“Sarga! Fucking hell, woman! You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Damn sure I am! Now you listen to me! I killed seven of his spies and scouts that were following me here! I’m risking my neck by doing so! You better be grateful, you son of a—whatever!”
“No, not whatever. Tell me more. What’s going on back at the capital?”
“What do you think? Martial law beyond anything I’ve ever seen. No one’s allowed in or out. He’s recalled what remains of the top ten Lords and Ladies and their armies. He doesn’t even care about the borders anymore, all he wants is your head on a spike. And mine next to it.”
“What do you have to do with it?” I asked, not liking where this was going.
“You even have to ask? We were lovers and everyone knows that. Do you need a bigger reason for him to want me dead as well? But then again, he’s right. I’ll gladly choose death with you over life with him, and he damn sure knows it.”
I sighed, not sure how to respond other than how I felt.
“Stay with me, then. We have a nice thing going at the camp and are growing with the day.”
“Growing? How? By making babies?” she laughed and threw her head back as she combed through her hair with both hands. The stench of death still lingered heavily around her, no matter how long it had been, it wasn’t going away. Still, I’d become more or less used to it so it didn’t bother me at all.
“Yeah, exactly like that!”
“Fuck, you’ve even lost your sense of humor,” she murmured. “Whatever. I think you have about fifteen days, twenty tops. They know the general direction of where you escaped, and I’ll just act as if I couldn’t find you and have no idea where you are, but that’s about it. So you see, this could very well be the last time I see you.”
“Thanks, Sarga. Go get your Coven and come here. Or if you can’t escape, join the army when it comes to fight us. I promise you a show unlike you’ve ever seen.”
She chuckled and nodded, got up, and walked over to where she put her armor down. I stepped up behind her and helped her put it back on. It wasn’t much better to be honest. Her breasts were barely covered up and the pieces of bone-armor weren’t doing much to ‘protect’ her from physical harm either way. Luckily, she was able to cast a shield that was near impenetrable, otherwise, she would have quite the problem during melee encounters.
“How long will it take you to get back?” I asked as I strapped the cape to her breastplate.
“Four days to go back, then a little under two weeks to be—somewhere around here. I have no idea what to do, though. If I lead the other Lords and Ladies to a wild goose chase, they will kill me and all my people for sure, so I have to show them something tangible. What’s more, they can feel you as well to a certain degree once they’re close enough, so even if I was willing to try and fool them, they would catch up on it.”
“It doesn’t matter. No, it actually does. I’ll lead them all to their deaths, the annoying bastards. If they were smart enough, everyone would gang up on that leech and get rid of him.”
“Not everyone has your bravery, Raz. Don’t forget that. There are those who lead, those who follow, and then there are idiots like Crozan who do what they want. Or rather, there were.”
“I ripped his wings out,” I murmured.
“So I heard!” she laughed, slapping my shoulder playfully. “Lefrand was pissed. I think killing his beloved Crozan was even worse than pissing on his Queens’s corpses.”
“Heh, you just gave me a good idea for when I dethrone him. I’ll have two of my people fuck them in their mouths and piss inside them before killing the wretched bitches.”
“Fuck, yes! I didn’t know you had that kind of fetish, my love!”
Sarga put her arms around me again and bit down on my neck, drawing some of my blood, pulled back and licked her lips clean.
“I had a great teacher,” I whispered, biting her lower lip. “And whenever you’re around, I can feel my old self starting to resurface. I’ve quite missed being—him.”
It felt so damn good having her in my life again, if nothing but for that single moment. Our past came crashing down and almost made me give everything up then and there. Still, the sacrifice would be too big, and besides, I had a score to settle with that bastard.
“Any chance you could get them in a certain formation? Infantry on the outside and the horses on the inside?”
“Why? You want to lay a trap?”
“Yeah. I don’t exactly know where yet, but I want to do so. You ride at the rear so your people aren’t in the way no matter what we do.”
“I have no idea what you’re planning, but whatever it is, I want no part in it if you’re not sure you can guarantee my life.”
I snorted and shook my head.
“Sarga, I can’t even guarantee my own life, even less yours. But what I can guarantee is that they’ll go up in flames.”
“Hah, suits them right! Combined with my powers over fire, I can guarantee you they won’t make it out alive if you know how to prepare a damn ambush.”
“Remains to be seen if you’ve gone rusty from staying in the North for so long.”
“Hah! Want to try me?”
Sarga snapped her fingers, producing a ball of fire on the top of her palm. It grew exponentially and spread into five separate flames that burned with the power of—a damn big fire. The whole cavern lit up as she sent them flying in all directions, striking the walls and ceiling. Fragments of stone flew in all directions on the explosion, peppering us from all sides. Sarga, however, brought up her shield in a heartbeat and deflected them.
“You still got it, destroyer of man.”
“Shh, I don’t like it when you call me like that! I told you before, didn’t I?”
“Hey, burning a whole garrison down just to prove a point isn’t something you can just forget, now is it?”
She chuckled and pulled her loose, silvery hair back and tied it in a knot.
