The Raike Box Set

by Jackson Lear

  “If you already know that I don’t know then you don’t need to ask me.”

  “Because he saw another opportunity. This is the land of might is right, so what better way to prove yourself than by tricking all of your enemies into a deadly confrontation and rob them at the same time? Draegor is dead. Whoever takes the throne is going to learn that his freshly stocked vault is empty and they are no richer than they were before. Worse still, they’re probably broke, having promised all of their money to rival families so that no one will contest their claim to the throne. Very soon they’re going to realize that they have no money at all and can’t possibly support the entire kingdom until the next Golden Moon occurs. The only one who can afford it now is Agnarr.”

  “So why isn’t he staying to be king?”

  “Probably because there’s still a lot of vampires down there who will expect the new king to honor the arrangement they had with Draegor. Vampires aren’t all that interested in money. Humans are. Whoever is now king has just made deals he can’t possibly afford and Agnarr is probably laughing himself stupid.”

  Jarmella settled into a deep sigh and returned to searching the advancing raiders and mercenaries. “You’re sure about this?”

  “I know mercenaries. They’ve just been paid. And they’re walking freely with Agnarr’s people despite previously serving all of the nobles who would’ve vowed to kill Agnarr on sight for plotting to overthrow Draegor.”

  “All right, so what do we do about it? Run off and hide while they walk by?”

  “Our best bet is still to find our way down to the road and rescue Loken, steal a ship from Ice Bridge, and let Agnarr deal with the fallout from Faersrock.”

  “We’ll have to leave the mountain pass completely or our guides will see Agnarr’s tracks.” Jarmella leaned forward. Lowered the seeing rod and dropped her head. “There’s a dozen more mercenaries in the rear.”

  “Doesn’t concern us.”

  “It does when Berik is with them.” She handed the seeing rod back to me.

  I had been feeling pretty good about our chances of getting away right up until then, but sure enough Berik was at the rear of the group surrounded by a bunch mercenaries. No sword. No pouch of silver at his side. No rope around his wrists either but there were two axmen keeping him within range. “All right, now we have a problem.” I handed the seeing rod over to Menrihk. “Do you see anything that can help us?”

  “Just that they’re carrying a lot of sacks, chests, and look tired.”

  Jarmella drew in a deep breath. “Sixty raiders and mercenaries down there, forty behind us who will ally with Agnarr quickly, and only twenty of us. Maybe we should pay a ransom. Leave a purse of silver on the road with a note telling them to let Berik leave.”

  I searched the surrounding area for any good ambush site. Considered our available resources. They were exhausted. So were we. They had probably used all of their magic. So had we. “We could leave a note, one that says we don’t want just Berik but Agnarr as well.”

  “They’re not going to go for that,” said Jarmella.

  “That’s all part of negotiation. You ask for more than you’ll likely ever get then they’ll settle to something more reasonable. Still, every once in a while they do say yes to something outrageous.”

  “Agnarr’s people won’t turn on him. And if we fuck this up it’ll ruin any chance of Miss Kasera Lavarta striking a deal with the would-be king down there.”

  “Then she’ll make a deal with someone else. Whoever it is will soon realize that the new king can’t stay on the throne without any money and we know who now has it.”

  Jarmella’s blood-shot eyes cracked. “I don’t know how to do this. We can’t leave without Berik but we can’t risk twenty of our lives to get him back either.”

  “So choose. We can bypass them and get us all to Ice Bridge without a confrontation or we can gamble on an ambush. Which one feels more likely to succeed?”

  She dropped her head down again, agonizing with every deep breath. “If – if – we were forced into a negotiation, how would you convince them to release Berik?”

  “We have a vampire with us, don’t we?”

  A look of dread flooded her face in an instant. “You can’t set a vampire loose on inno … okay, they’re not innocent but they’re still … all right, they’re assholes, but no. I won’t allow it.”

  “Relax. Saskia can communicate with Desdola, right?”

  “So?”

