The waters of the Whip danced by like living diamonds in the dying sunlight. Her horse whickered and shook its head as they stood at its banks. It was supposed to be five fathoms deep at this point, and wild, yet it seemed to leap and flicker by as innocent as a maiden. The Viisianars had called this river Moonstears, and claimed that once a month it shined like a second moon beneath the clear night\u2019s sky. But her father had renamed it the Whip when he conquered the land and took it from the Viisianars, twenty-three years ago.<\/p>\n
The advance troops had already erected a sturdy bridge of virgin evergreen. It was solidly built, but the wood was so hastily hewn down that several of the broad planks still had tufts of moss clinging to them. The hempen ropes that had secured the bridge were still in place, despite the huge iron spikes that now held the weight of the beams. They had even taken the time to throw up a pair of arched rails, no doubt with her eldest sister in mind. Everia was seven months along now, and could not ride a horse, but she would want to walk across the Whip as badly as their father would.<\/p>\n
She could go. She could kick her heels into her little gelding, ride across the bridge, and off into the sungrave, and they would never catch her. The army traveled slowly. Her father blamed her sister\u2019s pregnancy, but Emperor Calphus the Conqueror had gone to fat in his old age, as did most great warriors who lived that long, and he seemed to be stopping the army every other hour to take a feast or ride about the gorgeous landscape that his thousands of horses had trampled into mud.<\/p>\n
She could go, but her father would never let her hear the end of it. It was one thing for a scouting party to cross the Whip first; they were nothing. But if one of his children, and worse a daughter, and worst a bastard, crossed before him, his fury would echo off the sky for weeks.<\/p>\n
Still. She could go.<\/p>\n
\u201cPearl!\u201d A melodic voice called her name, and reluctantly she turned her horse around. A slip of a girl on a white gelding was riding toward her, her tiny frame drowning in red and blue silks. \u201cPearl! It\u2019s amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n
Pearl nodded, but could not muster the enthusiasm to speak. Her youngest sister was a bastard too, but while Pearl had been sired on the wife of a middling lieutenant who had conveniently been slain in battle the following week, little Arjallia\u2019s mother was one of the Viisianars, supposedly a queen or woman general of some kind, whom their father had taken as a slave after he first conquered the city of Ajman and renamed its river the Whip. Like most Mornals, Pearl was thickset and round-faced. Her pug nose was a bit on the small side, and her eyes a watery blue, but overall she was a typical specimen of her people. Arjallia took after her mother, though. The Viisianars were tall, slender, and beautiful, with skin the color of the rich soil of the earth. Most of them had hair as white as a Mornal\u2019s buttocks, but some, like Arjallia, had thick golden tresses. Pearl was envious of those tresses, she sometimes had to admit to herself. Her own mop of jagged brown hair often made her think of shaving her head, as Mornal men did, but she knew her father would be furious. She was twenty-two, well into marriageable age, and five years betrothed to Margrave Kreokus back in Tauriconia, where they were headed. It would not do for her to remove one of the symbols of her femininity, lest her marriage price diminish.<\/p>\n
Arjallia pulled up her horse next to Pearl\u2019s and stared in wonder across the Whip. \u201cIt\u2019s enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is,\u201d Pearl agreed, redundantly. She had not set eyes upon Ajman since she was seven, and none of Calphus\u2019 conquests east of the Whip could compare in size or even splendor, yet all the same it underwhelmed her. It worried her too. Arjallia had grown up within the thick walls of the fortress of Bazazanil, nearly a thousand miles east of here. She was unaccustomed to freedom, as were her keepers. Ajman was supposedly settled by now, its citizens acclimated to life under the New Orckid Empire\u2019s reign. Still, there was no question these former slave-masters would resent being made the vassals of other men, and it would be an easy thing to take their revenge upon an unsuspecting girl. Arjallia was nothing if not unsuspecting.<\/p>\n
