Good Blood

by Billy Ketch Allen

  “This wasn’t so hard,” Taro Kine said as they stalked through the streets unhindered.

  “There is little security here because no one would be foolish enough to attempt to break in,” Geyer said.

  “Then they don’t know us,” Taro Kine smiled.

  Cambria couldn’t believe how the Descendant rebel could be in such good spirits at a time like this. They had gotten into the Temple marketplace, but that was easy, it was open to every visitor in Terene. Getting into the Temple itself and, more specifically the dungeon level, was a whole other matter. As was getting out with their lives. Their chances rested on Spade’s knowledge of the Temple’s interior. The night before they had gone over a map of the Temple that marked nearly every room and floor, including a secret opening left from the time of the Royals. Acquiring the information had cost the rebellion dearly, Spade explained. And she was happy to finally be putting it to use. For getting in through the main sanctuary entrance would have been impossible.

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t be doing this at night?” Edwar Kel asked, looking around wearily at the Temple guards patrolling the entrance to the sanctuary.

  “The Temple is shut down at night; we’d be spotted,” Spade said. “During the day, the market is open, and worshipers from all over come to the sanctuary to pray.”

  “I still don’t like doing this in broad daylight,” Edwar Kel grumbled.

  Taro Kine put his arm around the man’s shoulder. “If I had a face like yours, I’d prefer working at night too.”

  Spade led the group through a sliver of an alley past small unmarked shops to the back side of the Temple. Unlike the polished white stone in the front, this side was overlooked. Vines vines hung down its chipped and dusty walls. When it was clear no one was watching them, Spade pulled out the map from her cloak.

  “Should be up ahead, here,” she said.

  “Why is there a secret passage into the Temple?” Cambria asked. Enormous as the complex was, it seemed unbelievable that the Temple guard would have overlooked this flaw after so many centuries.

  “Our information says it was put here at the time of the Blood Wars by Royals escaping the siege.”

  “Hopefully, it works out better for us than it did for them,” Mace Ren said, glancing back down the alley.

  Spade ran her hand along the vines, searching for the point of the passageway. Cambria glanced down the alley, praying not to see a Temple guard. Standing in the shadow of the Temple, it finally hit her what they were up against. How did she ever think this was a good idea?

  “It’s not here,” Spade whispered.

  “Are you sure?” Solvan Ra asked. “Look again.”

  Spade pulled back the vines, revealing the shape of a doorway sealed with mortar.

  “Fates,” Geyer cursed.

  “Now what?” Edwar Kel asked.

  Spade looked down at her map once more. “There’s only one other option.”

  “Retreat and live out our days fat and happy?” Mace Ren offered.

  “Through the sanctuary.”

  “I don’t suppose your map shows a secret passageway in the sanctuary that takes us straight to the dungeon, avoiding the hundreds of Temple guards?”

  Spade folded the map and crumpled it into her cloak pocket.

  “Well, as long as we’re going in through the sanctuary,” Mace Ren said. “We might as well offer up some prayers.”

  The group came out of the alleyway and crossed the market. More vendor carts were set up, and the first visitors to the market were perusing their goods. The doors to the sanctuary were open with two guards standing on either side of the entrance. Cambria and her companions huddled behind the cover of a shop across the street, waiting for a plan to come.

  “We charge in,” Taro Kine said. “We move fast and surprise them, cutting our way in before anyone can sound an alarm.”

  “I’d give that about five minutes,” Geyer said.

  “Then what’s your plan, dry blood?” Taro Kine said. “You want to run away too?”

  “No, I just want to be realistic about our chances. Thinking we’re going to fight our way through the front door without raising an alarm is idiotic. I’d rather be prepared for what will happen.”

  “And what is that?”

  “As soon as we draw a blade within the Faith’s sanctuary, a hundred Temple guards will be upon us.”

  “What are we going to do, sweet talk our way in?” Mace Ren asked.

  This is getting nowhere, Cambria thought. It was her fault they were here. She brought them all into this dangerous mess to rescue Ara, even though she didn’t have a plan or even a sword to fight with. Now it was up to her to figure out how to do it.

