by Jackson Lear
I puzzled over the mass of silver coins in my possession, the explosions coming from beneath the castle. Agnarr’s help with pointing out where Draegor slept helped to rule out his bedroom door being blasted open by magic, but perhaps he had a harem down below. Or a vault of silver that the mercenaries ransacked.
I bounced on my tiptoes to get some warm blood running through me whenever I was about to nod off. When that failed I plucked hairs from my week-old beard. Then I started to play the guessing game. I figured that I had about two hours of useful alertness. I was stubborn and used to keeping watch so that might push it to three hours. But I was also cold and exhausted from a lack of sleep, which would bring me back to two hours. But I did have a bladder, and the longer I held it the more likely I was going to stay awake instead of succumbing to sleep.
Why was any of this guessing useful? I was going under the assumption that someone knew I was out here keeping watch. If that someone was playing the same guessing game then they would want to wait long enough to slip past me without being spotted. They would have a late dinner, sit by the fire, wait for that big log to burn down to the embers, take a swig of warm grog, and set off. I kept an eye on the chimneys. One by one they started to dwindle down, the smoke fading to nothing as the residents turned in for the night.
All except for one.
Agnarr’s.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Agnarr’s chimney went dark. The smoke drifted away. The candlelight from the window extinguished. The gentle snowfall obscured some of my vision but it wasn’t enough to block it out completely. The rhythmic lap of water against the shore kept me company. An occasional break in the surface as some fish or other creature managed to unsettle me.
A figure emerged from Agnarr’s home. Male. Ten yards away. Walking discreetly from one building to another. Slipped out of view.
I crept closer, careful of any crunch of snow which might have formed since my stakeout. I ducked around the side of someone’s shack, avoiding the windows in case the owner decided to stab me in my head. There might have been tiny murder holes in the side of the walls as well but I was hoping that was only my imagination messing with me.
A dog barked from within a house. A cascade of other dogs followed, waking the entire town. Shouts and moans to shut the fuck up ensued. The dogs fell quiet. Their owners checked the windows. Whoever was on sentry duty on the edge of town remained silent. No cause for alarm – we weren’t under attack.
I darted across the muddy road. Reached another home. Heard a slight thump of a door being closed. Peered around.
My mystery friend had acquired an ally. Both rugged up in large cloaks that billowed behind and thick hoods which covered the back of their heads. Both men, judging by their statue and walk. They crossed the road, keeping their heads down, attention forward.
I checked the surrounding windows for light, faces, smoke, or the like. Listened out for any bird call, whistle, or signal to the duo that someone was following them. Nothing seemed obvious so I followed them, keeping myself close to the buildings while the duo walked along the middle of the road.
They took the path we had taken to reach Faersrock; along the water’s edge, past the church, burnt-down home, and houses covered in mud and grass. If the pair talked amongst themselves they were too quiet for me to even hear a whisper. Their heads remained locked forward.
I followed their foot prints closely. Close to my boot size. Very similar stride length. One walked with his right foot pointing closer to forward than comfortably to the right. A man with a slight limp. The other had a slightly shorter stride.
They carried along the path for ten minutes. Only when they reached the final fork in the road did they turn around to see if anyone was following them. They glanced left, right, leaned to one side, even trekked back along the trail a few yards. All clear. They moved on, to the pier, and whistled to the ship at rest.
A row boat sploshed towards them. One manning the oars, the other sitting at the front of the boat. It was too dark to work out who. They reached the pier. Both climbed up. All four began talking in whispered tones.
I considered using a spell to eavesdrop but what were the chances that they’d all be speaking Isparian? Slim. Better to keep my reserve of energy for something that I might find more useful, like tripping a foe so I could skewer his neck.
The boat people seemed to take turns explaining things, probably ‘what happened in Brilskeep,’ or their answer to ‘what’s your take on Miss Kasera?’ Heads turned from one man to another. Conversations continued. I have no idea who was who or what they were saying but a secret meeting in the dead of night would’ve had a limited range of topics.
At last they shuffled around, shook hands, and the two sailors climbed back into the row boat. One of the duo in the fur cloaks helped kick the row boat around so that it was pointing in the right direction, then they headed off down the path, passed me without indicating if they knew I was there and continued walking. The pair in the row boat were nothing but dark blobs by the time they reached their ship. Soon enough it was alive with activity. The sail unfurled. Oars struck the water. They were on the move.
I left them to it, snuck back along the path and checked the foot prints again. Both shorter strides than mine. All four feet pointing normally outwards.
So that was it. Two men set off towards the ship. A third and fourth joined them. In the darkness someone must’ve exchanged cloaks. That someone rowed out to the ship. The other two returned to town.
I followed. The fella on the left moved differently. Hunched shoulders. Kept trying to glance over his shoulder before his friend reminded him not to. A very different vibe from before. The guy on the right returned home. The guy on the left went in with him. Didn’t come out again.
