The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4)

by Garrett Robinson

  And we went through such pains to get the cauldron in the first place. Now we shall have to fetch another, and hope we are as lucky with the constables a second time.

  At least Aldo seems to know how drastic his error was. I doubt he will be so foolish again.

  * * *

  16 Septis

  1. We have thirteen potential candidates for harvesting now.

  I hope Father sends his order soon. I am anxious to begin. This ritual will work. I can feel it. And if it can be used in the war … the sheer number of cities that could be laid low by such a technique! Danfon, Opara, the entirety of western Selvan—to say nothing of Hedgemond. Weeks, mayhap even months of terror, and then the beleaguered citizens will welcome us as their rightful saviors.

  If only I had a dark-damned cauldron.

  * * *

  18 Septis

  1. Sky bless Aldo and his foolish, foolish face. I was right before. He knew just how grave was his error, and he has been working tirelessly to correct it. He went out exploring in the town and bought a great quantity of wrought iron. This he brought to Libet and Askila, and with enough of it to use for raw material, they were able to replace the bottom of the cauldron. They warned me that the material would eventually degrade over time, but we should have at least six months. That should give us plenty of time to conclude our business here in Lan Shui, and then to procure another cauldron for use somewhere else.

  Aldo is still a fool, of course, but even great foolishness can be overcome by an earnest heart and enough dedication.

  Now that we have a workable cauldron again, I am going to have the alchemists dig us a much deeper hole beneath it. I will not risk losing it again.

  * * *

  20 Septis

  1. I have decided to start the harvest. Tonight. I am worried that the order will come, and that we will be woefully underprepared.

  We can only hope that I am not too early, and that suspicion is not raised before we are ready.

  I shall split my squadron into two groups, each of which can harvest two candidates each night. One alchemist with each group shall form the containers to keep the blood from spoiling.

  It will take us a week and a half to collect what we need. I only hope the order comes soon after that.

  * * *

  22 Septis

  1. I can hardly believe it. Word has come from the Lord. We are to begin the ritual. It seems I began the harvest at just the right time.

  Father is lenient. He understands I may not have all of the necessary materials to begin the ritual immediately, and so he has merely asked us to begin as soon as we are ready—before the ides of Octis, if we can manage it.

  The harvest goes well. I have laid my plans carefully. The Lord has placed great faith in me, and I will not fail him.

  * * *

  4 Octis

  1. We do not quite have as much blood as I would like. There are many more candidates to be harvested. But I grow anxious to begin the ritual. Each night brings greater risk of discovery. Askila’s target nearly escaped her grasp last night, and that would have been a disaster.

  Yet at the same time, I do not wish to start with insufficient blood, and cause the ritual to fail because we did not collect enough. It is a quandary.

  Three more days. I shall give it three more days, and then I shall begin, no matter our supplies.

  * * *

  7 Octis

  1. It is time. I would rather we had another dozen bodies’ worth of blood, but this shall have to do. We can continue to add to the cauldron after it is already boiling, after all. And I cannot risk any more delay. Of the candidates who remain, all are far more risky than the ones we have collected so far. Most of them have regular contact with the townsfolk, and it will not be long before their absence is noted.

  At midday, we begin the burn.

  2. The burn has begun. I started with a single stone. Caution is warranted in the beginning, I think. Certainly I do not want to repeat Aldo’s mistake.

  The heat is considerable, even from a pace or two away. But the cauldron remains cold to the touch. I will give it more time.

  3. It is nearly sundown. The cauldron has warmed slightly, but the blood is still cool, though we have been stirring it constantly.

  I am adding another stone and then retiring for the evening. There will be no harvest tonight. Everyone deserves at least one day’s rest after the grueling pace of things recently.

  * * *

  8 Octis

  1. I woke this morning to find the cauldron too hot to touch, and the blood bubbling. This is it. This must be it. I have sent agents into the town to see if there were any disturbances in the night. I feel certain there must have been.

  The harvest will continue this evening. The only thing that can stop us now is a lack of sufficient blood. Therefore I will cast as much into the cauldron as I can manage.

  2. Curse this town. There were no vampires in the night, but something else has happened. Our activities have at last begun to draw notice. The constable captain, that Yue, is asking about after some of the folk beyond the walls who have disappeared. From what my agents could discover, she does not know what exactly has happened. There is no suspicion of murder, at least not yet. Hopefully she thinks it is merely some wild animal preying on the helpless.

  Of course, very soon she will have a new thing to blame for the disappearances. That is, if the ritual works.

  Which it will. It must.

