Desertion, part one
After weeks of travelling, Maya arrives in Molinos to change Favian's fate
This week we begin a new story with Desertion. Previously, Maya discovered there was a way she could change Favian’s fate. She now travels to Molinos to retrieve the book in the hopes that she can be the one to kill the King.
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Desertion
Part One
No one governs the lands of Molinos, at least, no one worthy of recognition. But Maya had heard whispers that someone had declared themselves ruler of the Kingdom, and claimed the title Tsar. How they could stand to rule the wastes, Maya didn’t know.
She had paid twice as much as she should to be smuggled to Newhaven Port just outside of the kingdom. She wondered whether the smuggler that had agreed to take her was Aisha, the woman who wrote the letter encouraging her on the quest but she had no way of asking without drawing suspicion.
If she was Aisha, she gave no sign that she knew her purpose and offered no encouragement on her journey. Maya was left to sail in a comfortable quiet, not bothered by anyone. It was almost peaceful. She simply watched the waves rise and fall as their ship cut through the Tulnan Gulf.
When she arrived at Newhaven, she paid more to make sure that the woman kept her mouth shut before beginning the walk across the wastes. The path from the port for Molinos was short and highly travelled but Maya didn’t want to be seen. She hoped she could enter the Kingdom and leave in complete secrecy. So she decided to cut through the desert where the winds would eventually cover her tracks.
Maya wondered if it was her age that made her walk the way she did or the sand. It wasn’t a noticeable limp but her left foot was harder to lift than her right and it was enough for her to recognise that the rhythm of her walk was uneven. There was a longer pause between her right foot sinking in the sand and her left pulling out of it. She hadn’t heard it at first but now that she had it was all she could think about. That and the reason it was so hard in the first place. Her thoughts began to dance to the beat of her walk. As she placed her right foot to the ground she thought: sixty. And as she hauled her left foot forward she thought: six. Slowly she made her way towards Molinos and the book that could change Favian’s fate, each step screaming her age. Sixty. Six. Sixty. Six.
For over thirty years she had been hiding from the man who stole her kingdom because she believed that she couldn’t be the one to end it. Now there was a way.
Even though her feet reminded her of her age, it was hope that spurred her forward until she finally came to a crest in the sand and saw the wastes of Molinos ahead.
It had changed since she was there last. When she had last travelled to its centre there were barely five hundred people who lived there, a mixture of merchants, travellers and exiles. Now, she was told, there were at least five thousand. They lived in tents like the ones her soldiers used when marching to war, except for the few buildings that were scattered around the camps and the arena that was built at the base of the hill just below the citadel. Maya was impressed for a moment by the citadel that clung to the hill and overlooked the rest of the city, it reminded her of Teron.
But Teron took its strength from hiding inside Losian Mountain. It used the height and strength of Losian to fortify its defences. But this citadel was waiting for invasion. Maya could see at least twelve entrances from where she stood and only four of them were guarded. She considered that the person who ordered it built thought only of how they wanted it to appear, or else they were stupid enough to belief that their rule would go unchallenged.
She made her way inside the citadel to speak to the Tsar and ask for her help. There was a line of people with requests and Maya clung to the stick that she had found, acutely aware that she wouldn’t get what she wanted if she was considered a threat. She needed to appear how she was supposed to feel.
Defeated.
‘NEXT!’ Shouted the Tsar, Maya kept her eyes down but she recognised the voice. It was an unruly combination of being both high and hoarse as if the woman hadn’t realised it was broken and it pained her to speak. When Maya limped before her and forgot to bow, the voice cut to hacks of laughter that sent the hall into silence. Her laugh reminded her who she was. She’d been the one to sentence her to these wastes.
She had aged, of course, and the desert sun hadn’t been kind to her now wrinkled skin but there was no denying that she was Saf, her old handmaiden. The last time she had seen her she was barely seventeen.
‘I knew you weren’t dead,’ said Saf as she rose to her feet and sauntered down the steps of the dias towards her. ‘The best rumour I heard was that you threw yourself out your own bedroom window and went splat on the garden floor. Or maybe the one where Favian strangled you while Adrian watched. Not sure.’
‘I liked the one where I disappeared with the wind and became one with the stars,’ said Maya.
‘Ha - you would. Too much poetry for me. But I guess the Horashi were too busy to collect you and so you’ve lived on. And for some reason you’ve ended up here, in my presence.’
