Tower of Ancients

by Jaeger Mitchells

  We stopped right in front of the forest’s edge and stood there for a few long seconds. I thought about asking what to do next, but then a rumbling sound echoed out from within. Five lines of trees pulled to the side, leaving just enough room for four men on horse-back to go through at a time.

  Rennes turned back to see my expression, but I was emotionless. I’d seen far more impressive things back in Celonia. Still, it wouldn’t do to insult her so I smirked slightly and nodded.

  “Interesting concept,” I said as she chuckled, obviously happy with my fake reaction. The Elves groaned lightly and shook their heads, totally unimpressed. I couldn’t blame them. But these were ordinary Humans, after all, so one had to give credit where due.

  “Thank you, Lord Raziel. Please, follow me. We’ll keep the wall open until all of your people are inside.”

  “Good. Don’t mistake the group of Vampires that will be walking in with the carts for enemies. You can’t afford to make a mistake with them.”

  “Right,” she nodded, and turned to one her four guards, instructing them not to make any stupid moves. She was smart doing so right away and not leaving it to chance. Who knew what might happen if they attacked Dimas or his family? “Now please, have your people settle in anywhere they like, all except for you. I’d like you to join me in my—humble home.”

  “Only if my ladies can join, Rennes,” I replied coldly as if not even interested in her at all. I could feel Sylvana’s excitement at the demand for some strange reason. Had a blood bond of sorts formed between us during sex and given us something—special?

  “I see. If you already insist, sure. But keep them in line, will you? This is a matter that only concerns me and you.”

  I nodded slightly and winked at Helena when she caught my eye.

  “Set up camp! Carts in the middle, infantry to the front, and cavalry to the sides!”

  “Yes, Lord Raziel!” a large group of soldiers along with my officers replied as one. I pushed my horse on proudly. Rennes seemed impressed for the time being, but that could change quickly. What could also change was her hospitality and honesty. One always had to deal with such people carefully.

  The outer part of the camp was mostly empty with a couple of smaller tents or wooden shacks, while the center looked very busy. The area itself was quite large and could easily hold ten-thousand people if need be, I was sure of it. But only the central part had been developed so to say. All except for one large building to the left. It was almost at the very edge of the base, and closest to the river.

  “That’s my home over there,” Rennes pointed at the large wooden building. It looked quite impressive from the outside, almost even ‘pretty’ if I had to say. Large windows gave it enough light while the double layer of logs gave it a sturdy and robust foundation. I was rather curious about how she arranged it from the inside.

  “It’s quite pretty,” Sylvana said as we approached the building. “It could benefit from a woman’s touch, but not bad so far.”

  Rennes stopped dead in her tracks and snapped her head around.

  “Say what? Don’t think that because you’re with Raziel I’ll hesitate to beat your Elven asses to kingdom come if you insult my home!”

  “Calm down you two. How are we supposed to live together if we can’t even make it as far as the front door?” I laughed. Sylvana stared daggers at her but remained quiet, restraining herself from snapping back.

  “Yeah, yeah. You just laugh,” Helena murmured as she got off her horse. I remained quiet but grinned as we followed her and Rennes, who was first to reach the door. From up close, the home looked even more impressive due to all the intricate carving on the door and the walls. It was nothing special, just random patterns, but it looked good, nonetheless.

  “Welcome to my home,” Rennes said as she swung the door wide open and entered. “The building is nothing special, but it’s the best one in town so to say.”

  “Anything is better than the ground,” Sylvana muttered. “My back is hurting all over.”

  “Oh? Don’t think I’ll be sharing my bed with you forest people,” Rennes chuckled. “Sorry, but I’m not into women as you might have guessed.”

  “What do we look like to you? Lesbians?” Sylvana sneered. “We’re with Raziel.”

  “How about we sit down and have Rennes tell us everything we need to know? Then you three can compare tits and see which one of you is number one.”

  The sisters shut up and slumped into two of the four available chairs. They were rather comfortable, though I didn’t mind as it was all the same to me. Rennes followed suit and sat across me with her legs crossed.

  “So, where to begin? There’s so much to say and so little time to do,” she whispered as if asking for advice. She was quiet for a moment longer and then took a deep breath before she started talking. “This is the short version, so bear with me, alright?”

  “Go ahead. I’m curious now,” I replied, one of my hands on Sylvana’s leg and the other on Helena’s. She wanted me to move it, but I wasn’t letting go. I had too much fun eliciting all kinds of reactions from Rennes.

  “Right,” Rennes murmured, her eyes wandering over us. “Now, it’s quite simple. The Three-Horned Viper attacks anyone and anything in the vicinity of our base, well, to the North-East at least. It doesn’t go to the south since there’s nothing of interest there.”

  “And what’s to the North?” I asked curiously.

  “Our farm and grazing land. What’s more, there’s a really large cave some twelve miles from here. The few scouts who managed to survive reported it sleeps there during most of the day and night.”

  “And it’s purple?”

  She nodded.

