by Eva Brandt
“Besides,” Adrian added, “there is no reason to feel guilty. I don’t think this is your fault.”
Wait, what? Was he serious?
“Are you serious?” the green-winged woman screeched as if echoing my thoughts. “And you expect me to just—”
Adrian shot her a look so cold that she didn’t manage to finish the sentence. “I don’t expect you to do anything except stay out of the way,” he said. “You aren’t necessary for Queen Eiar’s well-being.”
I didn’t understand anything anymore. What could he see that I couldn’t? If I was presumably not the culprit behind Eranthe’s affliction, who was?
The answer to my question came far more quickly than I had expected. “I’m impressed,” an unfamiliar voice said from behind us. “I didn’t think you would realize it so quickly. And here I thought it would take you a little longer. How unfortunate.”
We all turned, only to see a bearded man wearing a circlet made out of vines appear right in front of us. His eyes shone so green that the light seemed to surround him like a halo. Wherever he stepped, white lilies started to appear from the grass.
At this point, we’d all become accustomed to unexpected appearances, so much so that the new arrival’s dramatic entrance didn’t startle us. It did, however, make us wary.
The winged woman didn’t feel the same. “Your Majesty! Thank you for coming so quickly. Please, won’t you help Queen Eiar? She appears to have been stricken by a strange ailment. I blame these undead intruders.”
The new arrival arched a brow at her. “April, I appreciate your confidence in me, but I don’t see why I would want to do that. I’m the one who induced the ailment, to begin with.”
Fury rose up inside me, the beast regaining its strength now that it had a potential target to maul. “Whatever you’ve done, you will break your enchantment now,” I hissed.
He chuckled. “Now why would I do that, little snake? I want nothing more than for my dearest Eranthe to be happy. And she isn’t, not as the queen of The Realm of Eternal Youth.”
He sounded like he meant it, but I didn’t believe him for a second. Neither did Cezar. “If that’s what you really want, then you will let her go and allow her to find her own happiness. Nobody can ever be happy unless—”
“Unless they’re free?” The man rolled his eyes, finishing the sentence in Cezar’s stead. “Come now, young Cezar. You know better than to say such foolish things. Nobody in the mortal world is ever truly free. The word freedom was created by the gods, to describe a state only the gods can reach.
“You’re not wrong, though. Dearest Eranthe does need freedom. Which is why I was forced to intervene, you see.” He winked. “I’ve been trying for a while, but she’s very stubborn. She takes after her mother. The three of you provided me with the perfect distraction. Thank you for that. It would have probably taken me much longer to accomplish my goal if not for your timely arrival.”
I remembered what Selene had told us, her cryptic words, and her suggestion to go after Eranthe. Even leaving aside that piece of advice—which we should have probably listened to—she had also mentioned that one of the causes for Eranthe’s situation was the influence of ‘certain past kings.’
As far as I knew, King Jarylo, the former sovereign of Tis Ánoixis, had died in the Chronikos Inter-Realm War. However, that wasn’t always relevant for gods, and Snegurka had apparently returned as well. Nature deities were particularly good at recovering from wounds, and Jarylo would have probably not been an exception.
“You’re King Jarylo, aren’t you?” I asked the man. “Are you here to reclaim your throne?” Were other deities taking Snegurka’s example? The thought was not encouraging.
He laughed and shook his head. “Of course not. Jarylo is a boy who couldn’t even face Snegurka, let alone my dearest Eranthe. I am King Fufluns.”
King Fufluns? That was very strange. Fufluns had led The Realm of Eternal Bounties before Eranthe’s sister, Queen Phthinoporon, had become queen. What was he doing here?
The answer Fufluns provided was far more horrifying than I’d expected. “I don’t want any throne,” he explained, smiling down at Eranthe’s unconscious body. “I merely desire some company, and I believe my dearest Eranthe and I understand one another. I’m sure she will make a wonderful bride.”
“B-Bride?” the winged woman now identified as April stammered. “But... Your Majesty, she’s not... She’s much too...”
She trailed off and her breath caught, her eyes widening as she seemed to have some kind of realization. When she spoke again, her voice was tight and cold. “Your Majesty, what did you do?”
“Nothing you need to worry about, my dear April. Simply claiming what was mine. I couldn’t let Hades have all the fun, and dearest Eranthe is a nymph. She was made to be claimed.”
The implications of the comment made me want to rip his throat out with my fangs. Maybe I would have tried to do exactly that had I not caught sight of Cezar shaking his head at me.
As much as I hated to admit it, he was probably right. Fufluns was a god, and one with an affinity toward the underworld at that. Even under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t have been a match for him. With us in our spiritual forms, all he had to do was flick his fingers and we’d be propelled back into our bodies. We must’ve only been able to pass the barrier he’d put up because he had let us.
Vampires didn’t particularly care for deities, but we were also not fools. The outcome of a potential attack on Fufluns wasn’t difficult to grasp. We could not save Eranthe, not right now. However, we could make sure we had a way to save her later.
April might not have intended it, but she was doing a good job at distracting the god. “How could you do this?” she asked, tears flowing down her cheeks. “King Jarylo always believed in you. He always looked up to you. Before he died in battle, he told us we could rely on you should something go wrong. We...”
