Haldred Chronicles: Alyssa (23 page)

Where am I
?

“Oh I may as well
tell you.” he said smirking, revelling in the fact he could read her every
thought.

“We're in your
head, you and I.  One soul against another.  One thousand year old vampire of
impeccable breeding, decades of combat experience and extensive strength and
ability.”

He nodded at
her.

“...against an
orphan girl barely out of her teens.  Some would call it unfair.” He swung his
sword in wide arcs, his grin turning cruel.

“I call it,
life.”

“How come I
don't get a sword?” Alyssa hazarded, playing for time as she just managed to
side step another one of his thrusts.

“Have you ever
used one?” he asked, ducking low and advancing on her, sword ready for another
strike.

“Have you
thought about having a sword?” he asked next, cocky grin growing

“No.”

Abruptly, a sword
appeared in her hand.  A fine legionnaire blade, a short sword.  She'd seen it
on the hips of militia watchmen.  She blinked in mute shock but she recovered
quickly, gripping the handle tightly and pointing the blade at him.

“Ah.” he said,
smiling at her almost praisingly.  “Look at that.  I had forgotten that the so
called
dominant
soul has a certain amount of control over proceedings.”

He pointed his
sword at her.  “Come on then.  One for the road before I run you through.”

Alyssa looked
from sword to Regorash and back again.

Then she threw
the sword at him.

Regorash, rather
easily, ducked to one side and let the sword sail pass him to clatter into the
darkness.

He frowned as he
glared back at her.  “Generally one uses a sword to parry and thrust my dear. 
They make very bad missiles.”

He shrugged. 
“Ah well.  Time to die.”

* * * * *

Not good
thought Victoria.  Horna
didn't seem to be in a time wasting mood.

“Fine.” she
said.  “James, the book.”

James flinched,
looking from her to Horna.  Horna kept his pistol on Victoria but cast a look
down on the boy.

“Just do it.”
said Victoria, her expression resigned

Or at least as
resigned as she could make it look.  James nodded, reaching behind him and
bringing out the book from behind him.  Horna smiled.

“What a
well-trained lad”

He nodded to one
of the Darnhun, who quickly moved over to grab it off James.  Horna holstered
his pistol, and Victoria relaxed just a little.

Just a little
more time.

“What page?” he
asked as he was handed the book and began to flick through it.

“You really
think I'll make it that easy for you?”

He gave her a
mocking, hurtful look.  “Oh my dear.  After all those years of loyal service
you have decided to turn on your master.  Heart-breaking”

He continued
leafing through the book, checking out each page he turned to.  Around him, the
Darnhun kept watch.  Victoria dared not move a muscle and neither did Katy or
James.

Or Alyssa.

Who as far as
Victoria was concerned, was still unconscious.

* * * * *

Alyssa backed
away as Regorash took another swing.  This time, he connected.

Mercifully for
Alyssa it only just broke the skin, a tear across her left arm, cutting through
the tunic drawing only a sliver of blood.  She winched, the feeling of pain a
new experience, but not a welcome one

He's playing
with me.

“Yes I am.”
grinned Regorash, in total control.  “Technically your arm should be hanging
off, but I've so enjoyed our catching up.  Give up my dear.  Even in your own
mind, you have no hope.”

“I do.” she
said, though without conviction.

How the hell
am I going to beat this guy?

She thought of a
sword and yet again, another appeared in her hand.  Regorash, anticipating,
swung his sword and Alyssa blocked clumsily.  The momentum of the blow tore the
sword from her hand, sending it clattering into the darkness.

“That's not
really working now is it?” he asked, continuing to advance on her.

“You can't fight
me”

Alyssa thought
desperately. 

How?  How to
beat him?

“All that time,
you were lying to me?” she asked, trying to distract him.

“Yes.” he
replied without remorse.

“Even about the
boxes?”

Regorash
stopped, his face turning thoughtful.  “Well point of fact, they were annoying
I must say.”

Boxes.

In an eye-blink,
a wooden box appeared between her and Regorash, complete with padlock.  The
exact one she had imagined countless times for containing Vlad.  The idea had
just popped into her head.  Igor grimaced.

“Yes, just like
that.” he said with disgust, stepping round it.

Then another
appeared, and another.  Both identical, sitting in front of him, blocking his
path.

“Novel,” he
said.  “but merely irritating.”

He used his free
hand to swipe away the nearest box out of his path, his immense strength
sending the box end over end into the shadows.  He continued advancing on her. 
Another box appeared.

This time he
kicked it, hard, smashing it asunder.

“That is really
quite annoying!”

Two boxes, one
above the other this time.

“What are you
doing?” he demanded, knocking the boxes from his path.  “You cannot win you
stupid child!”

“No.” she said

Regorash
blinked, momentarily stopping in his tracks.

All of a sudden,
Alyssa's stance became more confident.

“You said this
was
my
mind.” she said.  “That was your first mistake.”

She took a few
steps toward him, and he frowned, flicking his blade out in a warding gesture.

“You said the
boxes worked, that was your second mistake.”

She stopped,
just out of his weapons reach.

“And your
third.” she said.  “was not backing off when I walked up to you”

Regorash was
clearly rather bemused and seemed to be in the process of forming an
appropriate response, something along the lines of 'insolent whelp' or 'foolish
girl' presumably.  He never got to say it though.

