Children of Shadows

by Naylor, Joleene

  She climbed onto Verchiel’s back and he straightened and took off.

  Katelina went to bury her face in his coat collar, only it was missing and she found his warm neck instead. She pulled back, ignoring the peel of laughter.

  The jungle flew past, but thankfully she couldn’t see most of it in the dark. Suddenly Verchiel slid to a stop. He whispered over his shoulder, “We’re getting close. They’re upwind of us, but if you make a bunch of noise it won’t matter.”

  “I can’t be as quiet as you,” she hissed back.

  “That’s why I’m carrying you.”

  He crept as silent as a shadow and she clung tightly and hoped she didn’t fall off. Somehow going slow was worse than going fast; at least then she was too worried about sudden death to think about the ridiculousness of a grown woman being carried on someone’s back through a dark jungle.

  She heard the soft tinkle of water before she saw it. The waterfall, as he’d called it, was barely two foot high, and lacked the romantic atmosphere Katelina had imagined. There was no halo of moonlight, no lightning bugs, and no soft seductive jungle sounds. Instead there was a thin stream and the same creepy noises as usual.

  Katelina squinted through the gloom. Torina sat on a fallen log, her arms crossed and Jorick leaned against a tree, hands in his pockets.

  “—you should remember that from your servants,” Jorick was saying.

  “I never had anything to do with them,” Torina said impatiently. “It isn’t that anyway. I’m just fed up with being useless. And don’t bother saying I’m not. Your stupid human is considered more useful than I am!”

  Katelina held back a growl.

  “You’re not useless, Torina.”

  “Fine, perhaps ineffective is a better word? I couldn’t talk Oren out of that stupid war with The Guild. I tried to distract him with Kateesha. Not that the bitch didn’t have it coming, but I thought a taste of war would be enough for him and I knew Kateesha was someone we could defeat. It didn’t work. When we did take on The Guild you were the one who saved him, not me. You were the one who made the arrangements for us to go to Japan. You’ll be the one to get him home again in one piece. And that’s fine if he needed me for something. But he doesn’t. No one does. I’m a pretty piece of sugared candy and I know it.”

  It took all of Katelina’s willpower not to shout, “Amen, sister!” Even as the thought died away it was replaced with suspicion. In the movie version Jorick would move toward her, comfort her, tell her she was special…

  If that was Torina’s plan no one had clued Jorick in. He stayed by the tree and made an uncomfortable noise in his throat. Finally he said, “He isn’t going to abandon you.”

  “Says who? Especially now that this, this human has her claws in him! You saw how concerned he was about her illness. She follows him around, bowing and catering to his every whim, carrying his luggage, asking his permission to breathe. She’ll have him convinced he’s the emperor of the world before long. Jesslynn at least knew how to manage him, though God I hated her. Such a cold, self-righteous, prudish—”

  “Yes,” Jorick interrupted. “I know.”

  “My point is what’s to stop him from scraping me off as so much bother? Especially if she suggests it? Not that she’d come out and say it. Those kind never do. They drop a hint here, a hint there, and soon he thinks it’s all his idea. Then they clap and say, ‘Oh what a wonderful idea you’ve had Oren-sala-whatever’. It makes me ill.”

  “Perhaps you’re just suspicious because that’s what you’d do? Liars think everyone is lying.”

  Torina huffed indignantly. “I’m not a manipulator. I make what I want clear, I don’t play games.”

  “Then tell Oren.”

  “You expect me to tell him I’m jealous!” she shouted and then sagged. “It sounds ridiculous when you say it like that, as if I’m some petty, clinging, spinster sister who’s worried for her future. Well I’m not.”

  Jorick snapped back impatiently, “No, you’re afraid of being alone for eternity. I imagine he knows that by now, don’t you?”

  “I’m not afraid,” Torina barked.

  “You’ve never lived without him,” Jorick said. “You’re the younger child. When your parents died, you stayed in the house with him. Then you both gained immortality and in the house you remained. There’s nothing wrong with that. It simply is. But by the same token it means he’s never been without you. You have nothing to worry about. Oren is loyal if nothing else. He’ll take care of you until one of you are in your grave.”

