The Bottom Rung

by Sam Hall

  “Look, is there anything temporary that we can do right now to bind me sufficiently so that I can get the moonstone. People are dying out there. Those vampires, they still have the old blood running around their systems. They’ll be mopping the floor with your wolves.”

  “Not so,” Miriam’s eyes went flat and hard. “We fought the vampires before the revolution and can counter anything they throw at us.”

  “Well, I’d really like to minimise the casualties if possible. So whaddya say?”

  Miriam looked at the other Elders, “A blood bond could fulfil the need.” There seemed to be agreeance around the table at that.

  “OK, let’s do it outside then. Fair warning though, my blood does weird shit now. You don’t want more than a drop of it.”

  “That will be sufficient. As long as the blood remains in my system, you will not be able to act against this pack and you will fulfil the conditions of our alliance or face death.”

  “Got it, let’s go.”

  Which is how I found myself outside the camp again, virtually shaking with the effort of staying still.

  What the hell are you doing? Lyra said as Miriam produced a shiny little knife.

  A temporary blood bond.

  What did I tell you!

  Yes, I know, my blood is my power, that’s why I’m out here. At least I can get you to whisk me out of here if they start getting any ideas. After I’ve mated with one of the guys.

  A werewolf mate! What on earth will you do with one of those?

  Well, when a werewolf and a white are forced to get naked together…

  You need to take this seriously if you want me to keep you alive.

  Dude, chill, this will be a little prick, followed later by a much, much bigger one. All in a day’s work for an albino. Maybe we can get a divorce sometime later.

  Werewolves don’t divorce. They stay mated until death.

  Oh, shit. Wasn’t expecting that. Does that mean I’m going to be magically monogamous for the rest of my life?

  That’s what you’re worried about? No, I don’t think that’s required.

  OK, well, here goes. Miriam had been muttering some kind of witchy stuff under her breath, waving the knife over my outstretched hand, the stone in her pendant starting to glow, then her knife stabbed down, much like a bird’s beak, the subsequent cut hardly feeling like anything before the blood began to bead.

  I’m keeping it to a drop. Anymore and it’s going to cause problems, Lyra said. In any case, she’s about to get a bit of a facelift. Miriam’s hand waved over mine and she murmured the rest of the ritual, ending with her taking my hand in hers, her mouth closing over my finger. Gasps went up around us as the effect was seen instantaneously. The grey washed from her hair, the wrinkles on her skin smoothing out like cloth being ironed, her back straightening. The stone at her throat grew brighter and brighter until I could no longer look at it.

  “That’s it,” I said, snatching my hand back, “and don’t get any ideas.” The other Elders seemed to eye me a whole lot more speculatively now in a way that made me uncomfortable.

  “You have given me a great gift,” Miriam said, staring at the backs of her hands in wonder. Or I’ve just made sure you rule the pack with an iron fist for a lot longer, I thought. Maybe there was a reason alphas tended to be older, to make sure succession kept happening.

  “And I’m about to give you another. The caves aren’t directly under your land, so I’ll have to make an extension to your camp. Is that OK?”

  “You’re going to move the walls?” one of the Elders said.

  “Yep,” I said. Bag of blood please and something strong.

  Coming up. Lord Gisborne was particularly gifted. He’ll make you stronger as well, something you’ll need during the mating ceremony.

  Really? I thought it was just sex.

  Lyra’s laughter rang inside my head as I sucked down the blood in the cool plastic bag. You have to fight to show your worthiness. Unless you want to be barefoot and pregnant for the rest of your life?

  Keep the Gisborne coming, I said, eyeing the guys standing around us.

  After I’d cleared it with the Elders I flew up into the air and moved the protective wall around the camp, extending and adding to it with nearby rubble. This is quite a nice show of strength as well, Lyra said, keep those boys in their place. You don’t want them getting the upper hand. I remembered the paintings on the temple walls at Nathaniel’s and smiled. Someone had family issues. Now, she said, get the secret.

