by Eden Fierce
“I would like to know,” she said quietly.
“Why?”
“I’ve been thinking about what Daniel said before…about the Priory changing to nightwalkers to protect humans. If there’s no thirst, if we don’t feed on our young, if it’s not the nightmare we’ve always thought it to be, wouldn’t it make sense for us to be stronger? To protect the people in our territories against the nightwalkers who don’t wish for peace?”
“You make sacrifices. Nothing comes without cost.”
“I don’t want to die.”
“Immortals can die. They’re just harder to kill. Ask Clemens. He’s killed dozens.”
“What are the sacrifices?” she asked. Her cheeks flushed red, as if she was embarrassed to have to ask.
“I don’t eat food.”
“But you don’t feed on humans.”
“No. Elk, mostly. Sometimes deer.”
“You don’t sleep. You’re strong. You can nearly fly, it seems, the way you jumped over the wall earlier. You’re still…you. But better. Forgive me, but I don’t see the downside. And if it means better protecting our people…”
“Immortals can’t have children.”
Emelen glanced around us. “Some of them do.”
“They can only conceive in the first year after they’re claimed.”
“Not necessarily a sacrifice then,” she said.
“Emelen,” I began. She could see I had grown tired of the interrogation.
“Just a few more questions,” she begged.
“When I get back,” I said.
I left her to check on the wall. It was quiet. Too quiet, as if the woods were holding a secret from us. The wait was maddening. I wanted something to happen, to hunt. That was the way I was raised. Not to wait to be attacked. The irony of the role reversal was almost sad. It was always the immortals who had waited on us to find them. Now it was the other way around.
When I had made several rounds along the top of the wall and had spoken with many of my cousins, I jumped down. I sighed when I saw Emelen’s eyes brighten.
“You haven’t been waiting here this whole time, I hope,” I said.
She laughed once. “No, I’ve been helping Ingrid. But I’ve thought of more questions.”
After another hour of enduring her curiosities, my patience had finally met its end.
“This is a conversation you should have with Clemens, Emelen. He’s your husband. You should make the decision together.”
She nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. But thank you. It’s just…amazing how you’re so different, and yet you’re still you, Eris. It’s…is exciting the right word?”
“I don’t think so,” I said, trying to be as gentle as possible.
Emelen didn’t seem offended. She understood, and that made it easier to watch her turn away from me and walk inside the house. When she opened the door, Daniel breezed through, a wide grin on his face.
“You’re quite happy,” I said.
“I am.”
“And why is that?”
“Dyre wanted to talk.”
“That was a long talk,” I said. “Where is he? You’ve been gone for hours.”
“He felt if we…if you…I wanted to speak with you first.”
“Oh…okay,” I said, suddenly worried.
“He wanted to make an announcement. He said if it was what you wanted, it was his privilege as your father to announce a betrothal.”
“A betrothal?” I said, recoiling from the word.
Daniel’s smile faded.
“Immortals don’t do such a thing, do they?”
One side of Daniel’s mouth curled up, hope in his eyes. “Look around us, Eris. There is no more us and them. We’re making new laws now.”
I scanned the people moving about in the snow. The immortals were walking around, unfazed by the cold, chatting with their own and with humans. Humans were wrapped in blankets, white whips of warm air blowing out with every other word. No one within the Helgren walls was afraid of anyone in the compound.
“It could be like this. We could really have peace.”
“There will be those who fight against it, on both sides. But we could. With the small exceptions, as there always have been, we could live alongside one another.”
“And when human or immortal break the new laws? Kill one another? It will breed fear. The cycle will start again.”
“Then we’ll be there to stop them,” Father said from behind me. I hadn’t heard his heavy footsteps. I turned to see my father standing there, his large frame and long red beard clashing with his red eyes.
I gasped and stepped back, running into Daniel.
“What have you done?” I asked Father. I turned to Daniel. “You did this?”
Daniel’s face fell. “He asked me to. It’s the only way, Eris. If we’re to protect human against Heinrich’s nightwalkers, there must be a buffer. A group to police immortal and humans alike. The new Priory.”
I shook my head.
“Daughter, does it pain you to know that we can be a family for all time? Together, fighting against anyone who tries to disturb the balance.”
“I … don’t know. No. It’s … unsettling.”
Father took me into his arms. “We’ll no longer raise our children in the woods. We’ll choose the Priors and turn them.”
“Who decides?” I asked. “Will it be voluntary? What if everyone wants to be an immortal? This is exactly what caused the Fall, Father.”
“It will be a privilege,” he said. “Just like the Priory is now.”
I nodded. He was making sense, but it was still worrisome. “You let Daniel…bite you?”
“I asked him to. Look at all the people inside our compound, Eris. I have to protect them. We have to protect them. I saw no other solution.”
“Will you turn Clemens? Lukas? Mother?”
“Only if they wish.”
“You’ll outlive them if you don’t, Father. I don’t think you thought this through. You can’t just turn them because you don’t want them to age.”
“I understand. It will be their choice. You have my word.”
Father jumped to the top of the stone wall, and some of the humans nearby gasped.
