Amazonia - Taking Tesiphon

When I was a slave in the Empire of the East, Redfruit was one of the treats Lord Paulus used when he’d wanted to reward us. The flesh is both sweet and tart, but you had to be careful not to bite down on the seed, or you might crack a tooth.

We’ve swept through the Sasnayam lands and consumed them, leaving towns and villages burning in our wake, as the White Horde and its allies move on. Over and over, the local lords would send out ill-trained armies to confront us, and each time we routed them off the battlefield, enslaving the ones deemed useful. The rest of the prisoners were put to death.

But now we’ve reached Tesiphon. The walls aren’t as high or as thick as the walls of Konstanopolis, nor do they have the defensive ballistas and catapults my old city has. Regardless, this is going to be a hard seed to break.

Especially since Timur’s out of his depth. I was with him when we rode to the top of a hill, some leagues away from the city, and looked down upon Tesiphon in the cold morning light. He’d shaken his head in disbelief. “How in Tengri’s name do we take this vast fortress?”

Kax, who was also with us, had smiled. “The same way you would eat an elephant, great Khan: one bite at a time. Give me command of the siege, and we shall begin the feast.” Timur had agreed, and Kax had taken charge of the infantry and the auxiliary soldiers, encircling the city so no one could easily get in or out, then had them build rams and scaling towers high enough to get men over the walls. Those who weren’t building siege engines I continued to train, so we’d be ready when the time came.

Except now, Kax doesn’t think an assault will succeed. “This is going to be a hard fight,” she’d said at a meeting of the commanders, several nights ago, “and even with Amazonia’s training, I am afraid the soldiers recruited from the satrapies will break when the fighting gets fierce.”

Khan Timur had given her a harsh look. “I will not expend my soldiers on the assault. We’ve lost too many as it is, and my brother’s been slow to send replacements.”

“Great Khan,” Battle Commander Kula growled, “his reasons are valid. The northern Horde tribes have flocked to your younger brother’s banner, and are launching raids-”

“I know all that,” Timur had snapped. “Why do you think I’m adamant about not sending our warriors to man the siege towers? The city’s granaries are full, meaning we will starve before they do, and my spies in Tesiphon tell me the cowardly Sasnayam emperor has actually sent an embassy to the Empire of the East, asking for help in exchange for concessions. We risk being caught between the hammer and the anvil if they send an army. No, we need to assault the city now, and unless you’ve got a better idea, we’re going to do it with the allied soldiers whether they’re ready or not.”

“Actually,” Kax had said, “I do have a better idea.”

Kax looked at me and I knew exactly what she wanted. “You want the Shadow Knight to command the dead to assault the city.”

“We have no dead she can command,” Lys said, crossing her stick-thin arms across her chest. “At Khan Timur’s order, we stopped raising corpses weeks ago. It would take time to get an army in place.”

“There is already an army in place inside the walls of Tesiphon,” Kax replied. “In the center of the city stands an enormous dead, grey tree, with ruined walls surrounding it. Instead of shunning the place, the founders of Tesiphon incorporated it into their religion, and built a necropolis around it. All of the city’s dead, from the great nobles and kings, down to the lowest peasant, are buried there.”

Lys put her hands on her narrow hips. “That is all well and good, but Cermet and I have to touch a corpse, or a group of corpses touching each other, to raise them.”

“What if all the corpses were touching each other?” Lys gave her a puzzled look, and Kax added, “The dead of Tesiphon are laid reverently into pits, stacked much like wooden logs with corpse-lime spread over the bodies.” I really don’t care what happens to my body after I die, but many of the others did, for their expressions became horrified. Kax had shrugged. “To the Sasnayams, it is far more important that their ancestors are buried in the necropolis than how they are laid out. Once the bodies are stacked level with the ground, the slaves lay down a layer of dirt and extend the pit.” She’d leaned forward. “This has been going on for centuries.”

Lys’ face took on a hungry look. “How enormous is this grey tree?”

“The size of a great-grandfather oak.”

The Shadow Fae’s gaze had grown distant, as if she’d begun calculating something in her head. “Cermet worked out a way of channeling power from the trees, with her acting as the conduit to me.” Her gaze turned sharp as she looked at Timur. “Depending on how many of the dead are raised, I am going to be useless to you for a long time afterwards.”

Timur’s expression echoed Lys’ hunger. “See this done, and I will see you set up in the grandest house we can find, with guards keeping you safe.” He’d turned towards me. “Az-”

I’d held up my hand before he could go on. “My Khan, taking Tesiphon means breaking the back of the Sasnayam empire.”

