“Who the f*ck are you?!” Warlord Baltis jumped up in anger her fat body wobbling, “Do you know who I am?!”
She was Varena’s city warlord and even inquisitor Meda Matas behaved relatively politely around her. Someone interrupting her and rudely at that was unthinkable, but the young woman who rushed in didn’t seem to care. She fished out something from under her leather jacket and almost smashed it in warlord’s face.
“Do you know what this is?” She dryly asked.
Despite the weak torch lighting even Leo recognized the amulet in the form of a dark-crimson horned beetle to not speak of warlord Baltis who immediately deflated seeing it.
She said in a somewhat annoyed voice, “I can also make few of those, but that doesn’t mean I’m from …”
“Sure you can!” The young woman nodded, “But would you dare?”
A brief moment of silence filled the cell. Even though warlord was unwilling to admit, she knew the origins of the person in front of her and the same went for Ginta and the two guards. No wonder she could arrive here unimpeded.
Meanwhile Leo observed her more closely. The young woman was the same height as warlord, but much thinner, of course. She was not too old – around age of twenty five, wore leather gear similar to what hunters used, but it was definitely of a higher quality. She was not particularly pretty, in fact, Leo wouldn’t even notice her on the street, but her interruption clearly saved him thus he immediately wowed to agree to wash her for a year or even two if requested.
“Fine!” Warlord Baltis gave up with a sigh, “What do you want?”
“That’s better. Have you found out anything this far?” The young woman asked and pointed at Leo.
Warlord sat back in her chair and said, “The little f*cker is a big liar. He already told two completely different stories and I bet he’ll think of few more after we …”
“I see that the intelligence is inversely proportional to the size.” The young woman interrupted with an insult, “Do you realize there is a difference between interrogation and torture? And don’t look at me like that – even if you try to do anything stupid, I’ll make sure to take you with me to the afterlife!”
Either it was her origin or the bossy attitude, but the more the young woman spoke the more obedient the warlord became.
“I wouldn’t dare.” She said, “But would you mind telling me what this is about? It’s just a male-slave, you know? After a bit of taming I intended to make him one of my cooks … I suffered significant losses during the incident …”
The young woman thought for a bit and then said, “Alright, I can say you this much – inquisitor Matas noticed something important and immediately sent it to the capital. Thanks to her swift reaction I managed to arrive before it was too late.”
“It’s about those marks on the leather pieces, isn’t it?” Warlord forced out a sad smile.
“It’ll be better for you to not ever mention it again. Consider it a direct favor to her imperial majesty. You know, she never forgets favors and the spring session of the Assembly of warlords is not that far off.” The young woman said and, seeing the warlord nod, continued, “I’ll take the male-slave with me. I’ll order your guards to give him some clothing – I can’t have him running around the capital naked.”
Then she glanced at Leo, thought for a moment and added, “He needs to rest so we’ll depart tomorrow morning, but tonight we’ll stay at inquisitor’s place. We might not meet ever again, but I’ll pass a word for you to the empress … Right, one more thing. It’s better no one ever finds out what we spoke about. I mean it!”
Warlord nodded again, with a sigh this time, and beckoned Ginta to release the prisoner. After the old witch reluctantly undid the chains, Leo immediately dropped to the floor, but forced himself to get up refusing to admit he couldn’t feel his extremities or that he was dead tired. He took a couple of wobbling steps towards the young woman intending to greet her, but before he could say anything, she turned around and proceeded to the door.
Only after they had walked over thirty steps through the dark corridor, Leo realized she was not in much better condition compared to him. He noticed how she slightly swayed in the darkness, from time to time supporting herself at the wall, and heard her rapid and shallow breathing.
‘Her willpower might be no weaker than Lana’s.’ He though, ‘Just a moment ago she acted as if she owned the place although even I might be able to overpower her. That’s the member of the imperial family for you!’
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Indeed, her amulet proved her origins and the warlord’s behavior was another indication the young woman was a real big-shot. The question was what exactly she wanted from Leo and how was it related to the runic formation leftovers. Leo’s guess was that those were what the warlord referred to as ‘marks on the leather pieces’ and it also allowed him to easily choose which story he should stick to from now on.
What he didn’t know was that after they left the cell, warlord Baltis killed the two guards and, ignoring all the pleading, Ginta as well. This was the only way to be certain the visit from the young woman would forever remain a secret. She didn’t know why the daughter of the imperial family requested it, but since she did – it was better to not ask unnecessary questions.
Warlord knew that even inquisitors had to obey orders given by anyone carrying the amulet she saw today, no matter what they were. And it was not because they were given by a member of the imperial family – it had hundreds of people only few of which, maybe a couple dozen, formed a special task force under the direct command of the empress. No one knew what exactly these imperial family members were doing and why, but anyone recognizing the amulet knew the person present was to be treated as the empress herself.
