by Jackson Lear
“My lady? Please?”
The infantry shifted uneasily, gathering into two lines, ready for the order. One of the riders brought Alysia’s chestnut horse closer, both of them moving with great reluctance onto the obsidian sand.
Mikael looked over the spectacle of horses fighting their masters, his features dropping as a deep-seeded concern started to take hold. He reeled back towards the boats, afraid that his well-calculated plans were about to be undone. Beyond us was a ship hiding from the fading moonlight, the front lifting up out of the water and pulled back into the head of a horse, snake, or dragon. Her sails were at rest. All light absent.
Mikael waved one hand through the air. Someone from the second row boat waved back. Mikael cupped his hands around his mouth. “Who goes there?”
A stammered bellow came back to us. “T-Torunn!”
Mikael sank with relief. Grinned at us all. “See? No problem.”
I caught the faintest movement from the row boat in the lead – almost unperceivable – yet it chilled my soul in a way the winter snow could never hope to achieve. One of the figures at the head of the boat was breathing us in. “Alysia? Get on a horse. Now.”
Alysia didn’t hesitate. She pinched the sides of her cloak and hurried back behind the line of infantry.
Mikael spun. Arms out. “M’lady, please … nothing is the matter. Torunn will get us all to Faersrock within the day, I promise.”
Zara squinted into the darkness after me. “Holy fuck ...” Turned. Ran to her horse.
“We’re leaving!” shrieked Alysia, pulling the reins on her horse into a full one-eighty.
“M’lady, please ...”
A shadow leapt from the bow of the row boat. Fifty yards out. The boat nose-dived into the water, the rowers crying out from the imminent capsizing and scrambling to right themselves. The shadow soared overhead, landed on the road behind us and stopped, holding his position.
The infantry spun. Spears down. Shields up. The cavalry moved to surround Alysia, their horses wailing against the new arrival. The archers locked on. Our eight mages readied their best spells. Hands out. Fingers crackling with magic.
The vampire dropped his diamond shield down, cutting off our escape.
Chapter Two
The horses crashed into each other; twisting, turning, fighting to break free from their reins.
“Hollllld,” growled Lieutenant Loken, using all of his strength to pull his steed around to block the vampire’s sight of Alysia. “Gaynun watch the lake. Adalyn the forest. Zara? Pull her away.”
Zara intercepted Alysia, putting herself between her charge and the vampire.
Our foe lingered twenty yards away, bristling in darkness from behind his five-foot high diamond-shaped shield. His face was almost luminescent, as pale as blue snow. Haggard with lines, crows-feet, and puckered lips, his features stank of a prolonged decay. His eyes were wide enough to absorb the light of the failing moon without the need of our fire to aid him. Long, autumn-leaf hair was pulled back behind a fur cloak. To his side dangled a curved sword, still sheathed.
I pushed the tip of my blade into Mikael’s throat.
“No! Please … I didn’t know ...”
“Make it right and you might live until dawn.”
Mikael spluttered, his feet pinned to the ground while his arms moved theatrical about, nearly bumping into the hand that was about to end him. “Torunn!”
The vampire thumped his shield against the ground and called to us in something of a shrill, shrieking voice, like every word caused him well-deserved agony. “Easy, daughter of Kasera. You are not needed to die tonight.”
Alysia reeled her horse around, snapping back at the vampire. “Let us leave.”
“Not until the king has dismissed you from his lands.”
“Galinnia is imperial and has been for years. Everything up to one mile into the lake and south of that is ours. You are trespassing.”
The vampire swept one arm out wide. “And yet I proudly proclaim this territory as Draegor’s, King of Vasslehün and Scion of the House Scoridge. You have come bearing gifts for the king in the north. He is ready to receive you.”
“One minute until the boats land,” whispered Gaynun.
I pressed my blade further against Mikael’s throat.
“Torunn?!”
A coarse, northern accent rang out from the rear row boat as it closed in. “I’m-m sorry, cousin. They ambushed us.”
The vampire sniffed, angling his chin to one side as though he had come across something foul. He scanned us again, quickly, until his eyes settled upon me. And onto the sapphire poison gripped in my left hand. “You.”
I twisted my grip. “Make it right.”
Mikael cried out loud enough for even the villagers of Orkust to hear us. “You can take the gold! Please! We mean you no harm!”
The vampire hissed in return. “The king will take your unimpressive coins when Kasera’s daughter kneels before him.”
The lieutenant spat back in a voice that croaked like he grew up in a smoke house. “Like hell she will.”
“Says the expendable one,” growled the vampire.
“Enough!” shouted Alysia. She pulled her horse away from Zara, returned to the lieutenant’s side and glared at the vampire. “You want my attention? You’ve got it. Trading verbal jabs like this won’t help your cause nor will it help to hurry us onto your boats. Do you really think we can’t keep you pinned down until the sun rises? Or that we have come so wholly unprepared?”
The vampire hesitated for a moment too long. “I do not fear the sun.”
