“Of course, Highness. And what of your heir?”
“I have dozens of bastard sons, I’m sure. Find one of them and I’ll marry their mother to make it legitimate.”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way, Highness. They must be born during the marriage.”
I turned to him and gazed into his eyes. He stepped backward, his mouth dry and his eyes wide. “I am the emperor. It works how I wish it to work. Do not forget that, Ial, or you may not be as useful to me as I believe you to be.”
“Of course, Highness. I am your loyal servant until death, you know that. I will make the arrangements right away. Is there one son you prefer to any other?”
I looked into a mirror, adjusting the chest guard. “None that are lame and none that are weak. There was a young man … an archer, I had heard. One of the best in the Empire allegedly. And his mother was not entirely intolerable. Find him.”
“Of course, Highness.”
I watched him walk out and then I followed far enough behind that I would not have to speak to him any longer. It was a shame about Lucius. He was a good heir, despite his … flaws. The amount of training and strategy and battle tactics that went into that boy … to think that it was all wasted. Such a shame.
I walked to a window overlooking Zeries, a city so vast that it stretched from mountain to mountain. The sun was igniting it a brilliant orange and I watched as laborers came from their homes to go about their day. Such little lives they lived and yet they thought themselves the center of the world. If you were the center of the world, then all it would take to destroy the entire world is the swipe of one blade against your throat. Men could truly be world destroyers and yet they scarcely recognized it.
“Highness,” Lady Margaret said as she came into the room behind me. “I have heard the news. I am so sorry.”
“Don’t be. It is a setback, but nothing to be distraught over, my dear. People live and they die. Such is the way of things. If you begin expecting it not to be so you will be sorely disappointed.”
“What will you do now?”
“I will select another heir and move on. It is such a shame, however, that Lucius didn’t survive. His skill in war was admirable. He could have led my armies when the time came.”
She put her hands around me and I smelt the sweet scent of her hair as her head rested on my shoulders. “Any son of yours can lead an army, Highness.”
I sighed. “It does not matter, I suppose. Empires built on the conquering of lesser nations rarely last longer than their founders. Perhaps the death of the Empire will coincide with my own.”
“Do not say such things,” she said, kissing my neck. “Your empire will last a thousand years. Children will look up to statues of you and their grandparents will pass down stories of your bravery.”
“Bravery? Really? I hardly consider conquering poorly-armed peasants brave. I’m afraid the world is filled with cowards. There is no place for men like me anymore.”
She turned me around. “There is a place for you in my bed.”
The Lady led me by the hand, and I followed.
CHLOE
Slesh carried Aysta during the day, and at night he made a bed for her near a fire. The jungle was the most frightening place I had ever known. It was frightening enough that I couldn’t notice its beauty for very long without shivering.
Aysta was now near death. She would lay on the ground and I would hear words escape her lips but none of them made any sense. I wetted some leaves and applied it to her forehead to cool her and she roused and looked at me.
“Chloe….”
“I’m here.”
“I’m slowing you down. Leave me, please.”
“Nonsense. I’d no sooner leave you than my own mother. You saved my life once….” I looked up to Slesh, recognition pounding in my head. “That’s where I know you from. You tried to kill the Lady Margaret.”
He smiled and said, “If I wanted her dead she would be. I was not after her, or you, that night.” He looked away. “It’s not far now.”
We continued through the jungle. It was amazing that Slesh never tired. He was a peculiar man with an odd strength about him that his body and face didn’t display. At night, I could hear him talking to himself; he would sometimes burst out laughing at nothing in particular. And he never seemed to sleep.
Soon the jungle opened to us and we were in a wide clearing. The sun was hot above us and as we overcame a small hill I saw a hut far off in the distance. Nothing else was around it other than a stream, and it was built away from the trees. As we got nearer I could see that flowers and grass around it were dead.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“It’s where she can be healed.”
We got near the hut and I felt excitement tingle my belly. I waited until Slesh opened the door and went inside before following him.
The interior was decorated well and food was on the table. I was so hungry I ran to it and began to eat. Slesh laid Aysta down on a bed of furs and walked to the table and took an apple.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, with his mouth full.
I paid no attention as I ate sweet breads and fruit and drank good apple wine out of large cups. Then I felt a cold wind and had the feeling someone was standing behind me. I looked back.
The woman was dark skinned and beautiful. I stood and faced her.
“Such a brave little doe,” she said, “ready to defend your master.”
“She’s not my master, she’s my friend.”
“You come into my home, eat my food, use my bed, and you are the one being rude to me, little doe?”
“I didn’t know we were being rude.”
“I did,” Slesh said, placing the blade of his sword against her throat.
“Ah, the old warrior returns,” she said. “And why have you come now? Still searching for something you cannot find?”
“I was looking for you. I think I’ve found it.”
“Have you?” another voice said. We looked over and it was the woman. When we looked back she was gone from where she had been and Slesh was holding nothing.
