Blood & Fur

Chapter Ninety-Nine: Kings of Chaos

Six thousand.

According to Chikal’s scouts, around six-thousand or so Sapa managed to take refuge in the resort town of Guzmango, including hanger-ons like washerwomen and potters. Those numbers were a fraction of the army that first followed Ayar Manco to the Flower War, but still larger than my own also diminished forces.

Thankfully, the dawn had yet to rise four hours after it should have and allowed the darkness to mask their advance across the mountains. Mother disabled spells which allowed the Mallquis to notice the movement of large groups on the mountain roads and my Mometzcopinque provided accurate reconnaissance from the sky above. If our enemies had any idea we were coming, they didn’t show any sign of it.

They face chaos on all fronts, I thought upon observing the town undetected from atop a hill at the city’s edge alongside my military advisors. A great beast always reacts slower than a small one.

The Sapa Empire was a highly regimented society according to all accounts; a pyramid so stratified that the state decided the education, career, and fate of all its citizens. Such an organization required immense planning and smooth bureaucracy to function… and that discipline proved a weakness in a time of crisis.

Unlike Yohuachanca, which encouraged individual initiative in specific circumstances and rewarded it with glory, the Sapa soldiers were taught to wait for their generals’ order before moving a finger. I suspected I now had a good viewpoint of what happened when calamity loomed and their leaders were too preoccupied to provide quick orders: namely, stillness.

“Our foes are unprepared, Your Divine Majesty,” Coaxoch said. “You only need to give the order, and we’ll fall upon them in an instant.”

“They are unprepared for a direct attack, but shouldn’t be underestimated,” Chikal retorted. “Their numbers trump our own.”

I shook my head. “I would rather limit casualties to a minimum, but approaching them under the banner of peace would only give them advance warning of our presence and time to organize. Their leaders won’t surrender their ill-gotten thrones so easily, and they will fight me to the death.”

I joined my hands together and shaped bones into a skull. The non-spellcasters among my retinue watched on with a mix of spooked amazement and quiet awe. How good it felt to finally use my sorcery in the open and earn the respect of others for my accomplishment.

“What would you advise?” I questioned my predecessors.

The skull’s eyes lit up with twin flames, and a single voice answered my plea. “Casualties are unavoidable, our successor, but the Sapa’s hearts are wavering. Should you capture Manco and his generals, then their army will flee and collapse.”

“That voice…” Amoxtli gasped in surprise. “Lord Nochtli? Is that you?”

“We meet again, Amoxtli,” the late emperor replied through my skull, his voice multiplying into that of over six-hundred captive souls. “We emperors have returned from the grave to guide our successor. We trust that you shall prove a loyal warrior in the fights to come.”

“Yes… Yes, of course,” the old general said with a bow. Coaxoch, while far less respectful towards his late superior, simply appraised the skull without a word.

That display of supernatural power was no accident. However much I appreciated my predecessors’ guidance, making a grand show of summoning their spirits also served to enhance my mystical aura in the eyes of my closest followers. I had to remind them I wielded potent magic any chance I got.

“In that case, we should focus our efforts on taking out the Sapa leadership,” I decided. “Recovering Astrid is another top priority.”

“I could easily track her down thanks to Ingrid’s presence,” Mother said. “Blood calls to blood, and Manco keeps her close.”

“In that case, you and I will lead a small group into securing Manco and his harem alive,” I decided. “Will you follow?”

Mother stared at me for a few seconds, and then nodded tersely. The mutual awkwardness was almost suffocating.

Truth be told, I still had no idea how I should treat Mother in public. While we had somewhat buried the hatchet, I was still mostly tempted to treat her like any other ally in public. However I valued her skills and advice, a part of me feared she would eventually bail out on us again anyway.

I could tell she felt similarly. Mother kept me at arm’s length in her own way too. She could afford to relax a bit when we were alone, but open displays of affection probably terrified her to her core.

She had come to associate them with weakness after all.

“My Mometzcopinque and Eztli will assist our warriors in routing the rest,” I said. I should rather focus on the battle ahead than family matters. “Capture or kill the generals, disperse the soldiers, but let them leave alive.”

This didn’t please Coaxoch. “It would be better to slaughter them, Your Majesty. An enemy that survives will be free to fight another day. They’ll share word of what happened tonight.”

I smiled back at him. “Yes, that is exactly my plan.”

Now that I fought as Cizin, Fear of the Gods and Slayer of the Nightlords, I had to present a radically different face than the murderous and conquering emperor the Sapa knew me as. I had to sound as invincible as I was merciful so that the people wouldn’t consider me an existential threat to rally against.

