Triah
CINZIA DID NOT LIKE HIDING while Knot checked out the dilapidated building at the edge of the city, but it was what she had agreed to do, like it or not. The building looked more or less the way Trave had described it; splintered and stubby rafters, charred from a fire years ago, hung down over crumbling, blackened stone. Dawn had just broken, though the sun hid behind a ceiling of gray clouds, and looked like it would stay that way for the rest of the morning at least. Cinzia began to feel the first drops of rain patter against the hood she wore drawn over her face.
Trave walked with them, wearing a large greatsword on his back, and a dark hooded cloak concealing his features.
As long as the sun was up, any vampires would be at their weakest, and vulnerable to sunlight. The weakest vampire was still stronger than almost any human, but Cinzia hoped the element of surprise, along with her enhanced abilities and a few other tricks Knot claimed to have up his sleeve, would help them.
I could choose not to help you, you know, Luceraf whispered in her mind. I could leave you defenseless when you most need my help.
If you did that, you would lose your precious avatar.
“Cinzia Oden, I presume?”
Cinzia jumped in surprise and spun around. A blond man with a topknot, dressed in black, inclined his head. As he raised his head, she saw his eyes were a light green, with a tinge of gray that matched the cloud cover above. He had high cheekbones, and a few days’ stubble.
Handsome, Luceraf said, almost teasingly.
Cinzia cleared her throat, embarrassed at having been startled.
“Yes,” Cinzia whispered. “You are Code?”
The man nodded, extending his hand. “I’m glad to finally meet you, Cinzia. I have heard—”
Cinzia folded her arms. “I am sure you have heard a great deal about me, Code. Knot told me all about your objectives in befriending him. Including your orders to get closer to me, and my sister. I am telling you now, that will not happen. I am grateful for your help today, but I do not care to become your puppet, let alone your informant.”
“I’ve gone over the parameters with him,” Knot said from behind her, making her jump again. She was getting tired of these Nazaniin sneaking up on her. “He knows this is a test, and he knows he’s got to do well if he wants this deal to work out between the two of us. And it’ll be just between the two of us, ain’t that right, Code?”
“Absolutely,” Code said, his smile broad on his face.
Goddess, he is handsome, Luceraf said. Look, even if you don’t care for him, you could at least get closer to him for my sake. It has been so long since I—
Cinzia did her best to tune the Daemon out.
“What’s the deal with him?” Code asked, nodding over Cinzia’s shoulder, where Trave stood some distance away. Cinzia frowned. He’d been at their side only moments before.
“Your associate is loaded with enough nightsbane to take down a vampire army,” Trave rasped. “I’ll keep my distance, if you don’t mind. Who is he, anyway?”
“Help,” Knot said. “Figured we’d need it.”
Trave nodded, but he didn’t come closer. “You figured right, though I don’t know what good another human will do. We’ll still be lucky to get out of there alive.”
“Code is a psimancer. A powerful telenic.”
“Better than nothing.” Trave locked eyes with Code. “But I’ve killed my fair share of telenics, and I’m nothing compared to what we might face down there.”
Code didn’t flinch from the vampire’s stare. Instead, he smiled.
Cinzia let out an exasperated sigh. “We don’t have time for a pissing contest. Let’s get moving.”
Code, still eying Trave, nodded. “Aye, of course.” He slid his pack to the ground, and opened it.
Cinzia peeked inside and saw dozens of sharpened wooden stakes, as well as a few sprigs of a plant that Cinzia recognized.
She had seen nightsbane’s effects once; just the presence of the herb had completely incapacitated Astrid in Navone. She understood why Trave kept back.
“Fortunately, we have nightsbane in decent supply,” Code said. “That’ll be our first line of offense.”
“How do I use it?” Cinzia asked.
Code took a sprig from the bag. “Pin this on your dress. Near your shoulder.”
She took it from him nervously and fastened it on as he’d told her. “Is that… all?”
“That should deter most vampires from getting too close to you—” he nodded again to Trave “—but that means our friend there can’t be too close to us, either.”
“I’ll be scouting ahead,” Trave said. “I’ll be close, though you may not see me. If I run into any trouble, I’ll let you know.”
