The Silver Sparrow

The Choice We Make

The address had been a command, spoken in a tone as firm and resolute as the crack of a whip. Hasheem whipped his head around just in time to see Khali loose his arrow. It zipped through the air and pierced cleanly through the socket of Khodi's right eye, killing him in an instant, leaving no time for a single sound to escape from his lips at the moment of death. The whole thing happened faster than one could blink from the time the command had been issued, as if it had been staged or agreed upon long before that afternoon.

Atop his horse, Khali sat with his back stiff and straight, his expression betraying no remorse, no guilt for what he'd just done as he lowered his bow. He turned to Nazir who'd been watching him closely and bowed in a gesture of respect, perhaps even in gratitude if Hasheem's ability to read people had been accurate. Nazir simply nodded and turned back to Baaku Khumar, as though he'd just ordered the boy to kill a gazelle and was adequately pleased by the outcome.

"There was no need to waste your arrow or your time," Nazir said, inclining his head as if showing courtesy. "And if you do not require a body, I would like to give him a proper burial as befitting his rank and status. Will this be acceptable?"

A small pause from Baaku ensued before he dipped his head slightly. "It will be." He wasn't smiling now and had been watching Nazir intently for some time. Baaku had come to test and measure the new leader of the hunt. The test and measurement had been done and the result obviously unfavorable to the Kamara. It should have been enough to make them think twice before trying again.

"For your breach of protocol," Nazir said, wasting no time in between, "I will require ten gazelles tonight and two hundred silas for each unfired arrow as compensation for the offense done here today."

Murmurs rippled through the men on the other side of the rock and Baaku shook his head almost in disbelief.

"You might as well ask for my sister." Baaku spat onto the ground. "Five gazelles is all I can give you."

"Then we take the case to Citara," Nazir replied calmly, and without another word turned his horse away to leave.

Locking his gaze on Nazir's back, Baaku considered for a time, and then made his decision. "If you survive to carry the news, of course," he said with a lightness to his tone that could have been mistaken as a jest. It didn't, however, match the conviction in those green eyes or how rigidly he sat his horse.

Hasheem drew a breath and closed his hand around the sword at his waist. At the same time, every bow on both sides was raised once more without the need for command.

Silence pressed down upon them with the weight of a mountain. Even the horses seemed to have stopped breathing. It would take just one decision from one man to turn that hunting ground into a battlefield, and two hundred lives now found themselves suspended on a string, held together by nothing but Nazir's capacity for control.

The control that had been close to breaking since the Kamara had entered the valley.

Still with his back to the khumar, Nazir turned slowly to look over his shoulder. The wind picked up speed and lifted his zikh in the air, its corners snapping like a snake lunging at its prey.

"Oh I'll survive," he responded easily, with a smile so thin it could peel the skin off your bones. Then, staring straight at Baaku, eyes flashing golden as if to remind them all who and what he was, he said, "Would you like to know if you will?"

Baaku swallowed, and upon realizing it, adjusted himself quickly to hide the vulnerability that managed to slip through his mask of confidence. Hasheem released the breath he'd been holding at the gesture. It was the end of the conversation. You didn't argue about your death with an oracle, not one as powerful as Nazir, especially not in front of your men who were waiting to replace you as khumar. Baaku knew this. He parted his mouth to speak and then closed it again, taking a little more time before coming to a decision.