Sweep of the Blade

Now...

The stars died, replaced by total darkness.

Maud hugged her shoulders. The cold, slightly rough texture of the armor felt familiar under her fingertips. Reassuring. The plan was to never wear armor again, but lately life had taken a baseball bat to her plans.

The floor-to-ceiling display only simulated a window, with the cabin itself hidden deep within the bowels of the destroyer, but the darkness yawned at her all the same, cold and timeless. The Void, the vampires called it. That which exists between the stars. It always made her uneasy.

"Are we dead, Mama?"

Maud turned. Helen stood a few feet away, hugging a soft teddy bear her aunt bought her for Christmas. Her long blond hair stuck out on the right side, crinkled from her sleep. From here she could almost pass for a human.

"No. We're not dead. We're traveling in hyperspace. It would take too much time to get where we need to go under normal propulsion, so we thread through a wrinkle in the fabric of space like a needle. Come, I want to show you something." Helen padded over. Maud swept her up-she was getting so big so fast-and held her to the display.

"This is the Void. You remember what Daddy told you about the Void?"

"It's where the souls go.

"

"That's right. When a vampire dies, his soul must pass through the Void before it is decided if it goes to Paradise or to the empty plains of Nothing."

"I don't like it," Helen whispered and stuck her head into Maud's shoulder.

Maud almost purred. These moments, when Helen still acted like a baby, were more and more rare now. Soon she would grow up and walk away, but for now Maud could still hold her and smell her scent. Helen was hers for a little while longer. "Don't be afraid. You have to look, or you will miss the best part."

Helen turned. They stood together, looking at the darkness.

A tiny spark flared in the center of the display. The brilliant point of light rushed toward the spaceship, unfurling like a glittering flower, spinning, its petals opening wide and wider, painted with all the majesty of the galaxy. Helen stared, her eyes opened wide, the starglow of the display playing on her face.

The dazzling universe engulfed them. The ship tore through the last shreds of darkness and emerged into normal space. A beautiful planet hung in front of them, orbiting a warm yellow star, a green and blue jewel wrapped in a turquoise veil of gently glowing atmosphere. Daesyn. It wasn't Earth, but it could've been her prettier sister. Two moons orbited the planet, one large and purple, closer to the surface, the other tinted with orange, smaller and distant. The sunsets had to be spectacular.

"Is this the planet where Lord Arland lives?"

"Yes, my flower." Maud set Helen on the floor. "You should get dressed."

Helen scampered off, like a bunny released from its hutch.

The turquoise planet looked at Maud through the screen. The home world of House Krahr.

This was crazy. Certifiable.

If she went on logic only, she should've never come here. She should've never brought Helen here.

The planet grew on her screen.

Maud hugged her shoulders. It would've been so much more prudent to walk away and stay in her sister's inn. To relearn being a human after trying for so many years to become the perfect vampire.

Being in love in the inn was simple. They were fighting for their lives every day. It left little room for small things, but in ordinary life those little things often became important enough to shatter relationships. Jumping headfirst into vampire politics was unwise, especially House Krahr politics. Melizard would've cut off his arm to own this ship, and Arland drove it back and forth like it cost him nothing. The threshold was that much higher.

When she had married Melizard, she had hoped for acceptance, second family, and trust. She found none of it. Now... Now she just wanted to find out if House Krahr was worth it. She was no longer willing to settle. They would take them in as their own, or they wouldn't need to bother.

A sphere slipped from behind the curve of the planet. It didn't have the usual pitted look of a satellite. She squinted at it.

What the hell...

Maud pinched her arm. The sphere was still there. Three rings wrapped around it, twisting one over the other, each consisting of a metal core bristling with a latticework of spikes. From here the rings appeared delicate, almost ethereal. She touched the display, zooming in on the rings.

Not spikes. Cannons.

House Krahr had built a mobile battle station. Her mind refused to accept the existence of so much firepower concentrated in one place.

Dear universe, how much did that thing cost? Arland had mentioned that because of her sister's help, their House was doing well, but this, this was off the scale.

