We heard soldiers somewhere in the distance, running and shouting. They must’ve caught a trail for the Darklings. I knew Derek and Sofia needed to be told about this, as soon as possible. The presence of Darklings was an unexpected factor that could easily spoil our operation here. The worst part was that they’d just tried to kill Valaine, the daughter of the empire’s master commander and leader of the armies.
This was a targeted assassination attempt, and it had to be taken beyond seriously. In my experience, such incidents occurred when there was a political agenda in play. Someone’s interests required that Valaine be killed. But why?
Looking at her now, I couldn’t immediately think of a reason. She was a kind creature, though ruthless and calculated in her defense. It was probably why they’d sent four people to kill her, instead of one or two. But they could’ve waited until she was alone again, so… why did they attack now, while I was still with her? Were they trying to raise awareness regarding their presence in the palace, perhaps? Were they looking to spread fear-inducing rumors?
Their attack came at an inopportune time, as the Black Fever was returning about five thousand years sooner than it should’ve. I had a feeling we’d come to Visio at the worst possible time in its modern history, but it was too late to turn back now. If anything, I wanted to get to the bottom of it all even more, as more pieces of this gigantic puzzle came to light.
Esme
Training with Kalon had drained me of most of my energy. I’d never imagined he’d be such a ruthless drill sergeant, but the social and the sparring versions of him were two diametrically opposed personas. The Kalon who’d taken me riding and who’d joined me in the Blood Arena had been charming, intriguing, and mischievous. The Kalon who fought me in the training room was ruthless, methodical, and strict.
I was still wrapping my head around the two, my muscles sore and my knees a little weak, as Kalon escorted me back to my chambers. We hadn’t spoken since we’d put the blunt swords away back in the training room. It wasn’t because we’d run out of things to say or because of a falling out or whatever… no, we’d exhausted ourselves to the point where talking could’ve basically knocked us out. We were beyond tired, smiling like two of the happiest creatures who’d ever lived.
Personally, I loved this kind of fatigue. A hot bath would soften my muscles and relax my joints, and everything would ache in the morning, but I reveled in the sensations. This was my body telling me I’d given it a lot to work with, throughout most of the day. We’d planned on training for a couple of hours, tops, since Kalon had insisted that he could improve my form. Lo and behold, it was close to midnight when we made our way back to the first floor, where my room awaited.
“Thank you for today,” Kalon said, throwing me a sideways glance. “It was fun. Unexpected, but fun.”
“What exactly was unexpected?” I asked, smiling.
“The whole thing. I don’t know why, I just didn’t see you as the fighting type,” he replied, genuinely amused. The coldness had gone from his blue eyes, and, for a split second, I felt as though the sky had been captured in those irises, and not the frost I’d seen before. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a pleasant surprise. You and Valaine have more in common than you think.”
“How so?”
Golden guards rushed past us. They seemed upset, nervously looking around, as if searching for someone. I glanced over my shoulder, watching as they split into two groups, going left and right down other corridors.
“I can see you doing well for yourself in the Blood Arena,” Kalon said, his brow slightly furrowed as he, too, noticed the guards’ anxiousness. “I also think we’ve managed to improve your technique a little bit, bringing some of those styles you’ve picked up closer together.”
“Thank you for that,” I replied. “I do feel like I’ve got a better grip on the twin swords. Oh, and you’ve definitely helped improve my spear game. Seriously, thank you.”
Footsteps echoed through the hallways as more golden guards emerged, spreading in different directions, some barking orders at the others. They were giving each other instructions—check the east wing, go up a level, cover the west wing, check the south entrances, and so on. Something had happened, and based on the befuddled look on Kalon’s face, we were both out of the loop.
“What’s going on?” I asked, feeling my skin tingle, a nervous feeling creeping its way into my consciousness.
“I’m not sure,” he muttered.