“I’d burn the world for you, Raz, don’t forget that. If you’re smart, you won’t spare the sacrifice to win me over when the time comes. You will never find a stronger ally than myself.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” a familiar voice rang out from the entrance, or exit, depending on how you looked at it.
“I think he’s the only one stronger than you I could get as an ally,” I laughed, enjoying the way he startled her. Sarga had a place in my heart and there’s nothing she could do short from killing me that would erase that. She was very conceited, but the power did that to—everyone basically.
“You asshole! Why didn’t you tell me someone was about to join us?” she hissed, sending a spark the size of my thumb flying my way.
“This is Dimas, and he’s one of my aces.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“You’ve become quite imaginative, Raz,” she chuckled. “Dimas has been dead for a long time. You told me yourself.”
I shrugged and placed my arm around her, then walked us both up to meet him.
“Sarga, this is Dimas. Dimas, this is Sarga, the number four under Lefrand.”
Dimas remained calm, but I could see his muscles tensing up as if getting ready for a fight.
“Oh, you’re such an asshole! Do you enjoy watching me squirm? What if he has the wrong idea about us?”
Dimas still stood there silently, obviously getting annoyed by my fooling around. I sighed and finally explained.
“She’s my lover. Lefrand sent her to find us and report back, but she killed the spies and scouts he sent after her further back.”
“So it was her who killed them. My children found four to the West and South-West from here a couple of hours ago.”
“Yes, it was me. Guilty as charged, big guy Dimas,” she chuckled. “See, there’s no one in this world whom I love more than Raz here, so risking Lefrand’s wrath is the least I’d do for him.”
“Remains to be seen, Lady Sarga.”
I sighed, already disli
king the way this was going. The two would go at each other like cat and mouse given the chance.
“Right. So, why don’t you take your pretty little ass and go back to Lefrand? Tell him you talked to me and I refused, then have his army set up the way I asked you to.”
“What? Sending me away already?”
I shrugged.
“We need to start preparing right away, so yeah, I’m sending you back already.”
She murmured something under her breath and leaned in, kissing me before she disappeared. I looked around, but there was no trace of her anymore. She was gone.
“She’s dangerous and unstable at best,” Dimas said calmly. Sure, he didn’t know her so it was hard to believe Sarga really had a conscious and that her word meant something. The promise we made back then, neither of us was going to break it, not even for our lives.
“She is. That’s what makes her so valuable. She’s dangerous to our enemies, not to us. We’ve been together for centuries now, so don’t worry.”
Sylvana stepped out from around the corner. Tears streamed down the sides of her cheeks. Shit. Had she heard everything I said? Everything she said. It was an understatement if I said that I thought I’d never see her again. Sarga was gone for decades, protecting the North from invading Kingdoms. What’s worse, there were dozens of them on our continent. Most weren’t friendly to anyone, even less Lefrand, and his Kingdom.
“What does this mean—to us?” she asked, barely able to keep herself from crying out.
“Nothing. Why would anything change? Sarga is someone from my previous life, while you’re from the current one.”
“But I won’t be second to anyone! I’m not degrading myself to that!”
“Sylvana, can we please talk about this later? Not in front of Dimas and not right here.
“Let me show you another thing that bitch didn’t know, but I did!”
She started chanting one of her spells and first lit the area up like a beacon, then something else lit up. The wall started glowing and eroding, a thirty-inch layer crumpling to the ground. A damn crystal fragment the size of ten Basilisk’s heads appeared and started glowing a bright blue as we stood there in shock. This type of magic crystal was something that Kingdoms were made of. What the hell was it doing in a quarry?
“I see,” was all I managed to say at first. “Quite a find, Lady Sylvana.”
“Hah! Lady! Fuck that!”
“Please, not now. But tell me, is this what I think it is?”
She nodded, pleased with herself.
“And I think we could move part of it into the village given enough power. Carve the root out of the wall and bring it with us. We plant it at the center of the village and it will grow in time.”
“Wait, crystals are ‘living’ things?” I asked.
“Not really. They just have the ability to grow. Even though the rock is better suited for them, they will make do with soil.”
“Dimas, who else did you bring?”
He shook his head and turned to leave again.
“No one, it’s just the three of us here.”
“Please keep this a secret for now. There are many things we still need to do and not enough time to do them.”
“So, we got about ten to fourteen days, huh?” she asked as I stopped in front of her and placed my hands on her shoulders. She was a head smaller than me so it didn’t look all that awkward.
“We do, but we won’t need that much time to set up the trap. The next five days will be invested in the village and scouting. We need the best possible place where to ambush them from both sides. Sarga will attack them from the flank, and I’ll join the Basilisk in the front.”
“There is such a place, but it’s very narrow,” Dimas said. “My kids found one of the corpses there.”
“Oh? Can you show the place or have them bring me there?”
“Yeah, I’ll go with you. I want to see it for myself. They’re still young, so even if they might think it good, the spot could end up being a total waste.”
“What about the crystal?” Sylvana asked as we started moving. “Won’t we—.”
