Crucible of Fate

and I will see it done.”
    He moved next to Yuri, who was standing beside me.
    “Thank you, sekhem. I can never repay the debt owed you.”
    Yuri seemed pleased, but his eyes were not as warm as they would have been if Koren hadn’t been there.
    In the midst of everything else, Yuri was openly hostile and ridiculously jealous.
    I was delighted.
    The way he stood beside me, the press of his chin to my shoulder, the scent marking, a continual action, his hands on me, the crowding—it was just so obvious.
    “I will be back with what we need to fill in the fire pit, my lord. I will also bring enough for a feast to welcome you to Ipis. Your coming has saved our tribe, and the peq cannot wait to show you the welcome you should have received when you arrived.”
    “Thank you.”
    “I will thank the reah when I come back.”
    I glanced over at the line twenty feet away from me.
    Jin stood under a makeshift tent beside the fountain in the center of town. He was now dressed all in white, the contrast to his dark hair and eyes quite striking as he greeted people one by one.
    The line to see him stretched for hours, and it wasn’t moving quickly because everyone wanted to hug him, touch his hair, shake his hand, and tell him how thankful they were that he had come. They then walked over to me, thanked me for bringing him, and went down on one knee and swore lifelong allegiance to the law and to me. It had been hours already, and again, I was being kept from the only thing I wanted to do, which was to take Yuri back to the Hummer with me and put him over the seat behind tinted glass. I wanted to have his skin between my teeth so bad I trembled every time he brushed against me.
    “You are wound very tight.” He rubbed his chin on my shoulder.
    I swallowed hard as I held the hand of a little girl before patting it and telling her to get up.
    “Thank you,” she said, lifting her arms for me. I knelt and took her into my arms. She put her little head down on my shoulder. “Thank you, semel, for saving us. Now my brother and sister can come home.”
    “Where are they now?”
    “In Giza, with my aunt.”
    “Yes, call them home.”
    “We have already,” a woman said from behind the little girl. She was shaking, and her husband was watchful, making sure she stayed vertical, his arm around her waist. “You have delivered us from a madman, my lord. You will be forever in our prayers.”
    I hugged the woman, and she clung to me like she was drowning and then took the man’s hand and let him hold tight.
    I checked on Jin after that, just glanced over at him, and got the wave. Completely in his element with the meet and greet, the action so engrained in a reah. He had a new question for every person, noticed something and commented. And the people loved him, stared like he was the second coming, and waited patiently for their turn.
    He was flanked by Taj on his right and Koren on his left, with Kabore moving people along, gesturing for them to step aside or come close. I had five members of the Shu there close-by, and ten khatyu keeping vigil over him.
    “Domin,” Yuri rumbled, “Hakkan’s family is here.”
    Seeing Hanif in tears was unexpected. He rushed forward and went to his knees along with his mother and sister.
    “Rise,” I ordered them.
    They all stood, and Hanif’s huge wet eyes were locked on mine. “My lord, you did as you said and did not kill my father.”
    I shook my head. “I lied to you.”
    “My lord?”
    “Your father is in breach in the law, Hanif, so that means that I will, in fact, execute him.”
    He took a faltering breath.
    “I don’t usually perform the act myself, but it will be done on my command. Either way, your father won’t live another three days.”
    “But,” he sputtered. “My lord, I—”
    “You must understand,” I sighed. “The moment he abused any guest in his house, disregarding all rules of hospitality, he was, at that moment, forsaking his life.”
    “My lord, I—”
    “He abused another semel’s son, he took another yareah and forced your mother to see her children and her house defiled, he—”
    “My lord, we have caught your quarry,” Rahim Dewidar, Jamal’s second, called out, interrupting as he came striding forward in front of two other of the Shu. They were walking Constantine Ordos between them. They shoved him to his knees down in front of me.
    He gazed up at me, and I saw that he was hurt. He was bruised and scratched, and his left eye was