The Vampire & Her Witch

”Captain Ultrech,” Heila said, turning back to the Iron-Tusked captain who had volunteered to deal with the tower. ”Can you topple the tower without the men inside ringing the bell?”

”My men aren’t slow,” he said as he thumped a fist against the thick, heavy, steel breastplate that covered his chest. Unlike the Black Wolf Brigade who wore light armor and fought as skirmishers, the men of the Iron Tusk Clan were heavily armored foot soldiers who carried large axes to fell anything in their path. Despite the weight of their arms and armor, however, they could charge with amazing speed when the situation called for it.

”We aren’t slow, but we aren’t fast enough to breach a tower and kill its sentries before they can even ring a bell,” he admitted reluctantly. ”And we’ll make quite a racket just trying.”

”Then I’ll join you for a walk,” one of the Glass Eyed captains said as he stretched out his long, sinuous neck to make himself just a little bit taller than his peers. ”My aim is good and my bow has the reach to be lethal at more than two hundred paces. Anyone who gets close to the bell gets an arrow for their trouble. Would that be good enough, High One?”

For a moment, Heila said nothing, unconsciously fidgeting with one of the markers on the map that represented her as she wrestled with the question of whether she should go with them to take care of the human watchers or not. With the strength of her witchcraft, it shouldn’t be hard to put a tower full of men to sleep and take them prisoner without risking a ringing of the bell, but if she did it, it would mean abandoning her position as the second in command of the army.

”Lady Ashlynn must hate that she can’t be with us,” Heila said softly as she realized how much she hated the idea of staying behind while others under her command did something that would be riskier and more dangerous because she couldn’t go with them... but she couldn’t go rushing about everywhere that might benefit from having a witch along with them, just as Lady Ashlynn couldn’t be with them now despite the importance of the mission at hand.

”Go with Captain Ultrech then,” Heila finally said with a heavy sigh. ”But take at least two more archers with you, just in case,” she said, though she wasn’t entirely certain what kind of situation would require more than a single archer. She was just sure that things had a way of going wrong when you least expected it and a little extra help shouldn’t be a bad thing.

Both captains saluted, acknowledging their orders and grinning gloatingly at the other captains now that they had secured the right to spill the first blood of this battle.

”What about Lord Jalal?” Heila asked, turning back to the tiny woman who led their scouts. ”Have they seen any sign of him and the men Dame Sybyll asked him to bring?”

”Not a peep, High One,” Captain Lusia said. Her whiskers and her large, saucer-shaped ears both drooped in defeat as she admitted they hadn’t seen even the faintest trace of the Eldritch Lord of Airgead Mountain despite sending several men to keep an eye out for him. ”But Dame Sybyll said he would arrive tonight by sunset.”

”We’ll just have to hope that he does then,” Heila said, giving the other small woman a reassuring look. ”The Soft Paws Clan hide almost as well as your people do and they’re very fast. If they don’t want to be noticed, you probably won’t find them.”

”Now, is there anything else we need to decide or do before the sun sets and Dame Sybyll can join us?” Heila said as she looked around the command tent. ”Otherwise, I need to check on my little brother Hauke about tonight’s weather,” she said, glancing at the door and wishing that she could escape the feeling of weight piling up on her shoulders with each decision she made and set of orders that she gave.

”Only small things, High One,” one of the other captains said helpfully. ”Nothing important enough to keep you from speaking to Young Lord Hauke.”

”Good,” Heila said as she hopped off the stool and looked around the room. ”You all know what to do,” she said with more confidence than she truly felt. ”I’ll see you all again when the sun sets and Dame Sybyll joins us for the attack,” she said with a slight nod that let her conceal her reddening face under the wide brim of her hat.

Finally, she thought as she turned and fled from the oppressive air of the command tent. She was finally free to do something she actually felt like she understood. Hauke was her ’little brother’ in the coven, even though he hadn’t received his seed of witchcraft yet, and talking to him about manipulating the weather to create one last blizzard before their attack seemed much, much easier than standing in that room of professional warriors and pretending that she hadn’t been a castle maid just a year ago.

Behind her, however, the assembled captains all let out a sigh of relief when she left. Each of them knew that Lady Heila expected them to know their jobs with very little instruction from her and none of them wanted to be the first person to make a mistake with one of the most powerful warriors they’d ever encountered, especially not when she had come dressed for a fight.

Thankfully, they had managed to come up with a solution to the only minor problem they encountered and none of them would have to feel the sting of the whip that was so powerful it made even Tuskan giants nervous.

Now, they just hoped that they were successful enough at doing what they had promised to do to stay on her good side, because none of them ever wanted to find out first hand what Dame Sybyll’s second in command would do to them if they fell short of her expectations!