by Travis Bughi
“Run!” Adelpha yelled.
They turned down the alley and ran for their lives. Abe twisted back and shot as they did so, emptying the remaining eight rounds into Drowin’s face, neck, and chest. The impact kicked Drowin off his feet, and the vampire struck the ground where his blood was already pooling.
“Run! Run!” Adelpha yelled again.
Abe flipped open his guns, releasing a shower of hot bullet casings that sprinkled the ground. He sprinted through the smoking cloud he’d created to catch up with the minotaur and the others. His cloak whipped back and forth behind him as he dug into his pockets for bullets to reload his weapons.
Behind them, Drowin’s howls of pain split the sky. Abe kept his guns held tight, but there would be no need to fire them again that night. The gunslinger had called the vampire’s bluff, and Drowin’s screams faded into pathetic gurgles as he choked on his own blood. His cries of agony went unanswered until, finally, they were lost to the darkness.
They ran anyway, propelled by the fear that coursed through their veins, and there was plenty of that to go around, because now they knew a vampire was hunting them, and they had just made him very, very angry.
Chapter 6
They ran all the way back to Banshee’s Wail Tavern and stopped only long enough to collect Mariam and their things. Emily’s mother was shocked to hear what she’d missed, but wasted no time arguing or demanding an explanation. She’d heard the gunslinger’s shots all the way back at the tavern, and the term ‘vampire’ was enough to delay any conversation.
Emily and Talvorn stayed outside of Banshee’s Wail until the others returned. They did not want to draw attention to the wounded knight who still hung limply over the minotaur’s shoulder. Emily wanted to give Gavin to his friends, but Talvorn refused.
“He’s too . . . far gone,” Talvorn said. “He needs . . . special help.”
Emily knew better than to argue and lifted Gavin’s head up to check on him. He was still breathing, barely, and his eyes fluttered open at Emily.
“Sorry, I couldn’t protect you,” he muttered.
“Hey, shhh.” Emily ran her fingers through Gavin’s hair. “Save your strength. We’re going to get you help.”
After Abe had tossed a generous amount of coins on the beds to pay for the rooms, Talvorn led the way through Lucifan’s dark streets with an impressive show of stamina. He carried the full-grown human and the massive club, which likely had a similar weight, at a dead run. Emily did note the difficulty the minotaur had in making the tight corners, but when a straight alley presented itself, he achieved a remarkable speed that left the humans panting for air.
“I know . . . a safe place,” Talvorn explained. “This way.”
Emily trusted Talvorn but was glad to have her bow back and tapped it to put her mind at ease. She kept the other hand over her shallow stomach wound. It was trying to heal, but the running was interfering, and a few trickles of blood popped out where the skin stretched as she moved. Thankfully, the pain was negligible.
They followed Talvorn to the edge of the city, to the minotaur quarters, where a large but humble building presented itself. It looked like a bigger version of the Stout home, made completely out of wood, which likely made it cheap to rent. Fortunately, the minotaurs had no illusions of grandeur, and this suited them just fine.
Talvorn opened the large doors and headed inside. Emily and the other humans followed, and although it was dark inside, she could see the building was full of minotaurs. Most were asleep at first, but they stirred awake at the sudden intrusion. Talvorn ignored them and rushed towards the back of the building to another set of stairs that led down.
“Quickly,” he commanded and headed down.
Emily, Abe, Mariam, and Adelpha picked their way through the minotaur horde with nimble movements and swift apologies. Emily had never seen so many minotaurs in one place, and she couldn’t help but feel nervous. She felt like a gnome among humans here—so tiny was she in comparison to the huge creatures of muscle and bone all around her.
They made it to the stairs and followed them as they spiraled down to the basement, where even more minotaurs lay. At the back of the room, which looked to be directly under the entrance to the structure, was yet another set of closed doors. Talvorn was nowhere to be seen, and two minotaurs stood guard on either side of the doors. They both appeared older than Talvorn and had brown fur like his. The moment Emily stepped down from the stairs, they stared at her expectantly, but she didn’t notice this because she was distracted by the door.