The Sapa had enough calamities to deal with between the dead rising from their graves and the Nightlords’ armies marching on them, and I was done shedding innocent blood if I could help it.

In the end, I put Chikal in charge of leading most of my forces against the town of Guzmango—including Eztli, Necahual, and Lahun—and had Amoxtli follow me with a small unit of Jaguar Knights and amazons. They were elite veterans specialized in capturing targets alive, and now I could finally put those skills to use without the guilt of sending our captives to the altar.

To my utter lack of surprise, Ingrid also insisted on joining the raiding party on Manco’s dwelling place. She came to me dressed like an amazon, armed with a bow, and with a gaze sharper than an obsidian blade.

“If my lord would allow me to follow him into battle,” she asked me politely, “I would like to assess the result of my training.”

“Are you certain?” I asked her. I understood that Chikal had taken her under her wing, but we had plenty of soldiers and I would rather have picked a less important engagement as her first test in the field.

“Yes.” A small scowl formed on Ingrid’s face. “I may not contribute much compared to the others, but little is more than nothing.”

A part of her despised feeling useless. We always had that in common. I guessed that seeing the likes of Necahual and Lahun rain death from above only reinforced that feeling.

“You have contributed plenty, Ingrid,” I reassured her. I wouldn’t be here today without her support. “If not with a bow, then with your words and cunning.”

My compliment pleased her, though not enough to sway her mind. “My lord is kind, but we both know that neither will protect my sister from harm today. I would rather sharpen my aim than sit back and pray for your safe return.”

I could not deny such a heartfelt and brave request. The girl who had cried so many tears after her mother’s cruel death had blossomed into a fine young woman.

“Very well, Ingrid,” I said upon summoning my ebon wings. “I hope your hunt shall prove fruitful today.”

Mother and I soon took flight towards Manco’s mansion in our Tlacatecolotl forms. We glided above the hills, hidden under the cover of a Veil while our soldiers slowly encircled the house. Ayar Manco was not foolish enough to remain without guards, but no amount of elite soldiers could stop us.

“This feels all too easy,” I muttered under my breath. I had seen a golden condor keeping watch over Ayar Manco in my Seidr vision, which meant Inkarri was involved in his protection. I would have expected more protective spells around their emperor, however a puppet he might have been.

“This is very strange, indeed,” Mother concurred. “This land is frightfully quiet.”

“There is a war among the dead,” the wind whispered in my ear. “Screams turn to silence under mountains of dust and bones. Tides of blood and wood crash on wailing shores.”

Either this was a trap, or some terrible event warranted so much of the Mallquis’ attention that Inkarri and his cohorts couldn’t focus on Manco’s protection. Then again, for all of his prestige, the Sapa Emperors weren’t actually as important as their Yohuachancan counterparts. They weren’t required to sacrifice their lives to keep a dark god chained. They were mere mortal props for the living to gather around.

Meanwhile, the Mallquis drew their strength and immortality from their descendants’ breaths. I thought the curse of the living death decreased in power the further away people were from Yohuachanca, but if the First Emperor’s disasters were affecting all of the Sapa Empire… then its immortal masters had much bigger issues to deal with than shielding Manco from harm.

In any case, Mother and I soon found our target. We circled the sky above the hot springs where Manco and his concubines rested under the watchful gaze of a golden condor. If anything, the Sapa Emperor looked sicker than when I last saw him in my vision. His skin had grown pale, and his ears listened to words his bird whispered in his ear.

I saw no guard protecting the hot springs, though soldiers did patrol the rest of the mansion. I guessed that the Sapa simply forbade men in the presence of the emperor’s concubines instead of relying on eunuchs and undead soldiers unperturbed by female beauty. A more human approach to the issue, but one fraught with peril nonetheless.

I moved closer to eavesdrop on their conversation. I gently glided down towards the hot springs with my Veil of invisibility shielding me from detection. I landed at the stone tube’s edge without a sound nor disturbance. If this was a trap, the jaws would close soon.

I waited in vain. No hidden soldiers emerged from the waters to strike me, and Inkarri’s condor did not detect my presence. I almost froze upon hearing the Mallquis’ voice come out of his bird’s beak.

Unfortunately, I soon encountered an issue I hadn’t considered: they were speaking in the Sapan language, and I had no interpreter. I had grabbed a few words from my time with Aclla and Ingrid, but not enough to translate what sounded like gibberish to my ears.

