Chapter 5: Under Cloak and Veil

“My dear wife, you best hold me back because this daughter of ours has depleted my patience!” my father screamed at the top of his lungs as I entered the manor around dusk. His voice echoed off the carved buttresses along the sides of the foyer. It surely woke up our dead ancestors memorialized in frames upon the walls. Even the floorboards and carpet felt the rugged abrasion of his primal screams.

“The best place for me…”

He shouted over me, “You had no right to venture off like that and you even left the safety of our forest!”

“I led a raiding party against a Rhumdric Kingdom mining caravan just days ago, father,” I reminded.

“Now, you come back with bloodied and torn pants! I’m beyond mad to even ask the cause right now! You jeopardize everything this family works for!”

“What? Peace with the humans? That will never happen, father!” I shouted.

“Don’t talk to him like that!” my mother yelled.

“I showed a man mercy and…”

“That mercy makes me look weak, Yyrdra! I must take calculated moves to protect this settlement and its posterity. Granting mercy on a raid is one matter. But then running off to human territory? You could’ve died out there and your escapade could’ve gotten you killed in here! I would’ve expected it from a child, not you.”

“Then we agree. I am not a child and I have free will,” I reminded.

“You have no such thing in this world,” he fumed and slammed his fist on the curving railing of the nearby stairs.

I lowered my head and angled my brows out of anger.

“What we are saying, dear daughter,” my mother began, “is that your safety is paramount for the continuation of our family line in more ways than just bearing offspring upon ascension to matriarch. You must mirror your father’s agenda and stay within the confines of his plans that he works so hard under a cloak and veil.”

“It makes more sense when it’s spoken, not spat,” I sniggered.

He growled, threw up his hands and shouted, “You are to not leave this manor without an armed escort.”

“Fine.”

“Until further notice you are not to leave, period,” he growled, grabbed his sword leaning in a weapon rack and left the house in a fury.

I stared at my mother until her gaze caught mine and she said, “You’ll soon understand.”

I shrugged and wandered to my room to contemplate the terms of my imprisonment.

A solemn silence arrived to my delight while I laid there in my bed. The veiled canopy provided my own world to retreat to while everything crashed down around me. After my temper subsided, I thought about my mother’s words of, ‘You’ll soon understand.’

I enjoyed life as a dark huntress. I was proud of claiming my first kill in the light. Bearing more responsibility seemed like a burden to my lifestyle that I didn’t want just yet. Soon was uncomfortably vague, and ruling this town scared me more than it should.

When my mind had enough of that stress, it shifted to other desires in the shape of a fisherman that answered to lord. The pain in my leg distracted me and I decided to change out of my dirty outfit.

As I wiped away dry blood from my arrow wound already healing, my knee bent as if it were still between his legs as I pinned him in those tallgrasses. I ran my hands down my ribs, the way he gripped me there. I envisioned each of his fingers, slowly bouncing upon the bars of my caged heart like a set of keys on iron. I licked my lips and fangs as if I had actually taken a bite out of him.

Maybe I should have.

* * * * *

The following morning, two of our house servant girls burst into my room without knocking while carrying empty crates. Then, my father appeared in the doorway with two guards confusing the serenity of my isolation.

“Pack her best outfits, shoes, keepsakes,” my father commanded.

“Yes Patriarch Prime,” the young servant girl said. She’s barely huntress by a year and knew nothing about the hunt. Why was she going through my belongings?

“What is happening?” I asked.

“You and I are traveling,” he replied, short of candor and ripe with callousness.

“Traveling where, father?” I asked and stood up in a thrash.

“You will find out when we arrive,” he replied and then said, “No, not that one. It’s too old,” about one of my black winter dresses with dark gray sleeves and torn, laced frills around the neck.

“That’s not an answer.”

“That is the only answer I can provide for now,” he boomed and stormed out of my room. “Wear a dress and meet me in the wagons outside!”

“What have I done to deserve this treatment?” I shouted and watched helplessly as the servants stuffed what they could into the two chests. My chest heaved in anger and confusion.

I stormed out of my chambers and the guards interlocked their spears to prevent exit. “Sorry, miss.”

“You’re seriously threatening me with your spears? Are you going to stake me should I not comply?” I shouted and dropped my hands.

Then my mother appeared from the upstairs hallway and said, “I will help you pick out an outfit.”

“For what? Why am I being whisked away with all of my possessions?”

