Once the sun showed itself on the horizon, Drake decided to engage in some light sabotage while he waited to get in touch with Sky. While he couldn’t yet tackle the mercenaries surrounding Fort Graystone directly, and he couldn’t bluff his way through without risking a fight with Sky’s bodyguards, he could cut down on the number of bounty hunters and mercenaries who made it to the fort simply by telling them the truth.
The Asp was long gone.
As for his new employees, that was handled. He’d inducted them into his blood pact for the first time last night and then revealed his pact actually didn’t compel them to do jack shit. All three had been shocked, and he still wasn’t entirely certain Robin was going to hold off her revenge for as long as they’d agreed... but at least now he knew they could never be enslaved by another manor lord. They were safe... relatively.
Still, their reaction overall had been positive, and all had sworn not to tell others the truth about how his blood pact was different from that of other manor lords. Since all his blood pact now did was prevent people from being enslaved by another lord, it did serve a positive purpose. Not being compelled also continued to win him brownie points.
He was also here for the long haul. He would have to recruit new blood for his manor or everyone he wanted to protect could die. Robin, Gaby, and Carl had just proven people would agree to join him of their own free will and then agree to serve him after, even if they’d expected this arrangement to work in an entirely different way.
More proof to present to the other manor lords that blood pacts needed to go.
Intercepting unwitting assassins was the first task he gave his new recruits. Working in pairs, he ordered them to form a loose perimeter around the soldiers and cautiously approach any small groups who seemed to be on the way to Fort Graystone. He paired his newbies with experienced people to make it more likely they wouldn’t get into too much trouble.
He paired Robin and Sachi—their shared enjoyment of archery was obvious—and paired Gaby with Nicole, mainly because Gaby’s ability to immobilize people would be a good complement to Nicole’s talent for sneaking up on them. Finally, he paired Carl with Valentia, which would give them the ability to use meteor kaboom at range and flashfreeze up close.
Carl’s rarity, it turned out, was called firestone. But Drake was going to keep calling it meteor kaboom. He didn’t care how many odd or exasperated looks he got.
Drake ordered his people to avoid any Redbow soldiers or large parties of mercenaries who might be coming to reinforce the soldiers already at the fort. He gave them permission to approach smaller groups or those dressed more like bounty hunters or independent warriors.
Sachi assured him there was a good chance most halfway decent people wouldn’t just attack without warning. If they did, Drake gave his experienced warriors freedom to retreat or attack at their discretion. If someone was stupid enough to attack his people unprovoked, they’d get what was coming to them. It was a big rough world out there.
Ultimately, he hoped his people could head off anyone coming to claim the fake bounty on the Asp long enough for him to get in touch with Sky and “claim” it for himself, but he couldn’t be certain his strategy would work or the soldiers wouldn’t catch on. So he and Lydia set up a camp on a ledge beyond the visual range of the ring of soldiers to keep watch.
There, they would wait to go to the aid of anyone who got in over their head or warn the others if anything unusual happened among the soldiers laying siege to Fort Graystone. He’d pondered sending Sachi up to eliminate some of the archers camped away from the main group, but decided there was too much risk it could alert the others.
As the day wore on, Drake alternated between staring into a perfectly normal mirror and looking in the direction of Fort Graystone for any sign something had changed. He could barely see the tall wooden towers that had burned all night last night, but he could not see the soldiers stationed around them. Which meant they couldn’t see him. Which was good.
Finally, just when he was about to choke down a lunch of stale bread and the last of their cheese, the mirror changed from showing him to showing darkness. Moments later, he saw a pale, exhausted face staring at him from within. Her light blue eyes went wide.
“Sky!” Drake jumped up and grinned. “Are you okay? Did you find your mom?”
“She is safe,” Sky agreed. “But, and I’m sorry, I won’t be able to join you any time soon.” She paused. “Were you waiting for me to call you all this time?” She looked somewhere between pleased by his persistence and a little disappointed in him.
“Just the morning.”
“Then you’re at the capital, or close? Is Karth with you? Is he all right?”
“He is, but... okay, this is a funny story.”
Sky’s exhaustion faded as disbelief replaced it. “You didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?”
“Is that my territory behind you?”
Drake glanced behind him at the scrub and grass that must be barely visible behind him in the mirror, then back at her. “I mean, technically, it’s Karth’s now.”
“Clint.”
“We’re here to rescue you.” He smiled his most charming smile. “You ready to go?”
Sky visibly seethed as she glared at him through the mirror. “You idiot.”
“Sure, but—”
“What in the realm gave you the idea I needed to be rescued?”