“Give it a day or two. People need somewhere to sleep and shit in,” I laughed. “Just because we got a place to stay doesn’t mean everyone does.”
Sylvana scowled and narrowed her eyes on me.
“You want to say that I’m a freeloader?” she demanded.
“No? I don’t know, why don’t you tell me?” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. She didn’t take it well. Instead of snapping at me, she stormed off, her face red and tears streaming down her cheeks. The moment she was gone I felt a pang of guilt. I probably shouldn’t have acted so idiotically. She was an Elf, after all, and didn’t understand our darker Vampiric humor.
“Aren’t you going after her?” Dimas commented. The way he looked at me told me he didn’t think much of me right then, and he was right. I blew something up that I shouldn’t have done. It only went to show how much I still had to improve on.
“I guess. Can you wait at the edge of the forest for us? We’ll find you once she’s calmed down. I want to see the place for myself before we commit to anything.”
“Alright. Let’s do that before I get to my own business. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Dimas did the same thing he usually did and just disappeared from sight. It was unnerving and I kept forgetting to ask him how he did it. I surely wouldn’t say no to him teaching me such a skill.
I turned back one last time, staring at the water where Sarga and I had been only minutes ago. Her scent still lingered in the air, slightly reminding me of a sweet, summer night mixed in with a hint of death and danger.
“You just had to show and fuck everything up, huh?” I whispered as I turned back around and started moving through the tunnel. It only took me a couple of minutes, but when I got out, I saw Sylvana sitting with her back against the tunnel wall. She sat at the exit and stared out into the distance. The feeling radiating from her was something I didn’t enjoy in the least, especially seeing her sitting there like that.
“I think all of this was a bit too quick, huh?” she said as I walked up to her. “You needing someone after your loss, me being addicted to Lefrand’s Bloodline, being saved from Crozan, and finally finding a peaceful place for ourselves. It was too good to be true.”
I stood there in silence, thinking about what she just said. She was right to a degree. I might have used the situation to fuck her and blow off some steam, to try and heal emotionally and get over Alara’s death as quickly as possible. But I shouldn’t have done it like that. Everything could have been totally different and we all would still be happy.
“Do you want to leave?” I asked after a long moment of mutual silence. She looked up at me, grabbed hold of my leg, and pulled herself up.
“If you want me to stay, tell me. If not, we’ll pack our things and we’ll leave.”
It was as simple as that, nothing more, nothing less. But it wasn’t just that simple. There were too many things that could go wrong if I just let them go. For one, they could go back to Lefrand. I knew Sarga wouldn’t rat me out, but what prevented the sisters from doing so? After all, who was I to them? Their savior? Sure, but that didn’t mean I had their unconditional loyalty. Then there was the thing about the tower Helena mentioned. We came all the way here because of that damned tower.
“I want you to stay. Both you and Helena. We can take it slowly and see how everything turns out in the end. What do you think?”
She smiled weakly and nodded.
“Too bad we had to go through this, huh? I’d thought about so many things and ways to make you happy, but then along came another Vampire. Still, if you give me some hope and a chance, I’ll look forward to a possible future.”
“For what it matters, I want you in my life. Both of you. It’s just that things got—slightly complicated right now. And who knows if Sarga will come back alive? Lefrand might outright kill her then and there.”
“Shit, and you let her go?” Sylvana hissed. “Don’t you love her or something?”
I shrugged and pulled her in closer.
“That’s the reason why I let her go. She wants to do this for both of us, so who am I to deny her? If we succeed, Lefrand won’t be trying anything any time soon. He’ll have to consolidate his armies and send what remains back to defend the borders.”
“And the capital will be relatively undefended.”
“Yeah, it will,” I replied. “But don’t even think for a second it’s easy to take on. The home guard is at least twenty-thousand strong, and they’re all Vampires.”
“Yeah, I’ve had a couple of run-ins with them when they randomly fed on Humans or tortured them.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at what she just said. There had been reports of someone killing a guard here and there, but I’d never even have imagined it might be her.
“I know. You were the talk of the city on numerous occasions.”
“Good. The bastards did it less and less during the time I was around, but who knows what they’re up to right now? Even worse, who knows what’s happening to anyone and anything in there.”
“Yeah, anyway, enough about that for now. Dimas is waiting for us to check the site and I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
She nodded knowingly and turned toward the forest’s edge. She could feel where I was, just like I could feel her in turn. This was a damned double-edged sword. It was hard to stay hidden unless one really knew how to remove his presence, but seeing not even Dimas was able to do so, or maybe he wasn’t trying to since we had to find him.
I sighed and leaped a hundred feet with ease. I stopped upon touching down on the ground and looked over my shoulder. The Razorback was standing there in the clearing to my left. It was mourning her dead. Only it knew the amount of hatred housed for me and the dark thoughts about what it would do to me if it could. Who knew, maybe it would one day get what it wished for?
Sylvana noticed me staring at the creature as she stopped beside me but remained silent. We both knew that what we did was necessary, so why cry over it? Still, it left a bitter aftertaste. Just another among the things I had to do because of Lefrand.
Tower of Ancients Page 19