‘Saf - ’
‘It’s Tsar to you,’ she spat. Maya bit her tongue. The last time she saw Saf she could barely look Maya in the eye. She wouldn’t have dared cut her off let alone talk back. But things had changed; she had no power here. Maya bowed her head, the largest courtesy she could muster as Saf turned her back and walked up to her throne.
‘Forgive me,’ she said. ‘Tsar, I’ve come to —’
‘What was it they called you again?’ Said Saf as she plonked down onto her seat. Maya felt her jaw lock shut as she clenched it. She waited for Maya to reply, a coy smirk on her face.
‘Pauret,’ said Maya.
‘Hmm, yes, puppet,’ she replied. ‘More like dog, if you ask me.’ Maya tried a different approach. She stepped forward and using the stick, lowered herself down to her knees. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Tsar lean forward with a gurgle of laughter.
‘I should have listened to you,’ said Maya, her eyes cast down to the floor.
‘But you didn’t.’
‘I should have done what you told to me to do.’
‘But. You. Didn’t.’
‘I was wrong.’
‘Hmmph,’ she said leaning back against her throne. When she didn’t say anything more, Maya tried to reason with her.
‘I’ve come to ask a favour. There’s a book. I was told it - ’
‘No. I exile you from Molinos immediately.’
‘Please, Saf - I mean, your highness. That book can help me kill Favian.’
‘Why would I want that?’
‘It’s what you always wanted,’ said Maya earnestly.
‘Not anymore. He gave me leadership, he gave me power.’
‘He exiled you to these wastes.’
‘No,’ she said, holding up a finger. ‘You did that.’
‘You must know that it wasn’t my choice,’ said Maya and the Tsar stood at her words. Her voice terse and angry,
‘You’re a coward who hides behind bad advice,’ she cried. ‘Everyone has a choice. You abandoned me to nowhere. I made this life for myself. And I make the decisions around here, not you.’ Maya tried held up her hands in defeat.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t change what I did, but I’m trying to make things right.’
‘For who?’
‘All of us. Deep down you know that he must be stopped. Things have been forgotten but soon he will remember and he’ll remind you why you hated him in the first place.’ She slumped back into her throne, drumming her fingers on the lion’s head that was carved into the arms of the chair while she considered Maya.
After a while she looked about the room, as if she had forgotten for a moment that they weren’t alone. She had a role to perform.
The Tsar sat up straight and made her decree:
‘I’ve changed my mind, you are not exiled but I won’t be giving you any favours - no one gets special treatment. You are, of course, welcome to challenge me. You complete the challenge and my people will find whatever it is that you’re looking for.’
‘A challenge?’
‘A fight to the death,’ she said smiling. ‘Naturally.’
A fight to the death should have made her nervous but she remembered where they were standing - inside the citadel that was open to invasion, fortified only by the arrogance of the ruler. She was Tsar of Molinos but beneath that she was still Saf. The girl who cried at her sentencing and pleaded to stay. Even if she had been training since she left, Maya was sure that she would survive the challenge.
She was more concerned about Saf going against her word. She couldn’t be sure that she would leave with what she wanted, even after a challenge. What if they couldn’t find the book at all. It was a risk she wasn’t sure was worth taking.
‘Too long!’ She cried from the throne, ‘someone please get rid of her.’ Maya shook of the guards that came to her side to drag her away.
‘So be it,’ said Maya. ‘I challenge you - ‘ A roar of applause erupted around her and the Tsar held up her hand, demanding silence.
‘You challenge me for the book?’
‘No - ‘
‘No? Your dignity then?’ She filled the hall with more cackles of laughter and the rest of her followers joined her. Maya waited for the laughter to die. ‘Well? Go on then.’
‘I challenge you for Molinos.’ Hundreds of eyes snapped from Maya to the Tsar but there was no shock on her face. Her rule had clearly been challenged before and she still stood as Tsar of Molinos.
Her smile would have scared a younger challenger, maybe it would have caused them to rescind the challenge entirely. But Maya knew who she really was and she had fought for what she wanted before. She stared back, daring her to accept.
The Tsar’s voice was barely a murmur in the hall,
‘Deal,’ she said before she held a hand to the crowd and cried: ‘You will fight my champion at dawn.’
‘Champion?’ Said Maya, cursing herself for not considering that she would have someone else do her battle for her. Maya turned to find the largest man she had ever seen part through the crowd. He wore scars that would have ended her life like they were scratches from a roses’ thorn.
‘My champion,’ said Saf, proudly. ‘You’re more than welcome to flee, of course. A coward’s choice that wouldn’t surprise me.’ Maya turned back to the throne, determined to make it her own.
‘He’ll die at dawn.’
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