He burst forth from his room at the shrine, formerly a cell that he'd been incarcerated in, in his usual fashion, sucking all of the air out of the room as he exploded onto the scene.
"Good morning," he grinned at Alerkat, the priest.
Alerkat grumbled a greeting to him.
"Probably too early to be so cheerful," Opal agreed, and he sauntered over to the window for one quick look outside.
Cameo was sitting on a bench on one side of the large, brick coach stop building.
"What? She's back?! She's back!" He stood up and touched his jacket. "Not fine enough." With that he spun on heel and dashed back into his loaned room, tore into his things, and found his newest frock and his duster.
Opal raced back out, nearly knocking Caith over in the process. "She's back," he beamed at the acolyte, who didn't really seem to understand what in Faetta he was talking about, but Opal swept out the door and into the snow without explaining further.
"Darling," he cooed as he reached her.
Cameo closed her hand around an object that she'd been toying with. "Hello, Opal."
He stepped over the other side of the circular bench and sat down beside her, taking her hand in his. "You've been gone for three days. Are you all right?"
She grasped his hand in hers tightly, turning it over. "You have your hands back."
"Yes," he offered a delighted smile. "That lad Kyrian. He's quite a magician."
"Ah, yes. Magician."
"What is it, love? Has something happened?" He sidled up closer to her.
Cameo cast a sidelong glance at him and smiled thoughtfully, as if trying to break some news to him gently. "Haffef caught up with me, drained most of my blood, and left me lying in the forest somewhere. It took me a day or so to recover.... I'm a little confused about the time that was lost."
Opal reached for her other hand but she moved it out of his reach long enough to deposit Jules' bone into a pocket, something that happened too quickly for the dandy to actually take notice of, and then she set her hand back into her lap nonchalantly.
"How did he find you? I didn't think you could hear Haffef now. Isn't that what you told Jules back in the barn?"
"Yes."
Opal put one hand on his rapier. "Did he attack you when you weren't expecting him?"
"I agreed to go with Jules the next time the Master called him."
"What? Why in heaven's name would you agree to something like that?" He shook his head, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. How could that boy be so bold with your welfare? When I see him again I'll—"
"He's dead," she said suddenly. The finality of it unsettled her, but she kept her face smooth, detached.
"I take it you mean more dead than he was the last time I spoke to him?"
Cameo smiled weakly, "Yes."
"Well ...." He pulled his duster closed. "The important thing is that you're still alive."
She met his eye. Opal's charm never seemed to leave her less than fascinated. "Haffef told me he's planning to revive my sister."
"What? How?"
"I'm not certain, but that's why he wanted my blood. He said he'd been keeping me around all of this time because he planned to use me to bring Ivy back to life, and apparently only the blood of a close relative would bring her back." She sighed. "He also blamed me for my sister's death. Which is very ... odd. I think he knew her."
"Oh?"
"Yes." She paused to gather her wits. "I think she was mixed up with him somehow. This is going to sound completely strange, but she originally wasn't going to take the job, but—"
"What job?"
"Uh, right. Well, when I was alive, I worked for the Belfour family ... in the kitchens." She stopped for a moment allowing that last bit of information to sink in. It wasn't glamorous, nor exciting, and actually she had been nothing more than a wench, someone Opal would've used and cast aside in a instant. She wasn't quite certain how he was going to take this new piece of knowledge.
"This explains why you aren't upset to be holding the hand of Francois Mond," he smiled.
"Quite. You're my hero. The hero to all of the lower class."
He waved that idea away. "If that had been the case, someone besides the royal guard would have released me from the pillory in Villoise."
She mused, "No, I think you're still very popular there."
"With Avamore, perhaps."
