Emerald Keep

by Edmund Hughes

  And then, she saw him. Standing on the front lawn, in front of the old mansion. That same dark hair, and those same dark eyes. He had an expression on his face that seemed as lost as she felt. The resemblance was almost uncanny.

  He glanced up and saw her seeing him. Mira felt a sudden flush of awkwardness, right up until he smiled at her.

  “Hi,” called out Jack. “Are you looking for someone?”

  This was it. This was fate. It could be nothing else. Mira felt her heart beating for him, a sensation that she’d forgotten how much she enjoyed. She wanted him. And unlike with Peter, she could have him.

  CHAPTER 28

  Jack kicked one of his legs as he snapped out of the dream. No, not a dream. He blinked a couple of times, feeling certain that all of what he’d just seen had actually happened.

  He was still lying on the bed. He sat up, noticing Mira next to him. He felt a stab of panic as he realized that she wasn’t moving.

  “Mira!” He shook her gently by the shoulder. “Hey! Are you okay?”

  Mira only slowly stirred awake. She blinked a couple of times and then smiled at him.

  “Jack…” she whispered. “Sweet Jack. I almost thought you were…”

  She trailed off, her eyelids falling closed before she could finish her sentence.

  “Are you going to be okay like this?” asked Jack. “You’re more exhausted than I was expecting.”

  Jack wasn’t even sure if exhausted was the right word. Mira’s skin had gone from its usual healthy pale color to a tepid grey. Her breathing was slow and slightly ragged, and she felt cold to the touch.

  “I’ll… be fine,” she said, in a voice barely above a whisper. “More importantly… you will be too.”

  She reached a weak hand up and caressed Jack’s cheek. He pressed his own hand over it and then kissed her finger.

  “Alright,” said Jack. “Just… promise me that you won’t fall asleep for good before I’m done fighting for my life.”

  “I… prom…” Mira trailed off before she could finish. She had a small, satisfied smile on her face, and for some reason, it made Jack’s heart hurt to see it.

  He took a few calming breaths. His body didn’t feel any different, and even as he reached out to take stock of his blood essence reserves, Jack didn’t notice anything new or special about his capabilities. He tried to keep his anxiety in check as he wondered if Mira had performed the ritual for naught.

  “Just get some rest,” he whispered. “I’ll make you a promise, since you didn’t get a chance to finish yours. I’m going to survive this stupid death challenge. Then we’re both going to get out of here.”

  He kissed her softly on the lips. Her mouth barely moved against his, and Jack had to check again to make sure that she was breathing. He wasn’t sure if she’d be able to last for long in her current state. He needed to get the fight over with, sooner rather than later.

  Jack made his way to the door and headed out into the hallway. Through one of the keep’s window slats at the end of the hall, he could see that the sun had finally set. He started off in the direction that would take him back toward the keep’s entrance on the assumption that somebody would try to stop him.

  Volandar himself was on his way toward Jack’s room as he came around the corner. The Jade Fang had a thin-lipped smile on his face, and he shot his eyebrows up for an instant when he saw Jack.

  “Well, well,” said Volandar. “I wasn’t sure you’d be up to it, but you’re already on your way.”

  “I just want to get this over with,” said Jack.

  “A death challenge is a rare event,” said Volandar. “You should savor it. Enjoy it as though each instant might be your last.”

  The implication was crystal clear, but Jack was in no mood for banter.

  “Where is it taking place?” he asked. “Is there some kind of ceremony? Let’s get on with it.”

  Volandar frowned at him. He had two members of his flock to either side of him, and he glanced at them both before waving a hand toward the keep’s entrance.

  “It will take place in front of the keep,” said Volandar. “You will be fighting my trusted friend Pine. He is already undergoing his own preparations.”

  Jack nodded. Volandar and his lackeys fell into step around him, standing close enough to grab him if he tried to make a break for it. He had no intention of running, though he could feel his anxiety building with each step he took forward.

