After the Mist received the request to kill the great Athira, the planning period began. This was the first large-scale job of the assassin team, the first one that could not be done from one moment to the next. Fortunately, they were not given a specific time for the murder, only that it should be done as soon as possible. Accordingly, Kamu interpreted the sentence as meaning as soon as you can safely do it.
It was not easy to get close to Athira, especially not to be alone with the great leader. Usually, someone was always with him. Even Etele was easier to find alone than General Csito, and Kamu was aware of this, considering that they had been living in the same camp for years.
The only positive thing was that at least there was no need to count on the leader not being present by chance. The migration of the hegins was officially over. Athira's camp became the official center of the empire, and its leaders began to establish smaller tribes among the Karrabata mountains.
You could say that the opportunity literally fell into Kamu's lap. The people of the Mist had been racking their brains for weeks when Kamu learned from Etele at one of the family dinners that Csito had received some kind of marriage proposal from a western king and that although neither he nor Athira liked the idea very much, he had agreed to it at the request of the leaders.
According to Etele, peace had to be kept and the western king had threatened with war, which would have been better avoided. They had only just arrived here, they did not want to send their troops to war right away. So they had no choice but to listen to the pressure of foreign policy.
To be honest, Kamu almost burst into laughter at the sight of his father's face, who looked as if someone wanted to marry him off again. Everyone knew that Etele had announced, when his wife died two years earlier, that he had no intention of remarrying. Yet at the time, he had looked as if he should have married the western princess instead of Csito.
After all, the circumstances were not so important, the point was the marriage proposal from the unknown western princess. The evening after the family dinner, Kamu broke the news to Köd, and so Ajtony took the land on horseback the next day to look for this certain western princess.
The marriage was set for two months later, and Ajtony covered the distance in a month and returned to his group with a wide grin on his face. The princess was an almost spitting image of one of their female members. Kamu and Ajtony had always been on the same thinking path, so he knew immediately what idea his friend had.
The western princess might be their only chance to kill Athira. The woman would be able to be alone with the great leader on her wedding night. So the plan was born, only the small things had to be carried out. The entire Mist participated in Athira's murder. They had to get clothes, make sure the Western King wouldn't send his daughter away, organize who would be where, who would stand behind, and how their chosen female member, who would play the princess, would kill Athira.
The only thing they didn't have to worry about was the foreign language they would speak to each other. By now, Kamu had taught all Mist members the ancient language he had heard from Teike, which had become the official language of the Mist. And they could all speak accented Hegin, so it wasn't a big deal to pretend that they couldn't speak normally.
Then, after months of preparation, the big day arrived. The Mist lined up half a day's walk from Athira's camp and, dressed in Western clothes, set off towards the camp with a comfortable carriage and horses. Kamu rode at the front of the procession as the appointed interpreter and protector of the princess, and Ajtony at the rear as a bodyguard.
Although their disguises were perfect, Kamu could not help but worry when he found himself face to face with Csito and his father. If anyone recognized them, the whole plan was over. Nevertheless, the Mist played its role with as much ease as day turns into night and vice versa. The hegins welcomed them with open arms. The diplomatic talks went smoothly and after the evening's great feast, the disguised member of the Mist departed from Athira's place. From there, it was just a matter of waiting.
The next morning, Etele found the weeping woman, whom he had helped out of Athira's tent. The funeral arrangements began. Kamu had never seen his father so serious, not even when he had to bury their mother in a similar way. Etele was already in his late forties, but the hegin aged ten years that day, the smile that had always been on his face was gone.
He himself led the hegin's procession north along the nearby mighty river that flowed uphill, beyond the nearby mountains, but no one there knew where the group was going. If nothing else, Kamu could give him that, so that his father could bury his friend in peace.
"We went to the Fene. It was fucking cold beyond the mountains, everyone was crying. You didn't have a big funeral, like you asked." Etele suddenly took over the story in the present, who was still standing behind Rahul, but only looking at his own hands. "I had the ghosts block the river and dig your resting place, then we led the water back." He explained, while he clasped his hands. "I killed them." He declared.
"Who?" The question came from Rahul, and Etele smiled sadly, tears gathering in his ghost eyes.
"Everyone who crossed the mountains. No one could know where he was buried, if his skull had been found, terrible things would have happened." As he said this, all the hegins were shaken by the cold, even Kamu. "I returned to the camp alone. After Csito, I was the highest ranking, I had to take his place while his sons mourned. I wanted to tidy up the tent so that the children wouldn't have to see their father's blood, but..." He grimaced here. "The princess was in the tent, I think I asked her something, but the next thing I saw was her figure receding. I was lying on the ground and I knew I was going to die."
"What do you said, Svihák?" Razvan asked sadly. "We listen to foreign policy once and we both die from it." At his words, the two friends laughed sadly at the same time.
"Why did your man kill me?" Etele turned to Kamu, who sighed.
"Because we were asked to do it. We killed two wild animals with one arrow." He said seriously. "By the way, the fact that neither of you realized it was the only weak point in the plan. Didn't you even look at the bride?" He asked Etele.
"Well, back then, even my small problem was bigger than that. But it seems I need to expand my saying, not only the foreign policy, you even can't trust the people who are just dozing around you." Etele folded his arms in front of him.
"Don't be angry father, fate has taken care of your revenge. After all, that's when the story of my death began." The ghost-man smiled. "When my man returned from the task, I took charge of the camp. I wanted to find you so that my brother wouldn't have to. However, someone was standing at the entrance to the yurt, I was just thinking about going around again when he left, so I did what had to be done, I found you, informed the camp and my siblings and I started organizing your funeral. Well, no one died at that funeral, although only my brother and I accompanied you on your last journey, Keche and Laik's grief was too great." The leader of the Immortal Mist explained.
"So you accidentally buried the high táltos in the side branch that is next to the side branch that covers the grave of the chief of the hegins." Rahul grinned, while Kamu looked at him with wide eyes.
"We buried him next to Csito?" Kamu blurted out the question and looked at the Athamanas, then at Etele and Razvan. The latter two just smiled.
"Yes." They said it at the same time.
"Well, that's creepy." The ghost-man shook himself.
"What do you mean your death began then? We lived for about ten more years after Csito's death." Kele suddenly spoke in a cold voice, staring at his twin brother with folded arms in front of him.
"That's true." The leader of the Immortal Mist nodded. "But not long after that, the requests that led to our death began." When his brother narrowed his eyes, Kamu began to chuckle. "Didn't you notice? All the important leaders, which in a few years would mean all your friends, slowly died. It was only a matter of time before we came."
"Did you kill them?" Kele's ghost eyes widened.
"If that was the request." Kamu shrugged, then continued seriously. "But we didn't kill them, the other members of the Mist had nothing to do with it. The leader was specifically asked to do the tasks. I killed your friends and ourselves."