EXPLORATION
“It was not fucking funny,” Remy growled.
Xiaodan thought it was hilarious. She was still doubled over with her hands on her stomach, laughing loud and long. “You sincerely thought,” she gasped out in between wheezes, “that my mother had come to your chambers to seduce you? And you said so, to her face?”
“It was an easier assumption to make than being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night and led all the way through your fortress to view your bloody bleeding heart,” Remy said grumpily as he continued to spin Breaker. Malira had delivered a message for him at breakfast, informing him that Malekh had requested his presence at the courtyard. Remy had already given up on sleeping after his encounter with the vampire queen; Honfa had rushed into the room soon after the woman had showed him the embalmed horror, apologizing profusely to Remy even as he carried her away. It was reported in the morning that Queen Yingyue had suffered a relapse and had no memories of what she’d done the night before.
“She did the same thing to Zidan years ago,” Xiaodan said thoughtfully.
“Are you not going to explain why the hell she’s been keeping your—” Here Remy’s mind broke down, trying to process the sheer grotesqueness of it. “She told me a crockload about how your ancestors and mine have been slaying each other for generations, but I’m not sure that’s a good enough reason not to at least wait until daylight to show me.”
“You were fortunate.” Xiaodan gazed down at the ground. “You caught her during one of her lucid moments. The only emotion she’s shown me in the last twenty years is either grief or anger.”
Remy paused. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to—”
“I know. I’m glad you saw her for the woman she used to be instead of the invalid who’s spent nearly three decades living more in the past than present. She isn’t keeping my heart for insidious reasons. You could cut it up into as many pieces as you’d like, and I wouldn’t feel a thing. She keeps it out of guilt. I’m not the first to come into possession of Lilith’s heart—just the one who’s lasted the longest. Few vampires before me survived the procedure.” Xiaodan shuddered. “The pain was worse than anything I’ve ever felt. Worse than when Etrienne stabbed me.”
“When you told me you’d inherited your ancestor’s heart, I didn’t think you meant it literally.”
“Zidan said that the medical terminology for it would be a transplant. A replacement. Not even Mother was certain it would work, but she was desperate for my sake. I don’t know how much you know of our history, but Lilith was renowned—and feared—among the kindred.”
“She was the original Sunbringer. Your mother mentioned that, too.”
“What else do you know of her?”
Remy wracked his brain for a way to make what he was about to say next sound apologetic. “Nothing at all. We didn’t pay much attention to anyone beyond the existing court leaders. My father always said it wasn’t necessary to humanize vampires with names. And if this happened several millennia ago, I doubt that we’ve got any records of it. Aluria’s a young kingdom by comparison.”
Xiaodan nodded, not at all offended. “Not even we know how Lilith came upon such abilities. They said she’d been cursed by hell itself to bring all the kindred into damnation with her. The Night King hunted her for that reason. No one knew her abilities could be transferred after her death. There were two other vampires before me to successfully undergo the transplant, but when they attempted to use the Sunbringer’s power, they… they perished anyway.”
“And Malekh…?”
“Zidan was the reason I survived. Sauveterre all but ripped my heart out. I remember Zidan, frantic, finding me on the floor with my chest carved up. Every vampire who’d attempted to take up her heart before I did were full kindred. That I am a cambion—Zidan thinks that’s one reason it worked. We’re not as strong as full kindred, but we endure certain things that they cannot, including sunlight. There aren’t enough dhampirs about to prove any of Zidan’s theories yet.”
She smiled sadly. “Mother begged him to save me with Lilith’s heart. She believed that any complications I suffered in the future would be better than dying in the moment.” Xiaodan bowed her head. “She regretted it. Many left the Fourth because of me. And I am the reason Mother’s been reduced to such a state of—”
“No,” Remy said violently, an angry jerk of his shoulders sending the knifechain above him spiraling faster. “You’re not to blame for her deteriorating mind.”
Xiaodan smiled wanly. “It’s not something I like to talk about, which is why I haven’t said much thus far. The memories it always brings back—it’s about more than just the physical pain.”
“Thank you,” Remy said, understanding her better now.
“For what?”
