The Law of Three

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A Bald King

 -- Cuman Union Compound : Brooklyn --

Janòs Szábacs sat alone in his bedchamber staring into the fireplace. No fire burned. A solitary candle flickered in the updraft.

Szábacs stared at the flame and tried to center himself. He didn’t need to watch the news reports to know that something had gone wrong. The demeanor of the Inas Kör, the Servants Circle, told him everything.

When brave men quaked...

The members of the Inas Kör were the bravest of the brave, the toughest fighters in the Cuman Union but when he’d visited them just now they’d been almost paralyzed, stammering when he approached them about the progress of the mission. Before they could placate him, he left them sitting at the table even more frightened of his wrath.

Szábacs didn’t like the Servants’ fearful, wary, eyes. Too much fear led to desperation. Desperate men made mistakes and mistakes...

...Well here we are. Emil what have you done to us? And over a young buzi?

Szábacs shook his head as much in sadness as disgust. He sometimes thought the old ways caused more harm than good. Emil had been his most loyal friend and the wisest voice in the Inas Kör. Now he was lost to the Union forever because of what, an unsavory predilection for flesh of the same sex?

Have I caused irreparable damage to the Kochoba to enforce some ancient law? God, why didn’t I just ignore the information?

But Szábacs couldn’t ignore the information because it had come from his son Kiril, the future Fej. Kiril would not allow Emil’s indiscretion to be swept under the rug. Not this close to the Csere.

Damn the Csere. I need more time!

A quiet knock at his door interrupted his troubled thoughts.

“Come.”

The door opened and Ferenc Gera, the head of his bodyguard detachment, entered.

“Speak.”

“Kutya has returned. The Régiek work as we speak.”

Szábacs breathed a sigh of relief. Something in his gut unclenched. He felt his entire body relax.

He looked up at Ferenc’s scarred face.

“Damage?”

“Bullets,” Ferenc answered, hesitating. “Also fire. The healing will take time.”

Goddamn fire.

Szábacs gut clenched again. In Kutya’s altered condition not even a stake could end its existence. But fire? Fire was another story entirely.

“Let the Ancients know I will be down momentarily.”

Ferenc spoke quietly into his earpiece. When he was finished he looked at his master.

“Anything else?”

Szábacs waved his hand. Ferenc bowed his head and backed out of the bedchamber, shutting the door behind him.

Ferenc doesn’t show fear. The others of the Inas Kör should follow his example.

He hoped Kiril realized Ferenc’s value to the Union but after the Csere Janòs wouldn’t be able to protect his friend, not from where he was going. The Cuman Union, the entire Kochoba nation and all its members, man, woman and child would be the responsibility of his son.

We will know soon enough if I have prepared you to sit at the head of the Inas Kör.

His son had to survive the next few days before he assumed the mantle of Fej. No one was safe during the time of the Csere not even his son the heir apparent. He could still stumble. Janòs remembered the final test his father had administered and how close he’d come to failing.

What will you choose, my son?

Szábacs stared at the candle but found no peace. The time of the Csere was upon him and there was still so much left to do. The last 50 years of preparation had gone by in a seeming instant.

Time grows short, Kutya.

Janòs Szábacs closed his eye and took a deep breath.

Kutya. Kutya. Kutya.