Tower of Ancients

by Jaeger Mitchells

  I sat on my horse at the head of our caravan when they appeared, pointing their pitiful bows and arrows at us. I had no idea if they knew who and what we were, but they were the best thing to happen over the last weeks.

  “So you’re the leader, huh? You don’t look like much if I may say so myself!” a burly, black-bearded man laughed as he held a double-sided battle-ax in his right hand. I had no idea if it was for show, but it looked dangerous in all honesty. The bows on the other hand, they looked like children’s toys.

  “What is it to you?” I asked, not quite sure what was on his mind. We might be weary and tired, but a rag-tag army of ruffians would never be able to get the better of us.

  “You’re the so-called Vampire Lord Raziel?” he asked again, not answering my question. Slayer hissed beside me, ready to go do battle if I let him, but I stayed him for now. I wasn’t interested in bloodshed, at least not in front of the civilians.

  “I am. Now tell me, what is it to you?” I asked again, this time my voice cold as steel and gaze deadly. He took a step back but stood his ground. The fool. No, he wasn’t a fool. The man wasn’t here to fight, he was here for something else. He might look like any other ordinary ruffian, but the way he looked over the column and my people told me he wasn’t just thinking of attacking us.

  “My boss would like to have a word with you if you don’t mind. You and all of your people can be our guests overnight. We have a huge camp where you can rest and prepare food. Will you follow us?”

  “Boss? Who is he?” I asked curiously. Not many people would ask for me to follow them, so they better be worth it.

  “Not he, Lord Raziel. It’s a she. The woman is our late boss’ daughter, Rennes. He used to go by the name Slither.”

  I sighed and shook my head. So Slither the old bastard had bitten the dust. Not that it mattered to me, but I do remember owing him a debt during my days under Lefrand. A debt I had hoped to pay a long time ago.

  “What does she want?” I asked, curious to see what she had come up with.

  “To get rid of a Three-Horned Viper. The thing has been terrorizing our people for a while and ever gone so far as to attack us a couple of nights ago. It’s good fortune that news travels fast and we heard about—your problems with the leech.”

  “Hah! Leech!” Slayer laughed. “You couldn’t have said it any better, you black-bearded fool!”

  “Who’s a fool? Fool!”

  “Shut up, both of you,” I yelled. To my surprise, the other guy shut up as well. “How large is it and what color?”

  “About forty feet long or so and—it’s purple.”

  “Fucking hell! You want me to fight an at least three-hundred-year-old monster? What the hell do I look like to you?”

  “A great man! Umm, Vampire I mean,” he grinned. Half of his teeth were missing, which only made me sigh even louder.

  “Half an hour break everyone!” I yelled, using Vampiric power to amplify my voice. The men and women either dropped in the mud, not caring about anything, or walked off to the sides and sat on felled logs, rocks, and what little grass there was.

  “What now?” Slayer asked again. He was rather chatty which went on my nerves.

  “Get all the officers. We need to have a chat.”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  I turned back to the bandit, giving him an answer.

  “I’ll give you my reply in half an hour.”

  He nodded and sat down on a piece of bent wood. I knew it would be uncomfortable after a couple of minutes, but fuck him. I didn’t care about his wellbeing.

  With that, I got off my horse and walked over to a large rock of my own as I waited for them to join me. “How are the men holding up?”

  “The soldiers are exhausted from the long march with full battle gear. The food is barely enough and the blood-boost has already worn off,” Sentinel replied. “They might be tougher than the enemy armies, but they can get tired just as ordinary Humans.”

  “The group of new Vampires gave some earlier, but not many seemed eager to take them up on their offer. I think only Calina’s archers took the blood.”

  “Which means you declined their offer, all three of you,” I reprimanded them. “I thought you smarter than that.”

  The three remained silent, knowing their fault.

  “The soldiers are doing fine other than that,” Calina said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. “They are tired but, nothing else. What's more, they hunger for battle and slaughter. Or a real battle.”

