Dugas glanced at her. Elara nodded. Yes, give him the thing. Hugh was an infuriating sonovabitch and a bastard, but he would protect them to the bitter end. Baile was the only home he knew now.
Dugas reached into his robe and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it once, twice, a third time, and spread it on the table. A complex drawing in black ink marked the large piece of paper: a central ring, from which lines spread out like spokes from a wheel. The lines started straight, then curved, lopped and intersected each other, twisting together into a complex maze.
“What am I looking at?” Hugh asked.
“Tunnels,” Dugas said helpfully.
Hugh and the centurions peered at the map.
“Is all of this under us?” Hugh asked, pointing at the map.
“Yes.” Dugas nodded.
“Fuck me,” Hugh said.
Elara almost laughed.
“Why?” Lamar asked, his eyes wide.
“We didn’t dig them out,” Elara said. “They were already here when we moved in.”
Hugh fixed her with a stare. “Were you planning on telling me about the damn tunnels?”
She pretended to ponder it. “Possibly.”
“Would you like to tell me now?”
“There are tunnels under the castle, Hugh.”
“There it is. Thank you.” If sarcasm was liquid, she would be up to her ankles in it.
“You’re welcome.”
They glared at each other across the table.
Dugas cleared his throat.
“Is there anything else you would like to disclose?” Hugh asked. “Do the gates open when someone says a magic word?”
“Not that I know of,” she told him. “Why don’t you scream some magic words at the gates for a while and tell me how it turns out?”
Dugas cleared his throat again.
“I heard you the first time,” she told him.
“Do any of these actually come up to the surface?” Hugh tapped the map with his finger.
“We don’t know,” Dugas said.
“We’ve tried mapping them several times, but we end up turned around,” Elara said. “There is only one way from the tunnels into the castle though, and it’s through this ring.” She traced the outline of the circular tunnel for him.
“This is a huge security risk,” Lamar said. “Do you actually use these tunnels for anything?”
“Those who go into the tunnels don’t always come back,” Johanna told him.
Lamar turned to Elara.
“She said that those who go into the tunnels don’t always come back.”
“Why?” Hugh asked.
Elara sighed. I wish I knew.
“We don’t know,” Savannah said. “Don’t worry about it. We can handle the tunnels.”
Hugh leaned forward. “Here is how this assault will go. The attack will come in the evening.”
“How do you know that?” Elara asked.
“I’ve prepared to fight Nez for years. He is a cheapskate. Even the youngest vampire he has costs upward of fifty grand to produce. He will attempt to intimidate us into surrendering by fielding a lot of undead at once. He will follow that with a phone call and a show of force designed to convince us to surrender. When that fails, he will rush the castle with his vanguard. He will count on the psychological impact of this force and our awareness that the sun is setting, and soon it will be dark, and we will be defenseless. If the moat does its job, we can repel this assault.”
“If?” Savannah raised her eyebrows.
“If,” Hugh said. “If the moat doesn’t soften them up, it will get ugly. However, it is unlikely he will commit more than fifty vampires. He typically brings between two and three hundred vampires...”
Elara startled. Three hundred vampires. She couldn’t even wrap her head around that many undead.
“Yes?” Hugh asked.
“Nothing. Continue.”
“And since he knows he will be fighting the Iron Dogs, we can count on the top range of that number. It’s highly unlikely he would send more than a quarter of his force. Fifty is a nice round number and Nez likes round numbers.”
Hugh tapped the map of Baile. “He will send the mass of undead straight at the front gate. Even if the moat fails, we can take fifty vampires. We will bleed but we can take them. Once that assault fails, Nez will do something loud and theatrical. He might field beasts or pull some mages out of his sleeve. Whatever form this new threat will take, it will be designed to keep our attention focused front and center. Meanwhile, his crews, which will have been digging since before the fight started, will be breaking into the castle tunnels from below. The vampires are fast diggers, and he might bring specialized help to speed things up. While we are trying to hold off whatever it is battering us from the front, the undead will make their way into the castle and massacre us from the rear.”
Hugh fixed Savannah with his stare. “So, when you say don’t worry about the tunnels, I need you to be very sure.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Elara said.
“Okay,” Hugh said.
She opened her mouth to argue and realized he didn’t say anything else. “Then that’s settled.”
“Can we attack Nez directly?” Savannah asked.
“Unlikely,” Lamar told her. “For things like these, Nez travels in a convoy of Matadors. A Matador is an 8x8 armored personnel carrier, nine meters long, three meters tall, and almost three meters wide. It has a monocoque V-hull, which means its nose and hull slope to deflect projectiles.”
Lamar held his left hand in front of him, palm up, and touched the fingertips of his right hand to it, forming a sideways V.
“It sits a driver and passenger in the front and can transport up to ten personnel in the back. Level four armor, suspended seats, blast mitigation floor, all the works. It can trench at two meters, ford a stream a meter deep, climb steps and steep hills, and it turns on a dime for a vehicle of its size. It runs like a dream during tech, but it chugs along during magic as well. It also can be set up to carry either a 50 cal or a sorcerous ballista, depending on your preference. Nez has a fleet of them.”
