Drake didn’t want to let this crying child’s father become dog food. But she had also just admitted she’d come here to betray him. He needed to know the rest of her story.
“Where are these mercenaries keeping your father?”
She sniffled and wiped at her adorable little eyes. “I couldn’t say lord, but far outside your woods in some vast green fields. They transported me by horse to the edge of your lands. After that, I walked the whole day through these woods to find you. All day!”
This child had gumption, he’d give her that. He looked at Emily. “What do you think? Can we spare the forces to save her father?”
Emily shrugged. “These bounty hunters sound like real jerks, but this lovely little girl and her dog food daddy don’t even live in our territory. We can’t just go tossing our soldiers at every little problem in the big wide realm. It’s rough out there.”
She was right about that. Still. Dammit. He still wanted to help Anna.
He turned back to the still-on-the-verge-of-blubbering child and decided to crouch. The least he could do was speak at her level. “One more question. Do you have a rarity?”
Anna’s sniffles faded as her whole face lit up. “I do, lord! And it’s special.”
“What is it, then?”
She moved a toe shyly. “Can I whisper it to you? I don’t want everyone to know.”
Not a chance in hell, kid. “You can whisper it to Olivia, and she can whisper it to me.”
Not that he intended to throw his slavishly devoted battle maid under the bus. But Olivia was the one with freakish fire powers. He suspected she was also fast on her feet.
Anna nodded. “I suppose I could let Olivia know it. She’s so nice.” She looked at Olivia. “Promise you’ll only tell the lord?”
“I promise, Anna.” Olivia looked up at him hopefully. “Lord?”
“Are you comfortable with that arrangement?”
“Of course, lord.” She knelt again. “Just whisper it here.”
The little girl leaned close and said something in Olivia’s ear. Olivia’s eyes widened, but she merely looked impressed, not alarmed. She nodded and rose.
What game was Anna playing? Or was she so guileless she believed Lord Gloomwood would rush off to save her father for free? And was she right, dammit?
Olivia walked over to join him and Emily, then leaned close and whispered directly in his ear. “She says her rarity allows her to teleport people places, lord.”
That sounded useful as hell! Drake eyed Anna as he considered how useful a rarity like hers could be. Maybe if he saved her and her father, he could recruit her for Gloomwood Manor. She’d definitely be willing to help him out after he saved her old man.
“Anna?”
“Yes lord!”
“Can you really do what you say you can? You’ve done it before?” For the moment, he would humor her by not broadcasting her rarity for the entire manor to hear.
“Oh yes, lord! I’ve done it many times before!”
“All right. Let’s talk about a deal. If I agree to rescue your father, would you be willing to come live here with me and use your power for my benefit?”
Lydia hurried over to stop at his other side. “We should verify what she can do before we make any offers.”
He was momentarily annoyed Lydia would think he wouldn’t do that, but she was simply looking out for him just like he’d asked. “Agreed.” He looked to the slightly less suspicious waif once more. “So, Anna. Would you be willing to demonstrate your rarity for us?”
“Oh, sure I would! I could even do it to you if you wanted, Lord Gloomwood!” She looked around again. “But could we go somewhere a little more outside?”
“Why outside?”
“My rarity works better there. Inside there’s more... complications? Complexity.”
In other words, she might accidentally teleport someone into a wall. Not the type of rarity he needed. Come to think of it, was this world round like his, or flat? If it was round, how could he know she wouldn’t teleport him right off the planet?
“Just give me a moment, Anna. You stay right there. Don’t move.”
“Of course, lord. But please, I like your deal, and I hate those mercenaries. If you can save my Daddy, I’d love to come live in this nice big mansion. Daddy would like that too.”
No one else was in this lobby other than his battle maids and the zarovians. Drake doubted the zarovians would care if he consulted with his warriors. And if they did, so what? The big lizardmen apparently thought very little of humans already.
He motioned for Olivia, Lydia, and Emily to join him, then walked back to the side of the stairs away from Anna. Olivia appeared delighted to be included. Once they had enough distance to speak quietly without Anna overhearing, he looked around.
“So? Thoughts?”
Olivia’s eyes widened. “You want... are you asking us what we should do, lord?”
“I’d like your opinions.”
“But you’re Lord Gloomwood!”
