The Vampire Queen Saga: Books 1-3: (The Vampire Queen Saga Boxset)

by William Stacey

  The chilled air stank of mildew and rot. Along the passageway, at regular intervals, brass braziers still hung from the walls, still waiting for servants to fill them with oil and relight them. Giant cobwebs covered the curved low ceiling, hanging from the corners, often obscuring their way. As Owen forced his way through them, he shuddered, imaging large hairy spiders running down the collar of his mail coat. Are the spiders poisonous on this damned island? They can’t be worse than the marsh ticks. Ahead, the tunnel intersected another at a right angle, offering three different paths from which to choose. Owen waited, with Dilan beside him. Each man held his torch high, but Owen saw only darkness in every direction.

  “I don’t know which way,” Lord Palin said.

  Keep-Captain Awde moved past Owen, looking down the left-side corridor. “The veterans of Stron’s army did say the catacombs were mazelike.”

  “Those were simple men,” said Modwyn. “Any catacomb would seem a maze to men like that. This isn’t the capital. These tunnels can’t be that extensive.”

  Lord Palin glanced at the doctor. “I thought these catacombs predated the Greywynnes?”

  Modwyn shrugged. “Who truly knows such things, my lord? More likely, people invented those stories to make the Greywynnes seem more ominous.”

  Owen stared at the ancient crumbling stones along the wall and low, curved ceiling. How old are these supports?

  “We should mark the floor at the intersections,” said Keep-Captain Awde. “So we don’t end up going in circles.”

  “Indeed,” said Modwyn.

  “Which way, then?” asked Keep-Captain Awde, turning to Lord Palin.

  The young man hesitated only a moment. “Left.”

  “Left it is, my lord,” said Keep-Captain Awde as he squeezed the young man’s shoulder and walked past him, moving beside Owen. “Let’s go, Toscovar. We have a Great Crypt to find.”

  #

  Despite Modwyn’s skepticism, the catacombs were indeed large and mazelike. They walked for what seemed hours but couldn’t possibly have been that long. Occasionally, they passed chambers, old storerooms filled with rotting boxes and barrels, all blanketed by a thick layer of spiderwebs and glistening dust. As they walked, Modwyn sketched a map on a large piece of parchment. After the swamp, Owen no longer trusted the doctor, but he had to admit the man was clever. Then, he realized he smelled something strange and paused, sniffing the air. Keep-Captain Awde stared at him.

  “You smell that?” Owen asked.

  “Smell what?” Awde asked.

  “Salt,” said Owen. “The sea, I think.”

  Having gone his entire life without ever having smelled the sea air, Owen would never mistake that heady scent again. He was sure he could smell the ocean air. He closed his eyes and concentrated and then nodded with certainty. “I can hear the waves, too. There must be an opening somewhere.”

  “How is that possible?” Lord Palin asked from behind them.

  “I smell it, too,” said Dilan. “He’s right.”

  “The fortress was built upon the cliffs,” said Modwyn. “The roots of the catacombs dig into those cliffs. We may not be as deep underground as we thought.”

  “There’s another chamber up ahead,” Owen said. “I think that’s the source.”

  They moved farther down the tunnel. Soon, all of them smelled the sea air and heard the crashing of waves. A large chamber opened on their left with two wooden doors, long since fallen down, rotting on the floor. Moisture hung in the air.

  Owen extended his torch into the chamber. The others crowded around behind him. It wasn’t a chamber, after all, but a natural cavern, its ceiling high above them. Daylight poured through a large opening on the opposite side of the cavern—it was the cliff face, after all. They could hear the echo of seagull cries. The center of the cavern was sunken and filled with seawater, like a pool. A stone landing rose up on the other side of the pool, with an ancient wooden walkway leading to it across the water. Atop the stone landing was a large wooden crane, the kind used to load ships. Wooden boxes and barrels were stacked everywhere—most falling apart. The air was rich with the sea, salt, and stench of centuries of bird shit.

  “I’ll be damned,” whispered Keep-Captain Awde. “It’s a pier, a secret dock.”

