I felt like the scent of smoke was permanently stuck in the back of my mouth, etched into my pharynx like a scar of battle and war. A reminder of everything that had happened over the course of this affair, and the destruction and death I’d witnessed.
I shook my head, dispelling the melodramatic thoughts. I’d ordered the dead nomad fighters burned, as that went according to their beliefs. Or so I’d read, but I hadn’t had the time to learn as much about their culture before our departure from the palace as I wished. They believed the smoke of the fire sent them to join their ancestors.
I wished I could just get out and breath some of the fresh air, but this model of airship was different than the ones I’d used before, and didn’t have an open deck. So I had to stay here, where the scent of the pyres seemed to be trapped in the hold. But it could be worse.
I refocused on the landscape. While I hadn’t understood the name ‘Yellow Graves’, seeing it like this helped me get how it fit. The main part of the peninsula, or whatever you wanted to call it, was a desert. Not the usual kind, though. It wasn’t that hot here, since it was actually pretty far south of the equator. But the area didn’t get much rain, and the rocky crags and mesas hid the life they harbored well. The stone had a reddish tint that often devolved to orange.
And then there was the jungle, which bordered the desert sometimes pretty abruptly. The trees didn’t look too different from Earth’s at first glance, except that the forests held many trees belonging to several species with yellow leaves. It looked a bit like it was always autumn, except the shades were a little off. Although the color was a soft, natural yellow, that might hide the danger of this place.
The whole region was desolate, prone to giving its inhabitants hard lives. No wonder the Zarieni nomads’ culture still focused on being displaced, even such a long time after they’d reluctantly settled here, or that it had such a heavy martial tint.
“Inaris,” Tenira said, coming up to me. “We just got word that the last of the ships have set sail.”
“Oh, good.”
“I think I understand why you need them.” She frowned. “But it’s going to be a logistical nightmare.”
She was probably right there. But I’d deal with it after we’d secured the nomads’ camp, not that it would take long. The current force riding in this and the other airship, and the soldiers riding on spirit beasts or qi techniques outside, might be considerably smaller than the army. But they included most of the elites and no soldier below the middle of the fourth stage.
A few raiders had escaped the battle, and would need to be hunted down. Some might manage to cross the border, but I didn’t worry too much about it. The locals could take care of it. So the main army was already headed back to Blue Valley City, from where many would return north. But this needed to be done, too.
Going myself was a risk, I knew that, but I didn’t want to leave it to anyone else. Besides, we’d made sure the other tribes stayed away, we had a lot of elites with us, and were still far from the Zarian border. And I’d kept it as secret as I could.
“The Zarian Dominion isn’t going to be happy about this,” Tenira said.
“They can kiss my - ” I cut myself off, since the expression didn’t actually exist in this language. “I mean, I don’t care. They can’t honestly object to us fighting against people they’re officially hostile to, especially in these circumstances. And they’ve done more than enough to raise tensions all on their own.”
“You’re right about that.” Tenira’s expression darkened.
Luckily, the nomad tribe, or its sad remnants now that we’d annihilated their raiders, was actually close to the Imperial border. They’d moved far to the west and taken shelter in a particularly dense area of the jungle, or rather where it met the few mountains decorating the Yellow Graves’ western coast. We’d reach their location soon.
I frowned as I noticed a prickle in my senses. It had actually been there before, as I now realized, but too weak to notice. Now, I focused on it. Something in my qi senses. A sort of … pull, maybe? No, not on me. This is like watching someone do a technique in the distance, but different.
After a bit of thought, I realized what the feeling meant. I rolled my eyes. Of course. We were nearing the ocean, this was the closest I’d ever been since coming to this world. I was feeling the tide. Maybe just the pull of the masses of water, or maybe there was actually some qi driving the whole thing? I couldn’t be sure.
“There’s going to be high tide soon,” I said. If I leaned forward at the window and squinted, I could see a bit of the ocean.
“Hm.” Tenira shrugged. “It shouldn’t really matter to our ships.”
I watched in silence for the next few minutes, as we got closer to the few mountains separating the jungle beneath us from the ocean. The airships were flying pretty low. I was just grateful that the other nomad tribes seemed to have decided not to get in our way.
Soon, the airship started to slow down. I fidgeted a bit, looking after the soldiers descending to the ground as well as I could. Aston wouldn’t let me down until they’d ensured it would be safe.
Long minutes later, we got a call from the ground, and some of the guards opened the hatch. After they left, I stepped up to it, taking a deep breath as I felt the draft. But I took my flying sword, held it over the opening with my domain, stepped up, then let myself fall through the hole.
