Chapter 12

The past week had been quite possibly, the most sex heavy, debauched weeks in my life.

I would have complained, except, uh. No. I wouldn’t have.

During the day, Princess Jaqueline was an insatiable as the rumors and legends about redheaded said – to the point I had to ask her several times if she was sure she wasn’t half fox spirit. Each time she had laughed, tweaked my nose, then shoved me into a darkened corner of her palace to ride me raw. During the night, I was roused from my bed by the Rose, who taught me some arts of fencing, on the seduction of mortal women, and how to refine my technique to new, rarefied heights. I was able to bring a woman to orgasm with the smallest of caresses, thanks to what the Rose had shown me.

And during the whole week, the village of Shimmatonen made their way to the north. The villagers were grateful to me and my wives and the king, Carmisan, was perfectly willing to use his entire village as a bludgeon to get me to wherever I needed to go. It gave us time to do something that June had been grumbling about for days: A chance to dock the Starshrike and take a look over her engines. They had been running nearly non-stop for weeks and they had been started in a somewhat unorthodox fashion without the guidance of their animating intelligence.

In other words, June was pretty sure I had fucked it up and wanted to see if I had.

So, while Shimmatonen trotted across the vast, tractless whiteness of the north and snows came down in light flurries, June, Chirp and Xora all clambered inside the guts of the Starshrike, looking her over. Chirp had been reading every scroll, book and tome that they could find in the Starshrike, while Xora seemed to have an intuitive understanding of ships and boats of all kinds (even those that flew through the air, rather than swept through the waves.) June herself would often times drag me from my sexual haze to get me to move a component, speak a command word, spill some blood, or do any number of arcane services that would make the Starshrike more able and ready to fly.

On the dawn of the first day of the next week, and the breaking of the snows into a brilliantly clear day, we came into sight of the northmost outpost of the entire Regency. It, apparently, had no name. No one had seen fit to slap one on the place. Which struck me as somewhat unfair – the outpost was far from unimpressive.

It was a set of four titanic towers, each one build out of solid ice, thrusting from the wilderness like the fingers of a titanic god. Each tower’s flat top was nearly as broad as the back of our dire horse, and was peppered with heavy duty magitech artillery – artillery that opened up as we came into view. Glimmering auroral ribbons were flung out by star-bright projectiles, trailing their lights in the same way a fire arrow might trail smoke. They dropped over the horizon and flared with reddish light, making the place where Land met Sunder look as if the sun was dipping below the horizon, rather than simply closing above us.

I watched the display through a set of spyglasses, with my wives and Jaquline standing around me, all of us situated on one of the balconies of Carmisan’s palace. I whistled. “What are they blowing up?”

“The fae,” Ceaith said, casually. She glanced at me. “When we go to visit them, I want my sister to stay back on Shimmatonen. Just in case.”

I nodded. “Right. How is she?”

“Oh, she’s fine,” Ceaith said, grinning. “Still trying to wrap her head around the fact that I’m a Lunar. But she’s just glad that her soul isn’t being sucked out and used to create Infused Knights.”

I grinned. “Aren’t we all...” I shook my head, then glanced over at Ceaith. “How’s the Starshrike’s engines?”

“They’re still in pieces. B-but I’d also not want to fly the unmarked, unusual magitech flying ship near a tower full of trigger happy legionaries,” Ceaith said, their voice soft as they chewed on their lower lip.

“Well, fortunately, I have a plan,” I said.

Shimmatonen slowed and came to a stop. His head swung down and he chomped down on five pine trees in one big, shattering, splintering bite. His head lifted his his immense molars crunched the trees into a fine past, splinters and bits of needles falling past his mouth and towards the distant snow-covered forest floor. I had a great view of it, swinging down from the stirrup-elevators that were slung from either side of the saddle-town. The elevators were huge, each one nearly the size of a warehouse, and we were not alone as we came down. The villagers, it seemed, had more than enough trade goods to make any stop a profitable one, and as we were lowered towards the distant floor of the forest, I got a great view of the people on the elevator around me, bustling about to make sure that the crates were stowed and lashed down tight.

The winds caused the elevator to swing from side to side, ever so slightly, which made Chirp grip onto the railing with knuckles gone even whiter than usual. Ceaith, seeing that, snorted. “Chirp. My dorkly one. You can fucking fly.”

