Rivalry (War of Nytefall Book 3)

by Charles E Yallowitz

  “So, they do love each other,” the ritualist whispers to herself.

  Flying backwards to face the other vampire, the raven explains, “Everyone on both sides of the war know that, so it isn’t like I revealed a secret. Why do you think Xavier and Nadia have never tried to kidnap one of them? There was the first time, but they’ve never made a second attempt since they saw how destructive Clyde can be. It’s the same reason we would never try to capture one of your masters to manipulate the other. Even among vampires, love is something you do not meddle with. Now, I have a question that I hope you answer truthfully. Why are you and Decker being so helpful? While Archillious is being fairly obnoxious at times, you two have become downright friendly.”

  “One could say the same about you and Bob,” Stephanie replies, her head turning to the side. She briefly returns to her true form before changing back, but with a crimson plume on her head. “I assume we see each other as a means to an end. There’s no return to friendship here. We have a common enemy and goal, which will be cast aside once Lord Tempest, Clyde, and Titus are rescued. This is especially true with Decker and myself. We are loyal to our makers and wish to see them safe and happy.”

  “It is surprising that you were willing to leave Nadia’s side.”

  “Yes, but my new abilities allow me to help here.”

  “What are those exactly?”

  “A woman must retain her secrets, Mr. Grathan.”

  “Sorry. I figured it was worth a shot.”

  Heading back to the chasm, Luther searches for a safe place to land, but finds that the giltris are everywhere. He is about to head for the treehouse, which he can barely make out within the thick branches, but catches sight of a suspicious cloud. Cawing and pointing with his beak, the forest tracker brings Stephanie’s attention to the odd sight. They watch as the pure white puff hurries across the sky and releases a thin trail of falling rain in its wake. All of the plants that are struck by the sparkling water grow a foot taller while the giltris caught in the narrow deluge regain some of their scaly luster. Luther considers leaving the cloud alone, but the lack of clues about Jewelz’s whereabouts forces him to investigate. Coming at its side, he stops short of making contact and stays close enough to examine its soft form. He does not taste any emotions, which means it is not a living creature, but a magical construct. Swooping down to watch the rain, he gets the sense that it is a mindless caretaker that has been tending to the plants for centuries. The cloud abruptly veers to the right, so he stops to watch where it goes before he dares to follow. It takes the forest tracker a minute to realize that it refuses to pass over the lagoon and is in the middle of following the circular handle-shaped section of Apelios. He hurries to wait for it at the other side of the path, but soars back and forth in case he has to get out of its way.

  Without warning, the cloud picks up speed and rockets directly for Luther, who heads for the lagoon. He is nearly over the shore when the hurtling caretaker veers to the side and engulfs Stephanie’s astral form. Curling into a ball, she screams in fright more than pain before the puff explodes into a dissipating mist. The Dawn Fangs hear a low rumble from below and look down to see that the zombies are jumping around the landscape. A loud snap comes from the opposite shore and a curtain of the magic bubbles erupts from a fresh chasm. Large chunks of the forest tumble into the catacombs as the ground breaks apart. The lagoon gradually swirls into the form of a roaring whirlpool, which gathers the sea monster bones into a tall pillar standing at its center. The skulls are fixed to the top of the structure and their eyes briefly glow a sickening violet before going dark again. Luther and Stephanie back away from the tower, which spews a noxious gas that rolls down its sides. A thunderous boom shakes Apelios and the two largest chasms grow until they meet in the middle of the island. With the blobs flowing out of the massive fissure, the earth groans and splits entirely in half, which allows the ocean to pour into the catacombs.

  “We need to get back to the ship,” Luther says as he turns towards the treehouse. He releases a phantom to tell Decker to prepare for an immediate departure, but does not move when he sees that Stephanie is a calico once more. “Stop your spell and tell the others that we have to go. Is there a reason you aren’t moving?”

  “Mab is gone,” the ritualist answers before a quake breaks her concentration.