  “I’ll go,” Cambria said.

  The arguing stopped. Everyone turned to Cambria.

  “You’ll go and do what?” Mace Ren asked.

  “Check out the Temple, see exactly what we’re up against.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” Geyer said.

  “We’re not going to get anywhere standing here arguing,” Cambria said. “And I’ll have a better chance at going unnoticed than you.”

  “She’s right,” Spade said. “The guards wouldn’t think twice about letting her in, a poor peasant girl coming to pray.”

  The group looked from Spade down to Cambria. It was the best idea they had. Even Geyer couldn’t argue.

  The old knight sighed and narrowed his eyes at Cambria. “Okay. But you’re just going to look around. Don’t do anything risky.”

  “I wasn’t asking for permission,” Cambria said. She pulled her hood back off her head and repositioned her pack higher on her shoulder. Then, she crossed the street towards the Temple entrance.

  Cambria held her breath and kept her eyes down as she climbed the steps past the guards. She waited for a shout, for a hand to seize her, but no one stopped her. She crossed through the doorway into the inner sanctuary. Cambria exhaled and looked up at the Temple’s enormous interior: vaulted ceiling, ornate stone pillars, and colorful stained glass windows that depicted people on their knees in prayer as blood flowed down to them from the clouds. There were already a few worshipers in the pews with their heads bowed. More Temple guards stood at the back of the room, blocking the door that led to the rest of the Temple.

  In the entryway beside Cambria, stood a wide basin on a stone stand. It was filled with a red liquid. A worshiper came up the steps behind Cambria and she stepped back to let the person pass. The old woman picked up a goblet off the stone stand and dipped it into the red liquid. She took a sip and then bowed and went into the sanctuary to take her seat at a pew.

  Blood wine, Cambria thought. Part of the Faith’s religious practice. These people who come to worship don’t even consider that there’s a life on the other end of this tradition. A Descendant who’s cut and drained of blood in order to create their sacrament. Cambria entered without touching the blood wine.

  She shuffled to a nearby pew and kept her head down. The fifteen or so worshipers didn’t notice her, lost in their own prayers. Cambria glanced at the back of the room, to the guards stationed there. Ara was behind that door. But how are we going to get through there? And once we do, how are we going to find him?

  Cambria fidgeted in her seat, thinking. It was hopeless; she was a doctor, not a warrior. What was she going to do, fight through the Temple guards with bandages and rash remedies?

  More people streamed into the Sanctuary, each one stopped to drink the blood wine. Using the same cup. That can’t be sanitary…

  Cambria sat up straight. It was a crazy idea but it just might give them the cover they needed. She slipped off her pack and set it on the floor beneath her. She quietly opened the pack and searched around in her supplies then pulled out the jar of elderweed cream. How many times had she warned her patients—just as her mother had warned her—about the dangers of ingesting elderweed? Cambria hoped the warnings had been warranted.

  When the coast was clear, Cambria crossed bac
k to the Sanctuary entrance. She stopped and emptied the entire jar of elderweed cream into the basin of blood wine. The yellow cream disappeared into the dark red liquid. Cambria picked up the goblet and dipped it into the wine, mixing the clump of cream around. Desecrating blood wine in the Faith’s sanctuary, what was she thinking? If she was caught…

  Cambria returned the goblet to the stand and hurried down the steps, away from the sanctuary—likely cursed for all eternity.

  “What did you see in there?” Spade asked when she rounded the corner out of breath.

  “Two more guards inside the Temple, guarding the inner door. There are about fifteen worshipers right now with more arriving every minute.”

  “So much for sneaking in unnoticed,” Mace Ren said.

  “We can do it,” Cambria said. “In a few minutes, everyone inside is going to be distracted.”

  “What? Why?”

  Cambria looked to the entrance where more people filed up the sanctuary stairs.

  “Follow me,” Cambria said. “And whatever you do, don’t drink the blood wine.”

