They set off into the big stone town with Cask’s rangers falling in around them. One ranger hurried off ahead and soon vanished. Two led the way while another walked behind, and Cask himself walked easily at Drake’s left while Valentia walked at his right.
Was the missing ranger scouting ahead? Drake supposed that made the most sense. Regardless, he got yet another look at the bustling town built up around Skybreak Manor. There must be hundreds of people living here, possibly even a thousand.
He already knew, from Sachi, that a manor lord could only put so many people under blood compulsion. That meant it was unlikely everyone in this large town was a blood thrall of Lord Skybreak. Perhaps the only people she made her blood thralls were those who served her directly, like Cask and Karth. The people in Shadowfort—the nearest town to Gloomwood Manor—weren’t his blood thralls, so only adding important or powerful made sense.
Every day in this world he encountered more things he didn’t know. Things he hadn’t even thought to ask until they were staring him in the face. Maybe when he got back, he’d ask Zuri to devise some sort of curriculum. Basically, Fucked Up Fantasy World for Dummies.
Skybreak Manor was just as impressive up close as it had been in the distance. It looked to be carved straight from stone, and while it was only a bit taller than his manor, its weathered stone and hard lines made it look more like a castle than a house. The windows were weathered glass instead of standing open, so it hopefully wouldn’t be freezing inside.
The first entry to Skybreak Manor wasn’t double doors, like at his manor, but instead a full-on metal portcullis at the entrance to a stone tunnel. Drake did see reinforced double doors a good ways inside, but from what he remembered from his studies of medieval castles, there was likely a second portcullis inside the tunnel.
If attackers somehow got this far into the town, Skybreak Manor might even allow some of them to enter the tunnel. Then, they would slam down the portcullis at the entry and another in front of those doors and murder the fuck out of anyone trapped inside. Would they use arrows, burning wood, or magic acid? Who knew how nasty their traps might be?
Still, if Lord Skybreak wanted them both dead, she’d had dozens of opportunities to make that happen already. Cask and one of his rangers also walked right into the tunnel. He doubted Lord Skybreak would murder the head of her own army to take him out.
It seemed only Cask and one ranger would accompany them inside the actual manor. The other two had peeled off when they arrived, and the first one hadn’t returned at all. After a nerve-racking walk through the tunnel and past its small murder holes, the big double doors rumbled open from inside. Two more soldiers waited, though these were armored footmen.
So far, Drake hadn’t seen a single demihuman, neither among the people gathered throughout the town outside Skybreak Manor nor among the rangers. Given how amazing a ranger Sachi would make, that struck him as odd. Did Lord Skybreak have something against demihumans? It seemed like a manor full of ranger types would constantly recruit them.
He only had one demihuman in his manor as well—Sachi—so perhaps demihumans simply didn’t join blood pacts often. Sachi certainly didn’t seem like she’d enjoy being told what to do by some asshole. Samuel was the only reason she was even with Gloomwood Manor.
Once inside, the interior of Skybreak Manor proved more gloomy than Gloomwood Manor. It was all arched stone tunnels with no windows, lit only by enclosed glass lamps situated at regular intervals. He saw plenty of doors, but all remained closed. There were also no people present, suggesting the servants had been ordered to clear the way.
As Drake followed Cask through multiple turns, up and down several stairways, and almost certainly in unnecessary circles, he decided the old man must be taking them by a circuitous route on purpose. They would have no idea how to escape this manor once they did reach Lord Skybreak, and that bothered him. Still... too late to back out now.
Just when Drake was on the verge of demanding they stop dicking around all day, Cask led them to a short stair that led up to a set of doors. These were visibly thicker and covered in more metal than the rest. Cask walked up and slammed a big knocker.
The sound of multiple locks and bars being removed echoed from inside. The big doors opened slowly, and the obvious weight as they moved reminded Drake of the doors of a bank vault. He suspected those doors could take an impact from a rocket launcher.
Also, wouldn’t it be nice to have a rocket launcher? Not that he’d used it inside a big stone building, but still. He’d bet even a rocket launcher was easier to reload than a crossbow.
Cask motioned for them to enter the room. It seemed he wasn’t going to head inside with them. He probably had lots of important stuff to do as their army’s leader.
