Chapter 14

Tirdas, the 2nd of Midyear, Year 202 of the 4th Era

Daenerys regretted not learning more about the Daedric Princes when she was at the College of Winterhold. Other than Azura they hadn't seemed that important. She knew a little bit about each of them, but even what little she knew was inconsistent. Brelyna and other Dunmer considered Mephala and Boethiah to be two of the 'Three Good Daedra' while the Nords considered them among the worst. She knew little about Clavicus Vile. He was the Daedric Princes of Wishes. He was also known as a trickster who often twisted wishes for his amusement. She would prefer not to get involved with him at all.

However, she was quite concerned about a cave full of vampires that lay along the path her forces were marching. She briefly considered and rejected the possibility of sneaking past. Even if it was possible, and the vampires didn't attack in the night, she couldn't just ignore a vampire nest. They were probably feeding on the traders using the road that passed their cave. She would be no better than Jarl Siddgeir if she did nothing. So, she had her scouts locate the cave and gathered a team to attack.

Barbas wasn't much help in planning. He described Haemar's Shame as 'several large natural caverns linked by narrow tunnels', but provided no other details. He also offered to lead the way and scoffed at the suggestion that he could be leading them into a trap. Daenerys was surprised that her small council readily accepted the dog talking to her and her alone. She even asked Faralda about it.

Faralda laughed. "The gods did not put the Red Comet in the sky for me. You killed a dragon with a handful of men. You have assembled a host to go to war on dragonkind. Four different Daedric Princes are meddling in your affairs. Last week it was a coven of necromancers. Today it is vampires. You overturned everything I knew about how magic works. Where you go, we follow…" her voice turned sad and forlorn. "…even me. I wanted to change magic. I may still see that happen. I know you'll keep your promises, but to you it is an afterthought. You're changing the entire world. A talking dog?" She shrugged. "It must be Tirdas."

.oOo.

Barbas led them straight to the cave. It was just a short distance from the main road down a twisty overgrown path. Daenerys had planned to approach the cave stealthily, but Barbas gave a bark and charged on in.

"Advance. Cautiously," she ordered and followed unsure whether Barbas was leading them into a trap or not. She had placed Jon Battle-born and Olfina Gray-mane as her vanguard for this fight. They were both skilled sword and shield fighters. Given that vampires had a reputation for being fast, powerful, and often spellcasters, she wanted her front line more focused on defense than offense. She was also meddling just a bit. While she considered herself a realist, a small part of her still wanted to believe that love, truth, and honor won out. Perhaps, fighting side-by-side would be the nudge the two star-crossed lovers needed to get over themselves. They obviously belonged in each other's arms, but neither knew how to put what had happened behind them.

A narrow tunnel sloped down and soon opened into a large chamber. Barbas stood over a prone figure in a robe trying to rip out his throat while the man tried to fend off the dog's teeth with his arms. A man and a woman also wearing robes stood around the struggling pair. Both of them had obvious fangs along with wrinkled and distorted faces, and their eyes looked golden in the torchlight – all signs of vampirism. The man gestured and launched a spear of ice into Barbas. The woman turned to face them and hissed at them.

Olfina broke left, Jon broke right, as the two of them charged in a pincer attack. That gave an opening for Daenerys and Faralda to cast spells. Vampires were known to be vulnerable to fire so Daenerys cast Firebolt while Faralda cast a much more powerful fire spell. Neither of them could cast any more after that because Jon and Olfina were too close to their opponents. Despite vampires supposed weakness to fire both were still fighting. Daenerys stepped out of the way, noting that Faralda did as well. Once they cleared the entrance Val and Sofija charged forward and entered the fray. As Ull and Jenassa entered behind them, Daenerys directed them to the left where another tunnel led deeper into the caverns. She turned back to find the battle for the first chamber was all but over. The vampires were fast and strong, but not enough to overcome two-on-one odds. Although one of them got a spell off that obviously hurt Olfina before the fighting was over.

Daenerys rushed up and healed Olfina. "I've got you." She glanced over to Faralda. "Was that the Vampiric Drain spell?" The spell had come up in planning. It was a favorite of vampires, and stole life from the victim, weakening the target as it healed the caster.

Faralda nodded. "Yes. Did you see the red sparks moving from Olfina to the caster? That's the mark of a drain spell. Most spells move from the caster to the target."

Daenerys smiled at Faralda slipping into her professor lecture mode in the middle of clearing a vampire nest, but she had asked.

