“What is that the man there is eating?”
“Jacoma willow. It’s a type of plant that has meat on it. We fry it with honey and salt. Very delicious.”
“We’ll have three of those and water please.”
I turned to the girls who were sitting quietly. “What are your names?”
“Chloe,” the golden-haired girl said. “And this is Fayza.”
“Where are you from?”
“We were taken from Balor Gesh.” She grew suddenly sad. “My parents thought this would be a better life for me than I would find in Balor Gesh. Fayza just came with me, she didn’t expect to be chosen. But she was.”
“You didn’t have any say in the matter?”
She shook her head. “To be with the emperor abiding and the Lady Margaret is an honor.”
The way she said it, it was as if she were reading it off some parchment someone had shoved in front of her face. Neither of these girls wanted to be here. Like so many others, their parents had accepted the situation, both because the girls would get to live in palaces and have servants themselves, and because the parents would receive handsome prizes in place of dowries as the women would never marry. Essentially, they were selling off their children as good as if they had sold them in the slave markets.
“That man,” Chloe said, “the one that attacked Lady Margaret. Who was he?”
“I don’t know.”
“He looked scary. I don’t want to see him again.”
“I don’t think we will.”
She exhaled. “We’re hiding here, aren’t we?”
“That’s perceptive of you. How did you guess?”
“I’ve hid a lot. I know when someone is hiding. Are we hiding from that man?”
“No, not that man.”
“Then from who?”
“No one need concern yourself with. I think the Lady Margaret cares for both of you and is attempting to protect you.”
“I didn’t know we needed protecting.”
“All of us need protecting.”
A man burst through the doors just then and shouted, “The prince is here!”
The patrons rose, as did the tavern workers, and went outside. I didn’t move and the girls sat looking at me.
“It’s the prince, isn’t it?” Chloe said. “We’re hiding from the prince.”
I watched her a moment and then rose and went back to the kitchen. Our meals were almost ready and I finished frying them and then brought them out to the girls. They were famished and began eating immediately and, almost as if they had never asked about why their lives were in danger, began giggling and laughing.
I went out to the front door and peeked through. I could see a royal procession passing. Scores of Royal Guards were there, perhaps sixty or seventy in all, every one of them hardened men who would slaughter their own children if the prince or emperor demanded it of them. Why would he need so many?
As I turned and went back inside I saw a door in the back through the kitchen. “Wait for me here, don’t go outside.”
I went out into the sunlight and mixed in with the crowd who were cheering and waving colored scarves. As the procession continued, with steeds looking regal and armored and the massive dogs the emperor had allegedly bred himself, complete with armor and filed-down teeth, I saw a sight that made my heart drop.
Waving from inside a golden carriage was a man of perfect proportions. He had a beauty that struck one almost immediately, and a smile that belied what was underneath.
Emperor abiding. Prince. Murderer.
I see you now. This time, you will not escape me.
2
It was a long time later that Lady Margaret came to the tavern. At that point we had eaten and drunk our fill long ago and so we went out back and sat near the pier, watching the waves lap against the floating ground. The water was a crystal blue and darker farther out. The gulls cawed incessantly as they dipped for fish.
The two girls removed their sandals and put their feet in the water. They were speaking to me I think, but I could not hear them. The whole world had disappeared to me. I was numb and couldn’t feel anything no matter how hard I strained. I saw only the face of a prince waving as he rode past. And I saw him years ago when he walked out of my parents’ house covered in my mother’s and sister’s blood. He grinned at me then and said, “Now if I’d have known you were here, I would have had you join the fun. But I’m quite tired now. The gods have smiled on you today, little one.”
My father already lay dying on the ground. I went to him. There was so much blood pouring out of him. I put my fingers over the wounds on his neck but I couldn’t stop it. I took his head and tried to push it back onto his body, my child mind thinking that’s all it would take for him to come back to me. The blood just flowed and flowed … I couldn’t …
“Don’t you think so?”
I came around and noticed my surroundings and the two girls seated next to me. I turned to Chloe who had asked me something. “Pardon?”
“I said it’s very beautiful here and I hope we never leave. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to.”
“Yes, yes, it’s lovely here. But I don’t think we’re staying long.” I ran my hand through her hair. “Stay here. I’m going to walk up the beach a moment.”
The sand was fine and warm underneath my feet and I removed my sandals and let them swing between my fingers. I watched the streets and saw small patches of crowds, but no royal procession. My greatest fear was that the prince had left, that Lady Margaret had gotten her way with hiding us. I could not let that happen.
I walked to the street then and watched the people. They were discussing the prince’s visit. They still called him the prince though each town had received an official decree when the emperor had made the declaration of imperium, in which it also stated the prince would henceforth be called the Emperor Abiding. But this town didn’t seem to care much what happened at some faraway capital.
I melded into a crowd of women and followed them, closely enough that others thought I was with them.
“The prince is so handsome,” one said.
“I wish he would come out of his carriage. I’ve heard he’s as tall as a bear and just as muscular.”
