Page 52 of Humans Don't Have Horns
I will never understand the Shavirs. Why would anyone want to stay in a place so blinding?
But I can’t get distracted by the lights or anything else. No amount of gold would ever blind me from seeing the Shavirs for what they are – a bunch of lowlifes driven by their never-ending thirst for power, immortality, and pretty much anything they feel like robbing from us.
I scan the tent. Emek and Daton stand at my side. At the center of the tent stands the Kozari Queen. At least, I assume that’s who she is, since her face is covered with a golden veil, and she could just be a pile of gilded cloth for all I know. Nass, her uncle the duke, and Noka, her priest, stand behind her.
Lian stands to the queen’s side, wearing one of Shana’s makeshift dresses. The fabric is plain, but it hugs the body in a way that manages to look elegant. Lian’s white hair stands out even more than usual in the extra-bright tent, sparkling and twinkling like fresh snow in the sunlight. It’s braided like a crown, and if it were anyone else, who I slightly loathed less, I might think it gave her an aura of sainthood.
But there are no saints in Amada, and if there were any, they wouldn’t be heathens. She glances in our direction and quickly diverts her gaze as our eyes connect, as she always does. She is afraid of me, and rightly so. Just the sight of her makes my blood boil.
Then the Witch Queen, Siean, enters the tent. She’s not dressed the same as when I last saw her. At the time, she wore the Renyan royal guard uniform, and her blue hair was down. Today she’s in a white gown, her hair is up under a silver coronet. Behind her stand a silver-haired Renyan woman and a Renyan man who looks arrogant as all Renyans do. The Witch Queen pauses at the tent’s entrance,waiting for three other Aldonian men. A tall young man enters, and everyone looks at him as if he’s important, so I figure he’s Nikanor, Lian’s brother. The Crown Prince of Aldon and, by rumors, their king any day now.
Of all the Shavirs, I hate the Aldonians the most for obvious reasons. It’s with their killing I mostly linger, relishing their suffering, their begging. And they always beg. I make sure of it. They’re not such big strong men all of a sudden. Not when they meet someone who can rise to their power and cruelty.
Nikanor introduces his entourage: Rashkan, the high priest, and Nazhan, the head of one of the brigades of the Aldonian army. The condescending pricks don’t even acknowledge Daton, Emek, or me. Although, they do notice me. No Aldonian can go without noticing me.
Their disrespect toward us is only amplified as they fawn over the Kozari Queen. Nikanor, the idiot, goes on about the widespread word of her beauty, sticking his tongue so up her ass it’s impossible he doesn’t taste shit in the process. I wonder if that’s also gilded.
For the millionth time, I ask myself what Daton sees in Lian. She is such a fragile little thing. I can snap her neck like a twig with just one hand. Scoop her eyes out with my thumb. I keep entertaining myself by imagining how I can deform her body until the Shavirs finish their tedious, mutual bootlicking. All eyes are on Lian now. Everyone is waiting for her to tell us how we can win against the demichads. She nervously bites her lip, and I want to punch her. How was this little mouse chosen to lead us? Her sister is a total bitch, but at least she has guts. She doesn’t shiver like a fucking leaf half the time.
I glance at Daton and feel like knocking him in the head with my ax. He always watches her like a hungry wolf spotting a lamb. And whenever she bites her lip nervously, which she does quite often, he looks like he is deploying every single muscle in his body to not launch himself at her in front of all of us and start humping her like the rutting dog she’s made of him.
This must be witchcraft. There is no other way to explain this. I’veknown the man all my life. He was never an idiot. The furthest thing from it. Not until she showed up to his trial. She is pretty, in that fragile, sickly way a Shavir can be. All innocent and submissive with those luscious pink lips and adoring big eyes. But she’s so petite. How can anyone fuck her without breaking her by accident?
That he, of all men, would fall for her witchcraft is the biggest disappointment I have ever had in my entire life. And I have had my share of disappointments, Goddess knows. But this. The great Emancipator is like an animal in heat for a Shavir witch. This is fucking humiliating.
Even Kala and Shana, those traitors, won’t shut up about her. I begged Emek to speak to him. I tried talking to him myself. To make him see reason. It was our biggest fight ever, and he has been giving me the silent treatment ever since. I insulted him. I didn’t mean to, but he had to hear this from me. Everyone else would only talk behind his back. They will never dare to confront him.
Lian finally starts talking, but with the bullshit she says, it would have been better if she had not spoken at all. She says the demichads are skinless and their most significant vulnerability is salt.
“So we’re to throw salt at them?” I drawl at her, making it obvious what an idiot I think she is. I can feel Daton’s eyes burning me with a rebuke. He barked at me to behave before we entered the tent. Yeah, well, I’m not a kid anymore.
Lian shakes her head and explains that what we need to do is pull them out of their habitats underground by pouring salt water. But the salt will kill only some of them, and thousands will emerge from the ground. And they will need to be killed in conventional ways. So her big idea is to have the battle inside the canyon. It’s close to the River of Tears. So basically, we’re to pour as much salt water as possible, flood the canyon, and then kill all the demichads that try to get away up to high ground.
She explains that the Renyans and Kozaries will build the infrastructure of pipes to transfer the water from the River of Tears. Shana told me they have water coming out of their walls inMilasurey. They don’t need to carry it from the rivers or springs like us. So I guess the witches know how to move water.
“We shall provide as many men and material as you require, Your Grace,” the Kozari Queen says sweetly. It’s strange hearing her referring to Lian as Your Grace after she’s been slumbering and doing her laundry and dishes with the rest of us.
Lian acknowledges the Kozari Queen with a curtsy and shifts her eyes to meet those of her sister, who has remained quiet.
“Fine,” the Witch Queen mutters.
Then Lian lifts her chin and says, “In addition to that, Renya’s healers will take care of the injured coming out of the canyon.”
I glance at Daton. He used to be against Renyan witchcraft, but now he actually saved her with it, so I am only half-surprised when he doesn’t say anything.
I wait to see the Witch Queen’s reaction because the Renyans don’t use their healing on the likes of us.
“Absolutely not!” exclaims the man beside her, appalled at the mere idea.
But the Witch Queen gives him such a domineering look that he starts, and I can see him swallow all the way from where I’m standing. “Not only shall we provide healers,” the Witch Queen says with derision, “but the head of the royal healers herself will supervise the operation.” The man and woman with her both inhale sharply but don’t dare say anything. And for the first time, I want to kill her a little bit less.
Then Lian says Mongans and Aldonian warriors will kill the demichads emerging from the ground. Renyans and Kozaries don’t know how to fight. I would know. I’ve killed many of them. It’s like taking candy from a baby. I’ve killed many Aldonians too, but at least you get to play with them a bit longer until they die. Renyans and Kozaries are too easy. It’s fucking boring.
“Our archers will stand on the edges of the canyon and will shoot at anything that comes from within,” said Nikanor.
“While the Mongans will be in the valley at your aim?” Daton growls. Finally, he awakens to think with his head instead of his dick.
Nikanor shrugs in a dismissive way with a royal asshole smile on his face, speaking to the Shavirs as if Daton is not there. “We are best at arching.”
