Vartan nodded and shuddered as he remembered feeling out of control. The power did seem to have a will of its own. He looked to the stars as he spoke sincerely, “Thank you Mother Dragon.”
“Remember, we are watching you and will give you signs on your journey. Follow them,” said Mother Dragon.
And with the statue returning to its usual form, she was gone and her work was done.
Karven rose from the waters with renewed strength and his voice ringing with pride, “You truly are ready to return to the lands of Marithia. Let’s take our leave of this storm and gather our strength inside.”
Chapter 15 : The Seeds We Sow
“Our destinies are riddled with challenges that have a tendency to ruin well laid plans.
Many have attempted to take fate into their own hands and have been unsuccessful in changing it.
Others find that their paths differ from what they had dreamed for themselves.
We must be aware that our choices may come back to haunt us later in life, but to trust that it is all part of fate’s design.”
(Makya, She’Ma’Ryn trader)
It was the first time that Mestal was alone with Tusdar and able to spend time with him. His newfound vampire’s life had been mostly spent running and he was thankful for being able to finally stop. Even with the surprisingly peaceful surroundings of Mestal’s home, he could not stop his fear over a future meeting with Kassina.
Mestal poured him another cup of steaming hot blood and smiled through her pearly fangs. Sitting in the dining room, it was hard not to feel comfortable.
“Would all these comforts make vampires weaker?” asked Tusdar.
She took a seat beside him and answered in complete relaxation, “We like to think of Zhendur as our place of rest, training and gathering of our strength. There is a reason we have training grounds and Aryun prefers us to only remain here for a short time before hunting for prey in Marithia.”
Tusdar glanced around their home and took in the sights of the various gold treasures, red silk drapes, and intricate furniture. It was evident that Mestal came from a generation of rich vampires.
“I am surprised to see vampires living like this and being surrounded with such luxuries,” said Tusdar, sending Mestal into a fit of laughter.
“All vampires certainly do not live like this. Aryun and I are descendants of royal blood and privileges accompany royalty. Please do not go spreading word of our riches to Zhendurians or it may cause unrest amongst our people.”
She’s vampire royalty? I always knew I would be rich, but never would have thought to obtain wealth by becoming a creature of the night, thought Tusdar.
Mestal dragged her chair behind him and began massaging his shoulders. Tusdar groaned with the pleasure of her strong, silky hands relieving the strain.
“Mestal, I have always wondered. How did vampires come to Marithia?”
Mestal pouted and her lustful eyes narrowed with frustration as she sighed loudly, “That is quite a long story and you will read all about it in our history books sometime.”
“Please, tell me something about it,” pleaded Tusdar.
“I never knew that vampire history interested you so much. Aryun will be very pleased with you. I suppose that I can tell you a little about vampires and our history. Our kind was never meant for Marithia and it was through the brave actions of our ancestors that we were able to establish a settlement here,” answered Mestal, continuing her massage.
“Brave actions? What happened?”
“Our home world is much like Marithia and this is why they chose to settle here. The people treated us like insects and hunted us to the point of extinction. Our king and queen snuck into their trade city and infiltrated their portal room. They killed the guards and set fire to the room before they stepped through it to ensure that we could never be followed.”
“Wouldn’t that leave all of the remaining vampires to die? Are you sure that the portal is closed? What was your home world called?”
“The name of our old world is not important anymore and we can only assume that their actions successfully destroyed the portal. We look to the future and our great king and queen knew that sacrifice was needed to succeed in dire times. They arrived in Marithia when the ancients had just completed building their own portal here in She’Ma’Ryn. The council was not aware of our kind and only knew that our king and queen were the sole survivors of an almost extinct race. They allowed them to enter Marithia to begin anew and never returned to She’Ma’Ryn.”
“Please, continue,” said Tusdar.
“They began by turning a small number of Marithians to vampires and building a city above ground which was near to Kassina’s tower. In those days, the tower was abandoned by Shindar and Kassina had not yet existed. We remained hidden and mostly kept to ourselves until the war began.”
“The first war against Shindar?” asked Tusdar excitedly.
“Yes, it appears that you do know some of your history. Shindar and his forces found us quickly and offered us a choice between assisting him or death. Our numbers were small and we had no chance of battling the demon of darkness, so we swallowed our pride and did the only thing we could, join him. Shindar was very interested in our abilities and spent many years experimenting with turned vampires for his Forces of Darkness. Our numbers swiftly increased as per Shindar’s request to grow our army and our stronghold grew. We fought against humans and elves when we were called and this continued until Shindar fell to the king of dragons, Karven. We lost almost all of our royal family at the fall of our vampire stronghold in the final days of the war.”
“I read about some of that from Marithian history books.”
“You very well may have, but did you read about the vampire laws?” asked Mestal.
Tusdar cocked his head and said, “You are stretching my memory, but I recall that breeding with humans was banned.”
Lord Aryun appeared seemingly out of nowhere and stepped into the dining room. He walked with his hands behind his back and spoke to his new student in a formal manner, “Not only was breeding with humans outlawed, but we could only feed off filthy prisoners and animals. You will discover how unpleasant animal blood is to a vampire. We were treated like animals ourselves and stripped of our dignity.”
