by Bre Faucheux
A heavy rain fell over the dreary landscape. The fires tampered down slowly as mist veiled the entire hillside from the extinguished flames. They retreated to the far end of the fortress to find Nayati standing there awaiting them in the downpour.
“Is it finished?” said Jamison.
“Not quite,” he replied. Nayati’s grin was nearly as confident as Jayden’s.
“You seemed pleased,” said Madison.
“We have another visitor.”
Nayati turned around and brought them to the outer corner of the fortress where he had kept Lyndon.
Caspar was pinned with arrows to the outer wall of the fortress, his feet dangling above the ground.
“Lyndon spotted him trying to bring a fresh crop of blood to his newly created vampyrs in the cavern below,” said Nayati. “Turns out, he had special plans for these ones. He wanted them to survive.”
Caspar sputtered and groaned in pain. The arrows went through both his hands, nailing him to the rock behind him.
Everyone stopped to stare at Lyndon.
“I told you I would have if I could,” said Lyndon. “Well, this time I could.”
“Yes, after you snatched my bow from hands,” argued Nayati.
“Forgive me, but for this one instant, my need was greater than yours.”
Nayati rolled his eyes and faced Jamison, not wishing to dredge on how it was accomplished.
“I think the vampyrs were a mere diversion so he could help the others recover,” said Nayati. “If he had succeeded, we may not have overcome them all.”
Caspar laughed. The prospect of them being able to overtake him was as amusing as it was shocking to him.
“I will give you credit only where it’s due, Caspar,” said Jamison, “you certainly know how to move about undetected. But unfortunately for you, so do my men.”
“I spent my entire life as a lowly servant to others, too meager to be noticed unless I erred,” he said. “Did you expect me to be any different now?”
“Oh, believe me,” said Jamison, “we have noticed. More people than you can possibly imagine have noticed. They just won’t know the extent of what you have done.”
“Oh yes, they will. For centuries to come they will. My work will not be forgotten,” he said defiantly.
“Your work? You caused a plague upon the whole of Europe!” Madison yelled at him.
“As have most great men,” he shouted.
“You think yourself great?” said Jamison, hardly having the inertia to argue with such a man. He let his repulsion be well known through his emotions, penetrating Caspar’s with ease. Caspar had obviously not spent a great amount of time adhering to the development of his other skills as a vampyr.
“A great man, no, sir,” he said. “I leave that to men like yourself. I merely relished the possibilities all this afforded me.”
Caspar’s grin didn’t leave his face. Madison hadn’t seen a person of this kind before. The Vam-pyr-ei-ak were vicious and self-serving, Jayden was defiant and yet confident. Jamison, noble. The Sioux warriors, self-sacrificing. The man bleeding down the walls of the fortress standing before her had no true motivation to speak of other than the fact that he could do it, thus he did.
“The power lays within the creation itself, dear girl. Don’t you know?”
“So you did this for the mere enjoyment of being able to do so?” she retorted.
“And to relish watching these barbarians fall to us,” he said leering at Nayati. “Don’t tell me that the thought never occurred to you.”
Madison was the only one to immediately capture his meaning, having already thought it a possibility the night she sat by Jayden at the fire ring among the Sioux people.
“You were creating an army,” she said blatantly. She walked away a pace, still overwhelmed by his resolve.
Jamison looked to her trying to feel for what she meant, only to scoff when the realization struck him.
“An army to defeat the Vam-pyr-ei-ak, Caspar? You cannot be serious?” Jamison felt the urge to laugh. “I did not see you as a vengeful man.”
“Vengeful? No.” he said laughing. “But it sounds thrilling, does it not?”
“A little too late, Caspar. The pleasure was all mine,” said Jayden. “And I need not bring others into it to do my deeds for me. Few of the Vam-pyr-ei-ak live now.”
Silence fell over them. The Sioux warriors waited for Jamison to respond. He stared forth in the distance at the village below.
“Unfortunately for you, Caspar, I know of other ways to exert my power over the situation,” said Jamison.
The fires died down as rain fell in heavy drops. Wet and bleeding Caspar struggled to get loose. The wet stone caused him to slip as his feet reached to support his weight, causing the wounds to deepen.
“Stand guard of him,” said Jamison. “I will return. And get the others out of that cavern. I suspect it may suffer a cave in soon.”
Within minutes Jamison had brought back a wooden coffin from the village. He ripped it open and took out the nails and chains inside it that had once held Jayden down. The villagers had new coffins ready for the moment they captured another vampyr.
“I see no reason, Caspar, why you should be treated any differently from the way your other ‘creations’ were.”
Caspar no longer had a smirk across his face.
Akecheta and Mahkah ripped him away from the wall, leaving parts of his skin with it still on the arrows. Not allowing time for his hands to completely heal, they pinned him into the coffin with their bare hands. Jamison held him down whilst Madison did the deed of nailing him to the wooden base and wrapping the chain about him. She couldn’t help but feel satisfied by putting down the man who nearly burned her to death. Not to mention the cross she bared of witnessing the happenings of the plague across Europe. Nayati standing by held Lyndon back as they watched. A warning of what would happen to him if he were to cross them. Lyndon didn’t try to stop them, nor did a word of protest leave his mouth. They did what he felt he could never accomplish.
