by Sarah Noffke
Come on, I need to get into the sky, he urged silently.
The dragon lifted gracefully to a standing position and ran several feet before leaping into the air, flapping its large wings.
Seriously, I steer you with my mind? That’s so bizarre, Monet thought. But a moment later, when his desire to turn for the northern border was merely an impulse, the dragon swiveled in that direction and then dove low.
Monet saw the reason for the sudden change in elevation. The fucking colony of bats had split into two groups and were headed right for them, flanking them. Without any magic at his disposal, he didn’t see a way to fight the deadly creatures. They’d absorb his magic immediately, and he’d become a founder vampire.
On the ground, witches and wizards were defending themselves from the onslaught of vampires who had trespassed the borders. Stunning spells shot through the air all over Virgo, leaving behind green smoke.
I need to defend myself against the vampire bats and stop them before they go after anyone on the ground, Monet thought.
The dragon rolled forward, flipping around. Monet held tight to the reins, but the front flip was fast enough that he wasn’t in danger of coming off his mount. They were flying straight toward the split colony of bats.
Monet felt a great burning sensation beneath him, right before the dragon released a jet of fire directly at the bats. They dispersed, many of them dropping to the ground, completely fried.
Good job, Billy-the-Dragon, Monet sang triumphantly in his mind.
Timber, the dragon corrected. You can call me ‘Timber’.
~~~
Azure guided Micky to the west, where a throng of vampires was charging, about to cross over into Virgo.
Unlike the others, she could use magic, since the bats couldn’t change her. She shot a protective spell at the border of Virgo. Micky tilted to the side, giving Azure a clearer path. She urged the spell to spread, tracing an invisible line around the kingdom, creating a barrier. One that was hopefully impenetrable to the vampires.
When the first set of vampires charged for the border, they fell back, unable to step across the threshold. The hungry beasts growled, biting at the air, like trying to fight invisible prey.
Two vampires that Azure recognized stepped out of the line of trees in the distance; they were the most beautiful people she had ever seen. Cordelia, the woman in the silky red dress, looked both soft and monstrous, with her porcelain skin and glowing eyes. Hamilton stood beside Cordelia, wearing a roguish glare that complemented his clean-cut suit.
“Follow the line of the border!” Cordelia yelled from the ground. “The security spell hasn’t traced around the whole kingdom—find a way through!”
Azure’s heart skipped as the vampires took off, moving faster than any witch or wizard could. She urged the protective spell to spread faster, throwing all of her energy into it.
You’ll deplete your reserves, Micky warned.
I have to. What does it matter if I have an ounce of energy left, if vampires tear Virgo apart? Azure argued.
It will matter if they take you.
Azure gripped the reins tighter, suddenly lightheaded. She tilted to the side, her balance momentarily lost.
Micky, sensing the shift, tipped to that side, catching her.
We need to keep those vampires from getting into Virgo, Azure urged weakly.
Micky didn’t spring after the vampires, as Azure expected. Instead, she hovered in place, flapping her wings.
Micky! The vampires! Azure yelled in her mind.
The true threat to you is right here, Micky countered.
The two founder vampires peered up at Azure, strangely brazen in the way they regarded her from the ground.
Okay, well, then take them out. Or send them back to the depths of hell where they belong.
Azure felt heat boil under her, and Micky let out a loud roar followed by a stream of fire. Hamilton and Cordelia shot up and disappeared, springing into the air in bat form. They darted in different directions.
Oh no! Azure thought, spinning around, trying to find the tiny bats in the open space.
Bats couldn’t turn her while she wore the protective amulet; however, founder vampires, if they got too close, could use their skills against her.
~~~
Blisters ushered scared witches and wizards toward the House of Enchanted. Unicorns didn’t use magic, they were magic incarnate. Every part of them. For that reason, Blisters was greatly at risk, but he didn’t care. All his life, he had been afraid. Afraid he wasn’t good enough. Afraid of the elders. Afraid of the dark. He was tired of running and disappointing himself. He was tired of being teased.
