The cold white sun arose above the Crimsonarion legions. Amaya Kantanarro counted hundreds of them surrounding the citadel. It was a sea of red above the surface of the snow. Rows of soldiers in bronze galeas and cuirasses with maroon woollen tunics underneath stood to attention across the white valleys. Each southerner held swords and square-shaped shields. Amaya noticed the sigil of a gold snarling wolf in each shield’s centre, a wreath adorned above the pointed ears. A centurion shouted commands and, as if all men were part of one hive mind, they all turned in unison and marched, perfectly synchronised. What frightened Amaya most about the legions was their ability to wear open-toed sandals in the Arkovian climate. None of them appeared phased or at least hid their discomfort deftly. The most feared empire on the supercontinent, she observed, and Khan Sano invited them right onto our doorstep.
“Keep your head down,” Xerxes hissed beside her.
Amaya pulled her black hood further down her scarred face and whipped at the reins. Her hands still stung from the ritual. They were gloved as to gaze at the burnt and disfigured mess that had once been her smooth palms and fingers would surely make her weep. She hoped it to be a worthwhile investment, yet she could still not even summon a spark from her fingers. Queen Quiver never forced me to burn my hands to a crisp, she had thought indignantly and repeatedly throughout the long journey north.
The carriage pushed them further onwards. Xerxes was also hooded, a scarf covering most of his angered countenance. His eyes darted frantically over to the citadel ahead. He’s afraid. His demeanour went from vehement hatred towards the Crimsonarion Empire when first setting off from Darkfall and slowly morphed into blatant fear the closer they rode towards Star Snow. He spoke little of his time before becoming Thane of the Night Fangs. Amaya could easily assume that he was once an unfortunate victim of the empire’s campaigns in Dunia. Conquering, invading, and enslaving was the Crimsonarion’s bread and butter, and Dunia was a particularly unfortunate victim of its lust for power.
Hideo sat in the back of the carriage, far less concerned about concealing his identity. If he were to be living here, then why should he care? His black jacket was sleeveless, despite the cold. Amaya did not discern it to be an act of showcasing his masculinity. It was a sign of someone who had given up. Hideo was reluctant to be here. To live out his days as an informant. To be some hidden tutor to the daughter of a tyrant. They gave him their power and yet he will never have the opportunity to use it after today. A cruel farce. She did not envy him. When she glanced back, she saw Hideo flexing his scarred hands. They were just as disfigured. Red markings twirled around his fingers and were wrapped around his palms. He had been quiet since the ritual. More so than usual.
As the carriage drew closer, Amaya could identify that the guards at the citadel gates still belonged to the Khan. A profoundly reassuring sight. Their armour was plated, and they donned red kabutos with black scarfs to keep their faces from freezing. The great walls of the citadel towered above them, blocking the white sun. The guardsmen halted her carriage, yet barely gave her and the others a passing glance before ushering them into the Khan’s hometown. The wheels crunched into the stones below as the carriage rolled onwards.
From behind the black stone walls was a breathing city. It might not have had the scale of New Jade or Ravenhelm, however, Star Snow was incredibly densely populated. The capital of Arkovia and, like every city capital, poverty was rampant. Crowds of civilians hit the carriage in waves. Groups of beggars trailed at the carriage’s sides, pleading up at her and Xerxes, holding up their stained hands and starving babes.
“Get us away from them,” Xerxes hissed to her from behind his scarf, “we cannot prepare with them following us.”
Amaya obliged and snapped at the reins. The carriage whipped forward with aggressive velocity. The movement was so sudden that some beggars jumped out of the way and landed on their backs. Others yelled and pelted rocks, one of which hit Hideo on the side of his pale face. He did not seem to care, his eyes remaining focused on his disfigured hands. Amaya felt an unpleasant guilt with her action. It was a gnawing and sharp feeling, an emotion that she was not accustomed to. She was merely following orders from Xerxes. Then again, so were Khan Sano’s guardsmen, the Stone Ronin, and each Crimsonarion soldier posted outside. Obedience was not always honourable. She had learnt that during her time with the Sisterhood.
She halted the carriage in a desolate street corner next to a slaughterhouse. The faint wails of pigs and chickens could be heard from behind the grey walls. Beyond those grey walls, the great black citadel towered and blocked the daylight. Everything felt darker here.