Drake walked inside to find what was definitely a manor lord’s private study. Two soldiers in more light armor, both women close to Valentia’s age, stood inside. Each was armed with a rapier and a short bow despite being this far into the keep. Lord Skybreak’s bodyguards.
One whole wall of the room was lined with a bookshelf piled with books, and unlike the books haphazardly scattered around Zuri’s matchbox at home, these were all shelved. There also weren’t any open flames near the books, something he was now more determined to ask Zuri to stop. As soon as he got back to his own manor.
A long table that was probably this world’s version of a conference table went down the middle of the room, with four chairs on each side and one on the head. There was also what looked to be a small kitchen in the corner, probably so the lord could take her meals here.
Finally, there was another, smaller door in the wall at the back. It was closed, but probably led to Lord Skybreak’s private bedroom. Or several rooms. Somewhere she could chill.
Last was the lord of Skybreak Manor herself, who Drake was shocked to find must be about the same age as he was. He’d expected to trade legal arguments with a stuffy matriarch, not a tan young blond woman who could have stepped off a college campus somewhere in Sweden. Just how long had she been Lord Skybreak?
She wasn’t dressed like a college co-ed, of course—she wore a fine gray silverweave tunic and pants with practical boots that looked designed for marching, not strutting—and her bare arms showed the svelte but defined muscles he’d expect to see on an Olympic pole vaulter. Her blond hair was bound up in multiple curled braids, and her eyes were sky-blue.
Yet Drake didn’t for one moment doubt this woman was a manor lord. Her gaze cut through him, sizing him up like a fighter in a boxing ring might size up her opponent. Since he had no idea what her rarity was, he had no idea just how powerful she might be.
But if Lord Skybreak ran both this manor and the small town outside, she definitely wasn’t someone he wanted to casually fuck with.
His fellow manor lord offered the briefest inclination of her head as she approached, boots clicking on the stone, and stopped at the edge of her table. “Lord Gloomwood. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I trust my head ranger saw to your needs?”
“He did all right,” Drake said. “And, though it should go without saying, I’m sorry to hear about your steward. I’d hate to lose mine, and I imagine you feel the same.”
Just because Lord Skybreak was both close to his age and more than a bit hot was no reason he couldn’t keep his head on and be diplomatic. He had this. He was going to prove Valentia’s innocence and head home to enjoy his wonderful bath.
“Steward Rodney was vital to my manor and a good man,” Lord Skybreak agreed. “And for what it’s worth, I understand why you’re hesitant to lose a warrior as powerful as Valentia.” Her gaze slipped past him and turned hard. “Even so, she must die.”
Valentia said nothing in her defense. Drake hadn’t expected her to. Valentia was still willing to take the fall and endure torture and execution to keep him and his manor safe.
Drake raised a hand and offered what he hoped was a charming grin. “Just a moment, Lord Skybreak. We agreed to table any executions until you presented your evidence. I still need to see it. Until you convince me of her guilt, I can’t let you interrogate or execute her.”
She marginally inclined her head. “As you said.” She turned to face the door at the back of the room. “Bring him out, Kari!”
The door to her private chambers opened, and then a dark-haired woman armored and armed like the two at the doors walked out. Beside her, with one arm around her, a grimacing young man in a comfortable cloth tunic and pants limped out with her. He was limping, Drake saw, because he was missing everything below his left knee. He walked on a single crutch.
Valentia’s tiny intake of breath was the only indication Drake got that she recognized this man. Didn’t they have healers here? Or could you not heal a missing lower leg?
As Kari and the unnamed man entered the room, Lord Skybreak strode over and offered her arm instead. “Take my arm, Oswell. No need for that crutch today.”
The man’s eyes widened. “I can’t let you—”
“You will,” she interrupted. “That’s an order.” She slipped his other arm over her shoulders, then carried his crutch for him.
The man grimaced as Kari and Lord Skybreak herself helped him over to the chair at the head of the table. Once they’d sat him down, Lord Skybreak took a step back.
“Deliver your testimony,” she ordered the man.
Oswell nodded and looked right at Drake. “A little under a week ago, I left Skybreak Manor to escort Steward Rodney to a private negotiation with battle maids from Gloomwood Manor. Shortly after the meeting began, we were ambushed by mercenaries. During that battle, I saw Valentia murder Steward Rodney in cold blood.”
