One hundred and ninety miles south of the Killing Fields of the Lepus Bellator.
One hundred and fifty miles north of Kontia.
Delilah of the Pomi, Warrior of the Lepus.
The Tanaoi were strange, often stranger than even other races that would war and trade with the Lepus. That came into sharp focus as I led a handful of surviving warriors of my tribe though the expansive Tanaoi encampment. The deviance of the Tanaoi had come about when their current queen, one Tanya the Kinslayer of the Tanaoi, had come to power.
The Tanaoi became isolated from the other tribes, and had refused summons from High Queen Tyuule when the Empire had attacked. Perhaps they had hoped that the Empire would spare them if they did not resist the humans. But the Empire came for the Tanaoi regardless and demanded that they surrender. In turn the Tanaoi had burned their settlements to the ground and marched south, away from Zorzol's Imperial forces.
It was galling honestly, that I was forced to seek out cowards and traitors such as the Tanaoi. But they were the last Tribe left. Everyone else was scattered, enslaved or dead.
I could see it now and then, wounded Lepus from dozens of tribes being tended to by the Tanaoi. Women in combat barding wandered like ghosts though the encampment, without a home, without a people, while the Tanaoi moved with purpose.
I steeled myself, for I had a purpose too.
We were led through the encampment by a short Tanaoi noble, a short and petite woman standing at just over six foot, clad in Imperial armour likely looted from some Human noble. The enchantments woven into Imperial armour and clothes had been ones of the ways the Empire had been able to fight against Lepus warriors. If anyone would take that power for themselves it would be the Tanaoi.
Wagons, tents and small improvised shelters were arrayed in neat rows tended to by nobles loyal to the Tanaoi queen. Animal slaughter, defecation and the disposal of waste was carefully controlled and managed. The Tanaoi even had human and goblin slaves collecting urine and nightsoil, carrying such waste to specifically allocated areas.
It was an orderly tent city that would be ripped up tomorrow and the almost forty thousand people would be driven to march for three days before they would be permitted to set up another tent city like this again and given a chance to rest.
It was a gruelling pace set by the Warriors of the Tanaoi, but with the Imperial army at our heels I understood the need for haste.
Eventually we were led to a large tent guarded by half a dozen fighting women. A greying human in a toga standing by the entrance as we approached.
"Greetings to you, Warriors of the Pomi. My Queen is eager to meet with you." I sneered at the human slave and moved to push past him only for one of the Tanaoi warriors to step forward to meet my advance. "I must beg your forgiveness, but weapons must be surrendered to us before you are granted an audience with her Majesty." The Human bowed his head as I sized up the woman barring my path.
"No sense arguing with him. Cato won't budge until he gets his way." The short Tanaoi noble laughed as I shot her a glare.
"You mean to ask me to submit to a human?!" I snapped.
"I would not dare to ask that of you my lady." Cato kept his head low as he spoke. "Consider me little more than an instrument of Her Majesty. It is her will that I voice, not my own."
I looked about but the Tanaoi seemed content to simply stare. After a moment I untied my belt and handed the slave my sword, with a glance behind me the remaining warriors of the Pomi likewise surrendered their blades and the guards stood aside.
I pushed into the tent ready to join a war council. The last fighting women of the Lepus plotting a glorious battle wherein we might crush the Imperials in the field and regain our honour. I was instead met with a startlingly quiet room save for the soft scribbling of quill on Velum and hushed voices.
We were not alone with the queen, who sat at a simple looking desk between us and the unmistakable form of scantly clad men arrayed about the tent on soft pillows, looking up from various game sets and books, their quiet conversations halted by our entrance. Men, males, Lepus males. I felt my face flush. This must have been the harem of the Tanaoi Queen scandalously arrayed for anyone visiting her to gawk at.
