“I was only waking to life at that moment,” Charlotte said. “So that must be why I remember you as well, however foggy that memory has always been.”
Tiloshar nodded. “Sombrala must have seen the advantage to her new position. With my memories of you both erased, she could do with you as she pleased. She could turn you to a Sanguinar, only someday to return here and destroy me, or enslave me to her will. She had an eternity to plot her return.”
“She wanted to return here above all,” I said. “For when I came to her she wanted my planar ring. That and Charlotte, who she must have seen as a way to recreate you, Tiloshar.”
“How am I to know… who I am now?” Charlotte looked to Tiloshar with no hint of spite, but instead genuine wonder. “I have no true memories of growing up in the Midland forests, of our father Waylan the Oak Staff, the Bright Mage as he was often called. And memories of mother, Manda, and our two sisters who were long married by the time we, you, were taken by Sombrala. I have memories of being turned… and memories of learning vampiric sorcery, but I did not truly live those things, only glimpsed them through a gem.”
“Does it matter, who lived them?” Tiloshar’s voice rang with regal counsel. “The memory of them is all we have, all anyone has. The past vanishes to nothing. We are the same person, Charlotte, you must see that.”
“But we have diverged, I have lived as a human among harpies these last three decades; you have lived here as a Sanguinar queen.”
“I must give deep thought to this, for truly who has the answers to this quandary.”
“Tiloshar,” I interrupted her musings, “have three days not passed since I arrived? Don’t forget the Dominion will be waiting. And there is still the matter of making One Eye whole once more.”
“You’re right. Come, there is much to attend to.”
Tiloshar’s gown rustled as she made for the doors, and we followed.
25
We walked to the room of glass vials, where bodies floated in the yellow liquid. She walked to the vial containing my identical twin, my homunculus. His muscled shoulders bobbed in the liquid, a halo of long hair floating around him. “He is finished,” Tilsohar said, and she pressed some kind of lever upon the device and the yellow fluid began draining until it was gone.
The glass vial lifted until this twin of mine could step forward. It was uncanny, to see a duplicate standing there, the same pale flesh, the same hulking form. He was naked as the sun, dripping wet, and yet did not seem to mind, nor had much of a mind, as he only stared ahead blankly, momentarily glancing at us with indifference. Charlotte blushed and held her hand to her mouth while Vixerai and Tiloshar seemed to have a similar smile upon them as they looked at the creature.
“Servant,” Tiloshar called, and immediately her winged eye was conjured with a flash. “See to it that he is dressed. Some simple garb will do.” The servant creature blinked and flashed away. He returned moments later, and the homunculus dressed himself though it was as if watching a child learn to dress for the first time.
“I must deliver him now, for the three days that your Imperial captors gave me to return you are now gone.”
“And my mind gem you will hand that over to them as well.” I spoke with a resentment hidden in my voice.
“I will, and as promised, I removed many of your most intimate memories… certainly some that we made here.” At that Vixerai’s eyes rounded, though she said nothing. “But because of time and to avoid their suspicion that I cross them, I left most of your memories intact within the gem.”
I nodded, resigned that this was the only way that the Imperial warship would not rain down destruction upon Tiloshar’s home. I glanced at the mirror me, now dressed in a simple brown tunic. “He will not suffer?”
“I know not what the Imperials will do with him. But he is only of enough intelligence that if they do harm him, it will be little more than the suffering of a deer or an ox perhaps.” She caressed his shoulder as if petting one of the creatures she compared him to. “Now I must present these things to the Imperials. Servant, guide my friends to the healing chambers, that they might visit with the injured two. I will come when I am finished.”
With that, she left, guiding my homunculus to follow. I could not help but feel sorry for him, and for Zyman, who perhaps could continue to look after him, thinking that it was I. I hoped he was of enough perception that he would realize it was not truly me who returned to the Dominion.
We followed the flying eye until we came to a circular room with a low ceiling. There were several round pools filled with a bubbling green liquid. One Eye and Abalo sat in one, as I had seen men sit in hot springs, relaxing amidst the vapors.
I walked across the wet stone floor until I was upon them, the vapors rising to my nose and smelling of minerals mixed with something pungent like mustard seed. They seemed to be alive. Their grievous injuries had begun to heal, but not returned their missing arm or eyes. “You will now be known as One Arm, my old friend.” Zombie One Eye looked at me, and gave a slight nod, neutral to his condition.
“And I will be known as No Eyes,” Abalo said through a nervous laugh. “Oh Elders, save me.”
“Have faith, Abalo.” Charlotte crouched, placed her hand firmly on Abalo’s gleaming wet shoulder. “For if I told you all I am capable of now, and all I have learned in the last hour, you would not believe me! I will see to it that you have eyes to see once more.”
“Ah, Charlotte,” the old harpy’s voice broke, “you truly are a princess!”
“A queen,” I said, crouching so I was nearer to him. “So you will both have two of them looking after you, do not worry.”
“Two queens, I do not find your meaning, Rothan!”
