The Sultanah Ch. 13

With little time to spare, my Inner Council swung into action. But we were so few against the tide. Saygili drew his sword and looked grim. He rapidly walked in front of me, shielding my body with his own and preparing for the onslaught. He had a short sword in his belt, an extra (largely ceremonial) weapon. I reached for it, but Saygili recognized it was there and he reached down and grabbed it.

"No Sultanah," he said, "Stay out of the way." And with that, he quickly handed the short sword to the closest person he could find, my sister Kardes. She took it uneasily but stepped forward in front of me. I tried to grab the sword from her hand.

"Varis stop," she said, her voice sounding somewhat panicked, "You are more important...stay out of the way!" As she moved in front of me. Arkadas, terrified, grabbed a chair and lifted it above her head, taking a spot in front of me. I tried to pull her back, to stand with me, but she shook me off. She would not look back at me.

"I love you Varis," she said and I could hear that she had begun to cry. I felt choked and I tried again to throw my arms around my best friend. Saygili turned and shoved me backwards quickly, away from Arkadas and then turned to look in front of himself again. I lost my balance and tumbled into the ground, landing on my ass. I felt blood in the back of my throat and my eyes felt like they were bulging.

Cin, Agiz, and Got had carried ceremonial staves into the throne room and they took these in their hands. Soon, they had lined up in between my sword-bearing protectors, forming a tight semi-circle around me and penning me back towards my throne.

However, not everyone performed with distinction. In fact, before anyone else had even started to move I had seen Soyguncu pull her knife from her belt, run to the nearest window, and throw herself outside. I knew had no idea where she was going, it was a long drop but I doubted she was killing herself. I didn't have time to think about it.

"Step aside and let us have that freak of nature!" Lord Hain cried out, rushing quickly to the front of the room, "You need not all die, we just want the usurper." The entire time he spoke, he looked directly in my eyes and I could feel fire shooting from them. I stared back at him, feeling scared but trying to appear calm. My protectors closed ranks closer, making their circle around me tighter.

"This is treason," I said loudly, hoping that my authority would carry the day. My voice sounded small, almost girlish. Hain and many other laughed.

"We owe you no loyalty!" He said and now I raised my hand in the traditional submission symbol, hoping to repeat my actions from my coronation. The laughter grew more raucous

"You pledged!" I said indignantly, dropping my arm.

"You pledged to restore our estates and you have not," Hain retorted. I knew this was just an excuse for what they were doing. A mere pretense to justify my death. Of course, I had not been above resorting to pretense.

Now Hain and his cadre had made it through the sea of chairs. He was just a few feet in front of Saygili, who was standing directly in front of me. Hain's followers were close behind and soon our little semi-circle was completely surrounded. The room was full of men, perhaps 120 soldiers in all. We were horribly outnumbered.

"Step aside women," Hain said, "And you too, guard. We just want the Usurper!"

"You will not take the Sultanah," Saygili said and raised his blade to defend me. Hain made a move as to advance on Saygili. The other Collaborationists began to tighten up as well, closing in around my guardians.

"Stop!" Cin said and suddenly everyone stopped moving, "This is a mistake Duke Hain. Peers. I will not allow harm to befall my Sultanah," she said. As she spoke the top of her staff grew a dark, glowing red. Agiz and Got saw their staves to grow red as well, though they did not speak. The traitors backed up slightly, looking nervous.

"You know my power," Cin said coolly. There was a rumble of nervousness through the crowd and even Lord Hain briefly looked nervous. There was pure threat in Cin's eyes and I could feel the power of Gunes pulsing out of her. For a moment, I could feel my heartbeat slackening and I could breath. I sat up slightly on the floor, wondering what Cin would do next, how she would solve the crisis. It appeared as though Cin was about the speak again, when she was abruptly interrupted.

"She cannot kill you," A tiny, raspy voice stated somewhere in the back of the crowd, "Whatever power she has...she might be able to restrain you. Some of you. But there are too many. And she cannot kill. She has taken vows. Vows she will not break. Cannot break." The crowd seemed to part in the middle and slowly, the author of the statement came into view. I gasped as the creature stepped into the light.

