The man dropped when Drake clubbed him as hard as he fucking could in the head. A moment after that, the thunderous headache faded. He was no longer being drained of blood. Finally, the glowing yellow knife in the man’s leg just disappeared.
Drake hoped that didn’t mean Lydia was dead now. He didn’t know how to deal with her being dead. For now, she’d assumed she’d just called her magical dagger back... or whatever.
He still felt a little dizzy, and the world was slowly spinning, but he didn’t collapse. It seemed Samuel’s burnished rarity could even generate new blood. Too bad for this asshole that he couldn’t have known that, since Drake just got his new rarity today.
He raised the club to finish the unmoving man off, but noticed then that his would-be assassin was more than a bit unconscious. In addition to the cut on his thigh, there was a massive welt on his head and a long stream of drool rolling down his lips.
The man was alive, but was he brain damaged? It would be just Drake’s luck to finally capture one of his many would-be assassins alive only to club him so hard the man forgot how to talk. He wanted nothing more but to sprint back out of this tall grass and see if Lydia was alive, and Emily was alive, and Thak... fuck, he’d just met Thak... was alive.
But if this assassin woke up and escaped, he could attack them again. Drake was not a healer. He could only heal himself. If the others were alive, they’d still be alive when he got back with his captive, and if they were dead, well... they’d still be dead.
He couldn’t let this man wake up, run off, and live to attack again. He’d been lucky that the assassin hadn’t known Drake could lose a bathtub full of blood and still run after him. He doubted he’d get so lucky again, and besides. He owed this man some payback.
Drake hung his club back on his belt and then experimentally shoved one arm under the entirely unconscious man. He was heavy, but Drake hauled him to his feet. He shouldn’t have been able to carry an unconscious man after losing that much blood, but he had Samuel’s burnished rarity now. His survival was proof of just how useful regeneration would be.
With the drooling assassin hanging off his shoulder and weighing him down, Drake ground his teeth and walked. Given the weight and his own trembling legs, it was more like a slow shuffle. He stayed ready to pull his club and brain the man again if he stirred.
Shouting was audible now, not far off, and Drake soon heard the grass rustling. People were coming to find him. Two zarovians burst from the grass first. Drake breathed out as he recognized a bright orange lizardman and another pale yellow one.
“Who you catch?” Korrag shouted.
“Assassin,” Drake managed.
Xutag raised one hand and clenched his claws. The meaning was obvious.
“No. Don’t kill him. We need to interrogate him.”
Korrag reached out and plucked the heavy assassin off Drake with one hand, then dropped the man over his shoulder. “I carry. You come. You great warrior.”
“Not a great warrior,” Drake corrected as he fell in behind Korrag and Xutag fell in behind him. “Just the only guy who could get close enough to hit that asshole with a club.”
They emerged from the maze of tall grass not long after. Drake was relieved to see Valentia and Nicole already there, tending to Lydia and Emily with their magic healing gloves. Thak lay where he’d fallen. No one was tending to Thak.
Before Drake could ask, Korrag hissed like a snake. “Thak dead.”
Shit. He must have lost too much blood to save. “I’m sorry, Korrag.”
“Thak was best drummer,” Korrag said mournfully. “Songs won’t be the same.”
Drake almost asked the big lizardman to crack the assassin in half right then, but he wasn’t ready to kill a man in cold blood. At least... not until he’d interrogated him first.
“He’ll pay for this,” Drake assured the big zarovian. “But for now, I need him alive. So keep him that way.”
“Torture fine,” Korrag said. “But I kill after?”
“Not unless I tell you to. Sorry, big guy.”
The big zarovian sagged with another heavy-sounded hiss. “Makes sense. Stop more dying by talking. Still, want to kill.”
“Me too, buddy. Me too.”
Xutag walked over to Thak and knelt beside his body. The pale yellow lizardman placed both claws together and bowed his head. His tail thumped once, twice, thrice on the earth, and then collapsed limp to the ground. He made a stovetop-sounding hiss.
Valentia rose and strode over, gaze furious. “You should not have gone off alone!”
Drake met her angry gaze with a level gaze of his own. “I had Lydia, Emily, and Thak with me.” He pointed at the man unconscious on Korrag’s shoulder. “The man I just knocked out was hidden in the tall grass, could suck the blood right out of you, and dropped all three of them in a few seconds flat.”