  “How’s that possible?” asked Lord Palin.

  The keep-captain stood silent for several moments then reached out and gripped Owen’s forearm. “Just you and I, Toscovar.” He turned and addressed the others. “My lord, this place is falling apart. Best if you wait here.”

  The young man bit his lower lip but nodded.

  Keep-Captain Awde faced Owen. “Hold the torch as high as you can, but don’t get too close behind me. Stay back until I’m all the way across. I don’t know if it’ll hold both of our weight.”

  Owen stared at the rotting wooden walkway and at the water around it. How deep is that pool?

  “Take your armor off,” Keep-Captain Awde said as he removed his own.

  Dilan took his torch and axe and helped him undo the straps at the back of his ring-mail coat and pull it over his shoulders. Once free of the armor, Owen flexed his arms, feeling nimble and light.

  “Ready, Toscovar?” Keep-Captain Awde asked, standing in his padded undershirt and reattaching his sword belt around his waist.

  “Almost, Captain,” Owen said as he did the same.

  Dilan handed him back his torch. “I’ll hang onto the axe for you,” he said. “Every little bit less should help, right?”

  Keep-Captain Awde looked from Owen to Dilan, and then at the rickety walkway.

  “I’m not that big,” Owen said.

  Keep-Captain Awde snorted. “Wait until I’m across, then come over—quickly.” He turned and stepped onto the walkway, which creaked under his weight but held. He took another step and then another. “It’s still sturdy,” he said, looking over his shoulder. “Well built.”

  Moments later, the keep-captain was all the way across and onto the stone platform. A set of stairs led up along its side to the top, where the crane sat. The keep-captain waited at the stairs for Owen. “Let’s go, Toscovar.”

  Owen gingerly stepped out onto the wooden walkway. It groaned and creaked but held. Halfway across, though, he heard a board crack, and he froze, his heart skipping a beat. When nothing further happened, he kept going. Moments later, he was safely across and following the captain up the stairs. At the top of the platform, he paused and examined the dock opening. Bright sunlight poured in, exposing the stunted bushes growing out of the cliff walls. The remains of an old wooden pier still hung from the opening. The keep-captain had been right—it was a dock, a secret dock built right into the side of the cliffs. They moved to the edge of the opening and peered out over the side. Five feet or so below, waves crashed against the cliff face.

  Owen leaned carefully over the edge of the cliff and stared into the water below. “How did they…?”

  “It’s high tide right now,” Keep-Captain Awde said. “They must have used the crane to lower people and supplies to ships during low tide.” Turning, he leaned back, peering up the cliff face. “I can just see the fortress walls above us. Modwyn was right. We’re not that far belowground.”

  “You can see Echo Island from here,” Owen said, pointing.

  Just across the water, a small isle rose out of the sea. The white stone ruins of the monastery gleamed in the sunlight.

  “Never thought I’d be this close to such a place,” whispered Keep-Captain Awde.

  “Nor I,” answered Owen. “Father Craftsman, bless us.”

  Keep-Captain nodded and gripped Owen’s shoulder. “Let’s get back to the others.”

  Owen paused. “Sir, if… if she had her own secret dock… then why…?”

  The waves struck against the rocks below, throwing cool mist into the air.

  “Why did she let herself get cornered by Stron?” Keep-Captain Awde sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe there were no ships in which to escape
, or… maybe she just wasn’t afraid of Stron.”

  A chill ran down Owen’s spine.

  “Do you know what I wonder about, lad?”

  “No, sir.”

  “I wonder what our physician would say about the presence of… foul vapors when there’s an opening like this bringing in fresh air?”

  “I… I don’t know, sir, but I don’t trust him.”

  “Neither do I. Let’s keep an eye on Modwyn. What do you think?”

  “Yes, sir. I think that’s a very good idea, sir.”

  They made their way back across the walkway, to where the others were waiting for them. After explaining what they had seen and putting their armor back on, they moved farther down the corridors, continuing their search of the catacombs. Not long afterward, they found the entrance to the Great Crypt of the Greywynne family, bloodred stone stairs leading down, a winged stone griffin watching over the entrance. A cold wave swept through Owen’s core.

