by Emma Glass
All five of my guards were dead.
No, I gasped. This can’t be happening…
I dropped to my knees near the female guard who had swapped ranks with me in formation. Her helmet was scattered to the side and dented in, and her flowing hair was matted with filth and dust against the ground. Shivering in regret, my hands reached out to her hair and stroked it.
I’d taken it upon myself to know the names of all my guards. This one, a faithful servant forever asleep at my knees, was named Kinsey.
“I’m… I’m so sorry,” I whispered as I wiped her forehead clean and planted a peck against it. “This didn’t have to happen. You saved my life. Please, I have no right to ask, but… forgive me.”
Her lifeless eyes offered neither judgment nor compassion. I closed them with my fingertips. My head bowed as everything inside filled with a great and powerful grief.
If only I’d know, I howled in my head. None of us stood a chance against that thing. They didn’t tell Silas anything about a magical beast! I’d have come here with a bloody battalion of guards to kill it!
My shoulders collapsed.
“No,” I whispered. “The fault is my own. I’m just as much to blame. I led these servants into danger, and they paid the ultimate price…”
My gaze lifted, and I stared down the hallway.
I will not let their sacrifice be in vain, and I will not let them rot in this place…
When I moved to lift her, she coughed – and I almost jumped out of my own skin. Dropping back to her side on my knees, I checked her wounds while she seemingly came back to life.
She wasn’t the only one. The others started to murmur, save the one I watched die.
“I watched that thing slaughter half of you,” I muttered in disbelief. “After what we’ve just been through, how are any of you still alive?”
The guard winced. I took her hand, pulled her to a sitting position, and helped her put her back to the wall. “I don’t know,” she groaned in pain. “I think I lost a lot of blood, but I only faded out. The beast didn’t kill me…”
Shock, I thought. I must have just been in shock. I took her head in both hands and, filled with the harrowing things we’d seen, pressed my forehead to hers. “I will never lead any of you into death like that again.”
She laughed and winced. “Lord Elliott, we all live to serve. Lead us wherever you need to, but… maybe next time, we could head back to the castle for reinforcements?”
A weary chuckle left my lungs. “Deal.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the others. Still, only one appeared to actually be dead – the others were waking back up from the horrific aftermath. “If you’re okay for the moment, I need to check on the others…”
“Do what you must, my Lord.”
Leaving her side, I took stock of the guards. It seemed they were all badly hurt, even hovering at the edge of death, but with medical attention they would all make it minus the one.
Dedicated to getting everyone out of harm’s way as fast as possible, I scooped up two vampires over my shoulders and wearily carried them back to the elevator. To my complete dismay, our ride back up was gone. I had to sit the wounded guards down near the base and use the winch to recall it from far above on the surface.
While I waited on that, I returned to scoop up another two guards. This time, I grabbed the dead one as well – I was determined to ensure that he at least received a proper burial.
The elevator still hadn’t finished lowering as I approached, so I slumped them down together to return for the final guard. She barely spoke out of pain and misery, so I gingerly carried her over my shoulder with the quarterstaff retrieved and held in my dominant fist. No telling when that creature will rear its ugly head again… can’t hurt for me to be at least partly prepared…
I navigated the tunnel without issue. When I finally made it back to the lower bay, the elevator had arrived at last. As carefully as I could, I began moving my wounded guards into the elevator to send them back up to Gransome Village.
“Lord Elliott,” Kinsey grunted painfully. “We can still kill this thing. I just need a bit more time to heal up. I think we can put it out of our misery after we’ve rejuvenated…”
“Not fast enough,” I insisted gravely. “Maybe. But you are in no condition to fight anymore. The best thing you can do right now is–”
I froze when I heard the growling again.
“Oh god,” she groaned in horror. “It’s coming back again–”
Without a moment to lose, I moved the rest of them into the elevator and began preparing it for ascent again. Kinsey must have seen the defeated look on my face; she reached for me in a coughing fit. “Wait,” she choked on the word. “Lord Elliott, you’re going to come up with us, right?”
I looked up from the control panel.
“When you return to the surface, tell them all that a full-grown tatzelwurm has appeared in the Dawning Mines.”
“Gods,” she paled. “That’s what that was?”
I nodded gravely. “We never stood a chance.”
The lights in the elevator switched back on. It was just in time for the serpentine monstrosity to slither back into view; I grabbed the quarterstaff as it lunged for the elevator.
“No!” I snapped the blade at it, driving it back. My furious eyes vehemently stared into the beast. “So long as I draw breath, you will not take them.”
“Lord Elliott!” The guard pleaded. “Lord Elli–”
The switch flipped – the rails snapped shut. The elevator groaned to life and steadily started rising as Kinsey slowly pulled herself towards me. “No!” She reached down through the rails. “Lord Elliott, take my hand!”
“Don’t be stupid,” I grunted wearily as I swept the quarterstaff into a defensive stance. “The cave will rip your arm off if you hold it out like that. Go back to the surface… I’ll hold it here for now.”