  Twenty minutes later the group was seated in the back row of the sanctuary, growing restless. The pews were now filled with about fifty people come to worship or offer prayers; each one of them had drunk from the blood wine basin. Cambria began to worry her mother’s warnings about the side effects of ingesting elderweed were incorrect. Her companions fidgeted nervously as they tried to keep their scarred faces hidden. They were doing quite well considering they were Descendant rebels in the house of the Faith with two Temple guards not twenty feet behind them.

  Cambria scanned the sanctuary. It’s not working. She sighed. If they were going to act, they’d have to do it soon. They were lucky to slip past the distracted front guards with their weapons hidden under their cloaks. And the sanctuary crowd only continued to grow, filling in beside them. Someone was bound to notice them. In the pew behind her, Taro Kine and Spade were whispering about rushing the guards. If they did that, all hopes of going in unseen were off. They were all going to die because her stupid plan didn’t work.

  “Look,” Geyer whispered.

  In the front of the sanctuary, a man stood up holding his stomach and shaking his head. He seized over, his face red, then he sprinted for the door. More people began to shift uneasily in their seats. Someone groaned. Two more headed for the exit. Five rows ahead of them a woman stood up and raced for the door, but she didn’t make it. She vomited on the floor. Then the place erupted. People heaved in their seats. The sound of flatulence and retching filled the holy sanctuary as people scrambled over each other for the exits, climbing over pews and slipping in the vomit and excrement that was spreading across the marble floors.

  Beside her, Cambria’s companions grimaced in disgust; Solvan Ra looked ready to be sick himself. Behind them, the door guards raced forward to control the pandemonium. They cursed at the smell and barked orders under covered noses. They slid around, pulling people off the sanctuary floor, their once white uniforms stained brown.

  Geyer turned to Cambria, horrified. She shrugged. Her mother had been right, after all.

  “Now,” Spade whispered. The seven companions hurried to the back of the sanctuary and slipped through the unguarded doors. A long hallway stretched ahead. They stepped over white stone decorated with intricate patterns. Above them, the vaulted ceilings were so high Cambria couldn’t have touched them if she threw her shoe. They had made it into the inner Temple of the Faith.

  Cambria’s moment of triumph vanished an instant later when four Temple guards came around a corner ahead. The armored men stopped fifty yards ahead, gazing at the cloaked intruders.

  Geyer pulled his hood back, revealing a head of wild hair and a white-blond beard. “Alright,” he said, drawing his long sword. “The easy part’s over.”

  Aeilus Haemon woke early and climbed out of bed without his normal dose of blood. Anticipation gave his old body new life. Today would mark the crowning achievement of his reign as Highfather of Terene. With the boy’s pure blood under his control, they would no longer depend on the weak Descendant offerings. And Vorrel’s dark blood would eradicate the Descendants’ threat to mankind while gaining a powerful, obedient workforce. Today, the Faith would usher in a new era of peace.

  Haemon donned his ceremonial garb of white robes and his red miter, checking his reflection in the mirror. When had he gotten so old? It seemed not so long ago he had been a young Father of the Faith, working his way up to the council to make a real difference in the world. And now here he was. He stood proud; each and every line in his face had been earned.

  Guards waited outside his door.

  “Have the Fathers been gathered?” Haemon asked.

  “Yes, Highfather,” a guard said with a bow. “They await your presence in the inner sanctuary.”

  “Good.” Haemon smiled. Let them wait. He waved a hand dismissing the guard. “Get the boy. See that he’s ready.”

  The guard nodded and marched down the hall. Haemon crossed the other way to the inner sanctuary. Walking was slow and painful, but that would soon end. In a few minutes, he would feel the boy’s pure blood pumping through him.

  Guards pushed open the heavy doors to the inner sanctuary. Early morning light trickled in through the golden dome above like a heavenly smile. Guards lined the walls of the circular room, while the council members waited in the pews. All but Father Turney, of course.

  Haemon walked past the row of pews to the center of the sanctuary. The Curors had already set up a table on the stage. Vorrel’s tools for the blood draw and one bottle of dark blood laid open for all to see its shadowy contents. There would be no more hiding their work from the Fathers. Hemo had bestowed his blessing; their acts were justified.