“Then you should have called for more of us!”
“And what would you have done differently in their place?”
Valentia opened her mouth, looked back at the two women covered in sweat and pale as the moon, and clenched her fists. She didn’t answer.
“It’s all right,” Drake added calmly. “That wasn’t a critique, just a reality check. No one could have dropped that guy alone, and the only reason I was able to drop him is because Emily spotted him, Lydia tagged him in the leg, and I had Samuel’s rarity to keep me from going down. At least now we can finally find out who keeps sending these assholes.”
“He will not talk,” Valentia said. “If he as good as you say he is, he will never talk.”
“We’ll see.” Drake motioned to the man slumped over Korrag. “His rarity is stealing blood. Any idea how he did that through silverweave?”
Valentia considered. “Silverweave mitigates magical attacks but does not entirely prevent them, especially if they are truly powerful.” Her normal calm had quickly returned. “Can you describe how he did it?”
“He sucked blood out of my face and nose and... well, it was disgusting, and it hurt.”
“A uniquely targeted rarity.” Valentia shook her head in horrified wonder. “Those are exceedingly rare.” She coolly evaluated Thak’s body. “The difference in mass between the fallen zarovian, Emily, and Lydia is significant, yet Emily and Lydia survived. Given that, I can only imagine that their silverweave blunted the attack enough that it didn’t kill them.”
Drake was relieved to hear his battle maids would live, though he was still pissed off about Thak. “Do most rarities target the whole body?”
“That is why silverweave is so valued by those who face powerful opponents. The fact that he could still target you even in silverweave is remarkable.”
“Any idea how to keep him from doing that again if he wakes up?”
“Blindfold,” Valentia said. “Even if he can activate his rarity with only one’s head exposed, if he can’t see at all he will not be able to use it.”
Nicole hurried over, reached into her apron, and pulled out a silky white blindfold. So she just carried one of those around? Of course she did.
Drake took the blindfold and looked to Korrag. “Lower that dickhead down here.”
As the man’s head lolled dangerous enough Drake worried they might accidentally snap his neck before they interrogated him, Drake strapped on the blindfold, or tried. With a small tut-tut of disappointment, Nicole stepped past and cinched it on the man’s head with ease.
Drake glanced at her. “It’s scary how good you are at that.”
She kept her eyes on the assassin. “I’m good at a lot of things.”
There was no humor in her words. Nicole’s flat tone told him just how furious she was about what this man had done to Emily, Lydia, and Thak.
Poor Thak. He’d liked hitting things, he’d been a good drummer, and he’d been one more loyal soldier who’d died to keep his manor lord alive. Thak would be remembered. He would also be avenged.
With the immediate adrenaline rush of combat and the horror of watching his own blood sucked out of his eyes dealt with, fresh worry for the little blond scamp who’d sent them all running out here returned. Yet he couldn’t do anything for Anna here, and no one had a better chance of finding her than Sachi. He had to trust his catgirl.
This assassin must have been the one to abduct Anna. It was the only thing that made sense. He’d planned it all out... abduct Anna, use her to draw Sachi away so his approach wouldn’t be detected, wait for Drake to leave the camp looking for her, and then strike.
Once more Drake had walked face first into a trap. He’d been reckless and foolish to leave his camp without a larger force. If not for his new rarity and the fact that it was also burnished, he would likely be as dead as Sky’s rangers back in Skybreak Manor.
He had to be more careful in the future. As much as he worried about Anna, he couldn’t keep her alive if he was dead. Moreover, if that assassin had managed to kill him and Lydia, he would have handed over his whole manor and every person in it to this blood-sucking piece of shit. Though... the assassin would have been surprised when Drake’s people murdered his ass.
One more reason to be glad he’d defanged the blood pact. Like the old Lord Crow, Drake wasn’t above a bit of petty vengeance. He took comfort in the fact that if the worst did happen, whoever managed to kill him and Lydia would be killed by the rest of his manor before they knew his people could fight back.
As the still burning fire in their camp came back into sight and more zarovians rushed up to join them, led by Cresh, Drake considered how the attack had gone down. The assassin must have focused his rarity on Thak first because he considered a large armed zarovian the biggest threat. His mistake.
