White-faced and paralyzed, Maelyn stared at the bloodless hand.
Charlie recognized that hand and unfortunately the skinny, naked, headless body it was attached to. “Jack?” she said incredulously.
“Here,” he said again, his voice stronger. Coming from a different corner of the room.
A shiver of morbid disgust ran down Charlie’s spine. “You have got to be kidding me. Hang in there, princess. I know this corpse.”
Gwynne refused to come down.
Charlie left them there and set about searching for Jack’s head. It was a good thing squirrels couldn’t throw up.
She found him nestled at the top of a particularly tall pile, the freshest of the lot, as his skin hadn’t decayed at all. When she found him, his eyes were closed, but as she tried to figure out the best way to get to him - preferably without having to climb a heap of rotting skulls - his eyes opened opened. Stubble darkened his chin, and purple rings shadowed his eyes.
Jack smiled wanly, squinting down at her. “Apparently I am harder to kill than even I expected.”
“No kidding,” Charlie said. “Hey, Gwynne,” she called back. “I could use a hand here. You’re taller than me.”
“I do apologize for that,” Jack said, chagrined. “I only meant to protect you, not transform you.”
“Can you fix it?” She would have preferred the peace of mind of knowing that she could be changed back to human permanently.
Gwynne approached warily, eyes glued to the talking head.
“Unfortunately I really don’t know what went wrong,” Jack said. His eyes slowly drifted closed again.
“Jack?” Charlie called. He didn’t respond. “Guess he’s dead again. Gwynne, I know it’s gross, but can you pick him up and carry him to his body?”
“You have the weirdest friends,” Gwynne muttered. With a twisted grimace of absolute disgust, he sank his fingers into Jack’s blond hair and lifted up the head.
Maelyn had planted her back to a support pillar, eyes closed and taking shallow breaths.
“You ok, princess?” Charlie asked. Maelyn nodded curtly.
Charlie directed Gwynne to put the two pieces back together. Gwynne pulled Jack’s cold, dead fingers from Maelyn’s ankle, shuddering at the feel of the squishy gray flesh. He set Jack’s severed neck against the stump on his shoulders.
“Now what?” Gwynne said. Blood and other liquids seeped between the severed pieces.
“Who knows,” Charlie said.
Jack’s eyes flew open. His hands fluttered at his sides, color returning to them. “Ah. That seems to have done it.” He gingerly prodded his neck. A dark, bloody line still marked where the two pieces met. “Thank you for… ah… reuniting me.” His dirty fingers rubbed against his nose, shoving up glasses that were no longer there. “I suppose I must have re-grown a new body, but when they parted me from it again, I did not grow another. I think it likely has to do with proximity.” He carefully sat up, hands bracing his neck.
“Where are your glasses?” Charlie said. “Are they here?”
“I’ve a spare pair in my bag,” Jack said. “Which… seems to be missing.”
“Would you care to find him some clothing?” Maelyn said faintly.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Mordred's Lullaby
With a cautious foray into the nearby rooms, Charlie and Gwynne managed to find clothes for Jack, though they looked and smelled like they belonged to an orc. The pants were nearly long enough, but bagged badly at the waist, and the tunic threatened to fall from his bony shoulders. Maelyn stepped in to the rescue and tied artful knots in the fabric, making them almost a decent fit, if still smelly.
Charlie looked down at her skinny wrist and the gray fur covering it. The contract was written on the skin beneath. They’d found the princess and a piece of the Keystone. That might even be enough to send Charlie home. But.
Find me.
She couldn’t leave.
“Jack,” Charlie said. “We’re gonna need a second set of clothes. I’m going to find Rhys.”
“Rhys? Where is he?” Jack said.
“Who is he?” Gwynne said.
“We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him,” Charlie said. She hesitated. “Vampires came to get him this morning. I don’t know where they took him, but I can use the contract to track him down.”
“He’s fang faced by now,” Gwynne said flatly.
Jack looked grim. “If the contract remains, then he’s still alive. Blood taint can be cleansed within twenty four hours. We will find him.”