“I-It’s still very high up!” Chirp whimpered.

Xora, who was standing as far back from the edge as possible, nodded.

“I’m not scared.” I said, smiling as I stepped over to the railing. I leaned against it, my back settled against the metal pole that made up the upper edge of the rail. “See, Chirp. Perfect-” The elevator swung and I felt my balance shifting slightly. I flailed my arms, caught myself, sat up straighter. “Perfectly safe!”

Chirp turned into their bat form and hid themselves inside of the hay at the bottom of the elevator, clinging to the wood.

At last, the elevator settled down to the forest floor. I was just about to step off before I stopped, then turned and saw that Jaquline had joined us. She was dressed in her green kimono, her bright red mane of hair draw into a tight ponytail behind her head with a green silk tie. She smiled at me. I pointed my finger at her.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“My father sent me along to be part of the negotiation package,” Jaquline said, her voice a husky croon. “Also, my Unconquered, I do want to see what fine pieces of ass fill the Legion these days.”

“You’ll have an easy time of it,” Ceaith said, her voice dry. “Half of them are marrying yeti, they’re so desperate for poon. I mean, have you seen a yeti chick?”

“Have you?” I asked as I put my feet into the snow. The white, powdery stuff crunched around my toes. It felt nice. I wriggled my toes, grinning as I did so – though I felt a small trickle of mana flowing through my body to sustain myself against the chill.

“No,” Ceaith said. “But, I mean, they’re yeti.”

“Are you just assuming they’re ugly cause their name sounds funny?” I asked, shaking my head as I looked forward – at the vast tower of the Piss Boot Legion that rose before us. There was no sign of a door – at first. Then a seam appeared in the ice, sending out a fine spray of white powder. It carved a shape of a rectangle before the chunk swung forward with a groaning sigh. When it struck the ground, it crashed and sent up a wave of white snow, flurrying in the air. I lifted my hand to shield my face and when the flurry had passed, I saw that the massive slab had been carved on the inside so that it formed a set of stairs leading from the leading edge to the flat base. Standing upon it were a quartet of Infused Knights, their bodies wreathed in swirling ice particulates.

As one, the Infused Knights leaped, then dropped down, kicking the ice as they landed upon the slab. It skidded towards us like a vast sled, sliding and creaking and grinding, brushing aside a few trees until it came to a stop right before the elevator. As it came close, I saw that the Infused Knights – the Ice Knights – were only part of the party. The rest of the legionaries were dressed in the familiar lamellar armor I recognized from Jerin Kah’s party.

Though, uh...

Less revealing? And slutty?

And they weren’t all girls.

Their armor was painted white, to give them some camouflage against the ice. All save for their boots, gloves and helmets, which were a bright, ruby red. One of the legionaries, though, didn’t need a red helmet to be distinctive. She was in the middle of the group and looked down at us with a cold, evaluating glare – one that made me feel as if she was measuring each of us for a coffin. She had bright green skin and long red hair, which was itself blooming with rose buds and threaded with snarling, red thorns. She stepped up to the edge of the stairs leading to the ground and called down.

“Where’s Carmisan?” She asked.

“He sent me in his stead,” I said, stepping forward.

The woman rolled her eyes. “Are you another one of his sons?” She paused. “No. Carmisan is red from drink, not birth – who are you?”

“I ... my name is Sleepy Ember,” I said. “Are you the general of the Seventh Legion?”

The woman snorted. “Please. I’m not a prissy whelp like my brother. I won’t roll over dead if you use the word piss around me. My men are proud of what they’ve done – and they’re proud of their name. But yes...” She lifted her chin. “I am Ejana Back Rose Kah, Infused Knight and Generalissimo of the Piss Boot Legion. And you, Sleepy Ember, look like an eastern peasant and...” Her eyes flicked from me to Ceaith, then to Xora, then to Jacqueline.

“And ... you are the Unconquered himself,” she said, quietly.

I smiled. “Yes! I’m here to-”

“Kill them,” Ejana said.

