When the first soldier disappeared, Ki’pokiki wasn’t overly worried. It was an unfortunate reality of this coalition that people would break away once in a while. Bad for morale but manageable. At least it didn’t seem to be a murder. None of her moles reported tensions between the tribes rising to that point, and her missing man had no enemies. Normally, she could have Kelk’kali’joni try to track him down, but the hunter was currently out with that unfortunate newcomer.
Then another vanished. This one was more suspicions. The missing man was Joso’shiro’joni, and despite not being anyone of particular note among the near-thousand people the war chief found herself responsible for, she was unfortunately familiar with the name, and more unfortunately, this one really might be murder. There were a good hundred people who wanted to poison that rat.
Joso was a middling warrior but with a poet’s heart, a songbird’s tongue, and magnetic fingers that could find a coin buried 20 feet deep, he had found himself with some popularity. Fluent in Gurngamosi, it was suspected he was the center of a group smuggling alcohol into the fortress. Never proven, but a consistent rumor. She wouldn't miss him, but smugglers were a lot less destructive than murderers.
One of her officers investigated a cache where they had found alcohol stowed before. It was an old tree stump that had been hollowed out underneath to serve as a burrow long before it was converted into a home for wine instead.
They found the ground soaked with wine, every jug shattered and every skin torn. There was so much that the blood mixed in almost went unnoticed. That was saying a lot; there was plenty of that too.
At this point Ki’pokiki was beginning to suspect that one of her own agents had decided to make her problem vanish. Who else wouldn't just take the wine?
She wasn't sure how she felt about that.
The next day she was interrupted from organizing the next raid by a delegation from their Gurngamosi allies. She went to their meeting grounds to find one shivering goblin surrounded by two cataphracts and a dozen foot soldiers. The soldiers were also nervous. The cataphracts never were.
Ki'pokiki crinkled her nose at the sight of the goblin. Miserable things stressed her out. Slavery disgusted her, but so did such compliant slaves. She couldn't stand that twang of sympathy she felt deep down. That wasn’t her. She had given that self the only fate it deserved and killed it.
The goblin scurried up to her, flanked by the cataphracts. The mounted men were as cold and unreadable as ever, faces hidden behind veils of chain. Her hippogriff was as dwarfed by their warhorses as she was by the men riding. One of them was armored the usual way, a heavy coat of steel scales for himself and his horse alike, but the other was clearly a class above. This man was wrapped in magic.
The golden scales that clad him were either taken from a slain dragon or even some immense leviathan of Jotunheim. She couldn’t begin to guess what magic was woven into them, but it was likely they were tougher than steel just on their own. His lance, too, was supernatural, and more obvious in nature. Two horns sprang out and came together in a bident, a candle-sized flame floating in between their points. Her own magical cloak was like a snotty handkerchief compared to something of that scale. It seemed her allies were prepared to burn down the forest today if they didn’t like what she had to say.
“Ki'pokiki'meo'loki! You are advised to speak truthfully! I speak for Governor Pieron and stand at the heel of his champion!” The puny goblin’s shook in direct contrast to the strength of his words. “Three soldiers of Pieron have gone missing. Given this is your declared territory, we consider it probable that you are responsible. Our lord demands an explanation. You know the consequences of breaking our alliance.”
Ki’pokiki ground her teeth. Allies within and without, both would take every opportunity to undermine her here. Pieron probably expected another entity was at work. That’s why he worded it the way he did. “Declared territory”. To a Gurngamosi, it was all theirs, and Ki’pokiki was a middling steward at best. The fact that she could not control every little thing in the woods was only further proof to them that her kind had no real claim to the land.
“Our forces have nothing to do with it. We are missing two of our own.” She admitted through gritted teeth.
“What!? Do you have any confirmation of that!? This could be bad news for us, Ki!” Ugh, the goblin spoke her title like a name. How did the imbecile learn her language but not how names worked?
“What would I prove that with? Their severed heads? What do you have to prove your men vanished?” The cataphracts didn’t understand her words, but they moved at her tone. “Tell them to calm down. Our alliance holds. Now get back to your fortress and wait for information from us.”
“You’re sending us back? Surely you require our help with this matter?” The goblin insisted.
“Not in my woods. We will handle this. Meeting over, go home.” Ki’pokiki turned and dismissively waved them off.
She felt the eyes of the soldiers on her back until a dozen of her troops emerged from the shadows, appearing without warning from behind and within trees. The first time she had done that while talking to Pieron’s forces, they had nearly panicked. The governor himself was there, she recalled. But the only response she recalled from him was a childish glee, clapping and laughing like it was a magic trick for his entertainment. The rest of the short trek home, she thought she heard giggling from the darkest parts of the woods.
Crawling with paranoia, Ki’pokiki stirred the fortress up like a kicked hornet’s nest. Soon their walls bristled with spears and the metal bars of their few crossbows shone in the setting sun. She felt her anxiety fading, replaced with the excitement of battle. The vicious chattering of her soldiers made her blood boil and her own teeth began to click, clamoring for something to sharpen them.
Reluctantly she stowed her bloodlust, putting her teeth to work whittling a stick she had picked up while she organized her forces. Nobody was to go out in any group smaller than five, even when just on patrol to the nearest outpost. Only a small portion of the army went out to search. Too much risk that this was some sort of trick to lure her away from the fortress.
Almost unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. She prowled the fortress, anxiety twitching its way out of her ears. For once, there were no pointless spats between tribes. This was the ideal. A real, unifying threat and the promise of a fight. Nothing made soldiers come together better. She was proud when she saw men shaping up into formations like she had taught them. It was all paying off. Now they just needed something to kill.
But nothing came to them. As the evening wore on, the nervous chatter gave way to bored chatter. Everyone held their positions, but there was more restless shuffling now. Then, finally, a burst of activity. Yells roused Ki’pokiki from a light doze on the rooftop. Immediately her hand was on her spear and she dropped onto the net covering the courtyard. Below, one of her scout squads was dragging something, thrashing so hard she could barely tell what it was. The brown, fuzzy mass seemed like some sort of feral puma at first, but at moments it seemed to stand upright.
She dropped the net and dispersed the crowd with a single shout. The only noise now was the snarling of the creature as it strained against the spears pinning it in place. That changed when it reared back and people saw its face. Yells of shock rang out all round, and even Ki’pokiki took a step back. For even with his lips chewed away by sharpened teeth, Joso’shiro’joni’s face was unmistakable.
And again there was laughter in the darkness.
Comments (0)
See all