Chapter 19: Prisoner

"Please, Your Majesty! Mercy for Toa!"

Kren blinked — though not nearly as hard as Toa, who couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. Kren turned to find the jaguar woman Bunaya had been threatening, the very reason things had unraveled this far, on her knees with her forehead pressed to the ground. And it wasn’t only her. All hundred-plus captured felines had dropped into the same posture, pleading, begging in unison. It was, if Kren was honest with himself, more than a little inspiring.

He turned back to Toa. The man had likely already given up — made his peace with dying, convinced there was nothing left worth living for and nothing that could save him now. Kren snorted in mild annoyance. Then again, he wasn’t the one who’d just been forced to kill his own brother. Being an only child had its perks, apparently, as much as its drawbacks.

"Why?"

The question cut through the pleading like a blade. Kren raised a hand and pointed at another jaguar-tribesman kneeling near Toa’s love.

"I understand why she’d want to save him." he said, nodding toward the woman still bowed to the ground. "But why are the rest of you begging just as hard for his life?" He punctuated the question by leveling the pistol at Toa’s head. The man he’d singled out visibly stiffened, but didn’t dare hold his tongue in front of his king.

"He was kind to us, sire. When they beat us. When they rationed our food. When they sold off our children — he stood up for us. He made sure we knew where our families had been taken, and—" The man’s voice cracked, and he fought to hold back a sob. "He told us whether they were still alive. Or gone to our ancestors." His fist slammed into the dirt as he struggled against the tears.

"That doesn’t excuse the fact that he’s a Snake-kin who led these people here to attack us. I say we tie off the loose end, Your Majesty. He raised a weapon against you — he can’t be trusted." Kren rolled his eyes and turned toward the new voice.

Toa went rigid; he hadn’t sensed anyone approaching, and even less expected the clawed hand that clamped around his throat a heartbeat later, claws pressing just deep enough to draw blood.

"Let him go, Aki. I still have use for him — if nothing else, as a prisoner." Kren turned to face his bodyguard and former captain of the king’s guard. "And when did you two get here?" Fima stood a short distance behind Aki, her dual swords sheathed across her back, hood drawn low.

"Us?" Aki gestured between himself and Fima. "We arrived roughly an hour before you did. This is the group that poisoned the farms."

Kren narrowed his eyes and turned toward Toa. The Snake-kin flinched, but Kren said nothing more — just turned back to Aki.

"And you did nothing?" The cat-kin shrugged.

"We were observing first, trying to find a way to engage without endangering the captives. Then you showed up and handled everything yourself, much to my surprise, Your Majesty. First Awakening Mid Grade, and you just killed an Aura Awakening High Grade piece of trash. I’m impressed. Looks like Lady Bernice was right about you being some kind of prodigy."

Kren waved the comment off and turned to Fima instead. "Get them unshackled. These people have been slaves long enough." He turned away from the freed jaguar-clan members and looked back down at Toa.

"You’re different from the rest of your slithering clan, it seems." Kren tilted his head. "So what exactly am I supposed to do with you now?" Toa had no answer for that — none of this was unfolding the way he’d expected.

"I still say we take his head, Your Majesty. Leaving a Snake-kin alive within our territory is a mistake, and he’ll only become a liability." Aki held Kren’s gaze, unflinching. "If we intend to survive, we can’t afford mercy toward our enemies."

Kren shrugged. "I don’t think Toa is an enemy, though. That said, you’re right about the risk of keeping him in our territory. I don’t trust him yet, and there’s a fair amount I’d like to understand about him. So he’s coming with me to the Storm Eagles."

Aki didn’t bother arguing. He just groaned and turned away, clearly certain Kren was about to do something monumentally foolish. Kren grinned, taking no small satisfaction in his frustration, then crouched down in front of Toa.

"I want to understand what makes a Snake-kin show this much kindness toward the very felines his people enslaved. And I know it goes deeper than just being in love." Toa said nothing. Kren didn’t mind the silence — right now, it mattered more that the man listen than speak.

"You’ll serve as my bodyguard on the journey to the Storm Eagle mountains. Protect me well, give me a real reason to trust you, and I’ll set you free the moment we return. What you do after that is entirely up to you, young Toa."

Toa frowned, glancing up at him. "I’m... actually a bit older than you, Your Majesty."

Kren burst into a booming laugh and extended a hand. Toa took it hesitantly — and the moment he did, Kren hauled him up and in close, towering over him, forcing the Snake-kin to crane his neck just to hold his gaze.

"If you betray me — or even think about it — you’ll be dead before you can blink. And the woman you love will suffer for it." Kren turned his gaze toward the assembled jaguar clan. "They all will." Toa’s eyes went wide with horror.

"But they’re—"

Kren cut him off before the protest could form. "They all vouched for you. And I’m not so naive as to forget that until today, they spent years under the Ale’s boot and indoctrination. My own people, Toa, might still turn out to be spies or traitors. Don’t mistake me for some bleeding heart. I am a king. I will not be made a fool of, and I will not tolerate any threat to what I’m building here. So listen carefully.

"If you fail me — for any reason at all — you die, and they follow you to the grave. It wouldn’t be the first time a feline clan was wiped out because of the Ale." Fima went rigid beside them; her own clan had been all but annihilated in the earliest days of the Ale’s campaign.

"Do we have an accord, Toa?" Kren asked.

Toa hesitated only a moment before dropping to his knees, forehead touching the earth. Kren noted, almost idly, that the shaking had finally stopped.

"My life, my blade, and my loyalty are yours, Your Majesty. We have an accord. So long as you keep them safe, I will stand in front of every bullet, arrow, and blade meant for you. My loyalty is yours for the rest of my life, King Kren."

Kren laughed. "Splendid! Now, be a dear and tell lovely Fima here exactly what poison your idiot brother and his dead crew used on the rice fields. Then go get yourself cleaned up." He turned to Aki. "Strip the bodies — weapons, armor, anything useful. Once Toa’s finished cleaning up, hand him over to Bernice for a little light interrogation. Both of you should be ready to move out the moment the sun goes down. If the snakes are already moving this fast, we’re working with a much tighter timeline than I thought."

With that, Kren turned and walked away — having single-handedly fought his way through a raiding party and freed an entire enslaved clan in the process. It wasn’t a stretch to say there was a certain weight to his stride now, something close to pride. As he made his way back toward Lasthold, the familiar chime of a system notification sounded in his mind.

He opened it, and couldn’t quite stop the smile that spread across his face.