“What do you mean by serving them magically?” asked Stavius, who wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
“I mean that you cannot help but do whatever they want and that they continue to feed off of your magical energy. You become part of the vampires’ food supply. You go out and replenish your magical energy and return to them to be drained again and again,” answered Janus with a shudder. “I never actually believed they were real until today.”
“Yeah, and we were almost two more entrees,” said Stavius. “I don’t know who they caught, but we need to rescue them too. They don’t realize it, but they just saved our butts.”
“Agreed, but we still need a room and Larsa was probably right,” said Janus. “There probably aren’t many available in town anymore.”
“I think I might have a solution for that, but it’s not much better than staying with vampires. In fact, it’s pretty similar,” sighed Stavius. “In any event, I can’t face it right now. How about we try to find the girls and start to figure out how we’re going to rescue them.”
“Well that should be easy,” answered Janus. He quickly added, “I mean, it should be easy to find them. The seven families probably have them on display. I have no idea how we’re going to rescue them, though.”
He then pointed to a sign indicating east at the crossroads which read: Fairground and Zoo.
“The good news,” he added, “is that the best place to start is mostly downhill from here.”
“I hope you’re right,” muttered Stavius. “This place is nothing but hills.”
Janus was right. The road to the fairgrounds was a welcome, downhill journey of only about a mile and a half. The sun was near its zenith, and the street was relatively empty. The temperature was still unbearably hot, even though it was late September and most, civilized people had adopted the tradition of a midday siesta. This was fine with Stavius. He hated crowds and particularly despised the ostentatious displays that wealthy city dwellers insisted on showing.
The fairgrounds were nearly deserted by the time the boys arrived, although it was clear from the preparations that they would be packed for the festival in two days. Craft and food booths had been hastily constructed surrounded by expansive picnic and gaming areas. An enormous set of viewing stands had been erected near the zoo where, presumably, the executions would occur.
This park was in a sort of bowl-shaped valley on the eastern edge of the city. Steep hills surrounded the eastern, northern and western sides to create a natural amphitheater overlooking the river to the south. The fairgrounds were on the west side of the park, and the zoo was on the east.
The zoo was known for its dragon exhibit, and its dominant feature was the dragon aviary. This expansive enclosure was nestled into the eastern hill with a magically-fortified cage with nets rising a hundred feet in the air to cover a four-hundred-foot diameter area. Some of Stavius’ few happy family memories involved visiting the zoo and watching the flock of dragons fly, fight, and play in the enclosure. There were dozens of small to mid-sized dragons and one, colossal fire-breather who lived in a cave in the eastern hill and rarely came out. Stavius had only ever seen the tip of its tail outside the cave but dreamt about the majestic creature who always hid from public view.
The southwestern side of the park was dominated by Admian castle. The Admian family was the most powerful of the seven families and considered themselves the owners of the park and the surrounding area. Their castle was an enormous structure built atop one of the highest and steepest hills in the city, and the architecture of the palace was even more impressive than its size. The castle was designed to mimic the form of a tree, with its upper floors extending far over the relatively narrow trunk, which held the entrance and large public hall.
The building design was structurally impossible without massive amounts of magical enhancement. In fact, that was part of the point. All seven families went to great lengths to show off how much magical power they had with excessive and pointless displays. It made Stavius angry every time he saw it. There were villages at the outskirts of the region where magical wells were running dry and yet these seven, obscenely wealthy families collected and hoarded power only to waste it on useless exhibitions. Some people even believed that the concentration of magical power in the city was the reason for the magical drought at the edges. The city leaders, however, dismissed this as nonsense and emphasized that the unique architecture of the seven castles was a key reason for the greatness of the city.
Stavius decided to shake off these thoughts by asking Janus, “Any ideas of how to find our companions?”
Janus was munching on an apple he had fished out of his backpack and answered, with a rather full mouth, “I don’t know about you, dude, but I’d probably start by checking out that booth over there.”
He waved his hand holding the dripping, half-eaten apple towards a bright yellow stall with a large sign saying: Event Tickets, Rotten Fruit, Talisman Tours.
“Rotten fruit?” asked Stavius.
“Man, you really don’t get out much, do you,” laughed Janus, as he shook his head and began walking towards the booth. “It’s for throwing at the prisoners.”
“Wait, you mean that we can actually see the prisoners?” asked Stavius. “I just assumed that they’d be locked in some deep dungeon.”
“Guess not,” replied Janus as he tossed his apple core onto the ground. “Let’s see what the man has to say.”
It turned out that the booth was unmanned during the lunchtime lull, but a poster indicated that the talisman tour left every day at one o’clock, visited the five talismans located on this side of the Western Fork, and provided “insightful and little-known histories and information about these sacred relics.” The tour seemed like an excellent opportunity to scout out where the talismans were located and the types of security they could expect to encounter. Stavius suggested that they split up with Janus taking the tour and Stavius securing lodging. First, however, they needed to find the girls.
Having finished his apple, Janus had been searching for an open food stall when he espied the girls or at least a corner of their cage peeking out from behind the viewing stands. He nudged Stavius, and the two of them trotted over to the grandstands.
