Lion's Soul by Karen Wehrstein

Author:Karen Wehrstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-29T00:00:00+00:00

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May every army a Yeoli ever leads go into a battle of even numbers so nigh-spirited. As the sun sank towards the west, they were jesting and laughing everywhere one cared to listen. Too much so, in fact. In my speech to them, I showed myself alarmed and sobered, and spoke a lie of war: “Wipe off that cursed grin and listen! I asked my augurer to prophecy for this battle. He went death-pale, and told me I didn’t want to know. 'I see the Arkans with their backs to their homes, now, set to fight to the death, like never before,’ he told me. ‘And us—we think we’re going to win, like always! In our heads we’re already lounging in Arkan houses, sipping Arkan wine, forgetting that for once there’s as many of them as us, not seeing the look on their faces, thinking the prize is in the bag, and we don’t have to do anything for it! But, All-spirit help us, Chevenga—in truth, we’re doomed! Arko will find its strength in the nick of time, and we’ll be lost on the brink of victory! I see the corpses in heaps; I see you in chains again, flung down before Kurkas; I see him laughing, and all Arko heaving a sigh of relief. I see it written in the history books: “they failed in the end, because they thought victory was certain!” '

“So he told me, my people.” I let that sink in for a bit, watching horror fix on the near faces; then I said, “Such is the future, that only foreknowledge can change. But we’ve had foreknowledge; we’ve been warned; if we listen, there’s hope. It’s not as if we’ve never had our backs against the wall before; we know how to fight against all odds ...” I went on, in my usual vein for a hard battle on which everything hinged, until I’d got them fired up again, properly this time. Afterwards Jinai came running, crying, "I never said that!” Right in front of everyone: I had to say, “Yes, you did, you just forgot.”

It was time. The lines were drawn; from the mountain they looked formed of figures on a map, too distant to know as people, spread out before me across the plain, too still, waiting for the signal. Time: the sun was near to touching the hills: “To wings!” I cried. “Lamp-lighters!” They dashed down the line, setting the one torch each had fixed to his bar, and the two I had, alight. “Ai-yae-oh!” I ran, and flung myself into the air.

“Look up! Look up, you straw-haired child-rapers!” The air all around me sang as we flew, “Ai-yae-oh! Ai-yae-oh! Here we are, shit-eaters! Look back! It’s too late! Look back and see Arko burn! Say farewell to the sun, whoresons, for when it rises again, it will see you in everlasting darkness! Ai-yae-oh! Che-ven-ga! Che-ven-ga! Che-ven-gai

Arko could not know, for we’d kept it secret, how many wings we had now, and wingers,

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