Chapter Eight

“These,” Elain’e said as she chewed. “Are pretty good.”

Anne beamed across the table at the girl. Between them was a plate stacked high with still-steaming cookies. She was quite proud of her work.

There wasn’t any chocolate in the panty, but she did have a whole cart full of mangoes. It was a little touch-and-go as she made up a recipe on the spot, but the cookies had turned out quite nicely. They were crumbly on the outside, with gooey mango sweetness on the inside.

Of course, the best part of making cookies was seeing someone enjoy them, and judging by the way Elain’e grabbed a third cookie to nibble at in her cute lady-like way, Anne figured that she had done a decent job of it.

“I’m glad you like them so much.”

“Maybe we could look into hiring a baker, once all of this stuff is done,” Elain’e said.

“You could take up baking yourself,” Anne said. “It’s a lot of fun, I find. It’s an art that you get to eat in the end.”

Elain’e chuckled. “Maybe. I never really considered it before. Baking feels more like a peasant’s domain. Um. Not that I mean to offend or anything.”

“Oh, nonsense, it would take more than being accused of that to insult me,” Anne said.

She held back a grin as Elain’e grabbed a fourth cookie and was about to suggest that maybe Elain’e slow down a little before she gave herself a tummy ache when a distant, muffled explosion sound across the dining room.

Elain’e dropped her cookie back atop the plate and jumped to her feet. “What was that?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Anne said. She stood up herself and brushed down the front of her apron. “That noise wasn’t normal?”

“No, it’s not. That sounded like an artillery spell impacting.”

“That’s not good,” Anne decided. She picked up her skirt and ran after Elain’e as the girl darted out of the dining room and through one of the long corridors of the castle. Elain’e slid to a stop in front of a set of heavy double doors and undid the latch keeping them shut before throwing when open. It led onto a balcony.

Anne followed Elain’e onto the overhang, then pressed a hand over her heart as she looked down onto the courtyard before the castle. A large group of skeletons were gathered below, forming a rough circle with swords and spears out, pointing to a figure in their middle.

“Newt?” Anne asked as she recognized the girl.

“Hello mistress!” the robot called up with a cheery wave.

“Stand down,” Elain’e ordered, and the undead below backed up, weapons lowering away from Newt.

The robotic girl bent her knees, then jumped up, and with a burst of fire to assist her jump, she landed on the stone railing around the balcony. “Hello Mistress,” she said.

“Hello Newt,” Anne said. “Was it you who made that loud bang on arriving?”

The robot nodded. “I made several loud noises. One on atmospheric reentry, another on landing. Did I disturb you? I can operate more slowly so as to avoid making so much noise.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Anne said. She tried a smile to reassure the robotic girl that it really was all fine.

Newt nodded. “I’m ready for further orders, Mistress.”

“Please just call me Anne,” Anne said. “And, ah, we were just enjoying some freshly baked mango cookies in the dining room.”

“I am incapable of consuming such things, but I would enjoy being near you while you find sustenance, Anne,” Newt said.

Anne glanced at Elain'e who shrugged her shoulders in a rather careless fashion. “Well, come along then!”

They returned to the dining room at a much calmer pace than they had left it. Elain’e walking alongside Anne and Newt following half a step behind, her head swivelling left and right as she scanned the castle’s interior.

There was a surprise waiting for them in the dining room. A man sitting at the head of the long table that dominated the room. He was sitting back, a wine goblet in one hand and a small porcelain plate sitting before him with the crumbs of a cookie on it.

“Oh,” Anne said as she took him in.

“Hello, Grand-Patriarch,” Elain’e said. “It’s good to see you awake.”

“Indeed,” the man said. He smiled a rather roguish smile, and Anne found herself smiling right back. “I see that we have guests. A pleasure to meet you, ladies.”

“The pleasure’s all ours,” Anne said. “I’m Anne, and this is my, um, new friend Newt.”

“Salutations!” Newt said.