He must not have known about Emily’s ability to see souls with rend soul. Otherwise, he’d have targeted her first. When he saw Emily pointing at his hiding spot in the tall grass, he’d tried to eliminate her next, but Lydia had flutterstepped on top of him and tagged him with her dagger. That had forced him to switch targets before he could finish Emily off.
And then, of course, Drake had charged in like a maniac, which had given the assassin no choice but to run. Whoever this man was, he was one hell of an assassin. He was also Drake’s prisoner, and he’d now need to decide what to do with the man.
Would this assassin tell him anything about who’d hired him? Even if he did, would Drake spare his life and take him prisoner? A man who could target people even through silverweave would be almost impossible to keep secure, and a single mistake would cost more lives... not to mention keeping watch on and handling a prisoner would slow down their travel.
If he made the wrong decision, more would die. His people would die. He wouldn’t decide right now. First, he would wait for Sachi to return with Anna, who would be alive. Next, he’d interrogate this assassin. And finally... he’d handle the rest.
Whatever the rest turned out to be.
By the time they were back in the camp, Lydia and Emily had recovered enough to walk unassisted. Both still looked extremely pale, but they were likely used to being borderline anemic, especially Lydia, who spent blood to use flutterstep.
Come to think of it, everyone with active rarities spent blood to activate them, even Valentia, who could freeze blood. So the assassin they’d just captured was able to simultaneously weaken his opponents while draining their power source and, if Drake’s hunch was correct, restore his own. What a wicked rarity. How many had this man killed?
A taunting possibility also then occurred to Drake. This man had a lethal rarity, and his rarity was to emulate rarities. He didn’t even have to mix blood with this man in order to take and use his rarity, since he could just forcefully bleed him until he filled up one of the blood flasks Zuri had given him which he still carried in his hip pouch.
But would he? Could he? He had no interest in becoming a ravenous blood-sucking monster, and becoming a guy who cut people open and carried their blood around in his pouch was dark even by manor lord standards. Still... it was an option.
He had no doubt that bleeding this guy and taking his blood would be immoral. He wasn’t going to try to justify it to himself. But moral or not, the question now was if it would be necessary to protect himself and his manor. He already knew what Valentia would say.
Sachi soon came sprinting back into camp with Anna riding on her back. The little girl had tears streaming from her eyes, but she was obviously alive. Sachi sprinted to a stop and gawked at the procession, including the man on Korrag’s back.
“That man smells like a wolf! Can he shift his shape?”
Drake leaned in and noticed a faint scene of musk and grass. “You can smell wolves?”
As Anna dropped off her back and ran for Drake, Sachi snarled. “I should have known a lone wolf wouldn’t be hunting all the way out here.”
Anna threw her arms around him with a tiny cry. Drake gently rubbed her back. “We all got fooled. Now, what’d he do to Anna?”
“I found her tied up and hidden in the bushes. He slit her calf enough to make her bleed. I could smell her, but I doubt anyone else would have found her back there.”
“I was scared, lord.” Anna clutched Drake tight. “But I knew you’d come for me.”
Drake suspected the assassin had only left Anna alive because if she was dead, Sachi would have smelled that, too. His rage simmered as he once more considered asking Korrag to break the assassin in half. That was foolish. Anna was alive, and he needed answers.
“Sachi found you,” Drake reminded her. “Sachi will always find you.” He glanced at his huntress, who flicked her ears in acknowledgement. “Can you keep an eye on her? I need to have a talk with the man who pulled you out of our camp and tied you up in the grass.”
Anna pushed back enough to stare at up at him. “Don’t let him hurt anyone else.”
“I won’t,” Drake said grimly. “You can count on that.”
Drake doubted Sachi would let Anna out of her sight when she was in camp and not scouting. That was fine. He wouldn’t either. The little girl might have a habit of getting kidnapped at inconvenient times, but she could still teleport them all home if necessary.
And, so long as he had Anna in his manor, so could he. If he was willing to give up the ability to regenerate and mixed blood with Anna, he could teleport himself and his people right back to Gloomwood Manor. There was no doubt he was now a powerful manor lord.
So now the question would be just how ruthless he was willing to be.
