The lower districts were slums, to put it kindly, with poverty, starvation, and filth everywhere. Curiously, I hadn’t seen any real sign of nonhumans amongst the destitute and couldn’t help but wonder why the citizenry was uniformly human in those areas. Fir Bolg were traditionally separated from the other races, even in my time, but there should have been members of at least a dozen other species amongst them.
The more affluent ones were curious as there were many pyres spread about them. Paintings, books, compacts, makeup cases, and other vanities were gathered around the place in large piles that had been burning for a long time. Preachers of the Lawgiver in white-and-gold robes spoke to uninterested crowds about the glories of the Nine as well as the imminent end of the world. The number of nonhumans actually increased, at least, in terms of the elfblooded and a few low sidhe.
Most of the citizenry looked surprisingly fearful despite the presence of the Imperial soldiery around them, moving from building to building quickly and in carriages that had armed men on them. This time, people paid attention to Regina and me as we ran, though the few guards who called after us didn’t care enough to give chase. I got the impression they were not the crème of this city’s crop despite guarding the richer citizens. For all Serah’s talk about the law being fair and equally applied under the Nine Usurpers, it was not the case in Kerifas, since there seemed a stark segregation of the locals.
It wasn’t until we reached the area around the Palace District, the area where administration in Imperial cities was traditionally handled, that I finally caught up with Regina. She slowed down to take a breath, surveying the sight before her. I did the same, taking in the crowd. This group was being meticulously checked and being ushered through the gates one by one. Strange mechanical chariots with legs twelve feet tall were moving through the crowd, a single soldier operating them as crackling lightning moved around a wand at its base. The walls above the district were covered in soldiers, all humans of Imperial descent, each of them heavily armed with gunpowder rifles as well as blood-rune armor.
“The executions are going to be in there,” Regina said, her voice low.
“Yes,” I said, looking around. “Probably.”
“Possibly Gewain.”
“We don’t know that,” I said, trying to calm her.
But it was possible. Likely, even, if he’d been arrested as soon as Hellsword returned from his failed attempt to get at Ketra.
“Then what do we do?” Regina said, feeling her face. She wasn’t the type of woman to cry, but I could tell she was on the verge of tears. Regina loved Gewain, close blood ties and incompatible orientation aside. I was jealous. Then again, if I found out one of my sisters was still alive after all this time, would I act any different? Did it matter either way? No, it did not. If Gewain was being held prisoner by the Imperials here then I would make an effort to save him.
“We will rescue him if we have to,” I said, whispering. “I will not let your loved ones perish.”
“Even though I love him…in that way?”
“Even so.”
“He does not return that love, but even if he didn’t, I would choose no other, Jacob. Fate has blessed me with the two loves of my life loving each other. That is more than even great romantics receive and I am not so greedy as to want another.”
“Can we focus on something else?”
“Sorry.”
Under other circumstances Regina would have cracked a joke about keeping a harem or bringing other partners to our bed just for fun, but now she was just silent. Regina was a prisoner of her feelings just like I was, or had been, for Jassamine.
Placing my hands on her shoulders, I whispered a concealment spell that would make us unnoticed by both the crowds and the guards around us. I wasn’t as good a mage as Serah, the higher mysteries of the Craft unknown to me, but I had a lot of raw power. I doubted even Hellsword himself could see through the protection I wove around us. Better still, the spell caused people to ignore us rather than not see us. In many ways, it was superior to invisibility by far.
Regina placed her right hand on mine. “How long will this last?”
“An hour or two,” I said, breathing out. “We won’t be seen unless we attack or someone is actively searching for us. We can also let individuals see us if we want. That should give us an advantage should we need to perform a sneak attack.”
“Thank you,” Regina said.
Moments later, the rest of our group, sans Captain Vass and his crew, came rushing up behind us. The newcomer, Rose, looked positively exhausted, and I suspected he wasn’t used to making speedy treks across the breadth of cities. The Fir Bolg, Kana, by contrast, looked completely fine, despite wearing a pair of uncomfortable-looking sandals. Serah, smartly, had summoned a black stallion that simply trotted behind them. I let them perceive us, not intending to deceive our allies.
