Cameo and the Vampire (20 page)

The three of them exchanged surprised looks, as if agreeing on something.

"Yes," Carrington said knowingly. "I suspected as much. Have you ever seen a zombie heal itself?"

Kyrian's limited knowledge of zombies was really just Cameo. His grandfather had told him that he believed her to be a zombie, although she seemed nothing like the monsters that roamed the farmland at Haffef's home.

"The only zombies I can really compare her to are the ones we ran into at that farm, and one that lived with a vampire in Shandow. They were all monsters."

"And did they heal themselves?"

"I don't know."

"Are they similar to Cameo at all?" Carrington pressed.

He scratched his chin. "I don't know. They're both undead."

"Yes, but she looks young. She's not young, though, as I understand it?"

"No, I don't think so."

"And her body heals itself?"

"Yes."

"Those zombies we ran into were skeletal, rotting corpses. Clearly they had no ability to heal."

"Okay, you're right. I agree with you. So she's a little different."

"Yes," he said. "She's an undead who can heal—"

"What are you saying? She's a vampire?"

"I never said that."

"Well, is that where you're leading to, because she doesn't drink blood, or have to stay out of the sun—"

"But she can't look at us," Caith volunteered. "Remember, she said that when we saw her near the shrine."

"That's true," Kyrian said, "and that's new. She never had a problem before she went to Shandow, where she was captured by another vampire. Maybe he bit her. Maybe she is a vampire."

"Or a half-vampire," Caith suggested.

"Perhaps," Carrington nodded. "But let's consider, shall we, this possibility." He laid open the book in front of Kyrian.

There was a faded sketch of a skeletal creature seeming to cast a spell, and then Kyrian was bewildered, staring down at the odd symbols on the ancient pages. "I'm sorry, but I can't read this."

"So much for a grand reveal," Caith muttered in amusement.

Carrington pulled the book back to him. "She's a lich, Kyrian."

The lad's face crinkled up in disbelief as he spat out, "A lich?! No way."

"Do you know what a lich is?" Sage asked softly.

"Well, I know it's a magical creature that controls undead."

"That's right," affirmed Carrington.

Kyrian just shook his head slowly. "A vampire is more likely."

"She controlled the zombies at that nightmarish farm."

Kyrian was about to disagree, but then found himself unable to. "She's never done that before."

"Hasn't she? How about ghosts?"

"Um, yes, she sees spirits, I guess. She can see Cyrus."

"And? Can she control them? Talk to them?"

"I dunno. I really don't. I don't think so."

"And then I told you I saw her aura. It's black like a vampire's, but it's not like a vampire’s. She has a string of ghosts following her. That got me started searching through my tomes on creatures, until I found this." He waved the book for a moment. "It's in there, Kyrian. It's all in there. She's an undead with a magical ability who controls other undead. I'll bet she can raise them right out of their graves if she wants."

"She practically lived in the Graveyard of Yetta. Heck, she was at the Temple of the Moon, and that's where I met her; that's right beyond the Yetta Graveyard, and she didn't raise any dead bodies while she was there."

"Well, perhaps she's just coming into her abilities."

"Is that how it works?" Kyrian asked sarcastically. "Because it sounds like you're just hoping this is the case."

"I am hoping, because if she is a lich, and your friend, then she can help us defeat that vampire," Carrington said, exhausted, rubbing his temple. "If she's not, we're going to be killed. On the other hand, this does fit, and you did say she had recently been captured by a different vampire, right? Maybe he did something to her? Told her what she was? Taught her about her powers?"

"You're not really going to risk Sage's life depending on Cameo, are you?"

"What about my life?" Caith asked.

"Sage knows what's she's getting herself into."

Kyrian stood, "Right. Okay. Well, I'm tired, and I'm going to turn in for the night."

"Look at the facts, Kyrian. She controlled those monsters, her aura matches the description in this ancient tome of undead—"

"Yes, but you're forgetting one thing."

"What?"

"Cameo has no magical ability. A lich must possess magical abilities, it says so, according to you, right there," Kyrian pointed at the battered book.