“I heard he’s looking for a wife and that’s what this entire traveling from town to town is.”
Their banter made a feeling of nausea overtake me but I kept my eyes forward. Several men passed by and would turn to look at me but that was something I was accustomed to. Some of the women thought they were looking at them and their faces would light up with joy, but then they would attack the man as some sort of pervert when he was out of earshot.
“There, he’s staying there,” one of them said.
Opulent for this little town, the inn was made of a pink stone with white trim. Even now men were busy painting it as the harsh ocean winds no doubt tore away at it constantly. I could see the horses and carriages and the groups of royal guards now. They were huddled together like vultures, eyeing the women.
Across from the inn was a mercantile store and I went inside. Tables and chairs were there as they served refreshments and I asked for an ale as I kept my eyes out the windows on the guards. The ale came and I took one sip and that was all. My eyes did not leave the windows that overlooked the inn.
Before daylight extinguished like a flame going out, Lucius Kandarian stepped outside of the inn. He was freshly washed, his hair was still wet, and he wore the most illustrious red and gold robes, two blades of pearls strapped to his side. He was giving orders to his guards and I stood and attempted to walk to the door when I felt a hand on my wrist. I looked back to see a drunken man with a smile on his face.
“A whore of the prince,” he said. “I can always tell. But before you give that beautiful womanhood to the prince, I think you should come on upstairs with me and my mates over there. We’ll teach you a few things you can show the prince about how to pleasure a man’s cock.”
A serving wench said, “
Leave her be, Donelus.”
“Mind your own business, wench.”
“You should listen to the woman.”
He pulled me in close enough that I could smell his warm, foul-smelling breath. “If you don’t want to rent yourself out, maybe we’ll just take what we want.”
I leaned close to him and could see the hairs stand up on the back of his neck as I whispered in his ear, “Careful who you touch.”
I jabbed two fingers into his wrist at the tendons and then twisted his arm around, kneed it at the elbow, and then bent it the other way as I bashed my fist into his shoulder joint, dislocating it. He gasped from pain and I sat him down at the table and casually walked out. It had happened quickly enough that the rest of his mates didn’t have time to react. When they rose and realized what had happened, I was already across the street to the prince.
He was turned around and speaking to one of his guards when I approached. I stood quietly and let the scent of berry blossoms I had bathed my hair with drift on the breeze. He turned slowly, and as he saw me a smile came over his lips.
“And who are you?” he asked.
“My name is Aysta, M’lord. I am a servant of the Lady Margaret. I simply wanted to meet you.”
“Well, you’ve met me. Was it everything that you’d hoped?”
I grinned. “And so much more, M’lord.”
He snorted. “And what does that old prude have you doing for her exactly?”
“The Lady has me tending to her needs, whatever they may be. I am good at … tending to the needs of others.”
“Really?”
“My Prince …” one of the guards said.
Kandarian hesitated a moment, not wanting to take his eyes off of me, and then turned “What is it?”
“The ships are not ready and the rats are telling us it will be another two days.”
He turned back to me. “Well, it appears I am stranded here for two days. Whatever shall I do to pass the time?”
“I’m sure we can find something amusing, M’lord.”
“I’m sure we can.”
“Aysta!” I turned to see the Lady Margaret storming toward us. “You disobeyed my command? And here you’ve just joined my service. Away with you and back to the duties I assigned you.”
“Nonsense,” Kandarian said, taking my arm gently in his, “we were just talking.”
“She’s not for you, My Prince. I need her.”
“What you need is to learn your place.”
She bowed her head and I saw something I hadn’t seen in the Lady Margaret, even when the assassin was on top of her: fear.
“Forgive me, My Prince. She is a skilled cook and seamstress. I wanted her for my maidens at the emperor’s palace.”
“You can find any old hag to be a seamstress. I think I’ll be taking this one with me. What do you say, Aysta? Do you wish to come along and serve your prince as his personal assistant?”
“Whatever you desire, M’lord.”
“Yes, I think that will do quite nicely. Lady Margaret, please take my new assistant to gather her things and bring her back here. She will be staying as my guest at the inn.”
“Of course, My Prince.”
As we walked away, the Lady Margaret put her arm around mine as if we were the closest of friends and said sternly but quietly, “Do you know what you’ve just done? What you’ve just condemned yourself to? I gave you those commands for a reason.”
“I … forgive me, Lady. I was just being friendly.”
She shook her head. “Your friendliness has just doomed you, girl. I hope it was worth it.”
EXCERPT FROM NECROMANCIA: A HANDBOOK FOR MAGES
The Deaths and Dark Times of Mages and Witches
Claudius began experimenting with the blood of corpses. He would sneak to a cemetery at night and dig up a corpse with the help of hired hands and steal what blood he could. But he found the same results as he had with the blood of animals: nothing.
He sat in a chair in his cellar staring at his experiment chamber. The moonlight was coming through the window and it held an icy glow as he considered what to do. What he was considering could never be undone. It would seal his fate, and if Tamor was correct, the fate of all mages and witches. Was it really worth it? Could blood magik really be so powerful?
