5

Life on the frontier proved to be equal parts thrilling and aggravating. Sabina insisted on helping with the daily chores, but since she knew even less about herding goats than she did about riding horses, she was relegated to tasks inside the house. It also kept her out of sight of the ranch hands that helped with operations during the day, milking goats and cows, tending to cheese and yoghurt production, helping customers who stopped by, and other tasks Sabina didn't begin to try to understand. Fortunately for all three of them, her tutoring had included how to bake bread and prepare basic meals.

"You bake better than my Dalya!" Radomir exclaimed during their first day.

"Thank you, Radomir," Sabina said.

"No," the bear insisted. "You call me Rasha. I will be friends with anybody who drinks with me, even if they were not already friends with Dalya."

Once the chores were done, the animals tended, and the ranch hands dismissed, they spent the rest of their time doing what they could to fortify the house and fashion arrows. Sabina did not expect the Enforcers to be able to find them at all, but Dalibor insisted it was better to be prepared. He took to wearing around his armor, and Sabina was pleased to find that he wore the Verdant Blade's green-trimmed chain hauberk and leather skirt much better than Gallius. He also finally stowed Tullus's sword in favor of his own, a broad blade curved gently forward in the Hispanian style with a forged bull's head on the pommel. Dalibor was concerned that they had no protective gear in her size, so she pointed out that Rasha wasn't wearing armor either. "Sara," Dalibor told her with a sigh, "It's hard enough getting Papa to keep all of his clothes on. I'm not going to worry about armor for him."

But even with all their preparations, in the end it turned out not to matter. Three days later, all three of them were in the middle of the pasture late in the afternoon, engaged in a deep conversation about the personalities of the various goats on the ranch, when all six Enforcers emerged on foot from the tree line. Dalibor swore, got in front of her and Rasha, and drew his sword. The princess knew he must have been furious with himself. He'd warned them to listen for horses, and the Enforcers had left their horses behind. Gallius must have realized at last that his opponents had a warlord of their own.

"That was a fine chase you led us on, dog," Gallius said. "Hand over the princess, and maybe we'll kill you quickly."

Dalibor did not respond, so Sabina did. "I know that you're here to kill me," she shouted at the Enforcers from behind Rasha.

"We did not come all this way just to kill you, Princess," replied Gallius. "Your father was very clear that you were to be brought back unharmed."

"Liar," Sabina spat. "I heard the orders that he gave you. About what you were to do with my body after you delivered me to the temple."

The warlord's face darkened, and their Auric defender's shield faltered. "Your body?" she asked. When Sabina had first seen Geminia at her swearing in, she'd thought the bald defender had been a small man. Her shaved head was now hidden beneath a battered steel helmet.

"She's bluffing," said Gallius. "You heard the emperor as well as me. He wants her back alive."

"And after that?" Sabina asked. "What awaits me on your trip to Sarmatia?"

Geminia lowered her shield. Dalibor's eyes narrowed. Sabina couldn't tell if he was suspicious or if he were contemplating a weakness to exploit. "What's she talking about, Gallius?" the defender asked.

"These are all excellent questions for when we are all safely back in the capital," said Gallius.

"That doesn't answer my question," Geminia said.

"It doesn't matter. I'm not going back," Sabina said. "You'll just have to kill me here."

"We are not killing you here," Gallius said. "But you are going back."

"No, she is not," said Geminia. She turned her back to Sabina, Dalibor, and Rasha and raised her shield against her companions. She backed up slowly. "Not unless you answer my questions."

"Excuse me?" Gallius said. "Have you lost your mind, Geminia?"

"Have you lost yours?" Geminia asked. "Our job is to protect the princess."

"Our job is to follow the emperor's orders," Gallius replied. "Even if—" He cut himself off and winced before starting again. "And his orders are to bring his daughter back to safety."

"And after that?" Geminia asked. Gallius did not answer.

"I'm going to regret this," growled Ignius, and he too broke ranks with the others to stand beside the defender.

"This!" roared Navius, their ruddy and pock-marked medic. He adjusted the dark green cloak he always wore around his neck when his outburst knocked it askew. "This is exactly why females have no place in the Legion! They're irrational, and then they trick men into going along with their nonsense with the promise of pussy!"

"By all the gods, Ignius," groaned Malia. "I spent two years trying to get him past that notion, and you ruined it in two seconds."

"I am not being irrational," Geminia said. "I am sleeping with Laenas, though."

"Musca, by all the gods!" Ignius yelped. "Not the time!"

"Now is exactly the time for these questions," Geminia said. "Why would the emperor order the assassination of his own daughter?"

"Ask him yourself," Gallius said.