A twenty-foot by thirty-foot, free-standing cage was situated between the viewing stands and the dragon aviary. It was on a platform raised about two feet off the ground, had a flat roof with open, barred sides and one small enclosed structure, which was probably the latrine. Graffiti words like TRAITORS, TERRORISTS, and MONSTERS were scrawled in large letters along the platform sides. Two girls were sitting in the far corner while a third paced back and forth along the side nearest the viewing stands. She turned and walked away as soon as she saw the boys.
Stavius leaned over to Janus and whispered, “Hey, which one is which?”
Janus chuckled and said, “Versera is the pretty one, Nariana is the angry one, and Elisa is the nice one. You’ll see what I mean when you meet them. I can’t wait to hear how you start this conversation, man.”
Stavius glared at Janus and muttered, “You are such a tool.” The boy had a point, though. He couldn’t just walk up, introduce himself, and say he was here to rescue them. Not only would they think he was crazy, but there might be other people eavesdropping. He suddenly realized just how unprepared he was for this mission.
“Um, guys,” he croaked out as he walked up to the cage. “Can we chat for a moment?”
The girls ignored him while Janus smirked.
“Really, it’s kind of important,” Stavius tried again, slightly louder.
The one who was pacing grunted, “Go away. We’re not interested,” without even turning around.
Janus was giggling now and at risk of erupting into full-fledged laughter while shaking his head and repeating, “I told you so, man. I told you so.”
Stavius elbowed him, leaned into the bars of the cage, and said, “My name’s Stavius, and you already know my friend Janus. We were sent by a mu
tual acquaintance named Urtish.”
The pacing girl stopped upon hearing this and all three stared at the boys. One of the girls in the corner stood up and walked over to them. She knelt down on the other side of the bars and stared at them for several minutes before saying, “The only Janus I know is a boy. I’ve never met a girl with that name.”
“No, it’s me,” Janus quickly replied. “I’m just in disguise.”
Stavius had been so focused that he had forgotten that Janus was wearing a skirt and said, “The kid’s a pretty good cross-dresser, isn’t he?”
The girl turned toward Stavius and said, “And I suppose that you are the brave dragon hunter who is going to save us three damsels from our doom and whisk us off to safety?”
Stavius was completely dumbfounded. How did she know he was a dragon hunter? “Um, yeah, I guess I am. Wow, you must be Versera. You are beautiful. How did you know I am a dragon hunter?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps it is the stench emanating from you that smells like a dragon’s armpit,” she complained.
“She’s right, you know,” added Janus. “You really smell ripe.”
“Hey, ease up. I haven’t had time to do laundry!” Stavius retorted.
“Well, then perhaps this will help,” said Versera as she dumped the bowl of cold gruel she had been carrying behind her back over Stavius’ head.
“Hey!” yelled Stavius. “Why did you do that?”
“Well, I’m hoping it covers your stink and that maybe it will cool you off, you pervert. I’m all of thirteen years old, and you’re what, like twenty?”
“I’ll have you know that my visitor is also thirteen,” complained Stavius. “And, now how am I going to wash myself and my clothes so I can find a room?”
“Wash your clothes?” asked Versera in disbelief as the other two girls came over to see what was happening.
“Dude, stand still,” said Janus. “We have got to get you trained in magic.”
Janus quickly waved his hand from Stavius’ head to his feet and, as he did so, all the gruel, sweat and dirt fell off of Stavius and his clothes into a sticky puddle of gunk below him.
“Now, step out of that mess before it gets on your shoes,” commanded Janus who caused the smelly mass on the ground to transform into wildflowers as Stavius stepped aside.
“Nice trick,” said a new voice from above.
Janus smiled and looked up to see who had spoken just as a bedpan full of pee was dumped in his face. He sputtered and swore as he danced around and quickly altered the urine into rose water. “Nariana, you jerk. I can’t believe you did that!” he exclaimed.
“Hey, I wasn’t kidding,” said Stavius. “That really is the Janus. You know him. You trained with him.”
“Yeah, I believe you,” sighed Nariana, “but that was the best I could do with these bars in the way. He deserves so much more. By the way, you guys are going to draw some unwanted attention if anyone sees you hanging out chatting with us.”
“As much as I hate to say it, Nariana, I agree with you,” lamented Janus as he sat down. “Have a seat, Stavius.”
Stavius plopped on the ground next to Janus in confusion. How could three thirteen-year-olds be so calm while sitting in a cage, mere days before they were to be executed? And, why were they sitting down after Janus agreed they should leave?
Janus concentrated for a moment and then swirled his hand above his head. Two illuded versions of the boys rose up like ghosts out of their bodies when he finished and strolled off toward the dragon aviary.
“Nice trick, but how does that help?” asked Stavius.
“Oh, they’ll wander around for a while and swing back over when we’re done. I’ve made us invisible,” answered Janus.
“Wait, you can make us disappear?” asked Stavius in amazement. He still felt so lost around magic.
“No, not really,” replied Janus. “I just made us look like the signs along the platform. The illusion should work as long as we don’t move and no one gets too close. It’ll give us a few minutes more time to chat.”
