Beyond the Hell Cliffs (31 page)

“So he says some man named Grass is going to avenge him?  This Grass, is he among the Greimere Army?  Is he Rathgar?”

Malthus made his inquiry to the large Rathgar.  The prisoner shook his head and responded.

“No, the person he refers to is not Rathgar, but… but a demon.”

“A demon, huh?” Tiberius asked, leveling his gaze at the defiant Rathgar.  “Some foolish specter of a pagan mythology, most likely.  These heathens… when they have nothing left, when they have no fight, they rely on curses and calls to imaginary deities.  It’s pathetic.”

“Sir, I do not believe he is referring to a deity,” Malthus said.  “It is not the correct usage for a god or an elemental.  I believe it is a person; someone this Rathgar knows.  We might even find this person once we enter the Greimere
.”

“Well, I hope that I do.  And when I find this Grass, I’ll spill his guts on the ground, just
like I’ll do with this troublesome idiot.  Pikes!”

Six men leveled pikes at the Rathgar warrior and the other prisoners tensed, but the Rathgar stood tall and looked each Saban soldier in the eye before settling back on
Tiberius.

“Does he feel like talking sense now, Sage?”
Tiberius asked.

Malthus asked the Rathgar a question, but the Rathgar did not respond with an answer.  Instead, he snorted and smiled.  Then, as the Sabans readied their weapons for an execution, the Rathgar lifted his massive arm and looked right at
Tiberius as he waved the man off dismissively.

Instantly the other prisoners erupted in a roar and they threw their fists in the air as if they had just witnessed a triumph.  Some of the Sabans
retreated a step, looking around in confusion.  Malthus scurried behind one of the shield-bearers.  The large Rathgar laughed right at Tiberius.

“Kill him now!”

The men buried their pikes in the prisoner and felled him in a few seconds.  The prisoners burst forward, their bound hands in front of them and actually attacked the pikemen.  Tiberius gave the command for the rest of the detail to defend themselves.  He kicked over a prisoner that had come right at him and quickly drove his sword into the Rathgar’s heart.

In seconds the rest of the prisoners were dead.  Once the initial shock of the attack wore off, the Saban soldiers easily put down the brief insurrection against bound and unarmed opponents.  Several officers were racing to the scene and everyone in earshot was looking at them.

“What the hell just happened?” Laurent asked.  “We killed all of the prisoners?  Did we gain any useful information at all?”

“We know that
this Grass fellow could be a threat if he could bolster their morale without even being here,” Tiberius answered.  “If he were a true warrior, though, then where the hell was he during the fighting?  Why is he not here now, leading his men against us?”

“The Rathgar are not honorable, sir,”
Laurent said.  “I’m not surprised that their leadership will not join them on the battlefield.”

“Yes, now I am a bit more eager for the Witzer Cannon to get here.  Maybe this demon or whatever he is will show me something more than these miserable beasts
have.”

Chapter 26

“Raegith, get up.”

Raegith’s head popped up from the book it rested upon and he spun off the chair to face the one in the room.  His hands were in front of him defensively and he was ready to attack.  For a moment there was only the enemy in front of him and his thoughts were of death. 

“Calm down, Raegith; it is just me,” Beretta said.

“Beretta?”  Raegith relaxed and looked around.  “I fell asleep in the library again?”

“You never leave this place
… lately not even to train.  Come on, let us go for a walk.  You need some time away from the histories.”

Beretta had him bathed and clothed in fresh skins.  After some food they both walked out into the courtyard.  Various servants were busy doing chores and scurrying about.  There were only Rathgar here, as was to be expected.  From what he had learned in the histories, the Rathgar only tolerated the other races.

As if reading his mind, Beretta asked him about what he had read so far.

“You seem to enjoying yourself as much with reading as you do with beating men unconscious.  Is there anything particular that has caught your attention in those dusty old books?”

“It’s all interesting,” Raegith replied.  “That’s not what is keeping me up all night, though.  The Greimere used to be much different before the treaty.”

“How so?”

“Everything I have read from the dawn of the Empire was all forward-thinking: expansion, domination… the Rathgar ruled over the other races and bent them to the will of the Empire.  The Empire itself was one big war machine and it wanted nothing more than to devour the ‘world of sunshine’ to the north.  Then the treaty happened and everything centered on survival and diplomacy.”

