“Queen Esi?” she asked, her words so quiet they were hard to hear.
“Ah . . . Your Majesty,” Otobong began, “it is your sister’s current styling, and with no offense meant, I simply—”
“Queen Esi?” Tsiora said, louder this time.
“Queen Tsiora,” Mirembe said, emphasizing her name, “I believe the general only meant to suggest that, once talks begin, it will be prudent to extend every courtesy to the other side. Isn’t that right, General?”
“As you wish, Chairwoman.”
“Yes,” Mirembe said, dipping her head low to the queen.
“Enough,” Tsiora said. “Save such scheming for another day. We won’t allow—”
“Scheming?” Mirembe said, voice high. “My queen, that’s not a fair—”
“Your queen is speaking!” Nyah said.
Mirembe stood, feigning no subservience, and, instead of showing a lowered head or lipless smile, she flexed her hands into claws. “Vizier, you overstep.”
“We said enough,” Tsiora said. “This meeting rests on the mistaken belief that we cannot retake our capital and throne.”
Keeping his hands on his hilts, Tau looked to the queen. He’d chosen her side and that was where he’d stay. She’d promised him Odili. But even without having laid eyes on it, he knew enough about Palm City, which had tall, thick walls and stood between the forks of the Amanzi River, to know that General Otobong was telling the truth.
They didn’t have the strength of arms to wrest the capital from Odili’s grasp and wouldn’t without bolstering the number of soldiers they already had. To do that, they’d have to call up most of the Ihagu and Ihashe left in the peninsula.
As far as Tau knew, it was within the queen’s rights to do so. She could order the fiefs to send their fighters to her, but if the other umbusi were anything like Jabari’s mother, they wouldn’t take kindly to orders that stripped them of their soldiers and left them defenseless. Worst of all, if they decided they were better off disobeying, it would weaken Tsiora. A leader whose orders aren’t followed does not remain a leader for long.
“My queen, I’m afraid I haven’t laid out our position clearly enough,” Otobong said. “Please allow me to explain.”
“Would you, General?” Tsiora asked, offering him a dead smile. “There are so many details.”
If Otobong kept talking about pardoning Odili, Tau would be the first to gut the general, but given the queen’s tone, his sense that the man was in danger was so strong, he almost wanted to warn him to shut up.
“Of course, my queen,” Otobong said, nodding hard enough to make his jowls shake. “You see, we can’t take the capital by siege. We don’t have the numbers, and even if we did, we don’t have the time. There’s less than a moon cycle before our truce with the hedeni ends, and if the totality of our forces are not aligned by then, we’ll be wiped out.”
“Thank you, General. That’s very helpful,” Tsiora said. “Helpful, but wrong.”
“Wrong? Uh . . . how’s that . . . Your Majesty?”
“We don’t need to siege the capital,” she said. “When we go to take it, the gates will be opened for us.”
Otobong narrowed his eyes, trying to understand what the queen was getting at. “If I may be bold, Your Majesty, I do not think Odili will surrender his life and the city to you, no matter how many times you order him to do it.”
“We do not care what Odili will or won’t do. We have agents in Palm City. They’ll open the gates when we come.”
Tau’s grip tightened on his hilts when she said it. The queen had a way into the city and that meant they were going to take the fight to Odili.
Otobong shook his head, and the general began to speak even more slowly, enunciating each word as if Empiric wasn’t the queen’s first language. “My queen, I must take you at your word about these agents, but even so, you’re asking us to take too great a risk. What we have are a smattering of Ihagu, some Ihashe, a few initiates from the citadel, and several loyal Indlovu who survived the invasion. Together they’re a military dragon, but they just came out of a bitter battle. We can’t expect to mobilize them, march to Palm, and win that fight, even if the gates are opened.”
“You began this boasting of your capabilities,” Tsiora said. “We’ve told you the gates will be open. Where is your faith, General?”
“They weren’t boasts and I do have faith, my queen. I have faith that if we do the right thing, we can reunite our people and survive, but it isn’t right to face Odili in combat, not as we are,” he said. “He has too many Indlovu and Ingonyama. He has at least as many Gifted as we do, and Goddess knows, the Ihashe and Ihagu in Palm City won’t understand our conflict and are likely to keep fighting for him too.” Otobong turned his body to include Mirembe and the other councilwomen in the discussion. “To win this fight we need more soldiers but don’t have the time to gather them. I’m telling you, if we wish to see another season, we have days to end this rebellion. Days.”
Mirembe clapped her hands together, drawing the room’s attention. “What can we do, then, General?” she asked. “What can we do to survive?”
“It’s as I’ve said. We must compromise with Odili and . . . uh . . . and Princess Esi.”
“This is your decision?” Mirembe asked. “The decision of the Guardian Council?”
“It is,” Otobong said.
“No. Abasi Odili betrayed us,” Queen Tsiora said. “He tried to kill us.”
Mirembe nodded, put a hand to her chest, and closed her eyes as if in prayer. “His actions hurt us all. They are a stain on his honor and a blight on the history of our people.” She opened her eyes, fixing them on Tsiora. “But that does nothing to change the facts the general described, the decision he’s made, and the decision that we on the Ruling Council must also make.”
“This is what you want?” Tsiora asked. “You wish us to forgive and forget treachery?”
“My queen, we’re responsible for more than ourselves in this,” Mirembe said, “and to carry out the duty we owe to those we lead, we have to forgive and forget, or everyone dies.”
Someone behind Tau cleared his throat. It was Hadith, and although he looked uncomfortable when the faces in the room turned to him, he didn’t wither beneath the gaze of his betters.
Tau was beside Nyah and saw her signal Tsiora. The vizier didn’t want her to let Hadith speak, but Nyah’s want wasn’t enough. In the matter of Guardian Councillor Abasi Odili, Tau and the queen were cut from the same stone. They could not forget and they would never forgive.
“Ihashe,” Queen Tsiora said to Hadith. “You have something to say?”
LEADERSHIP
There may be a way to delay the Xiddeen attack long enough to gather the forces needed to take Palm City,” Hadith said, “but if we fail, the Xiddeen will send their full might against us immediately.”
Otobong sucked his teeth and stepped farther away from Hadith, like the Ihashe’s smell offended him. “You offer self-destruction?” he asked, before turning to the councilwomen. “I wonder, council, should we not bring in a few of the stabled horses to present their opinions as well?”