  “So we either get Berik back or we tell Desdola and her vampires the truth about Agnarr’s plan. If for nothing else it’ll rattle him up a bit.”

  “How will that convince them to release Berik?”

  “If they don’t we tell Desdola right now where the money is and where it’s going.”

  Jarmella turned to Menrihk. He didn’t out rightly disagree, so that was something. Jarmella fell quiet, nodding along with whatever silent conversation she was having with herself and seemed to come to some kind of conclusion. “Okay. Let’s pull back before they see us.”

  We did so, creeping from one tree to another and keeping low to the ground, checking every few yards to see if we had been spotted by any of Elizandria’s scouts.

  After a hundred yards we made it over the lip of the hillside. The vanguard had disappeared from the path but they were certainly close to us. The northerners were twenty yards behind them, doing whatever they could to not fall asleep.

  Jarmella nodded to Menrihk. “Go on ahead. I need a moment with Raike.” Menrihk trudged forward, glancing over his shoulder with a reasonable amount of suspicion. Jarmella didn’t waste any time. “When we started walking up this mountain you said Zara told you that there were vampires up here. Was that true?”

  “Is this really the best time?”

  “Just … was it true?”

  “She never told me that, no.”

  “So you lied to me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “You wanted to take the long way around but we couldn’t waste that much time. I needed to keep the northerners together so they could sail us out of here. I didn’t want any of them saying ‘fuck this, I’m going home,’ and actually being able to. It would be easier keeping them all together if the entire vanguard was there to show them how us southerners dealt with a situation. We don’t give up. I needed to shame them into staying and to do that I used the threat of vampires up here to keep you by my side.”

  “How did you know that would work on me?”

  “I figured you were terrified of making a mistake so you would find it easier coming with me than dealing with all of the dissenting voices from the vanguard as they asked why you they weren’t following us up the mountain.”

  “It did cross my mind.”

  “Good. Agnarr’s on his way up. We should hurry.”

  “Wait. I’m out of ideas and I don’t know how to do this without it ending in a complete massacre, but you’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

  Try as I might to ignore it, several stupidly terrible plans on how to best Agnarr had already sprung to mind. “Maybe.”

  “Okay.” She sniffed against the cold, psyching herself up for an equally catastrophic plan. “I don’t have any money but I can offer the sword of a vampire we killed. It’s worth quite a good deal to the vanguard but I have it, I’m their leader, I’m responsible for their fate, and it’s the only thing I can offer as payment.”

  “Please don’t do this.”

  “I’m doing it anyway. You see jobs through to the end because you are a stubborn asshole who prides himself on getting things done, no matter how difficult. Well, I’ve got a job for you. A difficult one at that as the nightmare behind us has been the easy part. The army hires mercenaries all the time. As guides, as soldiers, or as whatever else. You have skills and experience I don’t, so I, Jarmella of Erast, acting commanding officer of General Kasera’s vanguard in the north, hereby hire you to …” She trailed off, losing track of whatever
she was going to say after not being able to sleep at all since this mess began. “Fuck it. There’s lots of fancy words. Pretend I said them. I’m hiring you as primo delta. As of now you are in charge of us until we return home. I have one condition: I want Berik back alive. If we can get Loken as well, fantastic. If not – blame me. This is not open to refusal. You are far more devious than I am. You do shit that none of us would even consider trying and you do it well. That’s what we need right now. Get us home.” She held one hand out, firm despite being nervous about having to explain her decision to give up command of a military unit to a civilian to the general or maybe even the governor one day.

  “And Desdola?”

  “I don’t know. This would officially be a phoenix operation so you’ll be in command.”

  I took her hand. Shook it.

  “Thank you. What do we do?”

  “Rally the troops. We don’t have much time.”

  Jarmella summoned them in groups to keep the rest of Agnarr’s people from spoiling our day. “Everyone, listen up. I’ve hired Raike as primo delta. He’s in charge until we get home.”

