Chapter 193: Taking Steppes

Wind buffeted Viv, high up over the kark homeland. It was as unceasing as the plains that extended from horizon to horizon, a vast tapestry of gold and green crossed by the distant shapes of large beasts lurking under the tall grass. When the wind truly picked up, vegetation flattened like the fur of a wet beast while distant clouds drifted at dizzying speed. High above, Viv experienced an emptiness that was almost enough to give her vertigo. It lingered when she returned to the ship, though right now, she really didn’t want to.

 

The landship was designed to accommodate cargo and a crew of up to seventy. It could technically operate on a skeleton crew of eight. Right now, over three hundred kark warriors and sailors clogged every corridor to the point they rotated on the bridge to make the trip tolerable. Viv had even given up her cabin so people could sleep in shifts. As for Arthur, she had elected to sample the local wildlife so they barely saw a scale of her.

 

Viv had expected the kark to lose patience, yet every time she returned, gaggles of youths glutted the railings, looking out wistfully in peculiar silence. Longing, nostalgia, anguish, their emotions bled out to give the trip a melancholic mood Viv didn’t really enjoy. It wasn’t exactly a good portent. It also reminded her of what she expected to find.

 

The older men in her unit back in France, the ‘vieux briscards’, had opened up after she’d proven herself. When bottles ran empty, tales of lands torn by civil war surfaced along with haunted gazes. It was always the same thing. The sickly sweet stench of rotten meat. White teeth exposed to the moon, from rictus that would never fade. Burnt toys. Children. It was always the children that broke them in the end.

 

This was what Viv was going to face. It didn’t matter that the kark were not human. They were people. And the Pure League had been in ethnic cleansing mode for more than a decade.

 

One of her fears was the turnaround. If Marruk’s tribe counter-attacked and managed to reach the human villages profiteering from the carnage, then what? She knew what was right: to spare the civilian population. It was Neriad’s path.

 

She knew what she would do if she were in their place. Her rage would burn like a poison. Her path would be that of Efestar. Without the second chance part.

 

Hopefully, she would manage to rein in her emotions.

 

Around her, a light rain began to fall. Viv pulled a few runes to create a transparent shield that repulsed only solid water — mage superiority meant no need for umbrellas. Her mana senses picked up the quickly approaching form of Frosthawk.

 

The old archmages smiled, one of the few genuine expressions of joy he ever gave. He was in his element far above the earth and its concerns. He flew with control and grace in a way Viv would never manage to match, and the very air repulsed droplets of water around him.

 

“Patrol on our left,” the archmage said, using a spell to allow his voice to carry over the ever-present howl.

 

Viv nodded. She’d seen the tiny dots in the distance. Local kark riders on their strange beasts, the pakar. They had to have amazing sight to spot the landship from that far away.

 

“Intercept?” Frosthawk asked.

 

Viv shook her head.

 

“They won’t catch up. Marruk confirmed this section of the steppes is neutral. We have no reason to wait for them.”

 

“We should still consider stopping some time soon,” Frosthawk said.

 

He looked at the landship, its deck even now crawling with people. It had already been two days since they had started sailing at breakneck speed. The landship moved almost as fast as she did, but it also did it at night thanks to rotating crews. She still installed teleporters at some distance for the return trip.

 

Even then, the steppes were immense. Her people would grow restless very soon without a break, especially since most of them were young warriors with no outlet. They had to stop on the way, let people stretch their legs and their tempers.

 

“Marruk mentioned a lake where her people gather. We will go there.”

 

“It will delay us.”

 

“That is acceptable,” Viv said.

 

Viv landed near Marruk. The poor girl was spending much of her day managing her restless people, so she welcomed Viv’s presence.

 

“We should stop soon.”

 

“Oh bless the ancestors. If I have to break apart one more scuffle, I will throw the assholes overboard.”

 

Her eyes grew distant.

 

“We can go to the Great Bazaar. Near the Sky-Mirror Lake.”

 

“That was my plan.”

 

“I have never been there. We might not be welcome.”

 

Marruk’s brow furrowed with concern.

 

“The travelers will see how much metal we have. They will be greedy. We must stay vigilant.”

 

“Duly noted. Your people need, ah, shore leave. They wouldn’t be attacked, right?”

 

“They would be robbed.”

 

“Hmmm. Have them move in groups of no less than five. I will provide oversight.”

 

Marruk shook her head.

 

“No. You cannot. The tribes will want to meet you. Yours is the role of the ambassador.”

 

She hesitated.

 

“I think?”

 

“What’s the tradition?”

 

“There is no tradition, Viviane. No outlander king has ever come to the help of a tribe against other humans, and never on the back of a steel beast. Curiosity will push the tribes out of their farming grounds. The important people will want to speak to you.”

 

“Well, maybe we can use this opportunity to learn more about what is going on.”

 

“Yes. They could know where my kinsmen are. Or who is currently at war with whom. Or if we have gained any support… not that I expect it.”

 

Marruk sighed. Viv remembered it was a sore topic.

 

“You told me the tribes warred with each other as much as they warred with the Pure League, right?”