Maud's fingers went to the blank crest on her armor. The crest controlled the armor's functions and granted her entry to the Holy Anocracy and permission to operate within its borders as a free agent, a mercenary. She wouldn't be trapped on Daesyn. If things went sour, she could always grab Helen and go back to Dina's inn, she told herself. She made Arland promise to provide a passage, but Dina had insisted on sharing the proceeds of the sale of weapons they collected during the attack at the inn. She could easily buy a passage back.

"Mama?" Helen asked. "Are we there yet?"

"Almost, my flower."

She turned. Helen had put on the outfit they bought at Baha-char, the galactic bazaar. Black leggings, black tunic over a crimson shirt. She looked like a full-blooded vampire. But she was only half. The other vampires would not let her forget it. At least not until she beat every last one of them into submission.

"Come here." Maud crouched and adjusted Helen's belt, cinching her daughter's tiny waist. She reached for the small box waiting on the shelf next to the bed and opened it. A strip of black metal lay inside, ten inches long and one inch wide. Maud took it out and placed it on Helen's left wrist. Tiny red lights sparked inside the metal. The strip curved around Helen's wrist, joined into a bracelet, and shrank, adhering to her skin. Thin rectangles formed on its surface. "Do you remember how to use it?" Maud asked.

Helen nodded.

"Show me."

Helen tapped the center rectangle with her finger. A translucent screen showing the layout of the ship flared into life one inch above her wrist. "Call Mommy."

Maud's own unit came to life, tossing her own screen out with Helen's image on it. "Good."

The harbinger unit served as the Holy Anocracy's version of a smartphone. Equipped with a powerful processor, it made calls, tracked its target, provided maps, monitored vital signs, tracked schedules, and simplified dozens of small tasks to make one's life easier. In adults it interfaced with armor, but Helen was wearing a child's version. It couldn't be removed or turned off by anyone other than a parent.

For the past five years, keeping Helen alive had been the core of Maud's existence. Once they made planetfall, there would be times Helen would have to be on her own. Thinking about it set Maud's teeth on edge. The harbinger didn't take away the anxiety, but it blunted it, and right now she would take all of the help she could get.

"All set?" Maud asked.

"All set," Helen said. "Can I bring my teddy?"

"We'll bring all our things."

They had so little, it didn't take them long to pack. Five minutes later, Maud swung the bag over her shoulder, glanced one final time at the cabin and display, and took Helen by the hand. The door slid open at their approach. Maud squared her shoulders and raised her head and they stepped through it.

Let the games begin. She was ready.

Space crews had a saying, "Volume is cheap; mass is expensive." In space, where air and friction weren't a factor, it didn't matter how large something was, only how much it weighed. It took a certain amount of fuel to accelerate one pound of matter to the right velocity, and then a roughly equal amount of fuel to decelerate it.

House Krahr had taken that saying and run with it. The arrival deck of the ship looked like the courtyard of a castle in the finest Holy Anocracy tradition. Square gray stones paved the floor and veneered the towering walls. Long crimson banners of House Krahr, marked with a black profile of the saber-toothed predator, stretched between the false windows. The gentle breeze of atmospheric circulators stirred the fabric, and the several krahr on the banners seemed to snarl in response.

In the middle of the chamber, a vala tree spread its black branches. Solid, with a sturdy trunk and a mass of limbs that divided and subdivided into a vast crown, the vala reminded Maud of basswood, but unlike the gentle green of linden trees, the vala's leaves were a vivid scarlet. The blood-red heart of the ship, a remnant of the origin world, sacred to vampires. No major ritual took place in vampire society without the vala tree to witness it.

As if all of this wasn't enough, a two-foot wide stream meandered through the smooth stream bed, crossing the deck, winding around the tree in a perfect circle, and disappearing beneath the roots. Maud could've understood if it was part of the water supply that would be later recycled, but there were bright sparkly fish in it. The stream served as a decoration, nothing more. The luxury boggled the mind.

There had to be some way to close it off, if the ship had to maneuver, Maud reflected. Otherwise they would have a mess on their hands. There was nothing more fun than unsecured water in zero-G.

"Can I?" Helen whispered.

"Yes," Maud told her.

