Authors: Jonah Hewitt
“I must leave you, my children, and I have so much yet to tell you. I had far greater hopes for you than this, but now there is no time. I must go, and I doubt I shall ever return.”
The vampire crowd was inscrutable. It was hard to know if they thought this was a good thing or not. They had all been changed by the last couple days, but whether that filled them with hope or dread, Miles couldn’t tell. Some had to hate being a vampire as much as he did, but then a lot of them, like Sky, seemed to love it too.
“But before I go, I must designate a new master of Rivenden to guide you.”
Miles looked around the crowd. Who was the ol’ blighter gonna pick? Mikhail had been around the longest, but Betty had the cooler head. The kittens only had one head between the five of ‘em. With Ulami, Forzgrim and Wallach gone, there just wasn’t any obvious choice. Miles just hoped it wasn’t Sky.
“The vampire I choose is the strongest and wisest amongst you, and I choose him to be your leader and protector. Miles Killam is now the master of Rivenden.”
Miles stiffened, had he just heard that right?! He looked around at the faces of the other vampires. They had all stiffened too. Sky’s lollipop had fallen out of his mouth, but Hokharty wasn’t finished yet.
“I expect you to follow his orders and counsel as you would my own.”
Rather than the usual sycophantic over-fawning response they had given to Wallach and Hokharty when he took control of the family, they looked genuinely shocked and a few looked disgusted. At least the smug, bored looks were off their faces. Only the kittens made an effort at any form of genuflection. They nervously pulled themselves away from Schuyler and started edging Miles’ way, twisting their hair and trying to look coy and fetching, awkwardly attempting to flirt with their new master. It was in a vampire’s nature to be a suck-up, but it must have been hard for them to suck up to a runt of a vampire that had never even turned a single human to the breed. It would have been pitiful had it not been so hollow and insulting.
“Don’t put ya selves to any trouble now, lassies,” Miles muttered. They took this the way it was intended, breathed a sigh of relief and backed off, but they didn’t flock back to Sky either. Now that he wasn’t a rung on the ladder above them anymore, they abandoned him. The look on Sky’s indignant face was priceless, and made Miles forget what had just happened, but only for a moment.
“Um, Hokharty…” Miles began to protest, but Hokharty interrupted him.
“I will hear no word of protest on this matter. My decision is final.” Hokharty was speaking to the other vampires, but only Miles was protesting. Hokharty spoke in that same, offhand way he had back during the fight with Ulami and Forzgrim that let Miles know that while he may be addressing others, he was actually speaking to him. Miles bit his lip and stood in silence. Hokharty continued, “I want everyone to know that I have every confidence in Miles, and that my reasons for this will become clear to all of you.” That was Hokharty’s way of letting Miles know
he
had every confidence in him. Miles knew he meant it, but he couldn’t guess why.
“Does the new Master of Rivenden have any orders for his charges?” Hokharty said simply.
Miles looked around at the faces, some skeptical, others hostile. Sky looked furious, and he decided to throw him a bone.
“Aye. I guess my first order is to pick a lieutenant, or deputy or…um…
whatever
.” Miles didn’t know what Forzgrim’s or Ulami’s titles were, but he didn’t want to use the word “goon.” His lack of experience with vampire hierarchy was certainly not inspiring any confidence at the moment. Then he nodded in Sky’s direction. Sky narrowed his eyes at first then smiled a sly smile back at him. Instantly, the kittens were back in Schuyler’s lap mewling, but Miles noted that Sky’s response was much cooler to them than before. Miles didn’t know if Sky was the right choice or not. He still didn’t trust Sky, but then he didn’t really trust any of them. At least he could trust Sky to act in his own self-interest, and that was better than nothing. Sky knew what it meant to be a vampire, and if anyone would tell him he was making a right bags of it, and not tell him what he wanted to hear, it would be Sky. After all, Sky had never had any trouble telling him how he felt before.
The vampires seemed a lot more pleased with this news than they did with Miles’ sudden promotion, so Miles was at least moving in the right direction. Hokharty seemed to accept this choice too and gave out his final orders. He commanded them not to prey on the weak or innocent and to avoid killing mortals at all costs. This had the same effect as telling a bunch of orphans Christmas was cancelled, but no one voiced any complaints. As dawn was imminent, he dismissed them to their usual haunts but told them to come when Miles called them, though Miles didn’t have the foggiest idea how. Was there a vampire signal up on the roof? How did these things work? He had always been summoned by one of Wallach’s thugs. There had to be a better way.
