Paladins: I Need To See It For Myself

Damlok was waiting for them when Laina and Raven returned to the edge of the neighboring property an hour or so before dawn. Raven froze for a long second, but Laina just looked at the child and nodded, then gestured for him to come and join them as they sat behind the wooden fence and watched the tower. It was fortunate that the moon wouldn't set until mid-morning; otherwise they'd have been blind in the darkness. 

"What are you doing here, kid?" asked Laina, leaning forward and making her voice as quiet as possible. If Mileth Tekilan was sleeping in the tower as a matter of course, he would be coming this way any time now. She didn't want him to get even the faintest hint that he was being watched.

"My father is evil," said Damlok, equally quiet. "A vampire. That's what mother says." He paused. "I need to see it for myself."

"I don't know how much you'll see if this goes well," Laina told him. "But it's more risk to send you back than keep you here. Stay still and quiet."

Damlok nodded, looking satisfied. Laina couldn't even begin to imagine the chaos that would reign at the farmhouse when his mother discovered his absence, but there was nothing to be done about that now. 

So they sat and waited, and after a few minutes a lone figure made its way through the first faint hints of dawn to the tower. It barely slowed as it reached the stone-blocked doorway, and melted through the stones to disappear inside. 

Damlok looked at Laina, then at Raven, and then at the tower. Then he settled back onto his elbows, evidently prepared to wait. 

Sounds reached them as they sat waiting: servants ducking momentarily out of the manor, early workers spreading out across the estate, stableboys hitching horses to carts in preparation for the day's shipments. Laina didn't like it; it was too busy. Maybe everybody ignored the tower, but with so many people around it seemed unlikely that they could reach the tower and make their way inside unseen. 

They waited, and then waited longer. At last the sun peered over the horizon, casting the shadow of the tower in a long black line. 

It was their first piece of luck: the door to the tower was hidden in its shadow. 

Laina glanced at Raven, hoping the black-clothed cleric had some idea of what to do next. Raven met her eyes, then looked past her at the tower. "Life is an illusion," she said, and sighed. "When you see me wave, walk over to the tower as calmly as you can."

She pulled a ring from her pocket and slipped it onto her finger. The moment that it slid past her knuckle, she vanished. 

"Holy shit," said Damlok, just barely managing to keep his voice in the same soft whisper that they'd been using. "That's so cool."

Laina didn't say anything, but she was silently impressed. "Hey," she said, because she was certain that Raven was still here and could still hear them. "Don't die on me."

"If it comes, it comes," said Raven's voice from the empty air. She sounded resigned. "The moment you see me wave--"

"--We'll come," answered Laina. She listened, but heard no footsteps as Raven departed. 

"Who are you?" asked Damlok. The boy was self-possessed; he still remembered to keep his voice to a whisper. 

"Exactly who we said," Laina told him. "A paladin and a priestess, and both of us too new and too unskilled to take on a vampire."

Damlok thought about that for a long moment. "So what are you going to do?"

Laina considered softening her words, then decided not to. "Make damned sure that we don't have to face him... or else we'll die. It's going to be one or the other."

Damlok seemed to consider that. Finally he said, "Very well. I'll help if I can." He was sitting there, the top of his head touched by the first light of dawn, looking very small and very young and very serious, and Laina found that she believed him. Anything he did might be a disaster, but he was definitely going to try. 

She sighed. She'd have to watch for that, too.