  Trusting Stephanie to warn the others, Luther calls back his phantom and sends it into the forest in search of the burglar. Soaring in the opposite direction, he pumps his blood as quickly as possible to increase his speed. Diving into the trees, the forest tracker punches a hole in the canopy and barrels through trunks that leave splinters in his body. Nimbly dodging any giltris in his path, Luther keeps his tongue stretched out in search of the stewing rage that has been wafting off Mab since their journey began.

  *****

  Darting into a shadow, Mab comes back out behind the charging giltris and cleanly slices its head off. Before the body falls, she kicks it at another enemy and sends both tumbling into the fissure. Hearing footsteps and crashing trees coming from behind, the burglar grabs the edge of the chasm and flips into a catacomb entrance. With her claws plunged into the earth, she hangs with half of her body submerged in seawater. Mab listens to the horde stampeding overhead and waits for the danger to pass before flipping into a shadow. Opening a new portal with her booted feet, she emerges beneath an overturned palm and kicks the tree into the air. The blow is loud enough to draw the attention of the zombies, which are at the edge of the fissure. Instead of fighting, the Dawn Fang sprints away and tries to leave the rampaging creatures behind. The uneven ground and thick underbrush slow her down enough that the giltris stay within sight, their numbers growing as more are drawn to the pursuit. Coming to a crack in the ground, Mab slides on her back and kicks out her legs to make the opening big enough for her to fall into the darkness. Safely in the void, she waits among the strange monsters, who are starting to gather out of curiosity. A growl keeps the hungrier beasts at bay and they retreat as she moves far enough to hopefully gain some distance from her pursuers.

  Poking her head out, Mab curses at how there are more of the undead than before and they are continuing to gather around her target. With no other choice, she leaves the shadows and charges at the nearest giltris. She slices it across the waist and spins around to lop off an arm, which only antagonizes the zombie. Ducking away from a bite, the burglar dives through its legs and grips its tail hard enough to break the scales. Whipping it over her head, she hurls the snarling monster at the biggest pack that is heading towards her. To Mab’s surprise, the body abruptly gains more speed and power in order to violently smash through the others. She dives into a smaller group of enemies and gracefully moves around them to sever limbs and heads. Out of the corner of her eye, the burglar notices two giltris go flying backwards with gaping holes in their chests. Another goes down when its ribcage implodes as if it has been struck by a long pole and its top half snaps off at the spine.

  With a whistle, Mab finishes off the nearest giltris and leaps into the trees, the branches next to her shaking a second later. The zombies rush her perch and threaten to knock the oak over, but the branches are too entwined with its neighbors to go down easily. Leading the way through the canopy, she keeps an eye on the signs of movement to her right. She tries to hold back her temper, which is threatening to explode now that she is heading away from the lagoon. Hearing snorts and coughs, the burglar flips to look behind her and sees a trio of female giltris. Leaner and less decomposed than the others, the zombies are able to catch up to the nimble Dawn Fang, who grows her claws and bares her fangs. With a hiss, one of the creatures awkwardly flies to the side as if something has struck it in the head. The second turns to see what is happening, but crashes to the ground when a black blur severs its legs at the hips. Too primal and hungry to retreat, the remaining giltris leaps for the burglar and is immediately taken down by a blow to the chest. Its entire torso explodes as it falls and a feathered form gra
cefully soars away from the mess.

  “Do I even have to tell you how dangerous and stupid this is?” Luther asks as he takes his true form. Furious with his friend, he grabs her by the collar at the same time Bob materializes and does the same. “You’re in charge of this rescue mission. That means you give orders and let us help you. Rushing into danger and going solo without an explanation isn’t a luxury that you have on this job. Now, tell us what’s going on here or I’m dragging you back to the ship. I’ll cut off your limbs if I have to, Winthrop.”

  “I did give an order to go back to the ship and you didn’t listen,” Mab argues before slicing off her friends’ hands at the wrist. Tossing the body parts back, she is about to sink into a shadow when Bob spears her leg with his lance. “My partner! My brother! My old enemy! My fight! Why is this so hard to understand?”

