Stronger Together chapter 190

The Raith deeps were surprisingly far from the house. In the books  they make them seem like they're just a bit away, but they were actually  on the other end of the property, which considering how insanely large  the Raith Estate was meant they were miles from Chateau Raith itself.  Luckily we got directions from Inari. She'd actually been to the Deeps  contrary to my expectations, apparently the Raith children liked to play  in the caves as kids.

Personally  I thought that sounded dangerous, but since they always went with one  of the older siblings they were safe enough down there. I kind of wished  I'd brought Barb. The Deeps had serious Batman vibes and she would have  gotten a kick out of it. Despite being a cave however, The Deeps looked  pretty fantastic. I wasn't sure what you had to pay an interior  decorator to get them to make a cave look fashionable but I was guessing  it wasn't an insignificant amount.

The  entire floor had been lined with persian rugs, which had to have been  obscenely expensive, and gorgeous dark wood tables were set on top of  the soft carpets. Each table was set with beautiful place mats and  expensive china, and every setting had gold utensils and beautiful  crystal glasses full of what was almost definitely high quality  expensive wine. I half expected there to be braised quail on every plate  with a side of caviar or something, but that didn't seem to be the  case. Maybe there would be menus.

I  sidled up next to Raven, who had actually been listening when Munin  explained all this nonsense. "So, how does this work? I thought the gala  was after the conclave, which was after the induction. Which part of  that is after the dinner? Or is the dinner during the induction, because  whenever we have it I hope the food is good, I'm starving." Raven led  us to a specific seat with no indicator it was ours and sat us both  there. "Also any chance there will be hors doeuvres at this thing?" I  hadn't even realized I was hungry until we actually got here, but  thinking about food had me jonesing.

She  chuckled at me "The dinner is the induction. It's a banquet. Your  formal introduction is basically just a glorified toast. As for menu's,  there actually were, but we were asked to pick our food before we  arrived so it could be cooked on time." I frowned at that, since I liked  ordering for myself but she just rolled her eyes "You got the steak,  you always get the steak, and I had them throw in a side of mashed  potatoes and a salad." I would have liked to have been annoyed at that,  but it was what I would have gotten and she knew it.

I  just shrugged "How about you and Cinder, what did you end up getting?" I  knew Raven's order would be either duck or lobster, but Cinder's eating  habits were still kind of an unknown to me. I knew the general kinds of  things she liked but I hadn't had as much experience with her at  restaurants. Raven had spent much more time with her than I had though, I  was ashamed to say, so she might have been able to order for her like  she had for me. "And speaking of the hosts, I haven't seen Lara anywhere  since we got here. She's the one giving the toast?"

Somehow  I didn't see Lara getting up in front of a bunch of people to talk  about me going well. Luckily Raven shook her head "No, Odin and she are  co-hosting and the All-father will be giving the toast. Many of the  guests are excited to hear what he has to say." She smirked at me." And  Cinder and I both got lobster. Unlike some people, she anticipated  having to pick out her meal and asked me about it days ago." I decided  responding to that was beneath my dignity so I just stuck out my tongue  at her.

I saw  a motion out of the corner of my eye and turned to find River Shoulders  sitting down next to us. Cinder brightened immediately "Greeting  master. I didn't realize you would be seated with us. I see you brought  Sam with you as well." The blonde vampiress with the pink streaks had  been dating River for some time now, so it only made sense he would  bring her along. I was surprised they hadn't mentioned coming here  though. I guessed they wanted to surprise us, and they had definitely  succeeded.

River,  who was dressed in an outrageously large three piece suit just grinned  back. "Well my people are signatories of the accords. All the accorded  nations were invited to this, and I brought Samantha as my companion.  You'll never guess who I decided to bring along as my advisor." He  flashed a meaningful look behind us and we turned to see Harry looming  over us as usual, in his own oversized suit and tie. That bastard had  given us no indication he would be coming to this and I had to applaud  his sneaking skills.

I  slow clapped sarcastically as I turned to greet my mentor "Oh, well  played boss. Even Raven didn't notice anything was off, though come to  think of it I suppose that's because you haven't been around for the  last few days. Very sneaky, but Yang and Barb are going to kick our  asses when they find out you came but they couldn't." I stood up to pull  him into a quick hug, smirking internally at his grunt when I squeezed  him a bit. "Anyway good to have you both here, did you guys know you  were supposed to order ahead at these things?"

Harry  rolled his eyes as he sat down next to River, still well within  speaking distance "Obviously, they need time to make everyone's food. I  may be a bit of a thug but I'm not a barbarian. That's just basic  etiquette." I glared suspiciously at Raven, sure she had coached him to  say that, but as per usual her poker face was flawless so honestly who  could say. Harry seemed to notice the exchange and snickered a bit at  the byplay even if there was no way he could have known the details.

