Blade Of The Vampire King (Book 4) (31 page)

It was a knife made from a metal which did not belong to this world. Its handle, long and thick, made for a hand slightly larger than her own. The blade was wide. Straight, and with a fine serrated edge. Runes skipped down its belly like dark spiders, moving as though alive. She knew this because she was staring at it in fascination where it was partially driven through the Vampire King's chest. His hand still draped across the handle as though trying to pull it free.

And her fingers, of their own volition, moved toward it.

“
Please,
” Gul'Se whispered to the elf. All strength had left the Vampire Queen. It wasn't the demon which had drained her. Nor the battering her body had taken from it. It was instead the toll of too many years spent grieving in the dark. Her will to live had waned and only now was her conscious mind able to begin to accept this fact. “
Please, don't.
”

But the elf did. Her hand slid beneath his dead fingers to tighten around the knife and she felt it tingle in her grip. Slowly, she slid it loose, feeling Urak's hand drop free.

Did it pause before his corpse let go? Did she imagine his fingertips brushing the skin along the back of her hand?

Did he smile?

Did his eyes flutter a little?

She couldn't tell if this was solely in her imagination, because she was transfixed by the spidery runes as they slid and altered position along the metal blade. A low crackling sound fizzled and then she heard a small click as the spidery runes trapped themselves in place, activating an enchantment which made the knife's long blade glow so dark it was if she'd plunged it deep into the shadows and it was sucking at them.

Drinking them.

It was beautiful.

It was merciless.

It was a weapon which could promise only one thing.

Death.

And it was in her hand as the Vampire King's body began to steam. Fumes of acrid magic wafted from his flesh, opening the skin and gnawing at his bones. Reducing him to dust in the blink of an eye.

She fell back in shock, refusing to drop the knife, as Urak's ashes collapsed like a dry waterfall at her feet. The only sound being the long heart-wrenching wail from Gul'Se.

“
Urak!
”

In that moment, the last of the skeletons fell to Chukshene's rampant demon, crushed beneath its monstrous feet.

The walls trembled one last time and were still. Breathless.

Melganaderna held
Torment
above the Vampire Queen's head, but had decided she'd lost her need to kill.

Hemlock narrowed his eyes at the blade in the elf's hand.

And Chukshene hid a feral smile as he turned to dismiss his demon.

“Well,” the elf said, feeling the worms retreating back into the quiet depths of her body. She aimed her gaze at the young axewoman, and let her mouth curl into its cruel smile. “Given you're the queen, reckon you're the one who should say it.”

“Say what?”

“Another one bites the dust.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Gul'Se's sobs drove Melganaderna to move away. To stand apart, axe held low in her hand and her expression unsettled. She'd been prepared to kill the Vampire Queen in battle. Indeed, she'd even sought it with a lust which had left the young axewoman grinning as she'd carved her way through the army of skeletons.

But, faced with the weeping wreckage left Gul'Se, Melganaderna found herself unable to strike the blow which might end the Vampire Queen's life. Pity stayed her hand.

The elf, however, approached with no such emotion, the dark blade cold in her fist.

She crouched in front of the Vampire Queen. Used the knife's brutal point to lift Gul'Se's face toward her and stared intently into the insane eyes. Looked past the tears and found an ancient mind still wrapped in its terrifying layer of ice.

“I figure you got enough hate in there to eat the world a hundred times over,” she said evenly. “But right now, you're hurting. And not from the 'lock's pet. Reckon you've just faced the fact Urak's dead. And that he ain't coming back. Well. I know how you feel. Lost someone myself a while back. And I ain't been feeling too good about it since. But you didn't fight us to protect your broken heart, did you? You fought for something else. You fought to keep a secret from us. Another time, I might let that slide. I ain't much for taking from others what doesn't belong to me. Also, you tried to kill me. And that pisses me off. But again, this ain't about that. Ain't about what me or you might want. What all this is about is a god. And it's about something you've got which might make all the difference between him winning, and him dying. So. Before you piss me off any more than you have already, I'd like you to think about what this is all about. Now, this feller here thinks you can help him kill a god. Well? Can you?”