Had he lost her confidence already? Better pivot. “And it’s because I’m Lord Gloomwood that I trust you all to advise me. This is still my call, but I want your thoughts. We’re all a big team now, remember? Everyone’s input matters.”
As Olivia stared slack-jawed and starry-eyed, Lydia spoke before Olivia could muddle herself further. “The mercenaries would never have sent Anna here if they expected you to be able to recruit her yourself. They must be confident she can betray you.”
“Right, but... can she? She’s just a kid.”
“No one invites a manor lord to battle save for other manor lords. If they know we’ll expect a trap and do not care, they are confident they can defeat us in battle.”
Emily nodded. “They’re tempting us to slit their throats while offering a valuable rarity we really might wish to seize for our manor. This is a good trap, lord.”
He glanced her way. “Please don’t compliment the enemy mercenaries.”
“Why not? Doesn’t mean I won’t still chop ‘em.”
“So here’s my question,” Drake said. “How do they know we won’t just keep her? If I were a ruthless fuck, I could just take Anna for myself.”
He couldn’t, not now, but these mercenaries couldn’t know that. So far as they knew, his blood pact was still a standard evil blood pact. Or... had they found out it wasn’t?
“She did say can teleport people, lord,” Emily said. “Perhaps that includes herself?”
“But if someone forced her to join a blood pact, couldn’t they forbid her to use her rarity?”
Emily blinked. “Lord… is this humor?” She laughed, but obviously with effort.
Lydia glanced his way. “Let’s try to keep the jests to a minimum, lord. We all know that no person below the age of sixteen may enter a blood pact. Let’s focus on our goal.”
“Right.” Drake once again mentally thanked Lydia for being her. “I’ll stop joking around.”
That explained why the mercenaries had risked sending Anna here. It suggested they didn’t know he’d changed his blood pact, simply that even the most evil of blood pacts wouldn’t let anyone under sixteen join them. An odd caveat given the rest.
Olivia perked up. “Well... I think we can’t let her leave without helping her.”
Lydia offered her a level glance. “And what about the next time?”
Olivia blinked in obvious confusion. “Next time?”
“If we help her now, what about the next time someone comes asking for help? And what if dozens come after them? Hundreds? People don’t just ask manor lords for favors.”
“I suppose,” Olivia said. “But wouldn’t it be nice if they could?” She stared hopefully at Drake. “And she does have a pretty great rarity.”
“Which is?” Emily asked quietly. “Why’s the big secret?”
“She can teleport people,” Drake said.
Olivia gasped. “How did you do that?”
Had she just caught him a lie? No, wait. He was good. “You said you wouldn’t tell, Olivia. I never said that.”
She pursed her lips. “Ooh, that’s mean!” Yet she didn’t look displeased.
This was a reminder he’d have to be careful with what he said and how he said it. People on this world weren’t able to lie, and if he just lied regularly, someone would figure out he could do that. He’d lose the only ace he had up his sleeve before he learned to use it.
“I think Anna could be useful,” Drake said. “It is possible these mercenaries are stupid?”
Olivia stared at him. “Stupid, lord?”
“Yes. They’re morons. Never underestimate the confidence of morons.”
She smiled wide. “Is that a saying from your world?”
“Sure,” he hedged. “But basically, it’s possible they may think that they can deal with us when we arrive, and they’ve wildly overestimated their abilities. In which case, we stomp.”
“I don’t like how this is coming after the ambush by Skybreak Manor,” Lydia said.
Drake once again thanked Lydia for her excellent memory. “That’s right. Valentia and Nicole were ambushed there, and Sachi hasn’t come back yet.”
“And Nicky almost died,” Emily growled. “These the same folks, you think? If they decided to tangle with us once, they might be dumb enough to do it again.”
“Nicole still can’t tell us anything,” Lydia said. “We don’t know how she and Valentia were captured. If they could take those two down, we should consider them a serious threat.”
Drake rubbed his chin. “Seems like the best thing would be to send Sachi ahead to scout out wherever Anna’s dad is supposed to be, but Sachi’s not here right now.”
“Nicky could also do it easily,” Emily said pointedly. “But, you know. Deep sleep.”
Emily was right. These mercenaries had baited a rather tempting trap, and one specifically targeted at a manor lord who wasn’t a complete asshole. This was only a hard choice for Drake because he wasn’t the type to let some poor kid’s father become dog food.