The herb she had pinned to her dress was nothing special; just a series of tiny green leaves stemming from a dark stalk. She had studied most herbs at the seminary, for their healing properties, and remembered now that it only rarely bloomed. When pressed directly on a wound or, more effectively, when its leaves were boiled and made into a poultice, it could stem bleeding. When she’d been studying her herb books, she couldn’t have possibly imagined that she’d one day be about to crawl into a den of vampires, nightsbane pinned to her dress.
Not just any vampires, but some of the oldest, most dangerous vampires in the world.
“What if the nightsbane doesn’t work?” Cinzia asked.
Code crouched back down and pulled a wooden stake out of his bag.
“That’s what these are for,” he said.
Cinzia stared at the stake, one eyebrow raised.
“Wood weakens a vampire when it pierces their skin,” Code explained. “‘Pierce’ being the important word—it has no effect unless it has actually penetrated them. The closer the spike is to their heart, the better. And if you manage to puncture the heart itself, that is the first step toward killing one of them.”
“The first step?” Cinzia asked. She glanced at Knot, who had remained quiet throughout Code’s tutorial. She wondered if all of this—hearing the different ways Astrid could be hurt, or even killed—was difficult for him.
He’s also hearing how he can kill the people who’ve captured her, Luceraf whispered. If it were me, I’d be soaking it all up, absorbing every drop. Looks like that’s exactly what he’s doing.
“There is some debate on what can actually kill a vampire,” Code said, “other than prolonged exposure to sunlight. That seems to work without fail, but it is, unfortunately, a resource we cannot rely on given the cloud cover, and the fact that we’ll probably be underground the whole time.”
“So, other than sunlight?” Cinzia asked.
“A wooden stake through the heart has been rumored to be enough to kill some vampires,” Code said, “but not all sources agree. Some insist you must decapitate the vampire after staking it. Others suggest you go further, and burn the staked body and severed head in separate fires.”
They all stopped talking as Trave’s low, rasping laugh reached them.
“You’ve never killed a vampire,” Trave said, more amused than anything.
Code took a long, deep breath before answering. “I’ve killed my share of the undead,” he said. “Enough for more than one lifetime. But no, I’ve never killed a vampire.”
Cinzia was about to inquire what Code meant by killing the undead, but his hollow, expressionless face stopped her. She realized this was the dispassionate Nazaniin agent she had expected.
Trave nodded, and an unseen understanding seemed to pass between the two. Whatever animosity existed between them was gone. “Then let me be clear,” Trave said. “Toss me a stake. Carefully.”
Code did so, the wooden spike arcing between the two. Trave caught it, and held the point to his chest.
“Always go for the heart,” he said. “If you hit them there, or close enough, it should immobilize them completely. Decapitation works as well, but I doubt we’ll have time to go around staking, decapitating, and then burning every vampire we come across. We should rely on nightsbane and staking as much as we can.”
Cinzia glanced at Knot. He rested a hand on the strange sword he carried, a daemon etched in stone on the handle. Code, too, had a similar sword at his hip.
“What about me?” Cinzia asked. “I’ll need a weapon for that, should it become… absolutely necessary.”
Code cocked his head to one side. “You… want a sword?”
Cinzia huffed. “You do not want to give me one because I am a woman?”
“I know many women who are better with a sword than I am,” Code said. “I don’t want to give you a sword because you don’t strike me as someone who has had much training in that area. Am I wrong?”
Cinzia frowned. “You are not wrong.”
“But she needs a weapon,” Knot said.
Code sighed, then offered his own sword to Cinzia. “Take this.”
Cinzia reached out a hand hesitantly. “What will you use?”
“I’ve got an axe in the bag, that’ll do the trick well enough.”
“Can I use the axe?” Cinzia blurted.
Good choice, Luceraf whispered.
Code looked at her quizzically. “An axe requires a lot more strength than a sword, so—”
“I want the axe.”
“She wants the axe,” Knot said.
Code shrugged. “Fine. I prefer my own sword anyway.” He reclaimed his blade, and then reached into the bottom of his bag to pull out a long wooden handle, a long metal spike at one end, and a large single axe-blade on the other, with a hooked spike balancing it out.
Yes, Luceraf whispered, that will do just fine.
Code offered the weapon to Cinzia. “It’s a bit heavy, but—”
Cinzia snatched the weapon, and hefted it. She took a few practice swings. She was no expert with an axe, that much was certain, but after hours of chopping wood at Harmoth, and thanks to Luceraf’s enhanced strength, it felt right in her hands.
