Everything Begins

Chapter 15

"So,Frank, how were your lessons today?”

“Just fine, Mama. I learned about numbers and how letters make words today, but I also learned a little about what Baba had to do this morning. Is he all right?”

“He will be,” Elise said, her smile slipping. “He is not here right now, though. He is back at the training grounds.”

“Why?”

“I do not know; I did not ask.”

“Do you think it would be all right for me to go to him there?”

Elise frowned. She knew that the ten who had been flogged were currently locked in the stocks, but she also knew that they could not keep Frank away from the grounds for the next five days.

“I will tell you what,” she said. “Ma’ikel can take you there, but you must stay outside until he asks your baba if it is all right for you to enter, do you understand? If your baba says no, then that will be final.”

“I understand, Mama.” Frank looked up at Ma’ikel. “Is that all right with you?”

“Yes, but please wait in the office for me. I need to talk to your mother for a moment.”

“All right.” Frank walked through the door, and Ma’ikel shut it behind him. Then he turned to Elise.

“How is he really?”

She released a heavy sigh. “Not good. I meant it when I said he will be all right, but it is going to take a while. He is very angry, Ma’ikel, and it scares me. I have never seen him like this before.”

“Angry at what?”

“Not what—whom. He is angry at the ones who hurt those boys, he is angry at everyone who did not notice it going on, he is angry at the guardsmen who watched and let it happen, but mostly, I think he is angry at himself. I do not know what he could have done differently, but I know he hates what he had to do. I tried to take his mind off it, but it did not work for long. He left here absolutely furious.”

“Would you like me to speak with him?”

Elise sighed again. “No, he knows everything you would tell him. That he had no choice, that it was for the good of the Guard, that he saved those children from worse. He has to work through this on his own.”

“You are probably right. Well, I will take Frank to him. Perhaps his son can cheer him up.”

“Perhaps.” Elise did not sound convinced.

Ma’ikel went into Jarda’s office and found Frank studying some portraits on the wall. The boy looked at him quizzically.

“They all have the name Mistri on the plaques. Who are they?”

“Your baba’s forefathers.”

“Were they all generals like him?”

“I believe so, but that is a question you will have to ask him. Shall we go?”

The boy nodded, and soon they were outside one of the doors leading to the training grounds.

“Wait here,” Ma’ikel said, “and I will let you know what your baba says.”

Frank nodded as he sat on a bench next to the door, and Ma’ikel entered the grounds. He saw no sign of his friend, but he heard noises from the guardsmen’s gymnasium beyond the Chatra training area. He glanced at the ten in the stocks on his way across the vast, empty space, trying to remember a time when it was that quiet. The only time he could think of was almost a thousand years earlier when the city had been ransacked and decimated. He did not like the reminder.

As he entered the gymnasium, he looked around until he found Jarda at the back, torso bare, pummeling a hanging bag. Sweat was streaming down his skin, and the sound of his fists meeting the leather told Ma’ikel that he was not holding back on the power of his swings. There was a wide, vacant space around him; the guardsmen were obviously trying not to attract his notice. Ma’ikel walked up and leaned on the wall next to the bag. He said nothing for a moment, and Jarda only glared at him.

“How long have you been here?” the Anmah asked.

“I have no idea,” Jarda answered, swinging his fist into the bag.

“Your son is waiting outside the grounds wanting to speak to you. Shall I bring him in?”

“No,” Jarda said with a grunt as his fist met the bag once again. “I will go to him.” He caught the bag as it swung back to him, grabbed his shirt, pulled it over his head, and then turned and stormed through the gymnasium. Ma’ikel kept pace with him.

“You know, you might want to temper your anger before you talk to Ga’briyel,” the Anmah said softly when he heard a growl come from Jarda as he passed the platform. “He may not understand that you are not angry with him.”

The growl turned into a snarl as the general turned a dark look on his friend. “I know how to treat my son, Anmah.”

“I know that, but you are not yourself right now, and I do not want you to scare him as you are scaring Elise.”

Jarda stopped with his hand on the latch of the door. He took a long, deep breath and held it for several seconds. As he released it slowly, he pictured Ga’briyel’s face and used the vision to calm himself as much as possible. “You are right, of course,” he said softly, and then he turned the latch.

Frank jumped up from the bench when he saw his father and stood straight. Jarda sighed heavily and dropped to his knees.

“Come here, Ga’briyel,” he said, and his son walked to him slowly, his eyes wary. “Do not be afraid.”

When the boy was within reach, Jarda pulled him close and held him tightly. He breathed in his scent, and it relaxed him somewhat. He let go when Frank stiffened, however.

“What is wrong, my son?”

Violet eyes shone as the young Anmah studied him. “Something is not right with you, Baba.”