  “Because Clyde and Titus are our family too,” the vampiric elf softly replies. Letting go of his weapon, he picks up his hand and presses it to the stump while focusing on healing. “We know you’re angry, but don’t act like we aren’t feeling the same way. We’re also worried about our friends, which includes you. I don’t want an explanation of why you’ve run off unless you want to share. All I want to do is help.”

  “Besides, Clyde would go berserk if you died trying to rescue him,” Luther points out with a small smile.

  Removing the lance from her leg, Mab takes a seat on a nearby stump and runs her finger around the wound. “Since you two won’t let me handle my business alone, I guess I have to share everything. It doesn’t look like Jewelz is here, but I know this is Apelios. My treehouse being here is proof of that. She is probably using this place for supply drops to keep her real lair a secret. I’d bet money on someone setting off a trap that was designed to sink the island and any scraps of evidence that she exists. Jewelz is good at hiding her tracks, but I’m betting on one thing she’d never let get destroyed. My maker’s grave is on the island and I think I can talk to him if I can find it.”

  “Been a long time since we did a graverobbing,” Bob mentions as he rolls up his sleeves. A tremor runs through the ground and the vampires are nearly thrown off their feet. “We should probably move fast. This island isn’t going to last much longer. So, where are we going? Do we have shovels? Can I complain that there haven’t been nearly enough horses on this trip? This is why I hate the ocean.”

  “I’m sure you could make an aquatic steed if you wanted,” the forest tracker says to cheer his friend up. The instant Mab takes a step away, he catches her by the wrist, but she easily slips from his grasp. “We’re going to follow you no matter what. It’s that bone tower that you’re going to, right? It’s the only thing that will remain standing if the island sinks, so his grave must be at the top.”

  “That’s the answer I came up with too,” Mab admits as she nods towards the lagoon.

  “Can you get up there through the shadows?”

  “No, which is rather frustrating.”

  “That fog is probably toxic, so no climbing.”

  “I assume so.”

  “Worms!” Bob suddenly shouts before charging ahead.

  Luther and Mab have barely enough time to shrug at each other before their companion has turned invisible. Rushing after him, they watch as bushes are kicked away and any zombies that appear get their heads knocked off. A fallen tree is sent flipping off to the side and several lurking giltris rush after the debris in the hopes of finding food within the branches. Within minutes, the vampires reach the edge of the forest, which opens up to a circular area surrounding the lagoon. All of the trees have been flattened as if by a giant foot and there are plumes of noxious mist coming out of thin cracks in the dried ground. There is a constant rumbling beneath their feet, which makes them fear that the island is on the verge of collapsing. Bob rematerializes at the edge of the whirlpool and stares down at the rapidly spinning water, which is mixing with the thickening fog. He excitedly waves for his friends to join him, but they refuse to step into the open where the zombies can see them. With a sigh, he disappears again and hurries back to the forest while a pack of undead rise from the dirt and run behind him. A wide swing of his lance sends all of them flying into the whirlpool where they are torn apart by blade-like bones that are hidden beneath the surface.

  “We can get in through one of the holes in the side,” Bob explains while taking the others by the hand. He pulls hard, but his friends refuse to budge without more information. “Bones never fit perfecting together, which is why you have stuff between them. There are always spaces to allow for movement and to prevent grinding. I learned that the hard way when I got my horse building powers. If you don’t have the connection parts then there’s going to be a lot of empty space. Just look at the tower. It’s covered in entrances and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a path up to the top. At the very least, we can bash our way up there. Could take a lot of time, but you said that place isn’t going to fall.”

  “But the fog is coming from inside,” Luther points out. Putting a hand on his companion’s shoulder, he sighs and thinks of the best way to disagree with the plan. “Even if we get inside the tower, we don’t know what it’s like in there. With the fog pouring out of the upper areas, it’s possible that we would run into a higher concentration of it. If that happens then we will have to either leave, risk getting poisoned, or be killed immediately. I really did hope you were onto something with the worm idea.”

