"Victory!" "Victory!" "Glory comes at a wet crimson cost, my liege." "Sorry, sire." "I does go on a bit after a red morn." "It is not a day for diplomacy, Apos." "Be at ease." "Where is the butcher, the Zamoran King?" "Reports from the ranks seem a bit muddy, lord." "They somewhat say he fell in battle, and somewhat say he made escape in the garb of a Patreon, one of our dead." "There ain't no body, that's certain." "And my son, Lieutenant." "What of Tiath?" "Please tell me my son showed valor befitting his station?" "Uh, well, not in the traditional sense," "King Dimath." "I hear as he, that he..." "Spew the words so poisonous to your tongue, soldier." "He were..." "He were harassin' the fallen, lord." "Father, father!" "Praise the stars you yet live!" "Yes, and where were you son, who should have been at my side?" "Oh, I was collecting humored specimens, Father." "I'm sorry." "Truer words were never uttered." "One day, I shall make you proud, Father!" "Survivors in the keep, Apos?" "Women, children, no soldiers, no men at arms." " Well, only..." " Yes?" "It's the dungeons, sir." "It ain't pleasant." "They kept 80 prisoners down here, like dogs in the mud." "Worked 'em as slaves all day, made 'em fight to the death at night for sport." "Only two still standing." "They ain't human no more, lord." "Two survive the dungeon and the arena?" "Let me see these fierce men." "Yes, sire." "Only, about that." "They ain't quite men, sire." "Don't know what they are, exactly." "But they definitely ain't men." "[creaking]" "By the secret scrolls!" "They don't seem to speak." "Maybe they tongues is cut, or maybe they don't recollect as to how." "Let me dispatch 'em, sire." "Kindest thing, poor souls." "I can't..." "I can't bear their eyes, lord." "No." "Give them food and a bath." "Then, give them each a horse and free passage away from here." "We fought for our freedom today." "It would be unjust indeed to deny that to whoever these creatures used to be." "Mm, 'sjah." "Hm?" "My name is Red Sonja." "[horse whinnying]" "Shh, shut up!" "Don't wake her!" "Take what we want and go." "She doesn't smell like a lady." "She brooks no saddle." "Bags on the horse yet, Tevius." "Food, gold, maybe." "Take the food if you need it." "The gold as well, there's little enough." "Try to touch my sword and you die." "Try to touch me and you die fingerless." "There are three of us and we are armed." "And your sword is stuck in the dirt, girl." "True, but I keep a throwing dagger under my pillow, always." "Are you a gambler, cutthroat?" "I think you're a liar, girl." "If you had such a blade, why would you not slay me as I stole your goods?" "Because I am drunk, scavenger." "My aim could be off a bit." "I might get your blood on my horse." "I believe her, my friend." "Let us leave." "Tevius, what little life I have left," "I don't want it to end tonight." "Please, we go." "No, I will run from a blade no more!" "Well, well, pursesnatch." "Turns out you are a wagering man after all." "Pity." "[roars]" "We shall save you from these craven dogs, your radiant ladyship, for Patra and for honor!" "Wonderful, whoever you are." "Could you rescue me a bit more quietly, please?" "Fire, sister, fire!" "I can't." "Enough!" "You threaten children, you leave with nothing." "I won't say it again." "[screams]" "You don't frighten me, witch woman." "You said it yourself, you're drunk." "Yes." "[grunting]" "But I'm not that drunk." "And what to do with the third of a matched set of bunglers, I wonder." "No, please, I'm sick." "Please help me." "[retching]" "What in the name of the goddess?" "It's the plague, your radiant ladyship." "The king begs you come, please." "No king summons Sonja, children." "And your radiant ladyship isn't quite herself at the moment." "Run along, please." "It's King Dimath, oh majestic blade mistress." "He requests, nay, he begs you come." "Dimath." "The first king I ever saw show mercy to anyone." "Damn." "Boil me a brew, couriers." "The stem of a Durcetta apple, crushed fern bracken, and ash from the fire." "At once, our glorious sword princess!" "Will this help her radiant ladyship's hangover?" "No, but the taste is so repulsive it'll make me angry enough to forget." "Wash my boots in the stream while you're at it." "Burn the bodies." "And you, you have my sympathy." "I can leave a blade if you need it." "Or, Sonja can promise you a painless end." "Leave me a blade." "I will do what must be done." "You don't die a thief." "Remember that." "You die a soldier." "You needn't follow me, ladies." "I know the path." "Uh, we're not couriers, oh she of the excellent cleavage." "We're your bodyguards." "My."" "Are you certain you understood your orders?" "Oh yes, radiant mistress!" "We have slain hundreds with these bows." "Did you?" "Men, were they?" "Well, more along the line of rabbits." "They were very large rabbits." "This bodes unwell." "It's all the wine I have left to give you." "You take a journey further than the land will allow." "Tiram keep you, soldier." "♪ I fought for king, I fought for land" "♪ I fought for beer and maiden's hand" "♪ I fought my life, but now I sleep" "♪ And so I stand to guard the keep" "I owe you my life, Dimath." "More importantly, I owe you my dignity." "I will repay you, if I can." "Why are there no guards?" "Where stands the garrison?" "I feel it's best if the king counsels you, mistress." "My heart is not big enough, I fear." "Nias, Ayla, welcome!" "Bless you, mistress." "Mitra bless you!" "What nonsense is this?" "They have waited for you, mistress." "There is to be a party." "Oh, no." "This is madness." "Oh, forgive me, mistress." "I'm sorry, mistress." "Make me wear a foppish gown?" "I will when the king will." "Mistress, it is the last state dinner of our people." "It is tradition." "Please." "You look like a goddess." "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." "Well, it itches." "Dimath." "You will not kneel." "You do not call me sire." "On your last day, I may call you sire." "This is not your last day." "Your father must be proud, sword daughter." "The clay you mentioned is close at hand, Sonja." "The Zamorans have marked us for the fire." "We have been touched by plague." "It hit my army first." "Even the vultures would not touch them." "The Zamorans, they have a terrifying general who brought unclean allies from the coast, beasts of the sea who walk like men." "They