A Tyrant, Sort Of

Sable finished the day up with some hunting, then returned to her hoard for a long night’s rest. Like usual, [Recuperate] did wonders for her health and mana. Not as much as she’d prefer, since her hoard was still so meager, but enough to put her above the half-way point in mana, and to mostly top off her health again.

With that safety net returned, Sable wanted to actually benefit from having taken over Skatikk. So far, the city had been hers in name only. Yesterday and the day before, she hadn’t wanted to demand a tribute because she figured letting their situation settle in was smarter, especially while injured.

But now that she had recovered, and some time had passed, it was time she claimed her spoils of war. She didn’t know if they’d received news of Gadenrock yet, but she didn’t know how long that would take to confirm or deny—how fast information traveled in this medieval society. And she needed quicker mana regeneration if she wanted to advance faster. A pallet of gold bars would do wonders toward that goal, seeing how [Recuperate] scaled with her riches.

Not that Skatikk would have pallets of gold, being a goblin city of a few thousand. The Red Plains weren’t lands of overabundance. But enough to matter? To boost her mana regeneration so she wasn’t so restricted? Sable suspected so.

Before leaving, she checked in on Granite. Fortunately, the golem seemed more than content standing guard all day, every day. To be fair, he was a pile of animated rocks. He’d even reverted to his natural state, the way Sable had first found him—masquerading at a bundle of debris. Amusingly, she could communicate with him while he was disguised in that way.

She and Aylin set off to Skatikk shortly afterward.

The city almost didn’t panic when Sable arrived, this time. It was, to be honest, a bit disappointing.

Battalion-Leader Alaniz fielded Sable. He was a sterner, harsher man than Chieftain Kirak, but easier to read. Sable preferred dealing with him. The weathered leader of this city seemed too keen for her to be fully comfortable around. She had no idea if he had accepted his fate or was plotting something, and that bothered her.

[The corpse of the hivemother,] Sable said. [Have you prepared it?]

“The mineral heart has been extracted and cleaned,” Alaniz said. “The carapace as well, but further preparation will take another day or more.”

[Mineral heart?]

Alaniz paused, then answered, “Orecrunchers eat rock and ore. Some of the byproduct forms a hardened, condensed ball of material inside them. And for one extracted from a hivemother …” Alaniz looked mildly amused. “We don’t have the tools to work with it, even if we wanted. Too dense. And it’s valuable; we assumed you would claim it.”

Sable sniffed, the answer to that obvious. She had had no idea there’d be such a resource to extract from the corpse, but now that she’d found out, of course she intended to add it to her collection.

She wondered whether heading back to the quarry and extracting the smaller mineral hearts would be wise, then. Each orecruncher had one of these ‘mineral hearts’? It seemed like an easy harvest.

[Continue to prepare the rest of the beast,] Sable said. [I’ll retrieve the parts I wish to keep at a later date. For now, take me to your treasury.]

Alaniz’s expression shifted. She wouldn’t call it displeasure, but something close. Obviously, he didn’t want his city being robbed—which was what this was, effectively. At the same time, he’d been expecting it. The leadership of Skatikk had undoubtedly been waiting for Sable to lay claim to a portion of their riches, and had discussed how they would handle it.

He gave a respectful, if not enthusiastic, bow. “Yes, Lady Sable.”

[And send for a method of transport,] Sable said. [Some means to secure the material in flight.]

Alaniz did so, sending a subordinate scurrying off with instructions.

He led them through the streets. Sable stayed tense during the trip. This was one of the few times she had landed into the city proper and walked around for an extended length of time. Most trips, she set Aylin down and used her to relay her words.

Sable was safer in the air, and without knowing how mutinous—or even powerful—the classed warriors of Skatikk were, she hadn’t wanted to take risks. But that wasn’t something she could avoid forever. Indeed, being too careful would have an opposite effect; it reduced how intimidated her opponents were of her.

“We received word of Gadenrock last night,” Alaniz said.

Sable almost stumbled, which also wouldn’t have been great for her image. Fortunately, she kept outwardly composed, continuing to trail down the streets, headed for Skatikk’s treasury.

[There is no Gadenrock,] she sneered.

Despite the facade of unconcern, Sable sweat bullets. Had they uncovered the truth of that situation, then, or had the news been vague enough to support her claims?

“Indeed,” Alaniz said. “For miles in each direction, only charred landscape remains. Reduced to ash by dragonfire.”

Sable said nothing.

Then, oddly, the conversation took a turn she hadn’t expected.

“My son died in a raid orchestrated by the Rustspike Tribe,” Alaniz said. “Led by Splint. A general of Gadenrock. I never expected such violent retribution to come to him.” The battalion leader’s lips pulled back into a look of grim satisfaction. “So, I wanted to give you my personal thanks. Though I wish I could have finished him myself, this is an … acceptable alternative.”

Again, Sable didn’t reply, but for a different reason, this time. She masqueraded the lack of response as haughtiness, as if not thinking the man’s words worth responding to, but in truth, she didn’t reply because she was caught off guard. Troubled, even. This man was glad she’d turned a city of thousands into ash? That so many innocents had been caught up in it?

