Ch 6- What exactly is your plan, Kai?

Kai 

Sleep was far from my mind. I was restless, broken with thoughts of my naive little sister being sent to marry a dead blood-sucking monster Draken. It was a death sentence, no human returns from his fortress intact. I understood that pack politics tied my father’s hands but I still couldn't figure out how he could have the heart to send his only daughter to her doom. 

Father never loved Maya. He blamed her for mother’s death, but how could you blame a baby for being born? He ought to blame his uncontrollable self. There were only eight months between my birth and Maya’s. 

I didn't know all the details because father had refused to talk about it but the pack physician's explanation said that having a baby within a small time frame weakens a woman’s body. He didn't give mother enough time to recover after I was born. 

I lay on the bed staring at the ceiling of my chamber until the bright light of dawn made itself known. Immediately, I got up, pulled on my boots, and went to find my closest friend Zane. 

I walked into the stables, the only place I knew he would be. Zane loved horses more than he loved human companions. Maybe that’s why he had never found his fate even after turning twenty-three. He claimed the stench of horses soothes him. Personally, I had never understood that. The horse barn smelled like dung. As I walked inside the stable, the horses shifted restlessly in their stalls, their awful breath mixing up the cool morning air. Weak grey light filtered through the gaps in the wooden planks, striping the hay-strewn floor in pale bars. Somewhere in the beams, a bird was making its soft, dawn chorus. 

I found Zane in the store room, rubbing grease into a saddle with a long broom brush. Rows of bridles and halters hung on the walls around him, and the air smelled of leather and flaxseed oil. He barely looked up as I barged in. 

“I need your help, urgently,” I said

He didn't look up from the saddle. “What have you done now?” 

“This time around, it’s not what I have done but what Father has done,” I said, dropping onto one of the wooden stools. 

He stared at me as if I had suddenly grown two visible horns. 

“Father has signed a blood pact with the demon. He’s marrying Maya off to a fucking vampire!” Zane was still while I talked, the way he always acted when something serious was happening. He was a huge, broad-shouldered man, with a square face and grey eyes that missed very little, despite the sleepy unhurried manner in which he always looked at the world. I got up and paced the room as I talked, stepping over a coiled rope, nearly knocking a bridle from its hook. When I finished, he set down the saddle cloth and was quiet for a long moment. 

“Lord Draken!” he said, finally.

“Exactly!” I confirmed

He let out a long slow breath through his nose, the way a horse does when it’s unsettled. Obviously, given the company he preferred to keep. 

“Kai—”

“Don’t,” I warned. “Don’t tell me there is nothing to be done.”

Zane picked up the saddle cloth again and resumed rubbing. It was something he did when he was thinking, keeping his hands busy while his brain worked. I grabbed a loose piece of straw from the floor and twisted it between my fingers, because I needed something to distract me a bit and keep me mentally in check. 

“I wasn't going to say that,” he said mildly.

I blinked, “You weren’t?”

“No.” He stared at me with those grey orbs, that seemed as if it was searching my soul. “I was going to say that whatever you’re planning, it’s probably going to get us both killed.”

“But you will help me right?”

He sighed, the sign of a man who had long ago accepted his cruel fate. “When have I ever not?”

I felt the knot in my chest loosen just a bit. That was the thing about Zane: he was selfless and never made someone feel ridiculous for caring too much.

“We have four days,” I said, leaning on the wall. “Father is sending her to Draken’s fortress on the pearl moon. She would travel by carriage with some warrior escorts. 

“How many escorts?”

“I have no idea yet.” 

Zane gave me a long look. “What exactly is your plan, Kai?” 

“We will cut off the carriage, and grab Maya then we run.”

“Run to where?” 

I opened my mouth and closed it again. Outside, one of the horses kicked at the stall doorpost, impatient for his morning feed. Zane nodded slowly as though these confirmed everything he had suspected about me. “So your plan is to block off  armed warriors, snatch your sister out from your father’s nose, and oppress a vampire lord, and then—” he waved a saddle cloth vaguely, “You need to devise a stronger plan.” 

“You sound as if the whole plan is a flop,” I lamented  

“Kai.” He dropped the cloth and looked at me firmly. “It is bad.”

“But you will help me to come up with a better plan,” 

He picked the cloth back up, “Obviously! But if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it properly. No acting on impulse. We restrategize and stick to the plan.”

“Agreed!” I squealed

“First, we need to find out the route they will take to Draken’s fortress.” 

“It’s obviously the geriatric sacred temple route. It’s the only road with fewer bandits and wide enough for a carriage.”

Zane nodded, “The geriatric sacred Temple Road runs through Sherwood Forest, two days’ ride from here. If we are going to block them that's where we will do it. There are plenty of dense woods for camouflage. We will create a distraction. Draw some of the warriors away from the carriage, create enough confusion to get Maya out and onto the horse then we flee.”

I sat up straighter, the straw still twisted tight around my fingers. “Zane, that's actually brilliant.” 

He gave me a flat look, “Does Maya know that you’re coming?” 

“No!” 

He raised an eyebrow, “So we are rescuing a woman who hasn't asked to be salvaged.”

“She’s being sold to a vampire, Zane. Of course, she wants to be rescued!” 

“I know that,” He held up his hand, “But I am just pointing out that your sister is not the type that would sit quietly and wait for a knight in shining armor." 

He had a point though, Maya was the least helpless person I knew despite what everyone in the pack seemed to think about her. “She will thank me later,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. 

Zane gave me the look, the look that said he’d known me all his life and wasn’t fooled for a single second. Then he stood and brushed his hands on his pants. His father, Beta, would have had a strategy mapped out by now. Zane wasn’t in that position yet but he had the same attributes. 

“One more thing, we can’t leave the castle until after her carriage departs,” he said, “If we leave before Maya does, then your father and Mateo will know that something is wrong.” 

Zane was right. And that's why he was my best friend and co-conspirator. “So what do we do until then?” 

“You are going to find three more men that we can trust with our lives. Men who would bear their allegiance and secrecy to us. Can you do that?” 

I straightened, “Of course, I can.”

Zane’s expression suggested that he was not entirely convinced. “Go now! I will handle the horses and the supplies we would be needing for the journey. Remember we leave immediately when her carriage rolls out of the castle.” 

I nodded and turned to go.

“Kai,” 

I looked back. 

“Be careful.” He muttered.