“Great start for the negotiations!” Ceaith said, glancing at me as the Ice Knights launched themselves into the air on pillars of hissing steam, transforming the ice beneath themselves into cannons. They flung their arms wide, and from their interlocking fingers came what seemed to be a thousand shards of whirring ice. They weren’t conic spikes, as I had seen before, but rather whirring disks that wobbled slightly as they shot through the air, giving them erratic, wild patterns. I flung myself forward into the snow as Ceaith and Xora ducked behind the railing. Clangs and clungs and whumps filled the air as the ice disks embedded themselves in the crates, the boxes, and the railings of the cargo elevator. The mortals ran, screaming, for cover.

I flung myself to my feet just as one of the Ice Knights landed to my left. She kicked at my face and the snow around her came with her foot, blasting my head and blinding me. I stumbled backwards and felt someone behind me. Only by twisting on instinct did I avoid a shimmering khatar of pure ice that was jammed right at my kidney. I brought my elbow down, shattering the ice khatar. I blinked the snow from my eyes and saw the third Ice Knight was sprinting forward, dragging a wrecking ball of gathered, compacted ice behind him – a ball that grew larger with every step.

He flung it.

And it was caught from the air by the immense teeth of a megalodon. Xora chomped down and the ice wrecking ball exploded into fragments. Chirp, who was sitting on her back, leaped off and landed beside one of the Ice Knights. My Ruby thrust out with the blade of their hand, cracking it against the temple of the Ice Knight. Their metal helmet exploded off their head, opening them up for Ceaith, who leaped onto his chest and tackled him to the ground.

Ejana wasn’t joining the fray. Instead, she was inclining her head – and beside her, a man holding a standard lifted it into the air, the symbol of the Seventh Legion fluttering in the wind. Seeing it was like feeling ice water dripping down my spine – I felt my very will to fight flagging, even as Ejana flung out her arm. Rose petals flew from her wrist and began to drift down into the air. One landed on the Ice Knight that Ceaith had just knocked down – and glowed. The Ice Knight gasped, his eyes snapping open.

“Look out!” Chirp shouted, pointing at me. A rose petal drifted down near me – and I jerked my arm back. Too slow! The petal struck my wrist.

And it exploded.

I was flung through the air, smashing into the side of a fir tree. Pine cones rattled down around me, while my arm flared with golden light – my skin having toughened up to resist the blast. I saw the slow rain of petals was continuing, drifting from the heaven as Ejana watched. The Ice Knights clustered up together, back to back, and began to punch their whirring ice disks at my Lunars, who were forced to dodge and twist and scramble – avoiding not only the disks, but also the petals.

“Okay,” I whispered. “She’s good.”

“Lunars!” I shouted. “Box them in!”

“Got it!” Ceaith sprinted forward. She darted left, right, evading rose petals. Once she came close, she hissed out. “Many Eyed Strike!”

Her clawed hand flashed out and lapis blue flared around her body – and for a moment, there were half a dozen clawed hands slashing through the air at the Ice Knights. The Ice Knights flung their arms upwards, bringing icy barricades into existence at their feet. The spectral claws bit into the ice, shattering it apart and forcing the Ice Knights to stumble backwards – backwards towards Xora, who had charged forward in a looping arc. She bulled through the exploding petals as if they were nothing, and the sharp concussive cracks of each petal striking her body provided a perfect percussive beat for battle. She punched the ground and a tidal wave of pure water swept outwards. An Ice Knight kicked it and froze it solid.

Which worked perfectly for me. I sprinted forward, running up the almost sheer side of the ice. One arm was flung out to keep my balance, and I flipped up and over Ejana’s head. I landed behind her – and immediately clapped my palms together, catching the emerald sword she had drawn and struck with in a single, flowing motion. It was a long, narrow sword – blunt edged, with a triangular tip that looked designed for piercing through armor. That point was angled right above my left eye, quivering close enough that I could have touched it with my eyelashes, had a I blinked.

Ejana planted her right palm against the base of the hilt, pushing. Her feet crunched into the ice as my arms strained and I held her sword in place.

“I don’t want to fight you,” I hissed.

“My Regent has ordered your death, Unconquered,” Ejana said, her voice grim. “I gave him my word.”

“You have to know he’s a madman,” I said.

