Needless to say, a couple dozen rich and pampered Firmans were absolutely no match for over a hundred angry Ostlanders. Even if the latter were armed with naught but farming implements and looted pikes, the former barely had any arms at all, and even Grayson’s remaining house guard were quick to capitulate once they saw how outnumbered they were.
Ana and I found the man himself in his study, reclining in his chair and doing his level best to look bored. He had a pistol in his lap; I was quick to point my own at him.
He barely reacted; he just chuckled sadly to himself. “Well played, Messer, very well played. I assume Griffenwald has been dispatched?”
Ana entered behind me, and I shared a confused look with her. “He’s at Colm’s estate, in more pieces than when he arrived.”
Grayson snorted. “Good riddance, I say. Miserable old bastard wouldn’t know the meaning of joy if it struck him in the groin. Though, I suspect I shall be joining him shortly.”
He held his weapon in hand, examining it with a strange fondness. I kept my pistol aimed squarely at his chest. “I take it you’re surrendering, then?”
He regarded me with a venomous contempt. “You don’t get it, do you? Anything you could possibly do to me will not be one one hundredth the punishment Dietrich Bloem will subject me to when he learns of this disaster.”
He sat up in his chair, leaning in towards me somewhat. “You may think your immortality a blessing, Messer, but it’s just another curse. Our kind can experience a thousand more tortures than any mortal could hope to endure. And his lordship is a master of torture.”
I wished to interrogate him further on that notion, but before I could react, Grayson put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
I felt my face splatter with his blood, but I was already so caked in the stuff thanks to the night’s events that it hardly made a difference. I felt a chill creep down my spine as I holstered my weapon, Ana’s hand coming to rest on my shoulder.
“We need to secure Griffenwald’s estate, and the smaller holdings. Then we can march on the town proper.”
I nodded in agreement, regarding Grayson one final time as he twitched in his seat. His manor was burning; I knew he would not survive come sunrise.
The knowledge that that’s precisely what he wanted left an ice cube of dread sitting in my gut.
Our little mob soon snowballed into a general uprising in New Charsburgh; the clique of slaves from Grayson’s estate had little trouble recruiting Griffenwald’s number to their side, and it wasn’t long before all the plantation houses were going up in flames.
Ana made sure to leave a couple of her trusted lieutenants in charge of each group. She and I served quite nicely as the cavalry for our disorganized, furious infantry, guiding our bands from place to place.
The riot, of course, saw as many Firmans slaughtered as there were taken prisoner. Ana may have had a formal policy against such things, and may have even been able to enact said policy with her trained and disciplined army, but this was an angry mob, who would not have listened to her even if she’d dared to order such a thing.
Some future readers (though given the most likely party to discover this memoir first, not all future readers) may find this aspect distasteful, but it is an inevitability of any popular uprising. You try telling a vengeful people, finally breaking free from decades of humiliation and bondage, to differentiate between innocent and guilty.
As the night drew towards its conclusion, Ana and I regrouped with a small band of her warriors outside New Charsburgh itself. The fires of the manor-houses lit up the night, smoke billowing into the air and coating the landscape in an orange haze. More and more of our mob began congregating around the town itself, it being the last Firman structure left unburned.
I cringed at the sight of it, fully expecting at least a few of their number to be gunned down by the defenders manning the walls… until I looked to my left, towards the river Hud.
And saw every boat that had been moored at the docks that morning sailing downriver as fast as they could. I could even make out crews of rowers paddling along faster than the winds could take them, no doubt terrified of the Ostlanders battering down the palisades.
I pointed this out to Ana, and she frowned. “Bloem and his forces will hear of this.”
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
Ana did not reply; she simply made for the town.
Of the couple hundred Firmans who called New Charsburgh home that morning, only one remained. Bernard Bloem was sitting on the balcony of his manor house, smoking from a pipe and looking utterly deflated.
“Does cannabis even affect vampires?” I asked, recognizing the pungent smell.
“No,” Bloem replied dimly, “but it’s familiar. I like that.”
There was an empty seat next to him, so I took it. “Why didn’t you flee with the others?”
He turned to me, frowning. “Why do you care?”
“Well, we couldn’t have gotten this far without your mercy. But more than that, I’m simply curious. Why leave yourself at the mercy of our merry band, instead of quitting this place with your own people?”
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He sighed. “It’s simple; this place was meant to punish me.”
I understood his meaning immediately. “Uncle Dietrich wanted you out of the way?”
“Indeed. I’d only been sent here by cocking up one too many times. Now that I’ve cocked up even this meager posting, I’m finished.”
Knowing everything I’d heard so far about Dietrich Bloem, from both his enemies and servants, I dreaded to think of what he’d do to Bernard if he got his hands on him.
I looked out over the town, as freed Ostlanders wandered about, looting everything they could from the storefronts and homes beneath us. “Sun’s going to rise soon, Bernard.”
He nodded. “That it is.”
“Are you going to come inside?”
“And why should I? I have nowhere to go.”
“You could come with me.”
He turned to face me. “You would have me?”
I nodded my head. “You’re a more experienced vampire than I. And you know more about your dear uncle and how he rules his realm than any of us.”
