Dragonthorn Chapter 7: Kandiel

Far in the west of the lands claimed by family Gerash, on the Western Sea at the mouth of the river Dashok is the city of Aramel, which was ruled for many years by wise King Gordiel. Upon the death of the king, three years before the coming of the Law of Koth, Lord Kirodiel Gerash made Turel the king of Aramel, for Koth had commanded Kirodiel to give Turel a suitable reward after his long labors in the other world.

But the gift was given in too much haste, it seemed to Kirodiel later, for after the coronation of King Turel the city become a hotbed of resistance to the reforms that came in with the Law of Koth. Many yin of the city of Koth removed to there, including many of Kandiel's Amazons, and many yang went there as well, all those who believed yin and yang were on a level, and yin should never be treated as mere property.

Aramel, then, was home to those who were disgusted and horrified at the sight of Ariel being paraded naked in a wooden cage from city to city across the Middle Lands of Gorpai.

As Aramel filled up with the enemies of Koth, the prophet Zadkiel grew alarmed, and convinced High Lord Patriarch Kirodiel to give him command of the Eyes of Koth, the dreaded secret police of family Gerash. Then Zadkiel surrounded the city with many Eyes of Koth in their black livery, and they turned back anyone who were not native to that city and who should try to enter.
And when Kandiel had rallied all in the Middle Lands who were sympathetic to Ariel, and bade them to emigrate to Aramel, the time was come for her to enter the city herself, yet she could not travel openly, for the blockade was pursued with vigor.

But one of the farmers who lived nigh to the city concealed Kandiel within a wooden box, and drove to the lines of the Eyes of Koth which ringed the city. There no wagons could pass. But the farmer and three sturdy yeng in his employ took the box off the wagon and bore it themselves toward the city using two poles threaded through brass rings in the side of the box, while a young dirk drove the wagon away back to the farm. Yet they were not alone, for many other farmers had to resort to the same expedient to move their goods into the city.

One of the Eyes of Koth grew suspicious and barked to them, "Let fall the box!" The four yang immediately complied. "What yang of you be the loadmaster?" he asked.

Three of the yang edged fearfully away from the fourth, who was the oldest. "This shipment be mine, lord. I am Sibiel, a farmer of the valley of Odargas."

The Eye of Koth asked, "Dost thou make vouchsafement for the goods thou bearest?"

And Sibiel answered, "I do, milord."

The Eye of Koth replied, "Yet I would see therein." Sibiel looked suddenly crestfallen. Resigned, he told the other men to open the box. Ariel's closest companion Kandiel stumbled out, dazed by the sudden change to the light of day.

The other three laborers feigned outrage at the smuggling attempt, in an effort to save their own skins.

"Stand ye apart from Sibiel," the Eye of Koth proclaimed, "all who value your lives, for contrary to the will of Koth he bearest aid to a daughter of Gerash to depart to Aramel where only goods are permitted to go.

But Kandiel was not cowed by the pretensions of this Eye of Koth. She cursed him in a loud voice, and said, "May Sophia send down fire from heaven and smite thee!"

At first the farmers from Odargas thought the yin was joking, but immediately after she spoke, brilliant orange bolts of fire shot down from the clear sky. So bright and hot was this fire that the yangs thought they had singed their own eyebrows off. The fire from the sky vaporized twelve Eyes of Koth in a single simultaneous targeted strike, leaving only smoking grease spots where the yangs once had stood.

To the farmers who had assisted her she had already told them, "My name is Kandiel and I am formally asking for asylum in the city of Aramel according to the laws of your king."

And this the farmers told to the ferrymaster after the ferry to Aramel docked at the village of Surat. But they made no mention of the slaying of the Eyes of Koth by fire from the sky, for they were afraid.

The ferrymaster said to Kandiel, "It is the commandment of King Turel that any yin of family Gerash who enters our realm automatically becomes a citizen of Aramel. Therefore you, Kandiel, are free. Yet you are a person of some renown throughout Gorpai, for you are Lady Ariel's greatest disciple, and a price has been set upon your head by the Gerash patriarch Kirodiel. Therefore you must appeal directly to King Turel in Aramel for sanctuary in our city, or you will be challenged at every step. Many would dare to sell you back to the Eyes of Koth if the favor countenance of King Turel did not rest upon you."

