A Game of Chi Book III: A Sword of Dust

Chapter 5: Li'ella I

LI'ELLA

Li'ella had been tasked with recruiting the civilians of the Scorpion Den to fight for their cause. While Eris remained atop the Stinger, deep in thought, with Tormak by her side, Li'ella and Lundor had been dispatched to set up a stand for volunteers to conscript themselves. The lioness and the leopard had taken an empty market stand and had placed it in front of the Stinger, and they had been sitting there and taking down names for the past few days. The desert sun was beating down on them despite the striped tarp they had put up, and the Outlandish animals who came to volunteer seemed without end. I suppose that's a good thing, Li'ella mused. Now we have an army.

The scorpions, spiders and bats in the Scorpion Den truly believed in their Queen of Fire, and anyone capable of fighting was enlisting. "My name's Sparratus," said a young brown spider. He had no extra legs on his back, and wore nothing but a grass kilt. Despite seeming young and inexperienced, he had an incredibly muscular physique, so Li'ella nodded and wrote his name on a piece of parchment, under the names of the hundreds of others. "Very well, Sparratus," Li'ella intoned. "The Queen of Fire appreciates your service."

"If I may," Sparratus interjected, "I don't quite understand everything that happened the other day. You know, with Blista and the little girl?" Li'ella sighed, and Lundor coughed lightly. "I can explain," he said. Thank the Great Dragon, Li'ella thought. I was getting tired of lying to everyone. "You see, Sparratus," Lundor began, "we knew that Flinx wasn't the Queen of Fire all along. But we had to make everyone believe that she was."

"Why?" Sparratus asked, his eight eyes blinking in confusion. "To smoke out the traitors," Lundor replied. "We needed to lure out the people like Blista and Scorm, who wanted nothing but harm to befall the Queen of Fire, so that we could eliminate them. Once they were gone, Eris revealed herself as the Queen of Fire. We didn't anticipate Blista blowing up the church, so those casualties were unfortunate. But the others were necessary sacrifices to protect us all." Sparratus nodded in understanding. "That makes sense," he said. "You guys are smart! No wonder Eris is the Queen of Fire, even if she's part eagle!" Sparratus walked off, and the next animal in line, a brown bat, announced his name. Li'ella absent-mindedly wrote it in, and the process continued for a few more hours. Eventually, the stream of Outlandish animals came to a halt, and Li'ella and Lundor packed up for the day.

"You're getting better at telling that story every time," Li'ella observed. She and Lundor were headed to Scarrmax' clinic, which had recently been renovated after the chaos of the riots. There were far less market stalls than there used to be; many of the stands had been burned down and there was no way to fix them. "Well," Lundor began, "it helps that I came up with it. We needed a way to make everything fit into our narrative, or this newfound support of the people would slip away." Li'ella nodded, looking at the animals around them. Some of them waved, and others nodded in greeting. The cats waved back and smiled. "It's nice to feel wanted," Lundor said warmly. "Yeah," Li'ella agreed. "But it's too bad that as soon as we're wanted, we have to leave."

"It's what Eris wants," the leopard replied. "We haven't been in the Scorpion Den for too long, but we've been away from Chima for ten years. It's about time we make strides to reclaim our home." Li'ella nodded and looked westward, knowing that Chima was out there somewhere. Will we be wanted in our own home? she wondered wistfully. Crominus' daughter is on the throne, and surely the Chi people don't like that. But Eris is a girl too, and she looks like a full eagle, other than her wings. Will they accept us? Or will we have to fight? Li'ella was drawn out of her thoughts by the sight of Scarrmax' clinic; they had arrived. While its rectangular shape was mostly intact, there were black scorch marks on the walls. However, the windows had been repaired, and the beds and other furniture inside had all been replaced. Li'ella walked up to the door and opened it, letting Lundor in first. "Scarrmax?" she called. Most of the beds were empty; the survivors of the explosion who could recover had already done so, while the others had died. "Ah, you've arrived," the bronze scorpion said, walking out of his office. He had offered to join Eris' journey west, as he felt he owed it to her and Li'ella for ending the riots and saving what remained of his clinic. In addition, he was fairly devout as well. "I take it you've come to see Panthar?" he asked. Li'ella nodded, although she could already see the black cat lying down on a bed in the corner of the room. "He fell asleep while waiting for you," Scarrmax said. "Yeah, we've had a long day with recruitment," Lundor replied. "Hopefully he wasn't waiting for too long." Scarrmax shook his head. "Spend as much time as you want with him," he said. "I've done my best to help him, but I'm afraid he won't be able to fight. He'll be lucky if he lives for another week."