She didn’t answer and her glazed eyes terrified me. She knew something but her loyalty to my father proved too great. My mother entered, tinkered with the remaining dresses, and asked, “How about this mauve gown? I think we borrowed it from a Maven baroness or perhaps her daughter.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” I shouted.

She analyzed the gown and the quality of its tailoring without responding.

“Mother!”

“Yyrdra, this gown will do,” she smiled and handed it to me before exiting the room.

Within minutes, the household servants lugged the storage chests away and I had no choice but to comply. Where are we going? Which vampire tribe so desperately needs our presence?

With tremendous delay, I eventually climbed into the mauve gown that we pilfered on a countryside raid in the Maven Barony - a small nation state to the south where we often fed. It fit well and looked nice on me but I was a huntress by title and occupation. I was no lady in a castle.

I pouted out the door and the guards led me to an enclosed wagon outside our manor. It’s not exactly a coach meant for nobility but it was built for transport nonetheless. It would be a bumpy ride out of the forest in it; I hoped the driver could steer those horses well. The passersby took note of the scene and stopped to loosen their lips for an hour of gossip. I waited inside the coach under armed guard as the town spun around me.

Hendron ran over to the window and asked, “Where are you going? Is that a dress?”

“It’s a gown,” I grumbled and rolled my eyes.

“A royal ball?”

I snorted and replied, “My father has failed to share our destination with me.”

“It’s a nice look,” Hendron complimented even though he knew it didn’t help my scorn for the situation. He looked over his shoulder at the various onlookers and said, “Akisma was sick with worry that you had gotten yourself killed out there; she told me you took a horse out during the day.”

I nodded and said, “My father thinks someone tried to kill me during the ritual so I took my leave to clear my head.”

“I heard. We’ve been trying to investigate in the background but no leads yet,” Hendron replied and put his forearm on the wagon’s window.

“Are we all set, captain?” my father asked his most trusted military adviser, approaching the scene on horseback behind Hendron.

“Vanguard is prepared,” he replied in full armor.

“To battle?” Hendron asked the captain

“Above your station, hunter,” the captain of the town’s defense replied.

“If I don’t return, I expect a rescue party,” I whispered.

“If you don’t return? Are you that untrusting of your father?” Hendron asked.

“We move out. Step aside everyone!” my father shouted and climbed atop a horse.

“He’s not telling me anything,” I replied to Hendron. “Promise me?”

“Promised, Yyrdra. We’ll find you,” he said and stepped back as the wagon began rolling.

The ride out of the town garnered attention as additional armed horsemen joined our caravan. I couldn’t quite count but it numbered more than a simple raiding party. Soon our trek took us through the winding, narrow pathway out of the forest to the north. There were several paths and this was the only one capable of hosting a wagon. I jostled around the back of the wagon every waking second of the two hour long journey into the countryside. I didn’t think I’d have a buttbone after that.

“We’re about to exit the cover of the canopy!” the captain shouted.

“Veils, hoods, gloves, hats on!” my father ordered from somewhere nearby. I poked my head out and could see him riding alongside the captain. Daybreak shined with brilliance just fifty strides away.

I hustled to the front of the coach, slid open the window and asked the driver, “Do you know where we are going?”

“I do not, my lady,” he answered without turning his head.

“Damn it,” I growled and returned to my seat to wonder and worry for hours and hours into the night.

* * * * *

Commotion broke me from my idle trance somewhere close to midnight, when the warriors passed along a message too soft to decipher. I peered out the window and noticed a faint torchlight ahead. A perimeter of torches illuminated silhouettes and the moon’s generosity lit up the empty grasslands all around.

“Where are we?” I asked a nearby horseman.

“Avenadyn, middle of nowhere.”

“Are we going to battle?” I asked and regretted not stowing a blade inside this gown.

“We’ll find out if diplomacy fails, I guess,” the vampire soldier replied. The twilight reflected off each link of his chainmail hauberk and the steel kettle helm over his head. I looked forward again in fright.

“Let me out, I can fight too.”

My father then rode alongside the wagon and ordered, “Yyrdra, I am going to need your full cooperation for what is about to happen next.”

Horror laced with concern flooded my every thought. We were in hostile Avenadyn territory, the moon was at its peak over the unknown meadow, the soldiers were prepared for battle and he put me in a gown so that I could cooperate.

I will go down kicking and biting if I must.