Chapter X

The man known as Lucio was of Subra descent, though his family had lived in the city-states west of Arx for hundreds of years. His mother was an alchemist and physician named Florizel, and his father a mercenary leader by the name of Antipholus. Antipholus taught Lucio everything he knew about archery, tactics, business, and even had him traveling with his mercenary troop, the Savages, from the age of fourteen. Florizel taught Lucio what she knew about alchemy, specifically how to brew poisons, and how to get poisons from snakes, spiders, mushrooms, and many other sources.

As the years went by and Antipholus was getting older, the Savages looked to Lucio for their leadership and their orders more and more, especially since he could follow them in more field missions than his father could. When Antipholus died Lucio was made the leader of the Savages, and they took on whatever contracts he approved.

In the many western city-states there were always opportunities available for any mercenary troop. Sometimes the city-states would fight each other over farmland or trade rights. Often times the noble families of various city-states would feud with one another and hire mercenaries to fight for them. Most lucrative of all, there were always slave uprisings for the Savages to put down.

Yes, nearly all of the western city-states practiced slavery, though some boldly said they didn't “practice it,” they “did it very well.” Slaves were brought in from all over the world, even kidnapped from Arx, Sabura, Subra, Shadia, and Nihilus. Some families in the city-states would even sell their own family members into slavery in order to settle debts, and criminals sentenced to life imprisonment could elect to become slaves instead, so long as their crimes were not too violent in nature. There was a limit, though, of how many generations could stay slaves, the grandchild of a man or woman who was the first in the bloodline to become a slave was born free, so those born slaves could hope for better futures for their children. Still, in spite of this “kindness,” slaves would often lead revolts and try to throw off their oppressors, and mercenary groups, such as the Savages, were called in to quell these rebellions. One such rebellion, many years ago, was fabled to have been led by a man named Jezriel, another dark-skinned man from Subra, like Lucio. However, few claimed to have actually seen him, so it was possible that he was just a name. A fictional leader, meant to inspire the rebel slaves and make them feel like they had an organized rebellion rather than a bunch of angry, doomed fools waving their fists.

Countless times Lucio and the Savages came upon rebel camps in the middle of the night, encircled the camps, and rained burning arrows down on them. His horsemen rode in to cut down all those who ran. Rebel forces rarely stood a chance, for they were ill-equipped and barely made up the difference with numbers and resolve. On a monthly basis, almost, Lucio would teach slave rebels from various city-states that heart did not win battles. Ideals and aspirations of freedom didn't make men strong.

he was a tall man, with dark skin and short hair, with a receding hair-line and pronounced widow's peak. His face was pretty well square, an angled jaw and chin, but coupled with a constant smile, as if he was always thinking of some humorous story a friend had told him, or perhaps thinking of how humorous it would be to tell someone later what was going on at that exact moment. Of course, this stood in contrast to the tattoos on his face, which were blue stripes around the area of his eyes, like those of a tiger, meant to make him look more fierce on the battlefield. All of the Savages had similar face tattoos. He lived on the road, for the most part, though he owned houses in various city-states and had wives in many of them. However, they rarely saw much of the money he earned from mercenary work, because he was constantly gambling with dice or cards.

While he was staying at his apartment in the city-state of Natal with his third wife, Ilaria, Lucio received a letter from the Grand Duke of Arx.

“Dear, this letter's addressed to you,” Ilaria said, walking out onto the balcony with him with the envelope in hand. The apartment he owned was on the fifth floor of the building. It had a long flight of stairs to climb, but it also had a great view of the city from the balcony. He could see the rooftops of most of the houses and buildings throughout the city-state, and could even see both the Agalmite church's steeple and the temple of Calixte, the goddess of beauty.

“A letter to me?” Lucio asked. “I must say, whomever sent it is lucky I'm actually here.” Lucio kissed Ilaria as he took the envelope and collapsed back into his lounge chair. From the wax seal he knew that the letter was from the Grand Duke of Arx. Rarely did Lucio have any dealings with anyone from the nation of Arx, so he had to wonder how he'd caught their attention, especially from someone of such importance as the Grand Duke. He ripped open the envelope and read the contents.

