Kaiji and Priceless remained in the town for three full days, hearing complaints, describing the active will of the new Duchessa, before again they moved on, village to village, town to town, gaining a first hand look at the lands their mistress now ruled.
Kaiji took to playing with the purple tag that hung from her collar along the way, and grew less talkative with every hour traveling to the north east in the long fishhook shaped route from Pas’en to Komestra.
“Still thinking about it?” Priceless asked, resting her hand on Kaiji’s thigh.
“Yes. I’m sorry. And… I should have said this before, but the last few days, you’ve done an amazing job.” Kaiji replied while looking wistfully out the window.
Priceless blushed. “Thank you, it’s been… it’s been wonderful.”
“What has?” Kaiji asked without breaking her view of the expansive open ground that carried them ever closer to Komestra.
Priceless flung herself against the cushioned back of the carriage seat and opened her arms up. “I… that’s the thing, I don’t really know how to say it.” She scratched her head and chewed on her lower lip for a moment before the light came on in her eyes.
“Perhaps… think of it like this. When the mistress first had us brought to her room in our cages, do you remember how I scraped at her feet, abased myself as lowly as I could so she knew I was going to be good?” Priceless asked, and to that Kaiji could only muteley nod.
“That came easily to me, I’ve done that all my life. But since we got these?” She caressed the purple tag she wore. “I haven’t had to do that to anyone, and it… it feels very good to not have to do that to make it from day to day.” Priceless gave a loving smile to her paramor.
Kaiji turned her face away from the window and toward her mate, her solid blood red eyes were focused on the face of the woman she loved and she asked, “Priceless… do you know what you’re describing?”
Hearing the odd tone in the voice of her wife, Priceless shook her head with several small motions. “No… what’s that, Kaiji?”
“Freedom.” Kaiji answered succinctly. “That is ‘freedom’ you’re describing.”
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Nua held the reins of the horse and guided it over the hard packed earth that served as the Tlalmok roads. At long last, the relative primitiveness of their roadways began to make a certain sense. ‘It’s travel, they do so little of it that it isn’t worth the time and expense to make them better than they are, they’re good enough, and that’s all they need to be.’ Part of Nua’s mind applauded the practical application of limited resources, part of her derided it as undignified. ‘They could have just had their slaves do it.’ The thought came to her unbidden as soon as she recalled all the useful work being done all over her estate.
Any reflective moment was stolen from her when Sobella removed the whistle and blew its shrill, screaming cry out to the city walls and Nua snapped into a ready-state. They went on more slowly, the horse beneath, taking up a slow and steady canter. “Good boy.” Nua patted the horse’s neck again and held her back straight and eyes forward.
Sobella’s hold on Nua’s waist grew slightly tighter, and inching back a little, she looked the now short haired blonde elf up and down. ‘She’s young… they’ll eat her just because… Leaman never intended her to survive this. My friend is supposed to die here…’ The vision of her escort on a table being ripped apart beside her, being forced to share despair with the only one to walk so far with her… ‘No… no… no…’ She thought, and transitioned to whispering, “No… no… no…”
Nua’s heart ached as the understanding came to her. ‘My poor Sobella… nobody’s courage holds forever… being brave so far… well, it is better than anyone had any right to ask of her.’ Not knowing what else to do, she reached down and touched the hand at her waist.
“It’ll be alright… I’ll stay with you as long as I can… I won’t leave you, I promise… I promise…” Nua’s voice was strong as steel, resolute, though Sobella could not see her face, the reverse was true, and her words, far from comforting, brought only despair as that was what she feared would be imposed by the beastial emperor.
‘It’s your turn, Sobella… it’s your turn to protect her.’ Decision took the form of will within her breast.
“Nua… do you trust me?” Sobella asked with a sudden sternness that caught the wood elf by surprise. Sobella tightened her hold on Nua’s slender waist.
“Of course.” Nua said without hesitation.
“I treasure you more deeply after these few weeks, than you can possibly imagine, you know that, don’t you?” Sobella pressed as the massive gates slowly began to open, rolling on wheels half the size of their horse.
Large lionmen were visible. Within the city, horns blew to announce the coming tribute.
Nua dropped the reins like they were hot stones and brought her hands around to hold the ones that held tight to her waist. Words defied her as the inevitable loomed in front. “Forgive me for my sin… my weakness… Sobella… I beg you… I’m sorry, if I were stronger, if I were more… if I had more power… I wouldn’t see this happen. Forgive me… in my god’s name I beg you.” Nua hung her head in shame.
The horn blared beyond the walls, cheers went up as the submission of the east was made manifest before the god-emperor’s glory.
Sobella slid her arms around Nua’s body, pulled her back, turned her head, and kissed her. Nua stared at her in disbelief, seeing only pity and shimmering glass in her beautiful red eyes. “No! Not after all that… this is my chance to do something for you… you’re not going to do that… you’re not… but I’m doing this!” She released her hold on Nua and as the elf rose back up to a seated position, Sobella’s hand went for the bone handled knife.
