Beyond the Hell Cliffs (29 page)

Ubrith
nodded.  “Aye, we are united.  Pyrrhus and the Stone Seer also died beside the young prince and I would silence ten of those demons for each.  Our people can never know the fate of these brave souls, but we can etch their vengeance into the heart of the Greimere.”

“I want the entire army assembled
,” Helfrick ordered.  “Pull in the mages and the hunters; put a shield and a spear in the hands of every soldier and paladin.  Send a whole battalion of support units.  We will bring the full force of our hammer down onto this raid and then we will feast in victory right there on the battlefield!”

Helfrick was practically screaming at this point, his fury venting out through his commands and fueled by the eagerness of his officers.

“When that is done, we will send our message to the Emperor.  We will carve a path through his infested lands, blow down his walls and put him under our boot.  There, squealing for his miserable life like the coward that he is, we will learn of what happened to my son.  Then we will recreate that experience with his miserable corpse and he should hope, gentlemen, that Raegith was given a swift and painless death.”

“You intend to march on the Greimere? 
To lay waste to their capitol?” Mortimer asked.

“Yes.  I go now to do what I should never have hesitated doing,” Helfrick said, turning toward the door.  “By the time we have defeated the raid, the Witzer Cannon will be completed and on its way… right up the Greimere’s ass!”

Chapter 23

Raegith found himself in the same carriage as before, with the same hour-long ride.  He knew it would be coming soon and was not surprised when the guards came and took him from his cell, tossing Fenra and one of her Urufen friends out into the hall completely naked.  Raegith had taken a liking to Fenra after her first night pleasing him and he had taken her often since then, openly encouraging
her to bring others to him.  He was insatiable ever since carving a name for himself in the Pit.  Many nights he would take two or three women to his bed; his sexual stamina nearly boundless.  On the morning that the guards came to take him to the palace, he had actually fallen asleep, which made him especially irritable.

Once again he was brought to the royal bath and scrubbed down by Beretta.  Once again he was teased by her warm skin and pliant fingers.  He was not garbed in fancy robes thi
s time, but in soft leathers; they were clothes like that of the denizens of Greimere.  Then he was taken up into the Spire of the palace, stopping short of the Empress’s room and instead entered a small room with a table and walls lined with books and paintings.  It reminded him a bit of the library in Forster’s Keep.  Several emberstones lined the walls and glowed like dull flames.  The spines of many of the books were scrawled with symbols that Raegith naturally recognized as the Rathgar language.  His strange skill, bequeathed by the Dragon Queen Silthaheedra, even branched over to written words.

The door opened as he was inspecting a book titled
The Far Tunnels
and Empress Kalystra of Black Talon entered.  Surprisingly, she was dressed in more conservative clothing than the last two times he had seen her, though her bodice and open-front skirt still bore a gratuitous display of her slate-hued skin.  She wore make-up on her face and her hair was pulled up in wicked tendrils that resembled scorpion tails.  She looked at him and smiled, closing the door behind her and crossed the room to stand behind a chair opposite the table of him.

“Since my last
attempt to seduce you failed, Raegith of the North, I have decided to appeal to a different side of you,” she said.  “This is my personal library; the only one like it in the Greimere.”

“You have more books than I would have guessed,” Raegith said, then changed his tone when he noticed the sour look on her face.  “That is, before I learned more of this place and its people.  It does not really surprise me that you would have such a room.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.  Would you care to sit with me for a while, Raegith?  I promise to have you back to the Pit afterwards… or should we call it the Harem, at this point?” Kalystra asked, motioning to the chair across from her.

“
It gets boring when I’m not fighting someone every time I cross the yard,” Raegith said, taking a seat.

“Yes, all of the men have been sent to your homeland, to raid and kill and pillage your people.  You can understand I could not send you as well.”

