.
The evening of Thirdday, my contact with Dilorè brought news that the pass was clear. It was too late in the month to wait for moonset to ride across the plateau– it would be full moon in just a few more days– but Allia’s Company would ride out from the village at an hour past Midnight, which would time things so that they could head up the stairs after moonset to secure the mine entrance and the passage down to the cavern.
Rufin’s Brigade would head down out of the pass after moonset as well, seizing the plateau as a base of operations for the aerial cavalry currently preparing to embark from Dausindiu.
“Dilorè! We could end up trapped down here!”
“I had a good look at the material that the tunnel walls are made out of,” Dilorè said. “The demons could collapse the old monastery digs, but they can’t collapse the ancient tunnels.”
“But if they see you coming…”
Had she not been paying attention? There was a freaking archdemon down here! I had slipped out into the main cavern twice since my first look to check on changes to the situation. The second time, I had been barely a half-mile away from him when my vampire sense touched him. That had been a slightly terrifying experience.
Dilorè didn’t back down. “We have no time to waste, Your Highness. More demons came up looking for their missing comrades today. When they also don’t return, their masters will know something’s up. We need to head below while we can still bottle them up underground.”
I became a little more horrified with every word of her statement. They weren’t going to wait for more forces? They planned to take on the demons now, with just the force they had?
I realized my heart was hammering. Panic was not a normal emotion for me, but this was seriously dangerous. I forced myself to calm down and speak calmly.
“My Lady, listen to me carefully. You may have forgot, there is a class SS demon down here with a Class S demon for a sidekick. You guys need to wait until you have a whole army of mages to back you up, before you move on them.”
Dilorè didn’t agree. “Talene has already taken them into account, and I believe she is right. We have the advantage of the narrow entrance ramps and stairs. If we occupy those before they can come up, we can be the stopper that keeps them in the bottle. An archdemon or an archfiend can’t get any advantage from their area of effect attacks or their broadcast powers. They also can’t mass large numbers of underlings, because there is no room. They’re barely more powerful than fiends or asuras on their own.”
“An asura is still a class A demon!” I protested.
“It will work,” she insisted. “And Talene told me that, if you didn’t think it would work, I should remind you of the Battle of Serumapyure”
“The Battle of what?” I retorted, suddenly baffled instead of angry.
My cousin also sounded perplexed, “I hadn’t heard of it myself, but Talene said you would know it. At a place called Serumapyure, three hundred brave warriors from an ancient city held off a massive empire’s invasion force of a million soldiers in a narrow pass, to cover the retreat of their allies, forcing the empire to attempt a more difficult invasion by sea. The defenders was then able to destroy the fleet at sea and win the war.”
I laid my forehead in my palm. It was the exaggerated version of the Battle of Thermopylae that was popular in fiction. Dilorè didn’t need to know that the enemy army was probably less than a hundred thousand, or that, rather than being on their own, the three hundred were hogging the front line of a rearguard force that actually numbered around two thousand. These details didn’t change the story much. Accuracy only made the odds sound slightly less fearsome. But she did need to know…
“Did Talene happen to mention that two hundred ninety seven of those warriors died in the battle?”
“It doesn’t matter. Our best are far stronger than the ordinary soldiers the demons can send. Only the top leaders can match us. So they can either lose all their forces in a suicidal effort to overwhelm us, or their generals must come fight us themselves. If they do, we can catch them where they can’t use their powers efficiently. We may be able to decapitate the invasion.”
My head was reeling. I had to admit, her reasoning was sound. The war potential on our side was actually quite high. They weren’t facing Xerxes and his multiple ten-thousand-man imperial divisions with a mixed bag of hoplites and militia men. Although the enemy was planning to host an invasion force, the demon force currently present was only an advance guard. Probably, the archdemon had come early, ahead of his main force, to deal with Diurhimath and his proxies. Without a large force of demons and mortal slaves, an archdemon was just a powerful individual.
In addition, a narrow tunnel was a tactical situation where stupid strong frontal attacks had the advantage. Even Ryuu might be able to beat an archdemon under those conditions.
But I felt a chill as I noticed one detail. At Thermopylae, a goat path had allowed the enemy a flanking maneuver, and here, too, the highway down to Berado territory gave the archdemon the opportunity to slip out and come in behind them, after destroying the incoming Arelian and Amaga forces out in the open.
A plan fell together in my head. A very risky one, and one that depended upon Diur cooperating with me. It also left certain persons at risk of being stuck inside the small world for the rest of their life, if I didn’t survive, so I needed to make alternate plans for them.
“Listen, Dilorè, I need to tell you a few things about the place that we’re currently hidden. Tell Talene and make sure she passes them on to my grandfather or Miröen before the battle. And make sure as few people as possible hear them…”
# # #
I returned to the small world with my mind whirling with thoughts and worries. I handled the main one right away, by having a long talk with Busy Lu while seated on the grass, leaning my back against the monolith. If I was gone, I needed a way for Mother to retrieve Amelia and Brigitte from the small world.
Why Mother? The portal system had demonstrated its ability to scan genetics. It would be able to recognize her relationship to me, and refuse other comers. And I believed Mother, with a few pointers from her father, would be able to find the portal and make contact once somebody told her about it. She had once swum to the bottom of the ocean, according to Matthias. Swimming into the pleasure dome and bringing Amelia and Brigitte out would be a piece of cake.
