Page 49 of Own to Obtain

“From where?” Shaya cried. “We’re in the middle of a blizzard.”

But Kardos was already searching around for the source. He lurched from one to the other, then dropped and rolled, squashing Shaya underneath him as he did so.

“Kardos,” Shaya gasped, fear twisting in her stomach. “What’s happening? Are we under attack?”

“It seems as though there are archers from another tribe who are on our island,” Kardos said grimly. “And they seem to be under instructions to attack us.”

“Why?” Shaya asked disbelief. “Why would they do that?”

“I have no idea,” Kardos said. “It is extremely unusual for anyone to launch an attack during a blizzard. In fact, I would even say it was….”

“What?”

“What would be the need to kill someone during the blizzard,” Kardos asked slowly. “It is dishonest to try to get rid of somebody that way. Why not just challenge them to a battle, why not just declare your dislike of them? This is sneaky and underhanded. And it reeks of…”

Zolt’s words about the other tribes working against him ran across his mind. He still didn’t know which tribe had sent Anata to attack Shaya, but the plan had clearly come from someone who was not a Tribe Nyek member. There is no honorable warrior who would attack during a blizzard, and certainly not when three blizzards were converging on the Southern Lands at once. He could only surmise that the attackers had interfered with his people monitoring the izak-rock, which meant this was an assault on his whole tribe. Allowing the izak-rock to not heat the mountain was akin to death for his people.

Shunting along the edge of the valley, he reached the end and made his way out, circling the area and keeping his attention on the izak-rocks, where the arrows were coming from.

He racked his brains trying to think who it could be behind this. The next largest island was Azzan, but they did not have any skilled archers who were capable of shooting in a blizzard. Many of their warriors opted to defend the birthing temples during the blizzard, and it was unlikely that anyone would be foolish enough to abscond themselves from that duty. Still, he wouldn’t put anything past the other shinnos based on what he had seen during the selection trials. The next biggest island was Obari, Rhaad’s tribe. But he couldn’t see any reason why Rhaad would do this.

To his right, the blizzard was rapidly approaching, but he did not let that distract him. This attack was incredibly heinous and too coincidental considering the attack on Shaya. He had to find out who was behind it.

He hunched down and ran toward the rocks where the arrows were coming from to see the furs of a single archer. He wasn’t wearing any tribe colors, which was even more suspicious. Kardos watched the pattern of arrows he was shooting. Three in quick succession, then a pause, and then five in quick succession. Waiting for the pause in between, Kardos readied himself.

After the first three, he launched himself at the archer, knocking him from his hiding place and punching him heavily as he fell into the snow. Pulling out his small dagger coated with paralyzing potion, he stuck it into the man’s neck. The warrior was unusually old, his hair even turning grey at the root and at points in his beard, but he did not let the warrior’s elder status sway him.

“The dagger has penetrated your artery.” He breathed heavily on top of the man. “You are paralyzed from the neck down, and you will remain that way until the heart of the blizzard takes you. I will make it quick and painless for you if you tell me exactly why you are attacking Tribe Nyek.”

“High Chief Kardos.” The man’s words were mumbled and his eyes were wide. “It is an honor to meet you.”

“It is not an honor to meet you,” Kardos spat. “You are committing a serious crime. Why you are you even on this island? You should be protecting your own.”

“It is the way it has been for centuries.”

Kardos frowned. “What you mean?”

The man sighed heavily and swallowed slowly. “At my age, there is only one thing you can to look forward to, and that is an honorable death. Dying by your hand will be my honor.”

“You will not die at all if I choose it,” Kardos growled through gritted teeth. “I want to know what tribe you are from, what you are doing here, and why.”

“Gladly,” the man said. He took a breath. “I’m from Tribe Obari.”

Kardos couldn’t help but growl.Rhaad.

“It is an unknown tradition that archers in our tribe get a special privilege to help raise Tribe Obari—to heights unknown to any other tribe.”

“Impossible,” Kardos growled. “Only Tribe Nyek has ever reached those heights. Whatever tradition you have been following is false.”

The man smiled. “You would think that. But it is true.”

“What do the archers do?” Shaya asked from over his shoulder.

“We are trained to work in the blizzards.”

Kardos stiffened. “You attacked other tribes during the blizzards?”

“In a way,” the man said slowly. “But mainly people.”

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