We made it into our chambers’ hallway, where Valaine and Tristan were waiting. They both seemed shaken up. There was a body on the floor, clad in black, blood pooling beneath him. Two golden guards split from a small group patrolling this section, carrying a gurney. They loaded the body onto it, while Kalon and I rushed toward Valaine and Tristan.
“What happened?” Kalon asked Valaine.
Her arms were crossed, her eyes were dark with anger, and her lower lip quivered, ever so slightly. “Darklings,” she said. “They made it inside the palace.”
Kalon didn’t say a word at first, but I could tell that he was appalled. He didn’t hide his revulsion, and rage made his hands shake a little. He looked at my brother. “Were you here?”
Tristan nodded. “They came from behind. Four of them.”
“Did they say anything?” Kalon replied.
“Hold on,” I said, moving closer to my brother. “Are you okay, Tristan?”
“Yeah, I am, don’t worry.” He sighed. “We both got off easy, just a few scratches that have already healed.”
“It could’ve been worse, but Tristan here is an excellent fighter,” Valaine said. “He took one of them down.”
We all stared at the dead fiend as the guards carried him away. “Where are they taking him?” I asked.
“One of the spare study rooms. Our physicians will try to find out who he is, or at least where he comes from,” Valaine said.
“Why did they attack you? What are Darklings?” I insisted. I had too many questions, but I tried to focus on the main ones for the time being, as my heart thundered angrily, wrestling with my ribcage. My brother had just evaded death, and that was a feeling that always brought out the worst in me, because I hadn’t been around to keep him safe. The one thing that gave me comfort was exactly what Valaine had pointed out: my brother could do well on his own; I just didn’t like it when things got to that point.
Valaine gave me a brief rundown about the Darklings, though it didn’t answer any of the follow-up questions I’d already prepared. The Aeternae had been dealing with them for a long time, but there wasn’t much knowledge about their organization. They were bloodthirsty monsters, that much was undeniable. And they’d managed to sneak into the palace.
“Why did they target you?” I asked Valaine, and she shrugged in return.
“As I was telling Tristan earlier, I honestly don’t know.”
Kalon didn’t say much, but his expression betrayed many emotions. He was well acquainted with the Darklings, but I wasn’t sure to what extent. He didn’t like their intrusion, and he certainly didn’t take well to the idea that they’d tried to kill Valaine.
“Have you summoned your father already?” he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“He’s on his way. As you can imagine, he’s livid,” Valaine replied.
“I can certainly see why,” Kalon said. “Let me take you to the throne room. We must speak to the lord and lady at once. It cannot wait until the morning.”
“Might as well call an emergency council meeting,” Valaine said.
“You’re damn right we’re calling an emergency council meeting. The Darklings just tried to kill you!” Kalon snapped. “Come, I’ll walk with you.”
A sense of urgency gripped my throat. “Kalon. Would you like us to do anything? Do you need our help?”
He and Valaine stopped for a moment, as he turned around to look at me. “Go to bed, Esme. It’s late, and you should rest,” he said. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
�
��Maybe we could—” My brother tried to offer his assistance, but Kalon cut him off.
“With all due respect, this is a matter pertaining to the Aeternae’s governance. It doesn’t concern you. Please, go to your chambers and lock your doors. There will be additional guards on patrol throughout the night, for everyone’s safety.”
Kalon and Valaine walked away, leaving me with Tristan outside my door. A few minutes passed in tense and heavy silence as we listened to the voices echoing through the palace. The search for the Darklings was still ongoing, but I had a feeling they’d already fled. If I were them, I’d have gotten out as soon as I’d botched the assassination attempt. The whole place was too hot for a second try. They’d have to wait for it all to cool down again.
“Darklings. Seriously?” I grumbled, frowning at Tristan.
“Yeah, it’s not something they’re particularly proud of.”
“Anthropologically speaking, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise,” I said. “With a nation this big and powerful, there was bound to be dissent among its people. It’s just that I would’ve expected to see rebels fighting for the liberation of Rimia and Nalore… not assassins looking to wreak havoc and to drink people dry, like mindless animals.”