Because she’d understood him, too. Once she’d realized he had his own trauma to bear, she’d accepted there were parts of him he wasn’t willing to relinquish just yet, shielded him from other people’s inquisitiveness. She’d stopped her clanspeople from prying into his past the night before. “You know why.”
She smiled. “I suppose I do.”
Zidan arrived a few minutes later. Remy knew vampires didn’t sleep, though they sometimes took short periods of rest during the day, but all the members of the Fourth Court appeared old enough to withstand sunlight, excluding Naji. And for someone who’d supposedly spent the night working in his laboratory, Malekh looked refreshed and alert, hair neatly tied back from his face with no lock out of place. Naji was with him, having found shade underneath the roof of a nearby pavilion, but the brat was easier to ignore.
After the night Remy had just gone through, knowing he looked haggard in comparison, the sight irked him. “What did you call me here for?”
A few of the other vampires appeared startled by his rudeness, but Malekh ignored it. “I’m here to work you hard, as I promised. Vampires avoid Qing-ye for its abundance of sunlight, but if there is a coven within Fourth Court territory, then you will need to be fighting better than you do. You once told me that if I still considered your skills lacking, you were open to my teaching you.”
Breaker slowed, then ground to a halt as Remy lowered it. It was his turn to laugh, bending down and slapping his knee partly in mirth, partly in frustration at his own asininity.
“I fail to see the humor in the situation.”
“No,” Remy said, still chortling. “It’s all me—I’m an arse. Working me hard. Of course. Think I’m up to beating you today, for a change.”
“Would you like to put another wager on it?”
Remy didn’t hesitate. “If I win, I want you to help me find everything you can about the Night Empress and the First Court. Where the coven is hiding, where their most recent nest may be, and everything else you can provide.”
“You’re a fool,” Naji said. “They’ve already warned you against going after her. You’d be dead before you could do them any damage.”
“She killed my mother, and I won’t rest until I see her staked through, and to hell with how old she is. Just give me the information I need, and I’ll do the rest. You told me that the Night King has died and his queen has taken his place. If it was possible to kill him, then why not her?”
The silence was unexpectedly palpable. Even Naji looked nervous. Malekh reacted little to his pronouncement, his features still carefully blank. Oddly enough, so was Xiaodan’s, every bit of emotion wiped clean from her normally expressive face.
“If you can’t get past me,” Malekh said, “then you’ll never get close enough to see the Night Empress herself.”
“Name your wager, then.”
“If I win, then I will carry out tonight what you were so convinced I would.”
An even more deliberate silence fell. This time, it was Remy who was doing his damnedest not to turn red, failing miserably. The others watching registered little surprise. Even Naji contented himself with rolling his eyes theatrically.
“Fuck you,” Remy said.
Malekh undid his coat, let it fall. “Then it is agreed. Shall we begin?”
AS ALWAYS, Malekh was a man of his word. Remy’s skills had improved considerably in the interim since leaving Elouve, but it still took every ounce of strength he had just to parry the man’s blows, and his counterattacks remained few and far between.
It didn’t help that many of the Fourth Court vampires cheered with every decisive blow the lord made, which happened frequently. Keyed up on arrogance, Remy had insisted on fighting Malekh hand to hand, despite the disadvantages it would bring him, to the visible disappointment of their audience. Whatever their conciliatory views toward him, Breaker had slain their kin. To see Malekh overcoming him with that most feared weapon would be satisfying for them to see.
But Remy was used to being the underdog anyway, and Malekh was far too familiar with fighting Breaker by now to gain much of an advantage. So Remy focused on avoiding blows, on making a point to get up quickly whenever he had his feet swept out from under him.
“Again,” he gritted out, for what felt like the hundredth time, righting himself painfully off the courtyard stones. Malekh was much more relentless this time, but he was fighting him like an equal. Remy supposed he should at least thank Malekh for letting him keep his dignity.
He lashed out before he’d even regained his balance, hoping to catch the vampire unaware, but Malekh simply ducked his punches and sidestepped his high kicks with just as much ease, then clipped him hard against the chin.
