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Chapter 11
City of Vicenzo
The American weapons cracked in the distance like thunderclaps, but the terrifying part was the roar of the flying machines. She found herself turning for a glance at every growl, every angry buzz of the strange weapons. Their machines of death did not compare to these otherworldly weapons. Not even close.
Her guards were quiet as they moved through the city.
As the arrows had stopped, civilians had peered out of their dwellings. None approached her, but she could see the various confused eyes on her. She tried to reassure the citizens with a quaint smile, but she did not bother fooling herself into thinking that it offered those living in Vicenzo any comfort.
No, she needed to do that with action on her part.
Her horse climbed the trail up to the gubernatorial palace, its hooves clopped on the stone road, audible now that the weapons in the distance were farther away. The homes, were cleaner, the people more daring as a few called to her.
“Princess Parthea?! What is the situation?!”
“Have you word?”
“What are you doing here?!”
“What is going on?”
She forced herself to limit her answers. No need to give away how little control she had in reality.
“Worry not! I am here to work on the ongoing situation!” she called, to the chagrin of her guards. It only wrought more questions, but she did not answer them as they approached the older palace walls.
Inside, the situation was very different.
If outside the population had been immensely calm, here the situation was only chaotic. Men in segmented armor with large spears moved out of the Palace, some with not a spear but a crossbow, and others with shortswords. She saw a Centurion and called to the man.
“Where is the governor?”
The man saw her, saluted once, and said “Palace gardens, highness.”
With that, the man moved on, and she nodded, then held her breath as she dismounted her horse.
Paloma was quick to question her, but she had made up her mind.
“I am going myself. These men are still enemies of ours, but if they wish to quell the crisis, then we must at least pay them some mind, must we not.”
“But highness, should you-?”
“I should. I am a representative for Father, after all.”
“There is the rub, is it not?” Paloma huffed.
“Oh, forgive me, dear advisory, what do you suggest to halt that carnage behind us?!” she barked at her as she waved her hand behind her, where the distant thunderclap of the otherworldly weapons echoed.
Paloma fell silent and objected no more.
Lucretius was walking away from the gardens. Parthea dismounted and walked over to the man, her eyes darting to the blonde woman and young senator who trailed behind him, but she did not comment as the governor met her gaze.
“Princess Parthea.” He spoke matter of factly, “I do not suppose your father sent you to mediate some peaceful resolution.”
She smiled with forced confidence.
“I will be what the people of Iberia need. I understand you have turned traitor?”
“After what General Octavius has done, perhaps I have by your father’s definition.”
Several men in green clothes, different from the ones she had seen at the city’s outer wall, these with a curious yellow patch with a black horse below an equally black stripe, ran past them without a word. Paloma and her guards tensed but nothing happened.
“So, these men are what exactly?” she asked, testing to see where there was any truth to what Octavius had said.
Lucretius did not disappoint.
“I wanted to open talks when these men offered! All I did was my duty to protect my domain as a governor of the Empire! Octavius is the one scorching the earth when there is no need for it! This is not the war the Emperor thinks it is and if working with these men is the only way I can protect my constituents, then so be it, but do not imply I am turning traitor here!”
Parthea raised her hand and said “I understand, I understand. I am here to support you. If we can save the city then it should be saved. Father himself said we should be willing to talk, so I doubt he is aware of this situation. At least in its entirety. Or Octavius is acting against my father’s orders.”
“I doubt that.” Senator Marcel suddenly spoke up.
Eyes turned to him and, quieter, he said “I apologize, highness, but your father has been expressing the desire to fully scorch the area around the Alpines to deny the enemy any ground taken and Octavius agrees. I was even attacked by his fliers on my way here. Emperor Traianus is clearly convinced this enemy is no different than the Beastmen of old.”
Parthea frowned, then said, “We shall see, but until then, I will help you defend this city and legitimize your concerns.”
Governor Lucretius seemed unsure of what to say for a moment, but soon he said “I thank you, highness.”
Suddenly, from the fields of the gubernatorial palace, the strange flying machines of the Americans rose into the air. All of them.
“What? What are they doing?”