Carrington smiled. "Oh, but she does. You told Sage that your grandfather believed she could be saved, brought back to the light, because she was supposed to be a healer. Healers have
magical
abilities."

Kyrian couldn't move. He felt himself visibly pale. Carrington was right. Besides his grandfather suggesting this possibility that Cameo was supposed to be a healer, he himself had received visions from Cameo when she was captured by Edel, and somehow she had been able to track him until she had eventually found him just beyond Hangingford, being attacked by zombies. She had then brought the entire field of monsters to a standstill and saved their lives....

"Gods," he breathed as the puzzle pieces fell into place.

"That's right." Carrington sat back, exhausted by the hour and the frustrating conversation. "And you have to convince her to come with us."

Kyrian nodded, falling back into the chair that he had just deserted.

Chapter Eleven

Opal washed up, dressed, brushed his shoulder-length blonde hair and tied it with a large black bow, dusted his face with powdered cosmetic to cover his smallpox scars, and painted his eyes and mouth with a generous amount of rouge. Once done, he admired his reflection in the looking glass.

"Now then. That's better." He checked his profile, as best he could on the right side of his face. That side looked better anyway. He had just that one thin scar on his cheek. "Let's see what that little priestess is up to today."

He burst forth from his room at the shrine, formerly a cell that he'd been incarcerated in, in his usual fashion, sucking all of the air out of the room as he exploded onto the scene.

"Good morning," he grinned at Alerkat, the priest.

Alerkat grumbled a greeting to him.

"Probably too early to be so cheerful," Opal agreed, and he sauntered over to the window for one quick look outside.

Cameo was sitting on a bench on one side of the large, brick coach stop building.

"What? She's back?! She's back!" He stood up and touched his jacket. "Not fine enough." With that he spun on heel and dashed back into his loaned room, tore into his things, and found his newest frock and his duster.

Opal raced back out, nearly knocking Caith over in the process. "She's back," he beamed at the acolyte, who didn't really seem to understand what in Faetta he was talking about, but Opal swept out the door and into the snow without explaining further.

"Darling," he cooed as he reached her.

Cameo closed her hand around an object that she'd been toying with. "Hello, Opal."

He stepped over the other side of the circular bench and sat down beside her, taking her hand in his. "You've been gone for three days. Are you all right?"

She grasped his hand in hers tightly, turning it over. "You have your hands back."

"Yes," he offered a delighted smile. "That lad Kyrian. He's quite a magician."

"Ah, yes. Magician."

"What is it, love? Has something happened?" He sidled up closer to her.

Cameo cast a sidelong glance at him and smiled thoughtfully, as if trying to break some news to him gently. "Haffef caught up with me, drained most of my blood, and left me lying in the forest somewhere. It took me a day or so to recover.... I'm a little confused about the time that was lost."

Opal reached for her other hand but she moved it out of his reach long enough to deposit Jules' bone into a pocket, something that happened too quickly for the dandy to actually take notice of, and then she set her hand back into her lap nonchalantly.

"How did he find you? I didn't think you could hear Haffef now. Isn't that what you told Jules back in the barn?"

"Yes."

Opal put one hand on his rapier. "Did he attack you when you weren't expecting him?"

"I agreed to go with Jules the next time the Master called him."

"What? Why in heaven's name would you agree to something like that?" He shook his head, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. How could that boy be so bold with your welfare? When I see him again I'll—"

"He's dead," she said suddenly. The finality of it unsettled her, but she kept her face smooth, detached.

"I take it you mean more dead than he was the last time I spoke to him?"

Cameo smiled weakly, "Yes."

"Well ...." He pulled his duster closed. "The important thing is that you're still alive."

She met his eye. Opal's charm never seemed to leave her less than fascinated. "Haffef told me he's planning to revive my sister."

"What? How?"

"I'm not certain, but that's why he wanted my blood. He said he'd been keeping me around all of this time because he planned to use me to bring Ivy back to life, and apparently only the blood of a close relative would bring her back." She sighed. "He also blamed me for my sister's death. Which is very ... odd. I think he knew her."