Lord Dickcheese would have simply compelled some expendable zarovians to rescue the girl’s father in hopes of gaining control over her ability to teleport people. If his zarovians got captured or killed, he’d write it off as a business expense. But Drake’s people weren’t expendable.
“Let’s table the rescue for the moment,” Drake said. “First, we need to know Anna can do what she says she can do. Perhaps she’s stretching the facts.”
Emily nodded eagerly. “So verify, then decide when we know if it’s worth snapping at the bait. I like your idea, lord. Plus, I really want to see her teleport someone!”
He looked around at them. “So who’s going first?”
Lydia cleared her throat. “Perhaps we could have Anna teleport a potted plant, lord? They are living beings, we have many outside, and we can afford to lose one or two.”
Drake nodded as if he’d already thought of that great idea. “Seems fair.”
“Then let’s go!” Emily whispered. “Ooh, imagine if she could teleport us to the bath in Capetown? If we could just go anytime we wanted?”
Drake glanced at her. “Is that a nice bath?”
“You’d love it, lord!” She grinned lecherously. “Especially since it’s girls only.”
He needed to stop walking into traps. He turned immediately to Anna, decision made. “All right, Anna. We need to see what you can do first. We’re going to all go out to my garden and let you demonstrate your abilities on a potted plant. Can you do that?”
“I can try!” Anna said bravely. “Will you come with me, lord?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Lead the way.”
Lydia frowned his way as Anna skipped off toward the front doors, but when he glanced her way to check on her, she merely looked away. Something seemed to be bothering her, but perhaps she didn’t think it worth mentioning. They’d talk later.
“Open the doors!” he called to his zarovian guards.
Both lizardmen snapped to attention, then opened the big double doors leading out into the garden/hedge maze where he’d confronted the golden knights of Proudglade. Anna skipped out ahead of everyone, ragged dress trailing behind her thin calves.
Emily and Olivia both quickened their paces and marched on ahead of Drake, which he humored. He knew Lydia was right at his side. So much security, for what? Just nerves. The early afternoon sky waited outside, and the three moons, and the hedge maze. No attackers.
Emily glanced back from the garden, and Olivia did as well. Both smiled encouragingly.
Time to see what this little blond waif could do.
Drake didn’t want to let this crying child’s father become dog food. But she had also just admitted she’d come here to betray him. He needed to know the rest of her story.
“Where are these mercenaries keeping your father?”
She sniffled and wiped at her adorable little eyes. “I couldn’t say lord, but far outside your woods in some vast green fields. They transported me by horse to the edge of your lands. After that, I walked the whole day through these woods to find you. All day!”
This child had gumption, he’d give her that. He looked at Emily. “What do you think? Can we spare the forces to save her father?”
Emily shrugged. “These bounty hunters sound like real jerks, but this lovely little girl and her dog food daddy don’t even live in our territory. We can’t just go tossing our soldiers at every little problem in the big wide realm. It’s rough out there.”
She was right about that. Still. Dammit. He still wanted to help Anna.
He turned back to the still-on-the-verge-of-blubbering child and decided to crouch. The least he could do was speak at her level. “One more question. Do you have a rarity?”
Anna’s sniffles faded as her whole face lit up. “I do, lord! And it’s special.”
“What is it, then?”
She moved a toe shyly. “Can I whisper it to you? I don’t want everyone to know.”
Not a chance in hell, kid. “You can whisper it to Olivia, and she can whisper it to me.”
Not that he intended to throw his slavishly devoted battle maid under the bus. But Olivia was the one with freakish fire powers. He suspected she was also fast on her feet.
Anna nodded. “I suppose I could let Olivia know it. She’s so nice.” She looked at Olivia. “Promise you’ll only tell the lord?”
“I promise, Anna.” Olivia looked up at him hopefully. “Lord?”
“Are you comfortable with that arrangement?”
“Of course, lord.” She knelt again. “Just whisper it here.”
The little girl leaned close and said something in Olivia’s ear. Olivia’s eyes widened, but she merely looked impressed, not alarmed. She nodded and rose.
What game was Anna playing? Or was she so guileless she believed Lord Gloomwood would rush off to save her father for free? And was she right, dammit?
Olivia walked over to join him and Emily, then leaned close and whispered directly in his ear. “She says her rarity allows her to teleport people places, lord.”
