The walls of the monastery came into sight. The air around it was thick with struggling bodies. The enemy seemed to crash against it like a wave, and the once unstoppable surge broke into smaller battles. The monks now fought in organized defense. They struck the enemy with murderous artistry. Yidak was visible racing along the walls. He seemed to move in slow motion, and Gareth feared for the old vampire. At first. Every sweep of the Demon King’s arm or leg, every strike of his hand, sent an enemy flying or crashing senseless to the ground, yet it seemed with hardly any effort at all.
Gareth worked his way back to the wall, dropped onto the backs of the enemy, raking with claws and snapping bones. Takeda fought too, moving with speed that even Gareth could barely follow, protecting Hiro as much as hitting the enemy. Every spot the samurai struck left an enemy tumbling or bloody. He and Takeda landed on the broad top of the outer wall. Hiro stumbled down beside them and turned gamely to fight, but he was bloody and gasping for breath. Takeda drew his katana and weaved steel around him. Limbs and heads dropped with audible thuds.
The enemy was retreating. Thousands of vampires backed away from the monastery into the swirling air beyond the precipice. With no more targets close at hand, Gareth gathered himself and rose into the air to hasten the enemy’s withdrawal. A hand pulled him back down. “Don’t be stupid. Let them go.”
Gareth shook Yidak off, barely seeing him, eager to feel more muscles rend and bones shatter beneath his claws.
“Gareth!” The old vampire grasped Gareth’s head between his hands. “Listen to me!” In a blink of an eye, Yidak spun away and struck a stray enemy who dove out of the chaos. His hand impacted the attacker’s chest. The vampire froze for a moment, then collapsed insensible or dead. Yidak turned calmly back to Gareth. “Are you listening now?”
“Yes.” Gareth grimaced with the hunger to cause carnage still pounding through him. The figures flitting across the night sky all around them taunted him. They should all be dead for their temerity. He wiped blinding blood from his eyes. “Yes.”
“Good.” The old vampire patted Gareth’s cheek. “They are retreating. They have no desire to contest us here in our home. We have no reason to fight them out there in the open. There are too many of them.”
“They lured us!” Takeda hunched, gasping for air, with his bloody sword dragging along the stones. He looked down at Hiro who huddled next to him. “They lured us with that airship. And we fell for it. I fell for it!”
“Why did they break off?” Gareth asked. “They had the advantage.”
“They know better,” Takeda snarled. “They know what would happen if they came in here.”
“Gareth!”
He turned to see Adele and General Anhalt rushing through the wounded on the ground. Her glowing khukri sizzled with dripping blood. Anhalt carried the heavy shotgun, keeping Adele covered. She reached up frantically.
Gareth willed his shaking hands to be calm. He knelt and grasped Adele’s arm. When he drew her up, she suppressed a cry from the power of his grip. He set her on the wall next to him with a murmured apology.
Adele inspected him, shifting torn clothing aside, running her fingers over his flesh. All the while, she whispered, “Oh God. Oh God. Look at you.”
“I’m fine.” Gareth took her hands to stop her.
“Actually,” Yidak said with a fatherly smirk, “you are not. You are fairly butchered.”
Takeda wiped the red katana on his sleeve and returned it to his belt. “You fight like you are alone. You think the only one who can save you is you. In a war, that is how you die.”
That sounded like the type of advice Gareth had received from General Anhalt at some point in the frozen trenches of Europe. He finally saw that he was a host of bloody gouges. Deep welts crisscrossed his chest. He fingered a huge flap of skin that hung loose from his stomach.
Yidak stared out along the wide valley, where thousands of eyes shone in the dark. Figures floated in the air and shapes crawled across the mountainside. At the distant end of the valley, the airship still floated with a large swarm of vampires circling it. They were not attacking; they were protecting.
Takeda stooped and grabbed the hair of the last vampire Yidak had dropped. He twisted the head around to see the face. The eyes fluttered; alive but badly injured. Then Takeda spat. “Chengdu. This one is from Chengdu.”