"It will be as you say," Kandiel promised. "But tell me, sir, that little stretch of water could not be more than five ji wide. Surely there would be many in Magodon who would easily be capable of swimming across?"

The ferrymaster smiled at this and said, "Truly, Kandiel, you know little about the underwater flora of the far west of the Middle Lands." He grabbed a whole broiled bird from a tabletop and threw it over the side. No sooner than the bird struck the water than there was a violent churning, and snapping of yellow jaws, the flashing of razor-sharp teeth, and the bird was gone.

The missing Eyes of Koth were soon noticed by the priesthood, and the true story was wrung out from many witnesses by threat of torture, and the priests knew the Eyes of Koth had been killed by bolts of fire from the sky.

This story made its way back to Zadkiel in the Holy City, and thence to Koth himself, who was at that time clothed in the body of a mighty yang named Israel, but had not made himself known as Koth to any but his prophet Zadkiel. And Israel knew the fire from the sky was interference from Binah, the first such meddling that Binah had dared to do.

Israel's response was to command Zadkiel to commence an invasion of Aramel to avenge the incredible affront. Zadkiel in turn expressed Koth's displeasure to Kirodiel Gerash, and relayed the commandment of Israel to attack.

Then the high lord Patriarch Kirodiel Gerash commanded his most senior lieutenant thus: "Make them to be a spoil for dogs and all manner of birds, and let the will of Koth be brought to fulfillment."

He placed Zadkiel in overall command of the Army of Koth, and sent him into the field to move against King Turel.

At dusk in the city of Aramel, in the castle Brys, built on a two ji high bluff on the north side of the mouth of the river Dashok, Kandiel presented herself for an audience with King Turel. She went with two of her chief Amazon lieutenants who had preceded her to Aramel by many days.

King Turel was old now, and filled with the wisdom of one who has lived in two worlds. But his long friendship with Abraham on Earth had tempered the King's nephilim love of law with the human law of love.

After Kandiel was announced, and knelt before him, the King told her to rise. Then he looked hard at Kandiel with a piercing gaze and said, "In the beginning I was a servant of Koth, but I was asked by him to call the elohim Yahweh my master for a time. Now I find their counsel has sundered one from another, and I have been forced to choose between them. And I have chosen Yahweh."

Kandiel replied, "The King knows that I embrace Sophia, and all those who also embrace Sophia. Others have also said that Yahweh has broken with Koth, but some of these say he has moved closer to Sophia. If that is true, Your Highness, then you and I would be natural allies."

Turel said, "The Eyes of Koth have long pressured me to turn over to them the hundreds of Amazons who have taken refuge here in Aramel, and they have long watched the approaches to my city for your own arrival, but now I detect almost a frenzy in their doings. The ferrymaster could tell me little. Do you know why they are acting so?"

"Yes I do, Your Highness. I called upon Sophia to smite the Eyes of Koth who discovered me and who sought to kill the kind farmer who tried to smuggle me into the city. Then fire fell from heaven and destroyed twelve Eyes of Koth utterly, such that almost no evidence remained that they had been living yeng only moments before."

"Then it is Koth himself who is now at war with us, and Aramel can no longer be called a sanctuary to you or your Amazons. Soon every hand of family Gerash will be raised against us."

Then Kandiel asked, "Are you to command us to leave the city at this time, Your Highness?"

"Far from it, Kandiel. I would ask you to command your Amazons in league with the forces of the city, for soon the Army of Koth will arrive seeking vengeance for their missing Eyes of Koth." And this Kandiel eagerly agreed to do.

Years before, on a hill near the city of Aramel, King Gordius hitched a wagon to a tree with a knot so elaborate no one has ever been able to untie it. At that time an oracle said whoever unraveled this Gordian Knot would rule the entire world of Gorpai.

Zadkiel had heard the prophesy, of course, and when the Army of Koth drew near the city he found the wagon and laid his own eyes on the famous knot. For several days, while the army camped in the surrounding countryside, Zadkiel tried to undo the knot, but to no avail. Very well, since the wagon was not going anywhere soon, he had his men lash Ariel's cage to the wagon of old King Gordius.

For Ariel had been paraded nude in cube made of wooden poles all across the Middle Lands of Gorpai to put lie to her preaching of the power of Sophia over the hearts of yin. And now she had been brought to the outskirts of the last holdout city, Aramel, to taunt her supporters there.

