I raised an eyebrow. “Not that I’m not grateful, but what makes you say that? You don’t know me.”
“I’m no dryad”—she nodded at Sienna—“I can’t look inside and see your worth. But your father was a great man, and any son he raised must be good.”
“That’s some high regard you hold him in.”
She nodded. “It is.”
“Then, for such a good friend of my father’s sake, if you’re to join us, you should know the journey ahead will be long, dangerous, and hard, and I can’t promise we’ll come out of it alive.”
“I expect nothing less.”
11
“If I’m to go with you, I won’t do it in the dark,” Vi said. “Traveling through the blight is not something to be done once the sun’s deserted the sky.”
“Blight. Do you mean the band of black trees?” I asked.
Vi nodded. “Something has taken hold of them. They aren’t dead, but they seem it. Though they continue to grow.”
“It’s an actual blight?” It resembled one, yes, but blights spread, and if this one was expanding, actually getting closer to the Wall, no one had noticed. Not that I knew of.
“It’s slow at first. Until it really takes hold. It stopped moving at the wall. Not the big one, what if I remember you call the Ancient Wall, but a smaller one that stretches across the trees.”
“My sisters made that,” Sienna agreed. “It was meant to keep out the priests, or any others who would come from the north, and any monsters who would come from farther in the forest. Its roots are deep, and my sisters’ magic still lives on in it, keeping me safe. Keeping the trees there safe.”
I frowned at this. It had magic? Why hadn’t I seen it? But then, it had been long since I’d used my abilities. I would have to pay closer attention to things in the future.
Vi looked to me. “We should wait until sunrise before risking the blight.”
“I agree. We were looking for a place to stay before we came across you.”
“We can stay in my den. It’s not far from here.”
“Lead on.”
She growled at me for some reason, then turned and started off.
Sienna and I followed.
My eyes inevitably went to the lycanthrope’s butt, which was firm and muscular. The flesh there was bare, but she had a tuft of fur on her lower back, just above where her tail began, which was held up and straight as she walked, in a position that to me indicated alertness.
This slowly morphed to apprehension.
She began to walk more carefully, the ears atop her head twitching and scanning. Her nose up, sniffing the air.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“I smell the blood-suckers. Can’t tell how close. Don’t hear them.”
“Blood-suckers?”
“You call them vampires.”
Vampires. I was sure there was a section on them in Krann’s, but other than that they drank blood, I couldn’t recall anything about them from it right now.
Her ears twitched and she came to a halt. “Oh. Now I hear them.”
12
“They’re dangerous, I’m guessing?” I asked.
I asked this because Vi’s cautious progress had now turned into a jog.
One which was well on its way to a run.
“Not if there’s only a few,” Vi answered.
“Then why are we running away?”
“Because there’s a lot more than a few.”
A hundred paces later and now we were running.
And even over the heavy pounding of my feet, I could hear them. Could hear the vampires.
They were gaining on us.
Gods be, they were fast.
Much like the women who ran swiftly and silently ahead of me.
I was panting like an overworked horse.
Breathing in this much of the wretched air was unpleasant, to put it mildly.
“They won’t be able to get”—I gasped—“into your den?”
“We’re not going to my den.”
“Then where?”
“Somewhere they won’t want to.”
“And we will?”
“Not really.”
“Do you want me to carry you?” Sienna asked, glancing back my way.
“No! I don’t want you to carry me.”
I checked over my shoulder.
A mistake.
It wasn’t just hearing them. I could see them now.
There must’ve been at least a hundred of them, but it was hard to tell in the dark. They were also smaller than I’d expected. Not nearly the size of humans, but closer to the size of rats. Large rats, but still.
And they were fast.
They didn’t pursue us over the ground, but up in the trees: small pale figures which leapt from one to the next quickly and effortlessly.
We didn’t have long before they caught us.
Just as I thought this a pale blur came flying out from one of the trees, not behind me, but to my side.
“Fuck!” I shouted and instinctively phased just before it connected.
It went through me and crashed into the ground.
This didn’t stop it however, and it quickly popped back up to its feet and leapt in the air again, propelling itself from tree to tree after me.
I discovered that while I had been distracted Vi and Sienna had pulled away from me.
I quit Pulling from myself and turned solid again. It was safer and easier to run when phased, but the fear of becoming a Shade weighed on me. “They’re getting closer! One just tried to attack me!”
“We’re almost there,” Vi called back. “Be ready.”
“Ready for what?” I asked, but then she darted off the path to the left.
Sienna skidded behind her and I slammed into her, both of us going tumbling to the ground.
By the time we got to our feet, the fast vampire that had attacked me was nearly upon us, and the others weren’t far behind.
I shoved Sienna forward toward the path that Vi had turned off onto and then ran after her.
But not fast enough.
A vampire bit into my upper arm.
