4. The Lonely Revolution

Enra lit one candle and awoke all the boys from his Devirma squadron. After all those years, they slept in reasonable rooms, ever closer to the royal family. Sometimes, when he dreamt of home, he thought about these hallways instead, and he hated himself for it. But because he had never even tried to befriend the other boys, he had no idea how they felt.

“What is it, Enra?” a goat moaned. “I need my sleep. You too.”

Enra watched the candle intently. “Not a day has passed that I didn’t dream of home. Of Himnib and Solong. I may pray to the god of Mira each day, but it’s not my god. I may walk these halls, but it’s not my home.”

He looked up. Some boys knew where this was going, especially the rhino with a scar across his face that just missed his eye and never seemed to impede him. Some still rubbed the sleep from their eyes and used the candle for warmth.

“Otto will never stop conquering,” Enra continued. “Taking boys away from their parents to put them in his program. I fear he might even take over the world.”

“Watch your words,” the rhino said. His tail, partially burned but somehow fully functional, hit the stone. “The walls are thin.”

“Remember what Otto said to us? When we’d only been here for a few months?”

“The only thing he truly fears,” the rhino whispered, “is his own army betraying him.”

“This is betrayal already!” the goat said. “Islah is the only god. I will pretend I didn’t hear anything, Enra, but if you say one more—”

“If you don’t want to join, then go back to bed and pretend you slept,” he said. “But any of us who still weeps about their lost home, fight with me. Otto is unaware tonight, careless. They feast because of the fall of Kristinapel and Traferia. This is when we strike.”

The rhino sharpened his horn. Another bear reached for his weapon. All prey animals among them, however, returned to bed.

Only the goat lingered. He didn’t even know his name! After all this time, Enra had started to see the other boys as “just another soldier”, while he saw Otto and his sons as items to destroy rather than living beings. He felt numb in all possible ways.

When they departed—five trained soldiers with weapons—the goat decided to join anyway, to Enra’s surprise.

The other boys crept through the shadows with weapons pointed forward. Enra walked upright, weapon pointed at the ceiling, as if he was simply on guard.

“Walk normal,” Enra hissed. “Nobody will see us at this hour.”

The rhino grinned. He already had his scars before joining and seemed fearless, maybe even careless about the whole Devirma thing. Enra felt that, in another life, had he not been crushed by Devirma, they’d be best friends.

“Will you ever tell us about your nightly adventures? A secret admirer? Illegal drinking at the tavern? Or unlucky sleepwalking?”

“Sssh.”

Noises came from the hallway tot heir left. Footsteps. Not the nearly inaudible slithering of snakes, so that meant—

They stood eye to eye with an assortment of older animals. The previous generation of Devirma. After many years of loyal service, they were allowed to fight at Kristinapel, from which they’d just returned. Their fur and uniforms were still covered in mud and blood splatters.

“Little ones,” an elephant said. “Back to bed with you, eh.”

“Otto called for us,” Enra said without hesitation. “Guards for his bedroom.”

“No he didn’t.”

“Yes he did,” Enra spoke with a blank face, as if annoyed they dared speak up against him. The rhino sharpened his horn against the walls again.

The elephant leaned forward to push Enra with his trunk. “Liar. Otto isn’t sleeping tonight. He’s in a meeting about conquering Schola.”

“Schola? Already?” the goat said without thinking. “That’s overreach. We’ll have to cross the ocean towards Garda.”

The elephant trumpeted softly. “Whatever. I’ll join. Maybe I wil see my family again.”

Enra pushed the elephant’s trunk aside.

“If you let us through, tonight … all Devirma victims will see their family again soon.”

His eyes narrowed. The rest of his group, mostly tigers and camels, looked just as suspicious.

“Think you’re the first, eh?” he whispered. “Think not a hundred animals have tried it before you, eh? Animals that are six feet under now?”

Enra swallowed, forcing his face neutral again. “Tell me their mistakes and we will not make the same mistake.”

The reaction was delayed, but clear.

“They tried it alone.”

The older Devirma pushed Enra forward. Suddenly he was leading a group twice the size towards Otto’s meeting room. The longer they walked, the more the group grew. The others knew exactly on which doors to knock and what to say to make other animals join in.