“You could have waited,” Rose said, panting heavily.
“No, I couldn’t have,” Regina replied.
“You should be careful,” Kana said. “There are many spies in the city. It is said every rat in the city is one that Hellsword can see out of.”
“Then he must see a lot of shit,” I replied. “We’re debating what can be done about Gewain.”
“They won’t harm him,” Rose said, attempting again to reassure us. “They won’t risk making a martyr of him.”
“You have an unusual amount of faith in the empire’s monsters,” Kana said. “Gewain is my friend as well as oath-brother. I will fight with you if you choose to rescue him. I am a warrior of the seventh rank as well as a shamaness of the Lesser Gods Between. The spirits of those who live in every nook, cranny, tree, and brook. You have my support.”
“Assaulting the gallows will just trigger a massive riot and crackdown,” Rose said, straightening himself. “Gewain wouldn’t want that, until the time is right at least. He’s a hero.”
“I don’t care,” Ketra said. “He’s my brother.”
“They won’t kill him,” Rose said, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself of the fact. “I’m sure of it.”
“The city is ready to revolt and just needs the right spark,” Kana said. “With your help, King and Queens Below, we shall liberate this city. All my people in the city have been waiting for your arrival.”
“I’m sure,” I said. I wasn’t sure about the woman’s motivations. She seemed too…earnest. Then again, I might have been letting my feelings regarding the Golden Arrow affect my judgement. Organizations could change a lot in two centuries—just look at the Shadowguard.
“How are they doing this?” Regina asked, staring around at the misery surrounding us. “Why do we even need to invade? You’d think they’d have risen up against the empire already.”
“Appearances can be deceiving,” Rose said, looking at a pair of Imperial soldiers kicking a brown-skinned boggan between them. “The Usurpers are very precise in their targeting. They have rewarded their followers lavishly in riches confiscated from those they have destroyed. Toadies have been given titles, endowments, and land. This is in addition to the fact many old rivalries have been flaring up in recent years between humans and nonhumans. Rivalries they play on to win the allegiance of those who fear civil war.”
“They’re playing everyone against one another,” I said, frowning. “They don’t have to have the love of the people as long as they’re hated less than the alternatives.”
“It’s like the Reformation’s worst excesses but only a hundred times worse,” Kana said.
“That is because the same woman responsible for it is responsible for this,” I muttered.
Jassamine. How deep did her madness run? Was she truly an arch-messenger reborn? Is that what drove her?
“The persecution of nonhumans is limited to Winterholme,” Serah said, sounding almost offended at the suggestion it was Imperial policy.
“For now,” Rose said. “The persecution of nonhumans and seizing of their property has allowed them to
fund their elaborate building projects. Projects that have bankrupted the Imperial treasury but they keep managing to find more funds to work on. I would not be surprised if they broadened their persecutions to continue their public works.”
Interesting.
“People think only the empress and her inner circle can lead them through this crisis,” Rose said, frowning. “Are you truly the King Below?”
“You doubted I would return with him?” Ketra said. “Was that not my mission?”
“I doubted he existed.” Rose frowned at her. “Only Gewain believed.”
“He was right,” I said. “I am he, or as close to such as exists. Regina, Serah, and I are the new Gods Below and rulers of the Iron Order.”
Rose frowned. “I see.”
“Powerful allies,” Kana said, smiling. “I, too, believed. You should give my regards to Captain Vass.”
“If he wants them,” Serah said, glaring at her. I did not know what set her off against Kana but her demeanor was hostile and tense to the Fir Bolg woman.
“What kind of situation can we expect on the other side of the wall?” Regina asked, diverting us from topics of legitimacy.
“It depends if Hellsword or Redhand is conducting the executions,” Rose said, shaking his head as if to clear it. “If it’s Hellsword, then it will be quick. Heads will roll with a reading of their crimes. He will sometimes offer the condemned a chance to repent of their actions and if they do, they’ll show up changed in a few days to a week.”