Arjallia\u2019s attendants were all slaves. An enormous amount of the Mornal army was composed of slaves in fact, all promised their freedom by the Emperor once the war was over. Yet here they were, approaching the end of the Emperor\u2019s life, marching west, back home, and slaves they remained. Back at Bazazanil the war continued, there was that. Still, their fighting was over, and their durance remained. Slaves they might be, and fashioned to servitude, but sooner or later some fellow would be unwise enough to ask when, and things would surely turn ugly.<\/p>\n
Pearl\u2019s glance fell upon Arjallia\u2019s glittery gray eyes, staring hungrily at the great city across the bridge. \u201cDon\u2019t cross yet,\u201d she warned her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to,\u201d Arjallia insisted, her thin indignance laced with the hint of laughter. There was magic in that voice, but Pearl ignored it for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Father sees any of us on the other side of that river, before him\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, I know,\u201d Arjallia grumbled. She looked back over her shoulder. The army looked half a world away. \u201cWe could though,\u201d she said, gray eyes shining. \u201cWe could be across and back, and they\u2019d never know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pearl let herself look convinced for a second, just to fool with her, then shook her head. \u201cNo. Igetus would winkle it out of us soon or late.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arjallia rolled her head. \u201cHe has more important things to worry about.<\/p>\n
\u201cAy, but our father will make<\/em> him worry about it, and then he\u2019ll pry it out of us, and then Father will be bellowing all the way to Tauriconia. \u2018I\u2019ll be the first to ride across the Whip,\u2019 our father said, and it\u2019ll be Hursta\u2019s hide if you disobey him.\u201d Hursta was Arjallia\u2019s whipping girl, a slave who took the lashings Arjallia earned. Bastard or no, Arjallia was still a princess, and none could lift a hand to her and live.<\/p>\n That seemed to cow her a moment, but only a moment. \u201cThe first to ride<\/em> across, he said?\u201d<\/p>\n She needed say no more than that. \u201cNo,\u201d Pearl answered. \u201cYou know what he meant, Arj, do not even think of it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what Father meant<\/em>,\u201d she shrugged, slipping from her white gelding and landing as light as a dewdrop upon the flattened grass. \u201cI only know what he said<\/em>, and I\u2019m not riding across before him.\u201d She was already running for the bridge by the time Pearl stumbled off her horse.<\/p>\n Arjallia was attired in a great riding gown of blood red, with a deep blue mantle, dyed-blue riding leathers and boots; the Mornal colors. Pearl wore simple black trousers, a white blouse, and a long blue vest to keep the dirt off and the sweat in. Yet all the same, little Arj far outdistanced her, and was already dancing on the other side of the bridge by the time Pearl\u2019s boot struck wood.<\/p>\n \u201cGet back over here right now,\u201d she commanded.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are you so scared?\u201d Arj asked, sticking her tongue out.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m scared for you,\u201d Pearl said, trying not to grin. \u201cGet back over here.\u201d<\/p>\n Arj crossed her arms. \u201cI only obey the Conqueror.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll conquer this bridge and then I\u2019ll conquer you, if you don\u2019t get back over here!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTry it!\u201d she shouted, and she was off like a hare.<\/p>\n Pearl was panting ten seconds in, her worries dripping off her like the sweat thrown from her brow. Arj\u2019s pace in her gown was uncanny, but she was wise enough to run in circles, never so far that they could not hurry back to the bridge if anyone approached. Circles were wise, and foolish. Thick and slow she might be, but Pearl knew how to angle.<\/p>\n It felt like at least five minutes before Arjallia jinked right instead of left, and Pearl bowled her over, rolling in the grass and torn-up mud like peasants in a pigpen. Arj was giggling maniacally, and Pearl\u2019s grin stretched as wide as the river. \u201cNow,\u201d she grunted between desperate breaths, \u201cwill you return?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis bridge is unlucky.