Pharoah should be here
She spoke to the bear at her heel, ears swiveling side to side as she walked her way towards the Royal chambers. She gave a low call into the caves for the blonde furred man, taking a step into the shadow to wait there for him.
Maybe, while they were speaking, she could slip away to continue brooding idly. That would be nice.
merrick had followed the scarred woman to the tall red mountain. it was unlike anything he had seen before. the network of caves reminded the man of silvertip with a jarring and sickened feeling.
sabah let out a call for this pharaoh, and merrick recalled the desire to kill he had felt in her delicate presence.
it overtook him now as she fell into shadow, and his muscles tensed with an attempt to rein himself.
he had been called away from his bath.
dampened and scowling, pharaoh attended sabah's call with a small, open scowl upon his beautiful features. it was not until it became apparent the guard was not alone that ramesses' attention sharpened.
her companion was malevolently hideous, with patches of scarring and toothmarks around the empty seat of one eye. more than a fighter or fellahin.
pharaoh set his expectant gaze upon sabah. "who have you brought to akashingo, guard?"
Nephele wanted to twitch at the words, but Sabah would not. She merely inclined her head to indicate Merrick, before swiftly dipping it in a bow.
Merrick, of Ursus, Pharoah. He seeks the white woman who harmed Maggie, I believe.
Nephele chewed on her cheek. She hoped she’d done right, she hoped she’d done good.
the bearwolf watched the man who arrived. they were cold, the both of them, but where merrick was deadened flesh with magmic anger beneath, the other wore an aloof beauty.
"i am told that we have a common enemy. ursus was once the ally of kynareth and nyra. she maimed my son and we demanded her head in recompense."
the man stepped forward. "ursus chose a new place and still she came to end my mate. the mother of my children. we are few. they are many. and yet i will go all the same."
ramesses listened.
an old score to be settled. merrick of ursus, an ugly warrior come to seek his vengeance.
"sabah, i will take our guest to my chambers. have food brought to us."
ramesses saw no reason to entertain strategems in the narrow corridor, and so he would not. instead the man only turned and began to pad back down the stoneway. "we have a soldier among us who claims the saints have left their strath to pursue you elsewhere."
Nephele dipped her head.
Yes, your Grace.
Anything to escape…whatever this was. She turned with a snapped tail, her version of a salute, before she marched out of the tunnels, releasing a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
She’d get the food.
Will be back in 2 rounds
sabah had called.
pharaoh left the bath swiftly, leaving a trail of drippings.
before long there were voices in the corridor but satsu could not discern what was spoken, only that there were words at all. a shape moved by the doorway and a gust of air slipped sabah's scent to her.
satsu rose, shook the water from her thin shoulders and tidied herself, then slunk from the doorway to the hall.
a dark shape followed pharaoh in the direction of his chambers; she danced along to follow, drawing upon the archway as the large stranger moved through it and saw her betrothed with a scarred, one-eyed man.
"i know nothing of this strath. i only know a canyon."
merrick did not like to be ordered about. but he followed all the same. the noble lines of pharaoh's back compelled his teeth; he swallowed back his saliva and came along.
the grey woman had been dismissed. another wolfess followed noiselessly. merrick's skin prickled beneath his pelt.
pharaoh settled comfortably among the skins and stones laid out in a throne. his second throne, as his first was out-of-doors. here, however, in the high archway of the cave, he could see more clearly the hideousness of their guest.
and yet ramesses was delighted.
satsu's bath-brushed presence did not go unnoticed. before he spoke again to this merrick, pharaoh invited his betrothed to step forward, to take her place at his side as queen and equal of akashingo.
"she threatened me and all but killed one of my own. i shall be happy to see her gone." ramesses gestured for merrick to sit.
as soundlessly as she could, satsu moved around the men and settled alongside ramesses. she did not like being noticed; she particularly did not like the look of this scarred man, but was quick enough to settle, and did not feel his eye upon her. maybe he was of the mind that the men would talk now, and the woman would be silent and obedient.
lucky, then, that satsu did not know what else to do but wait and listen.
what ramesses said sparked familiarity within her.
they spoke of nyra - but who was nyra to this man?
was nyra the one to take his eye?
"ursus was once the ally to the saints." and he had been kynareth's lover.
merrick lowered himself in a sinewy, guarded motion. he feared nothing, but remained observant. the woman who had followed behind now slid into a position beside the pharaoh.
merrick did not wonder why the bear had placed him in such a place.
"they are many. but it does not matter. they have taken my love from me."'
the tattered lips trembled. merrick was gripped with a tremour of rage and pain, and leant into the blinding anguish of it.
"i did not come here for help. i came here to order that you let ursus pass. that the bear has ordered us to war."
romantic, perhaps. ramesses watched with a condescending disgust as the ragged and stinking man displayed a deep sorrow. however, with great credit to himself, pharaoh did not sneer.
the thought of being commanded, however, provoked a great and audible scoff from ramesses. he leant forward, the lazuli of his eyes hardening into twin plaques.
