Page 73 of Betrothed to the Emperor
Tallu and I walked into the second room. It was a large, open space. I wasn’t sure what it was usually used for, but everything aside from a tall chair that looked like a throne had been moved away.
Slowly, Tallu crossed the floor, taking a seat on the throne. Sagam and one of the other Dogs positioned themselves behind him, and I awkwardly stood next to him.
Once the rest of the guests had entered the room, General Kacha clapped his hands twice, and the marching feet approached. A military unit stomped in through an exterior door, moving in unison. The wedding guests fluttered out of the way, clearing an enormous space for them in the center of the room.
When the entire military unit was standing in the room, facing Tallu, they stilled, standing ready.
“We thought to provide Your Imperial Majesty with a show of his forces,” General Kacha said. “After all, based on the work of his Dogs, he might not know what true imperial men are capable of.”
After a prolonged pause that left most of the wedding guests shifting in anxiety, Tallu nodded his head. “Proceed.”
General Kacha clapped once, and the men leapt into action. Five took spears from behind their backs, twirling them in the air before thrusting them at five unarmed soldiers. The spears were strange, lacking the heft of the imperial style.
Most imperial weapons were made from metal that could potentially conduct electricity. These spears were made of something lighter, and when the first soldier thrust his out, it extended to three times its length, nearly impaling his opponent.
Nearly. Because then he missed. With his weapon fully extended, it was easy for his opponent to slip up under his guard and lay him out flat with a neat twist of his feet. Once the soldier with the spear was on his back, he tapped out, indicating he yielded. The other four were just as quickly dispatched, the spears that extended and contracted as needed proved useless against the hand-to-hand style of combat of the Imperium.
I tilted my head as the men all rose, bowing to Tallu before stepping out of the center of the room. These weren’t imperial weapons. Why wasthisa wedding present?
Five more men approached, each holding a long blade in their hands. They bowed to Tallu before turning. Only in profile did I realize what the weapons were.
The hilts of their blades were made with heavy stone, the metal shining as though freshly polished. I had to clench my jaw to keep it from dropping open at Kacha’s arrogance.
These were the weapons used to attack us at the Dragon Temple. These were the same blades that had killed three of the Emperor’s Dogs.
Krustavian weapons were designed for men whose bones were made from the stone they carved out of their mountains. They said the citizens of Krustau were so short so they could heft a mountain on their back; if they were any taller, the peaks would crack open the heavens.
Within a few moves, the imperial soldiers holding the Krustavian blades were exhausted, their muscles trembling as they tried to heft the heavy weapons. Even Rute had held up better than them. Then again, he’d had adrenaline and panic on his side.
As soon as the armed soldiers dropped the tips of their weapons, their unarmed opponents were on them, attacking so quickly that there was no time for defense. When the last man fell, the soldiers turned and bowed to Tallu.
The next set of soldiers stepped onto the floor, holding in their hands the long, chained weapons of Ristorium. At the end was a thick, sharp blade that resembled an oversized arrowhead.
Yorîmu had a scar she claimed had come from one of the weapons. She said the air mages could make them fly on the air like leaves in the breeze, so swift they looked weightless. My eyes cut across the room to where Velethuil stared at the five men swinging his people’s weapons. His normally sweet smile had gone rancid.
The imperial soldiers used them with some success, swinging them with accuracy and grace, but it was not a leaf on the wind. It was nowhere near as fluid as I imagined it would be in Velethuil’s hands.
They were defeated as soon as the imperial soldiers got under their guard.
The soldiers using the dual blades of the Ariphadeans couldn’t maintain the coordination necessary to wield two blades at once and were defeated as soon as their distraction gave the opportunity.
The long, poled weapons that Forsaith had used were too ungainly in the space, and it was almost mocking how intensely the soldiers focused, as though exaggerating the difficulty of each weapon.
I knew it was coming, so I gave General Kacha no reaction when soldiers stepped onto the floor brandishing the blades common in the north—sharp enough to slice through the thick pelts of sea animals but short enough that they could be wielded easily in battle.
Only six days earlier, I’d nearly decapitated one of Rute’s servants with one.
The blade was called a wolf’s claw in the north, and it had been the second weapon I had learned to use. The ones wielding the blades bowed to us, and the unarmed imperial soldiers approached. My whole arm tensed as one of the men swung the blade wide, as though it was a longer imperial blade. These were not blades for reach; they were blades for drawing blood, and these menmockedthe use of them.
When the charade was over and the men had bowed, General Kacha stood before us.
“We offer this show of imperial strength as our gift on your wedding, Emperor Tallu.” He bowed low, formally, his fingers in a triangle. “Even our unarmed men can defeat any warrior from any of the other nations, conquered or waiting to be embraced by the empire.”
Tallu made a soft sound. “Is that so?”
“You just saw it!” General Kacha straightened, his grin stretching his face. “And my men were not going easy. They trained for months on the weapons they presented. Althoughthey had planned to use Krustau’s axes, we were pleased with the gift the blades offered us. It shows howtrueimperial soldiers fare againstKrustavianweapons. Because it is not in our nature touseforeign weapons.”
There was something vicious in the words. Several vicious things. He was implying again that his soldiers were superior fighters to the Emperor’s Dogs, and he was also saying that he didn’t believe Tallu’s story about Rute’s disloyalty to the Imperium.