A Time to Mourn

Aurei and her friends deal with the loss of some of their own to the Death Knights as the Drow girl tries to find a way to save her aunt from dying.

58.

A Time to Mourn

 

Aurei sat on top of the quarter deck of the Necromancer’s Guild airship, her feet hanging over as she leaned against the wooden rail and stared vacantly off into forever.

Brother Darv first, now Neal and Vinth.    Her Aunt, Pectros and Lute all lying near death and she had to ask herself: For what?   The men were searching the ship for any salvageable items, while the crew of the Autumn Maid, which had returned an hour ago, loaded Neal and Vinth’s bodies onto the airship.   They’d have to be burned, but not before some sort of ceremony.  

A shadow fell over her and she looked up to see Eleazar smiling sadly at her.  

“Hi” he said, sitting down beside her, “How are you doing?”

She shrugged and rested her head against his shoulder.

“Well, we can’t find the Wyverns, so apparently they flew off.   Sir Alvis believes that they have some sort of telepathic communication with their Death Knight Masters, so they probably fled when we killed them.   I don’t think they’ll be back.”

“Wonderful.” Aurei said emotionless.

“Aurei, I’m sorry for Vinth and Neal.”

She took his hand in hers and squeezed it, “I just keep asking myself if it was worth it, Laz?   Won’t they now just send even more ships to torture us?”

“Hon, you have to realize the magnitude of what we just accomplished; to realize just what Vinth and Neal died for.   We just destroyed one of three of Soric’s Lich lieutenants, as well as three of his Vampire Lords and all of their subordinate Vampires.  We also destroyed two Death Knights, which, along with the other two that have been destroyed, means that we have killed one fourth of the 12.   We’ve destroyed a third of the hierarchy of the Necromancer’s Guild, Aurei!”

Aurei sighed, “Yes, I know, but now they’ll just send more of their vampires and Death Knights after us.   Laz, it’ll never end, will it?”

“Well, this ship is not a typical Necromancer’s Guild ship.   It is one of their finest, and I suspect it was the Lich we killed that was behind all the undead activity in this area.    His death will create anger in the Guild, but they lost a lot of their important lieutenants today and they won’t just pull the others off their assignments to come after us.   Of course, we’ve got to continue to fight them, and I think the King will soon announce a campaign of war against them, based on what Sir Alvis told us.”

“And we’ll be in the middle of it again.   Please don’t think I’m a coward, my love, but I don’t know how many more people I can stand to lose.   If we go on this campaign of the King’s, I don’t want any of the people of Westmark coming with us.   I don’t want them exposed to any more danger.”

“That would be up to them, hon.”

“Not if I won’t let them leave the Duchy.   I can do that you know.”  She smiled at him weakly.

“It would be hard to enforce if you weren’t there when they left.   But I understand.   I must tell you, I was very surprised seeing your courage today.   My goodness, Aurei, you nearly cleared the deck by yourself!”

She shrugged, “Anyone with the right magic items strapped to them could have done the same thing.”

“But not without the heart for it.   You have that.   Perhaps a bit foolhardy; but amazingly brave, and rather terrifying if you are on the other side of your swords.”

“Not very lady-like, was it?” 

“Not so!  I found it… very stimulating.”

She looked up at him surprised, and he just arched his eyebrows and changed the subject quickly, “They should be done very soon and we’ll get going.   The King wants to burn the ship.”

“I agree; it is too dark and evil in the lower decks.   I don’t think anything could change that.   How will they do that?”

“They’ll lower it so that it’s touching the ground and pile wood on deck and around it, then use oil to get the fire going.   It may not work, but I imagine it will.   It will till take days for it to burn down to ash.”

“Laz?”

“Yes, hon?”

“Do you really think we hurt the Necromancer’s Guild here today?   It wasn’t all for nothing?”

“Oh, I can assure you, we hurt them greatly today.   What we did here today is the stuff of which legends and songs are made.”

“Good, maybe it will replace some of those vulgar barmaid tunes that I am told are sung about me.”

“I imagine they’ll just add verses to them; you don’t mess up songs about beautiful women.”

