I called my assistant into the office. “Henry, do be so kind as to assign Mr. Stillman some of our best living quarters. He will be staying with us for the foreseeable future.”
Henry led Mr. Stillman out of my office, and I returned to working on the more important issues at hand.
In Memory of
Sunshine
Twelve years was not nearly enough time to spend with my best friend. I will miss your quiet presence every day. The love you showed everyone was truly magical. I’ll never know just how you ate those two chicken burritos. You were truly a gift that can never be replaced.
Ascendancy Butcher of the Bay
Copyright 2015, Bradford Bates
All Rights Reserved
This novel is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this work are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictional. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or by obtaining written permission from the author. Any inquires may be addressed via email to [email protected]
Prologue
Edward, 1348
The men had come to me with reports of Lycans hiding in a nearby building. We rode out to investigate their claims right away. The dilapidated stone structure rose two stories into the night sky and the roof had seen better days. At some point over the winter, part of the roof must have finally given way, leaving a gaping hole toward the center of the structure. The rest of the building looked sound, and if it had any type of underground access, it would have made a perfect hiding spot for the fleeing Lycans.
The Council had been using the Black Death to wage an all-out war against the Lycans in our fair city. Their orders were to eliminate them on sight, as well as anyone found aiding in their escape. Failure to act out these orders would be punished swiftly.
By the time we had reached the building, it was already surrounded by the warriors under my command. They were only waiting for my word to take action. With a simple command, I could have them bring the rest of the building down upon the beasts inside, and then we could burn what remained to ashes. Something was holding me back from making the decision; maybe the last shred of my honor was what kept my voice silent.
“We have them surrounded, Captain. How would you like us to proceed?” said Lieutenant Weatherby.
“Can you tell me exactly what is inside, Lieutenant?”
“The enemy, sir.”
“Damn it all to hell, Weatherby, that just isn’t good enough! Who is inside? Are there fighting men or is it all just women and children?”
“Does it really matter, sir? The Council has asked us to kill all of them.”
“Of course it matters. I don’t care who ordered it or what the circumstances are, I refuse to be used to slaughter women and children.”
“If you want, sir, I can give the order to the men.”
“My God, man, that is the last thing I want. I have an idea. You will follow my lead, and if you disagree, just keep your godforsaken mouth shut.”
I rode around the building speaking to the men watching it, trying to find out just who was actually inside. It seemed none of them knew; only one man had seen a Lycan enter through the hole in the roof. When they had surrounded the building, several howls had escaped into the night, indicating more than one Lycan was trapped inside. All I could do was offer them a chance; whether or not they were going to take it was up to them. If they didn’t, all of them would die here.
My circle around the building completed, I rode toward the door to the building. Weatherby stayed behind me and to the right. I had my doubts this would work. In their position, I would rather fight to the death, but I had to give them a chance to save the women and children. That is, if any of them were inside. Nothing moved in the night; everything around us had grown eerily silent.
When I spoke, my words rang out clearly. “Hear me well. You have one chance to send out your men in their human skins. For this, I will send my men away and let the women and children go free. You have five minutes to decide your fate, and then we will bring the building down on top of you.”
A male voice called out from the building. “How do we know you are telling the truth?”
“There is no way for you to know, but the building is surrounded. Your deaths will come; the only choice you have is in the manner that it takes you.”
“And if we decide to come out?”
“All I can promise you is a quick death.”
To my surprise, the door to the building opened, and a man stepped out into the night. He was wearing loose shorts tied to his waist by a rope. He had no shirt or shoes. His legs and chest were dirty from hiding in the broken building.
When he spoke, the words rang true to my ears. “I will send out all of the men inside for your word that the women and children will live.”
“You have my word that none of my men will harm them. They will still have to find a way out of the city on their own.”
“I guess that will have to be good enough.”
I felt Weatherby pull up beside me. He whispered out of the side of his mouth. “What do you think you are doing? Our orders are to kill all Lycans on sight, no questions asked.”
Somehow, the thought of that made me feel dirty. Killing a man for a crime committed or in the heat of battle was one thing; exterminating them just for being alive was something else entirely. I turned my glare on the lieutenant and said, “Keep your mouth shut and follow my orders.”
I could see that he wasn’t happy as he backed his mount away from me a few paces. There was going to be a time soon that I had to deal with him, to remind him of his place. There were some things a rich father could not buy you out of, and one was following orders.
Five men stood before me now, all of them dressed in the same type of rags as their leader. I could see their ribs sticking out and the gaunt expressions on their faces. What kind of man fights a war like this? There was no honor in starving your opponents until they couldn’t fight, slaying entire families at once. Something needed to be changed, and I was going to have to do it.
I dismounted from my horse and called out to the men before me. “Kneel and you shall receive a quick death. I swear it.”