“Onans! Hear me! The nightwalkers are coming. We know not when. But in order to protect you, I have chosen to be claimed immortal.”
A larger group gasped. More people came outside, huddled together against the cold. The wind blew the snow, but Father stood against it.
“This is the new Priory! We exist to protect you against any nightwalker who dares act against the balance!”
The chatter grew louder.
“I call forth the eldest son of each family, beyond his seventeenth year, to come forward. If you and your family so choose, you will be the first of a new generation of Priors. Make your decisions quickly. We’ve not much time.”
Mother walked toward the wall, beneath where Father stood, and covered her mouth with her hands. Clemens stepped forward, and so did Lukas. Mother tried to stop him, but he maneuvered out of her grip.
“What of their souls?” a woman cried.
“We fight for what is just. We fight for life. Will your God condemn that? My God sees every creature as equal, and he judges my heart. Does yours? Decide now!” Father’s voice boomed the way it did before I’d been turned. He was again my equal, my protector.
One by one young men and fathers stepped out from the crowd. Nearly just as many daughters too. Father jumped down and walked along the line of men.
“Barring an unnatural death, you will be immortal,” he said. “Think about what this means for you. Your spouse. Your children. There is much I don’t know, but we cannot take the time to gain the knowledge. We’ll have to learn it later, after we send those nightwalkers back to the woods, or to Hell, whichever they choose!”
Those in line for claiming raised their fists and shouted. This was actually going to happen. Humans volunteering to be claimed.
Silence.
Father led them into the house, followed by as many immortals. There were too many for Daniel to claim, and I wasn’t confident enough to try. Not when so much was at stake. If anything went wrong, it could mean the end of the new Priory before it even started.
I stayed outside with the humans. They bombarded me with questions, and I answered as many as I could. Some were crying. Others were afraid, not only of the nightwalkers on their way here to initiate a massacre, but also of the lengths Dyre was going to go, to try to stop them. No one had ever attempted this before, but seeing me calm, without maddening thirst, set their minds at ease. If we weren’t moments away from an attack, I couldn’t imagine that the villagers would have accepted this so easily after years of being told of the Hell-bound demons in the woods, mindlessly hunting and killing to satiate their need for blood.
A third horn sounded, and moments later the cousins called out. The women and children cried and hugged one another. Others fled to the barn.
I leaped to the top of the wall and swallowed. Heinrich and Evander stood in front of an army of thousands, numbering as many as the trees they stood before.
“My God,” I whispered. “Help us.”
ONE MAN STEPPED OUT FIRST. Salvo Lindgren. He was a stick of a man who had managed the bakery where Jonathan had worked. It was once his Post, as it was Jonathan’s. He was kind and soft-spoken, but now he walked tall, his new strength and mental capacity obvious in his stature.
After Salvo walked out the front door of my home, a few more men, with their sons, followed, and then more. It had been little more than half an hour since their claiming. Their families approached them with hesitation, but once they realized the men were still their sons, husbands, and fathers, a celebration began to spread.
I wondered if the newly claimed would feel differently than those turned in the centuries before them, now accepted by both sides, since immortals seemed to pay a certain homage to those who had claimed them, the way Daniel regarded Kyah.
When Kyah’s immortals began to appear, I knew that all the volunteers had been claimed successfully, and we had gone from a small family of Priors to a formidable army.
“Grab a weapon!” Father commanded. “Dip it in these barrels of Eitr. Dip the tip of your arrows!”
The newly immortal did as he ordered.
“Jump to the wall!” Father said, leaping himself. Most made the jump. Others, unused to their new strength, overcorrected and disappeared over the edge, but they leaped completely over and tried again.
Lukas stepped out, looking a bit dazed. “Incredible,” he whispered.
I hugged him.
“Here,” he said, handing me one of the two swords he held. “I have a feeling you can handle this now.”
I smiled. “I could handle it before. I just preferred the daggers.” I motioned to the two knives in my belt.
The few cousins who had stayed behind to keep watch climbed down and followed a few of Kyah’s loyalists into the house to take their turn at immortality. It was admittedly a bit unsettling to see so many whom I’d passed in town with the telltale eyes of a nightwalker, but the excitement that came with their new abilities was evident, and I looked out on to Evander’s thousands with more confidence than if we’d only had humans on our side of the wall.
“You’re strong, but you’re young!” Daniel yelled. “These immortals are practiced. They’re older. They are stronger. But act together. We can still beat them!”
“Mind the Eitr,” Father said to his new coven. “If even a drop finds its way to a wound, you will meet the end of your immortality.”
Heinrich walked to the front of his nightwalkers, and his eyebrow arched. “You’ve been busy, Daniel.”
“We do not wish to fight,” Daniel cried to the immortals standing with Evander. “We wish to live in peace. Do you hear me? You do not have to risk your lives today. We have been living together with the humans for more than a day. It can be done! A truce is possible, if you’ll only allow it! Go back to the woods. Go back to your families. And for the first time, know that your presence is accepted. They are no longer afraid of immortals who agree to live in peace!”
