The Longest Road – Ch. 4 – 4: Blood in the Dark

  • When I recovered, I felt washed out and tired as if I hadn't slept in days.  But, in spite of that, the terror of going into that crypt was less overwhelming and the thought of my late friend trapped somewhere helped clear my head.  Having Valindor at my side also gave me courage as I would need to protect him from whatever might be lurking inside.  Worried for Meeko, I bade him to guard the door more for his benefit than our own.

    We entered with some hesitation and crept down a short hallway to a large foyer where massive columns protruded from the floor like old teeth.  Snow dusted the floor in a thin layer that drifted in from a skylight on the far side of the room.  Near at hand, melted snow dribbled over a shelf to patter messily into a pool several feet below us.  Directly behind the small fall grinned a portcullis that shielded a rounded doorway.  We slowly stepped toward the blocked entry, carefully avoiding the blackly shining patches of ice.  Suddenly, someone coughed, and seeing movement in the shadows, we crowded against the chilly walls.

    "Did you take the Vigilant to the altar?" asked a figure whose voice reminded me of gravel being crushed underfoot.

    "Yes, Trevyn.  He's being prepared by Lokil as we speak," responded another, this one female and like bells struck in a wrong key.

    "Very good.  See to it his friend is allowed a proper viewing."

    "No...  Please...  Just kill me," moaned another voice, this one distinctly Nordic and familiar.  It must have been Tolan from the fort.  "Stendarr, have mercy on me."

    "Not yet, bloodbag.  Not yet."  The female figure, who stood before the portcullis, seized the man by the hair and began to drag the man toward the gate.  When he struggled, she kicked him in the side, and I heard the sickening crunch of broken ribs across the foyer.  "Open the door!"  Someone on the other side must have pulled a lever, for the portcullis slowly clanked and rose to reveal the hallway beyond.

    In that same moment, I strode away from the wall and made my way between the columns with my bow drawn.  "Drop him!" I called.  The female released him with a leer, and he fell limply to the floor.

    "Henny, what are you doing?"  The Bosmer caught up with me, brandishing a cudgel he must have found somewhere outside.  At the sight my friend, the male vampire, Trevyn, leapt at him with his fangs bared and eyes aglow with hunger.  From the Dunmer's hand a shadow enveloped Valindor, entwining his arms and neck in a sinuous dance of magic.  A slash opened in Val's tunic and drops of blood floated in the air along the rope of shadow into an accompanying opening in the vampire's hand.

    "NO!" I shouted, turning and sending an arrow into the man's twisted face.  He staggered, but increased the power flowing from his hand to draw more blood from my friend.  Valindor struggled against the bonds, fitfully swinging his weapon as if fighting off some unseen demon.  I released another shot that punctured the creature's chest, sending him to the floor.  The shadows released the Bosmer, and he turned to club the advancing female vampire in the head.

    She reeled, but returned with a vicious swipe of a dagger that left a long slash from Val's chin to his ear.  As blood trickled down his face, she threw herself at him, seemingly out of control.  Attempting to block her sharp teeth, Valindor held the cudgel like a bar, pushing her away with what strength he had.  I held my bow taught, trying to aim as the two spun and collided against the surrounding pillars.

    "Help!  Shoot her!  Get her off me!" Val cried as she finally overpowered him.  I saw her tongue dart out to sample his blood, and it was enough to make me forget about being cautious.  He's mine, I thought possessively, and I released the arrow, sending it crashing into her temple.  

    Her body fell still, and when we checked Tolan, we found him already dead.  As a precaution, we set the bodies on fire, rendering them to ash before we proceeded down the rounded hallway.

    Midway down the hall, I stopped Valindor and extracted a small pot of salve from my pack.  "How does that feel?" I asked, smoothing the vellum bandage on his shoulder where the vampire's magic had pierced the edge of his armor.

    "Better, but I don't feel so well.  A little tired."

    "It's just the blood loss.  They were sucking it right out of you with magic, and that has to be exhausting," I said dismissively.

    "Hm.  If you say so.  I've never been one to get injured," Val replied with a grin, "Unlike some people I've heard of."

    "Not feeling so well my foot.  Come on," I scoffed, not quite able to hide the humor in my tone.

    At the end of the hallway, we came to a long chamber lined with coffins, sarcophagi, and burial mounds.  The sight of those structures sent chills down my spine. The real dead were housed here, and I envisioned any number of those containers slowly opening to spill their contents onto the floor.  Bodies that would, upon sensing the living nearby, come to life and begin to walk.  