attack the city-states hit by the plague." "They say they do it for the good of all." "They kill everyone, they burn everything." "We have mostly farmers and craftsmen, no soldiers." "Sonja, I need to ask you to teach them." "Let them die fighting." "Will you do this for me?" "Gather every babe and child." "Bring them to me at dawn." "Dimath says we may have a week before the Zamorans come, perhaps less." "It's nowhere near enough." "Look, conscripts." "Drink deeply, for it is their blood that will mingle with yours if you fall." "It is their bodies that will blacken the earth with ash." "And if any of you lowers your sword in combat," "I will cut your craven head off myself." "Say what you will about her manners, she does know how to motivate people." "Hold your sword in front of you, useless woman." "Perhaps a soldier will trip and impale themselves." "We lack complete sets of armor." "If separated, let your comrade be the shield at your back." "Ugh, swords out, fools!" "It's hopeless." "Of course it's hopeless." "Just think of them as fierce rabbits, ladies." "I can teach them tactics." "I can't teach them war." "But they have heart, and they have nowhere else to go." "Good, better." "They approach!" "The Zamorans are here." "Too soon." "Far too soon." "We have sent couriers to all the city-states of Corinthia." "The senators say we are plague-touched, and already lost." "There will be no reinforcements." "I am sorry." "I've failed you." "We all die sometime, my child." "The sun rose today, and will do again tomorrow." "We were never meant for lingering in sickbeds, we two." "They come!" "Sire, they're already here." "So many." "I didn't know there'd be so many." "No, more's the pity." "Well, are you my general, daughter of the sword?" "I am, sire." "Then, conduct war, Red Sonja of Hyrkania!" "Yes, I was just thinking along those very lines." "I can't buy their lives, but I can buy them time." "Come, men-dogs!" "Slavers, conquerors of children." "Face one educated blade, if you have the courage." "[roaring]" "Sonja, how I've waited for this day." "All valances, spill guts and split bone!" "Tiram's blood, that voice." "The terror of the blades, the butcher of all men, is the woman I call Dark Anisia, my sister from the Zamoran slave pit!" "For four score, slaves forced to fight for our lives, knee-deep in dirt made muddy with the blood of our fellow prisoners." "Only two survived, myself and this goddess of death in front of me," "Dark Anisia." "I considered her my sister." "In that inescapable hell, we fought and slayed until we remained." "Next morning, we were scheduled to fight, friend to friend, savage to savage, sister to sister." "For Zamora!" "She's trapped!" "Kill the filthy plague whore!" "[choking]" "Two very fierce rabbits, indeed!" "We're coming, radiant mistress!" "Well, are we going to let children fight our wars for us?" "March, wretches!" "Unclean beast." "Where are you, sister?" "Where are you?" "For a moment, for a moment, we are eternal." "We are every warrior forced to kill and die for a cause no one will remember in years to come." "Every adversary who ever felt blade cleave into bone, every crimson-stained fighter who died for nothing." "I imagine the first beings left here by the gods died thus, and when the sun sets on our race, the last two men will have their brother's blood on their blades." "And for a moment, I consider putting my weapon down and praying, but just for a moment." "The promise of every soldier in war," ""If I live, I'll pray tomorrow."" "Tomorrow, the dawn comes early, does it not, my guests, my challengers?" "Yes, yes, not much time now!" "Eat hot gruel tonight." "A special treat for the champions, and champions you are, muck-covered little minx." "So lovely, so filthy, so wonderfully filthy." "Oh, would but you both could live, to be Toda's special pets, his dirty mice!" "Alas, as of daybreak, Toda shall have only one mud-covered bosom to admire." "Such a waste of female flesh." "I must leave, my dirty trinkets." "I have wagers to place." "Rest, and dream of death's cleansing glory!" "[creaking]" "I won't fight you, Sonja." "I will not raise my sword." "You'll have to." "You'll have no choice." "I won't." "They'll kill you, Anisia." "Then they kill me." "Why?" "Do you not know?" "No such display of tender emotion makes an appearance today." "One might even say there's a whiff of enmity on her behalf." "You dishonor the dead!" "You shame us both." "What in Tiram's name does she even mean?" "For our lives." "For our people." "And for Sonja!" "We'll win." "You know we'll win." "We have five times your number." "Perhaps." "But my side has the devil, myself." "Always the peacock, sister." "So proud, so vainglorious." "I rebuke you!" "Come to taste my arrow, meat-king!" "Fool!" "Not to kill, do you not remember orders?" "For Patra!" "For our city!" "Die, Zamoran scum!" "[screaming]" "If I live, I'll pray tomorrow." "[yelling] [horse whinnying]" "[screaming]" "These people have caused you no ill, sister." "Leave them." "Leave now or I will kill you." "Yes, that is what I expect of you, and why it is my hand that will end your selfishness and betrayal." "We were thrown into hell, you and I." "Forced to fight our fellow prisoners in the Zamoran arena." "We alone survived, Anisia, but survive we did." "I never betrayed you." "Me?" "You think I meant you betrayed me?" "Do not mock me, devil!" "Who, then?" " Who?" " Them!" "Do you not see them?" "They follow me always." "The sorrowful ghosts of the slaves we killed." "Can you not hear their endless grief and hate?" "Goddess, she's gone mad with guilt." "Anisia, sister, there is not but air around you." "Liar!" "We killed them all." "They yearned for death in spite." "Every waking moment, they accuse me of the crime of living, while they walk as these grotesques." "They are alone, so alone." "They want hell to be full of souls to ease their solitude." "[kiss]" "You have forgotten them." "You pretend not to see them." "So it is left to me to bring them companions and solace." "Leave my city, demoness!" "By the thousands." "By the tens of thousands." "[choking]" "Dimath!" "Curse it, no!" " Father!" " It's over." "Please." "Old man." "Foolish old man." "Pretending to be a fighter yet." "Goddess, help these people." "Help this one good man." "I'm going to take your life for that, Anisia." "We are no longer in the