“Do not worry yourself, Abalo, in time we will explain.” I looked over and saw that Vixerai was near a corner of the room standing downcast and covered in the chamber’s shadows. I left my other companions talking there by the pools and walked to her. “What troubles you, Vixerai?”
“I do not know what will become of me, nor whether you truly want me by your side. I left Malfeon where I felt I had no place, and yet, I do not see one here either.”
“Come,” I wrapped my arms around her, felt the smooth leather of her wings on the inside of my arms. My neck bent and I stooped enough that I could find her lips with mine. I placed a few gentle kisses there, and she took some comfort as well as some strength from them. “I would be glad that you be by my side.”
“Then you will take you with you?”
“Aye, in time. You see, succubi are not common sights in this world, and especially in my land. Surely, Charlotte and Tiloshar can find a way to disguise you so that you can be among my own people someday.”
“I was a monster to my people in Malfeon. I am a monster to yours here in Hourne.”
“Vixerai.” I caressed her face. “You must be patient. You must believe I will return.”
She laid her head against my chest, took a deep breath. “You took Tiloshar as a lover, didn’t you?”
“In truth, she took me. But aye, that is part of our relation. There was little time to explain this in Malfeon, as at every turn something was trying to destroy us. It does not pain you, does it?” I had always imagined that succubi from Malfeon did not have the same conventions as human women did, for Vixerai felt that love making was nearly a kind of feeding as well, and especially as I had found sibling marriages were practiced among harpies.
“No, of course not.” She looked up at me with confusion that I would even ask the question. “Male harpies take many mates, the strong ones take dozens.” She smiled with a hint of lust rising up in her. “Tiloshar called me beautiful. I think her something beyond beautiful. I think her delicious.”
I grinned at that, as she reminded me of Bellabel. My thoughts turned to her, and my shield maiden, who surely awaited my return and suffered upon knowing not whether I would ever come back to them. There was a beautiful maiden with horns, wings and turquoise eyes embracin
g me; that, and a vampire queen who loved feasting upon my blood, among many other things. How would Bellabel and Kyra take this? Bellabel would be delighted, if startled, even frightened at first, but in time she would relish having more lovers to pleasure and to be pleasured by.
Kyra… Kyra would have my balls.
26
We all sat in the healing pools, letting their hot brine relax our tiredness away and its pungent vapors clear our minds of many burdens. Vixerai cradled herself against me, her hands roaming under the hot water, massaging my torso in a way that showed how hungry she was for more than a dip in these green baths. She was doing her best to enjoy what time we had left together. Even Sirucan was more pleasant, as he was now rather tranquil with Charlotte reassuring him that everything would be alright and that she would find a way to return his memories. My body and mind sorely needed healing, as every bit of me felt drained from the many arduous journeys that pushed me to my breaking point. And these baths did what they were meant to do, as I felt strength, vigor, and cunning returning to me.
Yet the eagerness to return to Skald did not melt away from me as the pains of my body.
The hot water sloshed as I rose from the pool and put on my armor once more.
When I found Tiloshar, she was in the same room where I had awakened bound to a steel table by silver manacles.
“Should I be jealous?” I japed as I saw that now it was One Eye who lay upon the table.
She glanced back at me. “I don’t believe One Eye has the same appetites as we do. He was in need of something far different.” She moved so that I saw what she had been working on. She had given One Eye another arm, though it was bluish in its skin tone, like the color of veins.
“That is not a human arm, is it?”
“It is human enough.” She made an open palmed gesture. “I have not had time to restore his physical form completely, though I have used his mind gem to return most of his memories and his nature. It will slowly continue returning to him until he is completely himself once more.
I stood over him, gazing down at his form. “We must leave, Tiloshar.”
“I know.” She caressed my hand, squeezed it a long moment, then let go. “Wake, One Eye.”
She waved her hand over his shirtless, ash gray body, and his eyes opened, his true eye and the metallic red eye he had been given. He sat up now on the metal bed. “Rothan…”
“One Eye,” I reached down and clasped his forearm, he clasped mine back though he did so somewhat clumsily. “You’re still learning to use that new arm of yours.”
He looked down and was startled a moment. “Yes.”
“Do you recall, all we have lived, these last days? Do you recall who you are truly?”
“I do...but like it was a drunken night. There was a very evil vampire woman.” He glanced at Tiloshar and looked worried a moment.
“It’s alright, One Eye.” I tried calming him. “Tiloshar has helped us escape from the Imperials. She’s saved our lives.”
He stared down at his body, which however grateful he must have been to be alive, must have seemed to him a blanket that has been stitched together from the rags of others.
Tiloshar cast her eyes down. She seemed unnerved by something, a pained look on her face. “Forgive me… Karlstaff. I… I have no other words for you.”
“You’re alive,” I said placing a hand on his shoulder. “And you’re a tougher bastard, now that you’ve been strengthened by these magics. The old you would never have been able to live through the journey we just took.”
“Yes...” He nodded weakly.
“We can speak more on the journey home. I’m sure your mind will return to you entirely with time.”