"Did you ask?" asked the defender.

"Of course not!" the warlord responded. "Our job is explicitly to follow orders without asking questions. You knew that when you accepted your commission."

"My commission was for the purpose of protecting the people of New Rome," Geminia said. "Not murdering them. And especially not murdering the princess!"

"I'm kind of with her on this one," Ignius added.

"Of course you are," spat Navius.

"Are you refusing an order from your emperor?" Gallius asked.

Musca Geminia Fasciata did not pause. "I am," she said.

She had her shield up to deflect Lucilius's arrow before Sabina even knew the man had fired it. It seemed almost perfunctory on both of their parts since both sides continued to glare at each other without moving. Sabina hadn't even noticed the dark-clad and dark-skinned Sable chemist in the back. Which, of course, was how Lucilius liked it.

"And you plan to join her in this madness, Ignius?" Gallius asked.

Laenas Ignius Fasciatus pleaded with the defender with his eyes alone, but she did not waver. He sighed. "Gods help me," he said. "I do."

"I was right all along!" hissed Navius.

"You're a dead man, Ignius," growled Malia.

"The punishment for an Enforcer who breaks his commission is death," Gallius intoned. He drew his gladius. "You will both die here, along with the princess's abductors, and then we shall drag her home." He flourished his blade in a manner Sabina recognized from fighting alongside Dalibor. She could almost hear the jackal's voice. Follow my lead.

But then she heard the jackal's actual voice, speaking almost too quickly to follow. "Papa, distract the dancer."

"With pleasure," Rasha replied.

"You two shut down that chemist," Dalibor continued over the bear's response.

"Yes, warlord," chimed the two defectors.

"Sabina, watch the medic," said Dalibor. "The warlord's mine. We need to incapacitate and rout, not kill."

But then Dalibor's time to guide had run out and the Enforcers were upon them. Gallius charged directly at Dalibor, sword flashing. The two of them began to duel, each sword clanging and sparking against the other as the warlords searched for any chance to pry open the other's guard and lead in their friends. In the first clash, though, Dalibor's tactics proved superior since neither warlord ended up having allies to assist them.

Navius was close behind Gallius with Malia, watching for his warlord to show him an opening, so he didn't see Sabina darting at him from his flank until it was nearly too late to deflect her knife with the haft of his greataxe. She spun and took another clumsy slash at him from behind, but the medic was quite adept in melee combat and easily countered her blow. She dodged away before he could mount his own attack, however. She knew full well she didn't stand a chance against him. She just had to keep him occupied. "Worried about your little dog, Princess?" Navius chortled, adjusting his cloak again. "Don't worry. Gallius will treat him real nice."

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"The Sabwa are jackals," Sabina said, trying to circle between Navius and the rest of the melee. "Why do people keep getting that wrong?"

"It's an insult, Sara," Dalibor said, still dueling fruitlessly with Gallius. "He's insulting me."

Sabina gasped and drew herself up to her full, if diminutive, height. "How dare you?" she said and charged at Navius again. He easily deflected her attack, but she managed to drive him yet farther away from the fight.

While Sabina had charged Navius, Geminia had raised her shield and put herself between Lucilius and the main body of the fight. The chemist's bow twanged over and over, but he could not get a clear shot on any of the combatants past Geminia's greatshield. Ignius stayed close behind her, taking cover behind the shield as the two of them advanced on the retreating Lucilius. But Lucilius was trained by the Sable Fang, and the next arrow he fired carried a small vial of something that shattered and began to eat a hole through Geminia's shield.

With three of the four remaining Enforcers engaged, it fell to Rasha to take on the fourth, and his tactics proved far different than Sabina would have expected. "Oy! Pretty girl" he called to Malia. He held out his arms. "Come hug Papa!"

That caught the Sanguine dancer's attention immediately. Sabina didn't imagine that Malia often got called pretty. The dancer laughed at him and spun her twin daggers as she sauntered away from the rest of the fight. "Oh, looking for attention, big guy?" she asked. She dropped into a low stance and began to circle with the bear. "I'll show you a good time."

"Malia, stay with me!" Gallius called, but Dalibor took the warlords split-second distraction to push a fresh assault and drove the two of them farther from Rasha and Malia.

Lucilius used Malia's innuendo as cover to fire an arrow that punched straight through the weak spot in Geminia's shield that his previous acid arrow had left. Fortunately, it still clanged off her plated lorica. The defender didn't slow her steady advance. Ignius kept close behind her, occasionally peeking out of cover to see if they were close enough for him to charge. Lucilius drew yet another oddly tipped arrow. This one he struck on a steel plate on his bracer, and it began to spark and hiss. Then he shot it into the air above the melee.