  “Don't we all,” Slayer murmured.

  “But it’s not on us to decide,” Sentinel added. “We’re better off not fighting until we have to. The little food won’t last. I suggest taking these bandits up on their offer. Worst case scenario, we kill all of them and take their food while the—guests feed on their corpses.”

  “Speaking about our guests, what’s up with them?” Sentinel asked.

  “They seem to be doing quite well. What’s more, they have quite a few hotties with them,” Stalker laughed. I sighed at his remark. The man had an insatiable lust for women which would one day be his downfall. Be it Human, Elf, Vampire, or anything in between. The others hated this thing about him, but he had saved our lives quite a couple of times on the battlefield, so it wasn’t like I could do anything about it. As long as he didn’t stir shit, I would let him be.

  “I will talk to them after we’re done here. We need to know how far away the forest is and where the camp is located. Anyone could attack us here without us knowing about their approach. We need to either get to No-man’s land or follow up with our current plan.”

  “Speaking of plan, what are we planning?” Calina asked as she placed a mint leaf on her tongue and let it melt.

  “The plan, for now, is to gather food. We’ll do that over the next two hours. Sentinel, go pick out eight scouting parties, three men each. Send them into all directions and have them ride for an hour. The first scout is to return twenty minutes in, the second forty minutes, and the last a full hour. Give them sand-timers.”

  “Yes, my Lord. We’ll wait here for two hours?”

  “We will. Two hours and ten minutes from now, we’ll be heading out toward the bandit camp.”

  Sentinel got up and ran over to the cavalry, ordering them around. I turned back to the group and grinned.

  “What’s so funny?” Slayer asked, a funny look on his face.

  “Time for our guests to earn their keep.”

  “I still don’t—.”

  “You don’t have to. You’ll see in a bit, Slayer.”

  I set out to find either of the two groups, the Vampires or the Elven sisters. Halfway down the column, I felt a trickle of magic coming from the North. I jumped atop one of the branchless trees and looked out at the general direction of where the magic had come from. It was a majestically tall, ancient thing that was at least thirty feet wide and over two hundred tall if I had to guess. Incredibly thick branches hung from the sides and were covered with brush-like growth.

  I jumped ahead, from tree-top to tree-top until I finally arrived at the base of the trunk and started climbing, using my Vampiric strength to climb the tree quickly. Arriving around three quarters from the top, I saw the sisters sunbathing to my left across a perfectly strong growth. Dozens of branches lay intertwined in between each other and were covered by thick foliage.

  “Can that hold another one up?” I asked, drawing their attention. I was sure they had felt me coming before I even arrived at the base of the tree, but I didn’t care. I could play their game as well. Instead, I felt quite guilty about staring at their perfect bodies which were almost bare naked. Two pieces of cloth were tied around their chests and their hips.

  “Why don’t you try, my Lord,” Helena replied invitingly. I climbed up and felt the branches shift under my full weight. After all, I still wore a full suit of armor.

  “How are you ladies feeling from the march?” I asked, taking the pieces off one by one and placing them where th
ey wouldn’t fall.

  I had become rather interested in the two Elven women, and not just over their looks, though I had to admit as a full-grown man that they were nearly perfect, at least when one looked at them. If the situation had been any different and Alara’s death hadn’t been a couple of weeks old, I’d have tried much harder around them.

  Helena’s blonde hair was slightly longer and wavy, reaching to her waist, while Sylvana’s was slightly shorter and dark brown. What a strange sight when I thought about it. They were either silver or blonde, but never brown.

  I’ve been around quite a few Elves over my lifetime, but these two exuded something that wasn’t ordinary, no, it felt as if they were royalty of sort. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the sisters. The way they held themselves and talked, even moved around was much different than the other two Elves under my employ.

  “We’re just fine as you can see,” Sylvana replied. “All we need is some sunshine and we’ll be good. We can go without food for weeks on time, just living off the sun’s energy. Also, the trees and nature give us nourishment just by being around them.”