    Choking on the lump in my throat, I led the way into the room, keeping to the dirty stream issuing from a hole in the rocks that cleaved the room in two.  As we approached a set of braziers, there was a scuffling in the dirt and to my horror, a skeletal hand erupted to grope at the stale air.  Frozen, I watched it slowly dig its way out of the ground and when its soulless eyes turned to look at me, my stomach dropped somewhere near my knees.  I heard a low, shuddering moan and thought it to be coming from the skeleton itself, until the monstrosity clacked its teeth in annoyance.  No, the sound had been coming from me.

    An arm roughly shoved me aside, and I stumbled over several wet stones in the stream until I collided with an open sarcophagi.  The movement jostled the bones within, causing the head to loll towards me.  

    I leapt to my feet, drawing my sword at last, only to find Valindor beating the risen skeleton with his cudgel.  In one well-aimed swing, he sent the thing's head sailing to the opposite end of the room, where it bobbed down the stream into a small hole in the rock.  The remaining bones collapsed to the ground in a lifeless heap.

    "Now I've returned the favor," Val said, snapping my attention away from the bones and coffins.

    "Thank you."  My face burned hot in embarrassment.  I was supposed to be the strong one here, and I'd spent more time jumping at skeletons and dead things than anything else.  Avoiding his curious gaze, I eased by him to continue on further into the tomb.  I wondered what the vampires meant by "altar" and "prepared".  What were they planning to do with the remaining Vigilants?  Torture them, most likely, or something equally horrible.  I suppressed a shiver.

    The next set of hallways snaked around in a labyrinth of doorways, gates, and side passages.  Some were filled with graves, others with pots and urns containing long-forgotten ashes and offerings.  At last we came to a strange chamber linking several short hallways together.  The hallways themselves were domed in iron bars that protected compartments lined with the dead from anyone in the hallway itself.  

    Most of these compartments were empty or filled with shreds of fabric and bone dust.  As we traversed down the small tunnels, I caught Valindor rubbing at the scratch on his face as if it itched.

    "Keep that up and it'll start to bleed," I said.  Sure enough, it did, and Val snatched his hand away from his face to stare at the red substance in deep fascination.  The expression on his face looked out-of-place, though I couldn't quite identify the emotion behind it.  It was then I wondered if perhaps he'd contracted something.  I wasn't sure, and as we left one wing to explore another, I noticed a small bottle filled with a familiar greenish fluid.  Near the bottom of the bottle, where the potion had settled, I noticed the near-invisible filaments of a feather and the greyish murk of dust.  Something to fight disease, surely.

    While Valindor's back was turned, I lay down and reached my arm through the cage.  My fingers just brushed the cool glass, edging the bottle away from my hand.  Brow furrowed, I took my sword and carefully swept the container toward me.  It clinked loudly on the uneven stones, sticking stubbornly on one raised corner.  "Come on.  Come here...  Just a little further," I whispered, jiggling the blade so it rolled the bottle achingly slowly over the tile.  At last, I had it in my grip.

    "Henny?  What are you doing on the ground?"  I jumped in surprise, deftly hiding the potion behind my back and slipping it into a side pocket on my pack.  I didn't want to alarm my friend, nor did I want to cure him just yet.  There might be greater dangers deeper in this dank hole in the ground, and it wouldn't do to lose our one guarantee we'd both escape unscathed.

    "One of the iron loops fell off my pack.  I'll need to repair it the next time we stop," I lied surprisingly smoothly.

    "All right.  I thought maybe I saw something else," he said with a thoughtful shrug.  I clenched my teeth, waiting for him to ask what I had really picked up off the ground, but after a strung out moment of silence, he beamed at me.  "Oh, well.  I think I found the way forward!  There was a passage hidden behind one of the pillars that we missed.  Must have walked by it several times.  Let's go," he said, taking my hand in his, which felt cold compared to its normal, blazing warmth.  

    With a frown, I followed him, clutching his hand as I wondered how quickly whatever had infected him would progress.  He pulled me to another caged hallway, this one leading downward.  A damp breeze blew upward, carrying the scent of old water and bones.  As my boots thumped down the steps, I thought I heard a faint, tortured cry rising from the depths.

Comments

2 Comments
  • Kynareth
    Kynareth   ·  July 18, 2013
    Oh, my heart is sinking with this chapter, for a couple of reasons.  
  • Matt Feeney the New Guy
    Matt Feeney the New Guy   ·  April 26, 2013
    "Meatbags occasionally stumble over the truth but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."

    Are you confessing to your crimes of plotting and co a piracies, o goddess of discord? :P