"Take cover!" Geminia called. She and Ignius dropped into a crouch with Geminia's shield above them. She blocked the hole from beneath with one of her gauntleted hands.

As soon as Navius darted away to hide from the arrow under a tree, Sabina did the same. Dalibor and Gallius, both at the center of the field, were unable to get clear, and were pelted with a thick, viscous goo that rained down when the arrow burst in midair. A couple of goats got pelted also, and ran, bleating, about the field. "Seriously, Lucilius?" Gallius called. "Don't fire quickglue where you might hit allies. There's not even safe footing out here now!"

"My hand is stuck to my shield," Geminia said.

"It doesn't matter," Ignius told her. "It won't stop you from covering us. Now come on, we have to catch him."

Lucilius broke away towards Malia and Rasha, who were circling each other far to the side of the fight. "You know," Rasha said, arms up and waiting to block Malia's attacks. "For a Sanguine dancer, you are very easy to bait."

Malia's step faltered, and she scowled. "I'll show you a Sanguine dance, beast," she said. Sabina saw Dalibor's ears flick at Malia's declaration, even as Sabina's own stomach dropped a bit. The Sanguine Song trained its dancers to disorient foes and strip them of their defenses, and they did so in a famously specific manner. When the Sanguine Song danced, people on both sides of the fight ended up naked.

Just as Sabina had expected, Malia danced back a step, flicked at the shoulders of her garb, and stepped straight out of her clothes. Rasha didn't flinch at the dancer's sudden nakedness, but Malia charged in all the same. The bear didn't even try to dodge or block her slashes, but, as she darted past him and his tunic fell apart, his thick fur puffing out with its sudden freedom, he snatched her by her upper arm. She jerked and lost her footing, and Rasha pulled her into a crushing hug. "I trained with a much better dancer than you," he told her as he squeezed the air from her lungs.

"Who would train a beast like you?" Malia wheezed. She tried to slash at him, but she could not move her arms and soon lost her grip on her daggers entirely.

Rasha smirked once she was disarmed. "Volusa Cornelia," he said.

Malia gasped, or she would have if she could have breathed normally. "No!" she whispered. She tapped Rasha's hip. "Let up a little. You have to tell me about her. She's a legend."

"I will not loosen my hold," the bear told her, squeezing just a bit tighter. "But if your hands are free enough to loosen my loincloth, I can pin you in a more enjoyable way while we talk."

"Papa!" Dalibor yelped. Gallius took advantage of Dalibor's distraction to pry his guard wide open, but there were no allies free to exploit the advantage. Dalibor tried to counterattack, but Gallius easily deflected his blow. Dalibor then did the same to Gallius's response.

"Tell your beasts to stand down, Princess," Gallius called, continuing his ineffective clash with Dalibor. "And we'll let them live."

"Liar!" Sabina shouted, her eyes still glued to Navius. She noticed the medic getting distracted by Rasha and Malia's antics. "See something you like over there, Navius?" she asked. She feinted with her knife. The medic, who hadn't been paying attention to his own fight, panicked and scrambled backwards when he saw her coming at him with her knife. He swung his axe wildly, but she was nowhere near him. She laughed at him. "Is this why you're so intent on women not being in the Legions? Because you can't keep your eyes off of them?"

The twang of Lucilius's bow interrupted Navius before he could respond. The medic and the princess dropped to the ground, but even before the arrow struck Geminia's shield and burst into flames, Ignius had darted out of cover and begun to sprint towards the chemist. Lucilius grabbed a new arrow from his quiver, drew it back, and fired without aiming, hoping that the charging striker would be impossible to miss at such close range. But Ignius, as soon as Lucilius put the arrow to the string, leapt into the air and twisted, arching his back so that the arrow passed harmlessly below him. Ignius crossed his arms over his head to protect it just in time to smash straight into the fumbling chemist.

The two of them landed beside Rasha and Malia and began to wrestle in the dirt. The bear and the dancer didn't notice them. "You really know Volusa Cornelia?" Malia asked. She had a bit more of her breath and had indeed managed to lower the front of Rasha's subligar. The big bear was getting hard from having the naked woman writhe against his bare chest.

"Know her?" Rasha asked. Keeping a tight hold on one of Malia's arms, the bear loosened his grip to spin her around so her back was to him then clamped down on her again, both of her breasts engulfed entirely in his massive hands. She gasped. "I slept with her!"

Navius's eyes were beginning to drift again. "They're not going to…" he muttered, adjusting the neck of his cloak. "Surely not right there."

"Navius!" Gallius yelled. "Focus! I need backup!"

