XXXVI. THE LEGATE OF DE-ANU

  Admrilia Hortus Ashiphied was currently having a stalemate with a horse. A horse. “Come on you stupid beast! Move!” Admrilia growled as Ajaxi rose up on his hind legs. “I just want the waterskin.” Ajaxi bellowed out his nostrils, making his position clear. Admrilia leaned back down against the tunnels wall. THe sandstorm had finished sometime in the middle of the night, and the first rays of dawn illuminated the tomb’s funerary art. Admrilia had fought the desire to leave and find the others. That was, if Nia’s stubborn mule of a horse would let her ride him.

  There was movement in the tunnel. Admrilia shot to her feet. “Took your sweet time, did you?” Nia ignored the jibe, shoving past to Ajaxi. He whinnied in greeting and bowed his head for a scratch behind the ears. “I've been here all night. Ajaxi wouldn’t even let me get close to him.”

  “Is that right?” Nia gave Ajaxi an affectionate scratch. “Who's a good boy?”

  “Hand me that pack by your feet.” Admrilia did so. Nia quickly dug through it and groaned. “By the Lady, did you eat everything in here?”

  Admrilia crossed her arms. “As if you weren’t sated by hunting whatevers crawling around in here.”

  Nia's amber eyes rose. She stretched her neck, exposing the rope burn marks around her neck. “Believe me, princess, the only living thing in here is you, and I don’t think you would have appreciated me sating my hunger on your body.”

  On your body. Admrilia’s cheeks flushed. Nia-Uro as led Ajaxi out of the tunnel. She paused, watching as dawn stretched over the horizon, the warm sunlight making her skin glow golden brown. Admrilia shook her head. She needed to focus. “Do you think you’ll be able to track down the others?”

  Nia scoffed low in her throat. “Of course I will.”

  Admrilia raised an eyebrow. “That sounded arrogant.”

  “Coming from you?” Nia grunted as she climbed into Ajaxi’s saddle.

  “Me? Arrogant?”

  Nia stared down at her imperiously. “Horribly.”

  Admrilia chuckled as she accepted her extended hand up. “Yes well, if you were the prodigal heir to the Ashenian Empire, you’d be arrogant too.”

  “I wouldn’t know.” Nia said thinly.

  Admrilia considered that as she wrapped her arms around Nia’s torso. “Well, perhaps not an empire, but you are a member of a royal house.”

  Nia scoffed as she coaxed Ajaxi backup the ravine that surrounded the mastaba. “Not quite.”

  “What?”

  Nia shook her head. “It’s nothing. Forget I said anything.”

  “We likely have hours before we find anyone.” Admrilia drawled. “I order you to answer me.”

  “Arrogant woman.” Nia cursed in kiyr under her breath. Normally, the insult would have demanded retaliation, but instead a small smile formed at the corner of her lips. Admrilia quickly hid it. “I’m not a member of the house by blood. Not really. I'm a bastard. My father’s.”

  “You're a nullius?” Admrilia said in surprise.

  Nia-Uro stiffened in her arms. “Yes. Lero and Cythe are my half siblings.”

  Admrilia digested this information. “And you have no idea who your mother is?”

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  Nia shook her head. “No. My father never said, and he’s dead now anyway, so I can hardly ask.”

  “That’s quite the burden.” Admrilia said softly.

  “Yes, yes it is.”

  They rode for another half hour until Admrilia spotted figures in the distance. When they reached her neptori, Admrilia fell a well of relief as she dismounted and embraced her guards.

  “Oh thank the Stormlord!” Flavius exclaimed as he hugged her. “Alex and I spent half the night looking for you.”

  “In the storm?” Nia asked doubtfully.

  Alexandros crossed his arms. “There is no way we wouldn’t go to for the Argenti.”

  “We found shelter in a tomb until the storm passed.” Admrilia explained. She pointed behind them to the lumbering maestaba.

  “A tomb? But you hate confined spaces.” Flavius said.

  “Yes well, I hate the dessert more.”

  “What did the two of you even do in there?” Her guard asked.

  “Braided each other’s hair.” Nia quipped.

  Alexandros smirked as Flavius erupted into laughter. “Admrilia? She’d sooner kill you.”

  Admrilia rolled her eyes. “Come on, let’s get going.”

  They found the others an hour later. After recounts of the previous evening, the others had found refuge on the opposite side of the Conqueror’s road in a dilapidated village, they were back on the road to De-Anu. Her uncles had recovered Sunbeam, and Admrilia cursed Tho-Kai as she rode the stubborn mule. By evening, De-Anu’s garrison was in view.

  Admrilia bit her lip as their horses approached the limestone walls. There were no legionnaires stationed; the gate swinging by its hinges. Admrilia held up her fist. “Prepare yourselves.” She ordered, her own grip tightening on her spear. She held her breath as they pushed open the door and rode into the empty courtyard. Admrilia grew unsettled. Where were the legionnaires? The legate? Her eyes slid to Wyn-Kai’s. Her grandfather’s mouth a thin line. “Split up.” Admrilia ordered. “Uro’s, Uncles- the east barracks. Clavo, Khispen, Wyn-Kai, the west.” Admrilia nodded to her neptori. “We’ll take the main house.”

  Alexandros nodded tightly. Admrilia dismounted Sunbeam.

  “I have a really bad feeling about this.” Flavius whispered to Alexandros as Admrilia marched them up the steps to the main house. Alexandros grunted in agreement as he shouldered the door open. The trio pushed inside the house. Sunlight streamed in through the shuttered windows— illuminating the dust buildup on the floor.

  “Kitchens first.” They rounded to the back of the house through the empty main floor. The kitchen appeared as if it hadn’t been used in months, the shelves covered in cobwebs and stale hunks of bread. Alexandros led them back through the empty main floor to the stairwell. They walked up to the second floor. Lines of ants were evident under a closed door at the end of the hall. Amdrilia nodded grimly to Alexandros, and he turned the knob. The ants trailed across the dusty wooden beams and up a cluttered desk to where a man sat hunched over.

  Admrilia swore.

  “Well, now we know why he didn’t answer any of your letters.” Alexandros said dryly.

  Admrilia held the hem of her shirt to her nose and stepped further into the room. The legate’s corpse was leathery and unbloated. “How do you reckon he died?” Flavius asked.

  Admrilia picked up the chalice that lay at his feet. Whatever liquid had been in it had been long evaporated. “Poison, I reckon.” She briefly examined Fillium’s corpse for any signs of a struggle. There were no bloodstains on his clothes or desk.

  “Could it have been the Ten?” Flavius asked.

  “Who else?” Admrilia snapped. She chided herself. “Sorry, Flavius.”

  He waved her off.

  “Argenti— Come look at this. I think I figured out what Fillium and Xur were writing about?”

  “Really?” Flavius asked.

  Alexandros handed over a collection of letters from the bookshelf. Admrilia read the receipt. Flavius peered over her shoulder. His nose scrunched up. “Ew. So the Legate was providing Xur with the finest Kerai girls he could procure?”

  Admrilia ventured a peek through the desk drawers. “Your theory seems correct.” Her mouth thinned. “It seems the Legate of De-Anu fancied himself a skin trader.”

  “Princess Admrilia, are you up there?”

  “In here, advisor.”

  Khispen peered his head through the door. He covered his mouth in shock. “Oh, by the mercy of the stormlord.”

  “Well? The others?” Admrilia asked.

  Khispen looked visibly ill. “I’m so sorry princess. There must have been an epidemic of some kind. The whole regiment is dead.”

  It took everything within Admrilia not to scream.