Archeologist Warlord: Book 3

by E. M. Hardy

  “Our enemies did the same to us a few short weeks ago, harrying our own herders and weavers. They would have forced us to stand our ground and fight or lose our families and our livelihoods. It’s only fair that we do the same to them, especially if we can get them to surrender.”

  “All this boils down to simple numbers,” injected Hobogetur in an attempt to wrestle back control of the discussion. “Do you want just three Hordes fighting these endless rogues you’re so worried about—all while our enemies threaten our herds and homes? Or do you want us to end the Horse Wars, take control of the other hordes, and present twenty Hordes—a hundred thousand riders—to trample your enemies for you?”

  Martin’s Mud Man remained silent for a few more moments digesting Hobogetur’s words before speaking up. “You secure their people, you hold them hostage, but that’s it. No raping, no pillaging, no cruel and unnecessary violence inflicted upon them. Promise me this, and I will provide whatever support I can in your campaign to quell the Grass Seas.”

  Chuluun shrugged. “Fair enough. We normally enslave those we capture, force them into servitude so they double as workers and hostages. But for you—and the aid you will provide, of course—we can forego the usual spoils of the victor and focus instead on getting those losers to lick our boots.” He said the latter part while lazily throwing a thumb above his shoulders, pointing it toward the general direction where the enemies retreated to.

  “You talk as if victory is a done deal,” Martin said cautiously. “Your enemies still outnumber you two to one, you know.”

  “Seriously, Martin? We ride on smart horses and can see the future,” declared Chuluun loudly. “And if training progresses as we expect it to, we’re going to unlock the secrets of chi and prana while churning out blood-bound weapons of our own. Then we have your Mud Men to provide support, guard our flanks and supply routes as we push into enemy territory.

  “In the meantime, our enemies are exhausted from tearing at each other’s throats. I’ve even heard rumors that the herds of the New Dawn Alliance are being raided because they’ve diverted too many men and horse here. Give us two, three months, and you’ll have a Great Horde assembled and ready to fight these rogues of yours!”

  ***

  Hobogetur bit off the rest of the bird meat, savoring the strange spices that soaked their way into the flesh. Chickens, all imported from the Imperial villages around the Citadel City of Gudan. Martin said they were ideal livestock for the Grass Seas, able to peck out bugs, grubs, and seeds if given a wide enough plot to range in. They could also lay eggs, which should provide more food without slaughtering the birds themselves.

  He then sipped the soup in his bowl, the stock made from various vegetables all thrown into a pot of boiling chicken bones. It even had these strange white chunks that Martin called tofu, some kind of curd made from beans. Hobogetur didn’t get exactly how the stuff was made, but they tasted surprisingly good as they absorbed the flavor of the broth.

  His people and the people of his sworn brothers enjoyed similar meals for dinner, taking full advantage of the goods that Martin’s four-legged beasts of burden brought over from the border. The variety of food now available reminded him of the reasons why he wanted to raid the Empire in the first place. Crops, herbs, livestock, metals, fibers, fabrics, timbers—so many things you wouldn’t normally find in the Grass Seas.

  Chuluun and Todogen sat beside him, the latter dipping his ladle into the soup pot and the former grabbing a skewer of chicken breast roasting on the fire.

  “So,” Chuluun said in between slurps. “What is our sworn brother brooding so deeply about this time around?”

  Hobogetur snorted at that, gulping down the last bits of soup and biting down on the soft leaves left over at the bottom of the cup. “To be honest, brother, I’m worried about how you exaggerated our ability to bring the other khans under our heel. Three months? Across the expanse of the Grass Seas? Really?”

  Chuluun chuckled at that. “Wait, wait, wait. Is this Hobogetur being *gasp* reluctant? Am I hearing this right? Todogen, are you hearing this right?”

  “Don’t pull me into whatever stupid quarrel you’re picking,” the third sworn brother said as he blew into his cup of soup to cool it down.