The Vampire Queen's eyes went through a range of expressions.

Defiance.

Hatred.

Grief.

Then hopelessness.

She shook her head. “
No.
” She dropped her gaze and slumped again. “
Urak could control it. He could talk to it, in the beginning. But its pain was so great that it stopped talking. It was dying, Urak said. And he'd bound it to him so it couldn't die. So it could live, and serve us. It was our prisoner. We kept it caged. Then it became the cage, and now I am its prisoner. It won't talk to me. It won't talk to anyone.
”
 

“Where is it?” Hemlock leaned over her, his hands curled into fists as he felt so close to understanding.

“
Where? It is everywhere. All around you. Its bones are the wall. Its breath is the air.
” She laughed bitterly. “
The corridors are its veins and they've permeated deep into the mountain. If only it would bend to our will, think of the power we would've had. That's why Rule wanted it. He said it was rightfully his. But it was ours for thousands of years before he came.
”
 

The floor shook a little, and the elf thought she could hear the grinding of stone deep beneath their feet.

“You said her blood was inside me,” Nysta said. “What'd you mean? What is it?”

“
Your goddess helped to slay my children, Child of Veil. She took everything I ever loved and destroyed it right in front of me.
” Gul'Se said softly. “
If you want answers to your curse, you'll get none from me. See my scars? The bodies of my children? Oh, my children. My poor children. Their screams tore the fabric of my soul. There is no pain you can deliver which will loosen my tongue. If we had the time, I would spit on you.
”
 

“If we had the time,” Chukshene echoed. “I don't like the sound of that.”

“Me neither,” Melganaderna said. “Hem? I think we should leave now.”

“What about her? We can't just leave her.” Hemlock knelt in front of the Vampire Queen. “Come with us. We're not your enemy, Dread Queen.”

“
Little human.
” Gul'Se's mouth split wide, revealing her bloodstained fangs. “
Of course you're my enemy. And I curse you all. I doom you all. You will die here with me. For I have released its bond. I have unbound it. It will die now. And it will take us all with it in the fires of the earth.
”
 

The Keep let out a long groan which emanated from beneath the floor. It was the groan of something so large it couldn't be imagined. The sound spread through the mountains, grinding through stone like a river. Spreading its pain as the Keep was finally released from its chains and its wounds began to leak again.

Black blood gushed from its ruined shell.

Blood which quickly sought the shadows.

The ground tilted. Stone above cracked and split, raining dust. Tremors grew in intensity and the groaning of the Keep rose in pitch, threatening to become a tidal scream.

“Shit.” Chukshene rushed forward. Ignoring the elf's previous warnings, he snatched at her shoulder. “Come on, Nysta. We've got to get out of here.”

Melganaderna was already grabbing Hemlock and trying to drag him toward one of the doorways behind the throne.

At first, Hemlock struggled, desperate to glean more information from the fallen Vampire Queen. But then he gave in, and skipped after the young axewoman.

Nysta stubbornly resisted the warlock's tug. Kept her eyes drilling into those of the Vampire Queen.

“I know grief,” Nysta said. “I know rage. And I know vengeance.”

Gul'Se's face twisted with hate. “You know nothing.”

The elf drawled; “What's snow got to do with anything?”

And struck.

The black blade attacked like an adder, striking Gul'Se firmly in the chest. Her blood didn't gush. It drooled. Thick and warm. The Vampire Queen hadn't even tried to defend.

Instead, she took the blade to her heart with only a tightening of her face. Then a sorrowful smile as her gaze fell away from the elf toward the bodies still hanging from the wall. “
My children...
”
 

The knife shuddered in the elf's grip as it killed what could not be killed. The shadows licked Gul'Se's throbbing blood, echoing the Vampire Queens own diabolic thirst.

“Nysta!” Chukshene's fingers dug hard into her shoulder, pulling her to her feet. “Will you stop trying to find things to fucking kill and get us the fuck out of here before everything falls down on our fucking heads?”

She let him lead, following as he ran hard after the two Caspiellans. His glowing yellow orb swung past her shoulder and vomited its sick light to show the way.

