The Huntresses' Game

by Joe Jackson

  As if he was reading her mind, Aeligos put a hand on Kari’s shoulder, and he nodded when she met his stare. “It’s not you, Kari. Never you,” he said, maintaining strong eye contact.

  Only for a moment, though, as those black eyes wandered to the rush of scenery below them. A part of her wanted to cry; she understood perfectly in that moment. It wasn’t that Aeligos didn’t trust Kari enough to share his sorrows, it was that he thought she already had enough of her own to deal with. It seemed unfair that he would share in her burdens but not share his own with her.

  We’ll both be back in Flora before we know it, and see Grakin again, she thought. That might be what we both need to calm our frayed nerves.

  Alamarise flew them far to the north over that day and the next, but he landed a distance from Chandler’s Grove. “You two enter first. I am confident the people of Chandler’s Grove will recognize me and not be trouble by my appearance, but it is better to take things slowly and carefully. Go and see to your allies, and while you do so, I will stay as inconspicuous as one of my kind may. Once the people are aware of my presence and purpose, I will approach under the cover of darkness, and then we can begin planning the assault upon Fort Sabbath.”

  Chandler’s Grove wasn’t as small as Kari expected based on Eugene’s description. She supposed perhaps it had been some time since he’d seen it or heard details about it. Villages in the far reaches had a tendency to become towns quickly, and then eventually cities before one realized it. While Chandler’s Grove was far from a city, it had many of the major amenities that a city offered, just fewer of them. There was a nice inn that centered the town along its two roads, a smithy and tannery, general store, and lots of other little shops. It obviously saw trade from trappers and possibly even miners. There was no wall, but houses seemed to be springing up at a good rate; some looked like they had been built just the year before, if not more recently.

  What made Kari smile wasn’t the town, but the woods around it. She could see and hear a lot of movement in the forest surrounding them. Such would normally be cause for concern, but these were Red Mask keeping cold camps in the woods so the town’s population wouldn’t appear to swell too much to the casual observer. They were doing a fine job of keeping hidden from the prying eyes of Zaliskower. It was possible the vampires already knew of the Red Mask’s presence, but Kari suspected the town would’ve come under attack if that was the case.

  “Looks like they’ve already gathered in force here; did they know we were coming?” Kari wondered aloud. Was it possible the Oracle had sent word ahead of them? That seemed unlikely; even two days shouldn’t have been enough time for word to reach the Red Mask and have them all gather in this place.

  “Maybe they were determined to make this assault one way or another, and our mishap led them to believe they were on their own,” Aeligos offered.

  Kari and Aeligos went to the inn first, and drew every eye in the place when they entered. Eugene was there, and he approached and welcomed the two.

  “We were starting to wonder if you’d given up,” he said, and Aeligos smirked when Kari looked at him. “There was talk that you had been captured and killed, but a couple of my scouts reported that they’d spotted you in Solaris. Are you ready to put this plan in motion?”

  “Maybe,” Kari said, and it was obvious that wasn’t the answer the Red Mask wanted to hear. “We need to go over a few things first. How many of these people in the common room are with you?”

  “They’re my fellow officers. Let me introduce you to the colonel.” He turned toward the bar, where a few men in commoner’s clothes were watching with interest. “Sir?”

  One of the other humans approached Kari, rather distinguished-looking for a vampire hunter. He looked to be in his fifties, his hair faded to white but well-kept in a slightly longer variation of a typical military cut. He was in good shape, but to Kari’s eyes, he was more likely the brains of the outfit than a day-to-day hunter or trainer. His eyes were intense, shrewd, and he stood rigidly before Kari as though waiting to be saluted. She graced him with a demonhunter salute, and the man’s stoic demeanor cracked for just a moment as he returned a military salute.

  “Major, I thought you said she wore paluric armor? Gods know you raved about it enough,” he said.

  Eugene looked back and forth between the two, so Kari answered for him. “I lost it in battle with Annabelle,” she admitted, seeing the sudden doubt in the eyes of the men before her. “Karian Vanador, Hand of Zalkar, by his grace.”

