By Blood Betrayed (The Kingsblood Chronicles)

by Houpt, David

  “First, Lian Evanson, you must tell me how you have come to be so far from home.”

  Lian steeled himself, and began to speak of the events of the previous days. Saul stopped him when he described the assassin in his room.

  “The queen, and the king?” he demanded, his eyes tinted suddenly red in the night. “What of the rest of your family?”

  “All slain,” Lian replied sorrowfully, as his hand unconsciously moved to Gem’s hilt. “It has been revealed to me that I am the last of Evan’s line.”

  Saul rose and stalked away a few yards. “You are sure of it?” His voice was cold and emotionless, and his body belied nothing of the sudden upset he’d revealed.

  “I did not see their bodies, Saul,” Lian said, rising in readiness, for he was not sure how to interpret Saul’s reaction. “But I am certain of it, yes.”

  The vampire ignored Lian and Snog, who partly drew his dagger. Teg scrambled to his feet in confusion. Lian could see the tension in the ranger’s frame, and knew that Saul was on the verge of violence. But when he turned back to them, his eyes were the clear brown they’d been when they first met, and all trace of the terrible rage had disappeared.

  “My apologies, Lian,” Saul said. “I did not mean to alarm you. I knew your parents, you see, and their death was unexpected.”

  He sighed and said, “I need to tell you the whole of it, not because it is something you must know, but because it is something I must tell. Will you listen to my tale? It involves your parents and the days of the rebellion.”

  Lian released Gem’s hilt and sat back down, motioning Snog to relax. “I would be honored, Saul, though I must be on my way soon. The battle here will attract those who follow me, sooner or later.”

  Saul nodded. “Yes. It is best you move on soon in any event.” He didn’t explain his meaning, rather sat back down to begin his tale.

  “First of all, my name was not originally Saul,” the vampire began. “My birth name is Kolos Agathi, and I am King of Greythorn.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “The God of Death has many faces, for death comes to mortals in many forms. Some cults of the Deathlord are an integral part of society, such as the Southron Empire’s Sword Cult. Others are vile and evil, bringing destruction to all those near them. The Fangs of the Serpent, known throughout the western kingdoms and, recently, in the Empire of the East, are an example of the latter.”

  -- “Life and Death” a secular text on the gods, author unknown

  but believed to be the same sage who wrote “Day and Night”

  “I can see that this is at odds with the history you have been taught, no?” the ranger asked.

  Lian could only nod in amazement.

  “Saul” nodded his head before continuing, “I first met your father at Mola. He came ashore with a small party, and we met in secret. His spies had informed him, accurately, that I was dissatisfied with the treatment of my lands and my people by the Theocracy, and he hoped that Greythorn would throw its lot in with the rebellion.

  “Indeed, I had chafed for decades at the Theocracy’s yoke. Their taxation increased annually, and they had begun to demand even more than coin and goods. Long tradition here in my kingdom condemned criminals to a particular fate. Condemned criminals become a meal for the vampires of Greythorn. It was an effective deterrent, I always felt,” the vampire said.

  “The Theocracy demanded that half of the condemned criminals be transferred to them, as part of the kingdom’s tithe to the government. I held that off for many years by increasing the tribute we paid, but their ambassador was becoming more and more insistent. I didn’t wish to turn even a condemned man over to the summoners and necromancers of the Theocracy.

  “I always considered the fate of the condemned here to be relatively merciful, and without any taint upon the spirit of the victim,” he said by way of explanation, “though it was quite terrifying to most of them.”

  He clenched his jaw muscles slightly. “It was obvious, based on what my spies reported from the lands closer to Dunshor, that this ‘tax’ of men was going to be broadened gradually. Dunshor’s interior was by that time nearly drained of human resources, according to my spies, and I didn’t wish that fate to befall my kingdom.”

  He looked up at Lian’s face. “When Evan Kolvanson arrived with his plans to overthrow the mages, I welcomed his intentions with open arms. It was risky, yes, to ally with the rebellion, but I preferred a desperate war over the slow draining of my people.”

