by Jackson Lear
“I’d vouch for you.”
“Thank you but I don’t think you can overrule a commander’s instinct against hiring thugs. If I do the exact job the general wants me to then his officers will leave me alone. The more I step on their toes the more they band together and ruin my day.”
“Is that really why you’ve avoided going back to Erast?”
“I have a dozen reasons. All of them are valid.”
“So my offer of taking you around town and showing you how things have changed since you left the orphanage?”
“Appreciated, but probably won’t happen.”
We were interrupted by Menrihk bounding towards us. “Sirs! I think I found what Saskia was pointing us to! We have incoming enemies.”
Jarmella rose quickly. “Vampires?”
“No. I think it’s a northern army.”
She hurried over. “Where?”
“Down the side of the mountain about two miles away, coming right towards us.”
“Show me.”
Menrihk darted forward, finding a lip on the hill a hundred yards to the east, stopping at a fallen tree. He whipped the seeing rod up to his eye, took a moment to gather his bearings, then pointed forward. “There.”
Jarmella took the seeing rod. Needed a moment to find what Menrihk had seen. “Shit. They really are coming right for us.”
“I don’t think they know we’re here,” said Menrihk.
“That bitch sent us into a trap.” Jarmella looked back to the vanguard behind us “We’re going to have to run for it.”
“They’re going to find our tracks in the snow.”
Jarmella held the seeing rod out to me. “Unless you have a better idea?”
It was doubtful. I peered down the side of the mountain, through a thicket of trees and shrubs laced with snow and ice dripping onto the ground. I soon found four dozen warriors heaving their way up the mountain. All were armed with a mix of swords, axes, bows, and shields. Most were in mismatched clothing carrying a lot of heavy gear with them.
A patch of colored clothing crossed my line of sight. I re-angled the seeing rod to hone in whoever was out there. And for the first time since reaching this icy wasteland I broke into an uncontrolled laugh. Even had to wipe a tear from my eye.
“What the hell’s so funny?”
“Because it’s more than just a trap.” I handed the seeing rod back to Jarmella. “I know who betrayed us. And why.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Jarmella held the seeing rod towards the narrow ridge dead ahead. “Elizandria?”
“Yeah. And look who’s with her.”
She had to move to the other side of the bushes but she finally got a good view of Agnarr climbing up the mountain. “Motherfucker.”
“Yeah. They’ve teamed up.”
Jarmella searched the rest of Elizandria’s mercenaries for any surprises. “They’re coming right for us.”
“Of course they are. It bypasses Draegor’s cavalry.”
“They’re going to overwhelm us. Forty raiders to our rear and fifty coming straight for us … If we run now the rest of Agnarr’s people will tell him just how close we are and they’ll chase us down. Even if we pull everyone away they’ll find our tracks within an hour.”
“Yeah, but by then we’ll be far enough away from them. They’re going to want to keep going to Faersrock instead of doubling back to track us down.”
“One look at our tracks and they’ll know the only reason we veered off at a right angle is because we saw them.”
“We outnumber them.”
“No we don’t. Two thirds of our forces belong to that guy down there. She shook her head at the assholes coming our way. “You said you knew why they betrayed us.”
“Have a good look at everyone down there. What do you see?”
She lifted the seeing rod back to her eye. “Twenty … twenty five members of the crew we sailed in with. The same number of mercenaries, judging by the extra weapons. A couple of well dressed people – nobles, I’m guessing. Nice furs on them. Good leather, too. What am I missing?”
“There is an even mix of sailors and mercenaries. The sailors are carrying the bulk of packs and chests. The mercenaries are not, yet they’re all quite happy despite trudging up the side of a mountain. The only time mercenaries are that happy is when they’ve just been paid. The sailors are heaving. They’re not used to the mountain so something has gone wrong. I’d say they were hoping to sail out of here but Draegor’s fleet made that impossible. My best guess? Elizandria’s intervention in Brilskeep was actually part of a heist.”
Jarmella and Menrihk both blinked back at me. “That lot down there just robbed Draegor?”
“And we were the diversion.”
Jarmella stared back at me like I had finally lost my mind. “I’m glad you’re finding this so funny.”
“Oh come on, that’s the type of heist I’ve always wanted to be involved in and I was. I just wish I knew it at the time. You look lost.”
“Yeah.”
“We presented Agnarr with an opportunity – to overthrow Draegor with Ispar’s support. The problem was that these people really don’t like us. They like being mighty and independent. Even our offer was likely received as a slap in the face as it suggests that Agnarr is weak and needs our help if he wants to progress in life. Worst still, the offer comes from a Kasera. But he accepted. Why?”
“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.