  “What is it that she really wants?” Mab asks herself. Walking over to a nearby crack, she runs her hand through the wisps of fog and pulls away when her skin turns bright pink. “I should have known there was a trick. Too hung up on my own anger and thoughts of Clyde that I forgot who I was dealing with. Jewelz wants me to suffer, but putting a clue somewhere that I can’t get to means I might walk away. That ruins her plan. She can gain an extra victory if I sacrifice something to reach the top, so this is to play to my pride and stall for time. Guess she doesn’t know me as much as she thinks.”

  “I’m not following you,” the forest tracker admits. Touching the foul-smelling fog, he notices that his glove turns the same shade of pink as Mab’s hand. “This is nothing more than a smelly dye? What do you have to sacrifice to get through this?”

  “I despise bright pink, so she thinks this would cost me some self-respect,” the burglar claims while taking off her jacket. She ties the sleeves together and turns the garment into a makeshift bag that she can leave in the shadow of a tree. “The threat of an ugly color isn’t going to stop me from saving my partner. Although, nobody is going to tell him about this because he’ll never let me live it down. Put whatever you don’t want to get changed in my jacket and I’ll try to grab it from the top. I can’t make any promises since I don’t know what’s up there. You two are still coming, right?”

  Bob gingerly takes off his polished boots and places them in Mab’s jacket before running at the whirlpool. The elf slams his lance into the fragile earth and the weapon bends oddly until it snaps forward. He sails over the water and catches the edge of a vertebrae, which Luther is already perched on in his raven form. The Vengeance Hounds wait patiently for Mab to join them, but see that she is heading back into the forest. They are about to jump back when part of a pine tree comes sailing over the clearing and slams into the bone tower. Pulling herself out of the narrow shadow that is on the wall, Mab uses her claws to climb instead of wasting time searching for handholds.

  *****

  “I don’t think the color is that bad,” Bob says when they finally get out of the thickest part of the cascading fog.

  “How did your hair not change?” Luther asks from above, his entire body a bright pink. He looks up to see that Mab is nearly at the top, the burglar’s clothes untouched by the dye. “Is there a reason only your body has changed? It’s unnerving that this stuff affected all of us differently, so maybe there’s more to it. Hey, it looks like it can be wiped off with a clean rag, so we can clean up at the top.”

&n
bsp; Dangling from the edge, Mab waits for her friends to get closer before whispering, “Would you two talk lower? There might be a guardian up there. Besides, I tried to wipe my hand clean before I threw the tree. It didn’t come off. Remember how the mist she unleashed in Nyte dissolved most of my clothes? This is probably the same thing. A slight inconvenience for you two, but an embarrassing headache for me. Now, we’re going to jump up there at once and be ready for anything. If it’s clear then I’ll use Luther’s shadow to grab my jacket.”

  The Vengeance Hounds nod and come even with their companion, who carefully turns herself around. Mab knocks her foot against the tower to count up to three before the vampires launch themselves onto a blindingly white surface. The bone is uneven with random dips that they can barely see due to the sun beating down on them. Mab frowns at how even their shadows have been erased by the unnatural light, which gradually dims to allow them to look around without squinting and shielding their eyes. Sitting in the middle of the platform is a glass coffin that has diamond droplets along the edges. A marble headstone sits on the other side of the container, which has a black vapor swirling inside to prevent anyone from viewing the body. The Dawn Fangs take their time walking around the tower and checking for any hidden compartments or symbols. Hearing a howling wind below, they gaze out at the quivering island in case there is a clue among the crumbling landscape. Luther whistles and nods his head to where the ship is anchored perilously close to the shifting shore. Flowing towards their friends, the swarm of zombified giltris trample the trees and gather on the coast. Before they can see what happens, the dangerous bubbles rise from below and create an oily dome around the top of the tower.