I will wait here and protect the portal. When all nine patrols have reported and I am sure that this area is clear, I will return to the war camp and inform the First Tribune. Be quick, for he eagerly awaits our word. Remember, we are not here to take slaves, only lives. Follow these directives to the letter and there’ll be no need to subject you to an Imperial Order court-martial.” Turning to look back at the line of waiting stalkers, Aegedes clenched his jaw. “Should any of the patrols fail in their duties, I will kill you personally.”
From atop his impatient horse Paganus immediately gave his master a crisp legionary salute.
“All will be done as you say,” he answered. Spurring his horse, he returned to the long line of eager stalkers and started barking out orders.
Aegedes watched as his stalkers broke into groups of ten, with one carnifex leading each group save for his own. As he rode his horse back toward his waiting group, the other nine patrols charged off in different directions, their horses’ shoes flinging grass and dirt as they went. While riding away for three leagues, each group would use their specialized gifts to search for endowed blood. If none was found, Aegedes could be certain that an invasion staging area measuring six leagues in diameter was free of Shashidan mystics.
Under normal circumstances, Aegedes’ standing orders were specific. When Shashidans were found, they were to be taken alive if possible, then sent home to meet their fates atop the slave block in Ellistium’s great forum. If Shashidan mystics were met, they were to be killed or taken as prisoners of war. But capturing mystics was a risky business, often resulting in many stalker deaths.
The orders for this all-important mission were different. This time the First Tribune had warned Aegedes that the taking of slaves was strictly prohibited. Feeding them and trying to return them to Ellistium would only create hardships. This time, no matter whom the stalkers met, they were to be summarily killed. This campaign was about taking the Shashidan gold mines, not human beings. If the mines could be won, their immense wealth would dwarf the rewards of slave-taking thousands of times over. Lucius had also said that should Aegedes need to kill any unruly stalkers as an object lesson to help maintain discipline, no questions would be asked.
Aegedes looked at his nine remaining vulgarium. Drooling and eager, they sat restlessly atop their horses, hoping that the Carnifex Magnus might change his mind and let them attend the killing spree.
“Dismount,” Aegedes ordered. “Keep trying to sense endowed blood. Until the others return, we wait here.”
As his stalkers left their saddles, Aegedes heard some of them utter rudimentary sounds that resembled grumbling. They communicated only in throaty tones, nonsensical syllables, and sweeping gestures. Some Rustannican mystics had learned the strange vulgarium way of speaking, as had each carnifex and legionary tribune.
After the lumbering stalkers climbed down from their horses, Aegedes noticed one of them starting to collect branches that had fallen from the massive oak tree. Clearly, the lumbering fool was about to light a fire.
Swinging one leg over his saddle pommel, Aegedes dropped to the grass. As he slipped up behind the stalker, the Carnifex Magnus silently unsheathed his sword.
Raising the blade high he brought it around swiftly, its broad side slapping hard against the vulgaris’ bare back. Although the blow was not meant to kill, the stinging pain and the red mark would last for days, branding the stalker with the ultimate humiliation of unworthiness.
Screaming in agony, the stalker swiveled around, intent on murdering whoever had struck him. When he found himself face to face with the Carnifex Magnus he lowered his bloodstained axe and let go a deep growling sound.
Sheathing his sword, Aegedes looked each stalker in the face.
“No fires!” he ordered. “You know our orders-this is a clandestine patrol! The next one who disobeys me dies!”
The stalker Aegedes struck pointed obstinately at the small woodpile he had collected, then gave the Carnifex Magnus a nasty glare. It was clear that he had not given up on a fire, foolish as it might be.
“Hach-a-garrr!” he shouted.
“No!” Aegedes shouted back, determined to keep control. He didn’t want to kill the glowering vulgaris, but if need be he would remove his head from his body without hesitation. This was the most important campaign of Aegedes’ life and he would allow no drooling underling to rob him of his glory.
