Archeologist Warlord: Book 2

by E. M. Hardy

  After all, Maharaja Venkati promised to guard the Empire’s back in exchange for protection, and look at how that turned out.

  ***

  “Hey, Yao Xiu! Long time, no see!” Martin shouted out, as his eyeball flew low into the training grounds. Some of the new ones—voluntary recruits and drafted conscripts alike—pointed at his eyeball with excitement, probably their first time seeing one of his eyeballs this close. Most were just too tired to give a damn after a long day of training in formation with their spears.

  The historian broke out into a bright smile as she wiped the sweat out of her brow. “Greetings, honored friend! What brings you out this way?”

  “Nothing serious,” Martin said, as he surveyed the scene before him. “Just checking up on the people that Shen’s training up.”

  “He’s lying,” answered an ethereal voice as it materialized out of the air. A jinni broke through from the Invisible World, positioning himself between Yao Xiu and the eyeball hovering a few feet in the air. “He’s here for a reason.”

  “And hello to you too, Inqiz,” Martin deadpanned, as he swiveled the eyeball’s eye at the green jinni. Yao Xiu had finally managed to contract with a jinni of her own, and he had to be one of those.

  The jinni crossed his arms and fixed his glittering green eyes upon Martin’s eyeball, scowling all the while. “So? Out with it, corrupter,” spat the jinni with contempt. “What do you need from my bond-mate?”

  “Inqiz!” exclaimed Yao Xiu. “Mind your manners!” She turned her attention to the eyeball, bowing her head apologetically as her sweat-drenched hair slipped from its knot and splashed all over her shoulders. “Please don’t take offense with Inqiz, honored friend. He just needs a little more time to know you better, to understand who you are and what you want to do.”

  Martin heard Yao Xiu talking, but he was too angry to give a decent response. Corrupter was a new name that the particularly belligerent jinn tossed at him, and that nickname was starting to take off within the jinn community… or at least the part of the community that saw him as pure, irredeemable evil.

  The real reason he got angry, however, was because the title held a kernel of truth in it.

  Martin counted to ten, taking a moment to gather his thoughts, as he needed the time to prevent himself from snapping off words he would no doubt regret.

  “Thanks, Yao Xiu,” Martin finally replied, grateful for the young historian’s attempt at a graceful apology. “Inqiz wants me to be upfront, well then I’ll be upfront: you need to go back to the capital where you’ll be safe and sound.”

  Yao Xiu blinked once, twice, then frowned. “My dearest friend,” she said slowly, obviously choosing her next words with care. “I greatly appreciate your concern, and I know where you’re coming from. However, I cannot abandon the Empire when it needs people like me the most.”

  Martin clicked his non-existent tongue in frustration. “Yao Xiu, you are a historian and a diplomat. You will better serve the Empire by liaising with representatives from the Bashri.”

  Yao Xiu bit her lips before looking away, refusing to look directly at Martin’s eyeball. “The Empire needs soldiers, Martin, now more than ever. If the rumors are true, if the General of the Black Turtle has indeed fallen and the khans of the north have abandoned their vows to come to our aid, then I need to contribute wherever I am needed the most.”

  She glanced at Martin’s walker, winced in worry, and leaned in closer to ask. “Are the rumors true, Martin?” Martin turned his eyeball around, noticing the burning ears and sideward glances from conscripts as they moved closer to eavesdrop on their discussion.

  “Maybe not out here, with so many people listening?” Martin whispered, as he brought his eyeball closer to Yao Xiu, nodding to her side.

  The young woman frowned, turning around to see the nearby recruits who suddenly found something else to do when they realized the floating eyeball turned its gaze upon them. “I see,” Yao Xiu groused. “But I cannot blame them. I myself hunger for information about our fate, about the state of affairs in our Empire.” Martin showed his agreement, the lens of the eyeball bobbing up and down.

  Yao Xiu rounded back on the floating eyeball the moment the others were far enough away from her. “Are things really that bad, Martin?”

