Birth of a Killer (17 page)

Wester was bored and irritable too, but he still had faith in their master. He believed Seba was doing this for a reason, that every vampire had to endure such treatment on the way to becoming a General.

Larten wasn’t convinced. He thought maybe age had caught up with Seba, that his thoughts had become muddled. Maybe these weren’t real tests at all, just ways to make his assistants look foolish. Nothing they did in recent times satisfied the grouchy old vampire. He found flaws in everything. Larten couldn’t believe that other masters were this critical of their students.

He took his time walking to the village. He kept to the gloom of the forest as best he could, avoiding the rays of the sun, which were painful for him now. But sometimes he had to pass through a clearing. When he did, he raised his cloak–a tattered gray thing he’d picked up during his travels–over his head and jogged, muttering darkly once he was safely back among the shadows.

When Larten returned with the loaf–still warm,
tucked away in the folds of his cloak–Seba stirred and called to him. “Is that you, Larten?”

“Aye.”

“What took you so long?”

Larten bit down on his tongue to stop himself from cursing. “You said you were going to eat later. I did not think there was any rush.”

“I am too hungry to wait.” Seba beckoned impatiently for the bread. Larten resisted an urge to toss the loaf at his master’s head, and instead unwrapped it and handed it across. Seba’s eyebrows creased. “I wanted brown bread.”

Larten trembled. “You said you didn’t care what kind,” he snarled through gritted teeth.

“Did I?”

“Aye.”

“Oh.” Seba blinked innocently. “My apologies. I meant to ask for brown.”

He held the loaf out to Larten and nodded in the direction of the village. Larten stared at the bread, wondering if it was possible to batter a person to death with it. Then he turned abruptly and headed back the way he’d come. He passed close by Wester, but his friend kept his head down, buried beneath a blanket, afraid Larten would vent his anger on him if he caught his eye.

Several weeks later, Larten and Wester were fishing. They stood in the middle of a fast-flowing stream, thigh-deep in cold water, hunched over. The test was to spear a fish with their little finger. It should have been a simple task, except Seba had tied a strip of cloth around their eyes so that neither could see.

“Listen closely, gentlemen,” he called from the bank, where he was tucking into a pheasant that they had caught and roasted for him earlier. “No creature moves in complete silence. Focus. Train your ears. Ignore the sounds of the stream and the rumblings of your stomachs.”

“Easy for
him
to say,” Larten huffed, the delicious smell of the pheasant thick in his nostrils. He hadn’t eaten since they’d arrived here four nights ago. Wester hadn’t either. Seba had told them they could eat nothing until they caught a fish.

Wester bent close to the water and strained, but he could hear nothing moving beneath the surface, even with his advanced senses. After a few minutes he stabbed directionlessly, figuring if he did that often enough, he had to catch something eventually. But he came up empty-handed.

Beside him, Larten was struggling to control his rage. He was starving, wet, and freezing. But worst
of all, he felt like a fool. There was no way they could do this. If it was a still pond, perhaps, but there were limits to what even a vampire could do. Besides, when he’d studied the stream from the bank before getting in, he hadn’t seen any fish.

Something bumped lightly against Larten’s leg and he thrust at it. His nail struck true and he yelled with triumph. But when he ripped his blindfold away he saw that he’d only speared a piece of wood.

“You will not get fat on that,” Seba chuckled, juices from the pheasant dripping down his chin.

“Charna’s guts!” Larten roared and threw the stick at Seba. It struck the vampire’s shoulder and bounced harmlessly to the ground. Seba stared at it, then at Larten, his expression unreadable.

“Apologize!” Wester hissed. He’d removed his blindfold and was trembling.

“For what?” Larten shouted. “He’s treating us worse than animals. There’s no way we can—”

“
He is
,” Seba calmly corrected him. “
There is
.”

“How about this?” Larten sneered. “
You are
a stupid, cruel, decrepit sham of a vampire!”

“Larten!” Wester gasped.

“
You have
lost your senses,” Larten pressed on. He waded out of the stream and stood dripping before his master. “You
do not
deserve the title of
General. You are giving us tasks that no vampire could complete, just to watch us fail. You should go and…”

He stopped. Seba had stood up and was heading for the stream. He got in and told Wester to tie the blindfold around his eyes. As the pair of young vampires watched in silence, he extended his arms and stuck out the index finger of both hands. Seba crouched low over the gushing water and held his position like a hovering hawk. For a long time he didn’t move, and his assistants were motionless too. Then, in a flash, his left hand shot into the water. When he pulled it out again, his finger was stuck through the middle of a small silver fish.

Seba tossed the fish onto the bank, removed his blindfold, and raised an eyebrow at Larten, inviting an apology. But Larten was in no mood to beg his master’s forgiveness. With a curse, he suggested a dark, warm place where Seba could stuff the fish, then spun on his heels and stormed off.

“Larten!” Wester cried, struggling out of the stream. He wanted to go after his friend, but before he could, Seba called to him.

“Hold, Master Flack.” When Wester looked back, he was astonished to see Seba smiling. “Let him go. It will do him good to sulk for a while.”

Wester frowned, then looked for the fish. Picking it up, he sniffed carefully. “This isn’t fresh,” he whispered.

“I would be shocked if it was,” Seba chuckled. “I caught it some hours ago, while you were hunting for my pheasant. I had it concealed up my sleeve. As a trained magician, Larten really should have noticed. Perhaps he was too hungry to concentrate.”

“Larten was right,” Wester snapped. “You’re making fools of us.”

Seba’s smile faded, and he shook his head. “You are like sons to me. I would never do that to you. The tasks I have set are all within the means of vampires of a certain standing. You and Larten are not yet ready to pass such tests, but they are legitimate, and there is no shame in failing them.”