Mestal quickly moved away from Tusdar, reddening with embarrassment. “Father, I did not hear you come in.”
Tusdar moved to stand and Aryun raised his hand for him to stop.
“Please, there is no need for formalities on my account while we are discussing our history. I am glad that you are both focusing on training rather than,” Aryun finished his comment with a raised eyebrow, “I couldn’t help but listen to your conversation and am happy to be the one to continue answering your questions.”
“But father, you must be so busy…” protested Mestal.
Lord Aryun’s body blurred when he ran with unnatural speed to his daughters side and backhanded her harshly across her face. The loud impact caused Tusdar to wince.
Aryun moved in close to her face and spat as he screamed at his daughter, “Never undermine me!”
Mestal rubbed her reddening cheek and tears escaped her eyes. Tusdar’s heart felt as if it had been punched as he struggled to stay still.
Tusdar spoke with a tender voice and poured him a drink. “I beg you… my lord, sit. I would love to hear anything you have to tell me.”
The move succeeded in distracting his attention and the lord sat opposite him. Tusdar reached under the table and gently caressed Mestal’s hand in an effort to console her.
“Forgive me as my temper gets the better of me at times. Children will always disobey you if you lack discipline. Now, where were we? You were discussing the vampire laws. It was decreed that any vampire of royal blood would be killed on sight and there were great rewards for any vampire that would identify royals. My brother, Danton, and I were all that was left of the royal family. I decided to remain hidden in the outlands and could not convinc
e Danton to join me. All he kept talking about was his love of a sorceress named Niesha,” chuckled Aryun, “A vampire in love with a human? Can you believe it?”
The lord paused to take a sip of blood before laying a kiss on Mestal’s reddened cheek and continuing.
“Turned vampires never age unlike born vampires who grow until maturity. For a vampire to love a human would mean that they would watch their love grow old and die, while they live on. Vampires were allowed to blend in with humans, so long as none of the laws were broken. The elves never forgave us for our agreement with Shindar and we stayed far away from their city of Veldrenn. We experienced an age of peace until my brother shattered that peace by producing a child with Niesha,” said Aryun with an angry sigh.
“Is that, Kassina?” asked Tusdar.
“My word Mestal, you have found us a sharp one,” laughed Aryun, “but this discussion stays within these walls as the subject of Kassina and the vampire royal family is one that can be cause for disagreements and in turn, deaths.”
“I understand my lord, please continue.”
“Kassina was born a half blood, a vampire sorceress. Can you imagine the power of a vampire with inherited magic running through her veins? It was not long before her gifts and her unique requirements were discovered. It was not much longer after this that King Grueber discovered Danton’s royal heritage. The agreement had been broken and Grueber took it upon himself to serve justice on Kassina’s parents. His brutal slaying sparked bloody vengeance from vampires and a war within Marithia. It was a war that we were winning until we made the mistake of attacking the elves. We had greatly underestimated their power and it was when we were all but eradicated from Marithia that we pledged our undivided service to Shindar at Kassina’s tower,” he continued, pointing upward.
Tusdar stared at the lord in disbelief and asked, “Shindar saved the vampires?”
“That is correct. We would have been chased down and long extinct if it wasn’t for him sending his army to defend us and build Zhendur, our home. We recovered over time and rebuilt our civilisation.”
“I understand that we owe much to Shindar, but don’t vampires want freedom?” asked Tusdar.
Aryun drew a deep breath and sighed as he stood slowly. “Of course we do, but these are blasphemous words that can never be uttered in Kassina’s presence or you will be executed on sight. Our pledge can never be broken unless Shindar is destroyed and I do not foresee that event taking place. You only need look to the skies to see the Blood Red Moon rising. The prophecy has already begun to be fulfilled and we will be safe in Shindar’s new world if we stand by his side…” said Aryun, his words went quiet as the deep sound of a horn filled the air.
“What was that?” asked Tusdar, now standing at Mestal’s side.
Aryun snapped as he hurried outside, “That is the sacred shade horn and it appears that you will be honoured today… follow me, quickly!”
Mestal and Tusdar shadowed the lord as he burst out their door and ran to Zhendur’s centre. All vampires had assembled quickly in a circle around a large object. It was like a giant compass with four large metal hollow circles spinning freely in the air above it.
The spinning circles emitted a loud scraping sound but they were not connected by anything that the eye could see.
Tusdar stood at the end of the rows and yelled, “What is that and why didn’t we hear that before?”
Lord Aryun waited nearby and focused on the object, ignoring his question.
“That is our portal to the underworld! It is made of powerful magic. You didn’t hear it because it was not in use,” answered Mestal.
“Not in use? Why are we going to the underworld?” asked Tusdar.
“We are not going to the underworld. We are being graced by Kassina’s presence and you will have the opportunity to be blessed as a chosen one,” said Mestal.
Tusdar paled and began to step backwards, but was pulled back by Mestal and held at her side.
A red orb of light flickered inside the circles and one by one, they locked into place beside each other. It sounded as if four immense swords had just been sheathed. The orb exploded inside the smallest circle and a watery surface filled the space within.