It was more corpse than man. He was totally bald and his skin so white it was nearly translucent. All of the blood vessels in his eyes were broken, giving his a reddish, glowing whites. His mouth was wide open and I saw a few broken black teeth poking out. His skin hung loose on his face and he was impossibly thin. He was wearing no shirt, only a loin cloth around his waist. His ribs were clearly visible and this stomach was so thin I could nearly see his spine poking through his belly. He was all sharp angles with knobby knees, loose elbows, and all of his skin was covered in oozing sores.

"Cardinal Rahip?" I asked, knowing before he began to cackle that I was right. He had survived. Deep in the dungeon eating rats and drinking waste water. Hain had somehow dug him back out. To bring him here and boost the morale of his troops. From the look in Cin's eyes, the gambit would work. Rahip was calling Cin's bluff.

"You cannot eliminate me any more than you can eliminate the true God. Tanri will have his revenge and I will be the tool of that revenge," Rahip gasped through his shattered mouth. I looked more closely into his red eyes and I could see no sense of human feeling there. His time in the dungeon had driven him insane. My skin crawled and my body recoiled against him. Even the peers that surrounded him pulled back and away from him. He was a vision of their desperation and they wanted desperately to leave him behind, triumphant.

"Rahip, you look as shattered and false as your God," Cin said, "Who here wants to risk their lives on the word of a shattered old man?" Cin spoke with such malevolence

"If I lie, then strike me dead Cin!" he called out, "Come you whore. I give you my permission. Kill me now and prove that you will do the same to the rest!" He took a few steps forward towards us. Cin did not stand back, but instead lifted her staff above her head. She looked icily at Cardinal Rahip, staring into dead eyes and gruesome face. She stood for several seconds, staring while the red light of her staff pulsated. But nothing happened. Rahip began to cackle.

"Were you hoping I would just die on my own?" He asked sharply. It didn't seem like that bad of a bet. But it was now clear to everyone that Cin would not kill anyone. I felt bile in the back of my throat and I looked around for something, anything, to protect myself. The hesitation that had held the crowd back shattered. In fact, the men were now chomping at the bit to attack us. Duke Hain sensed this new found courage and decided to climb in front of it.

"They will not yield! Forward!" Hain called and the circle tightened rapidly around us. The living corpse of Rahip was nearly in the front of the press now.

It is hard to explain what happened during the next few minutes. Hain came charging at Saygili and my general blocked the attack, shoving the Duke him back. But more men were coming. They closed on the priestesses and on my sisters. Their swords were swinging and their spears were stabbing. Nonetheless, our attackers moved cautiously. None of them wanted to die knowing how badly we were outnumbered. They believed they could kill us all without harm. Still, it was not long before we were swarmed.

I stood back, trying to figure out a way to help the situation. But I felt desperate, panicked, and unsure of myself. I knew already that I had brought this on to us and the guilt was already crushing me under its weight. I saw sword and knives flying, I saw blood splash high into the air. I could heard the screams of battle and cries of fright or surprise. Soon, my guardians were each surrounded and men began to pour through the line, heading straight for me.

A number of things happened in the instant before the first of my enemies reached me. I can see each of these things so clearly in my mind, even as I grasp my quill. They all happened at the same time but I can see them separately. First, I saw the door to my left, the one leading to my private chambers burst open. Soyguncu was standing in the door but she quickly plunged inside. Behind her I saw familiar faces. Familiar uniforms. It was the legion I had formed many months ago. I had misjudged Soyguncu. She had jumped out the window, but she had swung herself into the floor below. She had raised the hue and cry, finding members of my army and sending them to the throne room. She told others to pass the word along and now they were pouring, one or two at a time, into the enemy's flank.

That was the only good news. More importantly, I saw Cin raise her staff over her head to block a blow. I saw a sword come down on the hard wood. Cin had misjudged the landing spot of the blow and the sword came down on her left hand, shearing off two of her fingers as if they were made of butter. I heard her scream and falter. To her side, I saw a blade pass through Got's eye and then pass out the back of her head. I saw Got fall to her knees, gasping on the ground before she died. I turned to find Arkadas, but I did not see her. Instead, I saw Saygili trip over something on the floor, landing on his back as Hain lifted his sword to his throat. I did not see what happened to Saygili. I turned away, afraid to look.

