by Randi Darren
“That’s fine,” Alex said. “I’m glad that’s done. Did he provide you with a writ of vassalage?”
“He did. He signed himself over to me and, through me, to you. He made sure to include it and write it in that way,” Adania said, picking up a sealed parchment square that was next to her. She held it out to him. “Here you are, my lord. My father is mobilizing what troops he can spare, and then will accompany us to go see his neighbors.
“He thinks he can convince them into joining quickly and easily.”
“Does he? Alright,” Alex said, nodding his head. “Then do we move ahead of him and he’ll catch up with us?”
Adania winced and let her eyes move away from Alex.
“Would it be terrible of me to ask that we wait for him here?” she asked, looking back at Alex. “I’m tired, my hips hurt from riding, and I could honestly use a good sleep. My father will join us as quickly as he’s able, and I do think he’s right. I think they’ll sign themselves over to me quickly once they see you, me, and father waiting for them outside their gates.”
Thinking on it, Alex couldn’t find a fault in the request.
“That’s just what we’ll do then,” he said.
I’m sorry.
Huh?
What, why?
A messenger is coming for you right now. He’ll be there in a few minutes. He’s been riding since a few days ago and has almost done so nonstop.
I did all I could, Alex. I swear it. I did all I could, and then some.
What? Did something happen?
Yes. Something did happen. Someone attacked your home in Brit.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you about it since it happened.
I don’t… is… are…
You’ll get the finer details from the messenger. What I can tell you is their goal was to kidnap your wives and children.
The guards Carla and Nannie hired did their job and then some. Masterfully, even.
Unfortunately, there were just too many attackers, and Mary and Alanna were split off from the rest of the group.
They fought them off and killed many of them, but Alanna died of her wounds.
Mary was stabbed several times. One was very low in the abdomen.
She’ll recover, but she’ll never be able to have another child.
Alanna’s dead? But… she just went back to Brit to finalize the marriage.
And Mary was stabbed?
I have Alanna with me. She’s… upset… but I assure you she’s safe. She’ll want for nothing here in my afterlife. I promise you. In time, she may even want to go through another incarnation. I promise I’ll make sure she has a good start.
And yes, Mary was stabbed. She’ll be fine though. I cleansed the poisons from both of them after the attack, but Alanna just lost too much blood.
I also cleansed Mary of the infection the messenger might or might not mention.
She’s fine. I promise.
I… Alanna’s dead.
Yes. She is. She says she’s sorry you couldn’t have more time together.
Who? Who did this?
I can’t say. I’m prohibited. And no amount of power would allow me to speak their name.
I’m going to give you a hint, but I’ll have to leave almost immediately after that, as it pushes the rules pretty far.
Do not fear, though. I will return.
It’ll just take some time.
Okay. A hint. Okay. I’ll take it.
And thank you, Leah. I’m sure you did everything you could. I hold you blameless.
That’s… incredibly nice to hear. Thank you, Alex. I really am sorry. I did all I could.
Now… the one who ordered this attack. All I can say is… you haven’t met them yet, but you will soon.
There was a weird pop-like sound in his head, and he felt Leah vanish.
She simply wasn’t there anymore.
“Sire! A messenger from Brit!” called a voice.
Gritting his teeth, Alex turned to the messenger with a false smile. He’d have to play a role he wasn’t sure he could.
I’m going to burn whoever did this.
Burn them and everything they are.
Chapter 23
Opening his eyes slowly, Alex wasn’t quite sure what to feel.
He’d spent most of the previous day trying not to think about the fact that Alanna was dead, Mary severely injured, and his home had been attacked.
Truthfully, he felt like he was responsible for all of it.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t employed similar methods on others. He’d had people killed simply to advance his own goals.
Coffin had left almost immediately once he’d given her orders in response to the attack.
Her life’s existence for the next month or two was going to be setting up an impenetrable layer of hidden assassins. People who lived and breathed the family home of Brit and would never let what had happened occur again.
The bodyguards had done their duty by all accounts, but there’d just been an overwhelming number of assassins.
Or kidnappers, as it were. It seemed as if their goal had been to abduct Alex’s family. Exactly as Leah had told him.
A cold comfort, considering what had ended up happening.
“She’d tell you to stop worrying about it,” said Carla beside him.
She was curled up around him, with Alex pressed up into her middle. She often acted as the big spoon when they went to bed together.
Last night, she’d been insistent on their coupling. Which, in the end, had been exactly what Alex had needed, but he still hadn’t wanted any part of it at the start.
“To stop worrying about it and move on,” Carla continued, her arms tightening slowly around him.
Sighing, he reached up and laid his hands atop Carla’s arms.
“You’re not wrong, of course. She’d say that. I just… can’t really see beyond the loss at the moment,” Alex said. “I mean, let’s say exactly what this is. Someone is either paying me back for previous actions or attempting to prevent me from committing further actions.
“The fact that they wanted to kidnap everyone lends itself to the latter, but there’s actually no telling.”
“Yes,” Carla said simply, her lips only an inch from his ear. “How does that change your plans for the war, though?”