“We used to have them too,” Stoyan said. “The long and short of it, Matadors are unbreachable by anything we have. We could probably drop a rock on it from above and crush it, but we don’t have a catapult precise enough to do it.”
“We need to do something about the approach from the northeastern side,” Hugh said. “We are missing a siege engine on the corner tower. It requires specialized parts.”
“Is it a budget issue?” Elara asked.
“No, it’s an availability issue,” Hugh said.
“We have it on order in Lexington,” Lamar said. “We traded some silver we recovered for it. It won’t be ready in time.”
“We’ll have to compensate with archers,” Hugh said.
“We can dig some fortifications there,” Stoyan said. “It may slow down the Cleaning Crew, but it won’t do anything against vampires.”
“We could plant tangle weed,” Savannah said.
Good idea. Elara turned to Johanna. “How much do we have?”
“Enough,” Johanna signed.
“Can this tangle weed hold a vampire?” Bale asked.
“Yes, if there is enough of it,” Dugas said.
“Where would you need it planted?” Savannah leaned toward the map.
The rest of the advisors leaned in, and Elara met Hugh’s eyes.
Three hundred vampires.
He winked at her.
For some reason the wink took the dread right out of her. She rolled her eyes and leaned forward to take a glance at the map.
Elara stared at the roster of families. Around her the bailey bustled with life, people going to and fro, trying to squeeze as much as they could out of the fading evening light. They had two days until the deadline, but it was collectively decided that Nez couldn’t be trusted farther than they could throw him, so they’d been pulling people i
nto the castle, in stages. Children with caretakers first, then older people, now finally the able-bodied adults. She squeezed the first wave into the left barracks, praising the source of all life that they had renovated the place when the Iron Dogs joined them. Once the barracks filled, they put the next wave into the utility buildings behind the keep, then into the chapel building, which they had converted into living quarters. Baile was so crowded, it was bursting at the seams.
“Is the chapel completely full?” she asked.
“Almost,” Johanna signed.
Elara sighed, studying the roster. “We’re going to have to start putting sleeping bags in the keep hallway. On the second floor—”
Johanna touched her arm. Elara looked up. Serenity Helton was walking toward them, oblivious to the people scurrying all around her, a blank look on her face. Elara’s heart dropped. She hurried forward and grabbed Serenity’s hands. “What is it?”
The seer stared at her unblinking. Her lips moved, but no sound came.
Johanna grabbed Elara’s arm. “Coming! Now!”
“What?”
“She is saying ‘they are coming’ over and over!”
The anxiety that clamped Elara over the last few days burst in a scalding rush.
“Hurry,” she whispered, sending her voice through the entire castle. “They’re coming. Hurry.”
The people scattered. In the village a bell rang. Hugh came running around the corner.
“Nez is coming,” she told him, pointing at Serenity.
He glanced at the seer and spun off, barking orders. Elara climbed the steps to the outer wall and then to the top of the flanking tower. From here, she could see the entire village. People ran, streaming to the castle.
She turned to Johanna. “Find Magdalene. Take her to the tunnels.”
Johanna took off at a run.
The village emptied as people rushed to Baile.
Come on, she urged in her head. Come on.
Iron Dogs poured out of the gate, forming a protective line, shielding the evacuees. On top of the keep and on the towers, the ballistae and catapult teams cranked the massive siege weapons. She heard chanting, almost in unison, as the artillery teams primed the sorcerous bolts.
Shapeshifters burst out of the woods, running at top speed toward the castle – Hugh’s scouts coming in.
Seconds crept by, echoing the beating of her heart. Come on.
Creatures streamed out of the woods, like an evil river, flowing in rivulets between the trunks to flood the grass. Vampires. Hundreds and hundreds of vampires, smeared with sunblock in green, blue, and red.
The Iron Dogs unsheathed their weapons.
She tried desperately to sort through the people running to the gates. Did they get everyone? Was someone missing? She couldn’t tell.
The vampires kept coming and coming, widening in a crescent, blending together into a monstrous mass, terrifying, stinking of magic that shouldn’t have existed. Endless.
Hugh was right. If they hadn’t had the warning, they might have panicked. Even she, with all of her power, had to fight a shiver. In a couple of hours the sun would set, and the monstrous horde would roll over the castle. Next to her Johanna squeezed her fingers into fists and relaxed them again.
The evacuees slowed to a trickle. Did they get everyone? Anxiety boiled in her. She tried to count the vampires to keep her mind focused. Three, five, eight, ten…
Hugh ran up the stairs and loomed next to her, his expression hard.
“You were right,” she told him.
“This day was a long time coming,” Hugh told her.
Beth ran up to the tower. “There is a phone call for you.”
“Is it Nez?”
“Yes, lady.”
“Right on schedule,” Hugh said. “See if you can piss him off. He doesn’t think clearly when he’s angry.”
“I can do that.”
“Oh, I know you can. Have fun, love.”