The tatzelwurm loomed closer. Malevolently, its attention flickered between the rising elevator and me – but I knew the power my blood had over magical creatures.
Sure enough, its decision was quickly made.
“Lord Elliott,” she whispered. “…Good luck.”
At my back, the rising platform scraped past the ceiling. What did I say, Kinsey? I told you: ‘We never stood a chance.’ With a little luck on my side… alone, perhaps I do…
My quarterstaff had been a stupid weapon to choose with allies in the fray, but they were gone now – and with those allies left the quick escape. Nothing else was left in this crystalline, glowing hell than the feral beast and me.
“Alright, you…” I steeled myself.
Its low snarl echoed in the empty chamber.
“Just the two of us now...” Both of us became hunter and prey; the tide could turn any moment. “No more distractions – nobody else to get hurt. Time to show me what you’ve got.”
The tatzelwurm roared, lunging forward…
9
Nikki
My madness flickered at the edges of my mind. It whispered sweet nothings to me like a lover in the dark, snuggled up on the pillow. Complicated but endearing, it was neither an entity nor a voice – it was a feeling, but I liked to imagine it sometimes.
I wondered what she looked like. That’s right, she’s a she to me. I never named her, though. That would have been crazy. But the personification of my madness was always there when I needed her, comforting me when my darkest moments came. She was my best friend for about a hundred years. I knew she only wanted what was best for me, but we had our differences. Even I had to admit that her methods were a tad dangerous, and I ignored the most irrationally chaotic of her suggestions.
I loved my madness.
My madness loved me.
But there was someone in my life – someone real, and tangible, bound in flesh and blood that I could physically reach. He was a flawed creature, and we rarely agreed, but he was someone whom I loved even more than my beautiful insanity.
An
d he needed me.
The soil of the Stonehold mainland crunched under my worn boots as I entered the village. It still surprised me how quickly I’d arrived. Within my hundred years away from the castle, chrysm technology had advanced at an unbelievable rate. Teleportation nodes were still in their infancy at the time, but their manageable drawbacks were now clearly a thing of the past.
What took over an hour of preparation a mere century before – teleporting across the sea – now took me mere seconds.
Even with my astonishment, I couldn’t ignore the seductive whispers in my head, questioning why I’d come. Think of how he’s treated you since you’ve come back. He’s a fool. Ignore the distress signal. Leave him. Let him accept his foolish fate…
“No,” I whispered to the air. “We need Elliott. He must stay alive. Leave him alone.”
Are you sure? My madness knew better than to envy Elliott. The feeling inside hated neither him, nor how I still adored him. But this insanity was forever a part of me now. It had long since soaked down into my bones, always trying to coerce my mind into the abyss – and my brother was forever tied into the events that did it to me.
Surely, you couldn’t blame me for relishing the chance to be done with him, after all this time…
It was true. I couldn’t.
Then let’s turn around, and we can–
“Leave him alone,” I snapped.
An unfamiliar voice called out. It was one of the miners. “Sorry? Leave who alone?”
I ignored the question.
“Is this Gransome Village?”
The miner peered at me curiously. “Of course it is. There’s no other settlement for ages. Are you new to these parts?”
I approached him with a grin that clearly set him at unease. “Actually, yes…”
“Ah,” he stumbled backwards. “Well then, I’m sure someone else can, well, you know, lend you a quick hand… seeing as you’re lost and all…”
“Oh, I’m not lost,” I planted a hand against the wall near him, peering evilly into his eyes. “Turns out, you guys have something of mine. Someone, if I’m being accurate…” My eyes squinted with a wicked glint. “And I’d very much like them back.”
“Wh-who?”
I chuckled darkly. “Surely, you recognize me. My name is Nikki Craven, sister of Elliott Craven.”
The miner visibly gulped.
“You’re here for… for Lord Elliott?”
“That’s right. That Lord Elliott of yours is kind of important to me. Now, I’ve come a very long way from Stonehold Castle… and let me be the first to put your fears to bed.”
He looked relieved.
That was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.
“If my older brother has been left in harm’s way,” I told him with an affectionate smile, “and I come to find out that it had anything to do with the people of this village…”
The miner shuddered under my stare.
“…The sun will rise over your graves…”
My new friend, the trembling old miner, wasted no time in introducing me to higher authorities.
“Lady Craven?” The village elder spoke in awe as I walked into some kind of hall. At least a dozen vampires were sulking about, all dressed in their boring old workers’ garb. This has to be where their adorable mining guild likes to have fun little chats about smacking rocks, or ripping stuff out from the ground, or murdering their sworn leader… “This is quite the surprise. I had no idea that you were in this part of the hold.”
“I swear,” I ranted, “the next person who tries to make small talk with me while my brother is in danger gets thrown from atop Craven Keep.”
Sure, the room was mostly silent before, but now the silence was so heavy in the air that you could almost cut it with a knife. Actually, I have a few on me right now! I wonder if I can–
No, I snapped inwardly.