  “She’s right,” Helena interrupted. “We recover very quickly this way. Hunger, fatigue, minor wounds, malnourishment; you name it. Of course, we can’t live like this forever, having to eat and drink occasionally, but we get what we need from Mother Nature herself.”

  “I see,” I replied, not sure what to say about that. Sure, Elves came in different packages, but they usually weren’t so self-reliant. Then it crossed my mind. I’d heard about something similar a long time ago that there was a group of them who had undergone some changes and that they could afterward live for weeks without supplies. But those Elves had been changed by Lefrand. Had he done the same thing to these two?

  “You do? What exactly?”

  “Do I even need to say? But let’s not go there right now. I’m still in—mourning.”

  “Yeah, sorry, my bad,” Sylvana whispered. “We’re very open to—things. It’s what he made of us so please don’t mind us being so—you know. You get what you see.”

  “That’s up to you so I won’t bother commenting on that. The one thing that bothers me is what you just said about self-reliance. All we get from nature is strain and constant hunger. It makes us—want to sink our teeth in anything we’re able to. An animal, a Human, an Elf.”

  The sisters looked away as if disgusted. Why not? I was disgusted by what some of my own race had become, indulging themselves in Human blood to the point they lost their minds. However, with the bad came the good. I saved many people from certain death, helped their families, and recruited others who would have died otherwise. Being what I was, gave me the power to protect.

  “How much further do we have to our final destination?” I finally asked after an uncomfortable silence. Sylvana looked over at Helena, also interested to hear what her sister had to say about it. Helena just blushed and turned the other way. She seemed very uncomfortable around me, or maybe it was just the question I asked?

  “I—don’t know. All I’ve heard about it are stories, nothing else. Who is to say that there even is an abandoned Elven spire to begin with?” she almost pleaded.

  My right eyebrow shot up in annoyance. One can’t just propose something of this magnitude where thousands of lives are at stake, and then just say ‘who knows’. Unless we settled down soon somewhere, Lefrand wouldn’t even have to send anyone else after us, we’d do his work for him.

  “You first said city, not spire.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s a city spire,” Helena replied as she looked away.

  “You didn't sound so unsure a week ago, sister,” Sylvana interrupted. “You better give us something palpable or I’ll peel you layer by layer!” she hissed in mock anger.

  “I will peel the both of you!” I snapped. “I have a couple of thousand people depending on me. Letting them down is NOT an option!” The anger in my voice brought the two sisters seemingly back to reality and told them this wasn’t a game; it was all too real.

  Helena sighed and seemed to think for a while. She turned her head to one side, then in each of the directions, as if searching for something.

  “There is a way to try and locate it, but it could also backfire and let everyone else know of our presence. I thought we were trying to avoid that,” Helena said.

  “Elder magic?” I asked in disbelief. I had heard about it before, but to my knowledge, no one in Celonia had witnessed any before and was even less able to use it. Elder magic was basically holy to the Elves, so being able to witness such a thing was truly remarkable. But then there were people like Vampire Lady Sarga. If she were anywhere around, she’d be able to easily find us by pin-pointing such strong magic. That’s not something we needed right now.

  “Yes, Elder magic. Whatever, let's try it, sis,” Helena said, sitting up straight. Sylvana followed her and sat opposite her. It looked kind of awkward since they were sitting atop large branches that felt as if they were about to break. The two women took each-others hands and closed their eyes for a long moment.

  “Hey! Stop it!” I yelled, getting up in their faces. “If you used this right now anyone who can pick up on magic could find us. Use your heads!”

  They stopped and opened their eyes, staring up at me as if I just killed their favorite pet.

  “You’re right,” Helena whispered. “Why do you know about that, by the way?”

  “Because there’s this Vampire Lady who is a—acquaintance of mine. She’s a wicked woman when it comes to magic and fighting, more than capable of holding her own against me.”

  “What then?” Sylvana asked, crossing her arms and legs as she sat there.

