“Time to go,” I announced as I dropped the curtain and Julius yanked the door open. “She’s coming with us.”
“Of course she is,” he replied sarcastically. “Why the hell wouldn’t she?”
“I gave my word, brother.” We thundered down the stairs as Julius shook his head.
“I don’t think you made that decision while thinking with your head,” he commented.
I glanced back at Elissa whose cheeks were still flaming red and grabbed her hand to hurry her along.
“You still want me to take you to your clan?” I asked as we made it to the door.
“Yes,” she breathed and despite the fear she clearly felt, I could tell she was desperate to be free of this place.
“Then let’s run.”
Julius yanked the door open and we fled in the direction of the stables. I could hear the angry crowd drawing closer and my blood sang in my veins as we raced to elude them.
We rounded the final corner and skidded to a halt as we found the stable boy waiting for us. The horses were saddled and each carrying bags filled with grain. The boy sat atop a stunning grey mare and his face was set determinedly.
“I’m coming with you,” he called and I noted the fresh black eye he was sporting. “I wish only to serve you.”
“Any man who can saddle Baltian is welcome to join us,” I replied as I leapt onto the stallion’s back and held out a hand for Elissa. “What’s your name, boy?”
“Aelfric,” he replied with a grin. “And I won’t let you down.”
“Yes let’s bring the stable boy on a stolen thoroughbred,” Julius said as he jumped onto his own steed. “Why the hell not?”
“Well Aelfric,” I said with a grin as the townsfolk rounded the corner and spotted us. “You’d better be able to keep up.”
I gave Baltian his head and he charged at the crowd, forcing a path through them as they screamed a torrent of abuse at us. The other horses followed close behind and we raced away through the snow, carving a trail for home.
It took us twelve moons to find our way back to the clans’ camp. They’d moved several times in the months we’d been gone and I had to rely on Tempest to track them down. The blade seemed to be slower to direct me than usual and I struggled to figure out why. Usually the closer we drew to camp and the other blades, the stronger the pull towards home felt.
But today it was more like trying to lock on to a much smaller group. I wondered if the clans had split up for a while. Sometimes bad weather or difficulties with supplies made that unavoidable. We couldn’t always travel in one collective group.
Julius noticed the difference too and we let out a joint sigh of relief when a collection of scattered tents appeared on the horizon.
Elissa was riding with Aelfric today and I was glad to be alone as I gathered my thoughts for my reunion with my kin. It wasn’t often that I had to return bearing news of failure and I just hoped that our father would still be proud of what we’d managed. Next time Miles wouldn’t be so lucky.
I kicked Baltian into a reluctant gallop and we sped towards home. Though I would have been thrilled to return with tidings of Miles’s death, it had been so long that I was just pleased to be back at all. I may have been a grown man but I missed the comfort offered by my mother’s company and the wisdom of my father. I wasn’t ashamed to admit such feelings and I would relish a moment in their arms as we were reunited after so long.
The first face I saw as I reached the tents wasn’t my mother or my father though; it was Valentina. She was dressed immaculately as always, her dark hair braided carefully. But there was something off in her gaze as she looked up at me.
“Valentina, how unexpected to find you waiting for me out here,” I said dryly as I pulled Baltian up beside her. The coy smile I expected didn’t come and I frowned as she resisted the urge to play our usual games of courtship. Or I supposed her games were aimed at courtship while mine were designed to tease her for her persistent devotion.
Her face was still with restrained emotion and she twisted her hands together uncomfortably as if she couldn’t decide how to deliver whatever it was she was trying to say.
“Magnar...” she began but Julius interrupted her with his arrival.
“Valentina! What a surprise to see you waiting out here for my dear brother. I do hope you haven’t been at this every day for the past few months?” He tossed me a teasing smile and slid from the saddle. “Where is everyone else?”
I followed his gaze to the empty space between the tents. Something was wrong. Besides the camp being much smaller than usual, everything else was missing too. In place of the usual chaotic chorus of swordplay, wood cutting, children playing and horses snorting was an eerie silence.
A sliver of ice crept along my spine. I dismounted too, tossing Baltian’s reins to Aelfric as he pulled his horse up beside me.
“Where are our mother and father?” I demanded, having no space in my heart to wonder about anyone else yet.
“Your mother is in her tent,” Valentina began, her hand snaking out to grasp my wrist as I began to move past her. “But Magnar-”
I pushed her aside as I began to run for my parents’ tent in the centre of the camp with Julius right beside me. Whatever had happened, I didn’t want to hear it from Valentina, I wanted it from my mother’s mouth.
The guards looked up in alarm as we raced towards them but they recognised us and stepped aside. I shoved the tent flap out of my way and quickly crossed the wide space inside. A pile of thick furs which served as my parents’ bed lay at the back of the room and I spotted her curled amongst them.
“We have returned, Mother,” Julius announced as we made it to her bedside. “Tell us what has happened here.”
“My sons! Oh the gods have returned you to me when I needed you most!” She scrambled out of the bed and threw her arms around both of us, crushing us tightly against her as she sobbed. I’d never seen her cry before.
