Ulrek grimaced as he choked down a goblet of blood as he broke his fast shortly after rising from his daytime slumber. The goblet, made from a pewter containing small traces of silver, was part of a new set of diningware produced by the Felmurg Mountain dwarves by Ulrek's commission. The silver within the goblet from which he drank imparted a nauseatingly bitter taste to the otherwise pleasant irony sweetness that vampires savored. The fact that Ulrek was not crumbling into a withering heap upon tasting the silver-tinged blood gave proof to the effectiveness of his efforts. But it was not only the silvery bitterness on his tongue that made the vampire baron frown this evening; for Ulrek Bathory had been awakened by bad news.

A week had passed since his escape, and still the chamberlain of Felboge Keep eluded justice. Even with regular patrols along the borderlands of the Great Weald, Ulrek doubted that the chamberlain would ever be caught. As far as Ulrek was concerned, it was inevitable that word of his traitorous deeds would become known to the wider world. Worse still, an informant from the Capital had arrived that afternoon bringing word to Ulrek's court that his brother, Edward Bathory, was courting a human princess from a neighboring realm. At this rate, it would not be long before Edward Bathory was wed and earned the inheritance of the realm. Rumors had reached Felboge Keep that both Matteas and Rory had been slain within days of one another. If the rumors were to be believed, the vampire hunters in Ulrek's employ were busy at their bloody work. In spite of these encouraging tales and the higher bounty offered for Edward's death, Ulrek doubted that the vampire slayers would be able to dispatch Edward Bathory. Surrounded at all times by the honor guard of Castle Bathory and under the protective watch of perhaps the most powerful vampire in all the world, Prince Edward would be a difficult nut to crack. Ulrek knew he would have to be more aggressive to deal with Edward.

To this end, the Baron's vassals were gathered around the throne: counts, mayors of the various towns and hamlets within the Great Weald, and knights with their own minor keeps and castles scattered throughout Weald's moors and woodlands. For the six generations that Baron Ulrek had ruled these lands, not once had the all the Baron's vassal's been convened. Before Ulrek had even addressed them, the reason they had been summoned was evident to all. Ulrek Bathory meant to raise an army.

"Let us begin with the numbers," Ulrek asked, wincing as he gulped down the last of his silver-tainted blood. How many men can be summoned?"

"For what purpose, your majesty? How many men do you need?" One of the counts asked.

"For a campaign beyond the borders of this land. I need as many men as can be spared."

"Your majesty, the levies we can muster will be... of dubious fighting capability," explained a knight from the woodlands to the northeast of the Weald. "These men you want us to conscript are not warriors, but farmers, shepherds, and fishermen. They may have some worth protecting the palisades of their towns in dire circumstances. But to send them to foreign battlefields? They will desert as soon as there is danger of combat. Such levies excel only at absorbing arrow fire and dying."

"Then they will serve plenty of use," Baron Ulrek replied coldly. "I will ask but once more: how many men can be spared?"

"30,000 men at most," another knight estimated. "20,000 is more realistic. Unfortunately the Great Weald is not a populous realm, your majesty."

Ulrek frowned. Somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand men was not the massive host he had hoped for. Zachaeus and Edward could likely press 30,000 citizens into combat to defend Castle Bathory just from the Capital's populace alone. The Great Weald would not yield anywhere near enough men to usurp control of the Empire. Ulrek would have to look beyond his borders.

"How many men could mustered from the wards of my brother Matteas?" Ulrek asked. The Baron's question raised the eyebrows of some of the counts in attendance.

"Solleck is a smaller but more densely-populated realm, your majesty," said one of the counts, humoring his liege's strange question. "I would suspect his lands could yield another 15,000 to 20,000 men. Unfortunately though, your majesty, those vassals answer to your brother Matteas and not you."

[i]Not if he is slain,[/i] thought Ulrek.

"It is worth noting also that Sturin's Folk, the Felmurg Dwarves, would owe soldiers should they be asked."

"Indeed," Ulrek agreed. "The right to mine as much mithril and gold as they can carry off was not given freely. I shall demand 10,000 fighting dwarves. They will acquiesce, lest I deny them their precious metals."

"Allow me to temper your expectations, your majesty. Even if you were to amass a host of 50,000 to 60,000 men - a very large army and a tremendously expensive undertaking I must add - the vast majority of these men will be unseasoned peasants. They will flee at the first sign of trouble. We cannot depend entirely on levies in battle, certainly not in a campaign away from home. You will rely heavily on professional soldiers: expensive mercenaries and a great number of them. This campaign you propose will require an obscene fortune to finance. The Great Weald would not earn such a sum in taxes in a decade. How do you intend to [i]pay[/i] for all of this?"

The Mayor of Cerncester had made a valid point, Ulrek could not fault him for that. Over the past century, Ulrek had built the Great Weald into a profitable realm, but nowhere near profitable enough to sustain a war against his father and brother. Ulrek's gambit for his father's throne would require financiers with deep pockets indeed. Ulrek would need to make the sort of contacts that could only be found in a city as large as the Capital. But travel now was too risky, and it was probable that his erstwhile chamberlain would betray Ulrek's intentions to Edward and Zachaeus by the time he had arrived. A journey to the Imperial Heartlands would almost certainly result in his immediate arrest. A middleman would be needed to find the backers he needed in the Capital.

"That informant who revealed the development with Edward and his new suitor... is he still here?" Ulrek asked.

"No sire, he left the keep perhaps two hours ago, presumably on his way back to the Capital."

"Send a horseman to go and fetch him immediately," Ulrek ordered. "Return him to me and inform him that I shall triple whatever he was just paid if he performs a favor for me in the Capital."