  3. Evening is here again. If there is no sign of success during the night, I will add another stone in the morning. Mayhap the subjects are simply too far away in the mountains, and they need further incentive.

  * * *

  9 Octis

  1. I sent out some agents to gather word in the town. Nothing. It becomes difficult not to despair.

  As soon as they returned, I added another stone to the flames. The darkfire is still a good distance away from the cauldron, but I cannot stop worrying that I will overdo it. The heat in the chamber is bad enough, but the oppressive air the ritual creates is far worse. I do not know if I imagine it, but I feel I can even sense it when I leave the building, and for several spans around.

  This setback would be more tolerable if I knew why it has happened. It is possible, I know, that there are no vampires close enough in the mountains to sense the ritual’s presence. But all our best research indicated that Lan Shui would be the ideal setting for such an endeavor. Were we wrong in that? Or is this some other failing of mine? Did I not do enough to codify the specifics of the ritual? Did I let the blood sit for too long? Is the degraded cauldron interfering somehow?

  I cannot know the answer, and so I can only sit here and wonder, helplessly.

  Nothing else to do today but wait, and burn, and pray for some further guidance from the Lord.

  * * *

  10 Octis

  1. I sent out my agents again just after sunup. They returned with nothing, again. No one in the town seems to have been attacked. There have been no sightings of vampires in the area.

  The nighttime hours plagued me with thoughts and wonderings of where I could have gone wrong. And I believe I have it. I did not have enough blood. I pushed too hard. The Lord urged me to begin before the ides of Octis, but I acted in rash pride. I thought to impress him by beginning early, when I should have trusted in his infallible judgement.

  Father forgives, but I do not want his forgiveness in this. I want only to please him, and to serve him. And I have failed at both. He deserves a better officer than I.

  2. I scribble this with shaking fingers.

  It has worked.

  I despaired because the agents I sent out this morning discovered nothing. What a fool I was. Of course the vampires would not have attacked the town straight away. Instead they attacked a messenger, one sent by the constables to deliver their weekly report to Bertram. The old man was leagues away from the walls when the vampires found him.

  Early this morning his body was discovered, a
nd it was some hours before Captain Baolan could go and investigate. When she came back to town she was apparently reticent, but rumor has it that the body was completely drained of blood.

  A vampire has come. More than one, if we are lucky.

  I will again call off the harvest. The wilds are no longer safe.

  This morning I despaired of my service to Father. Now I am vindicated, but I care little for being proven right. I care only that I have not failed him.

  * * *

  11 Octis

  1. Word has spread through the town that the constables have sent another messenger to Bertram. If he should reach the city and warn them of the vampire attack, that would be frustrating, but hardly debilitating. Now we know the ritual works for certain. As long as we are safe here in this town, we will take every opportunity to experiment. The height of the cauldron, the number of magestones, every factor will be weighed, adjusted, and observed to gather more information for use in the coming conflict.

  Thus if the redbacks of Bertram should find us here, we will lose nothing, but only be slightly delayed in our discoveries.

  For the first time in a very long while, I am nothing but eager for tomorrow.

  * * *

  12 Octis

  1. I write this near the end of the day. There were no reports of an attack in the night. But if there are only one or two vampires in the area, their victims simply might not have been discovered yet. Sky above, it took the constables long enough to discover the folk we were harvesting under their very noses.

  * * *

  13 Octis

  1. The operation is more successful than I could have hoped. Someone discovered the body of the constables’ messenger. He never reached Bertram. He and his horse were slain at night on the road.

  No help is coming to Lan Shui. No one shall come to rescue them. We can wait here until the whole town has been wiped free of life, and then retreat into the Greatrocks, leaving the cauldron behind to keep the vampires in place.

  The fires dropped somewhat low, and so I added another magestone. Our supply is short—I have only a dozen and a half left—and there is no sign of the fresh shipment the Lord mentioned. I have sent a messenger into the Greatrocks to find out about the shipment and see if it can be expedited.

  Speaking of which, I imagine the constable captain will try again to send word to Bertram. I await the results of such an attempt with bated breath.

  * * *

  15 Octis

  1. A second messenger was indeed sent, and she was killed. They found her body this afternoon. The constable captain seems to have come to her senses and advised all nearby farmers to withdraw within the walls—something she should have done days ago.

  This does bring to mind another concern, however. I am somewhat disgruntled that the vampires have not yet attacked the town itself. Are there too few of them? Is that even something that would concern them?

