by Randi Darren
As if the answers to his problems lay there.
Which they did, of course. He just didn’t seem to have the wherewithal to grasp them.
Tactics and strategy seem sadly lacking here. It’s all just… mass and charge. Honor and retarded notions of chivalry.
Barely managing to suppress a sigh, Alex waited.
“By our accounts, the baron of Tilly is dead. Killed by your men during the action. His wife has been sent to the far rear and her uncle has taken complete control,” Tanulf said, pointing at Alex’s section.
“Understood. Is there anything we should expect from their troop composition that would be different? Or is it mostly the same as—”
“Does it matter? Just get in there and fight them,” the duke hissed, glaring at Alex across the table.
Somehow, Alex didn’t respond. Instead, he stared back at the duke. Waiting.
After some time had passed and the duke realized Alex obviously wasn’t going to respond, he moved on to his next point. Alex already forgotten.
In truth, Alex had already leapt subjects in his mind and was trying to figure out what to do next.
Especially since he’s forcing me to take all my troops in. Nothing to leave behind to guard our supplies, wounded, and camp support.
Foolish.
At least, Alex thought morbidly, one way or the other, this’ll probably be the end of this shit-show.
***
“Three,” Alex said, ducking into his tent.
“Yes, Master?” she asked. She was perched on the end of his bed, Mary’s niece sitting at a table nearby.
She looked quite similar to her aunt. So much so that one would wonder if they weren’t much more closely related.
He’d put her somewhere at fourteen. Give or take a year.
“I need to know if you can deliver a letter. First though, One?”
“Here, Master,” Riley said, stepping out from where she’d been standing along the wall.
“Could you please take our guest somewhere else? I’m afraid I need to have a bit of a discussion with Three.”
“Of course. Come, let’s go for a walk and let your food digest,” Riley said, holding her hand out to the young woman.
Riley and the girl left, leaving him with Valeria. Nannie and Carla both stood at the entryway.
“A letter?” Valeria asked curiously.
“Indeed. I need to know first—can you get into Count Frenis’s support camp without being compromised?
“If you can’t get in and out of that location without being caught or harmed, it isn’t worth it. So first up, can you do that?”
Valeria thought for a second, then nodded her head. “I believe I can, at that. I take it you want me to deliver something to our little baroness?”
“Am I that easy to read?”
“No, it’s just the only person you’d deliver a letter to. Idiot, Master,” Valeria said, grinning at him.
Alex thought on that, then shrugged. “Fair. Anyways.”
Moving to his desk, he pulled out his quill and ink-pot, and a piece of parchment.
He wrote a quick note, then blotted it with sand, folded it, and held it out to Valeria.
“You can read it if you want. It’s straightforward enough,” Alex said.
Flicking it open with a wrist snap, Valeria glanced down at it.
“Would you care to make another deal with me tomorrow? Same terms,” Valeria said aloud, then looked back to him. “I take it we’re attacking tomorrow.”
“Unfortunately, and as stupidly as possible. Again. Not much to be done for it.”
“And you think she might get captured and… well… not recognized as a noblewoman until far too late?” Valeria asked, keeping her phrasing polite.
“More or less. Can you do it?”
“Of course. What do I get for this?”
“Mm. Not sure. Think on it and we’ll figure out something later.”
Alex still had a trump card on her. He hadn’t promised her to let her retain her position once the campaign ended.
Same card he had on Riley.
This was definitely not the time to offer that up, either.
Valeria shook her head with a smile.
“No. Terms now, unless you’re ordering me to do this. At which point…” She left it open, tapping the letter against her chin.
“Fine. We’ll discuss terms now, but you won’t be sharing this newfound strategy of yours with the others, and that is an order.
“Is there something you want right now?”
Valeria frowned, looking up to the tent ceiling.
“I could use a couple of planned days off, actually. I end up working almost every day right now. I imagine that might change in the future with my apprentices, but still.”
“Granted. Consider it vacation time. Five days a year, every year. Anything else?” Alex turned to his table and started to draft up orders for David and Max.
Giving them instructions on the expectations the duke had. In addition, he included that he wanted them to use his personal tactics of evasion, subterfuge, and indirect attacks.
“No. That’s fine. Thank you, Master. I’ll set out after night falls. I should be back tomorrow. Hopefully before the brawl gets under way.
“Do give my regards to Two when she services you on her knees tonight,” Valeria said. An evil light glowed in her eyes as she walked away.
Alex blinked, looked up from his desk, and then grinned.
“Oh, right. Tonight. That’s great,” Alex said, turning around to the tent flap. “Hey, Two, come on over here. We should have a quick chat.”
***
Nannie suddenly let out a chuckle.
“Fuck you, you blood-drenched psycho,” Carla said immediately over Alex’s head at the other woman.
“Ptff, you do enough of that with him. Don’t need me there,” Nannie shot back.
“I swear to the gods I’ll make it so you spend every night in his bed if you don’t knock it off,” Carla growled.
