P. Elrod - I, Strahd, The War against Azalin

He had known what to expect but still looked with shock on the face of Voan Darl grinning back at him. For most practical purposes it was now my face.

I spread Darl's arms. "It worked, as you see."

Aldrick looked from Darl to me where I solidly reposed behind the desk, eyes shut, the crystal ball tight in my hands and safely below his field of view. Seeing myself through another's eyes was something of a shock; except for Illusionary duplicates I had not looked on my face in over two hundred years. I seemed more gaunt than I remembered, pale, the lines of my features just as harsh, the expression just as severe. Little wonder folk jumped at my least word.

"My lord?" Aldrick was understandably confused.

"I'm here, too," I whispered, this time speaking with my own mouth. I kept my eyes closed, for this required a lot of effort and I was loath to risk breaking the precious link I had established with Darl. "This man will do as I wish, be my weapon against Darkon, be my eyes and ears and hands there."

Aldrick gave in to a most unhappy frown. "This is much too dangerous for you." He was quite correct, for I was quite vulnerable with so large a portion of my attention on controlling Darl. If Azalin had any assassins in the camp, they would have a better chance to kill me while I was in this distracted state.

I answered, using Darl. It was simply easier. "Then you will stand vigilant and see to it that no one disturbs me until I'm finished. The discussion is ended. Now let us proceed, I have little time."

He almost looked ready to offer an argument but wisely swallowed it and gave Darl the heavy leather pouch he carried. Out of habit rather than lack of trust in him I opened it to check on the contents. Everything was in place.

"Excellent." I glanced up, Darl fixing a hard gaze upon Aldrick. "No interruptions whatsoever, commander. All Barovia depends upon it."

He was white to the lips. "I swear by my life, my lord."

No truer words had he ever spoken.

Darl slipped the bag's strap over his shoulder and walked out of the small building, nearly bumping into the camp commander who was-against orders- apparently on her way in.

Resvalan backed off, showing her teeth, and it was not a smile. "You-"

I had Darl raise an eyebrow, one of his pet expressions. "What?"

Her gaze fairly burned through us. "Don't get yourself killed."

I gave her one of Darl's brief grins. "I'll try not to… for your sake."

"Damn you, Voan." She gave a quick look around, saw that no one was near, then clamped her hands on either side of our face and hauled us close for a fast, hard kiss. From my chair in the office I noted that this was quite a pleasant sensation to enjoy without having to worry about quelling hunger. Darl did not have to deal with my particular appetites, after all. The feelings coming to me from him about what was happening were most delightful, indeed. Resvalan released us, then walked hurriedly away.

So she did have a personal reason to keep him off the volunteer list, and it had nothing to do with him being a trip wire waiting to snap. I had no objection to romance, except when it interfered with duty. I would have to have a little discussion with her on the topic when I returned. On the other hand, if she'd fallen in love with someone like Darl, then that was probably sufficient punishment in and of itself.

I hurried to the rest of Darl's group and found them by the stables where I-as Strahd-had told them to wait.

"What's that?" asked Kelab, instantly noticing the disk on Darl's forehead.

"A parting gift from Lord Strahd," I said, playing the part of my puppet. "He called it a good luck charm."

"A charm, eh? He's not the sort to be free with gifts. Why the special treatment?"

"He thinks rewards like this will induce a stronger loyalty from me."

"Your loyalty's in your money pouch."

"Exactly. Hence his generosity now. This is an important raid, probably the most important we'll ever do; he wanted to make sure I understood that. He's prepared to throw in a bonus if we finish the job before an hour's gone."

"An hour!" said Ag'n, astonished. "How can we ride in that fast?"

"We're not using horses."

"Oh, and how are we supposed to get there, flap our arms?" This came from Alvi.

"Not quite, but Lord Strahd has entrusted me with a most useful shortcut."

Kelab, checking the set of his sword, paused. "What kind of shortcut?"

I swung the pouch from my shoulder to the ground and dropped on one knee to open it. "Everything we need is in this. He showed me what to do. Take only what you are willing to carry and need for the next hour-and get those armbands off. Put these on instead." I passed out the neck kerchiefs bearing Aza-lin's colors.

"But what's the shortcut?"

"Something to do with Strahd's magic. I don't know how it works, but each of you gets one of these." From the pouch I passed out five plain brass bracelets to them and slipped the sixth on myself. "Whatever you do, don't take them off or you won't be able to get back."

"Magic?" Alvi was obviously uneasy at the idea and hesitated.

"Just put it on; it won't bite you."

They reluctantly did so and gathered their gear together. I told them to stand around me in a close circle. This was met with more questioning, which was very annoying. I was too used to having people instantly jumping to my word and was hard pressed to hold to my impersonation. I snapped at them to obey.

"Who died and made you Strahd?" grumbled Alvi, giving Darl an irked look, but he fell in with the rest.

From the pouch I drew forth a scroll similar to those I'd presented to the other raiding parties. Since Darl lacked magical talent I had to read it in the same way as any other non-scholar. I spoke the words of power and felt the bracelet suddenly turn cold against my skin. An intense buzzing seemed to fill my consciousness as the barracks faded around us. When next Darl's eyes focused I saw that we had accurately appeared in the place I'd long scouted with my crystal, a patch of concealing trees. We were about two miles from the border, not far from the Krezk pass. In Darkon.

I felt a strong wave of disorientation that had nothing to do with the traveling spell and more with the fact that Darl was now outside of Barovia. My view of things shimmered, and for a few bad seconds I was more sharply aware of being miles away in the commander's office than in complete control of my puppet. I fought the shifting, holding hard to my crystal and keeping my focus tight. Though his will was stronger and more stubborn than most ordinary men-the reason why I had chosen him-they were qualities that I had to successfully subjugate for my later plan to work.

The disk on his brow felt hot right through the leather strip and dragged heavily. His head bowed from the weight of it. He was fighting me, but it was no more than the frantic trembling of the bird's wing beneath the paw of the cat. After a moment he gave up and I assumed control once more.

The others had been too busy reacting sharply to the sudden change of location to notice Darl's problems. By the time I'd straightened him up for a look around, they were nearly recovered and sensibly silent except for one.

Alvi whimpered, but Ag'n swiftly clamped a hand over his mouth. "This is not the time to panic."

Alvi shook him off, annoyed. "Then let me know when. I shouldn't like to be late for it."

"Shut up," I snarled.

"Where are we?"

"Inside General Vychen's camp."

"Are you sure?"

From my hours of study with the crystal I knew the layout by heart. "Absolutely certain. We have to work fast, though."

Azalin would have been aware of our intrusion into his land, the same as I was aware when anyone entered Barovia. He would be ignorant of specifics and of our plans and too busy to investigate, but there was no way of calculating how long that would last.