One by one, they silently fell to their knees. All five men in a line, the man I had been speaking to at the end. I walked up to the first man, and he looked up at me, his fierce blue eyes gleaming in the night. I could see the pride and determination in that look, and again I wondered just why we had been called upon to do this. Without saying a word, I plunged my dagger into his heart. I walked down the line, my hand methodically rising and falling until I reached the leader of their band.
I placed a hand on his head and whispered, “You did a brave thing tonight.”
He looked up at me from his knees. “Just make sure you live up to your end of our deal.”
I smiled just a bit, thinking of their bravery and what they had done to try and save those they loved. The cold steel of my dagger plunged into his chest. I felt a tear drop from one of my eyes. War makes fools out of all of us. I watched as Weatherby gave the signal, and the building crashed down.
Without a thought, I set fire to the bodies of the five men, then turned and walked away. I wanted to let them live, it just wouldn’t be possible without putting the lives of every man that followed my order at risk. The Council had no favorites, and being a captain in their army would not spare me a similar fate as the men burning behind me.
I had a feeling that the Lycans would have been able to hear our entire conversation even from inside the building, so we had worked on our plan before arriving. It was a hard choice to make, but I would choose the lives of my men over theirs every single time. Tonight all of my men would go home to their families. That made tonight better than most.
I had grown weary of endlessly trudging through the English countryside. It had been raining for almost five days, making staying dry an impossibility. Even if
we’d been issued the finest waterproof gear in all of England, it would not have been able to stand up in these conditions, so we had given in to the inevitability of being wet days ago. Typically, I wouldn’t mind a good bit of rain, but five full days of it made it seem like God was laughing at us. But more than the rain, the worst thing was the mud. After the second full day of rain, the mud had almost become a living thing, slowing our progress, not to mention seeping into every nook and cranny of our gear. The dark and cloudy sky had done nothing to improve the attitudes of my men during our journey. It was only a matter of time until one of them snapped.
The servants were also waging a valiant battle against the wet conditions, as well as the mud. Keeping our provisions and tents dry was a nearly impossible task, yet somehow they had managed thus far. It was only a matter of time until they lost the battle and our tents could no longer be raised to provide a safe haven from the rain. Soon, we would be forced to sleep on the cold, wet ground.
I had personally selected the men for this mission, and they were a surly bunch. Most of them were long-time criminals that we had pardoned, hoping to advance the Council’s vendetta against the Lycans. The choice had been simple for them: come with me and earn a wage, or stay in a cell and wait for death. The decision seemed easy enough to make. If I was one of them, I would have gladly given anything to be free. But easy or not, that didn’t mean they were happy about being here. They were the best of the worst. Most of them were short on pure magical talent but made up for it with a unique understanding of how to use their skills for destruction. These men would kill a man just as easily as I might strike up a conversation with one. All of them were fearsome, but for what the Council had tasked me with, these men were perfect.
The Council had launched a war against the Lycans, and sent us out into the countryside, hoping to continue the extermination of the Lycans that had fled from the major cities.
The advent of the Black Death had provided the Council with the perfect opportunity to make a move against their enemies without arousing too much suspicion. Wearing plague masks provided us with a reason to be out on the city streets, and helped us move around the city unrecognized by the general populace. With death everywhere, and the state of near constant panic and fear that had gripped the cities since the plague started, it had become even easier than usual to dispose of the bodies of those we eliminated. Carts moved up and down the streets at all hours hauling the bodies of the infected away to be burned. The shouts of “Bring out your dead” could be heard along with the slight jingling of the death carts’ bells.
Some of the Fallen were targeted, as well, the smaller nests easily cleared out, but mostly, we had used the time to start removing the overabundance Lycans from our great city. Pushing them out from the city proper would help to establish our dominance in the territory once again.
The Council was never going to miss an opportunity to cement their power in London. They started by spreading the rumors that the plague had been carried in by the Lycans, and bitten humans supposedly then spread it to the people around them, causing the most catastrophic illness in our nation’s history. The talk from scholars that rats somehow were spreading the disease was shouted down as ignorant. The Council knew best.
Most of our warriors were just happy to have a good fight and would never question their orders. However, the officers knew that it was highly unlikely the Lycans had spread any kind of disease among the people. Killing a major food source would not be smart. Though they did have incredible immune systems, for them to be the lone culprit of the plague was highly improbable.
The Council demanded death to all Lycans, and we delivered it. Slowly and methodically, we had moved through the city—masked men killing men, women, and children in the streets. We brought death to the Lycans that the plague could not. The gutter ran red with Lycan blood. But the only crime committed was what we were doing. The Lycans had done nothing to bring death’s hand down upon them. Their only crime was being born, or being turned.
The word soon spread through the Lycan community, and they fled the cities in search of somewhere safe to call home. Our orders in the city had been executed so well, I now found myself here. Surrounded by criminals and covered in mud.