Yidak continued studying the shadows. “It wasn’t Chengdu who attacked while I was gone.”
“No.” Takeda answered. “It wasn’t nearly this many either.”
Yidak moved with a grunt of effort. Gareth and Takeda both reached out to take the old vampire’s arms. Yidak smiled gratefully. “We appear to be under siege. Not the first time, but I would like to know what they want now.”
Takeda lifted the unconscious vampire. “I’ll find out.”
Gareth looked at Adele. It was time for the truth. He urged her to speak.
“I can tell you what they want,” Adele announced after a deep breath. “It’s the same thing I want.”
Yidak gave her an odd glance before drifting down from the wall. “I would appreciate hearing about it, if you don’t mind. Takeda, before you chat with the prisoner, survey our people and let me know the toll. Arrange an organized watch.”
Under Takeda’s fierce glower, Gareth lowered Adele from the wall and dropped behind her. He nearly stumbled to his knees. She grabbed him, but before she could demand to care for him, he shook his head. He took her hand, assuring her that he would recover but that there were more important things to attend to now.
CHAPTER 28
Bodies littered the courtyard. Wounded vampires struggled to move. Many were tended by friends. There were also a number of the black-garbed Chengdu fighters, and those still alive would not be for long, as Yidak’s monks moved swiftly to execute them. The old vampire led the way, pausing to speak to followers or lay a supportive hand on a slumped shoulder.
The hunger in some of the bright vampire eyes that followed Adele unnerved her. They climbed the steps to the large temple and passed through the chamber with the memory machine. Yidak brought them into his smaller room in the rear. They all settled heavily into chairs. Gareth slumped with exhaustion.
Yidak said to Adele, “You and your general should go nowhere without me or Takeda with you until I tell you otherwise.”
“Why? Do you think they’ll attack again soon?”
“I’m concerned about my own people. There are many wounded and they will need to feed.”
Anhalt was reloading the shotgun. “What of those pilgrims?”
“I have had them moved to a safe place as well.”
Adele found the old vampire’s concern for humans fascinating, and a little touching. Yidak ran his hand along his silk sleeve. Then he looked up at Adele, waiting expectantly.
“The Tear of Death,” she replied to his unspoken query.
Yidak stared blankly, so Gareth translated into Tibetan.
The old vampire sighed. “Ah. I wondered as much, but I didn’t think anyone from so far away would have known about it.”
“Do you know about its power?” Adele asked.
“The old monks said it was powerful.” Yidak shrugged. “But I have never seen it do anything but lie in the dust. If you had told me that you sought it, that another was looking as well, we might have come to some arrangement. Instead of the disaster we have now.”
“I’m sorry.” Adele’s words fell weakly in the cold room.
“Trust, trust,” Yidak muttered and scrubbed his disheveled hair. “There’s no point in giving it to you now because you can’t get out with it.”
“Your Majesty,” General Anhalt said, “could you not take it and slip out unnoticed by the vampires?”
Adele answered, “I’m not leaving you behind. Besides, I couldn’t make it all the way to the Edinburgh. And summoning them here now would be leading them into a meat grinder.”
Yidak leaned forward. “Can you not simply destroy the fighters
from Chengdu? I felt a taste of your power. And I’ve been told you killed every vampire in Britain.”
Adele felt a chill from the question. Yidak could be testing her claim to have deadly power. Gareth stirred in alarm, but for a different reason. He was fearful she could die from the strain. Her geomancy here was limited, largely useless against the besieging army outside. Still, she didn’t want Yidak to think she was powerless or she might find herself on the menu for his hungry followers.
“No,” she replied calmly, trying to control her emotions. She was aware that vampires could often smell when someone was lying. There was truth in her next statement. “Not without also killing your people.”
The old vampire nodded with acceptance. “Well, while we wait, would you care to see it?”
“It?” Adele stood with excitement. “The Tear of Death?”
Yidak pushed himself to his feet. “It’s just below us.”