  There was still nothing noticeably different about his physical, mental, or magical condition. Jack chewed on his lower lip as he tried to think through what Mira had said to him earlier. She’d given him some of her own essence, and as she’d explained, some of her memories had come along with it. What was he missing?

  “Here,” said Volandar. “Stand within the circle and await your challenger.”

  The circle was composed of vampires who stood a few feet apart from each other, creating a large combat arena that would actively deny escape. Jack felt all of their eyes on him as he slipped through one of the gaps and made his way to its center.

  The full moon was out, in all its silver majesty. The vampires surrounding Jack were completely silent, and it added an eerie ambiance to an already tense situation. He was still in the middle of trying to feel for the essence Mira had lent him when Volandar returned with his opponent.

  Pine was a fitting name for the tree trunk of a man who slowly made his way across the keep’s drawbridge. He was tall and muscular, with close-cropped red hair and a physique that was only comparable to lifelong bodybuilders. He wore a black leather vest and grey jeans, and his muscles bulged out wherever they could. He didn’t stop as he reached the circle of vampires, pushing his way through and coming to stand only a few feet from Jack.

  “Jack Masterson,” boomed Volandar, in a loud, ceremonial voice. “As the Jade Fang, patriarch of the Jade Circle, I have given Pine permission to issue a death challenge against you on behalf of his friend Babish, if he so chooses.”

  “I issue the death challenge,” growled Pine.

  “So be it,” said Volandar. “You may take his life in place of the lost. Jack, if you kill Pine, the murder of Babish will be recorded as an honorable slaying.”

  Jack nodded. A part of him hated the idea that the only way to justify killing Babish was by killing another. But a different part of him hungered for the fight.

  He was scared, though admitting it to himself felt almost like a form of surrender. He still couldn’t feel whatever the effects of the Sacrificial Gift were supposed to be. He could only hope that he’d be able to notice a difference once the fight began.

  “This is a fight to the death,” said Volandar. “Any attempt at fleeing the challenge circle will be punished. Are you both ready?”

  Jack nodded. Across from him, Pine flashed a sneering grin and gave a small flick of the head.

  “Begin,” said Volandar.

  Jack immediately whipped his hand to the side and conjured his Spectral Sword. The dark, ethereal blade appeared within his hand in a puff of shadows, some of which continued to hover around the weapon, like curling smoke. He’d been expecting Pine to attack him immediately, but the giant of a man didn’t even raise his guard. Instead, he slowly began to walk forward, watching Jack as he repositioned himself.

  His blood magic had been the key to defeating Babish. Jack knew it was what he’d have to rely on to take down Pine. He licked his lips, wishing that Mira had been cognizant enough to answer more questions. He briefly considered trying to reach out to her quickly with his Blood Sight, but Pine rushed forward before he could.

  Jack swung his Spectral Sword at Pine’s head and cleaved through nothing but thin air. A fist slammed into the small of his back hard enough to make his spine screech with pain. He had no choice but to fall forward with the momentum of the blow, rolling across the ground and back to his feet.

  Pine was already moving to attack him again. He was faster than Jack’s eyes could follow, and smart enough
to know better than to attack from an angle that Jack could clear with his sword. Pine appeared to Jack’s right and swept his leg out from under him with a kick. Then he kicked him again, this time in the head.

  It felt like the ringing of a bell, except his head was the instrument and pain was the music. The blow struck hard enough to briefly deafen him. It kept him from being able to hear his own scream.

  Jack used Shadow Form on reflex, fading into darkness and out of the way of the follow up stomp that would have ended the fight. He was in too much pain to focus for long enough to maintain the ethereal state. When he rematerialized, he was across the combat circle, but Pine was already sprinting toward him like a linebacker with a vendetta.

