Blade Of The Vampire King (Book 4) (29 page)

A throne whose back stood some twenty feet high and was carved from bone. The leather which lined its cushioned seat and arm rests, torn from scaled hide. Impossibly large fleshless wings curled around its sides. Fanged skull hung in defeat at its apex. A skeleton from a creature of legend itself.

A wyrm.

The elf wiped her chin with the back of her hand, feeling the sweat drag across her skin.

The blue light glowed brighter, perhaps echoing the feeling of excitement felt by the approaching fighters. It trickled outward.

Lifted slightly, revealing a hunched figure. Knelt as if in servitude to the empty throne.

Nysta's eyes roamed her surroundings, searching for the first signs of violence she was sure would come.

She walked with the strutting arrogance of a killer. Knew the Vampire Queen was waiting for a fight, and the elf was eager to bring it. The scar on her cheek itched, but she didn't raise her hand to scratch at it. Moved her cold gaze to the hunched figure and waved Melganaderna to circle a little to the right.

The young axewoman knew what was wanted and nodded curtly. Whispered; “Remember, Nysta. She's mine.”

And the elf didn't care. Cared only that here, in the forgotten home of a Vampire King and surrounded by an ocean of death, she could finally admit what was happening to her. Could finally feel the liquid rage burning in her blood and recognise it as something which existed apart from her.

It wasn't her rage she was feeling. She knew that now.

It was something else's. Something dark and seething with malice. Distrust. And maybe fear. Those primal emotions hammered against her heart as it tried to blend itself with her.

As it tried to control her.

But she refused to let it. Refused to lit it bind itself to her soul.

In that moment, as the clarity which had eluded her finally crept into her mind, the elf paused.

Turned slightly toward Chukshene, who was creeping along behind her. Felt the twitch of hatred spark through her body as she caught his eyes, but felt no impulse to send her blades screaming at his head.

“It's inside me,” she told him.

He returned her gaze with one of equal understanding. “I know. I'm sorry. I really couldn't stop it. I couldn't. Believe me, Nysta. Even if I had the power to, I didn't know how.”

“Fair enough,” she said, accepting the truth of his words. And she could accept them now, because the paranoia spinning the wheels of her mind was fed by a fear which was not her own. She turned back to the huddled figure in front of the ancient throne and sighed. Pushed thoughts of the Cage aside and sucked a breath. Then let out a roar; “Gul'Se!”

“
So, it betrays me over and over
,” the figure moaned. The voice, though coming from such a small body, filled the cavern with its macabre whisper. “
It leads you here in hope of release. But I will not free it. Never free it. It will bleed for me until the end of time. How do you feel now, you rotten shell?
”

“We don't want to kill you,” Hemlock said suddenly. “That's not what we came for.”

The Vampire Queen chuckled. A bubbling sound in the back of her throat. “
Don't want to kill me? Fool. You can't kill me. I am cursed. Trapped inside its bloodless heart until the sun turns black once more. Oh, yes, it was black. And the world was cold. As it should be. Then she came. She set fire to the sky and changed the world. But fire never lasts. Sooner or later, it dies. And when it does, we shall rise and rise again! We will rule, as we were meant to. The ice will come. Yes. It will come.
”

“We're not your enemies,” Hemlock insisted. “We're trying to escape him, too. He's looking for us. Wants to kill us. Maybe if we work together, we can stop him.”

“
Why should I care who hunts you, fool?
”

“Don't you want revenge? On him? For everything he's done to you? Don't you want your vengeance on Rule?”

At the name, the huddled figured reared up, and the blue light flashed bright, nearly blinding them. It exposed the back wall to reveal three bodies crucified to it. One large, and two small. The elf felt a shiver of fear and pity as she realised who they were.

Gul'Se's husband and children.

Crucified to the wall by a vengeful god.

Rot had denied their flesh, so their tortured expressions were preserved by the ages. Their blood, still crimson, hung like dry curtains from their wounds. They were frozen in their very last moment of life.

Revulsion made the elf pull her lips back to reveal teeth in a tight grimace.

She wanted to get away, but something about Urak's body beckoned her closer.