“Changed?” I asked.
“Loyal to the empire, deliriously happy, and ‘off’ in some ways. Most believe the empire has taken to using Gael mind-twisting on their opponents.”
I grimaced. “That kind of magic is forbidden.”
“So is mass murder and slavery,” Regina said, clenching her fists. “They both still happen on a regular basis.”
“If it’s Redhand?” Regina asked.
“Pain, torture, mutilation,” Rose said, looking positively ill. He did not strike me as the kind of man normally drawn this deep into revolutions. He had to love Gewain very much to become involved in such a violent struggle. “If Hellsword desires to keep the peace in the city then Redhand loves inciting mayhem at every opportunity. It gives him more opportunities to indulge himself.”
“I see,” Regina said. “I’m not sure which is worse.”
“Both are equally vile,” Ketra said. “My brother would rather die than become one of the Anessian Empire’s puppets. It’s possible he was betrayed to the empire. Someone had to have let them know about my flight, too.”
“Hellsword is a good spymaster,” Serah said. “Don’t underestimate him. We should attend this execution either way.”
“And do what?” Rose asked.
“Observe,” Serah said. “Get a measure of our enemy.”
Regina, meanwhile, departed to order the two nearby Imperial soldiers away from the boggan they were abusing. Much to my surprise, she managed to convince them to leave peacefully.
“I hate public executions,” Rose muttered. “Disgusting, barbaric practice. Everyone else in this city seems to love them, no matter the victim.”
“Who are you, anyway?” I asked. “What is your connection to this Army of Free Peasants.”
“I am Rosewood ap Gwynedd,” the man said, taking a deep bow. “I am, with no false modesty, the greatest poet, author, playwright, and writer in the world. It is my words that give voice to the struggles of the common man against tyranny. I helped Gewain write The Rape of Whitehall and adapted it into the stunningly successful play that even now incites the masses against the empire. I’m also responsible for the comedy A Tale of Twin—”
“No modesty at all,” I interrupted.
“He’s actually famous,” Serah said, surprising me as she brought her horse close. “At least, he was when I was still living in Lakeland.”
“That was before I became a writer of propaganda and tragedy,” Rose said. “The arts have not flourished under Empress Morwen. The definition of obscenity has become freakishly broad. It is part of the reason I have become a rebel.”
“Part of the reason?” I asked.
“Love is worth becoming a rebel for,” Rose said, speaking for the first time with conviction. “Something, I suspect, you know about.” There was something about his tone that caused me to think he was hiding something. Then again, he might simply be put off by meeting a man claiming to be the God of Evil.
“I mentioned my profession,” Kana said. “As for my lineage, I am of the Clan Shattershield and won the name Kana in the old ways. My old name, my slave name, does not matter anymore. I have heard much about you, Jacob Riverson, Regina Daelia Whitetremor, and Serah Brightwaters. I hope the tales are all true.”
“Don’t believe what you hear,” I said, sighing. “I find that history is written by people like Rose.”
“Oh no,” Rose said, shaking his head. “I would do a much better job than those fools at Hildenstadt University.”
“A pity,” Kana said, staring at me intently. “Because we need heroes, and that is what the stories I’ve heard say you are.”
“Then they are doubly wrong,” I said, pausing. “There are no heroes here, except maybe Regina.”
Regina glared at me. I wasn’t sure for which part of my statement.
Kana’s doe-eyes didn’t waver in their intensity. “Then I hope you are simply a powerful ally who can help us destroy our enemies.”
“That, I can promise you, is true.”
Ketra looked up at the crowd. “How are we going to get past them?”
“I keep several spare copies of papers on me at all times,” Rose said, pulling out a stack of them from his overlarge shirt.
“Regina and I will be fine,” I said. “I can also cloak anyone else.”
“You should take some anyway,” Rose said. “There’s magic-suppression wards all around the city, and while I doubt they’d affect you much, you never can tell.”