It looked like a small naked human female with fangs. It wore a hideous, bloodthirsty scowl on its little face. I was reminded of the dried-up husks of rats and other small creatures we’d seen littering the woods.
I punched at it, but it didn’t let go.
“Little bastard!” I phased again and it fell through me.
Then I reached out and Pulled from Sienna to counteract the darkness.
She gasped and stumbled.
Damn.
I quit Pulling from her.
“It’s okay,” she called without looking back. “I wasn’t ready. You can do it again.”
I started to, but she slowed again as I did, so I stopped.
“I’m fine,” she called.
“Keep running,” I told her.
Despite my fear, I stayed phased as I ran after the two women. The path ahead was narrow and dark, and I hoped the lycanthrope knew what she was doing.
I glanced at the bite on my arm and tried to recall what Krann’s said about a vampire’s bite.
But all I could come up with was that the bite was supposed to do something bad.
The ravenous creature jumped for me several times, but each time fell through.
Not very smart, then.
That was good.
Up ahead Vi and then Sienna skidded to a halt.
“Keep going!” I urged.
The little bastard was still behind me, still trying to bite me.
They turned and looked at me.
There was something strange about the sky beyond where they stood, though I couldn’t tell what it was.
And by the time I realized, it was far too late to stop.
They were standing at a cliff.
“Shiiiii…” I cried as I flew over the edge and out into open air, then plummeted.
I had some small measure of
relief when I saw that below me was water.
The drop seemed interminable, but of course it wasn't.
From where I fell to the surface of the water was about as high as the Ancient Wall, maybe even higher, and I crashed into the surface of the water with what should have been enough force to knock a normal man unconscious, but I was phased.
It was getting easier to stay this way, and I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
I plunged underwater, felt my feet hit the bottom, then propelled myself up toward the surface.
Before I reached it there was an explosion of bubbles, then another.
Vi and Sienna.
I broke the surface and took a deep draw of air.
It was shocking in its cleanness, after the stench of the cursed woods.
A few moments later first Sienna’s then Vi’s head appeared.
Vi shook hers, her black hair whipping about and showering me in droplets.
Sienna was beside her and her white hair clung to her face as she tried to push it away so she could see.
I looked up at the cliff I had ‘jumped’ from. I saw no vampires pouring down after us.
“They don’t like water,” Vi said. “Or sunlight. It’s dark, so this was the only option I could think of.”
“You did good,” I told her.
She started growling at me.
Did she not like compliments?
“There’s a vampire on you.” Her voice was harsh and low, and it took me a moment to understand what she’d said.
“That’s impossible. I’m—” But I realized I was solid once more.
I hadn’t noticed. Wasn’t sure that was good either.
I ran my hand over my back and bumped into it, nearly knocking it off.
I caught it and held it in front of me.
It lay limp in my palm.
Vi reached for it, but Sienna stopped her, swimming between us.
“No, don’t. She’s hurt, but alive.”
“Exactly,” Vi said. “But she won’t be after I eat her.”
Sienna took the vampire from my hand and clutched it to her chest. “You’re not eating her.”
Vi growled. “Don’t tell me what I’m going to eat or not eat, dryad. Maybe I’ll eat you.”
“She’s injured. She needs our help.”
I grunted. “We can’t go around helping every monster we meet.”
“Exactly,” Vi agreed again.
Sienna gave her a harsh look, the first harsh look I’d ever seen her give.
Despite her pretty face and delicate features, it was one hell of a mean glare. “If we didn’t help you, that grogen would’ve finished you.”
“I could have taken him.”
“Right,” Sienna said. “It looked like it. It definitely looked like you were winning. Maybe you were just letting it mount you. My sisters said cross-mating was getting popular.”
Vi growled again. “Hand over the vampire.”
Sienna didn’t respond, instead kicking away toward the small sandy bank.
This made me realize we were in the Ambit River.
It wasn’t the ocean, but it was close, and connected to it.
The water here wasn’t deep enough for the giant monsters that lived in the open ocean, but that didn’t mean I was happy to be here.
We were between two sheer rock cliffs. The one I fell from being the taller of the two, though even the other was too tall to easily climb.
The flow of water here was gentle, but if we let it, it would eventually carry us out to sea. And to our doom.
So I swam after the dryad, who had the vampire clutched to her chest above the water as she went for shore.
A clawed hand landed on my shoulder before I could get far.
I stopped and turned to look at Vi. She was looking at my arm. “What?”
“Did she bite you?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Then I hope the dryad can heal you.”
I frowned at her, but she paddled away toward the river bank without further comment.
When we reached it Sienna was knelt down, hands held above the little vampire as golden light came from them.
Vi growled at the sight, but made no move to try to eat the creature. She couldn’t go by without comment, however. “Why don’t you make it a cage with a little bed if you intend to keep it as a pet,” she said with disdain.
Sienna glanced at Vi. “That’s a good idea,” she replied, missing or ignoring Vi’s intent.