A swap. Either Agnarr had just left Faersrock or someone on his behalf did. Considering that Draegor’s cavalry were on their way I was willing to bet that the king-to-be had decided to sneak out under the cover of darkness. To make matters worse, he had taken the only ship out of here for himself.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I probably shortened the fisherman’s life by a couple of years for the fright I gave him. I had used an up-turned row boat as my shelter for the night and got a few hours of sleep before the birds started squawking like it was the end of the world.
I rose from the row boat, nodded my thanks, and searched the horizon, bleary-eyed and no doubt looking ridiculously foolish for sleeping outside when there was a vampire attack on the way.
The tavern-owner was stoking the fire. Alysia sat upright. Eyes open but hardly awake. She popped a dried mint leaf into her mouth. Chewed. Half of the vanguard were somewhat conscious and hoping that if they could lie very still and remain quiet then Loken wouldn’t wake up and–
“Right. Everyone up.”
Bad luck.
Zara peered back at me with bloodshot eyes, astoundingly awful morning breath, and the humor of a walrus with a toothache. “Well?”
“Agnarr’s gone.” I filled her in on what I had seen. This led me to Alysia and Loken where I filled them in as well.
“You’re sure?” asked Alysia.
“Best way to find out is to ask for a meeting with him. I’m sure you’ll get the run around and hear that he’s busy or went fishing early. To that I can say bullshit. No one was on the lake when I got up and none of the row boats were missing since I went to sleep. If he is here then I suggest you take a look at ...” I pointed. “That house over there. Ask for a man similar height and stride to Agnarr’s. Unless they’ve done a very clever swap around someone will be gone. We’ll also have a sailor we can probably identify and who is here when his crew isn’t. Oh, and the ship is gone. We’re going to be fucked if Draegor’s cavalry attacks us today.”
Alysia looked to Loken. “You said they might be able to reach us by dawn.”
“I’m not familiar with the land but covering a hundred miles in two days – maybe even a day and a half if they push
it – is possible.”
“All right, let’s look for Agnarr. If he doesn’t show his face in the next hour we’re leaving.”
The four of us stood there for a moment, none of us wanting to point out the obvious.
“… Except we can’t leave, can we?” muttered Alysia.
“Not easily, no,” I said.
“How long would it take us to walk it?”
“Around the lake?” asked Zara.
“Yes. Worst case scenario.”
Zara rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “It connects to a couple of major rivers and more lakes after that, eventually to the North Sea. This section is supposed to be four or five hundred miles long and a hundred miles across. So … maybe five hundred miles until we reach friendly territory.”
Loken bowed his head. “That’s a twenty day walk in ideal circumstances. We don’t know the land. We don’t have the supplies to march that far so we would need to forage, but this close to winter we’re not going to find a lot of favorable opportunities. Between here and home are going to be at least a dozen more tribes who won’t take a liking to us. We have nothing to trade for passage except the promise of gold some time in the future.”
“Or we wait for one of Agnarr’s ships to return,” I said.
“And the cavalry?”
“We avoid them.”
Zara shook her head. “They won’t give us passage on a ship if all we did was hide when their people needed us the most.”
“If Agnarr has run out on us then we can take one of his ships for ourselves.”
“So we either walk or sail,” said Alysia.
Zara shook her head again. “If I may, King Jaizer-Kantz once led an army into the winterlands northeast of the Ashlon Fields. He reached their capital city in autumn, held onto his siege for a month, then the snow started to fall. He retreated back south, taking sixty days for what had originally needed fifteen. He went with twenty thousand volunteer soldiers. Three thousand returned without ever seeing combat. The king didn’t survive the trip. There’s a reason the people here don’t raid north, east, or west during winter. In fact, they barely raid the south during winter. We shouldn’t even consider walking the lake, not if hunkering down and riding out the snow is a better option.”
“I know it’s not ideal and I know it would be risky, but whoever is on the throne now is going to send their fleet after us. They’ll cover the lake looking for us and drown us before we land in friendly territory. Walking might be the safest way.”
Loken butted in. “With all due respect my lady, knowing it and experiencing it are very different things. I am not familiar with King Jaizer-Kantz but I have heard of commanding officers from the south riding too far north and getting caught out by the unfamiliar weather. They are usually lucky to be alive.”
“So what do you propose, Lieutenant? We find somewhere to hide until spring? With no shelter, supplies, and during a full blown vampire season? Or do we walk to the very edge of the kingdom and barter with the first ship owner we see to cross the lake and shave a couple of hundred miles from our trek?”
Loken fell quiet, thinking through a dozen scenarios at once.
“There is a cavalry on its way right now,” Alysia said.
Loken grumbled. “There’s a lot of things that can go wrong no matter what we choose to do. Thankfully, we do have someone on our side who also has experience of being this far north.”
Alysia turned to me.
“We need a ship,” I said. “Thankfully we passed a dozen of them while slipping away from Brilskeep. If needs be we’ll head back in that direction with all the supplies we can carry, find the first longboat we can reach, and storm our way on board.”
Alysia cocked her head to one side. “You want us to hijack a nobleman’s ship?”