But just in time to see a swinging blade slice into my sister's body. The sword moved with force and ease. I would have thought it had missed her except I saw a fountain of blood pour from her throat. The blade had traveled through her neck, severing her throat, and pulled out impossibly dark with imperial blood on the far side. Kardes did not even have time to scream. I watched, horrorstruck but uncomprehending, as her lifeless body fell to the ground. I did not have time to process what I had seen, to understand the full horror of it or to accept my fault, when I felt the club, from somewhere I did not even see, land on the top of my head and the world went mercifully blank.

* * * * *

"Easy, Easy," the voice said above me. I could see nothing but a flash of red light and my head felt like it was pulsating to the erratic rhythm of my heart. I groaned loudly and realized that I was trying to sit up. I did not know where I was or how I had gotten there. I didn't even really have a sense of the last thing I remembered.

"What?" I asked, my voice slurring and my tongue feeling fat. I could taste blood in my mouth. Slowly my eyes began to adjust.

"Sultanah, you must be careful. We have not been able to have you evaluated yet," a familiar voice stated. It had called me Sultanah, not usurper. I knew that was good, but I didn't really remember why, "You must lay down." Now my vision came back as the candle light, that had seemed so blinding, faded. I recognized my location, seeing that I was lying in my own bed with my head on my pillow. The shadow leaning over me came into focus.

"I thought you left me," I said and Soyguncu laughed.

"I thought you knew me better than that," she said. Then she explained the way she had gathered my legion and brought them into the throne room.

She described the battle over my body after I had been knocked out. I remembered none of it. At first the enemy had outnumbered the legion because my troops were forced to enter one or two at a time. Many in my legion were picked off one by one as they entered. The enemy had taken advantage and my unconscious body was in the process of being pulled to the far door by my hair. Someone even suggested tossing me from the window. But each second, enemy troops were falling wounded and injured and more and more of my legionnaires began to enter the room. Soon the tide had turned. My body had been recovered after a blood encounter in the middle of the room. Dozens died as I was tossed back and forth like a rag doll. She explained that it was a miracle that no one had simply stabbed me in the melee, but everything was chaos. Eventually, Soyguncu captured my body and brought me to my room.

With their quarry lost and their casualties mounting, the enemy had broken. They had abandoned one another as they had all tried to bolt, to get out of the palace before death found them. The legion chased them, hacking men down as they ran. All of them were dead or out of the palace now and the building was secure. The enemy was still being hunted through the city streets. Soyguncu was more subdued than was her normal, story-telling attitude and I heard her sigh several times as she told the story.

"Who survived?" I asked as soon as Soyguncu paused.

"Hain and Örnek both made it out. Rahip with them somehow. Several other smaller lords. But we got a lot of them. Saygili sent the legion out into the city to find known Collaborationist who were not here, to arrest them on treason charges," Soyguncu stated and began to tell that story as well. I felt a desperate sensation climbing up the back of my throat. I shook my aching head wildly.

"No...No," I interrupted, "Who among us survived." I said. Soyguncu dropped her head and sighed. I knew she had known the question I had really been asking. She had tried to dodge it. Whatever blades I had eluded in the throne room found me now, icily piercing my heart. I felt a lump in my throat and knew that whatever I was about hear would be...unbearable.

"Well you have, Sultanah. And I. And, as I said, Saygili. He was stabbed in the shoulder, but he should live" she gave a shuddering sigh now.

"Is that all?" I asked, my voice catching in my throat.

"Cin is alive. She has lost..."

"Fingers?"

"And a lot of blood. But she is strong. Her fellow priestesses have both fallen. Agiz died throwing her body on Cin, to protect her when she fell." There was a pregnant pause after that. I thought of Got. Of Agiz. I thought of our night together when I was first the Sultanah. But the pain I felt for them was dwarfed by a memory that flooded back to me in full horror.

"My sister is dead, Kardes..." I said. I said it as a question in some ways. Hoping that I had hallucinated the image or that somehow, miraculously, she had survived her ordeal. Soyguncu nodded slowly. I saw tears in Soyguncu's eyes now, an unfamiliar and unnatural sight. Seeing them there made the world fell upside down.

