God's War

Khos towered over her. Even in the warm room, she could feel the heat of him next to her.

“We both know what kind of magician he is,” Nyx said. They stood a long moment in silence. Then, “You know I intend to bring Taite back.”

“Sometimes I don’t know you, Nyx,” he said softly.

She looked up at him. The light in the room was low. Anneke kept a couple of glow worms in a glass. Lanterns used fuel, and gas was expensive. In the dim light, Khos’s expression was difficult to read, but Nyx always thought he looked sad. She had signed this big sad man because she had sensed something in him that she’d never had—a protective loyalty toward her and the team that transcended petty disagreements about sex, blood, and religion. When she looked at him now, she wondered what would happen when those loyalties conflicted. Would he choose to side with her or with Taite? Taite or the whores? And where did Inaya fit into this? She had seen him stare long at her door and go rigid when her baby cried.

“Nobody knows anybody,” she said. “We’re all working on blind faith.”

She watched a hooded figure come down the street and strained to see, but the figure passed by their building.

“You’re saying your secret to getting up and going forward is blind faith?” he said, and she heard the amusement in his voice.

“No,” Nyx said. “Lately, it’s been whiskey.” She peered down at the street again.

“I’ve been thinking about how to get past the desk,” Khos said. “I think I know some people who will help us.”

“Khos, the only people you know in Chenja are whores.”

“Exactly,” he said.

“We’ll have a problem with com, not having Rhys and Taite.”

“So we’ll put together something else.”

“Is there something wrong with your communications?” Inaya said from behind them.

Nyx and Khos both turned. Anneke was lying in a pile of blankets on the floor, working with her guns. Inaya stood at the end of the divan, her son in her arms.

“We usually use Rhys. Taite receives his transmission through the com,” Nyx said.

Inaya hadn’t washed her face in a while, and her hair was greasy. She looked like some street beggar. “You don’t have regular transceivers?”

Nyx shrugged. “Anneke, Taite give you any manual transceivers?”

“I have a box of com gear,” Anneke said, “but transceivers take a long time to synch up. Don’t have the time or the money to take them in and have somebody do it.”

“I can do it,” Inaya said.

Nyx smirked. “You can do it?” She looked her up and down, pointedly.

Inaya narrowed her eyes. “Where do you think Taitie learned to repair a console? Did you think that fat man employed him for his looks?”

“You’re kidding me,” Nyx said.

Inaya said to Anneke, “Show me the box.” She glanced back at Nyx. “I assume Taitie didn’t tell you why we had to leave Ras Tieg.”

“I don’t pry into the affairs of my team,” Nyx said.

Anneke walked over to their pile of gear and started moving boxes and duffel bags around.

“Our parents handled communications for the Ras Tiegan underground, rebels against Ras Tieg’s tyrant, the uncle to your foolish Queen,” Inaya said. “They were also shifter-sympathizers. My mother was a shifter, and my parents’ politics were… frowned upon. When they killed my mother, my father took her place and trained Tiate and I. When things got bad politically, when the streets…” She choked up, and Nyx thought she was going to cry again, but, remarkably, she swallowed it. “I could marry. Taitie was too young.”

“So when things got hot, you smuggled him out of the country.”

“He did the same for me, later.”

“You don’t act like a rebel.”

“We rebel in our own ways.”

“Here,” Anneke said. She dragged a box toward Inaya. “Should be a couple transceivers in here. Some might be broken.”

“All right, then,” Nyx said. “If you can give us com, then maybe we’re ready to run. Anneke, I want you to get me a couple of empty cake boxes from that friend of yours who owns the teahouse.”

“Cake boxes?”

“Khos,” Nyx continued, “I want to talk to some of your whores tomorrow, early. I’ll need a half hour of their time and yours.”

“I’ll go down and tell them,” Khos said. “Where do we want to meet them?”

“That diner in the Mhorian district, just before dawn prayer.”

Khos put on his burnous and headed out. “It’s about fucking time,” he muttered.

“Anneke?” Nyx said.

Anneke straightened. “Eh, I’ll go get her up. The teahouse is still open.” She concealed her shotgun beneath her burnous and followed Khos.

“Hey, you fucker!” Anneke called after him. “Give me a ride!”

Nyx turned and watched Inaya open the box and pick through its contents. She kept the kid in a sling so he had easy access to her breast. Unlike a Nasheenian woman, she didn’t keep the breast bared. Instead, she kept an old tunic slung over one shoulder so it covered the kid’s head and her breast. An odd affectation, as it wasn’t as if Anneke, Nyx, and Khos hadn’t seen breasts before.

Nyx sat on the divan and watched as Inaya set out the transceivers. She opened the little tool kit with her small deft fingers. She shook a couple of the transceivers and frowned.

“This equipment is in terrible shape,” she said.

“So Taite always told me,” Nyx said.

Inaya did not look at her but pulled out one of the com picks and began prying open one of the transceiver cases. “You’re doing this to bring him back?”

“That’s the idea,” Nyx said.

Inaya worked in silence for a time. Nyx pulled out the diagram of the residence.

“So why wouldn’t Taite tell me you were rebels in Ras Tieg?” Nyx asked.

“You used to cut off the heads off Nasheenian rebels. Why would it be different with us?” A low buzzing sound came from the transceivers. Inaya poked at its innards.

“Seems like you hate me a lot for somebody who doesn’t know me.”

“I know all about you. You’re an ungodly, sex-crazed woman.”

“I’m a… what?”

“I’ve read all about women like you, the sort who use everyone around them for pleasure. You’re worse than the sort who cavorts only with women. At least they’re honest. Ungodly, but honest.”

“I’d say I was doing a great job submitting to God by submitting to my desires. Who do you think gave me desire in the first place?”

“God does not want us to kill, yet we are able to kill. If you were truly following God’s desire, you would repress your own desires and marry. Marry a man.”

Nyx settled back on the divan. “Tell me your marriage was happy.”

Inaya’s cheeks flushed faintly. Ah, yes, that color. Nyx covered her mouth. She’s fixing your transceivers, Nyx thought, be nice.

“Is that why it takes a near-death experience to get you to shift?” Nyx said. “You like it too much?”

Now Inaya’s face went bright red. “Do not judge me. You know nothing about me.”

“If God wanted you or me different, He’d have made us that way. I’d think you’d be more unhappy with all the killing I do than with all the men and women I fuck.”

“Sometimes killing is necessary.”

“Sure, of course. Bloody God and all. You and Taite must get into some pretty good arguments.”

“Taite doesn’t kill people.”

Nyx said, “I mean about the sex.”