“…but I think you’ll be able to make it work,” Code finished, eyes wide.
Trave chuckled wryly, but she ignored him.
Code divided the wooden stakes, giving Cinzia, Knot, and Trave belts that held almost a dozen stakes each. As they strapped the belts around their waists, Code withdrew a small crossbow from his bag, and checked the winding mechanism. He slung a quiver of crossbow bolts around his shoulder. Cinzia eyed the bolts as Code inspected them. Each was a wooden shaft with feathered fletching, and a sharp steel barb at the point.
“Will that still work?” Cinzia asked. “With a steel tip like that?”
“It’ll work well enough,” Trave said, answering for him. He nodded at the spike at the base of Cinzia’s axe. “Speaking of which, that might come in handy as a stake, too. Keep it in mind.”
Cinzia inspected the long steel spike. What in Oblivion was she doing, carrying an axe and a belt of wooden stakes?
You are about to wreak havoc. Pleasure bubbled in Luceraf’s voice.
“We need to move,” Knot said. He looked at Code. “Anything else?”
Code shook his head.
“Good.”
The dull patter of the rain increased to a roar as Trave led the way into the dilapidated building.
* * *
Code waited for Knot and Cinzia to climb down the ladder, then dropped down quickly after them. His boots splashed in a shallow puddle as he landed.
The three of them huddled together to light torches, and then Knot and Cinzia began to walk down the tunnel, Code following behind.
“Trave said there would not be a guard,” Knot said over his shoulder, “but that ain’t an assumption I’m ready to make. Keep your eyes open.” The vampire had already scouted ahead of them, out of sight, but had relayed instructions to Knot.
Code resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course he was on the lookout; Goddess, that was just like something Lathe would say. There was little need to post a guard down here; the entrance had not exactly been easy to find. Even with this Trave fellow’s directions, it had taken the three of them the better part of an hour to locate the switch that opened the secret door that led to the secret room, and then find another switch which led to the trap door they had just come through. And, Code suspected anyone who actually did find their way down here would very soon find themselves the main course of a meal for a host of deadly vampires.
Code shivered despite himself. Not his preferred way to go, certainly.
After a few minutes of walking, Knot held up a hand. They had reached a fork in the tunnel. Code and Cinzia stopped, and Knot nodded at one of the forks, putting a finger to his lips.
Code strained his ears, but all he heard were crackling torches and a faint, distant dripping sound.
Lathe’s reputation among the Nazaniin had been infamous for a few reasons. He’d had outstanding instincts, first of all, better than any fighter Code had ever seen. He also seemed to have particularly acute, almost inhuman senses. Knot seemed to have the same qualities.
“Where in Oblivion is Trave?” Code whispered, but Knot just held up a hand to silence him. Code frowned, his jaw set. If the vampire had betrayed them, Code would make him pay for it. Assuming he lived long enough.
Then Code heard it, too. Footsteps echoing in the tunnel, approaching from the left fork. The faint echo reverberated off the walls, until Code realized it wasn’t just a reverberation but multiple footfalls. Three, maybe four vampires were walking toward them.
The rocky walls were smooth, without ingress; there was nowhere to hide, other than down the right fork—and hope the vampires didn’t catch them up. Knot had the same idea, and moved quickly a few rods up the right fork of the tunnel; but then he stopped and pressed himself against the rock wall. Apparently Trave’s instructions indicated they take the left fork here. Otherwise Code assumed Knot would have led them away from the danger.
Wait it was, then. Wait, and then fight. Code suppressed a shiver, but a smile crept to his lips. It was true what he had told Cinzia about not delighting in fighting more undead, but it was also true what he’d said about being curious. And, honestly, he’d never fought a vampire before. He wanted to see how he held up against the creatures of legend.
Fighting three or four vampires at once was something else entirely, of course, but he’d take the bad with the good.
Code’s hand drifted to the pouch at his belt. He only carried three crystals with him—two was the largest number of faltira crystals he could take without harming himself, but it was always good to carry a reserve—and each crystal would last him roughly twenty minutes, close to a half-hour if he was lucky. That was, at best, an hour and a half of psimancy at his disposal, assuming he had some time in between doses. There was no telling how long they’d be down here; it might be twenty minutes, but it could also be hours. Best to rely on their other methods of dealing with the vampires unless things became truly precarious. He willed his hand away from his faltira pouch, instead glancing at the sprig of nightsbane pinned to his jacket.