Tristan nodded once. “We need to find out why they were after Valaine. Maybe she isn’t telling us something.”
“Kalon is definitely holding back.” I scoffed.
“Where were you all day?” he asked.
I blanked out for a moment. Why did I feel guilty for spending the whole day with the very Aeternae I’d just criticized for being secretive? Yeah, the irony did not escape me. “Training. With Kalon.”
“All day?”
“Where were you all day?” I shot back.
It was Tristan’s turn to be awkward. That was the downside of our sibling relationship. We knew each other too well, and it was difficult to actually win an argument of any kind. “In the library.”
“Dork.”
“Seriously, Esme?”
“So you were here with Valaine when she was attacked?”
He sighed deeply. “She… She showed me something tonight. Something no one outside the royal circle knows.” I waited for him to tell me what it was that she’d showed him. When he didn’t continue, I poked him. “Ouch!”
“Talk,” I said firmly.
“I promised I wouldn’t tell,” Tristan replied, practically offended.
I smacked him over the shoulder. “Talk!”
“Dammit, Esme!” he hissed, and pulled me into his room, locking the door behind us. “The Black Fever is coming back,” he whispered, worried that someone might hear us.
The news hit me like a battering ram to the chest, knocking the air and the sense out of me. “Wha… What?” I managed, my knees surrendering as I dropped into one of the lounge armchairs. My pulse was racing, as a million worst-case scenarios began to form in the back of my head.
“Three infected Aeternae, so far,” Tristan said. “They’re keeping the situation secret, to avoid mass panic. The victims are quarantined in a basement infirmary, below. I saw them.”
“Isn’t it a little… early for the Black Fever?” I croaked.
He nodded again. “It is. Five thousand years too soon, and it’s strange, to say the least. Valaine will speak to the lord and lady about this, about us possibly helping them. I mean, they’ve already said we could try finding a cure—they just didn’t mention they already had three Aeternae affected.”
“This is all too weird,” I said. “The Darklings, the Black Fever… It’s… I don’t know, there’s something missing from this picture. Something big and important enough to matter. We need to find out what that is.”
“Should we go stealth?”
I shook my head. “Not tonight. Even with the invisibility pellets, we risk bumping into golden guards. There’s a lot of them out there right now. No, tomorrow is better, once the atmosphere relaxes in the palace.”
I would’ve given anything to go stealth tonight, but the risk of being discovered was too great. We couldn’t take that chance, not after what had just happened. The Darklings made the Aeternae flinch—at least the ones we’d seen, anyway. The Black Fever was no longer a distant issue, but an immediate threat. We’d certainly found one hell of a moment to show up.
“Turns out Visio isn’t as pretty as we’d thought,” I murmured.
But I was determined to get to the bottom of this, before the mystery swallowed us all. That was the trouble with lies and secrets. They festered, they ate away at everything around them, and eventually they came to light and destroyed lives. I just didn’t want ours to be among the casualties. A thought occurred to me, quite contrary to what I’d said less than a minute ago. I let a deep breath out, and Tristan was quick to notice the shift in my expression.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“I’m thinking we could pop an invisibility pellet and at least attend that emergency council meeting,” I said in an undertone. “It might be worth listening to what they have to say about all this, in our absence.”
A devilish grin bloomed on his face. “Sometimes, I think you’re actually able to read my mind, sister.”
“Ha, ha, funny. Dork,” I retorted, pushing myself back into a standing position, my knees still rickety. “But yeah… we should. I mean, if we’re going to go to Derek and Sofia with this, we might as well get a fuller picture. Don’t you think?”
“I agree,” he said, and took out a couple of pills and red lens glasses from a secret pocket in his vest. “One for you, and one for me.”
Nethissis
I was staring at a locked door, a massive thing made of black iron. I’d lost track of how many left and right turns I’d made to get here, but the air was foul. It reeked of danger and dead things, and I knew I’d found something. The only problem was that there was nowhere for me to slip through, even as a copperhead.