That sounded useful as hell! Drake eyed Anna as he considered how useful a rarity like hers could be. Maybe if he saved her and her father, he could recruit her for Gloomwood Manor. She’d definitely be willing to help him out after he saved her old man.
“Anna?”
“Yes lord!”
“Can you really do what you say you can? You’ve done it before?” For the moment, he would humor her by not broadcasting her rarity for the entire manor to hear.
“Oh yes, lord! I’ve done it many times before!”
“All right. Let’s talk about a deal. If I agree to rescue your father, would you be willing to come live here with me and use your power for my benefit?”
Lydia hurried over to stop at his other side. “We should verify what she can do before we make any offers.”
He was momentarily annoyed Lydia would think he wouldn’t do that, but she was simply looking out for him just like he’d asked. “Agreed.” He looked to the slightly less suspicious waif once more. “So, Anna. Would you be willing to demonstrate your rarity for us?”
“Oh, sure I would! I could even do it to you if you wanted, Lord Gloomwood!” She looked around again. “But could we go somewhere a little more outside?”
“Why outside?”
“My rarity works better there. Inside there’s more... complications? Complexity.”
In other words, she might accidentally teleport someone into a wall. Not the type of rarity he needed. Come to think of it, was this world round like his, or flat? If it was round, how could he know she wouldn’t teleport him right off the planet?
“Just give me a moment, Anna. You stay right there. Don’t move.”
“Of course, lord. But please, I like your deal, and I hate those mercenaries. If you can save my Daddy, I’d love to come live in this nice big mansion. Daddy would like that too.”
No one else was in this lobby other than his battle maids and the zarovians. Drake doubted the zarovians would care if he consulted with his warriors. And if they did, so what? The big lizardmen apparently thought very little of humans already.
He motioned for Olivia, Lydia, and Emily to join him, then walked back to the side of the stairs away from Anna. Olivia appeared delighted to be included. Once they had enough distance to speak quietly without Anna overhearing, he looked around.
“So? Thoughts?”
Olivia’s eyes widened. “You want... are you asking us what we should do, lord?”
“I’d like your opinions.”
“But you’re Lord Gloomwood!”
Had he lost her confidence already? Better pivot. “And it’s because I’m Lord Gloomwood that I trust you all to advise me. This is still my call, but I want your thoughts. We’re all a big team now, remember? Everyone’s input matters.”
As Olivia stared slack-jawed and starry-eyed, Lydia spoke before Olivia could muddle herself further. “The mercenaries would never have sent Anna here if they expected you to be able to recruit her yourself. They must be confident she can betray you.”
“Right, but... can she? She’s just a kid.”
“No one invites a manor lord to battle save for other manor lords. If they know we’ll expect a trap and do not care, they are confident they can defeat us in battle.”
Emily nodded. “They’re tempting us to slit their throats while offering a valuable rarity we really might wish to seize for our manor. This is a good trap, lord.”
He glanced her way. “Please don’t compliment the enemy mercenaries.”
“Why not? Doesn’t mean I won’t still chop ‘em.”
“So here’s my question,” Drake said. “How do they know we won’t just keep her? If I were a ruthless fuck, I could just take Anna for myself.”
He couldn’t, not now, but these mercenaries couldn’t know that. So far as they knew, his blood pact was still a standard evil blood pact. Or... had they found out it wasn’t?
“She did say can teleport people, lord,” Emily said. “Perhaps that includes herself?”
“But if someone forced her to join a blood pact, couldn’t they forbid her to use her rarity?”
Emily blinked. “Lord… is this humor?” She laughed, but obviously with effort.
Lydia glanced his way. “Let’s try to keep the jests to a minimum, lord. We all know that no person below the age of sixteen may enter a blood pact. Let’s focus on our goal.”
“Right.” Drake once again mentally thanked Lydia for being her. “I’ll stop joking around.”
That explained why the mercenaries had risked sending Anna here. It suggested they didn’t know he’d changed his blood pact, simply that even the most evil of blood pacts wouldn’t let anyone under sixteen join them. An odd caveat given the rest.
Olivia perked up. “Well... I think we can’t let her leave without helping her.”
Lydia offered her a level glance. “And what about the next time?”
Olivia blinked in obvious confusion. “Next time?”
“If we help her now, what about the next time someone comes asking for help? And what if dozens come after them? Hundreds? People don’t just ask manor lords for favors.”
