SLV Chapter 15: Blood Moon Dusk
April 12
"Mother, the Bactrian camel you gave me was taken away by that lowly trader's son!"
"And that damned Lin En had a slave carry off three camel-loads of mountain copper as well."
Kalil had finished overseeing the female slaves and turned around to find his beloved camel gone. It felt as though the sky had caved in.
After gathering further evidence of Lin En's crimes, he came running to report.
"I told him to take it."
Medya was still turning Lin En's words over in her mind and gave Kalil's outburst only an indifferent, offhand response.
"Mother, that... was your..."
The answer he received was nothing like what he had expected, and Kalil stood there for a moment, struck speechless.
"But Mother, but..."
He wanted to say more, but couldn't find the words. His thoughts were as tangled as a tumbleweed rolling across a dune.
"Mother, you paid 40 source stones for that camel. I can't imagine Lin En is worthy of such a fine Bactrian."
Hearing her son's sudden, heartfelt rambling, Medya finally looked over.
The face he had inherited reminded her of her dead husband.
Along with the same arrogance and self-importance.
Though thankfully, he had not inherited his father's unfaithfulness and cruelty. Or the intelligence, for that matter.
A cold light stirred briefly in Medya's eyes.
Otherwise, she would have sent Kalil to join his father long ago.
Not far away at all, in fact. Just beneath the breadfruit tree.
"Kalil, Lin En is far smarter than you. He deserves that camel."
To stop her proud son from going on and on about something so trivial, Medya simply gave him the unvarnished truth.
"Yes... Mother."
The words struck Kalil's sensitive pride like a blow, leaving him momentarily dizzy. He managed a response through sheer effort.
How could that be?
That trader's son, with nothing but a wretched oasis, somehow earning his mother's praise.
Smarter than him? No. Impossible.
He looked at Medya, and a thought surfaced suddenly that startled even himself.
Lin En no longer had a father. And his mother had spent so long in conversation with Lin En today.
Could it be... was his mother thinking of adopting Lin En?
Medya's words of praise continued to ring in Kalil's ears, boring through his skull like a curse.
For the first time in his life, a flicker of genuine inadequacy rose in Kalil's chest.
Along with a creeping anxiety that his mother's love was slipping away from him.
No. He was supposed to be the child his mother loved most.
Kalil sank entirely into the anguish of what he believed to be his mother's fading affection.
He didn't notice that the woman standing before him had suddenly risen to her feet.
Medya looked through the narrow window at the tide of red that had flooded the sky, grabbed the hem of her dress, and ran forward barefoot, her long legs carrying her quickly.
A blood-red dusk?!
She had never seen it with her own eyes, but she knew exactly what it meant. The knowledge came from the vast learning she carried as an astrologer.
A sky that existed only in the pages of the prophecy texts and now it was right in front of her.
Medya's eyes went wide. Her already crimson irises blazed even more vividly in the bloodlit dusk.
She stared at the sky, and when the haze of shock passed, she found herself thinking, without knowing why, of Lin En.
She turned her head toward the direction where the sun rose.
The direction of Lin En's oasis.
Something unexpectedly hollow settled in Medya's chest.
She knew perfectly well what three sand spirit arrow towers could and could not do. An oasis could only hold against a blood moon by sacrificing every slave on it.
She herself had a fortress built from the great white stones of the pale desert, so she didn't need to worry overly much but Lin En's oasis had no slaves at all. Only three sand spirit arrow towers.
Lin En was as good as dead.
Gazing out toward the direction of his oasis, Medya parted her lips and let a voice escape, soft enough that only she could hear it.
"My child, you should have stayed here with me."
…
"Ruleh, why is the sand wall so thin?"
"And why are two female slaves missing?"
Zalimu dismounted his camel. Behind him trailed three male slaves bought cheap from a slave trader, prepared as expendable fodder for the night.
He tossed the hemp rope around their necks to another slave with a gesture to have them settled, then turned on his son with a dissatisfied tone.
"Fa... Father."
Ruleh hurried over and responded with a cringe.
"Some slaves fell ill. Must have picked something up off the ground and eaten it again."
"So I let them rest. That's why the wall is so thin."
"Rest? Ruleh, you need to understand, tonight is the blood moon. And I have told you, you should never show any mercy to slaves."
"A merciful slaveowner comes to no good end, Ruleh."
Looking at his useless son, Zalimu's eyes were thick with impatience.
"Yes, Father."
Ruleh quickly dropped his head.
"Call all the slaves out. Compact the sand wall one last time."
Zalimu had no further interest in looking at his son and turned back toward the shack.
Ruleh didn't dare drag his feet. He shouted a round of harsh curses at the slaves working at the wall, and only then did the work pick up.
"Worthless slaves. I step away for a moment and this is all you manage."
After glaring at them for a good while longer, Ruleh walked toward a small wooden outbuilding not far away.
His father had given the order, which meant he had to get the two "sick" slaves out and working, or he would surely catch the blame.
Ruleh went inside and found two pieces of coarse linen robes that were still reasonably intact, enough to cover his handiwork so his father wouldn't see.
"Put these on. Get out there and compact the sand wall."
He pushed open the door of the small outbuilding, threw the robes in, barked the order, and turned and walked away.
Inside the dark room, two female slaves sat huddled together, arms around each other for warmth.
At the glimpse of that demon's face, their bodies shook with fear that they could not control.
Bloody welts from a whip covered them from chest to back, without a patch of skin left untouched.
…
"With those three slaves added in, it should be enough."
Zalimu sat inside, spent only a moment thinking through the night's strategy, then let his mind move to what came after the blood moon.
"The outer city magistrate will send someone. Probably when the sun is halfway up..."
"That old man's boy will most likely be dead by midnight. Once I've dealt with my own troubles here, I need to get over there as fast as I can."
He had already begun planning how to move in cleanly after Lin En died, slip past the magistrate, and make off with the three source energy obelisks.
"But there might not be time to find whatever that old man left behind."
Searching for the inheritance he had been coveting, with no way to guarantee how long it would take, was not a certainty he could count on. Zalimu's brow creased.
Faced with an uncertain outcome, he could only tap his index finger against the table and keep turning it over in his mind.
When he came back to himself and glanced outside at the sky, he noticed something was off.
Why did the dusk look so strange today?
[NEXT CHAPTER]