  Hobogetur for his part threw a chicken bone Chuluun’s way, who barely managed to duck in time to avoid the bone. Hobogetur scowled at the unnaturally quick way his target twisted his neck to avoid the projectile. “Did you just walk through a branch of fate to dodge a chicken bone?”

  “You will never know, brother. So how did the heavens part this day to make you doubt our capabilities?”

  “You know what? Never mind. It was stupid to bring it up, anyway. All we need to do is—”

  Todogen sighed, shaking his head and lowering his still-steaming cup of vegetable away from his mouth. “Hobogetur has a point. We may be gaining more abilities now, securing a safe space for our people, but we don’t have the numbers to force the other khans to submit.”

  “Who said anything about forcing them to submit?” Chuluun asked with a smirk.

  That single statement got the two other sworn brothers to perk their heads up in attention.

  “Look, the other alliances have been fighting relentlessly for more than a year now. This isn’t one of those skirmishes where we spend more time stealing horses and raiding each other’s farms than actually fighting one another. No, the last year has been spent throwing our hordes at one another, fighting for dominance over the entirety of the Grass Seas. It’s been so bad that even we, the Three Brothers Alliance, have been knocked down from our former position of dominance.”

  Hobogetur winced inwardly at his brother’s declaration. It was his idea to ambush the previous General of the Black Turtle Guo Zhenyang, scatter his army to the winds while the Empire was busy fighting the Shogunate. The plan would have worked too if Martin and his accursed Mud Men weren’t there to stymy his forces at every turn.

  “Too much blood has been spilled in this short year for us to absorb the others, to unify the different Hordes under one banner. We could probably force our way through given a few decades. Train our people, hunt down the tribes and herds of our enemies, eventually wear them down into submission. The only problem here is that we might not have a few decades to work with.”

  Hobogetur scowled at that. “Assuming Martin is even telling the truth. For all we know, he might have just dreamed up these rogues of his, scare us into acquiescing to his rule. Not that we have any other choice anyway since we’ve been steadily losing ground to our enemies.”

  “Anyway,” Chuluun continued, waving Hobogetur’s comment off, “I’ve been talking with a few of the Imperial traders that have been bringing in supplies over the last few days. They’ve dropped an interesting nugget of information about the Isles of Taiyo.

  “They apparently have this form of leadership called a Sovereignty. It’s pretty convoluted and I don’t know the exact details, but I heard that the various clans of the Isles actually cooperate with one another even without declaring bonds of brotherhood.

  “Different clans from different bloodlines, all sharing power without tearing each other’s throats. When I brought the topic up with Martin, he went on and on about the merits of this system that he and the League of Merchants are working on. A constitu… constitu… consti-something republic, I think it was called.”

  Todogen quirked his brows at that, his curiosity piqued. “Wait. I thought they had another Shogun leading them.”

  “They do, but the new Shogun is limited in power or something. The clan leaders are responsible for creating the laws, a group of snooty, brainy snobs for interpreting the laws, and the Shogun uses his troops to carry out the law.”

  “That is unbelievably stupid,” grunted Hobogetur, shaking his head. “They won’t be able to get anything done that way.”

  Chuluun shrugged. “The traders I talk with say that business is brisk in the Isles of Taiyo, and
that things are developing rapidly over there. Maybe it’s this new system of governance, or maybe it’s all the support the Isles are getting from Martin, the Empire, and the League of Merchants.”

  Chuluun squared his face and slapped on a grin—the one that annoyed Hobogetur to no end whenever he saw it. “What matters, however, is the sharing of power. So many of the rival clans in the Isles are working together, setting up this new government and making it work. They make no sworn promises to one another, with many clans bearing bad blood against one another. Decades of infighting makes it difficult for any of them to just up and surrender power to anyone else. Now… does all that sound familiar?”

  Hobogetur furrowed his brows, not quite getting what Chuluun was saying. Todogen, however, nodded softly. “Yes. If we could carry this system over, offer it to the other khans… they’d be more willing to co-rule in something like a council than to submit completely under the bootheel of an overlord.”