“Huh?” Alex said.
“You’re not wrong. But how does that change anything? Seems to me like you already took the appropriate action. You sent Coffin home with orders. She’ll not fail you.
“Beyond that, how does this change your plan of attack in any way?”
Alex let his mind chew on that. Chew on it and break it down into several key components.
The action was done, he’d responded with all he had, and there was nothing else to be done.
It was more or less exactly as Carla had said.
“You’re right, of course,” Alex said. “There really isn’t anything else I can do, is there? It’s all already done.”
“Mmhmm,” Carla murmured, holding him. “Now, what’s your next move? Tell me of your plans, my Alex.”
Chuckling, Alex closed his eyes, immensely enjoying the way Carla was directing his mind.
This was normally something Rebekah did, but it tended to have a lot more sex and edging involved. This was a pleasant change of pace.
“I was planning on just continuing on with what I’ve been doing. It seems silly, or slow maybe, but what we’ve done is exactly what was required to bring Gaelis down,” Alex said, speaking his thoughts aloud. “We’ve eroded his support, brought low his authority, and have been working to slowly eliminate all support to his capital city and fallback point.”
Carla was nuzzling him lightly, her strong and firm legs rubbing gently at his own. It was very distracting, but it also forced Alex to really think about his plan to be able to speak about it.
“With that said, most of the next leg is the same. Moving east and then north, up and around
him. Forcing his vassals to change allegiance to me and then curling down to the south and east,” Alex said. “It’ll bring them all into Brit, and we’ll have one continuous domain.
“After that, we’ll have cleared the secondary front that’s more a stalemate at this point as well.”
“Mmhmmmm,” Carla murmured, her lips gently nibbling at his ear. The way Carla was holding him, fondling him, and letting herself rub against him was making it almost impossible to think.
Carla was never like this.
Then again, last night it was like making love to Anna or Nannie. She was incredibly sweet, loving, and tender.
The pillow talk was intense afterward, too.
Ever since he’d brought Carla’s family in, the ex-bandit had become a loving woman to Alex, but last night had been leagues beyond.
Right now, though, this was something more akin to the other Numbered.
“Tell me more, Alex. I want to hear more,” Carla said, her teeth sinking partially into his earlobe.
Wincing, and feeling like he was going cross-eyed, Alex let out a slow breath. “After that I wanted to head up north to Gaelis’s army and see if I could bribe them away from him.
“At this point, they probably haven’t been paid in months. Their families will be writing to them about what I’m doing here and telling them about the changes.
“Both the refugees and the vassals.”
Carla’s right hand slid down from his chest and between Alex’s legs.
Her fingers lightly curled around his hardening shaft, her thumb grazing along the head.
“I really like that,” Carla said, letting out a breath in his ear that made his head feel fuzzy. “I don’t talk about it much, but… I’ve always been really… excited… when I think about how intelligent you are.
“I think it’s about time we had our daily coupling. Right now. I can’t catch a child if we’re not properly trying as often as we can, Alex.”
Good heavens.
Carla rolled him over onto his back and smiled down at him as she clambered on top of him.
“I love you,” she said, getting comfortable atop him. Then she lifted her hips and reached down between them. “I cannot wait to see what kind of child we have.”
***
Riding away from the barony of Stoneson after having installed Brianne, Alex contemplated his next steps.
In the end, it’d taken another month for Brianne to catch a pregnancy from Alex.
Brianne Stoneson, Bethany Derth, and Alexandra Bellin were all his vassals and in place. Their counties were up, running, and producing war goods, as well as housing garrisons and hospitals.
His convoluted and overly complex plan was actually working, and the duchy of Gaelis was being corrupted from the inside out.
Word from the north was that the duke was on his last legs and his troops were beginning to falter outright.
More often than not, Regina just pushed hard enough to keep the duke on his toes, keep him struggling, but not hard enough to get a lot of soldiers killed.
She was heeding his strategy of attempting to not absolutely destroy the dukedom.
They needed to take Gaelis whole, which included his soldiers if possible. They’d be needed to go home when it was over and get back to their normal working lives.
Adania and Dan were working on Twil, along with her new set of vassals.
Amusingly, he’d seen something growing between Adania and Dan. Alex was planning to do what he could to encourage it.
He’d rather have Dan settled in as a count and general than yet another bound concubine, personally.
“You’re not going to give my daughter my titles, are you?” Aerin said from beside him.
“No, I’m not. As I’ve told you many times Aerin,” Alex said. “A regent will rule for you till you submit. You once promised me everything of yourself, including your soul. I’m not going to force you into anything, but neither am I going to relent.
“Don’t get me wrong, you’re a lovely woman, and I’ve really started to enjoy our time together… but I want your county ruled by a child of ours.
“If it makes you feel better, your daughter has already promised to serve as my vassal for ‘equivalent’ titles to your own, which she’ll get. She still resists being a concubine, though. We’ll see. I might let her take a smaller county later on if she still refuses to take a child.”
Sighing, Elizabeth Aerin shook her head. “She really screwed up my plans. I love my daughter, love her dearly, and have done as much as any mother could for her, but I wish she would have just been… economical about this whole thing.