Drake glared as his mind raced. Valentia hadn’t killed Rodney, but this man believed she had. Was Skybreak Manor going to rely purely on one dude’s testimony?
They could, he now realized. Because once again, people in this world could not lie. He’d expected the frame job on Valentia to be some sort of elaborate and conniving plot, but it was just some dude saying Valentia murdered Rodney. Just Oswell’s word was proof of her guilt.
And since Valentia wasn’t guilty, that confirmed magic was involved, and since people in this world could only say what they believed, that magic let whoever used it fool people into seeing or experiencing things that hadn’t happened. Once again, his enemy had fucking bullshit superpowers. He was starting to hate how often those ruined his day.
Still, at least now he knew. Had he simply surrendered Valentia yesterday, he’d never have known their proof was this stupid or his enemy was this powerful. He was up against someone who could change what people saw, and he was stuck in a world where people couldn’t lie. Whoever had set all this up was even better at tricking people than he was.
Still, Drake couldn’t entirely hold back his frustration. “You’re deluded.”
“Lord Gloomwood.” Lord Skybreak spoke with steel in her voice that snapped his gaze to hers. “Oswell was the personal bodyguard to Steward Rodney and is a man for whom I have tremendous respect. You will not demean him in my presence.”
Drake bit back an angry retort. Despite the fact that what he’d just described hadn’t happened, Oswell believed it had. And as he eyed Lord Skybreak for any signs of subterfuge, all he saw was very real anger. She was defending her thrall.
Drake could prove Oswell was mistaken by having Valentia give her testimony, but as he looked around the room at everyone—the bodyguards, the dude missing half a leg, and Lord Skybreak—he realized he didn’t know who could have done this. Anyone in this room could have made Oswell believe this lie.
So had Lord Skybreak? As Drake sized her up again, he didn’t think so. She still looked genuinely angry as their eyes met, but also genuinely upset. If she wanted an excuse to go to war, she didn’t need to kill her own steward. She wasn’t involved, and she believed Oswell.
So now, Drake simply needed to figure out when to have Valentia tell her truth.
They set off into the big stone town with Cask’s rangers falling in around them. One ranger hurried off ahead and soon vanished. Two led the way while another walked behind, and Cask himself walked easily at Drake’s left while Valentia walked at his right.
Was the missing ranger scouting ahead? Drake supposed that made the most sense. Regardless, he got yet another look at the bustling town built up around Skybreak Manor. There must be hundreds of people living here, possibly even a thousand.
He already knew, from Sachi, that a manor lord could only put so many people under blood compulsion. That meant it was unlikely everyone in this large town was a blood thrall of Lord Skybreak. Perhaps the only people she made her blood thralls were those who served her directly, like Cask and Karth. The people in Shadowfort—the nearest town to Gloomwood Manor—weren’t his blood thralls, so only adding important or powerful made sense.
Every day in this world he encountered more things he didn’t know. Things he hadn’t even thought to ask until they were staring him in the face. Maybe when he got back, he’d ask Zuri to devise some sort of curriculum. Basically, Fucked Up Fantasy World for Dummies.
Skybreak Manor was just as impressive up close as it had been in the distance. It looked to be carved straight from stone, and while it was only a bit taller than his manor, its weathered stone and hard lines made it look more like a castle than a house. The windows were weathered glass instead of standing open, so it hopefully wouldn’t be freezing inside.
The first entry to Skybreak Manor wasn’t double doors, like at his manor, but instead a full-on metal portcullis at the entrance to a stone tunnel. Drake did see reinforced double doors a good ways inside, but from what he remembered from his studies of medieval castles, there was likely a second portcullis inside the tunnel.
If attackers somehow got this far into the town, Skybreak Manor might even allow some of them to enter the tunnel. Then, they would slam down the portcullis at the entry and another in front of those doors and murder the fuck out of anyone trapped inside. Would they use arrows, burning wood, or magic acid? Who knew how nasty their traps might be?
Still, if Lord Skybreak wanted them both dead, she’d had dozens of opportunities to make that happen already. Cask and one of his rangers also walked right into the tunnel. He doubted Lord Skybreak would murder the head of her own army to take him out.