pits." "Your end is near." "No, child." "No, you won't." "You will stand down." "And why, in Tiram's name, would I do that?" "Because you have the plague, you stupid fool." " No." " Yes." "Yes, you god-cursed fool!" "Sonja, mighty Sonja, invincible Sonja." "General, warlord, queen." "I can't even bear to look at you." "You, who fear no man, beast, or demon." "You will die on your knees, like an old, beaten washmaid." "Alone and afraid will you meet your gods." "Unaware even that you are puking your own guts out!" "They say you will have waking dreams." "You will speak to loved ones long in their graves." "That, at least, might be a comfort." "For this, for this useless group of scribblers and basketweavers?" "They aren't worth your dung, let alone your blood." "I would have done anything for you." "Because of who you are, because of what we shared," "I will make of you a bargain no afflicted town has received." "I will offer it once, and only once." "For what time they have left, they will live." "They will build a fence around this living cemetery." "No one will be allowed in or out, under penalty of death." "The ghosts will have them all eventually." "You said a bargain." "What price for this, this mercy?" "Again, do you not know?" "Your sword, betrayer." "In defeat, for your crimes, devil, you will kneel, and you will surrender on your honor." "Oh, radiant mistress!" "The great Sonja, the undefeatable Sonja, is your pride worth more than these people you claim to protect?" "I surrender." "You are to be exiled to the snowy mountains of the north." "You are to speak to no one, to avoid all humankind until you die." "You are no longer Sonja, the devil." "You are nothing." "You are no one." "Someone mark this wretch." "You are banished, cursed one." "Go walk your final walk, until the sickness takes you." "Sonja is dead." "You carry her corpse in every footstep." "Get thee gone, leper, outcast, shunned woman." "Get thee gone!" "[horse whinnies]" "Two fortnights." "Two fortnights since my exile." "Every day, the brook is more ice and less liquid." "The plague runs through my blood." "Even in the snow, sometimes I am so fevered that my skin burns against my pelts." "My horse, Charger." "Every day he withers." "And yet, I cannot turn him loose, because if I didn't need to care for him," "I would forget to care for myself." "And then, I would fall and be as cold as the mountain and snow." "Soon, you will be free, my friend." "An enemy?" "No, a stag," "A white stag." "It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." "You'll feed me for an age, majestic one." "I'm sorry." "No, I am no poet." "But I can't end this beast's life to prolong the finite thing that is my own." "I failed." "More than that, I surrendered." "The devil, Sonja, surrendered, on her knees, in the dirt." "Get up, Sonjita." "Little one, your father calls you." "No one calls but death." "To die like this, empty handed, I am sorry." "Those who loved me, you are all long gone, and I lived on." "That was my sin." "Little one, your father calls you." "But you are cold, child." "Do you want to catch your death." "Father?" "Oh, but you've gotten big while I was away!" " Father!" " It's all right, Sonja." "Let me warm you." "It's all right, daughter." "Father..." "Father..." "I killed, Father." " So many." " Hush, child." "If my daughter killed a man," "I'd swear on my life's blood that he deserved his death and more." "How odd." "Sonjita, I have something to say to you." "I no longer feel the cold." "You can let go, daughter." "You can let go and walk with me, with your mother." "I can't watch you struggle in pain like this, daughter of my beloved." "I can't, father." "I don't know how!" "Then you have one last chore to attend to, daughter." "You know the ways of our village." "You know what you must do." "Wake up and do it, Sonja." "Sleepy..." "Sonja, you imbecile, wake up." "What?" "Oh!" "It's getting away, you ridiculous tomato head!" " Get away?" "'It's getting away!" "Oh, my first hunt." "I remember." "Not stinking likely, brothers!" "I may be young, father, and I may be no man's son, but there's not a man nor boy in the village who can match my speed when I choose to fly." "And choose to fly I shall!" "I'm coming, old great god of the wood!" "You'll be stew this time tomorrow!" "I see your tack and spoor, stag." "Tonight, Sonja feeds her village!" "I can't find her trail." "Which way did they" "Just a moment to catch my breath, boys." "Wait, I hear her." "Sonja?" "Sonjita!" "Where is the white stag?" "Gone, father." "Well, the beast wants to live, daughter." "And he's slippery." "There's no shame in being outrun." "He does have a pair of legs more than you." "He didn't outrun me, father." "I had him in sight, he was at ease." "Sister, you really are the dimmest thing." "I let him go." "I don't know why." "I don't know." "Sonja, you're better with a bow than anyone in our village." "You know every bit of woodlore we can teach." "No one tracks or shoots better." "I want to weep from shame." "Instead, I swallow the taste of the hot, salty tears." "But tonight, you cost us all the food that keeps us alive." "You are not yet ready for the hunt." "Perhaps you never will be." "This was a mistake." "It would only bring my father more pain." "Father!" "Fire!" "The village!" "Marauders!" "Sonja, stay here." "Do not follow until one of us returns for you." "Swear you will." "What?" "No, our village!" "Mother!" "Do as I say, foolish child!" "Father!" "Screams." "I hear screams." "I'm sorry, father, but I never actually did get around to swearing." "Kill as you like, and take as you desire, brothers!" "These farm scum are not really men at all." "Their women smell more of the barn than fine perfume!" "Not really fit for Cortian males in their prime!" "Poor sport they make, I'll admit." "Still." "My father is, for all of his skills of the hunt, a gentle man." "He's never raised a hand to any of us." "I thought him a bit of a pushover, to be honest." "I may have misjudged him to some small degree." "Erik, find your mother!" "Hmm, seems one of these useless stoneherders has a spine." "Give me your axe, Felick." "I'll take the one with his horse's mane down his back, at least." "If I'm to die tonight, let me die a fighter." "Oh, dear!" "Look what I found, I has." "A lovely bit of veal!" "Are these your people, child?" "Are these your kin, your heart