She shouldn’t be surprised, though. These were violent, primitive peoples, for all Sable hadn’t experienced it first-hand. Even Aylin herself didn’t seem that bothered for having been enlisted by a tyrant. She didn’t seem eager to be burning down cities, but neither had she ever protested the idea too loudly. Had resigned herself to it. Even happily.

“Regardless,” Alaniz said. “If you’ve chosen the Bonecracker Tribe as your first territory, and taken off Rustspike’s head, what are your plans? Absorb Rustspike land into our own? With Gadenrock gone, near a hundred miles of territory has no leaders. The Stonegrins or Nightshades have surely received the news too, and are gathering their warbands.” He gave Sable a sideways look, questioning.

Right.

Somehow Sable hadn’t considered the power vacuum that would appear with the destruction of a major tribe’s capital. And seeing how she’d laid claim to Bonecracker territory, with obvious plans for more, the first conquest from a logical standpoint would be to annex Rustspike land into her first territory’s rule. With Sable at the head of the war effort, presumably.

Sable suspected that this discovery was a mitigating factor in the eyes of Bonecracker leadership when it came to her tyranny. Maybe the idea of a dragon at their head wasn’t pleasing, but now that they’d received news of Gadenrock, confirming Sable’s threats held weight, and also the opportunity to expand their claim to the Red Plains by seizing Rustspike territory—well, they saw the benefits in accepting her, too. Namely, avoiding destruction, and secondarily, their own fortunes increasing.

[The entirety of the Red Plains will be mine,] Sable said, half-answering his question. [Rustspike territory included.]

Alaniz nodded, seeming satisfied at the response—even if Sable hadn’t given anything of substance.

She would have to figure out her plans in concrete. How she intended to go about conquering Rustspike territory—presumably joining them to the Bonecrackers, since not only would that endear her first conquered tribe to her, but because without Gadenrock’s leaders being alive to bully into submission, those lands were mostly aimless. Hence why Alaniz had said several tribes would be vying for the lands.

And what did Sable plan to do about that? Fight back against them? Hopefully she could intimidate them into surrendering, but what if she couldn’t?

A fight was the obvious answer. But was Sable actually willing to put an end to those skirmishes and assert her dominance? She wouldn’t go on wholesale massacres, but if she planned on building an empire, violence would be necessary. It was a hard fact to digest, but she’d known it from the outset. There hadn’t been a kingdom built in history without some manner of blood.

And Sable could seek to minimize that—and she would—but eliminating it entirely? Not a chance. To some extent, she would have to fight.

How did she feel about that?

She wasn’t sure.

They arrived to the treasury. They had attracted a crowd as they ventured through the streets, with civilians hanging a safe distance away, but still visibly gawking at Sable. It was, to be honest, amusing how quickly their raw terror had traded for curiosity.

Reasonably, Sable was too large to fit inside the treasury itself. Alaniz had sent runners with instructions, so resources were already being lugged out of the fortified, well-guarded building and piled onto a thick canvas. Not the easiest way to transport her earnings, but not a terrible one, either.

Her eyebrows raised at the quantity of metal being stacked in neat rows at the center of the canvas. Obviously, the goblin city didn’t have a vault filled with gold bars, but they still had valuable resources: bronze, iron, copper, steel, and a small amount of silver and gold.

Along with that, bags of coins of varying denominations. Finally, other materials: a smattering of gemstones and jewelry, as well as weapons, armor, and other trinkets. The motley assembly of anything valuable enough to go stuffed into the city’s treasury.

It was more than Sable had expected, and growing by the moment as goblins streamed in and out, lugging more to the pile. The city had been well-prepared for this moment. Sable hadn’t even specified how much she wanted. Likely, the leadership had discussed beforehand what to give.

Did Sable press for more? That was what a dragon ought to do, right? But this was more than enough to please her, and she didn’t want to push her luck.

For several minutes, she watched the stack grow, the glinting metal strangely entrancing. It filled her with a burning, satisfied glow, seeing it. She delighted in the intoxicating display of so many valuables stacked on top of each other. Riches that were now hers.

She made sure to not get too distracted, though. Those draconic instincts could get her into hot water—especially because this felt like a prime time for an ambush, if that was what Skatikk had planned. But she didn’t think so, not with news of Gadenrock having reached them, and Alaniz implying that he expected Sable would help the Bonecracker Tribe absorb the Rustspikes. Still, she didn’t feel fully safe. She admired the increasing stack of riches, but stayed aware of her surroundings.

When the pile stopped growing, and Alaniz looked at her questioningly, Sable said, [It will do.] She was more than pleased at the resulting tribute, but outright saying so would be out of character. In fact, she tacked on, [For now.] Couldn’t let them get too comfortable.

The goblins arranged the canvas to envelop the pile of goods, wrapping it up for easier transport. It was a lot of weight, but the thick material, several layers deep, seemed like it would hold.

“Chieftain Kirak will want to speak strategy on the Rustspike front,” Alaniz said. “We of course make no demands. I say this simply to inform you.”

[I will return tomorrow,] Sable said. [Perhaps. I have other goals.] She sniffed. [We will see.]

Mostly, Sable needed to organize how she wanted to handle that mess in her own head. She could hardly face the leaders of Skatikk uncertain and without a plan.

Her task completed, Sable scooped up Aylin, and her hefty pile of loot, then took off.