"Anyhow, some of the noble lords set out on a hunting party in Terrence, and I was to go along, as kitchen staff, to prepare meals for them. It was pretty good coin, so I wrote and asked if my sister might like to go with us. She lived in Terrence at the time. Well, that's where I was from myself—"
"You're from Terrence? Bit of a slum these days, but it was rumored to be quite nice years ago. Didn't know Terrence Penmbrander by any chance, did you?" Opal chuckled, "I understand he was the self-righteous knight who founded that place."
Her smile faded. "Yes, I knew him."
"Well, really? I mean, he founded that place about seventy years ago, didn't he?"
"Something like that."
"You're seventy?"
"Of course not." Not quite, anyhow. "He was my father."
He moved to pull his hands out of hers, but she held his tight, smiling. "I thought you said you were kitchen help."
"By then I was."
"You're Terrence Penmbrander's daughter?"
"Eldest daughter."
"He was related to the Belfours."
"I know."
Opal's face paled.
"Yes. Your revolution took out most of my family." Her tone was matter-of-fact. "A family that turned its back on my mother, sister, and me the moment my father was disgraced. We were forced out of the keep that we lived in and reduced to poverty. Never once did they offer to lend a hand to help us, and the nobles that were on that hunt that day, so long ago, probably recognized us. Probably thought it funny to ... murder us," she said, leaving out some of the pieces of the story that she felt might sully her image for Opal. She wasn't about to tell him of the violent sexual attack she had endured. That might make her seem weak, dirty.... This seemed ridiculous to her even as it crossed her mind. After all, she was undead; did it really get any worse than that? But somehow, it still mattered after fifty years.
His mouth opened; it seemed that she had just told him everything ... and then it continued.
"And then Haffef came along in the night. Ivy was dead, but he restored my life. I thought he was just being kind. For years, I thought he was being kind, in his way, until he ordered me to dig up Ivy's remains. Then he became so cruel.... I was confused. I thought that he had murdered those noble lords because I had wanted to murder them, but they were already dead. Someone else had managed to get to them before I could. I thought he was doing me a kindness, in his dark way, but no. Then I met Edel, and he admitted that he had murdered them for Haffef, and that Haffef had been watching Ivy for a while.
"I had believed that Haffef had saved me from Gail. Clovis Gail DePell, the man we killed when I first met you. Do you remember?"
Opal nodded, forcing himself to shut his mouth.
"Gail had kept me prisoner for days when I had first become an undead ..." she trailed off, reminding herself to trim off some of the less savory parts of the Gail story. "And then Haffef saved me from Gail and flew me to the Association." She looked over at Opal, "Except I was wrong about that part. Edel had saved me from Gail, and then how did I repay him? By allowing Haffef to kill him." She took a deep breath and heard Opal about to speak, but she spoke instead, "And all of this time Haffef was really keeping me alive just to bring Ivy back to life. Apparently, he planned to do so right away, except that Edel had managed to steal my dead sister's body from Haffef and had it buried in a holy cemetery." She met Opal's eyes as if to pound home the information she was about to divulge. "It took Haffef fifty years to find her, and that was the night he insisted I go dig up those bones."
"But why does he want to bring her back, and how?"
"How? I don't know. Why? Again, hard to imagine, but I think he was in love with her."
"Love?" Opal's tone was dubious. "Does that creature even know what love is?"
"Maybe obsession is a more appropriate term," she said, weary.
"Perhaps."
"Anyhow. I'm done with him now." She stood up. "I'm free," she declared. "He can't call on me now. I can't hear him; we're no longer connected. Edel bit me, and as you've probably noticed, my supernatural condition has been changing. I am no longer in Haffef’s power, and so ... we are no longer connected. He can't find me. I'm free. He has Ivy now, thanks to my blood sacrifice, and I am leaving."
"You, you are?" He stood.
"Yes. I'm getting out of here. Going further south ... just leaving. I'm free for the first time in many years," she announced, stepping over the bench and walking out into the road.
"Wait! What of ... us?"
Cameo flashed him a smile. "Why do you think I came back here, Francois? Certainly not to hang out with a group of clerics."