  “I never said I was worried about it,” she replied stiffly.

  “Of course not. In any case, I need to get back to Katelina. I left Loren to keep an eye on her, and though his intentions are good I’m not sure about his abilities.”

  “If you’d turn her you wouldn’t have to worry about it as much,” Torina said.

  “I know, and I’ve been thinking about it, before someone else does.”

  Katelina jolted at the words. Who else would?

  But Torina seemed to know what he meant. “Better the one than the other. You could at least beat him in a fight, fast or not. But the other—I don’t know if there’d be anything you could do.”

  Verchiel backed away quickly and Katelina kicked him. She wanted to hear this!

  “Don’t you want to be back before he comes looking for you?” he asked as he picked up speed.

  “They’re talking about me!”

  Despite her protest, he didn’t stop until they reached the edge of the jungle. Ume and Kai were waiting patiently, and Loren was notably absent. No doubt he’d run at the first opportunity.

  Verchiel shrugged Katelina off and Ume asked with a note of concern, “Did you find them?”

  “Yes, and then we left,” Katelina said irritably.

  Ume looked horrified and Verchiel said quickly, “It was nothing like that. He’s on his way back, so I thought it was a good idea to beat him here, if you know what I mean.”

  “You don’t want him to know you were spying?” Ume suggested.

  “Not to mention he’d probably get upset at the idea of me and Kately alone in the dark, dark jungle.” He leered at her and she shoved him back.

  “Quit being stupid! He did say Loren was supposed to be guarding us, though.”

  “Yeah, I heard that, too. Where did he wander off to?”

  “I don’t know,” Ume said quickly. “But I’ll do it. I hate to see Loren get into trouble.”

  Katelina bit back her objections. Ume was trying to be nice, so there was no point.

  They were back in the house when Jorick showed up. He didn’t say anything about where he’d been, and Katelina stopped from saying that she knew. She supposed he was entitled to private conversations without her. She had conversations without him, after all. Just not with Torina’s male equivalent.

  They went to Quenby’s funeral, though it was far from satisfying. The Black Vigil set her body on fire, as usual for vampire funerals, but there were no words spoken, no ceremony. It was as if she’d ceased to matter. Their cold attitudes explained how they’d so easily discarded Ume after her disappearance.

  Katelina thought that someone should be depressed, and she made a good effort. The problem was she didn’t know Quenby well enough to manage tears. Still, it felt wrong that no one cried for her.

  She leaned on Jorick’s shoulder and sighed. He wrapped an arm around her. “Not everyone is the same, little one.”

  “You’ve spent the last months convincing me vampires are more than cold blooded monsters; that they love and care for one another, and then this? I…I don’t know.”

  “Of course they care, but everyone expresses grief differently. Fethillen isn’t the kind to cry and dwell on it. Better to be busy working toward the next step, to prove the death was not in vain.”

  “I guess.” She turned from the crackling bonfire. She noticed Wolfe near one of the sheds. From his posture she guessed he was on the phone again. “Did yo
u find out who Wolfe was tracking down in China?”

  “No. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him.”

  “Maybe you should make time?” Instead of talking to Torina.

  “Maybe I should, but isn’t it time for your dinner now?”

  Katelina was in the middle of cooking when Ume and Fethillen joined them around the fire. Ume took a nervous seat on one of the logs, and Fethillen crouched next to Jorick. “When we were in the oasis, you touched your human and she was immune to… to the sound. How?”

  Katelina tried not to look too interested in the answer, though it was something she’d wondered.

  Jorick stabbed at the fire with a stick. “It’s the same thing Malick does, only in reverse. No doubt when he began he had to touch his victims.”

  Fethillen nodded. “I see. So you could do this to anyone? Not just your human?”

  “I assume so.” He stopped prodding the fire to meet her eyes. “Why?”

  “It might come in useful. Can the other do it?” She motioned to Verchiel.

