by Emma Glass
He gasped wearily. “It’s done.”
“That’s right,” I cradled his head against my chest. Elliott was in no condition to walk back to the chrysm node, but that was perfectly fine. I’d carry my brother’s body back across the sea if I had to. “You’ve done so well. Rest now, my dear Elliott. Let me bring us back home.”
“The tatzelwurm…” He grunted painfully.
“It’s dead,” I smiled proudly. “You won.”
“No, it…” Something bothered my brother. “You don’t understand… it was the beast’s eyes… when I killed it… they glowed violet…”
Elliott’s weak, trembling gaze darkened.
“Nikki… you know… what that means…”
With those words, he collapsed forward into my embrace. I held my dearest brother for several short moments, savoring being this close to him again after all this time apart.
Violet eyes, the madness whispered in my ear. That means that the tatzelwurm didn’t come here of its own volition. It was purposefully brought here…
Or even worse, summoned…
My heart seized in my chest.
There were only a few places left in the world with that kind of power, and none of them were in Stonehold. I need to talk to that sorceress again... The deck needed to be stacked quicker, because it was clear to me that our enemies had just made their first move.
I lifted my resolute face to the rising dawn.
“The war begins…”
10
Clara
I’d asked Sabine to put me back to sleep, once the others had gotten me hydrated. After I awoke this time and slept off some of the pain, the others watching over me re-hydrated me from the start. The light was bearable to my eyes now, and it didn’t feel like my body was burning alive inside.
I didn’t have to ask what happened to Elliott.
He lied unconscious in the nearest bunk.
I was sitting upright in the medical bed with a cup of therapeutic, steaming tea in my hands. The others hovered nearby as I quietly watched Elliott sleep; my soul felt heavy with heartache.
“How long has he been this way?” I asked.
Seated in a chair by his liege, Wilhelm barely moved an inch as his eyes flickered over to me. “All day. That darling, utterly demented sister of his brought Lord Elliott back to the castle like this. Seems the workers on the mainland didn’t see any point in mentioning that something in the mines had been picking them off, one by one.” The guard turned to his resting boss with a mournful glance. “It certainly explains the rumored slowdowns in chrysm mining. Frankly, he’s lucky to be alive.”
I took another tea sip. “Where is Nikki now?”
He shrugged limply. “No idea.”
Viktor walked over to Elliott’s side and gazed at his vital signs on the beeping machines. The devices didn’t look anything at all like the ones I’d seen back home… but this vampiric world, and its strange technology, was far weirder than mine.
“I can’t believe it,” he grunted despondently. “We finally get one of you up, and then the other drops.” Looking up at me, he shook his head in resignation. “You two are a ridiculous pair.”
“Heh,” I grinned halfheartedly. “I guess so.”
Asarra hadn’t spoken a word. She was staring off into space, like all royal guards did when they wanted to ignore the effects of feeling time pass. Of course, these three used to be royal guards… I had it in my head to talk to Elliott about the barbaric procedure that gave them this power, but a lot had happened in the last few days.
And now there was this.
“What day is it?” I suddenly asked.
“Uh, Tuesday,” Viktor answered.
“Oh.” I chuckled morosely, disappearing back into my cup of tea. “Happy birthday to me.”
Asarra snapped to awareness and glanced my way; the disbelief in her voice only enhanced that strange, Eastern European accent I loved so much. “It is your birthday? Why you not say anything?”
“As you may recall, my pretty little friend, she just woke up,” Wilhelm demurely chuckled.
“Oh, but of course,” the vampiric guardian blinked with her typically stoic expression. “How many years do you have now, Clara?”
I frowned. “Today makes seventeen.”
By now, it didn’t surprise me that everybody within earshot was stunned to hear this. By their terms, I was incredibly young and comparatively mature for it. On a fundamental level, though, our lifespans were radically different. The numbers just happened to be greatly skewed in my favor.
From what the Craven siblings told me over a feast one night, birth through vampiric puberty lasted over a century. To these people, someone of my nature being only seventeen years old was completely out of the norm.
“Seventeen years old… well, I’ll be damned.” Wilhelm whistled while shaking his head. “Leave it to Lord Elliott to like them young…”
Asarra smacked him up the back of the head.
“Ow! What was that for?!”
“Do not be crude,” the female guard grunted. “Show more respect to your master.”
At the sound of my uncontrollable laughter, both of the vampires quizzically glanced my way. “I’m sorry guys, I know I shouldn’t…” I forced out between laughs, “but this entire thing is just all so ridiculous that I can’t help myself…”
Gradually, the room lit up with smiling faces. It seemed nobody, even the no-nonsense nurses, could deny how strange this all was.
“He’s okay, though?” I looked fondly down at Elliott Craven. His frozen, placid face was locked into a quiet, brooding sleep. “Nobody’s panicked about him since I’ve woken up, so I didn’t think he was in any real trouble...”
A nearby nurse wiped her hands with a rag as she fretted over him. “Lord Craven will be fine. His injuries, while severe, aren’t anything that we can’t fix. He should be up by morning.”
“Oh,” I sadly noted. “He’ll miss the whole day, then. Well, as long as he’s safe and healthy.”
