Swords of the Imperium (Dark Fantasy Novel) (The Polaris Chronicles Book 2) (36 page)

Jibriil let out a quavering breath. “Milady, I—”

“But you also betrayed him in the first place!” Lotte said. “So, in accordance with the Hoplite’s Code, I leave judgment to Natalis. Fahnrich, he’s yours.”

“Kil—” Taki stopped short when he saw something flash across Enilna’s gaze. Sure, she’d also figured it out, but she wasn’t rejoicing to be rid of the traitor. Most of the time, it was difficult to describe the momentary feelings of a glance, but Taki found reading her to be easy.
Regret,
he chose.
She still thinks I’m a kind soul and not a petty bastard.
He would have to disabuse her of that notion.
But not now.

He cleared his throat. “Stay your hand, Prince of Maladies. This man’s a cur, but he’s also lost everything.”

Jibriil lowered his forehead to the cobbles and squeezed shut his eyes.

“Von Halcon,” Lotte said, “I must impose on you once more. Take Jibriil into custody and deliver him to our gaolers. He’s strong and wily, and I trust only you to mind him.”

Lucatiel groaned and spat but set to work tying Jibriil’s wrists together. Then, she pulled him up and kicked his rump to get him to move out the door and back to the rooftop. “Hadassah’s right,” she said as she passed by Taki. “You
are
lame, Natalis.”

Taki couldn’t find the words to retort.

Enilna wiped at her eyes and threw her arms around Taki’s neck. Despite how exhausted he felt, Taki allowed himself to revel in her warmth. Her hair tickled his nose, and he breathed in deeply. She smelled of sweat and gun smoke, and the scent drove away the nauseating odor of blood still stuck in his throat.

“By the way, are you still
intact
?” she said as she broke the embrace.

He scrunched his brow. “What does that mean?”

“They didn’t violate you, did they? I mean, rape you?”

“Now you’re being annoying again.”

“Well?”

He sighed. “Not that I remember. I think some creature sucked my blood, but as far as I know, she didn’t do anything else.”

“Good,” Enilna said. She grasped at the collar of his shirt and pulled him in so their foreheads collided. “You’d better not screw up and die or get captured again, Natalis. And when you’re healed, I’m going to deflower you.”

“Not if I get to him first,” Lotte said.

Enilna’s reply was drowned out by the sound of shouting as Draco, Hadassah, and Karma barged in with weapons drawn. Taki cracked a smile and let them tackle him again. His ribs ached and his limbs burned, but there was no way he’d turn down their affection. Despite everything that had happened, he’d missed his friends.

With much hesitation, the impenetrable gates of the Teufelsbrucke rose to the accompaniment of cheering and the popping gunfire. Thick smoke wafted from almost every arrowslit on the walls, and the banners of the noble houses of Ursala were strewn on the ground in tatters. The Imperial standard flapped in the wind amid a swirl of embers. The Liberation Army had ended its month-long siege.

Tirefire the Lesser had nested in a ransacked nobleman’s bedchambers with a panoramic view of the mountains near the top of the keep. No one wished to go back to the squalid conditions back at the army camp, and no others seemed to mind or take notice.

Taki winced while Draco clumsily mashed a poultice of herbs soaked in lye against the fang-marks on his chest. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” he asked while he fought the urge to start scratching his skin off at the edges of the bandage.

“Aye,” Draco said. “Elsa’s been teaching me the ways of healing. Now, I can bandage, splint, and even suture up a gash.” He eyed Taki’s leggings. “Say, you sure you don’t want me to take a look down below? I know what can happen in the dungeons, and it’s no stain on your honor…”

Taki shut his legs together. “It’s perfectly fine!”

“Are you sure? I’ve got a recipe for a soothing ointment, with a pleasant side effect of…”

“He just wants to finger your bung is all,” Hadassah said, and set down a basket of gauze strips nearby.

“I’ll have you know that men have a certain gland that the likes of you couldn’t possibly hope to comprehend,” Draco sniffed.