“If we stand for anything here in the Greimere, it is survival.  You were forced to survive in the Pit.  Surely you can understand the merit of such a life.”

“It is not the same.  I fought for my survival, ripping my life away from those who would take it and making them pay for their attempts.  I did not parlay with my enemy and accept terms for my survival.  I did not accept a schematic for fighting so that I could throw my fights in a more believable fashion.”

“You are correct, Raegith, but in the Pit you had few to worry about.  The Empress, as her father and grandfather, must worry about an entire nation.  You have only seen the Citadel and a small outpost in your time here.  We are not called an empire because we have two locations.

“Empress Kalystra rules over the Citadel, six military outposts and four civilian outposts, as well as the various Lokai villages to the west, the civilized Urufen tribes settled to the east and the Gimlets who seem to spring up from every hole in the ground.  She also holds rule over the Lurches and the Barren Wastes to the north, all the way to the Hell Cliffs, though the denizens of both are hardly under her control.  Only the far south, the Dread Marshes, are free territory.  Things are not as easy when you must govern more than your own body.”

“
The Empire of old fought for real,” Raegith said.

“And there is a reason why the old Empire is no more.  There are those among the Empire that believe those in the north have divine protection.  Even those who are ignorant of the real purpose of these wars know that we do not fight for domination.  Our victory relies on a successful retreat after collecting enough loot from the southern-most villages and the slight catharsis of our warriors when they kill your kind.”

“So you abide by all of the rules of the Rellizbix Kingdom, but are allowed none of the benefits.”

Chapter 27

“
I hear you had a nice stroll with Beretta,” Kalystra said, joining Raegith in the library that evening.  “She tells me you have been burning through our books at a scholar’s pace.  Don’t you get bored?”

“I used to liv
e in a small keep in the middle of a forest.” Raegith looked up and turned in his seat to address her.  “All I had were the histories of my people to keep me company.  I’ve grown used to lengthy reading.”

“The middle of a forest?
  I’ve never even seen a forest.”

“Well, believe
me, you would be sick of it after ten years, Empress.”

“I doubt it,” she replied, pulling up a chair.  “You’re lucky, Raegith.  You’re noble without all the responsibility.  You’ve lived in both the north and the south; been able to see the beauties and horrors of both.  You can just sit down and read for hours without being interrupted by aides or servants bringing news of some urgent matter that only you can see to.”

“You’re the only one here that thinks my life lucky, Empress,” Raegith laughed. 

“You are lucky, Raegith.  I would give up my position and forsake the entire empire if I could journey into the north, past the cliffs.  I wish I could drink water right from a stream without being poisoned and run naked over ground that would not try to prick my feet.  I wish I could spend time
among creatures that did not want to kill me.  Sometimes I envy the warriors we send off, that they get to see such places, even if it is the last place they see.”

“Then why not just leave and go there?  There
are no settlements right on the Hell Cliffs.  If you were careful, you could make it pretty far into the north without anyone knowing you were there.”

“I can’t just take off and leave my people.  I have a responsibility to them; a responsibility to my lineage, to rule and keep the people of the Greimere.  These are just dreams, Raegith.  You’ve read the
histories, or most of them already.  You know the Empire will not survive without a ruler.”

“I don’t know that at all and neither do you.  I think that it might be tough at first, but the Empire can change.  It can break away from the shackles Rellizbix has placed on it and be a true Empire and not an annex.”

“You think we should stop going to war with Rellizbix?  That we should break the treaty and forfeit our loot and payment?” Kalystra asked.  She laughed and smoothed back her hair.  “The king would send his army here to obliterate us before we could starve to death.”

“No, I don’t think so.  I think the Rathgar are just horrible at agriculture, is all.”

“The Rathgar are the dominant race of this entire land!”

“Yes, you managed to conquer all of the other races here, but you’ve gained nothing from it in all of these centuries.”  Raegith pulled a text from his pile on the table.  “The Rathgar never evolved past a hunter/gatherer society because they were so good at warfare.  They simply conquered the other races and then imposed their own lifestyle on them, to the detriment
of all but one.”

Raegith opened the book.  It was a scholarly thesis on Gimlet
s that was heavy with dust.  The spine cracked in two it was so dry.

“This Magram guy, he wrote a bunch of stuff on Gimlets a few hundred years ago, but it looks like his thoughts were never looked into.  Maybe he wasn’t p
opular or maybe he just did not…”

“Magram was beheaded for heresy and treason,” Kalystra said.  “That’s the only copy of his insane drivel left.  He was not a very good Rathgar from what I’ve heard.”