  “It is. Otherwise, I would have taken care of it myself. See, I’m not that bad with a weapon. But that thing has an armored skin unlike any I’d ever seen. Everything bounced right off.”

  I sat there and looked up at the ceiling while hitting the armrest with my long nails over and over again. The girls got annoyed after a couple of seconds, I could feel it seeping out of them, but I didn’t care. Rennes needed to sweat first.

  “What do I get if I kill it?”

  “Name your price. Except for my life,” Rennes replied instantly. She really wanted it gone, I could see that. Still, what would I want? I needed a home for my people if nothing else.

  “Tell me, how many people know about this place?”

  “The base? No one. This is quite out of the way and isn’t very good land. Still, we make do by fishing, hunting, and farming. There aren’t many of us so we never run out of food. It’s located near the Beastmen lands so Vampires never venture out this far without reason and neither do the Humans invade at this point.” She stopped speaking for a moment and scowled, figuring what I was going at rather quickly. “No, I won’t agree to that!”

  “Agree to what? I haven’t even asked for a reward yet.”

  “You want this base for yourself!”

  I smirked. She really did figure it out. It would be a waste to have such a smart and seemingly capable woman rot away here.

  “This base and all of its people will belong to me. You included.”

  “What?” Sylvana hissed. “You want her as well? Aren’t the two of us enough?”

  “Do you want to keep on running with all the people tired and worn out?”

  “No, but—.”

  “There is no but. I’m thinking about my people first, then about myself second.”

  “I don’t get why you’re bitching about it as I never even agreed to it,” Rennes shot.

  “Well, then good luck with the Viper.”

  “No, you can’t do that! You owe my father!”

  “Exactly, your father. Not you.”

  Rennes sat there with her mouth wide open as she glared daggers at me.

  “What do I get in return?” she asked after a while. “You get more out of this than me.”

  I shrugged and stared into her deep blue eyes. The more I looked
at her the faster my heart started beating. She sure would be a nice snack.

  “I make a Vampire out of you. Or a hybrid by giving you some of my blood.”

  She bit her lower lip, seemingly thinking about it.

  “Deal. I’ll be one of your women and retain command over the base. Or rather town now that there are so many of us here.”

  Helena and Sylvana were very unhappy, I could tell as much even without looking at them, but these were hard times when I needed to make hard decisions. This was one of them.

  “Deal. Once everyone has settled in, I’ll take whoever I need along and will go hunt this thing. You can already consider it dead.”

  “Good, consider my bed yours then, Lord Raziel.”

  “Sorry, but it’s not your turn yet, Rennes. Maybe another time.”

  “What? You want to tell me I’m not good enough for you?” she yelled, got up and pulled the leather armor off that hugged her body. All that remained draped around her body was a piece of cloth between her legs and another one wrapped around her chest.

  “I never said that. Besides, why the hurry? I can’t request my reward without putting in the work first, now can I?”

  Helena facepalmed and looked away.

  “What’s with you?” Rennes demanded, pointing her finger at Helena.

  “Nothing really but that you’re acting like an idiot. How can a Human body ever compare to an Elven one? We’re Goddesses while you’re a—good looking woman at best.”

  “Hah! Tell her, sis!” Sylvana shot.

  “Alright, I’ll leave you three to compare whatever you want as I go tell our people the news. I think they could come to like it here.”

  “Hah! They would be fools not to! We got raw materials, we got farmland and cattle. What more do you want?”

  “What kind of raw material?” I asked curiously, turning back to Rennes as she busied herself with putting on the leather armor back on.

  “We found ore in the mountain some two miles East of here. We don’t know what it is though. It’s much too hard for our equipment.”

  “Shit, Harlan will be overjoyed,” I laughed. “It keeps getting better and better. Is there anything else you haven’t told us about yet?”

  Rennes pressed her long finger against her lower lip.

  “I don’t think so, but to be honest, we don’t go too far out. We stick to this place whenever we can. My men haven’t gone out so far in years, but I needed to risk it.”

  “And how do you get the equipment?” Just then I realized they mostly wore leather and wooden weapons. “Never mind. We’ll make an army out of your people.”

  “Don’t you mean our people now?”

  “You learn quickly, Rennes. Now, I want you to answer my question truthfully. I’m able to tell if you’re lying or not, so don’t even think about trying to come up with some horse shit, alright?”

  Sylvana and Helena groaned and looked away, hearing the same lie for a second time. It usually worked so why not use it?

  “What do you want to know?”

  “How did you know where we would be and that we were taking this road in the first place.”

  She looked away as if embarrassed.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I said so,” she murmured.

  “Try me.”

  “I dreamt of it. Some Goddess called Mara came to my dream and told me to do this, to get your help and invite you here under the pretense of the snake.”

  “Oh? Mara, huh?”

  She nodded.

  “Yes, I remember clearly that was her name.”

  “In that case, I can’t question the decision. Mara is our Goddess of Death and she is known to give people insight at crucial moments, people who are favored by her.”

  “I see,” was all she could say. “It was already decided that this would become your new home, at least for a while. That’s all I know.”