  He thought about what he would say next, and simply nodded. He considered Yao Xiu a true friend, one of the first he made in this world. She stood up for him, put herself at risk because she believed that he really could help when the invaders inevitably arrived to reap the souls of the living. She defended him against her own bonded jinni even now, risking the new ties she just made with the ethereal spirit. The least he could do was pull her out of danger… or at least warn her of what was to come.

  Yao Xiu slumped as Martin’s reply sunk in. “Then I am needed all the more here. True, Inqiz and I are more attuned to scholarly pursuits than the martial ones, but I can help others reach out to and bond with the jinn. There are precious few of us, and the Empire needs every advantage it can get if even you consider things bad for us. And besides… what would the heroes of myth do? Run away from their obligations, leave it to others to defend their homeland when it needs them the most?” Yao Xiu spoke her last sentence with a sheepish smile, probably picturing herself standing on equal footing with the legends of old that she idolized so much.

  Martin didn’t want that for her, though. It’s easy to read about brave deeds and glorious battle, but it’s quite another to watch a man wheeze to death from a pierced lung while calling for his mother, and to hear the panicked screams of a woman desperately shoving her intestines back into her stomach. Martin’s brief experiences with such were magnified hundreds of times over as he dealt every killing blow in even the briefest skirmishes. He shuddered to himself as he imagined what it would be like for him to engage in large-scale warfare where thousands upon thousands would die by his hands. Clay and ceramic they may be, but they were still his hands. This was another reason why he took every chance he could to back out of a fight, even if it meant looking like a coward to those hungry for glory and victory.

  Still, her heart was in the right place and Martin agreed that she and other jinn-bonded could be useful out here, in the eastern front where the fighting was the most furious. The Empress finally gave in and allowed Martin to negotiate an armistice with the Maharaja. She had no choice anyway, not if she wanted to wage a war on three fronts, but she did so begrudgingly.

  “Don’t be so glum,” Yao Xiu said, interrupting Martin as she guessed where his thoughts were going. “I and the other conscripts may not even be needed in the coming battles. I would bet, honored friend, that your walkers are thundering their way here as we speak.”

  Martin would have smirked if his walker could. “You’ve got that right. And who knows? Maybe all this fighting can end if I can reach the Shogun, hammer out a treaty. Maybe all he wants is independence for his people, just like Venkati, or maybe he hungers for riches like the League of Merchants. He was a Sage for how many decades, after all. He was responsible for administering the Empire of Ren for so long, and he would no doubt have come to view the people of Ren as he would his own. I’m pretty sure he’s not as bad as the Empress or the Maharaja paint him out to be.”

  ***

  A partition of Martin’s consciousness watched the first line of General Bai Yu’s forces falling back. It was an organized retreat, a long march away from the battle that had been going on for the past few days. The general’s men and women were bloody and battered but not beaten, falling back to regroup with reinforcements from Martin and Shen Feng. This string of victories was, perhaps, why the Shogun wasn’t in a particularly diplomatic mood. The samurai would shoot down eyeballs with their blood-bows and refused any and all attempts at communication. Disturbingly enough, Martin heard from Bai Yu that the Shogunates took no prisoners, that they executed all they caught.

  This, more than anything, worried Martin about the Shogun’s o
bjectives in this war. What did the man want so badly that he was willing to break the rules of engagement?

  His walkers were still around two weeks away, while Shen Feng’s troops needed around two months to arrive on time. The plan was for Martin to relieve Bai Yu’s beleaguered army, put pressure off their backs while his troops rested and recovered. They would continue their retreat, pulling Shogunate forces deeper and deeper into Imperial territory. There would be no grand battle, no one single engagement to end it all. This was exactly what the Shogun wanted, considering the number of powerful samurai under his command. All it would take for such a battle was one wrong engagement, and the blood-bound weapons of their elite warriors would carve a swathe through Imperial troops. Martial artists would be able to match them in small groups thanks to their varied skills that complemented one another, covered each other’s weaknesses. But in a huge melee involving hundreds if not thousands of samurai? No, the sheer chaos of such large-scale battles would throw apart even the most tightly-coordinated clusters of martial artists.

