Author's Note: Dropping a double-chapter today to align with the Patreon

 

“This stone holds all your precious blood pacts!” Varnath confirmed gleefully. He reached for the arrow in his chest and yanked it out. “But you need not lose your own!”

Still clutching his bleeding shoulder, Drake stared up at him in disbelief. “What?”

“Each stone represents a single blood pact,” Varnath gloated. “Give me your word you will stay your hand, and I will tell you more. We are not so different, and with the blood pacts destroyed, there will be no need for war. Have you already defeated Lord Redbow?”

Drake considered how to answer that. “I am the reason he’s dead!”

“Then you could become my ally, Lord Gloomwood! Consider that!”

So after Drake had literally cut through his entire army and cornered him, Prince Varnath wanted to talk. He could use a good talk, at least until he figured out how to use Chopzilla again. As Drake looked once more to the entry, Sachi collapsed in the door.

It must have taken all her energy to get through the forest, get through the kromians, and join him here. She’d tracked him one last time because she didn’t want to let him fight alone, but now, he had to fight alone. So letting Prince Varnath talk as he got his breath back didn’t seem like a bad idea.

He would do what he should have done in the first place, which was lie his ass off until he could kill this asshole. “I agree to parley!” Drake shouted. “Give me your word you will not harm me until the parley is over, and I will speak with you in peace!”

“Agreed!” Varnath shouted. “I will not harm you until the parley is over, so long as you do not harm me!”

Silence followed. In the silence, Drake was barely aware of the sound of water continuing to fill the cavern. This cavern was huge. A single sea gate would take weeks to fill it entirely, but the flow wasn’t slowing down. He also remembered then that the sea water didn’t have to fill the whole chamber to kill the tree.

Even a thin blanket of saltwater could remove the silverwood’s ability to breathe and drink. He had to find that sea gate and reverse its flow, but first, he had to deal with Prince Varnath. “Are you coming down, or am I coming up?”

“I will stay here for now!” Varnath shouted. “Now, observe!” He thrust the tablet forward. “Thirteen stones! Thirteen pacts! This is the spell your court has hidden from you!”

“Right!” Drake called back. “What spell, exactly?”

“The blood pacts were not made by the Eidolons! The pacts were made by men, humans like yourself, and then your ancient manor lords destroyed the histories!”

Drake remembered the conspiracy theory Sky had relayed to him in the sacred chamber back in Korhaurbauten. It seemed that the conspiracy theory was right. That, at least, improved his opinion of the Eidolons... but only marginally. They remained dicks.

“So why haven’t you destroyed that tablet?” Drake shouted up.

“This is why I offered a parley!” Varnath shouted back. “Lord Redbow once believed himself my equal, even after gifting me his blood pact, but I have now seen what you can do!”

Now he understood why that asshole had been waiting for them outside. “Lord Redbow gifted you his blood pact?”

“Let me finish!” Varnath shouted back. “With this tablet, we can destroy the blood pacts of your enemies and mine! I will rule the seas while you rule the surface as my vassal! Your success in this battle has proven you will make a better ally than Redbow ever would!”

“So you’re a fucking manor lord now?”

“Yes!” Varnath shouted proudly. “You see, Lord Gloomwood, we are the same! I am your equal, as I too own a blood pact! The kromian court and even my own brother are sworn to serve me! They cannot betray me! So if you join me, we can rule the realm!”

So Prince Lorel hadn’t betrayed them, at least not willingly. Lorel must have spied on him the entire journey, but only because Varnath compelled him to do so and forbade him from saying anything. Drake had misjudged Lorel, but he couldn’t do anything about that now.

“Got it!” Drake said. “That’s... well, that’s certainly one option!”

“So do you accept? Say the words, and we will join together!”

Drake finally found cover in the roots where Varnath couldn’t hit him with an icicle. “Fine! I’ll join with you, but only if you stop this assault! How do I save my tree?”

“Simply reverse the sea gate and the water will flow out! If you agree to join with me, I will call an end to an assault and withdraw my kromians. So now, Lord Gloomwood, agree!”

