by Emera Rose
I looked around at the paltry few dozen in the room and cringed. Many if not all of the men in here were way past their prime, I dare say many of them were so overweight I was skeptical they’d be able to raise a weapon over their heads.
“Well, if this is what we have, I guess we’re going to need a lot of help.”
He let out a soft chuckle. “Leave us, Laramie, and I have quite a bit to talk about.”
Without a snicker or back word, every single person in the tent filed out to leave the two of us alone. I had seen that kind of power before. It was the power of a King.
Chapter 15
I walked closer to the table, almost stopping to wait for the approval to sit. I had to remind myself that this was nothing more than a slave, a high handed one but a slave nonetheless. I took a seat to his left.
“Who are you?” I asked, wanting to know who I was dealing with.
“I’m a slave.”
“Sure, but do you have a name, were you raised by wolves?”
“Of course I do, my name is Tahmas.”
“Tahmas, it's a pleasure.”
“I am sure it is.”
I almost rolled my eyes at his arrogance, “I see with all your war training there were no lessons in politeness thrown in.”
“Look, I don’t have time for pleasantries.”
“When are you planning on getting your soldiers trained, we can be attacked at any time.”
“Soldiers? These men are farmers and merchants, slaves, and scared little boys. Not soldiers.”
“Not yet, it's our job to turn them from the weak, defeated people that we see here to people who stand a chance of survival.”
“Our job?” He asked, tilting his head to the side and looking at me like I had just spewed my stomach contents from my mouth.
“What do you think? Am I just going to leave all this up to you? You may have the people’s support behind you, but I have the resources. We will need armor, weapons, magicks, healing potions. Inside information.” I raised my eyebrows to him. I could see the intrigue in his eyes.
“You can get those things for us? They would assist us?”
“Of course, it would take some doing, but if we have a strong front line that will mean less of them will die, and if there’s one thing I know about, it’s that a vampire values their life.”
“Ok, Laramie, I like how you think. Tell me what you had in mind.”
We spent the rest of my available time speaking about what could be done to make the soldiers stronger. We agreed that we would need the younger ones to be on the front; speed was essential. We would start by clearing up the fields and setting up tents in an ordering fashion. The people should not be sleeping out in the open as they had been. There would be shifts when one group slept another would stay awake and keep watch. Those that were sickly or older would help make the weapons and tend to the injured when the time came. I would teach them the herbs and potions they could use to heal, and what they could use to ease the pain the wounded would suffer.
Those that would be fighting would need to be efficient with a spear and shield, as getting into a face to face battle with a vampire would be as good as losing the fight. With the spear, at least we would be able to keep the enemy back. A wall would need to be built so that we would be able to train archers. There was a plan taking place, and hope began to blossom among the people. A hope that they’d never had the experience of feeling.
***
“Stand tall!” Tahmas bellowed to the front line. “How can you be counted on to protect your fellow warrior if you slouch and shrink like a coward.” Those in the line straightened their back and hid their upper bodies behind the practice shields they had. The spears or rather the sticks that they were able to use to practice all shook in the slight wind.
“No, you must be solid!” He ripped a shield and spear from one of the boys at the end of the line, and he turned to face one soldier whose form was all wrong. Tahmas kept the shield covering his body from below his eyes to above his knees still, it never moved as he took out the young boy, knocking him to the ground with a sharp thrust. Tahmas then swung the stick overhead quickly, and by shuffling his feet one step forward was able to pin him to the ground with the blunt end of the stick.
“If you stand on this line weakly, you will die.” He yelled to the soldiers who were watching the altercation. He was the best of them for sure, and he would make them better before their time was done.
He turned back to face the front, the entire group now staring at his back.
“First position!” He ordered, and everyone behind him immediately and with complete synchronization fell into the first position. The sound was intimidating, and the movements, although still shaky, were getting better.
I stood on the sidelines and watched them train. It was only a matter of time before Tahmas stepped off, asking Michael, his second in command, to take over.
“Come.” He ordered me as he simply walked by me.
“Excuse me?” I followed him but was miffed that he thought he could order me around like a dog. He was no better than me, what gave him the right to talk to me that way?
“What is the timeline on those weapons that you promised us?” He asked, still not bothering to turn around toward me.
I followed him into his barracks but stayed by the entryway.
“I completely understand that what you are doing is pressing, but I would appreciate a little bit of respect.”
“Respect?” He stormed up to me, clearly perturbed by my previous statement. “Do you see all those men out there, if I don’t ready them for a battle, they will not live past a fortnight, excuse me if I don’t have time for pleasantries.”
I kept my head up. I didn’t know the stress Tahmas was under, and I didn’t know the sacrifice many of these people would have to make for them to defeat the enemy. Tahmas was right. There were more pressing matters at hand than whether or not he was nice to me.
