VII
"Now this is incredibly stupid," Tal grumbled.
"I happen to think it's one of my more brilliant ideas," I responded.
The liquor had finally cleared from my head, and somewhere around halfway through the execution of said brilliant idea I'd realized just how idiotic it really was.
Of course, by that time it had been too late to mention that I was afraid of heights.
We were perched atop the roof of the building in which I kept my lab. It had once been a temple to some false deity, though no one was certain how long ago that was. The true gods had been dead for thousands of years, and no one dared even speak the names of the ones which now ruled the world, much less build temples in their name. The belfry of the old temple had once held a true bell, but it was now gone, leaving only an empty, drafty space where a few dozen bats kept their roost.
It was near midnight now – vampires never showed themselves during the day; like most other horrors, they were powerless in the light of the sun. Now, though, the Deadmoon shone down from the black sky with its bleak white light, rendering everything in shades of gray. A cool breeze rippled across the city, respite from the heat of the day.
It provided an excellent view of most of the city, from the slanted roof of the belfry.
"How are we going to see anything from up here?" Tal asked.
"We are not going to see anything," I answered. "You, on the other hand, are going to watch with your Arbiter's Sight for indications of corruption. Vampires are powered by it, just like any other fel beast or demon. They're not subtle, and when it starts to feed, it should light up like a beacon."
"Then how would Daen have been surprised by it?" he asked.
"If the vampire knew about him prior to his gaining knowledge of its presence, there would have been no contest," I answered. "It would have known not to feed until it had dealt with him, and if your response was any indication, I doubt your friend would have believed anyone who did tell him about it."
The Arbiter tensed, and for a moment I feared that I was about to lose my life, but he huffed out a breath and relaxed again. "You're right. Gaerton never was particularly open-minded. I don't know why he asked me to come here… and I suppose I never will, now."
Silence reigned as he watched the city, and I tried not to shiver myself off the roof as the cool winds continued to blow across the belfry. My robe was designed for the heat of the day, not the chill of the night, and I felt oddly exposed on that roof.
Night brought a different kind of energy to the Old Bitch. I didn't often spend time in the streets after dark, because it brought out the worst kind of folk – thieves, rapers and murderers, assassins and purveyors of the most dangerous mind-altering substances known to man. During the day it was deadly enough, but once the sun set, any pretense of morality faded away into nothing beneath the light of the Deadmoon.
Life in the Old Kingdoms is short and bleak, and the Bitch has a kind of desperate quality underlying all of the depravity. It's as though the citizens want nothing more than to experience all the highs possible in a human life, before it's snuffed out by random murder or one of the many horrors that haunts the night.
Now, as if the mundane corruption in the hearts of men weren't enough, a damned vampire had moved into the city. It was enough to make me want to pick up my lab and travel to somewhere less populated, though business wouldn't be as good.
"There." The single word cut through the night air.
"You see him?"
Tal didn't answer, but slid down the slanted roof and swung himself easily onto the ledge inside the belfry. He immediately began descending the stone stairs while I scrabbled desperately not to lose my balance and plummet to the cobblestones below.
"What kind of idiot climbs a roof at midnight?" I muttered under my breath.
Sorcerer's Code Page 7