I tuned her out, not particularly caring about her feelings. As discreetly as I could, I got closer to Eranthe, with my friends clustering around me.
If Fufluns noticed this, he didn’t show it. He kept having an argument with April about... something. I focused on Adrian, who was already extending his power toward the unconscious Eranthe.
As my astral self connected to Adrian’s even deeper, I finally realized the reasons behind his earlier comment. Eranthe’s spirit was chained in a way a vampire could never manage. Her magic was suffering as a consequence of the attack on her soul, not the other way around, as I had believed.
The knowledge that I could not fix this burned me more brightly than the sun ever had. But my dual nature came in handy even when it did not save me from sleep enchantments. As painful as it would be, I knew what I had to do.
The lamia didn’t go quietly, not at first. It hissed in protest, still craving the blood of its foe. I forced it to submit, and its efforts to fight me stopped once it acknowledged the fact that it could not help Eranthe. As the beast faded to the back of my mind, my emotions became muted, and practicality took over.
My mind was suddenly an ocean of calm. My previous turmoil vanished. Wherever Adrian went, I followed.
Granted, it would have probably been tougher had we been forced to complete a difficult task. However, we didn’t try to break Eranthe out of her chains. Instead, we planted a small anchor in Eranthe’s soul and body, using the bond created by the blood share as our starting point.
I could understand the logic. That connection was temporary, and there was no telling how long it would take us to find Eranthe again. Eranthe’s blood would soon be assimilated by mine, at which point, we would not be able to use any blood ritual to track her down. In theory, I could stop that if I went into hibernation, but that would mean I’d have to leave my friends alone in their quest, which just wasn’t an option. Hopefully, this workaround would help.
In any case, it was too late to change anything or come up with another plan. Adrian jerked us all away from Eranthe, and I re
covered just in time to watch Fufluns push past a now kneeling April.
He gave us a pitying look and said, “You can’t wake her. It was a good attempt, but the happiness of someone like Eranthe doesn’t lie in this realm, or with you.”
The dismissive presumptuousness of his words make my hackles rise and my beast break free of its fragile leash. “You know nothing of true happiness, Fufluns,” I snarled, shooting to my feet and lunging at him.
It was a mistake, and I knew it even before the surge of power struck me in the chest. Despite the fact that I didn’t have a body capable of experiencing pain, my mind still started screaming in protest and my currently non-existent nerve-endings felt like they were on fire.
For a few seconds, I lost all semblance of coherent thought. The only thing I remained aware of was the real possibility that my true sense of self, my consciousness and essence would drift away into nothing.
An ethereal hand pulled me out of the abyss where I had fallen, and I came to, flailing as I tried to put myself back together. Adrian, Baltasar, and surprisingly, April were there to steady me.
Eranthe was not.
In fact, Eranthe was nowhere to be seen. That was the first thing I noticed when my head completely cleared and I could once again take in my current environment properly.
“W-Where... What happened? Where is Eranthe?”
“Gone,” Adrian answered tightly. “Fufluns took her.”
I had already known it was going to happen, but I still felt his words like a punch in the gut. I clenched my hands into fists, feeling helpless, stupid, and more useless than a pure-blooded vampire who tried to go vegan.
Silence fell over our small group as we processed the enormity of what had just occurred. April was the one to break it. “I hope you have an idea, undead, because I’m all out.”
As I took in her demeanor, I realized the accidental distraction she had provided hadn’t been so accidental. That was good news. The bad news? We were pretty much in the same situation as April.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out where Fufluns had taken Eranthe. He had practically told us himself when he had mentioned Hades.
But if there was one place vampires could not go, it was the underworld. Setting foot in such a place would damn us for all eternity.
We had planted the locator enchantment on her, but actually finding a way to get there would be a little tougher.
“We might not know what to do,” Cezar replied, “but there is someone who I think can help us. We’re going to have to work together on this one if we want to get Eranthe back.”
April did not hesitate. “You have a deal, undead. Now, tell me about this plan of yours.”
* * *
Cezar
Later, The Palace of Eternal Blooms
“Surely, you must be jesting. Veggie? What could Veggie know that we don’t?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glowered at Eranthe’s subordinates. As soon as we—me, my fellow vampires and March—had returned to The Gardens of Edenia, everyone in Eranthe’s inner circle had gathered in her throne room to deal with the crisis that had struck Tis Ánoixis. However, most of her assistants were reluctant to trust my admittedly unorthodox idea. “Well, if you have another suggestion,” I said, “I’m all ears.”
Predictably, April subsided into silence at my retort. The Green Man rumbled something I could not understand. May stared out into the distance, apparently not paying attention at all.
“He could be right,” March said. “I thought it was unlikely too, at first, but Veggie did arrive at the palace without my assistance. He might have come into contact with K... with Fufluns. And really, what do we have to lose if we try?”
Eranthe’s subordinates all shared a look at her reasonable words. “I can see your point,” May said slowly, “but the only person who can get inside Veggie’s section of The Eternal Orchards is Queen Eiar. The entrance is sealed. You know that, March.”
