“I know.” Brax shook his head. “That’s just what happened.”
Too weary to try to fathom it, Zaig heaved a sigh and sank against the wall. “How are the others?”
Brax shrugged. “Scared. Murke went to stay with his wife and kids. Took Raff with him. Jathis and Norvin stayed. Jathis is convinced there’s some old curse on us and don’t want to spread it to his family.” He frowned. “Norvin swears he saw Zehlam the other night.”
“That’s not possible,” Zaig said slowly, but he couldn’t stop the sweat from breaking out on his skin.
“He knows that. That’s why it’s about drove him mad.” Brax shuddered, his eyes roaming the small cell like he expected Zehlam to appear out of nowhere.
Zaig rubbed a hand over his eyes. “What do we do?” he said, his voice low and rough in his throat.
Brax heaved a sigh. “I don’t know, Zaig. Without releasing Ailda—”
Zaig shook his head. “That’s out of the question. Could you get me a knife?”
Brax frowned, but before he could answer, the guard stepped into the doorway. “Time’s up,” he said, and ushered Brax out.
It was only two days by Zaig’s calculations until he got another visitor. When the door opened he hoped to see Brax. Instead, to his surprise, he looked up into the face of the queen. She stood there, flanked by two guards, eyeing him warily. He returned her gaze, waiting for her first move.
After what seemed ages she spoke. “Did she kiss you?”
“Why do you care?” Zaig snapped, mustering all the indignation he had left. What kind of question was that?
“Answer me!” Her voice broke, and she clenched her fists in her skirts, desperation etched in every line of her pale face.
“No.” He scowled. “I wouldn’t let her.” He had Minoa to thank for that.
Minoa heaved a sigh. “That’s the first smart thing you’ve done all along.”
Zaig glowered at her, but she paid him no mind, calling for a servant to bring a chair. He could see her gathering her composure; her shoulders straightened, and her chin raised a bit. When she was seated she motioned to him. “You may sit, if you like.”
He crossed his arms. As if he was going to sprawl on the floor at her feet. “I prefer standing.” Whatever game she was here to play, he wasn’t interested, and she needed to understand that right now.
“As you wish.” She frowned, folding her hands in her lap. “I need your help, Zaig.”
His help? She’d all but accused him of getting his friends killed, then locked him in this hole, and now she needed his help? Well, she was going to have to find help somewhere else.
The queen leaned toward him, her eyes intent, and she reminded him of a gambler who knew he had the game. “If you help me, I’ll let you out. And you can save my kingdom from the monsters you’ve unleashed on it.”
“Monsters?” He shook his head, not following her.
Minoa smoothed her skirts, and he caught a slight tremor in her hands. She sighed. “There’s just no easy way to say it. Ailda is a Night Child.”
“Night Child.” Zaig repeated dubiously. Did she expect him to believe that? “You mean a vampire?” At her slight nod Zaig burst out laughing. He doubled over, gripping his sides. “Now that,” he gasped out, “is the best story I’ve heard yet.” Was this truly the best ploy she had? He’d thought better of her. Vampires were stuff of stories, invented to scare children and laugh about. They weren’t a bargaining piece to get out of prison.
The queen regarded him, her eyes like knives. “It’s true,” she said, and the urgency in her voice gave him pause. Surely she was too clever to try to convince him to believe a bedtime story.
But why then was she staring at him so earnestly?
Zaig forced a smile and shook his head. “No, Your Highness, it’s not. Vampires don’t exist. It’s not possible. If you think you can convince me, you’re not as smart as I thought.”
Minoa’s eyes narrowed to slits. “The guard tells me your visitor reported seeing your friend alive. The one you accused me of killing. But that’s not possible either.”
“You’re right, it’s not.” Zaig waved a hand. “Norvin is superstitious and scared. His mind is playing tricks on him.”
“Mmmm, maybe,” she purred. “What happened to his body? To the grave?”
Zaig bit his tongue and glared at the wall. He didn’t believe any of this nonsense, but telling her Zehlam’s body disappeared would only add to her wild story.
