Wherever I Am

Chapter 15 - Part 2

It wasn't until the next evening when word came that Floresca Hall had indeed fallen. There were some survivors, a few adults who would probably survive their injuries, and four children who escaped into the storm, including Adrian and Mara's little sister, Eliza. Small comfort since their parents were among the dead. So was Sorina and Stefan's father. Between Floresca and both villages, only five Sobecks had been killed as opposed to over two dozen dead on our side and about that many wounded.

Grigore and the Burgraves didn't like my estimate of two dozen Sobecks being able to wreak such havoc. They didn't like my argument that only three or four Sobecks per village could've gone house to house. Three of the five dead Sobecks were killed in the barracks battle at Floresca. They kept talking about overwhelming forces...at least five dozen total. I caught up with Boian later as he and Sabina were packing to leave at first light with their retinue.

"I think you are underestimating, Milord," he said, "but not by much. They'd have some reserve to handle an outcry, but that could be done with less than three dozen. The question is, where did they go, and what are they doing with the captives?"

I winced. That was the other thing. A half-dozen were missing, two males and four females from their late teens to age thirty.

"The Regent and some of the Burgraves think they're either still hiding or were wounded and fled, dying out in the scrub."

"Some, maybe, but not all."

I nodded. "Your dad and Lord Tiber agree that they were taken hostage."

"Did you say why you think that?"

"I left it to their imagination. Their consensus was so they'd have fresh meat later."

"But you think differently?" Boian's eyes bored into me, and he was holding his breath.

"How do you get smarter Sobecks?"

He slowly let out his breath and closed his eyes before nodding.

"I think so, too. Do Sobecks grow up like humans or like wolves? Is it sixteen years or two, or somewhere in between? Have they figured this out independently, or is someone else...some new sorcerer running this?"

Or geneticist, I thought. So much of this place was like that. Were our armor, swords, and daggers magic or something from a higher technology? Why not our bows? Was the Golden Scroll magical voicemail or techie? Either way, all that was missing was Wait for the beep. And the vague daily message back that changed but didn't, with Lauretti saying they were getting things ready to come there or some variant of that message. I'd add this theory about the Sobecks on tonight's return message.

What else did the stupid scroll statue do...besides killing the unworthy? About a decade ago, some poor woman was cleaning around it, lost her balance, and reached out to steady herself. It didn't kill her, but it fried her hand black and knocked her away. They amputated halfway up to the elbow, and she was never quite the same once she woke up from the coma. I talked to eyewitnesses, so it wasn't myth or legend.

But was it magic or electrocution, or more importantly, how did it know not to do that to me, Ellie...or Oana?

"That howl came from the scrub."

"What?" He'd yanked me back from my thoughts. "What howl?"

"The one that called them to retreat," Boian explained. "It wasn't one of the fighters."

"There were more?"

"At least one more that wasn't directly in the fight. They would've wiped us out if there'd been many more."

"Tactics, not just pack hunters with the alpha leading," I ventured.

Boian nodded wearily. "Can we make them allies somehow? They'd make a great buffer from any others."

"Not a clue. It seems like they're working on full domination. Capture one alive and see if you can reason with it. No torture or baiting. If you can, send it back...with a written message. I don't know if they can speak our language, but I'll bet someone there can read."

He snorted. "Your ideas are scary, Milord."

"These are your ideas. I'm just taking them to action. It's what has to be done even to try."

"If I can capture one, I will try this. At the same time, my men are getting bows and arrows. Lots of arrows."

"Arms escalation," I said.

"Milord?"

"We begin using bows and arrows, which the Regent should never have confiscated. They'll try to figure out how to make them and how to counter their effect. After what Ellie did, they may already be doing that."

"They went for the mounts to get the leaders. Two of your cavaliers were pinned under their horses and easily killed. The others were targeted as being the leaders. Kill the commanders, and you win the battle."

"You lived, too."

"My invisible armor. It let me do things I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. Trust me, I took a shot or two that would've put me down without it."

He nodded, so I continued.

"Plus, Ellie was taking them down before they could gang up on me."

"She did that for me, too, or I would've perished. I owe her more than a man should."

It was my time to snort. "Give her a few months with her ladies-in-waiting, and you'll have a line of Valkyries to fight alongside us."

"Valkyries? What do you know of them?"

"They come from the Norse myth and legends. Female warriors of the Gods."

"We have old stories of them, from where we came from."

"Where did you come from?"

"From cold lands to the north and east." He pointed in the general compass direction. "Across days and nights of water until we landed on sand beaches to our east and finally settled here."

"Most of the nobility here looks like they could come from there. There's truth in that story, though they never came this far south in my world. They stayed way north...and east of here in much colder areas."

He frowned at me then. "These are fighting more and more like men, thoughstill differently. You've given me a lot to think upon, Lord Kevin of theRealm."