Lognion met them in a more formal audience chamber, and his eyes landed on Mark Nerrow first. “Lord Nerrow, I did not expect to see you here this evening.” Then he waved his hand at the rest of them. “Please rise and be at ease.”
The baron, like the others in the room, was in the midst of an extended bow, which only ended once the king gave them leave to end their obeisance. Will as usual had remained recalcitrant, even though it made the others extremely uneasy. Mark straightened up and responded, “I felt ill at ease when I learned your son-in-law was planning to strike at the enemy this evening. My daughter insisted on accompanying him, and as her father, I could do no less.”
The king’s gaze focused on Laina. “I’m sure you couldn’t. With the people’s savior on this mission you cannot help but succeed, even if the avatar of Marduke were also beside you.” Lognion’s attention turned to Will as he finished the sentence. “Did you succeed, William?”
Will glanced at Elizabeth, then nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty, with the help of Lord Courtney and several talented researchers, such as Mistress Sundy here. I merely presented the need; they provided the solution.”
“Present your plan then,” said Lognion.
Everyone seemed hesitant, aside from the baron. Elizabeth seemed tempted to speak, but she kept looking at Will. In the end, he knew it was his responsibility. “The ritual will be organized by Mistress Sundy with me at its center. We will need to perform it in the cathedral to cover the entire city. As far as requirements, we need a minimum of one hundred and seventy-two sorcerers to participate.”
The king leaned forward in his seat and appeared to be counting them. “Do you have that many? I only see two with you.”
“I assumed Your Majesty would provide them,” said Will. “We brought the two hundred student candidates with us as well. Their number alone would be sufficient—”
“You presume too much, William. The ranks of the Driven have been severely affected by this crisis. These new candidates are barely enough to replenish them. If we lose them in this untested foray of yours, it will endanger the future of the kingdom, for I won’t have enough to cut the head from this undead snake.”
“Wurthaven has more students,” said Will coldly. “If we fail, recruit another two hundred. It won’t matter. Your plan will eliminate Wurthaven anyway. You may as well risk these lives knowing you can harvest another crop without any real loss tomorrow.” That earned him some strange looks from those around him.
“So jaded for one so young,” said the king. “What of protection? If I give you that number, how will you get them to the cathedral safely? One small ambush and your plan will fail.”
Laina stepped forward, her body tense with repressed anger. “Since you seem ill-disposed to order men to the task, what if I ask for volunteers?”
Lognion was unflustered. “Go right ahead, Miss Nerrow. The majority of my forces are not here. Unless you are willing to make a journey to the walls to recruit them, you may find a lack of manpower.” A newcomer entered the hall behind them and bowed from the waist. “You may rise and report, Lord Tintabel.”
Will was startled by the name, and it took him a moment to remember where he had heard it before. He’s the neighbor to the Nerrows, the one whose house I fought in front of. There was something else, though. His house was burned. I thought he was dead. He glanced at Laina, wondering what she thought since she probably knew the man better.
The expression on her face was one of extreme displeasure. It seemed she didn’t have a high opinion of her neighbor, although the baron’s face didn’t reveal anything similar. Will wondered if she had a personal grudge. It isn’t as though she’s the most likable person after all, he observed.
“The students have received their elementals. We can begin disseminating them among the troops as soon as you give the word, Your Majesty,” said Tintabel.
“It seems that won’t be necessary, Lord Tintabel. I’ve just promised them to my son-in-law here. If they survive the night they may take their new positions then,” said the king.
Lord Tintabel raised one brow, quite a feat given how thick and bushy they were. The man’s hair was long and black, giving his pale face a shadowed appearance. “And if they don’t survive, Your Majesty?”
“Then we take another two hundred in the morning. There will be time enough to do our work before the next sunset, if it comes to that,” said the king affably.
Laina glared at her neighbor. “Why don’t you come with us, Lord Tintabel? Your help would be of great use to us.”
The man gave an apologetic half-bow. “My apologies to you, Miss Nerrow, and to your father, but my place is here beside His Majesty, coordinating our last defense. It would not do for your effort to succeed only to discover that we had lost our king in the midst of it all.”
“I’m sure the nation will remember your bravery in undertaking our monarch’s defense,” Laina responded, her words dripping with acid.
In the end there was no more help forthcoming from the crown, but Will had an idea. He’d once had to plan an escape from the cathedral—via the sewers. Tailtiu had planned the route for him. If she had recovered sufficiently, she might be able to advise them on a similar path from the palace back to the center of the city. He explained the idea to those with him as they returned to the palace yard.