The Knightly Trio shared a look, but I wasn’t paying any attention. I clamored down from my bed and sat down next to his. I took Elliott’s hand in both of mine, stroking it endearingly. It was so cold, and hard like stone. But the flesh was softer than I’d thought – hard, yet forgiving. I imagined that to be much like Elliott himself: hardened and stiffened by his experiences and responsibilities, but ultimately malleable and receptive.
I guess, maybe, there aren’t so many differences between the vampire lord and I, I quietly wondered. Not if his hand can feel like this. He certainly doesn’t feel like a statue. Why, Elliott even feels like he could be a regular person…
Nobody said a word. I didn’t notice if anyone was watching as I leaned over the resting vampire and planted a kiss on his forehead.
I rose from Elliott’s side. After I climbed back onto the side of my bed and scooped up my tea, I turned back to the rest of them. “It’s clear to me that a lot’s happened since I went under. Tell me everything.”
It didn’t take long to update me.
I shook my head. “It’s hard to believe that our cold, calculating Elliott can be so reckless…”
The guards went quiet. Something in the air felt unsaid; right before I could point it out, Viktor turned to me with a glum expression.
“He hasn’t been himself since you fell under.”
“I… don’t understand.”
“You’re a smart one,” Wilhelm replied calmly. “Lord Elliott has been utterly distraught since you started auditioning for the coffin. To be honest, I think he blames himself.” He turned to the resting vampire and sighed. “I’ve never heard him acting so brashly. I almost didn’t believe it, but I’ve seen his behavior lately… and how he would only leave your side when his duties commanded it.”
“He was here?”
“Well, either quietly sitting around in here, or sulking about out there,” Wilhelm nodded at the opaque glass wall nearby. It nearly obstructed the vie
w of the outside hallway. “Knowing him, our master would be embarrassed if he had any idea that we could see him out there.”
“Lord Elliott was always here,” Asarra agreed. “Always watching over his comatose girl.”
I didn’t know what to think of that.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
My feelings on Elliott were complicated – and that was putting it mildly. In the weeks building up to my sudden arrival here, I’d dreamt of him every night. Cloaked in shadows, only a silhouette and a pair of glowing eyes, Elliott Craven entered my nightmares to save me from a terrible danger.
Imagine my utter surprise when I came face-to-face with him, flesh and blood…
My attention averted to Sabine. The sorceress who had put me under the spell to begin with was buried in a spellbook nearby, deep in study. When she noticed me watching, she looked up.
“You haven’t said very much,” I noticed with a faint smile. “How’ve you been taking all of this? You arrived just in time for everything to really hit the wall… that must have been stressful.”
Softly, Sabine closed the hardback book in her hands. “As a sorceress, I am used to the unusual. But what’s happened here is beyond me.”
“What, the comatose thing?”
“Yes, that. The only reasonable explanation is that you must be inherently resistant to magic…” Her eyes went strangely dark. Did I just imagine that, or is she– “However, that is quite impossible. There isn’t a creature on Earth that can withstand magic – not without the further interference of other magic, of course.”
“I’m not from Earth,” I politely reminded her. “Well, at least not this Earth. I have my own one, somewhere else.”
The sorceress seemed to consider that.
“I must speak with you alone soon. There are some tests I’d like to perform, and a few theories I have to rectify…”
“Of course,” I smiled. “Whatever you need.”
For a moment, I thought her eyes returned to that dark glint. But nobody else seemed to notice, and it was gone again so fast that I thought I was just seeing things.
Something about it reminded me of a dream.
I was overwhelmed with a flash of memories. My grandmother was walking me along a beach, in a distant world without color…
“Are you alright, Clara?”
I glanced up. Wilhelm’s concerned face filled my vision, and I nodded with a displaced smile. “Yeah. Sorry, I just remembered a dream I had…”
“A dream? Looked serious.”
“What do you mean?”
Viktor was nearby. “You stopped responding. Looked like you were about to pass out.” He gave a teasing smile, a rarity for him. “We’ve had quite enough of that, if you could possibly spare us the trouble there…”
“Oh, of course,” I distantly nodded.
That’s when I felt something unusual and unfamiliar brushing against my collarbone. It occurred to me that the sensation had bothered me for quite some time. In fact, it had subtly been right there ever since I woke back up – but I’d been ignoring it until now.
“Wait… what is…?” My hand clasped around something cold and metallic on my skin; I gasped as I looked up, making eye contact with Sabine. The sorceress curiously watched me, perched in her seat with cat-like interest.
“What is it?” She leaned closer. “…Clara?”
You mustn’t tell them, I remembered.
Hide it from them as long as you can…
“Oh… nothing,” I smiled. “I just thought… but no, that was the dream again. It’s nothing.”
She looked a little disappointed. “Oh, I see.”
I withdrew my fingers from below my throat, hiding how they trembled in disbelief… because there, against my skin under my shirt, rested the necklace that my grandmother gave me the last time I saw her, when I was a young child.
And I’d lost it over a decade before.
11
Elliott
Before my eyes flicked open, I was partly aware of the following things.
Nearby, a machine beeped with my vitals.