He sprang into the air, flying beside the crowd as it sluggishly filed into the House of Enchanted.
“No pushing!” Blisters commanded.
A witch resisted, breaking out of the crowd. “I have to go back. Elijah is sleeping in the cottage.”
Another witch caught her by the elbow. “You can’t! A vampire might catch you on the way!”
“But Elijah!”
“He’ll be safe inside. The queen is in the sky, protecting us,” the witch encouraged.
“But I have to—”
Blisters didn’t know why, but he swooped down, flapping his wings to hover beside the feuding witches. “I’ll go and warn Elijah. I’ll help him. Just tell me where to find him.”
Neither witch knew that Blisters had zero ability to defend himself from a vampire, let alone a wizard. So they brightened and nodded, happy for his help.
“Thank you!” the reckless witch gushed. She pointed to a mismatched cottage beside a cluster of trees, where smoke billowed out of the chimney. “There! Elijah is asleep in that cottage.”
Blisters scanned the area around it, noticing his destination was dangerously close to the border the vampires had crossed. Ever and Oak were effectively defending the area, but vampires had easily overwhelmed the first set of hills.
“Okay, get inside,” the unicorn urged the witches. “I’ll take care of this.” He sped off, diving headfirst like a bullet in the direction of the cottage. When he landed on the damp ground, he realized he had no idea what he was going to do. Wake up a sleeping wizard and tell him that a vampire attack was happening, and to stay inside his cottage? It all seemed quite shortsighted at this point.
Blisters shuffled his feet in front of the door, trying to gather his thoughts over the dragons’ roars and the screams filling the air.
“Pssst!” something called loudly from the side of the house.
Blisters spun in that direction, thinking he’d caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye.
“Pssst!” the noise came again, this time from the other side of the house.
Blisters checked over his shoulder, disconcerted by the fiery explosions in the distance.
“Pssst,” the noise came again, quieter.
Blisters put his back to the wizard’s door, his eyes narrowed in protective vehemence. “To get to this wizard, you’ll have to go through me!”
A loud cackle was his answer. “I don’t want the wizard,” a deep voice groaned.
“Show yourself, coward!” Blisters called, shaking violently inside.
“Come over and see me for yourself,” the voice called. “I’m in the shadows.”
Blisters’ insides seemed to turn to stone at once. “S-S-Scabs?” he guessed, his voice shaking. “Is that you?”
“Yes, and I’m nearly ready to take over,” the deep voice of Blisters’ shadow-self whispered.
“Take over?” Blisters asked, backing up and knocking hard into the cottage.
“Well, I should say it more plainly,” Scabs said from the side of the house, a dark laugh in his voice. “The time is nearing for your death and my time in the light.”
The door behind Blisters flew open, and he stumbled back, falling hard into the legs of a man. He looked up into the stunned face of a wizard, but didn’t have time to explain. Instead, he shot
around behind the door, knocking hard into it, and slammed it shut.
“Lock the door! Lock it now!” Blisters yelled. “Bolt the windows. Vampires are on the loose.”
~~~
The two founders swooped down upon Azure in their bat form.
The queen covered her head against their near attacks. They dove in and out so quickly that it was impossible to attack them. But diverting energy away from the border spell wasn’t smart since she needed to protect Virgo.
On the ground, she was grateful to see that the border spell was moving faster than the vampires. But the energy that the spell used was costing her greatly. With each passing minute, she felt her consciousness slipping away, and knew that soon she’d pass out from the effort.
Ever, Monet, and Oak were having success pushing back the intruding vampires. Fire was the best weapon against the followers; it engulfed them easily. Most of the lesser vampires ran from the dragons before they even opened their mouths, trying to distance themselves as much as possible from the attack before it happened.
The founder vampire bats dove at Azure again, one from either side. She nearly toppled off Micky trying to avoid the claws of one of them. Luckily, the dragon shifted in the other direction, bouncing her rider back into place.