  When I came back only Miriam was waiting for me. It was still jarring to see the differences in her face. She nodded, looking over the changes in the barrier. “In exchange for this information, you will create the shaft down to the caves, straight after I share it with you?”

  “Yep.” I felt a weird, snapping sensation in the air around me as I uttered the words.

  “Your promises, for as long as the blood remains within me, hold weight, so be careful. The answer is silver. Encasing the moonstone in enough silver and you will negate its power.” That’s why the gold setting on her necklace, I thought. I nodded.

  I want to try something showy, Lyra said. If you’re going to tie yourself to these people, it might be wise to make sure you aren’t seen as a second-class citizen.

  What did you have in mind? I said.

  It was worth the look on Miriam’s face when a facsimile of Lyra popped from my body, covered in a shiny coat of bright silver. Lyra hissed at her, baring her many teeth and then laughed, flying through the air before dropping over the barrier and presumably into the earth. We ran back to the camp, the heavy door sliding behind us once we were in. It was difficult to get to the dig site, everyone who wasn’t fighting was clustered around the hole in the ground and the growing pile of dirt. We’re going to need to displace that soil, I said to Lyra.

  On it, she said, her voice clear now she was protected by silver. Oohs and ahhs went up around the crowd as the soil magically disappeared. Finally, Lyra emerged from the huge shaft she’d created, hovering over it like some kind of metallic faerie. “The shaft has been dug and it’s been reinforced all the way down,” I said, repeating Lyra’s words. "You can now go into the caves.”

  Miriam stepped up to the mouth, stemming the push from the crowds. “My people, we need to proceed carefully. This was one of Graellan’s most sacred places. We do not want to risk our children before we have properly explored the place. We will nominate some of our strongest guards to go forth and explore first, then we will allow others as we ascertain the safety of the caves. Be patient, we have waited to regain this place for millennia, a few hours wait will not hurt us.”

  “I want to grab some moonstone and build a boundary to keep the vampires out. You cool with that?”

  “How do you know she’ll build it properly?” a tall guy with long, wavy, gold-streaked brown hair asked, looking me over with amber coloured eyes.

  “You’re volunteering to oversee the building, Brendan? Anything that stops the Horde and allows us to live in peace is a good thing. Go with our blood bound ally... and I expect to see you by the fire when we assign her a mate.” People started mumbling over that, but I pushed that to one side.

  “See you at the border,” I said and winked out, reappearing halfway between it and the camp. So, what do you reckon? Use pillars of moonstone to make a fence? I said to Lyra.

  I think it could be done easier than that. A concrete mix with crystals in the matrix.

  We're going to make a concrete wall, on a battlefield?

  The process will be sped up, of course, but basically, yes.

  There was no mistaking where the battlefield was. As I appeared at the border all I could see was blood, bodies and those who still fought. Whites rarely got involved in disputes. If we did, we were often collateral damage. As a result, I'd been spared the bloody reality.

  A wolf woman lay on the ground near my feet, her face, arms and legs partially transformed into her animal, her lips curled
back into a wordless expression of pain. She panted and twisted on the ground, her hand desperately trying to hold in the slippery pink links of her intestines as her skin began to repair the breach in her abdomen. Some were not so lucky, torn in two, by what I didn’t know, their body parts scattered along the ground. Crows had begun to flock towards the battlefield and I was forced to look away as one picked out the blankly staring eye of one of the dead. So where do you want this wall? Lyra asked, though her tone was somewhat subdued.

  Where the border was, I said. An inch or two either side and we'll be accused of playing favourites.

  You will anyway, Lyra said. No good comes from trying to please all sides, as you well know.

  The wall, Lyra, build it.

  I found myself whisked up to the same rooftop I’d been perched on before being discovered, blood bags in a pile by my feet. I couldn't kid myself that I was super-powered or anything. I was just the battery that Lyra ran off; using my blood, my energy, she’d make great things happen. None of the fighters seemed to notice it at first, the wall of cement that slowly grew across the gap between the two factions. It filled in the empty space between them, using old buildings as filler until the road was crossed and fighters were thrust apart, now relegated to one side or the other.