However, I did hear the name Cachi being mentioned; and when I saw the scowl of disgust that followed on Manco’s face afterwards, the truth of the situation wasn’t too hard to grasp.

Weakness always invited betrayal.

I saw Manco and Inkarri’s condor grow silent, their eyes turning to face the horizon. A crimson light glowed from beyond the mountains, slowly repelling the overwhelming darkness which now blanketed the land.

The dawn had finally returned, almost five hours late.

I doubted it was a sign of the heavens, but I knew my troops would assume otherwise. What were the odds that dawn decided to show up the moment we decided to attack? Then again, fate and belief worked together in mysterious ways sometimes. Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence at all.

I chose this moment to reveal myself.

“Freeze.”

My Word echoed across the mansion and turned the water solid.

I hadn’t planned on this at all. I simply intended to paralyze everyone in the area to prevent Manco and his concubines from fleeing or sounding the alarm, but my power had grown so much that the world too obeyed my will. The waters of the spring turned to ice and trapped the people within them, all of whom grew quiet. All Sapa within range of my spell had become little more than statues of wax waiting for a command.

Even the golden condor was affected, though the ancient intelligence speaking through its beak quickly started shrugging off. The sluggish bird tried to open its mouth, perhaps to sound the alarm or cast a spell. I did not give it the time to act. I instead used the Doll to grab it by the neck and dropped the Veil surrounding my person.

Mother crashed through one of the mansion’s windows at the same time, searching for Astrid, and I saw light flashes in the distance. Fireballs rained from the brightening sky and a spineking’s roar echoed so loudly I could hear it from my location. My allies had taken the field already.

“I have your pet emperor, Inkarri,” I told the dizzied golden condor caught within my dark talons. “Send a messenger if you want him back. We’ll talk.”

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Then I snapped its neck.

I immediately realized that the creature’s feathers had more than the color of gold, but its texture as well. The crack that echoed reminded me of shattered metal rather than broken bones. The bird shed no blood nor had skin to touch. My talons instead ripped apart a clever imitation of the latter crafted from cloth and leather. The warmth coming from the creature was that of heated metal, and the parts that fell onto the frozen waters turned into coins.

I had destroyed a floating treasure; a statue familiar crafted by a mummy’s hand, no different than a tumi.

“The Sapa can craft impressive things with gold,” I mused out loud. My talons moved to carve the immobilized Manco and his concubines out of the frozen bath, then gently placed them on the stone tube’s edge. “I should learn that magic myself.”

Once I had lined up my captives, I quickly used Bonecraft to bind their hands and feet with rings crafted from my own ribs. Six women had shared Manco’s bath, and while most showed Sapa facial features, a handful had slightly paler skin or eyes marking them as concubines from different ethnicities. I guessed that they came from imperial tributaries, and I wondered if some of them would cooperate with us if given the proper incentive.

None of them had managed to break free of my spell yet, so I gave them a push.

“Move,” I said, casting a Word.

My power shook the tube and caused tremors to spread across the rock and ice. Manco gasped for air alongside the women. A few wept and screamed, so I used my Doll spell to grab their towels from the edge of the tube and covered them. Being frozen in place by an unseen force must have been quite traumatizing, but I didn’t know how to reassure them in the Sapa language.

Wait, I thought, a strange detail catching my attention. If my Word affected them, then either they all understand Yohuachancan, which I doubt… or my power has grown so powerful they obey the order without comprehending it.

I would need to test this hypothesis later.

The only person I left without a towel was Manco himself, and he would stay that way until he had earned that kindness. I had to give it to this puppet emperor though: there were few situations less frightening than being bound and naked at the feet of an owl-fiend looking down on him, yet he showed no fear. He would rather glare at me with cold disdain and seething hatred.

“You…” he rasped in Yohuachancan.

“I am surprised that you recognize me as I am, Ayar Manco.” The fact that I didn’t use his title ought to put him back in his place. “Did your master inform me of my true form?”

Ayar Manco held my gaze with what little dignity he had left. “I am no man’s tributary.”

“I don’t believe you… unless you cleverly do not consider the Mallquis men.” I looked into his eyes, a question burning on the tip of my tongue. “Has your brother rebelled against you?”

Manco clenched his jaw and refused to answer me. Did he think silence would change anything?

“Answer,” I ordered with a Word of power.

Manco tried to resist the compulsion with all of his willpower and managed to keep his mouth shut for a full second. Yet in the end, he remained a mere man unable to resist a divine decree.