Something about his chest. She squinted through the bright light, but couldn't make it out. The shadows around him seemed to throb. Calling to her.

She forced herself to look away. To instead look at Gul'Se.

The Vampire Queen wasn't quite as small as she'd seemed. Unbowed, she was tall. Slender. Still looking as though she'd never age another day. Beautiful, the elf thought. Beautiful but terrible. Milk-white hair, ice-cold flesh, and a wide mouth rimmed with ruby lips.

Heavy canine fangs.

Eyes which glowed ferociously as she glared down at them from the dais.

Her hair was knotted and woven with filth. Fingers and feet blackened by scrambling through dust. She wore rags like they were the finest gown, and maybe they had been.

The elf stole a half-step as Gul'Se rounded on the necromancer and shot one arm out, screaming in fury at him; “
You will not speak his name here!
” Then she blinked, looking confused. Her insanity plain for all to see, but the fury was too hot to turn off so quickly. She looked behind them, growing more frantic as she couldn't see what she was searching for. “
Where are you, you pathetic self-styled god? Slinking in the darkness? Hiding again? Show yourself, murderer! Coward! Show yourself, Rule! And you, too, Grim. Your pretty words won't save you this time. I know what you promised him. Chagek! I know what they promised you, you traitor!
”

“Chagek? Did she say Chagek?” Chukshene's mouth dropped open and his face paled. Then he let out a squeak as the Vampire Queen's rage was aimed at him.

“
I see you. You have the stink of the demonic upon you. Do you ally yourself with the worldkillers, too? Have all the peoples of the Land lost their loyalties? Can't you see they will destroy you as they destroyed us?
”

“Umm,” he licked his lips. Cracked open his grimoire, eyes flicking toward the elf. “Nysta?”

“
And you, Child of Veil. I have waited for you. For you there will be only a glorious shrieking death. The sound of your agony will ring through these halls for all eternity.
”

“Yeah?” Nysta gripped the knife tighter. “Then if you'll get down off that stage, I'll make my play right here.”

“Grim's rotten balls, Nysta,” Chukshene whined as the Vampire Queen let out a shriek of unbridled rage. “I don't think she likes your jokes any more than I do.”

“Got to read between the lines, 'lock,” the elf drawled. “Reckon she thinks I'm a real scream.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“Wait!” Hemlock rushed forward, arms wide and eyes pleading. Desperate to placate her, his words left his mouth in a rush. “Dread Queen, please wait. We didn't come here to face you as enemies. Nor to mock you. Please forgive my companions. They are afraid of you. And in their fear, they lose their senses. We can help you. Maybe we can free you of the curse Rule has placed on you.”

The voice, when it emerged from the towering sorceress, was small. Almost childlike. “
Free me? Am I a prisoner?
”
 

“Didn't Rule use his magic to keep you here?”

And the Vampire Queen laughed.

Her laugh lashed at the walls. Each sound cracking like a whip, driving the shadows further back into their crevices.

“
Feeble human. How little you know. Rule has no power over me, any more than he has over my husband. He did not bind me here. I am bound by magics beyond his limited understanding.
”
 

Hemlock frowned, but licked his lips and his gaze grew more intense. “Will you teach us? Will you show us this magic so we can fight him?”

“
If only I knew how,
” she said. Her gaze flicked toward her husband's body. “
It was wounded, you see. Its body formed these mountains when it fell from the sky. And its blood courses through their rocky veins. Its claws ripped into the bowels of the earth and tore fire from the deep. Truly, it was a beast of immense power. It must have been a god of its own world. It should have died, its body shattered and broken. In fact, it wanted to die. It wanted to dissolve itself in the fire beneath the earth. But Urak pulled it back. He bound it to him.
”
 

“That sounds like quite a feat,” the necromancer said, pausing Nysta's advance with an angry shake of his hand.

“
Yes,
” Gul'Se closed her eyes. “
Our magic had more power, then. We were the gods of this world, little human. It was ours. We made it from the frozen dusts. From the stones themselves. We nurtured it. And yes, we fed on it. For that was our right.
”

“Show us, Dread Queen,” Hemlock said. “Show us your power.”