He’d nodded. “Which means the end of your mission, and freedom for you and your Wardogs.”

“Just so. Great Khan, if it means transforming into the Shadow Knight one final time to bring us victory, then I’ll do it with a glad heart.”

Timur had stroked his beard. “Once the Runesword shatters and you’re free, perhaps I can get you to renew your pledge to me.”

I’d given him a friendly grin. “Only if we renegotiate the terms… and I plan to strike a hard bargain.”

He’d barked out a laugh. “That’s the Az I know,” he’d said, slapping the table open-handed. “Done.”

There were rumbles of laughter around the table, but Battle-Commander Kula had remained serious. “This is all well and good, but how in Tengri’s name are you going to get into the city, let alone into this necropolis?”

Kax’s smile dripped with smugness. “Leave the details to me.

* * * * *

The heat of the day is gone with the sun and dawn’s hours away, the time of night when a city grows quiet and restless soldiers have fallen back into slumber. Standing in the courtyard of a caravansary just outside Tesiphon’s walls, the cold stars stare unblinking as Cermet the minor lich, Lys, riding on Karl’s shoulder as usual, and I, watch Kax as she confers with five swarthy men wearing black, loose fitting clothes. She nods as one of the men finishes speaking and turns towards us. “The way into the city is prepared. My loyal servants,” her hand motioning toward the men, “have replaced the guards with their own men, so we should be able to reach the necropolis without incident.”

Lys looks as skeptical as I feel. “Tesiphon is a big city. They cannot have replaced them everywhere.”

Kax only smiles. “Follow me.” She speaks a word to the men and they forge ahead, leading us through the stables and into one of the store rooms. The chamber’s filled with canvas bags and crates, with another wooden door on the opposite side, bound with black iron and thick bolts. Metal squeals as one of them draws the bolt back and opens the door.

A set of stone stairs lead down into darkness. Each swarthy man picks up an unlit torch as Kax cups her hands, producing a finger tall tongue of flame, and each one lights his torch off the fire. As the last one does so, Kax opens her hands, the fire vanishing as three of the men start down the stairs. The other two beckon for us to go ahead of them. Drawing the Runesword, I follow Kax down the stairs, the others at my heels.

The air’s musty as we march along the passage, continuing for a time until we reach a red door set into stone. “We are directly underneath Tesiphon’s walls,” Kax says as the leading man knocks on the door with a distinctive series of raps. The door squeals opens to a half dozen soldiers with spears, all pointed at us, and I grip the hilt tight as the leading man speaks in their tongue.

All six soldiers go down to one knee and give a response with Kax’s name at the end. I relax as they move to let us pass, the door closed behind us with the echo of iron bolts being thrown as Kax says, “This passage splits into several different tunnels, all of them guarded on the opposite ends with traps and fierce manikin guards that never sleep. Only the way to the necropolis is left unguarded.”

Karl snorts. “That doesn’t seem smart.”

She glances over her shoulder a moment. “That passage ends in the shadow of the great, dead tree. Normally, there is at least one Shadow creature keeping watch, and sometimes several, so anyone foolish enough to enter through that opening risks being attacked in the twilight area between the real world and the Shadowlands.”

“And exactly how are we supposed to get past them?” Lys asks in a sharp voice.

“Almost all of the time, the Shadow creature is a Night Hag,” Kax answers, sounding amused, “and with you and Cermet both being necromancers-”

“The Night Hags will leave us alone. But a Shadow Raptor or other creature will not.”

“i am a Celestial,” Kax replies, the amusement leaving her voice, “and I expect Amazonia to become the Shadow Knight before we reach the surface. If we are attacked, both of us together should be able to drive the creature away.” She glances back at me. “Just be careful to not touch the tree itself.”

“My blade only goes where I want it to,” I reply as the passage opens into a chamber. There’s a half dozen different tunnels leading off it, the swarthy men heading straight towards one in the middle.

The opening’s outlined with grinning skulls. “Not exactly subtle,” Karl says as we pass through the opening and continue on. “Why have a opening in the necropolis anyway?”

“For reasons of safety,” Kax replies, “the Imperial Palace has none. Yet, at times we need to leave the palace without it becoming general knowledge, and the grand tombs of the elite in the necropolis sit right beside the palace walls.” She chuckles. “We would pretend to consult with our sacred ancestors and not return right away.”

We continue on, the torchlight casting dancing shadows as we pass occasional skulls set into the walls, until a set of stone stairs leading upward appears before us. Kax speaks a word and the swarthy men in front stop. “Amazonia, it is time.”

