Chapter Text
They were back on the road, again, after a night at the inn of one of the few small towns on the way to Prospit.
Aradia had spent most of the previous day talking about Skaian history, and the history of the continent, really, which was interesting enough, but Karkat had practically had to twist her arm to convince her to go to her room and let them both sleep last night.
She was perky again this morning, but so far fairly quiet during the past couple of hours of the ride, which was fine because they still had several more until they reached the road branching off to the area Aradia was set to study next, and then Karkat was on his own.
Despite his complaints of patrols being boring, this was the sort of calm he needed.
The cooling breeze of the changing season ruffled his hair and the sun sank deep in his bones, recharging him from the stress of the past few weeks.
Aradia smiled at him, and he found himself easily smiling back.
Yeah, this was exactly what he needed.
Dirk wasn’t avoiding Rose. He was just busy.
He had to make up the missed petitions from the previous day then meet with his agricultural advisors, as well as the nobles who owned the largest amounts of farmland. Meanwhile, some of the minor nobles had noticed Sir Vantas wasn’t with him this week, and kept insisting on pestering him, and somehow a glare from their ruler wasn’t as effective at scaring them off as one from his guard, despite their increase in stutters.
It annoyed him, but it also kept him from focusing on Roxy, which he appreciated.
The fact that it also kept him from even taking his meals with Rose was happenstance.
He was busy.
The breeze was getting colder, and he couldn’t feel the sun on his face anymore.
Where had those clouds come from?
Had he spaced out while riding? Surely more than an hour or two hadn’t passed.
Aradia was still smiling, humming to herself, but Karkat was put on edge.
Then there was a soft chittering.
High and then guttural.
The bushes and small trees lining the road moved against the wind.
Karkat held up a hand silently and Aradia saw it and stopped her cart.
He put a hand on the sword strapped to his hip.
The shrubbery shook violently one last time as a fox burst into the open, dashing across the road in front of them.
Karkat let out a sigh he didn’t realize he was holding and chuckled.
Then the chittering got louder and their horses reared back in fright, their training seeming to be the only thing keeping them from bolting.
Karkat looked wildly around them and saw a dozen little humanoid creatures colored black and purplish red with small fangs lining their gaping mouths emerging from the shadows.
Imps.
Imps from the depths of the Liminal Forests over twenty miles into Skaia.
Karkat unsheathed his falchion and slashed down at the imps and saw Aradia pull out a whip and lash it at the ones surrounding her cart.
Its reach gave her an advantage he didn’t have so he swatted away a few immediately under him and hopped off his horse to get in the thick of things.
Two charged for him at once, but a swift swipe of his blade had them bursting into putrid ash and smoke. Aradia seemed to have taken care of a couple as well, as the rest seemed a bit more cautious about approaching either of them.
Karkat watched and waited for them to make a move, then heard a sound behind him and turned just in time to put his arm up to block an imp that had snuck around. Its dagger-sharp teeth sank into his arm and he cried out, shaking it wildly until Aradia snapped out with her whip and turned it to smoke.
“Thanks,” Karkat said between coughs.
She didn’t respond as her whip lashed out to another one coming at him, but the thing dodged.
Karkat struck out with his sword and got it instead, then swept out to get another two-in-one that were rushing at him.
Two more launched themselves at Aradia on her cart, and Karkat took care of one while she took care of the other.
The last two imps looked at each other and melded into a shadow and scurried away, but Karkat was faster.
He launched himself forward and slammed his heels and sword down on the darkness and was soon covered in the ash that exploded from their demise.
Karkat coughed some more and dusted himself off.
“As fun as that was,” Aradia said, “I don’t think that bodes well.”
Karkat shook his head. “We have to go back. His majesty has to know. C’mon, Aradia, if we hurry back now we can make it to the inn before nightfall and set off before daybreak in the morning.”
He swung himself back up onto his horse and turned it around, but Aradia stayed still.
“I’m not going back.”
He looked at her, eyes bugging. “What do you mean? We have to go back!”
“I’m going to the dig site. It’s where I need to be, and I can warn them about this, in case there are any more in the area. And without waiting on me, you’ll get there faster.”
“Aradia--”
“You go, Karkat, we each have our duties.”
Karkat shifted in his saddle. “I should at least go with you to the site, make sure you’re okay.”
She smirked at that. “I can take care of myself, your duty doesn’t lie with me.”
Karkat hesitated, then nodded. “Be safe, Aradia.”
“You too, Karkat.”
Then Karkat dug his heels into his horse and set off at a gallop back toward the castle.
The next two days had gone much like the last, with meetings and paperwork, and worrying, and trying not to worry.