Remy staggered back, took a few moments to refocus, and sidestepped Malekh’s follow-up blow, giving ground reluctantly. He ducked, delivered a glancing blow to the man’s stomach, but the noble didn’t seem to feel the hit. He grinned instead and walloped Remy hard in the shin. His knees buckled, and he was on the ground for the tenth time that hour alone.
He could feel Xiaodan’s eyes on him rather than on her fiancé’s. He risked a look, spotted the bright, pleased smile on her face. Either she was glad that Malekh was kicking his arse at this level of frequency, or she approved of his tenacity, though there didn’t seem much to commend him regarding the latter.
“Again,” he rasped, struggling back to his feet and launching himself at the noble. Malekh blurred out of view and Remy spun, lashing out with his foot at where the vampire had reappeared. The noble grabbed his ankle; without pause, Remy leaped into the air and kicked out with his other boot, managing to hit his opponent’s shoulder before Malekh shoved hard at him, sending him flying.
He landed on his feet, turned to face the vampire again, and paused when he saw Malekh’s relaxed stance. The noble was already picking up the cloak he’d discarded.
“I’m not done yet,” Remy growled.
“We’ve done enough today,” Malekh said. “The fight is over.”
“I told you not to fucking patronize me—”
But Malekh was already shrugging his coat on. “I’ve finished my analysis of Dr. Agenot’s serum. It may be of interest to you, what I’ve discovered. While we are a ways off from eradicating the infection in its entirety, I may have found a way to slow its progression, to keep the Rot dormant long enough to delay the worst of its effects. See me at my laboratory once you’ve changed into something less”—he wrinkled his nose—“fragrant.”
“Did I win?” Remy asked, watching him leave. “What the hell just happened?”
Xiaodan popped up beside him, laughing. “No one has gone this many rounds with Zidan in a spar, Remy. He’s just annoyed that he wasn’t able to beat you more conclusively.”
“I didn’t do shit. He knocked me down so many times I wasn’t even sure which way was up half the—”
“Milady’s right,” Alegra said. She nodded at her fellow clanmates, who were eyeing Remy with newfound respect. “I wasn’t expecting a Pendergast so young to hold his own against Lord Zidan.”
“Zidan took pity on him,” Naji said. “I don’t understand why you all act like he’s done something impressive.”
“I still think fighting the Night Empress is tantamount to suicide, Armiger,” Honfa said slowly. “But perhaps if Lord Zidan thinks it’s possible…”
Remy stared at them, then back at Xiaodan. “Did I bloody win?” he asked again.
IT DIDN’T look like much—the small vial was unchanged from when Remy had seen it the last time, the same oddly transparent color it had been when Malekh had set it down before Queen Ophelia. “So what you’re telling us,” Remy said, trying to wrap the entirety of his brainpower around what Malekh had just told them, “is that you’ve found a way to prevent the Rot from spreading in someone who’s already been exposed to it? Someone who’s been bitten but hasn’t fully succumbed to his injuries?”
“Exactly. I see you’ve been paying attention after all.” Ignoring Remy’s scowl, Malekh picked up an empty syringe. “I’d like to show you how it works. Roll up your arm.”
“Why?”
“I’ll be needing blood from you, if I may. We need an uninfected human for this demonstration, and you’re the only one available.” Malekh raised an eyebrow. His smile was back. “Or would you prefer I use a different extraction method?”
Everyone was still refusing to tell him if he’d won or lost their wager. Remy glowered and did as the noble asked.
Malekh took his blood carefully, injected a small amount of it onto a glass display. “We won’t need the optic enhancers to observe the results,” he said. “This is, of course, what uninfected blood looks like. I’ve taken another sample, this time from Tal Harveston’s corpse, and added in a reactant that would make the changes visible when I do… this.”
He selected a dropper already filled with the mutated blood, squeezed out a drop into the set he’d taken from Remy. The liquid changed abruptly from its normal scarlet red to a gradually bluish tinge. “This is what the blood of those infected by the Rot would look like,” Malekh said. “In two hours, it overwhelms the human immune system completely, killing the host and turning them into the mindless undead. And if I were to analyze this new infected sample again, it will now show two distinct blood types—your blood type, Pendergast, and that of another.”
“Tal Harveston’s?” Xiaodan asked.