“I would probably kill more than your generals, Empress,” Raegith said.  “I am not Raegith of Rellizbix anymore.  You’ve done your work on me perfectly.  This place will always be my home; these people are my people.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Raegith,” the Empress said.  “You have followers here; females that want you and men who idolize your skill and fearlessness.  You could find that anywhere.  You have family and friends in your home…”

“Empress, please, you don’t know enough about me for this conversation.” Raegith did not anger.  In fact, he was amused by her.  She could not even sense her own success in turning him. “I’ve a mother, who by now is probably slain, just as I was supposed to be.  My father, the culprit, had me caged in a small keep before any real friends could be made.  The closest I have had were killed either by the men of Rellizbix directly or indirectly by my father’s hand.  Tell me, Empress, what sentiment should I have for my old home?”

“But you hold me responsible for some of that death as well, do you not?” Kalystra asked. 

“I hold you responsible for the deaths of my comrades from the Pit,” Raegith replied. 

“You mean the war?” Kalystra looked astonished.  “Careful, Raegith; you tread close to offending me.”

“You should be offended.  You send scores of your people off to death, keeping only what you need to protect yourself from the vengeful wrath of the widows and orphans left behind.”

“I do what I have to!” Kalystra shouted.  “This is your fault, northerner!  This is the fault of your people because you cannot leave us alone!  You cannot stand
not to be the heroes in your own lands for a single moment, so you set us against you, but hobble us first.”

“Then stop being hobbled.  Break the treaty and gather your troops.  Tell them all the truth, every bit of it.  Tell them that they have always fought a doomed war, but now they fight a real one.  Take a real fight to Rellizbix…”

“You are naïve to think such a thing is possible!” Kalystra yelled, scowling.  “Leading a gang of prisoners from inside a pit is nothing compared to leading an entire nation.  As the last of the line of Black Talon, I have spent my entire life studying the histories and strategies of my people, to take my father’s place.  Believe me, Raegith, it is not a simple or easy thing for me to govern an empire that has little use for women off of their backs!”

Raegith sat there, wondering what, if anything, he should say.  Every word he said to her only further upset her and as much as he liked infuriating his authorities, he was having a difficult time convincing himself that the Empress
deserved any of it.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” she asked.  “Of course you don’t.  You act as if you know everything about us because you spent time among our lower filth.  If you really mean to call yourself Greimere, then I would have you at least be an educated member of the empire.  You’ve tempered your body in the Pit; will you now temper your mind here in the palace?”

Raegith looked around at the books on the shelves.  There were histories there, behind the spines.  Just at the end of his reach were books and books filled with an alternate history to what he knew.  It was the Greimere version of history; a version no one from his home ever knew.  As far as he could tell, the language would be legible to him.  All he needed to do was accept her offer and spend some time in luxury.

“I have conditions,” Raegith said.

“Naturally,” Kalystra replied, waving her hand out in front of her for him to continue.

“There are a few prisoners I would like freed from the Pit. 
Namely Helkree of Edge and Noriko, the Junrei’sha.  If possible, there are five females that are loyal to me, that I would seek freedom for.”

“I will see what I can do on the
releases, but I cannot promise anything.  Depending on the crimes they have committed, it could look very bad if I pardoned them.  Anything else?”

“Yes,” Raegith continued.  “I have begun training with the Junrei’sha and I wish to continue that training.  Also, I wish for Helkree to be trained…”

“I’ll stop you right there, Raegith,” Kalystra said.  “The Whore will not be trained in anything.  If she is released, she will be banished from the Citadel, again, and that is the extent of my mercy for her.  This is not negotiable.”

“Then the deal is off,” Raegith said, getting up.

“Stop it, Raegith!” Kalystra was up from her seat as well.  “I cannot… I will not concede on this point.  It is too much to ask of me.  I will give on all other conditions and you will have the extent of our knowledge at your fingertips.  Don’t throw that all away on this one, tiny issue, please.”

“Why do you hate her so much?” Raegith asked.  “It was you who had her chained to that rock, wasn’t it?”

“She is an affront to everything we stand for, that is why!  She is a remnant from a time long gone and she refuses to abide by even the simplest terms of civility expected of her kind!”

