I felt every one of the steady clomp, clomp vibrations of my horse’s hoofbeats on the hard flat ground as we made our way back to the tree line early the following morning. My head felt like it was being hit over and over with a sledgehammer by circus strong men. Or by Duncan, who had not been pleased to hear of my reckless drinking with Kit when we reported for duty this morning. If you could have even called the horrid hour at which I had been gently shaken awake by Ash “morning.”

I could barely even remember what happened for most of last night. Kit and I had talked and drank. He had brooded over Carmilla and his family politics a bit and I had offered him advice on why Carmilla was tough on him the way she was. Everything after that was pretty hazy. Ash filled me in a little on what Julius had told him but kept most of the details brief to try and save me some embarrassment.

Apparently, Julius found us in the dining hall, ended our night, and ordered us to our bunks. Kit made it under his own power, but I had thrown up all over Julius and he had to carry me back to my bed. Some of the women had bathed me and washed my clothes so I would at least be clean and ready to go in the morning.

Once I had made it to bed, I was up off and on, feeling miserable. I sheepishly thanked Ash after his retelling of the story since he also stayed up with me through the night. The dark circles under his eyes were not something magic could fix, and he was practically asleep in his saddle next to me.

I also attempted to apologize to Julius, who waved me off and said something to the effects of wanting Kit’s apology instead of mine, then adding the likelihood of that would be “akin to expecting the scorpion to apologize after it stung you.”

We had all gathered at the northern gate to receive our orders for the day, and I was surprised by what greeted us. Carmilla and Duncan both stood waiting, dressed in full regalia, to greet us all. They had come up with a compromise to give us the numbers to prevent a bad result or another ambush, while also maximizing our available daylight. We were awoken at a much earlier hour to reach the tree line by sunrise. This meant traveling without the sun for a short time, but the calculated risk was being mitigated by two factors: all the pre-dawn traveling would be accomplished in the barren flats leading up to the Black Hills, lessening any possible ambush. And two: Carmilla and a hundred soldiers escorted us.

My throbbing head heard and felt every stomp of every horseshoe, every clank of armor, every shift in the formation. My hangover left me extremely sensitive to my surroundings. Ash offered to attempt to sooth my headache with magic, but Duncan had forbidden it. He informed Ash it was a lesson I should learn the hard way.

What a night! Why did I cave and drink with Kit, of all people?

I groaned and rested my forehead against the palm of my hand. That man could have probably gone drink for drink with a pack of dwarves for all I knew! A hard lesson, indeed. Things were made worse by being as exhausted as I was. I hadn’t felt the need to puke in a bucket this morning, but I had also skipped breakfast to avoid pissing off my stomach further.

So, there I was, ready to face possible death, and I combined my ominous start to the day with being hungover and achy, an empty stomach and a couple of hours of sleep. I swore then and there I would never get drunk again. At least not the night before important missions anyway.

We reached the tree line right as the sun started cresting over the horizon. Carmilla and Duncan were leading the formation, followed by Chad, the rest of the boys and myself. Our original soldiers picked by Duncan and the soldiers from Blackwall followed. The soldiers had been ordered to wear lighter armor kits to not slow us down any more than necessary. Where yesterday, we had taken heavy plate into the Hills, now the soldiers were wearing either thick leather or brigandine body armor.

At the tree line, the company split into 3 platoons. Foot soldiers equipped with axes and other implements for clearing a path to be accessed on horseback preceded each group. Our platoon, with Duncan and Carmilla at the head, led our strongest force towards Rosethorne, which was considered the most dangerous assignment. The other two were to head in directions that would take them to the town’s east and west to a specific destination in the Blackhills. They were to carve their way there, then fan out for recon, and back track through their carved paths back to Blackwall before sundown.

Our group was expected to make the most headway, as we already had a worn path for horse travel towards Rosethorne and could start pushing out from there. Duncan had insisted that Carmilla lead one of the other two groups, but she was adamant that she see Rosethorne for herself. She wanted to burn the memory of the village and its residents into her mind and remind herself what was at stake.