“Yes,” he confirmed, his voice shaken with the sting of betrayal. “He and his followers attempted to seize the capital in the chaos when your curse shook our homeland. The people went mad, thinking the gods abandoned us, and he argued that the ancestors had failed us. He betrayed us in our darkest hour.”

“Men only show their true selves in crisis,” the wind whispered in my ear. “Obsidian shatters, iron breaks, and gold bends.”

I knew for a fact that Inkarri sent Aclla to me rather than Ayar Cachi in order to plant a spy and assassin in my bed, so I’d wondered if the feud between the brothers had been little more than political theater. I now stood corrected.

On one hand, I was disappointed that kin would react this way when threatened with a cataclysm; on the other hand, the question of ‘ancestors’ made me consider a possible motive I could get behind.

“He wanted to rebel against the Mallquis?” I guessed.

“Yes,” Manco answered against his will, his face twisted into a grimace of pain. Responding to my questions brought him clear physical and emotional pain. “He tried to seize the ancestors’ authority… and he failed.”

I squinted back. I wasn’t sure yet whether that was a good thing or not from my point of view. As much as I respected anyone trying to break the chains binding them to their masters, I knew too little about Cachi to fathom whether he acted out of personal ambition or aspired for freedom. Moreover, chaos striking the Sapa at such a time might only lead to further destruction for the population rather than less.

“Where is he now?” I inquired. “Is he alive? On the run?”

“In a coffin of gold,” the wind replied ominously. “A mask for the gods to wear.”

“The ancestors captured my brother, but have yet to regain control of the capital. The rebels rose from the dead as soon as clubs and arrows felled them.” Ayar Manco glared at me with all the venom and malice a man could muster. “You’ve brought darkness upon us all, Demon Emperor.”

At least those sincere words came from his heart rather than my spell. The Mallquis are dealing with a crisis at their capital on top of everything else, explaining why they couldn’t spare more resources to defend Manco. An emperor was of little value without an empire to rule over, and I assumed that they had a few spares lying around anyway.

“You told me that the value of a life was its usefulness to the state,” I reminded Manco. “How much are you worth now, I wonder.”

I meant it as a jest, a taunt, but my Word compelled Manco to answer nonetheless. “I have value,” he replied with no small amount of imperial pride. “The people know me, and my generals listen. I know the ancestors’ secrets and have their trust. They will fight to take me back.”

“Good,” I retorted. “Then you will live.”

I heard a small noise around me and turned to see Ingrid and other soldiers stepping out of the shadows and surrounding the mansion. Ingrid arrived with her quiver half-empty. From the blood dripping from my soldiers’ spears and axes, they had to cut through a few defenders.

“The area is secure, my lord,” Ingrid said, her gaze wandering to our captives. “My congratulations on your bounty.”

“Thank you kindly.” I waved a hand at our prisoners. “Please reassure these women in their native tongue on my behalf and ensure that nothing happens to them until we can ascertain their identities. Ayar Manco and his retinue shall remain as our guests for a while.”

“I shall do so, my lord.” A frown stretched on Ingrid’s face. “What of my sister?”

I was considering my answer when Mother emerged from the mansion with Astrid, as if on cue.

It had been over a month since I last saw the poor girl under less than pleasant circumstances. Astrid had suffered through terrible events, and yet appeared before me with all of an imperial princess’ dignity. The Sapa had forced her to put on one of their dresses and to tie her hair in their traditional fashion, but her fair face beamed like the sun the moment she saw Ingrid.

The younger sister immediately rushed to grab her elder in a hug. Even the straight-laced Ingrid briefly forgot all decorum and returned the gesture with familial warmth. The two whispered words to each other in the runic tongue of Winland. I didn’t need to understand their language to feel the relief in each spoken word.

The scene warmed more than just my heart. Even Mother allowed herself a small smile, though it quickly turned to sorrow. Did she briefly imagine the two of us in their place? Or Nenetl and I? Did she finally realize what she had missed out on for all these years?

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” Astrid apologized to me in Yohuachancan upon breaking the hug with her sister. “I… I should have bowed first.”

“No need, Astrid. I am glad to see you safe and sound.” I glanced at Ayar Manco. “I hope they treated you well.”

“They did.” Astrid joined her hands and looked at the floor. “They… they said I would marry the emperor when I flowered.”

I scowled in distaste. I knew it was a hypocritical reaction considering Ingrid had all been forced into my bed and the Nightlords planned a similar fate for Astrid, yet every tale I heard about the Sapa Empire only worsened my opinion of them. They were hardly more than a mirror of Yohuachanca for following the same practices.