"Hurt like a bitch, too," added Olfina. "Felt like hundreds of ants crawling under my skin. Thanks. For the healing."

"Thank me later. No telling if anyone heard us. We need to get moving." Jon hadn't been injured, so she turned to the dog. "Barbas, are you hurt?"

Barbas barked and happily wagged his tail. {I was. Better now. Takes more than a bite or two to slow me down.} He ran down the tunnel leading deeper into the cave system.

"Barbas wait," she called after him, but the dog was already gone. "Let's go after him. We'll loot later." And apparently, she was going to have to have the same conversation with Barbas that she had with Farkas about not charging ahead.

They cleared the rest of the caverns much as they did the first one. Vampires proved to be much more dangerous than the coven of necromancers at Ilinalta's Deep. They were strong and fast physically, and they were also capable spell casters. They favored their vampiric drain spell, but also cast frost magic. In addition to the vampires themselves, they encountered human thralls who fought alongside them. Most of the thralls were spellcasters as well, but a few of them fought with weapons. The vampires had a nasty habit of raising their thralls from the dead as soon as they died. That meant they had to kill them again. Fortunately for the Dragonguard, Daenerys had simply brought more manpower. Even in the largest room where they fought a half-dozen vampires and their minions, they fell quickly when she was able to bring her entire force into the room.

Although Daenerys couldn't take complete credit for their success. A large part of it was due to Barbas. The dog charged with the fearlessness of a berserker, but Daenerys soon noticed that he had good reason to be unafraid. Nothing hurt him. She saw him hit by Frost magic, vampiric drains and even stabbed with a sword and none of it slowed him down. He didn't even bleed when he was stabbed, although he did complain that it hurt. He slowed down after she scolded him charging off, but since he was apparently invulnerable and ran faster than any human, she had no problem with him leading every charge. While the vampires and their thralls tried to kill Barbas, she was able to move her troops into the chambers and into position.

Eventually, they reached a chamber with an altar and an enormous statue of a man wearing a toga holding up a horned helmet. The helmet bore a stylized visor that matched the statue's face. This was undoubtedly a statue of Clavicus Vile. She wondered if it was possible to turn and walk away. She had come here to wipe out the vampires. All of her advisors had warned her that the Daedric Prince couldn't be trusted. That was before she'd seen Barbas fight. Would the unkillable dog simply let her walk away? Despite his soulful eyes and his wagging tail, he had torn apart vampires without getting hurt once

She turned to face her followers. "Everyone back. This is between the dog, myself and…" She gestured at the statue. "Him."

Barbas barked and nodded his head. {Thank you. If this works out, I'll make sure you're rewarded. Just don't trust any offer he makes you... okay?}

Daenerys nodded to Barbas. "Okay."

She watched as her people backed off, but neither Lydia nor Sofija backed off very far. She stepped forward closer to the statue. Nothing happened. Was she supposed to pray? "Lord Vile?"

"Oh, are you here for your wish then?" The lips of the statue didn't move, but she could clearly hear the words. It must be similar to the way Barbas talked. She did notice that he was speaking the language of Tamriel, not her homeland, but she wasn't sure that meant anything. At least he didn't shout like Meridia. He spoke with a drawl and sounded more like a spoiled child than a powerful being. "By all means, let's hear it. It's the least I could do since you already helped me grant one final wish for my last worshippers. They were suffering so from vampirism and begged me for a cure. Then you came and ended their misery! I couldn't have planned it better myself."

Even knowing that the vampires wanted to be cured, she didn't feel sorry for them, not when they had found human body parts scattered around their kitchen area.

"So," continued Clavicus Vile. "What's your heart's desire? What kind of deal can we strike?"

"I'm not here for a deal, Lord Vile. It's Barbas who has the wish. He wants to be reunited with his master."

"Ugh. That insufferable pup? Forget it. Request denied. No deal. I'm glad to be rid of him. Even if it does mean I'm stuck in this pitiful shrine, in the back end of... nowhere. No, tell me, what do you want? You want something. Everyone wants something."

"I don't think what I want is within your power to grant."

"Oh, ho, ho, a challenge. What is it that you want?"

