by Max Turner
“Thanks,” I said.
Luna ducked a low-hanging stalactite. “You’re welcome.”
“Where’s Charlie?”
“That way.” She pointed right.
I looked but didn’t see him. The cave branched. The steel-and-oil smell of Vlad’s armour led me onward. I could hear Vincent snarling. It seemed to come from everywhere. We found him around the next corner, thrashing madly within a cloud of sulphurous smoke. He looked more like a phantom than a being of flesh and bone. Vlad was farther up the cave. Sparks flew from his sword and armour as he traded blows with a taller opponent I couldn’t see.
“Strange aeons have arrived, Tiptoft,” Vlad said. “It is time for Death to die.”
I slowed to avoid a collision with Charlie, who shot from a tunnel beside me. There was blood on his sword blade. His sights were on Tamerlane. “He’s mine, Vinny,” he shouted.
War’s curved scimitar was visible in the smoke ahead. Charlie closed in. Using his sword two-handed, he cut downward just behind the base of the scimitar’s grip, right where Tamerlane’s hand and wrist should have been. His sword whistled through empty smoke and the scimitar clattered to the ground. A second later it rose into the air again. Charlie parried it once, then thrust forward and missed. Vincent didn’t. When the smoke cleared, I was reminded of his last drawing at Iron Spike Enterprises, the one of Doctor Doom with his arms missing, only this was a lot messier.
Tamerlane screamed and fell to a knee. Vincent was holding his arm and a good portion of his shoulder. He growled. The sound rippled through my chest like a jolt of electricity. Tamerlane turned to smoke and spun like a torrent down the cave. We followed at a sprint. Vincent passed us in two strides, Tamerlane’s arm and shoulder still gripped in his clawed hand, spots of blood trailing along the floor and walls.
“He can’t stay smoke forever, Vin,” Charlie shouted. “Stay with him.”
Tamerlane led us around the next corner to where Vlad was duelling with John Tiptoft. Both men were perspiring heavily. Vlad seemed to sense War’s approach. Instead of turning to meet his charge, he stepped back against the cave wall. Tiptoft was fighting with Vlad’s Dragon Blade. I expected him to press his attack, but his eyes locked on Tamerlane and he backed into the darkness, a mocking smile on his face. It seemed a strange decision until I realized what Vlad was doing. I dove forward and tackled Charlie to the ground before he got too close. Then Vlad self-immolated. In the darkness of the cave, the sudden explosion of fire and light from his body was dazzling. Through my closed eyelids, I could see his black silhouette encased in radiant energy.
Tamerlane screamed. He’d been caught in the halo of fire and the effect was devastating. Burning smoke condensed into something that resembled a writhing lump of human charcoal. He fell to the ground in a heap. Vapour rose from his skin, which was black and cracked and bleeding. His right shoulder and arm were still missing.
Vincent flew at him as if slung from a catapult, his mouth in an open roar, teeth bared, arms up and claws out. The Horseman rose and stumbled into the cave wall. The scimitar in his remaining hand glowed red from the heat of Vlad’s fire. He took a clumsy swing. Vinny leaned back and the blade whistled past. Then his arm snaked out and, one rip later, he restored an aesthetic symmetry to Tamerlane’s figure.
War gasped and fell to his knees. Vinny’s jaws opened and snapped forward. I thought he was going to tear out Tamerlane’s throat, but Vlad shifted forward, put a firm hand on Vincent’s chest and held him back.
“This one is not for you, Vincent,” he said. Then he locked eyes on Charlie, who was helping me to my feet.
Tamerlane’s skin was changing colour as he healed. Black became red. Cracks became blisters. Blisters turned pink, then began to disappear. Charlie noticed too, but didn’t rush. He picked up his sword, which he’d dropped in order to shield his face from the heat, and walked over to face the man who had killed both his father and his girlfriend.
“Make this quick, Charles,” Vlad said.
My friend stopped in front of Tamerlane, then his face changed, twisting into something terrible. He started to shake.
I took a step closer. I knew what he was going to do and all the reasons for it, but that didn’t lessen my sense of dread that he was taking a giant leap down a very dark path. Vlad shifted so that he stood between us. He nodded for Charlie to hurry. My friend was still shaking, grief and fury etched so keenly on his face it pained me to see it.