This will work, he told himself. You aren’t going to die in the tunnels beneath Triah fighting a den of vampires. That would be ridiculous.
Beside him, Cinzia raised a stake in one hand, the axe he had given her in the other. She was tenacious, Code would give her that. And, apparently, far stronger than she appeared.
The footsteps grew louder, and Code could hear voices whispering now, too. He deliberately slowed his breathing, and wished he could do the same to his heart as it thumped heavily in his chest. He had heard that, in perfect silence, a vampire could hear a human’s blood pumping from thirty rods away.
“Stop,” one of the vampires said sharply, and very close now, probably just around the corner. “Do you feel that?”
“Aye,” another responded. The first had clearly been a male, but this one Code could not quite place. Could be male or female, young or old.
Knot signaled for Code and Cinzia to follow behind him at a distance, and he crept quietly toward the fork.
“Nightsbane,” said a third voice, although this was more of a growl.
Knot sprang around the corner, stake in one hand, Nazaniin sword in the other.
“Alert the Coven,” one of the vampires hissed. “We’ll take care of this one.”
Code swung wide around the corner in time to see one of the vampires running back down the tunnel, while the other two—a man and a woman—backed slowly away from Knot.
Code raised his crossbow, aiming at the fleeing form, and pulled the trigger. The bolt connected with his target, who stumbled, then fell to the ground. Code was already winding his crossbow again, another bolt at the ready.
“There’s more of them,” the woman said, as Cinzia rounded the corner too.
“Then we’ll kill them all,” the man said. Both drew their longswords.
But their words did not match their actions; Knot continued advancing on them, and the two retreated as he did.
Code reloaded. The fleeing figure had stumbled to its feet, but it moved noticeably slower. Code took aim, exhaled, and fired. This time the bolt missed, ricocheting off into the tunnel. The figure continued running, until a shadow pounced out of nowhere, tackling the vampire to the ground.
Code squinted. That had to be Trave. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to make the vampire pay, after all.
The female vampire looked back at her fallen comrade, then at Knot, Cinzia, and Code advancing on her.
“We cannot get close to them, Vladek,” she hissed.
Code hooked the crossbow on his belt. He raised both hands in peace.
“Vladek, is it?” he asked. Knot eyed him, but he didn’t care. “A bit obvious for a vampire name, don’t you think?”
“You don’t know what you’ve walked into,” Vladek growled.
Code shrugged. “Nightsbane. Wooden stakes. Use your observational powers, mate; I think we know pretty well what we’ve walked into. We just want one thing, really. We’re looking for a little girl, a vampire like yourself. Any idea where we could find her?”
Vladek sneered. “You won’t. You’ll be dead long before you do.”
If the vampire moved quickly, he could strike Code with his longsword in a lunge—if he could withstand the nightsbane for long enough. Code thought he could reach his own sword in time to parry a strike. Probably.
Code nodded at the vampire who’d collapsed in the tunnel, pierced by his crossbow bolt. “That one doesn’t seem to agree with you. If you tell us where the girl is, we probably won’t kill you. How does that sound?”
Vladek shook his head. “You really don’t know where you are or what you’re doing. Nightsbane might work on me, but it won’t work on others down here. You’ve stumbled on something more powerful than you can imagine. Take my advice, and leave while you can.”
Code took another step forward.
This time, Vladek took a step back, and that told Code all he needed to know.
With his right hand Code slipped from its sheath a wooden stake that he’d hidden on a wristband beneath his sleeve, while he drew his sword with his left. He lunged as Vladek’s eyes widened, and the vampire took another step back, but it was not enough. Code plunged the stake into the vampire’s shoulder, missing the heart by a good margin, while deflecting a wild blow from Vladek’s longsword with his own Nazaniin blade. Vladek grunted, clearly in pain from the nightsbane less than a rod away from him and from the wood now embedded in his shoulder.
Knot clashed with the female vampire while Code parried another wild blow from Vladek. He drew another stake from his belt with the intention to seek this one into the vampire’s heart, but Vladek recovered far more quickly than Code anticipated. He’d hoped, during the day, at least, with his training and skill, he’d be able to overpower Vladek quickly enough to end things without much of a fight.