  “Exactly!” exclaimed Chuluun with excitement, nodding enthusiastically as he pointed a spoon toward his sworn brother. “We won’t need to hunt down the other khans, capture their herds, and force their people to fight. We can simply tempt them with promises of independence—especially if I can convince Martin to guarantee that independence.”

  “Hold up,” Hobogetur said, holding a palm up to slow the discussion down. “Do you honestly expect the other khans—no, the other alliances—to just give up their claims? For mere promises? Are you insane?”

  “Of course not!” chuffed Chuluun, indignant. “We still need to apply pressure on them down, force them to come to terms. Martin’s constructs and our newfound abilities will help with that, but it’ll be a lot easier—and faster—to negotiate a co-rulership than complete and total submission to our rule. We might not have the time for anything more, anyway.”

  Hobogetur raised a brow. “And why is that?”

  “The rogues,” Todogen said blandly as he finished off the rest of his soup.

  “Again with the rogues,” grumbled Hobogetur. “Do you two really believe these fantastical tales Martin is peddling us? I know when I’m beaten, but do I really have to swallow this horseshit about an endless swarm of mud-creatures rampaging in a land full of sand and sun?”

  Todogen and Chuluun just stared at their sworn brother, their eyes boring into his. He sat there, defiantly returning their glares until he finally hissed in displeasure.

  “Fine. You know what? Let’s do this: Chuluun, start planning out how you want to get the khans to negotiate. Work with whoever you need to, learn what you need to, and prepare for it. Todogen, you handle training our peoples, prepare them to bring the fight to the other khans and alliances. They won’t talk until we beat them down hard enough to make them want to talk.”

  “Oh? And you’re in charge again?” mocked Chuluun, sharply and with an annoying hint of disdain in his voice.

  “And while you’re doing all that,” Hobogetur continued, ignoring Chuluun, “I am going to go south. I will see for myself what this mysterious enemy is all about.”

  That declaration caught the two other sworn brothers by surprise. “Well. What brought this about? I thought you would be jumping at the chance to lead the hordes yourself, get revenge for how the New Dawn Alliance pushed us out of our territory.”

  Hobogetur gritted his teeth at that before shaking his head. “I have made many mistakes of late, rushed ahead with rash decisions that cost our people. I am tired of making those mistakes. I will not sit here, cluelessly whining and complaining about something I haven’t even seen for myself.”

  He slammed his empty cup on his hip to vent his mounting frustration. “So I will shut up and learn, witness with my own eyes the threat facing us. I will then make a more informed, hopefully wiser decision about what to do with the future of our people.”

  The two other brothers went silent for a moment after Hobogetur’s outburst, the crackling fire the only noise passing between them. “When will you leave?” Chuluun asked, no hint of mockery in his voice this time around.

  “Tomorrow,” Hobogetur replied. “I’ll take a small band of my riders. We will ride hard and fast, stopping only to eat, rest, and sleep.”

  “Okay then. You can leave the rest up to us,” Todogen said with a reassuring nod.

  “Heh. What’s in this soup? Magical seeds of wisdom? Because that’s the only way I can imagine—”

  Chuluun wasn’t able to dodge the chicken bone that Hobogetur sent spinning his way. Or rather, he didn’t bother dodging. He just let the bone bounce off his forehead—a decision he later came to regret as he rubbed at the sore, swollen spot.

  Chapter 08

  “Go in three…” Cui Dai whispered to the floating orb beside her. She poured chi into the threads wound around the tips of her fingers, which she flexed in preparation for the attack.

  The enchanted blood within the threads sang as she coaxed them to life, making her already-dangerous threads even deadlier. They would slice through armor and bone with nothing but the slightest twitch of the finger. She slid the threads into the cracks of the door, wrapping them around the bar and the hinges.

  “Two…”

  Martin said nothing as his eyeball floated silently beside Cui Dai, relaying her command in a silent whisper to the dozen other Balancers hiding nearby, each leading their own small band of town guards for backup. These Balancers each gripped their own weapons tightly, ready to take on the task ahead.

