Retrieves bread, still warm

“I would like a loaf of bread when I wake,” Seba said as he yawned and
made himself comfortable. “Will you fetch one for me, Larten?”

“We are miles from the nearest village,” Larten noted.

“I know,” Seba said.

“I will not be able to catch much sleep by the time I travel there and
back.”

“You are young,” Seba said. “You do not need a lot of sleep.”

Wester wanted to volunteer to go instead, but Seba would be furious if
he said anything. Assistants were never supposed to contradict their master.

***

Larten set off through the forest, grumbling and kicking any tree stump
that got in his way. The last few years had been a frustrating drag. Endless
tests, most of which he’d failed. No contact with other vampires. No
adventures. Not much travel, and when they did go to a new country, Seba
wouldn’t let them explore. “I have already seen that,” he would say
whenever they asked to go sightseeing. “It is not worth the trek.”

Wester was bored and irritable too, but he still had faith in their master.

He believed Seba was doing this for a reason, that every vampire had to
endure such treatment on the way to becoming a General.

Larten wasn’t convinced. He thought maybe age had caught up with
Seba, that his thoughts had become muddled. Maybe these weren’t real tests
at all, just ways to make his assistants look foolish. Nothing they did in
recent times satisfied the grouchy old vampire. He found flaws in
everything. Larten couldn’t believe that other masters were this critical of
their students.

He took his time walking to the village. He kept to the gloom of the
forest as best he could, avoiding the rays of the sun, which were painful for
him now. But sometimes he had to pass through a clearing. When he did, he
raised his cloak–a tattered gray thing he’d picked up during his travels–over
his head and jogged, muttering darkly once he was safely back among the
shadows.

When Larten returned with the loaf–still warm, tucked away in the folds
of his cloak–Seba stirred and called to him. “Is that you, Larten?”

“Aye.”

“What took you so long?”

***

The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Birth of a Killer, Chapter 19