 

“There are long histories of Blood Feuds, and my tribe… participated in most of them. We live in the easternmost fringe of the steppes. That means some stable farms, much wood, metal, and trade with the northern cities before the Pure League soured it all. We were rich. We had the most iron of any tribe, and my people used it… selfishly.”

 

Viv nodded in understanding. Caring for your own nation to the detriment of everyone else was a constant of Paramese politics. Only exceptions like General Jaratalassi drove cooperation forward when most participants wanted nothing more than to stab each other in the back for two acres of land and an extra biscuit.

 

“Many grudges remain unsettled. We are weak, and we are prey now. Those of us that are left.”

 

Viv patted Marruk’s shoulder.

 

“We’re going to change that.”

 

“Yes,” the stout girl said, “we will try to.”

 

***

 

Sky-Mirror lake was much larger than Viv had anticipated. Water seemed rare in the steppes, mostly isolated ponds and brooks that dried too quickly, so it was with some surprise that she found a strikingly blue surface extending for several kilometers in every direction. A bright sapphire spot in a sea of emerald, its shores were high and devoid of vegetation, like the edges of a crater. Actually, it might be, perhaps the site of a meteor fall or the last remnants of a long-dead volcano. Cries of relief and excitement came from the land-ship below. Viv touched her aching sides as she flew faster.

 

She had just tried to tether herself to the mast. Just to see if it would be fun. It had been a painful and brief mistake as the enchanted sail gathered a lot of wind power, and temporary accelerations could drive a rope into a foolish girl’s ribs with the vindictive force of logical consequences to one’s brainless actions. Viv landed on the deck just as the first yurts came into view.

 

A semi-permanent encampment gathered around the lake in a structure that vaguely reminded Viv of old pictures of kibbutz she’d seen in history books. An outer ring of tents surrounded seven bands of cultivated fields that all narrowed towards the lake, with a much denser gathering of tents in the north. Numerous kark worked those segregated fields, visible even from high up. There were quite a few trees as well.

 

“One section of fields for each tribe,” Maruk said. “I’m surprised ours is still standing, even with the holy truce.”

 

“So this is neutral land?”

 

Marruk nodded.

 

“Always has been. Shedding blood here is taboo.”

 

“YET IN THE YEAR OF THE BLOOD PLAGUE, THE SEA TRIBE—”

 

“Hush,” Marruk said, interrupting an enthusiastic warrior. “Please don’t start a long litany of all blood feuds of our people, thank you. I don’t want to be here until winter.”

 

“I need to get changed. I’ll be back soon,” Viv said.

 

Viv rushed downstairs to her cabin, regretfully evicting five sleepy kark girls from her bed. She quickly changed into her regal armored robe and returned to the deck, just as Arthur descended. She was excited.

 

Fish!

 

The large dragon pushed her way below deck. Surprised yelps and crashing sounds marked her progress until she returned a bit later with a small barrel held between two claws.

 

“Is that sauce?”

 

Of course.

 

I always have fish sauce.

 

I created my own artisanal shop in Frostbay!

 

They almost got it right.

 

“Huh. And you want to fish in the lake then? Be careful.”

 

Yes, yes, I know how to approach unexplored water places!

 

The dragon rolled her eyes. It was always a little funny seeing Viv’s own expressions on her daughter’s reptilian face.

 

I will find you later, in the big place.

 

Make sure you have a cook around.

 

Needs proper fish preparation experience.

 

Then we hunt worms.

 

Big worms.

 

“Those would be Sudden Deaths, one of the steppes most dangerous predators,” Marruk commented laconically.

 

Silly red woman.

 

I am the most dangerous predator.

 

Find me worm sauce, minion.

 

“I am not a minion.”

 

The two exchanged a glare, with Marruk not backing down.

 

“I stole meat from the pantry for you back in Kazar,” Marruk reminded her.

 

“WHAT? THAT WAS YOU?”

 

It is true that you helped me when I was very small.

 

Now that I am large and mighty, my gratitude should be obvious for the world to see.

 

I am upgrading you from minion to friend.

 

“Thank you.”

 

Borgling friend.

 

Not dragon friend.

 

Sorry.

 

The dragon didn’t actually seem sorry.

 

“I’ll take it. You should go now. We have almost arrived.”

 

The landship veered sharply north to head for the main cluster of yurts, which let Viv study the outer ring of tents as they passed by when she was not calling Marruk a traitor. Kark workers also watched them go on with expressions of complete bafflement. There were deep variations from one field to another, one that showed cultural divergences between tribes. Some preferred white, low tents that barely popped out of the ground while others stood on platforms made of woven grass.

 

“Sand dwellers and marsh dwellers,” Marruk commented. “And here is my tribe’s land.”

 

The mood plummeted when the next field came into view. Malnourished farmers in tattered red clothes toiled with wooden tools, with some of the fields tended by much better looking neighbors. Rented out, possibly. The yurts themselves looked patched up from scraps, and there were noticeably fewer of them. They even came across a group of kark in green clothes harassing a few red-clad children. The children used the distraction to escape.