***
The second tunic they’d found kept slipping down over one shoulder, and it felt like it was made of hair, but it was better than nothing. She didn’t want to think about the trousers.
While Gwynne scouted the vicinity, Jack had tried to change Charlie back into a human without his books. Nothing worked until she finally gave him her full name. That worked like magic, popping her back into her natural form.
Gwynne popped back into the terradi village, formerly the castle kitchen. Now that Charlie was her normal height, Gwynne wasn’t even as tall as her shoulder and looked all the skinnier and grubbier for it.
Expression blank, Gwynne looked around the chamber. “Where’s Charlie? And who’s she?”
“I’m Charlie,” she said.
“Charlie’s a girl?” Gwynne said indignantly, looking betrayed.
“All my life,” Charlie said.
“Any luck?” Jack interrupted anxiously.
Gwynne shook his head. “No sign of your bag, or anything. No one’s down here at all.”
Charlie took a deep breath. “Right then. My turn.” She looked down at the contract around her wrist. Part of it had faded to a weathered gray, and the rest of it didn’t look as dark. It looked like a tattoo decades old instead of fresh ink. She hoped it would still work.
Her lips started to form Rhys’ real name, but she hesitated. “Hang on,” she said instead, and went out into the other room, which seemed to be mainly a storage area, heaped high with boxes and bags.
Charlie bent her head and lifted her wrist close to her mouth. “William,” she breathed, barely loud enough to be audible. She felt a faint tingling around her wrist.
The contract unwound, and a slim needle of black slithered onto the back of her hand, indicating the direction.
Charlie beckoned the others to follow.
***
Fortunately it seemed that, besides the terradi, the Blood Prince’s army was entirely nocturnal, which meant there weren’t many creatures wandering the castle. It also made for a breathless moment when Gwynne opened the door to a room and found it full of snoring goblins. They’d backed out very quickly and quietly and hurried to find an alternate route.
But now the contract pointed out a window and across the courtyard, where the daylight monsters of the Blood Prince’s army went about their grisly practice drills. On the other side, Charlie could clearly see a familiar figure inside a glass dome on top of the corner tower.
He had been chained to a thick stone post, his arms pulled taut over his head. His skin looked unnaturally white in the sun.
At least he doesn’t sparkle, Charlie’s numb brain observed.
“There’s definitely someone up there,” Gwynne said dubiously.
“It’s Rhys,” Charlie said with certainty.
Hold on, Rhys, she mentally entreated. She didn't know what kind of effect being staked out in sunlight would have, but it had to be bad. He might have gone out in sunlight swathed in a heavy cloak, but out in the direct sun, without even his shirt?
Charlie desperately tried to come up with a way to get across the courtyard and somehow open the doors to the tower. She was coming up blank. She felt oddly off, her mind no longer wanting to focus. Think. Think! They hadn’t come this far to abandon him now.
“Leave him,” Maelyn said shortly. “I must return to Iomara. You have no concept of what the Blood Prince intends.”
“
We’re not leaving him to die.” Charlie ran a hand through her hair. It came away damp with sweat.
Jack’s face fell, but his eyes hardened. “Princess Maelyn, for shame. Rhys is one of our number, and one of your subjects who risked his life and worse for your sake. Stay here if you will. I will go with Charlie to find him, and rescue him if we are able.” Jack threw Charlie a wink. “I’ll show the mercenary that academy mages aren’t so useless.” His worried eyes didn’t mesh with his flippant words.
Scowling, Gwynne crossed his arms. “I better go with you then, to make sure you don’t try something stupid. Like try to rescue a turned vamp.”
“Maelyn’s right though,” Charlie said. “Someone needs to take her to safety.”
Maelyn cast Charlie a blazing glare. “I will not have it said of me that I refused aid to a subject in need. I will go as well.”
“Can you gate over there, Jack?” Charlie asked, at the end of her options.
Jack gave her a painful look. “I can’t gate without my books.”