It seemed only Cask and one ranger would accompany them inside the actual manor. The other two had peeled off when they arrived, and the first one hadn’t returned at all. After a nerve-racking walk through the tunnel and past its small murder holes, the big double doors rumbled open from inside. Two more soldiers waited, though these were armored footmen.
So far, Drake hadn’t seen a single demihuman, neither among the people gathered throughout the town outside Skybreak Manor nor among the rangers. Given how amazing a ranger Sachi would make, that struck him as odd. Did Lord Skybreak have something against demihumans? It seemed like a manor full of ranger types would constantly recruit them.
He only had one demihuman in his manor as well—Sachi—so perhaps demihumans simply didn’t join blood pacts often. Sachi certainly didn’t seem like she’d enjoy being told what to do by some asshole. Samuel was the only reason she was even with Gloomwood Manor.
Once inside, the interior of Skybreak Manor proved more gloomy than Gloomwood Manor. It was all arched stone tunnels with no windows, lit only by enclosed glass lamps situated at regular intervals. He saw plenty of doors, but all remained closed. There were also no people present, suggesting the servants had been ordered to clear the way.
As Drake followed Cask through multiple turns, up and down several stairways, and almost certainly in unnecessary circles, he decided the old man must be taking them by a circuitous route on purpose. They would have no idea how to escape this manor once they did reach Lord Skybreak, and that bothered him. Still... too late to back out now.
Just when Drake was on the verge of demanding they stop dicking around all day, Cask led them to a short stair that led up to a set of doors. These were visibly thicker and covered in more metal than the rest. Cask walked up and slammed a big knocker.
The sound of multiple locks and bars being removed echoed from inside. The big doors opened slowly, and the obvious weight as they moved reminded Drake of the doors of a bank vault. He suspected those doors could take an impact from a rocket launcher.
Also, wouldn’t it be nice to have a rocket launcher? Not that he’d used it inside a big stone building, but still. He’d bet even a rocket launcher was easier to reload than a crossbow.
Cask motioned for them to enter the room. It seemed he wasn’t going to head inside with them. He probably had lots of important stuff to do as their army’s leader.
Drake walked inside to find what was definitely a manor lord’s private study. Two soldiers in more light armor, both women close to Valentia’s age, stood inside. Each was armed with a rapier and a short bow despite being this far into the keep. Lord Skybreak’s bodyguards.
One whole wall of the room was lined with a bookshelf piled with books, and unlike the books haphazardly scattered around Zuri’s matchbox at home, these were all shelved. There also weren’t any open flames near the books, something he was now more determined to ask Zuri to stop. As soon as he got back to his own manor.
A long table that was probably this world’s version of a conference table went down the middle of the room, with four chairs on each side and one on the head. There was also what looked to be a small kitchen in the corner, probably so the lord could take her meals here.
Finally, there was another, smaller door in the wall at the back. It was closed, but probably led to Lord Skybreak’s private bedroom. Or several rooms. Somewhere she could chill.
Last was the lord of Skybreak Manor herself, who Drake was shocked to find must be about the same age as he was. He’d expected to trade legal arguments with a stuffy matriarch, not a tan young blond woman who could have stepped off a college campus somewhere in Sweden. Just how long had she been Lord Skybreak?
She wasn’t dressed like a college co-ed, of course—she wore a fine gray silverweave tunic and pants with practical boots that looked designed for marching, not strutting—and her bare arms showed the svelte but defined muscles he’d expect to see on an Olympic pole vaulter. Her blond hair was bound up in multiple curled braids, and her eyes were sky-blue.
Yet Drake didn’t for one moment doubt this woman was a manor lord. Her gaze cut through him, sizing him up like a fighter in a boxing ring might size up her opponent. Since he had no idea what her rarity was, he had no idea just how powerful she might be.
But if Lord Skybreak ran both this manor and the small town outside, she definitely wasn’t someone he wanted to casually fuck with.
His fellow manor lord offered the briefest inclination of her head as she approached, boots clicking on the stone, and stopped at the edge of her table. “Lord Gloomwood. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I trust my head ranger saw to your needs?”
“He did all right,” Drake said. “And, though it should go without saying, I’m sorry to hear about your steward. I’d hate to lose mine, and I imagine you feel the same.”
