* * *
The next day Vasile led a group of men from Vallaya into the forest. Besides him walked Anton, armed with a bow and carrying on his back a full quiver of arrows. Anton’s father had his firearm, a long arquebus, loaded with powder and shot, along with extra bullets and a horn of gunpowder. Cornel, the blacksmith, clad in his leather apron, bore a heavy axe and a large crossbow armed with one of Vasile’s bolts and touted several more in reserve. They all wore what heavy leather clothing they could find as armor, making some effort to guard their chest and neck.
Flaviu arrived on schedule leading his troops, who trailed behind him in a disorganized mass. Cezar was there besides him, carrying his own arquebus, along with nine others so armed. The rest were armed with crossbows and longbows. All of them were armored with helmets skirted by a chainmail aventail for the neck, and they all wore a chainmail hauberk to cover their torso and thighs. A team of horses and carriages in the back towed along their two cannons, with several cannonballs and the three barrels of gunpowder. In the front of the team, the small black figure of Lina led the way, unarmed and covered head to toe in her black cloak.
The two groups silently greeted each other, each simply nodding in the other’s direction. Flaviu asked, “Where’s Andrei? Tending his shop?”
Vasile replied guardedly, “He’s ill actually. He wanted to come, but we wouldn’t let him.”
Flaviu looked up and saw the sun high in the sky and whispered to Vasile, “God be thanked she’s on our side. Do you think they’ll be expecting us?”
“I think so, but they won’t be expecting this,” Vasile said, pointing to the gunpowder. He added, “If any soldiers here want to pay their last respects to God before our battle, let them do it now.”
All of the men bent down on their knees and said a few prayers and took a few moments before they were ready to continue. Only Lina didn’t join in, looking around her over the praying crowd with curiosity, like a foreigner observing a strange custom.
Some minutes later, the whole band of soldiers was on the move, Lina walking at the front of the pack at a pace that was to her maddeningly slow, though to the soldiers was uncomfortably fast.
As the band approached half a league from the coven, they started to come into view of the nearest vampire sentry. In the direction from which the band approached, they were visible by Sil, who at the moment reclined in his tree, trying to relax and catch some sleep just to stave off the boredom of sitting for hours in the burning sunlight in this tree. He resented being reduced to such menial duty. He was secretly fantasizing about Asha apologizing for having put such a great warrior on such a trivial assignment when his ears pricked up at the sound of motion.
He almost fell out of the tree as he tried to sit up straight from the relaxed position he’d been in. Once he turned his eyes and looked in the direction of the sound, he could see it as clear as day. Even through the haze of the black cloth that covered his head, he could distinguish some twenty-five armed men, walking in the direction of the coven.
His orders were to flee back to the coven as soon as possible and raise the alarm. At the speed he could run and with the head start he had, he knew they couldn’t catch him, not even Lina, who was far too young to match his pace.
He smiled to himself when he thought: “You know what would be even better than sounding the alarm? Carrying a dead Lina in my arms.” He would be showered with praise and worshiped as a hero. He could imagine Asha’s emotions as she was torn by remorse for putting such a degrading task on such an unparalleled warrior but also delighted that she had because his skill had led to such a fortuitous result.
It would be easy: Lina was young and weak and could be effortlessly subdued; she was so far ahead of the troop that he could snatch her and run without being shot; not to mention that along the trajectory she was walking, she’d be close enough that he could leap right at her, landing right behind her. He’d pick her up and run away before they could even take a shot. Even a far lesser vampire could pull it off with ease.
All he had to exert was a little patience while he waited for her to come close enough.
Sil readied himself as Lina approached, standing up and lowering himself to a thicker branch that would be able to withstand the full force of the long leap he’d need to make to reach Lina in one bound.
Lina still led at the front of her group, walking quickly, and occasionally turning behind her and looking at the troops in order to tacitly reprimand them for their slowness.
When Lina reached within about fifty paces of Sil, he made the leap. He pushed hard with his legs, launching his massive body high into the air, arching silently between the branches with his cloak flapping behind him, and crashing to the ground with a resounding stomp.
Sil had decided to pick Lina up and kill her while on the run. He kicked up a great spray of dirt as he started his run, scooping up Lina in his arms and zipping off into the distance.
The troops were slow to react to this sudden appearance, unready and unprepared. Only Anton and Vasile were quick enough on the draw, raising their longbows and drawing their arrows out of the quiver as the shape of a running Sil shrank in their view. With no time to pick their placement, Vasile and Anton both let their arrows fly.
Before the arrows could even reach their mark, Sil began to slow and stumble. The two arrows landed on his back just as he began to fall. The little vampire he’d been carrying had wrapped herself around his neck like a shirt collar, raised her head-covering just enough to expose her mouth and drained the blood out of him as fast as she could drink.
When she was done, she removed the two unnecessary arrows and held them out to Vasile and Anton as they ran towards her. “Your arrows,” she told them, “You’ll need them.” She pushed the body aside and continued walking while the troops hustled to catch up with her again.
Elixir of Flesh Page 59