by Simon Archer
A little more tension eased from my chest. I might actually be able to pull this off. The sack, tucked safely into my uniform, rustled as I pulled it out to hold the artifact. My hand lifted to open the display case, the glass cool against my skin, and praying the Queen had not placed traps, I lifted the carving from the case. I held it up in a moment of triumph, amazed I had actually pulled it off, but as I slipped the artifact into the bag, I realized I still needed to escape the castle.
This would be fun.
2
Christoff
I opened the giant wooden door, and the two gargoyles from earlier were nowhere to be seen. It looked like my luck hadn’t quite run out yet. I closed the heavy door behind me, as softly as I could, and quickly tucked the sack that now held my prize under my clothes.
Something moved in the shadows beyond the hall, and I stood as still as one of the statues in the gallery, holding my breath. A group of faeries passed by, chatting happily, not noticing me, the thief in their midst. I left the hall and quickly descended the stairs, doing my best to hurry, but also to look as inconspicuous as possible, which was harder than it looked with my heart racing a mile a minute.
Aw, crap.
The two gargoyles from before were coming up the steps in front of me. They looked identical with yellow cat-like eyes, horns on their large heads, and giant wings folded up behind them. Terror froze me in place as the guards neared, but I inhaled a deep breath, steadying myself and continued walking, keeping my eyes on the stairs below me.
Just as I passed, letting out my breath, one of the guards yelled, “Hey!”
I thought about running, but instead, I whirled around to face the twin gargoyles and tried to act natural.
“Stay out of trouble, you,” the one on the right called, and the other slapped her on the back, laughing.
I smiled and nodded, afraid that if I spoke, my shaking voice would betray me. Damn gargoyles.
I continued my escape, body tingling with fear and adrenaline. I knew I had made it to the lower floors now, and as I continued down another hall, I saw more figures approaching. One was definitely another gargoyle, the behemoth form unmistakable even in the darkness of the hall, but the other looked more human than anything.
The pair were speaking in hushed voices, and as I neared them, I could make out only a few sentences. I looked up for the briefest of moments and met the eyes of a woman.
And that’s when the realization hit me. The irresistible yet distant silver eyes. The dark, tousled flowing hair, and the commanding voice. The unmistakable aura of power that she kept bound tightly around her. This was the Vampire Queen.
She had a slight accent that I wouldn’t have known where to begin to guess where it originated from. Likely, it was from another time, when giant walls and miles of land filled with roaming zombie hordes didn’t separate kingdoms and cities.
Her raven-colored hair touched past her shoulders, and she had bangs that curled at the ends and fell into her brilliant, shining silver eyes. Long, black lashes the same color as her hair blinked curiously at me. Though her skin had the pale undertone that most vampires had, it was obvious that she had spent time in the sun before she changed.
Somehow, she had maintained her tan through her vampirification process. Go figure.
Her lips were full but drawn into a tight, grim line at the moment. My eyes traced her sharp jawline and cream-colored throat that was still even as she spoke. She was speaking right then, I realized, but I heard nothing. I was too busy running my eyes up and down the length of her body.
The dress she wore was clearly tailored to fit her perfectly, and she boasted the colors of her kingdom in a dark blue bodice corset. Silver stitched swirling patterns embroidered the arm-length sleeves of her dress like tattoos. Below her waist, the dress flared out in soft silver fabric that barely brushed against the ground and gave hints at dark midnight heels that must have cost half a year’s worth of my own earnings. She did not wear a crown. And yet, the power rolling off the Queen in waves was like no other I’d ever felt before. It was… intoxicating. Beautiful. Sacred. Terrifying.
I shook my head. Where the hell did that thought come from? I needed to get out of this castle, and fast.
Once I passed the Queen and her guard, I picked up my pace, almost jogging now.
Fear, true, unadulterated fear pierced my heart, then. What if the Queen realized I was an intruder? I would never see my family again. My mother and my two younger siblings would have to fend for themselves. How would they survive without me? While my younger brother, the middle sibling, Tyrion, was a master at tattoo work, he could scarcely get enough clients for all three of them to live off of. At least the advance my client had given me for this job would hold them over for a short time, but then what?
I squeezed my eyes shut tight and choked down the panic rising in my throat. No, I wouldn’t be caught. I was almost out of this vampire castle. I rounded a corner into another hall similar to the fourth floor. More amateur artwork cluttered the walls. Doors lined either side of the hall, some closed and some left ajar. Voices echoed out from some of the rooms. Some were happy and amused, and others were mild chattering voices. It sounded like the halls of a large household or a busy inn. It was all so… normal. Mundane.
I couldn’t help the warmth that ran through me at the sight of it, even as I ran for my life.
As I passed one of the doors, I saw a beautiful faerie with brilliant green eyes nursing an infant with shiny, barely there hair in a rocking chair. That went on the entire way down the hall. I passed rooms filled with guests of all species, everything from two-foot-tall elves dripping in fine jewelry to brawny, ill-tempered werewolves. Just as I was about to reach the end of the hallway, two tiny furry figures came darting out of one of the last rooms, jumping and yipping excitedly.