“Ew,” Hadassah said with a grimace. She pushed Draco to his feet. “Go be pervy somewhere else. Stimulate Karma’s gland if you must! Shoo! Get out of here!”

Taki snickered as Draco left in a huff. Without missing a beat, Hadassah continued to wrap loops of cloth around Taki’s chest.

“Thanks,” Taki said. “But I think it’s a bit too tight.”

“You’ve ever worn a corset?” Hadassah retorted. “This is nothing, so bear with it. And I can’t believe your gall. You let Jibriil’s head stay attached to his body? What happened between you two? Hanky-panky in the mountains?”

“No, although I trusted him more than I should have in the end. He did save me from the princess in the dungeons. I owed him that. And now he’s a ruined man.”

“His type never stays down for long. If I get a chance, I’ll put a round in his head. You can buy me cheese and beer for it.”

“Aye, cheese and beer sound amazing right now.” Taki laughed. “I missed you, by the way.”

“You’d better not have thought of me while wanking in the dungeon.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“Smart lad,” she said, and yanked the ends of the bandages into a knot. Then, she put her lips to his ear. “Captain told me not to tell you—seeing as you’re one of their officers and all—but I know you’d want to hear it. Jibriil spilled his guts. The primate lied to us about Hecaton, and the Imperials just went along with it. They never wanted us to find her. So we’re gonna get them back.”

“How?”

“The Imps are hiding the castellan down in the caverns below. He’s a valued source of info for them, and they probably worked out a deal allowing him to hide until we’re well away. So we’re gonna kill him, and there’s nothing the Imperials can do about it except get mad. Your choice to come along or not. We’ll understand if you don’t.”

Taki nodded imperceptibly. “Thanks, Dassa.”

Two bells later, Taki stepped up to Lotte in the torture theatre and saluted. His saber was strapped to his side, his brigandine was taut, and his pistol loaded and chambered. “Reporting for duty, Captain.”

Lotte looked at Hadassah and scowled, but a moment later shook her head and smiled. Draco and Karma grunted in approval and patted the hilts of their blades.

“So, where is he?” Taki asked.

“Deep down,” Lotte said. “Past where human hands built. The Imperials want him to burrow in safety until we’re long gone. But I know where he is. I can tell.”

They set off. Past even where Taki had been held and his blood slowly drained, and past where the smoothness of masonry gave way to the jaggedness of rock and the majesty of caverns forged by time. Lotte moved as if guided by some unknowable essence, some connection of fate, even in the overwhelming darkness so thick that five torches held high did little more than illuminate the ground beneath their feet.

After what felt like days on end of treading in the dark, Taki saw something shimmering in the distance. He tapped Lotte’s shoulder, and her face turned stony.

“Snuff the torches,” she ordered, and then gestured for the others to follow at a distance.

Taki crept around the stalagmites a few paces behind, gingerly stepping through the treacherously sharp stones underfoot. As he drew closer, he could now see a stone grotto dimly illuminated by a pair of torches. Within it was a ramshackle hovel, obviously built without the benefit of a work crew or tools larger than could be carried in hand. From the hovel, a man emerged. Taki recognized him immediately: the castellan.

The man smirked. “Finally. I was beginning to think you Osterbrands had left me to rot. Tell Generalleutnant Reinhard I want my chambers restored to the exact way I had them before. Well, don’t tarry. I’m sick of this place already.”

Lotte drew her greatsword. “Duvalier.”

“That’s Comte de Duvalier to you, woman. Put your sword away. There’s only molerats down here.”

“Do you remember, three years prior, an attack by the Archangel Yuriel?”

Duvalier snorted. “Ugh. So you’re not from Reinhard. The incompetent ass.” He spat. “There have been many attacks from the exarch, woman. I deign not to memorize my enemies’ names. I assume I bested you at one time, yes?”

“You did,” Lotte said. “You destroyed my company and then captured three of us, myself included. You made me choose who died.” Her greatsword shook.

“I think I vaguely recall that. Yes, that hideous scar of yours. Really, you should be grateful and lower your weapon. I not only spared your life back then, but also an additional man as well. Now take me up to my castle, and I’ll reward you handsomely for the escort. I won’t even tell Reinhard about your little tantrum.”