But despite his first two wild blows, the nightsbane, and the wooden stake protruding from his shoulder, Code barely got his sword up in time to parry Vladek’s next strike. The longsword clashed into Code’s sword with a sharp clang that sent a tremor up Code’s arms.
Code danced around Vladek, but the vampire stayed with him step for step. Code’s training with the sword was formidable; hours a day every day for two decades. But, as the vampire’s footwork matched his own impeccably, and as the vampire matched Code blow for blow despite his clearly weakened and pained state, Code began to understand for the first time what he was up against. He had trained for decades; the vampire had trained for centuries.
Disengaging after another flurry of blows, Code threw the stake at Vladek’s chest. The vampire deflected the stake midair, but Code followed it quickly, now holding his sword with a two-handed grip.
Cinzia flanked the vampire. He tried to catch her eye, shaking his head as subtly as he could—Vladek would undoubtedly sense her approach, and could kill her with a single stroke—but Cinzia paid him no mind.
Code increased the power and speed of his attack, keeping Vladek on the defensive and his attention away from Cinzia. But then something changed in Vladek’s eyes, nothing more than a flicker but enough to tell Code the vampire knew where Cinzia was and what she was doing. Vladek deflected another strike from Code’s blade and twisted, simultaneously kicking Code in the stomach, sending him stumbling back, and lashing out at Cinzia with his sword.
Code watched in horror as the sword cut toward Cinzia’s unarmored, completely unprotected shoulder.
His horror turned to confused awe when Cinzia caught the blade, bare-handed, stopping it mid-arc.
Vladek seemed just as surprised as Code for a fraction of a second, before tearing the sword from Cinzia’s grasp. Not, however, before Cinzia buried a stake in the vampire’s heart. Vladek choked out a gasp, then fell to the ground, clawing ineffectively at the stake in his chest.
Code did not waste time; he brought his sword down on the vampire’s neck. It took three strikes to sever Vladek’s head, but when it was done Code kicked it across the tunnel, away from the body.
“What,” Code gasped, catching his breath as he glared at Cinzia, “in the mother of all Oblivion was that?”
Cinzia didn’t answer. She was spattered in blood from the decapitated corpse.
Code glanced back to see the female vampire lying prone, three stakes piercing her chest. Her head, too, had been removed from her body, now a healthy distance away. Their bodies leaked blood onto the dirt and rock, almost black in the dim, flickering torchlight.
“Did you know about this?” Code asked Knot, pointing at Cinzia.
“Knew enough,” Knot said, but he, too, watched Cinzia warily.
“Not now,” Cinzia said. “We have a mission to focus on.”
Code glanced up the tunnel at the third vampire to make sure it hadn’t moved: it was still motionless on the ground. Trave stood in the distance, waiting for them. But Code wasn’t done. “This isn’t something you just shrug off. I’ve seen a lot of crazy shit recently, but an ex-Cantic priestess stopping a vampire’s sword swing with her bare hand might actually…”
Code trailed off, something clicking in his mind.
He had seen this before. He had seen this exact behavior before, both on Arro with the Daemon Hade, and in Maven Kol with the Daemon Nadir. The avatars they had both claimed, whatever they had been before, gained superior strength, speed, and durability.
“You’re all right?” Knot asked Cinzia.
“Yes,” she said. “I will tell you more, I can tell you everything, when we have Astrid back.”
Knot shrugged, and began walking up the tunnel. Cinzia followed.
“Wait a second, mate,” Code said, walking quickly after them.
He opened his mouth, but then closed it almost immediately.
Now was not the time. If Cinzia was the avatar of a Daemon, the deed was already done. There was nothing they could do about it. And, truth was, they could use someone with her strength. Code had thought Cinzia a liability until now.
They reached the third vampire; his head had been severed messily from his body. Trave was already walking ahead of them, wiping off his greatsword. He beckoned for them to follow.
“I trust Cinzia,” Knot told Code, kicking the vampire’s head down the tunnel, toward the other two bodies. Dark blood spattered as the head rolled away in the dark. “You will, too, if you want anything to do with me.”
