Verris

From where he hid amongst the crowd Verris watched the battle and tried to plan.

He'd come here planning to wait until the ceremony to leap out and kill his father. It was the proper dramatic moment after all. But as he watched Hallek and the crumbling stone of the emperor's box fall, Shylldra's pretty gold dress fluttering down to the arena floor, he wasn't sure what to do anymore. Maybe, once it had killed Hallek, Lekarik could swoop in and be the one to kill the emperor-thing.

Assuming it can even be killed.

“Verris!” Krati said. “Your father's leaving!”

He pulled his eyes away from the smoking rubble and across the arena. He was! He was leaving! What did that bastard know that Verris didn't?

Unimportant. He's getting away!

Jajess

“Come on,” Patrician Jajess said. “We're leaving.”

“We're leaving now?” Ballum asked. His voice was perfectly neutral, but a twitch of the jaw told Jajess that even the implacable southern warrior was somewhat shaken by the day's events.

“I am,” Jajess said. “Because I got what I came for. The emperor has gone mad, and been cursed by the gods. New leadership is needed.”

“Is that what happened?” Ballum asked.

“It will be by the time I'm done telling everyone,” Jajess smiled. “The best part is that it doesn't matter who wins this fight. If the young man survives—and look, he's picking himself out of the rubble, he still might—then he's a hero, and I'll be sure to name him emperor just like I planned before. If the emperor wins, then he's the bloodthirsty monster who tore apart the people's hero. Either way, I can rally enough support to topple him. But I can only be sure of that if we leave now.”

Ballum just nodded. He spared one glance back at the arena, and Hallek bleeding and battered but still raising his sword. It was a shame to miss such a good fight, but duty called.

Hallek

Hallek's first thought was Shylldra.

Well no, technically not true. Hallek's first thought was “pain.” His second thought was “rock.” His first coherent thought was Shylldra.

“Shylldra!” he shouted, getting up on his hands and knees in the rubble. The air was full of dusted rock all around him.

“I'm okay!” Shylldra coughed, pulling herself out from the fallen stones. Her golden dress was choked with dirt and dust but she looked a lot better than Hallek felt. “Maia must have been with us.”

Can she do anything about Lekarik? He chose not to say that one out loud.

“Try and stay back,” Hallek said. “I've still got to deal with your fiance.”

“How are you going to do that?” Shylldra asked.

“I have a plan,” He said.

“Is it a good plan?”

“No. Now get the hells away before it explodes in both our faces.”

Lekarik was already coming. Hallek had pulled that “faster than the eye's dodging” trick on a lot of people since getting his fang powers, and he was coming to regret it. Turned out it was a real pain in the ass to be on the other side of. Trouble was Hallek had the power of a fang, but Lekarik was running on two fangs. Whatever he had inside himself and the Axe. Traditional thinking said that if Hallek was going to win this he'd have to outsmart the emperor. Except he wasn't sure he actually was smarter than Lekarik. More mature, less pampered, sure. But smarter...well Lekarik was an arrogant self centered noble but he wasn't stupid.

So that was it. His one advantage. He was going to have to be stupider than Lekarik.

He felt claws dig into the flesh of his shoulder. The pain was brutal, but it also told him, for just a split second, Lekarik's exact location. He used the pain as a guide and grabbed Lekarik by the arm. What happened next couldn't have been called a move, more of a desperate flail, but it brought Lekarik over Hallek's head and onto the ground. Lekarik landed on his belly, knocking the wind out of him.

This is going to suck.

It was the only thought Hallek had time for. He knelt on Lekarik's back and slid his fang sword under the emperor's neck. He grabbed the tip of the blade with his free hand and pulled. He and the sword might cosmically be a single entity, but sharp edges are sharp edges and they bit into his fingers and palm as he sawed through Lekarik's throat. The emperor tried to roar but only managed a kind of hissing gurgle, spraying blood and crackling green lightning from his lips. Hallek's sword didn't stop until it reached bone, pressed against the spinal cord.

It wasn't enough.

Lekarik threw himself backward, tossing Hallek onto the sand. He barely managed to keep hold of his sword. The blade slid out of the meat of Lekarik's neck coated in the crackling blood. The same weird ichor flowed down Lekarik's chest like a waterfall until his neck began to pulse and writhe as the wound sealed itself shut. His neck inflated into a pulsing goiter, and he couched like he was going to vomit.

“I cut your head off!” Hallek screamed at him, as if he were shouting at a referee about a bad call in a sporting match. Lekarik laughed but it turned into a gurgling choke.

Then he vomited up a head.

It was fully as large as his actual head, and Hallek couldn't see how Lekarik had gotten it out through his jaws. The newly vomited head was oval, with scales and feathers around a wide, fang filled mouth. It had no other features, save for the thick pipe that still connected it through Lekarik's mouth to something in his chest.

His chest.

