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Five Days Later
The Coast of the Freelands
The Nucerian-Stygian War had long since ended with the defeat of Minerva's Horde, and many Nucerians who've grown weary of the conflict could think of nothing else save for their eventual return home. Not all were granted the privilege of sailing back to Hyrkan Harbor, for the new empire that sprung out of the death of the Old Republic needed more than ever to secure a strong hold on their recently conquered territories. Older veterans were shipped back to the mainland, while the fresher legionnaires remained on post to keep the locals in line while the newly crowned emperor cemented his position as supreme ruler of all Nuceria.
To the legionnaires stationed in the Freelands, they didn't care at all who ruled from back home. They only cared if they would be better supplied, feeling now that Nucerian bureaucracy was going to be simplified by a ruler who knew the needs of the common soldier.
Unfortunately for them, such reforms couldn't work fast enough. Soon, the legionnaires found themselves overburdened with spoils without enough men to safely transport them from every corner of the Freelands. Though they clearly were the victors, this did not mean that their enemies ceased to exist. If anything, their excess of plunder attracted all the wrong kinds of attention.
Like blood in the water, their heavy coffers drew in sharks by the hundreds. And one particular shark just happened to track the scent all the way to the coast, where one of the largest port-based Nucerian outposts sat, fat with spoils plundered from a hundred conquered tribes.
"Behold, Landfall." Azagahl, a dune-rider hailing from a nameless nomadic warband, sneered in contempt as he spoke the Nucerian name in his own tongue. The tall Stygian raider shifted in his saddle as the giant cat beneath him crouched low at his command. "One of many bramble-vines choked with the sacred gold of our lands."
"Steady, Azag." His brother, Zafir, peered through an old spyglass he pilfered from a dead Nucerian officer and made note of the outpost's defenses. "We will relieve them of their burdens soon enough, after we've made a careful accounting of their forces."
"Then hurry it up, we've gone for weeks without a fight!" Azagahl grumbled, "I yearn to sink my blade into Nucerian flesh and hear their screams as my mount tears them apart."
"As do we all." The commanding voice of the Red Maiden put an end to the petty quarrel. Sonjita rode forward and pulled her cat to halt at the edge of the cliff, "Now, Zafir, how many Nucerians do we need to worry about today?"
"I'm seeing three garrisons, each with fifty men drilling within their walls." The scout replied, "It's safe to say that the bulk of the legion resides within Landfall. If we are to fight, it certainly will be quite the battle."
"We've faced worse." Azagahl said confidently.
"Through ambushes and traps." Zafir pointed out, "There are no cliffs and land-corridors in Landfall, brother. Only wide streets, open ground and plenty of Nucerian gunners. We won't make it past the perimeter."
"Sonja would."
"But not us."
"Enough!" The woman growled, "I've heard your words, now you shall hear mine. The earth with drink Nucerian blood this day, not ours. Remember what they've done to us and our kinsmen, let that ignite the fading flames in your hearts- or flicker away and turn from me as cowards."
The Stygians received her biting chastisement with grim silence, for her words brought back the horrid memories of the atrocities heaped upon them by the Nucerian invaders. For centuries had the foreigners pressed at their lands, driven by greed as they coveted the legendary riches of the Freelands. Now that the tribes and old kingdoms were all but conquered, the people of Stygia toiled beneath the oppressive boot of the Nucerian Republic.
If anything united the disparate masses living in the Freelands, it was a shared hatred for Nucerian rule- a hatred that first bound the raiders to her warband. Sonjita the Red Maiden promised them the deaths of many Nucerians, and she would give them a greater tribute through Landfall.
But as she moved to spearhead the assault on the Nucerian outpost, Zafir pointed to three distinct silhouettes of approaching ships in the distance. "Look, over there!"
"Gods of my ancestors, those are Nucerian battle-cruisers!" One of the raiders gasped, recognizing the ships in a single glance. "They come bringing fresh troops, a thousand-strong! We will surely be outnumbered a hundred to one! Sonja, this is a battle that we cannot win."
"Then stay." Sonjita's fiery green eyes flashed in disdain over what she saw as cowardice, "And watch as I destroy a legion alone."