* * *
They continued walking for the better part of an hour, Trave keeping just ahead of the rest of them. Knot hated the formation—it put them completely at Trave’s mercy—but if Astrid had trusted the man… well, Knot sure as Oblivion wouldn’t trust Trave under normal circumstances, but when Astrid’s life was at stake—when they had no other options, he certainly would.
They had not encountered anyone else since they’d killed the three vampires. Knot glanced over at Cinzia. She’d been silent since their encounter with the three vampires, and Knot worried about her. He knew she’d become the avatar of a Daemon to help him. He wanted to help her, but he was at a complete loss.
Finally, Trave stopped ahead of them. A door, large and banded with metal, stood tall to one side. Knot culled the sprout of hope blooming in his chest. Didn’t want to get his hopes up. Not yet.
“About bloody time,” Code said. “We’re burning valuable daylight.”
That was true, but they still had a good six hours of daylight left at least. Unless they ran into real trouble, they should be able to make it out before sunset.
“I’ve seen dozens of doors that look like they might hold prisoners,” Knot said as they approached Trave and the door. “What makes you think she wasn’t in one of those?”
“They’d be— Keep your distance, for Canta’s sake.”
Knot, Code, and Cinzia stopped. They each still carried nightsbane on them.
“They’d be keeping her in the Deep Cells,” Trave said. “And this is the deepest of them. That’s why it took so long to get here.”
Knot glanced around. No other vampires in sight; Trave had said the cells were typically not guarded. Vampires knew exactly what would imprison one of their own kind and what would not.
Trave moved in a wide circle around the others, with an eye out for anyone that might intrude on their little prison break, while they approached the door. Knot and Code squatted to lift the huge wooden plank, held in place by two iron arms bolted into the rock on either side of the door. Knot wanted Astrid to be here. He didn’t know what he would do if she wasn’t. So he focused on the task at hand, his muscles straining, but he and Code barely lifted the plank.
“Bloody bones,” Code grunted beside him when they’d finally lifted the beam free of the metal catches. They set the beam on the rock floor with a loud thump. “Did not expect the thing to be that heavy.”
“For Canta’s sake,” Cinzia said, stepping forward.
“Should’ve anticipated this,” Knot said. “A vampire at full strength could probably lift it…”
Cinzia lifted the middle beam free of its catches and leaned it up against the tunnel wall next to the door, then did the same thing with the lower beam.
“…alone,” Knot finished, unable to take his eyes off Cinzia.
Cinzia had told him what had happened, but Knot had no idea it meant she would become like this. Goddess, if he didn’t know she was imbued with a Daemon’s power, if he didn’t know she hated every moment of it, it’d be hard to find the negative aspects of such power.
Code said nothing, his eyes slightly narrowed as he stared at Cinzia. Trave remained where he was, keeping watch.
“You two were taking too long,” Cinzia said, wiping her hands on her dress. She nodded at the door, now unobstructed. “Shall we see if she is really inside?”
Code hefted his crossbow while Knot approached the door, unlocking the simple bolt mechanisms that still held it in place, praying to whoever was listening that Astrid would be inside.
* * *
The moment Astrid’s door opened, she bolted into it, knocking it wide open and barreling through the figures beyond until a burst of pain racked through her entire body, and a sick feeling overcame her. She stumbled to the ground, confused.
Astrid raised her head to see dim shapes standing above her. As her eyes focused, she recognized Knot.
Leaping to her feet with a growl, Astrid dashed at the figure. But the moment she got close, nightsbane took effect as pain cracked through her body. She wanted to vomit, but she persisted, pressing forward.
This was an illusion. One of Elegance’s tricks.
“Astrid, it’s me,” the illusion said, throwing the nightsbane that had been pinned to its clothing away.
“You’re not real,” Astrid growled, pouncing as the figure moved away from where it had thrown the nightsbane.
The illusion grunted as Astrid collided with it. “I’m real, Astrid.”
Astrid fought, despite her weakness from the nightsbane still in relatively close proximity to her, despite having gone so long without blood and trapped in that wretched cell, despite the horrible feeling she could not quell inside of her that told her that Knot was not here, that he couldn’t be, that she was alone and always would be, and her loneliness would never end.
She fought, kicking and clawing and biting, but the illusion kept with her, move for move, never attacking, always defending.
That is just what Knot would do if he were here. Of course, Elegance would make the illusion as real as possible.
