“Ah, Sister.” His voice was weak and strained, but it was enough. “I knew you’d come. You were always so ambitious.”
She hiccupped around her tears, smiling. “Another test, Ochi?”
“The last one, I swear it.” His eyes flicked to their audience. “Are they with us?”
She looked up.
At her attention, Pasko went down to one knee, murmuring, “Sun Priest.”
Amalq followed. “Sun Priest.”
And the others likewise.
Sedaysa was the last, “Sun Priest” triumphant on her lips, and Naranpa caught the shadow of a smile.
She brushed his hair from Denaochi’s face and whispered, “They are with us.”
A deep calm settled over her, a purpose she had not known before. Even when she had sung the stories and performed the rituals of the Sun Priest, she had never felt as much at her purpose as this. Was this what the signers of the Treaty had wanted when they established the Watchers? A Sun Priest not only to lead the Meridian but to heal a war-ravaged land? A Sun Priest to find order in the chaos, to know the future so that the past was not repeated?
She did not quite understand what she was meant to do with healing powers or if they offered her anything that she might use to fight against the darkness that the Crow God Reborn brought, but she was closer than she had been only hours ago to finding an answer. Her brother was alive, and as she looked out over the lowered heads and bent knees of the bosses before her, she knew they would face what came next together.
CHAPTER 21
CITY OF TOVA （DISTRICT OF ODO）
YEAR 1 OF THE CROW
Beware the faithless for whom duty is but an inconvenience. Better a single zealot than a thousand pragmatists who believe in nothing.
—On the Philosophy of War, taught at the Hokaia War College
“Wake up, Okoa.” Persistent hands shook his shoulder, and he came to all at once.
His cousin Chaiya stood over him, his broad face serious. “Asleep on duty, I see,” he chided, but his tone was light and teasing.
Okoa rubbed sleep from his eyes. He was in the barracks on the lower floor of the Great House, the members of the Shield busy around him. His back ached from sleeping on the hard bench, and he must have done something strange to his neck, because it pinched when he turned his head.
“I was…”
“Up all hours, waiting for the Odo Sedoh. I know.”
“Is there news?”
“No.” The frustration was clear on Chaiya’s face. It was a frustration they all felt. Two days had passed since the incident in the yard, and still no sign of the Odo Sedoh.
“I should send out another aerial patrol.” Okoa stretched his neck to loosen the muscles.
“Let Ituya handle it. We need to talk.”
“No, I—”
“Okoa.” Chaiya’s tone brooked no argument. “Now.”
“So talk, Cousin.”
He glanced around at the Shields coming and going, a man eating in the corner, two women laughing as they went off duty. “Not here.”
“We can go to my office. Have the kitchen bring—”
“No, not in the Great House. Let’s fly.”
Okoa could think of nothing he’d rather do than climb onto Benundah’s back and go, even if only for a few hours. But he was the captain now, and the Shield operated at his command.
“I shouldn’t leave,” he said. “I have people out looking for the Odo Sedoh. In fact, I should go back out there—”
“He’s been gone two days, Okoa. You must do other things. Eat, sleep.”
“You don’t understand. The Odohaa—”
“I was once captain of the Shield, too, and Maaka a thorn in my heel longer than he has been in yours. The search for the Odo Sedoh can continue without you for a handful of hours. You need to get out of this place. And there are things we need to discuss. In private.”
“Last time we talked in private, you brought me news of my mother’s death,” he said bitterly. “What will you say now?”
Chaiya looked taken aback for a moment, but he quickly recovered. “Wash up. I’ll meet you in the aviary.” And then he was gone.
So it was bad news. Okoa was already drowning in bad news and did not want any more, but better to hear it from Chaiya first, even if he’d rather not hear it at all.
* * *
Chaiya was already waiting for him, Kutssah saddled and ready. Okoa hurried to Benundah, feeding her a handful of grubs as he greeted her. She returned his welcome and allowed him to bridle her and slide a rug saddle on her back. He tightened the saddle straps before he climbed on, gave a curt nod to Chaiya, and then they were away, soaring out across Odo.