"So you did not finish him!" Andrei chuckled when he saw us approaching.

"You..." I called back, stopping short, unable to find the most appropriate words to express what I thought about him. "I wish you were dead..." I muttered sotto voce, so he could not hear me.

Vlad, who heard me well, wrapped his arm tighter around my waist and pulled me closer. "Let us pass, Rareş!" he said then, purposely ignoring Andrei.

But it was Andrei who spoke again before Rareş could reply, "Already? I was hoping we would have time to exchange a few words... We share some interesting memories, Lady Samara, don't we...?"

That was the last drop.

Throwing all caution to the wind I found Vlad's sword attached to his belt, unsheathed it, freed myself from his grasp and jumped off the horse so fast that he could not stop me. I stood in front of our men facing Andrei and the Council, holding the heavy sword high, in both hands, ready to strike whoever dared approach me.

"I've had enough of you, Lord Andrei." I said, my surprisingly clear and unwavering voice filling the perfect, shocked silence momentarily reigning in the clearing.

It only took a few instants before first Andrei, then Rareş and all the other members of the Council started to laugh. However Vlad, Lucas and Radu were already standing around me, and so were my wolves who had crawled out of the shadows cast by the trees and now drew nearer, ready to protect us.

At the sight of them, Rareş managed to compose himself enough to reply, still chuckling. "You really can't handle your wife, Lord Vlad, can you? Off you go, take her home now and finally teach her some proper manners before we decide to take her act as an offence..."

"Father!" Junior's voice carried towards us on a gust of wind from the direction of the chapel.

He must have taken a different, longer way leading to the lake, but he brought all the Knights, making our number more or less equal to the Council's. Thank goodness that Vlad sent Frost back home, it must have been his sudden, unexpected return that alerted Junior... I mused as Vlad turned around and nodded to him. Then, while the newcomers drew closer, he took the sword from me, but did not put it away.

"We take your behaviour as an offence, Rareş. As Lady Samara said, we've had enough..." he said, facing the Council again.

While Andrei, followed by Rareş and the others dismounted and unsheathed their swords, Vlad pulled me to him and whispered so only I and Lucas, standing close at my side, could hear, "Take my horse and leave, Lucas will take you home. Now."

"No!" I protested, but Lucas was already pulling me away, towards the frightened horses stomping nervously nearby.

Then everything happened too fast to properly understand what was going on. I heard the swords clash even before we reached the animals.

"Let me go, Lucas, let me see..." I had to struggle against him as he was determined to follow his orders and take me away, undeterred by the wolves' silent, warning growls. "Lucas!" I called again, his hands on my waist ready to lift me into the saddle.

"Running away, Lady Samara?" Andrei suddenly emerged from the bushes, scaring us and Midnight equally-- she took running home without us, followed closely by a couple of other horses.

Lucas let go of me and drew his sword, pointing it against Andrei's chest while he pushed me behind him. I moved out of their way but stopped close by, petrified, watching as the two engaged in a fight. It didn't take long before I saw Lucas' sword fly from his hand, then land on the grass a few steps away.

Before I could gather my wits and send the wolf pack to his rescue, Radu, materialising out of the surrounding confusion just in time, noticed what was happening. He picked up Lucas' sword and tossed it back to him. The two men then advanced on Andrei together, followed by the wolves but he, instead of defending himself, turned and fled, the Council's grey cloak billowing around him like a wisp of smoke.

Immediately, Radu had to defend himself from one of Rareş' men attacking from behind his back, and so did Lucas.

Letting the pack split and help them as well as they could, as I wasn't capable of concentrating well enough to give them any useful orders, I looked around the clearing changed into battlefield, feeling horrified. This was definitely the moment from my visions. You must find Vlad before it's too late... My subconscious hissed the warning.

Spotting a motionless, grey-clad body lying nearby I did not hesitate. The man did not need his sword any longer; I did. I would have to fight my way to Vlad. Running over to the man I pried the sword from his hand. I did not think; I could not-- the noise of clashing swords, men crying out in pain, the angry growling of the wolves and the frightened neighing of the handful of horses that had not run away yet were too loud and distracting to let me focus on my thoughts.

I ran into the medley of fighting men, looking for Vlad. It seemed that the forces were equal-- most men seemed to be fighting one against one. It wasn't too difficult to make my way through them unnoticed, and I reached the centre of the clearing where I noticed Vlad fighting against Rareş soon enough. He was doing well-- I saw the sword slipping in Rareş' hand as Vlad kept advancing on him. I was starting to hope that my vision was not correct... when Andrei unexpectedly appeared in front of me, blocking my view.

"Shall we leave now, my lady?" He asked, bringing the tip of his sword under my chin.

"You..." I tried to raise my own sword to fight him but he let his blade fall to my arm, hurting me and drawing blood.

Moaning with pain, I dropped the heavy sword. Even before I completely gathered what he was doing, Andrei was behind me, his arm wrapped around my neck not letting me breathe.