Adele stared at the floor, instinctively searching for hints of power. If this object was extraordinary, and so close, it shouldn’t have escaped her notice. Perhaps it was just an artifact that held only myth and nothing more. She wondered again if this entire journey was a pointless farce, a quest for a magical mirage.
Yidak shuffled out into the large chamber and went to a wall covered with faded paintings of beasts and monsters. He rubbed with his hand until his fingers caught something. With a click, a seam appeared in the wall. He pushed a huge slab of stone back.
The old vampire started down a set of steps without speaking. Adele followed with Gareth behind, slightly more steady on his feet now. Anhalt came last, shotgun broken at the breech to prevent an accident. Only the sounds of human footfalls and their heavy breathing could be heard. It was soon pitch black, which Yidak didn’t notice. Adele pulled her Fahrenheit blade so the glow would keep her from taking a misstep on the icy stones. Yidak turned, eyed her and the blade, and continued down. Adele lost count of the steps.
Finally she saw the shadow of a doorway ahead. Yidak stepped through a narrow arch into a wonderful, horrifying room. The surrounding walls bristled with incredible sculptures. Humans and creatures intertwined and swirled in the strange half-light from the khukri. The sculptures were carved deep into the rock walls, making the life-sized figures virtually freestanding. Human arms reached, beseeching and craving. Demons surged out with claws ready, tongues lolling, eyes hollow and shadowed.
Adele breathed out in amazement at the dense forest of tortured limbs and bodies. It was as if she stood in the midst of a battle between humans and demons, frozen at the height of the brutal struggle. Gareth too was consumed with fascination at the creations of human hands. He seemed to have forgotten his wounds as he peered at the motionless mob from just beyond their grasping fingers and snapping jaws.
When Adele turned back to Yidak, he was holding an object out to her. It was a common black phurba, a triangular dagger. She peered at it. “Is that a key? To open the container of the Tear?”
“This is the Tear of Death.”
The phurba was unremarkable in all ways. It was not even decorated in any noticeable fashion. Adele put her hand near it.
There was nothing. No energy. No power.
Gareth warily watched her. Anhalt came close, his face etched with worry.
“I don’t mean to be insulting,” Adele said, “but are you sure?”
The old vampire cackled. “I was told about this object long ago by an old human monk. He said it was carved from a single teardrop of the God of Death that fell to Earth. It had the power of death, so it needed to be hidden and kept from the hands of humanity, who could not be trusted with such a thing. I remember he seemed to be afraid of it. He said none of the human monks who were here then would dare to touch it. Here. Take it.” Yidak shoved the phurba into Adele’s gloved hands like it was a squalling baby.
She froze. There was nothing.
The dagger was carved from a single piece of black stone. It had no metal and it was heavier than it appeared. She took a deep breath. If nothing else, she could determine the nature of the rock’s structure and its point of origin. She took off one glove and grasped the phurba in her bare hand.
The world vanished and she was alone. The sounds of the Earth grew silent. No colors. No smells. She could feel nothing. Hear nothing. The emptiness was so extreme she couldn’t even sense herself in the blank space. She flailed around her, trying to touch anything. Surely there was a rift somewhere for her to gain her bearings. She had to feel or smell or hear something. She felt as if she were being smothered. On the ragged edges of her awareness, she thought she saw something black and huge. It was slow but only because it had nothing to fear. She felt herself fraying as if the blackness was unweaving her. And then, there was nothing. Even she was gone and only darkness remained.
Adele gasped loudly, like breaking from the surface of the sea. She blinked as she returned to the normal world. Gareth crowded in front of her, holding the phurba. Yidak observed with interest.
“What happened?” Gareth asked.
“Nothing.” Adele’s gaze swept over the unassuming facets of the phurba, which seemed to hide the void. She stared up at Gareth. The cold blue of his eyes warmed her.
He asked, “Then it is powerful?”
“I don’t know.” Adele felt tears that she didn’t understand. They dribbled down her cheeks. Something deep and empty pulled at her. “I don’t know . . . I don’t know,” was all she could say.
