The last of the Black Rohs laid dying. A feeble remember of its once horrific self.

Kaden watched as the spark of life faded from the spider's black eyes. They stared back at him while its remaining legs twitched their final twitches and like they didn't quite understand why he was so angry at them. After all, all the creature wanted to do was eat him. And that was the way of the world; eat or be eaten.

A simple philosophy, really. Even one these foul creatures understood.

But what they didn't understand, was how furiously Kaden would be certain that it would not be he who was eaten this day.

Now, with the den cleared, Kaden could test a theory he had formulated. Like the last one he had been ushered into by the green-eyed woman in black, Kaden found himself at the bottom. And once more he gazed upon an intricately carved boulder before him with no other way out.

Sheathing his confiscated Rohs Fang, now covered in green blood, into the makeshift sling on his back, Kaden scoured the final chamber before attempting to open the tomb. Or at least what he assumed was another tomb. Until then, he soon found what he was looking for: several fist sized elongated eggs.

He retrieved one and held it. The glass like shell was translucent and the light of the Black Rohs silk wrapped torch he carried revealed a yoke inside. Along with a small black form with eight legs.

He placed it in a pouch hanging on his waste along with three more. It was all the bag would hold. He'd discovered by accident and necessity that the eggs, less the embryonic spiderling, were a passable meal. One that he could cook in the desert heat. And then consume while holding his nose.

Once the eggs were collected, Kaden took a swig of water from a crude canteen. He'd fashioned it from stitched leather collected in the previous tomb. He'd also dug a shallow well and lucked upon water to fill it with.

Kaden resolved to make another. One was not enough for the desert. Two days upon the sands since he had left the previous den, and he had little more than a drop remaining. But for now, he wanted to see inside the tomb.

His chest itched. Sand had once again gotten in the wound he'd received from the Night Terror. He'd wrapped it with silk from the various pieces of armor hanging in the last Sava Warrioress's tomb. But it was not the sort of armor he was used to. Nor did it provide sufficient protection, in his opinion.

Kaden uncorked one of the baked clay vials he'd also pilfered from the last tomb. After sampling some and roughly deciphering ancient lettering upon them, he'd determined these contained a type of healing elixir. And there was no denying that, despite their bitter taste, his body felt immensely better after partaking of them. Though, due to their age, their potency had waned.

This one expended, he tossed it on the ground where it shattered into a hundred jagged pieces.

He stretched his tight muscles and approached the boulder. It had many markings similar to the last, except instead of a woman, a man regularly graced its surface.

Placing his back into it, Kaden moved it much like he had the other. And like the other, once moved, it revealed a vast cavern with rough, glasslike walls. His faint light held before him, he entered.

Immediately, he could tell this tomb was similar, but also different in many ways. There were countless treasures, like the last. And there were also displays of armor, but not Sava Warrioress armor. The breastplates were distinctly masculine. And that reinforced in Kaden that this tomb was home to a man.

Searching for the sarcophagus he was sure he'd find, Kaden was not disappointed. Stepping forward to bring it into the light, Kaden could see the relief on top of the stone was indeed a man. One with his head completely hidden except for his eyes, and Kaden knew this man had been a Savan Devotee.

Hefting the lid off with even less even reverence than the last, Kaden let it shatter into large pieces upon striking the floor and revealed the man's mummified corpse. And buried with him was the glorious steel breastplate he wore in death as he had in life. Kaden would not be denied it. With little care for the dead, he hoisted the owner from his tomb and ripped the armor from him.

The body laid in four pieces on the ground, the man's eye's staring up at him as though it were shocked by his callousness. Kaden laughed at him. "You're dead. I am not. And I don't plan on being so anytime soon. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten."

Still, the questioning and incredulous look from the dead man's sunken eyes bothered Kaden. So he planted his foot into it and pulverized the skull to end his discomfort.

Kaden removed what he had been wearing and donned the well-preserved armor. He was satisfied with its near perfect fit. Just putting it on made him feel safer in the trials he knew would be coming soon. Still, he wished it had been designed to pump essence into his heart like those he'd built. But since he didn't have essence anyway, that was a moot point.

Before he left this place, Kaden knew he'd need to search for more healing potions, and anything else of use.

The money, like before, could wait. He could always come back from that. Assuming the shifting sands of the desert didn't bury it and render this place impossible to find again.

