Black and Silver

Chapter 8: Bread and Honey

~ 8 ~

Three weeks after the Invasion of Balann

I spotted Zenv, Prince of the Gho’kai, before Ehjiro did. It was rather difficult since Zenv was a squirrel, like oh so many of the others in this small mammal, forest dwelling Tribe, and let’s face it, all squirrels look alike from a distance. It had taken two weeks of travel back and forth from the Temple of Kamizu to finally pin down the bugger.

Gho’kai people spent more time in their animal bodies than in their human ones. Their forests are riddled with Shen villages and settlements, and as the Shen populations swelled, the lands supposedly reserved as Gho’kai reservations shrank and were further divided among the Shen. The virgin forest is already rich with rare woods, but a new type of metal the Shen call litchi was discovered in the Gho’kai forests, too. Litchi is worth so much, people have flooded the area to mine for it. So the Gho’kai, finding themselves on less and less land, resorted to living mainly in their animal forms.

Great for them, terrible for us.

“Zenv!” I swung across the tree limbs, using hands, tail, feet, whatever reached a branch first. I hadn’t spent much time in trees like this before, but I was getting pretty good at it. “Oi, you’re Zenv, right?”

The squirrel peered suspiciously over his acorn, “Ain’t you a bit far from home, monkey?” His tail twitched at the air, which meant he was ready to run.

~Don’t run.~ Okay, so Ehjiro had been right. I would use the mind thing on people eventually. Especially jittery squirrels who ran away whenever a leaf fell. “I just want to talk. You are Zenv, aren’t you?”

“Depends.” He turned the acorn over in his hands, thinking he might chuck it at my big monkey head. “Who’s asking?”

I reached the tree opposite his and stopped, “Katchime, Princess of the Karajha.”

He scratched his back with the tip of the acorn, “What do you want? Political asylum? I thought everyone in the East had sided with those Kharije bastards.”

“Not me.” I crossed my arms over my chest, “Can we go somewhere else to talk? My friend can’t join us up here.”

Zenv turned his attention to the ground, where Ehjiro pawed at the roots of the old oak tree. “A coyote? You’re working with the Najoh.” His gaze slide back to me, “I thought the Princess of the Najoh was a scorpion.”

“I’m no princess,” Ehjiro snapped, jumping up the bark.

“I’ll say! I can smell your dog breath from here.” Zenv chucked his nut aside, “Follow me, I know a place.”

I swung after the squirrel when he took off.

Two weeks, that’s all the time it had taken for Yamaki to deliver on his bread and honey promises, and in three weeks time, the entire Eastern shore had seceded from the Empire to side with the Kharije. Asdoma, Reathana, and Radba were small rural providences that had been some of the hardest hit by the economic depression. Desperate for relief that the Empire of Pandorium had failed to deliver, they had been the first to ally themselves to the Kharije. The providences of Phenlaa and Zsutee were much larger and more stable, but before these last three weeks were up, they seceded and joined the Kharije, too. This morning, it was announced that the providence of Bhassa would also join. The island providence of Tehnma is the only one that hasn’t seceded the Empire yet, but since they’re just off the coast of Asdoma and Phenlaa, I suspect Tehnma will be taken by force if they don’t secede soon.

That just leaves the southern providences of Jordwei, Peliji, Mara, and Neydelaa. Jordwei is a peninsula attached to Zsutee, and the other three are all island providences off it’s coast. Once Jordwei is taken, they will fall. That would leave the providence of Fazza in the northeast, the largest providence of the Empire and the only one to stretch from the Eastern shore to touch the West. Their size makes Fazza the most stable and self-sufficient of all the providences. I’m sure the Kharije will eventually try to attack Fazza, but I can’t image they would ever be able to conqueror it. That should keep the extreme northern island providences of Ahn, Ahnova, and Firapa safe from Kharije control.