Alysia gave him a courteous nod. “This goes both ways. If you respect us then we will respect you. So far you are failing your king and making a mockery of his rule.” For the first time in my life I heard Alysia rise with authority. “None of these people are expendable. Nor are the ones you’ve ambushed, imprisoned, or are currently spying on. If you have any sense about you, you will pull your boats back across your border and never set foot in the empire again.”
The vampire shook his head at us, a violent desperation creeping into his voice. “I am to take you to him. Believe me, you would not still be alive if I had come to kill you.”
“I refuse your invitation.”
He flexed his hand out from beside his shield – a signal to the boats.
I hissed at Mikael. “You’re about to die.”
Mikael dipped to the side and strode forward, like a gifted diplomat overseeing a simple misunderstanding. “Everyone, please? There is no need to let our bravura defeat us today, not when we all want the same thing.” He came to rest between the infantry and the vampire, his voice quivering with every uneven heartbeat. “Our plan was always open for possible change and we should embrace that while we have the opportunity. We came to seek a resolution with a foe. This is our chance. It has not come in the way we expected but we have yet to be attacked, so maybe we can use this to bridge our differences and form a new friendship.”
“The first boat is landing,” said Gaynun.
“Adalyn?” called the lieutenant.
“Nothing from the forest, sir.”
Mikael turned to the vampire, his arms still stretched out wide – either for an embrace or to show that he was unarmed, except for the pitiful dagger at his waist. “My name is Mikael. I was born in … well, across the lake. Had my parents stayed there for long enough I would now be a man of Vasslehün and Draegor would be my king. You already know of Miss Kasera. What can we call you?”
“I am not here for pleasantries,” snapped the vampire.
“I understand, but if we are to build trust between us then names are a good place to start.”
“I am here to speak with the daughter of Kasera. No one else.”
“I believe you and I am here to help in any way I can. Perhaps you can tell us how long are we expected to stay in Vasslehün?”
“You are a traitor to your people, Mikael of Faersrock. Speak again and I will rip yo
ur tongue out through your throat.”
I said, “How about you go fuck yourself? And tell your treasonous king the same.”
The vampire’s hand fell to his sword. His fingers curled around its handle. “He’s not my king, he’s the king. And just know he’s been aware of your little incursion for some time. You will join us on the lake.” He held his attention dead onto me. “All of you. Do it and you might learn how many of my kind are currently heading towards your allies in the south.”
“Please!” cried Mikael, raising his hands to the sky. “Everyone? If we are to die then let it be trying to do something beneficial for our brothers and sisters, parents and loved ones, wherever they may be. Dying is not always a fool’s death but it will be one if we do it here tonight. Perhaps the king genuinely wants our help. I’ll be honest, all we know about him are rumors, reports from merchants who have an agenda and an uncertain mythos growing around him. Perhaps we should find out more from the man himself before making any life-changing decisions.”
I waited for the vampire to remove Mikael’s tongue. He did not. Instead he tssked at us. “You will all join us. But know this: only the daughter of Kasera will be granted safety before the king.”
“The daughter of Kasera has you outnumbered,” said Alysia. “You will either grant us all safety or I will immediately hand over our conversation – and command of the vanguard – to someone else. Choose wisely.”
The vampire’s eyes flickered as he read us all like it amused him. “Precious girl. So young. Spouting off from a prepared list of threats and retorts while hiding behind those who are terrified of my being.” He shifted his attention, his soulless eyes falling upon each and every one of us, marking us with a unique curiosity. “Half of you are drained already. Panicked. The poison of fear sapping your mind and muscles.”
“No one here is expendable,” Alysia said again. “And you know very well what will happen to you and your king if I am taken against my will.”
“Yes … I wonder, will your empire wash their hands of you when they realize your incursion into foreign lands has failed? Will they say you were acting on your own, or will they strike your name from the relics of history as though you never existed in the first place?”
The horses wrestled against their masters. The northern row boats hit the shore, sliding up onto the sand. The rowers climbed out, waiting nervously in case we were about to strike.
Alysia said: “If I go with you there will be no mistreatment of my people, or of anyone we know or interact with.”
“I will make no promise on behalf of the king,” said the vampire.
“Then you should be quick to tell him that I am traveling with thirty three official emissaries of Ispar and a guide who falls under my protection. I will hold you accountable for your actions, not your intent. I will hold you and the king responsible for any indiscretion against anyone – for any reason – no matter which side of the lake they’re from. I will not be taken under duress. I will instead allow your king to justify his alliance with your kind. Should he fail to satisfy my curiosity then it won’t be just the daughter of Kasera you’ll have to face, it’ll be an entire imperial legion.”
“So be it.” The vampire stepped back, loosening up. Our infantry shifted, ready for the attack. The vampire pointed to the village. “You may house your horses over there. Bring whatever you can carry. I suggest you practice your kneeling. It might spare your head.” He pointed to me. “But this one ... he is no emissary of Ispar.”
I answered back. “And your loyalty to a mortal is pathetic. I’ve seen eunuchs and lapdogs with more self-respect than you.”
Only the gnaw of twisting leather filled the silence as quite a few people wished that I had held onto the strong and silent angle a little longer.
The vampire glared back at me. “Yours will be long … and drawn out.”
