The LEVELER King ✔

BOOK 3: CHAPTER 20

Indel refused to look behind him at Boon who stood watching. Nala was a mess. Her body trembled. Each attempt Indel made at taking the head, Nala made a sound like a wounded child.

There was no words exchanged as Sessel gathered everyone onto the field, promising to keep Nala's condition private.

Nala held Crane's head close to her own face, cheek to cheek.

Such show of affection made Indel hearts burst for her.

"Na'am..." He tried again, gentler as he lowered himself to his knees and looked up at her. "Na'am. Let us go. We must leave."

"She doesn't have to leave," Boon insisted. "I will win. I will keep you all safe."

Indel kept his back to him, refusing to acknowledge him even as the drums sounded.

"She can stay here until I'm finished. Then we'll have a funeral. We can do it properly. She will like that," Boon said, his voice petering down to nothing.

Still kneeling before Nala, Indel didn't look back at Boon but knew when he finally walked away.

The ruckus that followed meant he'd gone to the inos. Perhaps he went to take Crane's for his own finally.

Indel risked standing. He was slow when he sat at Nala's side, taking care not to touch Crane lest Nala think he was trying to take it away. Sitting with his left arm around Nala's shoulder, Indel stared at the bare soil at their feet

"Na'am. Come back to me, please. Please do not leave me all alone. Boon will soon be dead. And Crane...."

Nala let out a low whine, hunching over as she tucked herself under Indel's left arm.

"Yosh, Na'am. Do not cry. Do not cry. Hush," Indel soothed. Indel knew he should say something but other than a mountain of regret, he had nothing to offer.

As the suns rose high and Nala rested into him, Indel tried to remember how to breathe. Beyond crooning and petting Nala's back, he could do nothing else.

He tried to help Nala up but his Summoner wouldn't stand.

Try as he might, Indel couldn't make sense of any of any of it. Of the way his life progressed, of the rises and falls, of anything.

A crowd of Levelers bowed one by one as they walked past him, and down the slope. They took the steps, the same steps he'd had carved out to accommodate Nala.

Indel walked to them but didn't go down. Instead, he sat. From here he could see Boon's opponent, nearly doubling him in size. He needed to watch. He would have to tell Nala about the defeat soon enough. And he'd have to be gentle about it. If Nala could move, could run, he would even leave with her now and try to take her back home. Boon's ino was big enough to carry the both of them.

And Boon...he hobbled forward, riding Crane's ino, a robe on his shoulders. That was when Indel spied Boon's dead ino at Boon's back; its body bloodied.

Boon.

Boon dismounted Crane's ino to silence.

With the so-called sloth's claw gone and Boon's meager scales, Indel expected it to be a speedy kill.

His chest felt heavy, but he tried to resolve how he'd remember his sons in his final moments. And there was Nala. He needed to think of Nala. Someone had to care for her. Perhaps Sessel would find it in herself to let her stay; to give her the final days befitting of the king's favored.

Boon remained still, maybe ready for death, even as the large Leveler barreled toward him, each scale jutting out into spikes.

At the first swing, Boon dropped low.