12
The sword-slave island had been taken over by the sword slaves themselves, and the substantial crowds of spectators were now hostages. That included more than a few Volakian nobles, High Countess Serena Delacroix not least among them. The rebels were hoping to use these hostages to bargain for their freedom.
Such was the report that had been sent to the heart of the empire, and one would have expected it to shock the country just as its newest emperor had ascended the throne…but that shock never came.
“Muster a response force immediately and send it to that island. I have no intention of negotiating,” commanded the new emperor, Vincent Volakia.
The emperor’s will was given primacy in all things, and so an extermination unit was immediately formed. There were about five hundred sword slaves on the island—but the imperial force consisted of two thousand handpicked troops. Even tested, experienced fighters like the sword slaves wouldn’t be able to withstand such numbers. What was more, the emperor’s orders regarding the fate of the island dwellers consisted of just two words: “Crush them.”
These two thousand troops made no pretense of being there to rescue hostages. They had permission to use overwhelming force to annihilate the opposition.
“Still, it’d only make more headaches to abandon Delacroix.”
“Then His Majesty lied…?”
“Don’t say that, kiddo! Not if you value your life. It wasn’t a lie. It was just…expedient. That’s a better way to put it. A way to clean things up with no mistakes. That’s the truth of it,” said an old white-haired man who was scratching his neck and not bothering to hide his annoyance.
He was short to begin with, and that was only exacerbated by the fact that his back was bent with age. It was exceptional for an ordinary human, and not some long-lived demi-human, to reach his nineties, as this one had done. His vigor was also quite impressive considering his years. One might doubt one’s ears if one was told that this wise and old man, his eyes all but hidden beneath his inordinately long eyebrows, was one of the Nine Divine Generals, fighters famous throughout Volakia.
Securing a place among the Nine Generals could only be done by demonstrating supreme martial prowess. Yet this white-haired old man—Orbart Dankelken—was one of them. And speaking with him was a young woman with brown skin, much of it exposed, and an eye patch over one eye. Orbart smiled at her from under his ample eyebrows. “Your name. Remind me, it was…”
“Arakiya. I believe I have told you several times.”
“Ah, yes, of course. Arakiya, that’s right, Arakiya. This time, I’m going to remember!” Orbart snapped his fingers and gave a wheezing laugh that made him sound rather ill. Arakiya merely sighed at him and gazed with heavy-lidded eyes across at the distant island.
At the moment, Orbart and Arakiya were stationed with the handful of imperial troops dispatched to the Ginonhive region, taking stock of the island.
“Quickest thing would be to pile on in there, but the drawbridge would have to be down for that,” Orbart said.
“Can we not use boats?”
“Boats, boats! Yeah, we thought about it, but—you know. That lake is swimming with aquatic demon beasts. They were released into the water to keep the sword slaves from escaping way back when, but now they own the place. So with no drawbridge, we can’t get in, and the rebels can’t get out. Tough nut, no?” Orbart laughed his wheezing laugh again.
Arakiya turned her attention to the lake and found that in the dark night waters, she could see shapes drifting, floating, and swimming like fish. Except they weren’t fish. They were aquatic demon beasts. Many land-bound creatures found it difficult to fight underwater, so it wasn’t uncommon for many to consider these beasts even more dangerous than some of their land-dwelling counterparts. It wasn’t surprising that Orbart might laugh off the idea of boats as impractical. And so…
“I will go,” Arakiya said.
“Hey now, this is more than just a little swim we’re talking about. You’d be down a monster’s gullet before you got anywhere near that island, eh? I’m old and haven’t much time left, but to watch a young girl with her whole future ahead of her throw her life away—it’s too much!”
“It’s…all right. I will simply become the water.”
“Hoh!” Orbart’s eyebrows shifted in what was definitely surprise. As he watched, Arakiya stripped off her already minimal clothing until she was completely naked. Then she crouched by the water, extended a hand to the lake surface, and went “Nom!” She scooped up a water spirit, a little lesser spirit, and popped it into her mouth.
As a spirit eater, Arakiya could ingest the spirits in the atmosphere around her and make their power her own. She could only use that power until the spirit was fully consumed, but because spirits were everywhere if you looked, she never lacked for fuel.
This was the ability that enabled her to ingest the water spirit, making its qualities her own. She glanced toward Orbart and said, “The drawbridge—it just needs to come down, right?”
“Yes, that’d do it. Anyway, if I went back to His Majesty and said that a little girl like you had given her all while my old bones had sat and done nothing, he’d kill me on the spot. Go about your task, my dear!” He gave her a perfunctory wave good-bye. It didn’t bother Arakiya, who simply nodded and dived into the water. She set out with a speed that rivaled any aquatic demon beast.
The actual aquatic creatures didn’t notice Arakiya, who had practically become water thanks to the power of the spirit. No beast would deliberately snap at empty water. Thus, Arakiya managed to do what no one had done since the foundation of the sword-slave island—cross the lake alone, and easily at that. It had taken her less than ten minutes.
“—?” Suddenly, she noticed something that caused her to drop her otherwise steady pace. She had spotted a small island between the shore and the main island. In fact, it was really too small to be called an island; it was more a collection of rocks. She’d noticed it because partaking of the water spirit made her more sensitive to slight changes in the current and flow of the lake water.
She also registered blood in the water. She changed direction and headed for the spit of rocks, following the smell of blood until she made landfall. Now she could see traces of gore, leading into a little crevice among the boulders. And when she followed it…
“Hell, I don’t even know what’s goin’ on anymore. I must have lost so much blood that I’m seein’ things.”
“ ” Arakiya squinted to see better.
“One thing’s for sure. I know a naked, silver-haired girl didn’t just drop in and find me on these rocks… Not with my karma…”
In the crevice, she found a man who was missing one arm. His black hair was soaked, and across his chest was a wound that was obviously serious. It was his blood she had been following, and it was clear that if the man—presumably someone somehow connected to the island—didn’t get help soon, death would not be long in coming.
Arakiya thought for a moment. Her orders were to retrieve the imperial nobility on the island. To do that, she had to lower the drawbridge so that Orbart could get across. And to do that, it would be helpful to have some knowledge of the island’s inner workings.
“You don’t…want to die?” she asked.
“ ” The man didn’t respond.
“If you don’t want to die… Mmm. I will help you. In exchange, you will talk to me.”
Arakiya modeled the terms of her negotiation based on the way her former mistress— No, in Arakiya’s heart, she still served the young woman. But this was the first time Arakiya had ever tried to negotiate for anything in her life, and when the man on death’s doorstep heard her, he answered with a quiet laugh.
“You think I’m afraid of dying, after all this? Shoulda tried that…before I’d died a million times…” Blood flecked the man’s lips as he spoke. He sounded like he was pronouncing a curse.
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