She had known this was coming and had hours to think about a wish. Her first thought had been going back in time to before she burned down King's Landing. To fix her greatest mistake. Could even a Daedric Prince be able to turn back time? Even if he could, what would happen to the Dragonguard? To the people of Skyrim? She had responsibilities here as well, and Sofija was far from ready. Not that it mattered. There were so many ways that wish could be twisted. What if she returned with no knowledge of her future? Would she go just go mad and burn down King's Landing again? She could try to word her wish carefully, but Clavicus Vile would probably just take that as a challenge to find another way to screw her over. No, much better to go with her other wish.

"Can you Clavicus Vile personally destroy Alduin?"

"Well now, that's your job isn't it?" He sounded even more petulant than before. "You'll either kill him or you won't."

She took a slow breath to hide what felt like a punch to her midriff. The gods really did expect her to somehow defeat Alduin. She had more or less expected it at this point. Grandfather had told her in his letter, but this confirmed it. It was up to her to kill the World Eater before he destroyed the world.

Clavicus Vile continued talking as if the end of the world wasn't that big a deal. "If I was at my full power, I could do something to help you on your way…" He sighed. "As much as I hate to say it, you're almost as powerful as I am right now… But, that's just because half of my power resides in that mutt, Barbas. Come to think of it, I know of a win-win situation for both of us."

Daenerys glanced over at Barbas, so he was basically part of Clavicus Vile. That would explain why he was unkillable. She also noticed that Clavicus Vile didn't even try to claim he could destroy Alduin. "Not that I'm agreeing to a deal, but what is this win-win situation?"

"There's an axe." His voice was so smarmy she could imagine him rubbing his hands together in glee. "An incredibly powerful axe. An axe powerful enough for me to have quite a bit of fun, indeed. If you bring it to me, I'll grant you a boon. No strings attached. No messy surprises. At least, not for you. As I recall, it's resting in Rimerock Burrow. Barbas can lead you right to it. The little mutt might even earn his place back at my side."

An unspecified boon? Like she was falling for that. However, if it let her leave… "Barbas, do you know where this Rimerock Burrow is?"

He wagged his tail and barked. {North, almost to the Sea of Ghosts.}

She smiled. "I hope you're not expecting it tomorrow."

He laughed. "Silly dovahkiin, caught up in your mortal shell. Someday you'll spread your wings and laugh. Fine, fine. A few days, a few months, a few years, it's all just a blink of the eye, really. Just don't forget the axe."

"I won't." She curtsied, but only slightly. "Thank you, Lord Vile." She turned and walked away. Sofija and Lydia were still waiting as was Faralda. "I suppose you only heard my half of that conversation?"

Sofija nodded. "Yes, my liege."

"I'll explain later. Let's loot this place and go. The sooner we're out of here, the better I'll feel."

Daenerys kept an eye on Barbas as they looted the cave. If she understood things correctly, she had an opportunity, but it seemed too easy. She grew up on the streets of the Free Cities. She knew how a con worked. She even worked as a shill for a few days while Viserys played lookout. Her job had been to place bets and win, making it look easy so that marks would join the game. She'd conned the masters of Astapor. She'd let them think that she was just a young girl, desperate for an army, and foolish enough to trade away a dragon for an army that the masters could replace in a couple of years. Was she being played now? Was Clavicus Vile really as weak as he claimed? Or was he setting her up?

As her people were loading up the wagons, she cautiously probed Barbas for answers. "So, how did I do with speaking with your master."

{Not bad, but not good.} He stopped walking back and forth and sat down. {You avoided a deal. That's good, but he didn't like it when you asked him to destroy Alduin personally. That's not his way. He likes manipulating people, nations, events. He doesn't confront them himself.}

And Daenerys was pretty sure he also lacked the power to destroy Alduin. "So, Barbas, anything I should know about this axe?"

{It's one of Clavicus's little jests. A wizard named Sebastian Lort had a daughter who worshiped Hircine. When the daughter became a werewolf it drove Sebastian over the edge. He couldn't stand to see his little girl take on such a bestial form. The wizard wished for the ability to end his daughter's curse. Clavicus gave him an axe.} Barbas thumped his tail on the ground clearly finding the story amusing.

That sounded just like every story she had heard about Clavicus Vile. "I see… He's going to give me the axe isn't he? And call that helping me to defeat Alduin?" Assuming he didn't 'give' her the axe by burying it in her chest.

