CHAPTER16
I’ve lostcount of how many I’ve killed. My limbs ache and my breath is short. That was the third wave. Fourth? We’re deep in the old castle now and I can feel the stone all around me as though it were a living being. Every wall seems to be filled with more and more of these beasts. It’s clear what Ruvan meant about the numbers. The risk of these monsters is not facing them one-on-one, but being overwhelmed in the moment, and lacking the stamina to handle them all. It’s far worse here than any full moon I’ve ever heard Drew describe.
Somehow, I’ve managed to survive. If my brother could see me now he’d be proud. As shocked as I am, but definitely proud. His training was better than either of us realized. I can move on instinct. Though, even I admit, the vampire magic has helped a lot. I’m not sure how much longer until it fades, but, for now, it doesn’t seem like it’s waning. And even if it were, I know where I could get more.
My eyes drift to Ruvan. He’s as weary and worn as we all are. Yet, by some injustice, he almost looks more handsome with a bit of grime on him. It mutes some of his unbearable perfection and makes him…almost human? Less like some divine creature and more a man that could be touched by mortal hands.
“Here.” Ruvan hands Winny a large keyring that was previously attached to his belt. She uses it to unlock one of the many doors we’ve passed. There’s a ladder on the other side.
Winny scrambles up and then calls back, “It’s clear.”
“Oh, bloody good.” Lavenzia heaves a sigh of relief and climbs at Ruvan’s motion.
“You next,” he says to me.
I climb as well. I’m grateful for every one of my years in the smithy. If not for every hour spent hoisting steel and iron, I could not still pull myself up these rungs after all the exertion of the day.
The “loft” is more akin to an attic. Wooden beams support the roof above us. We stand on the ceiling of yet another large room below. I’m nearly blinded by the twilight that streams through a hole in the roof in the distance. After spending so many hours in complete or near-complete darkness, it’s almost painful to see natural light.
Ruvan is the last to climb, following the sound of the door closing below.
“You’ve been hunting those creatures for a while, right? And people before you were as well?” I finally ask to confirm my earlier suspicions. “How are there still so many Succumbed?”
“An entire world was lost.” Lavenzia groans as she sits on one of the rafters of the wooden ceiling. The wood is old, but it holds. Especially well, given that the roof overhead has caved in a few places.
“Countless people Succumbed before the slumber was implemented.” Ruvan sheathes his blades.
“I always forget how long it’s been.” Winny sighs. “It feels just like yesterday.”
“For us, it practically was,” Ventos says solemnly. “Yesterday and a year.”
“What a world to lose, and to wake up to…” Lavenzia says sadly.
“It’s why I hate being in the lower rungs of the city and the old castle now.” Winny sits next to Lavenzia, resting her head on her shoulder. “To think, I once enjoyed it.”
“It’s certainly no picnic,” Ventos agrees.
As they speak I cross to the opening in the roof, trusting most of my weight to the primary support beams, rather than the rotting planks suspended between them. Snow falls in silvery motes in the gray twilight. The opening reveals more sprawling castle, hidden between ridges and peaks around the caldera.
How deep does this place go?
“No one has lived here for thousands of years. Well, no one still sentient, that is.” Ruvan stands beside me. I’d heard him coming thanks to the creaking of the floor and the shifting conversation he left behind. Winny, Lavenzia, and Ventos talk amongst themselves in hushed, barely audible words. “From the records left between lords, all the way back to Jontun, I believe we’re the first to have laid eyes on this particular stretch of the castle in almost a thousand years.”
“How is that possible? Isn’t this your castle?” My curiosity is beginning to bubble over. Perhaps it’s his calm demeanor finally wearing me down. Perhaps it’s something akin to trust forming between us, begrudging, unwanted, and unwelcome…but budding up like determined weeds between cobblestone streets.
“It’s no one’s castle, not anymore,” he says solemnly.
“But you’re the vampire lord.”
“Vampir lord, and yes, a lord, not a king.” He stares out over the frozen spires and rooftops. “I’m a glorified attendant. A watcher and protector. I’m keeping this castle and looking after everyone in their slumber while trying to do my part to end the curse.”
“Sounds like a lot,” I murmur. I wonder if that’s how Davos felt. Drew always blamed his off-putting nature on the things he had seen as master hunter. But perhaps some of it was the stress of looking after all of Hunter’s Hamlet.
“It is.”
“So the curse has caused everyone in the castle to turn into those monsters?” There’s a weight to this place that gets heavier the longer I’m here. A deep sorrow that’s the same as the bitter and lonely void I wallowed in after my father’s death. This castle has known such immense loss.
“Not just the castle,” he says solemnly. “It was placed on our people not long after the end of the great magic wars three millennia ago. It’s a slow, creeping poison of a magical nature. No vampir escaped it, and, as long as we’re awake, it slowly turns us into the monsters we have been fighting.”