And I felt confident Mother would not let Owen’s daughter remain stranded for long.
Once Busy Lu understood whom she could expect to come if I never came back, I dusted grass off my skirt and walked back to the cottage. I had Amelia and Brigitte taken care of, but Chiara was a different matter.
I had been filling the others in on the situation on the surface, so they knew about my twice-daily calls with Dilorè. I returned to a room waiting for the news. After all, my reports were the only interesting thing to look forward to in this place. They were gathered around the table with cups of tea.
Well, herbal tea. It was a recipe from Brigitte’s hometown made from mint and sage leaves, both of which were growing wild in a forest nearby. This time, the tea was also flavored with berries from the garden.
After taking a sip from mine, I gave them a quick summary of what was happening. They didn’t have any trouble understanding how serious the situation was, but when Brigitte understood that I was planning to leave her behind with Amelia, her objection was immediate and loud.
“You’re treating me like I can’t fight, again!”
“Miss Brigitte, I am treating you like I can rely on you to protect Her Highness!”
“From what? This place is harmless!”
“There are foxes, snakes and that lake has pygmy alligators in it,” I replied, lowering my voice because I was growing tired of the argument already. “They may not be a threat to an adventurer like you, but Amelia is a princess. She has almost zero defensive skills.”
Her lips twisted and pressed together as she heard that. She was a hunter and had already been out there checking the territory. She’d seen evidence of the animals I mentioned already.
“What about Lady Chiara?” she demanded, not ready to concede defeat.
“I can’t leave Amelia under the protection of a known traitor,” I stated flatly. “She’s coming out with me.”
“You can’t trust her with the princess, but you can trust her to guard your back?”
“I will be able to,” I stated, looking Chiara in the eye. Her eyebrow rose.
I had been considering it since the moment I confirmed her treason. Events were now forcing me to pull the trigger. I finished my tea and put the cup down.
“My Lady, kindly accompany me outside. I have something to discuss with you.”
To the others, I said, “Don’t wait up for us. This may take quite a while.”
Slightly perplexed, she finished her drink and followed me outside. We didn’t speak until we reached the edge of the lake. There, I began disrobing.
“What are you doing?”
“Going for a swim. You’re coming with me. We’ll be heading toward that island off the point.”
She started stripping, but she asked, “Why?”
“Because you won’t want the other two becoming curious and coming to check on us.”
Once I had dropped the last of my clothing, keeping only Lucy’s pouch, I waded in. Shortly after that, Chiara followed. Once I was deep enough, I began swimming.
I was taking it easy, going only slightly faster than an olympic swimmer, when Chiara blazed past me underwater. Perhaps she was becoming competitive, or perhaps she just felt I was too slow. I shook my head, transformed into my sea fairy form and powered past her. Once I had left her about twenty paces behind, I stopped and began treading water to wait for her. Well, it isn’t technically treading water, but I was sculling with my flukes to hold my head above water.
As she arrived and began treading water, she stared at me with huge eyes. “What in the world?”
“I can grow wings, too,” I told her.
“I know, I’ve seen it, yes,” she nodded emphatically. “But turning into a merrow?”
“More like a nereid. Merrow have scales and fins.”
Actually, at the moment, I was the very picture of a nereid, a fairy of the sea, when she was in her marine form.
Naturally, Chiara couldn’t transform, nor could her mother. Mortals cannot shape-shift. Merrow are permanently half fish (although warm-blooded.) And half-merrow like Chiara have legs like their human parents. So possibly, she never realized that nereids could switch from tail to legs.
“Do you want to talk here, or continue to the island?” I wondered. “I’m fine with either one.”
“Here is fine,” she said. Being half-merrow, she could easily stay like this, treading water as easily as standing on land. “Although, you mentioned alligators…”
I had already cast my vampire sense into the darkness. “There are a few resting on the other side of the island, and some near the shore opposite the island. They seem to avoid this bay. Perhaps the spirit managing this world is keeping them away from you guys.”
Both of us could out-swim a gator, but I would stay on the lookout anyway.
With a tip of the head, she asked, “So, may I ask, what required privacy so dearly it was worth skinny-dipping at night in alligator infested waters?”
I thought about how to phrase it. Finally, I simply said, “Do you understand what penalty you can expect for what you have done?”
Her shoulders drooped slightly. “Yes. It’s clearly a capital offense.”
Some tears crept into my eyes. “You understood that, and yet you did it anyway.”
“It was my mom’s life on the line!” she nearly shouted at me.
“Which life would she have chosen, My Lady?” I demanded. “Her own or her baby’s?”
That wasn’t me retorting. It was Senhion, who had shortened her own life to give birth to her son. She knew exactly what choice Chiara’s mom would have made.
Chiara’s lips clamped together. She surely knew the answer, too.
“So I’m going to give you an alternative,” I told her. “It will allow me to trust you behind my back in the upcoming fight, and it may allow you to live.”
Puzzlement wrinkled her brow. “How?”
“It’s possible you will have to live in exile,” I admitted. “I’ll let King Owen make the decision on that. But until then, I can take ownership of the life you’ve forfeited and use you as my Servant, if you agree.”
“As your servant?” she asked, tipping her head again.
I cupped her jaw with my hand and gave her a dark smile. “Is the word ‘Blood Slave’ more meaningful to you?”
