Book 6. Chapter 21: Negotiations with the neighbors
The knights and I all walked down the hill as one group, with Father and I taking the lead.
And it seemed Lionheart had the same idea, since on the other side, the man with a lion shaped shoulder pad wove between all the knights assembled in a line there, passing by with his second in command at his right hand side.
The four of us ended up a few feet from each other. The great Deathless took off his golden helmet, then strapped it to the side of his other shoulder, making him actually look like he had two different lion heads on both ends of his shoulders. Then he turned his gaze back at us.
“Clan knights.” Lionheart announced, voice deep and with an aura of command. Somehow it was perfectly fitting to how he looked - dark haired, blue eyes, a short beard of equally pitch black color, and the regal bearing of a king. “Whatever the cultists are paying you, it is not worth damnation. The imperial church stands behind me, I am willing to match the payments you’ve been hired for, and I implore you to accept. Good men and women need not die today for a cause so foul.”
I had thought about taking a deeper pitch, but I wasn’t any kind of speechsmith that could mimic other voices. I was good at math, and slowly getting better at stabbing things like a proper surface savage, so I’ll stick to those two for now, thank you.
But I could change the words I spoke from regular ol’ Keith to the clan knight stereotype. Which I assumed was the same down here as what all the other castes had in mind on the surface when they thought of ‘Relic Knight’.
“We have not come here as mercenaries.” I said, aiming to capture that ‘don’t fuck with me.’ vibe clan knights had as their default. “We have come on our own volition. Let that speak for itself.”
“You would willingly choose to protect machine cultists and turn your blades against Deathless?” Lionheart seemed more shocked at that than anything. His gaze looked up, past our lines to the Chosen and machines sulking safely on the top of the hill. Marsella waved down at the man from her seat with a cheery smile. She was starting to eat her popcorn now, waiting for the grand reveal.
“That is so.” I said cryptically.