“To Signor Lucio, son of Antipholus,

“The kingdom of Arx stands on the brink of war with its neighboring nation, Nihilus, and as the head of the military I am tasked with raising a force large enough to fight them off. My knights are likely enough to fight off the fiends, but I would like to expand my forces to include many mercenary troops as well.

“I admit that I wasn't sure which of your many homes you would be staying at, so I simply had letters sent out to every one of your homes to make sure you got this message as soon as possible.

“I have heard of you, Signor Lucio, and your reputation, and I believe your efficiency as a warrior, as well as the efficiency of the Savages, would supplement our military greatly. I am prepared to offer you a large salary in exchange for your services. Please meet me in the kingdom of Arx as soon as possible. Enclosed is a map to my fortress, where we can discuss terms of employment.

“Blessings on you and yours,

“Eyal, Grand Duke of Arx”

Lucio laughed, and handed the letter back to Ilaria, allowing her to read it. “he may as well have finished the letter with 'P.S.: I'm the Grand Duke.'”

“So, I take it you'll be going to Arx?”

“How could I not? War provides so many great opportunities! The money I could make there could set me up for life!”

“If you don't gamble it all away,” Ilaria pointed out. “Seriously, I expected at least SOME support when I married you, yet I've had to find work delivering messages for the city magistrates just to get by.”

“Nag nag nag...” Lucio said, rolling his eyes. “Message received, I'll work on my little problem.”

Ilaria knew this was a hollow promise. She knew all about his gambling problem, and the sorts of things he did for a living, but had no idea that he had other wives in other city-states. That would certainly be one offense too many, even for a woman as patient as she was. “If you're going to Arx you'll be away a long time.”

“Yeah, Ilaria, I'm being hired to fight in a war, not put down a slave rebellion. Wars have a tendency to last a few years, and this one hasn't even really started yet.”

“Will you take me with you?”

Admittedly Lucio was somewhat tempted to take her along. While his comrades in the Savages could be good company when they were in a good mood they were no substitute for the company of a beautiful woman who thought she was his whole world. On the other hand, though, he'd refused to take many of his other wives along with him on his adventures for various reasons, mostly that he didn't want them finding out about one another. Since the Savages certainly knew about his polygamy having his wives around them increased the odds of them finding out about each other.

“That sounds like fun!” Lucio said. “You'll love it, Ilaria! After a battle I'll come back to our tent, you can wash the blood off my back, and we can make love in a bedroll on the hard ground while all the other mercenaries listen in, maybe even cheer us on. And what's more, you might even get to see a battle first-hand! Watch as I put arrows through the eyes of my enemies, cut their throats with my knife, and, if you're lucky, the battle will get out of hand and maybe you can fight in it too!”

Ilaria pouted. “You know, you could just say 'no, it's too dangerous,' or 'no, I don't want you along.'”

“But what fun would that be?” Lucio asked, smugly.

“Fine! Go fight in the bloody war. Just promise you'll come back alive.”

“Don't I always?” Lucio said as he stroked the skin of her forearm.

“Don't do that,” Ilaria said and jerked her arm away.

“What?”

“Don't get all frisky just after making fun of me. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. You don't get to mock me and then make love to me in the same hour.”

“So wait an hour and try again?” Lucio asked, raising and eyebrow.

“You're hopeless!”

Lucio laughed. “Hey, those were your words, not mine.”

Ilaria stormed back into the apartment. She could not be angrier at Lucio than she was at that moment, at least, that's what she thought. At the same time with how angry she was she couldn't help but feel salacious, in part because of how frustrating he was, and because deep down she did find his quick wit funny, even titillating. Sure enough, and hour later Lucio approached her again, his tone much kinder and more seductive, and this time she quickly gave in to his seduction.