The outline of Milkaamek's Axe in Lekarik's chest was surrounded by squirming, pulsating veins.

Right there in front of me. The Axe.

It should have been a climax. A crescendo. Lekarik had finally arrived at his final, monstrous form. People in the audience were screaming. Some were vomiting. None of them could see how the young man could possibly face such a monstrosity and live. But the truth was Hallek had already won.

The new head sprouting from the Emperor's mouth was heavy. It threw off his balance. He lurched towards Hallek, stumbling, unable to get new and old appendages to synchronize right. When it snapped at Hallek like a snake he just dodged around it brought his sword twice across the emperor's chest. The wounds were shallow, but they did what he needed. They exposed the handle of the Axe.

He reached into the emperor's bleeding chest to grab it, and when the soul of Dakkareg didn't rip him to shreds he pulled. Lekarik was panicking now, shrieking and flailing. His claws battered Hallek's back. Hallek ignored them, ignored the pain, and put one foot on Lekarik's chest to push away the flesh while he pulled the weapon towards him. Milkaamek's Axe exploded from the emperor's body in a wave of gore and Lekarik fell to the sands. Hallek was ready to fight again, but there wasn't any need to. Lekarik's twisted body lay on the arena floor as if it had never been alive at all.

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Time stopped.

What do I do now?

He hadn't thought past that. Hadn't considered what he'd do after he killed Lekarik.

I'm the man who killed the emperor.

He looked down at the Axe in his left hand, hanging down at his side.

If I wanted to, I could BE the emperor.

All he had to do was raise his hand. Hold the Axe high above his head and declare it. With his own sword and the Axe, he'd be nearly unstoppable in personal combat. And the symbolism of it! He'd be an emperor talked about for ages! A legend!

I don't want to be the emperor.

He didn't particularly want to be a legend, either, but he had a horrible feeling that ship had sailed by now.

What did he want? He liked the fighting, the duels. The fame hadn't mattered so much, but he did like that. More than he'd liked living in Downwind? The simple cycle of work and rest followed by work followed by rest? No, maybe not more. But he couldn't go back to Downwind now.

The mud's come loose for real, hasn't it? I'm a rock, rolling in the stream.

And before he did anything, he had to do something with the Axe. It wasn't something you could just leave lying around.

I have more power right now than...than maybe anyone in the world ever has before. What in all the hells do I do with it, if I don't want to rule the world? Gods, maybe I SHOULD just be emperor. It's a tempting image. The Axe held high, my arm around Shylldra, the crowd cheering...

Shylldra.

He looked over to Shylldra. She seemed as frozen as everything else, staring at him. Despite her stunned expression there was something about her, something about the golden dress covered in dirt and blood that more than beautiful. He made up his mind and marched towards her. Time was moving again but the arena was silent as he walked across the sand, weapons hung very carefully low at his sides.

“You're covered in blood,” she said, with tears in her eyes. But she was smiling.

“I know,” Hallek smiled back. “And I'm sorry for this. I don't think it's what you want, but I don't see any other way. I can't handle it all myself. I need to give some of it to somebody I trust.”

“Sorry for what?” She blinked. “Some of what?”

Hallek knelt on the ground before her, head down, and raised the Axe up to her in both hands. He felt the whole world take a breath in the moment before she took the Axe from his hand and raised it high above her head.

“Victory!” Shylldra shouted.

The arena exploded into screaming cheers.

The emperor is dead, Hallek thought. Long live the empress.

Shylldra

What in all the hells am I doing?

Lekarik's blood dripped from the Axe into her hair, onto her face, and down her dress. She felt stupid worrying about the dress. She'd hated it the minute they asked her to put it on and besides, Hallek was coatedin blood. He looked like the giganotosaurus had come back and mauled him again, and she was worrying about her dress?

The hand holding the Axe was bloody too, deep cuts in her fingers from the disobedient dagger.

Oh Hallek, I'm sorry I made you kill for me again.

“Shylldra!” Dyryl's voice cut through the confusion. She looked up to see her and Krazzek standing in the doorway of the ruined emperor's box.

“The empress is fine,” Hallek stressed. “Come on down.”

The two nodded, disappearing back into the corridors.

“You're right,” Shylldra said. “If...if this is going to work, we need to establish my authority now. As firmly as possible.”

“Yeah. Even I worked that out. You can probably put the Axe down for now though.”

“Oh!” she said, lowering the Axe. “Oh, right. I forgot I had it up there.”

Which wasn't the same as saying she'd forgotten she was holding it. In fact she didn't think she'd ever forget the Axe if she was touching it. She could feel Dakkareg's soul inside it the way she could feel the souls in her own staff. She was tempted to lean against the staff, collapse under the exhaustion and stress, but she didn't dare. If she was going to be Angelar's first empress she couldn't be seen as weak. By anyone.

Wait a minute, she said to the souls in her staff. Can you three, uhm, talk to each other? Through me or or something?

