“What do we know about this army?” Tucker asked, reclining on the bed within the Mercury’s stateroom as he watched Iris getting dressed. They’d been together for some time, but his enthusiasm for the relationship had yet to fade. Not only was she physically attractive, but she was also incredibly intelligent, resourceful, and uniquely interesting. The only time he’d ever felt anything even close to as powerful was with his wife back on Earth. They’d been married for close to four decades, so to put such a relatively new relationship on equal footing with that union was quite a step.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she said, pinning up her hair. “We can’t afford any other delays.”
“Can’t help it. Won’t apologize for it, either. You’re gorgeous, and I won’t pretend otherwise,” he replied.
She rolled her eyes. “Even with this?” she asked, fingering the scar stretching from her forehead to her jaw. It was a jagged thing, clearly the result of something horrific. Tucker had yet to ask how she’d gotten it, but given her profession, he expected it had come during a battle.
“Every part of you,” he said. “But you didn’t answer my question. What’s going on with this mysterious army? They’ve been fighting against the Imperium for months now, and no other country has claimed credit.”
As she buttoned her shirt, she answered, “There’s not much information to go on. Some reports say the bulk of the force is composed of monsters, but I don’t regard that as reliable. Chances are that they’re just some obscure race, much like your kirran friends.”
“Any clue as to where they came from?”
She shook her head. “No. The first reports of their presence came from the Muk’ti Plains, though from what I understand, no one believes that’s where they originated. The centaurs are fiercely territorial, and they would not have allowed such a significant army to form under their noses.”
“I heard that the centaurs joined them.”
“They did,” Iris stated. “We don’t know why or how it happened, but there have been sightings of centaurs charging alongside the rest of the army.”
Tucker knew the basic history just as well as Iris did, but he’d long since established that it was best to get her take on things. The army in question had wracked up a handful of major victories. Not least among them was a campaign that ended with Adontis conquered, but they’d also utterly destroyed a race of hill giants. They’d already taken some of the less important cities associated with the Imperium, and they were steadily marching toward the empire’s seat of power.
Of course, all of his information was second-hand, and that made it at least partially unreliable. However, the sheer volume of rumors – most of which agreed on those basic facts – told him that there was at least some truth to the stories. And that made the army dangerous.
But mostly, he was wary because he didn’t know where their loyalties lay. It was one thing to treat with a force whose allegiances were well-known. But a completely independent force? That was something entirely different, and Tucker thought that wariness was the proper response.
“Do we really want to do this? We’ve been making a lot of money elsewhere. There are plenty of rebels we could be selling to,” he said. Indeed, with the bulk of the Imperium’s attention on the invading army, they’d neglected the disgruntled citizens within their borders. As such, a host of small rebel forces had sprung up. Tucker and the other privateers in their employ had spent the past months catering to their needs while making a hefty profit.
But that was nothing compared to what they stood to make by selling to the much larger army of unknown origins. With that kind of money, there would be no further limits on Tucker’s alchemical pursuits. Not only could he afford all the best materials with which to experiment, but he could also pay the expensive fees to acquire various treatises on other alchemists’ experiments and methods. While he enjoyed working things out for himself, there was something to be said with the accumulation of historical knowledge. With just a little study, he could avoid many pitfalls and overcome obstacles in ways that would have taken him months to figure out.
To say that the rewards for the excursion were nearly limitless was not hyperbolic. It was the simple truth.
And yet, it was dangerous, and now that he wasn’t just dealing with his own life, Tucker was a little more averse to recklessness. Not entirely. He still had an aggressive personality when it came to the pursuit of his goals. However, he no longer had the luxury of completely disdaining the dangers that came with that philosophy.
After all, he now had something other than alchemy to live for.
Iris said, “I don’t think we have a choice. The Imperium is on the back foot for now, but that won’t last much longer. That army is on the verge of entering the Heartlands. That’s where things will get much, much more difficult. They’ll have to fight for every inch. And they’ll need quite a lot of support, which is where we come in. From what I understand, they are mostly self-sufficient, but they don’t have access to high-level crafts or powerful enchantments. Of course, their leaders will want the luxuries we can provide as well. This makes too much sense to give up without even trying.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“I thought I was the reckless one,” he said, finally sitting up.
She gave him a small smile as she stepped forward. Before Tucker knew it, she had her arms wrapped around his neck as she said, “Maybe you’re rubbing off on me.”
Just as things were getting interesting, there was a knock at the door. Iris rolled her eyes, then extricated herself from Tucker’s embrace. Once he was covered up, she said, “Enter.”
Gira opened the door and, without even acknowledging Tucker’s presence, said, “Emery says we’ll be arriving in two hours. If you wish to turn back, now is the time.”
The ship’s first mate had already made it clear that she didn’t approve of their current course. She wanted to take things much more slowly as they safely built a mercantile empire with an entire fleet of airships as the backbone. It was a good plan, but in Tucker’s mind, it was a non-starter. That course would take years before it bore fruit, and he simply didn’t have that kind of patience.