"Oh?"

"Yes." She paused to gather her wits. "I think she was mixed up with him somehow. This is going to sound completely strange, but she originally wasn't going to take the job, but—"

"What job?"

"Uh, right. Well, when I was alive, I worked for the Belfour family ... in the kitchens." She stopped for a moment allowing that last bit of information to sink in. It wasn't glamorous, nor exciting, and actually she had been nothing more than a wench, someone Opal would've used and cast aside in a instant. She wasn't quite certain how he was going to take this new piece of knowledge.

"This explains why you aren't upset to be holding the hand of Francois Mond," he smiled.

"Quite. You're my hero. The hero to all of the lower class."

He waved that idea away. "If that had been the case, someone besides the royal guard would have released me from the pillory in Villoise."

She mused, "No, I think you're still very popular there."

"With Avamore, perhaps."

"Anyhow, some of the noble lords set out on a hunting party in Terrence, and I was to go along, as kitchen staff, to prepare meals for them. It was pretty good coin, so I wrote and asked if my sister might like to go with us. She lived in Terrence at the time. Well, that's where I was from myself—"

"You're from Terrence? Bit of a slum these days, but it was rumored to be quite nice years ago. Didn't know Terrence Penmbrander by any chance, did you?" Opal chuckled, "I understand he was the self-righteous knight who founded that place."

Her smile faded. "Yes, I knew him."

"Well, really? I mean, he founded that place about seventy years ago, didn't he?"

"Something like that."

"You're seventy?"

"Of course not."
Not quite, anyhow.
"He was my father."

He moved to pull his hands out of hers, but she held his tight, smiling. "I thought you said you were kitchen help."

"By then I was."

"You're Terrence Penmbrander's daughter?"

"Eldest daughter."

"He was related to the Belfours."

"I know."

Opal's face paled.

"Yes. Your revolution took out most of my family." Her tone was matter-of-fact. "A family that turned its back on my mother, sister, and me the moment my father was disgraced. We were forced out of the keep that we lived in and reduced to poverty. Never once did they offer to lend a hand to help us, and the nobles that were on that hunt that day, so long ago, probably recognized us. Probably thought it funny to ... murder us," she said, leaving out some of the pieces of the story that she felt might sully her image for Opal. She wasn't about to tell him of the violent sexual attack she had endured. That might make her seem weak, dirty.... This seemed ridiculous to her even as it crossed her mind. After all, she was undead; did it really get any worse than that? But somehow, it still mattered after fifty years.

His mouth opened; it seemed that she had just told him everything ... and then it continued.

"And then Haffef came along in the night. Ivy was dead, but he restored my life. I thought he was just being kind. For years, I thought he was being kind, in his way, until he ordered me to dig up Ivy's remains. Then he became so cruel.... I was confused. I thought that he had murdered those noble lords because I had wanted to murder them, but they were already dead. Someone else had managed to get to them before I could. I thought he was doing me a kindness, in his dark way, but no. Then I met Edel, and he admitted that he had murdered them for Haffef, and that Haffef had been watching Ivy for a while.

"I had believed that Haffef had saved me from Gail. Clovis Gail DePell, the man we killed when I first met you. Do you remember?"

Opal nodded, forcing himself to shut his mouth.

"Gail had kept me prisoner for days when I had first become an undead ..." she trailed off, reminding herself to trim off some of the less savory parts of the Gail story. "And then Haffef saved me from Gail and flew me to the Association." She looked over at Opal, "Except I was wrong about that part. Edel had saved me from Gail, and then how did I repay him? By allowing Haffef to kill him." She took a deep breath and heard Opal about to speak, but she spoke instead, "And all of this time Haffef was really keeping me alive just to bring Ivy back to life. Apparently, he planned to do so right away, except that Edel had managed to steal my dead sister's body from Haffef and had it buried in a holy cemetery." She met Opal's eyes as if to pound home the information she was about to divulge. "It took Haffef fifty years to find her, and that was the night he insisted I go dig up those bones."