Chapter 164 - Kneel or Burn

We made excellent time down the stairs to the courtyard. We didn’t run, but Carver kept a pace which was swift enough that it would have left me huffing for breath, back in the old days. For an older guy, Carver was in pretty good shape. I supposed that might be true of anyone who had enough crystals at this point. Poor Stamina or Strength weren’t really things anymore. Loss of Agility? Add more crystals. I hadn’t really considered some of these implications before. If you built up enough stat stones, would you become effectively immortal? Assuming nothing killed you, anyway.

It was an interesting series of thoughts to ponder, but there wasn’t time just then. Carver and I stepped back out into daylight just as Peter was dismounting, sliding down from his dragon’s back.

I’d already seen the dragon up close once before, and it was still a shock, getting another look at her at close range like this. Part of me wanted to run right back inside. Every instinct I had screamed at me that this was a very dangerous creature and it was going to have me for lunch if I wasn’t careful.

Part of that was the fact that the dragon was the only creature whose tier rank I couldn’t read since I’d hit tier ten. I figured I could identify things that were at least tier twelve, maybe even a little higher. The dragon was stronger than that, and my gut said it was a lot stronger. Was it tier fifteen? Maybe even twenty? I had no way of knowing. The only read I got from it was ‘way too big for you!’

The other thing bugging me was just the size and shape of the thing. She was huge. Her wings were enormous, like the size of the wings on a small commercial airline. Her claws were like sabers. Her teeth were like swords. All I could do, looking up into that mouth, seeing her eyes so full of hate and fury, was feel a sudden kinship with Bilbo Baggins.

If she decided she was coming after us, we were probably all dead. Whatever Peter was using to maintain control over her, it was the only thing preventing her from murdering all of us.

“King Eddings, such a surprise to see you! Very impressive mount, I must say.” Carver took the lead, striding over to the man, hand outstretched. Peter took his hand and shook it.

“Isn’t she just?” Peter replied. His eyes flickered my way. “I’d call her the second most impressive female I’ve ever met.”

I didn’t want to know who the most impressive was, but his gaze lingered on my face long enough to make it pretty clear.

“I was flying here to meet with you, Gideon. But when I saw Sue down in your courtyard, I was delighted. Far better to reach both of you at the same time!” Peter said. “I have amazing news that I’ll be delighted to share with both of you.”

“What news is that?” Carver asked.

Peter looked at one of us, then the other, still smiling. “Well, I’m sure you’ve already both heard about how I helped Turner resolve his little bird problem. They were no match for this girl, let me tell you. We tore them apart. Turner barely lost any troops in the fighting.”

“I understand Delores was among those killed,” I cut in.

A frown flickered over Peter’s face, quickly smoothed away. “Unfortunately, yes. She went into the airport area before we’d fully secured the place, and was killed by an avian who’d been hiding in the rubble. Before anyone could stop him, she was gone. Turner was doing a good job of maintaining order last I saw, though.”

The worst part was that it was a plausible story. Without someone who’d been there to refute the claims, there was no way the truth about her killing was ever going to come out. I felt confident there was more to it than he was telling us, though.

“You said you had other news,” Carver prodded. “Would you like to come inside and discuss it over a glass of wine?”

“I probably shouldn’t drink and fly,” Peter replied. “No, I can let you know here. I should be on my way before too long, anyway. I’ve discovered another facet to the control stones. They can do more than simply create and control Domains.”

Now I was all ears. I’d meditated over that stupid stone for more hours than I could count before using it. If there were any secret powers or effects, I should have been able to spot them. More to the point, if they could do something more, I wanted to know about it.

“I’ve discovered that we can use them to take on other Domains as vassals,” Peter went on. “The vassal Domain falls under the command of the primary. It’s sort of like magically enforced feudalism. Impressive stuff. It was thanks to Selena I found out about it.”

“Me?” I asked.

Peter nodded. “Indeed. Your talk about the ratkin made me want to see if I could reach agreements with one of our local ratkin clans. I brought my troops, and they surrendered immediately. They had no interest in fighting, and I was happy to accept their surrender. It was only then that I learned we could take on other Domains as vassals. The leader swore to obey my commands, come aid me when I called, and I swore to defend his people when they were in need. Next thing we knew, his Domain was sworn to mine, connected by magical bonds. Now I can distantly feel everything that goes on in their Domain, like a weaker version of the senses we all gain for our home Domains.”

Just like that, the pieces started snapping together for me. “You took Turner on as a vassal too, didn’t you?”

“Got it in one,” Peter replied. “You are absolutely the most impressive woman I’ve ever met. With a mind like yours… Well, anyway. Yes, Colonel Turner swore vassalage to me. I’ve also picked up two other vassals since then, bringing my total to four.”

“Who else?” Carver asked.

“General Jefferson was one,” Peter replied. “He took a little more convincing than Turner had. With Turner, I just offered to solve his biggest problems for him, and he was practically begging to swear allegiance. Jefferson is much more independently minded, so I needed something more definitive to win him over. Fortunately, I found that in the other vassal I took on.”