To her surprise, there were chitterings and rumbles of assent from the Axe and staff.

Oh. Well then, uh, everyone play nice, okay?

Soldiers burst into the arena. Shylldra wondered what had taken them so long. They moved with the precision born of tireless drill and desperate need to fall back on routine motions to make the world make sense again. They wore gaudy plumes and robes—this had been a wedding after all—but the weapons they carried were the same lethal tools they would take to the battlefield. The weapons were not, yet, pointed at Hallek and Shylldra. Better not to point weapons until everyone was sure what in the hells was going on.

Grand General Ferrik walked towards them through the ranks.

“You killed the emperor,” he said to Hallek.

“Someone had to,” Hallek said, and Shylldra noticed he was gripping the sword just a little tighter...

Ferrik turned Lekarik's twisted body over with an armored foot.

“Yes,” Ferrik said. “I suppose somebody did.” The general turned to Shylldra, his eyes moving between her face and the Axe.

“This is gonna be all the hells brought up at once if you go through with it,” Fennik said. “They'll say your rule isn't legal. They'll say it can't go to a woman. They'll say if it can go to a woman another woman has a better claim, their sister or daughter or niece. If you keep the ax, there will be trouble. Rebellions. Plots, schemes, more than the usual. The whole leadership of the empire thrown into chaos. It would be a gods damned nightmare, and you know it.”

“I know,” Shylldra said. “But there isn't anybody else. Not after all this. The patrician's council sitting down and picking some distant relative as heir won't work, not with the mood everyone's in. And they're all...”

“Too busy stabbing each other to care, I know. No, I think we've all seen what letting the nobles sit comfy on their asses leads to. You're right, if you or the lad didn't take the throne no one would ever accept it now. I just wanted to be sure you were ready. But if you are...”

He slapped a fist across his chest in salute and fell to one knee. The soldiers did the same, until Hallek and Shylldra were surrounded by platoon of kneeling men in gleaming, polished armor. “The legions stand with you, my empress.”

The crowd exploded again. This was better than a battle. This was history. Their grandchildren's grandchildren could tell their grandchildren's grandchildren we were there! Our family saw it happen!

“Alright,” Shylldra said. “Alright! Uhm...oh please stand up, Ferrik, I think you changed my diapers once.”

“More than once,” Ferrik grinned, rising, which his soldiers took as unspoken permission to do the same. “But just having my support won't let you keep the throne, My Lady. We need an announcement. And to formalize a government as quickly as possible. I understand you've had a close circle of confidants, but your rule needs all the legitimacy it can get. Official positions.”

“Right,” Shylldra nodded, her brain finally catching up to reality. Or pretending it did, until she woke up and wasn't the empress anymore. “Right. Well, you're my general obviously. Hallek is...my personal champion.”

“I thought you were going to say consort,” Ferrik raised an eyebrow.

“I kind of did too,” Hallek admitted.

“No we can get to that later,” Shylldra said. “Champion's got a more romantic ring than Consort does. To the general public I mean. And what we need is to capture minds with the story. Have Dyryl and Krazzek made it down yet?”

“There's two people hiding in that doorway over there if that's what you mean.” Fennik gestured and the soldiers parted to allow Krazzek and Dyryl through.

“Shylldra, what...”

“I'll explain later,” Shylldra said. “As of right now, you're both officially court...well, officials.”

Krazzek look stunned.

“Why Shylldra?” he said plaintively. “I thought we were friends.”

“There's two other people you should probably talk to,” Fennik said. “We caught them trying to sneak past the guards.”

Fennik made another gesture and two people were brought out where Shylldra and Hallek could see them. This pair were tied at the wrists. She recognized them immediately.

“Verris,” Shylldra sighed. “And this must be Fylati. You know I wish I was surprised...”

“Look,” Verris said. “Mistakes were made, but they've got bigger problems than me right now. I was on my way to murder my father--”

“Just gonna come out with that in public, huh?” Hallek asked. Verris ignored him.

“--who headed for the palace as soon as Lekarik mutated. They tell me you're empress now, right? Which means my father alone in the palace is very bad news for you.”

“Sweet gods,” Shylldra rubbed her temple. “It's already starting. Let's find Norak and tell him he's my now, uh, something. I don't even know what he was doing here.”

“He came as an ambassador from the tribes,” Hallek said. “And Lekarik had him arrested for being rude.”

“Oh sweet gods,” Shylldra groaned. “Fine, lets find Norak and ask him to go calm down the tribes while we sort this out. I'll figure out a title or something for Illeth when we get back to the palace. And that's the other thing. I need to get to the palace now, and start announcing my ascension to the throne.”

“Why not to both at the same time?” Hallek said, a huge grin spreading across his face. “Oh, I love this idea. This is the best idea I ever had. And it'll even help us with that whole “capturing people's minds” thing you were talking about. What we need right now...is a parade!”