“I suppose,” Olivia said. “But wouldn’t it be nice if they could?” She stared hopefully at Drake. “And she does have a pretty great rarity.”
“Which is?” Emily asked quietly. “Why’s the big secret?”
“She can teleport people,” Drake said.
Olivia gasped. “How did you do that?”
Had she just caught him a lie? No, wait. He was good. “You said you wouldn’t tell, Olivia. I never said that.”
She pursed her lips. “Ooh, that’s mean!” Yet she didn’t look displeased.
This was a reminder he’d have to be careful with what he said and how he said it. People on this world weren’t able to lie, and if he just lied regularly, someone would figure out he could do that. He’d lose the only ace he had up his sleeve before he learned to use it.
“I think Anna could be useful,” Drake said. “It is possible these mercenaries are stupid?”
Olivia stared at him. “Stupid, lord?”
“Yes. They’re morons. Never underestimate the confidence of morons.”
She smiled wide. “Is that a saying from your world?”
“Sure,” he hedged. “But basically, it’s possible they may think that they can deal with us when we arrive, and they’ve wildly overestimated their abilities. In which case, we stomp.”
“I don’t like how this is coming after the ambush by Skybreak Manor,” Lydia said.
Drake once again thanked Lydia for her excellent memory. “That’s right. Valentia and Nicole were ambushed there, and Sachi hasn’t come back yet.”
“And Nicky almost died,” Emily growled. “These the same folks, you think? If they decided to tangle with us once, they might be dumb enough to do it again.”
“Nicole still can’t tell us anything,” Lydia said. “We don’t know how she and Valentia were captured. If they could take those two down, we should consider them a serious threat.”
Drake rubbed his chin. “Seems like the best thing would be to send Sachi ahead to scout out wherever Anna’s dad is supposed to be, but Sachi’s not here right now.”
“Nicky could also do it easily,” Emily said pointedly. “But, you know. Deep sleep.”
Emily was right. These mercenaries had baited a rather tempting trap, and one specifically targeted at a manor lord who wasn’t a complete asshole. This was only a hard choice for Drake because he wasn’t the type to let some poor kid’s father become dog food.
Lord Dickcheese would have simply compelled some expendable zarovians to rescue the girl’s father in hopes of gaining control over her ability to teleport people. If his zarovians got captured or killed, he’d write it off as a business expense. But Drake’s people weren’t expendable.
“Let’s table the rescue for the moment,” Drake said. “First, we need to know Anna can do what she says she can do. Perhaps she’s stretching the facts.”
Emily nodded eagerly. “So verify, then decide when we know if it’s worth snapping at the bait. I like your idea, lord. Plus, I really want to see her teleport someone!”
He looked around at them. “So who’s going first?”
Lydia cleared her throat. “Perhaps we could have Anna teleport a potted plant, lord? They are living beings, we have many outside, and we can afford to lose one or two.”
Drake nodded as if he’d already thought of that great idea. “Seems fair.”
“Then let’s go!” Emily whispered. “Ooh, imagine if she could teleport us to the bath in Capetown? If we could just go anytime we wanted?”
Drake glanced at her. “Is that a nice bath?”
“You’d love it, lord!” She grinned lecherously. “Especially since it’s girls only.”
He needed to stop walking into traps. He turned immediately to Anna, decision made. “All right, Anna. We need to see what you can do first. We’re going to all go out to my garden and let you demonstrate your abilities on a potted plant. Can you do that?”
“I can try!” Anna said bravely. “Will you come with me, lord?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Lead the way.”
Lydia frowned his way as Anna skipped off toward the front doors, but when he glanced her way to check on her, she merely looked away. Something seemed to be bothering her, but perhaps she didn’t think it worth mentioning. They’d talk later.
“Open the doors!” he called to his zarovian guards.
Both lizardmen snapped to attention, then opened the big double doors leading out into the garden/hedge maze where he’d confronted the golden knights of Proudglade. Anna skipped out ahead of everyone, ragged dress trailing behind her thin calves.
Emily and Olivia both quickened their paces and marched on ahead of Drake, which he humored. He knew Lydia was right at his side. So much security, for what? Just nerves. The early afternoon sky waited outside, and the three moons, and the hedge maze. No attackers.
Emily glanced back from the garden, and Olivia did as well. Both smiled encouragingly.
Time to see what this little blond waif could do.