They waited until nightfall. Amaya began to see how this awful citadel got such a whimsical name. The stars were plentiful and brighter than any other place she had been. They were as white as untouched snow and dazzled. The constellation took the shape of an arrow, hurtling through the night sky. Her enjoyable gazing was curtailed by a hard nudge from Xerxes. It was time.
Amaya banged on the side of the carriage. Hideo emerged from around the back, already in his shrouded zaffre gear, zukin and fukumen wrapped tightly around his head. His lightning blue eyes glinted in the dark as he took his katana from the carriage and sheathed it. Amaya retrieved her sapphire bow and quiver. The steel arrows that jutted from the top had a glistening sheen. A bouquet of flowers under moonlight. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and use them on some Crimsonarions. She had slain samurai, mercenaries, rival assassins. Crimsonarions would be an exhilarating new experience for her.
Xerxes pulled his tiger claws down each of his hands. The long sabre-length blades reflected off his Steel Lion helm. He sharpened them by grinding the blades together, the same way one does with cutlery before indulging in a heavy meal. Flashes from the stars above gleamed against the steel lightning bolts protruding from the back of his helm.
The lion helm turned to them both. “Let us not disappoint Her Sapphire Highness.” His voice was a stern and shallow boom. They marched through the light snow.
Khan Sano would be housed in the High Sphere. The orb-shaped temple was stationed in the centre of the citadel and was made out of the most unbreakable of dark marble. The orb sat atop a four-story tower with archers placed at the edge of each eave. The structure would certainly be difficult to infiltrate. Perhaps the architect used the phrase “ninja-proof” when pitching the idea to the Khan in the first place. Fortunately for them, the Empress’ strategy was not to infiltrate the tower itself, but the ground below it.
The Khan’s tower was taller than it first appeared, the giant green orb throbbing with green light. The great building stretched down into the citadel’s underground. It was agreed that the trio would enter that way through the temple’s lowest levels. Meanwhile, Takeda and his samurai guard, along with half a hundred Fangs, were stationed over the hills nearby, away from the legions’ field of vision, in case things did not go as planned. Not that half a hundred Night Fangs stood much of a chance against three legions of the fiercest empire in Pangea. It was amusing to Amaya that the Empress was willing to sacrifice so many of her own to kill one man. Such a farcical way to die for her, yet so fitting. Life was a farce, each man and woman the butt of the joke.
They had snuck past two shadows of patrolling guardsmen when Hideo sighted the sewer grate tucked away behind a brothel. The underground tunnels lacked torches to pave their way. They were in complete darkness, with no source of light. Yet she could see. She could see the spiders crawling down the walls around her, she could see the ripples in the muddy puddles below her boots, and she sighted the outlined shadows of Xerxes and Hideo skulking ahead of her. Perhaps the blood of the Night Fangs has given me more than sparkly hands…
They found one of the Khan’s guardsmen stationed by an iron gate. Xerxes dispensed with him in one swift pounce from the dark, his tiger claws digging into the guard’s chest. There was a meagre gargle, then silence. The Thane of the Night Fangs slashed the locked gate open with his bloody claws. Did he deserve to die? The Empress’ rhetoric commonly re enforced the command not to kill anyone but the assassin’s mark. When Amaya disobeyed that command, she spent weeks in Darkfall’s dungeon. But when Xerxes does it, he’ll get a pat on the back and a biscuit like the good little lion he is.
They were within the citadel’s territory. The underground was an assortment of basements. Amaya felt as if she were descending the corridors of the underworld. The walls were made of hard stone, the doors thick with wood and rusted iron. There was a pungent smell that made her skin shiver in revulsion. Nothing braced her for what they saw next.
It felt more like a cave than a basement. A large underground cavernous chamber tainted with darkness and dread. Rows of cages stretched down towards a turning. People were in them. Men and women alike. Arkovian civilians. Amaya did not know if they had been abducted from their villages similar to Salmonsing and Cold Crow and were unable to ask them. They all appeared catatonic, sedated. Amaya groaned in distaste. It was a sombre sight, made worse the further they explored the chamber.
At the end of the rows of cages laid an operating table. Stained with dried blood with arm restraints embedded at the sides, it hardly looked to be a piece of furniture for voluntary use. Xerxes pulled off his helm, a visible look of disgust on his face. “It smells fowl here.”
