Essa’s warriors were shaking their heads, and one spoke. “There is no way to know that, Eldest Elder. And no one blames you but yourself.”
Ultie rolled his eyes and gave Faela a nod. She stepped into Essa’s path with a mug of kavage and waited.
Essa stopped, sighed, and took the mug.
Simus helped himself to more of the spicy gurtle and roots.
“We were attacked.” Essa stood there, staring at the kavage. “It was clear they wanted me captured and my warriors dead. We managed to break free, but more warriors appeared and harried us. I lost warriors and gear to them as they would appear out of nowhere—” He took a swig of kavage, and cleared his throat. “Then one night a warrior-priest appeared with warriors and attacked me with foul power, freezing me in place so that I could not so much as move. My warriors fought, and fought well, but the only thing that saved us was a bolt of light piercing the night sky. The warrior-priest fell to his knees, screaming, and suddenly I could move and breathe and I killed him.”
“Well done,” Simus said.
Essa stopped there, looking at him as if seeing him for the first time. “After, I noticed his tattoos were gone, as if ripped from his body. What do you know of that?”
“Sit,” Simus said. “Even if you did not hold my token, I would share what I know.”
“Hard to listen, much less think when you are stomping around like that,” Ultie muttered around a mouthful of bread.
Essa huffed, but settled on a gurtle pad. He balanced Simus’s brooch on his knee, and held his kavage mug in both hands.
Simus cleared his throat. “For me it started when a warrior-priest popped up from the grass and forbade us to approach.” He continued, going through the events of that day and into the night.
One of the warriors closest to Essa nudged his arm, and offered bread and meat. Essa’s eyes never left Simus’s face, but he took a piece of the flat bread and nibbled at it. Yet as Simus’s story progressed, the bread was abandoned as Essa listened in grim silence.
“And Wild Winds disappeared?” Essa demanded at the conclusion of Simus’s tale.
“I awoke to find him and his people gone, and angry Warlord candidates gathered outside my tent demanding explanations.” Simus glanced at Ultie.
Essa closed his eyes and rubbed the corner of his eye. “What in the name of the elements does this mean?”
“Nothing,” Ultie said. “We are gathering for the Trials as we always have and always will.”
“Nothing?” Essa gave the man a hard look. “Ultie, the Council was sundered and now the warrior-priests are—”
“You have trusted Wild Winds in the past,” Ultie said. “Trust him now.”
Essa sighed, shaking his head, but remained silent, giving Simus his chance. He leaned forward, intent to know the answer to the question that had nagged at him since this strange meal began. “Why do you not trust Joden?”
Essa shrugged at Simus’s question. “Joden supported Antas against the Warprize until he changed his mind. If he were to become Singer, what is to prevent them from killing me and making Joden Eldest Elder, with Antas’s backing?”
“No,” Simus shook his head. “Joden opposed the Warprize when he faced the devastation that was the ‘plague’. Antas used Joden’s doubts to support his own claims.”
Essa raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps. But Joden’s acknowledgment of the Warprize came at a convenient time, didn’t it? When Antas seemed to have gone too far?”
“You twist his actions—” Simus replied hotly.
“All I know,” Essa overrode him, “is that Joden was all you say before he followed Keir of the Cat to Xy. But since that time, he has broken with our ways, and his truth seems—”
“You hold my token, Eldest Elder Singer.” Simus glared at the man. “But I will not sit and listen to you insult Joden of the Hawk.”
“I will share these same truths with him, face to face,” Essa said calmly. “For he will approach me to become Singer, will he not?”
“Of course he will,” Simus said. “All who know him know his intent.”
“Even I know it,” Ultie muttered.
“Joden of the Hawk is an honorable warrior,” Simus continued. “He is not treacherous. He would not—”
“If you had told me that Antas would attack the Council, I would have laughed and called you fool,” Essa said. “This wind of change you would bring blows the seeds of our destruction as a people.”