Tanya's Third Life as a Barbarian Queen, Chapter XLIV

I will have the chapter as links to download at the bottom of the post. As well as a link to the Google Document page.

7 miles from Kontia.

Diabo, Imperial Prince.

If the village had a name, it was long gone along with its inhabitants.

It was a few dozen buildings clustered together around a rather modest temple. Trenches had been dug between the buildings, and earthen walls reinforced with whatever could be found encircled most of the buildings, creating a crude but effective fortress.

The settlement had been in violation of the law even before it was occupied by the Lepus, it being located directly on the Imperial road. It was forbidden to build anything within several hundred feet of the vital arteries of the Empire, and it was especially illegal to build a settlement without a royal writ. 

Yet here it was, and no doubt had been here for decades at the very least. Yellowed brick and darkened thatch roofing on some of the smaller hovels attested to that. Law must be difficult to enforce this far from the Imperial core. That, or it was simply a matter of no one caring to enforce the law.

The thought made my teeth itch. 

That the Lepus were so far south boded poorly for my brother's campaign, just as Graci had predicted. Trying to push north when the road was being blockaded would be foolish to the extreme. The Lepus would have to be dislodged, otherwise I would have to turn around now. I doubted that my father would be in any way understanding about my failure to take Zorzal into custody. 

I looked at the men with me, three hundred veteran Equites from my Legion in the far west. They still bore the fine emerald green of the desert Legion and the woollen coats intended to fend off the harsh sun that would turn armour hot enough to burn the soldiers wearing them. The men had travelled without complaint across the entire breadth of the Empire with Zorzal's mad, unsanctioned invasion. I settled my horse as we approached the settlement and raised our standard, as shouting and the pounding of hundreds of feet could be heard from within the tall, albeit crude, walls. 

"You won't find your fortune here with such a paltry warband!" The Rabbit Woman stood atop one of the buildings and shouted down at us. Beside her, a pair of her fellows fussed over some heavy bronze tube, the polished metal shining in the sun. Warnings of scepters and deadly magic did not go unheeded, and I had the distinct impression that, whatever it was, it was pointed at me and my men. 

"We did not come for fortune but by the bidding of the Emperor!" I replied as the woman's ears seemed to swivel and point in my direction unnervingly. 

"Well, you and your men won't be coming this way!" She shouted. "The Tanaoi rule here now. From here and everything to the North. Recompense for your illegal invasion!"

I frowned. It was an odd thing indeed for a Barbarian to speak of war as an illegal act. Moreover, while compensation was not a foreign concept to any peoples I knew of, few would have spoken about it in this way.

"You are an official representative of the Tanaoi?" I felt my throat starting to hurt from the shouting. 

"Yes, I am Lieutenant Breha of the Tanaoi!" She called out.

"Can we dispense with this nonsense and speak properly?" I asked. After whispering for a while, this Breha woman eventually called out.

"You may approach, alone, and we will speak. No harm will come upon you lest you invite it!" She quickly turned and climbed down from the roof as the men around me shifted, clearly uncomfortable with me taking such a risk. But I was a Prince of Sadera; it was my duty. Besides, the Headhunting Rabbits were deranged savages. If they were confident they could defeat me and my men, they would have attacked us already. 

My horse stepped forwards toward the ramshackle barricade the Lepus had placed upon the Imperial road in the shadow of the illegal buildings. As I approached, I spotted the Lepus Breha pull herself atop the barricade and sit on top of it with her legs crossed in a relaxed manner, at odds with her fellows watching us from the roofs. 

She had a coat of mail with gleaming steel links and a pair of long leggings, bright green on one leg and blue on the other, terminating in a pair of light leather shoes. At her hip was a Saderan sword, while a leatherbound book rested tied upon her other hip.

"I will have your name, Saderan," she probed as I leaned back atop my steed to regard her.

"I am Diabo El Caesar, Tribune of the Empire," I offered, careful just to offer my current office. Yet at my words, her eyes lit up and a grin found her lips.

"I know this name, you are a Human Princeling. My Queen told us your name and description. Yes, you are one of the Very Important Persons we are to take note of." She had an odd enunciation on her words as she spoke and was careful to speak loud enough for her people to hear her. I set my teeth as my identity was discovered as soon as this conversation had truly begun. 

"It seems my reputation precedes me," I offered with a smile.

"Not particularly." Breha waved a hand. "You are just important to the Humans, that's it." 

"Why are you here?" I asked after a moment of silence, my glare seeming to find no purchase in the woman.

"...Because your brother invaded us?" She cocked her head to the side as if genuinely confused.