“We might still be able to avoid that issue,” I reasoned, “at least right now. Queen Eiar allowed Baltasar to feed on her. That comes with some... advantages.”
All eyes turned toward my friend, and the hostility in the room increased tenfold. Baltasar took it in stride. “I cannot say for sure if it’ll work or not, and I certainly cannot do the type of magic she can. But with some aid, I might be able to open the gateway, provided that the enchantment protecting the lamb’s planting plot works as we think it does.”
“I understand the idea, but I’m still not terribly convinced it will be of any use to us,” April said. “Why do you think this is so important?”
“Earlier, when he burst into Baltasar’s room, the lamb said something. He said, ‘The Vegetable Lamb will lead you all to Tartarus.’ I didn’t make much of it at the time. I thought it was connected to his official name. But now, I believe he might have been trying to tell us something.”
The phrasing had just been too strange, and so had his behavior from later. Maybe I was seeing things, but I had a gut feeling that it was important.
“It doesn’t matter,” The Green Man suddenly said. “Perhaps Veggie cannot help us, but having a debate about it is a waste of time. If the idea doesn’t work, we’ll find a different solution. We will attempt this option, get it out of the way, and come up with an alternative later.”
May and April proved to be more cooperative after The Green Man’s decision. Within only a couple of minutes, we had returned to the orchards we’d left less than an hour before. Once there, we stumbled into an obstacle greater than we had expected.
We could not find The Vegetable Lamb’s planting plot at all.
“This is just like being in that labyrinth of flowers,” Baltasar exclaimed as we stumbled past the same apple tree for the fifth time. “I thought this place didn’t have such an enchantment on it.”
“It’s not supposed to,” May replied. To my surprise, she looked a little excited. “But everything in Tis Ánoixis responds to whoever commands the magic of spring. Right now, considering the fact that Queen Eiar is missing, that person is probably Fufluns. And if he is bothering to keep us away from the lamb, there must indeed be some answers there.”
That made sense, although it also concerned me, in that it pointed out just how difficult it would be to find Eranthe. If things were so troublesome here, when we were still theoretically on our home turf, how much harder would they be when we actually reached the underworld?
“Is it not possible for you to fly and lead us there?” I asked.
March shot us a baleful look. “Do you really think we’d be wandering around aimlessly if we had a better option?”
I thought that was a real possibility, but fortunately, The Green Man prevented me from pointing that out. “There,” he said. I believe I’ve spotted something.”
He had. The hidden archway that discreetly marked the covered entrance to the lair of The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary lay just ten feet away from us, give or take. We might have already passed it by several times during our confusing quest. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I learned that was the case.
The delay was irritating but in the big picture, had no real effect on our plan. In fact, it was almost too easy. Baltasar had yet to assimilate all of Eranthe’s blood, and as soon as he walked up to the entrance, the greenery parted, revealing the path hiding beyond it.
After all the trouble we’d had finding this place, I felt wary of trusting our sudden bout of good fortune. Even so, I didn’t falter. I still believed the Lamb could give us answers, and because of that, not going inside was not an option.
The three of us took the lead and passed the entrance together. That proved to be a good thing because as soon as we were inside the planting plot, the wall of greenery slid back into its spot.
Like one being, we turned toward the barrier now standing between us and the others. “That’s... unfortunate,” Adrian said slowly.
It really was, but I didn’t let it get to me. “We’ll find a
way out. Let’s see if the lamb can help us with Eranthe first.”
I really should have known better than to think anything in my life would be easy. As soon as we tracked down the peculiar beast, the next problem popped up, this time apparently insurmountable.
The Vegetable Lamb had been planted. He remained sleeping, and his slumber was deeper than even vampiric hibernation. The surface of his body had changed to the point where I couldn’t see his eyes anymore, and everything that had identified him as an animal was now completely covered with vegetation.
I poked one of Veggie’s leaves but received no response. It felt like I was touching a plant, not an animal. Fuck. I’d been so sure this would help us. “Now what? Any thoughts?”
Adrian eyed the zoophyte carefully, squinting as he tried to find an answer to my question. Baltasar was faster. “The roses,” he blurted out. “There’s something about the roses.”
A memory flashed through my mind, that of the crimson flowers first blooming when Eranthe had touched the newly-planted lamb. Of course. Of course it was the roses.
“For whatever reason, he couldn’t tell us what is going on,” I said, “but this is his way of helping us. The roses must still hold Eranthe’s essence.”
My guess was proven correct the moment I brushed my fingers over the blooms. I could still sense Eranthe’s vibrant magic in the soft petals and in the mild tingle the nectar left behind when it made contact with my body.
“We’re taking the flowers with us,” I declared.
My friends agreed, and together, we began picking the roses. I didn’t enjoy the task. It didn’t feel like cutting a plant at all, but rather, like slowly and methodically dismembering someone. It didn’t change anything. I didn’t normally have any qualms with tearing people apart limb from limb, and doing it to a fluffy green zoophyte was no different.
Baltasar and Adrian helped, and one by one, the roses came off. The stems bled green all over our hands, and while it wasn’t actually human blood, it still preserved similar qualities, enough at least to stir our thirst.