Mark Nerrow wasn’t a fan of the idea. “Do you even know if we could all fit? Some of the sewers are perilously narrow.”
“As long as we follow the right route, we’ll be fine,” said Will. “But if we mistakenly turn into the smaller branches, we could get stuck, but I know someone who can guide us.”
“What about the vampires?” asked Janice. “Aren’t they hiding in the sewers? It seems more dangerous to go down there than just walk through the streets.”
“They’re coming up to hunt us during the night,” countered Will. “On an open street they can move faster than we can handle, and they can come at us from any direction. In the sewer tunnel their movement is restricted to the tunnel. If we can limit the directions we have to defend against, then we can manage it easily.”
Laina spoke next. “What about side passages?”
“We have two hundred elementals. The vampires can’t kill them. We position a few at each side passage as we pass by. Earth elementals can create temporary blockages, as can water and air elementals. Fire—”
Elizabeth Sundy interrupted, “It’s best if we avoid the use of fire down there. Sewer gases can be quite explosive. In fact, you’ll want an air elemental to clear the air in the passages ahead of us or we could be poisoned.”
Will looked to the senior researcher. “So you think the plan has merit?”
“If you have a guide,” she responded, raking her salt-and-pepper hair back over one ear.
“Give me an hour,” he told them. “I’ll know within that time whether we have a guide or not.” Then he started to walk away. “I need a little time alone.”
Will distanced himself by twenty yards or so, moving to stand close to the exterior wall between the palace and the city. He felt slightly nervous about calling Tailtiu, since he didn’t know what her condition might be. There was also the risk that Aislinn might appear instead, and after her last visit he was less certain of her motives.
He closed his eyes and prepared to repeat her name when he felt something bump up against his leg. Looking down, he saw the goddamn cat. “You!” he exclaimed.
The cat sat down, staring up at him without expression. “Me.”
“Where’s your bow?” asked Will, unable to stop himself.
The cat stood and started walking away. “Perhaps you don’t need my advice after all.”
“Wait! I was only teasing. Forget what I said.” The cat stopped and sat down again. “Where have you been?” asked Will.
“At my house. Where your mother lives. I needed some rest after our excursion.”
Where Sammy lives, thought Will suddenly.
“I can read your expressions,” said the cat angrily, “and your thoughts are crude and unrefined. I was merely worried that your cousin might be distraught at my sudden disappearance after being so badly wounded.”
“Sure.”
“Do you want my advice or not?” The cat’s tone was surly.
“Yes, please.”
“The tunnels are a good idea, but don’t call on the fae.”
“Do you think Tailtiu has recovered?” asked Will.
The goddamn cat licked one foot. “Almost without doubt, but involving them further would make the situation extremely dangerous. Your aunt’s scent would likely draw every vampire within a significant range down on you, and that isn’t even considering the danger of dealing with her mother again.”
“How do I lead them through then?” asked Will. “One wrong turn could spell disaster.”
“I can show you the way.”
“You’ll come with us?”
“No. Remember Arrogan’s tracking spell?”
Will nodded.
“Cast it on me. I’ll run the path quickly, and you can trace my path afterward.”
“Why won’t you come with us?”
The Cath Bawlg wrinkled his nose and panted in disgust. “The stench down there is unbearable.”
“But you’re going to travel through it on your own?” Will was confused.
“Not in this form. Hurry up and cast your spell.”
Will had never actually used the tracking spell, but he had practiced it, creating it once daily when he ran through his routine. The spell was only third-order, so it wasn’t hard to remember. The construct came together quickly above his palm, and then he placed his hand on top of the goddamn cat’s back. At the same time, he gave the feline an experimental scratch, but all he got for the effort was a hiss.
“Follow the path quickly. It will only take me a minute. After that you’re on your own,” said the Cath Bawlg, then he did something Will had never seen before. He dissolved into what appeared to be an insubstantial smoky shadow. He raced away and then disappeared down a sewer grate next to the palace gate.
Will returned to the others. “We’re set. I can get us there.”
“Where do we meet your guide?” asked the baron.
“That’s already done,” he answered, tapping his temple. “I have a path to follow.”
“And we’re supposed to trust you?” asked his father anxiously. “You walk away and pretend to have a secret conversation, then you come back and tell us your imaginary friend taught you how to get there?”
Janice started to open her mouth, but Laina was even quicker to respond. “If he says he can do it, he can!” she snapped. Then she looked at the others, a challenge in her eyes. “If any of you don’t believe him, then you shouldn’t have come.”