The Thane was not wrong. The pungent smell of rotting meat was getting worse. It violated Amaya’s sinuses. It was overwhelming, toxic, as if she could not breathe. The source was swiftly located. Small crates sat atop the surrounding surgical tables. Hideo approached one and pried open the lid. He flinched back and started coughing violently. He fell to the stained floor, pulling away his fukumen and began to dry heave.
Drama queen. Amaya waltzed over to the crate to have a peek herself. She jumped back, the pungent smell too much to bear. It was a heart, and by her estimations, it was human-sized. Amaya used the brunt of her sapphire bow to pry open another crate. Another indiscernible brown organ lay inside.
“What are they doing to them?” Hideo yelled in revulsion.
“Quieten down!” Xerxes hissed. He paced over to Hideo and lifted him up. “The Empress has a plan, and I will not allow your emotions to ruin it.”
Amaya knelt beside Hideo. He was still hunched over, coughing out the last of his retching. She unholstered the steel flask from her belt and offered it to him. He looked like he could use a drink. She raised the opened top to his lips, and he grasped the flask away from her. He downed over half of her honeyed mead, which, to her surprise, she was not bothered by. It was a strange and warm feeling to offer something to someone in a time of need. Before, she had only experienced this feeling when cutting some repugnant fiend. “I suspect the empire is using their new merchandise for more than just hard labour,” she posited.
Hideo punched the floor, and there was a bright flash that caused Amaya to jump back. She was blinded for a moment, only seeing white, before everything became blurry. She could still see something flashing through a crystallised lens. As the blurs dissipated and her vision cleared, she saw that the flashing was coming from Hideo’s hand. Blue sparks hissed and flared around his scarred fingers. His expression was panicked. He grabbed his arm with his other hand, flicking and flinching the sparks from his fingers away like one would with flames that accidentally connected to parchment. The sound was frightening. A buzzing hum that made Amaya feel like the world was ending.
The sparks vanished with a puff of small, concentrated lightning. Hideo was panting, looking at his scarred hand in horror. Steel Lion took a tentative step forward. The Thane appeared uneasy. “Craven Brother…”
Hideo turned back and gave a snarl to Xerxes that was far more aggressive than the one on the Thane’s lion helm. A snarl she had never seen before. Hideo stood and paced up to him, his face mere inches from his. “Don’t call me that,” he hissed.
The Thane stood his ground but let the tension die in the draft. Hideo darted back to the cages, smashing each lock open with a blunt rock before being commanded to stop by Xerxes. “They are too far gone, and we have not the numbers,” the Thane said solemnly.
“This can’t go unanswered,” Hideo said with gritted teeth. His voice had an unearthly edge.
“It won’t,” said Xerxes.
They moved on in silence. They kept themselves immersed in the dark, only traversing through the most tenebrous of hallways and side passages. Bloodshed was only unavoidable twice. One guard was blocking a doorway into the highest floor of the tower before reaching the orb. Steel Lion nodded his approval for Amaya to swing the bleak blade. She obliged, using her curved dagger to dispense of him. One quick slash across the throat was all it took. When it was done, Amaya noticed how the blood across the blade matched with the gleaming blue patterns across the hilt. It was a beautiful sight.
The next unfortunate guard was not in luck’s favour. The poor bastard happened to be patrolling along a hallway at the level just under the sphere. Beside him was a row of windows overlooking the citadel. When he saw the Night Fangs, he appeared morose rather than angered. He knew he was dead before steel even clashed. It was Hideo who took charge of the guardsman’s departure from the earthly courts. The once-novice Night Fang swung his katana diagonally downwards and the blade cut through the man’s breastplate as if it were made of melting ice. There was a gargle, and the song was sung.
It was deft and cold. She had never seen Hideo like this. There was a rage in those dark blue eyes that did not resemble the awkward and stubbornly moral man she had known back at Darkfall. His right hand that had previously flared was bare and disfigured, shards of skin burnt away. She tilted her head and looked at him in fascination. She quite liked this Hideo…
Their stealth took them closer to the orb. Two Crimsonarion soldiers were posted by iron doors, impeding their only way in. Hideo turned around a corner and faced them without consulting his fellow fangs. He withdrew a small sandbag from his belt. Blue grains filtered through his scarred fingers. He threw the blue dust into the marble floor and the entire hallway became puffed with sapphire clouds. When the blue dust settled, the two guardsmen were splayed about the marble floor like lifeless ragdolls. The Night Fang that Amaya could no longer recognise stood above them, his curved dagger bloodied.
