Immortal War

39

THE ACE IN THE HOLE

“This is not the end!” Lola cried. She was standing on the bridge of The Blood Captain, her eyes dark with fury, her fists clenched white. “This war is not over until I—that is we—say it is.”

“I’m just as frustrated as you are, my darling,” Sidorio said. “We all are.” Standing behind Lola, his arms tentatively around her waist, he glanced over her shoulder at the sea of troops massing below them on the main deck. He shook his head dolefully, then turned back toward Johnny and Stukeley, both of whom looked battle-weary. “We underestimated the powers of the Alliance,” Sidorio continued. Lola’s head was still turned away from him. She shook it sharply, stubbornly. Sidorio nodded at Mimma. “You were there, Captain Didio,” he said. “You tell her. Maybe she’ll listen to you.”

As Lola slowly turned around, Mimma valiantly entered the fray. “It was all going to plan—in fact, even better than that—until the Three Cardinals arrived,” she confirmed. “Then everything changed.”

Lola addressed Sidorio in plain exasperation. “I don’t understand how you could have traveled on The Nocturne so long and not know there were other ships in the fleet.”

Sidorio shrugged helplessly. “Darke—even before he became Obsidian Darke—was very practiced in the art of keeping secrets.” He sighed. He was tired, bitterly disappointed, and in need of a good rest. The worst of it was admitting to Lola he had been outmaneuvered by his old adversary. And she had received the news no better than expected. Even now she was staring at him intently.

“What is it?” he asked, unnerved by the ferocity of her gaze.

“I’ve just realized something,” she said, snapping her fingers, her eyes widening as if she had emerged from a trance. “The cards foresaw the coming of these Three Cardinals!”

“What cards?” Stukeley called disdainfully from across the room. “What on oceans are you going on about?”

“Last night,” Lola said, with strained patience, “as you all hurried into battle without me, I was in need of some distraction. Nathalie suggested that we amuse ourselves by consulting the cards. And very interesting they were—though now I see that I somewhat misread them.”

“With respect, Lola,” Stukeley said, “we’ve just suffered a massive defeat and we have three crews champing at the bit down there”—he pointed down to the main deck—“awaiting a debrief from us. I rather think we have bigger matters to discuss here than playing cards.”

Lola stared at him coldly. He was grating on her even more than usual. Perhaps it was time to take care of him, but, for now, she had other, more pressing concerns. “How little you know,” she said, then directed her attention to Sidorio once more. “Husband, the very first card I turned was the Four Cardinals! In readings, I have always taken the card to reflect the points on the compass and so, naturally, I interpreted it to mean that our empire was expanding and victory would soon be ours.” Her hands began moving excitedly. “I had no idea that there could be another meaning of the Four Cardinals.”

Stukeley tried to attract Sidorio’s attention. “Captain, we really should work out what we’re going to tell the troops.”

Sidorio raised his hand, his eyes still on Lola. “Tell me about the rest of the reading, darling.”

“The next card I drew was the Vanishing Angle,” Lola said. “This I construed to mean that we have pushed the Alliance to its very limit.”

“We certainly did that tonight.” It was Johnny who spoke now. The others’ eyes turned to him. “Like Mimma said before, everything was going better than planned until the Three Cardinals showed up. Seems to me like we forced Darke to pull an ace out of the hole.”

Stukeley rested his hand on Johnny’s shoulder. “Even if that’s true,” he said, “it was an awesome ace. We can’t go up against those guys again. They’ve shown us they’re invincible.”

“On the contrary,” Lola said, “the fact that Darke was forced to call on outside help shows the Alliance is at breaking point.” Her eyes blazed with rediscovered zeal. “The cards were right! We are on the verge of victory.”

“The darkest hour is the one before the dawn,” Sidorio said knowingly, his eyes meeting Lola’s. Once more, there was accord between husband and wife.

Lola smiled and nodded. “Speaking of dawn, let me tell you about my next card…”

Before she could continue, the door to the bridge was flung open and Olivier strode inside. “I’m sorry to interrupt you all,” he said, “but I have sad news to share.”

“What now?” Sidorio asked, despairingly.

“The Alliance has shut down five of the Blood Taverns,” Olivier said. “Evidently the pirates conducted a coordinated series of raids today.”

The Vampirates were shell-shocked at the news—none more so than Sidorio. His eyes meeting Olivier’s, he rasped just one word: “Lilith?”

“Taken into custody,” Olivier said.

“They’re shutting down our world,” Johnny said glumly. At his side, Mimma nodded.

“No!” Lola cried, drawing all eyes back to hers. “Who needs blood taverns when we have boatloads of pirates still to drain? They’re trying to put the frighteners on us, but we’re going to come back stronger than ever. We need to start planning the next battle.”

“There isn’t going to be a next battle,” Stukeley said. “Now we know what the Alliance can conjure up, it would be suicidal to take them on again so soon.”

“You are many things, Captain Stukeley,” Lola said, “but I never had you down as a coward.”

“I’m not a coward!” Stukeley protested hotly. “I’m a realist.”

“Semantics!” Lola said, waving her hand dismissively in the air and striding over to Sidorio. She looped her arm through his. “You’re not ready to throw in the towel just yet, are you, darling?”

Sidorio exchanged an awkward glance with Stukeley, then turned back to Lola. “Of course not!” he said. “We fight on!”

Stukeley frowned and shook his head. He remembered the early days of Sidorio’s rebellion, when he had seen the Vampirate leader manipulated by another rebel by the name of Lumar. That had ended badly and Stukeley had a feeling this was going to end worse—for them all.

“Just supposing,” he addressed Sidorio, “that we do launch a fresh attack on the Alliance, what exactly are you going to tell the crews?” He pointed down at the restless hordes gathered below. The troops were weary, wounded, and in need of answers.

“I’m not going to tell them anything,” Sidorio said, decisively. “You are!” Lola nodded approvingly as Sidorio continued. “You’re going to tell them that this war is not over. That they need to start feeding today so that their blood is primed and pumped for the biggest battle they’ve ever seen.” Sidorio turned from Stukeley to the others. “Stetson, go with him. You, too, Captain Didio. You’re all captains now. It’s time you stopped depending on me and Lola to make everything happen around here.”

“And what, pray, are you two going to do?” Stukeley inquired.

It was Lola who answered his question. “We need to start distributing supplies from the blood cellars. I want every last one of our foot soldiers’ stomachs so full of blood, they’ll be absolutely unstoppable.”

Arm in arm, Sidorio and Lola strode toward the exit. The two commanders of the rebel Vampirates were united once more.

The metal door of the bridge clanked shut after them, its echo filling the tinny surroundings of the bridge. The three remaining young captains stared at one another.