Crucible of Fate

Domin,” he sighed. “I can’t be the only one to talk sense into my reah. Jin only actually listens to me and Crane. That’s it, on the whole damn planet.”
    “Come claim your mate and his annoying friend,” I said, using Logan’s own term of endearment for Crane. “I want them both out of my home, semel-netjer.”
    “Thank you, my semel.”
    “Knock it off.” I couldn’t help smiling, I felt too good. “You know, you can just stay there. I swear I’ll send them both home as soon as—”
    “I need him now ,” Logan said, and his voice was deep and dark. He was being strong, it was how he was, but Jin’s absence was already wearing. I understood, finally, what that was like.
    “Then I’ll expect you.”
    “Yes.”
    “Should I tell him you’re coming?”
    “He knows.”
    I hung up without a good-bye because it was our way. No endearments went back and forth between us.
    After I talked to Logan, I called Orso Bataar, semel of the tribe of Khertet, in Mongolia. He was very pleased to hear from me, and I was glad since I was asking him for a favor.
    When I finally emerged from my room, everyone was still waiting, clustered in the main hall, every semel and his retinue visiting at the time, along with as many as could push and shove themselves within the walls. It was standing room only; I was the only one who took a seat, there on my throne.
    “I will now pass sentence,” I shared with the crowd, my voice, because of the acoustics, carrying to every corner.
    The silence was thundering.
    “I have been called an infidel more times than I can count,” I declared to the assembled throng.  “And now I will finally act like it.”
    Not a sound anywhere.
    I glanced at Jin, who stood beside Crane; at Mikhail, holding hands with Samani; at the priest, sneering at me from where he stood beside my prisoners; and over at Taj as he stood with Jamal and the rest of the members of the Shu flanking him.
    “I hereby banish Elham El Masry and Rahab Bahur to the tribe of Khertet, there to become khatyu of Orso Bataar. May they be blessed by Ra in their new life.”
    There were gasps and whispers, shock and outrage as Rahab’s sheseru and sylvan surged to their feet. His sylvan was able to find his voice first. “My lord, you cannot believe that we will allow such a—”
    “You will allow it,” I said as I stood up. “Or I will take them to the pit now, one after the other, and have my sheseru remove their heads. The choice is yours.”
    “But, my lord—”
    “They are traitors to my rule,” I professed. “I am the semel-aten, whether any of you like it or not. The Shu answer to me, you all … answer… to me. I will not have treason. By the law, I can kill them both outright. In Mongolia, they have a chance to rebuild their lives, start fresh. If they choose not to do this, if anyone attempts to interfere while they are in transit or once they are there, they will be killed at once. This is my mandate and has been agreed to by Orso Bataar.”
    “My lord—”
    “You are the sylvan of the tribe of Wepwawet, are you not?”
     “Yes, my lord.”
    “Who is the heir to your semel?”
    He seemed on the verge of hyperventilating. “His brother, Zaki.”
    “Send word to him that he is now semel of the tribe of Wepwawet.”
    “But, my lord, you—”
    “You think I don’t know all about your tribe?” I asked him pointedly. “Maybe it’s time that your gang finally became one.”
    “One what, my lord?”
    “A true tribe.”
    He was shaking. “You know nothing of—”
    “I know all about the difference between a mob and tribe, between which one gives and which one only takes. I was the semel of a tribe once that was just like that.”
    It should have been strange for me to have every eye on me, everyone silent and staring. But somewhere in the past six months, I had gotten used to it.
    “Perhaps Zaki Bahur can achieve what his brother could not.”
    The sheseru and the sylvan of the tribe of Wepwawet both waited.
    “I know that your tribe prides itself on money and power, but you must understand, that’s the world of men,” I said softly, letting my words sink into them. “And I know that we all have to live in that world, but for us there’s more. There’s always the tribe, always our family. We’re talking about that—about you as panthers, about the law and your semel. We’re speaking of your semel and Elham El Masry thinking that they were both above the law, that they would