Present

The sun had long since set, the night taking on the ripening fall chill, when Koida spotted the warm glow of fires through the trees. She pulled Pernicious to a stop, though he danced and sidled rebelliously. The half-demon warhorse had been anxious and bloodthirsty for the last hour. He must sense something in these woods worth killing. Perhaps this far away from civilization, demon beasts still roamed freely.

Hush reined her chestnut around to Koida’s side. The two of them had finally mounted after the cramps in Koida’s legs became too strong to massage away.

“Don’t coddle her, Hush,” Lysander slurred. He rode past them, somehow keeping his seat on the bay in spite of his drunken lurching. “If she wants to be taken seriously as an ally, then she’ll have to walk into camp like a woman instead of clinging to your legs like a child.”

Koida glared daggers at the back of his head and urged Pernicious forward. The warhorse grumbled at being held to a walk.

A thin moment later, a pair of hulking savages stepped out of the shadows of the tree trunks. Both manifested glowing ruby armor, the thick Ro plates spiked like the shells of crocodile snapping turtles and illuminating the darkness.

Koida had never known a warrior artist could manifest armor. In the Path of the Living Blade, one manifested only bladed weapons.

The hulking savages, however, she recognized. At least, she’d seen some like them the day Raijin had brought the Uktena to court to negotiate an alliance with the empire. The enormous savages had been intimidating then, a head taller and twice as wide as anyone else, with their deep umber skin, mostly bare bodies, and red-clay-slicked hair decorated with bones and teeth. To meet them now, in the darkness of a forest after nightfall, made her hands quake with fear and her heart thud against the wall of her chest.

Why were they just standing there? Blocking the way. Saying nothing.

Koida looked at Lysander, then Hush for some reassurance or sign to run. They were both staring at her expectantly.

She swallowed hard and straightened her spine. Pernicious’s imposing height and muscle certainly made it easier to project fearlessness.

“Greetings, esteemed Uktena,” she said in the tone her father used when addressing his subjects. She hoped it sounded more natural than it felt, and that these savages spoke enough of the civilized tongue to understand her. “I am Shyong San Koida, Second Princess of the Shyong San Empire, Daughter of the Exalted Emperor Hao, your ally and former ruler. I must speak to your chieftain immediately. It is a matter of the utmost importance.”

The two enormous barbarians turned to Koida’s companions as if they hadn’t heard her.

“Master of the Hidden Whispers,” the first said to Hush, giving a short bow, little more than a jerk of the head and shoulders. “You honor us with your return.”

Hush pressed her palms together, then extended them to the men in a gesture of gratitude.

The savage repeated the bow to Lysander. “Brother in study. Have you found the source of the Great Unbreakable Truth yet?”

The corner of Lysander’s mouth lifted a fraction. “Not yet, brothers.” The slur he’d maintained for most of the day was gone from his voice. “In fact, for a while there, I forgot to look.”

The savage’s face remained stony and blank. His eyes, lit by the red glow from his armor, roved over them as if searching for something.

“Ji Yu Raijin is not among you,” he said.

Neither Hush nor Lysander made a move to answer. Koida opened her mouth, but Hush’s warm hand touched hers. When she looked up, the silent woman’s dark almond eyes forestalled any comment.

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The savage blinked slowly. “Please, continue to the chief’s longhouse. He will want to speak with you at once.”

“Many thanks, brothers,” Lysander said.

As they rode on toward the village ahead, Koida looked at the yellow-haired foreigner.

“Brother in study?”

“I bet you want to know why they ignored you,” he said, doing the same to her question.

“I want to know why they think you’ve studied anything but the inside of a wineskin.”

He chuckled. “You’re not acknowledged in the Uktena tribe until you’ve proven you’re worth acknowledging. That’s why they ignored you.”

As they passed the first low huts at the edge of the village, doubt gnawed at Koida. Lysander and Hush were obviously well-known among the Uktena, but she was no one. Perhaps if she explained more clearly who her father and betrothed were.