"Right, of course. You are certain that you have nothing against the revolution or the ... revolutionaries?" he added awkwardly.
"Why? Are you afraid I'm going to kill you all of a sudden?"
He bit his lip. "Ha, yes. Silly of me."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I'm going to get my things. Don't leave." He hurried over to the shrine and stopped halfway. "Um, you don't have any more of the tincture on you, do you?"
"No, Opal. Although I was wondering what you had done with my cameo."
"Uhh ... I'll have to think about that. Hold on! Don't leave." He dashed into the shrine, pushing past the clerics who were apparently watching the entire conversation through the tiny window. "What are you all doing? Spying on me?"
"Oh, no ... no."
"Just about to set out the prayer books."
"Kyrian," Carrington shoved the lad toward Opal as he was disappearing into the cell he used.
"Uh, Opal. What's going on?"
"We're leaving," he beamed at Kyrian, then turned and packed up his things.
"Who? You and Cameo?"
"Of course, silly. Why? Did you want to join us?"
Kyrian leaned against the doorframe. "It's not as if she can really go anywhere with Haffef still around—"
"No, you're wrong. She's free. She told me." Opal checked his face in a mirror.
"How is that possible?"
The dandy stopped working for one moment and turned to face Kyrian. "Apparently Haffef got what he wanted from Cameo, and now she's free to leave. Something like that. Oh, and Edel bit her, and she isn't connected to Haffef anymore, so he's really no longer her master. We're leaving!"
Kyrian glanced over his shoulder at Carrington uncertainly. "Well, what did Haffef want from her?"
Opal threw his pack over his shoulder. "All of her blood. To bring her sister back to life, apparently."
"What?"
"I know, nightmarish, isn't it?" The dandy waltzed out the door, grinning. "Well, I'm off. Goodbye all!"
Carrington cracked the dandy over the back of the head with a pot as he crossed the floor.
Opal staggered and then crashed against a stack of prayer books and onto the floor.
"Opal!"
Carrington grabbed Kyrian by one shoulder, "Don't use your healing powers."
"You didn't have to hit him so hard!"
"He'll thank me for it later. Now, go talk to Cameo."
Alerkat, apparently hearing all the racket, came padding over. "What is going on?" Spying Opal sprawled out on the floor, he paled. "Who's done this?"
"It's all right," Carrington said softly.
"All right? This is a Temple of the Sun, young man! This is a place of sanctuary." He knelt over Opal, checking his head.
"This is the business of the high priests."
Alerkat shook his head disapprovingly. "We'll see about that. I will be writing a letter to them about this incident, lad. You can be certain of that."
"Do as you must."
"Younger generation," he muttered, dragging Opal back to the cot he'd been using.
Kyrian hesitated at the doorway.
"Go on." Carrington shoved the tattered book into Kyrian’s hands.
"What's this for?"
"In case she needs convincing." Carrington opened the door, patting Kyrian on the back and ushering him out.
The lad looked sheepishly up at Cameo, who was standing outside in the snow on the other side of the street. Far away from the glare of the shrine.
"I heard you were leaving," he said tentatively as he reached her.
"That's right." Cameo half turned, shielding her eyes from him. He was too painful to be around anymore. "I'm afraid I can't ask you to join us now, but I think you're probably happier with the company you're keeping now." She smiled at him thoughtfully, lowering her eyes as she did so.
"Um ... well, I guess so."
"They're priests and do-gooders, right? That should make you pretty pleased."
Kyrian traced another footprint in the snow with the toe of his boot. "I'd feel better if you were with us." He looked up at her. "We're going to defeat Haffef tonight, and we need you with us."
"I'm leaving with Opal, if he ever gets out here."
"He's not going."
"What?"
"He has ... changed his mind. Decided not to go."
Cameo looked at him, and then regretted doing so; his face was as bright as the sun. She staggered backward.
"I'm sorry—"
"No, don't come near me."