  He needed to keep him away. He needed time, time for him to focus past the dizziness and mental fog that the kick to the head had saddled him with. Jack swung his sword in a furious, desperate arc, cutting to the side and then around behind him. If he could just keep Pine from getting close enough to hit him again…

  Another punch, this time to his stomach. Jack retched on the moment of impact, and a portion of the food he’d eaten earlier spilled out onto Pine’s shoulder. Seeing the vampire react to the bile was a slight victory for his morale, but he only had an instant to appreciate it before another punch came, slamming into his temple and knocking him to the ground.

  They continued like that for two or three more engagements. Pine was too fast. To Jack, it felt like trying to fight two or three opponents at once, never managing to attack or defend properly as he was surprised from impossible angles.

  He would attack, and be immediately slammed into the ground, or against the vampires around the edge of the circle, who would toss him back into the fray. Jack felt like a child trying his best to hold his own against a full-grown adult.

  His face was bloody and swollen. He’d started breathing through his mouth, panting almost like a dog, as one of Pine’s punches had somehow clogged his nose. Most of his blood essence had already been expended, wasted on attempts to use Shadow Form to sneak around Pine and surprise him, or trying to hold him in place with Spectral Hand. His opponent was just too fast and too mobile.

  Pine was laughing at him. He’d slowed his pace, more out of a desire to draw the fight out than for the sake of strategy. He was joking with the vampires that formed the edge of the circle, and pantomiming the attacks he planned to execute next.

  What could he do against a vampire who outclassed him so completely? He was desperate for an idea, and completely distraught over what a waste Mira’s Sacrificial Gift had been. She’d said it would give him some of her strength. So why was it that he still felt so weak?

  He thought back to the memory he’d witnessed of Mira fighting against his grandfather. She hadn’t summoned a spectral weapon. And she hadn’t bothered trying to evade with Shadow Form. That had never been her style.

  “That’s it…” muttered Jack. “Of course…”

  He let his Spectral Sword dematerialize. He was down on one knee, and Pine had finally made his way over. The hulking vampire seized him by the collar of his shirt and let out a laugh as he tossed him across the arena. Jack fell toward the ground headfirst.

  And then, he caught himself. He’d seen Mira do it in the memory, and the spell came to him naturally. The shadows amongst the grass rose up to catch Jack, holding him aloft. Shadow Levitation. Leveraging the darkness for extra mobility.

  He could sense what Mira had given him, now. It wasn’t power, and it wasn’t raw essence. It was more like understanding, an echo of her magical memory. Jack used Shadow Levitation to lift himself into the air, floating five or six feet above Pine’s effective attacking range on the ground.

  The spell didn’t allow him to fly, at least not really. The catalyst for it was the shadows along the ground, which billowed upward to lift his body under his legs and shoulders. It reminded him more of being in a wind tunnel than defying gravity in the sense of physics.

  Pine looked surprised, but his expression shifted into a dark glare after a couple of seconds. Jack smirked at him, feeling an idea of how to approach the fight crystallize in his head. Pine snarled and threw himself into a powerful leap, intent on tackling Jack back to the ground.

  That was exactly what he’d been hoping for. Jack rolled to the side easily, the shadows underneath him swirling to amplify his own movements. He conjured his Spectral Sword again and slashed at Pine. The hulking vampire had no means through which to change the path his momentum had set him on and could only make a feeble attempt at twisting out of the way.

  Jack’s sword cut through Pine at the shoulder, separating the muscles and tendons without slowing down. And he wasn’t finished there. He thought of what Mira would do, in the same situation, and immediately began casting a follow-up spell.

  Spectral Hand tendrils burst into existence out of Jack’s chest and shoulders, double the number he normally would have been able to maintain with his own essence. He wrapped them around Pine like a spider spinning silk, and slowly pulled him in. Pine started shouting, and the sound of it was so different from his earlier joking and taunting.

  “You should have killed me,” said Jack, turning Pine so he was speaking to his face. “You had your chance.”