The man chuckled and stood, a hand idly tidying the lapels of his suit jacket. “I’m R’card M’ango,” he said. “I sense that you are as powerful as you are beautiful, Miss Anne.”

Anne tittered. “Oh now, you’re hardly one to talk about beauty. I haven’t seen a man as handsome as you in quite some time.”

They smiled at each other from across the length of the table.

“Miss Elain’e,” Newt said. “I have detected some slight symptoms of sickness. Are you well?”

“I’m perfectly fine,” Elain’e said. She grabbed a cookie with rather more aggression than Anne believed the cookie deserved and chomped down on it.

“I must say, it’s not every day we have guests here,” R’card said. “Let alone guests from beyond Not Evilia.”

“Oh please, R’card, I can’t imagine you not being quite popular,” Anne said.

R’card laughed. “And I’m surprised the castle guards aren’t fighting off an army of suitors as we speak. Though, I am being presumptuous. Are you married, Lady Anne?”

“I am not,” Anne said.

“What a marvelous coincidence, nor am I.”

“Please no,” Elain’e whispered.

Anne giggled, feeling quite a bit younger all of a sudden. She pulled out the seat opposite R’card’s, which did leave quite a bit of room between them, and sat down. “So, you said that there are few guests to your castle. I’ll admit to a bit of curiosity, what is scaring them all off?”

R’card grinned. “Oh, this and that. Though I believe that it might be Not Evilia itself. The same magic that prevents people from entering our fine nation does terrible things to the idea of guests and grand balls.”

“That’s very unfortunate,” Anne said. “Did you enjoy the cookies?”

R’card blushed, just a little bit, and Anne found that it made his roguish features look tantalizingly innocent. “A little more than I should have, I admit. I wanted to eat only one, but I ended up eating a few more than that.”

“Oh, there’s no harm. I’ll take it as a compliment that I can test your self-control.” Anne sighed. “Is there really no way in or our of the country?”

“None at all, I’m afraid,” R’card said.

“That is not accurate,” Newt chimed in.

Everyone turned to look at her.

“I successfully excited the country by means of space-flight. I encountered no impediments other than the pull of gravity and typical air resistance.”

Elain’e hummed. “I suppose someone could fly over the barrier,” she said. “We do have migratory birds. Though the magic to do so must be very complex.”

“Why do you not use an airship?” Newt asked. “I observed an entire fleet of them on my way back down to the Mistress Anne’s current location.”

“Pardon?” R’card asked. “A fleet of what?”

Newt’s arm twisted and she aimed it towards one of the bare walls of the dining room. An image splashed against the stone wall, slightly warped by the surface. Ships, large mechanical things that should in no way be flying, hovering in the air.

There were three dozen of them, all gently moving along while spewing black smoke from chimneys along their tops.

“That symbol!” Elain’e said as she jumped to her feet and pointed. She rubbed the crumbs off her mouth with the back of a hand. “That symbol on the bow of the lead vessel. A circle in another circle, black and red. That’s the dark lord’s mark!”

“The dark lord?” Anne asked. “The person that’s causing a lot of trouble?”

“Well, he’s not flying a fleet over to Not Evilia on a lark,” Elain’e said. “How far away was this fleet, Newt? What heading?”

“Over a hundred and twelve kilometers west-north-west, on a heading towards the city to the north east of our current position,” Newt said. “The ships were moving at approximately five knots.”

“And so the dark lord brings an army to Not Evilia itself,” R’card said. “An entire city. Nay, an entire nation, that believes itself completely beyond harm. With the barriers up there’s no place to run and evacuate to. And what forces we have here are split between the clans.”

“We have to warn people,” Elain’e said. She spun towards R’card. “We have to.”

“We do,” he agreed. “Lady Anne, forgive me, but it seems as if things have become quite dire all of a sudden. Hopefully we will be able to resume our conversation at another time.”

“Um, yes, I hope so,” Anne said.

He nodded, then stood. “I will be going to see those mangy old werewolves. Elain’e, visit the necromancer’s guild. Post haste dear. We have little to no time to waste!”

***

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