“MARIA! CHASTITY! GET BACK IN HERE RIGHT NOW!” a loud voice bellowed through the halls, making me jump. My temper flared, but I had no time to retaliate before a large, dark-skinned man came barreling out of the room the two pups had come out of.
“My apologies. The twins are in their terrible two’s. Bloody nightmares, the both of them,” the large man said before continuing his pursuit of the two rascals.
I just nodded, and quickened my pace down the hall, eager to be far away from this place with the artifact. I finally emerged into the ground level of the castle, and without looking back or making any more eye contact with the castle inhabitants, I rushed out of the great doors into the blinding sunlight. Yet again, I released the breath I didn’t know I had been holding and took in the fresh air.
Still not out of the woods yet, I hurried along the path that led away from the castle grounds, and when I felt far enough away, I broke into a sprint, running as fast as I could away from that place, towards my home in the West Village.
When I finally reached my destination, the West Village gallery, I panted and wiped the sweat from my face with my stolen guard uniform. The gallery owner came out to greet me.
“Christoff, my lad, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Henry chuckled as he clapped a giant hand on my shoulder.
“It’s not the ghosts that scare me. It’s the vampires. I saw the Queen,” I replied, still catching my breath.
“She’s a fierce one, that’s for sure. Good thing she didn’t turn you to stone.”
“Can she do that?” I asked, a shiver running through me.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” the gallery owner laughed, and I shot him an annoyed look. He obviously had no idea how terrifying the Queen and her castle was, especially for a thief.
“Here’s your carving,” I said as I pulled the now sweat-drenched sack from under my tunic. “Sorry about the… sweat.”
Henry pulled the artifact from the sack, and as he held it out before him, eyeing it, his eyes glossed over with emotion.
“Thank you, Christoff,” he managed to choke out. “You don’t know what this means to me.” He handed me a large sack
of coins and thanked me one last time before sending me on my way.
The hefty weight and musical jingle of the sack of money dangled from my hand as I walked home, a huge smile plastered on my face. I can't believe I had actually pulled it off. Not only did I return a precious relic to where it truly belonged, but I had secured a decent sum of money for my family that would provide us food and medicine, at least for a little while.
I walked down the dusty lane to my humble house. It wasn't much, but everyone that I cared most about lived there. As I neared the front door, it swung open, and my younger sister Theia burst out, wrapping her arms around me.
"Christoff, I was so worried you'd be captured, or even worse," she cried. I wiped the tears from her face.
"Have a little faith in your dear old brother, why don't ya," I teased.
Having heard my voice, Tyrion ran out the door and hugged me from the side.
"Guess who I saw?" I said as I jostled my younger brother’s messy blonde hair. My siblings looked at me with wide, curious eyes. "I saw the Vampire Queen! I looked her right in the eyes and walked right past her!" I laughed, now able to look back on the situation without fear, without realizing how close I had come to the Vampire Queen, a woman who most surely would have bitten my head off had she known who I truly was.
3
Rozmarin
Sweat clung to my brow as the ringing of steel meeting steel echoed in the courtyard near the side entrance of the castle. Anix, the Doom Bringer, gargoyle war general, and my closest friend, saw an opening and took it. She swung her sword low across my torso, and I parried it away just in time.
Anix was far better with a sword than I, but I was faster and had other abilities to my advantage as the Vampire Queen of Constanta. The next moment, the weight shifted between my shoulder blades as I summoned my wings. As they spread wide, they cast a giant shadow across the body of my opponent. A flap of my giant, onyx-colored wings, and I was behind her, my sword poised at the base of her neck.
“Cheater,” Anix muttered mildly.
The corner of my mouth lifted a fraction, and I lowered my weapon before we reset and began again. I needed time to think after today’s events, to work off some steam. The boy I had seen earlier in the castle was not just human. Of that, I was certain. I’d had over two-hundred years to master the art of identifying other supernatural creatures, and he was the first to stump me in a century. He seemed to glow from within, the subtlest hint of golden light permeating from his skin. His power, his light, called to mine, even as our eyes briefly met in the hallway. Definitely not human. But if not human, then what? And why was he in the castle?
My closest friends knew that I loved puzzles, and at the moment, this seemingly chance encounter was the most interesting puzzle I had come across in ages. Ever since we managed to push the zombies far enough away from human civilization to create a kingdom, almost all of my subjects worshiped at my feet, never questioning me or my decisions. It grew tiresome.
The only exceptions were the members of my council, my closest friends.
“You seem distracted,” Anix commented as I dodged another one of her powerful blows. The gargoyle had at least a foot on me, but that never stopped me. I spun around, my sword arcing high above my head before it came down, only to meet more steel. “Could this be about the boy?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, dancing away from another blow. “He. Seems. Different.” I punctuated each word by smashing my sword against hers. A flicker of surprise flitted across the commander’s face.
“This frustrates you?” she asked. She blocked every blow from pure instinct, too distracted by her piqued interest in my frustration to return the strikes.
“I am his Queen,” I responded, and Anix tossed me a look that said ‘bullshit’ before her sword twisted around mine, making me lose my grip on the handle. My sword went flying across the grass and skidded to a stop ten feet away.
