Chapter 35 - Kor

Arriving at the border is a relief and not just because it means we've managed to get here before Rhistel has been able to organise his armies for an attack. It also means that Bel has finally shut up about the discomfort of travelling. Gods I love him but at many times on the journey here I've wanted to strangle him, or sew his mouth shut for a few hours whichever would bring me peace for the longest.

We'd immediately sent a dragon messenger back to Hadlau to confirm our arrival but so far we've had no response. It's possible though that the dragon hasn't reached the city yet now that winter is truly here the weather might have slowed him down. Even I wouldn't risk trying to fly through a snow storm.

In the week that we've been at the border there have been nearly endless meetings with the various city leaders planning the defence of their cities. A generic plan works for many of them but still each plan has to carefully adjusted for each one to ensure we've covered their individual weakness and worked to their strengths. At first it was interesting and a nice change from the march but it soon grew just as tedious.

Bel attending the first few meetings with me before begging off in favour of wandering the area and sometimes crossing over the border. Scouts have been monitoring the area keeping an eye out for any soldiers but so far they haven't spotted any instead they've been finding groups trying to get Stones across the border before they can be destroyed. Joining them has at least kept Bel occupied.

Today though our last meeting has just finished with the leader of the last city. We'd left this until last as it's the least likely to be attacked and being built into one of the tallest mountains planning its defence was easy. The harder part was determining how much food they can store just in the unlikely event of a siege.

Free for the rest of the afternoon I make my way to the room Bel and I were given. Along the way there soldiers and servants alike stepped to the sides of the halls as I walk past, bowing and curtsying in greeting. It saves me time but I'm still not used to being King and the deference that comes from it. Sure before when we were Lords they did the same but that came from our strength and age rather than because the Gods appointed us as royals.

Entering our room I'm not surprised that Bel isn't here, he's probably out with some scouts at the moment. They're never out for too long so I'll just wait for him here. Picking up a handful of Emmy and Lilas's letters I settle down on the bed to read them again, something we've both been doing often. We'd been careful to keep the letters with us and as undamaged as possible for just this purpose.

We've only received two letters since the one informing us of Emmy's pregnancy so there hasn't been too much for them to tell us about it yet. The latest one told us about the ball that is being thrown in celebration which should be happening any day now based on their estimates of how long it will take to organise. Hopefully everything goes well for them, just from the letter we can tell how excited Emmy is about the ball.

"Thinking about them?" I hear Bel ask as he enters the room. Hearing his boots hit the floor I'm not surprised when he jumps on the bed next to me.

"Yes. Ball should be soon."

"If it's not already happened. I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to get everything organised not with all those ladies working on it with the backing of the Council." He replies laying his head on my shoulder so that he can read the letter as well.

"Poor Lilas. Hates balls." I'm able to feel Bel nod slightly against me.

"Yeah but he'll have to go. For Emmy at the very least. I just feel sorry for leaving him alone surrounded by all those ladies trying to organise a ball on short notice." He lets out a short laugh at the thought and I can't help but smile as well. Lilas would much rather be left alone with his books than have to speak to anyone never mind our palace turn into a hub of ball planning.

We fall silent for a while our minds fixed on the mates we had to leave behind. It's a comfort knowing that they're safe and far from the war but it still grates not being there with them especially with news of the baby. At least with the last city defence organised and no sign of Rhistel's army marching towards us we'll be meeting tomorrow to start planning out how we'll retake Nerkise. Gods willing it won't take long, not with various rebellions against Rhistel slowing down his forces.

"How'd the meeting go?" Bel asks.

"Well. Sorted out the defence plans for the last few cities. Tomorrow we start making a plan of attack." Bel sits up straight looking at me with a smirk.

"That sounds like my kind of meeting. I'll be there." His smirk turns into a blood thirsty grin, "It's about time we moved onto striking back. The sooner we take the fight to Rhistel the sooner we can return Nerkise to a ruling Council and go home." Just the though of getting home puts a genuine smile back on Bel's face even if it is slightly wistful.

"Glad to have you." I tell him knowing that he'll be a big help in planning a strategy to retake Nerkise. As much as he's hated the defensive meetings his time spent with the scouts should be helpful not to mention that Bel thinks in ways many of us don't. One of the benefits of not receiving a formal military education.

Bel had spent his childhood on the streets relying only on himself to survive. He learnt to fight early on which helped him make it long enough to catch the attention of a madame who introduced him to the right people. It's something that he's never been afraid of admitting to, freely calling himself a whore or prostitute before anyone else can at least those in the know of his past. Part of what he loved was pointing out which famous people he's slept with, especially those with embarrassing stories like a well-loved Lord who led his city through a terrible famine had a preference for watching Bel fuck his wife.

That was partly how Sliske found Bel and decided to turn him. Bel had become well known among the nobles of the time and with that came secrets which Sliske, a lover of gossip, was very interested in. After spending time together Sliske soon valued Bel as a son and wasn't prepared to lose him so offered to him which Bel quickly agreed to at the age of 23. He spent a few years getting his blood lust under control before returning to his much like it was before he was turned. It was another hundred years after he was turned that Lilas and I met him claiming his as our mate.

It took us a few years to really get to know Bel as for so long his life had revolved around sex with no one, other than Sliske, wanting to speak to and get to know him. The first couple of years there was a lot of sex but then we worked out the best times to get Bel to open up about himself and simply talk to us. By the end of our first decade together he seemed to finally understand that we wanted him around for more than just sex although it still remains one of his favourite activities.