A long leg stepped out from the portal and her heel crunched onto Zhendur’s surface. Stepping out of the portal, Kassina breathed deeply with what appeared to be a look of satisfaction and a band of elite skeleton warriors in full armour stepped out behind her, their heads jerked around aggressively, watching for danger. She was dressed in a black leather corset dress with purple laces and shiny boots reaching up to her knees which housed daggers on each side. The hilt of a sword poked out from behind each shoulder and her long hair lay loose over her shoulders.
“Zhendurians, your queen has returned!” she snarled, marching down the pathway between vampires to meet Aryun.
“All hail the queen!” boomed Lord Aryun who was soon echoed by Zhendurians.
“All hail the queen” they chanted.
He bowed at her presence, bending down to kiss her boot.
“Rise Aryun and tell me what news you bring me of Marithia, I trust that you have a fresh supply of virgins ready for me to feast on?” she snapped.
“Of course my queen, and let me begin by saying what an honour it is for us…” began Aryun.
Kassina laid her hand over Aryun’s mouth to silence him as she caught sight of Tusdar standing beside Mestal. She ran at Tusdar’s position like a hunter drawn to prey and picked him up with one hand by the scruff of his clothes to pound him into the ground. Drawing her swords, she kneeled hard on his chest with her right knee and spat at his face.
“What is the meaning of this? Which insubordinate fool let this impostor into Zhendur?” she demanded.
Chapter 16 : Singed Hope
“Our people rejoice at word of Vartan’s awakening and we await his arrival with great anticipation.
I can feel the change in us all. May he travel safely and arrive soon to seal the hope of emerging from this war as victors.”
(Queen Andrielle of Veldrenn)
An unusually warm night settled over Marithia and provided a welcome contrast to the cold darkness. The Blood Red Moon was full that evening and provided ample lighting that enabled the mystic couple to travel without the aid of a lamp. Riding close to the beaten path, they could easily spot any trouble heading in their direction.
Yuski stretched her arms and yawned loudly before pulling on the reins and turning to speak with Anakari. “We are not far from Barone. I could take you there tonight but the woods are dangerous in the dark and it would be risky to travel through it. It would be far safer to travel in sunlight. I know of a place we may be able to rest that is not far from here, but it has been a long time since I have been there and I do not know its current state. What would you like us to do?”
“Let us rest. Barone can wait until tomorrow,” she answered.
“Your wish is my command,” giggled Yuski, guiding their horse to the path heading toward Greenhaven.
“What happened at Greenhaven?” asked Anakari.
“We know little of its fate, spread by the few who managed to escape. King Arman was betrayed by his own son, Derian. Those who saw him claimed that he was a vampire… likely to have been turned by Kassina.”
“What would Kassina want with Derian?” asked Anakari.
“Nobody really knows, and it doesn’t matter now as Derian was assassinated. I would say that he has already served his purpose, if he had any. Once the king had fallen, the city was invaded by Kassina’s forces and it is said that many deep holes were dug into the ground—as if they were searching for something.”
Her words were cut short as rustling came from the nearby woods. The girls went silent as Yuski smoothly prepared an arrow and awaited further signs.
Anakari leaned close to her ear and whispered, “What was that?”
After what seemed like an eternity with no response, Yuski lowered her weapon and continued
on. She answered quietly, “It must have been some kind of animal. We are almost there, let’s just keep going.”
“Tell me, what were they searching for in Greenhaven? What is inside the city?” whispered Anakari.
“Nobody knows except Kassina and her Forces of Darkness I suppose. As far as I know, nobody has braved a visit to the city since it was overrun.”
The girls neared an inn and just when they were about to relax with the hope of safe shelter, the smell of burnt wood filled their noses.
Yuski dismounted and put her hands on her hips as she sighed loudly. “There goes my grand plan for a relaxing evening.”
Anakari followed suit and they approached the front door which flapped loosely and creaked loudly as it moved. Wind howled through the open doorway. Looking deeper into the burnt building, they could see dried bloodstains on the few remaining walls. What was once a warm and welcoming place was now a desolate sore on the surrounding land.
“What is this place?” asked Anakari.
“This was the Jade Inn and was cared for by an old friend, Hildar. I hope that he escaped before the Forces of Darkness reached him. It looks as if this place was raided and they attempted to burn it down to the ground,” said Yuski, running her hand down the burnt walls.
“Can’t we take shelter inside?” asked Anakari.
Yuski poked her head inside the door. The entire Inn was destroyed, and most of it had been burned to ash with only the structural walls remaining.
“Kari, this place could fall apart at any moment. I don’t think it is safe to rest here. Let’s go to Barone, it will be safer to travel there than to stay here. It’s either that or we travel to Greenhaven, and I do not like our chances there,” answered Yuski, heading to their horse.
Yuski turned to Anakari who wasn’t moving a muscle.
“Kari… what is it?” she asked.
Anakari appeared frozen in her position, staring at Yuski with a ghostly appearance. She pointed at Yuski’s pocket and the demon hunter looked down to see that the orb was glowing bright blue.
Legends of Marithia: Book 2 - Darkness Rising Page 13