  Some of them looked relieved. Others resigned. I surveyed them all, finding a new sense of energy within most of their exhausted faces. “Agnarr is on his way up with Elizandria. It looks like they betrayed us to pull off a heist in Draegor’s castle. They have thirty eight mercenaries and twenty five of Agnarr’s raiders. They also have Berik. We’re not leaving this mountainside without him. I know you’re tired. I know you’re all in a shitty mood. I know Desdola has been haunting you with her whispers. That means she believes we are a threat. And we are. We’re about to engage our foe against overwhelming odds using nothing but Isparian cunning. Then we’re going to ambush Draegor’s cavalry to rescue Loken and sail out of here in a literal blaze of glory. We’re going scare the ever living shit out of every northerner in this frozen dump. They’ll tell stories that there had to be at least two hundred soldiers up here, not twenty. That’s the level of madness we’re going to accomplish by the time we return to Anglaterra. Believe me: we’re going to make even General Kasera’s jaw drop to the ground. But it will be worth it.”

  I had everyone’s attention. Given my tired-ass state of delirium I might have slurred more than a few of my sentences together. “We don’t have the numbers to be a full army. We don’t even have enough to take on a company of mercenaries. But we do have a window of surprise so we’re going to exploit the hell out of that by being fast-moving sneaky bastards. There will be four teams with four objectives. Jarmella, Adalyn, and Ivar – you’re going after Berik and the two guys minding him. Menrihk, Arvid, and Leif – focus on Agnarr’s sailors. You know what they look like?”

  I got a few uncertain nods.

  “I want the mercenaries and sailors to separate. If they start running they will try to flee down the hill the way they came because it’s familiar. Let them escape. Gaynun, Ewen, Elgrid, Gilmero, and Kilmur – you’re with me. We’re going after Agnarr himself and anyone who stands in our way. The rest of you will follow Odalis away from here. You’re going with the northerners. They’re going to know something is up so the story is that Saskia escaped and the rest of us have gone after her. You’re going with the injured. Keep them safe. Head two miles south of here then veer back towards Ice Bridge. We’ll catch up as soon as we can. Is everyone ready?”

  I was met with a sea of uneasy looks.

  “It’s time to be bad guys.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Everyone was in position – my team on the southern side of the path, keeping us between our escaping injured and any of Elizandria’s mercenaries that decided to engage us. We also had the sun to our backs which would cause them to squint. Jarmella’s and Menrihk’s teams were on the northern side, Jarmella more to the east, Menrihk more to the west.

  I had commandeered all the functioning members of the infantry into my team. On the other side of the path lay the mages and archers. Better to keep them from fighting in close quarters. Kilmur probably had the least enviable job of the entire vanguard – keeping Saskia loosely gagged and bound. She was roped to a tree beside me but if she really tried to escape then there was little we could do to stop her.

  I handed the reins of the attack to Menrihk with specific instructions. He kept the seeing rod pinned to his eye and tracked our arrivals up the hill, choosing his target carefully. I counted four potential targets that Menrihk had free choice over. Eight of Agnarr’s sailors carried four sacks of silver between them, stretched out on long poles like their bounty was a boar after a successful hunt.

  “It’ll waste a spell,” warned Menrihk.

  “It’s only a waste if it doesn’t work.”

  Elizandria’s scout was the first to climb up. He came to a stop, surveyed the land around him like he had done a hundred times already, and was just about to give the all clear when something rustled his instincts. He cocked his head to one side, uncertain of what was out there. Lowered himself down. Listened some more.

  The rest of the mercenaries lumbered up the mountain, their attention no longer on the look out for an ambush.

  Elizandria raised her hand. “Wait …” Peered at the scout. Everyone came to a standstill.

  Ewen’s head turned my way. So did Gilmero’s. I kept my focus pinned on the mercenaries down below. Ewen and Gilmero soon got the message and did the same.