Lucretius said “I approved of them getting reinforcements to better defend the city. They are heading back to their territory to gather men and weapons.”
“And they just willingly leave so few soldiers here? Unsupported?”
“Indeed.”
***
Dennis Orville watched as the UH-1s took off.
They had, on paper, and if the earth had been flat, just enough fuel to reach their main headquarters in the mountains. On paper. And the Earth and this world were not and could not be flat. In practice, at that altitude, the Hueys would have to stop earlier. The climb necessitated more fuel consumption. With the main roads blocked, there were a few areas set up so they could land within reach of logistics, but that couldn’t be helped.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
If one of those fire mages gets lucky…
He forced the thought aside. Couldn’t be helped. The guys around him seemed somewhat unsure of themselves. There went their lifeline, after all. Until those returned, they’d be stuck there without reinforcements or an easy way out. No way to evacuate their wounded, which was the indisputable advantage of having the Hueys to begin with.
Yet ultimately, they all looked on with some degree of indifference as their choppers rose to the heavens and pushed towards the mountains they’d come from. It was what it was, and they’d have to just deal with it until they could get them back.
“Alright, Orville, Roberts, we’re going to be spread thin until the 7th can bring more guys in. We’ll need our terps to help with coordinating alongside our… allies of convenience.” Rhodes said then.
“Yes, sir.” they both replied simply.
He wondered, briefly, if the governor would decide to flip on them if he got what he wanted from the Empire. They were technically still enemies, after all. If he didn’t want to cooperate… his eyes darted to the barrel of his M16, then to the civilians observing them from a distance. He felt a pit form in his stomach.
Don’t think about ‘em…
Sean asked “And the princess?”
Rhodes glanced in the direction of the helicopters, the gunfire in the distance dissipating as the fighting began to die down.
“Same as the governor. Granted, she’s more of a VIP if she’s really a princess. What she’s doing here now, what she brings to the table, what she can offer us, all that is still a priority to figure out.”
Alpine Mountain Range
Cassius flew close to the peaks, with his fellow fliers not far behind.
He knew the enemy weaponry could not quite reach them there, not when they were moving so cautiously and so far away, but he preferred not to risk it. Especially not with such precious cargo on his mount. The sky above was beginning to transition into the mid-day by now, and he hoped to get to Vicenzo and his general before the sun had started its descent into the horizon. Easier to drop these new weapons onto the city then. Or at least easier to identify the buildings that would more easily burn.
The wind blew into his ears, but he was trained from years of flying. He could pick up the occasional sounds of battle when he put his mind to it, and even call to each other if necessary, though hand signals were of course the main form of communication up in the air, low as they may be.
That was the sole reason they survived.
It was a growling. A strange, mechanical rumble that grew louder. Terribly familiar despite having only heard it once before. He rapidly waved his men to follow him as he pulled his wyvern away from the gorges and towards the cliff walls. The Alpine mountains had occasional slopes that were somewhat easy to traverse, but a large portion of the dreaded mountains were titanic cliff walls. Prison to the monsters that once dwelled in the lands to the north before the Iberian Empire conquered them, and hopefully prison to the new enemy. But now, they would have to do as a hiding place for them.
The wyverns gripped onto the cliff walls below, careful not to tip the weapons down into the ravine. One of his riders got especially lucky and landed in an indentation that was sunken into the mountain, almost like a cave, albeit not quite. There the sound got louder, and he squinted as the machines broke through the cloud cover.
They were hideous.
Black, flying heads with massive knives for hair that spun in a fury, granting flight. Unnatural, the machines carried the men to Vicenzo, but now they were heading back. Wholly unopposed, he knew. No wyvern would attack those without proper support from other fliers. They did not move, his wyvern tense as it seemed to know of the danger even at that range.
It was insane, that the metal beasts were but a dot in the sky overhead, yet he felt they could kill them even now.
He watched them fly by in silence, then disappear behind a peak. A mockery. They were imperial wyvern riders, the terror of many tribes of the enemies of the empire, yet these men from another world flew in the skies without care, flaunting their cursed technology in challenge to all, daring the foolish to attack so they could be cut down like wheat against a scythe.
