Lucious swung his blade overhand, exulting in the way it glinted in the dawn light, in the instant before he cut down the old man who had dared to get in his way. Around him, more commoners fell at the hands of his men: the ones who dared to resist, and any stupid enough to simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He smiled as the screams echoed around him. He liked it when the peasants tried to fight, because it just gave his men an excuse to show them how weak they really were compared to their betters. How many had he killed now in raids like this? He hadn't bothered to keep count. Why should he save the least speck of attention for their kind?
Lucious looked around as peasants started to run, and gestured to a few of his men. They set off after them. Running was almost better than fighting, because there was a challenge to hunting them like the prey they were.
"Your horse, your highness?" one of the men asked, leading Lucious's stallion.
Lucious shook his head. "My bow, I think."
The man nodded and passed Lucious an elegant recurve bow of white ash, mixed with horn and set with silver. He nocked an arrow, drew back the string, and let it fly. Away in the distance, one of the running peasants went down.
There were no more to fight, but that didn't mean they were done here. Not by a long way. Hiding peasants, he'd found, could be as amusing as running or fighting ones in their way. There were so many different ways to torture the ones who looked as though they had gold, and so many ways to execute the ones who might have rebel sympathies. The burning wheel, the gibbet, the noose…what would it be today?
Lucious gestured to a couple of his men to start kicking open doors. Occasionally, he liked to burn out those who hid, but houses were more valuable than peasants. A woman came running out, and Lucious caught her, throwing her casually in the direction of one of the slavers who had taken to following him around like gulls after a fishing vessel.
He stalked into the village's temple. The priest was already on the ground, holding a broken nose, while Lucious's men gathered gold and silver ornaments into a sack. A woman in the robes of a priestess stood to confront him. Lucious noted a flicker of blonde hair straying from under her cowl, a certain fine-featured resemblance that made him pause.
"You can't do this," the woman insisted. "We are a temple!"
Lucious grabbed her, pulling away the hood of her robes to look at her. She wasn't the double of Stephania-no lower-born woman could manage that-but she was close enough to be worth keeping for a while. At least until he got bored.
"I have been sent by your king," Lucious said. "Do not try to tell me what I cannot do!"
Too many people had tried that in his life. They'd tried to put limits on him, when he was the one person in the Empire on whom there should be no limits. His parents tried, but he would be king one day. He would be king, whatever he'd found in the library when old Cosmas thought he was too stupid to understand it. Thanos would learn his place.
Lucious's hand tightened in the hair of the priestess. Stephania would learn her place as well. How dare she marry Thanos like that, as if he were the prince to be desired? No, Lucious would find a way to make that right. He would split Thanos and Stephania as easily as he split open the heads of those who came at him. He would claim Stephania in marriage, both because she was Thanos's and because she would make the perfect ornament for someone of his rank. He would enjoy that, and until then, the priestess he'd grabbed would make a suitable substitute.
He tossed her to one of his men to watch, and set out to see what other amusements he could find in the village. As he got outside, he saw two of his men tying one of the villagers who'd run to a tree, arms spread wide.
"Why have you let this one live?" Lucious demanded.
One of them smiled. "Tor here was telling me about something the northerners do. They call it the Blood Eagle."
Lucious liked the sound of that. He was about to ask what it involved when he heard the shout of one of the lookouts, there to watch for rebels. Lucious looked around, but instead of an approaching horde of common scum, he saw a single figure riding on a mount easily the size of his own. Lucious recognized the armor instantly.
"Thanos," he said. He snapped his fingers. "Well, it looks as though today is about to get more interesting than I thought. Bring me my bow again."
***
Thanos spurred his horse forward as he saw Lucious and what his half-brother was doing. Any lingering doubts he'd had about leaving Stephania behind burned away in the heat of his anger as he saw the dead peasants, the slavers, the man tied to the tree.
He saw Lucious step out and raise a bow. For a moment, Thanos couldn't believe that he would do it, but why not? Lucious had tried to kill him before.
He saw the arrow fly out from the bow and raised his shield just in time. The head struck the metal facing of his shield before clattering off. A second arrow followed, and this time it punched through, stopping only inches from Thanos's face.
Thanos forced his horse to a charge as a third arrow whizzed past him. He saw Lucious and his men diving out of the way as he careened through the spot where they'd been standing. He wheeled and drew his sword, just as Lucious regained his feet.
"Thanos, so fast. Anyone would think you were eager to see me."
Thanos leveled his sword at Lucious's heart. "This stops now, Lucious. I won't let you kill any more of our people."
"Our people?" Lucious countered. "They are my people, Thanos. Mine to do what I wish with. Allow me to demonstrate."
Thanos saw him draw his sword and start toward the man tied to the tree. Thanos realized what his half-brother was going to do and set his horse in motion once more.
"Stop him," Lucious commanded.
His men leapt to obey. One stepped toward Thanos, jabbing a spear up toward his face. Thanos deflected it with his shield, hacking the head from the weapon with his blade and then kicking out to send the man sprawling. He stabbed down as another ran at him, thrusting down through the shoulder of the man's mail and drawing his blade out again.