“You will be the author of your own calamity,” Tamerlane whispered to him.
Charlie swung and Tamerlane’s torso tipped sideways, headless, to the ground.
CHAPTER 43
BITTEN
CHARLIE LOOKED AS THOUGH he was about to have a nervous breakdown. Tears spilled from his eyes. His sword shook in his hands. He started to hack furiously at War’s dead body. A guttural sound rumbled from his throat. It rose in volume until the whole labyrinth echoed with his rage and pain.
Vlad shifted beside Vincent. “Take him back to the fountain,” he said.
Vincent slipped behind Charlie, took hold of him around the waist and picked him up. Charlie squirmed and tried to swing his sword at War again, but Vincent grabbed his arm and whisked him away. Luna fell in beside them. I couldn’t hear her words over the sound of Charlie’s shouting. He was incoherent.
“His anger and sadness …” Vlad said. “Time will dull their hold.”
I hoped so.
“Did you see where Tiptoft went?” He was staring into the shadows.
“He slipped away when you self-immolated.”
“I’ll have my Dragon Blade yet.” He tipped his head as if straining to hear something. “We need to get Ophelia.”
“What do you hear?”
He didn’t answer. A second later, a strange clattering sound, like a wave of stones falling on rock, began to build in intensity until it filled every cave and crevice. It was coming from the direction in which John Tiptoft had disappeared.
Vlad pushed me towards the cave entrance. “Fall back!”
In the next instant, a black, writhing mass of bodies exploded around the corner. At first it looked like a horde of giant insects scurrying across the walls, floor and ceiling of the tunnel, but they were vampires, dozens of them, howling to get at us. The shrieking and scuttling of nails on stone set my teeth on edge.
I let Vlad lead. He quickly shifted around the corner. Luna and the others were waiting there, debating which way to go. Vincent turned towards us. His nostrils flared and he roared. The sound was so loud I was amazed the cave didn’t collapse. Then it did. The ground shook. Rock dust filled the air. Somewhere ahead of us the ceiling must have given way. Small rivulets of daylight shone pale in the swirling dust, bouncing off the tunnel walls.
“What was that?” Luna asked.
“A cave-in,” Vlad answered. “They are trying to block our exit. If we can’t get out, we’ll be ripped to pieces.”
I glanced back. The sudden tremors and shifting rock, or perhaps the unwelcome streams of sunlight ahead, caused the vampires at the front of the horde to stop their pursuit. They were only twenty or so feet away, a black, writhing wall of malice.
“Not this crowd again,” Charlie said. His tears were still wet on his cheeks, and his breaths came in shudders.
“Do we run or make a stand?” Luna asked.
Before anyone could answer, Pestilence reappeared, springing from the shadows beside her. He grabbed a handful of her copper hair, yanked her head to the side and bit a chunk out of her neck. She screamed. I leapt at him, but he pushed her into me, then disappeared, smiling, into the darkness.
I took Luna by the shoulders to keep her from falling over. She pressed both hands over her neck. Blood gushed down her arms and torso. I lowered her to the ground, then put my hands over hers to try to stop the bleeding. It made no difference. Her eyes began to lose their focus.
“Hang on. Hang on!” I shouted.
She didn’t respond. She was g
asping for breath. I was losing her. There was nothing I could do.
Vlad leaned down to inspect her wound. She was barely conscious, and she moaned when he moved her hair out of the way. “This is bad. The wound will fester if left untreated. She’ll need blood and time to heal. We must move quickly, back the way we came.”
He flicked a hand at Vincent, who stepped over and scooped her up in his arms.
“No! Wait,” I said.
Vincent took off. I couldn’t keep up. He didn’t get far before he ran into Ophelia.
“The way ahead is blocked,” she said. “They have forced the ceiling down somehow.” Then she saw Luna. “Oh, heavens. What happened?”
I tried to answer but started coughing. The air was full of dust. I waved a hand in front of my face and noticed it was covered with Luna’s blood. So was my armour. I was shaking.