The vampires left the grounds or retreated to rooms deep in the manor to wait out the day. The kittens left looking forlorn after Sky refused them a goodnight kiss. He’d pout for a while but Miles knew he would come around eventually.
When it was just Hokharty and himself, with Sky sulking off in the distance, Miles turned to ask him why he picked him, but he didn’t get the question out before Hokharty spoke.
“You must be wondering why I chose you to be the master of Rivenden.”
“Too bloody right I am! I can’t do this!” Miles said in a hoarse whisper, “I never wanted to be a bloody vampire in the first place!! Now I have the run of the whole lot of the bloomin’ bloodsuckers!! Give it to Sky! He’s always dreamed of bein’ a bloody master, but I never wanted
this
!”
Hokharty just smiled, “And that is why it
must
be you, Miles.”
That was as cryptic as ever, but he could tell that was as much as he was going to get out of the old codger. Then another thought occurred to Miles.
“Hokharty…sir…did…that is…did ya give me Wallach’s powers after ya killed him?” Miles asked, genuinely curious. Hokharty just smiled.
“Do you think that I came upon you in that alley by accident, Miles Killam?”
Miles looked at Hokharty intently. He had never really thought about it.
“I went looking for the strongest vampire I could find, and I found you.”
Miles just blinked. He wasn’t following him.
Hokharty took pity on him and made it simple. “Wallach never had any powers of his own. He was only borrowing them from you. They were always your powers, Miles.”
Miles drifted off for a moment, that was a hard thought to fathom, but then he remembered the iron coffins and silver chains in the larder and it began to make sense. Wallach had a lot of secrets and a lot of people in chains. It hurt that Miles’ chains were all in his head though. How long he had suffered under that monster’s rule and not known how important he was to him. Things could have been much different, but then, they were different now and he still wasn’t happy. The whole thing stunk to high heaven, and there were so many more questions he wanted to ask, but Hokharty held up a hand to stop him.
“I see that Moríro and Lucy are ready. I must go.” Hokharty went to leave but turned back and took on a slightly less monotone voice and said, “Take care of my children, Master of Rivenden.” Then he bowed to Miles and walked to the other side of the room where Lucy and Moríro were standing. Miles watched him go, more confused about what to do than ever.
“Dude, Master of your own vampire den. That’s gotta rock, huh?” Tim had walked up behind him.
“Farnt.” Nephys and Hiero were right beside him.
“What? No heart for the Tin Man?” Sky called out sarcastically after the Father of All Vampires, “I think there’s a cowardly lion or two around here too, if you’re not too busy!” But Hokharty just ignored him.
The four of them watched as Lucy, Moríro and Hokharty spoke intently on the other side of the room. Sky sidled over to Tim and Miles. He was looking at Miles sideways the whole time.
“Master of Rivenden, huh?” Sky just shook his head at Miles and smiled a frustrated smile as he rubbed the back of his neck. “That
almost
makes me sorry I didn’t kill you upstairs.”
“
Almost
?” Miles snorted and looked back at Sky contemptuously, “Is that supposed to be a ruddy apology?”
“Don’t knock it,” Sky mumbled, “That’s as close as you’re ever gonna ever get out of me.”
Miles just shook his head. Sky would never change, but at least he wasn’t sucking up to him. That would have just been unnerving.
They all watched Lucy talk with Moríro and Hokharty from a distance. Nephys took stock of the situation. He had come this far to give the Necromancer the stone and bring Lucy the note. He had come back to life to help the Necromancer restore the balance and save the world and in a strange, roundabout way he had. Now that the world was saved and Lucy was Necromancer, Nephys wondered, who was going to save her?
Tim sighed. He was obviously having the same thoughts.
“Wassup?” Sky said sounding bored.
“It’s just…what does she do now? I mean honestly, she has
no one
,” Tim said, genuinely troubled, “I can’t even imagine what my kid sister would do if she didn’t have a family.”
“She’ll have Moríro,” Sky said, bored, “Who else does she need?”
Miles and Tim looked at Sky skeptically. Moríro didn’t exactly seem to be an adequate substitute for a loving parent, but then neither did any of them.
“Flubbit,” Hiero seemed to agree.
“So what happens to her now?” Nephys said nervously.
Everyone was silent, but then Miles spoke.
“We’ll take care of her, that’s what,” Miles said.
“Um…speak for yourself,” Sky said in an annoyed voice.