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a fair, deepish voice, and thoroughly unamused one way or the other. Pearl and Arj were staring at each other\u2019s eyes, knowing before they knew, but still they looked. At the other end of the bridge, still atop his horse, with the others\u2019 reigns in his left hand, was a relatively slender man in black trousers and tunic, his red jacket festooned with little gilded loops, a red cap atop his noticeably unshorn head. His black hair was cropped close, but against his white Mornal face, the hair stood out like a hairy mole. His teeth, when seen, were yellow and crooked, but they were not seen often. He eyed the two darkly from atop his horse.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlucky?\u201d Arjallia asked as they got to their feet.<\/p>\n The man nodded, then gestured with his chin. \u201cThe wood.\u201d<\/p>\n Pearl was halfway across the bridge again when she looked down. \u201cEvergreen? I\u2019d think that was lucky if anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not evergreen. It\u2019s hemlock. Those idiots must have hewn down some hemlock trees from that little forest there.\u201d He pointed south. Pearl could indeed see a modest wood of what looked like evergreens to her, but she could just make out a few trees that seemed a little greener, with perhaps a tinge of yellow to their leaves.<\/p>\n Pearl stood at the middle of the bridge. She suddenly felt as though she could sense the lumber beneath her, slithering like some beast, eager to rear up and strike at her. She shook her head. It was all nonsense. \u201cWood is wood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you think Father will notice?\u201d Arjallia asked.<\/p>\n The man shrugged. \u201cDoes he ever? Get back over here.\u201d<\/p>\n Pearl hesitated a moment, then crossed back to her horse. \u201cCome on, Arj.\u201d She remounted her horse and waited. It was another few seconds before her sister looked up from the bridge and hurried back across.<\/p>\n The man handed Arjallia the reigns to her mount. \u201cIs this a new horse?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Arjallia grunted. \u201cHellicus broke a leg outside of Barsalam. The spearmen ate him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI told you never to name your horse,\u201d the man said. \u201cThey were born to die.\u201d He allowed his voice to soften as he added, \u201cStill, this is a beautiful creature.\u201d<\/p>\n The glitter came back into Arj\u2019s eyes at that. \u201cI named him Igetus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m flattered.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t be. He\u2019s a gelding, after all.\u201d<\/p>\n It was another half-hour before the army proper arrived. Igetus never explained what he was doing so far ahead, but Pearl assumed he was keeping an eye on their na\u00efve sister. He should have been keeping an eye on their equally na\u00efve father.<\/p>\n Emperor Calphus the First, the Conqueror, took another ten minutes to ride up on his white Mornal unicorn. They had actually waited another two months to depart from Bazazanil, waiting for the unicorn to be brought from the Imperial stables at Ajman, so Calphus could ride it all the way back to Ajman. Pale as milk, the heavy leathery plates of its hide represented everything Mornal men aspired to be: thick, deadly, and as ill-tempered as it was witless. Calphus had even considered taking the Mornal unicorn as his sigil before settling on the less foreign and less inventive spear and shield. It seemed an odd choice. As far as Pearl knew, her father had never carried a spear or shield in his life. He preferred axes, mauls, or swords if needs be, large enough that even a man of his enormous strength needed two hands to wield them. Mornal steel was the bane of the Viisianars, who still fought with cheap iron, stone, and wood. Even their magics were weak, requiring complicated trills and delicate wooden instruments. Mornal magic required drums, and nothing more.<\/p>\n The unicorn\u2019s horn was immense, shimmering in the dying sun as it lumbered heavily toward the bridge. The beast looked exhausted, but unlike horses unicorns did not lather their saddles, so it was difficult to tell how tired it really was. That was one reason unicorns were not typically ridden into battle, they had a tendency to drop dead without warning. They were also ornery, the Mornal ones especially, difficult to ride, never truly tamed, and it was said they would never let more than one man ride them in their life. Of course, this was exactly what made them prized by powerful and influential men.<\/p>\n Riding atop the white beast was another white beast. Calphus was at least twice the size he had been when they left Ajman fifteen years ago. They had celebrated his sixtieth birthday two years back, yet despite it all he was ravenous to keep marching east, to keep conquering until he reached the eastern sea.