Wind whistled around me, but I controlled my speed and braked, pulling up beside the guards. Tenira joined me quickly, then Lei and the a few others from the entourage before the rest of the guards.
I looked down at the nomad camp, nestled beneath a protrusion of rock on one side and the edge of the jungle on the other. There was a rocky clearing around it, but not much space besides that. A shield of qi covered it, or used to, as I could only feel its tattered remnants now. The camp itself consisted of many huts made from wood and stone, some of them erected with trees at their center. They looked flimsy, but I could sense the hint of qi in their structures. They might have been put up quickly and without much care, but would protect their inhabitants from the elements. All of them were pretty big, probably housing several families.
At the moment, the camp was illuminated by walls of fire around its edges, which also showed a lot of other magic feats, like lightning strikes or walls of earth. They soldiers were making a statement. I could see them standing or flying around the camp, with teams going through it.
It didn’t take long for the commanding officer, one of San Hashar’s subordinates, to step out of a hut and wave at us. So our group started flying towards them. Meanwhile, I focused on my senses and tried to get an idea of how many presences I found.
At least several thousand villagers. It felt like the camp offered space for more, but it was still relatively full.
I touched down in the biggest clear opening and looked around. It smelled of wood and dust, and I could hear the low sound of voices talking in a foreign language. A few of the nomads were peeking out or even standing outside of their dwellings, glaring at the Imperial soldiers, but most seemed to wait inside. Even those I saw barely hid their fear. Their clothes were similar to the fighters I’d seen, but with less decorations, and they showed more wear and tear.
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I turned to the officers, who waited at a respectful distance. “How many left before we came?”
“About one quarter to one third of the inhabitants between the time we first saw them, before the battle, and now, Your Highness,” the leader of the people Aiki Ilia had sent said.
I nodded. They probably fled to the other tribes. I knew the Imperials hadn’t been enough to keep everyone contained, but we couldn’t change that now. “Let’s proceed as we discussed. Have your people search their homes, confiscate any weapons or the like, but keep track of who owns what.”
The soldiers hadn’t liked the prospect of maybe not getting loot. I didn’t care. I knew that the fighters’ bodies had been thoroughly ransacked after the battle, that the prospect of loot was half the reason for some of the nobility’s fighters to come. But it still felt weird.
Well, maybe they’d get their plunder. I hadn’t made any firm decisions about what I was going to do here.
“Yes, Your Highness,” the commander bowed.
“And question the nomads, of course,” I added, even though we’d discussed this already. “Not everyone, but anyone who might know something.”
We had a few people who spoke the language, luckily. And I hoped some of the nomads could understand Common. But I didn’t want to waste time interrogating everyone in detail. The logistics alone would be a headache. Still, I wanted any leaders and associates of the raiders’ leaders questioned.
Groups of soldiers started moving out. Many of them split off inside the huts, but some stayed together. I could only sense them and not hear everything, but that had to be the people doing the questioning. At least we had a few of Aiki Ilia’s agents along.
As I expected, it took a while. At some point, I sat down on a cushion of air Aston conjured up for me. The guards continued standing without showing any signs of boredom, but I didn’t have their professionalism. After a bit, I took out a novel. I hadn’t had much time for reading or any sort of leisure during the war, but now that it was pretty much over, I could slow down a bit. I already miss the easy palace life.
I was interrupted twice by someone coming to report. The nomads didn’t offer much resistance, except for a few hotheaded youths. The soldiers managed to take stock of everyone and everything without many problems.
But as I’d feared, the interrogations didn’t lead anywhere. While it was easy enough to find the people who’d organized the civilians, or the family of the shaman and military leaders, none of them knew much. I’d told the soldiers to handle them ‘gently’, but I didn’t expect force, or a longer interrogation, to change that. After all, we had a few strong cultivators who were quite good at telling when someone was lying.
From what we could gather, their leader, who’d died in the battle, and the shaman had met with Dominion representatives a few times, the last one being the day Mother went into seclusion. No one knew much more, since the meeting had been held at some unknown point in the jungle. They had reached out to other tribes and gathered a force for a major raid, without giving much of a reason beside the prospect of plunder and glory.
“And everyone accepted that?” I asked, eyebrows raised.
The commander shifted his weight, and the soldier in front of me, who was apparently half-Zarieni, lowered his gaze. “It’s expected, Your Highness. It’s not the place of weaker members to question their leaders. From what I heard, the Rising Storm tribe’s was especially authoritarian.”
I assumed one of his parents had been one of those captured on a raid, and integrated into the Empire well. The soldier definitely seemed uncomfortable with their culture. Not that I could blame him.