A loud screeching echoed above Azure just before a flapping noise filled the air. The bat dove down and, when it was beside the queen, shifted back into the form of Cordelia, the vampire hanging suspended in midair for a moment.
Everything slowed. Maybe my exhaustion is catching up to me, Azure thought. Slowly, the beautiful founder vampire blinked at her. “You’ll thank us for this.”
Azure’s vision suddenly sped up, and gravity took over, pulling Cordelia to the ground. Before she collided with it, though, she shifted into her bat form and took off for the hills to the south, away from Virgo.
What the fuck? Azure wondered, shaking the dizzying feeling from her head. Her vision still blurred.
The border spell is complete, Micky stated in her head.
Thank Merlin! Azure thought.
The followers have mostly been defeated within the border, Micky informed her.
Azure didn’t respond, too exhausted for even a single moment of exhilaration over the success.
A loud shriek pinched her ears, and blackness covered her vision.
She was being assaulted by wings.
Pulling back, Azure sought a bit of space from the bat, which seemed like it was on top of her. The bat then exploded into the form of Hamilton, crouched in front of her, hovering above Micky and staring down at Azure.
The vampire held his hand in front of his mouth, a wicked smile on his face. “Soon you’ll be one of us,” he said, and then let out a giant breath, blowing red dust straight into Azure’s face.
She choked, unable to stop herself from inhaling the powder.
Hamilton morphed back into bat form and flew away, taking the same path as Cordelia.
Azure waved her arms, trying to clear the red dust from the air around her. It only seemed to spread, engulfing her. She coughed, and her vision was blanketed in red.
With her arms flailing, the queen fell to the side, her legs losing their hold of Micky. Azure was half-asleep when she realized that she was falling and that it wasn’t a dream.
A sudden, jarring assault knocked the breath out of her.
At first, she thought she’d hit the ground, but then her arms felt their way around the neck of a dragon, and she realized that Micky had caught her just in time.
The dragon glided down to the ground, landing roughly on the grass. Azure, unable to hold herself up any longer, tumbled off the dragon’s back, falling to the soft ground.
She clutched her throat, struggling to pull in a full breath. The dust Hamilton had blown at her still clogged her lungs.
Her hand connected with the amulet around her neck, but it felt different. The ruby didn’t feel firm and cold like usual; instead, it had a porous texture, like charcoal.
Azure pressed it between her fingers, and it crumbled, turning to dust. Her heart sank with instant dread as she realized she was now truly vulnerable. If the exhaustion hadn’t owned her right then, she’d have been carried away by her deafening defeat.
With her reserves depleted, Azure closed her eyes and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The ancient sandstone looked only days old. Sari marveled at the space under the Sphinx as she ran her hand over a pillar that was as big around as a horse. The ceilings were over twenty feet tall, and the chamber ran the length of two giant ballrooms. It hadn’t been hard to find the entrance to the Sphinx, but she never expected it to be this majestic and…well, pristine.
“It’s the magic that preserves it,” Gillian offered. The gnome was known for withholding information, but never from Sari. The two had formed an understanding early on. Or rather, she’d sensed Gillian was holding back and had jinxed him, making his already bulbous nose three times bigger. Since then, Gillian didn’t guard his worldly knowledge like he did with most.
“I have plenty of magic, and I don’t look this good,” Sari argued. “And I have to be at least half as old as this column.”
“You don’t look a day over two hundred,” Reynolds said. He’d been more relaxed since they had set off for the home of the New Egyptian coven.
“It’s much older than twice your age. You’re considered a child in comparison to the Sphinx,” Gillian stated, running his eyes over the wall covered in golden hieroglyphs at the far end of the room.
“Why, thank you for the compliment,” Sari said, catching a frustrated glare from Reynolds. She knew she didn’t have to be so hard on him, but it sure brought a small pep to her stride.