The platoon assignments were set, and we parted ways. I held my breath for a split second as I crossed into the trees.

Once more unto the breach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We made excellent time pushing towards Rosethorne again. Only the last 10 to 20 minutes were slow going with the terrain being rockier, and we again did not want to risk unnecessary injuries. We broke through the forest into the clearing around the town and looked to see if there had been any changes since yesterday.

Carmilla kicked her horse into a gallop towards the remnants of yesterday’s bonfire. Duncan and the boys and I stirred our horses into action to keep up. She reached the remainder of charred corpses and dismounted. By the time we pulled up behind her, she was standing in the remains of the bonfire itself, ashes gathering at her polished toes.

She clenched her fists tightly. “I swear it now, our losses will be avenged. I can’t help but feel responsible for the loss of your men, Duncan. Had I disobeyed orders and sent out scouts, maybe this ambush could have been avoided.”

Duncan lay a hand on her shoulder. “There is no possible way to know that. And even if these losses may have been prevented, it may have come at the cost of others.”

After a few moments, she nodded solemnly. “Time is short. We can better mourn their lives back when our mission is completed.”

We mounted up again and rode into Rosethorne, only to be greeted by a new and gruesome sight.

As we spilled into the town square, we were greeted by the sights and smells of death. Bloody human body parts were strewn everywhere and led down another far street.

“What in the name of the Gods…” Carmilla breathed.

Kit merely whistled in awe next to me. “Correct me if I’m wrong but, this isn’t how the town looked after our fight yesterday, right? We cleaned up a little better than this!”

Duncan leveled him with a disapproving stare at his lack of tact before commenting, “Yes, we respectfully accounted for our dead and disposed of the vampires who assaulted us. This is a new development.”

I held my breath and clamped a hand around my mouth and nose. My delicate stomach and other senses had not been ready for this. I shut my eyes and centered myself.

Ok. Looks like this is how the day is going to be…

I tried to think of happy thoughts. Kittens. Chocolate. Snuggling in warm blankets fresh out of the dryer. Anything to get my mind right for when I opened my eyes again and acknowledged the present. I knew, in the back of my mind, the odds of today going downhill were high, I just hadn’t been ready for it to be so soon. But that time was now, and if I was not going to be a liability, I had to swallow my fear and ride on. Once ready, I opened my eyes and mentally pushed through the carnage.

We slowly rode through the grisly state before us, looking around for anything else that might be new, but all that drew our attention was the gruesomeness on display. There were limbs in various states of decay strewn everywhere, with a higher concentration the closer we got to the bloody street at the far end of the square. I saw no heads, but plenty of other body parts. Some still had bits of clothing attached to them, but all were bloody, and most had been chewed on to various degrees. We stopped at the entrance to the street it all lead toward. It was obviously planted for our benefit by someone who knew we had been here and also knew we were coming back.

The mastermind behind the ambush and the thralls.

I cleared my throat and spoke up, “Duncan, as much as it pains me to say this, we can’t linger here and mourn more dead. We know what this is, and time is against us. This is a breadcrumb trail.” I pointed down the blood covered street the trail extended through. “One we are intended to follow.”

“The mouseling gets smarter every day,” Julius muttered, “But she’s also correct. We have no time to waste in respect of the lives lost here. And as much as I hate to spring yet another blatantly obvious trap….” Julius also extended a hand towards our path forward.

Everyone made eye contact with one another, in confirmation that this was the next unfortunate step in our path. Carmilla was the first to speak up, “Well, General? What is the plan now?”

Duncan sighed heavily. “This is a monstrous tactic. Not even the elves have exhibited such cruelty. This only further reinforces the lack of humanity in our adversary. Not only is following this trail their obvious intention, but we are also faced with the dilemma of shedding some of our own humanity and ignoring our respect for the dead.”

Carmilla sighed along with Duncan. “We can choose to spare some men to attend to this carnage, but I’d be surprised if our enemy hadn’t also planned for this. We already split our forces to broaden our scouting net.” She did some quick mental calculations. “We are down to almost 40 heads. We could spare a squad for this task to get it done quickly, but no more.”