“How many behind your wall do not wish for Kyah to be avenged, Daniel? How many will forgive the immortals who stand with me? Peace is no longer an option. The humans have taught fear for generations! Since the Fall! I suppose those who didn’t have a choice, who were trapped in the Helgren compound with an immortal Prior, felt they had no choice, but—”
“False! He lies to you!” Kalda, the mother of the boy who had befriended Moira, climbed a ladder and stood tall. Ashilda leaped to her side, and they held hands. “The truth has been kept from us! We’ve all been lied to! But we accept you! We no longer wish to live in fear!” The women raised their hands into the air, and the immortals who stood on our wall cheered.
Evander lowered his chin, and then one solitary arrow broke free, soared through the air, and buried itself deep into Kalda’s chest.
“No!” Ashilda cried out as Kalda fell backward. Ashilda jumped down and cradled Kalda in her arms. Kalda’s son ran over, hugging his mother, and sobbed wildly.
Ashilda looked up at me. “They do not wish for peace, Eris. They want a massacre. They want slaves.”
Daniel took one look at my expression and touched my arm. “Patience, Eris. We have the pumpers yet. Engaging them is the last resort.”
“Last resort,” I spat.
Evander held out his arms, appallingly delighted. “Your children will be begging for mercy while they wait like cattle to be slaughtered. Just like your son, Dyre.”
My hands formed fists.
“Eris,” Daniel warned.
“A slight flick, and little Jonathan was gone!”
I leaned forward.
“He’s baiting you. He wants us to come face-to-face with them,” Daniel said. “Pumpers! Be on the ready!”
“Dust!” Evander seethed. “Weak! Pathetic! You are nothing! We are gods!”
I turned to face Evander. “You want to be gods?” I screamed, the words ripping from my throat. “Gods can’t die, Evander.”
“We are immortals!” Evander said with a cackle.
“Until I kill you.” With that I pushed away from the stone wall, taking two wide strides, using all the strength in my legs, and leaped in the air, spinning until I felt the dagger in my hand drag and then hit the ground.
“Eris!” Daniel called out.
Evander lay on the ground next to me, gutted from chest to pelvis. The nightwalkers surrounding him looked down at his lifeless body in shock.
In the next moment, they were on top of me. I heard Father command some to stay behind and then the sound of dozens of feet hitting the ground and stomping in my direction.
I lashed out, stabbing and thrusting my daggers and sword at anything that made a move toward me. Those who met the sharp ends of my sword and dagger fell immediately, the Eitr spreading quickly through their bodies.
“Eitr!” an immortal cried. “Their weapons are laced with Eitr!”
Father, the new immortals, and those loyal to Kyah clashed with the front lines of those who stood with Heinrich. I slashed and thrust my weapons, but no matter how many I downed, more seemed to appear. Regardless, we had the Eitr on our side, so even the eldest of Heinrich’s coven struggled to keep up.
Father powered through the masses, eliminating any nightwalker in his path with his enormous, Eitr-laden ax. The handle had been long modified to produce a steady drip of Eitr, and every time he swung, more rose to the metal’s edge.
We had nearly made it to the tree line when another wave of nightwalkers jumped from the treetops into the fight.
Daniel was crouched on the back of an enemy, but another was running at him. I l
unged and swung my sword, easily slicing through the nightwalker’s neck, separating his head from his body.
Daniel popped the head from the body of the nightwalker he was fighting and then set his feet on the ground as he fell, looking at the headless beast I had just dismembered. He looked up to me, both eyebrows pushed up.
“I accept,” I said.
“Accept what?” he asked, punching a nightwalker to the ground and then shoving his hatchet into its chest. It began to writhe. Daniel looked up at me, waiting.
“Your betrothal.”
Daniel flashed a wide smile and then lunged toward me, taking out the nightwalker who meant to attack me from behind.
He kissed me once, and then he was gone.
“The wall!” Father called.
The few nightwalkers who had broken free were rushing the compound. The newly claimed were targeting them with their arrows, but there were too many.
“The wall!” I cried. “Protect the wall!”
HEINRICH’S NIGHTWALKERS WERE CLAMBERING UP THE WALL by the time I reached it. Daniel was a step behind me.
I grabbed the first pair of feet I touched and yanked them away, throwing them back to the mob we left behind. They were gaining on us too.
I jumped over, seeing Daniel and Father doing the same. I stood just in front of Lukas, whose bright red eyes were nearly glowing against the black night. The torches were burning, but only for the humans huddled in the barn. Those who had been claimed could see perfectly.
A crossbow gripped firmly in both hands, my brother hopped to the top of the gate, barely taking a second to aim before pulling the trigger and loading again. Father’s ax made a low whoosh each time he swung it from one side to the other.
From my peripheral I saw a female nightwalker clamber up the gate and reach for my brother’s ankle.
“Lukas!” I yelled.
He looked to me, and then he was gone.
“Lukas!” I screamed, scrambling to reach him.
Daniel grabbed on to me with both arms, struggling to keep me on the safe side of the wall.