I take a deep breath. Brace up, Az; you knew you weren’t going to get out of this mess that easy. Do this, and when Timur’s got Tesiphon, Antonius will shatter the sword and it’ll be over. His gentle touch sweeps over me. Then, everything shifts, and I scream as my skin turns grey and my flesh contracts. Stop, I can’t do this, I can’t… it’s killing me, it’s killing me, it’s…

Set me free! I laugh as I stretch muscles like bands of steel, finally back to the way I’m supposed to be. The way I should’ve never given up. The others all shrink away, though they try to hide it as I grin at Kax. “Long past time. Let me take the lead, and I’ll see what’s waiting for us.”

Kax speaks to one of the men, and he hands me his torch as Kax says in a sharp voice, “Do not attack unless they attack you first. I need you to command the dead once Lys and Cermet have raised them.”

Holding my Runesword in one hand, I touch my forehead with the forefinger of my other hand and start up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Behind me, footsteps begin echoing off the walls as I continue to climb.

I reach the top of the stairs and step out onto a stone platform. Before me stands the largest grey tree I’ve ever seen, its dead branches filling the sky and blocking the light of the stars, though the city around us is providing some light. A Night Hag and a Shadow Raptor are standing together at the base, and I toss the torch aside as I grip the Runesword with both hands.

They aren’t moving. Kax reaches the platform and stops beside me as I cock my head, trying to puzzle out their strange behavior as she says, “Why are they not attacking?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. Wait,” I says as the Night Hag, moving fast as thought, breaks branches, which I know are tendrils, off the tree and begins forming words in Greco-Roma, which hang in the air like floating runes. They read: A Favor for a Favor, Amazonia.

I stiffen as Kax gives me a sharp look. “They know you.”

“Indeed. Lys,” I say as I glance over my shoulder, “you and Cermet have nothing to fear from Shadow creatures tonight. These are… friends of my weaker self, when she died and entered the Shadowlands.”

I look forward again as Kax frowns. “What favor do they want from you?”

My gaze doesn’t leave them as I ground the tip of my blade on the rough stone. “Before Ghostdog stole me away from the Shadowlands, I was supposed to kill his son.” I shrug, bowing to both Shadow creatures to show them I accept as I add, “I’m sure they haven’t forgotten.”

They both bow back as the others join us. Karl gives me an incredulous look. “Greywolf helped rescue you, yet you have no problem killing him?”

I shrug again and say, “Lys, go ahead and get set up. Kax, I’m limited as to how many Shamblers I can command as a unit.”

Lys speaks to Cermet, who nods and walks towards the massive grey tree as Kax replies, “All I need you to do is get them moving towards their old homes once they have climbed out of the pit. Once the people realize the dead are rising, I expect either a mass exodus out of Tesiphon, or a massacre. Either way, the city will be weakened enough to fall.”

“Kax,” Lys says as Karl climbs onto a low wall to my right and stands up, “where’s a good place to make contact?”

The Night Hag and Shadow Raptor move back a few paces from the dead tree as Cermet gets close, and I join Kax as we climb up on the wall next to Karl. The necropolis is like a city within Tesiphon, with tombs off to the left, larger and more elaborate the farther away they go from the broken ground off to the right. A wall encloses the entire area, with a complex of buildings, all of them domed with spires, straight ahead of us. Glancing at Lys, Kax points at a spot almost at our feet. “Will that work?”

Several horse-lengths down the slight hill from the wall is a pit, the bodies inside covered in a greenish-white powder. Karl grunts. “Isn’t that a little close to the tree?”

“The city is running out of room.” Kax’s arm sweeps outward towards the bumpy field of earth extending outward to the stone walls. “When the necropolis was built, the people’s ancestors buried their dead as far away from the tree as they could. But as the centuries went on, the burials crept closer and closer, until the dead began being laid within the tree’s twilight space.” She shrugs again. “No one likes it, but if they want their dead buried inside the necropolis, they have no choice.”

From where I am standing, the uncovered dead are stacked in a pile ten by ten, almost reaching level with the ground… and are clearly touching the bodies covered over by earth. Lys’ expression becomes one of joyous wonder. “So many. Cermet,” she calls out as she looks over her shoulder, “can we do this without destroying ourselves?”

“Channeling so much Shadow mana will takes its toll,” Cermet replies in the language of the dead. “However, I will absorb as much of the ill effects as I can, so you will only be badly weakened for a time.” Wonder turns to horror as Lys back-flips off Karl’s shoulder, but she halts as Cermet raises a hand, palm out. “Knowing that those who betrayed us and forced me to become as I am, will be brought down, makes this a price I am eager to pay.”