“That’s a fair reaction,” he agreed with a raised hand. “But before you tell Karth to cancel our alliance, just listen. I have a good reason to be here.”
He explained the reason the mercenaries had her bottled up in Fort Redbow and Lord Redbow’s plan to toss unwitting groups of bounty hunters at her until she died or surrendered. Sky’s ire faded as she listened. When he was done, she visibly ground her teeth. At least she didn’t seem angry at him any longer.
“I suppose that explains last night,” she said quietly.
“Rough one?”
“We were attacked twice, once by a man who attempted to melt the front door with some sort of burning rarity, and later by a woman who somehow slipped inside the fort despite there being no secret passages or open windows. She was decent with a spear.”
“Both of those folks sound powerful. Did you capture them?”
“No.”
Drake grimaced as he chalked two more unwitting victims to Lord Redbow’s treachery... and Sky’s bodyguards. “There was no way you could have known who they were.”
“There was not,” Sky agreed. “It seemed so odd to me that each would attack alone, without coordination and without support from the mercenaries. Now, it makes sense.”
“Is it going to bother you?”
Sky looked away. “If I can find out who they were, and I can verify they came to slay the Asp, I will compensate their families. I have regrets far greater than these.”
She most likely did.
Her gaze met his again. “And while I am grateful for this information about my enemy’s plans, it changes very little in regard to our larger problems. Why are you here? Who will represent our interests in Korhaurbauten? “
“You and me, together.”
“And how will you and I get to the capital in just under two days, which is now a six-day journey away? After we somehow defeat a mercenary force of sixty or more in elevated positions with poisoned arrows? Do you have a plan for that?”
“I do, actually,” Drake assured her. “And I bet you’re going to love it.”
***
Right about mid-afternoon, Drake set off to claim Lord Redbow’s bounty.
From talking with his people after they rounded everyone up, his people had saved six lives today. Six would-be bounty hunters had turned around upon being informed the Asp was long gone. Six wasn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it had kept more people from falling into Lord Redbow’s trap and kept the danger to Sky and her warriors to a minimum.
Though, he suspected, the danger was more to anyone coming after them.
Sadly, none of the warriors he’d “saved” had seemed interested in joining his manor. They’d all been older folks who had likely already decided to do the independent bounty hunter thing. More evidence he’d need to make a good offer quickly when someone with a badass rarity came of age. Hopefully, Samuel’s spies could keep him informed in that regard.
Despite Anna drawing the line at four people, he remained confident he could teleport more than that. Every rarity he’d thus far absorbed had been considerably burnished. While twenty might be a stretch when Anna could do four, twelve seemed easily within reach.
Since his manor was only two days away, he’d considered sending his new recruits back to Gloomwood Manor instead of taking them to the capital. However, he needed Carl to pull off the scam he planned, and he doubted Gaby and Robin would want to leave him. Plus, the more people he had to protect him in the capital, the better off he’d be.
After Drake and the others swapped out their feathersteel for silverweave, Drake set off down the same road where he had intercepted Robin, Gaby, and Carl. Feathersteel, while durable, wouldn’t stand up against the number of soldiers guarding the fort. It was important for Drake to look as if he actually had come to fight the Asp.
Silverweave was not just good at stopping magic. It was also highly resistant to acid. By comparison, Robin had confirmed acid as powerful as that tossed by the Asp could melt through feathersteel and into the flesh beneath in short order. So they’d look like idiots dressed in feathersteel, and they needed to look at least marginally competent.
Drake led in his dark silverweave clothing and ominous ankle-length fur cloak, with Valentia and Lydia at his sides. Each now wore one of his extra silverweave outfits in lieu of their maid uniforms. While Lydia’s borrowing clothing hung on her slim torso and Valentia’s was almost absurdly tight in the chest area, their cloaks made the mismatch less obvious.
Nicole, unfortunately, had to make due with normal clothing. Since she could turn invisible if things went bad, she’d volunteered to go in light. They had no other option.
Fortunately, the worn and mismatched silverweave worn by his new junior varsity team helped sell the illusion of a group of newbie bounty hunters who had completed just enough jobs to afford silverweave, but not nice silverweave. He’d learned Robin, Gaby, and Carl had pooled all the wealth they had to purchase their silverweave outfits. They looked it.
Even though he had no intention of fighting anyone today, he had a decent battle party. If the Asp was inside that fort, Drake suspected the seven of them could take her even if her own silverweave stopped Valentia from freezing her blood. Hopefully, the mercenaries surrounding the fort would agree with his assessment.
