Page 38 of Tethered Thrones

It wasn't the best of news, but we knew that none of this would be easy.

Clem pulled me to sit in between them all and I didn't bother to resist. The soldiers looked but no one said anything to us. Whatever they thought, for the first time, it didn't matter to me. I wanted their support, but I was too tired to want their approval as well. These four nocs, I accepted them unapologetically for now.

Perhaps later, after all was said and done, if Hadi betrayed me the way I had always thought he would, then I would change my mind about them all. The thought alone was suddenly gut-wrenching in a way it hadn't been before. I hadn't cared much about his opinion of me but at some point, that had changed. At some point, seeing his massive form in the dark, pincers and all, had ceased to be intimidating and instead had become comforting.

Huh. It never failed to amaze me how much change I was capable of in such a short time. Life had turned completely upside down, but I had transformed most of all.

Here, sitting amidst the same battalion I had often been a part of, it was especially obvious. I was not the same Batu Sun who had been captured months ago. I was less rigid. My eyes were more open.

“What are you thinking?” Clem asked curiously.

I noticed the other three also watching me and realized they were all worried in their own ways. Yet they were keeping it to themselves. It was so unlike them to hold back in any way that I smiled at their good behavior.

“I'm thinking of myself,” I finally answered. “I'm sitting right where I used to be, eager to do nothing but kill your kind. Now, here I am again, not only with you as my friends and allies, but willing to risk all our lives by turning against my own emperor.”

I shook my head and a strong, sinewy limb pressed comfortingly against my back. I didn't have to look to know that it was Kiar's tail. On either side, my largest nocs, Bracken and Hadi both swelled up as though to offer me their own type of comfort in safety.

It helped. Having such an entourage was not something to bat your eye at. With them, I was protected.

Suddenly, my attention was drawn to the general's tent just as he emerged. He did so silently but commanded such presence that I wasn't surprised that everyone in the vicinity turned to watch and see what he would do.

He didn't look towards me, and my chest tightened with nerves. My entire body was strung tight as a drawn bow as I watched General Hideyoshi move to the front of the hill his tent was erected upon.

Below, the soldiers began to gather even before the horn was sounded for attention.

Despite the number of people there, the air was thick with the silence. The sound of my own tense breathing was nearly all I could hear.

“It has come to my attention that all is not what it seems.”

General Hideyoshi’s voice rang out over the crowd, loud and clear as a bell. I had no doubt that it was heard on all corners and that each person hung on every syllable he said just the way that I did.

“From the mouth of someone I trust with my life, I have learned of a great betrayal that shakes the ground I walk upon.”

He paused there, to think of how to word what he was going to say next, I thought. My hands shook, the string ready to snap with relief because it seemed like maybe this was going to work in our favor...

“Our emperor has betrayed us all by bringing the nocs into our world, bastardizing the goddess’s own powers and beginning an unending war.”

A murmur ran through the crowd. Disbelief and shock radiating throughout them all. General Hideyoshi did not speak until silence fell again.

“In all my years knowing him, Batu Sun has been unwaveringly just and loyal to the cause. He has fought to find the truth and has proven that the nocs are not always what we have believed them to be.” He waved towards us, clearly indicating that I sat surrounded by four who were not trying to actively kill or torture me. “He is no liar. I believe him. I will be working with him to stop Emperor Gaulu.”

This time, a cry of disgust and betrayal rang through the air, but I didn't care.The general believed me. He supported me. He was on our side!

“You have a choice!” He shouted over the commotion. “You can leave here now, turn your back on this battalion, find a new one to join, and carry on with what you have been doing for years to no avail. Or! You can stay, join me and Batu Sun, in finally ending this war.”

Again, a pregnant pause.

No one moved.

“He has come with proof from the goddess’s mouth herself. He was chosen and I will not betray the Goddess Tsuki again. She and the sun god Taiyo himself have given Batu Sun thismission. If you trust me as you have all these years. Then you will stay and hear my plan.”

General looked out over the crowd, seeming to pierce each soldier with those sharp eyes.

“Choose now.”

With that, he glanced at the man with the gong and nodded.

He hit it again. The loud note reverberated over the field. For a minute, no one moved and then, one by one, people started to leave.

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