“Faster,” he muttered hoarsely to them before opening the doors. Amaya turned to look at Xerxes with a face that was a mixture of concern and excitement. The brick-headed Thane only grunted and pressed on.
The inside of the great orb was a cavernous spherical throne room. The Night Fangs snuck under the stairs and upwards, climbing the crevasses of a high marble pillar. Samurai and Crimsonarion alike patrolled throughout. The three fangs took watch atop a web of tangled steel beams that overlooked the entire throne room.
At the lower level lay a large steel cage that towered over two centurions. A large raptor, the height of a human with golden feathers, bashed his snout and hissed from within. Most of the stationed guards were Crimsonarion, donned in the same plated armour and plumed galeas as the legions outside. Amaya assumed that the beast was an exotic gift to the Great Khan from the Empire as a token of goodwill.
Amaya cast her vision down at the man who sat atop a large throne made of gold and jade. She had never laid eyes on the Khan in person. She had heard that the man was built like a god, with a torso as hard as iron, skin as luminous as gold, a handsome face that appeared chiselled from marble. Amaya had to do everything in her power to stop herself from blurting out laughing and revealing themselves. His propagandists were masters of their craft. Khan Sano was overweight, his face blemished with spots and scars.
His braided beard was greasy and unwashed. The crown, a circle of gold and bronze embroidered with jade gems, looked as if it might snap apart, barely fitting the tyrant’s throbbing forehead.
The Khan’s daughter, and Hideo’s future mentee, Shino Sonoda sat next to her toad-like father. Her expression seemed forlorn, and she fidgeted with her black sleeves endlessly. If she was pleased to be present, then she was doing a remarkable job of convincing everyone around her otherwise. Handmaidens bowed their heads as they replenished the dining table that lay in front of the father and daughter in silence. Seeing the vast variety of food available to them vexed Amaya. There was pig, chicken, herbs, spices, bread, and a tub of butter. Meanwhile, citizens outside of Star Snow had to hunt and fight for their own food amongst the Hell Pigs and Nanuqsauruses.
Ascending the stairs towards the throne was a small escort of Crimsonarions which fell behind two ambassadors. Amaya assumed them to be senators from the empire. They were draped in white togas with scarlet sashes adorned around their shoulders and across the end of each sleeve. The youngest one; a thin man in his fourth decade stepped forward in a dignified demeanour.
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The Khan was too busy gnawing on the end of a chicken wing to make eye contact with his esteemed guests. “Are your men making themselves comfortable?” Sano asked without looking, a spittle of grease erupting from his lips.
The Crimsonarion Ambassador only gave a wan smile and bowed. “With all due respect, Great Khan, but a true Crimsonarion does not take joy in comfort, but in conquest. This arrangement is most unorthodox.”
The Khan gazed up from his half-eaten wing and locked eyes with the Senator. “But you still intend to honour it, yes?”
“Only if we may finally talk terms. My men grow weary of this throne room. You sit us here and feed us for so long that it begins to feel as if you are putting something off.” The Senator gave a thin grin, his small beady eyes gazing disapprovingly down on the crowned glutton.
Khan Sano scoffed at him and turned to his daughter. “You see this, child? The insolence? The lack of respect?” He spat out the last chunk of meat contemptuously onto his plate. “No matter how hard you try to please everyone, they will hate you.”
Shino meekly nodded and turned her gaze to the floor, staring at nothing and no one.
The Senator cleared his throat and withdrew a scroll from underneath the sleeve of his drooping toga. “The treaty between Emperor Nerva Narciso of Crimsonaria and Khan Sano Sonoda of Arkovia.” He lay the scroll across the dining table. It unfolded before the Khan and his servants like a swan opening its wings. The writing was cursive, the inky words too small to be read from up high above amongst the beams. “In return of you keeping your throne, you will allocate one province to be occupied by the Crimson Empire. Grey Wallow will suffice. Especially after the tidings, we heard of Shogun Otomo’s unfortunate passing.”
“We have a new Shogun there now.” Shino’s voice was strangely confident and regal. Certainly not the voice Amaya expected to leave the mouth of Sano’s small and fidgety little brat.