Astrid disengaged from the illusion only to fall to the ground. She lifted herself up to a seated position and shouted into the dim corridor, “Where are you, Elegance?”
She looked around, vision blurry. An illusion of Cinzia stood back from Knot, a few paces to his left. Of course Elegance would make one of Cinzia. But, as Astrid looked at the other two figures, the light brightened again.
One was Trave. There was a chance that they would send an illusion of him to toy with her—Cabral had told the Coven of Trave’s betrayal—but why? And this one was not threatening her. Why send her an illusion of Trave if not to torture her?
The fourth figure perplexed Astrid even more than Trave. It was a man she had never seen before; handsome, with a strong jaw and long blonde hair tied in a bun atop his head.
“You’re not real,” Astrid whispered, but allowing herself the tiniest sliver of doubt as she said it.
Why would Elegance form an illusion of someone Astrid did not even know? To play an even deeper game with her? Astrid could see Cabral doing such a thing, but the Coven had not seemed so petty.
The figure that looked like Knot approached her again, slowly.
“Astrid, it’s me. We’re going to get you out of here.”
The illusion’s hands reached for her, and Astrid backed away, but then stopped herself.
Chances were, this was an illusion. But Astrid had a choice. She could choose to believe, or choose to not.
If she chose not to believe, she could run, or hide, only to be inevitably taken and thrown back into her cell. If she chose to believe, she would likely end up the same way.
But at least in that case, she might have a moment of happiness.
“You’re an idiot,” Astrid said.
A slow smile spread across Knot’s face. “Aye,” he said, “so you’ve told me, many times.”
“You could’ve at least brought something that would make me certain it was you,” she said. “This could all be an illusion. I could live a lifetime of this, only to wake up back in that cell, only a few hours having passed.”
Knot knelt down. “That doesn’t sound pleasant.”
Astrid looked up at him, really looked at him. Before she knew what she was doing, she touched the scruffy stubble that he hadn’t shaved in at least a week.
“I’d say don’t worry about being an idiot because you have your looks, but, well… your face isn’t much to write home about either, nomad.”
The feel of his face as the laugh escaped his lips seemed to crackle down her arm and into her body.
She knew this face.
Then Knot was hugging her, and Astrid was letting herself be hugged, and apparently Cinzia couldn’t help herself either because suddenly there she was, too—squeezing far harder than she had any right—and Astrid found herself in the middle of the two of them.
The stranger cleared his throat. “Hate to interrupt the reunion,” he said, “and I hate to point out the obvious even more, but when it clearly isn’t obvious to you, I can’t help myself…”
Knot let go, smiling down at Astrid. “I know, Code. Let’s get moving.”
“Who is he, anyway?” Astrid asked, nodding at the blonde man.
“I’m the help.”
Astrid raised an eyebrow. “The help? Have you done much helping, then?”
Code laughed. “Hey, I’m doing this job for free, little girl. My motivation isn’t particularly high at the moment.”
“You are getting paid for this gig,” Knot told him.
“Oh I am? In what currency, exactly?”
“My friendship.”
“Fine, mate. Your friendship is a fine treasure, indeed, but as I was saying earlier, about the escaping…”
It took a moment for them to find the best arrangement for them to walk, considering the three humans still carried nightsbane and the two vampires couldn’t abide it. They settled on the vampires taking the lead, since Trave knew the layout of the place fairly well, while the humans followed a healthy distance behind.
Astrid was about to say something to Trave about how she appreciated his help—she couldn’t imagine Knot and Cinzia finding their way down here on their own, so Trave’s part in this must’ve been healthy, indeed—when Trave stopped, hand up.
Voices ahead of them.
“Let us take the lead,” Knot said from behind them. In the event that they ran into other vampires, having the humans with nightsbane as the first line of defense would be the advantageous position, to be sure.
“Shit.” Astrid moved against the tunnel wall, the effect of the herb making her queasy as the humans passed her.
“Be careful,” she told them. “Mainly Knot and Cinzia. Code, I don’t much care about you.”
Code looked back at her and winked. “You sound like my mother.” She also noticed Code slip something from the pouch at his belt into his mouth. She’d seen Winter use a similar pouch. Code was a psimancer.
Astrid rolled her eyes at his comment, but her gut was doing twists and his light-heartedness helped.
