...

In Duneland, Horatio Valdez and his forces had been scouting the desert, with Salamanca still in tow. She was still in chains and had a bandaged shoulder, but was allowed to speak and eat freely, with no bridle. She also still wanted to kill the man who had dared attempt to defile her, but had no safe means to do so.

Valdez was in the direction of Kotaria and Salamanca did not care enough to attempt to learn his language to warn him. Valdez's men made contact with Kotaria when an elephant charged at them. They soon dispatched it with a Mancanan cannon, a narrow metal gun on carriage wheels that fired fist-sized iron balls.

The elephant roared in fear in pain as soon as the ball went through its skull but the creature soon succumbed to death. Valdez inspected the creature and smiled.

"Meat enough for nearly our entire party." he assessed, "A common elephant. Not native to Mancana but plentiful enough in the great lands to the east. I did not expect to find one in the strange middle lands."

The men went about dismembering the elephant and soon shared its muscles and intestines among themselves. The Mancanans were met by a party of Kotarian soldiers angry that one of there elephants had been killed. The two groups could not understand each other and Salamanca was not much of an interpreter.

"You speak Dunelander, yes?" Salamanca asked one of the soldiers, "These foreigners killed your elephant to feed themselves."

"They had no right!" the soldier exclaimed, "They did not even announce themselves!"

"I need you to get me away from them." Salamanca requested, "At least one of these human bastards tried to rape me!"

"Is that any concern of mine, pale snake demon?" the soldier replied, "Kotaria has its own share of problems without getting involved with the affairs of serpentines."

"When these knights slaughter all of Kotaria, do not run weeping to me." Salamanca mocked.

"Is that a threat, serpentess?" the soldier asked.

Before Salamanca could even respond, events spoke for themselves. One Kotarian soldier was brutally kicked by a Mancanan, so the Kotarian raised his spear in response and was swiftly shot through the heart by a musket. A large group of Mancanan soldiers trained their muskets on the Kotarians and Salamanca finally realized the gravity of the situation. She slithered in between the Mancanans and tried to talk them down.

 <No need for pointless violence!> she begged

The Mancanans were about to shoot Salamanca when Valdez got in front of them.

"Stop!" he ordered, "Put down your guns! I will not have my prize subject ruined! I intend to make a display of her to King Marco."

The soldiers instantly put down their guns but raised them again when the Kotarians pointed their spears at Valdez. Salamanca shrieked as the Mancanans mowed down the Kotarian soldiers and swiftly buried in them in the sand.

"There will be more of them." a Mancanan advised.

"I did not tell you to open fire!" Valdez scolded, "Another man that disobeys a direct order will be discharged without honors!"

"They tried to kill you, my captain." another Mancanan said.

"We need a negotiator." Valdez considered, "Someone who is one of them, a darkskin. Obviously the snake woman failed us."

After a few more hours of travel, Valdez found his answer when Heraldess Heti arrived to greet him, escorted by two elephants and ten soldiers.

"Greetings, foreigners." Heti announced, "I am Heraldess Heti, speaker for Pharaohess Neferti. What is your business in Kotaria?"

A Mancanan nudged Salamanca forward to translate who slithered up to the heraldess.

"Listen to me." Salamanca begged Heti, "I know I am a serpentine but you are all in danger. These strangers seek to kill you."

At hearing this, Heti broke into laughter and shook her head.

"Kotaria has elephants and strong walls. These men only have spears." Heti said.

"We will negotiate with this woman." Valdez decided, "Take her."

The Mancanans surrounded Heti and one man knocked her out with the butt of his musket. The Kotarians reacted in fury but one cannon shot through the head of another elephant stopped them in their tracks.

"What kind of weapons are these?" a Kotarian wondered.

"Their fire hurlers are far more accurate than that of the paleskins." another Kotarian said, speaking of Rosemarble.

The Mancanans forced the Kotarians to lead them right up to the city walls. In a demonstration of power, Valdez chose a section of wall that was not close to any inhabitants.

"Fire upon this spare wall until it crumbles." he ordered.

The captive Kotarians looked on in horror as their protective wall was reduced to dust by cannons and Heti trembled in fear.

"Are we ready to negotiate?" Valdez asked.

A large group of Kotarian soldiers were soon alerted to the breached wall but were held at bay as a Mancanan soldier put a knife to Heti's throat.

"I demand to see your leader!" Valdez ordered.

The Kotarians sneered and brandished their spears. Valdez shook his head at the futility of communicating with them as he did not speak their language

"Stay back!" Heti pleaded with her own soldiers.