“You’ve got a deal! Do all that, and I’ll rule the world with you side by side! We’ll be allies, and I won’t act against you, harm your people, or harm you so long as you let me keep my manor and rule the surface world! But I need to see that tablet first!”

Varnath vanished. “Of course!” He sounded thrilled and relieved. “Be right down!”

As Drake waited for the stupid prince to arrive, he tried again and again to summon Chopzilla. His arm was aching even worse now, and it felt sticky with blood. He’d never considered himself ambidextrous by any stretch of the imagination, but still...

He focused. As he spread his left arm and opened his left hand, Chopzilla manifested. This copy was far smaller than its huge cousin, but it was there. He couldn’t strike at a distance as he had with his right arm. He’d need to be close. He vanished the axe.

Varnath emerged from between two roots and hurried over. He carried the round stone disc from Drake’s vision. Drake glanced at Sachi to find her still motionless at the entry.

Had she passed out? Was she dead? He wanted to run for her, but he had to make his peace with Prince Varnath first. They were, after all, allies now... supposedly.

Varnath stopped right next to him. “Observe.” He held out the tablet.

“Can I hold it for a moment?” Drake asked. “I’ll give it back.”

Varnath frowned. “Why do you need to hold it?”

“To make sure it’s what you think it is.”

“Have you seen this tablet before?”

“Yes.” Drake frowned at Varnath. “The silverwood showed it to me.”

The kromian prince smiled knowingly. “So that is how you came to find me!”

“Yup. That’s how I came to find you. So, now, can I see it? I’ll give it right back, and then I’ll rule the surface world as your vassal... so long as I get to keep my people safe.”

The kromian prince handed him the tablet. As Drake gripped it, it felt warmer than he expected. His vision returned to a conversation in a capital that had happened weeks ago.

 

***

 

“It’s tempting to dig further,” Drake agreed. “But... I think this has to wait. We have a genocidal kromian prince to depose and our own manors to protect. I also apparently need to get back and have a chat with the silverwood, since it’s intelligent. Did you know that?”

“Everyone knows that.” Sky shook her head. “You truly are from another world.”

“Yeah, well, who was our forty-second president on Earth?”

Sky watched him for a moment. “I have no idea.”

“See?” Drake threw up his hands. “There’s no way I’d know I owned a talking tree!”

“I’m fairly certain it does not speak, though I have not spoken with it myself,” Sky amended with a smile. “All communication with the silverwood is rumored to be in the mind. Also, you have a pact with it. That’s not the same as owning it.”

“That all makes sense, I guess.” Drake glanced down at the horse pile again. “You think that’s how the Eidolons speak to Haley, the door guardian? Through telepathy?”

“The Eidolons speak to the door guardian? I never knew that.”

“They do it all the time, apparently. She mentioned it.”

“In regards to what?”

Oops. How could he answer that? As Drake struggled to come up with a reasonable lie, the black six-legged horse god on the pile below yawned, smacked its lips loudly enough it echoed throughout the chamber, and opened its eyes to stare up at him.

“There you are,” the horse god said.

Drake stared down at the Eidolon staring up at him from the pit. “The fuck?”

He now stood not in the sacred chamber, but in a wide, grassy field. The huge black six-legged horse stood, flapped its wings languidly, and trotted over without a care in the world. As it approached, Drake had the distinct impression it was smiling at him.

There was no doubt in his mind, yet he asked anyway. “You are...”

“An Eidolon.” The black six-legged horse spoke without moving its lips.

Even after being told these beings were gods so many times, it was difficult to accept he was speaking to one. “So you’re a god?”

“I am a creator. You may call me Orphena.”

“Okay.”

“May I call you Drake?”

“Sure.” He obviously couldn’t lie to a horse god. “So... what’s this all about?”

“Upon listening to your conversation, I found your convictions intriguing.” Orphena trotted closer on all six hooves and stopped. From this close, the beast towered over him. “You truly believe the blood pacts used by manor lords to be slavery?”

So that’s what this was about. Could he tell this god it and all its horsey brothers and sisters they’d fucked up? Could he say that to a god’s face?