"And Arkadas," she said barely audible. And that was all. It was confirmed. Both were dead. My elder sister. My best friend. I did not know in that instant who I missed more. That's too trite. I felt that way, but it was a larger feeling. A feeling that the world was no longer what it was and that nothing could ever be...I don't know. But as I struggled with that sensation, I felt an unrelenting hate for myself that surged from nowhere and coated me in a black shroud. My skin felt cold and clammy. My insides felt dead. Everything ceased to function. I heard myself make a choking sound and my head drooped. Guilt and shame were all I could recognize.

"Nislani?" I asked, suddenly realizing I did now know about my wife. I was no longer surprised to find that I felt real fear at the thought. She was my entire family now. That thought was more hateful than any of the others.

"She is alright. She was discussing the meals for the upcoming week with the cook downstairs. She didn't even know anything had happened. She wants to see you, but I have kept her out," Soyguncu said. I breathed slightly easier but my mind immediately returned to my older sister. And my friend.

I tried desperately in that moment to focus my thoughts on the people that I loved. I wanted to simply sit and bed and think of them. Gunes be praised, even think of Got and Agiz, all night. I would have held Soyguncu's hands and hated myself more and more with each passing moment. But before I could even begin to formulate rational thoughts, my door pounded open. I jumped, half expecting the horde to have returned to finish me off. But I relaxed slightly as I saw Saygili standing in the doorway.

"Gunes be praised, Sultanah you are awake," he said, "The way they tossed you about..." he shook his head. I saw him wince then and look down at his bandaged arm.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, my voice sounding small and childish. I needed my general now more than ever. I had so few allies left.

"I will be fine Sultanah. I worry only for you," he said.

"What is happening out there?" Soyguncu said. She was a scout and a spy, desperate for information.

"The coup has collapsed. It had no popular support. The people don't even really know what happened yet. They just saw the legions chasing a handful of fugitives through the streets. They tore off their armor to move more quickly, they were barely recognizable. Anyway, they needed to kill you to make it stick," Saygili said, looking at me. I nodded. My popularity with the people was small consolation now.

"Have they been apprehended?" I asked now. Saygili shrugged.

"Most are dead, wounded, or captured. I cannot be certain about all of them. But, and I apologize Sultanah, the one you care about the most...Duke Hain has not been located. A guard saw a small group of riders heading away from the city into the moonlight. They were well-appointed. No one knows how they got out. We suspect it was him. Lord Örnek was captured in his home, trying to change into peasants clothing," Saygili said. I felt bitter tears in my eyes, knowing Hain was gone. He was the only person in the world I hated more than myself at that moment.

"I want Lord Örnek dead tonight. His head on the Duke's Gate as a warning. Anyone else who is caught as well. I want a forest of heads," I said coldly. I cannot describe the way I felt when I uttered those words. It did not feel like I said it. It felt reptilian, cold, alien. I did not consider any circumstances or mercy or anything else. I needed to see my own pain reflected in the lifeless eyes of my enemies. Nothing else would suffice.

"We are rounding up Collaborationists who were not involved in the coup as well..."Saygili said.

"Their heads too," I said, feeling even less than I felt before, "They knew this was coming whether they participated or not. No one told me. No trials. I want them dead before the sun is up."

"Of course," Saygili responded. His eyes looked uncertain about the barbarity of my order. I felt no shame in my emotions and he sensed that. He dutifully complied, "We knew where most them lived. We have almost all of them now. We believe anyone we cannot find is likely already in hiding."

"Beg your pardon, Sultanah, but if you kill them...don't you want the details on the conspiracy?" Soyguncu asked. I thought of this for a moment, but my blackness overruled the idea. It tumbled over me and eradicated anything that could be misconstrued as mercy. It did not seem very fruitful anyway.

"We will speak with wives and children and learn what we can. Showing the world our resolve is more important now," I explained.

"That reminds me," Saygili said, "Lord Hain made arrangements for his own escape we believe. But we think he was pretty confident. We found his wife and daughter Kolza still at home. They are in custody."

"The fucking coward," I spat, "leaving his women to face the consequences while he runs off into the night like a thief."