  The redhead sat at the edge of the light cleaning his sword. Without looking up he said, “I don’t think so. I can barely shield myself.”

  “I see. And what of Wolfe? Does he have any mental abilities?”

  “Not that I know of,” Jorick replied. “The last I knew he was a hunter. Like you, it may be his age that helped him. Sorino is a whisperer. Whether he’s accomplished enough to cause such an effect I can’t say.” He glanced at Kai, but the boy didn’t answer.

  “I understand.” Fethillen stood and dusted off her legs. “Thank you.” Then, with a nod, she strode back toward her people.

  Ume stayed behind, toying with a stone. “I’m sorry.”

  Verchiel looked up in surprise. “Sorry for what?”

  “Getting taken. Because of me Quenby is dead. She was a better fighter than I could ever be, and better at tactics. I’m surprised Fethillen was willing to risk her for me.”

  Katelina stirred the rice and asked sarcastically, “Are you sure it was for you or because she hoped it would give her a chance to infiltrate the Children of Shadows?”

  Ume frowned and focused on the rock in her hand. “That makes more sense.”

  “Why does she hate them so much?”

  Ume hesitated and then said, “Memnon was Fethillen’s brother. They began the Children of Shadows together, only Memnon took it in a different direction. To quote Fethillen he ‘grew drunk on the blood and the power’. She swore to stop him and failed, Malick beat her to it, and so she’s spent the years since destroying any trace of the group.”

  “Her real name isn’t Fethillen, but Keirza,” Jorick mused. “No wonder Wolfe couldn’t find her.”

  “She changed it when she left him,” Ume said.

  Katelina gaped, the spoon held in midair. “Then all of this is partially her fault? She’s trying to destroy something she helped to make.”

  “I think so, yes.” Ume nodded. “She carries guilt, though she doesn’t admit to it, at least not to me.”

  “If she’s devoted her life to exterminating them, what did she do when she thought she was finished?”

  Ume’s smile was strange. “We trained, and we looked for them, just in case. I don’t think she could fathom the success, and maybe she is the tiniest bit glad to see them resurrected because it gives her a purpose. I understand. When you define yourself by a goal and that goal is met there’s a moment of floundering darkness. You don’t know what to do next.” She dropped her eyes and flushed. “I suppose that’s when you have to make a new goal.”

  Katelina unconsciously tapped her chin with the spoon. “I wonder what her new life mission would be? What can compete with wiping out an army of monsters?”

  “I don’t know,” Jorick said. “But I do know your dinner is going to burn if you don’t stir it.”

  Katelina’s answer was an unintelligible sound of aggravation.

  Chapter Twenty

  Etsuko was still sick the following evening. Katelina fed her the last of the rice, and then she and Kai shared a couple of energy bars. The rain clouds seemed determined to stay, and the air was heavy and damp, even if the rain had stopped.

  “Why doesn’t someone just give her blood?” Katelina asked Jorick. “Doesn’t that heal everything?”

  “It would take a large quantity to kill the germs.”

  His answer bothered her, especially since she’d obviously had enough to make herself immune. “How much?”

  “Enough to cause complications if given all at once. If he wanted to do that he might as well link her.”

  Katelina knew that would never be an option.

  Jorick refused to leave her unaccompanied, but he got twitchy sitting in the sleeping room with nothing to do, and passed the responsibility on to Loren. The teen hung around until Micah called for him, and then Verchiel took over.

  He dropped to the floor and crossed his legs, Indian style. “How’s the patient?”

  Katelina glanced at the sleeping woman. “Still sick. We’re out of Acetaminophen, and almost out of ibuprofen. After that, I don’t know what to do. Maybe you could see if those poachers have anything?”

  “Have what?”

  They looked up to see Oren lurking in the doorway.

  “Fever reducer,” Katelina said. “And we’re running out of food.”

  He snorted. “Send someone hunting for that. As for the other, I’ll find Micah.”

  Before she could comment he swept back out the door.

  “He could at least ask how she’s doing,” Katelina fumed. “He’s barely looked at her.”