She squeezed his hand again for his compliment and at that moment the men and Alis came out from below, carrying small handfuls of items.  

“We’re done.”   Haroldris told them, “Let’s go home.”

Eleazar offered her his hand to help her stand and together they joined the others over on the Autumn Maid.

 

***

 

Due to their concern over their injured friends, they didn’t stay around to watch as the airship was slowly lowered to the earth and, an hour and a half later, set on fire by members of the Autumn Maid crew that stayed behind to complete that task.  

Aurei had ordered that Lute, Zeatt and Pectros be placed in the finest rooms in the Muddy Boot to be cared for.   When they arrived, they rushed to their sides.   Pectros was actually conscious, though very weak.    “I’ll be fine, Duchess.” He assured her, and she sat with him for a while, thanking him for his bravery and promising she would do everything possible to make sure he recovered.

“I’m in good hands.”   He responded, looking up at Rori, who stood close by, still covered with scrapes and bruises from the battle.   On the other side of the bed, Brolen’s son Luke sat faithfully.

“Rori, I want you to know that if… I mean when, Matron Zeatt recovers, I am going to ask her to remove the Geis from you.   Your actions today proved to my satisfaction that you are a changed person.   I consider your debt for your part in Brolen’s death paid for in full.   I would remove the Geis myself, but it has to be done by her, I’m afraid.”

Rori smiled, “Thank you, ma’am.  If it is alright with you, I’d really like to stay here.   I have not completed my duty to Luke and I think Pectros may need a nurse for some time.”

“You are more than welcome to stay here.   In fact, I am very glad to hear it.”

She went next to Lute’s room, and her heart broke as she watched Siris pacing back and forth, sobbing. 

“How is he?” she asked Thorm, who had went straight to his side.

“He’s stable, Duchess.   A strong lad, he is.   He’ll make it fine.”   The Dwarf turned to Siris, “He won’t leave ye, lass, not with a wee one on the way.”

Siris nodded, but continued crying, and Aurei went to her and hugged her tightly, “Siris, I am so, so sorry.   We didn’t know the hold was full of vampires.   I wouldn’t have put him into that kind of danger for anything.   But he wouldn’t stand to see us fighting them without him.”

The Orc lady nodded.

“As soon as we can, I’ll have one of the Paladins lay hands on him, as well as Pectros and Zeatt.   He’ll be alright.”

“I know, Aurei… but will he be a Vampire minion like Sir Alvis?   He was nearly killed by the bites.”

“I don’t think his attacker was one of the Vampire Lords and Sir Alvis believes that a lesser Vampire can only turn a victim into a vampire if they die.”

“Good.  Thank Yesh for that!”   She still wept, however, and then it came to Aurei that she probably grieved for Vinth.

“Vinth was a true champion, he died as his men died, fighting valiantly for his lord.”   Her words touched the Orc lady, who drew comfort by them.

“I hope Eioldth will not forsake the Queen’s Guards.   It has brought out so many noble Orc men; it would be terrible to see it be disbanded.”

“I’ll remind her of that, Siris.   I’ve got to go see Aunt Zeatt now, but let me know if you need anything.”

Siris agreed, and a minute later Aurei was entering the master bedroom at the Muddy Boot, the very room she used when she slept here.   The room was full of rather grim faced people.   Brandi and Krys stood by the door quietly.   The King and Queen were sitting by the bedside monitoring her, while Sir Alvis stood at the foot of the bed respectfully.   They all made way for her as she rushed to Zeatt’s side.  

 

Her coloring still was not good, and her breathing was shallow, but stable.   Eioldth looked over at her with eyes still wet from tears, “Aurei, I fear it may not be good.   She was seriously drained by the Vampire and seems to be growing weaker.”

The words bounced off Aurei like rocks as she knelt and took her aunt’s hand.   It was cold and clammy.

“But tomorrow morning we could lay hands on her.” She said to everyone.

“Yes, but there is something you should know.   Alis and Aeric’s Paladin powers were restored to them not long ago and they rushed up here while you were checking on our other injured friends.   They laid hands on her, Aurei and…“

“No change?”  

“No.   I’m sorry.”

The Drow girl wept.