The door was expertly sealed. I felt cold as strange sounds emerged from beyond. Low whispers and growls that seemed familiar, yet I couldn’t exactly place them in a specific memory. All I knew was that I’d heard it all before. In a different place, a different setting. My skin tingled, my scales stiffening as I tried to keep myself calm while I searched for a way in. Out of all the doors I’d gone past, this was the one with all the juicy stuff. I knew it.
Footsteps startled me. I moved away, nestling inside a small nook in the stone wall. As the figure grew closer and larger, my breath hitched. It was Zoltan Shatal, and keys jingled on a heavy ring in his hand. He was well aware of where he was and what he was doing, and that fired up all sorts of alarm bells inside me.
He stopped in front of my mystery door, and I poked my head out to get a better look. He picked out a key from the ring and used it to let himself in. For a brief moment, I had a choice to make: stay back and report to Derek and Sofia on what I’d seen so far, which reeked of suspicious behavior, or keep going and sneak inside with Zoltan.
The reasonable Nethissis would’ve called it a day right here, right now. But I was never known for being reasonable or reserved in my actions. Unrepentant, I snuck through the open door, seconds before Zoltan shut it behind him. Hidden in the corner, I found myself inside a narrow corridor leading into a massive, circular room with a low ceiling.
The sounds I’d heard earlier were clear, now, and they filled me with dread as I finally recognized them. Ghouls. There are ghouls in here.
Zoltan walked into the room, and I followed, moving slowly and carefully as I analyzed the entire scene. My blood froze at the sight of four ghouls, with wrought-iron collars and chains keeping them tethered to the left side of the room. Symbols were engraved on the bands, and I was instantly furious, recognizing the art. Reaper magic.
The creatures hissed and snarled and communicated between them. The amber light from wall torches reflected across their almost translucent skin. But these weren’t ordinary ghouls. They were huge bastards, with bulging muscles and thick ne
cks and claws that could cut through a person like perfectly sharpened swords.
And Zoltan was well aware of them. He wasn’t bothered or fearful, and that just made me break into a cold sweat as I slithered along the right side of the room, keeping to the shadows. Up ahead, three prisoners had been chained to the wall. They were Rimians, skinnier than most and beaten to a pulp.
Their eyes were swollen, and they could barely see through the red-and-purple eyelids. Blood crusts covered their injuries. Their clothes were caked with dirt and stained with blood. They’d been tortured, repeatedly, and my heart broke for this predicament they’d found themselves in. Two black armor guards stood to their right, their gazes wandering between them and the ghouls, who kept snarling and begging to be freed. I didn’t need to understand their language, when their desperate twitches and jumps said so much.
“Have they said anything yet?” Zoltan asked the guards.
They both nodded. “We’ve thought about letting one of the ghouls loose,” one of them replied. “Maybe they’ll be willing to speak if a ghoul is chomping on their legs.”
“No. Not yet,” Zoltan said. “I’ll give them one last chance.”
Holy crap, this was a torture chamber, and their instruments of choice were ghouls, kept under control with Reaper magic. How was this even possible? Where had they gotten this kind of knowledge? Did any of the Reapers know? Did Death know? I couldn’t use Telluris in my snake form, but I was definitely going to reach out to Taeral for this. Someone needed to bring Death up to speed here, because something terrible was brewing in the basement of Visio’s royal palace.
I wondered if Danika or Acheron knew about this… of course they did. They had to. This was literally happening in their house. They had to know.
Zoltan stopped in front of the three prisoners, annoyingly calm. “I’ve been asking you to tell the truth for a week, now. I’m not sure how much more your bodies can take,” he said. “As you might’ve already noticed, I haven’t fed the ghouls. The moment I let them loose, you’re the ones they’re coming for.”
A Shade of Vampire 78: An Origin of Vampires Page 27