Kyrian stopped in his tracks. "Look, we need your help—"
"You'll never defeat Haffef."
"Why not? You hate him so, and yet you defend him!" Kyrian handed her the blue book. "He's not a god!"
The book itself had an aura, and Cameo's hands trembled as she held it. It was glowing with a light similar to that of Kyrian, his friends, and that shrine, although much less bright. It was uncomfortable to hold onto the book.
"You take it." She pushed it toward him.
"No, I want you to read it. It's book-marked. We think, we feel that you aren't a zombie."
"We?"
"Yes. Carrington, Sage, Caith, and myself. You're a lich. You could defeat Haffef. Well, you could at least control those zombies, and we would be able to kill the vampire."
"A what?"
"A lich."
She opened up the book and saw the picture of the skeletal creature casting a spell.
"I'm not skeletal."
"I know. You were held prisoner by Edel for a while. Did anything happen while you were there? Anything that could've altered your state? Made you a half-vampire? Did he bite you?"
"No. No, of course not."
Kyrian folded his arms across his chest. "Opal just told me he did."
She ignored him. "I can't cast spells."
"But you're magical, and that's all you need to be. You can see spirits."
"What? No."
"You can see Cyrus." He pressed. "And you found me being attacked by zombies. How did you do that?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "I felt drawn to your location."
"That's magic."
"Well, Jules was the same type of zombie that I am. Are you going to tell me that he was he a lich too?"
"Was?"
"He's gone. Took his own life."
Kyrian felt himself falter. Jules had asked for forgiveness, but Kyrian had given him none, and now.... "He did?"
"Yes. Burned himself to death."
"Fitting end," Kyrian heard himself say.
"Yes." She slammed the book shut, tossing it back at the lad and striding away.
"Cameo!"
"What do you want?" Her voice was cold as she stood in the middle of the street. Walking away should have been easier than Kyrian was making it.
"If Jules was like you, then the only answer is that, yes, he was a lich, too."
"Then why couldn't he control the undead?"
she rounded on him.
"So, it's true then? You can control spirits? You controlled those zombies? I thought maybe ... that it was the vampire."
"Answer the question."
"I don't know. Perhaps it was something dormant in him? Maybe you developed your abilities faster because ... of Edel? Because you are braver? I don't know. But I do know that you aren't a zombie, and you aren't a vampire, but you do control undead.
"Take the book with you and think about it." He gave the book back to her. "We'll be at Haffef's farm near dawn. If you come, you'll end Haffef. You'll stop the killing, put an end to his cruelty forever. If not, well ...."
"You idiots will die."
"Something like that."
She took the book from him, shaking her head at his stupidity, then turned and walked away.
Kyrian took a couple steps backward toward the shrine.
"How did it go?" Caith asked, suddenly directly beside him. He was petting the mouse who was usually hidden in his pocket.
"I don't know. I don't think she's coming back."
"She has to."
"Yeah ..."
"Hey you!"
The two of them turned to find a man riding toward them. Kyrian recognized both the man and the horse. It was the horse that he had healed not long ago. It was probably the most pleasant sight he'd seen all day.
"He's looking good," Kyrian smiled as the horse came to a halt right beside them. He patted the horse's side.
"Good? Heck yeah. He's perfect. Better than he's been in years, thanks to you, Priest."
Kyrian was about to protest—he was not a priest—but the man continued before he could correct him.
"Look, my neighbor's daughter is real sick. I told 'em you healed my horse, that you was a young healer from the shrine, and they wanted me to bring you back to them. To see if you could save Alba. She's a little girl, only eight years old. Too young to die like this from plague ... probably consumption by the looks of it."
"I'll go with you."
"You will?"
"Yes. I'll go right now."
The man pulled Kyrian up onto the back of his horse."
"Kyrian, where are you going? We need you."
Cameo and the Vampire (Trilogy of Shadows Book 3) Page 16
