Marked for Death

Chapter 26

Te’oma closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “Please!” she whispered at the girl.

Esprл hesitated, the hand with the knife trembling over the reins. Her grip tightened, the blade touched the edge of the reins, and Te’oma held her breath. In one fluid movement, Esprл twisted the knife, turned, and plunged it into the vampire’s belly. He winced, then looked down at the blade.

“You are an interesting child,” Tan Du said as he wrenched the girl’s hand off the knife and removed the blade, “as determined as the justicar. I see his influence upon you.” The vampire stooped over to look into Esprл’s eyes. “It’s almost a shame what will happen to you. Now step aside.”

The girl obeyed, and Tan Du reached out and grabbed the horse’s reins. He snarled at the poor, tired beast, and the horse kicked backward, its terror overcoming its exhaustion. As the horse scrambled back, it pulled Te’oma up and over the chasm’s edge.

When she was safe, Te’oma flipped her injured arm free of the reins and collapsed. She hugged the ground like an old lover she’d never hoped to see again.

“Get up,” Tan Du said. “I have something to show you.” He turned to Esprл and spoke. “As for you, behave yourself and stay with the changeling. You seem to be able to count on her to keep you safe.”

“What is it?” Te’oma asked as she struggled to her feet. Her arm hung loosely at her side. What little feeling she had in it was only pain.

“Something unbelievable.” Tan Du looked at Te’oma’s useless arm. “It’s a pity you used your last healing potion.”

The changeling used her good arm to pull her injured limb and stuff its hand across her body and into her belt. “Don’t worry about me.”

The vampire grinned. “Do you think it’s in my nature?”

He turned and walked off to the left of the chasm.

Te’oma grabbed her horse’s reins with her good hand and led the animal after Tan Du, following the edge of the chasm. Esprл scrambled up onto the horse’s saddle where she rode in silence.

“What is it?” Te’oma asked again when they caught up with the vampire, who stood waiting for them.

“As always, changeling,” Tan Du gestured toward the nearby chasm, “you manage to find the obstacles that lay in our path, while I”-the vampire stepped aside and bowed, revealing the end of a lowered drawbridge behind him-“I find the solutions.”

“After you,” Te’oma said.

Tan Du strode out onto the ironbound oak planks of the bridge. Te’oma led the horse after him, the girl still silent in the saddle.

The changeling stayed in the center of the drawbridge. She looked back to see Esprл leaning out from the saddle and peering into the abyss below. The changeling’s eyes followed the girl’s, but the mist obscured everything. The chasm could have been a dozen feet deep or a hundred. It was impossible to tell.

The wall of the tower seemed to grow out of the mist as the travelers approached. It stabbed high into the swirling grayness, or so it seemed. Te’oma could not even see the top of the arch that stood at the drawbridges base.

The trio passed beneath the arch and found themselves in an open courtyard. Tan Du led them forward until they came to large, wooden door, in which was set an ornate, iron knocker cast in the shape of a gargoyle’s head with a large, thick ring in its mouth. He presented the door to Te’oma and said, “Here you are. I believe this sort of thing is your specialty.”

“Why don’t you just turn to mist?” Esprл asked from atop the horse. Her voice sounded distant.

The vampire looked up at the girl with a bloodless smile. “I have to be invited,” he said. He looked at Te’oma. “But I think we can arrange that.”

Te’oma handed Tan Du the reins to her horse and stepped forward. The vampire tied the animal to a hitching post near the door and pulled Esprл down from the saddle. They stood back and watched as the changeling examined the door.

Te’oma ran her eyes across the door’s surface first, scanning for any traps-in the Mournland one couldn’t be too careful-then ran her good hand in the same pattern. Nothing happened. She reached out for the knocker with one eye open. Her hand touched it. The metal felt cool, if a bit moist from the mists.

The changeling pulled on the knocker, then pushed, and nothing happened. The door did not give an inch. Te’oma tried twisting the knocker, but it wouldn’t budge. In frustration, she pulled the ring up and then slammed it down.

The door swung open, creaking on its rusty hinges.

Te’oma looked back at Tan Du, who motioned for the changeling to enter. She pushed the door open and peered inside.

The swirling mists stopped outside the door. Te’oma could see all the way across the large, brick-walled room.

Shelves of books and scrolls stacked floor to ceiling lined the walls. Papers spilled out of some of them and on to the floor. The clutter almost obscured the sumptuous red rug that covered all but the few feet on the edges of the polished wood floor. Ink spots were splattered all about the place, many of which trailed from a pot sitting on the corner of the massive desk in the center of the room.

Te’oma slipped into the room and padded to the desk. She could not read the writing on the pages there, but she recognized the strange notations of a wizard’s instructions for spells. She reached out and ran her finger along the edge of the desk. It came back covered with dust. She noticed, though, that the pages atop the desk’s dark, mahogany surface were clean.