The man dropped when Drake clubbed him as hard as he fucking could in the head. A moment after that, the thunderous headache faded. He was no longer being drained of blood. Finally, the glowing yellow knife in the man’s leg just disappeared.
Drake hoped that didn’t mean Lydia was dead now. He didn’t know how to deal with her being dead. For now, she’d assumed she’d just called her magical dagger back... or whatever.
He still felt a little dizzy, and the world was slowly spinning, but he didn’t collapse. It seemed Samuel’s burnished rarity could even generate new blood. Too bad for this asshole that he couldn’t have known that, since Drake just got his new rarity today.
He raised the club to finish the unmoving man off, but noticed then that his would-be assassin was more than a bit unconscious. In addition to the cut on his thigh, there was a massive welt on his head and a long stream of drool rolling down his lips.
The man was alive, but was he brain damaged? It would be just Drake’s luck to finally capture one of his many would-be assassins alive only to club him so hard the man forgot how to talk. He wanted nothing more but to sprint back out of this tall grass and see if Lydia was alive, and Emily was alive, and Thak... fuck, he’d just met Thak... was alive.
But if this assassin woke up and escaped, he could attack them again. Drake was not a healer. He could only heal himself. If the others were alive, they’d still be alive when he got back with his captive, and if they were dead, well... they’d still be dead.
He couldn’t let this man wake up, run off, and live to attack again. He’d been lucky that the assassin hadn’t known Drake could lose a bathtub full of blood and still run after him. He doubted he’d get so lucky again, and besides. He owed this man some payback.
Drake hung his club back on his belt and then experimentally shoved one arm under the entirely unconscious man. He was heavy, but Drake hauled him to his feet. He shouldn’t have been able to carry an unconscious man after losing that much blood, but he had Samuel’s burnished rarity now. His survival was proof of just how useful regeneration would be.
With the drooling assassin hanging off his shoulder and weighing him down, Drake ground his teeth and walked. Given the weight and his own trembling legs, it was more like a slow shuffle. He stayed ready to pull his club and brain the man again if he stirred.
Shouting was audible now, not far off, and Drake soon heard the grass rustling. People were coming to find him. Two zarovians burst from the grass first. Drake breathed out as he recognized a bright orange lizardman and another pale yellow one.
“Who you catch?” Korrag shouted.
“Assassin,” Drake managed.
Xutag raised one hand and clenched his claws. The meaning was obvious.
“No. Don’t kill him. We need to interrogate him.”
Korrag reached out and plucked the heavy assassin off Drake with one hand, then dropped the man over his shoulder. “I carry. You come. You great warrior.”
“Not a great warrior,” Drake corrected as he fell in behind Korrag and Xutag fell in behind him. “Just the only guy who could get close enough to hit that asshole with a club.”
They emerged from the maze of tall grass not long after. Drake was relieved to see Valentia and Nicole already there, tending to Lydia and Emily with their magic healing gloves. Thak lay where he’d fallen. No one was tending to Thak.
Before Drake could ask, Korrag hissed like a snake. “Thak dead.”
Shit. He must have lost too much blood to save. “I’m sorry, Korrag.”
“Thak was best drummer,” Korrag said mournfully. “Songs won’t be the same.”
Drake almost asked the big lizardman to crack the assassin in half right then, but he wasn’t ready to kill a man in cold blood. At least... not until he’d interrogated him first.
“He’ll pay for this,” Drake assured the big zarovian. “But for now, I need him alive. So keep him that way.”
“Torture fine,” Korrag said. “But I kill after?”
“Not unless I tell you to. Sorry, big guy.”
The big zarovian sagged with another heavy-sounded hiss. “Makes sense. Stop more dying by talking. Still, want to kill.”
“Me too, buddy. Me too.”
Xutag walked over to Thak and knelt beside his body. The pale yellow lizardman placed both claws together and bowed his head. His tail thumped once, twice, thrice on the earth, and then collapsed limp to the ground. He made a stovetop-sounding hiss.
Valentia rose and strode over, gaze furious. “You should not have gone off alone!”
Drake met her angry gaze with a level gaze of his own. “I had Lydia, Emily, and Thak with me.” He pointed at the man unconscious on Korrag’s shoulder. “The man I just knocked out was hidden in the tall grass, could suck the blood right out of you, and dropped all three of them in a few seconds flat.”