From all around the door, a bright, white light seeped through the cracks. It blinked off and on irregularly, sometimes staying on for a few moments, then turning off and back on again in a flash, and, as Emily approached the doors, one of the minotaurs standing guard stopped her. She looked to him, and he pointed to Abe, Mariam, and Adelpha.
“Can they . . . be trusted?” he asked.
She paused before answering. It wasn’t that she didn’t know the answer, but that the question had caught her by surprise.
“Um, yes,” she said.
The minotaur snorted but said nothing else. He stepped aside, as did the other minotaur, and grabbed the door handle. He eased it open—just enough for the humans to slip through but not enough to see inside—and made a jerking motion with his horned head. The blinking light flashed through the opening ominously. Emily breathed out and then squeezed inside.
What she saw next almost made her weep.
Talvorn was seated cross-legged and patient, Gavin was lying unconscious on a mat, and beside Gavin was Ephron, the angel, whose light-shining eyes lit up the room, then turned it dark again with every blink. His white-feathered wings enshrouded him in sharp contrast with his black hair. His white, linen gown flowed down to his bare feet, and he looked just as beautiful as ever. Then, his aura hit her.
The warm glow of the angel swept over Emily, and she fell to her knees before him. Ephron turned his head towards her, and she felt that instant feeling of acceptance and love that had washed over her so thoroughly the last time she’d been in the angels’ presence.
“Emily Stout,” Ephron whispered, his words filling the room like a layer of honey. “It’s good to see you again, and you’ve brought friends. I don’t mean to be rude, but please excuse me. Sir Gavin needs my assistance.”
Adelpha had entered with Emily, and Abe and Mariam had followed. As the angel’s aura hit them, they fell to their knees, as well, with mouths open in sheer wonder, speechless, and Emily watched their eyes tear up under the magnitude of emotions that swept over them. Ephron turned his attention to Gavin. The light that shined from the angel’s eyes lit up the knight, and Emily could see he was still breathing. Ephron lifted Gavin’s blood soaked shirt to reveal the wound, which was a smooth cut across the abdomen.
“You brought him just in time,” Ephron said. “I can save him.”
Talvorn grunted his acknowledgement.
Ephron reached out and placed a silk-smooth hand upon Gavin’s stomach. Blood stained the angel’s hand, but Ephron appeared not to notice as he closed his eyes, casting the room into a state of utter darkness.
For a moment, only the sound of breathing could be heard. Emily, Abe, Mariam, and Adelpha’s nervous breaths, Talvorn’s deep intakes and exhales, and Gavin’s short gasps. But then, beyond that, Emily heard the faintest of hums, and Ephron’s hand began to glow.
It glowed yellow, just barely shedding enough light to cast shadows across Ephron’s and Gavin’s faces. The hum and light hovered at one tone, but then began to grow. The hum grew louder, then louder, and the light grew brighter, then brighter. They continued rising and rising until the doors behind Emily were shaking and she was sure not a single citizen in Lucifan was asleep anymore, and then they stopped. The humming ceased, and the light faded rapidly to darkness like a lone candle blown out on a moonless night.
Once again, there was silence, darkness, and breathing, only now Gavin’s breaths were steady,
continuous, and normal.
Ephron opened his eyes, and light poured over them. The angel lifted his hand and revealed smooth skin. Gavin’s stomach was still caked in blood, but not even a scar showed where once there had been a deep gash. Most astonishing of all, Ephron’s hand no longer had blood on it.
“It is done,” the angel said.
“You’re alive!” Emily burst out suddenly.
She threw her arms open and jumped to her feet.
“Shh!” Talvorn scolded.