  Agnarr stopped beside Elizandria, no doubt asking what the trouble was. Berik heaved in the back. Slow blinking. A couple of bruises lined the side of his face, one around his eye, the other across his chin. He held one hand against his ribs as he tried to breathe in deep. Winced.

  Elizandria nodded to two more of her people. They fanned out, three scouts now searching the mountainside for whatever had tipped off the first guy to our presence.

  Menrihk whispered his spell.

  One of the sailors carrying Draegor’s silver cried out. “Woah, woah!” A hundred coins spilled out from his sack, bouncing through the thin snow and running away from him. He dropped his load in an instant, scrambling after the escaping fortune as his buddy in the lead swore at him. Their pole thumped against the hard ground, splitting the sack open even more, and the entirety of their haul flooded the snow.

  “Down! Down!” cried Elizandria. Everyone dropped. Weapons out. Eyes searching.

  The first sailor continued running after the coins. Agnarr shouted out after him. The sailor did what he could to gather the coins but he would never find them all. The other raked his gloves through the snow, scooping up the majority while unintentionally burying many more.

  Silence fell around us.

  Elizandria called out, presumably a, “Who’s out there?” in her native tongue. We gave her a moment to sweat it out, letting her people tire from not knowing when the attack was going to happen. That was the funny thing about adrenaline: It has a useful life expectancy that is far shorter than what people give it credit for. It clears your mind and makes you aware of incoming danger, but if you can’t use it quickly then you start to become your own worst enemy. You list all the problems, trying to keep tracking of every possible threat in front of you. Eyes on that tree, careful of that bulge in the ground, check that my retreat has not just been cut off.

  Elizandria called out again.

  I gave them another moment, allowing doubt to creep in. Maybe they hadn’t just walked into a trap after all. Then I raised my voice. “Agnarr!”

  Sixty heads turned my way, all squinting into the sun.

  I nodded to Kilmur. He tugged on Saskia’s gag. Started poking her.

  She didn’t growl.

  He poked her again.

  Still no growl.

  Agnarr spoke. I had no idea what he said.

  Kilmur swung his fist into Saskia’s gut. She snapped a quick hiss, an animal-esque bite followed by a long, guttural rumble. Half of our opponent’s shoulders raised up in defense.

  Agnarr spoke again. I got the idea that he was asking what
I wanted. I helped to spell it out for him.

  “Elizandria? Our issue is with Agnarr, not with you. You and your people can leave.”

  Elizandria rolled her head towards Agnarr, giving him a look of, ‘you said you would handle this.’

  “You can take the sailors with you as well and all the silver you are carrying. The coins on the ground are ours. There are two people we want.”

  “Two?”

  “You know how this goes.”

  She scanned those with her. Double checked her options. “We have you outnumbered.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Thirty four of you landed in Brilskeep. I am sure.”

  “Let’s say you were right. What would you get out of it by fighting to the death? More gold and silver? You know we’re not carrying any because you have our gold and silver. The ability to add a few mercenary kills to your history? That would be kinda pointless. You could try ransoming us and our captain might even entertain it, but you’re going to be disappointed when you find out that you won’t be making much money from us at all.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Do you really think General Kasera sent his own daughter up here?”

  Confusion ran through them all. “She announced herself as Alysia Kasera Lavarta in front of all of us,” said Elizandria.

  “I announce myself as Raike. What’s my real name?”

  “It’s a trick,” hissed Agnarr.

  Whisper: “Probably.” Out loud: “Why lie to us? We’ve questioned your soldier here. He told us the truth.”

  “He told you shit and you know it. We came to deal with Agnarr. Not Draegor. Getting ambushed was annoying as hell but turned out to be not a complete waste of our time. We did what we had to in Brilskeep, left, still had a job to do and we tried to do it, then this fuckwit jumps on a ship in the dead of night and leaves us with our dicks in our hands. It’s like he wants us to kill him. So, here we are, still trying to do that fucking job. Hand over Agnarr and Berik and we’ll be on our way.”

  “Your job was to kidnap Agnarr?”