  The stairs looked exactly the same as in his dream.

  Chapter 23

  Owen

  The red stairs disappeared into darkness, a straight path down to the bowels of the earth. Staring at them in bewilderment, Owen felt himself sway.

  “Owen,” whispered Dilan, gripping his forearm. “You all right?”

  The others clustered behind him. He felt himself become the center of attention.

  “What is it, Toscovar?” asked Keep-Captain Awde.

  Someone else whispered something about deep vapors.

  Owen shook his head. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

  Keep-Captain Awde watched his face carefully. “All right, then. Maybe one of the others should go first. You’ve done enough for one day.”

  “I’m fine, Captain.”

  The keep-captain shook his head and turned to Dilan. “Reese, you go first. Watch your step.”

  Hefting his fighting axe in one hand and his torch in the other, Dilan slowly went down the steps. Keep-Captain Awde followed and then Lord Palin, Father Bowen, and Modwyn. Owen went last, with the last four other guardsmen. He counted the steps as they descended—anything to take his mind off the impossibility of having pictured the stairs perfectly in his nightmare. After thirty steps, they came to a landing, and then the stairwell turned, descending even farther into darkness. However, after another twenty-two steps, a cave-in blocked the rest of the way. The others clustered in front, examining the rubble. Owen glanced at the ceiling above them. What would it take to start another cave-in?

  “Can we clear it?” asked Lord Palin, his voice reflecting his uncertainty.

  “I don’t know, my lord,” said Keep-Captain Awde. “I have no experience with mining.”

  “We can clear it,” said Modwyn. “I’m certain of it.”

  Awde snorted.

  “It’s true,” said Modwyn, turning to face Lord Palin. “This is just as your father described it. We must almost be at the bottom, the Great Crypt of the Greywynne family.”

  “All this was the work of Belion the battle mage?” asked Lord Palin, staring at the collapsed ceiling.

  “When Belion broke his own staff,” said Modwyn, “the magical eruption brought down the ceiling.”

  “I don’t understand this. If Serina was already dead, why did Belion break his staff?” asked Keep-Captain Awde.

  Modwyn shook his head. “You’ve been in more battles than I, Captain—the confusion of war? Who knows?”

  “Who, indeed,” said Keep-Captain Awde. “Tell us again what Duke Oskaley told you, in detail this time. I’d hear—”

  “The details are unimportant,” said Lord Palin sharply, his tone clear that the discussion was over. “All that matters now is Sight-Bringer.” He adjusted his sword belt, which had a tendency to move about on his thin hips. “We’ll need to clear this rubble. Set up a rotation. Have the men work in teams. Support beams, whatever it takes. We need to get inside the Great Crypt. I hate this damned place, and I don’t want to be here a moment longer than I have to.”

  Owen understood that sentiment perfectly.

  #

  The next week was a blur of backbreaking labor for Owen. The Wolfrey soldiers worked in shifts, two men at a time. They carried the stones back up the red stairs, depositing them farther down the corridor, out of the way. Many of the fallen stones were too large for any single man to carry and had to be hoisted up the stairs on a wooden platform built on rails, with ropes attached to a pulley. Sometimes as they worked, the partially collapsed ceiling would groan, sifting dust and grains of rocks, making Owen think the ceiling was about to come down again.

  Some of the men broke under the strain, their fear sending them fleeing to the upper catacombs. Others became ill from dust coating their lungs, sending them to their blankets, coughing and hacking, their mucus black.

  As the men became ill, the shifts became shorter and more frequent. Owen would fall exhausted into his blanket only to be woken up—seemingly right away—to be told he needed to go back to work again. He barely slept, and when he did, nightmares plagued his dreams. The others also complained of their dreams.

  Throughout it all, Hrawlgir remained the same. The young man didn’t speak and barely slept but merely lay like a dead man, eyes wide open, staring at nothing—but then, seven days after the work had commenced, late at night, while Owen and Fin were on shift together, the two men uncovered the landing at the base of the stairs that led to the entrance of the Great Crypt.