  The vampire settled back, leaning on Teg’s knee. “I agreed to allow the rebellion to use Greythorn as a staging area for the war. Evan would land his troops at Mola and make his way through the pass, supported by my own troops. The mages of Dunshor assumed that Evan’s fleet would be forced to make an opposed landing, either at Fendar Port where the Theocracy’s troops would have ample time to counterstrike, or north of the Villas Swamp where they’d have to subdue the local barbarian tribes.

  “Since the barbarian chiefs were generally loyal to the great mages, the Theocracy was certain that the landing would be at Fendar. After all, only a madman would try to invade a land ruled by vampires,” he said, smiling.

  “All went well at first. I dispatched two of the Companions to assist Evan’s landing and to escort him through the forest. Shaidrak, the best mage of my brood, created a temporary stone bridge over the Villas River, so the army wouldn’t have to waste a day fording it. And when the vanguard of the army arrived at Greythorn City, I provided them with the field southwest of the city to encamp.” Saul/Kolos gestured in the direction of the battlefield where the bastion birds and crows still feasted.

  “The first evening the van was here at the city, I invited the officers to a dinner at the castle, and that was my downfall,” he said, eyes downcast, “for it was that night that I met Adrienne dú Norit.”

  Lian blinked and said, “My mother?”

  The vampire nodded, without meeting Lian’s gaze. “Yes, the very same, Highness. As soon as I saw her, I knew that I had to have her, to recruit her into my brood as the eleventh Companion.

  “I am many centuries old, Lian,” he said dryly, “but some passions even death doesn’t cool. Over the course of the evening, I watched her. She was a delight to my senses, and her manner and intelligence were as attractive to me as her appearance.

  “That night, my desire slowly turned to obsession, and I forgot the pact I had forged with your father. I didn’t care about the consequences; I wanted Adrienne.”

  The vampire king sighed deeply. “When a vampire bestows the Dark Gift, it can be given in one of two ways. He can force the change upon the victim, which almost always destroys their sanity. The vampire so created is a creature of lust and hunger, and must be kept in check or it will run wild, rampaging around the countryside glutting on the peasants. In some cases, the Gift doesn’t take well, and the vampire fledgling will rapidly decline and eventually die.

  “The second way is to offer the Gift to a willing recipient, as I did with Teg. This creates an intense bond between the older vampire and his offspring, and what they were remains intact. There is still the vampiric bloodlust to contend with, and some never do master it. But for the most part, the vampirism enhances the person’s nature rather than steals their humanity.”

  “Which way did you intend to take my mother?” Lian asked, his throat dry. Snog handed him a flask of water. It tasted faintly of mushrooms.

  Kolos sighed again. “I wanted her to accept me freely, Lian. I was convinced that given enough time she would return the love I felt and willingly take the Gift. But I knew that Evan’s forces were departing soon, and that my time to initiate her into the fold was short.

  “I drew the closest of my Companions to me and outlined the plan I had devised. I had already killed the Dunshor ambassador and as many of the Theocracy’s spies as I could find, but Shaidrak and I used sorcery to locate one last spy. That he happened to be a part-time assassin fit into my plan perfectly.

/>   “A second Companion was recruited to help me. Sileth, a woman who had been a thief when she was alive procured for me a single unbroken strand of your mother’s hair. With this and the knowledge I have acquired over the long centuries, I constructed a duplicate of your mother’s body. Now, this creation had no mind or soul, but it had a life of sorts, and was a perfect image of Adrienne,” Kolos continued, shaking his head ruefully.

  Lian was astonished by the vampire’s tale, for it was wholly unlike anything that his parents had told him.

  Kolos continued, “We had studied the wards around your parents, and we knew what would be required to breach them. Revé, the third Companion I drew into my little plot, was a summoner, and he called up a fiend for me, one which he had used before to deadly effect. Revé gave it very careful instructions and armed it with the knowledge of the wards and several enchanted weapons and defenses from my treasury.