If there remained any villagers near enough still awake at that hour, they undoubtedly heard Caspar’s cries. He fought them with anything and everything he had.
They stepped back to take one final look at him before closing the lid.
“I’m guessing that it was easier to overtake me when I was defenseless, was it not Caspar?” said Madison spitefully.
“And how does it feel, dear girl?” he said, spitting and snarling through his teeth. “Now that you hold the power over others?”
“I feel nothing but pity, you fool,” she spoke softly. “For all the victims of your carnage.”
There was only enough time to see bewilderment cross his face before Jamison shut the lid to the coffin. No cries oozed out anymore. Casper knew the upper hand had been taken. Rather he began to laugh again. Madison felt herself searching through his emotions one final time, trying to understand him. She couldn’t. Fortitude would not afford her an explanation for his insanity, or how it had been permitted to cause such suffering. There was no other way to see it now but a tragedy, one that the Vam-pyr-ei-ak foresaw as their only salvation.
Akecheta and Jamison took the coffin within their hands and carried it into the depths of the cavern. Caspar’s victims, still sick from their gradual change into vampyrs lay just outside it now.
“What is to be done with them?” asked Madison looking at the ten people lying helplessly on the ground.
Nayati answered as the others disappeared into the shadows ahead. “We will heal them of their thirst. Then the rest is up to them. Nothing more can be done,” he said gravely.
“Do you regret having to be here?” she asked.
“No. We are the privileged few, Madison. We know what we are and we have a purpose for living. Others with this affliction will merely have to find ways to continue their lives as immortals. I daresay it is not as easy a task as it may appear.” He stopped to look at her, sincerity passing through him.
>
The others appeared from behind the veil of darkness within the cave before them, without the casket in tow. A small light broke through the blackness and Jamison took his place beside her. The enclosed space set aflame before their eyes. Madison waited to hear Caspar’s screams, but they never came. Nothing but the sound a roaring blaze reached their ears. Madison hoped to feel relief from the knowledge that Caspar was no more. But there was none. Lyndon waited behind them, growing increasingly reassured that this wouldn’t be his fate too.
One by one, the people whose coughs had been lulled down into a deep slumber were taken to nearby lodging. A descent distance away from the fortress, a quiet and undisturbed village slept. A stable for horses made for a suitable accommodation until the people recovered. Madison did her best to tend to the children amongst the victims. As much as she abhorred it now, she took what little blood she could from the local people to feed their needs, but only enough to get by.
She expected that a few of the people resting before her were families, unfortunate enough to all be drinking from the same well that Caspar had poisoned with his blood. In a few days, they would awaken with new lives. And within that same day, Jamison and the others would be forced to heal them of their new affliction. She only wished that the others who had been misled to attack her brother and new companions had been so fortunate as to know another way existed.
It was then that she realized it was only right to give Lyndon what he desired. He said himself that he never wished to be this way, or to live with the knowledge that he didn’t have to service his constant need for blood.
“Your sympathy is well guided,” said Akecheta as he came to sit beside her as she fed one of Caspar’s victims. He took blood from the bowl that she had collected and fed it to a teenage girl laying near him. “But there will be more in the future beyond saving. We will have no choice but to end them.”
“We must try when we can, sir,” she said. “If we do not make the effort, then we are no better in our search to end this violence.”
“I would not have learned how to heal vampyrs from their thirst if I had no intention of doing it. I promise you, Madison. We will do what we can whenever possible.”
26
It was over a fortnight before the group of people Jamison discovered within the cavern were completely healed. Madison knew she would be better off not knowing too much about them. She left that duty to Jamison. When Madison looked at them, all she saw were their children. Young people who would never age. The cruelty of what Caspar had done to them was beyond the mere act of changing them into vampyrs. Their eternal youth would undoubtedly destroy them once they came to understand what they had become.
The small town they had come across managed to stay ignorant of their presence there. Madison watched as Jamison and the others performed their healing practice on Caspar’s victims. She knew she would eventually need to learn how to do it herself. But for now, she only desired to be left alone. After the deed was done, she rarely returned to the stable if only to check on their progress. Akecheta and Mahkah taught them how to hunt for blood without killing, which proved simpler than any of them expected. Jayden took to guarding their small gathering and urging away townspeople without having to utter a word.
A few of Caspar’s victims saw fit to leave within days of being healed, not wishing to learn everything that they could from them. Jamison accepted this as inevitable. The way people dealt with their new reality would always be different.
Madison found herself returning to the fortress they had nearly burned to the ground. The cavern caved in and was impenetrable. During the day, what was left of the local village population worked on the fortress. Noble men would visit the workers from time to time to see their progress. It was the perfect area to build such a structure, she thought. From it, all the surrounding lands could be viewed. Armies could be gathered, and the region was protected. Although a significant amount was still charred from the fires, she expected the forest would heal in time. The rain saved most of the land surrounding the fortress.
