I kept my crossbow trained on his back until he disappeared around a bend in the stairs. I was half-tempted to loose one of its compact bolts into his back and see what the Tree God’s magic would do to a human body, but I restrained myself, and not just because shooting someone who looked like my long-lost twin would feel weird. No, the fact that this guy was my doppelganger and that he was no doubt someone who had regular access to my uncle was something that I could use to my advantage.
So, that guy was the actor my uncle had hired to fool the people of Brakith into thinking that I’d been turned into a vampire. The idiot had even mentioned vampire makeup; it seemed that my uncle had pulled out all the stops to make sure the townsfolk were completely convinced that I’d become a vampire and that I was abducting and killing girls, who, it seemed, were actually being sacrificed by my uncle and buried under the soil of this crypt.
I’d found what I’d set out to discover: a possible way to get to my uncle without the situation turning into an all-out war. I’d need to kidnap this chump actor, of course, and interrogate him, but that could wait until Elyse had come back from her little information-gathering mission.
Things were coming together for me, it seemed, and the lordship that was rightfully mine was almost close enough to touch. Almost. One or two things still needed to fall into place, before I’d be ready to strike. And I didn’t give a fuck how powerful my uncle may have become, because when I made my move, that pig-fucker wouldn’t know what hit him.
I slipped out of the crypt and crept back into the woods via the secret tunnel and the cave, then hiked back to the campsite, arriving just as the sun was rising. The coming day was going to be a very interesting one indeed.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I slept for around an hour and a half at dawn and felt just fine when I awoke. When I opened my eyes, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for me: my infantry troops, led by Sarge the Skeleton and Captain Jandor of my zombie Resplendent Crusaders. They had finally made it here, so my army was complete once more. Well, almost. Drok and his contingent of skeletons, along with Rollar’s infantrymen and archers, would be here in a couple of days. At least most of my army was back together in one place though.
Elyse returned to our camp late in the afternoon, after having spent the day in Brakith in disguise, making enquiries, eavesdropping, greasing various palms with bribes, that sort of thing. That she’d been capable of such espionage surprised me, but it wasn’t the only surprise I received.
She wasn’t alone when she returned to the camp.
Trailing behind her was a woman in a black hooded cloak. I couldn’t see her face because of the large hood covering it, but from the figure outlined beneath the cloak, it seemed that whoever Elyse had found was a tall young woman with a slim physique and deliciously long legs. Needless to say, when she strutted into camp behind my pet bishop, my interest was immediately piqued.
“What did you find out?” I asked Elyse when she approached me, followed by the mystery woman.
“Well,” she answered, “I’ve done more talking and bribing today than I have in a very long time, and it sort of paid off.”
“It ‘sort of’ paid off?”
“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”
“Ah, shit, hit me up with the bad. Might as well get it over with.”
“Your uncle has been holed up in his castle for some time, and he’s increased the security all around Brakith. There are soldiers everywhere, and they’re on the lookout for you. Word of your deeds has reached your uncle, and it appears that he’s been preparing for your arrival for some time. It’s going to be very, very difficult to get to him without some sort of ace up our sleeve.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. “So much for the element of surprise. Tell me the good news.”
“I didn’t manage to find Lucielle’s Beauty Mirror, but I did find someone who knows where it is and who has it.”
“Go on.”
“Well, she insisted on speaking to you in person about it, so here she is.”
Elyse stepped aside, and the woman in the black cloak stepped forward. She threw back the hood and yanked the cloak off her shoulders with a melodramatic whirl, flinging the garment to the ground. I gasped with surprise, because I recognized her immediately.
“Anna!”
“Lord Vance,” she purred, curtseying elegantly.
The last time I’d seen Anna, she’d been a gangly 12-year-old tomboy with close-cropped hair and a permanent scowl on her face. But now, my, my, the ugly duckling had bloomed into a stunning swan.
In the features of the woman standing before me were only the faintest echoes of the girl she had once been, and I was actually quite surprised that I’d managed to recognize her at all. Only her eyes were the same, really; the rest of her had blossomed into something absolutely stunning.
Her gangly, awkward limbs had become long and slender, with just enough curves in the right places. Her legs went all the way up to heaven, and her hips, while not as full as Isu’s, nonetheless had a pleasing curve to them. Her high, firm breasts strained against the skintight, shimmering black fabric of the expensive, form-fitting dress she wore. Her face was striking and commanded attention; her features were sharp, but not to the point of being overly angular or pinched. Her oval face was dominated by her large gray eyes,