“I gave him my word,” Ejana said, again. She shoved and I actually had to bend backwards, her sword-point thrusting through where my skull had been. She twisted away, sweeping her sword around until she gripped it with her hand on the hilt, her other hand on the blade. Since it was a blunt blade, this wasn’t as dangerous as it might have been. She thrust with her sword in an overhanded style, the point coming towards my chest with lightning speed. I parried with the flat of my hand, knocking the sword aside. But she kept exquisite control over the tip – rather than over-correcting, she smoothly reset, then thrust again. Then again. Then again. Quick, jabbing darts.

I dodged, parried, backed up more, my mana flowing through me.

And then I realized-

“You’re bleeding off my essence!” I said.

Ejana neither confirmed nor denied – she instead stabbed once more, then sprang backwards as I tried to kick at her gut. She landed lightly, despite her heavy armor, then threw out her palm, letting her sword be gripped one handed for a moment. The petals exploded before they even got close to me, all at once. The concussive wave sent me flying backwards. I almost toppled over the side of the ice block – catching onto the edge with my fingers. I dragged myself up – and then felt the tip of her sword pressing to my spine.

“I have given my word,” Ejana hissed. “My orders are clear. Defend the Regency – from all threats. I have read my histories, Unconquered. Each time you take it upon yourself to end a Cycle, you know what also ends? Millions upon millions of lives. Wars of liberation are still wars.”

I lifted my head, looking up at her – her sword tip shifting to press to my forehead. The cold jade felt like it would tear away skin if she drew her sword backwards.

“The Regency may be cruel. But it is stable,” she said.

“It’s not stable. It’s hideous!” I said. “I’ve seen what’s in Iremire, Ejana.”

Her eyes narrowed, slightly. “What?”

“They create Infused Knights, they create people like you, by ripping the essence out of a hundred innocents per Knight,” I said. “Men. Women. Children. They rip it out and they cram it into loyal soldiers – so you can gather up more innocents and make more Knights. Your Regent is a butcher, Ejana!” I grabbed onto her sword, drawing myself to my knees. Ejana, her eyes widening, let her grip slacken, but I did not shove her blade away. Instead, I dragged it down, pressing to to my heart. “But without the Seventh Legion, I’m living on borrowed time, fighting a war I cannot win. I could prolong it. I could drive the butchery on for years. But I cannot win it.” I looked straight into her eyes, my own shining intently. “So, if you will not join me, if you will not cast aside your oaths to the Regent, then run me through right this instant.”

Ejana froze. Snow drifted down from overhead and I could almost hear it landing – a quiet tinkling. The rest of the battle felt as if it was a thousand miles away. Ejana’s hands shook.

“I gave my oath...” She whispered.

“I’m the Unconquered...” I said, standing slowly. I kept my two handed grip upon her sword, keeping the tip pressed to my heart. “I am the toppler of unjust thrones and the breaker of the chains. Those chains include the chains of words. The chains of honor. Give me your oath ... swear yourself to my cause, Black Rose.”

Her hands tightened. I felt the tension in her muscles, saw the gathering strength in her biceps. Then she sagged, one of her arms dropping. I released her sword and she let the triangular tip thump onto the ice. Her head bowed.

Then she lifted her head. “So ... the legends are true...” She said. She clasped my forearm. “The Sun does know what he’s about.” She bowed her head. “The Piss Boot Legion is at your command, my Unconquered. And so am I.”

I breathed out a slow sigh – and tried to ignore the shimmering sense of disquiet that crawled along my spine. Had I just convinced her?

Or had my magic just left there no room for doubt? No room for debate?

I had no idea.

Ejana and the Piss Boot Legion took us into the tower with the blinding speed of what I presumed was an exceptionally well trained logistic arm. Before I knew it, me and my Lunars and Jaquline were all seated at a large table that was itself situated in the center of a rectangular room that was surrounded by immense, one way windows that looked out on the horizons. The crackling rumble of magitech artillery provided a constant, omnipresent and entirely ominous background sound for our conference.

The table was similar to the projection booth in the Starshrike – but rather than using magic and dancing lights, it was considerably more prosaic: A glass top covered with fine lines of black paint, set above a scale model of the Land of Ten Billion Gods. As if to make up for the fact that the model was something as bland as a physical object, it was done entirely in fine materials: Gold for sandy deserts, ruby pits in lacquered wood for volcanoes, emerald beads to signify forests, sapphire gemstones for rivers. Set atop the glass were several carved figures, each one representing one of the Ten Legions, and their various elements.