  I watched the vamps flinch back on their side; hands held up over their eyes as if to protect them from the glare. Some stumbled over to the wall but soon collapsed to their knees. They crawled back to safety fast enough, then they turned their eyes to the wolves left on the other side. Those that were able to, sprinted and scaling over it with little effort. Those that were injured tried to crawl closer to it, though not all were successful.

  I need to get down there, move everyone to the right side of the wall, I said to Lyra.

  Of course, she replied, how very Hessian of you.

  I landed with a jolt on the vamp side of the wall, grabbing the nearest injured werewolf. Can you send him back to the entrance of the camp? I asked Lyra.

  I can send him into the camp now I know how to get past the moonstone, she said.

  Does the fireball form protect me from others? I said, eyeing the vamps who were starting to edge closer. I could hear their curses from the wall.

  No one will touch you without your permission.

  I strode over to where one was venting his anger on the injured body of a werewolf, the sounds of his foot kicking into the wolf's body, the subsequent yelps of pain, had my hackles up.

  "Leave him alone," I said, my flames enough to part the group of vamps, leaving my path clear. "Leave all of them alone." The wolf disappeared, as did any of the others that still breathed.

  "What do you care?" one of them said with a sneer. "Ain’t you supposed to be the vampire goddess?"

  “Not a goddess and I'm not here to just help vamps."

  "Not helping any of them stuck on the other side of that bloody wall," another said.

  "I'm heading there as soon as I finish up with you dickheads," I said. "Is Bennett or Gavin with you?"

  "Your precious boys?" the vamp woman's face split into a smile. "Rohan's keeping them close at hand." A shiver went down my spine as a rapid succession of possible interpretations went through my brain.

  Take me to the other side, I said to Lyra, before the wolves rip the vamps to shreds as well. It was much the same there. Wolves in furry or half-wolf form growled at me as I came closer, looking for vamps who still lived. The snarls only got louder when the injured started disappearing. One staggered to his feet, fangs bared as he began to snarl, saliva dropping onto the grass. Uh, Lyra!

  Before I could direct the goddess a blur crossed my path, slamming into the wolf and leaving him gasping for breath on the ground, shifting back into human form. Brendan turned to me and plastered a cocky smile on his face, sweeping the long fall of wavy brown hair back. "You alright there, princess?"

  Fucking princess. I'd read a lot of books in the Crèche, many of them fairy tales, and all the princesses in them went out and kicked butt, so I'm not sure why it was the go-to patronising endearment in the Quarter. "Fine," I said.

  "She built that wall full of moonstone to keep the vamps out," he said, giving the now human formed werewolf that had attacked me a kick in the ribs. "And is under the alpha's blood oath. Show some respect."

  "She gonna be mated?" one of the other men said, edging closer. He was tall, of course, with long reddish-brown hair that was partially matted. His cool green eyes took me in slowly. "By the fire tonight?"

  "White meat in the pack? What are we, blood-sucking freaks now?" another man said with a frown.

  "She led us to the Ranusian caves," Brendan said. Everyone's eyes swivelled around to take me in now.

  "You're talking shit."

  "Seen it myself," Brendan said with a shrug.

  “Look, if you ladies want to stand around and talk about my love life, feel free. I’m going to make sure all the injured are sent back to the camp and then do the same for the vamps.”

  “What are you doing helping them for, if you’re blood bound to us?” a dark-haired woman asked.

  “Because I don’t want one faction to win this stupid arse war you guys have got going, I want all of us free, of this place, of each other and able to live in peace.” I didn’t bother to see how that went down, moving instead from body to body. Most were just badly injured but it was difficult to look on those that had been killed. In peak fitness, like all the wolves, the beautiful machinery of their bodies had been scrapped and for what? I shook my head, moving faster through the fallen, not able to dwell for any longer.