The minotaur motioned toward the door, and Emily realized she’d forgotten about the sleeping minotaurs outside. She cringed and apologized, then stepped towards Ephron. She came within arm’s reach of him and fell to her knees again, just as Ephron was on his knees before the still unconscious Gavin.
“You’re alive,” Emily whispered, tears of joy streaming from her eyes.
Ephron’s face remained placid, but he looked to Emily. He kept his face tilted down so as not to blind her with his eyes. Emily lifted a hand to touch Ephron’s face but stopped just shy of the angel’s skin. She was afraid to touch him, unsure of what would happen to her and not wanting to find that she was dreaming. In the end, she put her hand back down to her side and looked into Ephron’s sad eyes.
“Where are the others?” she asked.
“They are dead, Emily,” Ephron stated and then rose to his bare feet. “Killed by basilisk poison. I barely escaped.”
Emily nodded. She suspected as much, but she’d dared to hope enough to ask the question. When she didn’t immediately respond, Ephron stretched his feathered wings and then put them back in place as he paced away.
“Please,” Emily begged. “Tell me everything.”
Ephron sighed and folded his arms under his wings before clasping them together.
“If only it were that simple,” he said. “To tell you everything, Emily, would take your entire life. Even then, it would only be a partial answer, and there would be no time left to understand it all.”
“Then tell me what happened to the other angels,” Emily responded. “How did they die?”
“That I can answer,” he replied, and his face filled with sorrow. “Your kind, the humans, often assumes us to be omniscient. They falsely believe we know everything, and this is a tragic example of how we do not.
“We never had much in the way of guards, you see. Even after crime soared, we saw no reason to burden our knights further by posting extra protection outside our chambers. Being timeless has a way of pacifying one’s fear of death. So, the two knights we had there were easily overwhelmed and killed by Count Drowin’s forces when they arrived. The vampire was not there, of course, as the light from our eyes would have killed him. However, his group of ogres, samurai, and traitorous knights made the name of their employer known to us.
“At first we were not alarmed. We had heard of the deaths of vampires by basilisk poison, but somehow none of us suspected that Drowin’s true target all along was us. We hadn’t been suspecting much of anything really, as we were still mourning the loss of Quartus. Our weakness, you see, was that we were all too quick to assume the good in others. It wasn’t until the first ogre’s blade broke Uriah’s skin and he burst into light, leaving behind nothing but his white gown, did we realize what was truly happening.”
Ephron paused to breathe deeply. He closed his eyes, shutting the room into darkness, and when he opened them again, Emily saw that he had wiped away a tear. Her heart shattered as the angel’s agony tore open every fiber of sympathy she possessed. Her vision blurred as she cried for the angel, and she heard Abe crying, too.
“Damaris, our youngest sister,” Ephron continued, “took the crossbow bolt that was meant for me. It all happened so fast, but before she burst into light, she told me to fly away. So I broke through one of the large windows and escaped.
“The minotaurs were gracious enough to take me in and keep me hidden. Their hospitality is only exceeded by their manners, and I owe them the greatest of debts, especially to Talvorn and his kin.”
The angel looked at Talvorn as he spoke that last part. The minotaur remained motionless, his eyes closed as if napping, but his tail flicked when Ephron said this.
“Why didn’t you get help?” Emily whispered. “Why are you still here?”
Ephron sighed again and turned away. The light from his eyes reflected off the wall and made his wings appear to glow. Despite the great weight that he appeared to be carrying, Ephron still looked radiant as ever.
“Once again, Emily, you ask for an answer that cannot be easily given.”
“Haven’t you heard the rumors spreading? The people believe you abandoned them! Surely, if you reveal yourself, this can all stop,” she begged.
“That would be a simple solution, yes,” he said, “but I’m afraid the real problem is greater than that. I’m not sure you will understand, but I will try to fill in the gaps as best I can. My near-death experience, and the fact that it came as such a surprise, has motivated me to new consideration. Even divine beings, Emily, are not above the humble act of self-reflection. In doing so, I’ve discovered something that I believe Quartus acknowledged long ago.