“Fine. If I let you sire children on me, will you please let her have my titles without a child?
“I’ll take whatever county you wish me to, rule it for you and raise our child. They’ll be everything you are and more if I can manage it, and I’ll love them dearly.”
Alex looked over at Aerin. He had her lock, stock, and barrel. There was nothing left of her that he didn’t own.
“Give her three of ’em,” Nannie said from his left side. “One for the heir, two to love. If she loves your children with her as dearly as her daughter, the children will be good for both of you.”
Alex looked away from Aerin and contemplated it.
Kimberly Helit had apparently stopped taking Mother’s Bane. She was trailing behind with Riley and Rebekah right now.
This conversation was mostly private, only between Alex, Nannie, Carla, and Aerin.
He was going to put a lot of pressure on Aerin. He had the feeling he needed to grow the Brit family nobility.
And that meant having a lot of children.
“Five,” Alex said. “Five children. I’m going to drown you in children, Aerin.”
“Five?” Aerin asked in a shocked voice. “Count, I’m admittedly still young, but I feel that’s a bit… a bit much for a woman entering her middle years, isn’t it?”
She must have had her daughter when she was incredibly young if she’s not already in her ‘middle years.’ That usually means late twenties to early thirties.
Twelve? Eleven? Poor thing.
Medieval politics were always a hellhole for arranged marriages.
And childbearing isn’t that easy here, is it?
“Five,” Alex repeated, “and I’m going to make you the countess of all of Ridge. Ridge is the gateway to Brit from the east, and the Wilds from the south. You’ll bear me children and be my gatekeeper.”
Sighing, Aerin pressed a hand to her brow.
“Can we start with one and go from there? I promise to be open to more, but I’d… I’d rather not promise something like that right now,” Aerin said. “Five is a lot of children, Master. I’m only one woman who’s getting older.”
“Fine. One, for now. But my goal is five. And don’t fret, Anna’s Numbered will help,” Alex said, shaking his head with a sigh. “I’m growing soft, aren’t I?”
“You are,” Nannie agreed.
“Yes, you are,” Carla said at the same time.
“It’s a good thing, though,” Nannie said. “You were kinda… evil… before. Now you’re just selfish and looking out for you and yours. The deals you cut aren’t really that bad anymore.
“If this was back when you first hired me, Countess pretty-face there would have been a bed decoration every hour of the day and not allowed Mother’s Bane at all.”
Thinking on that, Alex realized Nannie wasn’t wrong. His earlier deals, when his life was on the line, had been a lot more ruthless.
“Countess pretty-face?” Aerin asked in a subdued whisper.
“Hm. Alright,” Alex said. “Kimberly’s pregnant?”
“Pretty sure,” Carla said with a hint of anger in her tone. She hadn’t had any luck in her own endeavors in the month since Alanna had died. “She throws up every morning. Looks damn proud of herself doing it.”
Vaguely remember someone telling me the chance for pregnancy in a month was something like t
en or twenty percent.
Could be wrong.
“Let’s… move the plan up a step. We’ll drop Helit off in her county and then move to rejoin Regina with most of our soldiers,” Alex said. “We’ve wrecked his back line and vassals long enough that his soldiers are probably feeling it.”
“What about Adania?” Nannie asked.
“I think Dan is going to ask for her hand in marriage,” Alex said honestly. “So I’m not in a rush with that one. If it makes Dan happy, I’ll relinquish my hold on her for his sake.”
“Aw, that’s kinda cute,” Nannie said with a chuckle. “Dan’s a good man; I think that’ll be good for him.”
“Let’s go see Regina and the rest,” Alex said. “Get a messenger out to Quinn. Tell her to reign it in and get back. We’ll need her to range out ahead and find out where Gaelis is and what he’s up to.”
“Don’t trust your wife?” Carla asked with a snicker.
“I trust Regina just fine, but I trust Quinn more. She’s… well… she’s more a Numbered than a wife, but she’s not… and… it’s hard to explain,” Alex said.
“Your Numbered are women who travel and spend their lives with you,” Carla said, her tone growing serious. “Your wives are… your wives. Anna is the mistress, so she doesn’t count in that.
“Quinn is more like a Numbered. Now that I think about it, even I see her more as a Numbered.”
“Yeah. Make her Eight. I like her,” Nannie said.
Alex frowned at that. He wasn’t sold on the idea of it.
All of his Numbered but one were leaving with him when he died. He wasn’t quite sure how Quinn would play into that.
Only Eleanor left.
“She’d go with us,” Carla said, apparently once again tapping into Alex’s thoughts. “She even asked about it already.”
“She did?” Alex asked.
“Go with you where?” Aerin inquired at the same time.
Frowning, Alex looked over at the countess for a second, then shrugged his shoulders. Her soul was already his and would be making the trip as well.
“Since you’re already bound to secrecy, it doesn’t matter if you know,” Alex said. “When I die, the goddess Leah is moving me to another life. I’ll be attempting to do the same thing there that I’ve done here. My Numbered and Anna are coming with me.”