“No, and that’s the most fascinating part. Agenot mentioned this before, but my tests make it conclusive. Tal Harveston is of the type A antigen, but the blood type dominant in this sample is of an AB classification—the original progenitor of this mutation.”
“How’s that possible?”
“A patient zero perhaps, likely the one responsible for the initial outbreak. It shows me one possible breakthrough. I can sequence the genome of the infector’s blood, map out its whole structure for me to modify and test as I see fit.”
“Are you saying you can change the molecular structure of this sample to showcase any other deviations, the possible mutations that can come from it?” Xiaodan asked, being far more attuned to the conversation than Remy. “And you can alter it to prevent the spread of the contamination to humans who become infected? So if they’re treated right away, they won’t die from it?”
“As promising as this is, I cannot say with certainty that any humans would be completely rid of the Rot. But we can keep it dormant.” Malekh picked up another syringe from his collection, one with a bright-red liquid shine that reminded Remy of bloodwakers. “Anyone infected who receives this within an hour of being bitten, two at the latest, will retain their humanity. It will not completely eradicate the Rot within them, only render it harmless. They may need new infusions of the serum on occasion, but it should give us enough time to research a more permanent cure.”
“You’re a genius, my love,” Xiaodan said delightedly.
“Once I isolated the infected blood cells, it was easy enough to find the solution. I assume the other scientists at the Archives who took over after Agenot will find the answer before long. It was far simpler than even I’d expected.”
“How are you so bloody sure it’s effective?” Remy asked.
“I tested it out this morning. I was late for our sparring because I was handing out doses to two recent victims in the villages east of here—Laofong and Huixin. One had been bitten an hour previously, the other closer to death at two. Both are alive and recovering, with no observed mutations. Two subjects treated successfully is not conclusive by any means, but it’s a promising start. I’ve replicated more of the serum for their ongoing treatment and distributed them among the other villages, should other incidents occur.”
“You used people for your experiments without knowing how effective it is, or what side effects they might suffer from it?” Remy burst out.
“Tell me what I should have done, Pendergast. All medicines require thorough testing. I would not be a proper test subject, as it would be ineffective on me. The only alternative was to allow the Rot to take its course and have Xiaodan burn them afterward—and as I recall, you were even more opposed to that.”
“It still isn’t right to experiment on people,” Remy muttered.
“You’re still frowning, love,” Xiaodan noted to Malekh. “If this was so simple, wouldn’t this be a cause for celebration?”
“We’re making headway, yes,” he said slowly, “but there are two things that still bother me. There is a deliberate cold-bloodedness about how all this has been engineered. If this is an artificially manufactured disease, then someone out there has a very particular hatred of humanity.”
“And the second point?” Remy prompted when the noble appeared lost in his own thoughts.
“The second,” Malekh said, “is that this all seems just a little too easy.”
“Milord,” Honfa said as he and Alegra entered the laboratory. “Malira and Alegra believe they know where the Fifth Court nest is hidden.”
Xiaodan spun toward them, wide-eyed. “Where?”
“It’s just as you suspected, milady. A mile or so to the southeast, around the Dà Lán. Alegra says she spotted kindred lurking about.”
“Not an Elder vampire, strangely enough,” Alegra said. “A young man. No more than a few years turned, I’d say, as he was still avoiding the patches of sunlight among the plains. The Dà Lán is particularly notorious for those. Not ageless enough to look the part, either. He tried to fight when we spotted him, realized he couldn’t win, and took off.”
“Alegra thinks it could be a lure,” Honfa said. “Not even the most foolish and the most inexperienced would be wandering aimlessly around here. But a lure to where, we don’t know. We don’t have enough of us to man Chànggē Shuĭ and search at the same time, and we’re worried about whether it’s bait to leave the castle undefended, or to ambush us by the lake.”
“None of you are to leave Chànggē Shuĭ,” Xiaodan said sharply. “Mother’s safety takes priority. Zidan and I shall look into the matter.”
“I’m coming with you,” Remy said.
“You don’t know the lands as well as we do. It would be better to keep you here.”
“Xiaodan—”
“I’m afraid this is not a request, Remy.” Xiaodan’s voice softened. “Please.”
