The Vexation of Vampires (Penny White Book 5)

by Chrys Cymri

  A cluster of brown and tan bodies rose from the town. I held a hand over my forehead, peering through the bright sunlight. As the flock of gryphons came nearer, I saw that they held chains in their talons. The links led to black pots, which swung several feet below their bellies.

  ‘Quick, Magister,’ I told Elthan. ‘Get everyone away from the tents.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I have a bad feeling about this.’ The air shimmered above the open pots. ‘Please, just do it.’

  ‘Evacuate the camp!’ Elthan shouted. ‘Every one of you, find your families and neighbours, and evacuate the camp!’

  The vampires hurried to obey. The townspeople growled and shouted. I glanced around, wondering where I should go. And, as I hesitated, the shadows of the gryphons passed over us. The harsh scent of burning wood trailed behind them, and with a sickening lurch I knew that I’d been right.

  I whirled around. Bats flew away from the camp, screeching in confusion and fear. Adult vampires and not-weres rushed off in all directions. The gryphons hovered for a moment, their ears twitching and tails lashing as they watched the chaos below. I felt some of the tension ease from my shoulders. They were deliberately waiting until the area was clear.

  ‘We have no desire to kill your colony,’ the unicorn told me. ‘We’re merciful, unlike you vampires.’

  The gryphons exchanged a series of growls, and then each of them took position over a tent. With a series of loud whistles, they let go of the chains. The pots tumbled onto the cloth and leather, spilling burning coals. ‘Merciful?’ I asked as the tents caught on fire. ‘This is merciful? You’re destroying the colony’s shelter and possessions.’

  Then, to my horror, I saw a second set of gryphons rising from the town. More destruction was promised in the containers swinging below their bodies. I threw back my head and shouted, ‘Raven!’

  Chapter Twenty

  A distant roar let me know that I’d been heard. A green-black body was suddenly in the air, arrowing towards me. Most of the townspeople scattered as the search dragon came close, only the unicorn refusing to flee. Raven pulled up a short distance above my head, the downbeats of his wings blowing the hair back from my face. ‘Why did you call?’

  ‘The gryphons. They’re destroying the camp!’

  He snorted. ‘What’s that to do with us?’

  ‘Please, Raven,’ I begged. ‘Stop the gryphons from dropping any more fire.’

  For a long moment he hovered, head turning between me and the advancing flock. Then his ears and horns swivelled forwards. ‘Very well, pugnacious Penny.’ His wings pumped and his sides swelled as he rose into the air.

  ‘But try not to hurt them!’ I shouted after him.

  His tail snapped in response. Clyde crawled out of his case and up to my shoulder, and his tentacles brushed against my cheek. ‘Dragon help.’

  ‘Yes.’ I paused, then admitted, ‘I’m a bit surprised. There’s nothing in it for him.’

  ‘You,’ Clyde responded.

  Raven flew straight towards the gryphons. Their pace slowed as the dragon drew near. ‘Back!’ he ordered, his loud voice punctuated by flashes of orange and yellow. ‘Or I’ll show you what real flames taste like!’

  The gryphons opened their claws and released the pots. As the contents rolled across the grass, I could only hope that the ground wasn’t dry enough for the meadow to catch on fire. They turned tail and fled back to the town, urged on by a few bouts of exhaled dragon flame.

  ‘We’ll not attack any further,’ the unicorn told me, his dark eyes fixed on Raven’s returning form. ‘But the colony is to be gone by morning.’

  ‘You’ve just destroyed half of their tents--’

  ‘By morning!’ He reared, silver hooves flashing inches from my face. Then he whirled and set off at a gallop towards the town.

  Raven dropped down and landed between the disappearing unicorn and the camp. His head swung back towards me, but he was too far away for me to read his expression. A final burst of flame flared from his jaws, and then he wiped his snout against the grass.

  ‘Hurt,’ Clyde said. ‘Help?’

  ‘Yes, you’re quite right.’ I placed him back inside the case and turned around. The vampires had regrouped. The not-weres galloped between the nearby river and the camp, the vampires riding on their backs clutching buckets of water which they then threw over the tents. I coughed as the breeze blew over the stench of burning cloth and leather.