  “The night before the van was to depart, the fiend teleported through Adrienne’s wards and attacked. Working quickly, it struck the general, your father, unconscious. An alarm had been raised, and Adrienne was weaving a spell to destroy it. Before she could release the bolt, however, Shaidrak and I teleported into the tent, behind her. I sank my fangs into her neck while holding a cloth soaked in an extract of Black Lotus over her face. The sudden pain and pleasure of my bite, combined with the power of the Lotus, robbed her of consciousness. I ripped her nightshift from her and handed it to Shaidrak. She hadn’t been wearing any jewelry, fortunately.

  “Shaidrak was carrying the duplicate, which he tossed with the clothing to the demon, who began shredding and ripping the empty husk of a body to shreds. After a short spell from me to remove our footprints, Shaidrak returned us to the keep,” Kolos said, crossing his arms as he leaned more heavily on Teg.

  The ogrish vampire was gazing at his sire with a great deal of sadness, and he had shed several bright red blood-tears during the telling. “You do bad stuff, Saul?” he asked.

  Saul/Kolos looked up at the ogre and smiled sadly. “Yes, I did, Teg. It was very bad, even though no one was actually killed. The duplicate wasn’t really a person, and we were careful to keep the demon from dealing a lethal blow to any of the rebels. From reports we received the next day, the demon had mauled several soldiers, but had been driven off before it managed to kill anyone else, as it had been instructed.

  “The mages of the army had traced its flight back to the spy, but when they got there, they found pieces of him scattered about his house. The demon, to all appearances’ sake, had been poorly bound and had returned to its summoner to take vengeance upon him,” he said sardonically. He rose and began to pace back and forth along the street. Lian and Snog both shifted position to allow them to rise quickly, but the king took no notice.

  “While the priests attached to the army vainly tried to save the duplicate’s life, Shaidrak and I situated the real Adrienne in comfortable quarters. We removed all of her warding spells, and while she slept I gave her some Tincture of Amaranth laced with akrylthra-root. The combination robs the drinker of the ability to manipulate mana. Long-term exposure can damage one’s mage talent, but a few doses are safe enough.”

  Lian interrupted. “I presume that when you referred to ‘comfortable quarters,’ you actually meant, ‘comfortable prison?’”

  Kolos stopped his pacing and pursed his lips. “Yes, Highness. The room was one I had used for half a century to restrain a Companion who had gone mad. She eventually found a way to kill herself, but we’d kept her as comfortable as possible in there while she lived. I wasn’t concerned with Adrienne’s escape without her magical talents.

  “In the morning, Evan and his advisors, escorted by my own guard captain, came to disturb me. My castellan, observing the gravity of their expressions, had informed them that yes, it was possible to disturb His Majesty before sundown. Evan hadn’t seemed surprised at this news.

  “Sileth and Shaidrak were roused as well, and we met in my thronehall. I had already been informed of the night’s events by my people, and I told Evan that I hadn’t gone to sleep when I’d learned of it. I told him that I was using my resources to try to find any remaining Theocracy spies, but since we’d missed this one they were likely well underground.

  “Evan was keeping his grief tightly reined, but when I mentioned the name of the Theocracy, his eyes gleamed with such ferocity that it impressed even me. He informed me that Adrienne’s body had been cremated, as per the custom of her family, and that after an additional day they would be moving on. Coldly, he told me that Adrienne had been well loved by the army, and that her death would probably fuel quite a bit of extra motivation for his men.

  “Guilt panged at me, but I shoved it aside. It was evident how much I had hurt him, but I thought in vampire terms, not human ones. Their love would last only for a few decades, and then would be extinguished. With me, she would have a love that would last for centuries, and perhaps even millennia.