Lys strides over to the minor Lich, who kneels down, the two of them speaking quietly for a moment. They finish, and Cermet takes up a position near the tree as Lys returns, wiping at her eyes with the heels of her hands. I frown as she leaps up onto the wall. “Did you get dust in your eyes?”

She gives me a dark look and jumps down, Karl using an arm to get down himself as well while she strides over to the pit and hops onto a corpse’s chest. “Karl, no matter what happens, do not touch me until the nimbus of energy around us goes out. I will not lose you too.”

“Just don’t push yourself too far,” Karl says as he reaches the spot where Lys jumped down.

“Why, scared I might get myself killed and come back as a Lich?” Lys turns towards him a moment and looks up with her hands on her hips. “Where’s your sense of adventure?” Karl begins clucking like a chicken, which makes absolutely no sense to me but must to Lys, because she laughs and kneels down with her tiny hands on the dead man’s forehead. “Cermet,” she calls out, “it’s time.”

Cermet faces the tree and puts out her decayed hands as close to the trunk as possible without touching it. Several moments pass.

Then a halo of grey light forms around her as black lightning arcs from her to Lys, forming a nimbus of black energy around Lys’ head and extending into her hands. I can’t tell, but Shadow mana must be flowing through her into the bodies, because the corpses in the pile she’s kneeling on have begun to twitch. They continue this way, the Shadow mana continuing to flow between them and the dead as the corpses I can see become more animated.

Kax grabs my arm and I look back to where she’s pointing with the other. Cermet’s eyes are gone, tongues of black fire spewing out of empty eye sockets, while her skin blackens. Yet, the grey halo and black lightning continue, Cermet’s skin charring as her body shakes.

Then Cermet’s body collapses in on itself as both the grey halo and black lightning wink out. Karl yells, and jumps down into the pit, scrambling up a moment later with Lys cradled in one arm. He runs up the hill towards us, Kax holding out an hand which he grasps as she helps him up onto the low wall. “Karl, how is she?”

“I don’t know,” he replies in a voice strained with worry. “She’s breathing, but I’ve never seen her go unconscious like this.” He shifts her small body so its pressed against his. “I hope this was worth it.”

“Oh, it was,” I reply, giving him the rictus of a smile as my arm sweeps out ward. “See for yourself.” Karl turns around and his eyes widen.

All throughout the open fields of the necropolis, hands are breaking through the ground as the dead begin clawing their way free. “Wotan’s blood,” Karl breathes. “I’ve never seen anything so terrifying in all my life.”

“Exhilarating is more like it.” Kax’s grinning like a cat with a bird under her paw. “Amazonia, you do not need to control them, just turn them loose the same way you did when we sacked Amul. By midday, the city will be begging Timur to save it, and my vengeance upon Tesiphon’s elite can begin.” She gives me a sharp look. “How long will these Shamblers last before the Shadow mana runs out?”

“Long enough for my vengeance to be complete,” a familiar woman’s voice says from behind us. We whirl around. Standing beside the enormous dead tree is the priestess Akbal, who I now know to be the Lich Tanit, with a dozen or so dead men around her. Their clothing is rotted, yet once it had been richly made, and the skin of their faces has been preserved by embalming so the cheeks of several are sunken, yet not decayed.

The five men in black have dropped to their knees, their foreheads pressed against the dirt in front of her best preserved corpse, as Kax snarls, “What do you think you are doing?”

“Taking advantage of the marvelous gift you have given me,” Tanit replies in a mocking voice. She shakes her head. “Child, you are so predictable. After I helped Cermet 'discover' the art of channeling Shadow mana from one necromancer to another, I knew you would attempt to recreate the chaos caused in Amul by the risen dead.” With one hand she motions towards the fields behind us. “I truly am impressed by what Lys has done. Once you are dead, and that freak beside you cast into the Shadowlands for good, Lys will help me transform Tesiphon into the city of the dead it should have become all along.”

“You’re wrong,” Karl growls, his hand on his sword hilt. “Lys will kill you once she wakes up.”

Tanit gives him an evil smile. “Your Lys will wake up as a Lich under my command, unable to do anything except what I want her to do.”

“Since we are speaking of command,” I say before she can go on, “you’re going to have an impossible time trying to get all the dead in Tesiphon to do anything more than shamble around, if that much.”