  And Hrawlgir woke.

  Chapter 24

  Owen

  Owen stood beside Fin as Lord Palin and Keep-Captain Awde examined the landing, the scaffolding, and the narrow opening through the rocks that led—they assumed—to the Great Crypt. Modwyn and Idwal stood nearby, waiting while the keep-captain and Lord Palin discussed the best way of proceeding. The tiles of the landing formed a mosaic of shapes, creating an overall geometric pattern, with words inscribed that none of them could read. Every time Owen stared at them too long, they set his nerves on edge, giving him a headache.

  By using a framework of support beams, they had managed to create a small tunnel beneath the rubble—three times the length of a man—with just enough room to crawl through. Fin and Owen had been on night shift together when they broke through, pushing the last large stone aside and opening up a path to a vast chamber on the other side. According to legend, the Great Crypt had been built within a massive cavern housing the Greywynne family’s dead. That late at night, most of the soldiers were still sleeping up in the keep far above them. They had immediately gone and found the keep-captain, who brought Lord Palin, who insisted on bringing Modwyn, who dragged along Idwal.

  With the Great Crypt open before them, Modwyn had argued that a small party could easily crawl through, find Sight-Bringer, and get back out again—perhaps taking only minutes. And while Owen was terrified at the thought of crawling through that tunnel into the crypt where Serina had died, the only way to leave that cursed place again was with the sword. They had gone all this way, fought through the Feldwyn Swamp, and then labored for days at unblocking the opening. The end to the expedition was tantalizingly close.

  “My lord,” said Keep-Captain Awde, repeating his argument once more, “there’s no need for you to go. I can do this with one of the men.” The keep-captain had been trying to convince the young man for some minutes, but Lord Palin wasn’t listening.

  “It’s my responsibility,” said Lord Palin.

  “The tunnel is dangerous. It can come down at any moment. If that happens, your sister will be the last surviving member of the Dain family, and your cousin will become duke. Do you want that?”

  The young man looked away but shook his head. “I’m going in.”

  Keep-Captain Awde sighed. “At least let me go first, with another, just to make sure it’s safe.”

  “I’ll go. I don’t mind,” said Owen. He had no desire to go, but if the young lord felt he owed Owen, he might be more likely to consider Owen’s request to free him from his oat
h of service.

  “I should go as well, my Lord,” said Modwyn, stepping closer. “There are undoubtedly deep vapors within the crypt. You’ll need me.”

  “No, I don’t think we will!” snapped Awde.

  “We’ve talked enough,” said Lord Palin. “Let’s go find the sword and leave this damned haunted place and all its nightmares. I haven’t had a decent sleep in days. You can go first, Captain. I’ll follow with the doctor behind me. This one”—he pointed at Owen—“should come last, just in case he gets stuck.”

  Owen stared suspiciously at the tunnel. Can I get stuck?

  “Maybe I should go,” said Fin.

  Keep-Captain Awde glanced at Fin, but Owen spoke up first. “No, I’m going.”

  Fin frowned, pursing his lips. “Owen—”

  “Enough.” Lord Palin unbuckled his sword belt. “If we’re fast, we can find the sword and be back out again before we finally decide who is and isn’t coming. It’s those I’ve already named—and let’s get on with it. If we’re lucky, we can be back on our way to Stron’s Watch and Port Eaton before the sun rises.”

  Keep-Captain Awde nodded. “All right, Toscovar, you come. Bring the fighting axe along with you—just in case ghouls do live forever.”

  Owen handed Fin his sword. His armor was up in the keep, with the rest of his belongings.

  Once ready, Keep-Captain Awde looked over them all. “What about these deep vapors, Doctor?” he asked.

  The physician patted a satchel hanging off his shoulder. “I have something that will help, but it’s best to wait until we get to the other side.”

  “Is it safe?” Lord Palin asked, watching the opening.

  “It’s doubtful there will be deep vapors this close to the entrance, my lord. Once we get within the Great Crypt, though, we can apply my protections then.”