There were three other vampires in the room.
Two of them fretted over the machine.
The last was…
“Of all people,” I grunted in slight pain and irritation, “I’m surprised that it’s you.”
“Welcome back, Elliott.”
I opened my eyes to see Lorelei Craven sitting beside me, one leg hung over the other. I noticed how she held her hands clasped in her lap.
“Nervousness doesn’t suit you, Mother.”
She scoffed, turning away from me. “It seems your experiences are making you arrogant. I don’t recall raising an conceited prince.”
“You barely raised us,” I replied.
“Stonehold needed me.”
“Yes. It did. But it didn’t need you every hour of every day. Had you been a little more attentive to your children, perhaps your daughter wouldn’t have, well…”
Her eyes flared. “Elliott, don’t you dare.”
“I will ‘dare’ how I see fit.” I slowly rose up to a seated position. “You wanted me to be a vampire lord? Now you’ve got one.” The pain caught up to me, and I winced. My wounds may be superficially gone, but everything still aches, I thought to myself disparagingly.
“You are thinking of the creature,” she noted.
“Yes. The pain lingers.”
“That would be the poison,” one of the nurses helpfully replied. “The tatzelwurm must have struck you with a poisonous swipe at some point. We extracted almost all the contaminants from your bloodstream during treatment. Were you any lesser a vampire, Lord Craven, the attack very likely would have killed you.” She turned away. “In fact, that’s precisely what took your guard’s life. His body just couldn’t metabolize the venom to the extent yours can.”
I grunted. “And the others?”
“They’re resting.” She motioned over to a row of four occupied beds, faraway on the other side of the medical bay, on the other side of a glass barrier; another nurse diligently tended to them. “Resting, but alive and safe.”
“Didn’t realize a tatzelwurm was lurking out there,” I groaned painfully as I met Lorelei’s gaze.
She looked positively furious, and I steeled myself for her anger. “What you did was suicidal,” she spoke coolly. “If you had gotten yourself killed, the hold would have descended into total anarchy. Elliott, you are far too valuable to the safety and prosperity of Stonehold to jeopardize yourself in such a way.”
“Why, that almost sounds affectionate…”
She glowered, but ignored my sarcasm. “The moment that you knew the truth, you should’ve sent over for reinforcements. Instead, you chose to play hero for the hold.” She bitterly shook her head. “They may not like you, but they cannot afford to lose you.”
“Might I remind you that they don’t like me because you never taught me how to lead,” I angrily rebuked her. “Three hundred and fifty years, and you barely taught me the essentials. How did you think I would perform, then?”
She ignored my outburst. “You faced an adult tatzelwurm. One of your guards must be buried. The others have been deeply traumatized. There were other ways to solve the crisis. For gods’ sakes, Elliott, you had a capable sorceress in the castle! But you had to take the quick, undiplomatic route. You’re making the same bloody mistakes your predecessor did, Elliott. You can’t expect to simply overpower all of your problems. You’re just as bad as Fio–”
At the slip-up, my mother haughtily clenched her jaw and lifted her chin, turning away. That’s just like you, snapping to silence. Whenever I need help, you always hold your damned tongue… Lorelei meaningfully glanced at the nurses – she wanted them to leave. My medical staff turned to me for some form of guidance, and I nodded.
“Lord Craven,” the senior began with a start, “I can’t say I advise you to dismiss us. With all due respect, you’ve only just woken back–”
“Leave,” I commanded, verbally this time.
The nurses reluctantly gathered a few things and left the two of us alone in the medical bay. I followed their steps with my stare; once we were alone again, I turned back to my mother.
“Your concern is touching,” I snarked. “If you wonder why I left the sorceress here, I put Sabine to work looking over Clara. I have Sebastian in the library, searching other tomes, but Sabine was left here to either pull her back from her coma, or find a way to reverse the spell altogether...”
“A spell you ordered, with no testing.”
“Because there was a foreign vampire lord in the castle!” I snapped. “Or have you already forgotten? Akachi Azuzi came here, to the Isle of Obsidian, searching for our human visitor. It will be only a matter of time before he grows bolder – or the others do!”
“Elliott, you fool, it means nothing if you kill her in the process, or worse – suppose that you get yourself killed trying to solve it. What will happen to our kingdom then?”
“Do not begin to criticize me when you offer nothing in return. You refuse to give counsel, you deny me any advice… if you truly think you can do better, I will gladly offer you the opportunity. Take your bloody throne back and rule the people like you did for six hundred years.”
“That will not happen.”
“Then help me, or stay out of my way.”
“Hmph.” Lorelei shifted her gaze with a blink. “Tell me, if you won’t use your sorceress, what do you plan on doing with her?”
“I have not decided,” I replied.
“Your answer inspires such confidence.”
My patience was running thin. “She has only been here a few days. I would consider finding her a place in the castle, but I sense something in her.”
“I do too,” Lorelei noted. “Ambition.”
“Sabine jumped at the call. She desires a place in the Stonehold Court,” I observed coolly. “I have not yet decided what to make of her, and require a little more time to figure her out. Especially since I have been… preoccupied, these last few days.”
