Page 48 of Beds and Blades

She had walked into the room as though the High Commander’s immediate availability were simply expected.

She was perhaps twenty-five, dark-haired, and compactly built.

She made it three steps into the room before she understood what she was seeing.

She stopped.

Her eyes moved to Skip, shirtless and untroubled. Then to me, with the sheet pulled to my chin and what I strongly suspected was a comprehensive case of bedhead. Then back to Skip.

I watched her understand the situation in real time.

It took about four seconds.

Her posture shifted into something apologetic, professional, and very determined not to have noticed anything she had absolutely noticed.

“High Commander.” Her voice was admirably level. “I am so sorry. I had no idea that you were…”

A brief pause, during which she selected her vocabulary with care.

“Indisposed.”

She was not completely successful at keeping her expression neutral.

I decided I was not worried about it. I was the one with the ring conversation pending.

“It is of no concern,” Skip said, with equanimity. He had been running a military fortress for six years and had developed a useful capacity for addressing whatever the morning presented. “What happened during the night watch?”

She straightened, the awkwardness vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

Soldier again.

“The creature did not emerge from the crypt last night,” she said.

Skip nodded. “I assumed as much, since no one woke me. Were any of the stones disturbed?”

“Yes. It tested them. We saw movement beneath the stones several times during the night.”

“Then it knows it is not yet strong enough to push them aside.” His expression hardened. “Let us hope that remains true. It has two more men to feed from.”

“How much stronger can it become?” I asked, fully aware that I was nude and covering myself with a sheet.

“I have never seen one feed from three people in so short a span,” he said. “I have only read accounts from before the outpost line was built, when they had better access to victims. My understanding is that they become extremely lethal. When the armies first moved against Morvanna, she was so well fed that she broke through a stone wall with her fist.”

I stared at him.

“That seems like an issue.”

“It is.” He sat up.

The sheet moved.

Her gaze went briefly to the ceiling.

“This outpost line slows their access to blood,” Skip said. “If this creature feeds freely below us, we may be facing something far beyond an ordinary turned soldier.”

He turned back to the woman.

“I want more stones moved over the crypt door. Heavier ones. Add additional archers to every watch position overlooking the courtyard. If it emerges, I want it pinned beneath fire long enough for the men with hunter’s hooks to take the head.”