Retribution

Allius Golt

Blood had pooled next to his head, but it had not come from a blow to his skull. Instead, what had killed Allius Golt was a cut to his throat. The poor man lay on his back, his eyes closed, his sword to one side out of reach. His chair had been knocked over, and the timer he used to measure the evening’s progress had been smashed.

Rightly so, his corpse was not Leana’s first concern. She drew her own blade and tentatively moved towards the open door to our temporary living quarters — rooms that very few people were meant to know about. I immediately followed her inside, fearing the worst for Nambu’s safety.

There we came across another body.

However it was not the princess’s. A man we did not recognize lay face down. Garbed in an all-black outfit, the exact same kind as worn by her other attackers, his brown hair was tied in a tail as long as his arm, and a short sword was protruding from his back.

To one side, sitting on my bed with her knees drawn up to her chest, and with her bright eyes now red with tears, was the young princess. I moved to sit beside her, quickly but without appearing too threatening.

The young girl was clearly disturbed. In fact, she looked as if she was in shock.

‘Are you all right?’ I asked.

She squirmed a nod, then buried her head behind her arms. She began to heave with sobs, so I leaned in and held her close. Leana, meanwhile, checked the other rooms for intruders, leaving us in darkness. She returned promptly and shook her head. The glow of the torchlight lowered towards the corpse as she scrutinized the body.

The hilt of the blade appeared, from this distance, to have once belonged to Nambu. The position of it in the man’s back indicated he had not seen her, because she was probably hiding behind the door as he entered. She had thrust the weapon from a crouching position, upwards into the man’s back. Presumably he had not anticipated that the princess had received some training with a sword and unwittingly he had become her first kill.

Nambu, however, was now beginning to realize what it felt like to take a life with one’s own hands.

Eventually her heaves diminished and she took control of her emotions.

‘I heard a noise outside,’ she said. ‘If it was a fight it was very quick and after a gurgling scream everything went quiet, so I assumed the worst and thought I’d be attacked again, and so I hid there trying to remember everything Leana had taught me.’ She indicated the corner behind the door. ‘When the man came in I. .’

Now was not the time for me to question just how the hell an intruder could have tracked her all the way down here without being caught.

Her face creased up and I thought we were going to lose her momentarily, but she quickly regained her composure. ‘I stabbed him, just in his weak spot like you said, Leana.’

‘You did good work,’ Leana declared.

‘How can it be good?’ Nambu muttered. ‘He’s dead. Dead because of what I did to him.’

‘Precisely so,’ Leana replied. ‘If you had not killed him then, spirits save you, he could have killed you. You saved your own life. This is a good thing. Even Lucan could not say otherwise.’

‘Leana’s correct,’ I said. But I was not so sure it was strictly the truth that he had come to kill Nambu. Their previous efforts had seemed to be more about capturing her.

‘Remember what this feels like,’ I said.

‘I’m sorry?’ Nambu looked up at me, curious.

‘Remember what this feels like, to have killed someone.’

‘Why would you say that to me?’

‘Because you have done this yourself. Your mother, when she decides to have someone executed, does so at a distance. She is removed from the act of removing a life. These matters are acts of the gods and goddesses, not the business of the mortals. Just remember that, for when it comes to killing someone it is the business of gods you’re messing with. It comes with profound implications.’

‘You will confuse her,’ Leana grunted, before moving away to look over the corpse again.

‘It is an important lesson. One day you will rule this nation. You will have the power to send armies to die in your name, perhaps. You will have political prisoners executed. You will be responsible for killing people, but it will never be from your hand. This is what it is like.’ I gestured towards the corpse. ‘Even though the reason was pure, that was a life you removed.’

‘He speaks too much,’ Leana said. ‘I have killed many people. Hundreds. This is not the business of the gods but real life. I just deal with it, like I would deciding what to eat for supper. It is only profound if you choose for it to be so.’

‘We may have come from different backgrounds,’ I added, ‘in reaching our conclusions on the matter.’

‘If you had seen what I had seen,’ Leana said, ‘you would not think much of this. Now.’ Leana marched over to the young princess and gently but firmly hauled her off the bed, and patted her down as if she was plumping up a cushion. ‘You need to sleep. We will tell you all about the case tomorrow. But sleep while we clean up this corpse.’

‘I’m not sure I can sleep,’ Nambu whispered, staring guiltily at the corpse.

‘You will,’ Leana said. ‘I am proud of you. Look at you, a warrior princess. You are like me.’

It wasn’t exactly a smile on Nambu’s face, but she no longer appeared to be quite as sad. Moments later she shuffled off into her bedroom, and closed the door behind her.

‘A warrior princess,’ I said, ‘just like you.’

‘Let us speak no more of the past.’

‘Familiar territory, then,’ I said. I lit another candle and moved over to the corpse to make a closer inspection. Whoever this was he must have acquired inside information from deep inside the queen’s circle to know where to find her. I noticed that the man’s black shirt had become untucked in his fall, and that the small of his back was revealed. Something strange there — an unusual shape for clothing — caught my eye. Lifting the material back revealed a small tattoo of the sickle and star.

‘Oh,’ I muttered.

‘What is it?’ Leana crouched down alongside me to get a better look.

‘This tiny symbol is of the Rukrid clan. Sulma Tan had pointed out their heraldry at the games. He must be a member of that family. We must notify the queen immediately.’

Leana stood up and moved to the door. ‘I would not like to be in the Rukrid clan come the morning. I will go back to alert the staff. You stay here and comfort Nambu.’