Duncan nodded. “See it done. The boys and Amelia will oversee this task while you and I take the rest of the soldiers and follow wherever this trail leads.”

At that, all of us started speaking at once.

“Absolutely not, Duncan!”

“Woah, woah, woah, this just got interestin’!”

“I’m not being regulated to back up!”

“You are NOT leaving me behind!”

“I go where Amelia goes!”

Duncan raised a hand in silence. “Consider this a direct order! If this is the carefully calculated trap we expect it to be, I cannot risk the lives of our country’s future! Prince Chadwick, you will be in charge of this task, and if Carmilla and I do not return, report back to our king!”

Chadwick cut in, “And I say again, absolutely not! You are the ranking officer here, but you cannot order me to do something if I do not wish it! I am going! I have come too far on this mission to turn back now. You know as well as I do that Father would consider me cowardly and deem a return without you as failure!”

Duncan resigned himself to the prince’s decision and did not wish to argue further. He instead turned to the rest of us for our rebuttals. “Will at least the rest of you listen to reason and obey my command?”

Kit shrugged, “I finally got a’ itch ta’ scratch with this whole bit. And while ya’ do have rankin’ on me, ya’ know I don’t give a damn. I’m comin’ along, even if ya’ tie me to one o’ those scary ass trees out there.” He winked as he added, “Besides, I’m the best fighter ya’ got! Shouldn’t just demote me to clean up duty!”

Chad and Julius scoffed at this last remark while Dorian and Carmilla just shook their heads.

“What about you Dorian?” Duncan asked.

“I go where she goes,” he nodded at me.

“Same, though I’m pretty sure that went without saying,” Ash added.

Everyone turned to face me, awaiting what appeared to be a critical vote. I knew immediately what my answer was, though my blood ran cold with the thought of what was next. If I was to continue to earn the boys respect and faith in me, I couldn’t turn back now either. Like Chad, I had to see this mission through to the end, no matter where it led.

“Seeing this through is what the Goddess would want. It’s why I’m here. Anyone else could see what we’re up against and decide to run, but I’m not just anyone. I’m going too.”

Dorian nodded again, as if he hadn’t expected any other answer. Ash and Dorian both smiled in satisfaction. I decided to pass the baton, and shift focus to the last of the boys.

“Well Julius? Coming along to see where this leads, or are you staying behind and letting the rest of us do the heavy lifting?”

He scowled at me, but I had hit just the right button. Someone of his pedigree couldn’t possibly let it be known he stayed behind and let other’s do his work for him.

Especially if one of them was Kit.

“Damn you. Damn all of you!” He exclaimed. “Fine! I suppose you’ll be just delighted if we all die together then!”

“Not all of us,” Carmilla stepped in. “I will stay behind and oversee that the work here is completed and escort this group back to the fort in an appropriate window. It will also allow me to confirm the success of the other groups.”

She reached over to shake Duncan’s hand, which he accepted. They clasped forearms and gave each other a hearty shake. “Be safe, Duncan. Come back to us in one piece.” She then turned to the rest of us, “That goes for all of you, especially you Kit. I would prefer to not lose you twice in one lifetime.”

Kit gave her a toothy grin, “Gettin’ soft on me, sis?”

She smiled weakly, “Not at all. I would just prefer not to have to explain to father how we lost you a second time. If you’re going to die, at least do me the favor of leaving a note?” And with that, she rode back to the soldiers loitering in the square to further divide the group.

After she left, Duncan did not mince words with a new command, “While I understand your courage and dedication to this, I still strongly object to each of you coming. Courage will avail you not in the face of death. Fear, in this environment, is not cowardly. If I say ‘run’, you obey, understood?”

Each of us nodded as the soldiers that Carmilla chose for our task rode up behind us.

Seventeen.

We were now two dozen, where just a couple of hours ago we were over a hundred. The trap had been set and the prickle on the back of my neck told me the jaws were about to snap shut.