Helen ran to the tree, little heels flashing.

Maud followed slowly. She'd walked across stones just like these countless times before when she was married. If she let it, her memory would change their pale gray to a warm travertine beige; the crimson banners to Carolina-blue; and the dark ceiling of the ship to an orange-tinted sky.

She stopped before the vala tree. Every vampire planet had them. If the climate couldn't support them, the vampires built hothouses just to plant them. A vala tree was the heart of the clan, the core of the family, a sacred place. The blossoms of the vala tree had decorated her bridal crown. It was a great honor, appropriate to the bride of the second son of the Marshal of House Ervan.

A hot pain pinched her chest. It's in the past, she told herself. It is over and done with. Let it go.

Careful footsteps approached from behind, trying to sneak up on her. She hid a smile. "Greetings, Lord Soren."

The footsteps stopped, then resumed, and Lord Soren halted next to her. Vampires aged like their castles-growing bigger and sturdier, as if time itself reinforced them. Lord Soren was the perfect example of a middle-aged vampire: wide in the shoulders, muscled like a grizzled tiger, with a spectacular mane of dark-brown hair and a short but thick beard, both touched with gray. His syn-armor, midnight black with red marks denoting his rank of Knight Sergeant, and the small round crest of House Krahr, bore a few scars here and there, much like Lord Soren himself. A testament to life spent in battle. He looked like a humanoid tank.

He was also Arland's uncle. She had worked hard to get him to like her. Lord Soren wasn't complicated. His worldview came down to three things: honor, tradition, and family. He dedicated his life to upholding all three, and they were never in conflict. He viewed her favorably, but how far exactly his good will extended remained to be seen.

He pondered Helen, who had dropped her bag and was dipping her fingers into the stream. "The child loves the water."

"There is little water on Karhari, my lord." There was nothing on Karhari except miles of dry, hard dirt, and it desiccated those sent there until they hardened and dried as well.

"It's a new experience for her."

"It is."

They watched her in comfortable silence.

"It's good that you joined us," he said.

She hoped he was right.

"Perhaps, with your presence, my nephew will stay put for longer than five minutes before running off on another fool's errand halfway across the galaxy."

The arrival deck was slowly filling up with people waiting to go planetside.

If he does, I'll run off with him. "I understand Lady Ilemina is in residence?"

"She is."

Sooner or later she would have to meet Arland's mother. It wouldn't be a pleasant meeting.

"Has my nephew told you why I had to come to the inn to fetch him?" Lord Soren asked.

"No."

"What do you know of House Serak?"

She raked her memory. "One of the larger Houses. They control most of their planet, which is also named Serak, if I recall correctly. They've never produced a Warlord, but they did come close twice in the past five centuries. After suffering defeat in the Seven Star War, their influence diminished, but they're still formidable. They're also hungry to regain what they've lost and that makes them dangerous." Lord Soren nodded in approval. "And their sworn enemy?"

It took her a second. "House Kozor. A slightly smaller House, but a great deal more aggressive. They control the second habitable planet in the Serak system." "They've decided to bury the bones of their fallen," he said.

Interesting. "An alliance?"

"A wedding."

Maud blinked. "Even so?"

"Yes. The son of the Serak's Preceptor will marry the daughter of the Kozor's Archchaplain. They required a neutral location in which the ceremony can be performed." "Naturally." It was a sword-edge wedding. Nobody trusted anyone, and everyone was waiting for an ambush. "Did House Krahr offer them such a haven?"

"There was no way to reasonably refuse," Lord Soren said. "We dominate the quadrant and Serak is only one hyperspace jump away from us. The wedding is in eight days. It would've been more appropriate for Arland to have been on the planet to assist with preparations, but since he's been otherwise occupied, we'll be arriving about the same time as the wedding guests."

"Correct me, but isn't there another vampire-controlled star system, closer than this one, to the Serak system?"

"There is."

Something was off about this wedding. "One wonders why two Houses with such lack of trust want to be bound." "Supposedly to end their conflict and form a pact."

"If they are unable to come together for even the most joyous of occasions and require a neutral location and a host to oversee them, their alliance is doomed from the start. There must be willingness from both Houses for the marriage to hold."