“Come now, Zaig, tell me what happened,” she pressed, standing and moving closer. Her skirts rustled over the stone floor, and she tipped her head like a hawk ready to strike.
Zaig glanced at her from the corner of his eye and scowled. “They didn’t bury him. The body vanished.”
“What a coincidence.” Minoa spun away from him and reclaimed her chair. “You don’t think that’s a bit odd?”
“You probably had your men steal it to scare them, so you could tell this ridiculous story,” he snapped, shaking his head. It was strange. Everything that had happened was strange.
But nothing was strange enough to make him believe that vampires existed or that Ailda was one. Ailda was vibrant and flirtatious, not a murderous monster.
Minoa crossed her arms. “I thought we were clear. I knew nothing about your friends.”
Zaig chewed the inside of his cheek. That part he believed. But if she didn’t kill them, who else would have?
The queen sighed and turned to one of her guards. “Please go get Viera.” The man nodded then disappeared, and Minoa turned back to Zaig. “I’ll show you.”
He snorted and crossed his arms, leaning against the cell wall. This was ridiculous. Bodies didn’t disappear on their own, the dead didn’t come back to life, and there was no such thing as a Night Child. Why was the queen so determined to play this game?
The guard returned with a servant girl in tow, her eyes wide in her freckled face. Minoa stood and pointed to her neck. “This happened just before I hired you. Ailda attacked her in the kitchen but didn’t kill her because the cook was coming in.”
Zaig stared at two pink marks on the girl’s neck, freshly healed over. They were in the same place as the marks on Pell’s neck, and a tight knot twisted inside him. That couldn’t be.
Minoa waved the girl out and turned back to him. “She’s been under observation. We’ve never had anyone survive an attack before and don’t know what will happen to her. That’s why I warned you not to let Ailda kiss you. One bite, and she could have killed you or turned you and sent you back here after me.”
A chill ran through him, and Zaig started pacing the cell. It couldn’t be true. But his eyes didn’t lie, and the girl hadn’t contradicted Minoa’s story.
But Ailda . . . a vampire? It was ridiculous. He could play along though. If the queen let him out, he could discover the truth for himself. “Tell me.”
The queen took a deep breath and began: “It happened not long after I married Phileas. Ailda went away to Rainmour to attend a Hallows’ Eve ball, and when she came back she was changed. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was at first. She hardly ate anything, threw away any silver she had, refused to go outside. She was unpardonably cantankerous.”
“She does go outside,” Zaig countered, relieved to have caught her in a lie.
“Now.” The queen nodded. “I’ve realized while watching Ailda that the old tales don’t always get it right. While it’s true the sun does weaken them, it’s not deadly. That’s why she started going out toward evening or on an overcast day.” She glanced up at him. “One of my soldiers told me the cabin you took her to is deep in the woods. The shade from the trees would have been superb.”
Zaig felt a dead, sick weight settle in his stomach. How could this be true?
“Then servants started disappearing,” Minoa continued. “We aren’t cruel in the castle. Our staff is paid well and free to seek other employment whenever they choose. So it didn’t make sense that they had snea
ked away. But there was a pattern. On the sixth of every month, another would disappear. Later on I realized—the ball she attended, before all this began, was on a sixth night as well. I’ve been scouring old books and legends for any information, and it all matches. They must feed once a month.” She shuddered, twisting her fingers in her skirts, then tugged a handkerchief from inside her sleeve and twisted it instead. “Then we found a body in some thickets in the paddock. She wasn’t good at hiding them at first. His throat had been cut, but there was no blood on him . . . he was already empty. You could see where the holes in his neck were, even though she’d tried to cut through them.”
“Did the king know about this?” Zaig prodded, halting his pacing. Surely he would have known if his daughter was a vampire and stopped her from murdering more people.
“I told him.” She nodded, a frown creasing her forehead. “I knew we were in danger. She wasn’t the happy little girl he’d raised anymore. Phileas just . . . he let love blind him. I started sleeping with silver jewelry on and keeping garlic at the door, but he denied anything was wrong until it was too late.”