He decided that the worst thing for him was the not knowing. He was advanced in age at this point, well over a hundred, and his time was limited. What if blood magik could grant him youth? What if it could grant him immortality? The reward was simply too great. Almost any risk would have justified his actions.
That night, he stole a young boy from his bed. He was a poor boy from a family of twelve and Claudius thought that perhaps the family would not miss him entirely considering eleven other children filled the home.
He brought the boy to his experiment chamber, bound and gagged, and held a knife above his chest. It was an agonizing decision for him and he did not kill the boy that night. He returned the next night and found he couldn’t do it then either. So he slept the entire day and when he awoke his mind had been made up. A dream had told him what to do, though he made no mention of its contents in his writings.
That night, he stabbed the boy through the heart and collected the blood in a cauldron. He had enough for experiment for exactly three nights. Hardly enough, by his logic, for even one decent experiment. When the blood of the boy was used, he went out and stole a young girl.
This pattern continued until an elderly Claudius was found out by the local authorities when the mother of a missing child saw his face one night in her window. They stormed his home and discovered a house of terror unlike any written about in history.
His seats and couches were made of the skin of children and their teeth he had sharpened and used as writing instruments when dipped in ink. Their hair he stuffed into his pillows and their flesh ... he had eaten.
When the house was fully explored, they discovered the remains of at least four hundred and seventy children. Taken from throughout the Bactrian kingdom. Claudius was burnt at the stake.
But the outrage and pain was so deep that it did not end with Claudius. The Mages Guild was closed and violence against mages began to grow. It escalated until one mage, a kindly old man by the name of Ienus Wetch, was murdered in the streets and the perpetrators let free.
But this was not the worst of it.
SLESH OF ULRIK
The bastard orcs had been right. I found a royal guard on the road between Balor Gesh and Yul. He was delivering some message or other back to the emperor and I ripped him off his horse and slammed him to the ground hard enough that he lost his breath. He flipped over and spun and kicked me in the face as he whipped out his sword.
“Do you know who I am!” he shouted.
“A dead man.”
He swung at me with his blade and then stepped to the side as I pulled out my axe and tried to bash in his face. I swung for his legs and he spun away, lifting his feet just a hair’s-breadth above the blade. His sword swung down at my head and I blocked with the axe handle and twisted behind him and kicked into his back, sending him onto this face. I jumped and spun and came down with all the strength I had.
He rolled and the axe embedded itself into the ground as he came up with the hilt of the sword and broke my nose before kicking me with both feet. I lay on my back and waited for him to rush me. He jumped and came down with both hands on the hilt, aiming straight for my heart. I twisted at the last moment so that the blade tore into my clothing but passed by my flesh and into the ground. I grabbed his hilt and spun his own sword back into him; it sliced his throat and he began to gurgle as blood rushed out of him.
I rolled him around on to his back and straddled him. I placed my hand over the wound. “You will bleed out soon. I can save you if you tell me what I want.”
His eyes appeared like a deer’s that had just been arrowed through the heart; he was in utter shock that someone would dare hurt him. The emperor’s arrogance seem
ed to rub off on his servants.
“You’re dying,” I said. “I can save you. Tell me what I want.” I lifted my hands off of him and the blood flowed like a river. He knew it as his clothes began to soak. I placed my hands over the wound again. “Where is Kandarian?”
“The emperor?” he gurgled.
“No, his bastard of a rapist son.”
“I don’t know.”
I reached down and put two fingers into the wound in his throat. He tried to push my arm away and I pinned both his arms down with my knees. I ran up and down the wound and tugged on the flesh and made it wider with a tear on both ends. He was screaming and foaming at the mouth. I pushed down on the wound again, slowing the blood loss.
“Where?”
“Yul.”
“Why?”
“He’s going to sail the Savage Sea.”
“For what reason?”
“I don’t know. I swear to you, I don’t know.”
“I believe you.” I ripped off a bit of cloth from his shirt and wrapped it around his throat tightly. I helped him to his feet and over to his horse. “There’s a town just up the road. They have an apothecary.”
I mounted my horse and saw he couldn’t get up. I rode over and lifted him by the back of his neck and dragged him up onto the beast’s back before riding off toward the coast and the city of Yul.
The ride was smooth and quiet for the most part. The emperor’s scouts and troops didn’t come this far for training. There was, as far as they knew, nothing to fear from the sea, so they never trained for it. The greatest threat to the Empire were mountain people known as the Rezwa. They would attack sporadically but only if they had superior numbers. The imperial troops trained for urban and mountain fighting to defeat the Rezwa and left the sea to the sailors.
I didn’t stop that night but rode through. I kept an even pace so my horse wouldn’t exert herself too much, only pausing to let her drink from a stream. I dismounted and took off my boots. The water was like ice and the rocks were slick and slimy. I slipped several times but the horse kept her footing as we crossed.
Empire of War - An Epic Fantasy (The Empire of War Trilogy Book 1) Page 9