Lord Soren studied her.

"How large of a wedding party are you expecting, my lord?"

"One hundred guests from each side."

"And they will arrive armed?"

"They will."

House Krahr could field tens of thousands of troops. Two hundred vampires, no matter how elite, shouldn't have posed a threat. So why did this suddenly make her uneasy?

The door in the far wall slid open and Arland strode through it. She saw his handsome face, framed with a mane of blond hair.

His blue eyes found her. He grinned. Her heart skipped a beat.

Damn it.

Arland zeroed in on them and broke into a march. He moved like a massive predatory cat, deliberately, smoothly, the blood mace at his waist a reminder of his rank. He'd fought for the place at the top and won. All of Krahr's military obeyed him without question. And his mother was the Head of the House, the Preceptor.

Arland was the perfect embodiment of everything a vampire lord should be. Smart, powerful, fearless, and loyal. A paragon of vampire knighthood. It took Maud exactly two seconds to deduce that he was his uncle's pride and joy. He was likely his mother's pride and joy, too. And she was a human nobody.

"Lord Soren," Maud murmured. "Lady Ilemina must be stressed by these preparations. Perhaps it would be wiser not to mention Lord Arland's proposal." And her refusing of it.

"I couldn't agree more," the Knight Sergeant said.

She let out a small breath of relief.

"Unfortunately, my nephew took it upon himself to inform his mother already."

What? She kept her voice calm. "He did?"

"Oh yes," Lord Soren said, his face looking like he'd just bitten into a lemon. "He sent the message two days before we left the planet, by an emergency jump-drone, announcing that he would be bringing a bride and to make sure adequate accommodations were prepared."

Damn it, Arland. "He didn't ask her blessing?"

"No. I believe he commanded the household to make themselves 'presentable.""

Because his mother would never find that offensive. She closed her eyes for a tiny moment.

"Then he sent a second message, stating that you turned him down but will be joining him anyway."

Arland had accelerated. He was looking at her as if she was the lone light in a dark room.

"Did his mother reply?"

"Yes."

Maud steeled herself. "What did she say?"

"Just five words," Lord Soren said. "Can't wait to meet her."

Great. Just great.

Soren reached over and awkwardly patted her arm. "It could be worse."

She couldn't for the life of her see how.

Arland reached them. "Lady Maud."

His voice sent a soft rumble through her. She hated that. It was a weakness, but she had no idea how to compensate for it. She wished she could be immune.

"Lord Arland."

Lord Soren discreetly stepped away and strolled closer to the arch of the summoning gate. Helen abandoned the fish and the water and brought her bag over. Arland held out his hands, but Helen stayed by her side. "No hug?" he asked.

"Mommy said to be polite."

"There are certain appearances that must be observed, my lord," Maud said.

"I never cared much for appearances," he said. His eyes were soft and warm. Inviting.

She needed to get her head examined.

"Unfortunately, some of us are not in the position to not care."

The summoning gate turned crimson. Lord Soren stepped into the light and vanished.

"My lady." Arland indicated the gate with his hand.

He reached for her bag, but she shouldered it out of the way. They walked toward the gate.

"What's bothering you?" he asked quietly.

"You told your mother."

"Of course I did. You're not some shameful secret I'm going to hide."

"No, I'm a disgraced exile who had the audacity to turn down the most beloved son of House Krahr."

He considered it. "Not the most beloved. My cousin is much more adorable than me. He is two and his hair is curly."

"Lord Arland..."

His eyes sparkled with humor. "You could always remedy it and say yes."

"No."

Helen was looking at them. Maud realized they were standing in front of the summoning gate and bickering.

"Do you remember this?" Arland asked Helen.

Helen nodded and eyed the gate. "It makes my tummy sick."

"Do you want to hold my hand?" Maud asked.

"We have to do it quick, like charging a castle." Arland reached out, swung Helen onto his shoulder, and ducked through the gate.

"Arland!" she snapped.

He was gone. She was on her own on the arrival deck with half of Arland's crew gaping at her. She clenched her teeth and walked into the crimson glow.