He was
interrupted by a box filled with bricks landing heavily on his shoulders,
bursting apart on impact.  On a normal person it would have crushed them flat. 
For a vampire, it didn't crush him, but it did hurt.  His sword clattered to
the floor.  Before he could recover, more heavy laden wooden boxes materialized
from nowhere above and started to rain down on him.

He tried to
shield himself with his arms from the array of different sized boxes.  He
hissed and snarled like a beast, momentarily ignoring Alyssa.  He channelled
his formidable strength, his years of warfare experience, his vampiric
superiority.  He battered the boxes away or shattered them apart with his fists
in a flurry of blows, his armour proof against the rain.  But on and on the
boxes came on, slamming into him with bone crushing force, each bursting apart
on impact and littering the area with debris angering him, but more
importantly, slowly weakening him.  Alyssa stood watching; she was angry too.

“You made me a
monster.” she said, her voice taking on a tone of hate that surprised her.  All
her frustrations of the last year were boiling up, all her anger at being
unable to lead a normal life.

Igor roared,
rage now mixed with pain as box on box cascaded onto him.  Each and every one
of the boxes was weighted down with stone bricks, the shattered remains of
boxes and bricks now laying about the weakening vampire lord in ever increasing
piles.

“You ruined my
life.  You took away the sunshine.”

Boxes smashed
into him now with even greater fury, as if thrown instead of dropped.  He
growled through clenched teeth, having collapsed to the ground, his armour
dented and pitted with multiple impacts.  The deep dark magics of the armour,
replicated in Alyssa's mind, were overwhelmed by the simple intensity of the
bombardment.

“But I never
followed your instructions.”

She bent down
and picked up his discarded sword as he rolled weakly on the floor nearby.  The
box bombardment ceased.  It had done its work, he was beaten.

“I never killed
anyone.  Only took what blood I needed.  Even helped those around me.”

She advanced
till she stood over him.  He was battered and bruised, dazed and hardly moving
now.  His armour was buckled and broken in places; his chest plate in
particular caved in and covered in dust and wood chippings.  His face was a
mess, his forehead bloodied and his eyes bloodshot.  It was no longer
beautiful.  Nearby, his discarded helmet still sat, the mouthpiece agape, as if
in shock at the damage done to its wearer.  She looked down on him, tears in
her eyes.

“You ruined my
life,” she said again.  “but I never stooped to your level.  I never did
anything evil.”

He sneered at
her though his battered features.  “Nothing...evil.” he mocked her, chuckling
mirthlessly through his half broken jaw, challenging her.  “You can't...kill.”

Her expression
darkened.

“With you, I'll
make an exception.”

His eyes widened
at the intensity in her voice.  Alyssa breathed deeply, summoning all of her
strength and then, with only the slightest hint of hesitation, plunged the
sword straight through his broken breast plate and into his heart.  He had a
brief moment to gasp, looking at the sword, his own sword, sticking out from
his chest, its finely worked blade easily penetrating his damaged armour
plate.  She had struck at the weak spot.

“Saw it in the
book.” she said, by way of explanation.  “Just as good as a stake.”

He made to reply
but didn't get a chance, as his body hissed and crackled around him.

His body
disintegrated, burning and popping as it turned to fire and ash.  His flesh
burned away, then his organs, before even his bones became as dust inside his
armoured suit.  The armour folded in on itself, the sword clattering to the
floor as the mass it had pierced evaporated to nothing.  Then, even it start to
crumble to dust, the armour and sword rusting rapidly; not even the helm
remained.  Within seconds, all that was left was a pile of ashes amongst the
debris of the boxes.

Alyssa watched
it all.  Tears in her eyes, heart aching and mind rebelling at the fact that
however much he deserved it, she had just taken a life.

Damn him to
hell.  I spent all those years not doing evil, and then it's an evil act that
saves me.

Exhaustion
overcame her, and her world went black once more.

* * * * *

Victoria heard
movement behind her.  Alyssa stirred, her eyes opening.  Victoria allowed
herself a brief smile, but it wasn't over.  

Horna tossed the
book to one side and drew his pistol again, noticing likewise that Alyssa was
awake.

“You've been
delaying me.” he said bluntly, now aiming his pistol toward Alyssa.  Victoria,
obediently, kept her arms up.

“Yes.”

“The girl has
changed back to a human, yes?”

“Yes.”

Victoria met his
maddening gaze.  He was shaking now with rage.

“You have ruined
everything!”

Just at that
moment Victoria heard the extremely welcome sound of running feet.

“Yeah.” she
said.  “Guess what?  I'm not finished.”

“On the floor!”
bellowed a strong northern Tornarian accent, as Malak and a group of armoured
warriors and militiamen burst in from the corridor, weapons raised and ready
for anything.

The mercenaries
with Malak were dressed in a similar style to him, with utility leather battle
plate and welding K-12 repeater crossbows.  The militia men, in their blue and
red tabards, each singled out one of the Darnhun warriors, forcing them to the
ground with aggressive words or batons.  One by one the Darnhun were knocked to
the ground without putting up much of a fight.  Mercenaries they might be, but
starting a war wasn't on the agenda; they had suddenly found themselves rather
uncomfortably outnumbered by the locals.

Horna,
predictably, wasn't pleased.

“Damn you!”
Horna yelled, his pistol swinging round.  He didn't know who to point at, his
rage blinding him.