I agreed with our new associate and took a pair. “Let’s go see if Gewain needs rescuing.”
Chapter Nineteen
The Kerifas Forum was built around the thirty-foot-tall wall of the Palace District’s titular Governor’s Palace. The district entrance was barred by a heavy iron portcullis as wooden platforms twenty feet high had been constructed all around it, ladders leading up to them. On the top of these platforms were men carrying crossbows, hundreds of them.
They weren’t the city guard, though, or even Imperial soldiery. No, these individuals were wearing a special uniform of rune-covered chainmail with a tabard bearing the standard of a flaming sword. The Burning Blades were a group I’d researched in my studies of the Nine Usurpers. They were a legion of mercenaries divided into ten maniples of killers. Six thousand men and women total, a thousand of which were wizards. They were nicknamed the Empress’s Rapine.
The stories I’d seen had, at first, seemed like libel and lurid tavern tales but the more I investigated, the more I’d become sickened. I was no stranger to war crimes. Bloodlust, fighting for one’s life, and hatred for one’s enemies could turn even the noblest peasant into a monster. In my darkest hours, I too, had done things I could never take back. But the Burning Blades made business of other men’s shame. They specialized in pacifying rebellions and doing so through applied terror.
The Burning Blades’ presence here made sense, though, as the crowd gathered at the foot of the platforms was not subdued. Contrary to the expectation of Rose that the crowds were here to watch an execution as entertainment, they seemed on the verge of rioting. They were two thousand citizens shouting, yelling, and shoved up against one another. I had seen the makings of uprisings before, usually during a siege or in occupied territory, but rarely in a place that was so heavily garrisoned.
The make-up of the crowd was surprising, too, with not just the very poor present but many members of the merchant class and more than a few of the city guard in uniform. The last look terrified
, as if they suspected this was going to turn ugly soon. I didn’t blame them. If the crowd hadn’t turned violent, it was close to doing so, even with the presence of the Burning Blades. Several in the crowd were already throwing combinations of shit and bottles against the foot of the platforms.
“This is not going to end well,” Rose said. “We shouldn’t be here.”
“Now you object?” Kana asked.
“I reserve the right to change my mind,” Rose said. “Besides, if Gewain is up there—”
“We’ll rescue him,” Regina said.
Rose fell silent.
A swift look at the towers, windows, rooftops, and balconies surrounding the area gave me glimpses of the forces the Burning Blades had in position. They were carefully hidden, albeit only as much as one could do with hundreds of additional troops. As a show of force, they should have been visible, but their camouflage indicated the master of this encounter wanted to keep them in reserve as to surprise his enemies. It meant their commander either expected an attack or intended to assault the crowd himself.
I got a sense of what was really going on when two figures walked up the side of the platforms in front of the crowd. The first of them was a garishly dressed Imperial wearing royal purple, a golden gryphon sigil sewn onto the back of his cloak, and a small golden crown on his head. He was a handsome youth with a short, neatly trimmed goatee, curly golden hair, and boyish features. He also looked sick to his stomach. I took this to be Empress Morwen’s son, Prince Alfreid, and a potential target. It was also possible he was one of the prince’s doubles—more than likely, in fact, given the mood of things.
The second figure was far different, terrifying even. He was over six and a half feet tall with a body of muscle and hideously damaged skin hanging over it. From a distance, it was easy to assume he’d been burned as Serah had said, but my eyesight picked up that the source of his deformities was not fire but something much more common: blade wounds. I could only see his arms and face, but they looked like a patchwork of ten thousand healed-over wounds, which shouldn’t have been possible for a man to survive. It was as if he’d been cut deeply on every part of his body and the healed-over tissue had melded into itself, making him one gigantic pile of scars. Dirty, unkempt stringy black hair fell from half his head and the other side was covered in burns from what appeared to be flaming oil. The front end of his nose was missing, apparently cut off with a blade. His crystal-blue eyes were perfect, though.
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