He forced himself forward, through the press of opponents. Lucious was still advancing on the victim he'd chosen. Thanos swung his sword down at one of Lucious's thugs and hurried forward as Lucious drew his own blade back. Thanos barely managed to interject his shield as the blow came in a ring of metal on metal.
Lucious grabbed his shield.
"You're predictable, Thanos," he said. "Compassion was always your weakness."
He pulled, hard enough that Thanos found himself yanked from the saddle. He rolled in time to avoid a sword blow, and pulled his arm free from the straps of his shield. He took a two-handed grip on his sword as Lucious's men closed in again. He saw his horse run clear, but that meant that now he didn't have the advantage of height.
"Kill him," Lucious said. "We'll blame it on the rebels."
"You're good at trying that, aren't you?" Thanos shot back. "It's a pity you aren't any good at finishing the job."
One of Lucious's men rushed him then, swinging a spiked mace. Thanos stepped inside the arc of the blow, cutting diagonally, then spinning away with his sword extended to keep the others at bay.
They came in quickly then, as if knowing that none of them could hope to defeat Thanos one on one. Thanos gave ground, putting his back against the wall of the nearest house so that his opponents couldn't surround him. There were three men near him now, one with an axe, one with a short sword, and one with a curved blade like a sickle.
Thanos kept his sword close, watching them, not wanting to give any of the mercenaries a chance to tangle the blade long enough for the others to slip in.
The one on Thanos's right tried a thrust with his short sword. Thanos partly parried it, feeling it clatter off his armor. Some instinct made him spin and drop, just in time for the left-hand man's axe to pass overhead. Thanos slashed at ankle height to bring the thug down, then reversed his blade and thrust backward, hearing a cry as the first man ran in.
The one with the curved blade attacked more cautiously.
"Attack him! Kill him!" Lucious demanded, obviously impatient. "Oh, I'll do it myself!"
Thanos parried as the prince joined the fight. He doubted that Lucious would have done it if there hadn't been another man there to help him, and maybe there would be more on the way. Really, all Lucious had to do was delay things, and Thanos might find himself overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
So Thanos didn't wait. Instead, he attacked. He threw blow after blow, alternating between Lucious and the thug Lucious had brought with him, building the rhythm of it. Then, suddenly, he paused. The sickle wielder parried empty air. Thanos cut into the gap, and the man's head went flying.
He was on Lucious in an instant, binding blade to blade. Lucious kicked out at him, but Thanos swayed aside from the blow, reaching over the guard of Lucious's sword to get one hand onto the pommel. Thanos yanked upward and wrenched the blade from Lucious's hands, then struck sideways. His blade clanged from Lucious's breastplate. Lucious drew a dagger and Thanos changed his grip on his blade, swinging low with the hilt end so that the cross-guard hooked around Lucious's knee.
He pulled and Lucious went down. Thanos kicked the dagger from his hand with crunching force.
"Tell me again how compassion is my weakness," Thanos said, lifting the point of his sword over Lucious's throat.
"You wouldn't," Lucious said. "You're just trying to frighten me."
"Frighten you?" Thanos said. "If I thought frightening you would work, I'd have scared you half to death years ago. No, I'm going to end this."
"End it?" Lucious said. "This doesn't end, Thanos. Not until I've won."
"You'd be waiting a long time for that," Thanos assured him.
He raised the sword. He had to do this. Lucious had to be stopped.
"Thanos!"
Thanos looked over at the sound of Stephania's voice. To his astonishment, he saw her approaching, riding alone at a full gallop. She wore a riding outfit that was a long way from her usual elegant dresses, and from the disheveled state of it, it looked as though she'd thrown it on in a hurry.
"Thanos, don't!" she cried as she got closer.
Thanos gripped his sword tighter. "After all he's done, do you think he doesn't deserve it?"
"It's not about what he deserves," Stephania said, dismounting as she got closer. "It's about what you deserve. If you kill him, they'll kill you for it. That's how it works, and I will not lose you like that."
"Listen to her, Thanos," Lucious said from the ground.
"Be quiet," Stephania snapped. "Or do you want to goad him into killing you?"
"He has to be stopped," Thanos said.
"Not like this," Stephania insisted. Thanos felt her hand on his arm, pushing the sword away. "Not in a way that gets you killed. You swore you would be mine for the rest of our lives. Did you really mean for it to be so short?"
"Stephania-" Thanos began, but she didn't let him finish.
"And what about me?" she asked. "How much danger will I be in if my husband kills the heir to the throne? No, Thanos. Stop this. Do it for me."
If anyone else had asked, Thanos might still have gone through with it. There was too much at stake. But he couldn't risk Stephania. He thrust down into the dirt, missing Lucious's head by an inch. Lucious was already rolling away, running for a horse.
"You'll regret this!" Lucious called back. "I promise you'll regret this!"