Jarda frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You are angry, and it frightens me.”

Glancing up at Ma’ikel in concern, Jarda saw that the Anmah was studying Frank closely. Jarda dropped his head and took another deep breath. Raising his eyes to his son, he said, “You are right; I am very angry, but not with you. I am angry about the situation I have found myself in, and I am angry about the things I had to do today. I am furious with those who put me in such a position that I had to do things that make me feel like this. But, I do not want you to be scared of me, ever, Ga’briyel. I would never harm you in any way. I love you.”

The boy closed his eyes. “When you were hitting the bag, you were wishing it was a person, were you not? Who was it?”

“How did you know that is what I was doing?”

“I saw you.”

Jarda frowned. “Did Ma’ikel not tell you to stay out here?”

“Yes, sir, and I did.”

“Then how could you have seen me?”

Frank tapped his forehead, eyes still closed. “I saw you in here.”

Ma’ikel knelt on one knee next to Jarda. “Tell me what you saw,” he said determinedly. “Describe it in detail.”

The boy’s eyes opened and bored into Ma’ikel’s. “It was like I was looking through water,” he said clearly. “It reminded me of when I woke up after being in the river. When I opened my eyes then, I was still underwater, and the sky looked…blurry. I cannot describe it better than that.”

“That is all right; I understand what you mean. Keep going.”

“I saw my baba like I was standing right in front of him. He was hitting a long, brown bag that was hanging from the ceiling by an iron chain.” Frank paused. “Is that enough detail?”

Ma’ikel smiled. “Yes, it is just enough.”

“Good. I saw how angry my baba was, and I…felt it, too.”

“Felt it how?”

Frank frowned and looked at his feet briefly before tilting his head up just enough to look at his father.“It was hot, like fire. It was as if I was standing in front of the bonfires we used to light during Winter Festival, but twice as hot. I knew that it came from you, Baba. I do not know how I knew that, but I did.” He dropped his eyes. “It is not as bad now, but it is still there. Do you not feel it? It still feels hot enough to burn you up.”

Jarda and Ma’ikel exchanged glances, and then Jarda said, “Not in the way you mean, Ga’briyel. Is that why you are scared? You think I am being burned by it?”

The boy nodded silently.

Jarda brushed his son’s hair from his forehead. “I am all right, Ga’briyel, I promise. You have to understand that hitting the bag helps the anger go away a little.”

“Does it? Maybe I should try it.”

“Why? What do you have to be angry about?”

Ga’briyel’s eyes flashed. “I want to make the Asabya pay for what they did to my people. I want to hurt them. Does that make me a bad person, Baba?”

Jarda cocked his head. “No, my son. Wanting vengeance is a natural reaction after something like that. Would you like to try the bag now?”

“May I?”

“Of course you may.” Jarda stood up and took his son’s hand. “Come on. I will help you.”

“Thank you, Baba.”

“You are welcome.”

Jarda looked back as they entered the training grounds and saw that Ma’ikel was still kneeling, his violet eyes shining brightly as he watched them leave. Suddenly, their eyes locked, and Ma’ikel mouthed,We need to talk. Jarda nodded and shut the door.

As they passed by the platform, Ga’briyel’s grip tightened, and he stopped and stared at the ten in the stocks. They were silent, and all but Iskander and Glaucus had their heads resting on the top of the stocks. An occasional sob came from Juston.

“Did you do that to them, Baba?” Frank whispered.

“Not personally, no, but I ordered it to be done.”

“But why? Ma’ikel said you are not a cruel man, but that seems very cruel to me.”

Jarda tugged on Ga’briyel’s hand, and they started walking again. “Tell me what you want to do to the Asabya, my son.”

“Why?”

“Because it will help answer your question.”

The boy’s answer was instantaneous, and Jarda knew that he had been thinking about it a lot. “If I could, I would go to their city and burn it to the ground. I would kill everyone there just as they did at Desa. I would leave their bodies for the wolves and ravens to feast on.”

“Does that desire make you a cruel person, Ga’briyel? They are cruel actions.”

Frank thought about it. “I do not think I am cruel, Baba. I do not want to be.”

They had entered the gymnasium, and guardsmen saluted as Jarda passed them. “Wanting to do those things does not make you cruel, my son. Even doing them would not make you so. Getting revenge for something that has happened to you does not mean you are cruel.”

“Is that what you did to those on the platform, Baba? Get revenge for something?”

“Not revenge. Justice. They hurt some little boys badly. They terrorized them until they were scared to tell anyone that they were being hurt. I had to make sure they paid for their actions and to make sure that no one else even thinks to do the same as they did. By making everyone watch the punishment, I let everyone know what will happen to them if they try something similar.”