by Rosie Scott
“It's dancing,” I mused, still watching the crustacean.
“At least somebody is,” Nyx replied, sitting up to watch the little animal. “I'm not the only one around here who likes to party.”
Jakan chuckled tiredly, pulling himself up to watch the creature with us. “If I'm not mistaken, I think that means it wants to mate.”
“You and me both, brother,” Nyx said, before pulling herself out of her bedroll to stand. Though the crab watched her from its distance, it didn't scurry away, and it kept up its dance. Nyx held both arms up, before mimicking the crustacean. Jakan and I burst into laughter.
“Nyx...” Cerin trailed off, his voice thick with amusement. “No.”
“I think we're bonding,” she replied, still dancing.
Jakan was overtaken with giggles and stood up from Anto's side before joining in. “Orgy time!” He exclaimed, to which Anto chuckled roughly.
I watched my friends with overwhelming amusement before I slowly started to stand.
“Don't give into this insanity,” Cerin protested.
But I did. I started dancing with my other two friends because I was happy. Happy to be in Eteri, happy to be with the people I loved, and happy to have accomplished so much in the past few years. For a few moments, I could forget about war, and loss, and the dangers we would undoubtedly encounter. I could forget about it all and just dance.
“Is this normal?” Azazel finally asked, when the three of us had been mimicking the crab for a few minutes as we laughed. Even though the archer was new to most things, it seemed he knew we were just being silly since he appeared entertained.
“No, Azazel,” Cerin replied. “It's not normal, and I think the rest of us need to slowly back away while they're not watching.”
I snorted a laugh before I finally stopped and turned back to him. “You wouldn't leave me here.”
“No, I wouldn't,” Cerin agreed, a charming smile brightening his handsome face. “Because you have all the gold, and I'm poor.”
As I chuckled, Nyx said, “Admit it, skelly lover, Kai looked pretty cute doing that mating dance. Maybe it was a hint! Instead of leaving here at all, you should be figuring out how to set up that tent of yours to sneak her into it.”
“She looks good no matter what she does,” Cerin retorted. “And who needs a tent? Do Kai and I really need to teach you about the wonders of having sex outside of a bed?”
Nyx huffed. “You guys have been together for almost three years. It's a wonder it still happens at all.”
“Ha! Three years is nothing!” Jakan piped up. “Try...” he trailed off, looking back to his lover.
“Thirteen years this upcoming Red Moon,” Anto reminded him.
“Yeah. That,” Jakan said, grinning at Nyx. “That forge in Thanati got a lot of unintended use.”
“Jakan,” Anto protested, though he laughed.
“Is that why the door of the smithy was always locked?” Azazel questioned with a smile.
For breakfast that morning, Cerin fished for us. In our upcoming southward trek to Mistral, we would be walking inland away from the ocean, so it was the last time he could for a while. I was happy we had Azazel because for all future meals we would be relying on his bow to feed us from the wildlife of the plains.
We had no map of Eteri yet, so we counted on Jakan to lead us to Mistral based on his knowledge of the landscape alone. Like us, he had never been there. When Jakan was a young boy, he had grown up in Welkin, which he told us was a village in the highlands of northeastern Eteri. When his parents had decided to move across the seas to Nahara, they had merely traveled to the port city of Makani directly south where they'd boarded a ship. Though Jakan claimed he could see the village of Reva from Welkin given that its populace was mostly giants, he'd never been there. In a way, then, everything we saw in Eteri was new to us all.
The grasslands of Eteri were gorgeous and reminiscent of those in Sera, though these stretched far in every direction, uninhibited by forests. Long green grasses swayed in the constant breeze, rippling over the landscape like the waves of an ocean as if the plants themselves were bowing to the majestic beauty of the plains. It was so open and airy here; the horizon was clear of obstruction save for the rising Orna Cliffs to the west. Over the weeks of travel, we found that the cliffs were tall and sharpest nearest the ocean, before rolling inland and smoothing into the plains. It made most of Eteri feel like a cup, with the lowest points at its center, and the highlands acting much like a rim around the land's edges.
Because the land was so open here and the skies were vast, the sun's light and warmth were in constant supply. The heat wasn't severe, for the breezes of the land kept stealing it away from us. The temperature of Eteri was continually changing as the sun and the winds switched hands of control. It could be cool like the depths of Red Moon in one moment, and as warm as the peak of New Moon the next. The bright sunlight, however, was hard on the two Alderi within our group. In particular, Azazel's eyes were sensitive to the light because his sight was better than even most others of his race. Cerin lent the archer the hood he usually kept tucked beneath his armor, and Azazel spent most of his time hiding his eyes in the shadows of its protective cloth. I promised Azazel I would give him the money to buy his own clothing once we arrived in Mistral because he had no gold to his name.
On the 61st of New Moon and half a moon of travel from when we entered Eteri, we finally reached the edges of the Orna Cliffs and walked along their outline to curl around to Ternion Trail. We had been traveling for the better part of a full day when we finally came to the road. From where we approached it in the north, the grasses were tall enough to sway before the trail, blocking the actual path from our view. We only knew it was there because there was a considerable army traversing it.