“Her kind, as in Rathgar women?”

“So she has not told you?” Kalystra asked, suddenly delighted.  “Raegith, of all the Rathgar you have encountered over the time you have been here, how many have more than a single name?  I doubt any but Kalystra of Black Talon and Helkree of Edge, correct?”

Raegith thought of the Rathgar he had dealt with in the Pit.  They all went by a single name: Torga,
Ganzorg, even Brimgor.

“I see you trying to figure this out, but you’re being tricked by something,” Kalystra said.  “The reason you’re being tricked is because you cannot find even a single similarity between the Whore and I that is not shared by all Rathgar.  It’s because the Whore does not deserve to call herself ‘of Edge.’ 
Only Rathgar nobility carry an additional name, denoting the house they are from.”

“Helkree is a noble?” Raegith asked.

“Shocking, isn’t it?  Though you’re not entirely correct concerning her heritage.  The House of Edge is no longer a house of nobility.  In fact, it is no longer a house at all.  The Whore is the last scion of that house, the sole survivor of a lineage that lost any nobility long ago.”

“So she was competition for you?” Raegith asked.  “Do you hate all other nobles?”

“Raegith, you need to read a book or something,” Kalystra laughed.  “The Whore knows nothing of nobility.  She was born in poverty and has lived as a drifter her entire life.  If she would concede to her place as a peasant, then I would have no problem with her.  Hell, I might even invite her to be one of my maidens; a grand gesture between nobles.”

“I think it’s courageous that she refuses to let the world bend her to its rules,” Raegith replied.

“I think it is absurd!” Kalystra walked around the table to Raegith and knelt in the chair beside him, leaning forward against the back.  “When the war is over and I have secured my legacy as a successful Empress, you will be given citizenship in the Empire and with the backing of the Empress, you will have immense power and influence.  You could be an Overseer of an entire village, Raegith.”

“You would put me over a village? 
To govern the people?” Raegith asked.

“We don’t have much in the way of luxury here in the Greimere, but having power does have plenty of advantages,” Kalystra said, running a finger down his chest.  “You think the pleasures you’ve had at the hands of those convicts and cretins in the Pits were nice?  You cannot imagine what is
in store for you as an Overseer.  You will have men and women under your complete command.”

Raegith had thought
himself strong of will.  He had refused to bend before the threats and tortures of the Guard Captain and the other inmates.  He had never backed down and often chose the route of pain over ease just to frustrate and anger those who had any kind of power over him.  Now, with so much laid out before him, he could not resist the Empress’s offers.  With an entire village under his control, he could elevate his friends to positions of power.  He could fill his village with outcasts, those pitiful souls just like him, who had no other place in the world.  That is what he had always wanted, wasn’t it?  Wasn’t building a place for those like him his greatest desire in the world?  He had promised it to Onyx before, but he did not know how he would ever accomplish such a thing, even as he swore to his first love that he would.  Now he had that opportunity and if it meant bending to the will of a woman barely older than he for a few months, then he could not be so prideful as to discard this opportunity.

“I will stay with you, then, and learn the history of the Greimere,” Raegith said.

“Yes!” Kalystra cheered, rocking back in the chair.  She caught herself and tried to regain her composure, but she was simply too giddy.  “Then let’s have some food and get into something more comfortable than these…”

“Wait, just wait a second, Empress,” Raegith said, trying not to give in to the infectious excitement of the Empress.  “Food is fine, but
I’m not dressing like your staff.  I like my basic clothes just fine and I want time to train each day, as well.  I did not build this talent for brutality just to let it rust in a palace.”

“You have the chance to do nothing but lounge and read, from here on, and you still choose to fight?” Kalystra asked, clearly intrigued.  “You are quite the madman, Raegith.”

She paused for a moment, something needful flashing through her young eyes.  She looked up at him and smiled faintly.  “You should have been born here, Raegith.  You should have been born Rathgar.”