Nua’s combat instincts brought her hand out and caught Sobella at the wrist. “Do you trust me!” Sobella exclaimed into Nua’s ear, it froze the assassin in place, and her hand slowly relaxed, allowing Sobella to touch the precious treasure.
Sobella took the knife in hand, folding her soft, slender fingers around its sturdy hardness.
She was breathing harder, Nua could tell, hot breath of the sort Nua had not had herself in years, and might never again, kissed the back of her neck where her now short hair no longer blocked it properly.
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“Sobella… what are you doing?” Nua hissed out through gritted teeth.
“The only thing I can do, the only gift I’ve got left… just be patient, Nua.” Sobella replied with a tranquil voice that belied her heavy breath, which itself slowly began to steady and calm.
The cheers and horns of self congratulatory beastmen began to fade, and a pair of lionmen guards began to approach with the easy and confident swagger of the strong.
“I am Sobella of Pas’en! Beloved consort of Prince Rasgen the Great! I am here in tribute to the God-Emperor of the Tlalmok, to offer my life to his hunger. On my womb that would bear young, and from my breasts that would nurse them, shall he and his sons feast! As it was in the years before, so it is today!” Sobella shouted the words so that they carried beyond the walls, and anew, cheers of smugness echoed about.
The words might as well have been rehearsed for countless hours, as far as Nua could tell, they bore the air of practice, said without faltering even in the slightest.
When the cheers died down again, the lionmen reached their horse and fell in beside it. They said nothing, and moved in perfect time with one another.
Nua studied them, unlike most of those she had seen, these wore more substantial armor, breastplates that covered their torsos, they wore pauldrons on their shoulders and bright red cloth that hung from their waists and fell down loosely front and back. They wore no manes, and from their more slender waistlines, and up close, more ample busts, Nua corrected herself. ‘Lionwomen…’
Sobella clutched the knife to herself and slipped it beneath her dress so that it was against her belly.
As they rode into the city, Nua’s discipline was what kept her from all but gawking. The streets of other cities had been clean, but these were pristine. The pyramids were large enough that it wasn’t until she passed one by that she saw a great palace just beyond it, but more notably, they were white. Not gray like the stone that made up many of the huge buildings.
The streets were laid out in an orderly, gridlike pattern that spoke of the keen intellect of the founder of the place. Throughout the city she heard the sound of running water. A curiosity indeed, until she passed by a pillar and looked up to see an aqueduct system. Her eyes followed the path, and, against her will, she was impressed. ‘That runs all over the city… and it must run all the way to those mountains. They may be brutes, but stupid brutes they are not.’ Nua acknowledged unhappily.
Beastmen of every kind, including many Nua didn’t recognize, walked the street. ‘I didn’t even know that gorilla men existed… let alone ocelotmen, and so many varieties of birdmen…’ The beastmen citizens all wore some form of clothing, but every piece of clothing was bedecked by insignias, symbols, markings, or yet more decorations. So much so that Nua’s estimation of their strength went up as she sarcastically wondered, ‘It’s a wonder they’re not bowed forward with the weight they wear.’
The walls were richly embossed with murals of nature scenes, beasts on the hunt and birds of prey. Green grasses and verdant fields, thick forest scenes in which one could see the hints of predators hidden in the shadows, if one had an eye for it. Ahead, busy workers were hefting heavy stone and laboring over blocks, the steady ‘tink tink tink’ noise of chisels touched her ears before they went out of sight.
When they hit a major thoroughfare, Nua found herself surrounded on all sides as Tlalmok citizens cheered themselves or sneered at the tribute. Open maws and rows of teeth were so many, that the hot breath of predators was a wind all its own, that lightly blew their hair back while they rode forward on their horse.
‘So many of them… how much meat does it take to sustain such beings…?’ Nua wondered when they paused at an intersection to let several golems pass her by. She craned her neck to look up at them, the ground shook beneath their round and heavy feet, their thick, round arms ended in fingers that were almost as thick as her arms.
When the golems were gone, they went forward again, and it was a short while later, past the cheers of so many of the Tlalmok people, the cheering young who did not know what they cheered for, and the cheering old, who knew only victory… she learned the secret of the white pyramid.
The horrible, twisted truth. ‘Bone… they made it of bones… tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of bones from their victims.’ Nua was the first of the pair to realize it. ‘Even my former masters never conceived of something like this…’ The thought ran through her, and then she understood why Sobella had taken her knife.
‘She thinks I’ll draw it…’ Nua gritted her teeth, an old and bitter hatred for the humans who had turned her race from slaves to food rose up, her fingers twitched with the desire for violence. Her glare was impossible to hide, and undesirable to boot. As they rounded the pyramid, she saw broad, high stairs that led to the top, where one could overlook the whole city. The sun passed over it and from the wide, protruding stairs, it cast the shadow into the shape of a serpent with an open maw of bone, rising out from the top. The bones had been mixed with one another when stacked, so that every inch of skeleton interlocked, and skulls of every non-beastman race stared out with empty eye sockets. How many bones had been packed down and shattered only to be replaced with more bones from more victims to make the structure stable… Nua did not desire to guess.