The gall
. Taki’s hand went to the hilt of his saber.
The absolute gall.

Lotte let out a chuckle. “You won’t be leaving this place alive, sirrah.”

Duvalier snapped his teeth together. “You’ll regret that!”

A woman emerged from the hovel door. In contrast to the decrepit surroundings, she was clad in the sort of finery only reserved for royals. Cambric, lace, and velvet, all topped with a heavy veil that hid her face. Taki clapped a hand over his mouth as he recognized the familiar smell of blood and honey.

Lotte leapt forward and swung to take Duvalier’s head off, but the princess moved swiftly and blocked the strike with a sword breaker. The clash threw angry sparks in all directions, and the blade fractured. Lotte pivoted and chopped at the woman’s wrists to cut them, but the woman parried again and shattered the massive blade at its midsection. In return, Lotte lashed out with a swift kick and pushed her opponent back. The veil fell away from the woman’s face, revealing the haughty perfection of an Ursalan princess.

The princess snarled, crouched in a fighting stance, and drew another sword breaker. She murmured a brief incantation, and arcs of current boiled off the weapons’ rounded heads. One strike from either breaker, and Lotte would fry. The princess licked her lips and strode forward with a look of feral glee.

Without devoting overmuch thought to it, Taki drew his Herstal and fired. The princess’s head snapped to the side, and something splashed on the floor. Her body went limp, and she flopped over on the ground.

“That’s cheating!” Duvalier exclaimed.

“Fuck your rules,” Taki said.

Lotte dropped her broken sword and pounced on the castellan before he could draw a gun from within his finery. She wrapped her hands around his head and drove her thumbs into his eyes. After a few more minutes, he was still. She let the body drop and turned to Taki.

“Let’s go home.”

Reinhard pushed a small wooden soldier figurine over a large map of the Ursalan heartland. Across from him, Aslatiel sat with his chin rested on folded hands. Standing next to Reinhard was the primate of Astarte, bundled in velvet trimmed with ermine and leopardskin. Torches lit the castellan’s former private bedchamber, which had been turned into an impromptu war room.

“We’ll push across the Rhone in five places at once,” Reinhard said. “The bulk of the offense will be led by three brigades of infantry backed with lancers and mobile cannon—”

Lotte kicked the door open and strode in with Taki in tow. The rest of Tirefire the Lesser tromped in behind him. The primate yelped and stumbled back and fell unceremoniously on his rear. Aslatiel and Reinhard, however, seemed unfazed.

“Captain Satou,” Reinhard said. “You’re just in time. We’re planning the invasion of the heartland. I’d like to make you commander of five tercios, especially after your stunning performance in Xizhang—”

“You lied about Mezeta,” Lotte said. “She never came through here.”

Reinhard shook his head. “The primate gave you bad information. It’s unfortunate, but I promise you that finding and capturing Hecaton Mezeta is a top priority—”

“No, it’s not! You just used us to take this place. If you have any sense of honor at all, then tell me where she is.
I know that you know.
Otherwise, my men and I are leaving, and you can shove your invasion up your asses.”

Aslatiel rose. “Lotte, I promise you. After we take Ursala, the entire army will be devoted to her capture.”

“No, Sir Aslatiel,” Taki said. “You’re not being fair with us. We helped you take this castle and you just string us along? If so, then…then I take back what I said earlier. I’ve served leaders without honor, and this feels just like those times. If you won’t honor your part of the bargain, then I’ll leave as well.”

“Taki,” Aslatiel said. He opened a nearby wooden box and plucked a silver neck chain from it. “You displayed an astounding amount of valor and skill during your mission. I was going to tell you later, but I might as well let you know now. You’re a leutnant now. At seventeen, you’d be one of the youngest ever. Congratulations. Come here, I’ll put it on for you.”

Taki’s eyes burned.
It’s not fair.
This wasn’t how a promotion of such importance was supposed to happen. Not if it meant betraying Lotte, and hell, the others in turn. All he wanted to do was shrink. Shrink so much that no one could see him.