 

Marruk’s knuckles made the steel railing groan.

 

“There is truce and there is truce, I see,” Viv said in a low voice.

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“Were it not for it, my people would have been evicted. It could have been worse, I suppose. See how promises and oaths twist when the other is no longer worthy of respect.”

 

Viv patted Marruk’s shoulder, and since both were in armor, the clink clink sounded ridiculous. Marruk smiled bitterly.

 

“And to think we ride enough metal to buy ourselves the entire Bazaar.”

 

“Steel has much value here, then?”

 

“You have no idea. The first time I left the steppes, I thought eight iron bits were the ransom of a prince instead of daily wages. Ah, here we are. Look, this is the pakar market.”

 

A long, rectangular mud building formed a barrier that covered the entire approach from the south. Groups of laborers came and left, carrying dejections in wheelbarrows. Viv used the long view to watch a column of pakars leaving the compound.

 

They were weird beasts, she had to admit. They had the shape and gait of ant-eaters, though more muscular and significantly larger. Their robes ranged from deep brown to white and the muscular front legs reminded Viv of bears, but it was their faces that were rather unique. A bit triangular, they showed deep, intelligent eyes over a large snout devoid of fur. Marruk had explained the pakar had exceptional smell and tremor senses. Viv also noticed that the dominant male’s snout was scarred.

 

“Majestic beasts, yes?” Marruk said.

 

“I have never seen noses like those.”

 

“They are very sensitive. Pure League archers aim for them in every battle so they can inflict debilitating pain.”

 

“Why have you never bought one?” Viv asked. “You could afford it.”

 

“They are steppe creatures. Even if I bought a small herd, they would be sad in the deadlands. And then die off after a generation.”

 

Another deep sigh confirmed Marruk was not having a good time. Quick, time to distract the poor girl.

 

“What about the big gaudy pavilion there?”

 

“The tribal council gathers there when something important happens — bunch of argumentative old pricks.”

 

A few of the nearby warriors gasped.

 

“Important auctions are held there, such as for creature cores or metal. We will be invited.”

 

She looked at the ship, then at Viv.

 

“You will be invited. You should accept.”

 

“And I invite you as my interpreter and bodyguard.”

 

Marruk huffed.

 

“Just like the beginning.”

 

“Hopefully with fewer surprise attacks.”

 

***

 

The Harrakan ship stopped at the edge of the grassless field, behind the main encampment. It was there that the larger convoys camped if they didn’t want to join their assigned fields. There were at least ten thousand kark milling around, along with thousands of pakar and other beasts. Colorful tents formed a kaleidoscope of styles and influences, with the red ones being the rarest. A large crowd of stupefied onlookers formed as soon as the landship stopped at a respectable distance. They huddled in a large mass, though none dared approach for now.

 

Frosthawk had a plank lowered. Viv was the first to get down, stopping at some distance with the archmage and Marruk at her side. People muttered when they saw her, but it was the arrival of hundreds of heavily armored kark that sparked the strongest reaction. Marruk’s people carried a lot of steel, or at least that was what Viv guessed they were saying. She recognized the word for iron but little else. Learning the kark language had not exactly been a priority.

 

Viv wasn’t exactly sure where the Hadals were but she assumed they would show up when the food was served.

 

Viv knew she only had to wait for someone important to show up, and indeed, two minutes later, roars and exclamations warned her someone was cutting a path through the crowd, pushing them aside with threats and injunctions. A heavy-set kark with a large hat finally broke his way through. He was flanked by two dozen muscular guards carrying heavy cudgels. They immediately adopted the ‘violent mook’ glare, with which Viv was quite familiar.

 

They were also wearing wide hats. What was it with people and large hats here? Even her crown wasn’t that gaudy.

 

The newcomer immediately started a grand speech so loud some sort of skill had to be involved. It lasted a good five minutes and finished in an embarrassing silence. Viv leaned towards Marruk.

 

“I think you’re supposed to introduce us and, also, translate.”

 

“Oooh. Yes.”

 

In what was a quiet voice according to kark standards, which meant it wouldn’t be overheard over a passenger plane’s jet engine, Marruk introduced them. She then leaned towards Viv and whispered at barely opera soprano levels.

 

“He welcomes us here as travelers and inquires as to the purpose of our visit.”

 

Viv gave her a look of disbelief.

 

“That’s it?”

 

“I am cutting away the politician’s bullshit.”

 

“You can tell him we are here to resupply on our way to the eastern steppes.”

 

“Should I tell him we are going there to fight the Pure League?”

 

Viv shrugged.

 

“If you want. I think he can infer it from the situation though. Any chance the Pure League has spies here?”

 

“No, because they are extremely racist.”

 

“So?”

 

“Would you spy on beastlings?”

 

Was this a trick question?

 

“Yes.”

 

Marruk sighed.

 

“Would you recruit a beastling spy?”

 

The answer was that she would hire a talking squid in a felt hat if that gave her an edge, but she got the point anyway.

 

“No spies, got it. You can also mention the possibility of trade, now that the tunnel is open. I suppose we might as well start enquiries.”