Fortunately, neither did Iris.
“Maintain course. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
“Aye, captain.”
With that, Gira turned on her heel and retreated to the deck. Pointedly, she shut the door a little harder than was absolutely necessary. “Well, I suppose I should make an appearance as well. For morale’s sake,” Tucker said.
“Do you truly believe your presence boosts morale?”
“I provide the crew with alcohol. Of course they love me,” he said. Indeed, he’d taken great pains to ingratiate himself to the crew. Some of that was just his nature, but it was also a calculated move to get on the good side of people who might someday hold his life in their hands.
That just made good sense.
So, after Iris finished dressing, he did the same, donning what could only be called his pirate attire. He wore a loose, ruffled white shirt, a long coat, and his tricorn hat. On top of that, he’d bought various jewelry – some of which was actually enchanted – to give him the appropriate aura. However, he’d drawn the line at gold teeth. Or the customary pegleg, though he’d considered trying to find an intelligent bird that could sit on his shoulder.
That would have to wait, though. After finishing dressing, he took a look at himself in the mirror, and once he was satisfied with the look, he headed to the deck. There, he found the crew hard at work as they sailed the Mercury over a verdant forest. Tucker knew better than to join Iris, Gira, and the helmsman – they were busy and wouldn’t appreciate his presence – so he went to the bow so he could get a good view.
Forest stretched for miles all around, but in the distance, Tucker saw a few fields and a couple of small settlements. From one of the crew, he found that the name of their destination was Araville, an Imperium city that played host to a few hundred thousand people. That was a decent size for a frontier town, but from what he’d discovered, there were cities in the Heartland with populations in the multiple millions.
And unlike a city like Westport, they would all be human. Discounting the slaves, of course. Thinking about that understandably elicited quite a bit of anger on his part.
As he stood there at the front of the ship, a few of the crewmembers approached him and jovially asked if he’d made a new batch of liquor. Of course, he had. That was the quickest way to any crew’s hearts. He wouldn’t provide it for free, but rather at cost. That would keep him in their good graces, so if things came down to it, they would be more inclined to protect him.
Or their source of booze, at least.
Regardless, over the next hour, nothing really changed. Just more forest, interspersed with farmland and small towns. But then, he saw a column of smoke in the distance. That was the first indication that their arrival was imminent, and as the ship drew closer, more details emerged.
The city was in ruins.
The wall – which, in places, stood at an impressive height of more than fifty yards – had been almost entirely toppled. He knew from the reports he and Iris had received that that wall had been heavily enchanted, so the fact that it had been almost entirely destroyed was significant.
Most of the buildings closest to the wall had been toppled, but toward the center of the city – where a formidable keep stood – they were mostly intact. The keep itself was not. In fact, very little of it remained, aside from a pile of rubble and a foundation.
“Damn,” he muttered to himself. It was a level of destruction he’d not expected.
Then he saw the bodies. Thousands of them, all piled next to heaps of wood that he belatedly realized were intended for funeral pyres. The death toll was overwhelming, and as he looked upon those stacked bodies, Tucker had second thoughts about their course. Third thoughts, too. And maybe fourth.
But they’d already come so far, and turning back didn’t seem a viable option.
A few moments later, he saw the conquerors, and he was unsurprised to see that most of them were, indeed, reptilian in nature. They weren’t quite as large – on average – as kirrans like Silik, and they were largely darker skinned. However, they moved with military precision, carrying huge tower shields and spears. They also wore armor, which most of the kirrans avoided.
The helmsman guided the Mercury toward the intact airdock, where he deftly maneuvered it into place. It only took a few minutes before they were safely moored. Only then did Tucker get a good look at one of the lizard-men.
He was bigger than expected, and he held himself with a military demeanor. When he used his inspection ability, he was surprised to find that the creature was level seventy. Thankfully, he had an actual name, rather than a monster’s designation. That told Tucker that, for better or worse, the army was populated by sapient creatures.
Not that he’d had any doubts after seeing their rigid discipline.
However, he also saw multiple beastkin working at the airdock, which was an enormous, square spire with dozens of berths. One, in particular, caught his eye, if only because he radiated corruption like nothing Tucker had encountered since his time in the demon realm.
On a whim, he inspected the creature, who was giving orders to a few other beastkin, and when he saw the notification, his heart leaped into his chest. Without hesitation, he strode forward, leaving the ship behind and approaching the beastkin in question.
“Pudge?” he asked. “Is that really you?”
The beastkin glanced in his direction, and then his eyes widened. A second later, a pair of huge, furry arms were wrapped around Tucker. “I missed you,” Pudge growled.
“I missed you, too,” Tucker admitted. He hadn’t been as close with the dire bear as the others, but he was still quite fond of Pudge. Then, he asked the most obvious question, “What are you doing here?”