“The King and his court promised me we will have the materials we need within two days, we are waiting for the ship to return.”
“And what of the magicks and the potions?”
“The magicks are still being withheld, but I do have willow acid, and I know where on the island we can get more,” I said, pulling out a small vial of bright orange liquid, this small amount would be enough to coat at least three dozen weapons. Willow acid came from a plant called Willowmena. They were beautiful flowers, but the nectar that they secreted was very dangerous to the vampires. It was poisonous to them. Once willow acid was introduced to a vampire's body, instead of a puncture wound closing after the object was removed, the wound would stay open and seep for days until an antidote was given or the poison had run its course.
“Willow acid? I didn’t think that was real? How much more can you get?”
“You will have enough.”
“Good, it will be of great use to us. And the Hellfire?”
“We will have all the supplies we need to make it,” I assured him.
He crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at me strangely.
“What? Is this not what you asked for?”
“It is. It is more than what I thought you capable of getting.”
“Well, I hope that’s the last time you underestimate me, now that I have proven myself capable.” I gave him a smug smile and turned to walk out of the large tent.
“Indeed, but are you capable in other areas?”
I turned back toward Tahmas in confusion, what other areas did I need to be competent in. I promised to get the items we needed to give the human fighters a chance, and that’s what I did.
“What else is it that you need from me?”
“It’s not what I need from you; it’s what I want from you.” He let the phrase dangle in the air.
Surely he wasn’t talking about sex. Out of the small amount of time that I had spent with him, he never once looked at me in that way. He was wholly focused on his task of training the soldiers.
Finally, he spoke again, “Rather, what I want for you.” He walked up closer to me, “You walk around here with a clear purpose, and no one around here would dare go against you, especially while you are still in favor with the king, but what about our enemies? What about those that are coming here to slaughter all of us. Can you protect yourself?”
“Oh, no, I am not a fighter at all. I just have an incredible knack for surviving.” I shrugged.
He shook his head, “That is not enough, I’m scared to think what would happen if they figure out you are a personal slave to the king. I fear they may even target you just to get at him.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I had become so used to being safe at my station that I didn’t even think about the Makins coming for me just to get at Jett.
“Go grab a weapon, and I will teach you at least some of the basics. That way I won’t have to worry about you ending up with your head on a pike or something like that.”
He had a point; I could use a few pointers. I made my way over to the weapons display and picked up a set of kata, liking the weight in my hands. They were light.
“Absolutely not. Grab that staff and meet me outside.” He didn’t even wait for me to comply with his request before he left.
I grabbed the staff as he ordered me to, but I didn’t like it as much as the kata. I felt awkward with it, and it was more substantial. I walked out, and luckily I saw the flash of steel from the corner of my eye. My hands instinctively shot out to protect myself, the broad sword Tahmas swung at me, catching on the staff in my hands.
“You wouldn’t have been able to do that with the kata. A staff is better for you. You can keep the enemy away and still inflict pain. Spread your hands further apart” He pointed the tip of the sword at my hand and tapped it up.
“This feels strange.”
“It should, you are untrained, a few days with me, and you will be a pro.” He winked and then used the sword to tap where he wanted my feet. He pushed and demanded nothing but the best of me, and even with my bum leg, I was doing things with the staff that I’d never thought I could do. After a few hours, I was nowhere near a professional, but I did have the basics.
“Come, we should do a bit of training on-site.” Tahmas began walking toward the castle behind us. “It won’t matter how you fight on the battlefield if you never make it out of the castle walls.”
I looked over to him in shock, did he really think that it would get that far where I would have to fight? I wasn’t a fighter.
We made it to the walkway into the central area of the castle; it seemed deserted enough for a little bit of a practice run. It was a great spot because over the walls was a dead drop. If he was trying to teach me how to survive in a battle environment, this was a good one. It seemed pretty dangerous.
“Right, get in the stance as I showed you before.” He ordered, and I complied. “Is that how I showed you to hold the staff?” He walked up behind me and positioned my body. His front pressed against my back. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that he was smelling my hair; he was so close. I tensed not used to having anyone that close to me.
“Hmm, I see. I thought you were more than just a servant to the king, that maybe he had his way with you.”
I tried to pull away, but he held me fast to his front.
“Don’t take offense. I’m impressed that you earned your way into his good graces by hard work and not just lying on the bed and opening up your legs. Now let’s get to work, shall we?” He pivoted quickly and somehow ended up in front of me in his fighting stance.
“Always be aware of your surroundings,” he raised his sword above his head and swung down. I thrust the staff up to block, and he took a huge step forward and swung the sword from the side, I dropped the staff down to the side to block that attack as well.