  A scream made me freeze. Then I forced myself to stumble towards the source, fighting back my fear of what I might find. My hands patted my pockets as I tried to remember what I carried in my coat. A bottle of water, some oat cakes, a hip flask. Not much to work with.

  I ducked around several smoking ruins, and had to jump out of the way of a charging not-were who seemed half-crazed by the morning’s events. A second cry of pain pulled me towards a destroyed tent.

  An old woman had been pulled clear. The other vampires stood near her, obviously at a loss. As was I. Her legs were badly burnt, the flesh a mixture of black and red. The smell reminded me of a summer barbecue, and I swallowed hard against the lurch in my stomach.

  The rattling sound of her breath made me suspect that her lungs had also been damaged. I forced myself to come close and to kneel at her side. ‘I'm here, we’re here,’ I said as soothingly as I could. I reached out and took one cold hand in mine. ‘We’re here, you’re not alone.’

  ‘Gone,’ she replied miserably. ‘My home be gone.’

  I felt truth pull at my shoulders. ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘And me? Soon I’ll also be gone.’

  Her laboured breathing and the blood oozing from her wounds made me fear that she was right. ‘Is there anything we can do for you?’

  ‘I be a Kemet. Please, sing the parting words to me.’

  Where was Morey when I needed him? I looked up at the faces surrounding us. ‘Anybody know what that means?’

  ‘Egyptian,’ one offered. ‘Osiris, Anubis, Horus.’

  On second thought, perhaps it was just as well that Morey wasn’t nearby. ‘I don’t know the song for your gods. May I offer you what we sing in my own tradition?’ I paused, but she was already moving beyond words. So I took a deep breath. ‘“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.”’ Clyde’s tenor voice joined in at the second verse. ‘“For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel.” Go in peace, to the gods whom you have followed, and which will reward your devotion.’

  Morey would have had sharp words to say to me about my liberal laxness. But the old woman looked at peace as her last breath shuddered through her body. Her fingers loosened in mine, and I allowed her hand fall to her side.

  I rose to my feet. Several more people were stretched out on the grass, although none of them appeared to be as badly burnt as the dead vampire. Two not-weres came close, a makeshift stretcher lashed between their horse bodies. One man was lifted onto the blanket and taken away. What sort of medical facility could the camp possess? I wondered. The town probably had a doctor, but there was no point applying for help from that source.

  Clyde’s tentacles were poking out of the top of his case. ‘Help.’

  ‘How?’ I asked. ‘I don't have any supplies or medical training.’

  He pointed down. ‘Hands.’

  Yes, he was right. I could at least fetch and carry. ‘Don’t get lost,’ I warned him as I let him loose. And then, putting aside the nausea I felt near the not-weres, I helped the vampires place the injured onto stretchers.

  I stopped to accept a bowl of stew as a late lunch. The tents which had escaped damage had been taken down. As I spooned vegetable chunks into my mouth, I watched vampires roll up the cloth and leather sides before lifting them onto the backs of the not-weres.

  Clyde slid up to my boots. ‘Going?’

  ‘Yes, they are.’
I bent down and picked him up. ‘What have you been doing?’

  ‘Making the children laugh,’ Elthan said as he came to our side. ‘They be very amused by his colour changes. My thanks to you, malwen siarc. You kept them occupied whilst the rest of us dealt with the damage.’

  ‘And what is the overall damage?’

  ‘Fifteen tents destroyed. Twenty people be injured. Five dead.’ The magister’s tone was grim. ‘We be thankful to the dragon. Do please call for him.’

  I sighed. ‘Once I do, he’ll probably want us to leave.’

  ‘It be time for you to leave.’ He rubbed a hand across his forehead, leaving behind a black line of soot. ‘We be leaving ourselves.’

  ‘How will you transport the injured?’

  ‘On those.’ Elthan pointed at several wooden carts which vampires were lining with blankets. ‘Comfortable, it will not be, but we must be going.’

  ‘Raven might be willing to guard your group for awhile?’

