Imperialist: The Voyage

Chapter One; Battle of Bremon

As the battle raged beneath him, Emperor Moutassim I and two of his Imperial guards stood on a hill removed from the action. He wanted to join, but his commander, General Agdel, was somewhere in the thick of the fighting, hidden by the swirling dust. He had bluntly told the Emperor to keep out of the battle, as his presence would be an unwanted distraction.

Someone uttered a bloodcurdling scream that could be heard even above the loud clanging of metal and Moutassim had had enough. He was the Emperor of Mesigan for goodness sakes. A rising West African empire, one he wanted to make greater than anything Africa had ever seen. He would not let the history of the Battle of Bremon be written excluding him from his rightful share of the glory.

"Haw!" He shouted, digging his heels into the sides of his powerful Arabian stallion, Sheikh. The animal sprang forward, its muscles rippling under its taut gray skin and Moutassim's two escorts followed.

Almost immediately, a Bremon soldier spotted him and came charging, his scimitar held high. Adrenaline pumping, Moutassim pulled his retractable spear from its holster across his back and shook it loose. The three foot long weapon tripled in size and he swung it upwards as his horse galloped into the battle. The blade of the weapon ripped open the soldier's throat and the momentum of the blow hurled his body back into the blood soaked dust.

The sight of the Emperor, who stood apart from his troops with his simple, rope shaped gold crown and gold bands around his arms, his long dreadlocks tied back from his face and his purple sleeveless tunic, was like a magnet. The enemy Bremon soldiers turned their attention to him mid fight, many paying for the lapse in focus with their lives. Then they converged on him.

"To the Emperor! All hands to the Emperor!" Agdel, a tall, burly man with short dreadlocks and goatie, appeared next to his horse. Agdel shot a look of fury at Moutassim, but the lecture would have to wait.

There was only a brief lull, before Bremon soldiers appeared from all sides only to be beaten back by the Imperial troops. Many fell in the effort to take out the Emperor early. Agdel wielded two broadswords like they were just an extension of his powerful arms and the Bremonians fell before him.

The dust momentarily broke and Moutassim spotted his sister-in-law, Sahelia, surrounded by three Bremon soldiers. They were heavily armed, while the petite girl of just eighteen, conspicuous with her close shaven head, only had a short spear. He knew she was trained as a spear dancer. He knew that she had other, special talents. Deadly talents. But with the odds against her, Moutassim would be damned if he would let his little Elia fall on the battle field. His wife, Empress Kelita, would never forgive him. And he would never forgive himself.

He charged forward with Sheikh, but before he could get there the soldiers moved in on Sahelia. The first one swung his scimitar but Sahelia gracefully bent over backwards, the blade passing over her. Before he could recover, she had straightened. In one deft movement, she spun on her toes with the spear tucked under her arm. The blade sliced through the soldier's kidney and stomach, spattering blood and intestines on the ground.

The two remaining soldiers attacked as one, but she dodged and spun away. Before they could regroup, she had leaped on top of one and plunged a dagger into his neck. As he sank to his knees under her weight and death, Sahelia made a complicated hand gesture. Her remaining assailant took one step towards her, but then looked down with a look of surprise on his face. Moutassim looked too and saw that the ground had encased his foot, rooting him to the spot. When the soldier looked up again, Sahelia casually thrust her spear through his forehead. She yanked it out, splattering brain and blood and the soldier crumpled to the ground, his still encased ankle snapping with a loud crack as he fell.

Sahelia was wiping her spear head on the garments of the unfortunate soldier's corpse when Moutassim rode up.

"You?" Her large, brown eyes widened when she straightened up and saw him. "Shouldn't you be... somewhere else?"