of heart?" "Oh, dear, oh, dear, how very sad that is!" "What a wee, sparky bit of tragedy." "And I see it all." "They burn all the buildings." "I don't understand why." "All our winter stores are in there." "What few precious valuables we have will be ash." "And then, I realize, they don't want anything we have." "They're burning out those who can't fight." "That's our leader, whelp." "He made us what we is." "Ryshack the Grand." "Gonna be a great warlord someday." "And them what does with him will live like kings, see?" "Oh, they will." "He ain't the tenderest of fellows, as I grant you." "My eldest brother, Erik, dies first." "I never knew how much I loved him until I saw him fall." "I find I've lost my ability to hear for a few moments." "Perhaps it's Tiram's mercy I can't hear my father scream." "I can't hear my mother and father shout each other's names in terror." "I can't hear the dull arrows that pierce the meat of my younger brother's flesh, nor the sound of an axe cleaving the kindest heart I have ever known." "But I know this." "My father uttered the curse of the Hyrkanians at that moment, and that means hell for these men, someday, somehow." "No!" "Why?" "Why, pig farmer?" "Husband of a cow and father of sheep?" "You ask Ryshack the Great why?" "Well, I'll tell you." "It's because we were bored, Hyrkanian!" " Father!" " There, see?" "That weren't so bad, were it?" "And now, we're alone, veal." "Seems only right I should take care of you." "Teach you the proper education and like that." "I hear my father's voice in the silence." ""Be the stag, Sonjita." ""Be slippery-ll" "Stop your wriggling', girl." "Time for that soon enough." "[grunts]" "Wait, what have you clone to me?" "You've gone and killed me!" "You..." "I'm going to pass out, I can feel it." "And so, it turns out I can kill when called upon." "Ye devil!" "Yes." "For you, marauder, I am the devil!" "And then, I remember no more." "Wake up, Sonja." "You know the ways of our people." "You have one last chore to attend to." "I hear you, father." "And this is how Sonjita, just 12 years old, daughter of the chief, dug the graves for everyone she had ever loved, 'til her hands bled in the warm autumnal sun." "And then, I, Sonja of Hyrkania, truly hunted for the first time." "All I'm sayin' is, we always seem to forget to keep any of the women alives for those cold nights on the roads." "Pure thoughtlessness, that is." "Pig farmers and dirt tillers?" "We did them all a favor." "Excuse me, gentle ladies, but your fearless general has a bladder to expunge." "My father said I was not ready for the hunt." "Who's there?" "I hear you, stalker." "He may have misjudged me, to some small degree." "Think of it this way, oh great Ryshack the Invincible." "I'm really doing you a favor." "There were 20 of them, hardened killers all, and only one small girl against them." "Ryshack, you've been gone an age." "Where are you?" "They were murderers, ravers, criminals." "But they don't know the forest." "And they are not hunters." "[grunting]" "We're under attack!" "It's a trap, boys!" "Make a run for it!" "They got us away from the camp, away from our bows!" "No bows, precious little light for them to see, and they were far too heavy to climb up after me." "By the time they realized what was happening," "I'd sent three more to the underworld." "There was nothing they could do." "They couldn't reach me." "Meet the curse of the Hyrkanians, marauder scum!" "Some ran, some prayed, some begged." "It made no difference." "I slaughtered each and every one." "It took four hours in the dark, and I found I had a new name that suited me." "Just kill me!" "Kill me, you devil!" "And now, I wake up, more exhausted than before I slept." "The horse is gone." "It's for the best." "One last chore, Sonja." "The way of our people." "Then, you may stand down, soldier." "I know it's the illness." "I know this stag can't speak, but it comforts me, and so I believe." "♪ I fought my life, but now I sleep" "♪ And so I stand to guard the keep" "The way of my people" "The way of our people." "We bury our dead." "I'm sorry, father." "This will have to do." "Come, wolves, take your fill." "Radiant mistress, it is us," "Ayla and Nias!" "Your bodyguards!" "We searched for you everywhere." "It's the king's son, mistress." "We all thought him a fool." "He's found a cure!" "A cure for the plague, mistress!" "Misstress?" "She's dead, sister." "Red Sonja is dead." "I joined her ladyship's army as I were promised gold and manflesh." "And what does she have us do?" "What is our lot?" "Fence menders and pole hole diggers, we." "Cease your prattling, Felth." "She'll hear you!" "I ain't afraid of the lady, Grufo." "Then you are addled or stupid." "How fares the watch, men of the sea?" "Your ladyship," "I mean, your worshipfulness, we are, all is well, I mean." "Fools!" "One of the cursed Patrons tries to flee as we speak!" "Hurry, dunces!" "If one escapes, all may die!" "[horse whinnying]" "Peasant, you know your city is quarantined." "You know the penalty for leaving your city is death." "What under the gods' own eyes is your thinking?" "Lady!" "Get on your knees before her ladyship, Patron." "This is Dark Anisia, and your death sits before you." "I'm sorry." "A hungry man has poor manners." "There's no food, lady." "Your men burned our livestock." "They said they could be infected." "Most of our field lay untended and fallow outside the quarantine fence." "My granddaughter is with child." "She is starving." "She needs food." "You carry the plague." "You all do." "Your selfishness could doom everyone." "Lady, there is no plague." "None have died of sickness in the city." "None!" "Not since..." "Not since..." "Since when, soil tiller?" "Since you killed our king and sent away our savior, the devil, Red Sonja." "Your savior?" "[laughs]" "I see." "I will ask the ghosts if you deserve mercy, peasant." "Do we grant this addled man, who believes there is no plague, mercy, specters of death?" "Who does she speak at?" "There is no one." "Hush, fool." "No mercy!" "No mercy!" "No mercy!" "The dead decline, farmer." "Well struck, my lady Dark Anisia." "These people, they want a savior." "Don't call me "dark" anymore, soldier." "Tell all I am now Red Anisia." "Yes, mistress." "All hail her, Red Anisia!" "I can't see." "I can't see!" "It is the plague, radiant lady." "Most lose their eyesight