The Emperor's Arrow

by Lauren DM Smith

  Evony counted the men a few times, but as she was only able to see part of the hallway, she couldn’t be certain of her count. She thought there were around a dozen men there, but then she also wouldn’t be surprised if there were more within easy call, just in case of this kind of attack. Not that this was going to stop her or her people.

  She waved her people forward, setting them up in two groups, one to each side. She gave everyone the time they needed to get themselves set up, everyone with a bow nocking an arrow and taking careful aim. “Release,” Evony whispered, following her own command. Light twangs sprouted up around her along with the faintest whooshing as the arrows sped almost silently towards their targets.

  Screams cut through the quiet as the arrows found their marks.

  Half the men dropped, arrows protruding from multiple spots as the others hurried forward, swords drawn. Three more fell under the second volley before they figured out enough to back out of view of the archway. Evony led the charge forward, a long knife drawn, her soldiers right behind her.

  She ignored the sound of her mother ordering half their people to prepare another flight of arrows, her focus on the first man she reached. He got his sword up between them, but she was too fast. She darted to the side and ducked under his blow. She grabbed the arm that held his sword and shoved it up as she stabbed him in the side. He cried out, and she twisted so she could finish him with a slash across the throat.

  Evony didn’t watch him drop, turning instead to watch her men finish the last three off. She nodded as she wiped her knife off on the bottom of her chiton and sheathing it. She grabbed an arrow and held it loosely to her bowstring before she met the eyes of one of the men. She jerked her head towards the door that their enemies had been guarding. He nodded and approached cautiously from the side as more of Evony’s people came up to stand around her, arrows nocked and pointed straight at the door.

  He glanced at Evony once he was in position and waited for her signal to open the door and shove it open. Everyone tensed until they saw what was inside. Evony dropped her arrow back into her quiver and straightened before striding straight into the room, her people following close behind.

  The room was beautiful, painted in scenes of summer revelry, the furniture all done in shades of blue and green, everything flowing together in a show of elegance and expense. Standing near the middle of the room, dressed as immaculately as they were most days though not in their competition clothing, were Venita and Paran. The two of them stared wide-eyed at the armed women who poured into the room, half still pointing arrows at them.

  Evony clenched a fist at the sight of the traitor, but first she needed to separate them, to keep a hostage situation from forming. She glared and said, “Venita, get away from her.”

  The girl stiffened, gaze rapidly narrowing into a glare of her own. “Who do you think you are, to order me about as if I were—”

  “I said get away from her right now!” Evony snapped, her voice as hard as her stare.

  Venita flinched but didn’t move until Evony raised her bow in her direction. Only then did the other girl jump back and stumble a few steps away from Paran. Evony strode forward, stopping when she could keep her gaze on both of them, standing in front of the empty space that now lay between them.

  “How could you?” she hissed, finally letting all the anger over everything that had happened well up. Her eyes glittered dangerously as she turned all the fear, worry, and pain into anger as well, letting it bolster her and keep her steady on what she knew she had to do. “How could you, someone from one of the first families, how could you betray the Fusciennes, the emperor so completely? Do honour and the vows of your ancestors mean nothing?”

  Venita choked, but Evony hardly noticed. Her stare was locked onto Paran. The other girl stared at her with wide eyes, her lower lip trembling as tears slowly filled her eyes. “I do not know what—”

  Evony cut her off. “I know it was the Regems,” she said, voice dark and deadly. “There are far too many purple uniforms out there, more people than the Porfirios could possibly have, and then here you are, hiding away like you knew the attack was coming, unlike the rest of us.”

  Tears slid down her cheeks. “Why would you think we could ever do that? Do you not trust me?”

  She shook her head with a growl as she took a step towards Paran. The other girl took a step back and screamed. The sound didn’t make any of them flinch, but the sound of running footsteps did.

  Evony turned just in time to see a man with the same brown hair as Paran lunge towards her, a knife that appeared wet in one hand slashing towards her.

  Evony twisted out of the way of the blow then reached out to grab the man’s outstretched arm. She turned around his back, drawing a knife with her free hand in the same movement. He tried to jerk his arm free, but Evony was already reaching over his shoulder with her armed hand. Before he could do more than jerk his head back, she cut diagonally upward, starting from the base of his throat.

  Blood spurted out as she let the body fall. The man collapsed onto the ground, his knife skittering across the floor as a pool of red quickly grew beneath his head. Evony didn’t pay the corpse much attention, her gaze back on Paran.

  The girl went pale, eyes wide as she stared at the man’s body, her mouth working but no sound coming out for several moments. Her face lost all hint of false innocence as it was quickly consumed by her true emotions. They switched from one to another too quickly to be read easily, but her trembling body spoke volumes of the storm raging inside of her. Paran screamed, her hands balling into fists. She took a step towards Evony, eyes bright and hard as they looked her over. “You savage scortum! You filthy, lowborn raptor! Why must you always interfere?”

  “Because I am loyal to the Fusciennes and to Galen,” she replied quietly, her glare a match for Paran’s.