“I don’t understand,” Wester frowned. “Why set the tests if you know we can’t complete them?”

“To provoke a reaction like the one we have just seen.” Seba sighed and stepped out of the water. “Larten is a fine young vampire, honest and obedient, but he lacks patience. He also tries to hide his true feelings. It is important for a man to control his emotions, but sometimes we need to be able to express ourselves freely in the company of those we love and trust.

“Larten needs to rebel,” Seba said. “He has stood by me loyally ever since we met in that place of the dead, but the time has come for him to face the world by himself. He must choose his own path, not simply march with me down mine.”

“Why don’t you just tell him that and cut him free?” Wester asked.

“It is important that he thinks it is his own choice,” Seba said. “If you have to be told to rebel, it is not a true rebellion.” Seba noticed Wester’s confusion and laughed. “You might have assistants of your own one night, and then my actions may not seem so curious.

“In the meantime I must ask you to trust me. Say nothing of this to Larten. Continue to suffer with him as he fails more tasks and grows ever angrier. If he asks how I reacted to his insults tonight, tell him I fumed and cursed his name. Let him think I am as angry with him as he is with me.” Seba’s eyes softened, and his voice dropped. “By no means tell him that I love him dearly, or that this hurts me a lot more than it infuriates him.”

The three vampires came to a city in the middle of the night. It was raining, and they trudged through the streets in silence, keeping to the shadows. Larten and Wester were paying little attention to their surroundings, heads lowered, waiting for their master to find a spot where they could rest up. They assumed Seba would lead them to a graveyard or the ruins of an old building, as he usually did, but this time he surprised them by stopping in front of an inn.

“I feel like sleeping in a comfortable bed tonight,” Seba said. “How does this establishment look to you?”

“Very nice,” Wester said, beaming at the thought of spending the night indoors for a change.

“Fine,” Larten grunted, casting a weary eye over the front of the inn. Then he paused and studied it again. It was an old-looking building, with blue glass in the windows. Not many inns had such curious glass. In fact, Larten had only seen one exactly like it, a long time ago, when he was still a human child and passed by this way quite often.

“I know this place,” Larten whispered, raising his head and staring at the street with more interest.

“Do you?” Seba asked, faking innocence.

“I’ve been here before. This is…” He stopped and gulped. “This is the city where I was born.”

Wester and Seba stared at Larten with surprise, though Seba’s stare was forced. “Really?” Seba purred. “I had not thought. But yes, now that I cast my mind back, you are correct. It was in a graveyard not far from here where our paths first crossed, aye?”

Larten nodded slowly.

“Well, this is a nice surprise,” Seba chuckled. “Or is it? Would you rather we move on and not spend the night here? It might stir up old memories. Perhaps we should—”

“I don’t mind,” Larten growled, feeling strangely uneasy but not wanting to admit to his concerns. “It
makes no difference to me. Stay or leave—I don’t give a damn.”

“Very well,” Seba sniffed. “In that case we will stay. And, Larten?” He shook a finger from side to side when Larten looked at him. “
Do not
.”

The innkeeper was surprised to see three travelers abroad at such an hour, but Seba said they had been traveling in a carriage that had crashed when their horse lost its footing. The innkeeper expressed his sympathy, then gave them a reduced rate for the night–against Seba’s protestations–and led them to their rooms, one for Seba and one for his assistants.

“A kind and generous gentleman,” Seba noted as the innkeeper returned to his post. He turned questioningly to Larten. “Are all the people in your city of such fine standing?”

“Not that I recall,” Larten said darkly, thinking about Traz and the way the foreman had murdered Vur Horston all those years ago.

“Well, perhaps they have improved in your absence,” Seba smiled, then bid the pair good night and turned in.

Larten sat by the window in their room and said nothing, staring out at the darkness and the few people who passed by during the remainder of the night. He
was remembering his old life, the days when he and Vur had set off to work each morning, fearing Traz’s wrath but pleased to be together, making wild plans for the future, dreaming of a time when they could break free of the factory and city and head out into the brave, unexplored world beyond.

Wester kept a close watch on Larten. He was certain that this was no accident. Seba had brought them here on purpose. He guessed it was to get Larten thinking about the past, the path he had taken in life, the decisions he had made. Nothing could turn a person’s thoughts towards the future more than a volley of ghosts from the past.

Wester didn’t want to play Seba’s game. He was worried where it would lead and what might happen to Larten if he rebelled as Seba wished. He was tempted to say nothing, keep his head down, and hope that Larten stayed in the room until Seba announced that it was time for them to leave. But that would have been unfair. He could sense, by the way Larten shot him occasional glances, that his friend wanted to talk about this. So in the end he put his concerns aside and asked the question that Larten needed him to ask.

“Are you going to visit your family?”

Larten blinked as if the thought had never crossed his mind.

“What family would that be?” he replied.

“Your human family.”

Larten shook his head. “I am no longer human. They mean nothing to me.”

“They’re still your family,” Wester said.

“The members of the clan are my only family now,” Larten insisted. “Vampires have no need of human relatives.”

“But don’t you want to find out what happened to them?” Wester asked. “Aren’t you interested in their fate, if they’re alive or dead, sick or well, successful or poor?”

Larten shrugged. “I put such concerns behind me when I became Seba’s assistant. I serve him now. I do not wish to divide my loyalties.”

“How can finding out what happened to your family result in a division?” Wester pressed. “It’s natural to be concerned about those you were close to. Your family played a huge part in your life when you lived here. I know you were closer to your cousin than any of the others, but you still cared about them, and I’m sure they cared about you.”

“I wouldn’t be so certain of that,” Larten huffed. “I bet they were glad to be rid of me—it meant more food for the rest of them.”