Oh, you will get what is coming to you, I swear it…
Cassius waited a moment, then two, then three.
He gave the signal, and they continued on their journey.
Imperial Capital
"There are only rumors, Your Majesty, but they appear to be quite interesting for a person in your position." Seljuk’s glee at the final, cursed word seemed to bleed into her emotions as she stood in the darkened room.
Thule hated the sensation of the damned spymaster of the empire as he stood a little too close, his breath on her rabbit ears, his eyes gazing over her without end, but there was nothing she could do. She was tied down to the wall behind her. Her rags were old and did nothing to warm her.
Still, she could tolerate it all if what she was hearing was true.
“So, Vicenzo will fall to the enemy or be destroyed.”
"Perhaps."
"And perhaps you are worried about something."
“Indeed I am. Sharp as ever, daughter of Albion.” Seljuk laughed.
She hated it but kept silent.
“Think over the information. I will speak with you further. If you are interested, of course.”
“Seljuk…” she muttered.
“Yes?” his feline eyes shone in the darkness.
“Keep me informed. I want to know the details you know of the battle.”
“I can tell you of the outcome-”
“No, Seljuk, I want to know every detail as you learn of it.”
Seljuk huffed.
“It would be very difficult if the prince is in the middle of one of his sessions with you.”
“Worry not. This will be over soon.” then, with a crooked smile forming, she added, “You have been quite distracted by the battle today, have you not?”
He did not answer, but he needn’t have bothered.
As two pairs of footsteps rang down the hall, Seljuk vanished into the shadows once more. Thule remained tied to the wall, waiting.
Lucius Sol Traianus, heir to the Empire, Son of Emperor Adrian Sol Traianus, and her current owner marched inside. He wore formal clothing, the loosely hanging toga clean compared to the surrounding room, and he looked as though he had come from an important meeting.
There was a dark-haired woman clinging to him. She wore various jewels and bracelets over her white toga, her skin, in contrast, was an ebony that reminded her of some obsidian. As though someone had captured the night sky in a stone. A rarity in her homeland. Her destroyed homeland.
Thule forced the images of blood and smoke away as Lucious began his act and the woman watched her with curious eyes.
“And there she is. The Beast of the Northern Tribes herself!” he concluded by dramatically lighting the sole torch in the room, much-needed warmth filling the surroundings, though making her far more visible to the guest. The present bruises and scars did not seem to affect the other woman whatsoever.
The woman pulled away from him, her eyes wide as she peered at her ears specifically.
“Strange. A rabbit… I have seen feline demi-humans, but never a rabbit. How strange.”
Lucius had a wild grin as he said “Oh, that is nothing. Rabbit ears are just ears, after all. But this creature led entire tribes of barbarian beasts against me before I defeated her. For three months, her people fought against mine in bloody combat, but we were so victorious, so resilient, so steadfast in our efforts, she inevitably came to me to beg for us to stop. She swore her fealty to me and...”
Thule felt a familiar anger flare, but she forced it down.
"And the rest is part of our Empire's history now." Lucius concluded with a wide smile.
The ebony woman said, “You truly are an incredible leader.” then, to her, “And you, beast? What say you?”
Thule raised her head slightly and a little louder than necessary said “I am but a humble servant of his highness, the future emperor, now. His mercy allows me and my people to live, though we do not deserve it. He is a true leader.”
The woman’s eyes shone.
Lucius took over then.
“Well, well, enough of that. The guards will bring her food soon and it's best not to be near such a creature then. You understand how dangerous feral beasts can be when they are feeding, yes?”
“Ah, of course.”
Lucius whispered something in the woman’s ear. She laughed, then skirted away. Lucius remained behind for a brief moment.
“She is the daughter of a rich merchant from across the southern sea. Supposedly a wild people. I wonder how wild.”
Thule only said, “I live to serve you, highness.”
“Of course you do.”
He eyed her still. As if considering something, but he said nothing else. The door was shut behind him, and she was once again flung into darkness as the draft quickly extinguished the nearby torch. Still, she forced her crooked smile even then.
Change was coming. The man acted as if all was well.
But she could feel it.