  “Fathers of the Faith,” Haemon called. “Thank you for accepting my invitation to witness this historical moment.”

  “Invitation?” Father Kent scoffed. “We were pulled from our beds by our own guards.”

  “I apologize for any inconvenience, Father Kent. But the matter could not wait.” Frightened children. Burying their heads in tradition, afraid of the slightest change. Couldn’t they see their current lifestyle was unsustainable? He would show them, make them understand. And if any still refused to see the light…

  The Highfather stood upright, addressing the scattered council members.

  “For centuries now, people have turned from the Faith, belief in Hemo has fallen. And not just in the outer regions of Terene—the northern hills and the wastelands to the south—but in the Temple city. People whisper blasphemy, claiming Hemo has abandoned his people. And they turn to wickedness.”

  The Fathers returned his speech with tired looks. They’d heard his lectures before, but this time wasn’t just talk and prayers. This time he had the answer.

  “But today, Fathers, our faith is vindicated. I give you proof that Lord Hemo’s blessings have returned.”

  The Fathers sat up, leaning forward in the pews. Haemon beamed. Then, he raised his hand in a dramatic sweep.

  “Bring in the boy!”

  With a final groan, the last Temple guard slid down Taro Kine’s swords to the floor. The third level hallway was now clear. Cambria winced at another stack of dead bodies—deaths she had caused by bringing the rebels here.

  “You really need two swords?” Geyer asked as they dragged the guards’ bodies from the hallway into an open room. Cambria dropped to her knees and scrubbed blood from the floor with a torn piece of a guard’s shirt.

  “I am twice as good as you, old man,” Taro Kine said, spinning his two blades in his hands.

  Geyer shook his head. “Show off.”

  Spade pulled the map from her pocket and studied as she walked. “The dungeon is through there.” Spade pointed to a doorway. They pulled it open, revealing a long stairway descending into darkness.

  “Great,” Geyer grumbled. “More stairs.”

  “Hurry, we don’t have long before someone finds the bodies.�
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  Racing down the stairs, Cambria couldn’t help but be impressed at the Descendant rebels’ skills. Geyer, she had seen in action, but the others had dispatched the guards they met in quick aggressive fashion, moving faster than seemed possible. If they were a hundred instead of seven, perhaps they’d stand a chance.

  “Does your map show another exit?” Geyer called from behind as he limped his way down the stairs. “We’re going to have an army waiting for us if we have to go back through the front door.”

  “One worry at a time,” Taro Kine said. “You didn’t think we’d get this far.”

  “Our luck will run out eventually,” Geyer said. “Then we’ll see if you’re still smiling.”

  “I feel much safer having you with us, Geyer. When the guards come, we all have someone we can outrun.”

  The light grew dark as they moved down the windowless stairway. They stopped at the bottom, met by a steel door. Mace Ren tried the handle. It was locked.

  “Check the bodies at the top of the stairs,” Spade said to Solvan Ra. “One of them must have a key.”

  The Descendant rebel raced up the stairs just as Geyer reached the bottom, out of breath. Taro Kine punched three hard knocks on the steel door. The sound echoed through the stairwell like a warning bell to the entire Temple. Everyone waited as the ringing metal faded to silence.

  “It was worth a try,” Taro Kine shrugged.

  “Cambria,” Geyer said, coming beside her. “Once the fighting starts, I want you to run. Take Ara if you can, but don’t wait for us and don’t try to fight. Just run.”

  Cambria wanted to say she wouldn’t leave them but she knew she would be of little use in a fight. And she was scared. She hated to admit it to herself, but she was scared.

  “Cambria,” Geyer said.

  Cambria squeezed her hands to stop them from shaking. “I will.”

  “Good girl.”

  Geyer raised his sword at the sound of hurried footsteps. It was only Solvan Ra. “Got ‘em,” he said, holding up a large ring of keys.

  On the third key, the steel door unlocked and they pushed their way into the Temple dungeon. Cambria could hardly see in the darkness, but was immediately hit by the smell of feces and rotting flesh. How could anyone survive down here?