Without further argument, they formed up near the sewer and Laina used her earth elemental to quickly remove the grate and widen the opening so they could easily get down. From there, they formed a long line. Tiny offered to take the lead, but Will was the only one able to see the line marking their path, or at all for that matter, lacking a light source of some kind. Tiny and Laina would follow him, while Mark Nerrow, Elizabeth Sundy, and Darla would bring up the end of the line, with the two hundred students in between. Janice would be in the middle of the line, where she could help organize the students according to their elementals, sending those forward who would be needed to block side tunnels.
Being in the front, Will adjusted his vision accordingly. The others used light spells behind him, but Tiny’s bulk blocked most of the light that filtered forward, so Will preferred to stay a little ahead as he could actually see better without the extraneous light ruining his vision.
Each time he came across a crossing point or a t-intersection, he stopped to warn the others and wait for an elemental to block the path that wouldn’t be used, then he would resume moving forward. All in all, it was significantly slower than it would have been to walk the streets aboveground, but there didn’t seem to be any vampires present. He had prepared three Ethelgren’s Ilumination spells, and he hoped that those plus his force-lances and shields would be enough to get them through.
The worst of it was the feeling of the murky sewer water seeping into their shoes and soaking the lower portions of their clothing. Well, that and the smell. Although an air elemental kept bringing fresh air in from the street grates they passed under and pushing it forward ahead of them, the smell was still unbelievably foul.
He was starting to think they might make it the entire way without encountering anything when something gray flickered through the tunnel in front of him, moving almost too fast to see. The vampire rebounded from his point-defense shield less than five feet from where he stood, but he began hammering it with force-lances before it could make another charge. Leg, leg, chest, arm, head, the creature’s body came apart under his rapid-fire spells.
Will wished he had gotten a chance to learn the spell that Ethelgren had used, since it seemed to kill the creatures with a single shot, but then again, it would have taken months to get to the point where he could reflex cast it.
Tiny had seen some of what happened, though the combination of darkness and flickering illumination from the light spells behind him made it difficult to sort out exactly what happened. “We have one in pieces up here,” called the big man.
Janice had someone send an earth elemental forward, and the pieces of the vampire were quickly separated and encased in stone. That gave him pause as he wondered how thorough the ritual would be. It was meant to illuminate even underground spaces, but would it be fine enough to handle body parts encased in stone? Before he could ask, he saw smoke rising from one of the stone balls as it began to crumble away.
Oh, acid, he realized. If it worked for trolls it probably worked for vampire flesh as well, though it wasn’t as fast as fire.
Will moved forward even more cautiously after that, but after a hundred yards more he saw that the line went straight up to a grate roughly seven feet above his head. There were no rungs or other means of climbing, since the drain wasn’t meant for human access, but Will thought it might be the same sewer grate he had planned to use to escape from Selene’s wedding.
If so, that means we’re near the east-side door to the cathedral. He wasn’t sure though. They could just as easily be on the west side, which was probably just as good. North and south would be less ideal, since the layout of the cathedral meant that the nearest gutters were much farther from the front and back entrances.
“We’re here,” Will said to Tiny, who turned and passed the word back.
He felt more nervous about emerging from the safety of the sewers than he had about entering them when they had seemed dark and unknown. Now it was the land above that seemed most dangerous. Is this how rabbits feel before they leave the safety of the warren? he wondered.
They had come too far to back out now and waiting wouldn’t help. Will prepared to cast a climb spell on himself. He still had some rope inside the limnthal, so he figured he could tie it off at the top and the others could use it to get up. He was about to start climbing when Laina squeezed around Tiny and nudged him with an elbow. “Move, idiot.”
He moved forward, to the other side of the space beneath the grate, and Laina’s earth elemental flowed upward, creating wide, easy hand- and footholds in the stone as it went. At the top, it shifted the paving stones and moved the iron grate aside with a minimum of noise. “Oh,” said Will, feeling slightly silly. “I keep forgetting about the elementals.”
“I wish I could,” said Laina darkly, and before he could stop her, she ascended to the street.
Surprised, Will reacted slowly, and Tiny beat him into position to be second. Fortunately, the street was quiet once he got aboveground. The city was covered in darkness, since the lamplighters hadn’t been able to do their duties. The windows in the buildings across the street were dark, and the only light came from the stars above.