  “You and your people are nothing more than half-feral bitches masquerading as nobles! Your loyalty is nothing more than you protecting the hand that feeds you. And what do you know of the empire, of the Fusciennes? Do you know who I am?

  “I am Primus Paran of Regem, daughter of Primus Rekem of Regem, granddaughter of Imperia Darielle of Fuscienne! My grandmother was the eldest born, and had she been a man, I would have been an Imperia! I am just as royal as the emperor but have more intelligence, finesse, and morality! A man who would tolerate your kind at court, who would conquer the world because his lowborn half sister was killed, who would go so far as to lie with a mixed-breed mongrel like yourself is someone who does not deserve to be emperor!”

  “And someone who would violate their vows, someone who would take the empire by force, does?”

  Paran snarled, taking another step towards Evony. “I am of royal blood, something a creature who cannot even identify her father would know nothing about! The empire is mine by right of my birth, I am the trueborn of Fuscienne and Regem, of the most royal and most noble bloodlines, someone who stands above all others. If the emperor had been smart, had he seen that I was obviously born to rule, none of this would have happened. Instead he chose you.”

  Evony was done listening to the vitriol dripping from Paran’s mouth. “It’s over. Galen is safe and my people are reclaiming the palace. You and the rest of the rebels have lost. After today, there won’t be a noble family named Regem. Only a bunch of traitors.”

  The girl dropped to her hands and knees. She rose a moment later, knife held in both hands in front of her, gaze moving all over the place, her skin pale and her jaw tight. “You think I will roll over and submit to a bitch like you?”

  Evony didn’t get a chance to answer, instead forced to jump away from Paran’s wild swipe even though it didn’t come close to her. Something about Paran’s smile had her on edge. Her caution was rewarded with Paran’s next words. “This is coated with the most powerful poison our agents could find,” she said, holding the shimmerin
g knife up. “One cut and you will die.”

  Evony set herself, ready to stop her as Paran shifted towards her. Then she rushed. But not towards Evony. Her eyes widened as she watched Paran turn and race towards Venita, who was still standing there frozen, mouth open.

  “No!” she cried, cursing herself, breaking into a run that she knew was too slow. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stop Paran before she reached Venita.

  The air around her whooshed. Evony slowed as she watched arrows from both directions behind her thud into Paran, turning the girl into a hedgehog-like creature. The forces of the blows caused her body to press even farther forward when combined with her running prior to it collapsing.

  Venita screamed once at the sight of the girl’s body touching her foot then her eyes rolled up in her head and she fell as well. Evony paid her little attention other than hoping she hadn’t broken anything when she hit the ground. She walked over to Paran, where a whispering moan escaped her lips. She could already tell from the angle and depth of the arrows that the girl’s lungs as well as her neck had been pierced.

  Evony snorted and walked past, not bothering to give her the finishing blow, not after everything that Paran and her family had done. She knelt and checked that Venita was still breathing. She sighed when she found that the Argentia girl was still alive. That was one less complication.

  Evony turned to look at her family. “Thanks,” she said.

  Her mother lowered her bow. “We’d have dropped her before but you were in the way. You should know better than to block a shot.”

  Evony shrugged. “I thought she could be reasoned with,” she said, jerking her chin towards Venita. “Can someone pick her up? We’re going to need to bring her with us.”

  “We’ll take care of it,” Zarina replied.

  Evony nodded her thanks then headed towards the door the man had come from. The room, which was clearly a bedroom from the furniture at the back, had also been turned into some kind of study. A large desk had been brought in, the surface of it covered in papers.

  Reading the topmost ones, Evony glowered. One had a list of members of various noble families along with how they could be bribed, threatened, or blackmailed. The next was about Galen, including a list of his supposed crimes. Warmongering, immorality, and interfering with noble rights were just some.

  Evony wasn’t sure what else was in the pile, but she thought Galen would find the whole lot of them interesting. She swept the papers together, forming a small stack, which she rolled and stuffed into her quiver around her arrows. The list of specific nobles and how to influence them alone would help him determine who was loyal and who wasn’t.

  She walked back out to find her family had arranged for one of the soldiers to carry Venita. Her mother looked up at her re-emergence and tilted her head in the direction of the door she’d come out of. “Find what you need?”

  “More than I thought,” she replied. “We need to head back to Galen. We’ll leave the bodies. If he wants to confirm their deaths, he can send his own people. For now he needs to know they are dead and that we don’t know where the rest of the Regems are. If needed, we can hunt them down after I tell him what we’ve found.”

  Zarina’s smile had a razor edge to it. “We can always start now.”

  Evony shook her head. “Not until we know what the situation is and where Galen needs us. There has been a lot of bloodshed, a lot of death, and more might make it worse. Still, this needs to be finished.”

  Her mother shrugged. “Lead the way. You know this place best.”

  She nodded. For better or for worse, the palace had become her home.

  Chapter 27: Ending

  Evony slowed as she and her people reached the Pleasure Hall. Entering the room, the lines between the two groups was practically drawn on the stone floor. Galen stood with her brother, Rakin, Admina, her sister Obelia, the rest of the Amazzi and large group of his soldiers. Opposite an empty space, the other side were soldiers in purple, silver, red, blue, and green along with several people in the richer clothing of nobles.