  “It’s because he’s worried,” Verchiel said. “You have to admit he’s coming along nicely.”

  “You and Torina are both nuts.”

  Something came over the radio. It sounded like dots and dashes to Katelina, but Verchiel assured her everyone was wound up about it. Sure enough, when she and Verchiel wandered out they saw Fethillen, Sushel, and others of the Black Vigil bent over a card table. A wrinkled world map was spread out. From the crossed out, renamed, and, in some cases, redrawn borders Katelina guessed it was an old one.

  Fethillen stabbed a finger in the middle of India. “The Faction is here, so what would their next goal be?”

  The Faction? Katelina had a dim memory of someone mentioning it before. She thought it was a guild that ruled several countries, though she wasn’t sure which ones. She leaned close to Verchiel and whispered, “What are they talking about?”

  “The Children of Shadows attacked India,” he whispered back. “That’s what all the noise was about.”

  “I thought you guys killed all of them in Uzbekistan, except Cyprus and Ronnell.”

  Fethillen turned around. “Hardly. That was a small force. I imagine the others were waiting somewhere, perhaps at the Children’s headquarters, wherever that may be. The question is where will they strike next?” She turned back to the map. “They’re obviously avoiding China for some reason, and if they planned to take one of Russia’s, then they’d have been better served by going there after Uzbekistan, which leaves The Association.” She pointed to a collection of Asian countries.

  “Do we try to cut them off?” Sushel asked. He wore a makeshift eye patch and Katelina wondered what it looked like underneath. Had he been perfectly restored, eyelid and all, without an eyeball inside?

  “I don’t know. Nuthan and Christabell aren’t back yet. We’d have to take the plane. The engine is still in pieces. Even repaired it would take two or three days of flying with daylight stops and not everyone would fit.”

  “We’d fit.” Sushel glared at Katelina and Verchiel. “They have a friend with a plane, let him take them.”

  “Regardless, we would miss the window for the Asian Association.”

  Sushel slammed his fist on the table. “We don’t know where they’re going after that! It could be Korea, Japan, Taiwan, The Philippines, or they could even go back to Indonesia!”

  Fethillen held up a
hand to quiet him. “We must use reason. The goal is not destruction for the sake of destruction, but to recruit the strongest. Japan’s vampires are young and weak. Taiwan and the Philippines have very controlled vampire populations with limited numbers, and they will not let a crowd of old blood in. Korea would be a long way around, but Indonesia… Yes, Indonesia seems the most likely target. That’s where we will catch them.”

  Ume’s words came back to Katelina, “It’s odd for the quest to end where it started. Like an eternal circle.” The context was different, but the meaning was the same.

  “And if they go somewhere else?” Sushel demanded.

  “They won’t.” Fethillen pulled out a folding chair and sat with paper and a pencil. “I’ll figure out the trip as quickly as I can. Sushel, go to the hangar and tell them to finish the plane immediately. The helicopter can wait until we return.”

  If we return, Katelina thought with a shiver.

  When Fethillen finished her calculations she pounced on Jorick. Though she suggested leaving some people behind, “like the humans,” in the end they agreed to take two planes. Sorino was summoned, and he contacted his pilots at the airport. By lunch time they had the plans set; The Black Vigil would leave the next day. If Etsuko was better they would go, too. If not they’d wait another day. Sorino looked irritated, but Oren was firm.

  “It’s not good for humans to travel sick. You have one, you should know.”

  Sorino looked down his thin nose. “Mine doesn’t get sick. But fine. We’ll wait and see. If she isn’t well the next day I suggest she remain behind with whomever you set as guardian and the rest of us go. Unless you think her worth more than your task?”

  “I don’t see why you’re interested in going, anyway,” Torina huffed. “You couldn’t care less about Cyprus.”

  “No,” he agreed. “However the original seal of Memnon is an item of high collectability that has never been located. Since Cyprus doesn’t have it, I’m positive at least one of the Children of Shadows will know where it is. And should we happen to leave one alive who could tell me its location…”