  The vampire managed to chuckle. ‘Dragons I know, Priest Penny. He stayed only for you. And you can’t be with us always. Townspeople never chase our backs. Call him, let us give thanks, and then go.’

  I walked to the edge of the camp. Raven was curled up on the grass, his head turned towards the town. I waved and called out his name. He rose, shook out his wings, and swooped across the field to land in front of me. ‘This place smells of carrion.’

  ‘There was a lot of damage,’ I replied. ‘Vampires were burned. Some died.’

  Raven snorted. ‘Death happens.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ I said steadily. ‘But this was just cruel.’

  ‘You care too much.’

  I narrowed my eyes. ‘Yes, I do care about people, whatever their species. But you helped them as well. Why?’

  He turned his head away from me, horns and ears twisting low against his head. ‘Because you wanted it. And, for some reason, your happiness has become as nearly as important to me as my own.’

  My mouth dried as my mind scrabbled for a suitable response. Clyde made a satisfied noise, and when I glanced down at him, he said simply, ‘Yes.’

  The sound of grass swishing around boots made me turn around. Elthan and several dozen vampires came up to us. I looked for Geffrai, and was relieved to see the young man standing nearby. The magister dipped his head. ‘We thank you, dragon, for your help. Know that you might be a search dragon, but you be with friends here.’

  I was surrounded by outcasts, I realised. Snail shark, vampires, search dragon. All were feared for varying reasons. And yet they had found common ground with each other. What sort of country could Lloegyr be, if the races put aside their differences and worked together?

  Then I thought of the history of my own world, and I felt my hope wisp away.

  ‘Friends,’ Raven repeated. For a moment I feared that he would destroy the moment. But he merely added, ‘I will remember.’

  He held out a foreleg. I climbed up to his neck, and slid Clyde’s case around to the front.

  ‘Wait, Father Penny.’ The title made me straighten. A young woman strode to the front of the group. ‘Will you say some prayers for us? And give us your blessing?’

  I hesitated, wondering if she spoke for the majority. But I saw acceptance on the faces lifted up towards me. ‘Let us pray. Dear God, draw close to this colony, and to all those who travel together to seek a better life. Comfort us as we grieve over those who have died today, and place your healing hand on those who are in pain. Give us a safe journey onwards. Amen.’

  ‘Amen,’ at least a dozen voices echoed.

  ‘Let’s say the Lord’s Prayer together, if you know it.’ I realised that I was taking a gamble, but a good number of voices joined mine as I recited, ‘“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil--”’

  Raven reared. I grunted as my back slammed against a spine. Then he hopped across the field, his sides shuddering as if he were fighting for breath. ‘Raven?’ I called out. ‘What’s wrong?’

  My legs trembled as a high-pitched voice emerged from his throat. ‘Fy enw?'

  'Your name is Raven,' I insisted. ‘Hrafn Eydisson. That is your name.’

  ‘Nid fy enw i,’ he squeaked. ‘Nid fy enw i.’

  I tried to turn around on his neck, intending to swing my leg over and drop to the ground. But Raven lurched us upwards, his wings slapping awkwardly at the air. I leaned forward and clung onto the spine in front of me.

  Camp and town fell away below us. ‘Earth!’ I shouted at the flicking ears. ‘Northampton. Vicarage.’ Suddenly I didn’t care what the neighbours might see. ‘Home!’

  ‘Home?’

  ‘My home! England! Northampton!’

  Raven spun to the left, and I felt my lunch shift uncomfortably in my stomach. Clyde had extended his tentacles from the case, and the orange and green swirling around his eyespots showed his own concern. ‘Name?’

  ‘Yes, Clyde,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘He keeps saying that I’m not using his name.’

  ‘Ask title.’

  Now we were spinning to the right. I took several quick breaths, then called out in Welsh, ‘What is your title?’

  The wings extended, taking us into a long glide. Raven turned his head back to look at me. ‘Arweinydd bonheddig.’

  I managed to lean far enough to one side to throw up without it splattering back into my face. Raven had said ‘Noble Leader’. The title of Clyde’s long dead mother. And I hadn’t a clue what I should do now.