One night Israel (who by riding in the angel of Koth could move about Gorpai far more quickly than any yang) appeared in Zadkiel's tent and informed him that Kandiel was also in Aramel, obviously hot to take a crack at the Gordian knot herself.

Zadkiel remembered his victory over her in the courtroom. "I look forward to meeting her again, my Lord Koth."

"Don't be a reckless fool," Israel warned him. "Kandiel's people have been operating in this area for years. Doing 'good'. She's got a whole network of favors she could call in if you push her head on, and overnight you could find yourself facing more problems than you've ever had to deal with before in your life."

"My lord Koth, no one is that good. Surely no yin is that good."

"Kandiel has exactly one weakness," Israel went on, as though Zadkiel hadn't said a single word. His mouth screwed up in an expression of utter disdain. "Kandiel's only weakness, of course, is Ariel herself. For I tell you now that just as I, Koth, have taken possession of this body and go by the name Israel, so has the elohim Sophia taken possession of that body and goes by Ariel."

"But my lord Koth, you have said to me that you are the only god, and the other gods do not even exist!"

"I trust as my prophet that you will foster and maintain that belief among the people, Zadkiel. Take the utmost care where Ariel s concerned, for she is indeed Sophia, one of the elohim, despite my propaganda to the contrary, which you at least would do well not to believe."

But even as he spoke Israel was troubled, because he knew Zadkiel had come to believe that Koth's struggle against Sophia meant that Sophia should be held in contempt, which was the nephilim custom when dealing with enemies among their own order. Yet Sophia was elohim like himself, and friend or foe, Koth thought the beings of lesser orders, at least, should give her the respect that was her due. So from that day Koth vowed to slay Zadkiel the very day he was no longer useful to him.

But there would be ample opportunities to test Zadkiel later. Following Israel's precise instructions, Zadkiel immediately dispatched his cavalry.

At a beautiful blue pool in the mountains ringing the city of Aramel, Kandiel and a squad of her Amazons refreshed themselves, then assumed their usual mode of riding slowly on their horses while they watched the greater perimeter of the city for intruders. Suchwise the Eyes of Koth had also done before they were inexplicably withdrawn some weeks before.

A nearby torrent of water was so loud that Kandiel found it hard to hear her chief lieutenant, Imriel, speaking it her. She told Imriel to repeat what she had just said a bit louder. And Imriel said, "We should be back to the ferry by nightfall, having made a complete circle."

The waterfall completely blanked out the sound and vibration of onrushing hooves until it was nearly too late. Not even Kandiel's hypersensitive mare gave warning. Suddenly Gerash horsemen raced up behind Kandiel, Imriel, and the others. At the last second Kandiel's sword was brought out, only to crash against a mighty iron rod. There were sparks and Kandiel was knocked clean off her horse.

Another horseman decapitated Imriel in one smooth motion. Kandiel was stunned, and grieved for Imriel, but her horse had the intelligence to linger with Kandiel rather than follow her instinct, which was to bolt.

Shaking her head clear, Kandiel mounted up again. Imriel was dead but four of her Amazons survived the assault, and they rallied around her.

Lumbering after them, she recognized their battle standard and mouthed the vile name of their general with all the contempt she could muster: "Zadkiel!"

Kandiel chased the cavalrymen like the cold wind that presaged the long Gorpai winter. Kandiel's companions loosed many arrows even from their full gallop, and one of them slew the iron staff wielder. Two others who blocked Zadkiel from harm also fell, so no one remained to run interference while Ariel slowly closed in on her fleeing target.

But Zadkiel was too far ahead. Soon he dived into the safety of a vast forest glade guarded by a large armed encampment. Contrary to her every wish Kandiel reared back and brought her horse to a stop, and the other Amazons conformed to her movements. Kandiel scanned all the banners and standards of the army arrayed before her and recognized this as the main bulk of Zadkiel's army.
But every indication she had from the path of burning towns said Zadkiel was twelve or fifteen leagues to the west. He must have led his army on a forced march all night. But how did he know to come to precisely this place? "Koth," Kandiel muttered, answering her own unspoken question.

Zadkiel ordered that the canvas covering Ariel's cage be removed, and then Ariel was revealed to Kandiel. It was the first time she had seen her in a year, because after a time she could not bear to look at her humiliation.

"You can kill me where you stand, Ariel," Zadkiel shouted, "but that wouldn't be healthy for Ariel."