The medic jumped and moved to help his warlord with Dalibor, but as soon as his attention was elsewhere, Sabina put her own Sanguine training to use. She darted forward and slashed clean through the belt of Navius's pteruges, causing the leather skirt to fall to his ankles and trip him. "You really do have a focus problem," the princess told him once she'd snatched his loose skirt from around his ankles and danced away to a safe distance.

"Tell her, Dalya!" Rasha called. "Tell her what Volusa said about me!"

"I'm kind of busy, Papa," Dalibor called back. He tried desperately to parry or block Gallius's intense assault. Both men were well trained with their swords, and though Gallius was by far the better Verdant warlord, his training meant nothing when he had no allies to assist him, and Dalibor was easily his equal in general swordplay.

Near their feet, Ignius and Lucilius continued to wrestle. Lucilius tried to push the striker off of himself, and Ignius let him. It wasn't until too late that the chemist realized that Ignius wasn't trying to hurt him. The striker was trying to hurt his bow. "No!" Lucilius cried as Ignius, having drawn a tiny, hidden knife, sliced cleanly through the string of the chemist's bow. Lucilius punched Ignius straight in the eye. Ignius took the punch, rolled away with Lucilius's bow, and used his momentum to bend the bow's stave the wrong way until it snapped in two. Then he hopped to his feet and held up a caestus-clad fist to punch Lucilius back. The chemist raised his hands. "Please don't hurt me!" he cried.

"Drop the quiver and the baldric," Ignius said. "Do it or I start breaking bits of you instead of your bow."

"She said I have a breathtakingly delightful girth," Rasha said. He dropped to the ground against a tree, holding Malia above his lap. "Would you like to find out for yourself?"

Malia looked down and seemed to suddenly regret her earlier eagerness. "I think I'm good," she told him, struggling again in vain to break out of his grip.

"Such a shame," Rasha said. He let go of her breasts to tighten his hug.

Geminia turned away from Ignius and Lucilius and charged towards Gallius, her hand still stuck to the back of her shield. Her armor clanked fiercely as she rushed between the panicked goats, and Gallius glanced over his shoulder to gauge the threat. Dalibor took the advantage at once, and, with the same technique Sabina had seen him use against the estate guard—she suspected it was the only Verdant art he knew—pried open Gallius's guard.

The older warlord, furious he'd fallen victim to one of his own arts, spun back to Dalibor to strike. The jackal, knowing the counterattack was coming, stepped inside Gallius's reach so that Gallius could only cudgel him with the hilt of his sword instead of the blade. Dalibor still yelped and recoiled when the blow struck cleanly on his snout. Gallius stepped back to run the jackal through, which was when Geminia barreled into him with her shield, battering him to the ground.

Gallius pushed himself to his knees, roaring. "How dare you, Gem—" he said, and Geminia slammed her shield straight into his face with a monstrous clang. The warlord fell over backwards into the mud, unconscious and gushing blood from his nose.

"Give me my pteruges, you vile hussy!" Navius said, holding his tunic in place over his crotch.

"Seriously, Navius?" Sabina asked. "First off, is that any way to address your princess? Second, your tunic is plenty long enough to cover whatever it is you're worried about us seeing. And finally…" She stuck out her tongue. "Come get it."

Navius raised his axe, but his battle cry died in his throat when Dalibor, who had come up behind him while Sabina held his attention, put his curved sword on the medic's shoulder. "It's your neck if you lay one finger on her," Dalibor growled. Navius dropped his axe, and Sabina rushed in to grab that too. "Good boy. Now I think your friends need your attention."

"Many apologies, pretty girl," Rasha told Malia. "But I have to break your ribs now."

"You really don't," Malia wheezed. But Rasha squeezed, and the dancer screamed breathlessly as her ribs cracked and popped before the giant bear dropped her to the ground.

"Did we actually win?" Laenas asked, rubbing the shoulder Dalibor had dislocated. Lucilius's quiver of specialized arrows and baldric of flasks and bombs were draped across the other. The chemist himself wept over the remains of his bow near the tree line.

"I believe we met our warlord's victory conditions, yes," said Musca.

"Gallius is unconscious now," Sabina said. "But he's going to come straight back after us when he wakes up."

"She's right," Navius spat. "You're never going to get away with this."

Dalibor rubbed his eyes and sighed. "You're right," he said. "And I hate what I have to do to slow him down." He looked down at Gallius, sighed again, and stomped on the helpless warlord's sword hand several times, until the bones of the palm and wrist were clearly broken. Navius fumed when Dalibor turned back to him. "Take your wounded and go. Your weapons stay here, though."

"So does your skirt," Sabina added.