“Point taken.” I retrieved my sword, and we took our stances once more.
“I do not understand why this human is troubling you so much,” she mused. “He seemed like any other human boy to me.”
“I can sense something… inhuman about him,” I explained. “I must find out what he is. If there is another unexpected virus, I want to know about it. It is like nothing I’ve seen in all my years.”
That piqued Anix’s attention. It was then that I realized we never started fighting again after taking our stances. I lowered my weapon, too distracted by our current conversation to strategize a new strike. The general followed suit, her gray forehead wrinkling as her brows drew low over her inky black eyes.
“You think he may be infected?” she asked, something like fear entering her voice.
I didn’t blame her. We had endured the horrors of the apocalypse together, first hand, and at the front lines. She had led my army against them. It was horrible. Bloody, and wretched, and hopeless. After all, how do you kill something that’s already dead? While the virus only affected humans, and human brains seemed to be the only thing on their menu, the infected were stronger and faster than humans, and they had no issues killing supernatural creatures if they were in the way.
I shook my head. “It’s not like the virus, but I don’t know what it is.” That reminded me. I owed my head sorceress and alchemist a visit, and perhaps when might know who this strange man was. I looked up at my friend, her expression a little more relaxed. “Care to take a walk?”
“Sure,” she shrugged.
Anix and I walked in comfortable silence through the hallways of the ground floor until we reached a door to the stairwell. The same familiar rush of warmth and comfort flooded my body as we passed all of the artwork that the children of the kingdom had created and gifted to the castle.
Receiving gifts and riches from my people for saving them from the zombie hordes had made me extremely uncomfortable at first. While I was used to attention because of my appearance, I wasn’t used to that level of fame. It had taken me some years to get used to it. However, receiving art from my people, especially the children, was one of my greatest honors. I made sure to make it clear that every piece I received was framed and hung proudly on the interior walls of the castle.
The stairwell darkened as the war general, and I descended into the lower levels of the castle, below ground. Like always, Sahar, my incomparable alchemist, sensed my presence before I was even in view of the door to the alchemist’s lab. The door flung open as Anix and I approached, and we both shared a knowing look.
Sahar was an Israeli charmer, an invaluable asset, and a brilliant alchemist who somehow ended up in the northern American continent when Constanta’s borders were closed off to the world. Like most of the rest of us, she never talked about her life before the apocalypse. It had changed all of us survivors, molded us into something… else. I had no clue how old she truly was, but I was willing to bet her age wasn’t far off from my own.
“Your Highness. Anix. What a pleasure.” Sahar’s ageless voice trickled through the threshold as we entered the lab, and I scanned the room for her golden tunic, long dark hair, and sparkling headpiece. I found her in the corner of the room, already pouring three cups of tea. The golden beads and rings woven into her braids glinted beneath the dim lantern and candlelight of the lab. “I was wondering when you would come to me about the boy you found... admiring the gallery.”
My eyebrows crept up to my hairline, and my mouth opened to question where she had gotten this information from. Before I could get a word out, we heard a commotion as two gargoyles burst through the door. It was Lauren and Lorelia, both looking out of breath and upset.
“There you are, my Queen,” Lorelia breathed.
“We have bad news,” Lauren continued for her sister.
I glanced at Sahar and saw the knowing look on her face.
“Let me guess,” I responded, “Is something missing from my gallery?”
The gargoyles glanced at each other and simply nodded. “We saw a stra
nge human wandering around the halls.”
“Yes, so did I.” A new curiosity flashed through me. Not only was this human… something else, but he was also a thief. “Thank you, Lauren, Lorelia. You can return to your posts.” I waved the gargoyles off.
Sahar turned around, holding a tray with our tea. Anix moved forward to assist her with it, but she waved her off and gestured for us to take a seat on the opposite corner.
Sahar’s alchemy lab was a busy place. The low-lying ceiling forced Anix to duck her head so it wouldn’t brush against the stone. It was a large space, but the long tables that ran across the room were all littered with cauldrons, books, scales, test tubes, and potions. The walls hosted built-in shelves, which held more potions and unfamiliar items. Her staff bustled around the large room, some hunched over cauldrons or measuring out ingredients. I gave the head sorceress a meaningful look, and she got the message.
Sahar turned to her team of alchemists. “Leave us,” she ordered.
Twenty seconds later, it was just Sahar, Anix, and me. The silence was deafening. The alchemist turned to us and gestured for us to take a seat in the corner where a couple of love seats and wooden chairs were shoved against the stone wall. Sahar was the first to sit in a wooden chair, her posture perfect. I sat down next to her in a red velvet love seat, and Anix stood beside my chair, arms folded over her chest.
After we each took our first sip of the fragrant herbal tea, I decided to get on with it.
“What do you know of this thief?” I asked, deciding directness with the mysterious sorceress was the best path to take. While I trusted her with her job as head sorceress and alchemist of my castle, she almost never divulged everything she knew, and she tended to speak in riddles, leaving me more confused than I was before. It was why I liked her so much.