“
Show you? You want me to show you?
”

“Umm, Hemlock?” Chukshene winced. “I don't think that was the best way to phrase it.”

But the necromancer went on as though he hadn't heard him. Voice urgent. Insistent. “We want to learn. The world has changed while you've been locked in here. Grim has fallen. His body lies buried deep beneath Godsfall. And Veil, too. Rule has won. He will destroy everything if he has his chance. He will destroy the other races, leaving only humans.” He took another step closer, palms aimed at her. Pleading in his voice. “I beg you. Help us. Save us from him. This world is yours as much as ours. Surely you would want to protect it?”

The Vampire Queen drifted slowly past the throne toward him. Her eyes, burning with intense hunger. Fingers, curled into birdlike claws. “
You want me to show you, little human? My power? Oh, I can show it to you. Power was his gift to me, you see. My love gave me everything. And though it seeks to strip me of it, I have protected it. Sheltered it. Hidden it. I had to. It's what Urak wanted. Your bastard gods came here. Not for Urak. He came for it. For the Keep itself. But it was already bound and no magic Rule could wield can break those bonds. How he raged. And raged.
” She reached up and tore the rags from her body, revealing puckered pink scars criss-crossing every inch of her flesh. Scars the elf knew would drill deep into the Vampire Queen's body. “
Look at me, little human. Look upon the work of your god.
”

“Grim's balls,” Chukshene breathed.

“
My torture lasted for days. But Urak would not submit. Not even when Rule did the same to our children. Not even when he impaled Lorik to the wall. And then Usek. And do you know what he did when Rule finally grew impatient and used Veil's cursed blade to wrench his life away?
” Her face twisted into a mask of pure insanity. “
He spat in Rule's face! Spat with all his hate. And how that bastard god did scream. But he has yet to suffer. And I will see him bend before me. I will hear him beg. I will hear him weep for forgiveness!
”

Feeling the change in the Vampire Queen's temper again, Nysta moved to the necromancer's left. Caught Melganaderna's eyes and nodded the axewoman further down the side of the room.

Hinting at her to flank the Vampire Queen. Thinking of how they'd dealt with the creature made of swords, and hoping to do similar to its creator.

A Flaw in the Glass
was quiet in her fist. The worms beneath her skin hardly moved, but she could feel them trembling.
 

“
He never suspected,
” Gul'Se continued, apparently unaware of Melganaderna manoeuvring softly silently the wall. The rage appeared to have died, but the elf could hear the frozen undercurrent ready to flare again. “
Never even considered that Urak would have bound the beast in the way he had.
”
 

“How?” Hemlock swayed on his feet, mesmerised by the thought of so much power just waiting for him. He could taste the Keep's desire to be free. Could hear the walls buzzing like angry bees as they struggled against the arcane bonds which kept it submissive.

She held out a hand to the necromancer, smiling as he lurched forward, arm outstretched. Searching for her touch. “
Fooling Rule was never difficult, little human. He thought he knew us. Thought he knew our ways. But he did not know my husband. The binding was made with flesh. My flesh. It was a sacrifice I made for him. For Urak. And Rule, in his impetuous desire for vengeance on us, left me alive. Unaware that I held the very thing he wanted in the palm of my hand! Come to me now, little human. If you seek power, come to me. I have yearned so long. Come to me. Feed me.
” Her mouth yawned impossibly wide, the drooling fangs glinting as she flew at Hemlock in sudden hunger for his blood.
 

She screeched wordlessly, the sound tearing through his own scream as he realised what was happening.

And the only thing which prevented his throat being torn from his neck by her slavering jaws was the howl of
Torment
as the massive battleaxe swung through the air to bite deep into the Vampire Queen's belly. It sawed into her guts, but stopped as it crunched against her unrelenting spine.
 

Gul'Se's shriek rose in pitch, making the very air seem to bleed.

“Bitch,” Melganaderna spat into the creature's agonised face. Jerked the axe free with a spectacular gush of blood. “He's mine. And you can't have him. Hemlock? Move your ass away from the nasty lady. And if you ever try to touch another woman again, it'll be
your
guts I'll be cleaving.”

He shuddered, springing back clumsily from the shower of blood which spewed at his feet. “Shit.”