Miles turned to him. “Do ya want me to make that an order of the Master of Rivenden?”
Sky just groaned and rolled his eyes. Miles smiled and thought maybe this job wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Tim, Miles and Nephys all exchanged looks and nodded. A silent pact was forged right there to help the new Necromancer in any way she might need.
A half a minute later, Lucy surprised them by walking back over to them alone.
She was about to say something, but before she could speak, Miles broke in.
“Um…Lucy…we bin talking it over, that is, me and the boys have been thinking…and if it’s alright with you…that is…if you don’t mind...’”
Lucy raised her eyebrows at him. Schuyler could have strung out several sonnets by now, but Miles couldn’t get ten words out without making a mess of it. “He really is an odd vampire,” thought Lucy.
“Um…yes?” she asked nervously, cutting off Miles before he hemmed and hawed his way through another five minutes of “ums” before getting to the point.
Miles looked at her directly and smiled and finally got it out.
“We may not be the best mates a person could have, but if ya ever need us. We’ll be there for ya.”
“Thank you,” Lucy said simply. She still wasn’t certain if she could trust any of them, and she still thought they were kind of creepy and a bunch of screw-ups, but she had no one else right now, and they had all risked their lives for her and the world when it mattered most. She supposed that had to count for something.
She turned to the strange boy, Nep, with his eyeliner, shaved head and his pig-duck monster that was strangely quiet for the moment. He had brought her a note from her mother and saved the world. Without him, they would all be dead. She eyed him intensely before speaking the next words carefully.
“They say it’s time for you to go.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The Dawn
After the initial shock of the news, Nephys recognized it was inevitable. He and the imp had never really been intended to stay. Moríro explained that while the gate was closed on this side, the gate on the other side was still open, and they wanted to make sure it was closed soon before anything managed to slip out. The only way to do that was to send him and the stone (and the stowaway imp) back to Limbo. His trip had only been a short one, just a few hours, but he had dared to hope that his new life would never end and he would never have to go back to the underworld, but he should have realized it was not to be.
Nephys said his goodbyes to Tim, Miles and Sky. Sky called him ‘baldy’ one last time, rubbed his shaved head and told him to give his regards to hell. After that, he disappeared somewhere. Graber helped Tim push the Impala back out of the manor and they were fixing it up somewhere. Miles worked to secure the doors against the coming dawn, after which Miles said goodbye to him and Lucy before retreating inside.
Now it was just he, Lucy, Hiero, Hokharty and Moríro outside. It was so close to dawn he begged the three of them to let him see the sun one last time before departing. Both Hokharty and Moríro objected, but Lucy overruled them. Being the Necromancer had privileges and Lucy really seemed to enjoy bossing
them
around for a change.
Lucy and Nephys stood there, holding hands, facing east towards a small patch of wall where the trees weren’t quite so thick. The light was growing and the dawn was nearly there.
“What’s it like?” Lucy said thoughtfully.
“What?” said Nephys distracted. His eyes were still dim, but they were not yet as dim as his memory. He was aching so badly to see the sun in something other than his memories, he wasn’t paying attention.
“The underworld…what’s it like?” she said, her eyes still unfocused on the edge of the high wall where the sun would soon be rising.
Nephys didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t supposed to say anything about the afterlife, but then Lucy
was
the Necromancer after all.
“Well…” Nephys began, but then he felt the point of a large butcher knife against the back of his calf. Nephys looked down. Hiero was giving him a look that said, “Don’t. You. Dare.” Whether he was concerned about Nephys sharing the secrets of the afterlife, or whether he didn’t want to alarm Lucy about Maggie, Nephys couldn’t tell. The imp did seem to have a soft spot for Lucy’s mother.
“I’m not supposed to talk about it, really.”
“Farnt.” Hiero tooted approvingly.
Lucy sighed. “Amanda said it was a vast and sunless place with no warmth or light, and that it made you forget who you are and that you had to struggle to just to keep your own soul from falling apart.”
Nephys sighed. That pretty much summed it up all right.
“That’s all true, isn’t it?” Lucy said, looking directly at Nephys.
He tried to keep a noncommittal expression and avoid looking her in the face, but Lucy read right through it to the truth in Nephys’ clouded eyes.
Lucy sighed, her shoulders slumped, her eyes unfocused. She was obviously thinking of her mother in a place like that.
“Flubbit,” Hiero muttered, exasperated. Nephys looked down at the frustrated imp and tried to mouth the words “I’m sorry,” but the imp stabbed him in the calf anyway.