  “Now I need to make sure everyone had something to eat before we move out again. I assume you know where we’re heading?”

  The sisters nodded.

  “We heard earlier.”

  “Good. Then you should know that I’m very interested in killing that creature.”

  “For its magical core?” Helena asked, her right eyebrow slightly raised.

  “Among others. The hide is great for making armor, the fangs could be used to create swords or spears out of them, while the horns themselves contain a vast amount of power.”

  “But you’re no magician,” Sylvana stated. That much was obvious, but it wasn’t just about being a magician. One could grind them into dust and absorb their power that way as well.

  “Doesn’t matter. Once it’s dead, we’ll decide on what to do with it. For now, how about we go back to the rest?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  To my surprise, a number of fires were already lit while people busied themselves preparing meat. I frowned, not able to come up with an answer for what I was seeing. First, I imagined that they could have killed a couple of horses and were busy cutting them up, but no, these were small, fat animals. Most likely Tusks as we called them. They could easily weigh a hundred pounds as adults and had long, sharp tusks that could penetrate even decent armor.

  “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I asked as the two strolled to either side of me.

  “If you’re seeing disgusting meat, then yeah,” Helena hissed. “Why can’t you people live off plants?”

  “Because we love our meat, my lady!” one of the butchers laughed. Indeed, they did love their meat. I sighed and let the comment slip. Everyone seemed to be in a much better mood now that there was food to go around.

  “Is this your doing?” I asked the bandit leader or whatever his title was. He nodded with a wide grin on his face. The missing teeth gave him a comical look, but the man didn’t look so bad from up close.

  “She foresaw that you’d need help so we brought some of them with us,” he replied. “The rest were hunted down with the help of your—vampires over there.”

  I turned to have a better look at our new companions and nodded. A large, bulky vampire walked up to meet me. The first impression I had of him was that he looked as if someone had hewn him from a mountai
n. His arms were almost double as thick as mine, shoulders broader, and he was easily a head taller.

  Heavy armor hugged his body tightly, or rather, a heavy breastplate along with wrist guards, pads, and boots. It was barely over half what a set would consist of. His hands were wrapped in metallic claws that extended a foot from the tips of his fingers, long enough to pierce any kind of armor and the body hidden behind it.

  “Can I inquire for your name, Elder Vampire?” I asked, feeling the power behind his presence. He was at least three to four hundred years older than I was, which made him an Elder in my books.

  The Vampire bowed once and replied.

  “The name is Dimas, Lord Raziel. I’m pleased to finally meet you.”

  His voice was strong and low, which rather fit his physique. I had a hunch even before he replied, but I wanted to make sure. There had been only one Vampire Lord ever who specialized with metallic claws as weapons. Still, I couldn’t help but laugh from joy at this fortunate turn of events.

  “Dimas, huh? You’re the same Dimas that took his Coven out of here and decided to live his life away from Lefrand’s court?”

  Dimas smiled, his glistening fangs showing as he nodded.

  “That was a long time ago, Lord Raziel. But if you know who I am, then you should also know that I could be quite an asset to you and your—cause. After all, Lefrand refrained from hunting me because of—a reason. Power.”

  I couldn’t help but smirk in satisfaction. Dimas would be a crazy strong asset if I played him correctly, but what’s more, if I could rely on him and his people. One thing I couldn’t help but notice is how small his Coven was. We would have to do something about it if we got the chance.

  “I do, Dimas. You were an Elder even before I got turned by that bastard, may his soul rot one day. But pray tell me, am I correct in guessing why you were at Newfolk?”

  Now it was Dimas' turn to smirk. It was as if he was waiting for the question all along to be put out in front of him.

  “Yes, you do, Lord Raziel,” he replied, slightly nodding again as a sign of appreciation and respect. “I was trying to devise a plan to get at that wretched creature called Lefrand. A King he may be, but he is no Vampire. He is a leech, an insect that needs to be squashed. I was hoping to enlist someone’s help with this, but now, it seems that the opposite situation is the actual truth of day.”