I sighed, then nodded. “You did good work. Now …”
I trailed off as I looked at the huts, waving him away. I wasn’t sure what to do now. We hadn’t learned much. I knew I needed to make an example, show that you couldn’t just invade the Empire without consequences. This was a punitive expedition. But from what I’d learned here, they might already consider the tribe lost, without its fighters. These people probably couldn’t continue it on their own, anyway.
I frowned and turned to Tenira. “These camps the Empire has, you think they’d be worse than living like this without combatants?”
She shrugged. “Probably better. I mean, they’re mostly used for criminals, but also prisoners of war. Besides having their movement restricted, it’s actually not bad. They get shelter, food, and everything, and even get paid for their work. Not much, but still. Plus, didn’t you think about resettling them somewhere?”
I nodded. “If they’re doing well. We’d need to find a good place first.”
I fell silent and thought about it. There were probably areas where they could build a few villages, close to others so they’d be able to keep their culture but still integrate into the Empire. The children would go to Imperial schools in any case. It didn’t sound so bad, but still … the idea of deporting people didn’t sit well with me. They were innocent civilians, and it probably didn’t matter much in the political picture, after all.
But I couldn’t just let them keep on living here. This camp itself was situated in a strategic position, and might just be a launching site for another raid. Besides, while there may not have been a declaration of war, they were unquestionably our enemies. And as for their culture, maybe one where it was okay to burn down villages and murder innocents didn’t deserve much care.
Finally, I turned to the commander. “Have all of the nomads moved and gathered on the clearing there. Then we’ll burn down the camp.”
He bowed, and turned to give his people orders.
I took one last look at the camp, before I followed Aston out, and walked to the open space. From there, I watched as soldiers began herding the Zarieni out onto the rocky field. They carried their possessions in bags and even a few carts. It didn’t take long, even though there were thousands of people crammed there in the end, guarded by a perimeter of Imperial soldiers.
Soon, I could see a few fire techniques setting the huts aflame. The wind brought the familiar scent of smoke.
I stepped up, the soldier from before standing beside me to translate, my guards keeping a watchful eye out. I couldn’t help swallowing as I saw more than ten thousand anxious gazes, but steeled myself and straightened up.
“We defeated the raiders who invaded and attacked our home without provocation,” I said, leaving a pause for the translation. Someone was using qi to amplify the volume. “Most of them are dead now. For attacking us without provocation and costing many of our citizens’ lives, this tribe will be eradicated. Since I am merciful, I will offer you a choice. You can flee and take your chances with the jungle and the hospitality of other tribes. We will let you go in small groups, and my soldiers will hunt down anyone lingering in the area.” I paused for effect, shaking my head.
“Or you can surrender yourselves to the Empire’s custody. You will be taken to a new camp, where we will provide you with food, shelter, and everything you need to live. You will have the chance to earn land in the Empire, where you can settle and make lives for yourselves, so long as you obey Imperial laws. On my honor as an Imperial Princess, I swear that our objective is not to oppress you, but to remove a threat to our home and integrate you into our society. Decide now.”
I stepped back and let out a sigh of relief. Then I joined Tenira and the others. I watched as the nomads sorted themselves into two groups, those who would flee and those who wouldn’t.
This is a good compromise, I told myself. Their choice. Besides … if fleeing and appealing to the other tribes is a lost cause, we’ll help them. If not, I’m not really harming them much, am I?
It took a while. A few fights started between the nomads, but others broke them up before the soldiers had to step in. In the end, not many people chose to take their chances with the Yellow Graves. I’d suspected as much. Their expressions and the reaction of the other tribes, or lack of one, had been telling.
We’d still need to deal with those other tribes, but I wasn’t sure how yet, and it wasn’t an immediate problem.
I called the commanders over and started making plans for transport. The ships I’d called should arrive pretty soon. Until then, we’d need to march the nomads to the coast. But that was only a few kilometers, many of them were in the second or third stage, and we had enough soldiers to help those who might need it. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I wasn’t even needed for this, really. I got what I came from, even if I didn’t get much information.
Aston cleared his throat, his communication device in his hand. I quickly excused myself and stepped away with him.
“Your Highness,” he said, a smile on his face. “The Empress has returned from seclusion. Her breakthrough was successful.”
I exhaled, feeling some of my accumulated tension leave me. That was good news. But a new bit of tension started to replace it. What will Mother say, about everything?
For a moment, I considered sending a message, but I should tell her about Carston in person, and discuss a possible traitor.
And she could make the political decisions.
I glanced back at the commanders. I needed to talk to her more than I needed to supervise here. I’d take the airship to Blue Valley City. From there, I’d return with the troops that had been sent south. They were already preparing the airships. It wouldn’t take long.
The war was over. I’d be returning home.