Remy hated it. He should be out there with them. He hadn’t traveled this far to be shunted off now. Still, he nodded. “Don’t be slow about it,” he said, and was rewarded with a smile.
HE SAW them off that afternoon and didn’t grow bored until an hour later. He wandered into the courtyard, where a few of the vampires offered their own sparring sessions with him. He opted against using Breaker again, grappling with Gideon before going on an exhilarating melee bout with Alegra, who was by far the strongest fighter in the castle besides Malekh and Xiaodan. He’d found better success against them, trouncing Gideon and forcing Alegra into a stalemate, delivering worthier blows than he’d been able to with the Third Court king.
Naji stood at the sidelines and watched them fight. For a moment, Remy thought the youth might challenge him to his own bout as revenge for their last, but the lad merely frowned, still not happy at the thought of him here, and left when the battles were done.
There was something odd at the farthest end of the courtyard that he hadn’t noticed during his first visit. It was a black boxlike structure twenty or twenty-five feet high, with a small opening on the side for peering in that could fit no more than three or four fingers. Remy had an uneasy feeling. It looked too similar to the one at the Archives’ laboratory to be a coincidence.
“Did Malekh make a vault of his own?”
“I don’t know what a vault is,” said a pretty vampire named Liufei, “but it’s what we built for Lord Zidan in case we needed to contain any of the infected we might encounter in Qing-ye. No such luck yet.”
“He told me he had no plans to keep any of those mutations alive long enough to compromise everyone else’s safety.”
“He spoke true, but you know Lord Zidan—always ready with a contingency. Did you know that Xiaodan’s sunbringer ability is the only way to destroy them completely? Even we could be killed by her light if we stand too close. It is easier for her to take down any beasts if they’re enclosed, where it wouldn’t affect us.” Liufei sighed dramatically. “I’m a hundred and seventy years old. I would have thought that my fear of the sun was long behind me.”
“If it’s worth anything, you don’t look a day over eighty.”
“Flatterer.” Liufei’s smile faded. “If I may be so bold, Armiger. I am glad that there is someone outside of Lilith’s Court that cares for Lady Song as much as we do. She has not had an easy life. We would not abandon her had she the power of a thousand suns, and I see that you feel the same.”
“I only hope to be useful to her.”
“I can think of many different ways and at least twenty-four positions by which she would be delighted by your usefulness.” Liufei sauntered away, chuckling, as Remy turned red.
Afterward, he had taken to wandering the castle. The hellhounds were dozing inside the library but stirred to lick him. A lazy half hour of petting passed—once you got used to their tendency to look skeletal at angles, they were rather charming.
They nudged playfully at his legs while he browsed the shelves. He discovered a fair number of medical textbooks and studies on anatomy, which he figured were from Malekh’s collection. Wherever the Third Court base truly was, it looked like Malekh had made the Chànggē Shuĭ fortress a second home of sorts.
“Found any of our secrets yet?”
Remy spun, watching Naji plop himself down on an armchair. One of the dogs trotted over to the boy, demanding his share of head pats.
“Why are you even here?” the young vampire asked bluntly. “Are you really a spy for Aluria, or are my brother and his fiancée your main concern?”
Remy bristled. “I want to take down the Night Court.”
“With what? That hunk of steel you carry around? We don’t go out of our way to antagonize the First Court. You know about Zidan’s past with the Night King by now.”
“I don’t intend to do anything that could hurt him.”
Naji paused, taking in the look on Remy’s face. “So you do like Zidan,” he said, almost smirking. “Him and Xiaodan. You’re easy enough to read.”
“That’s none of your business,” Remy said tightly.
“Why aren’t you doing anything about it?”
“You’ve wanted to kick me out of the castle from the moment I stepped foot inside it. Why would you throw me at your brother and his betrothed?”
“If they brought you here, then they trust you. Zidan saved my life. I want to see him happy even more than I dislike you. Anyone else in your place would have jumped at the chance to share their bed by now.”