After several tense minutes, a large elephant, painted from trunk to tail in gold, lumbered forth to meet the Mancananas. The elephant carried Pharaohess Neferti's personal litter. Neferti herself sat atop a canopied, gold-laden box, attended by guards and servants who shaded her from the sun with fans. Neferti held out her hand and the elephant stopped. Two guards helped their pharaoh down to greet the strangers.

"Do you speak the language of the paleskins?" Neferti announced in Rosemarblian.

"The paleskins?" Heti asked, as she herself hated when she had to speak it.

"They speak Galelander?" a Mancanan soldier asked.

"We could have parleyed all along?!" Valdez shouted in frustration, realizing that Rosemarblian was the same language as Galelander, a country that traded with Mancana.

<The language of the pale humans?> Salamanca added, <I am not so good with it.>

"Who are you?" Neferti inquired, "Why have you come here? Do you not trade with the paleskins?"

Mancana did occasionally trade with Rosemarble, but neither country knew much about the other. In fact, this marked the first time that Mancanan soldiers were sent to the "strange middle lands" as Mancanans assumed that Rosemarble was a territory of Galeland and kept soldiers out of it to avoid conflict.

"This land is now a protectorate of the Mancanan Empire, on behalf of the divinely appointed majesties, King Marco and Queen Esparanza!" Valdez announced in Galelander, "Do not attempt to resist or the rest of your land will be felled as easily as your fragile wall!"

Neferti thought for a moment and realized in horror that the Mancanans had enough weaponry to obliterate Kotaria. Her only hope now was that the gods would save her.

"Allow me to speak with my oracle, my high priestess." Neferti decided, "And as a gesture of good will you shall return my heraldess safely."

"You may go but your heathen priests and gods will not save you." Valdez advised, "And we will surrender your servant as soon as you surrender this city."

"If Heti has so much as a cut on her finger, then my elephants will trample your bones into dust." Neferti warned.

"Threaten me again woman and we will do far worse to you." Valdez answered.

"My pharaohess, you must surrender to them." said a voice from behind Neferti, "It is the only way to save Kotaria from destruction."

Neferti turned around in surprise only to see her high priestess, Semerket, flanked by guards of her own.

"Semerket..." Neferti said suspiciously, "I did not summon you."

"The gods have foretold of this day." Semerket said, "When the strange ones with sticks of fire would redeem this land."

"Redeem the land?" Neferti questioned.

"Yes, they will usher in a new age of prosperity." Semerket continued, "Do you think our taking of Bloodmarble was mere happenstance? Kotaria will reach a truly golden era."

"We have not yet taken Bloodmarble." Neferti corrected, "And yet..."

Both Heti and Semerket looked at their pharaohess with pleading eyes as Valdez grew impatient. Neferti shook with a combination of fear and anger and cleared her throat.

"Kotaria is yours, foreigner." Neferti announced in Rosemarblian, "I do not wish to see my people slaughtered. Now unhand my heraldess."

A Mancanan soldier threw Heti to the ground and Valdez nearly struck him. Valdez then helped Heti up as she stumbled away and collapsed into Neferti's arms.

"My pharaohess." Heti fretted, "What is to become of us?"

"I know not." Neferti admitted.

Within a day, Valdez stationed his soldiers all over Kotaria and seated himself at Neferti's own desk. He took a look at Neferti's idols and amulets in disgust and knocked them from the table. Valdez placed a large leatherbound book on Neferti's desk and began to read.

"What is that?" Semerket questioned in Mancanan as she stepped into the room unannounced.

"Heathen woman!" Valdez shouted, "How did you get past my guards?"

"I bribed them with handfuls of gold." Semerket admitted.

"All of you gold belongs to Mancana now." Valdez said, "I ought to have them flogged. In any case, how do you speak my language?"

"I take it upon myself to learn even things that Neferti deems worthless." Semerket said, "Including languages spoken only by foreign traders."

"So you are the speaker for the false gods?" Valdez said, "You will have to convert to the true faith, the Church of Our Lord and Our Lady."

"The people will resist." Semerket said, "Only I can convince them to renounce Neferti."

"And thus the idols were cast down..." Valdez read from his book, "That's what it says in the Writs, the holy word."

"We have our own proverbs." Semerket answered,"The sky gives rain when the cattle are fed, meaning this land will prosper if its people are treated well. I will help you destroy our amulets, if that is what you desire, in exchange for my retaining power."

"I will not let you remain as a heathen priestess, woman." Valdez asserted.

"I do not ask that." Semerket said, "If I and my people worship your gods, I only ask that I be made as Neferti, a pharaohess, second only to you."

"Your ambition outgrows your place, woman." Valdez decided, "But I may consider it."