Adele stared into the crackling fire pit. “I don’t understand. I’ve never felt anything like it.”
Gareth dropped more fuel on the fire to keep the shivering Adele warm. “I’m glad we left it behind.”
“I don’t want it near me.” Adele pulled her thick fur collar tight. “But I need to understand it, if I even can. What did Mamoru teach me? I’m not sure I know anything.”
Gareth joined her on the edge of the fire pit. “He taught you enough to be a weapon. That’s all. You’ve told me that he actually kept knowledge from you so it didn’t conflict with the purpose he had planned. Any true knowledge you have came from your own studies, not Mamoru.”
Adele put a hand to her forehead as if feverish. “I can’t fathom what Goronwy must know that I don’t. How could he use it? How powerful is he?”
“Does it matter?” General Anhalt handed her a cup of her Edinburgh whiskey. “You have the weapon now, so he is powerless. What good is his knowledge to him?”
“It matters. I have no idea what that thing is, or what it does.” She slammed her hand on the bricks. “My knowledge only extends to what I can touch.”
Gareth said, “You can touch the entire Earth.”
Adele seemed to ignore him as she tore into her rucksack, pulling out her mother’s notebook. She dropped to the floor and bent over the book with a furious expression. “I need to think. I need to think.”
Gareth stepped away because he sensed she wasn’t asking for comfort. She wanted room to flail mentally, and perhaps physically. He tapped Anhalt and motioned toward the door. The general looked concerned for Adele, but Gareth wordlessly assured him. The two men shoved the heavy yak hide aside and went out into the cold.
CHAPTER 29
Gareth strode across the courtyard. Vampires hurried all around him. Others crouched motionless on walls and rooftops, watching the swarming horde outside the walls. Wincing with pain, General Anhalt struggled to follow up the steps as Gareth flew for the central temple.
Inside, Yidak sat at his machine, arms and legs moving in concert. The rows of copper cylinders spun, filling the room with a multitude of jumbled memories. Gareth took Yidak’s arm, interrupting his manipulation of the knobs and wheels. The old vampire sat back and looked up at Gareth expectantly while the cylinders spun down into gibberish.
“What are you doing?” Gareth demanded.
“I was listening.” Yidak nodded a congenial greeting to Anhalt, who finally hobbled in. “Why do you ask?”
“Why aren’t y
ou doing something?” Gareth leaned on the machine. “We’re under siege. We have to do something.”
The old vampire stood. “You want to slip away to find the enemy’s leader and kill him. That would fix Adele’s problems, wouldn’t it?”
Gareth had considered that very thing. He hadn’t expected to have it thrown back at him with a sense of mockery. “What’s wrong with that plan?”
Yidak smiled and went to the door. “I suspected as much. It’s simple and quick and proper work for a lonely hero.”
They all went back out into the cold, with Anhalt exhaling in dismay while rebuttoning his coat and lifting his collar around his throat. Yidak paused on the cracked steps piled with snow.
“Look out there, son,” he said. “There is hardly a rock without eyes. The air is full. You could not slip away without being swarmed.”
“He does make a good point,” muttered Anhalt, glancing at the crawling vampires on the surrounding mountains.
“I’m very good,” Gareth stated flatly.
“I have no doubt,” Yidak replied. “You may be the best I’ve ever seen. And I can’t stop you from trying, but you would die.”
“What else then?”
“Nothing.” The old vampire went slowly down the steps and across the square, with crunching steps on the icy dirt. Each vampire he passed bowed or reached out a kind hand to him. “We will wait.”
“Wait for what?” Gareth cried. “For the enemy to charge in here and crush us?”
“You think like a human,” Yidak said. “There is time.”
“No, there’s not. Adele and General Anhalt and your pilgrims need food, and there isn’t much. What about your own monks? How long before your meager herd is drained?”
Yidak refused to be shaken by Gareth’s use of herd. “That could be a problem, but it is not one yet. Give me your hand.”
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