After the workers had left, she wondered its walls. The sky leering down on her was more ominous than it had been when she was at sea not even a year prior. And even though her new eyes and body could sense the brittle atmosphere with greater sharpness, she felt nearly numb to the future ahead of them.
“Why so somber?” asked Jamison from behind. Madison had her legs dangling off the side of the tall stone wall of the fortress, which was beginning to look more like a castle in its form.
“You realize that their children will never grow old?” she said gazing forward. “Their lives are forever paralyzed in time.”
“Their mother and father are only thrilled their children are not dead.”
Madison looked at him, her empathy clearly revealed in her eyes. Jamison took the spot next to her and gazed at the view before them. It was different somehow. Everything was a foggy mist before, as if the region held secrets that couldn't be viewed by anyone. Now, the moon’s light illuminated everything. They could see the expanse before them even after the sun had gone.
“Their way will be much more difficult, yes, I agree. But they will have each other. In the same way you and I have each other. And these men with us are our family now. They are your brothers as they are mine.”
Madison nodded in agreement.
“He was one them, Madison,” he said, his tone severe. She knew he required her full attention. “A long time ago, Inazin was one of them.”
“One of who?”
“The Vam-pyr-ei-ak,” he said.
Madison thought back to Inazin, not sure how she could have missed something like that.
“The rayen does more than just protect from those who can perceive us, Madison. It protects from other vampyrs sensing us.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because he told me,” he said. “He wore rayen around his neck to keep other tribes, including you from sensing he was not human. He lives through the centuries; he takes a wife with each generation, and provides for his people. We are of a long line, one that must be preserved. We are not the first to take this journey of watching man’s progress and guiding it. But we must be the first to succeed.”
“I am not following, Jamison,” she said quickly.
He waited before responding, allowing her to absorb what he had said. “The name of their tribe was the Vam-pyr-ei-ak, as you well know. In their native tongue, it means “elders,” and elders meaning the “old ones” of their tribe. They lived through the centuries to guide their people. And Inazin had been one of them. In fact, I believe that he may have been the first.”
Madison didn’t speak, but waited for him to continue.
“They created an elixir to preserve their age thus they could remain alive to safe guard their tribe during tumultuous times. There had been a period of war between tribes, and their chiefs saw this as a means to protect their people. But the elixir proved too dangerous.”
“And Inazin found a way to cure them of it,” she said quietly.
Jamison nodded in response. “They liked their new found abilities and used them against neighboring tribes. They ousted Inazin for trying to convince them that they could be cured of their thirst. They grew out of control and became a danger to their people. It took years, but the thirst did eventually taper off and they rebuilt their efforts.”
“How did Inazin find a tribe to take him in after what he had become?”
“After curing himself, which from what he told me was not an easy process, he took from their victim’s families. The Vam-pyr-ei-ak left many orphaned from their violence. With no place to go and no knowledge of what was happening, their children took to Inazin without hesitation. His tribe is a mixture from many. He took time to cultivate it and care for their well-being.”
“Did you learn how this elixir is made?” she asked.
“That was Inazin’s reassurance that I should return one day. He did not tell me how it was mad
e. Only that it came from the same magic the Vam-pyr-ei-ak used to create a deathly wave and fires to overtake our small settlement in their lands. And I must return one day, Madison. I gave Inazin my word that I would. He said that learning how the wave and fire were created must be learned only when the opportune moment arrives.”
“But he did not tell you when?” she asked skeptically.
Jamison smiled at her. “No, sister, it has yet to come. But something tells me that when it does, it will do more than disrupt a small settlement of travelers. I fear that I may have to return before he wishes it. We now have more questions that must be answered.”
“Such as who fed Jayden during his change?” she asked.
“Yes, and how the storm was created. The Vam-pyr-ei-ak have some kind of command and mastery over earthly elements. I don’t know about you, but that is a skill I definitely want to acquire.”
Madison took for a second to completely digest what Jamison was telling her.
“Why were they so careless to change us if they knew the brutality that would ensue?” she asked. “Jayden killed so many of them, as did Lyndon and Caspar.” She could not comprehend a people who controlled so much only to choose a path towards losing it all.
“As did I. The ends justified the means to them. They came to think of more than just their tribe. The whole of their lands is at risk of being overtaken by the coming of white men to their shores. It was a necessary loss to them if it meant stopping what was to come.”
“Now they become self-sacrificing?”
“I am beginning to think that they are only bound by the threat of a common enemy. We were the first true threat they had come across in ages. If the white men were to overtake their lands, they also overtake their control of it,” he said.
Jamison looked at her, holding her full attention. “We were meant to arrive on their shores,” he reassured her. “They were meant to change us. And then we were meant to return and infect to whole of Europe. This was their plan. We could not overtake them if the white men were defeated as a whole.”