  The man finally offered his hand. “Colonel Prescott,” he returned.

  “Are you a military colonel, or is that just your rank in the Red Mask?” Kari asked.

  “Both,” Prescott answered. “That’s why we introduced military ranks to our officers. I served for the better part of twenty years in the Dira Ch’Tori army. So, what you’re telling me is you already engaged and were beaten by the vampires?”

  Kari tried not to get impatient with the implications. “We were ambushed by Zaliskower, but they didn’t kill us, and we escaped. Now, we can get hung up on what armor I’m wearing, or I can tell you about the dragon we have out in the woods to help us, and we can form a strategy to kill those two and get my armor back.”

  “You brought a dragon?” Eugene blurted.

  “Alamarise,” Kari confirmed, drawing some good-natured swears from the men.

  Prescott nodded with a twitch of his upper lip. “And this gentleman is your brother?”

  “Brother-in-law; Aeligos Tesconis,” the rogue answered, stepping forward to shake the human’s hand. “Looks to me like you’ve got the numbers for what we want to do. Now we’ve brought a dragon to even the odds against Zaliskower. He’s a couple miles south of the town, hiding in the woods as much as a dragon can. For now, let’s send a runner to tell him he can approach the town safely, and make sure the watch and whoever’s in charge knows it. Then we can put our heads together and figure out how we’re going to siege the fort.”

  “Eugene, send a couple of men south to find our dragon ally,” the colonel ordered. “Get him close to the town, and send the word around to the encampments that we should be prepared for any preemptive strike tonight. If a dragon landed nearby, Annabelle and Zaliskower may know we are here and planning something.”

  “Yes, sir,” Eugene answered with a salute, and he left the inn quickly.

  Kari and Aeligos joined the colonel and his administrative staff for a cup of coffee while they waited for Eugene’s return. The Major was gone for a while, leading Kari to believe he was making the rounds personally to ensure his men were ready for any trickery in the night. Kari and Colonel Prescott chatted a bit about their military ranks, but Kari’s title of lieutenant colonel was a field rank specific to the Apocalypse. She held no official military rank outside of that conflict, but her rank as a hunter allowed her to assume military command if granted by a higher authority. It was obvious that Prescott was impressed she’d held the rank at all.

  Eugene returned, and several of the colonel’s staff among the Red Mask sat around the table with the two officers, the demonhunter, and the rogue. “Is Alamarise on his way? Did you send people to tell him he’s welcome in the town?”

  “They did,” came a voice from the doorway, drawing everyone’s attention. There stood what appeared to be a purple-eyed elf, dressed casually in an outfit that looked like he borrowed it from some of the hunters. He was tall and trim, with a shimmering quality to his pale skin and a luster to the silver hair that hung to his waist. The real shine was in those amethyst eyes, with a light that lifted Kari’s spirit and drew her to him in some inexplicable way.

  Kari did a double take. “Alamarise?”

  “It is I, my friend. I find this form is better suited to moving around the cities of your people,” he answered with a smile. “I thought to lend my wisdom and experience to your circle of strategists, that I may be better prepared for the tasks you assign me.”

  The others all stared at hi
m, their expressions ranging from slack-jawed to suspicious. The colonel rose to his feet, prompting his many assistants and underlings to do so as well, and he waited for the dragon-turned-elf to approach. He and Alamarise sized each other up – and obviously so – but the dragon seemed less affected by what he saw. Prescott seemed unsure whether he should offer the dragon a handshake or a salute, but he went with the former.

  “I was told you’re a pacifist. If you don’t mind my saying so, I’m surprised to find you here and helping,” the colonel said.

  “I am a pacifist when it is feasible to be so,” Alamarise offered cryptically. “This is not one of those times or situations.”

  They all sat around the table again. Though Kari had lived among the elves for a short time in her prior life, sitting next to one now was strange. There was no convincing herself that she sat beside something other than a dragon, and to see him in such a frail form compared to his usual magnificence led her to wonder. She contrasted his appearance and its softness to the harder, more battle-ready humanoid form Zaliskower assumed, and wondered if Alamarise could stand a chance in a fight with the undead black dragon.