My friends and I slowed our pace, watching the army move as a collective mass toward us. There were thousands of soldiers here, most of them clad in yellow and black, much like the colors of the Eteri warships I'd seen in Al Nazir's harbor two years ago. These were not the small armies that Nahara and Sera had been playing with when it came to the Battle of the Dead, nor were they even as small as the few thousand living soldiers we'd had with us in Quellden. There were probably ten thousand soldiers here.
An ache of trepidation grew in my stomach as the army came within a detailed view of us. On the one hand, I was looking to build an alliance with Eteri, so the knowledge that they had such vast armies at their disposal was welcoming. On the other hand, however, I knew that there was no reason Eteri would be moving its troops around its land unless they needed to place them strategically to hold off a threat.
“Jakan...” I murmured, as we finally reached the dirt path of the Ternion Trail, which would lead us further south to Mistral.
“Yeah?” The thief replied, his eyes on those approaching.
“You once told me in Nahara that your people despise me,” I said, my eyes catching on a Vhiri woman at the front of the army with two glimmering axes at her belt. “Do you think they would mean me harm on sight?”
“Not unless they were given a reason to hurt you,” Jakan replied, which did little to make me feel better.
My friends and I did not move as the army finally neared us, the land trembling beneath our feet. The woman at the front of the group held a hand up in the air to stop the men and women behind her and keep them quiet. Her eyes scanned the others behind me as if taking note of how many there were and their races, and then they moved to mine and settled with hesitance and recognition. She knew who I was with a simple glance.
This general was Vhiri, of course, with bronzed skin that stretched over practical muscles. The two axes at her belt were scratched and chipped with recent use. She did not appear to be strong enough to wield them both at once, though the muscles of elves were often deceptive. She had long, dark brown hair which would have reached the middle of her back if it hadn't been braided and pulled back from her face. She wore a number of gold and copper rings on her
fingers, so I figured she knew magic in addition to melee. One golden nose ring looped out of her left nostril, and another ring looped out from her right eyebrow. Her eyes were a sharp green, reminding me much of Terran's.
“What is your business here?” She questioned. Her voice was strong, sharp, and intimidating, and she spoke with bluntness and clarity. I liked that in a person, so I hoped more than anything else that she would be friendly with me.
“I have a feeling you already know, given the army which follows you,” I replied, my eyes looking at the others behind her. Most of the army was equipped with armor and jewelry, giving away that they were probably mages. Out of the others, there were melee units and ranged. I did not see any mounted units.
“You are two years late, then,” the woman replied, her eyes unblinking on my own. “Chairel has been under the impression you have been here since 419.”
I nodded. If our initial trip to Eteri from Killick had gone well, we would have been. “We were sidetracked.” I glanced back to the army behind her. “Chairel has declared war on you?”
“Yes,” she admitted, though her eyebrows dipped toward the center of her face in thought. “I'm sure you'll understand if I stop our talk of politics there. Some topics are best kept to privacy.”
I nodded. “I understand completely. May I know your name?”
“I am Kirek Sjors, the third Sentinel.” She stretched her right hand toward me, and I took it.
“I am Kai Sera, and these are my Seran Renegades.” I nodded toward my friends.
Kirek took the time to greet and shake hands with everyone, which I admired. She then turned again to me. “You are headed to Mistral, I am assuming?”
“We are,” I admitted.
She nodded. “Then come, walk with us. We will go together if you afford me answers to questions of your intentions.”
I fell into place beside her, as my friends grouped beside and behind me. With a swoop of her hand in the air, Kirek directed her army to follow. She kept her eyes ahead as we spoke.
“Why have you come to request our aid?” Kirek asked first. “You know our countries have always been at war. What makes you think we would aid a Seran?”
“Because my Seran Renegades and I are just that: renegades. We seek to change Chairel, including the things that your country hates.”
“Sirius's diplomats made it sound as if you were seeking shelter from arrest,” Kirek replied. “Because of your criminal activities in Sera, which I am assuming involved the man standing beside you, given he has Icilic blood.” She glanced over to Cerin as if she'd forgotten his name.
“I am Cerin,” he reminded her.
“I thought you wished to wait to speak of politics,” I mused.
“You will answer my questions on the field, Kai Sera, or I will not take you to the queen at all. You are in my country, and I am the one with an army.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “I meant no offense.”
“I took no offense. Are you seeking shelter with us or not?”
“Of course not,” I replied. “I seek to fight, not hide. Surely you have heard of the Battle of the Dead and my negotiations with Nahara?”
“Yes, but the Naharans are religious fools,” Kirek replied, before glancing nervously back to the army behind her.
“If fools may emerge victorious in a battle with the strongest country in the world, sure,” I retorted.
“The Naharans had necromancy on their side. Their win was all but assured,” Kirek replied.
“How do you think they learned of necromancy?” I asked her rhetorically.
“I understand the benefits you offered them,” Kirek assured me. “But their decision to ally with you was brash.”
“It doesn't really matter that their decision was brash because they took their first stand against Chairel and their army grows stronger than ever before.”