“An enemy’s ship, yes. If we leave now we can be back in Orkust in four or five days.”
“We’ll be heading straight towards Draegor’s cavalry.”
“Yeah, but they are expecting to reach Faersrock, not skirting along the shore trying to find us. With any luck they won’t even know we were here.”
“They’ll know,” said Zara. “The survivors here will tell them when we left and what direction we went. Plus, Razoz is among them. He is absolutely burning for a fight with you.”
“In that case our only chance lies in one of Agnarr’s captains returning in the next hour and him being of a cheery disposition.” I dug into my pouch and handed over a bunch of silver coins, much to the bewildered looks of Alysia and Loken.
“Where did you get these?” asked Alysia.
“I found them.”
“Oh, for the love of …” She held the coin up to the light. “This is a Vasslehün coin.”
“And it will buy us passage on a ship.”
“Does anyone else know that you have coins belonging to Draegor?”
“Agnarr.”
“Bloody hell. Do you know what the senate will do if they think we robbed Draegor right when he was being murdered?”
“I didn’t rob him. I looted the three mercenaries who had been trying to kill him.”
Zara uttered a deep, resigned sigh. “Raike may have just shown us the best way out of this mess. We go with a phoenix operation.”
“No,” snapped Loken. “I’m not putting the vanguard through that.”
Alysia remained silent.
“No,” repeated Loken.
I piped in. “What’s a phoenix operation?”
Loken shot his hand up to silence Zara. “Don’t you dare.”
“Mostly, we burn our previous plan to dust and start again with a new objective, though we pretend it was the one we were going with all along.”
I glanced between Zara, Alysia, and Loken, getting three curiously different looks from each of them. “Why do I get the feeling there’s a little more to it than just that?”
“Because it stops us from winning,” said Zara. “The flip side is that it will help us to not lose.”
Loken shook his head. “Our weapons were inspected. They know exactly who we are and why we’re here.”
Alysia lowered her chin to her chest, desperate to keep anyone from seeing the inner workings taking their toll on her. After a solid ten seconds she looked up to Loken. “If you had to choose right now with everything we know, what would you do?”
Loken chewed on his cheek before nodding my way. “If we get free passage on a ship, fantastic. If we have to barter for a ride, so be it. If we have to steal one and make a run for it … the military has done it before and we can make reparations if necessary. A ship will save our lives. Walking five hundred miles through the snow will kill at least half of us.”
Alysia turned to Zara. “Same question. What would you do?”
“If Agnarr isn’t here then we need to move out as soon as we can, get a ship, get back to Orkust.”
“Do we need a crew?”
“We can row,” said Loken.
“Are any of your people sailors?”
“Not that I know of, but this is a lake, not the sea. I’ve had half my people keep an eye on everything the crew were doing since we were taken. I told the translators to pay attention to the commands and what someone did when ordered to do whatever it was. A crew would be ideal, but if we’re taking them hostage then we need to be prepared for something ugly.”
I said, “I might be able to convince one of Agnarr’s people to come with us. A raider. We should have a guide and a sailor who can save us from doing something stupid.”
“That might be a little too dangerous,” said Loken.
“Yeah, but Ispar hires mercenaries and locals to be guides all the time, right?”
Loken locked his jaw. “Uh-huh.”
“Then let’s hire a local to be our guide. They know the ships, they know the lake, and they’ll know the land between here and wherever we have to go.”
Alysia asked, “How exactly are you going to convince someone to come with us?”
“
We give them the ship we steal and anything that’s left onboard. The added bonus is that it fucks over one of their rivals.”
“Their rivals have fleets,” said Loken.
“Which is why we need a local to point out the best rival to steal from.”
“My people are not mercenaries or thieves.”
“You might be surprised to see how many of your people end up working for a company like mine when they’ve had enough of the army.”
“Then I’d rather not encourage them towards a path they would be better off avoiding.”
Alysia drew in a quick breath. “All right, all right. Lieutenant, please have your people prepare to move in a hurry. Raike, see if you can sweet talk a local into being a guide. Zara, let’s go see if Agnarr is still here.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The mood of the morning hadn’t shifted since yesterday’s news of the oncoming attack. Most of the folks walked around like there was little point in panicking over a raid that might not even not happen. Still, the young ones were kept indoors. The surly old folks trudged to their fishing boats, either to get on with the day as usual or to ensure that they were on the lake when Draegor’s cavalry arrived.
My first stop was to bang on the door that Agnarr had stopped at the night before. A dog barked. No one answered. No one told it to shut up. I banged again, moving on to the boarded-up windows. I did a full circuit and tested the doors. Locked. Windows? Bolted.
I moved on to Anka and her grandfather, hoping that they might help me like they had done the day before. The old man was busy throwing together a pack of clothes and cured fish, rasping to his granddaughter to bring him this, don’t forget that, do you remember where this, that, and the other was?
“When are you leaving?” I asked.
Anka’s voice cracked. “Yesterday. Always yesterday.”