Sachi wasn’t with them. She had already slipped past the sentries and crouched somewhere in the cliffs above, hidden. She couldn’t get inside thanks to the fort’s sturdy structure and its sealed door, but she could easily join them once he’d knocked on the door.
Which Drake now planned to accomplish through judicious use of meteor kaboom.
He was encouraged when four soldiers in gray and brown leather armor moved from the mountainous cover ahead with bows drawn. They didn’t attack, which was the encouraging part. Another soldier in the same armor walked forward with one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other raised palm out.
“Halt! Identify yourselves!”
Drake casually spread two hands to slow the party. They wouldn’t advance until they’d been cleared to do so by the soldiers. Since these men weren’t wearing silverweave, Valentia could freeze all four of them dead in a matter of moments... but that wouldn’t get them inside.
“We’re here because of the bounty!” Drake shouted.
Not a lie. He was here because of the bounty, even if he knew it was fake. After much mental debate, Drake had decided he might not even have to lie to get past the mercenaries. He just had to say little enough they would draw their own conclusions.
It was time to practice his doublespeak.
The soldier nodded. “You’re just in time. There’s seven of you?” He looked pleased.
This soldier seemingly had no intention of warning these “bounty hunters” they were about to walk into a butcher’s den. That made Drake feel absolutely fine about killing him if it came to that. He still didn’t want to kill innocents or those who surrendered, but manipulative mercenaries who sent people to their deaths were something else entirely.
“We’re more than enough to defeat the Asp,” Drake said confidently, which was, again, not a lie. “Is she still bottled up in the fort?”
“No one’s seen her leave,” the soldier confirmed. “So you lead this party?”
Drake nodded.
“What’s your name?”
Drake looked him dead in the eyes. “Some call me Maverick.”
Also not a lie. Lydia and Valentia had both called him that just this afternoon... after he asked them to do so. He didn’t care if they both thought it sounded strange and silly. If it was good enough for Clint Eastwood, it was good enough for him.
The soldier’s brow furrowed. “And that’s the name you want on the bounty? If you claim it?”
Drake nodded.
“You may approach,” the soldier said. “But don’t forget we’re all on edge after days sieging this fort. If you make any overtly hostile moves, we will fill you with arrows.”
“We’re here because of the bounty,” Drake said. “Not to fight you guys.” Unless we have to, he added silently. In which case, at least you four boys are fucked.
Once the sun showed itself on the horizon, Drake decided to engage in some light sabotage while he waited to get in touch with Sky. While he couldn’t yet tackle the mercenaries surrounding Fort Graystone directly, and he couldn’t bluff his way through without risking a fight with Sky’s bodyguards, he could cut down on the number of bounty hunters and mercenaries who made it to the fort simply by telling them the truth.
The Asp was long gone.
As for his new employees, that was handled. He’d inducted them into his blood pact for the first time last night and then revealed his pact actually didn’t compel them to do jack shit. All three had been shocked, and he still wasn’t entirely certain Robin was going to hold off her revenge for as long as they’d agreed... but at least now he knew they could never be enslaved by another manor lord. They were safe... relatively.
Still, their reaction overall had been positive, and all had sworn not to tell others the truth about how his blood pact was different from that of other manor lords. Since all his blood pact now did was prevent people from being enslaved by another lord, it did serve a positive purpose. Not being compelled also continued to win him brownie points.
He was also here for the long haul. He would have to recruit new blood for his manor or everyone he wanted to protect could die. Robin, Gaby, and Carl had just proven people would agree to join him of their own free will and then agree to serve him after, even if they’d expected this arrangement to work in an entirely different way.
More proof to present to the other manor lords that blood pacts needed to go.
Intercepting unwitting assassins was the first task he gave his new recruits. Working in pairs, he ordered them to form a loose perimeter around the soldiers and cautiously approach any small groups who seemed to be on the way to Fort Graystone. He paired his newbies with experienced people to make it more likely they wouldn’t get into too much trouble.
He paired Robin and Sachi—their shared enjoyment of archery was obvious—and paired Gaby with Nicole, mainly because Gaby’s ability to immobilize people would be a good complement to Nicole’s talent for sneaking up on them. Finally, he paired Carl with Valentia, which would give them the ability to use meteor kaboom at range and flashfreeze up close.
Carl’s rarity, it turned out, was called firestone. But Drake was going to keep calling it meteor kaboom. He didn’t care how many odd or exasperated looks he got.
Drake ordered his people to avoid any Redbow soldiers or large parties of mercenaries who might be coming to reinforce the soldiers already at the fort. He gave them permission to approach smaller groups or those dressed more like bounty hunters or independent warriors.