Loosing first Ivo and now Ginta did pain warlord Baltis quite a bit, but she was familiar with empress generosity and was certain the young woman with the amulet mentioned the Assembly for a reason. Getting a good new boy toy was hard, but securing the imperial support for her faction, even if it was for a year or two, was priceless and warlord clearly knew that.
Dalina was really a strange person – in four days she had uttered only three words to Leo.
She didn’t say anything when they left the warlord’s castle – only gave him a cloak she took from one of the guards and it was obvious Leo had to wear it. When they arrived at the inquisitor’s residence she brought him to a small room and said ‘rest!’, but three days later after the departure from Varena – ‘keep up!’.
Leo wasn’t bothered with it though. From her dialog with warlord Baltis he guessed she was a princess from Vidas, the empress family, and had a right to do as she pleased. In addition, he was thankful she saved his life and that he didn’t have to answer any questions right away. The fact that she allowed him to sleep for three days straight was a pleasant extra.
Of course, he didn’t know that after the palace received inquisitor Matas’s report via homing pigeon, Dalina rushed over and covered the distance from capital to Varena in a day and night while for a regular person it would take four to five days. This clearly put her on Anna’s level, but even then after the mad run she was exhausted and needed to sleep as much as Leo had to. Her personal guards, four tall and muscular women, arrived only a day and a half later. But while they were almost as exhausted as Dalina, it only made the talents of the young lady stand out much more.
It was only after they left Varena city when she finally ‘opened up’. Unfortunately it was not in a positive way – with time passing by she was getting more and more pissed at the young male-slave she had to babysit.
Him being all smiles and full of energy was already annoying, but the fact that during the stay at inquisitor’s residence he ate as much as her four guards taken together was ridiculous. And now while they had to carry that damned ‘thing’ he ran along the roadside picking flowers!
At some point Dalina couldn’t take it anymore and barked at him, “What the f*ck are you doing?!”
“I’m sorry.” Leo immediately apologized. He did act like a wild animal that had been kept in a cage and suddenly got free, “I should’ve asked for a permission first. You see, I know your people have a hard time carrying the weapon and I’m gathering some stuff I can later add to the food to help them recover faster.”
“What?” Dalina looked at her four guards in confusion.
The boy obviously recognized the Cleaver even though it was wrapped up in cloth and he was right – Dalina’s guards had hard time carrying it at the pace they were traveling. If inquisitor Matas hadn’t said she saw for herself he was casually carrying it on his back few days ago, Dalina would’ve never believed it was possible. Currently four of her strongest people were doing it in pairs and even then they had to frequently switch to rest.
“When we stop for a lunch I’ll quickly hunt and roast something. You’ll see – it will be good.” Leo confidently said.
Usually Dalina traveled without resting during the day and would’ve ignored the male-slave if he was a regular prisoner. Unfortunately the leather pieces with the runic markings hidden in her pocket signified this guy might be anything but normal. In addition, her guards had a hard time keeping up the pace and obviously needed to rest.
She didn’t allow Leo to go hunt though – they met a group of hunters returning to Varena and Dalina bought a couple of deer from them. Initially she was confused why would their small group need so much meat for one meal, but when after they were done there was no piece of flesh remaining on the bones and she realized she was still hungry, it was decided to either hunt or buy more meat in the evening.
Neither Dalina nor her guards were worried about Leo trying anything ‘funny’. They knew that even if he attempted to poison them with the herbs growing around these pine forests the worst he could do was to give them diarrhea, but it was unlikely he would dare. In addition, the damned male slave ate the most of the food without any restrain or a sign of guilt as if he was used to it – an unthinkable behavior both in the empire and Livania kingdom.
Unfortunately Dalina couldn’t really do anything about him – one of her tasks was to observe Leo on the way to the capital and later report on any peculiarities. Luckily one of those, the cooking skills, made up for the lack of etiquette.
When in the morning of the second day the male-slave offered his help to carry the weapon, his initiative was met with grins and snorts. Compared to Dalina’s guards his build was so thin and frail, it might seem he would crumble under the weight of the weapon, but strangely enough he managed to keep up with the rest. Not only it made him more likable – he even gained some respect from the five elites, but it was far from the friendly relationship he had with the Lana’s group.
Of course, inwardly Leo was devastated. Besides the fact that he had to somehow steal back the Cleaver and escape, there was no way he could do it while carrying it on his back.
On the other hand he was pleasantly surprised – not so long ago at the master Shaw’s residence he couldn’t even dream of lifting the weapon, but now he was jogging, albeit on wobbling legs, along the road while carrying it’s full weight, together with another person though. That could only mean the training he was doing in Dreadlands was giving the desired result and all he needed was to continue to diligently practice … and eat, of course.
Unfortunately upon arrival to Vidantia, the capital of the empire, Leo was forced to realize that any thoughts of ever escaping were a fool’s dream.