My heart constricted in my chest as pain sped towards me on swift wings. “Father?” I asked, knowing in my heart that nothing else would have reduced her to this state. I felt Julius’s posture stiffen beside me as he waited for the blow that was about to fall.
“I’m so sorry, my loves.” She gripped us harder, her fist knotting in my hair as if she were afraid to release us.
“Tell me,” I growled. I had to know who had done this. I had to know who had managed to fell the great warrior Earl Mallion Elioson. The idea of such a thing happening was beyond my comprehension.
“There was a tremendous battle. The prophets foresaw the three Revenants reunited in one place and the clans joined forces to march against them and finish our feud once and for all. Almost every warrior we had marched out and none have returned. I only remained because your father begged me to stay and lead the clan in his absence. Now I have to live with the knowledge that he died without me by his side.”
“When did this happen?” I demanded, refusing to bow to the weight of the emotions that were piling in on me. Julius had fallen unnaturally still and I wasn’t sure if he was even breathing.
“Three moons ago.” She ran her hands up and down our backs, soothing us the way she had when we were small boys. I wasn’t sure if she did it for us or for herself; to reassure her that her children still lived.
“How can we be sure they’re all dead?” I asked a little more aggressively than I’d intended. “Perhaps the battle rages on, maybe we should be heading out to-”
“I dreamed it,” she breathed. “I managed to dream-walk with souls on the edge of death and saw what had happened. The lost Revenant Erik returned from whatever pit of hell he’s been hiding in for the last two hundred years. His hunger was insatiable. His rage unparalleled.” She descended into sobbing and I pulled her against me fiercely.
“This can’t be happening,” Julius breathed and I found myself at a loss for words.
“How many of us are left?” I asked eventually.
“What you see here
is it,” Mother replied. “This is all that remains of the seven clans.”
“The seven?” I asked in astonishment. “You mean to say that this scattering of tents is it? There are no more of us left?”
If it was true then we really were done for. It would take a hundred years for our clans to even begin to rebuild our numbers and that would rely on the vampires leaving us alone to do so. And if I knew anything about them then I knew that wouldn’t be the case. They’d come for us now, hunt us down like feral beasts and try to wipe us out. If our bloodlines were lost then humanity would no doubt fall to them too. We were all that stood in their way.
I tried to wrap my head around the idea that such a thing could have happened. Our people had been decimated. Even if all of the sired vampires had been destroyed too we were still at a major disadvantage. They could create more vampires as quickly as they needed them. In the span of two moons they could sire hundreds of monsters in their image. There would be no way to stop them.
As my thoughts started to spiral into despair, I heard the one sound in the world that I wished for most. I held my breath as I failed to believe it was true but then I heard it again.
“Freya?” my father called more urgently from outside the tent.
The three of us looked to each other in astonishment for a moment before turning and running for the exit. We burst out into the dim sunlight and found him standing on the far side of the fire pit.
“Mallion!” my mother cried in relief as she began to run for him but he backed up suddenly, lifting a hand to warn her away.
“Please Freya, my love, don’t come any closer. I couldn’t bear to hurt you.”
My relief slowly gave way to something far darker as I looked at my father more closely and blinked the grief from my eyes. Though he had always been a handsome man, his features now looked too perfect, his face too alluring. Something in the way he held himself had changed too like he had gone from a prowling wolf to a stalking wild cat.
I caught my mother’s wrist as she tried to approach him despite his warning.
“No,” I breathed in horror as the reality of what they’d done to him sank in.
“I only came back to say goodbye my love, my sons. Please forgive me for taking such a risk but I couldn’t bear to leave you without seeing you one last time.”
My mother started screaming as she realised what he was. Julius joined me in restraining her and my father fell to his knees beyond the fire, tears streaming down his face.
“Tell me who did this to you father and I swear to you that I will end their immortal life if it’s the last thing I do!” I cried.
A heavy pressure began to build around us and the sky rumbled with an approaching storm. I had the strangest feeling that we weren’t alone.
“It was the Revenant Erik,” he replied. “Once all of our kin lay dead at his feet he decided to force his eternal curse upon me. I need to ask a favour of you dear boy.”
I let out a howl of pure rage and hatred as I released our mother into Julius’s care and pulled Tempest from my back. I knew what he was going to ask me and the thought of it alone made me want to drive the blade through my own chest. How could I live with myself if I had to kill my own father?
“I’m already dead,” he breathed, his voice carrying to me despite the distance between us. “But I need you to release me from this torment. You don’t know how the blood calls to me.”
The presence around us grew thicker and I felt sure that the gods were near, come to see the outcome of the trick their demon had played on my family.
The pain I felt seemed enough to rip me in two and I used that energy to drive my blade into the hard earth by my feet. I dropped to my knees and pulled my fighting leathers off, tossing them into the dirt so that my bare chest was exposed.
“Gods if you are here, I beg you to release my father from this curse!” I moved to grip Tempest by the hilt, hoping to hear them speaking to me through the blade.
