Authors: Laszlo,Jeremy
Sara winced as the first twinge of power joined with her.
“She’s awake and feeding,” she told Seth, who gave her a compassionate look of understanding.
“I’m sorry, but this may be the only way. You should be there when it is time,” he told her.
“I will, my love.”
Without another word, unwilling to say goodbye, Sara stepped off the wall and plummeted down to the ground thirty stories below. Another rush of power, and she was racing down the city streets. Leaping over people, carts, and animals alike, she ran slowing only to round corners when needed. Another rush of power. It seemed that granny was getting the hang of it. Faster the power came, the space between them falling to just a minute or less between each one. She was taste-testing, enjoying the physical pleasure and the growth of her own power.
Good.
Before Sara knew it, she was skidding to a halt outside the entrance to the underground temple devoted to Ishanya. Outside the temple a dozen of Seth’s rat troops stood guard, allowing no one to inadvertently release those inside. Even from up here, the screams from below and banging upon the other side of the door were heart-wrenching. Sara hated it. Hated that she had done it. Not just changed the old lady, but fed upon people just as
she
was doing. Now that she understood, the whole thing sickened her. But she had a part to play. Collisions and lives or not.
Standing outside the door like a solitary statue, Sara waited for the screams and pounding to stop and the ebb of power to cease. Then, and only then, would she open the door. Dismissing Seth’s troops with a word, she waited, praying that their plan would work.
The sun had already fled the interior of the city, its inhabitants frightened into silence within the mighty protective walls. No light for two nights and a day. The eclipse had always been an apprehensive occurrence, but with an enemy at the gates that fed on people, it was terrifying. Little did the people of Valdadore know, the monsters they feared were already inside. The screams below ceased.
Sara sprang to the door and, thrusting the giant timber from its hangers, she yanked the door open upon its hinges. Below, the scent of fresh blood wafted up to fill her nostrils and the desire to feed stirred within her. Sara refused it, watching the darkness for the monster below.
The old woman had fed upon hundreds, but even so was weak in comparison to Sara. So it was not with fear that Sara waited for the woman. If the woman escaped and was accidentally killed before they completed their plan, was the concern. Sara knew she was stronger and faster, but sometimes shit just happened. With that in mind, she crept slowly down into the depths, stepping upon the unconscious victims of her progeny. Somewhere down here was every child’s worse nightmare. A great grandmother with fangs and a thirst for blood.
Ahead, in a darkened corner she saw movement.
“Come for another taste of me?” the old woman asked from out of the shadows. “Or perhaps the smell brought you back. Want to help me drain them?”
Sara did not answer. She could taste the scent in the air and her mouth watered. She dared not open her mouth lest she lose control and feed. Instead, she moved toward the darkened corner, her eyes more than able to make out the woman trying to hide there.
Fool.
Preparing to lunge at the old woman, and tackle her to the ground in order to subdue her, Sara was shocked when the lady attacked.
Screaming like a mad woman with her arms raised like claws, Sara nearly laughed at the granny before leaping towards her and grabbing her face. With her momentum she drove the old wretch to the ground and snapped her neck.
That’ll take a few minutes to heal.
Picking the old woman up, who barely felt like a feather to Sara now, she carried her up to the awaiting mechanism and dropped her in. Pausing a moment, she looked upon the woman’s face and was shocked by what she saw. Where earlier had been a sunken wrinkled face, filled with lines and mottled with age spots, now appeared a woman of perhaps her forties. It was the same woman, of that Sara was certain. Her eyes and clothes were the same. But the change had transformed the woman, erasing years. All Sara could guess was that aging was basically your body breaking down a little at a time, and the change simply put it all back together.
“A pity you won’t get to enjoy it,” Sara said, slipping the loops of chains around the elbows, wrists, knees, ankles, and neck. Then, slamming the great lid closed, she secured the clamps that held it shut and turned the knobs to tighten the chains within, turning each until she heard the snap. After all, if all her joints were broken, she couldn’t struggle to get out, and with the chains remaining she wouldn’t heal either. Then using her more than adequate strength, Sara pushed the incredibly heavy device over, burying the knobs and clamps beneath it. Now, no one without a blessing would be able to release the woman.
With the old woman secured, all that was left to do was wait for those within the temple to rise. Sara did not intend to wait around for that to happen, so instead she ripped the door from its hinges, assuring herself that none would bar it once more, blocking Valdadore’s only hope to defeat Sigrant inside. Looking over her handiwork to be sure she didn’t miss anything, Sara turned and ran back the way she had come earlier. Only this time she ran even faster than before.
* * * * *
Seth stood upon the wall, waiting for his pair of feline sisters to make the climb. His brother had tried to kill the pair, overriding Seth’s order to hold. He could not help but wonder if Garret had seen who they had been. Something in his brother had changed.
He watched Sara dash through the city with his god vision, at the same time he watched his brother stalk away and the feline girls climb up the wall. He smirked, imagining where and what the teenage girls had been up to. As they crested the wall, Seth gave the girls his best fatherly stern face, pointing to them both.
“You two should not just wander off on your own. Especially with all the fighting that has been going on.”
The pair just looked at him with their luminous eyes, each jutting out a pouty bottom lip that just did not look right on their feral feline faces. Then without warning they crawled to his side and clung to his legs like frightened children, rubbing the sides of their heads and necks upon his leg armor.
“It’s good to see you girls too, but if you hadn’t noticed, we sort of have a lot going on.”
“We know,” said the older of the two girls,
“That’s why we came,” said the younger.
“So you came to fight, or for entertainment?” Seth asked, assuming the latter.
“No we came to let you know that…” the older began.