Horns blew from the walls as some of Carver’s sentries sounded the alert. They’d seen something closing on his fortress! Some new enemy was coming our way. I readied my Flight to jump skyward and take a look.

Carver glanced toward the walls, looking alarmed. “It seems we’ll have to wait a little longer to hear the rest of this. Those horn calls are the ones we use for an enemy coming. Shall we deal with the threat first, and then reconvene?”

Peter chuckled softly, waving his hand side to side. “There’s no threat. No need for fear. All your guards have seen is the other vassal force, coming this way. Like General Jefferson, I had a feeling you’d take a little more convincing, Lord Carver. You’re not so easily led as Turner was. So I brought something with me to convince you.”

“Convince me of what?” Carver said, his voice a low growl.

“To join me, of course,” Peter replied.

I didn’t waste any more time. I wanted to see what the hell we were up against, so I leaped skyward, my Flight carrying me high above the walls. The horn calls had been from the north wall, like Carver said, so I looked that way, scanning the horizon for threats.

It took no time at all to find the danger.

An enormous horde of orcs marched south toward the fortress. They marched in multiple columns, coming down several ruined streets. As the columns reached the space Carver had cleared they merged, forming cohesive battle lines. Just as we’d seen in our previous fights against the orcs, they were organized, disciplined, and worked very well as units.

This was no raiding party. If anything, this force was larger than the one which had attacked Camp Johnson. I tried counting and failed, then tried estimating and mostly failed there as well. The only thing I could say for sure was there were substantially more than five hundred orc troops headed our way. This horde looked bigger than the zombie army Lyonius had led, and the weakest orcs I saw marching toward us were tier four.

I came back to the ground. Gideon glanced at me, his face worried. I grimaced and gave him the bad news. “Orcs. There’s an army of them coming right at us, maybe as many as a thousand. Maybe more.”

“There are absolutely more,” Peter said, chuckling. “Good guess though, Selena. I ordered them to bring about twelve hundred troops down south.”

“You ordered this?” Carver asked.

“Yes. We stopped by Camp Johnson first. When a force this size showed up on Jefferson’s doorstep, he knew which way the wind was blowing and did the smart thing. He bent the knee,” Peter said. “We came straight here, after. And now it’s your turn, Carver.”

“You want me to swear allegiance to you,” Gideon said.

I’d never seen him so furious. He practically spit out each word. I tried to think of anything I could do to help him, but nothing was coming to mind. If he said no and tried to fight, was there any way he and his people could survive this? Those orcs would be at the fortress within half an hour. Once they arrived, it was game over.

Carver knew it, too. I saw it in his eyes the moment he turned away from Peter and looked at me. “I’m sorry, Selena. I can’t protect my people from something like this. I have no choice.”

I wanted to make a fancy speech and change everything with my words. I wanted to tell him there’s always a choice, or there’s always some way. But how could I make those sorts of claims when I couldn’t think of anything? Peter had completely outmaneuvered us. He had Turner and Jefferson. He had the orcs out of the north, too. I wished I knew how he’d managed to get the orcs to serve him—probably killed a bunch of them with the dragon or something. Awed them into submission.

Much like he was doing here.

There was nothing I could say that would change this, so I just gave Gideon a small nod. “I understand.”

“What do I need to do?” Carver asked Peter.

“Just kneel,” Peter replied.

Carver did as he asked. Then Peter laid his hands on Carver’s shoulders and closed his eyes. I felt magic crackle through the air as they did whatever this vassal thing was. But I didn’t stick around to see the end state of it all.

While Peter was distracted by the bonding ritual, I took the only action I could think of.

As soon as Carver was fully under Peter’s thumb, he was going to turn to me. Whether he was planning to make me a vassal or something else, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out. I leaped into the air, using Flight to land firmly on Sue’s back. The dinosaur was in motion even before I landed, my mental command sending Sue racing toward the main gate. I’d been planning to just blast our way out using either Sue’s Fireball or my Lightning Bolt spell, but I hadn’t reckoned with Gideon’s people.

The guards at the gate saw me moving and rushed to the doors, throwing them open before I reached them.

“Thanks, guys!” I called as we rushed past.

“Godspeed, Lady!” one called back.

Then we were through. I turned south right away and ordered Sue to run as fast as possible. Peter wasn’t going to take my leaving lying down. He’d be after us shortly, and I had no illusions about outrunning his dragon for very long. Our best chance and surviving was to get back to the Farm, back to my people.

But how could we defend against a force like the one he had under his command now? Even with the walls and the siege weapons, the Farm couldn’t last long against twelve hundred orcs and a fire-breathing dragon.

It was all I had, though, so on we ran. Sue sensed my terror over what lay behind us and went all out, racing faster than the dino had ever gone before. Together, we ran full-tilt for home. Disaster would be right behind me, and I had to get there first, or my people were going to die.