“Their army may grow stronger, but Chairel's remains the best, and Nahara is isolated,” Kirek argued. “Hammerton is preparing their army as we speak to join Chairel to march on T'ahal.”
An ache grasped onto my stomach. “How do you know this?”
“Because we keep a close eye on Hammerton,” Kirek replied. “Our queen looks to expand our territory, and when Hammerton's armies begin to move west, they will leave their defenses vulnerable closest to us in the east.”
A memory of Vallen came to mind, then, when we had been drinking at the tavern in Hazarmaveth. He'd claimed that Hammerton had tried to get the giants of Eteri to rebel against the Vhiri so the dwarves could absorb the land. It seemed that Hammerton and Eteri weren't so different after all.
“Hammerton will expect your attack nonetheless,” I told Kirek. “Your countries have been fighting for as long as there has been history. They think like you do here, and will anticipate that you will want to expand.”
“Yes, of course,” she replied. “That's why Chairel is hoping to distract us by keeping our navies busy in the east. We have fended off multiple attacks from Narangar.”
I nodded, my mind swarming with new information. “And this is all over me.”
“Not completely,” Kirek argued. “You were only a simple criminal when you fled Sera four years ago. There would have been no reason to get anyone else involved. It was your decisions in Nahara which have led to this.” She looked over at me from the side. “Surely, you understand that the political goals you claim to have threaten the very way this world works. No necromancer in Arrayis's history has held the amount of political power you do right now. Chairel knows that if they let this get out of hand, life as we know it is at risk.”
“You speak as if necromancy is a scourge,” I said hesitantly.
“Because it is if you do not regulate it. Death magic is the most powerful element of them all, Kai, and you have released its power into the masses of Nahara. There is no turning back.” Kirek's green eyes were unyielding on the horizon.
“I have heard that your people abhor me because I wielded death in a country that refused to teach it,” I told her. “That would indicate you have necromancers here in Eteri.”
“We do, and it has gotten out of hand before,” Kirek replied. “That is why we heavily regulate it. Necromancers have the highest risk of becoming too powerful, and lust for power is the most dangerous drug of all. You, Kai, are a necromancer, and here you are, seeking power.”
“It was not necromancy that instilled that lust within me,” I retorted.
“No, but it is necromancy which will keep it there. Here in Eteri, we do not let necromancers hold political power. It is too dangerous.” Kirek glanced over at me knowingly. “Most queens and kings keep their power for many years if they are elven. If they were also a necromancer, they could leech the lives from person after person ad nauseam and seek immortality, thus keeping their power for as long as they wished to hold it.”
“There is no such thing as immortality,” I argued. “Valerius the Undying was rumored to be immortal, and his corpse would beg to differ.”
“Valerius was as immortal as any man has ever become,” Kirek replied. “He was human, Kai, and he was nearly five hundred years old when Chairel's armies cornered him in that tower and killed him. He lived many times longer than he should have.”
“He still died.”
“Yes, because his body was burnt to a crisp until there was little of it left. Do you know how hard he became to kill?” She glanced over at me as if waiting for a reply.
“He was hard to kill because he stayed in that tower, surrounded by thousands of skeletons.”
“No, he was hard to kill because his body was overwhelmed with power. He'd leeched from thousands upon thousands of people over the years. Each one gives you excess power and strength for far longer than the leeching rages last. Valerius should have died many times before he was burnt alive whether by blade or by bow, but no matter how severe his injuries, he did not die.” Kirek watched me from the corner of her eye. “Have you ever been severely hurt while under t
he power of one of these leeching rages, and found that your body lived on even though you should have succumbed to your injuries?”
I thought back to my battle with Malgor in T'ahal. I knew now that my god's blood did not make me physically stronger than the other races, so I'd since decided it was the leeching high which had given me such power. The answer to Kirek's question, then, was a simple one.
“No,” I lied, self-reflective. I felt Cerin's eyes watching me since he knew I wasn't being completely honest. But I didn't have to be. I could tell that Kirek was holding things back from me about the politics of her country, so I did not have to be entirely forthcoming about everything, myself. Besides, I needed Eteri as an ally. I did not want to give them any fuel to be against my cause.
“Consider yourself lucky, then,” Kirek finally said. “I can only hope that you use necromancy carefully. You cannot expect to wield such power without consequence.”
“Do you think I could have gotten this far by being daft?” I asked her.
“No, but you have not gotten far at all, as far as I'm concerned. You have simply negotiated a deal with the weak Naharans, and then you were lost on your way to us.”
“I assume you did not hear of my alliance with the underground, then,” I mused.
“An...alliance?” Kirek glanced over at me again. “The underground does not deal in alliances.”
“Now they do,” I informed her. “While Eteri has been kept in the dark, my Renegades and a good friend of mine built up an army in the wildlands and took the underground over. I am now allied with the Naharans, the underground, and the wildlands. You said Nahara is isolated, but it is not, for the underground was sending requests for diplomacy when we left there last year. If anyone is isolated on Arrayis, Kirek, it is Eteri.”