before..." "Before the end." "Are we too late, sister?" "I..." "I don't know." "Her flesh is burning." "Father!" "I tried, father." "Hyrkanian custom!" "My lady, you were trying, trying to bury yourself." "There was no one else here." "Do you not remember us?" "We're your bodyguards." "I am Ayla, this is my sister Nias." "This blindfold will keep the sun from damaging your eyes." "If you..." "Try not to take it off." "The twins." "Did you remember to bring" "Yes, mistress?" "Food, weapons?" "Anything you ask." "No, alcohol, you idiots!" "Well, part of her hasn't changed." "The king's son, Tiath, he created this, this elixir." "He says it might save you, your ladyship." "Or it might kill you on the spot." "Do you understand, my lady?" "He believes if you make it back, he can cure you." "We've come to take you home, dearest sword princess." "And Nias, get the wine." "♪ I fought an age, I killed a throng" "♪ There was my wage, men sang no song" "♪ Then at the gates was stabbed and fell" "♪ And so the keep can go to hell" "♪ I bowed and knelt before my king" "♪ It didn't mean a god-cursed thing" "♪ My guts now lay upon the grass" "♪ And so the keep may kiss my [gulp]" "More wine." "Sister, I don't think she's gonna make it." "She has to, Nias." "She has to." "These..." "These children." "They want to be killers." "They want to be like Sonja." "I can't allow that." "Her fever's worse now." "Dearest lady, please." "Please come back to us." "Anisia is allowing our people to starve." "Only you can stop her." "Come back and be our general." "General." "Do you know what it means to be a general, children?" "It means to see the people who trust you as assets or liabilities." "One person lives, another feeds the soil." "And we, general?" "What of us?" "Where do we fall in your accounting?" "Kind-hearted, loyal, spirited." "You will never be soldiers." "Well, you'll never be a soldier." "I believe most of these slaves are soldiers, and I believe some of them are having impure thoughts of us, you in particular, perhaps." "I have a name." "No one has a name in the pit." " They aren't allowed." " I do." "They'll send you out to fight first for being willful." "Then they send me out to fight first." " I have a name." " Can you fight?" "[laughs]" " Some." " Change your grip." "What?" "Soldiers are taught to predict their opponent's swing." "You can't fight these men with their weapons." "Choose a smaller, faster sword, one like you." "During the fight, change your dominant hand." "Or, move the blade underhanded, like a dagger opening a sack of grain." "They always pause to take" "Your glorious new king requires blood amusement, slaves." "And you, being less than human in the eyes of his god, shall provide." "How lucky you are!" "You may thank me, Toda, for this kindness." "And you, little fleshlings, little craveable minx, today, he wants to see female blood." "Tell Toda you love him." "My friends, tonight we feed the goddess of death!" "Two frail, weak women shall fight four brave, hearty soldiers for the pleasure of our liege-lord," "King Bazrat of Zamora!" "He does prattle on, doesn't he?" "Is tonight a cruelty or a mercy?" "The gods and our brave King Bazrat shall judge!" "I won't be able to protect you, willful one." "Fine, and I have a name." "Begin!" "I don't want to fight you, soldier." "We're slaves." "What we want doesn't matter." "Death!" "Yes, tell me again." "Death!" "[swords slicing] [screaming]" " You..." "How did you?" " Quiet." "My name is Red Sonja!" "[cheers]" "Are we fools, Ayla?" "She's dying, nearly gone already." "How can she save us?" "Our king believed in her, Nias." "At least she's resting." "She said- she said we'd never be soldiers." "I know." "It broke my heart." "But we have our duty." "Yes, duty." "We men of the deep have duty as well, mammal." "We hunt those escapees from Patra." " Ayla!" " Shut up, meat-child!" "You broke the quarantine." "Red Anisia has given us permission to make of you an example." "Eh?" "What do we do with them, Captain?" "It must be memorable." "It should have style!" "Bring them forward." "Cut though their spines as they do with fish." "Pull out their bones, my friend!" "Clean and gut them!" "Pull out the bones!" "As you wish, Captain." "Hurry up and kill me, then!" "I can't bear your stink anymore!" "Ayla!" "So, as they do to our kin, so shall we do to their young!" "[groaning]" "I'm surprised I have to actually say this to you once, but those girls are not seafood." "Unhand my bodyguards." "I still have need of them." "Or I'll cut you and boil you for our late supper with herbs and lemon." "Her radiant ladyship!" "She!" "She should be dead!" "She's blind!" "Kill her, kill her!" "She's tracking you in the water!" "Quit splashing, you cretins!" "We're not all in the water, devil!" "No, but you are upwind, and you do leave your presence in the air." "No offense." "[roaring]" "Never be soldiers, my rear end." "They don't know this has all been bluster and reflex." "I'm still fighting through the molasses of disease." "But I have people who trust me here, and my body won't seem to let me ignore that." "Perhaps I can take this last one with me as I go." "Naughty little fleshling!" "You stink to us as well." "Do you know that, meat?" "Do you think you can beat me in the water, where I am a god?" "Water falling." "Lots." "Close to the edge, aren't we, my dirty little flesh pod?" "I know who you are, creature." "Come on then, creature." "If I'm to die, let me at least have my companion." "He's as strong as three bulls, but he's only shown one attack so far." "He's a strangler." "Toda the tormentor, the slave keeper, the filthy coward who smells of fish offal." "I hate stranglers." "Fish slayer." "It will be all right." "I have just one request." "Mercy!" "Mercy for Toda the Pitiful!" "Tell Sonja you love her." "No, no!" "I owe the people of Patra nothing." "I have earned a quiet, restful death, Terra knows." "But their king did me a kindness, and they do not deserve Anisia's heartlessness." "I'm coming, sister!" "Do you hear?" "I'm coming for you, Anisia!" "So, to hell with this plague." "To hell with it." "I have people to protect." "I don't like it." "It stinks." "You don't like fire, eh?" "Afraid you'll wind up in the stew pot, are ya?" "You come to our camp, flesh." "We'll show you how we treat dinner guests." "All right, all right." "I meant no offense." "Come and sit as