Sachi assured him there was a good chance most halfway decent people wouldn’t just attack without warning. If they did, Drake gave his experienced warriors freedom to retreat or attack at their discretion. If someone was stupid enough to attack his people unprovoked, they’d get what was coming to them. It was a big rough world out there.
Ultimately, he hoped his people could head off anyone coming to claim the fake bounty on the Asp long enough for him to get in touch with Sky and “claim” it for himself, but he couldn’t be certain his strategy would work or the soldiers wouldn’t catch on. So he and Lydia set up a camp on a ledge beyond the visual range of the ring of soldiers to keep watch.
There, they would wait to go to the aid of anyone who got in over their head or warn the others if anything unusual happened among the soldiers laying siege to Fort Graystone. He’d pondered sending Sachi up to eliminate some of the archers camped away from the main group, but decided there was too much risk it could alert the others.
As the day wore on, Drake alternated between staring into a perfectly normal mirror and looking in the direction of Fort Graystone for any sign something had changed. He could barely see the tall wooden towers that had burned all night last night, but he could not see the soldiers stationed around them. Which meant they couldn’t see him. Which was good.
Finally, just when he was about to choke down a lunch of stale bread and the last of their cheese, the mirror changed from showing him to showing darkness. Moments later, he saw a pale, exhausted face staring at him from within. Her light blue eyes went wide.
“Sky!” Drake jumped up and grinned. “Are you okay? Did you find your mom?”
“She is safe,” Sky agreed. “But, and I’m sorry, I won’t be able to join you any time soon.” She paused. “Were you waiting for me to call you all this time?” She looked somewhere between pleased by his persistence and a little disappointed in him.
“Just the morning.”
“Then you’re at the capital, or close? Is Karth with you? Is he all right?”
“He is, but... okay, this is a funny story.”
Sky’s exhaustion faded as disbelief replaced it. “You didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?”
“Is that my territory behind you?”
Drake glanced behind him at the scrub and grass that must be barely visible behind him in the mirror, then back at her. “I mean, technically, it’s Karth’s now.”
“Clint.”
“We’re here to rescue you.” He smiled his most charming smile. “You ready to go?”
Sky visibly seethed as she glared at him through the mirror. “You idiot.”
“Sure, but—”
“What in the realm gave you the idea I needed to be rescued?”
“That’s a fair reaction,” he agreed with a raised hand. “But before you tell Karth to cancel our alliance, just listen. I have a good reason to be here.”
He explained the reason the mercenaries had her bottled up in Fort Redbow and Lord Redbow’s plan to toss unwitting groups of bounty hunters at her until she died or surrendered. Sky’s ire faded as she listened. When he was done, she visibly ground her teeth. At least she didn’t seem angry at him any longer.
“I suppose that explains last night,” she said quietly.
“Rough one?”
“We were attacked twice, once by a man who attempted to melt the front door with some sort of burning rarity, and later by a woman who somehow slipped inside the fort despite there being no secret passages or open windows. She was decent with a spear.”
“Both of those folks sound powerful. Did you capture them?”
“No.”
Drake grimaced as he chalked two more unwitting victims to Lord Redbow’s treachery... and Sky’s bodyguards. “There was no way you could have known who they were.”
“There was not,” Sky agreed. “It seemed so odd to me that each would attack alone, without coordination and without support from the mercenaries. Now, it makes sense.”
“Is it going to bother you?”
Sky looked away. “If I can find out who they were, and I can verify they came to slay the Asp, I will compensate their families. I have regrets far greater than these.”
She most likely did.
Her gaze met his again. “And while I am grateful for this information about my enemy’s plans, it changes very little in regard to our larger problems. Why are you here? Who will represent our interests in Korhaurbauten? “
“You and me, together.”
“And how will you and I get to the capital in just under two days, which is now a six-day journey away? After we somehow defeat a mercenary force of sixty or more in elevated positions with poisoned arrows? Do you have a plan for that?”
“I do, actually,” Drake assured her. “And I bet you’re going to love it.”
***
Right about mid-afternoon, Drake set off to claim Lord Redbow’s bounty.
From talking with his people after they rounded everyone up, his people had saved six lives today. Six would-be bounty hunters had turned around upon being informed the Asp was long gone. Six wasn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it had kept more people from falling into Lord Redbow’s trap and kept the danger to Sky and her warriors to a minimum.
Though, he suspected, the danger was more to anyone coming after them.
Sadly, none of the warriors he’d “saved” had seemed interested in joining his manor. They’d all been older folks who had likely already decided to do the independent bounty hunter thing. More evidence he’d need to make a good offer quickly when someone with a badass rarity came of age. Hopefully, Samuel’s spies could keep him informed in that regard.