<\/p>\n All three of his sons had wanted him to turn back, to make the long journey home to Tauriconia and rule his empire, to grant some stability to this new nation he had created. It had been Igetus, the second son, who finally prevailed upon him. Calphus suspected all three of his sons had wanted to steal his glory, to be the ones to reach the eastern coast instead of him. He was right, of course, and the price of his returning to Tauriconia was that Igetus must return as well, along with the Emperor\u2019s four daughters. Their brothers remained at the fortress of Bazazanil, thoroughly satisfied with how events had ended.<\/p>\n Calphus looked upon the Whip as only an emperor could: pride and lust and greed and even gluttony all mixing together in his sharp smirk. \u201cThe Whip,\u201d he said, almost purring, yet loud enough for everyone to hear. Even with one foot in the grave, the Emperor\u2019s voice was a strong as ever. \u201cWhere is my daughter?\u201d he suddenly barked. \u201cMust we wait all day?\u201d<\/p>\n Everia was already descending from her palanquin, her hand in Imrell\u2019s gauntleted grip. Unlike Pearl, Imrell had the nerve to actually shave her head. Not only that, she wore a suit of banded steel, enameled blue and red in the Mornal fashion, that she had commissioned from a blacksmith in Ajman sixteen years back. It was still in excellent repair, though not for lack of use. Imrell was the Emperor\u2019s youngest legitimate child, just passed thirty, and she would not allow even the Emperor to tell her what to do. Pearl often wished she was as tall and strong and defiant as Imrell, but then she also wished she was not a bastard. Time spent wishing was time wasted, but Pearl was fond of wasting time.<\/p>\n Everia was garbed in light blue, her thin black hair falling down to her waist. Her silken gown was lined with cloth of gold, with a high collar laced in silvery pearls from the Purple Sea at the edge of the world, and a generous opening in the front that had been embellished with seafoam green velvet. Her great belly extended out of the opening like a second womb, like a ritual willing the child to be born as soon as possible. Everia was nearly forty, and her husband was still at the front with their brothers. She had grown frail during the pregnancy and was constantly under supervision. This was her third child, and no matter how things turned out, it would be her last.<\/p>\n Imrell ground her teeth as Everia smiled at her, and the small telltale clink made itself heard. It was supposedly the fashion back in Mornalith, back across the Bitter Sea, for men to wear metal molds of their lower teeth over their actual teeth, with two artificial fangs crafted to jut upward out of the jaw like boars\u2019 tusks. Imrell, being a princess, had hers made of silver. Igetus had told the girls more than once that such jewelry was the habit of fools who owned more bravado than sense, though he was careful to say so out of Imrell\u2019s hearing. He also told them that their father had owned just such a molding, made of gold, when he was young, before any of them were born.<\/p>\n Everia seemed to float slowly toward their father, who sat atop his unicorn drumming a great cudgel alternately against his thigh and the beast\u2019s thick hide. \u201cCome along, come along,\u201d he muttered for the eighth or ninth time. \u201cThere is my angel. Took you long enough, didn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n It had not been five minutes since Calphus arrived, but Everia was all the grace and patience and polity of the family. \u201cThank you so much for waiting, Father,\u201d she offered lightly. \u201cI would have cried a week if I had not seen you taking the Whip a second time.\u201d<\/p>\n Their father grumbled something as he grinned out of one side of his mouth. \u201cVery well, very well.\u201d He caressed his firstborn daughter\u2019s cheek, flashed a set of still-white teeth, and turned his mount back toward the bridge. \u201cWhat\u2019s this?\u201d he barked.<\/p>\n Arjallia had been standing at Pearl\u2019s side the whole time, and before long had started leaning against her, either bored or sleepy as night encroached. But at their father\u2019s words, she stood up straight as an arrow. \u201cWhat\u2019s what?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n If Calphus heard her, he did not show it. \u201cBoy!\u201d he bellowed, pointing at the bridge. \u201cWhat is that?\u201d<\/p>\n Igetus did not look at his father. \u201cIt\u2019s moss, your Majesty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know what it is!