Kandiel stared at Zadkiel with first wide, then narrowing eyes. She rode a bit closer. "Don't sink to this, Zadkiel. I expect such from Koth. It isn't worthy of a pureblood Gerash."

Now Kandiel was close enough that Zadkiel could speak in a more dignified tone. He said, "Yet I find that much like Koth, I want you working for me and not against me.* Here are your only two options, Kandiel. You can defeat my legions and possibly rescue poor little Ariel. Or you can kill my field-marshal, take over my legions, and simply order her release."

And Kandiel said to him, "I like number two."

He replied, "That will take care of today. To keep Ariel safe from assassination you will ride at the head of my army and go where I command you in the East Lands and the West Lands, and in Aramel, and every place where Koth is held in contempt."

Kandiel was frustrated by her vulnerability. She thought: Had all her enemies learned Ariel was her one weakness?

Zadkiel seemed to read her thoughts. "Ariel has become a noose around your neck, Kandiel, and the closer you get to her the tighter that noose becomes. How easy it is to make you dance with a few simple threats to Ariel's life!"

She said to him, "Where is the honor in this, Zadkiel? The glory? You want me to command your army, but do you really want my decisions for you tainted by holding an unwarlike yin hostage?"

He replied, "Not at all, but you have left me no choice."

Then Kandiel got her horse up to full speed and charged toward the heart of the enemy encampment.

Moving in a well-practiced dance, a century of Kirodiel's best pikemen suddenly arranged themselves around Ariel's cage, with their forest of spikes pointing directly at the approach of Kandiel.

So Zadkiel had put Ariel on display, tempting Kandiel, at the same time making it clear Ariel was completely beyond her grasp.

Ariel shouted, "Kandiel! Forget about me!"

Kandiel's voice broke as she called back tearfully, "Don't you know by now that's the one thing I can never do?"* But she could do nothing more here. Kandiel flashed Zadkiel with a glance of pure hatred and kicked her steed, turning away to flee the scene.

"She is a true warrior, Lady Sophia," Zadkiel told Ariel, earning a wad of spit in his face. He quietly wiped it away. "She knows. The things you love are always used against you. Always! She knows!"

Sibiel, the farmer from Odargas who tried to smuggle Kandiel to Aramel, had been fingered for the Eyes of Koth by the farm hands he hired when they were threatened with death by slow torture. The Eyes of Koth elected not to kill him, for it would seem too much a kindness to Sibiel and a waste of good nephilim muscle power. Zadkiel's army was short-handed so Sibiel was instead cruelly pressed into slavery as a simple waterbearer in Zadkiel's camp.

Having little else to do for entertainment, often the Gerash soldiers would trip him, laughing together with their buddies as Sibiel trudged back again and again to refill his pot.

That night Sibiel wandered off to the edge of the camp where a hooded shape tackled him and dragged him into a small ravine. It was Kandi- el! She ordered him to switch their clothes.

He wanted to stay and help rescue Ariel, but after some stern words from Kandiel, together with ample thanks for what he had done, Sibiel faded off into the night under a black robe.

Kandiel adjusted Sibiel's clumsy homemade armor and helmet (which was almost worse than no protection at all), she padded out her curves, and put on false facial hair to offset her soft features. Then she drifted into the camp fetching water for the men and searching for Ariel in the area where Sibiel told her she was being held captive.

Ariel was in the cubical cage at the center of the camp, guarded by two yang. Tonight it was covered with the canvas to keep Zadkiel's yeng from leering at Ariel instead of watching for Kandiel.

Her Sibiel uniform worked well. Kandiel could swagger with the best of them. The guards permitted her to enter with a torch and a ladle of rancid water. She appeared between the canvas and the cage.

"Kandiel!" Ariel husked, filled with joy. Then consternation. "Nice beard."

"Hush! Take my headband." It was a green headband of intricate make, a gift from Ariel that she said was made by Binah, for in the center it possessed a brilliant white light that allowed Kandiel to move on the darkest nights, and there was none like it anywhere on Gorpai.

Ariel said, "That was my gift to you, Kandiel, and my gifts are without repentance."

Kandiel said, "You will have to make an exception this time," and she passed it to Ariel between the interlaced bars.

Ariel said, "Do you want me to use it to escape?" And Kandiel replied, "Please don't do anything stupid, Ariel. This is the only thing I have that says 'Kandiel was here' without mistake. Now Zadkiel will come in here and gloat over you like evil warlords always do. At that time I want you to let him see you have my headband. That's my message to him: I can come or go at will."

