An Aimless War (Greatest Thief 2)

Chapter Nine

Tannix constantly had things he had to do. Sometimes he was asked to attend meetings, sometimes it was dinners with important guests, sometimes he spent time with his father in the office. I spent a lot of time every day with the knights in their little courtyard. Seeing me climb had changed something, almost as if they realized that despite how fragile I might have looked, there was more to me. They all acted like brothers, and I quickly became the little brother.

Acen and the younger three I already liked. It took me a couple of days to warm up to Jalor and Mandell. They were older and more intimidating—Mandell because of his size, and Jalor because of just how much of a proper Telt he was. But they were both friendly. One day Jalor brought Fiar into the courtyard, and let me toss bits of meat for the bird to catch.

Mandell, I had realized, didn't talk very often. But I thought he might talk to me if I asked the right questions. He was leaning against the half-wall one day, watching Evrik and Acen fight, and I took my chance. I hopped up to sit on the wall beside him.

"Mandell?"

He looked at me, which was about as much of an answer as I had expected.

"You're half-Telt, aren't you? Me too. At least, I think I am." I shrugged and pressed on with my actual question. "So... I didn't think many Native Zians lived on New Teltar."

Mandell nodded. "Not many," he agreed.

"Evrik told me that you were a farmer?"

He nodded again. "Lots of us are farmers. Probably all of us. When the Zians came to New Teltar, they mingled with the poor Teltans. So... I'm not really half-Telt. Not like you are. Way back my family was, but now we're just mixed up. We're both."

That didn't quite make sense to me. Even though I had always thought I was half-Telt by blood, when it came down to what was actually important I thought of myself as fully Native Zian. It didn't make sense to be both. "But what about..." I had to pause to figure out how to politely pose my next question. I finally settled for the simplest way to say it. "What do you believe in? Zianesa and the others, or the Teltish Goddess?"

"Both."

That made even less sense. "What? How?"

He smiled so briefly I almost missed it. "Long ago, there were two sisters. They were separated, and even though they both searched, they could not find each other. Eventually they each founded great kingdoms. The people in the kingdoms loved their patronesses so much, that each sister became a goddess. One was named Zianesa by her people. The other was simply called the Goddess."

I wasn't sure how I felt about the story, or the implication that Zianesa was not one of the Triplets with Roe and Kitsa. But listening to the story couldn't hurt. Surely Zianesa wouldn't mind me listening.

"When the Teltans came," Mandell continued. "The Sisters saw each other across the water, and they were overjoyed. They were finally brought together. That is what we believe." He smiled warmly. "I understand if you don't like the story."

"It's not that... It's just... wrong."

Mandell shrugged. "We can all believe different things, and still be a family. I don't believe the same thing as Tannix, Acen, Evrik and Jalor. The twins believe in something else completely different. We can respect those differences even if we don't agree."

Mandell was the last person I would have expected to have such a profound conversation with. But I thought of Tannix encouraging me to pray to Roe on the ship, and the way he had agreed when Ninavi said the gods had helped free me. I nodded. "You're right. We can."

"All right, Finn!" Acen interrupted, calling across the courtyard. He had apparently finished his duel with Evrik. "Come here, let's see if we can teach you to fight."