\u201d he shouted. \u201cCouldn\u2019t be bothered to scrape this stuff off before running off to the whorehouses, could they?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll speak with them, your Majesty.\u201d<\/p>\n Calphus waggled a meaty finger at his son before pointing at Imrell. \u201cNo. Have her do it,\u201d he grinned. \u201cI want them to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n Imrell smiled back, and the telltale clink was heard.<\/p>\n By now, nearly the entire army was loosely assembled, looking at their emperor. Mornal lords and margraves sat atop great chargers, two of them daring to ride gray Orckid unicorns, each at the head of dozens of seas of flesh. The cavalries were Mornal as well, but the foot, the spearmen, the archers, the shield carriers, the camp followers and the handful of leachers that remained, they were everyone. Pale Mornals, dark Viisianars, the golden Daridans who were all but extinct, and a dozen other shades of men and women from a dozen peoples that the Viisianars had conquered before them, centuries ago. They all stood at attention, watching her father.<\/p>\n Did any of them still dream of home? Were any of them fool enough to still hope for freedom? Did any of them care what her father had to say, or were they dreaming of bedding down in the shadow of the walls of Ajman, a longed-for respite from the endless marching.<\/p>\n \u201cThis empire is called the Orckid Empire,\u201d Calphus began, \u201cand so it shall remain. They call us the Mornals, but the Mornals live back in Mornalith across the sea. What need have we of them? Their ways? Their words?\u201d He grunted and spat upon the trodden grass. \u201cI came to this land to build a new world, and so I have. My sons continue my work at Bazazanil. They tell you I\u2019m done and dead, but I say I\u2019m here to rule this Empire I created.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed a thick finger at one of his lords, nearly as old as himself. \u201cYou came to me a Mornal, Neevius, all those years ago. Cross this river after me, and become an Orckid.\u201d He pointed to one of his footmen. \u201cYou were a Viisian. Your people are destroyed and scattered. Cross this river after me, and become an Orckid.\u201d He pointed to a shield bearer. \u201cYou were a Daridan, a slave of Viisians for centuries. Cross this river after me, and become an Orckid.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t he a Yaalkian?\u201d Arjallia whispered, \u201cnot a Daridan?\u201d Pearl shushed her.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of you are tried, and worn,\u201d he bellowed, \u201cbut you are still alive. Be born again. Cross the Whip after me, and join the Orckid Empire!\u201d<\/p>\n Calphus turned his unicorn in three circles, a feat more challenging that he made it appear, and charged across the bridge. It creaked and groaned, and Pearl could feel Arjallia tensing next to her, but the bridge held. The Emperor turned back, and with a single heave he threw his cudgel into the river. \u201cOrckid!\u201d he screamed.<\/p>\n \u201cOrckid!\u201d The lords all took up the chanting, and soon enough the cavalry did as well, then the foot, and everyone else.<\/p>\n They were a long time crossing that single bridge. The great wagon that Everia had ridden from Bazazanil, before being transferred to the palanquin near the river, was so huge it had been drawn by four Orckid unicorns, their horns cut off and gilded over. The unicorns were cut loose and made to scatter in their strange new home, and the wagon was left out to be disassembled the next day.<\/p>\n Pearl and Arjallia had crossed the bridge right after their sisters and brother, but they chose to stay nearby and watch the army crossing. Arjallia\u2019s slaves had finally arrived, a quartet of serving women and two Daridan spearmen of spotless loyalty. They stood behind as they watched the army cross. The sun was long dead by now, and the stars glittered like diamonds in the black veil of night.<\/p>\n Pearl wondered if any of them had thought to turn back. They could go. Now more than ever, they could turn and run away. They might be caught, but they might escape. They could go. The brave, the foolish, the lucky. They could go.<\/p>\n Perhaps they already had.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The waters of the Whip danced by like living diamonds in the dying sunlight. Her horse whickered and shook its head as they stood at its banks. It was supposed to be five fathoms deep at this point, and wild, … Continue reading