One of my skeletal cavalrymen had been smashed to smithereens by a barbarian’s morning star, and his skeletal horse was now without a rider. This would be perfect for transporting our little stray; he wouldn’t be able to control the skeletal horse the way he would a living horse. Instead, it would be under my command.
“Hey, Jort,” I said, “you look like your legs could use a break. Why don’t you hop up onto that horse skeleton over there? Don’t be alarmed by the fact that it’s, you know, dead. Trust me, it’s one of the safest things to sit on here.”
“If it’s all right with you, my lord, I’d rather—”
“I insist.” I fixed him with a fierce stare that told him quite plainly that there would be no arguing with this.
“Vance, he’s—” Elyse began, but I was quick to silence her.
“He looks too tired to walk at our speed, the skeletal horse has a perfectly comfortable saddle, and he won’t even have to think about directing it because it’s under my control,” I said firmly. “So, Jort, get onto that horse. Now.”
Elyse huffed and glared at me—and judging from the look in her beautiful blue eyes, I had to wonder if she hadn’t heard me and Anna going at it. But she said nothing. Jort looked at her with a kind of pleading look, but he quickly realized that my word was the law in this group, and, grumbling something under his breath, he climbed up onto the skeletal horse’s saddle.
We got back into formation and set off with the new force of zombie cavalrymen mounted on undead direwolves split into two halves-one covering the right flank of our formation, one covering the left. I mounted Fang and headed up to the very front of the train, with Rollar on his dire bear riding next to us.
I briefly sent my mind into the body of my harpy. The creature was flying over a broad expanse of barren, rock-strewn fields, with absolutely no signs of life to be detected. There were scattered drifts of snow, so it had to be further north than I was. At least that meant that Rami-Xayon was somewhere vaguely to the north and wouldn’t have to make a massive detour or trek to meet up with us. I hoped she would be able to rejoin the party before I reached Drok’s tribe and the Wise Woman.
The sun was getting low in the sky, and it was obvious that we wouldn’t be reaching the village before dark. After an hour or so of travel along the road, in which we encountered no other travellers, or enemies, dusk began to fall. I told the others to wait and headed into the woods, soon finding a suitable clearing to set up camp in.
I figured it was about time to tell the others that Anna had stowed away with us, before one of them found her in the supplies wagon and stuck her with a sword or a spear. I got my undead troops to surround the campsite as sentries—we’d definitely be safe and sound throughout the night—and then jumped up onto the supplies wagon before anyone could start unpacking it.
“Everyone, come here for a second!” I yelled, and they obeyed. “We, uh, have an extra member to our party.”
Eyebrows were raised all around.
“What are you talking about, Vance?” Elyse asked, looking confused.
“My lord,” Rollar said, “begging your pardon, but should you not have perhaps told us about this before we set off from Brakith?”
“Drok like parties!” Drok grinned stupidly.
Isu turned and sent him a glower that could have melted steel.
“I would have told you all if I’d known she was there. But she decided to come along, even though I expressly told her not to.”
“Then you should kill the little cow for her insolence and disobedience,” Isu hissed. “She’ll just be dead weight the rest of us have to drag around.”
“No members of this party will be killing any other members of this party.” I transfixed Isu with a glare that was every bit as ferocious as hers. “And that’s enough from you, Isu.”
Isu huffed and folded her arms aggressively across her big, round tits.
“Anna, come out now, before you cause any more trouble.”
The flap of the wagon opened, and Anna jumped out, looking like a million gold pieces. There was a glow to her skin that was practically angelic, and I had to wonder if my wad had had something to do with that.
“Greetings, everyone!” She flashed them a massive smile with her perfect white teeth bright against the falling darkness. “Apologies for just, you know, popping out like this, but hey, sometimes a girl just has to take things into her own hands! And Lord Vance, I’m so, so sorry for disobeying your orders. I’ve been a very bad girl, and I think you should punish me for what I did.”
She bit her lip and stuck her ass out suggestively. Elyse and Isu immediately turned and glowered at me. Weirdly enough, when they turned their attention back to Anna, their frowns morphed into smiles. They were twitchy smiles, though, almost as if they were trying to fight them, but couldn’t. Then I realized what was going on and peered a little more closely at Anna to verify. Sure enough, clutched subtly behind her back sat the cause of the unstoppable smiles: Lucielle’s Mirror.
If the others found out that she was using this magic item on them, they’d be mad as hell. The longer this went on, the faster they’d catch on, too.
“All right, all right,” I said hastily. “Well, now that’s over with. So, everyone, Anna’s traveling with the party, for better or worse. I’ll send her back to Brakith as soon as the opportunity arises. Go on now, do your thing and set up camp.”
They all moved off, grumbling about Anna but smiling every time they turned and looked at her. When they were far enough away, I approached her.
“Put it away, Anna,”