Slesh lowered his sword. “I need for you to heal this woman.”
“And why, warrior, would I wish to do that? Healing takes life energy from the healer. You ask something grand from me and yet you’ve treated me with nothing but hostility and disrespect.”
“You’re a witch. I’m sure disrespect isn’t uncommon for you.”
She grinned. “Why do you want her healed?”
Slesh looked to her. “It’s my fault she’s hurt.”
“Your fault? Why?”
“Because I didn’t get done what I needed to get done.”
“I see your heart, warrior. You care for her. It is all right, I think, to admit such for a man.”
“Can you heal her or not?”
The witch walked to Aysta and ran her hand over her face and rested it on her heart. She closed her eyes a moment and breathed deeply.
“She is near the veil. Passing through will not be long now.”
“Will you heal her?”
“I wish for something in exchange,” she said.
“What?”
“The little one,” she said, as she ran her hand through my hair.
“You want Chloe?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“That is not your concern. That is the bargain. This woman’s life for the little one’s.”
“No. Ask for something else.”
“You have nothing else to give.”
“You can’t have her.”
“Then I’m afraid your young woman cannot be healed.”
“You will die with her.”
She laughed. “You cannot harm me.”
Slesh grinned. “I don’t need to harm you.”
They were both still a moment before Slesh leapt behind a cupboard. The witch screamed, “No!” as Slesh pulled out a cat and held it high with one hand. He lifted h
is sword with the other and cut the cat across the belly. The witch groaned and held her stomach, blood dribbling down over her fingers.
“Shall we see what he ate this morning?” Slesh said, putting the tip of the blade against the cat’s belly.
The witch looked at him in a way that terrified me to my bones, but I kept quiet.
“I will heal her,” she hissed. “And you will leave and never return.”
“Deal.”
The witch glanced at me before turning to Aysta and touching her again. “I need something living. Something large. A life for a life.”
“I’ll get you something.”
He motioned for me to come near and plopped the cat into my arms and gave me one of his swords.
“If she tries to overtake you, or if she leaves Aysta’s side, stick this blade through the animal.”
I held the blade high as I watched, shocked, then Slesh left the hut and I was alone with the witch. She didn’t turn around and her eyes were closed when she said, “I see darkness in you.”
I lowered the sword. “There’s not darkness in me. You know that.”
“There is darkness in all of us, but yours is perhaps a little stronger. As strong as the warrior’s. His darkness will devour him slowly, but yours is uncontrollable. It cannot be tamed and used like his.” She turned and looked at me, her eyes glowing red. “But I can show you how to use it.”
“I don’t need to learn anything else.”
She laughed. “Where do you think all the knowledge of the world comes from? Men care about what is between a woman’s legs and the power that gets them that, nothing more. Do you truly believe they compile knowledge? Preserve it for future generations? They care nothing for it, young doe. I am the compiler of knowledge. I am the one that has kept the ideas of men alive through millennia.”
“I thought witches were all dead. King Damarian wiped them out hundreds of years ago.”
“It’s true that my kind are limited, but we are not dead. Not yet. Some survived and passed that knowledge down.”
“How many are there?”
“I am the second to last. You know this.”
“Why are you still in the Darklands?”
“Men attack what they don’t understand and they would not tolerate me.” She came over and leaned down in front of me. “It is bad enough to have a powerful woman in their eyes, but to have a woman that has power they do not understand is something that terrifies them. You will have to learn this if you wish to learn the laws of forests.”
“You mean become a witch? You think I want to become a witch?”
“Want has nothing to do with it, child.” She rose. “I will return to my guest, but you and I will speak later … when your mind has seen things a bit more clearly.”
She went back over to Aysta and sat down cross-legged and began a chant.
SLESH OF ULRIK
I left the witch’s hut and ran into the forest. The thought of leaving a young girl and Aysta with her filled me with revulsion, but I think the witch could see inside me. I think she could see that if she hurt them I would stop at nothing until I ripped her spine out through her throat.
The jungle was dense and loud and it was hard to navigate. I needed something large—the larger the better—the more life the better. A panther might suffice, so I stopped and listened for its growls, but heard nothing. Hogs might suffice, perhaps, if I could capture two of them. A man, of course, would do best.
As I walked along through the jungle, cutting through vines as thick as my arm, I heard something on a path nearby. I ducked low and waited. Voices, but not men. Farther down the path I could see the furred, grotesque bodies of orcs—but not orcs; they walked like men. These were dumber than those in the Empire, but somehow more human.
Three of them were traversing the path; a fourth lagged behind. I was crouched low enough that they couldn’t see me, and slowly I made my way to the edge of the path. The three walked by me; they stunk so badly that it burned my nostrils, a terrible mix of wet fur and feces.