To stress his resolve, Aegedes reached across his body to touch the hilt of his gladius. Growling in protest, the petulant vulgaris finally lumbered off to join his brothers as they continued to search out endowed blood. Deciding to take a look around, Aegedes walked down the gently sloping field.
His group had barely entered Shashidan territory, but their incursion constituted an act of war just the same. He couldn’t be sure about how long it would take his patrols to return, but the longer they were gone, the likelier it was that they had met Shashidans who needed killing. Although he treated his carnefiis and vulgarium harshly, he was proud of them. No stalker ranks had taken as many heads or captives as had his, and he meant to keep it that way. Part of him wanted no Shashidans to be found, for that would better ensure the stealthy nature of Vespasian’s advance. But he also wanted his stalkers to take many heads this day, giving him the ability to submit another glowing report to Lucius. As he thought about it, Aegedes smiled. He could live with either outcome, he decided.
Turning east, he looked toward the Vertex Mostim, the immense mountain range bordering Rustannica and Shashida on their eastern sides. Tall and snow-capped, the granite peaks were beautiful but forbidding. It was said by thePon Q’tar that the civilizations on the Vertex’s eastern side were uncultured, their craft use primitive, and that their people called these same mountains the Tolenkas. But that didn’t matter, he realized. After the empire’s legions took the Shashidan mines and went on to conquer the entire nation, there would be all the time in the world to find a way to cross the Vertex and crush whoever lived on the other side. By then nothing could stand in the empire’s way. The world would finally be theirs, and they would have paid for it dearly in Rustannican blood.
As he scanned the Vertex, Aegedes could barely see the six majestic waterfalls bursting from the sides of the peaks. Each one had loosed its fresh, cold water for aeons, and each was responsible for forming and sustaining one of the six rivers that clawed deep into Shashida like jagged fingers. The empire’s barges would soon ply those rivers, taking city after city to protect the transport of stolen gold on its way back to the waiting portals. Curving around on either side, Vespasian’s mighty legions would sweep each armada’s flanks clear of any land-based resistance, then take the mines. It would be an amazing fight, and one in which Aegedes would be immensely proud to play his small but important part.
Aside from Shashida’s reputedly massive gold mines, Rustannicans greatly envied her other, perhaps even more valuable natural resouce-namely, her abundant supply of clean water and the six wide rivers that so briskly carried it due south into her heartland. In Rustannica, the Vertex peaks also supplied water, but not in such copious amounts or of such wonderful purity. Rather than forming rivers, in Rustannica the base of the Vertex had become swampland-most of it unrecoverable, even for their mystics. And so the precious Rustannican water springing from the Vertex had to be manually collected and channeled down a clever series ofPon Q’tar- designed aqueducts that carried it to Rustannican cities. The aqueducts worked well, and the Shashidans had never invaded far enough into Rustannican territory to endanger them. Although two full legions continually guarded the aqueducts, their lengths were so vast that areas of vulnerability always existed.
Looking back to the south, Aegedes thought for a moment about the Borderlands, the massive tract of Rustannican territory that separated the two warring nations along their entire east-west border. The countryside it encompassed was beautiful and lush-unless thePon Q’tar activated the powerful spells that turned it into a living nightmare from which there was no return. Differing spells could be chosen to morph the inviting terrain into a fiery desert or a frozen wasteland, neither of which could sustain life. Because of that, the Borderlands had always remained uninhabited. Meant to protect Rustannica from invasion by Shashida, the Borderlands killed anyone trapped in their midst. That was not to say that the Borderlands were summoned every time the Shashidans tried crossing it, for the power needed to do so was severely draining to thePon Q’tar clerics and was therefore used only in the direst of emergencies. But effective as it was, the unique environmental weapon had other drawbacks.
When the Borderlands were summoned, everyone there-be they Rustannican or Shashidan-soon died from exposure to the harsh elements. The Borderlands took no notice of one’s allegiances, killing indiscriminately. Aegedes also knew that thePon Q’tar was not above summoning the Borderlands even if legionnaires were patrolling there, provided that a greater number of Shashidan soldiers could be killed at the same time. The