Windows lined the walls. They were wide and unglazed but the mist outside stopped just before their edges anyhow, almost as if each wisp feared to be sucked into the building. No light shone through them.

A long set of wooden stairs snaked back and forth along the rear wall and disappeared through a hole in the ceiling. There was no telling how far up it might continue or how many other floors lay above.

An iron chandelier hung from a long chain in the center of the ceiling. The tips of the bars glowed with a magical light that hurt to look at. Te’oma shaded her eyes with her hand and squinted at the structure long enough to see that it was wrought as a symbol of a god.

Te’oma turned back to see Tan Du and Esprл peering through the doorway at her. “We may not be welcome here,” she said.

“There is no one here,” the vampire said. “The place is empty.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

The vampire bared a wicked smile. “If it’s not empty now, it soon will be. Invite me in.”

For a moment, Te’oma considered defying the vampire. If she did, she would be safe, at least until she had to leave. The girl, though, would still be in his grasp. “Come in,” she said.

Tan Du strode across the threshold, pulling Esprл along behind him. Once inside, he let her go.

Esprл wandered about the place without a word, her wide blue eyes taking in everything. She looked up at the chandelier and said pointed. “That’s the symbol of Aureon, the god of magic.” She bowed her head. “My mother wore a medallion of it around her neck.”

“Then your mother must have been a good and powerful wizard,” a voice said from the top of the stairs.

Tan Du, Te’oma, and Esprл looked up to see an emaciated elf coming down the steps. She was dressed in fine robes of green- and blue-patterned silk that draped over her pointed shoulders and gave the illusion that there might be some volume to her under them. Her sunken eyes, cutlike mouth, and knife-sharp cheekbones under paper-thin skin belied that impression. She moved with purpose and economy, as if every gesture caused her a pain she refused to express.

“She was a sorcerer,” Esprл said.

The elf favored the girl with a half smile. “I do not receive many visitors,” she said. “The mists keep them away.”

“We came seeking shelter,” Te’oma started.

“From the sun,” the elf said. “I know. Who do you think opened the skies?”

“You forced us here?” Tan Du glared at the elf.

The gaunt wizard nodded. “I predicted your arrival. I know who you are, I know what you are, and I know what you are about.”

Tan Du frowned. “Then you should know better than to interfere.”

The elf coughed up a dry laugh as she descended the final stairs and stood before the trio of intruders. “I do not fear your lich-goddess. True power comes from the light, not the dark. She is but a shadow of what she could have been.”

Tan Du’s frown deepened to a scowl. “You blaspheme. Apologize, or I will tear your heart from your chest.”

Te’oma reached out and took Esprл’s hand. The girl did not pull away. Without taking her eyes from the wizard, Te’oma began to creep backward, a step at a time, bringing the girl with her.

The elf squinted at Tan Du. “You are a pawn and a fool. Do you not realize what you are in the presence of?”

“A dead elf,” the vampire sneered. He lashed out, and his hand closed around the wizard’s bare, thin throat.

The elf’s eyes narrowed in delight. Her smile showed all her teeth like a corpse’s rictus.

The flesh on Tan Du’s hand burned. Te’oma heard the sharp hiss of burning skin and saw smoke rising about the elf’s face.

The vampire’s eyes flung wide in terror. “What-?” he said.

He drew his hand back and stared at it, stunned. It was red and blistered as if he’d pressed it on a hot stove.

Te’oma hustled Esprл behind the wizard’s desk. She didn’t know what might happen next, but she hoped the wizard would be reluctant to attack someone hiding behind her spellbook. She held the girl to her chest, keeping Esprл from watching the pair near the stairs, but she found herself unable to avert her own eyes from the scene.

The elf chanted a few quick words and presented a pearl between her fingers. It burst forth with the heat and light of the sun.

Tan Du cowered before the light and screamed. “No!” he said. “I cannot fail! You cannot-!”

The vampire stopped protesting and turned to run. The elf followed him with the light still blazing from her hand. He stumbled into the side of the wizard’s desk opposite Te’oma and bounced off it toward the door. Esprл let out a little scream and clung to the changeling tighter. Te’oma ran a hand through her hair and shushed her gently as she craned her neck around the desk to watch the vampire flee.

As Tan Du moved, smoke curled from his bare flesh and from under his clothes. The vampire reached for the door, but it slammed shut as he did. Bellowing in frustration, he hauled at it with all his supernatural might, but it refused to give.

The vampire turned to face the elf, his body burning now, flames licking up all around him. His hair caught like a torch, and his skin blackened and began to peel away. He let loose a final agonized scream before he collapsed. Moments later, all that was left of him was a smoldering pile of ashes spilling out of his scorched clothes.

The light in the elf’s hand went out, and she turned to smile again at Te’oma and Esprл. “Now,” she said, “shall we get to know each other a bit better?”