The fourth came up slowly behind them, the runt. My guts felt tight; excitement tickled my throat. He got just a little past me and I slipped out of the vegetation and stuck my sword into the front of his throat, severing his tongue and ability to scream. I dragged him into the bushes and began pulling him to the hut.
When I got back, Chloe was sitting in a chair across the room and the witch was sitting on the floor in some sort of trance. The bed was covered with a sheet, with Aysta lying on one side, soaked in sweat, her wound bleeding into the sheet.
“Lay it next to her.”
I pulled the orc in by its arms. It had lost some blood but wasn’t dead. Its legs were kicking and I stomped on its ankles and got them to stop. I lifted it and placed it on the bed next to Aysta and then crouched down and placed my hand on the orc’s throat, making sure it wasn’t about to deliver a bite to her.
The witch rose, but it wasn’t really rising; she somewhat floated to her feet and over to the bed. I gripped my sword tightly with my free hand. Witches couldn’t be trusted. Even when they agreed to help you they were just as likely to kill a person as heal them.
The witch pulled out a blade and I lifted my sword and held it by my side, ensuring that she saw it. She grinned and took the orc’s hand and cut it. Then she did the same to Aysta and pressed the wounds together. Tying their hands together with cloth as blood pooled on the sheets, she poured a liquid over them that began to crackle and smoke.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Shhh,” she said softly.
The witch began speaking. Her voice was hushed and I couldn’t understand the words. But as she spoke, the sizzling on the hands turned to flame and the flame grew tall. The orc was panicking and I slammed my fist into its face.
As the flames grew taller the witch became louder, until she was shouting and the heat from the flame was singeing my hair. Then it burst into a thousand fragments of light and I had to cover my eyes.
When I opened them, the light had faded. Where the orc had been were only bones and crispy burnt flesh. Aysta was still there, her eyes closed but her breathing calmed. Sluggishly, her eyes opened and she looked at the ceiling. The witch helped her off the bed.
“You need to walk, dear. Get the blood flowing through the lungs and heart.”
Walking around the hut a few times, Aysta came to rest in a chair. The wound on her back had closed and only a scar remained, but something else was different. I thought at first it was because she was newly back from death’s grasp, but I got the impression she was looking at me differently.
“Where am I?” Aysta asked.
“You’re safe,” the witch said. “You’re in the Darklands, far from the grasp of men.”
“Who are you?”
“I am your friend, as are these two.”
Aysta looked to me and to Chloe. She made a fist as if she had never experienced the sensation before and then her hand went down to her blade. She ran her fingers along it and seemed surprised when they came back cut.
“What’s the matter with her?” I said.
“You wanted her back from the dead. Well, here she is.”
I walked to Aysta and stood in front of her and her eyes came to mine as if I were a stranger. “We need to leave. You’re not safe here.”
“I don’t think I want to leave yet,” she said. “There’s something that I must do.”
“What?”
“The red mountain. I saw it in my dreams. I saw us there, all three of us. We must travel there.”
“What mountain?”
The witch said, “The mountain she speaks of is a day’s journey to the north.”
“What is it?”
“A red mountain,” the witch said with a clever grin.
I turned back to Aysta, who had already went over to Chloe and was touching her hair and her face. “So beautiful,” she whispered.
It was then I realized what was wrong with her: she was l
ooking at the world for the first time.
2
Aysta left the hut without a word. I went to the table and shoved as much food in my shirt as I could. I looked to the witch, who was wrapping the sheet around what was left of the orc. I didn’t speak to her as I walked out and followed Aysta.
She was walking north through the jungle. I ran to her.
“We need to go south. I can get us back to the Empire.”
“I don’t want to go back to the Empire.”
“Why not?”
“I have to find the red mountain.”
“Why?”
She glanced to me and then forward. “I don’t know.”
“Well, that isn’t a reason to do anything.”
“I have to find it. There’s something there for me.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
I grabbed her arm and stopped her. “We don’t have time to play. We have to get south before we’re too weak to travel.”
“I’m not going back. Please let go of me.”
I held on a moment and then let go. She turned away from me and continued on the path heading north. Chloe looked to me and to her and then ran after her. I looked back to the witch’s hut and the path just behind it going south that would get us back to the Empire. Then I looked again to Aysta. I had done this to her. Yes, she would have died without my bringing her here, but I did it. She was my responsibility.
I turned north and started walking.
As we continued through the jungle, I noticed two things: Aysta wasn’t paying attention to where she was going but she never fell—she lowered her head or raised her feet at just the right moment to avoid vines and stones and branches, but her focus was elsewhere.
The other thing I noticed was that the farther we walked, the quieter the jungle became. At first I thought it was because of our intrusion and the beasts didn’t want to be detected, but soon even the chirp of birds who didn’t care if they were detected or not had quieted. For some reason, the animals were not coming to this section of jungle.
Empire of War - An Epic Fantasy (The Empire of War Trilogy Book 1) Page 16