There was no point when there was nothing he could do, and Dirk had to make sure his kingdom would be fed during the barren season.
That was what was important, as tedious as the work was.
It was late when he finally returned to his room, having had to stay well past nightfall to finish up his train of thought that kept getting interrupted by nuisances. Four days of not having Sir Vantas around seemed to embolden them after the week with him here.
Probably trying to get in their requests before he got back.
Of all things, he didn’t expect to be looking forward to having the knight’s eyes boring into the back of his head again.
Dirk had just changed into his sleepwear and was about to finally climb into bed when he heard a commotion echoing down the halls outside.
A shout and the thumps of something hitting the wall paired with heaving footsteps running on the stone floor.
Dirk grabbed the sword by his bed and cautiously peeked out into the hallway.
It was Sir Vantas, panting, covered in sweat and blood and what looked like ash.
As soon as his eyes laid on Dirk, he collapsed to his knees and hands.
“Physician, get a physician!” Dirk called as he dropped his sword and sprinted the last few steps to his guard.
Vantas did his best to straighten up as Dirk squatted before him.
“Majesty,” he said, then he coughed, more of that dark soot coating his hand as he did so.
“What happened?”
Karkat wheezed a few more breaths.
Dirk grabbed the knight’s shoulders. “Sir Vantas, who attacked you? Are they here? Are they coming?”
Vantas shook his head.
“Got them. Every last motherfucking pointy little gremlin I saw,” he said between coughs.
Dirk’s eyebrows creased. “Gremlin? What are you talking about?”
“Imps, majesty. Imps in Skaia. Dozens. Hundreds. I don’t know. I got them all.” Each short phrase he said came with another hack of black material.
Dirk’s hands tightened on Vantas’s arms reflexively, but he relaxed at the knight’s wince and let him go.
Someone was running down the hall toward them, a physician, he hoped.
“Imps? Are you sure?”
Vantas choked out a laugh and gestured to himself. “I’m pretty fucking sure, your majesty.”
The physician was in sight and quickly made her way to Vantas’s side.
The knight brushed her off. “‘M fine. Tired. Need sleep.”
She frowned at him. “I’ll be the judge of how fine you are, thank you. Let’s go get you cleaned up.
Dirk stood as the physician helped Vantas to his feet.
“Keep me updated on his status,” he said.
“I’m fine,” his guard growled.
“Will do,” the physician said.
Dirk watched them walk off, Vantas leaning heavily on the physician, and his mind reeled at the implications.
Rose.
He had to tell Rose.
As though he had summoned her, he saw her round the corner and walk swiftly toward him. He met her in the middle.
“What’s going on?” she asked, worry etched on her face.
“Imps. Vantas was attacked by imps. A lot of them.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Are you sure?”
“He was covered in their ash. Choking on it. ‘Pretty fucking sure,’” he quoted.
“That is… troubling.”
Dirk raised his eyebrows as if to say ‘no fucking shit,’ but she was too lost in thought to notice.
“I’ll reach out to the Confederation,” she finally said. “See if the princes know anything about this. Unless the imps swam the whole way, they would have had to cross over their borders.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to reach out?”
Rose smirked. “We already have somewhat of a… rapport, you could say.”
“And I don’t?” Dirk snorted.
“Not like I do. Plus, you’ll have your hands plenty full with everything else that needs to be taken care of.”
Dirk wanted to argue, but she was right. He had to contact the border guards, send missives to the manors on the outskirts, see if he could borrow forces from the ones closer to the capitol… the list went on.
“Fine,” he said. “Let me know when you hear back.”
“Of course. I also need to confer with the girls. They might have something to add. In the morning, cousin, unless you fear the imps are at our doorstep. You need to rest.”
Dirk nodded absently.
Rose turned to walk off, and before he could think better of it, Dirk said, “Thank you, Rose.”
She turned to face him fully again and smiled. “That’s what family’s for, Dirk. Now go to bed.”
Dirk just nodded again and walked back to his room and did as Rose said, going to bed, but unable to sleep, instead staring at the ceiling and imagining a host of worst case scenarios to combat.
Karkat had told her he was fine, but the physician hadn’t believed him until he washed off all the blood and ash to show only a handful or so of shallow cuts and bite marks scattered about his body. His cough was still terrible, but she said he just had to wait for all the ash to work its way out of his lungs.
Still, despite agreeing that he was fine, she made him stay the night in the infirmary for observation. It had been a long time since anyone had fought and imp, afterall, and even a tame dog bite could turn bad in the best of circumstances.
Karkat didn’t have the energy to fight. He struggled out of his tight undershirt, and as soon as he put his head on the pillow, he was out like a light, the exhaustion of two days of battle finally consuming him.