Kenji had admitted that much before Tommy killed him.
Jin continued to list Team Providence’s crimes. “They knew that Team Big Sky and Team Tinker were favorites, so they took the rifle with them to assure a win. They knew too that Oilcan is our domi’s cousin and that she has adopted Blue Sky. Yet still they loaded the gun and sent their shooter to the grandstand roof.”
Tommy hadn’t considered the connections of the two targets. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Team Providence might have won the race if they had shot Blue or Oilcan, but their people would have been washed in blood immediately afterward.
And how soon after the tengu’s apparent betrayal would the half-oni massacre follow?
Jin read the flow of realizations on Tommy’s face. “Yes, our fate is tied. Windwolf was willing to trust the tengu because the half-oni saved him from Malice. Because I could stand as sama for all of the tengu, the elves were willing to believe that you would become Beholden to a domana.”
Tommy didn’t like that cause and effect.
“In this war, we are allies,” Jin said softly. “And we have only one enemy — the oni. Team Providence shut their eyes and closed their ears and let our enemy take them by the hand.”
“The oni set this up?”
“There was a human in a bar, buying drinks and talking loudly. They don’t remember his name or what he looked like, but they let him fill their hearts with poison. He scattered all the little bits of the plan on the ground like bright jewels and walked away, leaving them to gather them up, piece them together, and then congratulate each other for being so clever to have figured it all out by themselves.”
“Kajo.” Tommy spat the name. The greater blood was famous for using spies to infiltrate groups and splintering them apart. Kenji mentioned something about getting the idea from a drunk human spouting off about how much money he’d won betting on long shots. Tommy had been too focused on finding the hoverbike to delve deeper.
“Yes, it was Kajo. The drunk gave them information that could have only come from Tinker’s datapad that the oni had hacked. No one else in Pittsburgh could have developed the new hoverbike. The snake in the grass poisoned these few and tried to destroy both our people. For that treason, I executed Team Providence.”
Put all together, yes, it was damning. Tommy nodded his understanding of why Jin had killed the tengu involved. Bigotry, greed, and stupidity had combined to nearly destroy them all.
Jin gazed at Tommy levelly. “To continue your ban of my people from your racetracks and other businesses is to allow Kajo to keep the handhold he’s created. He will use it to drive one wedge after another between our people. Do not give the oni control over you. Take back your ban.”
Tommy made a show of lighting a cigarette to give himself time to think. There was no doubt in his mind that Kajo had been behind Team Providence’s scam. The greater blood had always been three steps ahead of Lord Tomtom. Tommy had been torn between joy and embarrassment as Kajo had made his father run in circles. It was all painfully clear that this time, Tommy was the one jerked around. Team Providence were typical tools of the greater blood. People nudged hard in a direction they would already go, given information that they couldn’t otherwise obtain, twisted and lied to and then released to wreak havoc. And all the roadblocks that Tommy had faced had been Kajo maneuvering. The exploited loophole in the rules. The entire bullshit of Tommy not being able to stop a race at his own racetrack. The Wyverns in the stands to watch the baby sekasha race. Tommy flicked the barely smoked cigarette onto the floor and angrily ground it out.
What a sack of shit.
And Jin — the frigging spiritual leader — quietly explaining why he had to blow the brains out of his own people. You don’t kill your people. You protect your people against them—them being everyone else in the world. But then, Tommy never had any of his family spit in his face and try to knife him in the back. A few thousand half-oni might have been born to human mothers since the first Startup, but only a couple hundred had survived to see freedom. Like Tommy had told Jin, half his people were under ten years old.
Was it only a matter of time before Tommy needed to kill cousins to keep the others in line?
Jin was waiting patiently for an answer. Lift the ban? Tommy was still angry with Team Providence, but they were all dead. Keeping the ban in place would be like pissing on a dead man. Easy but pointless.
All this came looping back to Windwolf wanting Tommy to be Beholden. Jin saw them as allies because he thought their fates were linked. They’d be bookends to Tinker and Windwolf. A glorious future of lasting peace, choke-chained by the elves.
“You’re wrong,” Tommy growled. “There’s no happily ever after to chase after. All you did was swap masters, oni for elves. Beholden is just another word for slave.”
Jin gave a bird-like tilt of his head to peer quizzically at Tommy. “Is that how you see it? I don’t. I see myself as a knight at the Round Table.”
“What?”
“Once upon a time, far, far away.” Jin jumped up lightly to the railing in front of the cage. He startled the owl inside, making it rustle its wings nervously. “On Earth, to be exact, in land called England, there was a king by the name of Arthur Pendragon.”
“I know all about that sword in the stone bullshit,” Tommy roared. “I was raised in Pittsburgh, not on Onihida.”
Jin crouched while still balanced on the railing. “The basis for the legend was that Arthur had many powerful warriors who were tearing the land apart with their petty bickering. He brought them together and made them allies by creating a code of conduct. His code contains virtues such as protection of the weak, courage, mercy, and generosity. It was a code that would not allow them to engage in pointless fighting with each other.”
Tommy laughed. “What a fairy tale.”
“No, no, see, it’s actually pure genius. You can’t change other people. You can only change yourself. King Arthur set this high bar, this perfection of justice and good, and said ‘This is what a knight of the Round Table is’ and then left it up to his warriors to prove to themselves that they could measure up to it.”
“You really believe King Arthur existed? Merlin the magician, living backward in time?”
“Odder things have happened — to me.” Jin stood and started to walk down the railing as he talked. “But consider a second example: the bushido code that the samurai followed. They believed that the perfect warrior strove to achieve seven virtues.” He ticked them off with his fingers. “Courage. Respect. Honesty. Honor. Loyalty. Benevolence. Righteousness.”
“Get to the damn point.”
“The elves are not asking you to be a slave. They’re offering you a place at the Round Table. All that they ask is that you strive to be a good man. To be truthful. To be just. To be honorable and loyal.”
“Loyal lapdog. I’ve heard how Tinker calls and you come running like chickens, ready to die in her crazy plan of the day.”
“She is good and kind.” There was steel behind the words. Jin didn’t like people knocking his domi. He stepped down off the railing. “And you know she is. You’ve spent too much time around her not to know.”
“She has you doing things like highjacking dreadnaughts in midair and clearing oni nests.”
“We want to live in peace, and for that, we must create peace to live in.”
Jin locked gazes with him. “Let there be peace between our people. Those that wronged you have been punished. Lift your ban.”