She could do it too, if the stories about the steel-bound woman of the Frostback Alps could be believed. No Nucerian stubber, blade or magic could pierce her skin. No man, woman or beast could best her in a dance of blades. Like many heroes who've gone before her, similarly blessed with the old magic of the binding ritual, Sonjita had put to rout many hardened legionnaires in the past. Her confidence, while easily dismissed as bravado, was not entirely unfounded.
"I don't think you'll need to." Azagahl pointed to the harbor, his face betraying his amazement.
The first cruiser did not slow its pace as it neared Landfall, but it did make landfall eventually once the ship's aft slammed into the wharf. The unexpected introduction caught many legionnaires off-guard, and soon havoc spread across the harbor as the other two cruisers opened fire on the outpost. Heavy artillery rained death upon the Nucerians, setting buildings ablaze and toppling over monuments erected to commemorate the empire's victory over the Stygians.
Sonjita and the other raiders beheld the welcome surprise with amusement, sharing a laugh as the Nucerians scattered like ants in an earthquake.
Then, the cruiser nearest to the docks opened its doors and unleashed a roaring tide of flesh and biting steel. Men of unnatural stature, strength and savagery spilled into the harbor with the speed and ferocity of a prairie wildfire. The legionnaires attempted to form up and defend the outpost against the invaders, but to no avail. Their assailants had the momentum, superior firepower and the strength of numbers that far exceeded their meager garrisons.
"Well?" The Red Maiden drew her sword, "Shall we stand by while they fall upon our quarry and our spoils?"
The Eaters of Cities rode out to assist in the destruction of Landfall, with Sonjita at the head of the assault. Their warband consisted of battle-hardened raiders, cutthroats and desert-dwelling nomads. All in all thirty-five strong, but had the experience of a hundred battles to rival most of the warriors left in all of Stygia. Nuceria had taken every able-bodied man of the Freelands to be sold as slaves in their homeland, every one they could get their hands on.
The rest either went into hiding, or did the next best thing- join the ranks of the howling dogs that followed the Red Maiden.
Those who followed her that day chose the latter, and never looked back.
When the raiders approached the outpost walls, the sentries abandoned their posts to help put out the fires or to assist in the defense of Landfall. The gate did not matter, for the raiders rode on dune-prowler cats not horses. The great beasts scaled the walls with little difficulty, and their marksmen riders assumed their positions to cover the rest of the warband.
Sonjita cleaved her way through the streets, her sword-arm strength doubled with the force of her mount sprinting between her legs. Her blade met Nucerian armor, but just as well parted them to bite through flesh. A few legionnaires fought back through the confusion of the moment, and they managed to shoot at the Red Maiden as she rode past them. The stubber rounds bounced off her skin, serving only to annoy the redheaded raider. She returned fire with her own stubber-pistol, shooting them right in their flabbergasted faces.
They knew who she was, and they screamed her name in fear until everyone else knew that the Red Maiden had come to Landfall.
Later, she saw the warriors from the ship come her way. They saw her too, and the legionnaires she was killing, so they gave her a wide berth as a river would a stone in the middle of its course. Nucerians were butchered left and right, the sight of it was so glorious that Sonjita couldn't help but laugh as they squealed like slaughtered pigs.
Then, she heard a roar.
Turning her head, she saw a man fighting his way into the thickest part of the Nucerian formation just on the opposite end of the street she was in. About a dozen or so legionnaires were backing away, emptying their weapons into him for whatever they were worth, which was little. There, he fell upon them with the force of a hurricane upon saplings. Mere pups, yipping piteously before a wolf.
No, not a wolf- a lion.
The man was a head taller than the superhuman warriors fighting around her, and his whole body was wrapped in muscle upon muscle which pulled taut like the whip-cord strands of Nucerian cables every time he swung his arms. Axes of roaring, biting teeth that spun like the edges of a whirlpool ripped through the legionnaires with impossible ease.
A shock of unruly, black hair flowed out of a crown studded with metallic stubs, braided together to stay out of his face. The stubs, they were like the spires on a king's crown, but hammered into his skull by some unknown and hateful hand. Sonjita was a good judge of character, and she knew a man scarred by the Nucerians when she saw one.