  This particular retreat, however, was significant in that Bai Yu and the troops under his command were finally pushed to the edges of Imperially-administered lands. They would not be ceding control of open ground or a fortified garrison to the Shogun’s forces. No, they would be retreating past an entire city this time—the port city of Yan Bao.

  Many residents fled the modestly-prosperous city along the coastline. These were composed of the older generations, those that took to heart the old tales from their parents and grand-parents. Many more, however, remained behind to guard their homes and their livelihoods. These were the ones who grew up in the safety of Imperial hegemony, where the Empire’s might and influence guaranteed a peaceful, civilized way of life. Many officials and residents believed they would be safe if they threw open the gates of the port city, flew white flags of surrender without offering any resistance. Various bureaucrats lined up at the gate, nervous but doing all they could to hide their fear as they clutched tokens of surrender in their shaking hands. They reasoned that the Shogunates would simply march in, take control of everything, pilfer their food stores, and then move on to chase down the Imperials. They thought that their quick and painless capitulation would buy them mercy under their new rulers. Better to watch over your home and your holdings under the eyes of an occupier than to run away and lose it all.

  They thought wrong.

  All of Martin’s desire for diplomacy and a peaceful resolution crumbled to dust as his high-flying eyeballs witnessed every bloody atrocity, every degrading violation, every complete and utter disregard of human dignity in what would later be known as the Rape of Yan Bao.

  Chapter 11

  “What’s wrong?”

  Maharaja Venkati ignored Ishida’s words, causing the exiled Daimyo to furrow his brows in confusion and frustration. He was just about to repeat his question when he followed the Maharaja’s gaze, which settled sharply upon the lone walker crossing no-man’s land.

  “Rouse your men, Ishida. Get them ready for battle… just in case.”

  Ishida pushed down his surprise, instead beckoning his retainers and instructing them to call the rest of his bushi and ashigaru to arms. The Maharaja did the same, bellowing orders out to his gurkha officers to organize the men and get them ready for a fight. A few minutes later, and a line of tattooed gurkhas stood side-by-side with their light footmen counterparts in Ishida’s army as the elephants formed up to cover the right flank. Ishida’s samurai stood behind the shield-bearing ashigaru, clutching their bows and ready to deliver a deadly flight of blood-arrows at a moment’s notice.

  Ishida stepped in beside the Maharaja as soon as he finished handing out orders to his retainers. “Will you and your gurkhas lead the attack, Venkati, or will I have the honor of leading the charge?” He decided to swallow his annoyance at this sudden turn of events, but he would nonetheless carry out whatever plans Venkati had in mind. Both he and the Maharaja knew that Martin had pulled out a large chunk of his walkers out of the valley fortress. It was ripe for the taking, but Venkati insisted on abiding by the terms he set with Martin.

  If Venkati finally decided now was the time to strike, Ishida wouldn’t so much as whisper a hint of protest. Would such an attack be dishonorable? Of course, but the Maharaja would bear the dishonor, not Ishida. He would obey orders, maintaining his own honor and the honor of his troops.

  At least, that’s what he kept telling himself.

  The lone walker kept walking despite all this, fearlessly striding up to the limits of the agreed-upon border between his forces and the combined forces of the Taiyo and Sahaasi.

  “Come with me, Ishida, but keep a close hand on your blade. I do not like the swirling black aura coming from that walker,” Venkati said, as he breathed in and breathed out, causing his tattoos to pulse with energy. Ishida was disappointed that this was going to be another talk. He didn’t let his feelings show, however, and he simply nodded his assent as he strapped on his helmet and checked the straps holding his blood-blades and their sheaths to his waist.

  The two respective leaders of their armies strode out of their side of the field, projecting confidence as they did so. Martin’s walker simply stood on the field, waiting for them to come close enough to converse.

