Lauki's Arc

Chapter 7 of 18

Lauki reached the noblewoman's estate three days later. He should have felt free. Instead he felt the debt Damien held like a hand on his neck. Damien could send word to Tiberius whenever he chose. One letter would end everything before the courtship began. Lauki knew he could not court her while another man owned his secret. So he turned the horse around and rode back to the black castle to pay Damien off. He found no bargain waiting. A servant led him past the gate to a hedge maze of black roses. At its center stood a sundial ringed in thorns. Damien sat on the sundial's base, calm, waiting. Beside him loomed a hulking figure Lauki had not met. Gray hide, curved horns, a chain of red roses across his broad chest. He held a great axe loose in one fist. "This is Mandrake," Damien said. "He collects what people owe me. He's very good at it." The minotaur's red eyes fixed on Lauki. "The half-demon," Mandrake said. His voice was low, almost bored. "You came to pay. Most run." "I'm not most," Lauki said. "Name your price. I want the secret buried." Damien smiled. "Coin can't buy silence. I already have coin. I want service." He nodded at the maze walls. "A rival of mine took shelter in these roses. He fed lies about me to the swamp king. Burn him out. Do that, and your debt clears." Lauki's fire answered before he decided. Gold and red ran along his fingers. But he saw the trap. If he killed for Damien, Damien would own a murder, not a stolen horse. A worse chain. "No," Lauki said. "I'll clear the debt. I won't kill for you." Mandrake stepped forward. The ground shook under his hooves. "Then Mandrake clears it his way." The axe rose. Lauki did not run. He threw both hands wide and lit the hedge. The dry roses caught fast. Fire raced along the walls, cutting Mandrake off, cutting Damien off, filling the maze with smoke. Through the flames Lauki drove the horse hard for the sundial. Damien flinched back from the heat. Lauki did not touch him. He grabbed the man's own sealed letter from his belt, the one addressed below, and cast it into the fire. "That was the proof," Lauki shouted. "Your word alone means nothing to the king. Now you have neither." Mandrake broke through the burning hedge, singed and roaring. But Damien raised a hand and stopped him. The vampire watched the letter curl to ash. He laughed once, short and hard. "Clever. The debt's paid, then. Barely." Lauki rode out through the gap in the flames. The debt was gone. So was any chance of these three as allies. He had made an enemy of the man who knew his name, and Mandrake would not forget the fire. But the road to the noblewoman was clear again. He turned the horse toward her estate and did not look back.