, I’m willing to disobey a direct order if it results in a cleansing of the evil that has corrupted her court.”
Izel smiled. “That’s all I wanted to know.”
Nin-Akna scowled. “When’s all this supposed to start?”
“Don’t know exactly,” Izel said. “Soon. We await a sign from the Resistance.”
“What will that be?”
“Can’t say for sure, either, but Fra-Tepeu will make sure it’s a noticeable one. Anyway, we’ve spent too long chatting in here for now. Someone’s bound to notice if you spend too long with us and they might start questioning. If anyone asks about this visit, we’ll put it down to the three of you being fascinated with the Queen’s new horse. You happened to see Rudiger was injured, so you offered to help tend his wounds. If anyone asks about the source of his injury, say he told you he had an accident while stripping leather for new tack and accidentally stabbed himself in the hand. Give no indication you know Fra-Ichtaca or Zeltzin were involved. Contact us if you learn anything. We’ll do the same with you, but we should keep further interaction between us to a minimum.”
Nin-Akna gave a slow nod, still frowning. “Agreed. I’ll let Felitïa know what we discussed.” She turned to the other two. “Let’s go.”
“You were a bit hard on them at the end, weren’t you?” Rudiger said after they’d gone.
“We need to make sure their loyalties don’t waver,” Izel said, sitting beside him on the floor.
“They’re just kids.”
“Exactly. We need to make sure their loyalties don’t waver.”
“I think we can trust them.”
“Look, Rudiger, they are a part of the system we’re trying to overthrow. They’ve been indoctrinated into it. Yes, they’re starting to wake up to the realities of the world—having someone order your deaths can do that—but they still have to throw aside old biases and prejudices.”
“I understand that, but I just think—”
“Please, can we not argue for a change? Just trust that I know what I’m doing, okay?”
Rudiger nodded. “Yeah, okay, I trust you.” After a moment, he added, “And we don’t argue that much anymore, do we? Not the last few days at any rate.”
“No, I suppose we don’t.” She smiled and climbed on top of him. “Too preoccupied with other things to argue, aren’t we?”
Borisin squealed. Not again!