The hatred in his eyes, the tortured cry mixed in with the merciless bellow of his gut. A mistreated lion, kept far too long in a cage and suddenly unleashed into the wilds.
In that moment, Sonjita the Red Maiden saw a kindred spirit.
"Angronius!" A curly-haired warrior called to him amidst the carnage, "The day is ours! The Nucerians are surrendering!"
The horde erupted in cheers, but the slaughter did not cease. The warriors under the lion's command were merciless, and they did not stop until the last Nucerian lay dead at their feet. Only then did they turn their attention to the outpost itself, and the heavy bounty within its storage warehouses.
Sonjita and her raiders, however, would not let them take from the gold of Stygia.
"Angronius, so that is your name." The Firebrand of the East addressed the tall man, slipping off her saddle as she and her warriors stood their ground between the horde and their bounty. The sight of a woman, clad in nothing but chainmail strips tied around her breasts and loins, caused many of the men to dismiss her taunting disposition. She looked more suited for a brothel or a harem, based on what she chose to clad herself in.
"It is." The giant replied, showing that he was cut above the rest as he didn't immediately disregard her.
"Well then, Angronius." Sonjita declared, "Tell your men to back off. The gold of Stygia belongs to us, its people. And we will leave this place with it... all of it."
A large war hound approached from behind the giant and growled menacingly at the Red Maiden. Angronius rolled his eyes and stood between them, "Personally, I don't care for the gold. But my people recognize its value, and I will not deny them their hard-won prize. You will depart this place with gold, but you will only take the leftovers."
Sonjita's answer was a mouthful of spit hurled at Angronius' feet.
A collective murmur came from the horde at the Red Maiden's challenge. The lion's eyes narrowed, "That was not a suggestion."
Angronius strode forward towards the warehouses, undeterred by the raiders who blocked his path. They faltered and parted before him, but their leader did no such thing. The Lord of the Red Sands paused when Sonjita drew her sword and placed its edge against his throat.
"Mine wasn't, either." The Red Maiden hissed.
Angronius' lieutenants, Rissio and Lucretia, rubbed the backs of their necks in exasperation. Angronius himself beheld the woman with amusement, then stepped back to give himself room to accept her challenge. He slung his chain-axes off his back and prepared himself for battle, "Do you really wish to test me, woman?"
Sonjita frowned, noting a hint of the Nucerian accent in his words. "You men of Nuceria are all the same. Come here to our lands and think that you own everyone and everything."
The fire in his eyes blazed anew, "I am not Nucerian."
Gorefather and Gorechild roared together, startling Sonjita as she'd never seen weapons of their kind before. Angronius struck first, landing both chain-axes upon the Red Maiden's sword. The force of his blows put a strain on her arms, the likes of which she rarely felt in her life as a warrior, and Sonjita wondered what unearthly power blessed the man with such superhuman strength.
He moved impossibly fast for a man of his stature, far exceeding the nimble Firebrand in their dance of steel.
Finally, in the blur of their contest, the chain-axes struck her in the abdomen. The biting teeth, however, drew sparks in place of blood. Angronius was taken aback, and Sonjita laughed at his puzzled expression.
"I am steel-bound, fool! Your weapons will never pierce my skin!"
She seized her chance and thrusted her sword home, impaling Angronius through his belly and out his back. "Yours, on the other hand, I cannot say the same!"
Angronius' lips pulled tightly into a thin line, and the burning rage in his eyes transformed into an inferno. He dropped his chain-axes and broke Sonjita's sword with a strong chop of his hand, surprising everyone when he seized her by the throat and held her high for all to see. The Red Maiden hung helplessly within his grip, astonished and fearful at the fingers slowly squeezing down on her windpipe. Her raiders started to move to save her from what surely would be her end, but were held back by Angronius' horde of warriors.
No one, not even the Stygians among them, showed an ounce of sympathy for the young upstart who dared challenge the Slayer of the Maw.
"No weapons will pierce your skin." Angronius growled, ignoring the bite of her broken blade as she desperately stabbed at his arms. His grip tightened, and Sonjita dropped her weapon as she attempted to break his hold on her throat. "I wonder, are your lungs similarly gifted?"
"Angronius!"
Hearing Polgara's cry, the lion paused and turned his head. His lover, showing compassion in what he saw as an undeserving recipient, pleaded on a stranger's behalf.