“How very pragmatic,” he quipped, “but is your she-wolf on board with such a thing?”
“I can be very convincing.” I said with a smug little smirk.
Bernard blushed at this, which was precisely my intention. “Fair enough. Look, you plan on killing Dietrich, don’t you?”
I nodded my head. “Is that alright with you?”
He took my hand then, and stared my dead in the face. “I’ve thought about doing it every day of my life. I just never had the stones for it… until now, I suppose.”
“Well, then welcome to the crew.”
He smiled at this. “The crew… sounds very criminal. I like that. But before we join, let me draw you a bath; you are positively filthy.”
I couldn’t disagree; a few life or death melees and a lot of running around muddy farmland would do that to you. But I was still baffled as Bernard sprang from his chair. “A bath? Now? Don’t we have places to be?”
He made a sort of clawing motion with his hand. “Indeed we do, and we can’t have you reeking when we get there! It’ll only be a moment.”
I sighed, following him inside and shutting the balcony door behind us, just as the sun began to rise.
I suspect, in hindsight, that Bernard intended my bath to be an act of seduction, perhaps one that would lead to us lusting after one another in a throw of passion. He had even unbuttoned his shirt for it.
Unfortunately, he failed to account for the fact that I was genuinely quite filthy. The warm water he’d drawn up for me soon turned an ugly shade of brown, and I was far too focused on scrubbing myself clean of dried blood to notice any advances or insinuations he might have been making.
Climbing out of the bath went a bit better, though. I saw that he’d selected a fresh set of clothes for me, leathers and boots suitable for long treks across the woodland. He himself sat by the bedside, polishing the saber I had looted off of one of Griffenwald’s men.
I smiled as I dressed myself, making sure to turn away from him as I hiked up my trousers. “What a gentleman you are, Sir Bloem.”
He sighed, sliding the saber back into its sheath. “I’m not usually so gregarious a host; I think your company might be having an effect on me.”
I chuckled at that, sliding myself into my coat. “The sort of effect that would make an upstanding young lordling betray his kin?”
“Perhaps,” he said, rather stiffly, “and do plenty more drastic things besides.”
“Well, sir, I have only just gotten dressed,” I said, leading him on.
He got up from his chair, taking me by the chin. He was lithe like me, and clean shaven, but taller. So much taller. “Then perhaps I can undress you again, if you’d let me.”
I was about to say yes, when I heard a knocking at the door. Specifically the second foot balcony door.
I rolled my eyes, separating from Bernard, who was suddenly flushed and deflated with embarrassment. “Come in, Ana.”
And come in she did, having finally shrunk down to her human form after spending practically all night as a wolf-woman. “I see you’ve found us a hostage, Sig.”
Bernard frowned at this. “Not a very valuable one, mind. Dietrich’s going to have me drawn and quartered for this.”
Ana grunted. “Well then congratulations, Bernard. You’ve just knocked Sig off the pedestal for my unlikeliest ally.”
Bernard rolled his eyes at this, while I stepped forward to take Ana’s hand. “Have you thought of what we’re going to do next?”
She nodded. “We’re running.”
“Oh thank the Five for that!” Bernard exclaimed. “I thought you fools would be looking to martyr yourselves.”
She shook her head. “We have too many martyrs as is. We’ve got hundreds of people down there, and save for the were-beasts hardly any of them would be useful in a fight.”
“Where will we go?” I asked. “Your hideout’s on the other side of the Hud, and I doubt we’ll be able to make a crossing with so many people.”
“That camp is for my warband; these are not warriors. We’ll take them to the Pink Valley, a week’s march upriver. There, they will be safe, and free.”
“Well we’d better get a move on, then.” Bernard observed. “The garrison downriver will doubtless have dispatched outriders by now to figure out what’s going on. From there it’s only a matter of time until we have an army on our asses.”
“Ana, do you think you’ll be able to defend this Pink Valley? We’d be leading Bloem’s forces right to it.”
Ana laughed at this. “We have repelled four separate attempts to capture it. I doubt the fifth will be any different.”
I chose to believe her then, for my own sanity if nothing else. “Well then, suppose we’d better call for a carriage. Bernard and I can’t be moving out in the sun.”
“Just don’t be surprised if you have to share it with the old or injured.” Ana replied. “Damn inconvenient working with you vampires, sometimes… but it does have its benefits.”
She stepped forward to run her fingers through my hair. I got the sense the gesture was more for Bernard’s sake than my own, an apex predator marking her territory, but I leaned into it regardless.
“I have a wagon out back we can fetch, and a few spare horses if we need them.” Bernard said awkwardly. “Let me go get them.”
He left the room, leaving Ana and I by ourselves.
“You didn’t do anything with him while I was away, did you?” She asked.
“We… got close, but nothing happened.” I replied.
“I’d appreciate you asking my permission for such things.”
“Apologies. I’m not used to communication or commitment, when it comes to the bedroom.” I looked up at her. “With that being said, do I have your permission?”
She snorted. “By all means. That beanpole’s no threat to me anyhow.”
I could only laugh. I was a mercenary in a losing war, on the run from my enemies, and only getting further from my original target.
But perhaps my two new lovers could make up for my dire circumstances.
