by Jamie Ott
Chapter 2
They looked like they’d had a hell of a run. Their usual black garb was ragged and torn. Saul’s long hair was matted and unkempt. Emil was covered in bits of brush, and they all had little nicks and cuts all over their faces and hands.
“What happened to you guys?”
“Oh,” said Emil. “We’ve been to hell and back.”
“You sure look it.”
“After we left you at Lake George, we came back to re build the Council,” said Chanler. “Everything was going well until we heard Credenza was in the south, killing large numbers of vampires.”
“We went to stop her, but she’d gone mad,” added Saul.
“But what happened to you, Emil? I thought you’d been buried by the avalanche in Switzerland.”
“I was tossed back down the mountain. I’m sorry but I’m not as strong as you, and I can’t fly. I went for help, but no one would come back with me. Then I heard you’d escaped the mountain and were back at the Lake.”
“And the rest of the Fleet?”
“They’re all dead,” said Chanler.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Starr, thinking of Michelle, Chanler’s girlfriend.
“Emil had only just come down the mountain when he took us in.”
“Until we were attacked,” Saul added.
“Oh, no! I loved that mountain spot. Is your family alright?” she asked Emil.
“Everyone’s fine. Just the town is a little busted up.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“We gleaned it off the minds of others. We heard about an ambush at the Council, and we knew it had to be you,” Saul replied.
“Well, come on up to the palace. You should meet everyone.”
They walked back up the windy road, together.
“Wait a minute, stop,” said Chanler, grabbing her by the elbow and turning her to face him. “What happened to your eyes?”
Starr explained about her trip to Valhol and her Primordial initiation. When humans took Primordial rites, which included a draught of blood, their eyes turned crimson.
Starr forgot that the Scamalls were opposed to the Fleet, so she was surprised a moment when they walked into the library and the men drew their swords.
“Get out!” shouted Ikael.
“They’ve come to help. We’re all on the same side, here,” Starr yelled back.
“No, no way.”
“Ikael, I trust them with my life. They’d never stand for the evils of the Queen. We need all the help we can get.”
“Grow up, Ikael!” said Aine. “We need them.”
“Agreed. For now, we work together,” said Druce.
Ikael sheathed his sword, though he continued to stare deathly at Chanler, Saul and Emil.
Starr walked them up three floors to where her father used to sleep. Instead of a short hall and one great room, as before, it was now a long walkway with six rooms, three on each side.
“Why are you so nicked up?”
“The bats attacked us!” said Saul.
Starr laughed.
“There was never that many bats here, before. I don’t know how to get rid of them, but it’s gonna be my priority.”
“You speak as if you own the place,” said Emil.
Starr filled them in on her recovered memories. After she’d done, Saul asked, “When do we leave?”
Goosebumps erupted all along her arms.
“Are you okay?” asked Emil, brushing twigs from his long blond hair.
“Yeah, I’m fine. We can’t leave until everyone, especially Aine, is better.”
“They’re well enough to travel. By the time we get to where ever, they should be fine.”
But a feeling of sorrow and dread washed over her.
“No, they’re the best fighters of us all. If we get attacked along the way, we need her and Ikael to help defend everyone. We can’t afford to lose men until we get to the Queen’s castle.”
She left them to wash up and rest. Starr returned to her spot on the terrace. Not even the sight of two men whom she was extremely attracted to could keep her from where she really wanted to be, which was in her memories.
As before, she settled onto the linen chair and watched the moon and stars take over the sky. Down below, Seth was walking down the field, heading off for a hunt. Briefly, he looked behind him, but kept on as if she were the last person he wanted to see.
The next morning, Starr went to the library to see how Aine was doing. Seth sat next to her. When she walked in, they fell silent.
Without a “hello,” he walked off.
She turned on heel, watching him leave.
“Why is Seth angry at me?”
“I think you should talk to him about it.”
She decided to take her advice.
Starr ran down the hall after him.
“Seth!”
He wouldn’t stop, but she caught up to him, anyway.
“Why don’t you stop this puerile game?”
Seth tried to walk faster, but Starr was quicker.
Finally, they approached his room where he attempted to close the door in her face.
Starr stuck her foot in the door way, and though he tried to push her out, she was as solid as rock.
“Remember, Seth, this is my mission, not yours. The next time I see you, you’d better acknowledge and respect me. I already have a handful of young vamps doubting my authority. The last thing I want is to have a show down with you, but I’ll do it if you compromise me in front of the others.”
She removed her foot from the door.
Back in the library, Aine walked about the room, stretching.
Down below, voices murmured. She looked out of the window. Chanler and Saul were talking with Ciaran. A moment later, the rest of the men joined them for a morning session.
Having nothing better to do, she went and joined them, too.
After practicing a few hours, she stalked off with Chanler and Saul for a hunt. Chanler seemed to regard Emil as less than a friend, for he stuck with Saul most of the time while Emil was alone.
As they walked down the mountain, Starr filled them in on other things that’d happened since they’d last seen one another: Misaki, the vision, and what Valhol and the Primoridials were like.
After they talked awhile, they went off to find their own trees of bats. Chanler was reluctant to leave her alone in the forest, but she reminded him that she was, now, more powerful than ever. Not to mention that she, once, owned the land. She knew the place by heart.
They disappeared in different directions among the trees.