Due to the scale of the table, one had to use a very long stick with a flat broom on the end of it to push the figures around on their bases. I held one stick and tried to resist the urge to swing it around like a sword as Ejana placed her hands on the knees of her armored leggings and leaned forward, glaring down at the map.

“There are nine Legions,” she said. “Of them, three are staffed entirely with pure loyalists to the Regent – they have been given their position by him, not by the Good King Bahul. They will die before they turn against him. There are three Legions who are staffed by former members of the Good King’s court – the Third, the Fifth and the Tenth. They will turn their flags the instant they are given proof that you are, in fact, the Unconquered and not a fake. The remaining two, the First and the Ninth, are the wild cards.”

She pointed. A Legion figure situated on Samsara glowed. “The First is stationed in Samsara – their leader is the last mortal general, Mongoose Stone. He is a wily one, and he never lets anyone know what he is thinking. That’s part of why he’s still alive – but also, his wife is an Infused Knight – a flame caster named Azanari. She has the ear of someone high in the Regent’s court. But this is why the First is there. The Praetorean Guard and that damned shadowy snake of the Regent, Knyfe, will be there to keep an eye on Mongoose.”

“And what about the Ninth?” I asked, trying to hide the fact I had been twirling the pushy stick around in my palms.

“The Ninth is situated in the West. They’re the smallest of the legions, but they have the most in the form of skyship support and transportation. This allows them to travel rapidly – however, there are rumors that their general, One Eyed Razor, is half-pirate by marriage and full-pirate by inclination. If she’s really robbing caravan ships and whale barges instead of following orders from the Regent, then she’ll be worse than a loyalist. She’ll be a third party.” Ejana shook her head. “You’ve picked a weighty boulder to roll up your hill, Unconquered.”

I frowned, looking down at the map. I brought my finger down, aiming at the three legions that might turn their banner to me. They were situated in a broad crescent, reaching from the North East to the South East, each one situated nearly two weeks of flying apart.

“What are their duties?” I asked.

“They’re guarding the boarder – just as we are,” Ejana said.

Ceaith, who had been lounging in her seat with her feet planted up on the table, frowned. “How bad are the fae incursions?”

“Bad,” Ejana said. “Each legion we pull off those lines is a few thousand leagues of the Land we leave entirely open to the Fae...” She looked straight at me. I could feel her weighing what I said next as if I was in a market stall and she was a merchant. But it wasn’t gold and jade coins that we were trading back and forth here. It was human lives. Whole continents worth of land. I chewed my lower lip, looking down at the map, and tried to come up with a plan. Something that would work.

I pointed with the stick. “The enemy Legions – the Second, the Fourth and the Eight – are each in populated regions of the South. They are the people who are snatching up individuals, to turn them into power for Knights. With Iremire gone, they can’t do that. This means that the Regent will redeploy them...” I nodded. “If we could move elements of your Legion here...” I brought the stick down, to a collection of passes that linked the South to the vast, rich territories near Mount Mahameru.

“To the Harpy Passes?” Ejana asked, frowning. “Across the entire breadth of the Land? Those Legions are being redeployed, according to my spies in the capital. But even considering the time it takes garitroops-” Seeing my expression, she expanded: “Garrison Troopers. They’ve been situated in place so long that each of those Legions has gotten fat and spoiled.” She snorted. “Too much time nabbing dissidents and not enough time fighting people who can actually swing a sword.”

I nodded.

“Still, even assuming the normal slowness of garitroops, they’ll be in those passes a month before we could get there. And that still leaves our northern frontier open to the Fae-”

I held up my hand, then smiled. “I have an idea.”

“Do you now...” Ejana murmured.

I cracked my knuckles. “It’s time we show the world what an Unconquered can do.”

“I mean, yes, I could,” June said, slowly pacing back and forth before me. “But ... it’d take an unprecedented amount of trust and-”

“I’m in!” Chirp squeaked, their arms wrapping around my back. Xora nodded as well, stepping up to put her hand on my shoulder. She squeezed and I looked back at her, then past her, at Ceaith. Ceaith was leaning against the wall, trying to look casual and disinterested. I coughed.