Sobella hung her head. ‘Of all the places of a final rest… this one…?’
“No…” Nua whispered over her shoulder. “Not your final one. Just a temporary one. One day, one day sooner than you know, I will come back. I will stand here, with the children of terror, and bring down this edifice, find your body, and lay it to rest in a tranquil place… somewhere you loved in life. I promise you.” Nua said, stroking the shaking dark purple hand of the demon elf courtesan.
They put the pyramid at their back, and made their way closer to the palace of the God-Emperor.
They passed over broad, high bridges that arched over clear and flowing waters. - From horseback, Nua could gaze over and look down into the rushing river, and saw schools of fish, large enough in number to feed whole households. While she watched, a large beast with a sharp fin over top broke the surface, then descended, snapped its jaws on a series of fish each the size of a child on the cusp of adulthood, and then it swam on while the survivors scattered to the depths. Each one clearly glad only that it was not they who were eaten by the casually indifferent beast.
The palace of the God-Emperor was as broad as the arena, where she had slain the golden lionman, with towers as big around as small homes, and which in turn protruded upward toward the sky, larger than any human structure Nua could name, and almost as tall as any elven grown architecture.
It had a great central core that rose to a mighty dome in the center, and long stairs that lead to a great open arch. Nua dismounted from the horse at the base of the steps, assisted Sobella at the waist as before, but held her hand along the way.
She felt the demon-elf cling as tightly as she could, holding one hand over her stomach while the lionwomen followed behind.
The courtyard beyond the arch was a rich garden of plants and green trees, evidence of the Tlalmock fondness for nature at the least. ‘Strange to have that in common with them.’ Nua snorted as they came to the entryway, a rectangle double door, save for the arch theme at the top quarter. It opened as they came on, and they found themselves in a hall filled with statues that Nua immediately recognized were the work of tremendous talent… and terrible taste. The figures were grotesque mockeries of humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, ogres. Warped ugly features like large noses that took up most of their faces, hunched backs, conniving, petty expressions, eyes full of terror and cringing beneath a majestic and noble posing beastman figure of some sort with a foot on the back of their prey, holding them down.
The murels contained scenes of torturous violence, with the races on which they preyed bent in submission, fingers ripped off and dripping blood, pleas for mercy evident on the lips of those who knelt in subservience.
It all conspired to ennoble the beastmen, and denigrate the races beyond the border. Nua’s rage had begun to ebb, or at least subside, ‘They are insecure in their power, for all their wallowing in blood and pain, they are insecure. Nobody confident would need such absurd displays surrounding them at all times, even if it were intended to terrify the visiting tributes, it was pointless given all that had already been smelled, heard, seen, and done.’ This understanding drove Nua’s heart to her more common tranquility just as they reached the final room deep within the great palace.
To their surprise, there were only three figures present. A white liger easily twice as wide and a third taller than the champion Nua had bested, sat on a throne of stone. A red cape hung from a golden chain about his neck, and thick claws clicked on the stone armrest.
At his left and right stood his sons, two young males of impressive size, but obviously still just youths.
When they entered, the lionwomen escorts backed out and shut the door behind them, leaving them alone.
Sobella approached and prostrated herself. “I present myself to you, in the hopes that my life brings peace between our peoples for another year.”
Nua held back, her hands folded behind her, shoulder width apart, simply waiting.
“And that?” He asked, gesturing to Nua.
“My escort, to ensure my safe arrival, God-Emperor of the beastmen.” Sobella said softly, “She who will remain with me, to bear witness to my death.”
“I see.” The ligerman looked them both over, and licked his furry maw.
“There is… one thing, great God-Emperor.” Sobella said with quiet dignity in her patient words, “I know it is common for you to consume all or part of an escort… merely because you can do so. But this once, I beg you to relent…”
Three sets of eyes furrowed tight, “Why, meat?”
Nua waited patiently, readying herself to fight and taking in the surrounding area she might use to her advantage.
“Because, God-Emperor, if you refuse, your ceremony will be ruined.” Sobella answered, and before any questions could be asked, Sobella drew Nua’s knife from beneath her shirt, and put it to her own throat. Each of the three beastmen looked briefly confused about just what to do when the tribute took itself hostage. “Give my escort the gift of life! And I will give you my glorious death! Refuse… and find your power tainted in your very throne room!” She put the serrated edge against her throat, holding it so tight that a drop of blood ran away from the body to drip down the blade. She held the handle with both hands, and met their hungry looks with defiance.
“Your answer, God-Emperor… I need it quickly, or I will ruin everything…” Sobella answered the silent look and slipped the curve of the blade against her throat, ready to spill out her life without hesitation.