We locked eyes for only an instant. And then I was grabbing harness, grabbing scabbard, closing a hand on the hilt. And jerking it from the sheath.
Samiel was whole. Samiel was unchanged. Steel shone bright and unblemished—except for black charring stretching fully a third of the blade.
“There’s more,” I said. “More discoloration.”
Del didn’t say a word.
I looked at the broken blade. “He unmade it,” I said plainly.
She knelt down beside me, looking more closely at the jivatma. “He’s trapped in your sword.”
“He unmakes things,” I declared. “Don’t you understand? The new sword was a threat. He wants me on his own terms, not risking a loss by default.”
Del’s tone was carefully modulated. “Tiger, I think you’re—”
“—sandsick? No.” Somehow, I was certain. Don’t ask me how. I just knew, deep in my gut, deep in my heart, deep in the part of me no one else could share. “I’m beginning to understand. I think I’m beginning to know him.”
“Tiger—”
My look cut her off. “You said he’d come to know me. Why can’t I come to know him?”
Alric stepped into the doorway. “Do you want to spar?” He asked. “They’re betting on matches at the circles … there are wagers to be won.”
Del and I looked at him. Then we looked at the sword.
Thinking of Chosa Dei.
“When?” I asked aloud, of anyone who might know. “When is this jhihadi supposed to arrive?”
Del and Alric were equally uncertain of the question, and why I would ask it. They exchanged glances, then looked at me, shrugging.
“I know as much as you,” Del said.
I shot a glance at Alric, still plugging the doorway between our two rooms. “You’ve been here longer.”
“The Oracle’s coming,” he answered. “I imagine he’s supposed to get here first. Since he’s the one foretelling the coming of the jhihadi, I’d think he’d want to do it from Iskandar instead of just tribal gatherings.”
Something sounded odd. “Tribes,” I said intently. “Are you saying this Oracle is aiming his foretelling only at the tribes?”
Alric shrugged. “I imagine his foretelling includes everyone; wouldn’t it have to, since he’s talking about the South? But all anyone knows for certain is he’s moving among the tribes.” He paused. “Or else they’re coming to him.”
I thought back to the discussion Abbu Bensir and I had had with Del regarding tanzeers, jhihadi, tribes. “I don’t know how much of this is real, or how much of this is some ambitious man’s attempt to gain himself a name,” I said slowly. “You’d think if he wanted the obvious kind of power, he’d go straight to the tanzeers. They rule the South … parts of it, anyway.”
“But they’re corrupt,” Alric remarked. “Tanzeers are bought and sold all the time. Domains fall overnight.”
“There are people who aren’t corrupt,” I said evenly. “Southron people whose only interest is in surviving, in keeping alive their own way of life. They owe nothing at all to tanzeers, and they ignore the petty pacts and power struggles. All they do is live, drawing strength from their homeland.”
“The tribes,” he agreed.
“I should know,” I said. “I grew up with one.”
Del shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
I frowned, trying to put it into words that meant something. “The tribes are all little pieces of the South. Different races, different customs, different religious beliefs. It’s why no one can really rule the Punja … the tribes are too fragmented, too difficult to control. And so the tanzeers content themselves with the pieces they can control, and the people … the tribes are left alone.”
Del nodded. “You said something like this before, with Abbu.”
“Now I’m wondering if this jhihadi nonsense has nothing whatsoever to do with the tanzeers—at least, directly—but is aimed instead at the tribes.” I chewed my bottom lip. “The tribes, put together, outnumber the rest of us. No one really knows how many there are—they live in all parts of the South, and almost none of them stay put. Which makes it impossible for anyone to deal with them, even if they wanted to.”
Del nodded. “So?”
“So, if you were a man who wanted absolute power, what is the surest way of getting it once and for all without involving tanzeers?”
She didn’t waste any time. “By uniting the tribes.”
I nodded. “Which might explain why so many tanzeers are leaving their domains to come to Iskandar. Not because of the jhihadi. Because of the tribes. They’re hiring sword-dancers to mount a defense of the South.”