"i answer to no gods but my own, merrick of ursus."
he sat back in the next, rearranging long limbs against the stone. "i do not wish to move to war. let them come to us."
he glanced to satsu. "queen ascendant of akashingo. i would invite you to share your mind."
nothing now in ramesses of the ardent, lashing, angered man he had been during their ill-fated bath.
what the man said, and felt, and showed to them, made satsu look carefully upon pharaoh for a moment and away from the one-eyed man. he had lost his wife; she could relate to his hurt, and perhaps her weaker heart was to be the downfall of akashingo, for she heard the laughter of pharaoh and grew cold.
akashingo had been promised to the saints as their outpost. to use it against them might be foolish, but it also seemed a better choice than to sit and wait for nyra's forces.
we should let them in.
her opinion opposed ramesses own and he would not take kindly to how openly she spoke, but satsu had to trust that she was truly equal to him, and that her opinion did matter.
we are small and without many warriors, but we anticipate that nyra will come to us again. if you bring your own warriors here, we will feed and care for you, and offer whatever we can to strengthen your people.
satsu watched the one-eyed man carefully.
nyra will not know you lay in wait for her here.
that surprise could change their fate.
Nephele returned in the middle of the talks, carrying two rabbits in her jaws with another slung over her shoulders. With nary a word, she piled them at Pharoah’s side, nodded to the three in the room, and turned to march back out.
She wasn’t built for strategy meetings anyway.
Exit unless stopped
the pharaoh did not like his words. there was but one god, and it was the bear of ursus.
merrick watched each movement of the man and the woman at his side. the warm and sweet scent of rabbit's-blood suddenly filled the air, cloying. hunger and desperation for the steadied taste of crimson in his mouth once more.
the queen spoke. queen. a place of royalty. why had he been led here? she spoke kindly to merrick but he felt his pride surge and writhe.
he did not wait for a rabbit. merrick grabbed one and devoured it in a flurry of blood before the pair.
"the bear has not led me to lie in wait. i have been led to put nyra and all her people to the sword."
he cracked the bones now, one by one.
of course he disagreed. satsu had too great a heart. this man was a zealot, a maddened prophet who raved of bears and war. he would jeopardize akashingo with his addled mind.
but pharaoh did not say this. "before you make war, rest here. as she says, we will give you hospitality. why rush to battle when here there are soldiers and their tactics to be given?"
ramesses eyed the unnecessary mess upon the floor of his chambers but did not react. "you have children among ursus?" the man was a father, but pharaoh could not abide brats.
sabah returned with three hares, then departed. the man grabbed for one and soon the floor was streaked with red, splattered with entrails, as if he were a haruspex discerning a choice within his dinner. it turned her stomach to see.
though satsu's charity was clear, the man refused it. she could not fault him for that - to have lost someone so beloved such as a wife, he was an angry man, and he had no reason to accept. it was clear he was more of a barbarian than anything.
satsu remained silent, listening to bones crack.
they judged him. but merrick was beyond caring. he sat back upon his heels and tilted chin up and back until he was staring at the arch of redrock high above them.
"all that remain of my children. my eldest son. my eldest daughter." children no longer. the scoured blood of ursus ran in their veins, and they would carry it regardless of what might befall their father.
merrick inhaled. "i know where the saints live. i will not wish to wait. how swiftly are you and your wolves able to move?" all singular focus upon this one thing and certain event.
pain gathered inside his spirit, and merrick spun it into the steel chains of wrath.
a madman. and satsu had wanted to give him respite here. it held a grim outlook if all of ursus acted in the same way.
but ramesses was not so foolish as to ignore that they shared an enemy in the saints. the reason for each was rather different, yet he saw nothing in remaining at odds with the bear-worshipper.
"you have been offered food and comfort. take it. create your plans tomorrow."
his voice hung with the tones of an order, a reflected command to answer the first one that had been given.
ramesses sounds sharp with his demand. the dark wolf, cleaning his teeth of rabbit blood now, did not appear to be willing to listen. satsu worried this would push yet another han in to poor standing with them; likewise, bring danger to their door. she should not have offered him anything - this she knew now, this she regretted.
we have few we can spare. our time is spent caring for our injured. we do not seek the saints out - they will come to us, there is no doubt. but we would help one another if you stayed; if you brought your warriors here and made camp, in that time we might have more to spare.
she hoped this would temper the man but somehow - given his display and his strangeness overall - the ascendant doubted her words would be enough.
we wait for the return of one warrior who may bring others,
she spoke of germanicus but did not name him, letting the lie sit thinly on her tongue, as he had already returned and had not been tasked to recruit anyone - but it might have been enough to satiate the bear-man.
then she silenced. it was enough talk - she would not beg him to stay if he was unwilling, but there was a new hardness to satsu. if he left to fight the saints now, he would go alone, and surely perish.
politics. empty words.
the bear roared in merrick's mind.
the image of astara's torn body clawed at the maddened, foaming psyche.
"i will sleep outside," the bearwolf declared. this place beneath the earth was too weighty now; he yearned for the stars and the open air. "i will tell the others to do the same."
he meant to dismiss himself, and wheeled toward the entrance, determined to carve his way back to the skies.
he scarcely heard them, this wild king of bears. in the next merrick was lurching away. ramesses let out a sharp call for sabah to lead their guest into the earth of akashingo.
when the man had gone, pharaoh dared to turn his eyes upon satsu. "you succeeded." he meant to praise her, but pharaoh did not know an apology. and neither did he think he was expected to grant one.
in his mind, many things had been learned this day. he watched satsu for a long moment with a flick of his gold-dust brow.
one the man had departed, the air grew stale with the smear of blood upon the earth.
satsu heard her intended speak, turning an ear to his voice. she was staring at the blood and mess strewn about the place and felt the twisting of her stomach.
i will tell jawahir we may expect more guests,
she said as she rose, stepping gingerly around the pile of snapped bones and torn skin, to leave pharaoh with it.
to aid ursus now seemed a bold choice.