  Once the last was dealt with and the remaining standing began to haul their comrades’ bodies to be buried, I winked over the wall and started the same process, assuming the Palace was the right place for the injured. I was too focussed on the task to hear the arrival of the Horde.

  “Well, well, look at our dear goddess. Where are you whisking those warriors off to? Your friends, the wolves' camp? Some kind of secret laboratory to try out your sick shit on us?” I looked up and there was Rohan, striding towards me, a phalanx of vampires at his back. Disappointingly, two of them were Bennett and Gavin.

  You need another show of strength, Lethe, Lyra said. It’s as I feared. He sees you as a competitor to his power base, not a complementary power. This is what comes from trying to play both sides.

  I don’t want to play any sides. I’m not against the vampires, I’m against Rohan.

  Which makes you a threat he must eliminate, before you eliminate him.

  So what, I said, looking at Rohan as he drew near, you want me to kill him?

  I don't get to want anything. I merely advise you to neutralise him any way you can, or risk the same being done to you.

  Dog eat dog, it’s what it always came down to in the Quarter. By making sure we were focused on killing each other, we forgot about 'neutralising' the real threat: the humans keeping us here. I looked at the pompous git, with his tight leather trousers and the criss-cross of the bandolier around his chest and rolled my eyes. He had the appearance of a leader, a warrior, but where was he when his people were fighting his stupid border skirmish? He probably only turned up because someone said I was here.

  "Look at this man’s body," I said, pointing to the nearest vamp. He looked like he'd been run through a mincer, pieces of his flesh like pink bloody confetti on the ground. Clear pools of dying symbiote seeped from the meat, trying vainly to put its host back together. "What was his death worth? A centimetre? A metre? A kilometre of wolf land? What would you see as a fair trade? I’m serious, there’s what? Ten, twelve bodies here? It’s hard to tell, some just look like meat.”

  "That's not how this works. The wolves have been pushing back..."

  "How can you say that's not how it works? You are the king; you rule your people. You want some of the wolf lands and because you have my stores of the old blood, you think you can get it. You use these people like coins, you use their lives to pay for the land you
want."

  "The wolves are getting more and more bold. I've found some of their insurgents..."

  "I'm not saying the wolves are any better, nor the witchbreed and if the albinos are, it’s because they’re just too powerless to do anything of note. What I'm asking is, is this worth it? What was this man's name?"

  Rohan blinked, then moved closer, peering at the man's face. "It's Jimmy, sire," one of his posse said.

  "So, Jimmy, what was his death worth? How much land would you be happy to get in return for his death."

  "You're just trying to twist this, like I'm some kind of callous arsehole who lets his men get killed. Every leader sends their people to fight, to protect what’s important to them. You stole the blood; the soldiers came to bleed the lot of us. Do you know how many died in that conflict?"

  "Too many," I said. "That's my point, every death is too many. If we’re going to kill each other, at least make it for something of worth, something more than rubble and refuse. If we're going to die, let's die for our fucking freedom. You want to fight the wolves? What if they were gone completely, back to their own lands? What if Meridian was yours again to rebuild? What if we had a future beyond these walls? What then? The wall I built is insurance, it keeps the assets, you, from damaging each other. You said the wolves were making incursions, now they can't. Problem solved.

  "But you're right, I am just as callous, I’d send people to die if I thought we could bring down the Wall. But I sleep well at night because to me, freedom is a hell of a lot more valuable than another square inch of the bloody Quarter. And I'll build walls through the whole of it -if that's what it takes to keep you guys from killing each other. So, tell me, Rohan, what is that you want that trumps this? How are you planning to free everyone?"

  Those eerie golden eyes of his stared into mine. I could almost see the cogs ticking, as his mind looked for the fatal flaw in my argument. Finally, he said, "Take the girl. Her blood can heal any of us with just one drop."