Vlad shifted beside us. Charlie was right on his heels.
“Is there another way out?” Ophelia asked.
“Not a short one,” Vlad said. He followed with some words in Romanian, or Hungarian, or maybe Orcish, that sounded like sandpaper scraping over concrete.
“What about the Shadow Road?” she asked him.
“With so large a group, and her bleeding like a fount, it would be suicide.”
I reached out so that I could take her back, but Vincent turned away protectively. “Where do I go?” he asked.
Several tunnels branched off to either side. Vlad pointed to his right. “That leads to the river. Follow it south. When you’re clear, radio for Miklos. We’ll hold them off and catch up later. On the Pest side. We can tend to her then.”
Before I could voice any objection Vincent bolted. I started after him, but Vlad grabbed the back collar of my armour. “Vincent is faster. She has a better chance with him. You are needed here.”
“For what?” I shouted.
“I’ll go with them,” Ophelia said.
“No,” Vlad said. “Your place is at my side.”
Ophelia glanced at me as if she might argue, but she said nothing. Vincent disappeared down the tunnel. The sight of him leaving twisted my stomach like a rusted coil. Vlad was still holding me back. I tried to pull free, but he wouldn’t let go.
“We have to buy them time,” he said. “Do as I say. They’re coming.”
The horde was on the move again. I could hear the clatter of many feet and an unholy shrieking that electrified my skin. Vlad pushed me to the side so we wouldn’t get in each other’s way.
Are you ready? he asked.
I wasn’t. My place was with Luna.
The air began to swell with hate. I forced myself to breathe deeply despite the awful density of it. My body was still shaking, so I closed my eyes and imagined myself in the tunnel of light. A second later, the horde was upon us.
CHAPTER 44
THE HORDE
THERE WASN’T ENOUGH room for all of us to fight side by side, so Vlad and I stood in front. Behind us, Ophelia and Charlie spoke in hushed whispers. He rubbed his hand over his eyes and nodded. A moment later I heard her voice in my head.
Be like water. A thousand pounds crashing down the mountain. Fast. Fluid. And unstoppable.
After what had just happened to Luna, I felt more like Jell-O right out of the mould, quivering and useless.
The horde rolled forward like a wave. All of them were dressed in black, and the skin of their hands and faces had been darkened. It made it harder to see where one body ended and another began.
The first vampire in the group coiled and sprang. Clawed fingers stretched for my throat. I kicked him into the wall. I smashed my fist into the chin of another. It left my midriff exposed. The next vampire put a shoulder to my stomach and bowled me over. We hit the ground hard and a row of sharp nails raked my face. I pushed her off, but others arrived, kicking, tearing, screaming. Only my armour kept me from getting ripped to pieces. And Vlad.
A bright light flashed beside me. Vampires screamed. The pressure on my chest lifted. Vlad stood over me, his skin alight. He pulled one vampire from me and his clothes caught fire. Vlad hurled him into the others, then jumped forward. The horde melted away and I scrambled to my feet.
Charlie handed me my sword, then pointed to the tip. “That’s the dangerous end. Use it.” He pushed me into the tunnel on our left, opposite to the direction Vincent had gone with Luna.
“Famine has to be nearby,” I said. “This is her work. It’s her and Pestilence that we need to stop. We’re just wasting our time with these others.”
Vlad stepped towards the horde. For an instant, the flames emanating from his body flared yellow, then white. The heat was so intense, even from a dozen paces, that I had to turn away. The horde retreated to a chorus of agonizing screams.
“That won’t keep them away for long,” Ophelia said. “That way. Go.”
She led us farther into the tunnel. The light behind me died as the flames from Vlad’s body vanished. He shifted after us. His cloak and outer garments had burned away, leaving a dusting of ash on his dragon armour. The sound of the metal plates rubbing together was quickly drowned out by the screeching of the horde as they renewed their pursuit, clawing their way along the tunnel.
I came to a fork and stopped. “Which way?” I asked.
One tunnel burrowed deeper into the earth, the other rose upwards. Fresh air was streaming from it.