“Yeah, fine,” she said.

June shook her head, slowly. “I have no idea how you do it, Ember,” she said, her voice soft.

“Wait!” I said, holding up my hands. “Wait, where’s the Rose. Rose!”

A shadow detached from the doorway leading into June’s little room. The Rose of Versail stood there, holding a rose in his white gloved fingers, his mask clasped tight around his face. He was gently rolling the rose from side to side as his eyes regarded it. He chuckled, and I could tell he was smirking at me. “I am in as well, my Unconquered.”

“Gods, how the hell did you get in here?” June asked, then held up her hand. “Forget I asked. You know, Agates are supposed to be the fucking normal ones, right? They’re the mediating presences, the calming-” She trailed off in disgust as Rose took Xora’s hand and ducked his head down, making Xora turn so dark that her cheeks were nearly purple. “-nevermind. Fine. Whatever.” She shook her head, then turned to her desk. Over the weeks they had been on the Starshrike, June had filled her desk with the detritus of her craft, and she was able to simply pick up beakers and bubbling flasks. She poured them together, murmuring under her breath, then tossed in small pinches of crystal – smoke and roiling energies flowed into the air.

I watched, eyes wide, as June finished crafting the potion that I had asked her to make. She held it to me, then yanked it back before I could take it. She picked up a small calligrapher’s brush from the wild chaos of her desk, then daubed it in a circle around the beaker – measuring out five spaces. “Drink down to this line, then you to this line, then you to this line,” she said, pointing at me and my Lunars. “Understand?”

“Got it,” I said, then took the beaker. I sipped it – and felt it burn down my throat. The burning only became more intense as my Lunars drank it down. Ceaith had to screw up her face before she could force herself to drink it down. But each Lunar that drank it made the burning grow hotter, and hotter, until the Rose lifted their mask and knocked their head back and drank the last fifth of the potion. Once it had vanished down his throat, a glowing, multihued light flared to life, wrapped around each of my Lunar’s throats, driving straight into my chest. The light turned gold, then shattered, filling the room with sparks and hisses.

“There,” June said. “You are now tied together into one vast pool of mana for the next twenty four hours.” She pursed her lips. “I will have you know, this has only ever been tried twice in history.”

I grinned. “And both times?”

June scowled at me. “And both times ... everything fucking worked and the Unconquereds in question were fucking smug as shit about it.”

I pumped my fist. “Nice!”

The Starshrike took off with a flurry of cast up snowflakes and a hissing rattle of discarded pine cones and nettles. It banked, then soared through the air, heading deeper towards the north. A whole crew of Legionnaire artillerists were onboard – they would be unloading the entire armament of the Starshrike upon the gathering Fae cohorts that were collecting in response to the Seventh Legion’s movements. I had a great view, standing before the primary tower of the Seventh Legion – watching as the elements that Ejana had picked for our little escapade.

I had given her free reign, and she had cut things to a fine edge. We needed to leave enough of the Seventh around to ward off the Fae, while still having enough to successfully to defeat the loyalist Legions.

She had diverted all of her Infused Knights: Twenty ice knights, ten fire knights, and thirteen earth knights (apparently, that was a lucky number for earth knights.) Supplementing them were three teams with mobile vortex arrow launchers. Squat, ugly looking machines, they looked a tiny bit like a many tiered oven, but rather than slats, they had tubes. Each tube contained a vortex arrow, and they were fired by blasting air through the backs via a massive collection of pumps and steam-valves attached to a mobile boiler, each of whom was fueled by a captive fire demon fed a constant string of wood. Next, she had divvied off two companies of cavalry: Two hundred men and women mounted upon sleek, lizardy creatures called raptors. They had feathered crests and wickedly sharp talons and, according to Ejana, they could charge up a mountain nearly as fast as they could charge down them.

Finally, she had taken five companies of infantry: Two thousand, five hundred men and women with long spears and shields and short swords. They were a tough, no-nonsense group of people and I was sure that, with the leadership of the Black Rose, they would be more than effective. I watched the army gathering and felt a growing sense of excitement – an eagerness around me. It wasn’t just the extra mana buzzing through my body. There was an essential beauty to it all – nearly three thousand men and women, all in gleaming uniforms, with pennants and standards, marching and forming up before me.