Vassals and Villains by Teresa Hann

Author:Teresa Hann [Hann, Teresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2021-02-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

“Thank you,” Laurel Mandrake said stiffly.

I nodded, but struggled to feel any satisfaction. Not when I’d failed in the way that truly mattered to me. A cold hollowness sat in my chest.

Back inside Mandrake Manor, we watched as healers put Luke Mandrake back together. The only upside to Stasis was that the wounds it left were clean and bloodless, less cuts than—discontinuities—in the flesh. Luke had passed out during his ordeal, providing his caretakers with a pliant patient to reassemble like a puzzle.

“He’ll be fine once he wakes up,” the healer reassured Laurel Mandrake.

She nodded sharply. “See that he is.”

She turned. Luke’s siblings were poking their heads inside the room. Sal, Frax, and Olli, I recalled. All three looked closer to Spica’s age than Luke’s—one seemed slightly older, the others slightly younger.

What would Arcturus do if he got his hands on them? I thought darkly.

“I told you to stay in your rooms,” Laurel Mandrake snapped.

The younger children shrank back, but the older girl jutted her chin defiantly—I guessed from what I knew of the siblings that she was Sal. “Don’t treat us like babies. I made the servants tell us what was happening. We’re here to see Luke.”

“He’s unconscious,” her mother retorted. “Go back to your rooms and stay out of the adults’ way.”

“Why should I?”

“Because I said so.”

Mother and daughter entered a staring contest. “I will send you back up in chains if I must,” said Laurel Mandrake.

Sal glared. She turned her gaze to Luke’s prone figure and deliberately looked him up and down. “There,” she said. “Now I’ve seen him. Let’s go.” She stalked out with the proud, prickly defiance of someone insistent that she hadn’t in fact backed down, and the other kids trailed behind her.

Her mother sighed. “I’d let Salix sit in on some of the vassals’ work if she weren’t so certain to be disruptive.” She turned to me. “As for you, we have business to discuss.”

With one last look at Luke, she strode out of the room.

I followed her through rooms busy with vassals, both Mandrake and Redbriar. Several looked up from their work with supplies and siege preparations to cheer me as I went past; my one-woman rescue mission had made an impression. I made myself smile back, despite my grim mood. I knew the importance of morale.

We climbed winding stairs to the top of one of the castle’s towers. From there, we had a commanding view of the Mandrake estate.

The fires had at last died down, but they’d burnt a jagged swathe of black across the landscape. “It will take years for production to recover,” Laurel Mandrake muttered. “But that’s a long-term problem. We have more pressing matters to deal with, unfortunately.”

From this high up, the Nightfeld vassals looked like ants. They’d commandeered one of the clumps of outbuildings and converted it into their base camp, even providing it with defensive wards. A dome like a soap bubble shimmered around them in the waning sunlight.

I narrowed my eyes, sharpening my vision

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.