Remember: concentrate on Elliott…
“Looks like we’re all on the same page now… So, since we’re just getting to know each other, here’s an idea… let’s do team-building exercises! I know a really fun game that I like to call, ‘What the Hell is Going On Here? Winner gets a prize!” My leering face twisted around the miners while I searched for the weak link in the group. “Spoiler alert: the prize is that you don’t have to find out what happens when I really lose it.”
“Lord Craven descended underground,” one of them quickly chirped up.
I turned on him. “We have a winner! Tell me more, and make it fast…”
“What do you mean, ‘a magical creature’?” I yanked the wounded guard up to her feet, glaring down into her with my favorite smile. She looked terrified; that’s how I knew it was working.
“Which magical creature?” I insisted.
The guard trembled in my grasp.
“Lady Craven!” The elder gasped. “Please, this guard is the only conscious one of the bunch that came back up from the mines! If we’d know you would scare her like this, I’d have never allowed you to see her!”
“It’s a good thing you have no authority over me, then, isn’t it?” I turned to him with a vicious glare. “Unless you dare question a Craven?”
“Of course not,” The elder quieted down at that. “My sincerest apologies…”
I lowered my face sweetly to the guard.
“What is your name?”
“Kinsey,” she choked.
“Kinsey,” I repeated. That’s such a sweet name. “Don’t you worry… I’m not going to hurt you, my little Kinsey,” I reassured her. “That is, unless you waste my time any further. If that’s the plan, then let me know right now and we can start the song and dance – I’ll get the blades sharpened and we can have some real fun this morning...”
“Th-that won’t be necessary, Lady Craven.”
“Good,” I grinned lovingly. “So tell me what I need to know, little bat.”
The guard shuddered. “It’s a tatzelwurm.”
Even my madness silenced itself in horror.
“No,” I gasped, releasing my grip on her out of astonishment. “That can’t be… it can’t…”
“It was horrible,” she groaned. “Face like a cat, body like a snake… gigantic… murderous… the thing came at us like Death itself…”
That’s definitely a tatzelwurm – but how? How did one of them wind up underground? Struggling to focus, my mind reeled as it tried to figure it out. Tatzelwurms are mythical, malicious little snots, rare even in these parts… but they hate the dark!
Their nesting habits, their prey, everything about them kept the spiteful creatures out of the caves and high in the peaks. They only ever crept near the roads when the pickings grew slim in their natural, mountainous habitats…
Still focused on the wounded guard, I glared indignantly over at the mines. “You’re telling me, little bat, that you left my older brother down there alone with an adult goddamn tatzelwurm?!”
“He saved our lives. If it weren’t for–”
I silenced Kinsey with a low snarl; afterward, I turned back to the winner of my earlier game, the one who had come in with the elder. It seemed his name was Pavric. “Get me down there.”
“We can’t risk bringing that thing up to–”
Taking a step closer, I whipped a dagger from its scabbard. Judging by the look on his face, the mere presence of it in my curled fist did plenty of the talking for me. “My brother, your vampire lord, is down there and probably dead by now.”
I turned to the guard. “No thanks to you.”
With a furious growl, I glanced at him again. “Now, you have the easiest job on the planet right now, don’t you?” My madness pushed a loving, endearing smile across my face. “All you have to do is send me down there so I can take vengeance on that utter abomination, so help me gods…”
He looked unimpressed. “The beast’s already killed half the guild, murdered a royal guard, and wounded many more. Forgive my skepticism, but what makes you think you can kill it?”
“I have hunted them,” I snarled viciously.
Before he could respond, we were interrupted by scattered cries of surprise. I growled, released him from my clutches, and hesitantly turned to face the entrance of the Dawning Mines.
Must’ve lured it up to the surface, my madness observed. You have the blood of the vampire lords in your veins… the creature must have noticed…
Mentally, I was pulled in two directions.
First, I had to acknowledge that my brother was probably dead. The very thought of a world without him buried my twisted heart in sorrow, no matter how my thoughts contorted over him – drawn between love and distrust.
But on the other hand, this demented, chaotic thing inside me always loved an excuse to spill warm blood, and there was never a better reason for wanton violence than the thought of revenge…
As I marched towards the gaping maw of the caverns, my hand ripped an axe from its supports. Wood planks splintered as I spun the axe to a rest on my shoulder; the taste of blood was already on my tongue. If my brother is truly gone, why not cleave its head from its body? The beast must pay the ultimate price for daring to cross my loved ones…
But that’s not what I saw coming.
The axe slipped from my fingers to the dirt.
No, the madness groaned in defeat. How? How is this even possible? Why couldn’t it have–
“Shut up,” I snapped at the voice. By the kinds of looks I got, I blurted that out a little too loudly, but you know what? Screw them.
A confused voice rang out. “Nikki?”
Elliott stumbled forward from the shadows. I rushed forward to his bloody body as my brother dropped to his knees. A mangled quarterstaff hit the dirt beside him; on his other side, he dropped the head of the tatzelwurm.