That was enough for Will, as he adjusted his sight to make use of the starlight, but for the others it was barely enough to keep from stumbling. Laina made as if to cast a fresh light spell, but Will touched her arm. “If we’re lucky there’s none near, but they’ll see the glow from that light from blocks away.” A scream in the distance echoed down the lane, underscoring his point. It seemed a few people hadn’t obeyed the king’s order to gather at Wurthaven.
On one side of them, the cathedral loomed less than twenty feet away, with steps rising to broad double doors. Will had been right; it was indeed the east-side entrance. Laina leaned in, trying to see his face, and almost slammed her forehead into his nose. “No one can see. How are they going to find the door?” she hissed.
“Wait here a second,” he replied, and before she could object, Will moved up the steps to the cathedral entrance. Testing the handle, he found the door locked. Figures. Quickly, he cast the unlocking spell and then eased one door open, wincing as the hinges whined loudly. Then he summoned his rope and tied it to the door handle. He stepped back to the grate and handed the rope to Tiny. “Put their hand on it as they come up. It’s tied off at the entrance.”
The others began to ascend while Will and Laina moved just inside the cathedral doors. “It’s even worse in here,” she complained. “We have to have light to work by.”
Will guided her to the right, then put her hand on the closest of several tall candelabras. “One for now. We can light more once everyone is inside.” She nodded, and there was a tiny flicker as her fire elemental lit the closest candle.
The candle made quite a difference, even to those just coming up from the sewer, for it enabled them to see their target, and the rope was hardly needed after that, though it helped keep them from stumbling on the stairs. Twenty people were inside when a voice rang out from the galleries above, echoing in a manner that made it impossible to pinpoint. “I warned you, Will, but you wouldn’t listen.”
Everyone froze as a bolt of terror shot through their collective hearts. Unlike the others, Will could see clearly within the cathedral, and his eyes soon spotted a gray form moving on the balcony across from them. “Rob?” he called out.
The vampire laughed. “The one and only. I see you brought friends. This reminds me of the day you first came to Wurthaven. Do you remember? When we looked out the dorm window?”
Will remembered. “It wasn’t that long ago,” he answered, feeling sad. Rob’s fascination with the female student body had caused him to wax poetic. What had he said? “They lie before us like a banquet waiting to be supped upon.”
“That’s what you all look like to me now, Will. Delicious and bursting with vitality.”
Will avoided looking directly at his friend. Given the relative darkness, Rob would be seeing him primarily by his heart-light, and while the candle behind him would create a little glare, he knew his old friend would clearly be able to see where his gaze was directed. By looking off to one side, he hoped not to give away the fact that he could see Rob clearly. “Why don’t you come down here where I can see you, Rob? We can talk. Maybe there’s a way to fix this.”
Rob laughed again. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? I’m not stupid. I know the things you can do. You’d end me the second you could see me. If our positions were reversed, I doubt you would care enough to try as much as I have.”
“That’s not true,” said Will.
“Then why didn’t you listen? Wasn’t I clear enough? Are you trying to force me to kill you?”
Will’s mind was racing. We are merely decoys. He still didn’t understand. The vampires couldn’t have known about his plan for a ritual when Rob had written the message, so it couldn’t have been part of their plans. He had hoped that his action would circumvent their plan, thinking they only knew about the king’s final contingency.
Yet Rob was there waiting for them, in the cathedral. How had he known they would appear there? “Decoys for what?” asked Will.
“That’s the beauty of Androv’s plan,” said Rob. “It doesn’t matter what you do. All roads lead to an ending with two results, a dead city, and a dead king. Both will happen, and even if you managed to prevent one through some miracle, the other would be all but inevitable.”
“Help me then,” Will pleaded. “Despite what they’ve done to you, you know what’s right. Help us.”
“You don’t know what it’s like. The pleasure, the hunger, the taste of someone’s life flowing through your lips. Even if I could return to my old self, I wouldn’t want to now. I only warned you out of some strange feeling of sentiment, a feeling that has almost faded away.”
“But you came here to warn me again?” asked Will. “Or is this an ambush?”
“This is farewell, my friend. Whatever you do here doesn’t concern me. Androv will protect me.” Rob began backing up, moving closer to the stained-glass windows that lined the galleries.
“Androv is dead!” declared Will.
“Believing that was your biggest mistake.” Rob’s body blurred into motion, and glass shattered as he flung himself through the window. Will’s force-lance passed through the space a half-second later. I wasn’t quick enough, he chided himself, but he knew it wasn’t true. He had hesitated because he couldn’t bear to hurt his friend.