Despite Anna drawing the line at four people, he remained confident he could teleport more than that. Every rarity he’d thus far absorbed had been considerably burnished. While twenty might be a stretch when Anna could do four, twelve seemed easily within reach.
Since his manor was only two days away, he’d considered sending his new recruits back to Gloomwood Manor instead of taking them to the capital. However, he needed Carl to pull off the scam he planned, and he doubted Gaby and Robin would want to leave him. Plus, the more people he had to protect him in the capital, the better off he’d be.
After Drake and the others swapped out their feathersteel for silverweave, Drake set off down the same road where he had intercepted Robin, Gaby, and Carl. Feathersteel, while durable, wouldn’t stand up against the number of soldiers guarding the fort. It was important for Drake to look as if he actually had come to fight the Asp.
Silverweave was not just good at stopping magic. It was also highly resistant to acid. By comparison, Robin had confirmed acid as powerful as that tossed by the Asp could melt through feathersteel and into the flesh beneath in short order. So they’d look like idiots dressed in feathersteel, and they needed to look at least marginally competent.
Drake led in his dark silverweave clothing and ominous ankle-length fur cloak, with Valentia and Lydia at his sides. Each now wore one of his extra silverweave outfits in lieu of their maid uniforms. While Lydia’s borrowing clothing hung on her slim torso and Valentia’s was almost absurdly tight in the chest area, their cloaks made the mismatch less obvious.
Nicole, unfortunately, had to make due with normal clothing. Since she could turn invisible if things went bad, she’d volunteered to go in light. They had no other option.
Fortunately, the worn and mismatched silverweave worn by his new junior varsity team helped sell the illusion of a group of newbie bounty hunters who had completed just enough jobs to afford silverweave, but not nice silverweave. He’d learned Robin, Gaby, and Carl had pooled all the wealth they had to purchase their silverweave outfits. They looked it.
Even though he had no intention of fighting anyone today, he had a decent battle party. If the Asp was inside that fort, Drake suspected the seven of them could take her even if her own silverweave stopped Valentia from freezing her blood. Hopefully, the mercenaries surrounding the fort would agree with his assessment.
Sachi wasn’t with them. She had already slipped past the sentries and crouched somewhere in the cliffs above, hidden. She couldn’t get inside thanks to the fort’s sturdy structure and its sealed door, but she could easily join them once he’d knocked on the door.
Which Drake now planned to accomplish through judicious use of meteor kaboom.
He was encouraged when four soldiers in gray and brown leather armor moved from the mountainous cover ahead with bows drawn. They didn’t attack, which was the encouraging part. Another soldier in the same armor walked forward with one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other raised palm out.
“Halt! Identify yourselves!”
Drake casually spread two hands to slow the party. They wouldn’t advance until they’d been cleared to do so by the soldiers. Since these men weren’t wearing silverweave, Valentia could freeze all four of them dead in a matter of moments... but that wouldn’t get them inside.
“We’re here because of the bounty!” Drake shouted.
Not a lie. He was here because of the bounty, even if he knew it was fake. After much mental debate, Drake had decided he might not even have to lie to get past the mercenaries. He just had to say little enough they would draw their own conclusions.
It was time to practice his doublespeak.
The soldier nodded. “You’re just in time. There’s seven of you?” He looked pleased.
This soldier seemingly had no intention of warning these “bounty hunters” they were about to walk into a butcher’s den. That made Drake feel absolutely fine about killing him if it came to that. He still didn’t want to kill innocents or those who surrendered, but manipulative mercenaries who sent people to their deaths were something else entirely.
“We’re more than enough to defeat the Asp,” Drake said confidently, which was, again, not a lie. “Is she still bottled up in the fort?”
“No one’s seen her leave,” the soldier confirmed. “So you lead this party?”
Drake nodded.
“What’s your name?”
Drake looked him dead in the eyes. “Some call me Maverick.”
Also not a lie. Lydia and Valentia had both called him that just this afternoon... after he asked them to do so. He didn’t care if they both thought it sounded strange and silly. If it was good enough for Clint Eastwood, it was good enough for him.
The soldier’s brow furrowed. “And that’s the name you want on the bounty? If you claim it?”
Drake nodded.
“You may approach,” the soldier said. “But don’t forget we’re all on edge after days sieging this fort. If you make any overtly hostile moves, we will fill you with arrows.”
“We’re here because of the bounty,” Drake said. “Not to fight you guys.” Unless we have to, he added silently. In which case, at least you four boys are fucked.