comrades." "Second watch will be here soon and we can all get drunk together, agreed?" "Well, I have a jug on my nag for this." "Perhaps we needn't wait for second watch." "Don't be a fool." "Drunk on watch under Dark Anisia's command?" "Or Red Anisia, as she calls herself now." "We'd be lucky to keep our family jewels." " Gods, what is it?" " Well, what is it?" "I think it's second watch." "It's an ambush!" "It has to be an army." "Who else would dare?" "We shouldn't be here!" "This isn't a merman's fight." "Well, you're in it now, old son." "We're all in the stew now." "Verdis, it's not an army." "It's the curse of the Hyrkanians!" "It's the devil, the devil!" "The Red Sonja!" "Shoot her!" "Hurry, shoot her!" "Verdis, shoot who?" "She's gone." "Sound the horn." "Call for reinforcements!" "Yes, we should not even be here." "This is not a merman's fight!" "Well, we wish to cross into Patra, and we have no papers." "Perhaps you'd care to stop us." "They are competent, perhaps a little better." "And the fever is still raging in me." "I suspected as much, but the day I can't dispatch men of this low quality is the day I choose a new name." "I surrender." "I surrender!" "Wise choice." "I want you to convey a message to your general, man at arms." "Tell her, tell Anisia, that I will meet her in the place where we were made." "And tell your army that Sonja has returned, still smelling of the dirt from her own cold grave!" "Go, tell them!" "Tell them all!" "Radiant mistress, they're done." "You can put your sword down." "Do you know, that is a command" "I often have difficulty following." "Mistress!" "Nias, fetch the medicine!" "Forgive me." "It seems my legs have chosen to betray me." "It is unseemly to need the king's son's potion to stand unaided." "The pri..." "Well, the new king." "He says it isn't magic." "He says it's a curative." "He says it's science." "Well, it didn't save the king." "No." "No, it did not." "Come, we've something to show you." "Blessed sword mistress" "Please, Nias, call me Sonja." "Blessed Sonja of the flashing blades" "Not better." "What is it?" "You were barely able to open your eyes." "You were blind." "Yet, when we needed you, you became a destroyer." " The medicine." " Doesn't account, radiant one." "Nias, kind-hearted daughter of Patra, you look at me with eyes that see only honor and gallantry, but the truth is darker yet." "Being Sonja means being called to darkness and pain, and knowing that you have the power to alter and take the lives of many, a great many, and praying to the gods that you always choose the right side." "Oh, mistress." "We're here." "It's over the ridge." "What is this spectacle that you so wish me to see?" "It is the anonymous resting place of our king, mistress." "Your sword-father lies in this shallow grave." "Dimath, the only monarch I ever met worth a horse's ass." "How..." "Why is your king in this filthy hillside scrape?" "How could you let them do this?" "Have you no spine at all?" "You shame him!" "You shame us all!" "It was Anisia, mistress." "She ordered the body burned on the bonfire where she made us immolate all our livestock." "She said he deserved no better." "But we defied her." "We buried him as best we could, unmarked so his body would not be stolen." "It is the way of our people." "We at least chose the spot he loved the best." "The way of your people." "I've had some experience with that myself." "Forgive me, my loyal, faithful bodyguards." "No word of the whereabouts of the Zamoran butcher, King Bazrat, Apos?" "No, sir." "We've men patrolling in all points of the compass." "He must be brought to justice." "Torture, murder, slavery." "He seemed to love only those things." "Not a kind man, sire." "Speaking of ill-met situations, sire, the two women from the pit?" "They've been bathed, shorn, and shod, my liege." "Ah, I'd like to speak to them before they go." "Well, that might not be the wisest course, sire, as the stable lord got his nose broke when he cut their hair." "They was infested, you see." "The stable lord?" "Why on earth did you not send them to a barber?" "Well, we did, sire." "We most certainly did." "The healer said his bones should set right, in a few weeks." "Ladies..." "Forgive me, gladiators," "I've arranged a horse and a few coins for each of you." "You are free, free of the butcher, free of the pit." " Go in peace." " We'll never be free." "Pardon?" "I said, "We will never be free."" "I see." "Daughters, my father was king of my city-state." "A good man, his brother, my uncle, cut his throat with a shard of glass that had been dipped in dung." "My family, mother, sisters, cousins, we were thrown in a gowel, and forgotten." "Do not let the evil done to you make you who are." "Go in peace, with my good wishes for your future fortunes." "Sonja, we can go." "What are you doing?" "I have never knelt to man nor god." "I am in your debt, King Dimath of Patra." "Red Sonja pays what's due, sire." "She of the majestic, mistress, we have to go." "We're exposed here." "Yes, I would rather carry full plate armor than memories sometimes." "Where are we to meet Tiath for the rest of this supposed cure?" "In the village square, near the stables, mistress." "I know the area." "There was an excellent tavern there, extraordinary beer." "We shall go there at once, for purposes of rest, not just for drinking." "Mostly for drinking." "Sadly, oh queen of all fermented beverages, the hated Dark Anisia shut down all the taverns and public houses." "She has forbidden all spirits in Patra." "She says we should spend our time in prayer and contemplation of our sins." "She closed the Sundered Boar?" "And I thought I was angry before!" "You promised us death!" "This entire city is touched with plague, spirits." "Soon, many will accompany you in the afterworld." "Lies!" "The people of Patra are not plague-touched." "You deny the truth even as your eyes see it all." "You and the she-devil killed us in the arena." "You owe us deaths for company!" "We are so lonely, swordswoman." "Yes, I owe you." "I promised you companions, deaths you shall have." "General!" "General Anisia, news!" "News!" "Out with it, soldier!" "You look like a foal about to bolt." "It's her, General." "She's back." "She wanted..." "Wanted you to know." "It's the devil." "She's alive, she crawled out of the grave by some ungodly means." "The grave, General!" "Red Sonja!" "We