The Senator looked back to his fellow ambassador and his small row of soldiers before chuckling amiably. He knelt down to the young girl’s eye level. “Then I’m afraid that he will have to capitulate also, as will the townsfolk. Such is the way of trade. Surely you would rather have trade than war, young one?”
Even Amaya found herself frowning at the Senator’s condescension. If that had been her as a child that he spoke to in such a patronising manner, she would have plunged a dagger right through his beady little eye. The Desert Raptor began to hiss from behind his cage and a centurion bashed a baton against the iron bars to silence it.
“And the slaves?” Khan Sano asked, leaning back into his wide throne.
The Senator tapped a ringed finger at some smaller font stained near the bottom of the parchment. “You will provide us with two-thousand slaves. Sixty percent of which will be applied to labour and servitude. The other forty percent will be used for organ transplants for our empire’s sick and ailing.”
“That’s enough,” the Khan bellowed with a raised hand. “That will not be suited for my daughter’s ears. I’ve read the damn thing so we can move on.”
Shino looked up at her father with a frown. “What will happen to them?”
“Not your concern,” the Khan said as he gave his daughter a dismissive wave before turning his attention back to the eager ball of slime in a toga. “And the other end of your bargain?”
“Four million Denarii to help your land prosper,” the Senator said with a proud shit-eating grin. “Seeing as we will also be sharing it, this token of gratitude felt appropriate to our august Emperor. I will be taking personal governorship of Grey Wallow.”
The Khan nodded his head in dismal approval. “Very well, Magnus Crassus. Enjoy your new land and title.”
“You have my gratitude, Great Khan.” The one called Magnus contorted his face into an unpleasantly gleeful smirk. There was an off-putting delight in his voice. “May we sample?”
The Khan whistled, and his guardsmen brought them in front of his throne. Two young slaves, one boy and one girl, were hauled up the stairs and presented in front of the ambassadors. They were in rags and chains. Shino watched them with pity. She seemed almost riddled with guilt at the sight of them. Clearly not enough to implore for their freedom, though. Spoilt twerp.
Magnus walked circles around the two unfortunate souls, inspecting them up and down as if they were cheap timber. Magnus grabbed the young woman’s arm. “Sturdy,” he said enthusiastically. “She can help to rebuild Grey Wallow’s towers for the better. With marble walls and crimson drapes.”
Amaya could feel Hideo’s emanating anger warming beside her. If his eyes could shoot lightning, the Great Khan’s floor would have been charred black already. His damn righteousness will be our undoing.
The girl’s face was too dirty and too far away for Amaya to get a gage on her countenance. Their emotions had most likely been beaten out of them. No Crimsonarion lord wants to see their property weep. Magnus then circled the man, the ends of his white toga gliding across the floor. He seemed less impressed with this one. The boy had barely entered adulthood and was gaunt and lanky around the arms. His head had been shaven, his face bruised and purpled. “This one looks too weak to stand. I hope the rest of them are not this way.”
“A poor selection,” the Khan said as he bit down into another wing, grease spitting out in every direction. “Allow my men to escort you downstairs to observe the rest.”
Magnus sighed and made a light, dismissive wave of his hand. “No. I grow tired here. We’ll take them.” He gave a last glance back at the underwhelming product. “He can be harvested.”
The girl began to scream as they were separated from each other by the Khan’s guards. Amaya could not catch all the words that the slave couple shouted to each other in Arkovian. She could not tell how they were related. The slave boy seemed to know his fate, as he yelled out his final goodbye in Arkovian.
Perhaps she could have learnt more from the slaves, the senators, and the Khan himself. Knowledge was also a weapon that she could use when they finally found the perfect opportunity to swing the bleak blade down upon Sano. Perhaps Amaya could have slipped poison into his tea, waited until he lugged his large body into his precarious bed and then have her arrowhead kiss him goodnight. With enough time and knowledge, the possibilities were exciting and endless to her. Unfortunately, she would not get to have such options. Hideo had to ruin everything, like he always did.
He leapt from the beams above and used a Crimsonarion guardsman to cushion his fall. His katana landed deep in the guard’s neck. As the centurion tumbled down, his red plumed galea rolled across the marble floor. It was the only sound that could be heard for a long time. The echo of spinning steel as the helmet crashed past the stunned guards like a steel tumbleweed. Even the caged raptor had fallen silent.