“He was smart, Kalystra.  He found out that despite all of the horrors of this place; despite the need for even the Rathgar to group up behind walls against the fearsome beasts and vegetation here, the Gimlets were the only race that continued to thrive.  Gimlets live outside the walls of outposts or the torches of settlements.  They are the only race whose population is still growing.”

“Gimlets are stupid!  They barely have any rights.  They’re nothing but scavengers and cowards.”

“Precisely!” Raegith exclaimed.  “So then how do they live on their own?  How do they thrive so easily in such a harsh environment?”

“Dumb luck.”
Kalystra sighed.  “And the fact that we don’t send them to the front lines in war.  Maybe if they were dying as often as our warriors…”

“No, that’s not it.  Magram hypothesized that Gimlets are actually hyper-adaptive to their environments.  The group of Gimlets that escorted us
were all pretty dull creatures that could not even scout ahead without strict instruction, except for the boss.  Fibbitch was much smarter than the other Gimlets; smarter than most prisoners in the Pit.  I wondered why that was and so did Magram.

“According to these notes, Gimlets will not mature intellectually while in groups with a leader; they don’t need to.  As long as there is someone smarter to lead them, Gimlets will just do what they are told.  But get one alone for a long enough period of time and they will evolve.  Their minds will grow, they will find new ways of surviving and they will learn at an advanced pace.  That’s how these ‘Boss’ Gimlets come about; they are abandoned or lost from the group and their physiology reacts in an incredible way in order to keep them alive.”

“So you’re saying that Gimlets can get smarter if we dump them in the wild all alone?”

“That’s only part of it.  Gimlets, whether they’re ‘drones’ or ‘bosses,’ still adapt faster than other organisms.  If anything, your disdain for their kind is the sole reason they are doing so well.  Being outside of the
Citadel, outside of civilizations and out on their own is making them stronger each generation.  They are learning to use the things they find; creating newer ways to survive the environment… I notice none of your Rathgar have crossbows like the Gimlets have.  Hell, I think we just discovered them a few years ago in Rellizbix and all Sabans do is figure out new toys for their fake war.”

“Yes, I’ve seen those ridiculous little bow things they carry.  What a cowardly weapon they are.”

“There… right there!” Raegith exclaimed.  “That’s why you cannot win a war against Rellizbix even if you tried, Empress!”

“We cannot defeat Rellizbix because they outnumber us, they outmatch us and because they command us!  You are angering me, Raegith.”

Raegith knelt down in front of her and her brow furrowed.  It looked like she was holding her breath.

“Your Highness, do you know anything of the history of the Sabans?”

“I, uh… Raegith, what are you doing?”

“Empress, the Sabans were nothing more than farmers before the first invasion. 
They had no magic or affinity with nature like the Faeir and Twileen.  To the older races of Rellizbix, they were not even worth speaking to.

“Then the war came and the old races were annihilated by the Rathgar, another race that had no magic, but thought only of war and death.  Against such an opponent, the Sabans stood their ground and the remaining races rallied behind them.  The Sabans, a humble, unworthy race,
were willing to do anything, accept help from anyone, use any weapon available to them to defeat the Rathgar… and they did.”

“I… I did not know that,” Kalystra said, blushing.  “Raegith, why are you still kneeling before me?”

“Look, I know you are doing your best, Empress.  You’re still so young, like me.  Even in the middle of serious topics you break out in girlish behavior sometimes and I enjoy that, but you are still the Empress of Greimere and I am a servant to the Empire, like all others here.  I don’t say any of this to anger you; I don’t pour through these pages to outwit you.  I seek only to serve you better and you deserve to have an Empire that is truly yours.  If I have to come off harsh or anger you to give this to you, I will.”

“To have an empire that is truly mine, you say?  Then do you mean to stay with me long enough to help me build this empire?”

“Free my friends from the Pit, Empress, and I will give you my best.  For now, though, I still have lots more to read.”

“Then I will leave you,” Kalystra said, getting up from her chair.  “It is late and I am departing for the Lokai settlements tomorrow.  I came here to let you know that before you distracted me.  I will be gone for a few days
.  Beretta will see to your needs, as always.”

“Good night, Empress,” Raegith said, flipping open to a bookmarked page on one of his larger tomes.”