She looked around. “There are no trees down here though.” She focused on the way ahead of us, that which led away from the ocean. It was straight, and far in the distance the shore widened as the bank sloped upward, and bushes and small trees grew there. “Once we get up there I’ll ask the trees to make a cage for her. I don’t know if she’d harm us.”
“She already did harm one of us,” Vi said, looking at me.
Funny that she so soon considered us an ‘us’.
And I hadn’t even Pulled from or laid with her.
“We need your magic, dryad. He’s been bitten by the little beast.”
Sienna’s hands stopped glowing and she picked up the vampire and held it to her chest, then got up from where she was kneeling on the sand.
“Where’d she bite you?”
I showed her the wound on my upper arm.
“I can try.” She put her free hand over the bite, and golden beams of light came from it, entering the wound.
I felt their comforting warmth flow through me.
Then she lifted her hand away, and as she did I felt something being pulled from the wound.
What came out looked just like normal blood, somehow bound up and floating in the air.
She shook her hand once and the golden beams burst, burning bright and evaporating the blood.
“There. I think I got it all.”
“You seem to know about them,” I said to Vi. “What happens if she didn’t?”
“Don’t you have that book you read. Crabs?”
“Krann’s. Yes, but I don’t remember much about vampires.”
She huffed. “All you need to know is that they have an insatiable bloodlust, and their bites will turn you stupid.”
“Stupid and lustful like you,” a voice said.
It sounded like it was coming from Sienna, but when I turned to look I saw it was coming from the creature which she held.
Vi snarled.
The vampire snarled back.
It looked somewhat more comical when the vampire did it, because while she did have fangs, she was so much smaller, and her face was… cuter. I hadn’t noticed before when she was trying to suck my blood, but I did now.
“You’re the stupid beast with the bloodlust,” the vampire said. “You hunt us down and eat us.”
“I hunt you!?” Vi took a step forward, and Sienna took a step back, though the vampire didn’t seem scared.
She also wasn’t trying to bite Sienna.
“You’re the ones who hunt us.” Vi’s eyes glowed with anger.
“Why would we hunt you?”
“To eat us.”
The vampire’s little face twisted up in an expression of disgust. “That’s vile.”
“I know!”
“Wait,” I said. “So you hunt each other, because you… hunt each other? Then why did you attack me?” I asked the vampire.
Vi nodded at this. “Yes, why indeed?”
“Because you’re with her.”
“And she’s with us too,” I said, gesturing at Sienna.
The vampire turned around to look at the giant who was holding her, only now seeming to notice. “She’s a dryad. Dryads don’t eat anything. Why would I bite her?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make her a cage,” Sienna said.
“I don’t need a cage! Just let me go. We’ll leave you alone now that you’re out of our forest.”
Vi started to respond, but I interrupted her. “How do we know you’re not playing some trick? If
we let you go, you could get the rest of your group and come after us again.”
“I vote we eat her,” Vi said.
Sienna clutched her tighter, wrapping her arms protectively around the vampire. “We’re not eating her.”
“She can be our prisoner,” I said.
A vampire might come in handy. I didn’t know how, but if worse came to worse we might be able to trade her for supplies.
Or perhaps clothes.
It was one thing to be walking around without them in the woods, but it would draw a lot more attention in cities. Especially Este.
Although with all the cultures and races and lawlessness in Silaris, I thought we could get away without them there without drawing too much attention.
“As you said, you can make a cage for her once we get to the woods.”
The vampire started to squirm out of Sienna’s grasp, but she didn’t get far before Sienna grabbed her tighter.
She stopped struggling when it was clear she wasn’t going anywhere. “I’m not your prisoner,” she protested.
I was surprised she didn’t bite the dryad.
“Yes you are,” I said, walking past Sienna and up the bank, away from the ocean and towards the woods the river eventually reached.
13
I watched Sienna, still taken by how adept she was, as she coerced the trees we were now among to do her bidding.
Her hands and forearms were roots, and one plunged into the sandy soil while the other held the vampire down as she made roots from nearby trees form a cage around her.
The trees here were small, but weren’t dead or dying like those in the cursed woods, which we were thankfully no longer in. We were still in the canyon, but could now see the end of it where it merged into the forest west of the cursed woods.
Above us was likely the band of black trees, but from down here we couldn’t see them.
If we followed this river upstream, it would eventually lead to Silaris, completely avoiding the cursed woods.
I hadn’t thought to go this way, mostly because of how high the cliffs were, and I was unaccustomed to using my magic. It was by accident that I’d been phased when I’d fallen off the cliff, and if I hadn’t been, I might not have survived the fall. I wasn’t as hardy as Vi or Sienna, nor as light as the little vampire.
But now that we were down here, it was probably the easier way to Silaris, at least while it was still dark.
Curse of Magic Page 4