“I’m not anyone else! I don’t deserve—” Remy stumbled to a halt. “I don’t fucking know why they chose me.” He wasn’t sure why he was confessing to the one person in Chànggē Shuĭ who’d been the most hostile to him, but saying it was a weight off his shoulders. “I’ve never had much of a family, and I’m not in the habit of trusting people. I keep expecting them to demand something in exchange, even if my instincts tell me they won’t.”
“That’s a lot of words to admit you’ve been acting the fool.”
Remy scowled at him but had no answer.
The youth looked down. “You know, I never had much of a family, either. Your father like to punch you like mine did?”
“No,” Remy said, taken aback.
“I was the sickly sort, and he resented it. Beat me so bad he all but killed me the last time, and it scared the shit out of him. He dumped me on the side of the road, ready to swear it was the work of some rogue vampire. Except the vampire who found me saved me instead. So I went back and showed my father just how strong I was.” Naji looked down at the dog, smiling to himself. “Zidan, Xiaodan, everyone here—they’re the first ones to make me feel like I belong. They’ve asked nothing of me. Everything I do for them is done willingly. It’s just…” He paused, taking several seconds to inspect the demon dog’s fur.
“I was grieving,” he said quietly. “I needed a way to forget. To run wild for a moment. And I would have continued to be that imbecile for far longer if you hadn’t beaten some sense back into my head. Suppose I should thank you for not killing me that night.”
“I’m sorry,” Remy said. “I didn’t know.”
Naji rolled his eyes. “Talk to my brother when he and Xiaodan return. But first, you need to figure out what it is you want from them, instead of spending all your time second-guessing what they want from you.” Naji pointed toward the door. “And now I’d like to read in peace. Go find Gideon and make yourself useful.”
It wasn’t until Remy was halfway down the corridor that he realized the conversation had been a peace offering on Naji’s part.
He went up by the castle turrets next, insistent on standing guard for a turn while he was there. In a bid to be friendly, one of the other warriors, a stocky lad with a bright smile named Guoyang, showed him the defenses of their isolated city. A minefield of traps lay just outside the fortress, he explained. The solid-looking ground before them hid large pits with sharpened wooden stakes waiting for unlucky attackers. And as he’d been told earlier, most vampires were nervous about moats, especially when Chànggē Shuĭ’s flooded down from the waterfall behind them.
“Won’t someone attempt to climb down that?” Remy asked.
“The lake the waterfall comes down from goes on for miles, without any dry ground for them to stand on. Not a likely spot for vampire attacks. Jumping from there and landing on the castle walls—and the many spikes we’ve set up—won’t bode well for them either. We put a guard up there every week or so, just to be sure. There’s a small shallow pool right on top where the water only reaches your knees. Everywhere else around it is a good thirty, thirty-five feet deep, and the next tract of solid land is twenty miles away after that. We make wagers on who can make it up the fastest.”
Guoyang was teaching him some Qing-yen while they stood guard—naturally, he learned the curses first—when they caught a glimpse of a figure speeding rapidly toward them from a distance, moving far too quickly for it to be anything else but what Remy feared it was.
The vampire stopped before their gates. They were heavily hooded and holding something up in the air for them to see.
It was Xiaodan’s cloak, drenched in blood.
By the time Remy made it to the outer gates, the vampire was already surrounded by the rest of the Fourth Court. Both his hands were in the air. “Don’t get all your shifts stuck in a twist,” he said. “Your beloved Song Xiaodan is alive—for now.”
“If you don’t bring her to us in the next five minutes,” Alegra growled, “it will be your head that is twisted clean off your body. You’re only a youngblood. All we need to do is rip that cloak off and shove you into sunlight.”
“How rude,” the vampire said affably. “I’m only the messenger, milady, and if anything happens to me, your mistress’s head will be at stake. Or on a stake, as it were. You see this?” He waved the cloak again. “I was told to give this to the bloodling, along with a message.”
“The bloodling is here,” Remy said, stepping forward. “If you’ve hurt her—”
The vampire grinned. “If you wish to see both Zidan Malekh and Song Xiaodan alive, then you are to accompany me back to our coven—alone. Vasilik would like to extend his most esteemed regards to you in person. Reject his offer, and he will be deeply sorry to have to deliver both Malekh and Song back to you in very tiny pieces.”