“Then you should have called for more of us!”
“And what would you have done differently in their place?”
Valentia opened her mouth, looked back at the two women covered in sweat and pale as the moon, and clenched her fists. She didn’t answer.
“It’s all right,” Drake added calmly. “That wasn’t a critique, just a reality check. No one could have dropped that guy alone, and the only reason I was able to drop him is because Emily spotted him, Lydia tagged him in the leg, and I had Samuel’s rarity to keep me from going down. At least now we can finally find out who keeps sending these assholes.”
“He will not talk,” Valentia said. “If he as good as you say he is, he will never talk.”
“We’ll see.” Drake motioned to the man slumped over Korrag. “His rarity is stealing blood. Any idea how he did that through silverweave?”
Valentia considered. “Silverweave mitigates magical attacks but does not entirely prevent them, especially if they are truly powerful.” Her normal calm had quickly returned. “Can you describe how he did it?”
“He sucked blood out of my face and nose and... well, it was disgusting, and it hurt.”
“A uniquely targeted rarity.” Valentia shook her head in horrified wonder. “Those are exceedingly rare.” She coolly evaluated Thak’s body. “The difference in mass between the fallen zarovian, Emily, and Lydia is significant, yet Emily and Lydia survived. Given that, I can only imagine that their silverweave blunted the attack enough that it didn’t kill them.”
Drake was relieved to hear his battle maids would live, though he was still pissed off about Thak. “Do most rarities target the whole body?”
“That is why silverweave is so valued by those who face powerful opponents. The fact that he could still target you even in silverweave is remarkable.”
“Any idea how to keep him from doing that again if he wakes up?”
“Blindfold,” Valentia said. “Even if he can activate his rarity with only one’s head exposed, if he can’t see at all he will not be able to use it.”
Nicole hurried over, reached into her apron, and pulled out a silky white blindfold. So she just carried one of those around? Of course she did.
Drake took the blindfold and looked to Korrag. “Lower that dickhead down here.”
As the man’s head lolled dangerous enough Drake worried they might accidentally snap his neck before they interrogated him, Drake strapped on the blindfold, or tried. With a small tut-tut of disappointment, Nicole stepped past and cinched it on the man’s head with ease.
Drake glanced at her. “It’s scary how good you are at that.”
She kept her eyes on the assassin. “I’m good at a lot of things.”
There was no humor in her words. Nicole’s flat tone told him just how furious she was about what this man had done to Emily, Lydia, and Thak.
Poor Thak. He’d liked hitting things, he’d been a good drummer, and he’d been one more loyal soldier who’d died to keep his manor lord alive. Thak would be remembered. He would also be avenged.
With the immediate adrenaline rush of combat and the horror of watching his own blood sucked out of his eyes dealt with, fresh worry for the little blond scamp who’d sent them all running out here returned. Yet he couldn’t do anything for Anna here, and no one had a better chance of finding her than Sachi. He had to trust his catgirl.
This assassin must have been the one to abduct Anna. It was the only thing that made sense. He’d planned it all out... abduct Anna, use her to draw Sachi away so his approach wouldn’t be detected, wait for Drake to leave the camp looking for her, and then strike.
Once more Drake had walked face first into a trap. He’d been reckless and foolish to leave his camp without a larger force. If not for his new rarity and the fact that it was also burnished, he would likely be as dead as Sky’s rangers back in Skybreak Manor.
He had to be more careful in the future. As much as he worried about Anna, he couldn’t keep her alive if he was dead. Moreover, if that assassin had managed to kill him and Lydia, he would have handed over his whole manor and every person in it to this blood-sucking piece of shit. Though... the assassin would have been surprised when Drake’s people murdered his ass.
One more reason to be glad he’d defanged the blood pact. Like the old Lord Crow, Drake wasn’t above a bit of petty vengeance. He took comfort in the fact that if the worst did happen, whoever managed to kill him and Lydia would be killed by the rest of his manor before they knew his people could fight back.
As the still burning fire in their camp came back into sight and more zarovians rushed up to join them, led by Cresh, Drake considered how the attack had gone down. The assassin must have focused his rarity on Thak first because he considered a large armed zarovian the biggest threat. His mistake.