“She killed him?” Zaig was finding it harder and harder to be skeptical. The lack of viewing after the king’s death, the scars on the girl’s neck, everything that had happened with Zehlam and Pell. There had to be a reason behind all of it. And how could Minoa have crafted this elaborate story out of nothing?
Minoa nodded and took a deep breath. “I know she wanted to kill me first, but I’ve never let my guard down. It’s . . . it’s exhausting. But I think we both knew that killing me might be the tipping point for her father. The sin he couldn’t overlook. So she had to get rid of him.”
For the first time, Zaig saw tears in the queen’s eyes. She looked so broken, he almost reached out to her but held himself in check. It was strange, seeing her so vulnerable, so human. She was unlike the strong, assertive woman he’d come to expect, and he didn’t know what to do with this sudden change.
“Phileas truly loved me.” She sniffed, her posture rigid, and he could tell she was fighting to keep her voice under control. “It wasn’t political. And I know he loved this one.” She pressed her hands to her midsection.
With a jolt, Zaig realized what she meant. The queen was with child.
“I had just told him.” Minoa wiped her eyes with her handkerchief, shaking her head. “I don’t know if she knows or not. I’ve tried to keep it secret, but her hearing is unbelievable now. That’s why I went to such great lengths while communicating with you.”
Zaig pushed off from the wall, his heart pounding. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before sending me out after her?” His voice rose in volume with each word, and the guard at the door glared a warning.
“Would you have believed me?” Minoa didn’t seem to care about his outburst, keeping her voice flat and calm.
Zaig stilled and his shoulders sagged a little. Never in a million years would he have believed that story. He still wasn’t sure he believed it now, not even after all that had happened, not even after what he himself had witnessed.
Minoa nodded. “I’ve told people before, my soldiers and guards. They don’t believe it unless they see it for themselves, and still many of them want to stay as far away as possible. I needed help. I won’t be able to hide this babe forever, and if she were to find out, she would not hesitate to kill me. She comes to power in one year. I couldn’t let a monster take the throne.” She stood again and moved around the small room restlessly, accentuating her words with her hands. “My men are excellent soldiers, but they aren’t trained for this sort of thing. I needed an assassin, a fighter. Someone who could work from the shadows. I couldn’t risk your laughing it off and word getting around town. I tried to impress on you how dangerous this would be without telling you the full story.”
Zaig shook his head, trying to comprehend it all. “So, she killed my friends?” he asked softly.
“The first one, yes. His throat was cut?”
Zaig nodded.
“That’s her habit. The second one—”
“Pell,” Zaig corrected. “Zehlam was first, then Pell.”
“Pell.” Minoa nodded. “Pell was killed by Zehlam. Ailda makes her kills only once a month.”
Zaig nearly snapped his neck to look at her. “What?”
“She didn’t just kill Zehlam, Zaig.” She lowered her voice, her eyes intent on his. “She changed him too. It takes about a day, but after they die, they wake up. Changed.” She looked away quickly, and her eyes darted around the cell. He saw her swallow. “I had to stake my husband after I found him dead.” A tremor ran through her. She folded her hands, squeezing until her knuckles stood out white. “And all the servants she killed . . . at least, those we could find. Two remain undiscovered.”
“Zehlam’s body disappeared,” Zaig murmured. Because Zehlam came back to life. Because Zehlam was a vampire.
He suddenly wished he had a chair of his own. Standing seemed too hard with the weight of these revelations pressing down on him.
Minoa nodded. “He needed to feed. Pell didn’t mean anything to him anymore. It’s like the person is a stranger, completely heartless. Just using the same body.”
“What happened to Pell then?” Zaig had to force the words off his tongue. He didn’t want to know. Didn’t want to hear any more of this twisted tale he’d somehow got himself into.
Minoa bit her lip then spoke slowly, as if he were a child she was trying not to frighten away, but her eyes were determined. “I sent men into the forest once I knew she was alive and men had died. The grave was unearthed. They . . . they dealt with the situation. He is at rest now.”
