"We have had a very difficult journey," Isao said. "Please, can you help us?"
"Of course. Guards! Take them inside. We'll send the healers to you immediately with fresh water for a bath and food."
"Ran . . . Ranbelt," Khalem hissed under his breath. "Gone."
Isao glanced back, but Ranbelt hadn't returned.
"Couldn't . . . trust . . . "
One of the guards accepted Khalem's weight. The other came around to support Khalem around his waist.
Isao looked back to the mists one last time, wishing Ranbelt would reappear. But he didn't. For the first time, Isao wondered if he had been in the wrong trusting so many people.
"Come," Ransaki said, motioning with his hand toward the palace. "Let us care for you and then hear your story."
The masked man next to him remained silent. The inability to know the man’s identity set his teeth on edge, but he brushed it off as stress from the last several days.
Sleep. He needed sleep and food.
Before Isao knew it, Ransaki led them up into the palace's main courtyard, where the torches along the wall sported decorations of snakes. The greenish walls glittered like reptilian scales here too, just like on the border wall. Murals on the walls featured snakes of many different colors. These snakes were coiled. Sleeping. Alert. Devouring their prey.
The grisly images were disturbing. Isao shuddered and gladly followed Ransaki inside.
"Is Kamon here?" he asked Ransaki, enthused at the prospect of food and seeing his friend again.
“Yes, of course."
Ransaki said nothing more, so Isao fell back into silence. They wound their way through a maze of dark hallways and thin spaces. In an open area they passed a statue of a snake coiled around a cat, which appeared as if it was yowling for its release.
Isao swallowed past a thick knot in his throat.
"Here," Ransaki said, opening a door that led to a room. "We will bring you new clothes and send the healers to attend to your wounds. Then you may come eat with the Ular ruler and his family. Today, they are celebrating Juben's daughters, who passed the test of the Reyanda. They are now true warriors of the snake."
"Thank you," Isao said, feeling the gratitude all the way to his bones. "Thank you very much."
Ransaki smiled in a strange way, then stepped back. He and the masked man left.
The guards lowered Khalem to a simple cot on the far wall. Seconds after the guards left, healers swarmed the room.
Isao gladly turned his body over to them. They cut his clothes off, washed his body, cleaned his skin, and provided him with draughts of water tinged with medicine. Khalem grunted and moaned as they did the same to him, but in the end, the herbs they'd given to stunt his pain brought some color back to his face.
Even with all those ministrations and that new color, Isao thought, the General’s pallor still appeared a shade too close to death.
"Khalem," Isao said with a weary smile. "You've never looked worse, my friend."
Khalem snorted. "I could say the same."
There was a moment of silence.
"It will be good to see Kamon again, but I'm weary,” Isao fretted. “I wish we could eat here and join them later."
Khalem had no chance to reply, for a servant rapped on the door. Her yellowed eyes gleamed in the light of a candle she carried. "Our ruler is ready to see you now."
Slowly, Isao and Khalem stood, then moved back into the strange, tunnel-like halls. The paintings continued to appear on the hallways walls , becoming more complicated and majestic with each turn. Wall sconces decorated with coiled, golden snakes looking as if they were about to strike at some prey lit their way.
Although these snakes weren't real, Isao skirted them anyway.
"Here you are," the servant said, opening a door.
Isao advanced into a room filled with bright candle and torchlight, leaving hardly a shadow behind. A table filled most of the space. It was set with golden dishes and utensils that resembled snake bodies. Wine goblets gleamed golden in the light.
Seven people ringed the table; there were two set places that were still open.
"Greetings," Isao said, bowing at the waist. "Thank you for receiving us."
Juben Ular, ruler of Havin, stood at the very top of the table on the other side of the room, his awkward, black hair steeped in shadows. Bones seemed to jut out of a sour, pale face. Out of their sockets, two yellow eyes with a narrow gaze watched attentively over the table. A well-manicured goatee ringed his lips. His purple tunic shone in the torchlight with golden threads along the edges, leading to a circular yellow snake wrapped around his arm like a band. A thick ring spanning from one knuckle to the next showed a snake with an open mouth and bright fangs. He was not a handsome man, but had a note of something intriguing about him. On his right, Isao immediately recognized Juben’s wife, Damla.
Ringing him on either sides were his children: his son Kamon, who was Isao's old friend, and his daughters Saya and Maru. Like all of the Ular Clan, they had yellowed eyes with vertical slits and thin pupils. Like snakes, their voices tended to hiss instead of speak. Isao fought off an uncomfortable grimace as each child introduced themselves.
Next to Maru stood Ransaki and an exceptionally tall man with gangly arms and a shaved head except for a long black braid that hung all the way down his back. Tattoos of snakes and skulls covered the parts of his body that were visible. From his belt hung a gleaming sharp scythe. Isao knew him right away: Ishii, Juben's personal body guard.
Just his appearance alone would scare off anyone with ill intent, Isao thought.
Isao wanted nothing to do with him.
"Isao," Kamon said with a smile, his voice trailing off in a light trill, like a hiss. "What a surprise to see you!"
Isao rushed forward and embraced his friend, relieved to see a kind face. "Kamon, my friend! It's good to see you."
Kamon returned the embrace with a slight laugh.
Isao stepped back, his cheeks flaring with heat and embarrassment over his display of enthusiasm. "I'm sorry. But it's been a very long couple of days, and it's so good to finally see a friendly face."
"I understand."
"Please," Juben said with a wave of his hand. "Have a seat. Let us begin our feast to celebrate Maru and Saya and our unexpected guests. I am concerned over what evil has happened in the Sunsan nation, for nothing good could have brought you here in such a distressed state, but that information will come in time. Please have a seat, relax, and enjoy dinner first. Then we'll get into more details on what has come to pass."
"Thank you, my friends. Your generosity is truly inspiring," Isao said formally and with sincerity.
Servants whisked dinner in set on golden plates with designs of coiled snakes. Isao and Khalem ate heartily, accepting everything on their plates. Isao, despite his fatigue, forced himself to join the jovial small talk. He took care to admire Maru's brand-new tattoo: It was a brown viper, the symbol of adulthood in Ular fighters.
Saya then pulled back the neck of her shirt to reveal a horned red snake running across her shoulders.
"Very nice," Isao said. "The detail is exquisite."
"Do you remember," Kamon asked, "when we found that cat in the dungeons of the imperial palace?"
Isao hooted with laughter. "You ran to try and kill it right away!"
"Yes, but that wasn't as bad as when we ran into that coffin, remember? The lid was partially open, and neither of us wanted to look inside!"
As laughter rippled around the table, Isao relaxed back into his chair. Khalem, too, seemed to unwind, although his hands twitched occasionally and his eyes intermittently darted around the room to take stock of the surroundings. Like Ishii and Juben’s daughters, he said little, almost nothing at all, leaving the conversation to Kamon, Isao, Ransaki, and Juben.