“Rothan.” Tiloshar was silent a moment, as if taking courage to speak. “Before you leave, I have one last request.”
27
We stood on a parapet, high upon the highest tower that pierced the black sky. The ocean glimmered with the white of the full moon. She had been silent on the walk here, and seemed in a deep sorrow.
“I have realized my truest desire, my wolf.” Tiloshar looked to me, and her eyes glistened. “For you see, it was always my plan, before my memories were lost to me, that I give Charlotte my memories, that my life might begin again.”
“And it has. She is here now, and she will grow to be a powerful wizard, surely, as you would have.”
“She will. And in that way, you will fulfill yet another desire of mine. Oh, Rothan!” She came closer, so that her face was inches from mine. “Truly the gods have sent you, for you have fulfilled all my desires to find a lover, to find a consort, to find a champion, to destroy my sire, to return my memories and my own body to me. But there is one last desire I ask you now, a last desire you must fulfill. The ancient sorcery that binds me to Black Tear keeps me from meeting my end in the sun’s light. But you, the gods have given you another way, another way for me to meet my fate. Set my soul free. Kiss me one last time, Rothan, then summon the light from your weapon, the weapon I gave you. Summon that sun’s light and end my life, end the shadow I spread over the world!”
“Tiloshar, you speak madness!”
“No, I speak the truth. It was always my desire, to find a way to become my old self, and I have now that Charlotte is here. My soul will rest knowing that the girl I once was returned to this world. All that is left is to put an end to this creature I have become, while we still can, while I have the moral courage to do so!”
“You are not your old self, Tiloshar, for Charlotte is not you! Though she is of the same body, the same mind and nature you once were, your paths have diverged. She has experienced things you have not, and you the same. She does not see through your eyes, nor you hers. You are different beings, though you were born of the same seed.”
“Then she is close enough. She will have to do. Don’t you see, Rothan, what I am? Have you not seen what I have done to One Eye, what I might have done to you? I have glimpsed all my memories, and I have done terrible things to countless creatures, fed upon them, enslaved them, torn them apart and rearranged them at my leisure. You have seen what I am capable of, when I am wroth. End me, Rothan, end me while you still can! It is my nature to do evil and spread evil.”
“When you received One Eye, he was at death’s door—you said so yourself. And most of the beings you have received these past thirty years have been great criminals, sentenced to death or near death already.”
“Still, I could have nursed them, without using them for my purposes. I could have sought to aid them, rather than use them.”
“Even if that is true… that is no reason to seek death. For all that Sombrala was, she spoke something to me that I now realize is true. That you vampires are no more evil than humans. You are a different order of being, and so you lord over most and can barely see them as equals. All that humans do, the wickedness the cruelty, we do not against our natures, but because of it. Predators are a part of nature. Even those we think not as predators have the instinct to kill, just as a wild stallion having conquered a herd will stomp out the newborns of the old alpha. So you see Tiloshar, if all that had a dark nature should die, then we should wipe out all life from the world. But that is not right! No, my queen, for evil is in human nature, but we have the strength of will to resist it. So much more do you, whose very will calls lightning and raises creatures from the dead!”
“But Rothan, try as I might, my willpower will fail me. I will be overcome by the darkness in me, that thirst for blood and power. You have seen what Sombrala was. I too will become that in time, as my Sanguinar nature blots out what remains of my human self.”
“You will not, for you have something Sombrala lacked. You have Charlotte, her good nature and unique friendship that no one could ever give, for she will be your very self as a friend and guide. And there is Abalo, should he remain. He is full of wisdom and curiosity to keep even a Sanguinar occupied with matters of the intellect. And even Sirucan should he come of mind will resist evil at
every turn, though perhaps not because he is truly good but because the bastard is too damn proud to be otherwise.” I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to me. I wiped a blood tear from her cheek, for now it seemed to me that while she cried ordinary tears, but when sorrow truly touched the core of her being, it was blood that welled up from her. “And you will have me, for I meant my words that I would return once Skald and my people are safe from destruction.”
“Rothan.” Her voice broke. Her breasts pillowed against me as she squeezed me tight, her hands bringing my face to hers. Our lips touched, and her mouth tasted of blood iron mixed with a sweet wine. She ran her hands through my hair and neck and I, in turn, caressed her cheek and the small of her back. I felt my hunger for her stirring.
I was in my half Fenrir form, and so my hearing and smell were greatly increased. There was a faint rustle behind me, a familiar scent. I turned to see who was spying upon us. “Vixerai!” I shouted when I spotted her silhouette perched upon a sharp spire, her wings half spread to steady herself.
“You saw me!” she gasped.
“Of course I saw you! I am a wolf, piercing senses, remember? Come here!”
She looked about, as if considering disobeying, but then she swept down from the spire, and looped her flight until she perched on the parapet and was before us.
“Ah yes, the lovely succubus you brought back from Malfeon.” Tiloshar ran her hand along Vixerai’s horns.
Wolf Blade: Chains of the Vampire Page 26