“Sometimes we cannot protect the ones we love by attempting to shield them. They must learn to shield and fight for themselves, and the more we try protecting them, the more damage we deal in the process. This, dear Emily, is what we angels have done to Lucifan. We created this city, brought it to a remarkable pinnacle of prosperity, and then watched the steady decline of its magnificence, doing everything in our power to turn it around.
“Our efforts were in vain: our laws, our knights, our manners. Everything was meant to be a net that would cleanse the evil from this city, this paradise. Instead, we only stopped the simplest of evils, and the sludge of corruption and wickedness slipped past to taint the waters. Lucifan and its people now face a battle of the soul, and our guidance has left it ill prepared. I will not intentionally reveal myself, for, regretfully, the rumors you hear now are the harsh lies that must be told if Lucifan is to have any hope of lifting the sickness festering within itself.
“We angels, fit to create, are not fit to rule. This, I believe, is what Quartus realized before us, and what took me the loss of all my siblings to comprehend. I am sorry, Emily, that you must hear this now.”
Ephron said that last part because Emily was crying uncontrollably—tears streaking down her cheeks and her fists balled tight. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How could an angel say something like this? They were invincible, infallible, graceful, astounding, righteous, powerful, and yet they were not. Ephron, with a few short words, had eviscerated everything that Emily had ever believed about the angels.
She almost couldn’t bear to see him in this state of weakness. She wanted to run out of the building and keep running until she’d forgotten everything she’d just heard. She wanted her childhood dreams of obtainable perfectionism to be restored, and the angels restored, and Chara restored, and all the torment inside her to be exiled, shut away, and destroyed.
But it would not go away. As Emily closed her eyes and opened them again, Ephron was still the only remaining angel in the world, and he was about to tell her a truth she did not think she could handle.
“I didn’t look for help,” Ephron said, “because I’m not coming back. I’m leaving Lucifan, forever, as my final act of good to the city I helped create.”
“No!” Emily choked. “No, please. Don’t go!”
“Ssshhh.” Ephron glided towards her. “Do not be troubled, Emily. Quartus chose you for a reason, and I would never doubt his judgment.”
“Why me?” Emily pleaded. “Why did he pick me? What am I supposed to do? Lead an army? I’m just a girl from the plains. I just want my Chara back. I . . . I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!”
She knew she was losing it. All the emotions she’d been holding back were flooding out of her now, but she couldn’t help it. It was as if a dam had been broken.
“There,” Ephron said, taking his hand back. “That’s better. Now listen to me, Emily. I don’t know why you were chosen. Most likely, you were a simple victim of circumstance. You were close to the basilisk carrier, had seen Drowin and his allies, and if there had been a more qualified candidate, I’m sure Quartus would not have given his life so that you could live. I do not know his plans, or what you must do, but do I have faith, and you, too, must have that faith in his decision.”
“Quartus asked me if I was going to kill Heliena and then gave me life when I said yes,” Emily whispered. “Is that all I am meant to do?”
“I do not know,” Ephron replied, “and even if I did, I would not tell you. But I will tell you this: you carry my brother’s life now. There is something very special in that, and I dare say, something mysterious. Trust in your instincts now more than ever, Emily, and do not be afraid of your new life.”
Ephron stood, and Emily marveled at his height. The angel looked over at Talvorn and nodded slowly. The minotaur, cracking an eye open as the light shined over him, saw the nod. With a heavy grunt, he stood up and shook himself.
“You must leave now,” Ephron said to Emily, “before Sir Gavin wakes up. I trust that you and your companions will keep my existence a secret. I will leave, too, once the way is clear. My presence here is endangering these peaceful creatures, especially now that my whereabouts might be compromised.”
Talvorn crossed the room to Gavin and swept up the knight once more. Ephron kept his eyes open, providing light so that the minotaur could see. Talvorn turned to Emily next and placed a hand on her shoulder.