“Damn him to hell!” Steel Lion bellowed from behind his helm as he bounced off the beam, digging his tiger claws into the shoulders of one of the Khan’s personal guards. Amaya remained above, glancing at the brewing chaos below her. She nocked back an arrow and fired one into a Crimsonarion charging towards Hideo with a charging spear. Her target dropped and as he fell, he aimlessly flung the spear which embedded into another of the Khan’s personal guard. A truly superlative shot.
Amaya’s fun was curtailed as she saw Khan Sano himself pointing up at her and ordering his guards to fire a swarm of arrows. She dropped from the beam just as the bolts struck into wood. Amaya selected a Crimsonarion who pointed his short sword around directionless amid the haze of erupting battle. Distracted and disoriented. He would make a fine landing pad. She plunged an arrowhead into the crevasse of his plated armour and rolled away as he spasmed on the floor. The tide had turned swiftly.
Hideo’s katana had been knocked away by a centurion’s mace and he was being kicked into submission. Steel Lion slashed his tiger claws back and forth to ward away the surrounding guardsmen. He was being backed into a corner, a lion about to meet the end of a hunter’s spear. It took two soldiers and the cost of two other’s severed limbs to grab each of the Thane’s arms and force his knees onto the floor. They pulled away his lion helm as Xerxes cursed and hissed.
Amaya merely dropped her bow. It was over. A looming centurion in a plumed galea dragged her to the other two other idiot fangs and knelt them in a row. She felt the cold side of a dagger pressed against her neck. She could only smile. What a foolish way for some ninja assassins to be caught. They deserved the execution. They pulled away the wraps around Hideo’s head. The fury was still on his face. One that the helpless fool would have to keep unquenched.
Amaya could hear the Desert Raptor hissing from the cage that was only a few metres away. She pondered if she would be the beast’s supper as the Khan and Magnus Crassus descended the stairs to observe their new prisoners, and ultimately decide their fates. Sano’s black robes dragged across the floor behind him as he waddled past the three of them, inspecting each assassin with keen intent. As Magnus stepped closer, his eyes lit up in wonder. “By Areos, the blue silks, the curved blades… They’re Night Fangs!” He giggled in glee. “I thought you were a myth.”
Khan Sano appeared far less impressed. “They’re cutthroats that will be executed,” the boulder of a man declared. “I apologise for the disturbance, Senator Magnus.”
“Senator!” one of the Crimsonarion grunts called out. He pulled Xerxes’ head to one side, revealing the dark wolf tattoo that covered the side of the Thane’s neck. “This is one of ours.”
Magnus’ toga glided towards the Thane. The Senator lifted Xerxes’ head and examined him with a slimy grin. “How did you get so far from the Empire, little bird?”
“You’ve been abducting your own people.” The vitriolic words came from Hideo’s gritted teeth. He looked up at Khan Sano with acidic scorn. “Harvested them like cattle. All just to please your oppressors?”
“Would you rather they take everything?” the Khan asked, gesticulating at the Crimsonarion horde that surrounded them. The Khan’s daughter appeared, peeking from behind her father’s regal robes. She looked at Hideo with confusion at what she was hearing. “My days of plunder are done,” the Khan said in resignation. “Nerva’s armies are bigger, they fight better. Sometimes you must compromise.”
“Do the lives of those you rule over mean nothing to you?” Hideo shouted. His words echoed contemptuously around the dome.
Magnus Crassus stepped in to answer on the Khan’s behalf. “Dear boy, empires are a business and should be run as such. Sometimes lives must come under the collateral.”
Behind the Khan and Senator, Amaya could see the two enslaved Arkovians being hauled away downstairs. This only seemed to add more flames to Hideo’s fervent rage. He spat blood onto Magnus’ resplendent white toga. The Senator shrieked in revulsion. “Savages,” the Senator shrieked, clutching at his toga in disgust. “Beastly people, the lot of you!”
Khan Sano attempted to placate the Crimsonarion Ambassador, fruitlessly attempting to wipe the red stain away with his cloth. “Senator, I apologise-”
“Enough,” Magnus shouted, whacking the Khan’s hands away. He looked at his soldiers. “I want them beaten to death.”