Vlad glanced up. He climbed slowly, his breath ragged. Ophelia followed. Before Charlie and I could fall in behind her, the mob arrived. The vampire in front was faster than the others and came scuttling across the ceiling. He saw me and dropped. I threw an uppercut. Bones crunched and he collapsed on the floor.
Charlie dispatched a tall vampire with teeth like a piranha, then grabbed my shoulder, pulled me back and tossed something in the air. “Flash-bang!”
I closed my eyes, ducked my head and covered my ears. The boom that followed deafened me anyway. Smoke was suddenly everywhere. My sense of direction was off and I started stumbling the wrong way.
Charlie grabbed me and pulled me back. “Haven’t we been over this before?” he shouted. “When a guy shouts flash-bang, you cover your ears!”
“That’s exactly what I did!”
He started pulling me up the tunnel. A few dizzy steps later, I collided with Ophelia, who took my arm and led me in the direction Vlad had disappeared. He’d been moving so slowly I assumed we’d catch him right away, but after travelling down a good length of tunnel he was still out of sight. The smell of his charred armour was gone. I wondered if we’d missed a turn, then a cluster of small stones rained down from above. I looked up. Where the tunnel widened there was a seam in the rock. Vlad’s shoulders were braced under the cave roof and his feet were on the bottom of the fissure. Veins bulged on his neck as he strained to collapse the tunnel.
Charlie bounded past. “They’re right behind me.”
I moved to follow, but someone took hold of my legs and I was tackled to the ground. The face of the vampire overtop of me had been blackened like the others, but there was no mistaking the shiny green eyes and perfectly cut hair of the vampire Charlie had tossed from the helicopter. She had a sharp stone in her hands and started smashing it into my ribs. I grabbed her arms, then heard a snarl and a crack, and the roof started coming down.
CHAPTER 45
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
I’D BEEN IN a cave-in before, the night Charlie and I went after Hyde. If experience had taught me anything, it was that experience was useless. There is no defence against a million pounds of falling rock.
Bits of grit and dust fell into my face and eyes as I tried to kick the vampire off my stomach. I didn’t have time for a wrestling match; the rest of the ceiling was going to follow in an instant. I spun my katana and jammed it into her throat, then twisted the blade to wrench her off. Once freed, I rolled to my knees, ripped the blade clear and jumped as far as I could. A boom followed, then a blast of dust shot past. A painful ringing filled my ears an
d I started coughing uncontrollably.
The woman was squirming behind me on the ground. Her mouth contorted in a scream, but instead of sound, blood bubbled forth and gushed from the hole I’d punched in her voice box. Her legs were buried under a large pile of rock that sealed the tunnel, floor to ceiling. Another vampire had been trapped as well. A hand was sticking out beside her, unmoving, the Changeling’s mark clearly visible on the darkened skin. Some attempt had been made to blacken the thick rings that decorated each finger, but there was no mistaking the owner. The rest of the bounty hunter’s body would have been crushed to ruin.
The woman’s pain must have been extraordinary. The sight of her frantic thrashing had my stomach doing somersaults. Charlie was calling from down the tunnel, but I couldn’t leave her like that. She would have killed me given the chance, but had my fate been different, it might have been me down there, writhing in pain with a mark on my hand and a mind that was not my own.
I put my sword down and grabbed one of the larger stones pinning her legs to the floor. She tried to push me away. The effort knocked her out. I caught her shoulders before her head hit the ground, then put a hand over her throat to stop the bleeding. Pulling her clear was going to involve moving a few thousand pounds of stone. She’d bleed to death before I was finished, so I tore off one of her sleeves and used it to bind her neck. Then I started hauling the larger rocks out of the way.
I heard footsteps behind me. Vlad was there. He shifted forward, raised his sword and swung for her neck. I quickly grabbed his shoulder and pulled him off balance so his blade arced wide. He turned and pushed me up against the wall. He was shouting, but I could barely hear him.
“Whose side are you on?” he said.
I’m not sure how I would have answered if Charlie and Ophelia hadn’t appeared at that moment. Vlad must have sensed their arrival, because he let go of me an instant before they would have seen.
“What’s the holdup?” Charlie asked. He bent, picked up my katana and handed it to me.