I was startled by my companions entering the tent with me, the sound of them pushing open the cloth door muffled to an unnatural degree as I took note that none of the sounds of habitation that rang out by necessity across a camp of this size reached the humble tent of the Queen of the Tanaoi. Putting aside the casual display of her bedmates, and the jealousy at just how many Lepus men she had at her beck and call. I steeled myself to address the Queen of the Tanaoi.
"Name." Came the disinterested tone of Tanya the kinslayer before I could address her first. Her pale blue eyes flicked up from whatever she was writing and her yellow ears turned towards us.
"I am Delilah, Berserker of the Pomi and these are my companions. Survivors of the Imperial invasion." I swallowed, feeling her gaze pass over me. The conviction of my mission, my purpose in life seemed dulled with her unspoken judgement. I put the males whispering to each other at my words out of my mind as the Queen nodded to herself.
"You will report to Brigadier Enya. She is in charge of the integration of other tribes into our military. You will be guaranteed a place to sleep, wine, grain and one pound of meat a day as well as an even share of one tenth of any loot your Company acquires." With that she looked back to her writing and continued.
"W-what? Company? I-" I stuttered shamefully, causing the Queen of the Tanaoi to sigh and set aside her quill.
"You and the people with you will be placed within a Company of soldiers made up of other Lepus warriors, the details will be explained to you by your new comrades, Is there anything else?" She asked impatiently.
"I was a member of Tyuuls honour guard. I was there when she betrayed us! I know... I know what the Imperials are doing!" I took a step forward. "I swore that I would kill her for her treason, I swore that I would beat back the Imperials, kill every last one of them!" I felt my heart quicken as I gave voice to the pain, the hate that had allowed me to travel day and night for hundreds of miles.
"You're not the first to join us Delilah." Tanya said with something that could be described as pity. "I am well aware of Imperial activities and when you are situated with your Company your Commander will be debriefed in case you have any valuable information that can aid in the war effort." She paused for a moment as if thinking about something. "A debriefing will involve you reporting any information you have to your commander. Now unless there is something else you are dismissed." I glanced back at my sisters at arms who seemed as bewildered as I was.
"Why did you have us come to you if you just want to dismiss us?" I asked, genuinely baffled.
"A security measure, nothing more. Now." She nodded towards the entrance to the tent and picked up her quill.
A part of me wanted to challenge her, to shout and scream and make her understand what I had suffered, what we had suffered. But instead I paused a moment and then awkwardly we all turned to leave.
Pushing through the tent flap it was as if the entire world started moving again, I was bombarded by the sounds and smells of the colossal camp but that was almost welcome in comparison to the deadly stillness of the Queen's Tent.
"Took you long enough." The short Tanaoi noble huffed as we stumbled out into the light. "Looks like you can have these back!" She thrust my sword back into my arms and I felt somewhat light headed as I secured the weapon to my hip once more.
"I was told to report to Brigadier Enya." I said, earning a knowing look from the smug human slave as the Tanaoi noble laughed.
"Well I consider myself reported to! Honestly, I can hardly understand that girl. We never did raise her to be so stiff about things. I have some rounds to make and I need bodies to lug powder so the lot of you can follow me for now." With that she turned about on her heel and marched into the camp, without any alternative I quickly moved to match step with her.
"Glad you lot are clean, expected you to be. Told her majesty she was just being paranoid, they can put a Geis on a goblin perhaps but not one of us! Right?"
"A Geis?" I asked.
"It's a kind of spell." Enya replied. "Sorta like an obligation. Imperials love that sort of magic, they get some weak minded fool and put an obligation on them and they can't help but carry out the orders they were given."
"They can do that to us?" I felt my blood cool at the thought of my people in bondage, I could not bear to imagine the Empire using my own people against us.
"I reckon not, but if it's possible then we have to plan around it." As if the chilling implications of such magic meant nothing to her Enya let out an excited shout and hopped over to a tired looking Human with a shaved head. She had led us close to the latines if the smell was anything to go by.