“How are you going to manage that if you’re sucking him off? Ha, the look on your face. Ahhh,” Nannie said, chuckling once again.
“Five. Stop,” Alex said, no room for disagreement in his tone.
“Oh? Or wha—”
“Five,” Alex said again, turning to face her head on. “Stop.”
Nannie’s face bunched up as if she were going to yell at him. Then she apparently thought better of it. Facing out to the planes, she didn’t respond.
They’d all remained behind in the encampment. The duke had clearly said all soldiers.
His Numbered weren’t soldiers, and neither was he.
“Thank you, Five. Maybe it’d help to know Two is paying this price so you’re actually here. I had disagreed at first.
“Two, don’t let Five bait you. Anyways. We should probably be focusing on this battle rather than bickering over when Five will start earning her pay in my bed. Shouldn’t we?”
Nannie glanced to him, then to Carla, and finally looked away. Not saying anything.
Carla growled, then shook herself as if she were a dog shaking water loose.
“Yes, Master. Though from the looks of it, they’re doing exactly what you told them.”
Alex couldn’t disagree. David and Max were feinting in one direction only to hit from another. One part of the force would move away just as the other darted in.
They were operating in tandem and working Frenis’s army over rather well.
The moment they tried to chase them out into the field and away from their limited cover, both forces melted away. Leaving the enemy out in the field to take arrows from the rest of the company.
“I’m sure the duke is having a fit. He’d love to have me labeled as dishonored, I imagine. While we’re not engaging, we’re not running away either.”
“Yes, Master. It looks like the conscripts are holding their own as well.”
“Does seem that way, Two. But after having been put into combat a few times, they
’re probably experienced enough to not get themselves immediately killed.”
A light touch pressed to the middle of his back, causing Alex to look over his shoulder.
Valeria stood there with a smile.
“Delivered successfully. No problems. She seemed… annoyed… and amused, if I might say.”
“Did she shake her head as if she were angry?” Alex asked, grinning.
“That she did. I take it that’s a normal response for her?”
“So it seemed to me. Good work.”
Riley looked to Valeria, then grabbed Alex’s arm and wrapped it up between her own.
She’s a bit too co-dependent. Might need to break her with the stick instead of the carrot next.
Otherwise she’ll… have no value for deals.
Alex had an odd feeling about that and didn’t know what to make of it.
It wasn’t the strange guilt he’d felt over what he’d done to Mary, and inadvertently killing her husband.
“Master, company,” Valeria said, her voice tight.
Looking around himself, Alex finally saw what she meant. A large group of men were heading his way from the interior of the line.
All of them had weapons drawn.
Carla grabbed him by the back of the head and hustled him off before he could even act.
Riley clung to him, getting dragged along for the ride.
“What the hell?” Alex asked.
“Shut up. They’re not here to talk, you idiot. You don’t talk to people with weapons in hand. If they have weapons out to talk, you get into a position you can talk from safely.”
“Stupid idiots,” Nannie muttered from his other side.
Alex didn’t say anything further, realizing that Carla and Nannie were herding him straight into one of the walled-in sections of the defenses they’d built.
It served as an impromptu headquarters for David and Max and was mostly a long hallway with attached rooms. The whole thing was enclosed and had been built more like a palisade wall.
Carla gave him a rough shove and sent him into the hallway.
Stumbling forward, Alex fought against going down to the ground and got his balance back.
Spinning back to the entry, he saw Carla and Nannie wedged side by side, facing outward.
Valeria placed herself between the two of them, a short sword in her right hand.
“Master, what do we do?” Riley asked, hovering near his side.
“I… have no idea. I guess we try to help. Look around for anything long we can try to use from the rear.”
Alex started looking in each room for anything that matched his request. Riley did the same on the other side.
Alex heard conversation coming from outside. It seemed whoever it was might be trying to talk Carla and Nannie into letting them just have him.
Good luck with that. Ah! That’ll do.
Moving to the corner of the main room, Alex picked up two flags.
One for the county of Brit, the other the kingdom.
Ripping the flags free of both poles, he looked at the tops of them.
They were blunted, unfortunately.
But they’d work to possibly cause an opening in the enemy’s defenses.
“Here, One, take one,” Alex said, handing one of the poles off to Riley as he went.
When he managed to get back to the door, he found the fighting had already started.
Carla dodged under a blade swipe, barely moving her body only to come up under the swing with her mace in a thrust.
It cracked into the man’s jaw, clearly shattering it, and spun his head around to the side. Ejecting him from the doorway and out into the sunlight.
Nannie was on the offense at the same time, battering at a man who was down on one knee over and over with her blade.
There was no subtlety or finesse in her attacks. They were just sheer strength as they landed on a sword the man held clutched between his hands above his head.
Three crushing blows in and his arms fell, only for her blade to slide in where his neck met his chest. It went all the way down to the hilt before she ripped it back out. Kicking the man in the chest and sending him out the door.