"Want to come hunting with me?" Bel asks breaking me out of my thoughts. Not having had the chance to go out since we got here I nod quickly in agreement sitting up and grabbing my boots. I won't be able to hunt in my dragon form as I usually prefer too, so far we seem to have been able to keep our arrival here relatively quiet and the sight of a large dragon flying in the area would change that. I'll need to take a bow and arrows instead while Bel will probably take some daggers if he's not planning on hunting by hand.

Jumping off the bed Bel follows my lead pulling on his boots before running out into the hall excited to go hunting together. Although hunting with Bel tends to involve sex at some point it's still nice to have someone to hunt with. Lilas has never had much interest in hunting, he can if he needs to but much prefers not too and somehow I can't imagine Emmy hunting either. I suppose that's one of the benefits of there being four of us, no one is left alone anymore and Emmy seems to be perfectly happy spending hours reading with Lilas. It's something I've never minded but Bel can only sit still for so long before becoming an annoyance that I have to distract to allow Lilas some peace.

As we leave the castle crossing the border into Nerkise we're joined by four of our guards as apparently we can't even go hunting without them. I'd tried getting them to stay behind with the argument that too many people will scare off any prey but they'd rather us have a boring unsuccessful hunt than go out alone. At least I'd managed to talk them down to just four from the original eight that they wanted to send with us.

"You know these guards have really messed up my plans." Bel comments quietly as we follow some deer tracks. At least the guards are letting us take the lead and are giving us some space although they're still close enough to be able to hear us.

"So long as they're quiet." I grunt back at him focusing on the trail. He's pouting more about the lack of privacy and there's no chance that the guards will let us go off alone to have the sex he was likely planning on.

"Just wanted to be alone with you." He replies. Since leaving Hadlau we've had little to no privacy even at night, sleeping in tents doesn't give much privacy. Our room here has given us at least a bit more privacy but with the number of men stationed here there's always people walking the halls and the walls aren't that thick, we can hear their conversations as they go past. The way things are going we'll have to win the war before we can go back to being alone.

Falling quiet we put our focus on the hunt as start getting close enough to hear the deer. A small herd soon comes into view as we observe them using hand signals to indicate which one we're going to target. We're hunting for fun rather than food so there's no point in taking out the large stag, better to leave him alive and breeding, so we agree on a mid-sized doe as our target.

Taking out my bow I take aim at the deer intending on a head shot, one arrow and it'll be over without any needless suffering. The wind is blowing gently towards us hiding our scent from the deer who haven't realised that we're here. Just as I'm about to take the shot there's a shift in the wind, just enough that the deer are able to smell us and notice the danger they're in.

They take off in a run and I curse softly but Bel takes the opportunity to run after them. He quickly catches up to them weaving into the herd and running next to the deer we'd selected reaching over he swiftly snaps her neck. Grinning he hoists the deer easily over his shoulders returning to where I'm waiting with the guards.

"I win." He gloats as I scowl at him.

"Not fair. Vampire speed." I protest, he always does this when we hunt together and I'm not in dragon form. Being faster when we're on foot if I don't take a shot when I can he'll run ahead and take out the prey by hand then suddenly the hunt is a competition.

"Hey! I don't complain when you can fly and grab prey before I even find it." He complains back handing the deer over the guards muttering that they can make themselves useful. It's not like we can't handle ourselves yet they still insist on being here so they can handle our kills.

"One more." I state determined to leave with a kill because if I don't Bel will gloat for days that he managed to beat me in this hunting competition that he's now started. At the very least it needs to be a draw.

Nodding we set off to track down something else. I ignore any rabbits we pass by, they're too easy, it'll have to be something bigger than that to get Bel to shut up about the deer. After the best part of an hour I spot some wolf tracks that seem promising and if I'm lucky the fur will be of good enough quality to send to Hadlau as a present. With winter here Emmy will need some warmer cloaks which the fur could be used for.

Following the tracks eventually leads us to where the pack are. Settling down we observe them as I try to pick a target, settling on one of the bigger wolves that seems to have the best quality fur out of the entire pack. Not wanting to give Bel the opportunity to take this one I line up my shot as fast as I can before firing, a direct hit to the eye that kills the wolf instantly. With one of their own dropping dead out of nowhere the rest of the pack scatter fleeing into the woods and out of our sight.

Walking over to my kill I pull the arrow out, glad to have hit the eye and not ruined any of the fur. I haul the wolf onto my shoulders and return to the others where Bel is standing with his arms crossed watching me.

"Show off." He mutters knowing that he couldn't have made that shot. He's always been terrible with a bow instead preferring to use daggers if he needed a long-distance weapon. "Good quality fur, sending it back to Hadlau?"

"Yes. A new cloak or maybe a blanket." I say getting a nod from Bel who takes a closer look at the fur. He has more of an idea of how it can used than me, at the most I know if fur is good quality or not while Bel can also decide how best to use it.

"Not enough for a blanket there but with how small Emmy is should be able to make a cloak for her and Lilas out of it. Just lining the top should be enough for the weather down there, at least for now." He says a plan clearly already working in his mind. Looks like the fur will stay here and once he's had some time to work we'll be sending ready made cloaks down to Hadlau. Shouldn't take too long with how much free time we have at the moment.

"Let's head back." I suggest now that we've both made a kill. The forest here is only small so we shouldn't hunt too much here, we need to leave enough in the forest for those who need the meat. We turn around heading back to the border castle where we've set up our command which we've got a few hours walk to get back to. As we're walking Bel keeps chatting about his ideas for Emmy and Lilas's cloaks and how he'll start once we're back at the castle.