  “I compounded my deception by reaffirming my intention to support his bid to overthrow the Theocracy, and by promising that he’d have Shaidrak’s magical support until he got too far from Greythorn. It was common belief then, as now, that my Companions and I are unable to stray too far from our homeland. I had no reason to believe that he would know otherwise.

  “He accepted my offers of further aid politely, then left my thronehall. I believed that I had executed my deception without a hitch, and went to ground to rest until nightfall. Though I was fully capable of moving about during the day, it was exhausting.

  “I hadn’t counted on two things, though, and they were my undoing.

  “The first was that Adrienne was not simply a mage, but an artificer as well. I had designed the room to contain no wood, because of its original occupant. The bed, chest of drawers, and the chairs were made of braided copper and bronze. Very pretty and very heavy, but also very useful to a determined woman who wasn’t sure exactly how long it would be until night. There was also a polished silver mirror, hammered so thin it was almost silver leaf.

  “She used everything she could work loose to build an apparatus which she could raise up the ventilation shaft. She could see that it led to sunlight, since it was day outside, and she was trying to get a piece of the mirror up to the top of the shaft as a makeshift signal. Or perhaps she had merely wanted an opportunity to look around with the mirror. I don’t know.

  “At the same time, the priests who cleaned up the manikin’s remains had noticed something that I simply hadn’t considered. It had taken them a while to figure out what was missing, but figure it out they did, during that long day when I slept oblivious of the dangers that were brewing,” Kolos stopped pacing and sat down in the middle of the street, appearing suddenly weary.

  “I have killed many, many men and women over my long life, and there’s one thing in common among most of those deaths. After the life has fled from a person, especially if they were experiencing fear or terror at the time of death, the bladder and sphincter relax and the body urinates and defecates. I knew this, as did Shaidrak, but we’d long ago learned to ignore it as a mildly unpleasant side effect of our meals. This complacency was a mistake.

  “The homunculus was devoid of wastes, for it had never eaten nor had it drunk. It had been created merely a day before, and despite the fact that its intestines had been tossed about the room, there were no feces to go with it. The sheer horror of the death must have kept them from noticing the anomaly sooner, or I’m sure Evan would have brought armed men to that first meeting.”

  The vampire continued his tale. “By mid-afternoon, Evan had deduced that his lover was probably still alive, and the most likely culprit for the kidnapping was obvious. He’d observed, but dismissed, the looks I sent Adrienne during our meetings, but considered in context it must have made sense.

  “One of his guardsmen had noticed an unexplained flashing light beside one of the castle towers, and Evan had determined somehow that this was the location of Adrienne’s p
rison. Perhaps he had arranged for some kind of communication with her. He knew if his suspicion was correct that once night fell she was again in danger. My castle was fortified with a variety of permanent wards against teleportation and other magical means of entry, but the majority of my garrison was about the city since our relationship with the rebels was supposedly as allies.

  “Evan decided that he must attack, and bring the fight to bear before the sun set and he lost his advantage. He likely surmised that almost all of the mages available to my army were Companions, and that most of them were far afield. He assembled his forces, as if to begin the march to the pass, and led them past the castle walls, from east to west. Splitting one of his infantry companies, he ordered them to take control of Greythorn City. Resistance was weak, and his men rounded up and subdued my soldiers without much of a fight.

  “Simultaneously, he launched an assault directly upon the castle gates. They were traditionally kept closed during the daylight hours, when the Companions and I needed the most protection, but they weren’t tightly barred, simply for convenience’s sake. The rebel mages shattered the gates in a single strike, and calvary streamed through unhindered, securing the gatehouse and the outer wall. My men managed to close the main door to the keep, but the rebels controlled the walls and courtyard within minutes.

  “By this time, the resident Companions and I were quite awake, for nothing rouses a vampire faster than a threat to its resting place. I realized at once that my deception had failed, yet I was still so enamored of Adrienne that even this certainty didn’t make me willing to give her up. I knew, as did the Theocracy, that if Evan fell the army would be without direction and thus easier to destroy. It was his military genius that had led to so many victories.