Heir of Iron

Chapter 20

(Ruyam. Originally found here: https://workwizards.com/register/happiness-hack-how-to-find-your-burning-desire/)

Navran was drunk out of his mind when Kirshta poured cold water on his face. He jolted upright, spraying water across the sheets of his bedroll and spitting beery bile from his mouth. "Goat piss," he said. "Leave me alone."

"Prepare yourself," Kirshta said. "Ruyam will see you soon. Vapathi?"

Vapathi appeared behind Kirshta, holding a ewer and towel. "Will you get up?"

"No."

"Yes you will," Kirshta said. "Don't make Ruyam angrier than he is. This is your chance."

He tried to glare at Kirshta, but the boy appeared as a bronze-colored blur haloed in gold, and his bleary eyes began to water and smart by the time he got them halfway open. "My chance to what?"

"To free yourself," Kirshta said. "Choose your words carefully when you go to him."

Vapathi's hand was on his shoulder, and she offered him a cup filled with rose water and honey. He drank. The smell and the sweetness did a little to clear his mind. "Get up," she whispered. "I will wash and dress you. You need to be ready, and soon."

"What time is it?" he asked. He didn't dare add what day is it? Time since his return from the temple had become a miserable, indistinguishable blur of drunkenness and sleep.

"Midday," Vapathi said. "Come to the table where I have the water and your clothing."

Navran expected Kirshta to leave, but he didn't. Vapathi stripped Navran, wiped away the vomit and sweat from his face and chest, perfumed him with myrrh and sandalwood, and dressed him again in the Ushpanditya's silks, Kirshta watched with his arms folded, silently evaluating Navran. When Vapathi was nearly done, he said, "He will offer you something."

"What?"

"Have you understood anything the whole time that you've been here?"

Navran grunted. Evidently not.

"Ruyam wants to strike against the Uluriya, and he wants your help. Do not help him. Lie if you have to. Don't give him what he wants."

He squinted at Kirshta. "And what do you want?"

"Me? I want Ruyam to live, and if he goes against the Uluriya he will fail."

"How do you know that?"

Kirshta studied Navran for a long moment, his eyes carefully taking in the lines of Navran's nose and his trimmed, Uluriya beard. "There are things that Ruyam can't see. He has farsight, but he also has power, and his power renders him unable to see some things. But I have no power, and can see clearly."

The elements of the puzzle clicked together. "You also have farsight," Navran said. He felt awake and alert for the first time in many days. "Does Ruyam know?"

"I am one of the things that Ruyam cannot see. He's been teaching me, though he doesn't realize it. We have kept the same discipline for years. When he meditates, I meditate. When he fasts, I fast. He doesn't know. A slave must know when his master fasts, but does the master notice if the slave fasts?"

"You're a thikratta."

Kirshta shrugged. "If you want to call me that. Like Ruyam, I eschew titles. What is important is what I foresee. Ruyam will not destroy the Uluriya. And so he must not try."

That seemed far from certain to Navran, farsight or not. And he didn't understand what game Kirshta was trying to play. Did he protect Ruyam out of loyalty? Or to prolong his quiet apprenticeship? This was a jaha board, but Navran was unsure of the rules, and could not perceive the strategy. But Kirshta seemed to be playing the game well.