That  thought died away though as a sudden hush fell over the room.  Literally, absolute silence. It was a bit intimidating considering some  of the monstrous fuckers I knew were in this room. Luckily I didn't have  to worry about figuring out why, every single eye in the entire place  turned toward the entrance tunnel on the other side of the cavern. Even  when I glanced over and saw no one I somehow knew there was something  big coming. Like the sheer presence of whoever was on the way made it's  own entrance before they even got here.

The  first thing that came through the opening was a zombie. Well, two  zombies actually. They were thin an emaciated and they had odd bowl like  headdresses atop their heads, with yellow paper strips hanging in their  faces, each covered in Chinese characters. There were chains around  their necks and they hopped in like frogs, landing in a spider man  crouch after each bound. The chains were held by a pair of beautiful  women wearing tightly fitting silk dresses and pushing an unrolling  carpet in front of them as they trailed behind the jumping corpses.

I  suspected the zombie things were jiangshi, because of the hats and the  talismans and because the word literally meant jumping corpse. Which  meant based on what I knew the pretty women holding the chains were  probably Jade Court. As the carpet unrolled a slight tremor started to  shake the floors. Boom. Boom. Boom. The rhythm was regular and somehow  familiar but I couldn't make out what it was yet. The pretty vampires  pulled the corpse guards aside and stood at attention, both showing lots  of very pale, very smooth skin under their extremely tight silk  dresses. The dresses were cut incredibly short and up top were open to  reveal a lot of cleavage.

They  were both busty enough for the slowly growing thumps to produce very  pleasant images as they waited, but my healthy teen male's appreciation  for boobs was overshadowed shortly as I finally saw what was making the  noise.  The rhythm was familiar because it was footsteps. An even dozen  vampires in ceremonial but very obviously new armor were carrying a box  with a curtain, holding it up by a series of sticks jutting out the  bottom on both sides. A palanquin, though I had never seen one in real  life.

This  would be the Qin emperor. Ying Zheng, also known as Qin Shi Huang, first  emperor of the Qin state, also called Great Qin and the Qin Dynasty,  the country that would eventually become the nation of China. One of the  most infamous and terrifying military commanders who ever lived, who  united the disparate states and built the great wall of china. The same  guy who had an entire army of terra cotta warriors made and placed in a  tomb that in this world he apparently wasn't even in.

The  palanquin's curtains were pinned open, and I could see the man inside  easily enough. He looked...not like I expected. Qin Shi Huang looked  like kind of a thug. He had a huge bushy black beard, a square jaw, and  sharp features. He wasn't bad looking or anything, just much less  refined than you would think an emperor would be. The one thing that was  just as intimidating as expected were his eyes. His irises were gold,  not yellow, but like twenty four carat hammered metal. They shone with a  brilliant and captivating radiance.

Those  beaten gold eyes roved slowly over the room, taking in every single  aspect of the crowd arrayed before them. Without any sign of motion or  gesture the palanquin bearing soldiers all stopped, freezing in place  and kneeling down, lowering the palanquin and its occupant toward the  carpet. Emperor Qin stood, ducking under the curtain to step free of the  palanquin and alight gracefully on the rug laid out for his arrival. He  stepped forward and the soldiers began to back out of the cavern, heads  bowed so as not to gaze at their master.

I  was surprised to see, once he was in the open, that the Qin emperor was  wearing a three piece suit. It was much nicer than mine or Harry's but  it was modern and fashionable. But the biggest shock for me had to be  his size. The First Emperor of China was fucking huge. Like River levels  of tall, with a barrel chest and broad shoulders. The size and power of  his frame made the suit look incongruous, like someone put a vest on an  ogre or something. I had no doubt there was serious muscle under that  suit.

His shining golden eyes  landed on me and I froze in place, feeling like there was an anvil  crushing down on my entire body, pinned to my seat by the sheer force of  his gaze, but then his eyes moved on and he glanced at the others  before his stare finally settled on the space right behind me. I was  curious what the hell he was looking at so I turned to look and  immediately regretted it. The pale man behind me was far too close and I  got far too predatory and impression from him to be comfortable.

The  man behind me was also wearing a suit, and just as luxurious as the one  worn by emperor Qin. But it wasn't the suit that drew my attention. It  was his face. His features were delicate and refined, like I'd expected  the emperors to be, and he had an air of nobility and command about him,  as well as a sort of effortless grace. It made perfect sense why River  would have called him Dancey Pants in the books, though I doubt that was  the term I'd have used at a glance. The most unnerving thing though,  was that Drakul, the dragon, father of Dracula, was looking right at me.