“Oppression is an empire’s toll,” the wind taunted me and my naivety. “The flowers of power bloom on bloodsoaked ground.”

“You need not fear marrying anyone anymore,” I reassured Astrid before issuing more orders. The battle was far from done. “Escort our guests to our camp.”

“What will you do?” Mother asked.

“I’ll ask our foes to surrender.” A quip came to mind. “And they will take me at my Word.”

“As you wish,” Ingrid replied. She hesitated a brief instant before taking my hands into her own. “My lord?”

I squinted at her, her fingers warm against my talons of bone. “Yes, Ingrid?”

“Thank you.” She struggled to hold back tears of love and gratitude. “Thank you for returning my sister to me.”

Her words caused my heart to skip a beat. I wanted to tell her to think nothing of it, that I had simply fulfilled the promise we made a long time ago, but a part of me knew I’d partly sought to recover Astrid out of pragmatism. Her bloodline held the key to put the White Snake in the ground for good.

Nonetheless, her warmth was too great for any concern of mine. I squeezed her hands back with all the strength of my affection.

“I will always fight for you, Ingrid,” I swore. “That, I promise you.”

“I know. No matter the odds and foes, you have always fought on my behalf.” Her smile was brighter than the stars. “I wish to do the same.”

She moved to kiss me.

Here I stood as a Tlacatecolotl, an owl-field with a dagger-sharp beak for a face, talons for fingers, blazing light for eyes, and feathers for skin. Most would rather bow than face me in this shape. I was, to put it bluntly, a demon born to inspire fear rather than affection.

Ingrid didn’t care for that. Her lips touch my beak without fear or apprehension. Neither my frightful appearance nor the presence of soldiers—let alone our respective families—stopped her. Gone were the terrible times when showing affection would invite taunts and cruelty. Things had changed for the better.

We could finally be ourselves.

My hands grabbed her back and pulled her into an embrace which she returned, my wings furling and closing on her. I pressed her head against my feathers like a cherished treasure. She meant much to me, and I would not let anyone take her away from me.

I suppose that in a way, mortals could call this love.

True to my Word, I spent the rest of the ‘morning’—however late it arrived—flying from one group of stragglers to the other and forcing them to kneel. I used Veil to appear as a great owl god surveying the battle with great wings blanketing the sun and eyes of fire. Many Sapa soldiers threw down their weapons and fled the moment they saw me.

Fear ruled these mountains. Fear of the heavens’ judgment. I could feel the intensity of their terror seeping into my bones and carrying my ebon wings forward. Their weakness became my strength.

An ominous messenger of the gods wasn’t exactly the way I hoped to appear to the Sapa, but I would rather see them flee with their lives rather than die for nothing.

I wouldn’t call the conquest of Guzmango a battle. A massacre would have been more appropriate, if we had actually killed all the fleeing people and soldiers. Chikal’s troops had fallen upon the army’s command center in the town’s central plaza, with Eztli leading the charge in her spineking form. The total surprise and chaos, on top of Necahual and Lahun raining lightning and fire from the sky, allowed my soldiers to either kill or capture the Sapa generals. Their panicked troops quickly spread out and fled for the hills or rivers surrounding Guzmango’s valley, abandoning the town to us.

There was no glory to be found in defeating a broken foe.

When we completed the takeover, I retreated to my roaming palace to meet with my generals and receive their reports. Ayar Manco was put under house arrest in his own mansion under close watch, isolated from everyone. I put Ingrid in charge of interrogating his concubines and captive commanders to see which of them we could turn to our side. Considering the urgency of the situation, I suspected a few would rather cooperate with us.

“So the landing was a success?” I asked, dreading the answer. My predecessors’ skull listened to the conversation at my side, their ghostfire eyes flickering in the dark. I wondered if they relished being given a place at the decision table again.

“That depends on what we would consider one,” Amoxtli replied. “All the messengers we interrogated and the missives we translated point to Yohuachanca’s forces making landfall around four to five days ago. The Sapa apparently received prior warning of our invasion, but the disastrous weather and undead disrupted their preparations.”

My hands clenched. It seemed that the Sapa Empire indeed received my subtle warning about the Flower War being little more than a smokescreen for an attack on their coast and took measures to intercept my fleet, only for fate to play a cruel twist on them. A rough examination of the timeline showed that our ships reached the Sapa’s shores around the time I proceeded with Eztli’s soul-transfer ritual and the chaos that followed.