“Yeowch!!”
“What is it? What’s the matter?”
“Oh…nothing,” Nephys muttered. Hiero gave him a bloody raspberry.
They watched the growing light. It had moved from pale blue to golden yellow in just the last few minutes. Nephys looked at Lucy and felt like he had to give her some small ray of hope, something to hold on to before he left.
Then he thought of it. “Your mother’s really tenacious though. Everyone else usually just gives up and accepts things the way they are down there but not your mother. She gardens when no one else does. She teaches the children how to play ball. She even makes soup. She just doesn’t let anything get her down.”
Lucy looked at him incredulously. “She made you soup?” She chuckled a little.
“Oh yes. Your mother makes the most bitter soup I’ve ever tasted!”
Lucy looked at him as if she couldn’t decide what was weirder, that her mother made bitter soup or that Nephys said it like it was a
good
thing.
“She’s not even afraid of him!” Nephys gave the little bagpipe a friendly kick.
“BLAARNT!” The imp glared back at him and huffed as if his imp reputation had been maligned.
“Really?”
“You should see her boss him around. It’s really something.”
Lucy smiled and squeezed his hand again. “She’s an Aggie. They just don’t know when to give up.”
Nephys didn’t know what an “Aggie” was, but he knew the rest of it was true.
“I wanted to say thank you, y’know, for bringing me the note,” she said a while later. Nephys could see her hand tighten around the note in her bathrobe pocket. Nephys didn’t know what to say, so he just said nothing.
“Isn’t it funny?” Lucy said after a moment.
“What?” Nephys asked, confused.
“You don’t want to go, and I don’t want to stay.”
Nephys didn’t know what to say to that. It was true. He had lived so much in the last few hours, it pained him to go back and yet he knew he had to. Still it made him sad that Lucy would rather give up on life than remain here.
“I envy you, y’know,” she said a minute later.
“What do you mean?”
“When this is over, you get to go back to my mother, and I’ll be here stuck by myself. It’s like you’re stealing my happy ending.”
Nephys looked down. He wasn’t trying to steal anyone’s happy ending. It wasn’t his fault.
“But that’s the way it has to be, isn’t it?”
If she was waiting for an answer, Nephys didn’t know what it was.
“I was wondering if you could take a message back to her for me?”
“Um…” Nephys said uncertainly.
“Warrnt?” Hiero said in an unapproving manner.
“Um, I’m not sure.” Nephys looked behind him to see what Hiero was doing with his butcher knife.
“Don’t worry,” she said, “It’s nothing that’s going to change the world or anything.”
“Um…okay, what is it?”
“Not now,” she said giving his hand an extra squeeze, “I’ll tell you later. I think the sun is about to come up.”
Nephys looked to the top of the stone wall under the canopy of trees. Already the whole sky was light, and the light to the east was warm and bright yellow. It was more light than he had seen in a thousand years. It seemed impossible that it could get much brighter, then above the wall appeared a thin sliver of brilliant red. It grew until it was fully a half circle and the whole world exploded into light. As it rose, it went from red, to yellow to blinding white, like a coal getting hotter. It was so bright it hurt his eyes, and though he desperately wanted to keep watching it, he had to raise his hand to stop the glare. He could even see it through his eyelids when he closed his eyes, and it was so bright it eclipsed the Death Sight entirely. All he could see with his eyes closed was the warm, bright glow of the sun.
Egypt was a sun-drenched land, but during his life he had never appreciated the Lord Aten as much as he did right now. The sun was more brilliant and warm and joyous than he ever remembered and just the thought of it made him believe he could endure another ten thousand years of Limbo with just that one memory alone.
Lucy turned to him and smiled and he smiled back.
“Now if there are no further requests,” it was Moríro’s irritated voice.
Lucy sighed and turned to face Nephys. “I think you have to go now,” she whispered.
“I think so.”
Moríro continued in an authoritative tone, “We must hurry. The child of Limbo, and the stone must be returned to the underworld to prevent anyone from attempting to open the gate from this side ever again. They were never meant to be in the world of the living.” Moríro gave Hokharty another sideward glance. That was obviously meant for him.
“FAAAARNT-ffT!” Hiero tooted.
Moríro looked down on the bagpipes. “To say nothing of
this
abomination,” he said with clear contempt and disgust.
Hiero spat a wad of phlegm from his blowpipe onto Moríro’s combat boots.