The first resistance came from actual guards. The snakes could not finish their question of “what are you doing?” and were knocked unconscious.

Enra was hopeful—and scared to death. With each breath, he calmed himself and tried to keep a cool, logical head.

The second resistance came from the princes.

They were already at the meeting room, all three of them, leaning against the closed doors. The surprise almost made Enra laugh. Otto banished them from the meetings until he had identified the traitor … so they childishly eavesdropped.

“You want to go inside, don’t you?” Aratto said.

“And then accidentally leave the door open?” Bitto added. After the attack from his older brother decades ago, he still kept a distance from him.

“Yes, that is exactly why we’re here,” Enra said.

That room contained Otto and his fiercest fighters. It was win or die tonight.

“Come, come, come!” Crotto said. As if this was all according to plan and a herd of angry Devirma were invited to the party.

Which of them had spread the false rumor of Otto’s death? Which of them wanted their father dead and to steal the throne? Enra studied the brothers quickly, their posture and their reaction to this event, but they all seemed too stupid to realize what was about to happen.

“Our first target,” Otto’s dull voice said behind the doors, “must be the Tamli kings.”

“The Tamli?” said a surprised voice. “My king, don’t be foolish. Nobody conquers the Tamli.”

“They also said the Amorian Empire would never fall,” Otto hissed. “And that the godchildren would win the First Conflict. See how that turned out.”

The eldest prince fiddled with the lock. Their father had even taken away their palace keys. Enra imagined Otto would at some point just “lose” his sons and pretend they never existed. All the while, thirty heavily armored boys, of varying ages, shuffled on the spot.

“When I created Devirma, you were against it—but now you see I was completely right,” Otto said confidently. “When I removed hereditary succession, you were against it—afraid you’d lose your riches to somebody who was not your son or daughter. I know many of you still fight to get it back, but has it really caused us any issues?”

So that’s why Otto invented the Devirma, he realized now. All his soldiers had no family here. They had no ties to the king or anyone else inside this empire. They could be neutral and objective, follow commands without objection, because all of these boys had no other ties or loved ones to pull on them.

As opposed to his sons, who had every reason to kill their father, because the reward would be the throne. As opposed to all the family of the rich elite and the nobles, who had every reason to manipulate and inherit their family’s wealth.

Enra could hear Otto’s confident smile sneaking into his voice, even behind closed doors. “And now you are against my plan to conquer the Tamli and enter Schola? That’s merely proof that it is a terrific idea!”

Aratto had finally broken the lock. The brothers stepped aside.

Enra looked back one final time. At the certain faces of the other Devirma who could not forget home. He thought he missed one face, but didn’t know which one, because the rhino clapped him on the back and wished him good luck, while joking he’d make the situation more “bearable” now.

He placed his paws on the doors and forcefully pushed them open.

Then he heard Chonib’s soft voice.

“I only ask that you please leave the beautiful architecture of Schola intact. You see how much our empire benefits thanks to art and cul—”

He froze in the doorway, blocking the rest of the group.

The snakes unrolled themselves and spit poison, asking what was the meaning of this.

Out of a second, secret doorway a goat ran into the room.

“Your majesty! I come to warn you of a great revolution from your own Devirma! Hundreds led by a bear in—”

Enra could not talk his way out of that one.

His group entered the room, screaming and pointing their weapons.

Chonib’s face was a thunderous rage; Otto defended himself with venomous bites.

Enra watched as felines leapt at the sweet bear, their sharp nails raised. One of the snakes had already been killed. Otto was swarmed by the sheer number of boys. He could not kill them quickly enough and was thrown against the wall.

But Enra had made a mistake, dear reader. He HAD started to care for a member of the royal family, and he HAD started to see the hallways leading to Chonib’s room as his home.

He blocked the doorway, forcing the majority of their soldiers to stay outside. The Devirma were now crushed on both sides; most from behind by the princes who had realized what was truly going on.

Then he jumped on top of Chonib and pushed her out of the way of an attacker. He closed his eyes and made himself a living shield for the Moonreader.

Until all the growling, the hissing, the clattering of swords stopped.