Instead of well-defended fortresses, Yohuachanca’s ships landed to find ports wracked with natural and supernatural disasters.

“How many ports were taken?” I asked.

“Difficult to say,” Chikal said. “Some messages reassured the emperor that the invaders had been repelled, albeit with often significant casualties. Others request reinforcements, which suggests continued fighting. The fog of war obscures everything.”

“I do not think that our…” Amoxtli marked his pause, clearly unsure how he should qualify Yohuachanca’s other soldiers. “Our forces will manage to establish a strong foothold if the Sapa were indeed warned. The entire invasion relied on surprise.”

“The Sapa have a military force rivaling Yohuachanca’s, and would have been wise to focus their forces to defend the ports,” Chikal said. “Even taking into account the disruption the undead plague might have caused, the advantage of numbers and defensive fortifications should prove overwhelming; especially since the Bird of War so kindly slew her own.”

True, Sugey’s decision to bleed out her priests and Nightkin during our battle had no doubt disrupted the Yohuachancan war effort. Having a full third of the priesthood die exsanguinated in the middle of an invasion ought to have damaged the army’s morale.

I would need to use the Augury or Seidr to gather more information on the situation on the frontline.

Coaxoch grunted. “None of you see the important part: it doesn’t matter how many forces our enemies lost, only that they’re all bogged down in the same places.”

“Coaxoch speaks true,” the Parliament of Skulls said, their whispers unnerving most of my commanders. “This situation presents both risks and opportunities. On one hand, the Sapa state will be too disorganized to pursue us with all of its strength; on the other hand, we doubt they will be in a good enough shape to repel the Nightlords from their heartlands once the Jaguar Woman and White Snake give pursuit.”

They were right, unfortunately. My battle with Sugey had shown me that no amount of conventional force could stop a Nightlord. They would no doubt exploit the chaos to chase us across the mountains unimpeded.

“We could try to rally those troops to our side,” Amoxtli suggested. “They are sworn to their emperor.”

“I would not risk it,” Chikal replied. “Most generals assigned to the invasion fleet were Nightlord loyalists, and many ships carried Nightkin onboard to assist with the attack.”

I agreed. I had specifically put commanders more likely to side with my captors in charge of the naval invasion in the hope that they would be killed in the intense fighting. This part of my plan had likely worked at a great cost of human lives. Whatever Yohuachancan forces survived the landing to rally under the Nightlords’ banner would be a mere fraction of the fleet sent to ravage the Sapa shores.

Sad as it sounded, every red-eyed priest or Nightkin falling in battle would be one less bloodbag their respective Nightlords could draw upon for power in a pinch.

“There is more,” Amoxtli said. “Manco received concerning reports from across his entire empire. Plagues of undead, bloodsucking bats, and swarms of carrion-eaters wreak havoc everywhere. Many villages and small communities have been overrun according to the reports.”

No wonder the Mallquis couldn’t spare any attention for Manco. All of their holdings and descendants now faced attacks, and their very unlives depended on fending them off. It was everyone for himself.

“If Manco’s spoke the truth, then their very capital is under threat,” Coaxoch pointed out. “It is ripe for the taking.”

“It is,” Chikal conceded. “With Manco in captivity, we could reestablish order and seize control of the state.”

I scoffed. “You would turn him into a puppet emperor?”

“He already is one,” my consort replied with a sly smile. “We only need him to force the commanders to bend the knee and open the gates.”

“While seizing the capital would let us stabilize the situation, we fear the true threat lies elsewhere,” my predecessors said. “We sense great magic flowing between the living world and the land of the dead. Inkarri’s doing no doubt.”

They were right. Inkarri was my most dangerous and determined opponent in the Sapa Empire, and I knew for a fact that he had been working on some kind of ritual since before the Flower War even started. I needed to learn what he had in mind, and if I could either harness his sorcery against the Nightlords or would need to neutralize it.

I was considering our options when Ingrid entered our war room with a woman in tow. I immediately recognized the latter as one of Manco’s concubines. She was an elegant, exotic Sapa beauty that reminded me of Aclla, albeit with skin the color of cacao rather than gold. A yellow flower adorned her long, delicate ravenshade hair, and she walked to me dressed in expensive red wool and with glittering gold earrings dangling from her ears. Her piercing black eyes appraised me with the same calculation I had seen in so many trained politicians.

“My lord, let me introduce you to Empress Killa Huascar, wife to Emperor Manco,” Ingrid said. “She has a… proposition for us.”