should flee." "How can we fight something that can't be killed?" "We should route the army." "We should leave for Zamora at once." "She returns." "She broke her word, I'll not break mine." "Gather every Patron man, woman, and child, loyal sea warrior." "Lock them in the towers, and burn them to the ground." "And soon, I find, as it usually is, the cure is worse than the disease." "This is going to sting again, I'm afraid." "[Sonja groaning]" " Excuse me?" " Get on with it!" "Oh, oh, of course!" "Yes, forgive me, Sonja the Red." "I tell you, like I once told your father the King, my name is Red Sonja." "Sorry!" "This timid little man is the son of Dimath?" "And the only wizard who can cure the plague?" "It seems ill-fitting, somehow." "You see, once I detected that the disease was blood-borne, it was a matter of generating the proper anticoagulant for my antidote to work." "That's where these leeches come in, you see?" "I don't understand half of what he says." "Wizards." "I don't like them." "I met you at the king's final party, did I not?" "The party was my idea." "You were very beautiful that night." "My father thought you were the sun and the moon." "I could see why." "I am no good at swordplay, nor diplomacy, mistress, my father had little use for such a son." "I think you were the son he always wanted, a hero." "If you genuinely have found a cure," "Son of Dimath, you will by default be the greatest hero Hyboria has ever seen." "And if you give me that damn flagon of wine," "I'll build a statue of you myself." "They're taking everyone, those fishmen!" "They're locking them in the tower." "My own son saw it." "They're going to kill us all." "Ayla, Nias, tell us, is it true that the general, the she-devil, has returned?" "Well, yes." "She is in the basement below, receiving counsel." "But fear not, good women of Patra." "For it is time for us to take back our city." "But Anisia rules with fists of fire and blood." "Sonja will find her and Sonja will tame her, while we strike from the shadows and destroy the Zamorans." "But without Sonja, who will lead us?" "Where is our general?" "We will be your generals, goodwife." "We're doomed." "They get all sleepy when they've eaten enough blood." "I make no guarantees, but if you rest for a week, you should recover." "I have perhaps half an hour, princeling." "I have an appointment with the woman who killed your father." "I see." "Well then, I have something for you." "Best chainmail in the city, and, well, the sword was my father's." "Will you avenge him, as his son cannot?" "You've done well, Prince Tiath." "Will you do me one more boon?" "Anything" "Will you find me something to scrub with, so I can get this damn bird off my face?" "It is an odd thing about death." "When you are certain it is coming, you become impatient for its embrace." "You said to come to where we were made, the arena, though Dimath long ago outlawed bloodsport." "Pity." "When King Bazrat made us slaves and fighters, you hated spilling blood, Anisia." "I miss that woman." "Miss me?" "I loved you!" "And you abandoned me!" "You left me with the ghosts of the dead!" "Leave this city, sister." "Return my sword and get out." "You are not the woman I loved." "You want this?" "You want it returned?" "So be it, devil!" "This time, I will make sure you are properly dead!" "Stronger than me." "She was always stronger than me." "But I am Red Sonja, and I will fight the gods above if I so choose!" "You choose to stay, Anisia." "Remember that." "Friend or not, sister or not, you chose to die." "Wait!" "I hear something." " We are not alone." " What?" "No, you are not alone, foolish girls." " Little children at play." " That voice." "I've come out of three years of hiding for this, to see the deaths that were rightfully mine, ladies." "I know that voice." "It is the Zamoran butcher, the man who made us fight and kill for his passing whimsy." "It is King Bazrat, the man who made us slaves." "And now, as the city of my conqueror burns," "I get to watch you both die, as you should have three years ago!" "Come, ladies." "Why do you not fight as the gods clearly intend?" "I waited three years to see one sister kill another." "Do as Bazrat commands." "Amuse your king." "Anisia, did you know?" "Did you know the Butcher of Zamora was alive?" "The man who put us in the pits to kill and die?" "I did not." "We were told my army was assembled by a consortium of allied states, to fight the plague, to save as many as may remain." "Oh, dear, well." "True, we did deceive you about that." "You see, it's not plague at all." "[laughing]" "No, it's a poison." "You lie." "That's impossible." "Is it?" "Or did I fight a war the way the gods do, because only I had the courage?" "Think, stupid child, think!" "Who died of this plague first?" "Armies, all the soldiers who could stop me in my vengeance, and then it was a matter of simply giving the formula to anyone who vexed me, while I myself hid in exile, waiting for this moment." "Do you see this beautiful woman?" "The wife of a trusted and popular general in my own army." "A simple matter." "A loyalist gives the general a drink, and soon I simply take the grieving, unprotected widow as my plaything, until I weary of her, of course." "I don't know if this is true." "It's evil!" "I thought I had faced evil before." "It turns out I may not have known what evil was." "But there were hundreds with the plague!" "We burned whole villages!" "Oh, yes, well, you see, it had to look convincing." "My sister from the pit," "Dark Anisia, she calls herself." "Her grip on this world is very thin already, and this may be the exact thing that untethers her entirely." "I killed, I burned children!" "Countless children!" "Sister!" "You were deceived!" "Sonja, I am drowning." "Help me!" "Sister, sister!" "No!" "They're coming!" "Sister!" " You killed my husband!" " You burned our land!" " You burned our church with us inside." " I could smell my flesh!" " You took my children!" " Murderer!" " Murderer!" " Murderer!" "No!" "She sees the ghosts again, the ones that haunted her to this state." "My sister is gone." "All of this, this madness, because you lost a battle to the Patron king." "Did you want to kill him so badly that you would massacre countries?" "Yes, well, isn't that the most delicious thing of all?" "I didn't kill King Dimath." "I specifically told the soldiers not to kill