  I am tempted to throw another stone into the fire. After all, it was a three-stone burn that attracted the vampires in the first place. But I worry about going through our supply too quickly. And besides, the answer may be simple. Mayhap the vampires do not strike the town simply because there are so many other, easier targets outside the walls.

  For now, it is best to wait and see. Hopefully the farmers heed the constables’ advice, leaving the vampires nowhere to feed but Lan Shui itself.

  * * *

  17 Octis

  1. I have hired on a local boy to run errands for us in town. He was a farmhand until his master retreated behind the walls in order to escape the vampires. His name is Pantu, and he is as ugly as a troll. Still, his help will be valuable. The constables are ever watchful now, and we cannot move about Lan Shui as freely as we once did. Thank the Lord that we do not need to try to sneak in a replacement cauldron in under these circumstances!

  * * *

  14 Novis

  1. A fresh shipment of magestones has arrived! Thank the sky. I was down to my last five. Now we have two full packets, more than enough to sustain the ritual for several months. And according to the messenger, there are even more in the mountains. A delivery has come to Commander Trisken in our Greatrocks stronghold, a gift of the family Yerrin, just one week ago.

  Still no messengers have been able to escape Lan Shui. With more magestones, I feel confident that our aims here shall soon be achieved.

  Strangely, however, the messenger brought another instruction: I am not to build a fire from more than two magestones at a time. The Lord dictated that I let things play out as they have been. I do not understand the instructions, but I do not need to. I will obey. The flames will be kept to two magestones, with a new stone added to the fire every two days.

  * * *

  20 Novis

  1. Messengers to and from the Greatrocks have now begun to travel at regular intervals. Today they brought terrible news.

  Trisken has fallen.

  It is hard to imagine. I cannot picture a world without him in it. All of the shadeborn I have met … Rogan, Enfil, Odobe, Tagata, Poruk, and poor Trisken … they all seemed so invincible. Sky above, they are supposed to be invincible. Yet here we are.

  He was always so kind to me. As kind as he was unforgiving to the Lord’s enemies.

  I should not linger overmuch on this. My kindred need me.

  * * *

  25 Novis

  1. An unexpected delight in a bleak time. Kaita will be coming here soon. The messenger’s reasons were vague, but apparently the Lord wishes her to oversee operations here for a time before she moves on.

  If it were most anyone else, I might be worried that the Lord was displeased with me for some reason. But I think he knows that sending Kaita to me could never be a burden. Happily will I share with her all the progress we have made here, and then we shall have time to catch up. I forget when last I saw her, but it must be at least three years ago now.

  Meanwhile, the town grows more frightened every day. There is at least one new death every night, though for now the vampires have stayed far enough away from the town that no one within the walls has seen them. However, there is no doubt in my mind that there are more than one of them out there, though no one in the town has been clever enough to notice yet.

  I am glad I had Libet and Askila reinforce the protective seals on the ritual chamber before they left. It cannot be long now before the beasts are within the walls.

  * * *

  2 Dektis

  1. Kaita reached Lan Shui today, and I confess her behavior worries me.

  She has always been passionate and driven, but her demeanor now borders on that of a zealot. I do not know that I have ever seen her this consumed with a singular focus, and I worry that it might lead her to lose sight of the larger tapestry of our doings in the nine lands.

  But then, mayhap I should be more understanding. Two old foes pursue her, and she has come to me for help.

  I shall assist her in sending these two wanderers on their way. Then, hopefully, Kaita will be able to rest.

  WOJIN’S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

  The First Year of the Age of Fei

  From the hand of Wojin the Mournful, of the family Fei, King of Dorsea

  No occasion is more suited to cast one into grief than the loss of family. The grief grows sharper the nearer the kinship, is yet worse when those one loses are younger than oneself, and becomes manifold when more than one person falls to time’s brutal sway.

  By such measures may you understand the sorrow in my heart when I inform you of the death of my nephew, Jun of the family Fei, who was your king as well as mine. Too must I write you of the death of his son, Senlin of the family Fei, rightful heir after his father.

  One would understand if the reader now required a moment to compose themself before continuing. Indeed, one would encourage the reader to do so. For stern and uncompromising action is now required, and a weeping heart may poorly rise to such challenge. Therefore give yourself the time you require to dry your tears and s
teel your spine before you read on, and learn the manner of this bereavement, which is the kingdom’s as much as it is my own.

  With misery fresh cast aside, let us now examine eagle-eyed the cause of our loss, and the action demanded in turn.

  I do inform you now:

  That the High King Enalyn of the family Lemstad has grown jealous and anxious at the rise of the star of King Jun of the family Fei.