Barbas nodded. {Yes, that does sound like something he would do. Don't worry about it. The axe isn't the only item dear old Clavicus has. You give him the Rueful Axe, and once we're reunited I'll get you the Masque of Clavicus Vile instead. That's much more your style. You're already a leader, but the mask gives the wearer the silvertongue. That would help you more than the Rueful Axe, no matter how powerful the axe is.}

"I see. That does sound more useful." She'd been told about the Mask. It was a well-known artifact of Clavicus Vile. The statue even depicted him holding the mask. While having a silvertongue sounded useful, the fact that she would be wearing such a recognizable daedric artifact would undermine its value. Who would trust the word of anyone who wore that helm? "So, when Daedric Princes make artifacts, they tie some of their power into them, right? That's why he wants the axe back."

Barbas nodded. {Yes, that's more or less how it works.}

Truth or lies? While she didn't trust Clavicus Vile, he had also claimed to have invested half his power into Barbas. "I don't understand why Vile would cast you out then. That was like throwing away half his power wasn't it?"

{Well... I guess you could say I got on his nerves. I tend to be the voice of reason and he finds that... irksome. He couldn't just kill me, you see. We're technically part of each other. But he was able to banish me from his domain. Of course, because of our separation, Vile is now much weaker. He can't even manifest very far from one of his shrines. I guess he figured it was a small price to pay for not having to listen to me anymore.}

Would a Daedric Prince really put himself in a position of such weakness? "And can you do anything special with all that daedric power? Teleport us to Rimerock Barrow? Grant wishes?"

Barbas made a strange hacking bark that must have been laughter. {No, as long as we're like this, there isn't much either of us can do.}

She knew that wasn't entirely true. "Not much? I did notice that those vampires and their thralls weren't able to hurt you."

{Oh, they hurt me plenty. I feel pain. I just heal really fast. Getting stabbed is the worst.}

"Hmm." She studied the dog. Barbas was wagging his tail at her acting like a friendly dog, but she'd seen him fight vampires. From what she'd observed he'd done no more damage than any dog his size might do in combat. His power lay in his immunity to damage, or more accurately his ability to heal almost instantly. She wondered what would happen to Barbas if someone stabbed him and didn't take out the sword. Could he heal then? Maybe he could, but if what she had learned was true, he could still be tied down, or thrown into a cage and be just as helpless as any dog to escape. Open the fight by shouting Iiz to freeze him in place, and they probably wouldn't even lose anyone. Hopefully, she was just being paranoid. Barbas seemed reasonable. Maybe he really was as naive and friendly as he was acting.

Daenerys glanced over to Sofija to make sure she was alert. Her housecarl was paying close attention even though she was only hearing half the conversation. Behind Sofija she noticed that Jon Battle-born and Olfina Gray-mane were walking side by side and talking. Daenerys took it for a good omen. They weren't back together yet, but talking was more than they'd done so far. They'd just needed a little nudge.

She turned back to the dog. "Actually, Barbas, now that I think about it, I'm not that interested in either the mask or the axe. I have something else in mind that I would rather have then either of them."

Barbas shook his head. {I don't advise that. Vile will twist any wish you make.}

Daenerys smiled. "Oh, I know. That is why I want payment in advance. What I want, is you, Barbas."

{Hey now, I'm not looking for a new master. Clavicus Vile is no saint, but I'm his dog. He's my master. I don't want another.}

"Not permanently. He said that waiting for a few years was nothing for him. You stay by my side, you fight my enemies, you protect both me and my followers until Alduin and the dragons are defeated. You do that and then I will help you get the axe and deliver it to Clavicus Vile."

{Yeah? And what if Alduin defeats you? I can smell the destiny on you, but that's no guarantee you win.}

Daenerys shrugged. "If I lose, what does it matter? Alduin will destroy the world, won't he?"

Barbas's tail drooped. "Probably. He might just want to rule it again. Not that would be much better. Fine. You have a deal. Until you defeat Alduin, or he kills you. Shake on it." He held out a paw.

Daenerys took the dog's paw in hand and shook. Hopefully, he would be as good as his word, because an unkillable dog would be a powerful asset. Who knows, maybe if she was nice to Barbas she could sway his allegiance and he wouldn't even want to go back to his master. "Say, Barbas, how much of a dog are you? Do you like to play fetch?"

Barbas's tail thumped on the ground. {Sometimes. I'm not your everyday dog, but I'm still a dog.}

Daenerys smiled and picked it a branch off the ground. It was a little too big for fetch so she broke off the end. "Well then, let's play." She tossed the stick.

Barbas ran after it.