Hokharty seemed disturbed by the light, but he wasn’t bursting into flames just yet. Somewhere he must have learned how to endure the light, Nephys guessed. He placed a hand on Nephys’ shoulder for one last message, “When you arrive, go straight to the Great Master’s chambers. I will see you there, Nefer far-sighted.”
“Um…yes, Chamberlain…er…I mean…Hokharty.”
Hokharty smiled and stepped away.
Moríro bridled at this interruption and then continued, “Nephys, if you will take the stone in your hand, and then Lucy, you place your hand on his.”
Lucy handed the stone to Nephys. In the sunlight it was glowing brighter than it had ever before. He gripped it tightly and Lucy placed her hand over his.
“Ahem. We don’t want to forget anyone,” Moríro said, annoyed.
“Oh!” Nephys reached down and picked up Hiero tucking him under one arm like…well, like a bagpipe.
“BUUUFAAARNT!!” The imp protested, struggling.
“Oh, hush! It will only be for a minute!” Nephys admonished him and gave his sheep stomach bag body a squeeze that made the imp’s eye’s bulge and tongue stick out while a horrible honk emitted from all three back pipes.
“Flubbit” it tooted wretchedly.
“Now…
Necromancer
,” Moríro continued in a condescending fashion, “You must search for the point of resistance…once you find it…”
“Yes, I know,” Lucy said confidently rolling her eyes, “I’ve done this before, y’know.”
“Of course, Necromancer,” Moríro said, chagrined.
Lucy pushed their clenched hands towards Nephys’ chest and found the resistance almost immediately. She gritted her teeth, but pushed forward anyway and a blue-white sphere of light formed between them just to one side of their hands. It grew until it formed a tunnel of light, with the sound of rushing wind everywhere. It was much easier for her this time. It was nearly large enough to step through in just a few minutes.
“Don’t keep it open too long!” Moríro warned.
The tunnel grew until Nephys could see the dark tunnel on the opposite side – it was now large enough for him to go. He was staring at it intently wondering when he should step through when he realized something he had just forgotten.
“Lucy!” he turned to look frantically at her, “Lucy! Your message! What is it?!”
Lucy just smiled, “Give her one of these and tell her this for me.” She pulled him into a tight bear hug and whispered into his ear, and then she pushed him through the gate.
Nephys sat cross-legged on the floor outside the Great Master’s chambers. He had been waiting for some time. The trip home had been pretty awful. He had emerged on the Limbo side of the gate in a freezing torrent of souls. Fortunately, he’d had the stone to protect him. And it was easier to go with the current than against it. Even then, Hiero had dragged him most of the way.
When they crossed the causeway and arrived at the plaza on the opposite side, it was still in a state of chaos. Souls were meandering everywhere and the children of Limbo had not yet recovered from the cataclysm. No one was taking names for the moment, but they were trying to impose some semblance of order by getting the souls to at least queue up and wait until things got settled. It was all very disorganized and painfully slow. Some of the spirits were strangely compliant, organizing themselves into lines though, for some strange reason, they took their shoes off while grumbling amongst themselves about something called the “TSA.” When they reached the other side of the plaza, Hiero began stamping and stabbing the ground impatiently and Nephys gave him leave. He knew right where he was going, straight to Maggie.
Once past the pandemonium of the new arrivals, the way was extremely easy however, due in large part to a new thoroughfare carved out by the Great Master himself. When he left his temple under the acropolis, he had traveled in a straight line directly to the causeway, totally disregarding any existing roads or streets. The massive beast simply plowed through the center of the city, obliterating everything in its path. The tombs and old citadels of Limbo crumbled to dust beneath its withering touch, leaving a wide, flat and level boulevard through the heart of the city, more than a thousand feet wide. It certainly made traveling to the temple far easier. Nephys had arrived in no time at the door behind the massive heads. There was far more rubble strewn around the gateway, but the door itself was the same inscrutable rectangle of imperishable stone with inky, timeless blackness beyond. Nephys wasn’t sure how Death had left the Temple, but he certainly didn’t come this way, the door, as big as it was, was still far too small.
There at the massive entrance, Graber, that is the Herald, was waiting for him. Now he knew why the Necromancers were nameless. They didn’t want just anyone summoning them. Nephys wondered if he had already made his exit above or if he was just on a quick trip back. Either way, he never said a word, as usual, and led him right to the Great Master’s chamber as before, past all the usual courtiers and their odd fashion statements. Since then, it was just a lot of waiting.