Several hundred feet in, and right in the same place she’d dug up her runaway treasure, she found several families of bats, most of which were fairly young. Several of them were suffering from rabies.
Starr had no intention of eating infected bats, even if she was immune. So she gathered wood and moss, just like she used to, and fashioned a fire using crystalline rock and the steel blade of her sickles. She didn’t know why she did it this way, when she could ignite fire by the will of her mind, it was just a nostalgic episode she needed to experience.
Once the flames were medium-high, she set to telling the bats to die, a power she’d come into after Credenza gave her blood.
One by one, the bats fell to the ground. She threw them on the fire and watched them burn.
After she’d done, she no longer had a taste for bats. In fact, she was completely repulsed. She went further into the forest in search of other game when she saw Seth sitting by a small river.
He didn’t move as she approached.
“So what’s up? What connection do you have to my home? I demand that you tell me!”
It seemed he was still ignoring her, but then, he said, “We used to come here, though I have to remind myself that it wasn’t with you, exactly. I thought I was dead for so long. So much time passed, and then I woke and all I knew was that I had to be here. I didn’t even know my own name. Now, I re
member why I want to kill her, and every time I look at you, I see her.”
“I don’t understand. Why do you want to kill her? What is it you forgot?”
He didn’t answer.
She waited, and when it seemed he wouldn’t continue, she said, “As long as we’re working together, and you regard me with contempt, I think I deserve to know. You used to want to be my friend, once. Can you imagine how your sudden change makes me feel?”
He stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants.
“Well, we should leave tomorrow.”
“No, we can’t go yet. Not until the others are better.”
“What is it with you, Starr? You were geared up and ready to go, and now, it feels like you’re stalling.”
She said nothing.
“Whether you come or not, I’m going. She and I have a score to settle.”
Telekinetically, Starr blew Seth back into a tree. A loud thump sounded and he slid to the ground.
She walked up to him and put her hands around his throat. He tried to punch her, but she enveloped his hand with her own, and over the sound of several cracking fingers, said, “If you get in my way, I’ll kill you. If you disrespect me in front of my men, I’ll kill you. And if you leave tomorrow, don’t think I won’t find you, in an instant, and kill you. There are a dozen lives at stake, here. Kids not more than twelve years old, so you see, you aren’t going anywhere!”
Starr left him frozen and angry, grasping at his fingers in pain as he snapped them back into place.
Up at the castle, Starr still seethed, so she joined the men in practice so as to cool off. One after another, she took out man after man. It was pointless but she needed to fight off her anger, not just at Seth, but at herself. He was right about her softened stance, regarding the Queen. Ever since waking, Credenza felt more like a sister to her, even though she hardly knew her. When she looked in the mirror, she saw the Queen in herself, and it made her proud. She had questions for her and wanted to spend time with her. These feelings made it harder to face what it was she must do.
Some of men didn’t like being overpowered by a woman, but others seemed relieved. She knew why, too. They thought that maybe she would defeat Credenza, but they were hoping too high. Never did it occur to them that she was Credenza; in a way, she’d be fighting herself. How does one surprise and trump oneself?
The men finished for the day. Starr continued to shadow fence until Aine came out.
“You’re moving better,” said Starr.
“Yeah, I feel better, too. I thought I’d come and practice a bit with you. I would’ve come out, earlier, but didn’t want to slow down everyone’s practice.”
“Sure, I understand.”
“Just take it easy on me. I’m still slow,” she said, pulling a sword off the rack. “Mostly, I just want to stretch my limbs.”
Starr waited en garde until Aine made her first strike. She stepped back, weaving left and right while circling around the courtyard, meeting each of Aine’s attempted touches.
They went a few rounds; it was easy to see the pain on Aine’s face. Plus, Starr knew how hard it was to recover from amputations. When limbs weren’t cleanly sliced off, it was even worse. Shorn ligaments and pulverized muscle tissue took more time and pain to mend.
“Want a break?” she asked after half an hour.
“Sure.”
They sat on the stone bench and watched the bats fly across the sky. Some tackled each other, desperate and hungry, for food. Starr killed off as many as she could with her mind.
“You shouldn’t do that,” said Aine. “All you’ll do is make easy food for the others; then they’ll go off and reproduce more easily.”
Starr stopped immediately.
“Don’t worry, I’ll come back and help you get rid of the bats. We’ll have a big bon fire.”
Starr smiled.
“Okay, thanks.”
“You’re worried, I can tell.”
“Aine, we’re all worried.”
“Not really. Every time they see you fight, they get happier, more hopeful that maybe you will end this. You and I know that things are more complicated than that, however.”
Aine’s words, somehow, relieved her. It was nice to have someone who didn’t think of her as some kind of heroine.
“What do I do?”
“Well, you need a plan: An edge that only you will know of.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I can’t answer that, Starr. You know yourself, and you know her better than anyone. You have to figure that out. Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone what that edge is.”
She stood and said, “I’m going on a hunt. No, I’m not gonna eat bats, either. I saw in your mind that some of them have rabies. Yuck!”
Aine levitated and then flew off into the forest.
As she sat there, thinking about Aine’s words, the crystal around her neck grew warm. She lifted it to her eyes and watched the gold light dance within. Was Abatha speaking to her?
“Yeah, but what do I do with you?”
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