“You can’t always be on the defense; the fight will go on forever, and eventually you will get tired.” He swung the sword around and tried to hit me from the other side, and I blocked it with no problem. After a few more attacks, I thought I had the most opportune time to strike; unfortunately I was wrong. I stuck the staff out, and he flicked it up with his sword, which caused the staff to rise above my head, my hands went with it, and he swept my foot out from underneath me at the same time. The end result, I was lying on the ground, and he was straddling me with his knife at my throat.
“You think that weak attack will do anything?” He moved the knife and bent down to get closer to my face. “When your life is on the line, you can’t think about how scared you are, if you want to survive, you fight. The time to keep to yourself is gone.”
I thought back to all those years ago in the closet with my mother, she told me I had to survive, and I’d done everything I could to keep that promise to her, even when things got too hard to bear, it was that promise to her that kept me pushing on. I had done this mostly by just keeping my head down, not angering my master, and just hoping that one day I would be able to be free. Now he was telling me that I would need to take an active role. I might have to fight to survive. I didn’t think I was ready, as much as I didn’t like being a slave, it was better than dying at the hands of our enemy.
“I can’t, and I’m not ready. I can just hide.” I shook my head looking up at Tahmas, suddenly just the thought of fighting was enough to cause my heart to begin to race. I couldn’t do it.
“Hey,” he placed a soft hand on my cheek. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head, I will do my best to keep the bad men away from your gate,” he smiled.
“I know you will, Tahmas.” I studied the man’s face as it hovered above mine; he was a rugged looking man. His young face marred with the weariness of years as a slave. I still couldn’t figure out if the man had blue or grey eyes, and just like the first time I came across his gaze, I was mesmerized.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I am going to think you want training in something else,” he smirked at me, and I could feel my cheeks getting hotter.
“You are so absurd.” I had thought that Tahmas was paying me extra special attention, and now seemed he was a bit sweet on me, or he was just brute of a man who only thought with the member below his buckle.
“Look at this my King, I told you that this punishment was unfit. She is just frolicking around with the other slaves. We should put her back into the hot box.”
I craned my head back, King Jett and Queen Margot stood at the archway just staring at the scene in front of them. I pushed Tahmas off and struggled to get to my feet.
“My lord, Tahmas here was just showing me-” He flashed to me, grabbing me hard by my hair. The look in his eyes was one I had not seen before.
“Did I ask you to speak? You forget your place. Apparently, it is on your back as many thought.” He let go of my hair a backed up one step. “Get back to your post; my effects are in disarray. I better not find one thing awry when I get back.” He turned and took the queen’s hand in the crook of his arm and continued to walk away.
I let out a deep breath and tried to compose myself. The last thing I wanted was for either of them to think I was making light of my duties.
“That was dumb, and we shouldn’t have been practicing here.” I walked back over to where Tahmas was standing and tried to give him back the staff I had in my hands.
“Are you upset because we were practicing here or because King Jett was the one to catch you?” his tone laced with skepticism.
“Of course, because King Jett caught me. He is my master, and I must do what I can to ensure he is happy with me. The last thing I need is to anger the vampire, who holds my life in his hands.” I looked at him like he was out of his mind; he had a master too. I was sure he did his best not to upset whoever held the keys to his figurative shackles.
He shook his head and took the staff from my hands, “Laramie, I have never seen anyone as scared as you, especially someone that holds so much power.”
“Power? What power do I have? I am nothing more than
a slave, just like everyone else.”
“You are wrong, and I pray that you know it. You have the ear of the king, whether he shows it or not, we all know that if you guide him in a certain direction, he will follow. You have access to the King and Queen's chambers and all their effects, and you have the support of your people. You are a leader trying to disguise yourself as a follower.”
I balled my fists at my sides and clenched my jaw, “I never asked to be a leader.”
“That is the thing about being a leader, you never ask, either you are, or you aren’t. Sorry, my lady, but you don’t have much of a choice here.” He turned and starting walking back toward the camp. “I’ll see you tomorrow, as there is still much to be done and a lot of training for you to complete.” He yelled over his shoulder, not even giving me a chance to respond.
I didn’t want to be a leader; it wasn’t a responsibility that I would take no matter what Tahmas might think.
Chapter 16
I made it back to Jett’s quarters as quickly as my legs would take me, but I wasn’t expecting to see the condition the King's chambers were left in, there were clothes everywhere, parchments pulled out of every cabinet, blood packs cut open and on the floor, stone, and rubble scattered around. It looked like the war had already started in his room.
As quickly as I could, I picked up what needed to be picked up, but some of the stone and rubble was too heavy even for me to move so I had to leave it there until I could get some to move it for me.
*BONG BONG BONG*
The chimes began to go off, letting me know that it was time for me to bring King Jett his blood cup. I walked over to the closet, but there were no more pouches of blood. It was empty. This had never happened before. I didn’t know where to get more, nor did I even know who I could ask to get it restocked.
The last chime had not even sounded, yet King Jett had begun screaming my name, “Laramie!”