“Another army marches towards the city,” the younger finished.
“What army and from where?” Seth asked quickly. The city could not withstand another enemy.
“But, master, you said you are busy so we will go,” the older girl said, and both of them made as if to leave.
“I
am
busy, but I still need the answer,” Seth said, perhaps a bit too harshly. “Apologies, girls, it’s just that I really don’t have time for distractions right now.”
He realized all too soon that the words he had chosen were all wrong. Though nearly as much feline as they were human, from their neck to their naval they remained nearly completely unchanged, their small, young, perky breasts still very much intact and completely visible. Upon hearing Seth’s plea, the girls clung to one another, rubbing and pinching and licking one another in every inappropriate way imaginable.
“That is enough, girls.” Seth half coughed the words, as troops from further down the wall began to gather for the show.
“But, master…” the older sister began
“You said that…,” the younger added.
“We were a distraction!” they said together, giggling.
“OK, OK… So please will you now just tell me what army marches for Valdadore?”
“Stinky dwarfs,” one replied.
“With puuurrrrty armor,” added the other.
The dwarves were coming to their aid! Seth sighed in relief, feeling as if a weight had been removed from his chest.
“How many?” he asked, praying for high numbers.
“Many.”
“Many, many.”
“Lots,” they said together again.
“Can you give me an idea of how many?” Seth asked.
“More than him.” The older girl pointed towards Sigrant’s camp.
“Many, many more,” the younger added.
“Do you know when they’ll get here?” Seth asked again, already hearing the whispers down the line that aid was coming.
“Soon.”
“Very soon.”
“Tomorrow,” they said as one.
He would need to hold out until tomorrow and then they would have reinforcements of more than fifty thousand men, if the girls were correct. Finally something was going in his favor.
“You are sure that more than fifty thousand dwarves will be here tomorrow?”
“Not if the…” the older started.
“Giants ate them,” the younger sister completed, licking her hand and then rubbing it down the side of her face.
“What giants?” Seth asked exasperated.
“Big ones.”
“Big, big ones.”
“Are the giants coming this way too?” Seth asked, beginning to feel like he was running in circles.
“Not unless they…”
“Are chasing the dwarves.”
That was enough for Seth, and out of courtesy he sent a runner to tell his brother of the news. Turning his attention from the feline girls, which was more than he could say about those men nearest him, Seth watched as the trailing edge of the sun vanished over the horizon. Within the hour the battle would begin.
“Borrik,” Seth said, looking over to his friend and guardian down the wall. “Set the fires.”
With a nod Borrik turned, as the order was relayed multiple times. Watching down the line he saw as all of his soldiers, both wolf and rat alike, alongside their human counterparts, began taking buckets of oil from the now refilled, great cauldrons upon the wall and carefully began pouring them over the sides of the castle to coat as much as was possible. When they were done, the oil would be ignited, and the gleaming white city would become a beacon of light in the middle of the darkened plains.
* * * * *
Waiting until darkness fell was like a cruel torture designed especially for King Sigrant. He passed the time trying to keep his mind busy calculating and counting things. One of his favorites was counting the eyelashes of the beauties in his harem as they blinked. Sadly, the task only took him about a minute for all of them, and then he was forced to move on to other amusements.
Sigrant was smart, calculating, and cunning beyond measure. So when the time came to prepare his attack, he did not simply unleash his vampire horde. He understood what would happen if those high in his vampire hierarchy were killed. Those below them would revert to human form and be much less valuable. As such, he decided to send them in waves. The newest, youngest, and weakest of them would form the first wave, a full half of his army. The rest would form two smaller waves behind, each stronger and faster than the previous.
As darkness fell, Sigrant strode through the camp, ripping away the tents that housed his first wave of troops. Then, as means of giving a command, he simply stood still and pointed at the city across the field from them. Speaking to them was useless.
Tent by tent his minions were freed and set upon the city. Like a pack of starved animals they rushed headlong towards its white walls when suddenly the entire city, spanning miles, went up in flames.
Unfortunate, really. Now he would have to wait endless more eternities for the damned flames to go out.
* * * * *
Seth stood upon the wall, watching across the field. Sara had rejoined him just moments ago, assuring him all was in order. Time now was a commodity they needed to buy as much of as possible. The more time they had, the stronger Sara would grow. If they could hold out until tomorrow, Dwarven allies would hopefully arrive and help them remove the detested invaders.
For now it was a game of chance, a roll of the dice. All they could do was wait, and hope, and hold off the enemy as best they were able. “
All life is precious
,” Seth reminded himself.
Even those of our enemy.
Just moments later and the world succumbed to darkness, the last burning rim of the sun vanishing. And the monsters were unleashed.
Seth watched them come across the field in large groups, like packs of wild dogs. They rushed across the field as fast as their bodies would carry them, but before they could reach the wall, Seth gave the command.
“Now,” he said to Borrik.
Down the wall the call went out, and torches were brought to the whitewashed stone of all four sides of the castle. Within seconds the city was enveloped. Defenders were forced to fall back from the flames, the heat singeing their hair and burning their throats. Thick clouds of black smoke rose from the flames, the thick, greasy oil proving impure.
Seth watched with the vision only he had, and was pleased when the enemy reached the wall and stopped dead in their tracks. They could not climb the walls, and if any were able to jump them, they could not see beyond the flames so were unsure if it was safe to do so. The fire was working better than planned, the only problem being that the oil would burn quickly, and there was not enough to keep the walls burning more than a few hours. Then the defenders would be forced to fight. Seth watched and waited, those dearest to him at his side. Minus of course, the brother who was not really his brother at all.