Page 122 of Firebird

Could it be that he was my brother?

I did not want to think about it, but there it was. The question hung in the air. Of course, other possibilities could be considered. Ari might be planning to annihilate my whole family so that he and his mother could take over the crown. But to what end? They were not well-loved. They had always been imperious, more like a Mogochislenian family than an Arrowspear one.

“We should be more cautious,” I finally admitted to Leevar.

“So, you see, Your Majesty, being out here in the open is dangerous. You must come inside now. You have trained your body and soul enough to battle ten men.”

“Ten men, maybe, Leevar – but what about a stealthy, lying mortal like Ari? What about the Touch and the Ninurta? Whatever I did today could not possibly prepare for something supernaturally strong.”

“We will all work together, Your Majesty,” Leevar said.

He had barely said those words when a strong wind blew. Each of us had to hold on to something so as not to get blown by it. I ran to the pole that held the target and embraced it for stability. Leevar, meanwhile, had nothing much to hold on to where he was. Only bushes lined up on either side of the rock he was seated. There was nothing solid to keep him steady from the unexpected onslaught.

“Run over here, Leevar!” I yelled.

He tried. He was a larger man than I was, but the wind pushed him, attempting to tackle him like a tower of cards. He stumbled on the grass. I did not know how I could help as the wind became stronger. I held on to the pole. Then, I saw him roll, not like a log but more like a child’s ball.

With my jaw clenched, I let go of the pole and crawled towards him. It was a seemingly endless, excruciating thing – my fingers bleeding from the effort of clutching at the grass. I saw him further being blown like a piece of papyrus.

Then, it happened. The wind went full force on Leevar, slamming him on the outer palace wall. The sickening thud that followed took my breath away. A sharp pain twisted in my chest as I saw one of my best men slide down the wall. Lifeless. Blood stained the wall, the lines it made taunting me.

What good did your training do? How was your fury able to help your guard? Your friend?

The words seemed to invade my brain. Something was trying to make me question myself, and the voice was no longer just mine.

It was the voice of a man – perhaps that of a god that had been recently unleashed.

The wind had died, almost at the same instant that Leevar did. Horror and grief gripped me. I had seen his death with my own two eyes. The Massacre of the Seers was devastating, but the death of this man seemed to cripple me – leave me breathless on the ground, still clutching on the grass while my bare chest pressed onto it.

Echoes of our childhood flashed before me. Leevar had never been my closest friend, and I would not pretend he was, simply because he died. However, he had always been there, a little older than Razuku, Emir, Cora, and me. He had been there, the foreigner who everyone shunned for a little while until we all discovered that the large boy was gentle and kind.

I pulled myself up, willing myself to fight this invisible deity. What was I but a mere offshoot of a demigod’s bastard daughter? How could I fight when all I knew was to heal? My youth had been spent trying to balance the temperatures of the continents. I was not meant to fight. At least, that was how I saw the world.

Then, there it was again. The voice of a god.

“You! Traitor to your people. To the gods,” it rasped. It manifested like a giant blob of dark cloud, floating only a few yards away from my head.

“I have always been fair to my people. Just. I worked with them, with my bare hands like a common peasant,” I spat.

“No. Not the people of Prozeus, my boy. The people of Rama. The demigods.”

“You killed my blood in Rama.”

There was raucous laughter.

“Oh, no. I did not. You do not know what you are up against.”

“I know you are a god. You will take and take, greedy as ever for all time.”

“I warn you, Metheus of Prozeus and Rama. Listen well. Look well. Find the true root. For now, I have no choice but to drain you to your death.”

Then, it pulled at me. I had never felt anything like it. Was it what the earth felt? Was it what Luella felt? I doubt. I had always been gentle when I took fire. The Ninurta was not gentle. It was a greedy, starving god that wanted to devour every bit of me as it inhaled me. Gobbled me.

I tried to fight back. I pulled at him. Void against void. Was that not what Aruna said I should do? Fight the greedy god, the Ninurta? So, that was what I did. I set my legs apart, a stance that was meant to stabilize, gain me more footing.

When I pulled, I took a little bit of my energy back, but I was no match for him. I was not able to take from him. I only took back what I had. Then, he roared. It was a warning, I realized, because the next time he pulled, I felt cold. The warmth that I had gotten from Luella’s embrace seemed to seep out of me until my skin felt clammy and my temperature nearly freezing.

Was this how my life would end?

Alone. With a dead man and a hungry god.

Without having told Luella that I loved her.

Suddenly, everything faded to black.

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