"Walk." He hissed in my ear, his body pushing me forward, towards the trees.

"Samara!" I heard Vlad's voice calling my name suddenly, perfectly clear despite the clamour reigning around us. And as I looked towards him I saw him falling, injured by Rareş, who, using his distraction, managed to push his sword through Vlad's chest...

"No!" I called, eyes filling with tears, feeling faint.

Grabbing Andrei's arm in both my hands, I tried to free myself, but all I achieved was that the awful man strengthened his hold, making me gasp for air. Even as everything started to go hazy around me, the battle dissolving into dark fog, I remembered the knife hidden in my bodice. I pulled it out using my last strength and then, without hesitation or regret, pushed it into Andrei's body towering behind me blindly, as high as I could. I did not think I injured him gravely but he stumbled and sank to his knees nonetheless, pulling me down to the ground with him, nearly strangling me.

I coughed as I struggled to free myself from his heavy arm still threatening to suffocate me, thinking I would never manage to shake him off, but Lucas was suddenly there, helping me, pulling me away from the now inert body lying under me.

I looked in my friend's eyes as he pulled me to my feet and to himself, letting him embrace me, realising only now that the noise of the battle had died down, and most of the wolves were sitting at my feet... Everything looked blurry and unfocused, as if a veil of mist was separating me from the rest of the world, as if I was about to faint, or fall asleep...

"Lucas, I killed him! I just killed a man..." I struggled to say, forcing myself to focus and recall what exactly had happened.

"It's all right..." he said, wiping away the tears I did not realise were running down my cheeks. "You didn't. We... I did. Look." he added, pointing to the sword sticking out from Andrei's side.

I nodded, putting the image of Andrei's corpse away for later. Right now it wasn't as important as... "Vlad... " I whispered. "Vlad... I saw him..."

"Come with me..." Lucas said, taking my hand in his and leading me to the centre of the clearing.

You're not dreaming, it's all over, I told myself, looking around as we walked. The fighting had stopped. Bodies lay at our feet as we walked but not too many; most men must have fled. I was too distracted to look at the colours they wore to count which side suffered more losses... I only wanted to see Vlad.

My eyes found him a moment later, lying where I had seen him fall, his back and head supported by Junior's arm... I gasped as I saw the large, irregular stain blossoming like a red flower on his chest.

"Samara, listen to me," he muttered as I ran towards him, let myself drop to the ground and took him from Junior. "You mustn't worry..."

I nodded, looking down at him, trying to banish the tears welling up in my eyes. I didn't know how much time passed while we stayed there, motionless, looking at each other mutely, my hand fisting around the skirt of my dress pressed to his bleeding wound. Seeing the pain lurking in his eyes I wished someone would hurry up, tell me what to do, let me take him home...

"Father, what shall we do with him?" Junior, finally returning with a horse, nodded towards Rareş.

As two of our Guards dragged him closer, I noticed that he was injured too, but unlike Vlad he stood on his own feet.

Vlad's eyes left mine to look at him and I looked up again too, just in time to see Jusztyna riding towards us from the forest, looking panicked.

"Please don't! Not him... Don't take him away..." she called as she stopped nearby, jumped off the horse and stood by Rareş. Her long blonde hair spilling out of the hood of her dark coat reminded me of Lia... "Don't, I beg you..." she repeated, looking at Vlad.

After a heartbeat he nodded. "Let him go." He told Junior, his voice coming out as a laboured murmur. I didn't care about Jusztyna or Rareş, I just wanted to take him away, to safety...

"You are responsible for him, Mother, don't let me meet him ever again..." I heard Junior's voice reaching me as if from a great distance, realising that Vlad's head resting against my arm felt heavier and his eyes were closing...

"Let us go, now!" I called as loud as I could, not recognising the sound of my own, despairing voice.

A flurry of movement followed my words and in a few moments I found myself sitting on a horse in front of Junior, feeling faint. He tore a strip of fabric off his shirt improvising a bandage-- I had not noticed that my injured arm was still bleeding. Then we followed the horse carrying Radu and Vlad, and another one with Lucas and Father Boian through the forest, towards the castle.

I caught a glimpse of Jusztyna and Rareş vanishing in the opposite direction, and heard the wolves' paws crushing the dry fallen leaves under the trees... A loud sob escaped me as I realised inconsequentially that not much time was separating me from seeing my daughter again... Hopefully... Then my thoughts strolled back to Vlad. He's injured. More tears followed that thought.

"Hush..." Junior said even as I looked over his shoulder, in search of Andrei, wanting to make sure that he was really dead. Unable to recognize him among the bodies we were leaving behind, I settled in Junior's arms, rested my head against his chest and closed my eyes, shutting out the world.

"Father will be fine. It will take time but he will heal." Junior said, trying to sound convincing, but his voice trembled ever so slightly.

Everything will be fine. My subconscious whispered and I tried to believe it's voice, letting it lull me into a deeper, silent, placid and unworried darkness.