  “What brings you to this side of the fence, Martin Fuller?” Venkati asked aloud with his usual bravado, though Ishida detected an undercurrent of tension lacing the normally-flippant Maharaja. That, more than anything, told Ishida that something was truly off about this meeting.

  “I need to ask Ishida a few things,” Martin replied, flat and without emotion. This was the moment when Ishida knew that something was definitely off here.

  “Then ask,” Ishida curtly replied, widening his stance and tightening his grip on the hilt of his blade.

  “Is it standard procedure for your people to rape, pillage, and then raze a city that has surrendered to them without a fight?”

  Ishida blinked as he pushed down the confusion before realization hit him like a sack of hammers.

  “What happened?” demanded Ishida, both angry at Martin’s bold accusation and frightened at what he was most likely to hear.

  “The port city of Yan Bao,” replied Martin with a flicker of anger. “I am currently watching your Shogun and his men burn it to the ground. This, after they have had their way with the men, women, and children of the city. Young or old, pliant or defiant, none were spared. All were abused before being lined up for execution by the oh-so-honorable Shogun and his samurai.”

  “I… I cannot… no!” babbled Ishida, his thoughts and feelings whirling together in a blaze of confusion. “I knew that Inagaki Shogun disdains the tenets of bushido, but this… this is just insane! I cannot believe he would stoop this low!” Ishida spoke the words through his mouth, but his soul recognized the very real possibility that the Shogun would do just that.

  “It makes some cruel sense for Ye Heng to raze all he can,” the Maharaja interjected, buying time for Ishida to gather his wits. “Perhaps he seeks to terrify the Imperials, scare you into submission. Or more likely, goad your forces into an all-or-nothing attack. Commit enough atrocities, and maybe he could enrage your generals enough to overextend themselves… or enrage you, if he knows you see all his actions through your eyeballs.”

  Venkati eyed Martin’s walker from head to toe, no doubt studying an aura that Ishida couldn’t see. Not that he cared though, as he was too wrought with horror at the news Martin brought him.

  “Tell me, Maharaja Venkati, what kind of aura do you see right now?” asked Martin through his walker, his voice rising slightly as if daring Venkati to challenge him.

  “Something dark, something angry… and something very, very hungry.”

  The walker stood still for a few moments, clenching its fists before nodding curtly. “Yes, I suppose that’s right. It’s pretty hard for me to think of anything except ripping that bastard to pieces after seein
g him and his kind slice up screaming children with his blade.”

  “His actions do NOT reflect upon all of us!” Ishida shouted, allowing his emotions to get the better of him. His outburst finally brought him out from his reverie, his stomach churning as an idea formed in his head.

  “Wait. Wait one moment, Martin Fuller. You said that the Shogun and his samurai are executing people?”

  “Yes,” came the terse reply.

  “Is it only the Shogun and his samurai doing the killing? With their blood-blades? No ashigaru, no ordinary footmen taking part in the executions?”

  The walker went still for a while, which meant Martin was most likely connecting his mind to the floating orbs he called eyeballs. Ishida had difficulty wrapping his mind on how an entity like Martin worked, but that mattered little to him at the moment as he was too busy putting together the pieces of his theory.

  “Yes,” Martin finally said, after a few more minutes. “The footmen are taking their liberties with the people of Yan Bao, but it’s the Shogun and those with weapons like yours doing the actual butchery. They… they use different weapons for every dozen or so kills.”

  Ishida paled and shook his head, his anger and denial giving way to shame and regret.

  “Our blood-bound weapons, they weren’t always forged and fed by the blood of their bearers. The old ways involved sacrificing the blood of our enemies to fuel our weapons. Our ancestors fought and bled one another, each island carving out a bloody swathe out of its neighbors until the first Shogun united the isles of Taiyo under one banner. He didn’t end the practice, though, just redirected it outward. He led assaults on the mainland, aiming to wipe out Imperial cities and settlements in the coast near Taiyo.”