"You have not attacked us," I pointed out. "You are some distance from your horde."

"Oh, this town specifically? Our Queen commanded it, this is the only road to Kontia." She shrugged. 

"So you control that city?" Hopefully I could tease some information out of the woman, as she was oddly accommodating. That my brother had not defeated the Lepus at Kontia was worrying, but I did not let that show upon my face. There was every possibility that he had withdrawn north before going west and was currently on the other side of the vast lakes and wetlands. 

"Kontia? Yes, we took it weeks ago. You humans are not great at fighting, are you?" She mocked, tapping her knees with her hands as I shifted in the saddle.

"If your Queen controls Kontia, then I would speak with her. I have not come to persecute the war but to see to Human affairs, yet I cannot abide a city of Sadera being plagued by your kind." She looked at me for a long while as if considering my words before she nodded.

"If there is nothing else, I shall send a runner to my Queen. You and your men shall withdraw until called upon." She made a shooing motion as I glared at her.

"Since we are entering negotiations in good faith, an exchange of hostages in the name of the Gods would be acceptable to us." At my words, the Lepus' expression turned sour.

"We won't be exchanging hostages, not after what your brother did." She turned and spat, but chose to glare at me rather than explain herself so I was left merely to speculate. I could imagine more than a few things Zorzal might have done to garner the ire of the Warrior Bunnies, least of all his invasion itself.

"That will make this negotiation more precarious," I prompted.

"I am not saying we won't be taking hostages, we won't be providing any to you, Princeling. As for us? We don't need human hostages. We already have plenty." The barbarian grinned widely.

"What do you mean by that?" I snapped. Being mocked by a barbarian was extremely tiresome.

"The Ninth Legion surrendered after we defeated them in battle." The woman took a preening and mocking tone. "Their steel is ours and they live at our mercy, Princeling." 

"Forgive me if I fail to believe you without proof." I grit my teeth as she laughed.

"Believe what you like, it won't change anything." She glanced behind her and back at me.

"Very well, your Queen shall come soon?" I prompted.

"I shall send a runner when you leave, she will arrive as she pleases." I glared at her for a moment longer before turning my horse about and making my way back to the men watching the exchange.

Few words were spoken as my host and I made our way back down the Imperial road for a while before setting up camp around a small farmstead roughly half a mile from the Lepus-controlled settlement. That was a risk, perhaps, but the men were worn out, having marched so quickly north in the hopes of preventing the Lepus from crossing the Kontia river. Something that was impossible now. 

The farmstead was a home attached to a small barn, filled with narrow and empty rooms, but the kitchen still had a sizable table that must have been too cumbersome to take from the structure.

"Bring me the maps," I ordered and before long the table was dominated by a number of maps produced by Wyvern Knight cartographers. The best and most accurate in all the world.

But here, so far from civilization, even the legendarily-accurate maps of the Knightly Order were limited. The lands here were vast and had few identifying features. But any information was precious. If the Ninth Legion had truly been defeated, then my priority would be having Zorzal returned to Sadera and negotiating for the return of the survivors from the Ninth Legion.

Without a Wyvern Knight accompanying me, it would be impossible to include my Father in the negotiations. I would have to make my own determination as to how to deal with the mess that my brother had left for me. 

"Take a small group of men and make your way to the river." I turned to one of the Centurions. "Discover if they have repaired the bridge and, if not, try to identify where they are crossing." The man saluted and made to gather men for the task as I turned back to the maps of the region.

Unlike my brother, I did not have a full Legion at my back. Fleeing now would be unthinkable regardless; I needed to see that the Ninth Legion had been defeated with my own eyes. Every word out of that barbarian's mouth could have been a lie. For a moment I considered ordering an assault against the settlement, but thought against it. The men were tired after a long march. 

It would not do to assault a fortified location with tired and hungry men. I would see what this Queen had to say for herself and make my decision tomorrow.

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I felt weightless as I rode towards a table placed just aside from the main road atop a windswept field of grass neatly cropped by cattle. They had been slaughtered prematurely by Saderans fleeing the advance of the Lepus. I gripped the reigns of my horse as I saw the neatly formed block of armoured Steppe warriors, forty in total, with what could only be their Witch Queen sitting casually before them. 

Like a criminal being fed to the lions at the colosseum, I could almost feel Molt's eyes boring into the back of my head as I made my way to negotiate with notoriously murderous barbarians who had more than a few reasons to hate me.