“Rhys can use magic without all of those books and things. For that matter, Maelyn made a gate out of thin air while falling off the wall.” Charlie knew she sounded belligerent, but she couldn’t think of anything. She felt so helpless seeing him there, out of reach. Charlie scrubbed a hand across her forehead.
Jack turned to Maelyn in surprise. “Truly?”
Maelyn’s mouth tightened. She gave a small nod. “However, I doubt very much that I could duplicate it.”
“You’re missing something, people,” Gwynne said. He sounded about as irritated as Charlie’s skin felt. “He’s been hung out to dry. That’s what they do to vamps that don’t join up.”
“But he hasn’t turned to ash,” Jack said patiently. “Therefore, he isn’t one of them yet. We have time.”
Charlie’s stomach did a slow flip. She didn’t dare correct him, or even Jack might decide to abandon him after all.
Gwynne sighed and went to stand by the window. “Charlie, come over here.”
“What? You have an idea?” Charlie came to stand where Gwynne indicated.
“Turn this way.” Gwynne took her arms and directed her. “Sit.”
She sat on the wide window sill, overlooking the courtyard.
“Here’s my idea,” Gwynne said, and shoved her out the window.
Charlie barely had time to gasp before her back hit tiled roof. She quickly sat up and scrambled to put her back to the sun-warmed outside wall. She sat on a wide, flat roof square just under the window.
In fact, there was an entire span of jumbled roof squares of various heights all along this side of the castle. Roof jumble that also connected with the gatehouse. And the hall behind it. And….
“That’s the way to the tower,” Gwynne said smugly. “No vamps, orcs are too clumsy, goblins hate heights, terradi don’t care. Safest way to get around.”
***
The sun seared him mercilessly everywhere it touched. There was no escape. No shade, no lessening of the relentless rays. He tried to shield his face with his arms, but the manacles did not have enough slack. The more the sun dried him, the stronger the vampire venom in his blood became, setting him on fire from within as well as without.
His heartbeat had turned sluggish. Reluctant. He had to remind himself to breathe. He had to breathe. Otherwise the venom would cause his vitals to cease functioning and trigger a blood frenzy. He would lose control. He would lose himself.
***
Roof climbing turned out to be not as hard as it looked. Most of the roof segments were slanted to some degree, but it didn’t make walking that difficult. The tricky part was staying out of the courtyard’s line of sight, and then jumping the break to the gatehouse roof.
They couldn’t climb directly to the top of the tower, so they had to climb through one of the windows into the castle again. Charlie didn’t breathe easier until they were all safely through.
One obstacle down. Now to get to Rhys.
The four of them climbed back inside and Gwynne once more acted as their scout.
“The tower is guarded,” he reported. “Now will you give up so we can run for it?”
“How many guards?” Charlie said.
Gwynne hesitated. He glanced between them, then with a sigh of resignation, “One terradi.”
One terradi guard. They could handle one guard, couldn’t they?
Charlie definitely felt squeamish about trying to take out the guard with their bare hands. One of them would have to get its weapon away from it to kill it. Charlie shuddered. If it got to its weapon first, it would be a bloodbath.
“We’ll have to jump him at once, and take him down quick,” she said.
“I will stay here,” Maelyn said. “I refuse to be part of this.”
“Probably get in the way, anyway,” Gwynne said. Charlie was inclined to agree.
“No time like the present. Let’s do this.”
“Wait!” Jack said. “Should we not strategize?”
Charlie shrugged. “We’ve already been making it up as we go along. I figure strategy is ye olde sneak attack.”
Jack put on a determined expression. “Right then. Sneak attack it is.” He ripped open the door to the hall and flung himself out. As Charlie scrambled after him, he gave a screeching yell.
So much for the “sneak” part.
Jack charged straight for the terradi guard standing outside a narrow door. The terradi whipped out a greatsword and angled it to let Jack run straight onto it.
So much for the “attack” part.
But then Jack grabbed the crosspiece of the sword and clung to it with a death grip. “Go,” he moaned as he fell to his knees.
An opening! Charlie ran at the terradi, who tried to pull his blade back, but Jack still held it stubbornly as blood soaked into his borrowed clothes.