How original. Amaya had expected something more exciting than that. Even her own death was a disappointment. She was pushed into the hard floor. Hideo fell next to her. She felt the kicks jabbing from all sides, but that was not what bothered her greatly. It was Hideo’s eyes. They had literally blackened like two orbs of iron. His skin turned milky white, and his hair blended into a dark inhuman blue. She noticed the flashing sparks appearing around his disfigured hands. Amaya’s heart began to race. She called out to him, her voice so trembling that in any other circumstance she would kill anyone that witnessed her sounding so vulnerable. Hideo did not answer. Hideo was no longer there. The sparks around his white hands erupted. A shield of sprawling bolts flashed away from the Crimsonarion soldiers and were flung into the granite walls of the throne room.
Amaya was slid away from the sheer force of impact, coughing out some of the dust and smoke that she caught. A large portion of her cloak was missing, and she felt one side of her face burning. She could hear Shino screaming. She saw Xerxes struggling to stand. There was too much shouting and chaos around her. She decided to focus on the centurion charging towards her with a spear. She felt the unpleasant realisation that she had lost her sapphire bow. It mattered not. Just as the spear reached her, something latched onto the centurion. It was inhumanely swift, like a large leaping spider.
The beast was Hideo, blue bolts flaring around his arms and hands uncontrollably. His skin was white as chalk, his eyes blackened and without a soul. He bit down into the centurion’s neck as sparks flared wildly around the two of them. Amaya could have sworn that she saw the flash of fangs glow from his pale mouth. Blood splattered, and the beast was vanished before Amaya had even processed the attack.
She wondered around the throne room, dazed and frightened. Crimsonarion bodies were all around her, yet she could not say for certain when they had died. No man or creature could be that quick. There were bite marks and blade handles protruding from each of the bodies. One guard’s face had been scratched so frequently and deeply that it looked as if a wildcat had been feasting on him for days. She heard guardsmen screaming from afar, followed by a loud and hideous shriek. The lower level of the throne room was shrouded in darkness. She could hear screams and the clang of blades. There was a shrill cry, ferocious and echoing. The beast’s noises were so strong that Amaya felt them vibrate through her body, like that of a Tyrant Lizard. Her heart was pounding. She did not fear death. She feared whatever that was. What Hideo had become. What dark force had consumed him.
Arrowcat became distracted by some pathetic whimpering to her right. Magnus Crassus was crawling across the floor, leaving a blood trail behind his soaked toga. He was lacking a leg, the bloody stump still leaking. Xerxes loomed over him. He raised a tiger claw and sparks began to pulsate between the thin blades. “He does not get to have you.” There was a tranquillity in the Thane’s voice. A cool and sadistic fulfilment. She watched as the Thane plunged the long and curved pulsating claws into the Senator’s back and dragged downwards. It was like cutting through pork and the Senator certainly made the appropriate shrieks that resembled a squealing pig. Sparks and blood flew together and coated the marble floor in Crimsonaria’s glorious, symbolic dark red. The blood gleamed red as their togas, red as their banners. Red as the plumes on galeas.
Amaya staggered past the Thane as he exacted some repressed rage. She saw the Great Khan himself limping away from the chaos at the lower level. He stopped in front of the caged Desert Raptor. The yellow reptilian eyes gazed at Sano from behind the bars in curiosity. The creature banged his feathered tail against the bars and scratched at the iron floor under his claws. Amaya approached the Khan. She pulled a curved dagger from her belt. Her last remaining weapon. Xerxes was too busy dealing with his past trauma. Hideo wasn’t even human anymore and was causing carnage in the shadows. It was down to her to actually do what the Empress had sent them here to do in the first place. To swing the bleak blade. Perhaps she would finally be accepted as she had been in the sisterhood. Before Queen Quiver stripped her of her bow for having the audacity to question their creed. Perhaps when Amaya ended Sano, the Empress would truly embrace her. Welcome her into loving arms that meant it. To give her the family and acceptance that she had only thought a myth.
Khan Sano stumbled as he saw the Archer approach him. He picked up a spear from one of the Senator’s fallen escorts. The spiked tip was gilded and twinkled as the Great Khan charged at her. Amaya dropped her dagger and grasped the handle of the weapon before the blade could impale her. The Khan was unhealthy, obese, and breathing heavily. Terrifyingly, his large build worked to his advantage. He thrusted the spear forward and Amaya found herself falling on her back, still grasping at the handle. The Khan stood over her. His eyes were bloodshot. His hands were turning a bright red as he struggled to push the spear downward. The tip of the blade was inches from Amaya’s face. Now this is a more exciting way to die! No other compromise mattered to her. It would either be family or death.