Soon the village grew dense enough that they had to dismount and walk their horses between the cook fires, huts, and people. Pernicious, who had no tack or lead rope, walked alongside Koida, ears flicking and eyes rolling as he searched for a potential adversary. Koida had to turn all her focus on keeping him from lashing out at everything that moved.

“Should have released him into the woods,” Lysander said as she fought Pernicious back into line. “That’s where the Uktena keep their demon beasts.”

“He’ll kill them,” Koida said.

“I doubt it.”

“He tried to kill the stable full Raijin brought back as a bride price.”

“The Uktena mounts fight, but they know better than to kill one another,” Lysander said. “They would teach your bad-tempered little horsie a thing or two about etiquette.”

Koida frowned, unconsciously putting her arm around Pernicious’s neck. It wasn’t just that she didn’t want to offend the Uktena by harming one or more of their demon beasts. She couldn’t take the chance hers might be killed.

Finally, they came to a long, low wood house several times the length of the largest hut. Another hulking savage stood at the door, thick arms crossed and scowling down at them.

“Cold Sun,” Lysander said, giving him the head and shoulders bow the men on the edge of the encampment had given.

Hush bowed in the more familiar style, though on the silent, sincere woman it appeared the height of civility rather than out of place.

The enormous savage returned both bows in sequence, his ropes of clay-smoothed hair sliding over the substantial muscles of his neck and shoulders. He was almost half again as tall as Lysander and twice as wide, with a taut bulky belly and fists as large as Koida’s head.

“Lysander Foreign-Born, Wise Physician Hush,” the savage said, his voice a deep rumble that seemed to roll up from that prodigious stomach. “I greet you in the name of my father, Chief Jaguar Three-Eyes.” He stepped to the side and held open the hide hanging across the doorway.

“Gratitude,” Lysander said, and Hush extended her clasped hands in thanks. They stepped inside the longhouse.

When Koida went to follow, however, the stone-faced wall of muscle and fat let the hide fall shut and stepped between her and the doorway.

“Who seeks entry to the Uktena’s longhouse?” he asked. The words had the ring of a formal ceremony, though no one was about to watch such a thing.

Koida pressed her fist to her palm and bowed as required by her superior rank, hardly more than a bend of the waist. “Shyong San Koida, Second Daughter of the Exalted Emperor Hao, and Betrothed of Chieftain Ji Yu Raijin.”

Not a flicker of recognition crossed the savage’s face in response to the names.

“Why should you be allowed entry?” he asked.

“I need to speak to the chief about the man who killed my father and Raijin,” she said, hoping the news would make him see the urgency. “The man who stole the throne and could even now be planning to attack allies such as your tribe that my father once made.”

“That is what you need, not why you should be allowed in.”

“You allied yourself with my father and my betrothed,” she said. “As the rightful heir—”

“The Uktena allied herself with the Shyong San Empire and the Ji Yu tribe because they made the Uktena stronger. You are neither your father nor your betrothed. What benefit do you as an individual bring the Uktena? What inherent worth do you possess?”

Koida swallowed, the doubt Lysander had planted as they rode in ripening into full certainty that she would not be accepted here. In the Sun Palace and Boking Iri, being the daughter of a mighty warrior emperor had been enough to save her from rotting in the streets with the rest of the untouchables. Here, her lucky birth meant nothing. Without that, what was she? What good could she do anyone as a Ro-cripple?

Inhaling deeply, Koida shook her head.

“I have no inherent worth,” she said honestly. “I have no skills that will benefit your tribe, and what wealth I had was stolen along with my empire. I cannot be anything but a drain on your resources.” After a moment’s hesitation, she knelt in front of the huge man, raising her hands in supplication. “A thousand apologies, but this is the reason I have come. I am nothing on my own, I can do nothing to stop my cousin. I must beg for assistance from those stronger than I.”

The savage nodded once, then stepped aside and pulled open the hide door. “Those who recognize that individuals are nothing and that strength lies in the tribe are always welcomed into the home of Chief Jaguar Three-Eyes.”