They darted through the doorway seconds before it collapsed. Heavy blocks of crumpled stone chased them. Sparks shooting at their ankles. The walls and ground lurched as the entire mountain roared in pain.

It was as if it mimicked Gul'se's death throes, only more violently. It thrashed and splintered its rocky intestines, showering them with dirt and rock. Nysta's eyes widened in horror and awe as the corridor ahead twisted and turned. It writhed like a living thing, changing angle and direction.

Lurching up and down.

A surreal and spastic sight made more frightening by the sparks spitting from the twitching walls.

“Oh, fuck,” the warlock's voice chanted as he ran. He threw an arm up to protect his face from a cascade of sparks. “Oh fuck oh fuck.”

They kept running, the elf's pulse smashing in her ears as stone from the ceiling tumbled down around them in ever-larger chunks. Kept running as a long metallic howl, like the sound of tearing steel, shrieked from somewhere behind them.

Had to leap across cracks in the ground.

Cracks so deep she could caught glimpses of molten rock glowing far below.

Cracks which grew wider with every ragged intake of breath. Heated air bursting from the ruptured bowels.

“Nysta!” Melganaderna called from far ahead. “Chukshene! Hurry! The whole place is tearing itself apart!”

Chukshene shouted back; “Coming! We're fucking coming!”

She thought she could hear murmuring from the walls.

An electric sound. Popping and crackling.

A staccato hiss which spat words with no meaning.

A random selection of gibberish and nonsense.

Or maybe a language she couldn't understand.

Voices.

Alien and harsh. A guttural sound at the edge of her hearing.

The ground gave another lurch and angled downward without warning, spearing toward the earth's core. They lost their footing and rolled together, a tangle of arms and legs.

Out of control.

Panic made her lash out, seeking something to grab hold onto. Something to stop her from sliding into the molten belly below.

Then the ground grunted with effort as it tilted again.

Her shoulder slammed into the wall. Her head bounced off a large stone as it spun past, momentarily blinding her with stars.

His wild curses sprayed the air.

They couldn't afford to get their breath. Couldn't afford to rest there. They moved as one. Pulled themselves apart. She caught his stare. A stare filled with pain and fear. “Nysta? I don't want to die here,” he said, voice small but pitched a little too high. “Not here. Not in the dark.”

She saw a narrow staircase trembling just behind him, half-concealed by fallen debris. She could hear Melganaderna's armour. Jingling as the young woman ran somewhere up those stairs. Grabbing his robe, she yanked the frightened warlock to his feet. “We won't. Now. Move, Chukshene.”

Leaning against her, the warlock's eyes squeezed shut, pushing tears down his cheeks. His fists wrapped around her jacket. “I'm not sure I can. I'm all out of energy.”

The black blade in her fist hummed darkly as it hovered in front of his face. “Pick up your fucking dress and move, or I'll slit your throat and leave you here.”

He ran.

And she sprinted up the stairs after him, lungs on fire. Worms drilling through her body in a frenzied wave. Each stair cracking beneath her feet as though she was running up a staircase made from brittle wood instead of stone.

She pushed him sometimes, shoving hard into his back to keep him going.

Not letting him slow.

Not telling him that as they took each step, the ground crumbled behind them. Didn't tell him that the mountain's cavernous maw was widening. That the stairs behind were falling into an abyss. An abyss which consumed everything in a lake of molten slag.

“Run.” Her breath whistled between her teeth. “Run, you slow fuck! Run!”

She looked back only once, terror and curiosity giving her no choice.

The cavern's massive space was unimaginable. It would haunt her dreams for years to come as its fiery belly consumed its rocky guts.

The ground had given way, leaving only Urak's Keep perched on the edge of a harsh cliff. She didn't understand why it was called a Keep in that moment. She thought of Keeps as small squat fortresses. Seen from this angle, it was tall and seemed to be growing. A spire of solid rock rising sharply toward the roof of the mountain. Its base crumbling away, falling into the abyss.

It shook with thunder as it teetered on the fragile edge. Lightning crackled down its outer wall.