  He slammed his Spectral Sword forward directly through Pine’s face. He held the ethereal blade in place as he gently released his Shadow Levitation and lowered them both to the ground. Pine’s feet hit first, and for a moment, it seemed as though his body would remain standing despite the weapon protruding through the back of his skull.

  Jack let his Spectral Sword dematerialize, and Pine crumpled to the ground in a bloody heap. The silence that had hung on the air earlier returned, only interrupted by the wind whistling across the grass.

  “The… death challenge is over,” said Volandar. He looked visibly shaken and took a few seconds to survey his flock, as though reassuring himself that he still had the advantage of numbers, at least.

  A few of the vampires gathered around Pine’s body. Volandar waved a few more over to him, where they began conversing in whispered tones. Jack walked back into the keep, not waiting to see if anyone would bother to stop him.

  CHAPTER 29

  The halls of the Emerald Keep were empty. Jack couldn’t help but wondered if Pierce and Katie had successfully managed to get into the vaults. A part of him still worried a little over Katie’s safety, but he knew that the best way he could help her now was to act normal and not give Volandar any reason to feel suspicious beyond what he already had.

  He slowed as he approached the door to his room. It was open, and he was sure that he hadn’t left it like that. Jack felt his heart skip a beat as he stepped into the room. Mira was gone.

  He checked her room, but she wasn’t there, either. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been struggling to gather the energy to stay conscious, let alone go for a walk. The hairs on the back of Jack’s neck stood up as he realized something. Vyara hadn’t been at the death challenge.

  Jack sprinted to the keep’s staircase and down to the lower level. He burst through the door and into Vyara’s workshop. Mira was there, as he’d expected her to be. She was strewn out across one of Vyara’s tables, stripped of her nightgown and completely naked.

  “My father promised me that I’d be able to study one of you,” said Vyara. She’d been behind him when Jack had entered, and now moved to shut the door, trapping him in.

  “You’re insane,” said Jack. He hurried over to Mira and tried to lift her into his arms. Vyara took several supernaturally quick steps forward, and Jack took a step back, knowing he’d have to deal with her first.

  “I… wanted you,” said Vyara. “I’d hoped… my poison would bring you to me. But you survived.”

  “So that was you?” asked Jack. “You poisoned me on the night we arrived.”

  “Father was… upset, when I told him,” said Vyara. “Otherwise… I’d have poisoned you again.”

  “He was upset?” asked Jac
k. “But he’s fine with this?”

  He gestured to Mira, feeling his anger building in his chest.

  “He knows…” said Vyara. “You won’t make good allies. He… can’t trust you…”

  She blinked her huge, black eyes several times and surged forward at Jack. He dodged to the side, trying to stay as close to Mira as he could. He couldn’t let Vyara get between him and Mira, unless he wanted to be in a situation where she was threatening Mira’s life unless he surrendered.

  Jack made his move. He conjured his Spectral Sword and slashed at Vyara’s chest. She didn’t move, up until the blade was about to make contact. Her entire body contorted to move her under the path of the sword, her bones bending as though they were made of jelly. She touched down on the floor with her arms bent backward, like some kind of hideous, deformed quadruped.

  Jack pulled back the sword for another slash, but he never got the chance. Vyara leapt at him, still contorting even as she moved through the air. She swung a balled fist at his shoulder as soon as she was within the effective range of Jack’s blade. It took him an instant too long to notice that she’d been holding something inside of that fist.

  The needle in Vyara’s grip pierced into Jack’s arm. He felt a sudden, unpleasant hot flash the instant it did. Vyara immediately scuttled out of Jack’s range. She brought herself to stand upright again, and her bones made tiny popping noises as they reformed into a human shape.

  “You will make for… a better specimen, this way,” said Vyara. “A… calm specimen.”

  Jack felt his face and fingers go numb. He tried to take a step toward her, but one of his legs gave out, and he fell to one knee. He struggled against it with all the strength he had, but it wasn’t enough. He’d been a fool to let her get that close to him, and he knew it.