Gillian pointed to the large sarcophagus sitting against the back wall. “According to Azure, a simple opening spell is all we need to pass through into the Sphinx.”
“Why something so simple, I wonder?” Reynolds combed his long fingers through his red goatee.
“Because simple is better,” Sari stated, flicking her wand in the direction of the sarcophagus. “Patentibus.”
The wall behind the sarcophagus trembled and split before receding. A shimmering gold light spilled through from the other side that felt warm like sunlight, although it was nighttime.
The walls had disappeared to unveil a cavernous room, much larger than the one they were currently in. Witches and wizards with tattoos covering their arms, legs and neck lolled around a pool of water that ran the length of the great room. A tall fountain adorned the middle of the atrium-like room, and trickling water hovered in arcs over the surface. Everyone stopped conversing and gave their full attention to the three foreigners as they stepped into the room.
“Did you call ahead to tell them we were coming?” Reynolds asked from the corner of his mouth.
Sari smiled wide, waving at the gawking strangers. “If they have a good seer then they know we were on our way.”
In her periwinkle robes and lavender hair, she stood out from the coven, who were all dressed in white, flowing gowns. She peered down at Gillian and winked. “How do you feel about exchanging your tweed suit for one of those togas?”
“I’ve already lost my hat, there’s no reason to add insult to injury,” Gillian grumbled, running his hand over his bald head.
She shrugged cheerfully, catching sight of the figure striding through the crowd, but not giving him her full attention. She knew exactly who that wizard was, and after discussing it with Azure, she knew he’d need to know his place from the beginning.
“Are you the ones who have flooded half of the city?” the wizard bellowed as he approached.
Sari, unhurried, pulled her gaze away from the floor and smiled brightly. “That would be us. I’m Sari, Queen Mother of Virgo. Will you please take us to your leader?”
The wizard halted and narrowed his olive green eyes. “I’m Chibale, the king of the New Egyptian coven.” He extended his tattooed hand t
o her.
Chibale, like all the witches and wizards here, had many tattoos, but his covered his body and extended all the way to his forehead. Gillian had informed Sari that the New Egyptian coven received tattoos as a display of their power, much the same way the Virgoans adorned their soul stones.
“Don’t you mean, ‘interim king’?” Sari dared to ask.
In the kingdom of Virgo, family came first; they would never battle for power like the rulers in New Egypt did. That was the way that tyrants came to rule, and the Virgoans would never flourish under such a leader.
Chibale coughed discreetly, leaning in close to Sari. “I see where the Queen of Virgo gets her flair for disrespecting her betters. Now, do you want to tell me why I’ve received reports that the streets bordering the Nile have spontaneously flooded?”
Sari batted her eyelashes. “We parted the waters looking for something.”
Chibale’s face flushed red. “You do realize that the Nile dictates all parts of our lives in New Egypt? What you’ve done could upset the balance for years to come.”
“So could a vampire epidemic,” Reynolds cut in. “I daresay that could end New Egypt entirely.”
“What does this have to do with the vampires?” Chibale asked.
“Weren’t you the one who told the queen that, to end the epidemic, we needed to locate the pages from the Book of the Dead?” Sari pulled the rolled parchment from her robe and brandished it like a wand.
A great chatter erupted from the witches and wizards standing around, who were paying close attention to the exchange.
“You found another page?” Chibale asked. He reached for the parchment, but Sari pulled it back.
“We did, and if you’ll take us to a place with comfortable chairs and refreshments, I’d be happy to discuss this further,” Sari stated.
Chibale glared at the three intruders, a calculating discrimination in his eyes.
“Preferably with vintage wine,” Reynolds added.
After a moment, Chibale pivoted, striding in the opposite direction. “Follow me.”
~~~
The table in the center of the open room was well-stocked with decanters of wine, trays of grapes and bowls of pastries. Sari pretended to be unimpressed by the lavish assortment of foods, as servants carried a seemingly never-ending supply of trays into the room and deposited them on the table.
