Page 146 of The King of Koraha
She peeled the fur back and headed to the common room. Mojag stood, looming over his sister, who sat cross-legged on a cushion. Her expression matched his—both stubborn. Rendor and the rest of the Invisible Swords watched the siblings with various degrees of amusement.
“Calm down, Mojag,” Gurice said. “You’ll wake Shyla.”
“Too late,” Shyla said from the doorway. “What’s going on?”
“Just making plans to return home.” Gurice shooed her brother back to his cushion.
Mojag plopped into it with a huff. “I’m not going.”
“It’s not your choice. We’re the Invisible Sword and we belong in Zirdai.” Gurice crossed her arms as if that settled the matter.
Shyla entered the room and joined them. “About that.” She explained that they were now working for the King. “We’re no longer going to just protect Zirdai but all the cities of Koraha. I’m moving our headquarters to Qulsary.”
While Mojag cheered, Gurice gaped at Shyla. The others’ expressions showed mixed emotions.
“But what about Jayden? And your parents?” Gurice asked her.
“And we did all that back-breaking work to make that old temple livable!” Jaft cried.
“I can visit my parents anytime. We’re not stuck in Qulsary. In fact, we’ll be traveling quite a bit.” Something she was looking forward to. “I also plan to have…bases in each city so we can keep an eye on everyone. The monks are going to be more active in helping the citizens in each city. They’ll be coordinating their efforts with ours so I want a couple of our people in the monasteries as well. Gurice, if you want, you can be in charge of the Zirdai force.”
“And miss all the action? No thank you,” Gurice said.
“I’d like that job,” Jaft said. “I’ve family in Zirdai. And…” He glanced at Rae and her cheeks reddened. “I think we should have at least one magic wielder in each city.”
Ah, so Rae was the lucky person who’d caught Jaft’s heart. “That’s a good idea. I’ll send a message to Zirdai and bring the rest of the Swords to join us. We’ll work out all the details then and find a new location for our headquarters.”
“How are we going to pay for all this?” Vashi asked.
“Tamburah’s treasure will cover all the initial expenses,” Shyla said. “The King will eventually pay us a salary.”
“Eventually?” Lamar asked.
“Xerxes and Najib stole two circuits’ worth of taxes. The poor man has quite a bit of debt. We don’t need to add to his problems.”
“But he expects us to solve them,” Balin said.
“No. We are helping the citizens of Koraha, making their lives better. That’s what the Invisible Sword was created to do.” She told them about how The Eyes were supposed to be woken by the King’s advisor.
They discussed the various issues and complications that the move to Qulsary was bound to cause, but Shyla wasn’t worried. They’d been through worse and they had each other.
When the impromptu meeting broke up, the others headed out in search of food.
Before Mojag left, Shyla called him back. Gurice waited for him in the doorway.
“Why don’t you want to return to Zirdai?” Shyla asked. “I thought you and Jayden—”
“It’s not him,” Mojag said. “Even though it won’t ever be the same with him, I’m not avoiding him. Well…not as much. No. There’s just too many bad memories in Zirdai. Here, I’m freer. And it’s a challenge! I can navigate Zirdai with my eyes closed. Boring.” Then he grew even more animated. “I’d love to be able to navigate every city in Koraha with my eyes closed. That’d be a good thing to know for our new job, right?”
“Yes. It would be.” She smiled at him. He’d come a long way from the vagrant boy who whined about life not being fair. “I’m glad you’re excited about the changes.”
“It’s like you said, we’re supposed to be doing this.” He tapped his chest. “My heart agrees.”
“My stomach agrees that we need to eat. Coming, rat?” Gurice asked.
“Your stomach has gotten us into more trouble than Shyla,” Mojag grumbled, but he dashed after her.
“I think you were just insulted,” Rendor said.