"Slower than expected." The human replied to Enya, I had missed what she had asked with how difficult it was to keep up with the excitable Tanaoi commander.
"But you have some prepared?" Enya asked as the slave nodded.
"We have, less than Her Majesty would like but it is difficult to make as we travel, we have a lot that needs to ferment but we won't have time for that." He fought back a yawn before nodding to a small tent some distance from the other tents and structures located on a small hill. "I can't let you take more than two sacks and I will need your stamp on it." He held out a block of wood with several marks on it and Enya produced a small wooden cylinder and a box. She glanced over to me before waving me over.
"Hold this." She ordered and I found myself holding a small box with a lump of... black inside of it. Enya then poured some water onto the piece of black and rubbed the end of the wooden cylinder onto the wet black thing. A few moments later she turned and pressed the wooden cylinder against the wood before turning back to the box, performing the same motions and pressing the cylinder against the wood again.
"Alright." The human checked the wood over before putting it inside of his pocket. "Again two sacks, we have a quota to meet for Kontia." Enya and the bald slave made their way to the tent, we were told to wait outside and shortly thereafter Enya came out with a pair of sacks and dumped it into my arms.
"Don't we have slaves for this." I asked pointedly.
"You have to get used to hard labour. Her Majesty has commanded that the Lepus are to perform any heavy lifting in the place of slaves. Owing to the fact that if too many slaves are worn out then they will be too tired to march south. We need at least thirty miles a day out of them, nothing for us but for humans or goblins? They look dead on their feet." I glanced over at the bald slave who gave me a shrug before walking off.
"Where are we taking this?" I asked, testing the weight of the sacks. "What is this, flour?" glancing behind me as my companions all kept enough distance that passing the sacks over to them would be awkward.
"It's not flour no, don't worry your company won't be using it. We will drop the bags off at our brigade's quartermaster tent while we pick up your rations. Oh and keep that back away from any flames."
"Brigade?" I asked as we began to move though the encampment again. Once more unbalanced at how rapidly everything was going. The Tanaoi seemed to be in constant motion even as they were resting for the journey ahead. With all the writing and reporting, it looked more like an Imperial encampment than the war councils of the Pomi I was used to.
"It's what we call... an army I suppose? You have around one hundred women in a company, and several companies together make a brigade. I am in charge of the brigade. It's just how we do things around here. You'll get used to it." She slapped me on the arm with a grin as I gave her a sceptical look.
"There are plenty of slaves about." I muttered, watching as two goblins walked past us with rags over their noses and buckets with yellowed water in their hands.
"Not all of them are slaves, and some of them are even useful!" Enya let out a laugh before pointing to a centaur resting in the sun.
"See the brass Torcs they have? You see a human, or goblin or whatever with one. Don't bother them. If you beat them or prevent them from working you will get flogged. If you think they are being disrespectful or doing something wrong tell your commander don't sort it out yourself." She gave me a pointed look as I shared an incredulous glance with Griine and Parna. The rest of my companions looked too exhausted to keep up with the conversation, just trudging along behind us.
"Can I give my girls a moment to rest after this?" I asked Enya, she glanced back at my companions and nodded.
"We have beds ready for them. Anyone who feels up to it can enjoy plenty of wine tonight. But be aware that you will be woken up at daybreak. My brigade gets the honour of serving as the vanguard and we are expected to begin the siege of Kontia as soon as we arrive."
"The City? Were not bypassing it? The Imperial army is only a few days to our north, they are marching day and night to catch us."
"That's why we will march to Kontia and begin the siege in three days. That gives us plenty of time to rest and get ready for the Humans to arrive." Three days?! I stared dumbfounded at Enya as she offered me a smug smile.
"Lucky you, joining the vanguard on your first day! Don't worry, we won't be storming the place." She said, "As for the pace, you'll get used to it, better make sure your girls get some rest tonight." I was beginning to wonder if joining the Tanaoi was the best idea after all.