Zaig looked down, his eyes burning. It was like finding out his friends were dead all over again. How could he explain something like this to Pell’s family? Years of memories with the two of them were reduced to nothing because he broke his promise never to involve them in his troubles.
He couldn’t let it end at that.
“What . . . what do you want me to do?”
Relief flooded the queen’s face, and she took a step toward him. “You’re a good man, Zaig. You proved that when you spared Ailda, even if it was the wrong choice in this instance. She must be stopped before she hurts more people, like your friends. I need help.”
“Did you know she was unconscious for days? Why didn’t you kill her then?” It seemed a missed opportunity to him.
Minoa laughed bitterly. “When you asked the guard to send that message to Brister, I sent a man there looking for Ailda. He used a slingshot to shoot the garlic into her mouth one night when she came out of the cave.”
Zaig quirked an eyebrow. “That’s a good shot.”
She smiled. “I know. Unfortunately, he got scared when she started to come toward him, and he ran off. If he’d just waited, it would have been only seconds before she passed out.” Minoa shook her head as if she couldn’t stand to discuss it more. “This has to be finished. I was ready to go ahead with her funeral until you came back. She has to be dealt with before someone discovers she’s alive. I’ll never be able to get rid of her if she gets back here. Not without arousing the suspicion of the court.” She took a deep breath and shrugged. “What do you say, Zaig? Will you help me?”
He had only to think of Zehlam and Pell and the rest of his friends to know the answer. He didn’t know if any of this was true or not, but he would find out. He wasn’t going to risk their lives again.
He offered her his hand. “I’ll help.”
Chapter Seven
“I’ve been working on this for months,” the queen explained, but Zaig was having a hard time hearing her. He stood in a room packed with all sorts of weapons and armor. It was like his wildest dreams come to life.
Minoa laughed softly, and the sound was like music. He didn’t think he’d ever heard her laugh and actually sound happy. “I see you’re impressed. Good. It’s taken ten silversmiths to make it all.”
“It’s all silver?” he as
ked, awed.
She nodded. “It has to be. Silver is the metal of purity and burns the flesh of unholy creatures. It won’t kill them, but any time you can slow a vampire down, you’re one step closer to driving a stake through its heart.”
The queen led him to a suit of thin chainmail, and Zaig stared at the shining bits of metal all locked together perfectly. He’d only ever seen armor on display, never for actual use. “I have my own exactly fitted,” said the queen, “but I’ve got several sets for my hunters who investigate deaths while searching for the remaining servants. Something should fit you.” She lifted one of the glistening shirtsleeves. “It’s as thin and lightweight as possible. You wear it under your regular clothes to protect you from getting bitten.”
Next she waved a hand toward a case of pistols and a gun cabinet displaying a few rifles. “They shoot silver bullets. Sadly, not very practical for hunting vampires—they move so fast, you only get one shot. If you miss, you’re as good as dead, and the noise draws too much attention. I like my men to be as inconspicuous as possible so word doesn’t spread across the countryside. I don’t need a panic starting.”
“Sometimes all you need is one shot, though.” Zaig picked up a pistol and turned it over in his hands.
“Precisely why I had them made.” Minoa nodded.
“How did you think of all this?” Zaig asked, turning in a circle to take in the swords, bows, arrows, knives, axes, guns, and any other weapon you could want, all winking silver in the torchlight.
“I read. The palace has an extensive library dating back hundreds of years. You can find nearly anything if you look hard enough.” Minoa clapped her hands sharply. “But let’s get to the business. Choose whichever weapons you like, and then we’ll make sure we have mail to fit you. And grab plenty of stakes. We’ll need them.”
Zaig tried to be sensible and take only what he might use, but one couldn’t be sure what one might need to fight a vampire—or so he justified himself as he coveted each item. He found a sword that fit his hand and a belt of silver knives that would work for cutting or throwing. He grabbed one of the pistols from the case and tucked it into his belt. Practical or not, he didn’t know what he was going up against, and he didn’t want to wish he had it later.
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