"Spare her."
"Why should I?"
Polgara approached him and touched his arm, calming the beast and softening his grip with a single brush of her hand. "We are in a new land. We've made enough enemies, now we must strive to make friends just as we strive to make a new beginning."
"Did you somehow miss the sword sticking out of his back?" Lucretia mockingly retorted on Angronius' behalf.
"He will live." Polgara replied, turning back to her lover. "And you have beaten her. Must you also take her life, for gold?"
Angronius considered her words, then turned his gaze back to his opponent. He remembered how he saw gold, and how he hated the prospect of it measuring to a man's life. Slowly, he loosened his fingers until the Red Maiden dropped to the ground. Sonjita retched and coughed as she rubbed at her bruised neck. Polgara approached her and offered her hand, helping her rise from the dirt.
"You hate Nucerians, that is good." The sorceress said, "We are not Nucerians, but freedmen. All of these men and women who stand before you were once slaves. Angronius set us free, and all we want is to go our way and live in peace. You wish to take from the spoils of this place, as we do. I propose that both be given a fair share. Half of the spoils go to you, and half to us."
The freedmen grumbled and erupted in dissatisfied cries, especially Rissio and Lucretia.
"How the hell is that even fair? We spilled more blood than they did!" Lucretia protested.
"Are we truly freedmen if we have to listen to this presumptuous bitch?" Rissio blurted as he raised an offending hand towards Polgara, immediately regretting his words when Angronius turned his wrathful gaze upon him.
His right eye twitched as the Nails buzzed strongly within his skull. If it wasn't for Polgara's restraining hand on his arm, the gladiator king would've ripped his lieutenant's jaw right off his pretty face. "Guard your fucking tongue, brother, or I will cut it off!"
Unfazed by the curly-haired gladiator's words, Polgara stilled the voices of the throng with a firm but gentle voice of reason. "How much gold do we really need? Can anyone tell me?"
Silence was their reply.
"There is only so much riches a man needs, the rest is just for showing off." Polgara said, "And have any of you even seen the bounty stored within those warehouses?"
When no one dared to answer her, Polgara beckoned for everyone to follow her to the warehouses. To prove her point, she opened the warehouses and showed them just how much her former kinsmen took from the Freelands to be shipped off to Nuceria. Mountains worth of gold, trinkets and baubles were boxed up in crates far too large for any man to carry alone. Great idols of cut gemstones, ivory statues and other rare treasures were also heaped among the vast troves.
So great were the riches that awe took the place of murderous greed, and everyone saw the foolishness of their quarrel. Even if the spoils were divided, there was enough to make everyone a hundred times richer than the richest king in Stygia.
"Do you not see?" Polgara said, showing wisdom that far exceeded the freedmen who looked upon her with condescension. "And you were all ready to slaughter one another for this."
Unable to bear it any longer, the horde began to haul their share as commanded by Angronius and left the other for the Eaters of Cities to take for themselves. Polgara turned away to see to her lover's injuries, content that she'd done her part in averting disaster.
"You there." Sonjita approached them after the spoils were divided. She walked up to Polgara, "What is your name?"
"I am Polgara Eanna Thal'kyr." Polgara replied, lowering her eyes as she remembered her ruined house. "The last of my line."
"I am Sonjita, sometimes called The Red Maiden." Sonjita extended her hand and grasped her savior's arm firmly. "Your man fights well, he is lucky to have a wise woman at his side."
"You could use a little wisdom in you too." Angronius gritted his teeth as Polgara slowly pulled out the blade from his stomach.
The Red Maiden ignored him, offering a chance to build bridges between their people. "You've done me a great service, one that I wish to pay forward. You said that your people are searching for a new beginning."
Polgara nodded, "I did."
"Then I offer myself as a guide, to bring you to greener pastures that you might live without fear and remain safe from the reach of Nuceria. I have traveled far and wide through these lands, I know many places where you can begin again. What say you?"
Polgara looked to Angronius with an affirming smile, to which he replied with a curt nod. "If you can keep your men on a tight leash."
"Likewise, I expect you'd keep a tight one on yours." The Red Maiden turned on her heel and walked away.
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