Alysia flashed a signal. Two fingers swiping to the side. Follow my lead. Shame. I was kinda wishing she rotated her flat palm ninety degrees. “We’ll go with you. All except for one.”
“All of you,” growled the vampire, with a hungry look my way.
“I’m not talking about him. One of my riders is going to deliver a message to my allies in the south. If I’m not back in five days then the emperor will learn that you abducted imperial soldiers on imperial lands under orders from King Draegor. You and your king have five days to convince me of your great benevolence before Ispar rides to war.”
The vampire glared once more. “Be quick about it.”
Alysia nodded to the arctic-blond rider. With the whole encounter locked in her memory she kicked her horse into a gallop, taking a wide berth around the vampire and darting along the narrow road that was no doubt being watched upon by spies from both sides of Ispar’s rule.
The vampire called out to the oarsmen. “Take the chest.”
The lumbering duo from the first row boat shuffled forward, lifted the chest of wine from the ground and trudged back to the water’s edge.
Mikael clapped his hands together and strolled towards us, nervously awaiting his fate. “I would just like to emphasize caution.”
“Torunn betrayed us,” I said.
“No, he most definitely did not.”
“He was sloppy and was ambushed. He then led our enemies directly to us. That’s a betrayal.”
“No, that’s … being forced to do something against your will.”
“Then he better be crystal clear with his retelling of the events before I force something long and sharp into his will the moment I see fit.”
“Raike?” murmured Alysia, as she dismounted. Zara followed.
I sidled up to Alysia, Zara, and Lieutenant Loken. “Say the word.”
“Not yet,” cautioned Alysia. “We’re onto the golden leaf. Understood?”
Translation: we do this under Alysia’s diplomatic leadership until the first swing of an attack occurs, at which point we were all fully committed to the assault. It also meant that we would immediately be under full military leadership, a prospect that was akin to climbing into wet undergarments, only to discover that they were wet because someone else had pissed in them. I had just spent the last few months training members of the army. Serving under them would be a nightmare come true. Still, we all nodded.
Alysia did her best to hide the terror of being woefully in over her head, with all of the philosophical training from a classroom and none of the brutal experience. She looked to me. “You’re the only one who’s been this far north before. Please tell us you know at least one of the warlord nobles.”
“None.”
“That might be a good thing,” said Zara.
“It is.”
“Why?” asked Alysia.
“Because the last time I was up here I had to kill a lot of people just to make it back home.”
Alysia grumbled. “What are our chances?”
“That depends. Can you convince the king we came to kill to break the best alliance he’s ever had with nothing more than some gold and a few bottles of wine?”
Chapter Three
Daylight broke some hours later. We were sailing north-west on a sea-faring longboat. Longer, wider, and more robust than the ones designed to traverse rivers while on a raid. Two red sails pulled us along while a number of crewmen manned the oars beneath, leaving the passengers on the cut-out upper deck battling a torrent of seasickness. The salt air was one thing, the sweat from the fellas below was another, but the constant rocking from side to side screwed with my stomach like a hangover that refused to improve.
The different groups on board refused to look at each other. The easiest to identify were the sailors who served under the would-be-king Agnarr, as they had been ambushed by the actual-king Draegor. They had presumably committed treason against the king by aiding the allies of a usurper and it would be impossible for them to prove their innocence, considering that they had set off to ferry thirty-four imperial escorts and a Lady of Ispar to meet a renowned member o
f Draegor’s opposition. The thugs of Draegor who had ambushed the sailors strolled around like they owned the place, but we out-numbered them six to one so they ignored us while barking orders at the captured crew of the ship. Interestingly, they refused to engage the vampire, who remained in the sail’s shade as soon as the sun graced us with its presence. Kasera’s vanguard kept an eye on everyone they could but avoided making eye contact with the vampire, still fearing his menace. Alysia kept her attention away from Mikael. Mikael kept his attention away from his cousin Torunn. Only Zara, the vampire, and I had the wherewithal to look at whoever we wanted to look at, which mostly included a whole lot of soldiers fighting seasickness for the first time in their life, disgruntled sailors, keeping an eye on Draegor’s ambush ship which followed us across the lake, and staring down an undead creature with the face of a miscarriage.
“You knew,” Alysia murmured to me from the front of the ship. “You knew before we saw the row boats that it was a trap.”
“I’m not psychic but there were too many ways for this to go wrong and only one way for it to go right.”
Alysia looked over to Zara who had refused to leave Alysia’s side despite being only one breath away from throwing up all over herself. “Torunn was vetted, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, ma’am. I … I don’t know how this happened.”
“Someone was either sloppy or they betrayed us.” Alysia bit her tongue, now in the worst predicament of her life with little hope of a rescue. “What should we have done instead?”
“You should’ve sent Zara on her own,” I said.
Zara burned me with a glare.
“She has the grace for negotiations and the experience to keep herself out of trouble.”
“Fuck you.”
Alysia said, “I suppose you would’ve volunteered to go with her?”
“I didn’t even want to go to Anglaterra, let alone here. I had done Galinnia before. Never again.”
“We’re no longer in Galinnia. And going with Zara would’ve gotten you out of the army camp.”