I glanced back at the Equites behind me, two hundred in total, with the rest of my retinue securing the baggage train in case the situation demanded a hasty retreat. It was a small comfort, considering how difficult it would be to flee from the Lepus. The situation looked grim, but doing nothing felt far worse. The woman sitting at the table rose and inclined her head respectfully as I climbed down from the gentle mare that had carried me across half the world. 

"Welcome Diabo, Prince of Sadera. I am Queen Tanya, pureblood mage of the Tanaoi, headtaker of ninety four women and hundreds of men. And mother to five daughters. I command these women and speak with the voice of all free and subjugated Lepores." I felt myself become unnerved at her introduction and could not help myself but to ask.

"Personally?" Aief, the Lepus slave who accompanied that governor, had mentioned the traditional greetings of the Lepus. But I was no Lepus, I did not need to glance at the women behind Tanya to notice how my question had turned some expressions sour.

"Uh, yes," Tanya replied, clearly not expecting such a question. "It would not count otherwise..." I let silence fill the air for a moment before stepping towards her and offering her a hand.

As if on reflex, she did not take my wrist as a good Saderan but grasped my hand itself and offered a firm, by human standards, shake. Perhaps a specifically Tanaoi tradition? It could have been employed as a variation of a Saderan greeting; Graci had argued that the Tanaoi were adopting a lot of Saderan customs in terms of organising their warriors.

"It is an honour to meet you," I began. "Though I am a Prince and Tribune of Sadera, I cannot claim to have spilled all that much blood over my life I'm afraid. It had never occurred to me to keep track."

Her lips thinned, but it was difficult to tell what garnered that reaction. Perhaps she thought I was insulting their customs, or perhaps she felt that a person who had neglected to decapitate enough people was not worth speaking to. 

I turned about, showing her my back as I made my way around the table and pulled out a wooden chair that had no doubt been taken from the settlement. It was a simple thing and I could find no fault or slight with the move. I glanced at Tanya who was still standing, waiting for me to take a seat first.

When dealing with a culture as alien and cruel as the Lepus, it was difficult to know exactly how the deadly game of diplomacy was to be played. Negotiation was as much about what was unsaid, what was communicated in custom, expression, and precedent, as what was said. I was unprepared for this and if I accidentally convinced the woman across from me that I was more useful to her dead than alive, there was little I could do about it. I had no doubt that Sadera would avenge my death somehow, but that was not exactly a comfort. 

I sat, then she did.

After a few tense seconds of silence, an attendant brought glasses and bottles of wine. I remained respectfully quiet for the time being.

"I would like to begin the negotiation for the release of the Legionaries of the Ninth legion with an open exchange of information," Queen Tanya began, taking up a number of neatly trimmed sheets of paper and passing them across the table towards me. "These are the conditions under which the Legionaries surrendered and are currently being held to. As you can see, they have been signed by the ranking representative of the Ninth Legion at the time of their surrender."

I took the papers without a word and began to quickly read through the several pages long conditions on the surrender of the Ninth Legion. If this was a ruse, it was a very odd one; I found it unlikely that the Lepus themselves wrote these conditions, but that did not rule it out.

"This was not Zorzal?" I said, looking through the papers again to confirm that his name was not present on any of the pieces of paper. 

"No, while these conditions were presented to Zorzal and representatives of the Ninth Legion before the surrender, it was not possible for him to sign this document." Her tone was flat with an undercurrent of frustration.

"He was captured before the Ninth Legion surrendered?"

"...The Ninth Legion surrendered after Zorzal was killed," the Tanaoi Queen said after a moment of consideration. I put the papers down in front of me as I sat back into my chair and met her eyes as a sudden breathlessness overtook me.

Zorzal was dead.

Was she lying?

Why would she lie?

What did this mean? For me, for Sadera, for the war...

I felt a sudden crushing weight and placed my hands upon the table in front of me, as if doing so would make it easier to carry.

Zorzal was dead.

My brother was gone.

"How did he die?" I heard myself ask as the Lepus' expression turned almost sympathetic.

"He was killed in his sleep by a slave concubine. The people of the Ninth Legion will corroborate this." I blinked. The Saderan people might be able to accept an honourable death in battle, but this?

"Was it a Lepus slave?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"Yes," she said as I felt my teeth grinding together in frustration. 

Zorzal had died in the worst possible way. I tried to think of a way to salvage the situation, but it felt almost impossible. What was I going to do? How could I present this to the Senate, who had just voted for peace with the Lepus? How would the Plebs respond?

What was I going to say to Father?

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZIHIpmVyzhCvLJB__ZFcahv5Sl0sesjB4w5UbA90hdg/edit?tab=t.0