  Some Balancers wielded heavy mauls, gripping the shafts tightly to slam their weighted heads down upon the locked doors and windows. Other Balancers held short spears, ready to provide cover and safety for the ones who held even shorter weapons like swords and hatchets. Still other Balancers held themselves back, ready to pour healing chi into wounded allies while disabling hostiles with waves of force.

  “One…”

  Cui Dai inhaled deeply, filling her reserves of prana to bolster her physical capabilities. Chi was useful when projected externally, but drawing prana from her core was much more effective when it came to enhancing bodily functions. The mandala tattoos inked to her arms and legs coiled the prana around the fleshy ropes of her limbs. The tattoos on her chest enhanced her fleshy innards, bolstering her heart as it pumped blood into her body and her lungs as they cycled air in and out.

  “Go!” she hissed violently, the command relayed to the other Balancers and their respective jinni partners. Cui Dai pulled her blood-bound threads, instantly slicing apart the lock and hinges of the door. Enin, her bonded jinni partner, coated herself in shadow as she sprang to action opposite Cui Dai.

  The jinni woman kicked down the door and threw a compressed ball of explosive light into the warehouse. Other jinn with similar capabilities did the same, throwing their own balls of light inside. A few moments later, the building flashed brilliantly as the spheres of condensed light exploded one after another.

  “HER MAJESTY’S BALANCERS! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND, NOW!”

  It was all the warning Cui Dai gave as she pulled her threads, flicking them inside to probe for threats. The other Balancers and their jinn partners quickly rushed in, shouting at the occupants to get down on the floor.

  Cui Dai barely noticed the man waiting right beside the door, his weapon held at the ready. He would have been no threat if he was just a regular man. Cui Dai had the advantage of chi, prana, a jinni, and her own blood-bound weapons to enhance her physical capabilities.

  This was why Cui Dai was caught completely off-guard by the man’s speed. She sensed chi pushing the stroke of his blade, prana bolstering his internal organs, a blood-bound weapon feeding strength into his limbs.

  Most surprisingly of all was the man’s jinn who threw up a veil of shadows to prevent the man from being blinded by the exploding balls of light.

  Cui Dai reacted just in time, twisting her neck a few degrees to avoid the blood-bound blade whispering through the air. She pulled her threads, willing them to co
me up and lash at her would-be attacker. The man pushed with a wave of chi, disrupting the path of the threads and knocking Cui Dai aside. The man’s jinni dove in with his own sword, his ethereal hands swinging a heavy scimitar toward Cui Dai’s exposed side.

  Enin, however, shifted just in time to parry the jinni’s slash. Her thinner blade slammed down on the weapon, imparting just enough force to spoil her opponent’s aim. Cui Dai silently voiced her thanks through the bond as she pulled her threads back into position. She abandoned her earlier approach of spreading them out, having individual strands float in the air to capture her prey.

  No, that mode of attack would be easily blown away by another wave of force or even cut apart by a heavy blood-bound dao blade bolstered by chi and wielded by a prana-cultivator. She instead bundled the individual threads together, forming a thicker coil of rope. She wielded the rope like a whip, cracking the air as she sent it flying toward her opponent.

  The man reacted quickly, flashing his blood-blade in an attempt to cut the threads. Such an attack would have normally worked if the threads were merely bolstered by chi. Those threads, however, were infused with the same enchanted blood that fed the sword’s power. The threads held against the slash, coiling against the sharp edge of the blade and fouling the man’s stroke.

  Cui Dai pulled her whip, further unbalancing her opponent as she leaped inside the effective range of his dao blade. Prana and chi coursed through her body, coalescing on her knee as she delivered a crushing blow against the man’s genitals.

  The man collapsed with a grunt as he clutched his shattered jewels, feebly waving his sword in an attempt to ward Cui Dai off of him. His bonded jinni bellowed as the empathic bond between them transmitted the pain. The moment’s hesitation was enough for Enin to gain an advantage in their duel, slamming the flat edge of her shadowy blade into her opponent’s gut. The jinni faded away in a wisp of ether, his connection to the Visible World broken by the sheer pain of the encounter.