  She was further distracted by another thought: could Alamarise produce half-dragon children in this form? Had he produced half-dragon children in this elven form? It sometimes slipped her mind that her armor had once belonged to a half-dragon warrior, the daughter of her old friend Ashurinax the Black. What had possessed him to mate with a mortal woman of some kind, Kari wasn’t sure, but it was an intriguing prospect. How many different types of dragons could do so? And how often was it done?

  Kari snapped from her daydreaming when she realized the entire table was silent. Had they asked her a question? Were they waiting on her to lead things? She looked to Alamarise, whose amethyst eyes were staring right back at her. They didn’t seem to be questioning, so Kari thought perhaps they were waiting for her to get things started.

  “It’s probably best if we get moving before dawn,” she offered, hoping she wasn’t about to make a fool of herself. “The more daylight we have to work with, the stronger our advantage should be. Or at least, the longer it should be. I don’t know about the thralls, but sunlight may keep Annabelle and Zaliskower cooped up in the keep while we wipe out their underlings. I can’t say I’m an expert on vampires, but there has to be something to all the legends about them.”

  “Well, even at a forced march, we won’t get the men to the fort in a day,” Aeligos said. “So no need to leave before dawn tomorrow. I think what we want to do is have a few different groups move straight to the fort, north of it, and south of it. Hit it from three sides and stretch the defenses as thin as possible. As long as we attack at daybreak or just after, we should be able to count on the minions being our only opposition. Like Kari said, they may or may not be affected by the sunlight, but either way, without the vampires to back them up, we should outfox and even overwhelm them.”

  Colonel Prescott bobbed his head. He called for a rough map to be placed on the table, and small figurines were added to show positions and movement. “Perhaps, then, we send out the northern and southern flanks earlier to ensure they all reach the fort at the same time. This will expose them – all of us, really – to attack in the night, but it is an acceptable risk.”

  “Right,” Aeligos said, then he looked across at Alamarise. “My lord, I imagine you’re more familiar with Zaliskower…is he active during daylight?”

  The dragon-turned-elf nodded. “Yes, he is not affected by the sunlight to my knowledge. So it may best serve your strategy for me to loop around and strike from the east, to draw his attention away from you and your warriors. It is unlikely I can kill him, but I should be able to distract him, or possibly drive him off for a time. There is something unnatural about him that leads me to believe I will not be able to kill him, though.”

  “One thing we will need to be watchful for is–”

  The colonel went silent as a massive whoosh sounded overhead, followed shortly by cries of panic. The town outside lit up in a deluge of fire, and it took only moments for Alamarise to get to his feet and rush out the door. Kari drew her scimitars but hesitated a moment, looking at the ill-prepared officers. They had no druidess to counter the dragon’s fire this time; Chandler’s Grove was at risk of being obliterated, even by a quick strike.

  “Form a defensive front here in the inn,” she ordered. “Last time Zaliskower attacked, it was to cover Annabelle infiltrating the city. Colonel, get reports from your men as quickly as possible; if the thralls aren’t with them, send your men to the fort now. Plan to strike the day after tomorrow at daybreak. Alamarise will engage Zaliskower, and I’ll try to drive Annabelle off. Stay here with Aeligos; if she comes, try to hold her off until I can come help. No heroics! Be sensible about this; victory is close, but we have to be patient.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the colonel said with a salute, with no indication of impatience at being ordered by someone technically lower-ranking than himself. He began issuing his own orders to his men. Aeligos left his swords sheathed and began overturning tables to form barricades against an invasion of the inn.

  Kari ducked out the door, and the sky shone with fire as a second set of thunderous wings joined the first. Part of the town lit up as it caught ablaze, but a moment later there was the massive silver streak of Alamarise’s passing form, and he breathed out upon the burning portion of the town. Even from a distance, Kari had felt the heat of the flames, and she balked as she now felt the deep chill of winter. Was Alamarise breathing out a blast of icy wind? Kari had never heard of such a thing; to her knowledge, all the dragons of Citaria breathed fire. Whatever the case, the flames died down almost immediately, and she saw the two silhouettes nip at each other in flight. Alamarise was already upholding his responsibilities.