She turns her evil smile on me. “How little you understand the Necromantic arts. These corpses,” her hand motioning towards the dozen dead men, “were once the kings and emperors of Sasnayam. By tradition, all those permitted to be buried here were loyal to one or more of them in life, and remain loyal to their ruler in death. Together, we will round up all the mana users and convert them to my cause while the rest kill the inhabitants of the city. Timur will not dare make an assault upon the walls once he realizes the city has turned, but will slink away with his tail between his legs and wait for my legions to bring him down.”

I raise the Runesword. “Not if I bring you down first.”

Kax grips my shoulder and holds me fast as Tanit places her hand a finger’s breadth from the tree. “The moment you leap down, I will use the power of the Grey to pull all of you into the Shadowlands.”

Kax holds onto me as she spits out, “Are you not forgetting the two Shadow creatures waiting patiently for you to do just that?”

Tanit’s evil smile returns. “Of course not. I am counting on them to go after you once I have pulled you in. Child, as a Lich, I have some power over the Shadowlands, as well as respect from the Night Hags who were once as I am now. Or why do you think they are leaving me alone?”

I shake Kax’s hand off my shoulder, but remain where I am. “What are you waiting for? Touch the tree and get it over with.”

“Kax,” Tanit says, ignoring me, “I am giving you one chance to join me. Change yourself over to Yun, your other, milder self, and let me convert you over to my side as a Lich. Once you become as I am, everything will be made clear as a still pond.”

Kax snorts. “I daresay. No, I would rather be a ghost in the Grey than serve you as a necromancer.”

On the other side, the Night Hag has raised her hand in a similar manner as Tanit’s as the Lich sighs. “What a waste of potential. On your head be it, then.” Tanit tenses as she flexes her fingers so her palm’s laying flat.

Faster than thought, the Night Hag touches the tree and its branches all whip down, wrapping Tanit in their embrace. As they pull her up towards the maw forming in the side of the tree, her feet kick wildly before Tanit vanishes inside. The branches resume their normal positions as the maw reopens and spits something out onto the ground.

A newly formed Night Hag looks around with an expression of total bewilderment… changing to wonder, as she sees the Shadowlands as my weaker self once saw them, like a paradise. The Shadow Raptor… Wind Dancer, it has to be, waddles over and folds her wings around the new Night Hag as the old one… Mother Vexx, I’m sure, moves away from the tree.

I sheathe the Runesword and, waving at the others to remain where they are, jump down off the low stone wall. Both of us stop a few paces away from each other as she forms words like grey runes. A favor for a favor. Amazonia, we want you back.

I give her a quick head shake and motion with one hand at the sheathed Runesword. The runes reform. We understand that the sword will not let you. But once your mission is over and the Runesword shatters, before your Shadow self is drawn out of your body, cling to your mortal form as you take a shard and cut your own throat. You will be pulled into the Grey as you die, then reborn exactly the same way you were when you came to us.

In the blink of an eye her clawed finger’s pointing straight at my face as she changes the runes with her other. Whatever you do, remain a Shadow Knight and do not transform back. Even if the Runesword refuses to let you go, your body cannot remain in its Shadowed state forever, and will eventually die. You win in either event. However, once you transform back, the sword will refuse to let you become a Shadow Knight ever again, and you will be lost to us. We love you, Amazonia. Come home.

Home. It has no meaning to me… and yet, my weaker self was the happiest she’d ever been. Interesting thought. Pointing up at the last two words, I nod to show Mother Vexx I understand, and she gives me back a horrible smile which I return. Then she turns around, back with the new Night Hag between one heart’s beat and the next, and a moment later all three rapidly move away and vanish.

I turn around, laughing as an idea comes to mind. “Kax, I might not be able to command everyone, but I can certainly command a dozen dead rulers.”

Kax slowly begins to nod. “Who have the loyalty of everyone else. Go ahead, and have them begin assembling their,” her voice grows mocking, “loyal subjects, near the openings.” Her expression grows fierce. “The dead come with the dawn!”

“What about that whole business of you committing suicide,” Karl says. “That isn’t what you want.”

“That’s not what my weaker self wants,” I reply. “I want to continue as I am, free of Timur or anyone else’s commands, killing as many enemies as possible. I don’t know what happens to my Shadow Knight self once I’m drawn back into the Grey, and I don’t plan on finding out.”

Karl holds onto Lys protectively as he draws himself up. “For the real Amazonia’s sake, I plan to stop you from hurting her.”

I give Karl my rictus of a smile. “You’re welcome to try. For what it’s worth, I know you think you’re doing the right thing, which is one of the reasons I don’t plan to hurt you in return. But you’re going to discover that there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” My expression grows as fierce as Kax’s. “Amazonia must die.”