It’s too late, Idun’s voice whispered sadly beside me and I hung my head as I bucked against the idea of accepting it. My father stood before us, his flesh and soul trapped by the curse of the Revenants.
“Please,” I begged and I didn’t care that they saw me brought so low. “Please, I’ll give you anything. I’ll give you everything. Just let him live.”
Only ending the curse can release him.
“If I knew how to do such a thing I’d have done so already. There must be another way!”
The goddess seemed amused by my determination but she didn’t budge in her decision.
Prove your strength Magnar and I will grant you gifts enough to chase your foes to the ends of the Earth. Prove your strength and I will make it so that your very name incites fear in their bones.
I shook my head to clear it of the voice who goaded me into action. No deity nor any other being would guide my actions. My life was my own and my decisions would sit squarely on my shoulders. I needed no gods to tell me how to live.
“Please my boy, the thirst grows stronger.” My father turned his worried gaze on my mother and brother and I squeezed my eyes shut as I made my choice.
If the gods refused to release him then I would have to do it myself.
I closed the distance between us in eight long strides. He looked up at me with his too-perfect face; the face of a stranger in place of my father. But I could see his soul still shining in his eyes. He deserved a warrior’s death. He deserved to be rid of this torment.
“My sword is yours.” He dragged the heavy blade from his back and held it out to me. I accepted Venom with a feeling of dread and weighed the legendary weapon in my hand. It was heavier than Tempest, though the length was the same.
“Know that I will carry it with the promise to right this wrong that has been done to you. The Revenants will fall and I won’t rest until I see an end to their vile kind,” I swore as I raised the blade and held it ready above his heart.
“I am so proud of you my son, never forget it. You will lead our people to victory against them, never doubt it.” He looked up at me sadly and gave a final nod.
I took a heavy breath and my muscles tensed as they fought against the need to drive the blade home. The goddess grew anxious as she waited to see what would happen, the storm building quickly above us as lightning flashed.
“I love you all,” he breathed and I forced my arm down.
“I love you and I release you from this curse.” Venom pierced his heart in one heavy blow and he dissolved into dust which swirled around me before catching on a breeze and disappearing.
My mother wailed behind me and I sank to my knees once more as my own tears fell.
Thunder rumbled angrily above our heads and I turned my eyes to the heavens as rain began to hammer down upon my bare skin.
A true warrior turns from no fight. Idun purred and I felt the ghost of a hand stroking the side of my face as if she were proud of me. You have proven yourself worthy Magnar Elioson. I grant you the power to destroy your enemies and lead your people to greatness.
As each raindrop hit me, I felt a surge of power flooding into my veins. I choked on my own grief as my tears mixed with the rain and washed my body clean. A scratching pain began on my chest and I groaned aloud as tattoos started to appear across my flesh, depicting ancient runes the likes of which I’d never seen.
I could feel the goddess pouring her power into me like I was nothing more than a vessel to be filled.
My grief hit me harder than any gift bestowed on me and I raised my head to the sky and roared my rage into the heavens. I wouldn’t forget that she had forced my hand in this. But I would take her gifts all the same. Because nothing mattered to me now but my goal. I would rid the earth of the Revenants once and for all and I refused to die until it was done.
We followed Julius through the ruins as he led us along a route he clearly knew well. I kept a few steps behind the brothers as they walked together, talking in low voices about people I didn’t know and p
laces which no longer existed.
I didn’t begrudge them their time together but it sent a pang of longing through my heart. Their bond was so strong and their love for each other so fierce that it was no wonder I missed my sister more than ever. I was something separate to the two of them. They’d found each other but I was still desperately seeking Montana.
“We were hiding underground but I couldn’t resist the pull of the sun so we came up here,” Julius said, glancing over his shoulder to remind me that he hadn’t forgotten I was there.
I appreciated the gesture but I knew my presence paled into insignificance beside that of his brother.
“We?” Magnar asked with a frown.
“Ah yes... Well she was nothing if not consistent. Always waiting on your return like a good little puppy. And I know what you’re going to say, but she insists she’s on our side and we need her to keep controlling the weather like this.” He pointed up at the sky and I frowned in confusion. Was he saying someone had made the sun shine today?
Magnar pulled Julius to a halt. “You can’t mean-”
“Magnar?”
I turned and spotted a vampire standing at the edge of a wide courtyard. Her hair was dark and spilled over her shoulders in tumbling waves. She wore a tiny black nightdress which showed off way too much of her body and her full lips were parted in astonishment.
My grip tightened on Fury but the vampire made no move to attack us, nor did the sun seem to be bothering her. I frowned in confusion as Magnar’s muscles tightened and his fist closed angrily.
It took me a moment to recognise her. When Magnar had shown her to me in his memories I’d seen a slayer woman. The figure who stood before us now was clearly a vampire. More than that; she was an Elite.
The air filled with a deep kind of pressure and I sucked in a breath as I sensed the goddess watching us. Idun’s presence brushed against me and I felt like she could see into the depths of my soul. Whether she liked what she found there or not was hard to say.
Age of Vampires- The Complete Series Page 67