I called out to our scout Lieutenant Weatherby, the only other military man in our group. I hoped that his sense of direction and ability to read a map were intact, but I had my doubts. “Lieutenant, please tell me that we are close enough to our destination to set up camp for the night.”
The lieutenant pulled his horse around in a tight circle so he could come by my side. I repressed a tiny smile when I noticed he was covered in slightly more mud than I was. “Sir, we are about an hour outside of a village. That is, of course, if our map is accurate. I was going to ride ahead and scout the area. If the village has an inn, it would give us a break from the rain and a chance to clean up. If we end up not being close enough to make the inn before nightfall, I will scout out camping locations on my way back.”
Weatherby was always looking out for an inn not only to clean himself off but to hopefully purchase some decent companionship for the night. I let the smile finally break free and sent him on his way. “Make sure to actually report back to us before you get lost in a cup of ale, Lieutenant.”
We continued riding forward, and I motioned to my men. As one, they moved up to flank me in our battle formation. Two men moved on each side of me, each half of a horse’s length back, and the others fell into similar positions behind each other on either side. The last man moved into position behind the wedge we had formed, making us look like a diamond. Our wedge formation made it hard to attack us all at once, while also letting us move forward as a single unit. The rest of the men remained behind to guard our caravan of goods.
It seemed a silly precaution to take. This area reported to have little or no Lycan activity. We were merely passing through, heading toward another town that was overrun by the beasts. However, I would not have the deaths of these men riding with me on my conscience because I failed to exercise a little caution in my haste to get out of the rain. The servants fell further behind us as we galloped forward toward the town ahead. The guards with them were well armed, but at the moment, my priorities focused on the prospect of enjoying a dry night’s sleep at the inn. The servants and guards could fend for themselves. I was getting out of this godforsaken rain.
We moved through the outskirts of the village where we passed occasional hovels with thatched roofs serving as their only protection from the unrelenting rain. Most of those who lived out this far were farmers and those too poor to live in the village proper. As we continued to ride, the small dirt track started to widen into a road. The homes on either side of the road slowly became less squalid and closer together. I could see the gates of the town before us, and it looked as if we might be in luck finding an inn. A village large enough to build a gate would surely have an inn. That meant I could have my clothes washed and dried and could sit in front of a fire before sleeping in a warm dry bed for the night. I could see Weatherby riding back toward us, and I signaled to the men. As one, they broke our attack formation and moved to ride lazily behind me in a line, making us look more like travelers and less like a group of marauders.
Weatherby pulled up alongside me again and waited for me to address him. “So did you find us accommodations for the night?”
He gave me his normal lidded half-smile with his head cocked to the side. It could only mean one thing—that he had found us accommodations and found himself a lady. “That I did, sir.”
I gave him a scowl. “What are you waiting for, an invitation from the king? Out with it, man.”
He visibly pulled his thoughts away from whatever fantasy he was having about the barmaid and started to speak. “I booked six rooms for us and arranged for feed and stable space for the horses. I also secured a small building to the side of the barn that is unused to give our servants a place to dry off as well.”
I gave him a
nod, letting him know that he had done well. We continued our slow walk into the village proper. It was an interesting place, simply for the fact that everything I saw in it was utterly forgettable.
Weatherby signaled to what I can only assume was the stable boy from the inn. He came running over at a brisk jog to meet us by the entrance. He had a mop of curly blond hair that was getting plastered to his head from the constant drizzle we still found ourselves in. If he minded the rain or getting wet, it did not show in his expression. He looked young, maybe fifteen summers. I would have expected the stable hand to be older, unless he was working for family. The boy gave us a once over as we dismounted, and removed our gear from the horses. It must have been a long time since he had seen fighting men with swords in his village. It surprised me how openly he looked at our weapons. Normally, someone of the serving class would avoid staring or eye contact, lest it be misconstrued as impudence.
The boy looked up and caught me watching him and feigned looking down before moving forward to grab two of the horses. “Lieutenant, help the boy get our horses in the barn before you join us inside.” He nodded to me, looking a little upset to be asked to stay in the rain for any amount of time he deemed unnecessary.
I was shocked when the boy spoke up. It simply wasn’t appropriate. “It’s okay, my lord, I can take care of all of them. My brother is coming over to help now.”
I was about to tell the boy to mind his place when I noticed his brother running toward us from the barn. He had a look of fear on his face. He probably knew his younger brother had a tendency to speak out of turn. It was probably ignored by the locals, but he should know better with us.
As the older boy approached us, he slowed from a jog to a walk. It gave me time to make an assessment of him. He was older, and in most places would be considered a man. Hard labor in the stables had given him muscles. I wondered how he had escaped joining the military but thought better of asking him directly. Just like his younger brother, he had blond hair plastered to his head.
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