  Kari listened over their shrieks and the pounding of their furiously-working wings for the sound of screams. She couldn’t hear the sounds of melee from anywhere around them; if Annabelle was with Zaliskower, they hadn’t brought their thralls with them. Not that Kari could tell, anyway. She stayed near the inn, wary of Annabelle making another surgical strike like she had in Solaris, except against the commanders this time.

  The sound of screams finally erupted to the north, and Kari followed their echo. Even in the dark of night, Kari could see Zaliskower breathe out that cloud of shadow that had knocked her and Aeligos unconscious immediately. She rushed in that direction, calling down the two main roads of the town for soldiers to shift north to meet the enemy. With any luck, strange as it seemed to think so, there would only be a few meeting her there, the rest on their way to begin the march to counterattack the fort.

  Kari stopped in her tracks as she saw the winged form down the main road to the east. It was Annabelle, still wearing Kari’s paluric armor, with a number of thralls at her back. These didn’t appear to be from the fort, however, but rather recently-slain members of the Red Mask. The vampire stalked in Kari’s direction, but waved her minions forward first. Kari fought the instinct to go and engage Annabelle directly, and instead fell back. She called for any nearby Red Mask or city watch to retreat to the inn and form a defensive perimeter, and soon found a trio of vampire hunters at her side.

  They fell back in an orderly fashion to the inn, but the thralls overtook them. Kari worked in tandem with her Red Mask companions, acting as armor for them. She worked her defensive style furiously, frustrating the advances of the undead thralls while her companions counterattacked and used her as a shield. They systematically eliminated Annabelle’s advanced attackers, thankfully not paying too much heed to the fact that these were their comrades and friends in undead form. The vampire hesitated to advance with the rest of her minions. A pair of Masks came out of an alleyway and attacked her, but Annabelle cut them down in moments, and then she called out something to Zaliskower in a vicious-sounding foreign tongue.

  Zaliskower broke off from his aerial duel with Alamarise, and the great black dragon landed between
Kari and Annabelle. He breathed out a blast of fire. Kari instinctively pushed back with her faith. The aura sprang out like a bubble to deflect the blast, but the fire was too powerful, and she felt her armor begin to heat up and her hair begin to singe. Kari swept her companions down an alleyway and out of the cone, and they sighed in relief when Alamarise flew overhead and breathed a blast of snowy breath over them.

  Kari stole a glance around the corner. Annabelle was now mounted on the base of the dragon’s neck, just as Kari and Aeligos had done when riding Alamarise. There were shouts of coordinated orders and preparation for a united front to attack. Zaliskower’s great head swung back and forth; he knew what was coming. He breathed one last blast of fire side to side, igniting the nearby buildings, and then took wing with Annabelle on his back. They were nearly knocked from the sky immediately by Alamarise, but Zaliskower got his bearings, and they turned east and left the thralls behind.

  “Get on them,” Kari ordered offhandedly to the Masks with her. They joined up with their companions on the main road, and the thralls were put to the sword quickly. Kari turned and rushed to the inn. Annabelle had been taken care of, but had something else outflanked her and attacked the command center?

  Aside from some minor fire damage, the inn was still fine. Alamarise was extinguishing the remaining fires in the town, drawing cheers from the people as frosty snowflakes came down in his wake. Kari entered the inn. Aeligos and the others were standing at the ready inside, and they tensed up when Kari came in.

  “Everything all right? Where’s Annabelle?” the rogue asked.

  “We drove them off. They killed some of our men, but I think it’s all clear. Colonel, if you want to get an updated head count and then make sure the flanks are sent out, I think the orders were already spread, but I’m not sure. We need to set watches over the town and start getting some sleep in shifts while we can. We’ve got a couple of busy days ahead of us.”