Key! The terradi had a key around its neck. Charlie grabbed for it and ripped it off the terradi’s neck. Charlie caught a glimpse of yellowed fangs and punched upward with the key in her hand. The terradi jerked his head aside, the keys missing his amber eyes.
Those eyes seemed to fill Charlie’s vision, drowning her in a cold numbness of mind. The eyes of the ultimate predator. Vampire! A terradi vampire. She’d never even thought of it.
The vampire sneered at her and dropped its sword, Jack slumping to the ground. It bared its fangs, swooping toward Charlie’s neck.
Break free. You know how. Charlie felt for the subtle, surreal thread of the vampire’s hold and threw it off. She jammed her hand upward, the key still clenched in her fist. This time the metal punched through the vampire’s flesh with a rubbery resistance. It jerked away from her with a gurgling howl, blood streaming from under its chin.
She jammed the key in the lock and turned it. Charlie swung open the door and flinched at the bright, bright sunlight pouring down on her, stabbing at her dark-adjusted eyes. There was a short, open spiral staircase there, leading up to the light. That would be the way to the dome.
The vampire shrieked when the sunlight fell on it, and kept screaming until the sound turned into a horrible gurgling. Wispy gray smoke curled up from the vampire’s flesh as it writhed in pain. The vampire’s skin seemed to shrink against its bones, drying and cracking until it looked like shattered glass. Watery blood trickled from its eyes as they bleached white. Its lips curled back from its fangs, its gums paling as its blue skin changed to a pale ashen gray.
In a matter of moments the vampire reduced to charred bones and a mush of ashy innards held together by its clothing.
This was what Rhys was going through, only much more slowly.
Shaken, Charlie paused to wrench the greatsword from Jack’s gut, then turned to rush up the spiral staircase.
***
Fearing they were too late, Charlie hurried up the stairs, emerging in the glass dome. The thick smell of smoke clogged her lungs.
Charlie expected to find him sunburned red as a lobster, but he was as pale as ever. Instead
, it looked as if his skin dried and cracked in the sun. No blood, but patches on his shoulders had begun to turn grey. Rhys’ only motion was his bleach white hair. Pain etched every line of Rhys’ body, every muscle taut and straining against the manacles around his wrists. Pale red liquid seeped from around his tightly closed eyes. His split, peeling lips were partly pulled back in an uncharacteristic grimace that revealed his fangs. A glass vial of dark liquid hung around his neck, and Charlie’s pendant still hung from his wrist.
Charlie crept closer, feeling more and more uneasy. “Rhys?” she called softly, fearing the worst.
Rhys’ head jerked up, his eyes flying open. They were crimson. He flinched away from the brightness of the light, squeezing his eyes shut again.
“Told you,” Gwynne said flatly, appearing at the top of the stairs behind her. “He’s a vamp now.”
Charlie recoiled, but kept her voice calm. “Hang on, we’ll get you out of there.”
“Hurry,” he hissed through his teeth.
Right. Charlie had the key to the door; maybe it would work on the manacles too. She set down the greatsword so she could use the key.
As Charlie reached up to test the key in the manacles’ lock, her arm brushed against Rhys’. She jerked back. His skin felt like sun-heated metal instead of flesh.
The key fit into the lock, but wouldn’t turn. Blast.
Charlie covered her face. It was getting harder to think straight. No one else was helping. She had to figure this out!
“I don’t suppose you can pick locks,” Charlie said to Gwynne.
Gwynne’s face went slack in surprise. “Me? You think I’d have been stuck in that cell if I could pick locks?”
Right. Another dumb question.
“Here, give me those keys from the dungeon.” Maybe one of them would work. Or maybe she could break the lock open. Or something. But she needed to try.
“I don’t have them.”
Blast! That was right; he threw them into one of the cells.
But she had the terradi’s sword. It didn’t matter if the manacles were around his wrist if the chain was cut apart.
Charlie dropped the key and picked up the greatsword again. It was heavy and sharp. Please let that be enough.
Keystone (Gatewalkers) Page 23