There was a burst of blue sparks. A flash of blinding whiteness. Amaya no longer felt the tip of the spear caressing her forehead. Everything was blurry. She could hear Sano howling. There was a smashing against bars. As her vision cleared, she saw the lightning beast slashing his claws into Sano at the end of the throne room. The Khan’s boots were kicking meekly as a pool of blood circled around him. She then turned her attention to the bashing.
Hideo’s flashy return had blown the locks from the raptor’s cage. The bronze-feathered creature seemed to take notice. Amaya’s eyes widened. She slipped as she tried scrambling to her feet. By the time she stood, she heard the sound of steel crashing apart. She did not have a chance to turn. She was knocked down on her back again. The Desert Raptor’s wing was a wall of gold. The claws of the reptilian’s bird-like foot were black like iron nails and shaped like curved blades. They stomped down on Amaya’s head and held her there. She heard the raptor cluck and caw as she felt the claws drag across her face. She screamed. She tried not to. Screaming was for victims, but the pain was blinding. The slashes were rapid. Each one burned more than the last. Slash, slash, slash.
She tried to pry the foot away. It was like trying to lift a mountain. The Desert Raptor’s yellow eyes narrowed on his prey with curiosity. The creature continued to repeatedly drag the claws across Amaya’s face. The raptor displayed two rows of yellowed, razor teeth and snapped her beak around Amaya’s head. What a farce, she thought as she felt blood tricking down past her eyes and nose. Her cheeks and chin sizzled from the deep cuts.
The claws stopped slashing, but the burning remained. She opened one eye to see Xerxes impaling his tiger claws into the raptor’s side. The reptile hissed as it plummeted down onto the floor beside her. The black-clawed foot was twitching. She was in too much pain to move. She could only open one eye. She struggled to utter words.
Amaya attempted to touch her face. Her nose and chin burned acidicly at the contact. She tried to yell. All that she could do was whimper in agony. She could not see what else was happening around her. The throne room fell silent. There was no more screaming. A long time filled with pain and uncertainty passed before she saw Xerxes stand over her. The Thane’s face was grave.
He knelt down beside her and lifted her head. She groaned at the painful movement as he wrapped a Crimsonarion cloak around her face. “How bad is it?” she managed to wheeze out the words, each syllable causing more flashes of acidic pain.
“Bad,” the Thane bluntly answered. Xerxes continued wrapping the cloak around her head. Only her eyes were left unhidden behind the silks. She felt the fabric turn wet against her bloody face. Her pained lip quivered, and she felt her eyes water. He lifted her to her feet. Every movement, even from her legs and arms, somehow caused her face to burn deeper. Xerxes placed her arm around his shoulder and the two of them hobbled over to what remained of the Khan.
The lightning monster had seemingly vanished. Instead, they found Hideo hunched over the splattered mess of the late Arkovian ruler. His skin was no longer pure white. It was pale and bruised. The sparks and bolts had caused his arm wraps to burn away. He was shaking. He looked back at the two of them with trauma deep in his eyes. He was weeping loudly, unlike Amaya, who had done her best to keep that silent as Xerxes carried her. Hideo stared across the bloody mess he had made. There was not much left of the Khan. It was as if a pack of lions had torn him asunder. It was all just… blood, flesh, and bones.
There was a shrill cry. Shino Sonoda ran past the bodies of Arkovian and Crimsonarion guards. Most of them were Hideo’s work. The little urchin must have had the wits to squirrel herself away somewhere whilst the beast’s rampage unfolded. Xerxes detached himself from Amaya without warning, and she fell on all fours. Amaya cursed behind the cloak that was wrapped around her face. It still burned.
Xerxes grabbed the Khan’s daughter and turned her away from the bloody mess. “Shield your eyes, child,” he said, not unkindly. The heir to the Arkovian throne wept into Xerxes’ breastplate.
Amaya crawled over to Hideo. He was still shaking, staring down at the bloody mess. Panting and quivering. She pushed herself up with her elbows and shuffled towards him. She delicately unwrapped the cloak from her face and gave Hideo a smile.
Hideo jumped back and his mouth went agape. He crawled back to the wall, flickered his eyes to his scarred hands, then back to the Archer’s smiling face. “Spirits, Amaya, what have I done?”
“Was it something I said?” she asked, noticing her own blood trickle onto the marble floor.