  I nodded as if all of it made sense. It didn’t, but they shouldn’t be burdened with such things. I would need to come up with a way to contact the Goddess, and who better to ask than Dimas?

  “Never mind that. Please, show the girls some hospitality while I deliver our people the good news.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  My group of officers was shifting around nervously, milling around, and waiting for my return. Once they saw me, Slayer was the first to run up like a lost puppy. He had a strange look on his face as if something was bothering him.

  “What is it?”

  He opened his mouth and closed it again, unable to speak. It took him a good ten seconds, but I waited patiently until he could finally utter it.

  “What about Calina? Is she not good enough for you?”

  I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh. What the hell was it with people and women? I already had more than I needed in the sisters, why would I even want another woman in my life? I decided to go with a half-truth to shut him up for now.

  “It’s not that she’s not good enough, quite on the contrary. I almost see her as a sister after all these years. And besides, you know what I do to women. Do you really want me to do to her what I do to the others?”

  His eyes grew wide as his lower jaw dropped. Right, I was sure he didn’t think about that before coming up to me.

  “Forget it, I won’t bring it up again. Thanks for being honest, my Lord.”

  I placed my hand on his shoulder and nodded.

  “I’ll make her into a hybrid, alright? But don’t ask more for her unless you’re ready to accept it. Anyway, go tell everyone the good news. We’ll be taking over the base once the viper is dead and stay for a while. At least until we manage to find the tower.”

  “I think they’ll be happy to hear it. There’s a lot of green in opposite to the gray and dull colors of the capital which makes for a nice change of scenery.”

  “I don’t care either way, to me it’s all the same. Anyway, make sure everyone settles in first, rests, and then starts making barracks large enough for twenty people a floor. Ask the people from the camp where you can get the trunks from.”

  “We can help with that,” Dimas said, interrupting. “It will be much faster for us to bring the logs here so they can just start building.”

  “Thanks, Dimas. Please have your family get to it at their earliest convenience.”

  “Already given the order. What next? How do you plan to deal with the viper?”

  “Get up close and cut it apart. How else?” I laughed, patting the pommel of my sword.

  “I like it, but there are more efficient ways of doing it. I’ll show you once we get there.”

  “Oh? You want to go right away?”

  He nodded.

  “Why not? Would you rather be building barracks and doing errands or killing monsters and taking spoils?”

  “Hell no! I’m all in for the kill and the core, don’t worry. I just thought you’d need some rest before we set out. Bones getting old and all that.”

  “Hah! You young ones really know how to joke,” Dimas laughed. “Give me some time to finish my preparations and we can move out. It was a purple viper, right?”

  “So they say.”

  “Meet you at the northern exit in half an hour then.”

  Dimas turned his back to me and disappeared somewhere into the trees. I sighed, still not used to the fact of him being around. So many things happened over the last weeks that it was way over what I usually had to deal with. What’s more, the Elven sisters were a treasure all in their own which were worth all this trouble. Shit, would he want one for himself? That was a possibility I hadn’t thought about yet.

  I made a trip around the base, memorizing the layout and the exits. The whole area was easily two miles across, which looked strange to me. Sure, it left a lot of room for growth, but I’d never seen anything like it when it came to villages, towns, or forward bases. In any case, it was a good thing the Goddess favored us so or we would still be out there. At least we would have some time to recover until we were forced
to make our next move.

  The outsides were covered with a very dense tree line and foliage. I made my way out and looked in from to see how everything looked like. Unless I knew what to look for, even though it looked unnatural from the outside, it just looked like a thick forest, nothing else. Moving back inside, I looked out onto the river and could clearly see the other bank and the rise above. Then it got me thinking. Was there some kind of magic at play here? A cloaking spell or maybe something else? Why hadn’t the viper attacked the place if it knew the general area?

  “I guess I’ll have to ask the sisters to check it out later,” I whispered, still looking out onto the river. The water was as clear as a running river could be, but I managed to spot quite a few rather large shadows moving under the surface. I doubted they belonged to fish, but whatever, it would have to wait for now. Another flash of insight struck me. If there were larger predators present at this lake-like part of the river, then there could be rare ingredients to find down there.

  Pushing the thoughts from my mind, I moved further out and circled what I knew was the edge, but I still couldn’t see inside no matter what angle I looked from. A heavy burden fell of my shoulders knowing I would leave them in relative safety until we got back from hunting the beast.

  I made my way back and explored the rest of the camp. Three wells had been dug and water guided into the center where I could see a group of women washing clothes. We would need to prioritize sanitation over anything. More water, a waste canal, and places where people could do their business.

  I sighed, missing the castle already if nothing but for this part of their daily life. Hybrids didn’t need to eat as much and didn’t create a lot of waste, so they would have to go once a week if not even less, but we had a great number of families with us who weren’t Hybrids. I doubted they all wanted to change, and in the end, they couldn’t. We needed a steady supply of fresh blood in order to stay alive anyway.

  I turned back to my people and found Sentinel and Stalker digging a hole near the carts.