***

Kaden was surprised. To put it mildly.

He hadn't expected to exit the Black Rohs Den and to be greeted by the ends of two dozen Rohs Fangs. Not knowing what to do, he simply put his hands up. "How's it going, ladies?"

His eyes quickly scanned the not so pleasant looking warrior women holding him at weaponpoint. The silks of their Sava Warrioress armors were a veritable rainbow of colors, much like the stills of essence pumping away in an alchemist's shop.

Some of the women were tall. Others were shorter. But all the women were distinctly firm of muscle and lean, just as Princess Lyla had been.

None of them really seemed to be in much of a chatty mood. And Kaden noticed the woman in black he'd previously met was not among them.

One particular woman among the group, a mid-height warrioress in blue silks, her blond hair behind her in a braid, signaled towards Kaden with a small flick of her head. Three of the other women approached but did not lower their own weapons. One of the women, clad in orange silks, reached for Kaden's newly acquired Rohs Fang. When he flinched and balked at her attempt to confiscate it, the other two menaced him with their weapons to signify his compliance was not optional.

Kaden wondered only for a split second if he could take them all. But if each of them were even half the warrior his wife had been, he didn't believe that, combined, he'd stand a chance against them. One on one, possibly. Probably. But that was not the case.

Kaden allowed the woman in orange to remove his weapon from him. Once she had, she took Kaden's prized possession and returned to the side of to the woman in blue. There was a hushed discussion and several angry looks sent in Kaden's direction by the woman he assumed was their leader.

The discussion concluded, and Kaden still encouraged to not try anything by the other women and their weapons, the woman in blue approached. She struck a warrior pose before him. "Docrus?" she asked. "Docrus no no sarac?"

"I'm sorry," Kaden said. "I don't understand what you're saying." He figured it was some sort of ancient language. Perhaps the same one he had seen on the stones and the vials. Or perhaps it was a code.

The woman in blue took in a deep breath. "You are not one of us." Every word she spoke was harsh and bore the fury of the desert suns that were just passing their daily zenith.

Kaden had been in the den for two days between fighting the Black Rohs and collecting what he desired from the tomb. "No," he affirmed. "And I'm pretty sure, if you checked under my urk, you'd be able to confirm that."

There was an exasperated sigh from the woman. "Men," she spat. "You're all pigs. What I meant is you are not a Sava Warrioress or a Savan Devotee."

"I apologize," Kaden slightly bowed. "I've been out here fending for myself for several days."

"You mean plundering our dead?" The woman in blue clarified, pointing to his weapon and armor.

"Again," Kaden cleared his throat. "I'm sorry for that. But, desperate times and all."

"You killed all the Black Rohs in this den?" The woman in blue asked.

"I did," Kaden said proudly.

The woman who had taken his Rohs Fang came forward once more to stand next to the woman in blue and still held the weapon Kaden had claimed previously. The woman in blue motioned to it. "And you also killed the Black Rohs guarding the tomb of Sava Grand Warrioress Verah? Where you found this weapon?"

"Uh, to be honest, no." The weapons on him came dangerously closer, prompting him to speak further and fast. "One of your kind did it for me. She told he to go in and that it was some sort of test? She wore all black, and I thought because she told me to it was ok."

Kaden wasn't sure what it was he had said, but the women noticeably pulled back, if only slightly.

"Black, you say?"

Kaden nodded. "Yes. Tall. Slim of build. Green eyes."

The woman in blue waved her troops to stand down and Kaden found himself no longer feeling like a prisoner. Although he was still unarmed.

"It appears," she said, "you have the favor of Sava Grand Warrioress Zaria. Although it is against our ways to plunder that which we did not kill. But if she gave you permission, we are in no position to argue with her." The leader took the Rohs Fang from the other woman, but did not return it to Kaden. She only stood before him and held it as well as her own. "What is your name?"

"Kaden, Son of Orl. And former Karo Shar of Prince Relastin of Ison."

"Karo Shar of the Prince of Ison?"

"Yes."

"You were husband to Sava Warrioress Lyla?"

Kaden nodded. "Princess Lyla, yes."

"Huh." The woman in blue held the blade out for Kaden to take back. "Well, that changes things."

Kaden retrieved his weapon and returned it comfortably to his back, feeling whole with it once more in his possession. "Does this mean I'm free to go?"

"No," the warrioress in blue replied. "It means, you're coming with us."