Elara turned and walked down the stairs, forcing herself to move slowly. The longer she took getting to the phone, the more time she bought them. Finally, she reached the front office. Lamar and Dugas waited by the phone.
Elara took the phone. “You’re two days early.”
“You have been fortifying,” Nez said with clinical precision.
“We had an agreement. You broke it. If you can’t keep a simple deadline, what guarantee can you offer that you will honor any other agreements?”
“I’m giving you this one last chance to avoid bloodshed. Consider the fate of your people. Consider the children’s lives. Once I clear the wall, I cannot guarantee anyone’s safety.”
“You’re not listening to me,” she told him. “Go back to where you came from and come back in two days. That was the agreement. You made it with me and I will hold you to it.”
Incredulous silence filled the phone. Lamar grinned.
“You will regret this,” Nez said.
“No,” she told him. “But you will. You’re full of it. You want to negotiate with me, but clearly you can’t be trusted.”
“You actually expect me to withdraw and come back in two days?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Do you even have the authority to negotiate, Landon?”
“I have all the authority.”
“It seems to me that you don’t. I understand that you negotiated with Hayville in Nebraska and then the town burned to the ground.”
Nez’s voice came out clipped, each word razor-sharp. “I didn’t burn Hayville. Your husband did.”
“Precisely. It didn’t matter what deals you made, because there is a higher authority above you that actually makes decisions. You are a servant, Landon. A glorified gofer. We are defending our home. You are just carrying out orders.”
Dugas clamped his hand over his mouth.
“I’m not even mad at you, Landon. Everyone has a job they have to do. But don’t waste my time again trying to negotiate. You have no power to do it.”
“I will take your castle,” Nez said. His voice sent a chill down her spine. “I will tear it apart brick by brick. Then I will make you watch as I personally cut the throat of every man, woman, and child that survives the assault.”
“Do you know why Hugh burned Hayville? Because you couldn’t do it. My husband is better than you.”
“You’re a stupid whore.”
“There goes the mask of civility. Roland had only two Warlords, but you are the twenty-third Legatus of the Golden Legion. Do you know why? It’s because Hugh is beloved by his soldiers, while you are reviled by the Masters of the Dead. Every man under his command would die for him, while the people who serve you can’t wait to stick a knife in your back.”
“I’ll make sure it takes you weeks to die.”
“Hugh is a better general, a better fighter, and a better man. You’re second best. You will always be second best. You’re replaceable. One day one of your helpers will kill you and take your place, and Roland won’t blink an eye, while Hugh is one of a kind. Oh and his dick is bigger than yours.”
A disconnect signal cut off the call.
Lamar clapped and bowed.
She dropped the phone back into its place and turned back to the wall. There were too many people between her and the tower for magic, so she hurried on foot, across the bailey, up the stairs, back to the top of the flanking tower, where Hugh waited. The entire clearing before the tree line was filled with undead.
“How did it go?” Hugh asked.
“He’s frothing at the mouth.”
“That’s my girl.” He grinned at her.
The last of the stragglers made it through the gates. The Iron Dogs had followed, and the massive drawbridge rose up, blocking the entrance.
A clump of vampires shot out from the main mass of the undead and fell apart, revealing two people tied to crosses, naked from the waist up. The one on the left, a woman, wore the black shreds of an Iron Dog uniform. The one on the right slum
ped over, his gray curly hair stained with blood.
Oscar.
Oh no.
Elara really pissed Nez off.
Usually Nez would have held back the hostages, waiting to see if he could use them as bargaining chips at the right moment, but instead he dragged them out into plain view, blinded by the need to hit back. Whatever she said to him, he wanted to punish her for it.
The lone Iron Dog on the cross glared at the vampires. Irina. She’d been out by the southern edge of the town, scouting to the rear. That meant the digging crew likely grabbed her. Nez would be digging in from the southwest.
Fury boiled inside Hugh. He hated to lose Irina, hated that her life was over, hated that Nez was the one who took it. If only he could get his hands on that bastard. Hugh stared at the woods behind the undead. Nez was out there somewhere, sipping coffee in his Matador.
None of the front scouting team had made it either. He saw the scouts from the East and West teams, but none from the North. That meant none survived.
Next to him Elara had gone completely still. Her eyes narrowed, measuring the distance between her and the old man on the cross. She was thinking of rushing the field. He put his hand on her shoulder, anchoring her in place.
“No.”
She ignored him.
“Elara!”
She turned to look at him, and cold shot through him. Her eyes were pure white.
“Too many and too far,” he told her.
“I know,” she ground out.
Savannah’s voice cut through the noise of the bailey behind them. “To the wall! Come to the wall!”
All around them the villagers streamed to the wall, climbing up the stairs. Men, women, parents lifting small children on their shoulders, they lined up as if for a parade, watching the two people on the crosses. Those who didn’t fit ran into the keep and filed out onto the curtain wall and balconies. More still waited in the bailey.
“Don’t look away,” Savannah called out.
“You must witness and remember,” Dugas yelled from the other side.
The Departed held still and silent. The hair on the back of Hugh’s neck rose. There was something unnatural in the way they stared, passing judgment on the undead below.