Stavius decided to accept that they were invisible, but he couldn’t comprehend the prisoners’ strange behavior. “What is with you?” he asked the girls. “Any normal person in your situation would be curled up in a fetal position freaking out. I know that I would. How are you remaining so calm?”
“Oh, you mean lying on the ground sobbing in utter fear and depression?” asked Nariana.
“Been there,” answered Versera.
“Done that,” echoed Elisa as she sat down to converse. “You see, all our hosts had complete mental breakdowns and are simply gone, as far as we can tell. The only ones in here,” she continued, tapping her head, “are our visitors. We’re not too freaked because we’ll just wake up from this nightmare and get a good night’s sleep for a change.”
Stavius stared at Janus, who quickly thought, “We need to stop them, Stavius! What if they’re wrong about their hosts?”
“I know, I know.” Stavius thought back.
“WHO ARE YOU?” came a booming thought into both of the boys’ minds. It was, of course, silent but it felt like a deep roar so mighty that their entire bodies seemed to vibrate.
“What was that?” Janus and Stavius exclaimed together.
“Quiet!” hissed Nariana. “You might be invisible, but you can still be heard. I was saying that I’m looking forward to being done with this world. We’ve all agreed that we aren’t going to stick around to be eaten by dragons.”
“No, that wasn’t what we were asking about,” began Stavius.
Janus interrupted him with, “But what do you mean eaten by dragons?”
“And what do you mean that you aren’t sticking around?” added Stavius.
“Don’t you get it, you fools?” asked Nariana with exasperation. “They plan to release us into the aviary at midday on Fivesday to be eaten by the dragons. It’s the grand finale of Luna Fest, and all of Septumcolis’ elite will be here with their children to watch and cheer. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event, which will be fun for the entire family, except that we aren’t going to let them have their fun. We’re all going to kill ourselves tomorrow night. My only regret is not being around to see the disappointment on their faces.”
“Wait, you can’t kill yourselves!” shouted the boys, despite the need to be quiet.
“Shut up you idiots,” warned Nariana. “Of course, we can. We all agree that being strangled will be a less painful death than being torn apart by a pack of dragons. And, even though our hosts will die, our visitors will wake up and finally stop having these horrible dreams.”
“Besides,” added Versera, “it will piss off the Admian family and the rest of them. They locked us up and plan to execute us for entertainment even though we have done nothing. We might not be able to destroy them but if the best we can do is ruin their plans, so be it.”
“No, please don’t do that,” insisted Stavius. He almost spilled the secret that visitors die when their hosts die, but realized that the girls would be useless if they knew. “We’ll figure out a way to get you out of here. Just give us a chance.”
“Well, you have until tomorrow night,” answered Nariana, “but I, for one, would rather you spend your time trying to steal the talismans. Now that would be something which would really piss off the seven families.”
“We will, we will,” said Janus. “Just please don’t do anything rash.” Then he jabbed Stavius and said, “We need to get moving. People are starting to come back.”
Their doppelgangers were carrying bags of rotten fruit illusions as they wandered back over to where the boys were crouching. The two boys stood up into their illusions and, at Janus’ suggestion threw the illuded fruit at the girls. Imaginary tomatoes and overly ripe peaches splattered on the girls and Janus joked, “Don’t go anywhere ladies,” in his most vile laugh and they turned to walk away as it began to rain.
Lightning flashed in the distance and thunder echoed up through the river valley.
“Looks like a wonderful day for a talisman tour, Janus,” thought Stavius.
They took two steps before the deep voice entered their heads again and yelled, “BE CAREFUL. YOU ARE BEING WATCHED.”
“I know we’re being watched,” cried Janus. “We can hear you. Just please stop shouting!”
Then, being careful to mask his thoughts, he whispered to Stavius, “Who or what do you think that is?”
“I’m guessing it’s another vampire,” answered Stavius. “Every time it speaks, I also feel emotions like sadness, depression, and anger.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. We need to get out of here,” answered Janus in a hushed tone before being interrupted by the disembodied voice.
“My apologies, youngsters,” came the voice. “It has been a long time since I have had a conversation, and you are right that I have been watching you. However, I am referring to the woman standing to your right. She followed you into the park, then wandered among the exhibits for a while, but is once again watching and following you.”
Stavius quickly glanced past Janus, who was walking to his right. “It’s Larsa,” he said.
“How did she find us?” asked Janus in a panic.
“I don’t know, but we need to lose her, and we can’t let her know that we came here just to talk to the girls,” answered Stavius.
Just then he noticed the second cage. There were two boys curled up into sobbing balls in a corner and Stavius nudged Janus to walk towards it. The spent several minutes trying to talk to the boys, who appeared to be about thirteen as well but they were only able to invoke incoherent ramblings and cries for their mothers. These were apparently the boys who had been caught and accused of being the girls’ accomplices.
“I guess we have to rescue them too,” grumbled Janus.
“Yeah, but first we need to split up and lose Larsa. It’s time for your tour. Let’s get lost in this crowd and then you can illude a different appearance and wander away with them. I’ll hang out here until your tour has left and then I’ll shake Larsa before finding us some lodging. We can meet back here at dusk.”
Stavius Page 20