Just because Lord Skybreak was both close to his age and more than a bit hot was no reason he couldn’t keep his head on and be diplomatic. He had this. He was going to prove Valentia’s innocence and head home to enjoy his wonderful bath.
“Steward Rodney was vital to my manor and a good man,” Lord Skybreak agreed. “And for what it’s worth, I understand why you’re hesitant to lose a warrior as powerful as Valentia.” Her gaze slipped past him and turned hard. “Even so, she must die.”
Valentia said nothing in her defense. Drake hadn’t expected her to. Valentia was still willing to take the fall and endure torture and execution to keep him and his manor safe.
Drake raised a hand and offered what he hoped was a charming grin. “Just a moment, Lord Skybreak. We agreed to table any executions until you presented your evidence. I still need to see it. Until you convince me of her guilt, I can’t let you interrogate or execute her.”
She marginally inclined her head. “As you said.” She turned to face the door at the back of the room. “Bring him out, Kari!”
The door to her private chambers opened, and then a dark-haired woman armored and armed like the two at the doors walked out. Beside her, with one arm around her, a grimacing young man in a comfortable cloth tunic and pants limped out with her. He was limping, Drake saw, because he was missing everything below his left knee. He walked on a single crutch.
Valentia’s tiny intake of breath was the only indication Drake got that she recognized this man. Didn’t they have healers here? Or could you not heal a missing lower leg?
As Kari and the unnamed man entered the room, Lord Skybreak strode over and offered her arm instead. “Take my arm, Oswell. No need for that crutch today.”
The man’s eyes widened. “I can’t let you—”
“You will,” she interrupted. “That’s an order.” She slipped his other arm over her shoulders, then carried his crutch for him.
The man grimaced as Kari and Lord Skybreak herself helped him over to the chair at the head of the table. Once they’d sat him down, Lord Skybreak took a step back.
“Deliver your testimony,” she ordered the man.
Oswell nodded and looked right at Drake. “A little under a week ago, I left Skybreak Manor to escort Steward Rodney to a private negotiation with battle maids from Gloomwood Manor. Shortly after the meeting began, we were ambushed by mercenaries. During that battle, I saw Valentia murder Steward Rodney in cold blood.”
Drake glared as his mind raced. Valentia hadn’t killed Rodney, but this man believed she had. Was Skybreak Manor going to rely purely on one dude’s testimony?
They could, he now realized. Because once again, people in this world could not lie. He’d expected the frame job on Valentia to be some sort of elaborate and conniving plot, but it was just some dude saying Valentia murdered Rodney. Just Oswell’s word was proof of her guilt.
And since Valentia wasn’t guilty, that confirmed magic was involved, and since people in this world could only say what they believed, that magic let whoever used it fool people into seeing or experiencing things that hadn’t happened. Once again, his enemy had fucking bullshit superpowers. He was starting to hate how often those ruined his day.
Still, at least now he knew. Had he simply surrendered Valentia yesterday, he’d never have known their proof was this stupid or his enemy was this powerful. He was up against someone who could change what people saw, and he was stuck in a world where people couldn’t lie. Whoever had set all this up was even better at tricking people than he was.
Still, Drake couldn’t entirely hold back his frustration. “You’re deluded.”
“Lord Gloomwood.” Lord Skybreak spoke with steel in her voice that snapped his gaze to hers. “Oswell was the personal bodyguard to Steward Rodney and is a man for whom I have tremendous respect. You will not demean him in my presence.”
Drake bit back an angry retort. Despite the fact that what he’d just described hadn’t happened, Oswell believed it had. And as he eyed Lord Skybreak for any signs of subterfuge, all he saw was very real anger. She was defending her thrall.
Drake could prove Oswell was mistaken by having Valentia give her testimony, but as he looked around the room at everyone—the bodyguards, the dude missing half a leg, and Lord Skybreak—he realized he didn’t know who could have done this. Anyone in this room could have made Oswell believe this lie.
So had Lord Skybreak? As Drake sized her up again, he didn’t think so. She still looked genuinely angry as their eyes met, but also genuinely upset. If she wanted an excuse to go to war, she didn’t need to kill her own steward. She wasn’t involved, and she believed Oswell.
So now, Drake simply needed to figure out when to have Valentia tell her truth.
