Page 51 of Own to Obtain

“Then you should choose to die! There is no honor in any of these actions.”

“You can say that easily because you are part of Tribe Nyek,” the man snapped, gaining a sudden shot of energy. “You have to remember that the leaders of Tribe Obari are fully complicit with this. When your tribe leader and your shinno, and every tribe leader and shinno before them have endorsed this plan, to a youth being prepared and trained it doesn’t seem wrong—not when this goes back generations, since Az Eshra. They’ve all been complicit in taking action in this way.” The man’s eyes lowered. “It is easy to say that we are doing it to protect the Southern Lands from outsiders—that is how it is initially presented to us—and our first few missions involve seeking outsiders, ensuring they do not survive the blizzards. It is only when it progresses to attacking people, those who have grown here—Southern Islanders who have parents from the outside. That is when it becomes difficult to rationalize.”

Kardos growled in irritation at the man’s words. How could he even think any of this could possibly be rationalized?

“When Islanders realized what was happening—the frequent deaths of outsiders—they limited their contact with the outside world, and our missions became less frequent. And we were glad for that.”

“But how do you hide the fact that they are shot with arrows?” Shaya asked. “Surely all of the bodies found would have signs of being shot through?”

“Not all of the bodies are found, Shaya,” Kardos rumbled, his agitation expanding. “During blizzards, many bodies simply disappear.” He turned an accusatory gaze at the man. “What you do with them?”

“Drop them into the sea,” the man said. “Most of the time that is what we do. Sometimes, we don’t have to actually shoot them, we can simply distract them or frighten them enough that they run directly into the blizzard or they are hurt trying to escape the arrows. We are trained to do that first before directly killing them.”

Kardos shook his head unable to believe what he was hearing. His love for the Southern Lands extended to all tribes, even though he always knew Tribe Nyek was superior. He had never thought any tribe would be working against the others in such a deeply hateful way.

“You gave us hope that we could stop this,” the man said after a long moment. “As you rose to shinno and then tribe leader, many of us believed that our missions would stop. In fact, many of us have been quietly supporting your rise to high chief so that the secret practice would become obsolete. But this time, all archers were told to prioritize your death if you returned during the blizzard.”

“Told by who?” Kardos thundered.

“Rhaad.”

Kardos exhaled heavily at the confirmation Rhaad had been behind everything during the Year of Selection. Although Sethol and Gergo had been the most vocal in their dissension, Rhaad had been goading them, fully in agreement with everything they said. “Do any of the other tribes know about this?”

“I don’t know,” the man said. “I very much doubt it, but Rhaad spends a lot of his time visiting the other islands, offering them gifts, finding ways to indebt them to him. I don’t doubt he has also made requests of them to support your demise in some way or another.”

“And you’ve never tried to attack Kardos before?” Shaya asked.

“Yes, but not in a targeted way. When he was growing up, he was difficult to find and he was a Southern Lander—he wasn’t a priority. By the time it was recognized that he could be a significant problem, he was already a highly trained warrior. Some of us didn’t dare attack him, and Rhaad wanted to be careful we were not discovered. He simply hoped to stop him in other ways.”

“This is horrible,” Shaya murmured. Her arms tightened around Kardos’s neck and he automatically ran his hand over them to comfort her. “All those people… All those children.”

“I won’t deny that it is truly horrifying,” the man said. “But please believe me when I say that this plan is not revealed to us at once. By the time we realize what we are doing, we are already guilty of crimes that the Southern Lands would not abide.”

Kardos was quiet for a moment as he thought. “Did you have anything to do with the izak-rocks not being turned?”

The man averted his eyes, his lips tightening. “Not me specifically.”

“Tell me exactly what you know. Everything!”

“Will you give me a clean death?” the man said, his eyes sliding back to him. “I know I can’t ask for an honorable one, but a clean one would give my family some peace, at least.”

Kardos growled, unwilling to give the man anything at all, but at least he was giving him information that he otherwise would not have gotten. “I will,” he said, his voice low.

“I did hear of something that may have some truth to it,” the man said slowly. “One of the ways to discredit you was to prove that you were incapable of being high chief. If it was proven that you were too distracted by your Omega to even take care of your own people, then how could you possibly hope to take care of the entire Southern Lands?”

“So you interrupted the schedule of the izak-rock so that the mountain would collapse?” Kardos said, almost not believing what he was hearing. “Do know how many people will die?” he shouted.

“Yes,” the man said, his voice dull. “And that would be on your head, my chief. Especially if you hadn’t returned before the blizzard started, or during it, to help your people.”

Kardos wanted to bellow out all of his frustrations and anger on this man. All of those families, all of those people who loved him, the only people who gave him a chance when no one else would, were in those mountains. Even now they may not survive.

“Why are you telling us this now,” Shaya asked the man. “Why did you not go to your death with this information?”

“I was one of those who thought that Kardos’ ascension to the high chief would change things,” he said, his eyes watering as he spoke. “I foolishly thought that things would change when he became high chief. Then, when you were attacked, chieftess, I knew it was unlikely to ever end. The leaders of Tribe Obari would always find ways to stop him, and they were not beyond hurting other people to reach that goal. They will train younger generations to continue to do so for your entire rule and probably beyond. I can’t do anything about it, not now, but I know you can.”

Kardos looked at him, a new understanding trickling through. “You didn’t hit me on purpose,” he said, realizing that he had been in full view of the archer. If the warrior had wanted to hit them, he could have. “You want to tell us this.”

The man simply stared at him. “If I had been in your tribe, I would have served you honorably. I would have been the best archer you would have ever trained, and you would have been proud of me. We do not have a choice which tribe we are born into or what traditions we take because of our ancestors and their choices. With each tribe’s autonomy, it is very difficult for any tribe to interfere with the business of another, and even if they do, there are a lot of things that can get in the way—alliances, debts, persuasion tactics. This was the only way I could get this information to someone who will actually be able to do something about it. You are high chief now. You can stop them.”

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