  She strode forward, leading her people over to Galen’s side, every one of the Amazzi doing so with arrows to their bows pointed on the rebels, not giving them any kind of opening. Evony was the only who didn’t have an arrow nocked, her attention on Galen. He’d managed to acquire a scratch on his chin as well as a gash on his arm since she’d seen him last. She narrowed her gaze over that, but said nothing as her people joined those already there.

  “...we are the victims!” called one of the men in blue, surrounded by his own soldiers.

  “We will restore the empire to proper morals and proper behaviours!” shouted a man with a purple sash around his robes, his greying brown hair telling Evony who this was.

  A scream ripped through the others’ words. Evony turned to see a woman, surrounded by soldiers in silver, point towards Evony’s people with a shaking hand. “Venita!”

  A man in silver slipped an arm around the distraught woman as he glared at the Amazzi. “What have you done to our daughter? Or was it you?” he demanded, turning his gaze on the man with the purple sash. “You swore if we went along with your plot you would leave our daughter unharmed!”

  Evony glanced back at the soldier who still held the unconscious girl and snorted. “She passed out is all,” she told them. “She’ll be fine when she wakes up. Might have bumped her head when she fell though.”

  The man held her stare for several heartbeats before he looked around at his soldiers. “Men of Argentia,” he cried. “We return to his imperial majesty!”

  Evony and her people stiffened as a large group of men in silver hurried over to join their side. The Amazzi closed ranks around Galen, only allowing the newcomers around the outskirts of their group. Evony eyed them for a moment, then decided to leave it. If the Argentias wanted to attack those loyal to Galen, they’d soon find out that it was a stupid idea. And she didn’t think Venita’s parents would risk her safety to do something so foolish.

  She slipped through her clan, not stopping until she reached Galen. He watched her approach from the corner of his eye, turning his head so he could see her better while still facing the rebels. “You are safe. Did you finish things?”

  “Not as completely as I would have liked. The only Regems we found were Paran and a man with the same hair—”

  “Primus Zobah, her brother, no doubt.”

  Evony continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “And Venita. She passed out when Paran tried to attack her. Paran is dead. Zobah or whoever died first when he tried to attack me. Be careful. They were using a poisoned knife and I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have more than the single knife’s worth of it.”

  Galen’s gaze narrowed but he didn’t say anything. “Oh, and I found these. I thought they might be useful,” Evony said, pulling out the sheaf of papers she’d picked up, handing them to Galen.

  Rakin reached around and took them first, eyebrows going up as he looked over the first page. Evony would have been annoyed, but the sword at Rakin’s side and the bandage she could see around his leg told her that he’d fought for Galen. Not to mention he’d be able to make more sense of the papers than she could.

  He stopped and handed one sheet over to Galen. “List of nobles and who they believed them loyal to,” he said, quietly, gaze on the people across from them. Several of who were still protesting their innocence or denouncing Galen.

  Evony paid them no mind until she heard, “Barbarian bitch of Aureline.” She turned and found the man in the purple sash glaring at her. “How have you come to find the Argentia girl? She was with my daughter and son.”

  She stared coldly back. “I would say they fought with honour, but they did nothing of the sort, relying on hostages, poison, and false words. They’re dead.”

  He blanched and took an involuntary step back. Ev
ony opened her mouth but Galen’s hand on her arm stopped her. He straightened, surveying the people in front of him. “Primus Rekem of Regem,” he said, voice pitched to carry throughout the hall. “You and your conspirators in this rebellion have failed. I live, my people are freeing the rest of my soldiers from the barracks you blockaded, and you and those who have betrayed me are now known to me. Surrender.”

  “You think I will surrender to you, boy?” Rekem snapped, hand dropping to his waist and pulling out a long knife. “I would rather die than live in a world where a degenerate such as you ruled!”

  Evony blinked, having flashbacks to Paran’s last rant. Obviously she was just another branch of this poisonous tree. She studied the man, taking in the way he held himself, and put an arrow to her bow, to be on the safe side.

  “You are outnumbered,” Galen replied.

  A man wearing a blue caftan over top of white trousers glanced around briefly. “Warriors of Deniz,” he called. “Lay down your arms.”

  “Yes, Your Excellency,” came the ragged reply.

  The sound of metal hitting the stone ground was the sweetest music Evony had ever heard. “You fool!” shouted Rekem. “How dare you cow to a child!”

  “Vernell,” said a man who wore a green toga over his robes. “Throw down your weapons.”

  Rekem turned to glare at the other man as more swords hit the ground. More joined them, making him swivel his head to the other side to see men in red dropping their weapons without any prompting from their Ductor. Evony couldn’t help the harsh smile that spread across her face as she watched Rekem’s allies surrender one by one.

  He turned burning eyes on Galen. “You may have won this, but you will never hold the empire,” he hissed. “You are a tyrant, no better than the barbarians who surround you.”