Chapter 31: Vol 2 – Chapter 11 – Hell of a Hangover

I felt every one of the steady clomp, clomp 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 I had been gently shaken awake by Ash at “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 had filled me in a little but kept most of the details brief to try and save me some embarrassment.

Apparently, Julius had found us in the dining hall, ended our night, and ordered us to our bunks. Kit had made it under his own power, but I had thrown up all over Julius’ robe and shoes and he had to carry me back to my bed. I was up off and on feeling miserable throughout the night, and Ash and some of the women caretakers had bathed me and washed my clothes so I would at least have been clean and ready to go for this morning. 

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 riding next to me. 

I also had 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 that expecting it would be “akin to expecting the scorpion to apologize after it stung you.”

We had all gathered, dressed, and ready, at the northern gate, to receive our orders for the day and were surprised by what we saw. Carmilla and Duncan both stood waiting, dressed in full regalia, to greet us all. They had come up with a compromise to give us both some comfortable numbers to prevent a bad result or another ambush, while also maximizing our available daytime to do further scouting. To give us additional time, we had been awoken at the much earlier hour and set out with the aim to reach the tree line by sunrise. This meant traveling without the sun in the early hours, 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, mitigating any possible ambush. And two: Carmilla and a hundred soldiers emptied out of Blackwall to escort us. 

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

What a night. Why had I caved and drank with Kit, of all people? 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 assist my stomach in not being more pissed at me.

So, there I was, ready to face off with possible death and I had combined it with being hungover and achy, with 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 and the rest of the boys and myself. Our original soldiers picked by Duncan and the soldiers from Blackwall followed. From there, Carmilla and Duncan separated the soldiers into three squads. 

Each was to be led by a small hand full of foot soldiers, equipped with axes and other tools used for clearing trees and shrubs so that a makeshift path could be accessed on horseback. Our group, led by Duncan and Carmilla, were going to head towards Rosethorne. The other two were to head in directions that would take them to it’s east and west. Each squad was given a destination in the Blackhills they were to carve their way to, then fan out for recon, and back track through their carved path back to Blackwall before sundown. 

Our group was expected to make the most headway, as we already had a carved clean 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 it’s residents into her mind and remind herself what was at stake. 

The squad assignments were set, and we parted ways, once more into the breach. 

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

 

Due to the pre-existing path towards Rosethorne, we made excellent time pushing towards it 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 we had left it. 

Carmilla’s horse was kicked into a gallop, and she pushed onwards towards our bonfire of corpses. Duncan and the boys and I stirred our horses to keep up. She reached the edge of the remainder of the pile of charred corpses from the day before and dismounted. By the time we pulled up behind her and dismounted, she was standing in the edge of 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 feel the responsibility of these men is on me. 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.”

She nodded solemnly. “Alright, time is short. We can better mourn their lives back home.”

We mounted up again and joined our group of soldiers and rode back into Rosethorne, only to be greeted by a new and gruesome sight.

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

“What in the name of the Goddess…” 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 gave him a stare that would have made a lesser man piss themselves before commenting, “Yes, we properly addressed our dead and also disposed of the vampires who assaulted us. This is a new development.”

We slowly trotted through the grisly state before us, looking around for anything else that might be new to the scene, 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. 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 placed 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 meant 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 trap….” Julius also extended a hand towards our path forward.

Everyone made eye contact with one another, as if in confirmation that this was the unfortunate next 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 attempted something so gruesome in our encounters. It just further reinforces the lack of humanity in our adversary. Not only would following this trail be their desired results of this trap, but we are also faced with the dilemma of shedding some of our own humanity and ignoring the respect for the dead.”

Carmilla sighed along with Duncan. “We can choose to spare some men to attend to this carnage, but this is also something the enemy has likely planned for. 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 another dozen for this task to get it done quickly, but no more.”

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Duncan nodded. “See it done. The boys and Amelia will stay here with you while 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 hand in silence. “These are my orders! If this is the carefully calculated trap we expect it to be, I cannot risk the lives of our country’s future! You will stay with the Commander for this task and, if 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 I do not wish to do! I am going! I have come too far on this mission to turn back now. You know as well as I do that my father would deem my cowardly return without you as failure!”

Duncan seemed resigned to this decision by his prince and did not wish to argue further. He instead turned to the rest of us for our rebuttals. “And the rest of you?”

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

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 for my vote. I knew immediately what my answer was, though my blood ran cold with the thought of what was next. And if I was to continue to earn the boys respect and belief in me, I couldn’t turn back. 

“This is what the Goddess would want. It’s why I’m here. Anyone can run, but I’m not just anyone. I’m going too.”

Dorian nodded again, as if he hadn’t expected me to give any other answer. Ash just smiled. I decided to pass the baton on, and shift focus to the last of our group.

“Well Julius? Coming along to see where this leads, or 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.

“Damn you. Damn all of you.” He sighed and threw up an arm in frustration. “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 make sure this work is completed and that we all make it 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 gladly accepted. They clasped forearms and shook once. “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, “Getting’ 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 who had been loitering back in the square itself to further divide the group. 

Duncan did not mince words. 

“While I understand all your courageousness 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 instance, is not cowardly. If I say ‘run’, you obey the order, understood?”

Each of us nodded as the soldiers that Carmilla chose to accompany us joined 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.

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