"It will rattle him good," Ariel agreed. Kandiel said, "The more men he has guarding you, the less men he'll have on the field of battle tomorrow."

Ariel smiled at her. "I knew you had a plan for getting me out of here, Kandiel."
They shared the most heartfelt kiss of their lives, knowing it could very well be the last one. Then Kandiel left, promising to return with an army to get her loose.


At sunrise Zadkiel saw that his plan worked. He had flushed Kandiel out of the city, but Lord Koth had been absolutely right about Kandiel's network of favors.
Accompanying Kandiel was King Turel of Aramel and all of his men under arms. Ariel was visible in the center of the camp, held naked and shivering within the giant wooden cage with a heavy guard around her representing a fair fraction of Zadkiel's available men.

"And that is his fatal flaw," Kandiel told King Turel, who was mounted on his own horse beside her. "My ruse has worked perfectly. Ariel has now become Zadkiel's greatest weakness, a precious jewel tying down a third of his men just as our attack begins."

So their armies began to clash fiercely, and with the disparity in numbers the battle gradually began to go against Zadkiel.

Ariel fought her way to the top of the hill behind Zadkiel's army where the wagon was tied up all by itself now. Zadkiel spotted what Kandiel was trying to do in the fog of battle and moved to cut her off, lest she solve the Gordian Knot and become the beneficiary of the prophesy.

They both dismounted and launched into an extended face-to-face sword duel. Kandiel was slashed by the tip of Zadkiel's blade as he attained first blood. Ariel feigned shock at the pain and injury and pretended to slow down. Zadkiel let his guard down for just a fraction of a second, but it was enough. Seeing her opening, Kandiel let loose a ferocious kick to his face. Zadkiel was laid out cold.
Kandiel was tempted to finish him off right there, but her eyes settled on the forgotten wagon on the hilltop and she ran to it instead. She tried to untie the Gordian knot which secured the wagon to a mighty tree, but like many who came before her she made no headway. Meanwhile Zadkiel's cavalry was closing in on her.

Finally, with no time to lose, Kandiel just cut the knot with her sword. The wagon began to roll downhill and she jumped inside. Her war-cry gripped the attention of the troops guarding Ariel, and they gaped at the horror approaching them. All of the yeng fled as Kandiel's desperate gamble played out.

She ducked inside the wagon and braced herself as the wagon collided with the cage at breakneck speed, shattering both the cage and the wagon. Both yen were more bruised and beaten than they had ever been before but Ariel was alive and free.

King Turel continued the rout and pursued the scattered remnants of Zadkiel's army into the forest. But Turel knew this defeated army represented only a fraction of the strength that the Gerash patriarch could bring to bear on them, and its relatively small size had itself been a gesture of contempt on the part of Kirodiel for the abilities of Aramel to defend itself. Next time there would be a far greater host. But for now Turel shrugged. That was a worry for another day.
When Zadkiel finally regained consciousness he saw his utter defeat from his vantage on the hilltop, and he fled the field alone on his horse.

Kandiel said, "No more adventures for a while, Ariel. I've cracked a rib, for starters."

Ariel accepted a blanket and threw it around her naked form. Being deprived of clothes for so long had caused her much suffering, Gorpai was largely an ice world after all. She said, "Thank you for everything, Kandiel! But why did you throw away everything you've worked for since you met me and first questioned who you were, just to save my life?"

For her part Kandiel was almost at a loss for words. "What do you mean 'why'? Didn't you find that cage a little drafty?"

Ariel held up the pieces of the wagon's rope. "I'm talking about the Gordian Knot. I'll admit, cutting it was not what Gordiel had in mind, maybe, but now you are destined to rule Gorpai. Fate! The unreformed Kandiel must return now."


Kandiel said, "Must she? You say Koth was behind all this, but do you think Koth will have his way forever? What if the oracle really meant the spirit of the new Kandiel will take over Gorpai? The Kandiel who changed on that unforgettable day when she first met you."

Ariel was shocked at first, then she smiled as understanding fully dawned. "The new Kandiel? If yin and yang everywhere became willing to do for each other what you did for me today...then love won today, Kandiel! It may take many more centuries to play out but you may have turned the corner here today. Once and for all . . . love won!"