Someone rushed in to take his place, only to catch Valeria’s short sword low in his guts. Twisting around the blade, the man fell to his knees, looking straight at Valeria.
Then he fell to his side, partially blocking the doorway entry.
Valeria dropped her sword, her hands pressing to the sides of her face.
“I can’t, I can’t!” she said as she streaked past Alex towards the back of the building.
“Huh? Where are you g—Three!?” Alex gave up on it even before he finished asking.
Bracing himself, he thrust out with his flag pole between Carla and Nannie.
The blunt wooden tip smashed into a kneecap, forcing the man’s leg to buckle.
Carla’s mace came down immediately, bludgeoning the man in the temple twice. He collapsed practically on top of the gutted man.
The doorway was getting crammed full of the dead and dying.
Nannie took a wide stance and roared, her arms pumping back and forth as she waited for the next person.
In response, three people rushed in. Two of them went for Carla while the third lifted a shield and moved in on Nannie.
“One, focus on Two’s,” Alex said. Shifting his aim to Carla’s side as he said it, he jabbed forward.
After missing his target entirely as the man twisted to one side, Alex was nearly yanked out of position when the man grabbed the pole and pulled.
Letting go of it, Alex darted forward to get Valeria’s sword, then moved back next to Riley.
Who stabbed forward with her pole weakly.
It managed to somehow clip the second man’s elbow, knocking his swipe wide and above Carla.
Clacking into the wood, the sword stuck there.
A flashing mace head was the last thing the man saw as his face crumpled with the impact of it.
Before Carla could get it back around though, the second man had come around with a wicked slice of his sword.
Lifting her mace in front of her, Carla deflected the blade’s path.
But not completely.
It careened sideways and up, the flat of the blade cracking into Carla’s skull.
With a pang, she crumpled to the ground unmoving.
The blade itself broke on her head, leaving the man with nothing more than a handle.
Not wasting time, nor wanting to give the man a chance to finish Carla off, Alex lunged forward with his weapon.
Sliding through the man’s stomach far too easily, Alex let the blade go unintentionally.
Scrambling backward, he couldn’t help but fear what he’d just done.
He’d let go of the one weapon he’d had on hand.
Nannie was there next. With the same shield the man earlier had been carrying, she bashed it into the skewered man’s head.
Once, twice, thrice, until the man’s head opened up and started to empty out onto the ground as he fell over.
Nannie cocked her arm back and hurled the shield out the door, then followed it with another roar.
He saw her catch another man and hurl him to the ground. Then she clambered atop him and started to beat his skull in with her bare hands.
No one else attacked her.
Is that the last? It must be. Ok. Go!
Moving forward on his hands and knees, Alex grabbed Carla by the boots and started pulling her back deeper into the building.
It wasn’t until he got her down the hall that he stopped.
Moving up to her head, he immediately saw the contact point.
Her temple was swelling up rapidly, with a thin trickle of blood coming down from it.
As carefully as he could, he touched the area with his fingers.
Everything felt right. Solid.
He was no doctor though.
Then Carla’s eyes fluttered open, looked to him, then closed a
gain.
Turning her head to the side, she threw up on the ground.
I think… I think she’ll be ok? Ok. Good. Yes.
Good.
Turning, he found Valeria wedged up against the wall. Her hands pressed to her ears and staring away.
“Valeria!” Alex shouted at her.
He immediately got her attention, and she turned to face him.
“Master?” she asked, letting her hands fall.
“I think we’re alright. What happened there?”
Valeria shook her head, looking like she wanted to put her hands back over her ears.
Wait. She was sent to kill me. Maybe…
“You couldn’t attack them because they were all men?” Alex asked, testing a theory.
“Huh? No! Of course not,” Valeria said, her irritability cutting through her panic.
“You couldn’t attack them because they served your previous master?” he asked.
Valeria’s face went slack, and she slowly started to lift her hands again.
“It’s ok, stop. I understand. I won’t order you to answer,” Alex said, looking back down to Carla. She was somewhat wakeful, though not entirely.
She was also clearly in pain.
Reaching down, he gently smoothed her hair back from her face.
Taking the flag for the kingdom off the ground, he gently began to dab at her nose and mouth. Trying to wipe away the bits of her last meal and bile.
Nannie came back in, her arms and chest covered in blood splatter.
For the first time in days, she seemed… satiated.
Riley hovered nearby, her hands between herself and Alex.
Alright… everyone’s alive… we survived… but now to figure out who that was.
Time to question Valeria… without questioning her.
Chapter 23
Carla’s eyes fluttered open again, her arms twitching.
“Hey there. Be still. Everything is fine. We’re all alright. Relax, alright?” Alex said, trying to get her to look at him.
Her eyes focused briefly on him. Then she relaxed, her body sinking back into the ground.
She gave a tiny nod of her head, then closed her eyes.
“Don’t go to sleep. Stay awake,” Alex said, poking her in the sternum. “Think of the fact that you had to finish me off right when Five walked in on us. Keep awake.”