  Before I could stop him, Clyde zoomed out of his carrier. Raven, or whatever was controlling his flight, had levelled out and we were coasting over a forest. The snail crawled along the dragon’s neck. I forced myself to watch, praying desperately that his slime would bind him securely to the smooth scales.

  ‘Mam,’ Clyde called out. ‘Tir.’

  ‘Tir ble?’ the eerie voice came back. Land where?

  ‘Where you last remember!’ Clyde responded in Welsh. And his body went nearly black from the effort of delivering such a long sentence.

  The dragon pulled up into a hover. We hung in the sky for a long moment, his lashing tail cracking against the tops of the trees. Then he took us higher. The long jaws opened, and the lips drew back. Down Raven sliced, his teeth cutting through the air. And, to my amazement, I saw the same shimmer as when Clyde had cut a passage through to his homeland. Raven had just created a thin place.

  ‘Hold on!’ I screamed at the snail shark. Clyde opened his belly and wrapped himself around the nearest spine. The dragon pulled up his legs and dropped us through. Somehow, I managed not to bring up any more of my lunch.

  A dizzying glance at dark wet rooftops and small back gardens told me that we were back in England. We were falling through damp air, the ground spinning towards us. Raven’s wings flashed past my vision. I could feel his muscles straining under my legs as he fought to slow our rate of descent.

  His feet sunk deep into grass. I grabbed at his spine as he pitched forward. He managed to stay upright, although I heard his tail crashing through the fence behind us.

  I pulled my right leg over and dropped to the ground. The distance was greater than I’d expected, and my left foot nearly folded under me. I ignored the slash of pain as I hurried along the writhing neck. Clyde’s eyespots angled towards my upheld palms. With an effort that left red gashes in the dragon’s black spine, the snail pulled his teeth free. Clyde hurled his body towards me, and I caught him up against my chest.

  Raven lifted his head and howled. I froze at the sound. It was both dragon and snail, guttural and high-pitched, as if two beings were battling over the same vocal cords. He swung his head around, and I saw a strange brightness in his blue-green eyes. His tail rose and fell, splintering wooden planks.

  ‘And what on
earth is going on here?’

  The all-too-familiar voice broke through my paralysis. I turned slowly, carefully, aware that my work in the vampire camp had left streaks of soot across my clothes and face. Clyde had said that we should land in the last place his mother remembered. And so we’d been brought here, the place where she’d died. The garden of Earls Barton Man.

  ‘Hello, sir,’ I said politely. The man, of course, would be unable to see the snail pressed against me or the dragon writhing in agony across his flower beds. ‘Could I ask you to go inside, please?’

  ‘What have you done to my fence?’ The man took off his glasses and gave them a wipe. ‘And what have you done to my petunias?

  ‘Please, do go inside,’ I all but begged. ‘There’s a disturbance in your garden--’

  ‘I can see that!’

  I took a deep breath, and admitted the truth to myself. ‘And I’m going to have to do an act of deliverance.’ Earls Barton Man looked at me blankly. ‘An exorcism.’

  ‘What? Here? At my house?’ He shook his head. ‘What will the neighbours say?’

  ‘I’ll keep quiet about it if you will.’ Raven’s golden claws were tearing at the ground. ‘Please, sir, go inside. I’m a vicar, remember? I know what I’m doing.’

  And, ironically, it was at that lie that he snorted, then disappeared back into the house.

  Clyde slid to the ground. My hands were trembling so hard that I nearly dropped my iPhone. But I managed to turn it on, look up the contact, and press the phone number. Please be in, please God let him be in, I prayed fervently. And, after three rings, a male voice responded, ‘St Mark’s Rectory.’

  ‘Gregory, it’s Penny.’ Raven’s head swung around, and I stumbled backwards. ‘I need your help.’

  ‘I’m in a meeting at the moment, so if I could call you back--’

  ‘It can’t wait. It’s Raven. I think, well, I think he’s possessed. By Clyde’s mother.’ The dragon let out his strange cry again. ‘See what I mean? That’s not his voice.’

  ‘Penny, I don’t have the Sight, so I can’t hear him. Are you safe? Should you get away from him?’