“Yes,” Drake said. “It’s absolutely slavery, and you’re a fool for creating them.”

“An opinion we share. But it is not we who created the blood pacts.”

Drake groaned as he remembered Sky’s conspiracy theory. “So it’s true?”

“It is.” Orphena eyed him curiously. “What do you plan to do about it?”

“If you’re not behind the blood pacts, why not destroy them?”

“We do not interfere in the affairs of mortals.”

“You just grant them rarities so they can kill each other?”

The horse god snorted. “We grant gifts, including the gift of free will. Watching what you do with it is one of our greatest joys.”

“So you find joy in watching what Lord Crow did to Samuel? Letting those demons rip him apart? And everything every other shitty manor lord has done to every innocent they’ve hurt?”

“We did not create the blood pacts. We did not create free will.”

“Right. Sure.” Drake couldn’t exactly argue with Orphena, not when the horse god could read his mind, and knowing the blood pacts weren’t actually a creation of the gods offered some intriguing possibilities. “So is there a way to destroy the pacts?”

“If you wish.”

“I wish,” Drake said firmly.

“Do you?” Orphena looked horsibly amused. “Has it occurred to you the chaos that destroying the central tenet on which all manors reside will cause? If you think the bloodshed you have seen to this point is daunting, imagine a world where hundreds of people with powerful rarities have no leash and no liege. Imagine the wars that will create.”

“I get it, you think slavery is better, and you could be right about the chaos ending the blood pacts would cause. I’m fully aware ending them could cause a lot of problems and even start some wars. But I’m still going to end them, so why do you ask?”

“If you wish to destroy the blood pacts, you need only shatter the crystals.”

“What crystals?”

A vision appeared in his mind, a circular stone disc with thirteen embedded crystals. Orphena spoke again, and it sounded awfully pleased with itself. Drake imagined the Eidolons didn’t get to chat with mortals much, so was it... enjoying this?

“Thirteen blood pacts were created by the manor lords of yore, brought into being using the ancient magic of the silverwood. Four pacts have merged into two, and one is no more. That leaves ten.”

“Nine,” Drake corrected. “That leaves nine pacts.”

“Ten. You do not include the strongest pact of all of them.”

“Which pact is that?”

“The Korhaurbauten blood pact. The pact of the noble court.”

Drake groaned again. “Of course they have a secret blood pact.”

Orphena’s lips peeled back in what he hoped was the horsey-equivalent of a smile. “Now you see why I am concerned. If you were to abruptly destroy all blood pacts, it would not just be the manors you would disrupt. You would rip out the beating heart of your own government. Your own capital could fall to the kromian army.”

“Not if I kill Prince Varnath first.”

“That would be impressive. So, you will not change your mind?”

“No.” Drake locked eyes with the horse god. “Does that mean I die now?”

Orphena shook her mane as if offended by the question. “Why would you die?”

“You’ve just given me information the noble court would kill me for, and which I could use to upset the world. You’re really going to let me leave with all that?”

“To leave and destroy the pacts is your will. There is one issue.”

“What issue?”

“I cannot allow the noble court to know I have spoken with you. While they have told you we sleep in this chamber because they wish to protect us, that is not entirely correct.”

“So you’re prisoners here?”

“We are guests. Creating this world was very tiring, and after we did so, we asked the first mortals to protect us in this safe, warm chamber. Here we remain.”

“So is it true that if you wake up, the world ends?”

“Perhaps. One day, we will end this realm, but that will be millennia hence. Yet if the noble court learns that we acted against them, they might act against us.”

Drake saw the trap. “I won’t tell them I’ve spoken with you.”

“They could compel you to tell them.”

“I won’t let them do that.”

“You don’t know that.” Orphena curled back her lips. “I know your mind.”

Drake glared up at the Eidolon. “So what are we going to do about this, then?”

“I wished to know your mind. I do now, and I offer you this. If you should one day come across the stone that holds the blood pacts, all we have discussed will return to you. You will know what you possess. But until then, you must forget.”

“Oh c’mon!” Drake said. “How is that even f.....................