Knot stopped, indicating they all do the same, but it was too late. Around the corner of the tunnel walked a dozen vampires, Cabral leading them, a sneer on his face.
But, worse than that, Elegance, Equity, and Eldritch stood— or, in Eldritch’s case, levitated—at the back of the cadre.
Against Cabral and his Fangs, they might stand a chance. But even with nightsbane, she knew the Coven outmatched them.
“Well, well, I thought I’d have to isolate you and make you outlive all of your friends, but here they are. Lambs to the slaughter, isn’t that what they say?” As he spoke, Cabral stepped forward, then stopped, frowning.
Astrid sneered at him. “Yes, they’ve got nightsbane, you bastard. Go ahead and come closer, if you dare.”
Cabral glared at her, then looked over his shoulder.
“A little help?” he said.
“We are not your parents, Cabral,” Equity said.
Cabral’s eyes still smoldered on Astrid. “I’ll kill your friends while you watch, girl.”
Knot lunged, and there was a scuffle. Astrid’s heart contracted.
“What are you doing, nomad?” she whispered. She did not know how she’d be able to join the fight when nightsbane was in play.
Knot had impaled Cabral with two wooden stakes, both in the chest. He gripped Cabral by the collar of his shirt, his sword raised high. Cabral struggled weakly; the stakes must not have actually pierced his heart, otherwise he’d be completely immobile.
A ray of hope sliced through the oppressing fear that weighed down on Astrid’s chest.
“Back off,” Knot said, glaring at the other vampires, “or I’m taking his head.”
Cabral’s struggling intensified. Even pierced by two stakes, his will to live empowered him.
The Coven remained where they were, observing silently. A few of Cabral’s Fangs looked at one another.
Several things happened at once in a flurry of movement. Two of the Fangs charged Knot. Trave threw himself at Cabral, but was intercepted by more Fangs. Code tossed three wooden stakes into the air in front of him, and all three of them immediately shot forward.
The Coven hung back, watching dispassionately as Cabral coughed up blood on the ground, his face contorted in rage.
The nightsbane hindered the attacking Fangs long enough for Knot, Code, and—Goddess, Cinzia?—to make quick work of them. Knot and Code both staked the vampires, wielding swords that Astrid realized were nearly identical.
Cinzia, however, was a different force entirely.
She overpowered each vampire she encountered with brute force, punching stakes into their bodies, only to decapitate them with the axe she carried—as if it didn’t weigh anything at all. While Knot and Code dodged and parried vampire attacks, Cinzia simply blocked each vampire’s strike with an upheld arm.
“Let us go,” Astrid called to the Coven. They stood back a little, observing the fight, along with three other vampires who seemed to be part of their personal entourage rather than Cabral’s Fangs.
“Astrid…”
The voice was Cinzia’s, but there was an underlying, wavering current of horror that compelled Astrid to turn. She followed Cinzia’s gaze to see Cabral had somehow removed the stakes from his torso, and now stood behind Knot, holding a dagger to his throat.
Cabral’s remaining Fangs moved quickly to his side, swords held ready.
“Cabral,” Astrid said slowly, “This is over. Let him go. He isn’t the one you want, anyway.”
Cabral laughed, the sound of it wet and hacking. “On the contrary, my dear. I think he is exactly who I want. If I want to hurt you the most, I—”
A low growl issued forth from Cabral’s throat as he stared at Equity. “I’ll have my revenge. I’ll—”
“We have come to a new decision. Let the human go, Cabral. We will take this back to our audience chambers for a trial by combat.”
“I’ll be damned if I—” Cabral stumbled back as if he’d been struck, though no one but Knot stood within a rod of him.
Knot turned to face the Coven. “We’re leaving, like the girl said.”
No, you are not.
Astrid recognized Eldritch’s voice. The others seemed to have heard it, too, as Knot, Cinzia, and Code all looked around for the source.
Knot leapt toward Cabral, but stopped in midair, as if held by an invisible hand. Code tossed another three stakes in front of him, but they, too, stopped in place. Cinzia thundered forward, axe held high, but the axe disintegrated in her hands.
You have invaded our home. You will abide by our rules. We will not harm you—yet— but you must accompany us to the trial, and stand as witnesses.
Astrid opened her mouth to speak, but found she could not.
They all had no choice but to follow the Coven, and do as they suggested.