He must not have known about Emily’s ability to see souls with rend soul. Otherwise, he’d have targeted her first. When he saw Emily pointing at his hiding spot in the tall grass, he’d tried to eliminate her next, but Lydia had flutterstepped on top of him and tagged him with her dagger. That had forced him to switch targets before he could finish Emily off.
And then, of course, Drake had charged in like a maniac, which had given the assassin no choice but to run. Whoever this man was, he was one hell of an assassin. He was also Drake’s prisoner, and he’d now need to decide what to do with the man.
Would this assassin tell him anything about who’d hired him? Even if he did, would Drake spare his life and take him prisoner? A man who could target people even through silverweave would be almost impossible to keep secure, and a single mistake would cost more lives... not to mention keeping watch on and handling a prisoner would slow down their travel.
If he made the wrong decision, more would die. His people would die. He wouldn’t decide right now. First, he would wait for Sachi to return with Anna, who would be alive. Next, he’d interrogate this assassin. And finally... he’d handle the rest.
Whatever the rest turned out to be.
By the time they were back in the camp, Lydia and Emily had recovered enough to walk unassisted. Both still looked extremely pale, but they were likely used to being borderline anemic, especially Lydia, who spent blood to use flutterstep.
Come to think of it, everyone with active rarities spent blood to activate them, even Valentia, who could freeze blood. So the assassin they’d just captured was able to simultaneously weaken his opponents while draining their power source and, if Drake’s hunch was correct, restore his own. What a wicked rarity. How many had this man killed?
A taunting possibility also then occurred to Drake. This man had a lethal rarity, and his rarity was to emulate rarities. He didn’t even have to mix blood with this man in order to take and use his rarity, since he could just forcefully bleed him until he filled up one of the blood flasks Zuri had given him which he still carried in his hip pouch.
But would he? Could he? He had no interest in becoming a ravenous blood-sucking monster, and becoming a guy who cut people open and carried their blood around in his pouch was dark even by manor lord standards. Still... it was an option.
He had no doubt that bleeding this guy and taking his blood would be immoral. He wasn’t going to try to justify it to himself. But moral or not, the question now was if it would be necessary to protect himself and his manor. He already knew what Valentia would say.
Sachi soon came sprinting back into camp with Anna riding on her back. The little girl had tears streaming from her eyes, but she was obviously alive. Sachi sprinted to a stop and gawked at the procession, including the man on Korrag’s back.
“That man smells like a wolf! Can he shift his shape?”
Drake leaned in and noticed a faint scene of musk and grass. “You can smell wolves?”
As Anna dropped off her back and ran for Drake, Sachi snarled. “I should have known a lone wolf wouldn’t be hunting all the way out here.”
Anna threw her arms around him with a tiny cry. Drake gently rubbed her back. “We all got fooled. Now, what’d he do to Anna?”
“I found her tied up and hidden in the bushes. He slit her calf enough to make her bleed. I could smell her, but I doubt anyone else would have found her back there.”
“I was scared, lord.” Anna clutched Drake tight. “But I knew you’d come for me.”
Drake suspected the assassin had only left Anna alive because if she was dead, Sachi would have smelled that, too. His rage simmered as he once more considered asking Korrag to break the assassin in half. That was foolish. Anna was alive, and he needed answers.
“Sachi found you,” Drake reminded her. “Sachi will always find you.” He glanced at his huntress, who flicked her ears in acknowledgement. “Can you keep an eye on her? I need to have a talk with the man who pulled you out of our camp and tied you up in the grass.”
Anna pushed back enough to stare at up at him. “Don’t let him hurt anyone else.”
“I won’t,” Drake said grimly. “You can count on that.”
Drake doubted Sachi would let Anna out of her sight when she was in camp and not scouting. That was fine. He wouldn’t either. The little girl might have a habit of getting kidnapped at inconvenient times, but she could still teleport them all home if necessary.
And, so long as he had Anna in his manor, so could he. If he was willing to give up the ability to regenerate and mixed blood with Anna, he could teleport himself and his people right back to Gloomwood Manor. There was no doubt he was now a powerful manor lord.
So now the question would be just how ruthless he was willing to be.