him." "I had, let us say, more brutal regard for the man." "Were you not his guard, hm?" "Did not your sister's blade cleave his neck?" "Sonja, Devil of the Hyrkanian Steps, it was you two who killed this king!" "Bazrat, King of Zamora," "I care not which foolish, venal man claims to own which grubby patch of sod, but you will know this:" "I place upon you the Curse of Hyrkania, and soon there will be no mawkish head to hold your gaudy crown." "The last time I did this, the last time I invoked this deathless curse, was the night I lost my tribe, the night I became the Devil." " Footsteps..." " You did this!" "You made me into this monster!" "I came here to kill her." "She's done unforgivable things, atrocities." "But I was able to leave the pit because of the kindness of a king." "I think the pit never left Anisia." "We were each other's only allies, each other's only comfort." "She was the one living thing in all of Hyboria I could not imagine harming." "I wish, I wish for a better world." "Well, little minnow, do you wager or not?" "I shall win our duel, manflesh!" "Your species is arid and weak!" "True, but we're also tricky." "Oh, that had to be painful!" "Now, friend, pay UP" "We did specifically say cheating was allowed." "Halt, I smell something!" "Fire, it's fire outside!" "Master, outside!" "The barracks are burning, you laggards!" "Hail, invaders." "I wonder if you might be so kind as to drop any weapons or armor, and come out one at a time." "Or, let us send you to your gods in a most spectacular fashion." "Fist person who moves dies!" "Fair warning." "Who are you?" "Generals Nias and Ayla." "Soldier, we're going to need your clothes, I'm afraid." "Sister, don't make me do this." "I've lost my taste for killing you." "And with that error, her death is inevitable." "I have taken my own sword back from her." "Remember, Sonja, what I did to Dimath?" "Remember?" "That she killed the only king who'd ever treated me with mercy?" "Remember, Sonja." "Remember what I did?" "Does she want me to kill her in revenge?" "She's mad!" "Do you see, Alana?" "You doubted that I could make them kill each other." "When will you learn?" "No mere woman can resist me." "Yes, your majesty." "No, not mad." "[laughs]" "She's clever." "I remember, sister." "And she didn't want death." "She wanted proximity." "What?" "Archers, kill them both!" "What in Tiram's name is she doing now?" "No, sister, don't do this!" "You will not die for me!" "One last time." "One last time, I protect you, Sonjita." "No!" "I have a bastard to cleave in twain!" "No!" "She- They were both supposed to die." "Three years I waited." "What is she doing?" "Doing, my king?" "She's coming." "The devil comes for your soul, Bazrat of Zamora." "Kill her!" "She's an animal!" "Protect your king!" "Men of Zamora, you know who I am!" "You know what he is!" "I will say this only once." "Get the hell out of my way!" "So be it." "So be it!" "Shoot her!" "Shoot the witch!" "She's coming to harm your king, you fools!" "By the gods, she's back from the underworld." "Bazrat!" "Bazrat!" "It's your men, sire, the hired army we stationed here." "Reinforcements!" "Blessed men of the garrison, avenge your king's honor!" "To my side at once!" "Well, yes, of course." "There's just one thing about that." "You are no king of ours." " Fire!" " No!" "I am the king!" "You, coward, are a dead king." " No!" " She speaks the truth." "On your knees, slaver." "Please, don't." "I am king." "No, please, mistress." "Wait a moment." "You ask me to spare this thing that murdered your husband, that made you a plaything." "No, mistress." "Your sister was right." "He's already dead." "He told the truth." "The plague was really a poison." "And one of my jobs was to ensure that his goblet was always full." "One of many, many humiliations, but one with an unexpected benefit." "[choking]" "I gave him enough to kill him many times over, this very night." "Right now, his organs are burning him alive." "My husband says hello, you cowardly son of a bitch." " He's almost pitiable." " Save your pity, sister." "The foulest carrion eater is more worthy of sympathy." "The Butcher of Zamora is gone." "Someone find a large bucket to carry him out in." "I've done terrible things." "Yes, but you were deceived." "You can't take back what you have done." "Go into exile, sister." "Do only good in the world." "I..." "Sonja..." "Sister..." " No!" " I killed her!" "I killed the woman who killed the king!" "The son he was so shamed by has avenged Dimath!" "My sister, I love you." "I will fight no more, Sonjita." "The ghosts, do you see them?" "They surround us." "Come with us." "All is forgiven." "I see them." "They've come to keep you company on your new road." "Goodbye, my friend." "We must part now." "I have one last chore to attend to, Tiath." "Wait, hold, she killed my father." "I, the swordless prince," "I simply did what was right." "I found my courage." "Tiath, the world's most brilliant alchemist and scientist, whose idea was the king's last party?" "Who served me the wine the night before I caught the false plague?" "And who, in all the land, could invent a poison that looks just like the black death?" "Stop!" "My father, he hated me." "He hated my weakness." "He treated the lowliest soldier in his army with more kindness, more love, than his own son." "So you poisoned his army?" "Yes, I had to." "Father said my science was unnatural." "Bazrat said the only way my father and I could live is if I cooperated with him, killed the army, killed you, Sonja, and then, she killed him anyway." "Please, I can change the world." "No more sickness." "I am days away from being able to cure death, mistress." "My like will never come again, Sonja." "You can't kill me." "I could conquer suffering and death with my serums." "An end to death and pale and illness if I let you go, princeling?" " The price is too high." " Ugh!" "Well, that does leave us without a leader, mistress." "Will you" "No, I've had my fill of royals, I'm afraid." "As acting regent of Patra," "I declare these two fierce generals to be the queen of this city." "Any disagreements?" "Keep your swords sharp, my ladies." "You never know when I'll need a pair of lethal bodyguards again." "Mistress, how can we repay you?" "Anything you wish is yours." "Anything" "Reopen the taverns, dear one." "Because I'm going to get drunk in legendary fashion."