“I believe you,” he says.
Suddenly, a fault echo reverberates down the chamber.
I freeze. “What was that?”
Riyu looks at me. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“Your senses aren’t as sharp as mine,” I say under my breath. “Listen!”
He focuses, standing absolutely still. I hear the sound, so faint, like somebody drumming their fingers against something.
“I hear it,” he says after a moment.
I nod. “Let’s go.”
We rush down the long, dark cavern toward the noise. I have a whole host of spells prepared to unleash the instant anything pops up.
The cavern abruptly opens, and I find myself on a rock bridge carved from the formation of the earth.
I slow down, coming to a stop in the middle. I look around.
The cavern expands immeasurably in all directions. I feel suddenly very, very small. Below me the drop seems to go on forever, but there are platforms carved into the side of the walls, and tunnels linking them all.
I marvel at the grandeur. There’s a whole other world down here, hidden beneath The Haven. No wonder so many of the screechers have remained here, undetected. This underground space is likely two, three times bigger than the entire surface area of the coven.
“Eleira,” Riyu says. “Look at that.”
I turn around to see where he’s pointing.
His finger is aimed at a small opening in the far wall, five or six levels down.
From it comes the very faint, but absolutely unmistakable, blue glow of magic.
“Be on your guard,” I whisper, and start stalking to the other side to make my way down.
Riyu follows close behind. Together, we traverse the convoluted tunnels and paths leading from one platform to the next. The platforms themselves intrigue me—they look like lily pads sprung out from the walls. No way are they a natural formation, though they give every appearance of being so.
It makes me wonder just how old The Haven really is. Everything I’ve heard points to five or six hundred years, coinciding with Europeans discovering America.
But what if vampires from the other continent had come across the sea first?
Riyu and I make more than a few wrong turns. There’s just no way to know which tunnel opens up where. I don’t want to simply scale the walls to get there, or leap from platform to platform, because that can draw attention to us and ruin our stealth.
So, we continue, very, very slowly, closing in on the opening with the faint blue glow.
Eventually, almost as if by miracle, we reach the proper level. That sound we heard has died off, but I am certain it came from this room.
I press myself against the wall, look back at Riyu, prepare all my offensive spells to be unleashed in the blink of an eye, and turn the corner into the room.
The sight I see shocks me so much I nearly falter.
In the middle of the room is a strange carved rock slab. On top of it lies the decrepit shape of an old woman, all skin and bones. She is so near death that, at first, I don’t even realize she has a vampire presence, it’s so damn weak.
There are gargoyles arranged on the outside of the stone slab, one in each corner. They seem to be boxing the woman in. Blue petals lie flat on an invisible surface just above her, giving visual shape to her cage.
She is lying face down, head cradled in one arm, but something about her shape toggles a long-forgotten memory. One moment it’s there, the next it’s gone, just like that.
I test the room for any latent, hidden spells, and, finding none, proceed inside.
Riyu follows silently.
The blue glow comes from the stone slab itself. On its sides are a series of runes, once again in that impossible-to-learn language.
The blue emanates from them.
I approach the woman cautiously. Except for the stone slab, and for her, the room is unadorned.
“This looks like some sort of sacrificial chamber,” Riyu notes quietly.
A shudder runs down my spine. I agree.
I stop a foot away from the woman. She is so close that I can reach out and touch her—but I dare not.
As I stand there, I feel a very subtle, very faint shift in the air.
“Riyu…” I start to say.
“It’s a trap!” he exclaims.
Without warning the roof caves, and rubble comes crashing down.
I scream and duck, immediately erecting a protective wall of Air above me. The force of the falling rocks pushes it down, but I channel more and more to fight against it.
From the corner of my eye, I see Riyu doing the same thing. But I know he has too little magic to do it properly. I divert part of my weaves to him, to augment his spell, but I don’t do it fast enough. One of the boulders crashes off the edge of his barrier, splinters in two, and knocks him out with a hit to the head.
I cry out as his limp body flops to the ground. His blue protective ward for us winks out of existence. I’m able to extend my cover to him, to protect him from the ongoing avalanche, but only just. The rocks and boulders come roaring down, a never-ending torrent of them, and all I can do to fight it is channel all of my might into the umbrella-like shield protecting us both.
After an indeterminate amount of time, it all comes to a stop. I’m breathing hard—the spell took a lot out of me.
With one great heave of effort I push up, throwing the rubble on top of us to either side, and rise.
Immediately, I flare my senses. The old woman is still there. How? I whip around to look at her, and find her in exactly the same position, protected by the invisible box, yet now stuck under a huge pile of rubble.
“Well, well, well,” a young woman’s voice rings out from the other side of the entrance. “Look at what we have here.”
I spin back, ready to unleash a torrent of fire on the intruder.
But when I see her face, I am so shocked that I miss a step.
The woman looks just like the vampire in the first portrait Morgan ever showed me.
Just like her long-lost cousin, Rebecca.
That slight hesitation is all the woman needs. From one hand clutched at her side she tosses a handful of some sort of dried leaves into the room.
The moment they’re in the air, all the Elemental Currents flee the room.
I stagger from shock. I try to throw a fireball at her, but the currents are just not there. I feel them, outside this room, but for whatever reason they refuse to come to me as summoned.
The woman smiles. “You look like you’re struggling,” she notes, looking at her nails.
My anger at her flares. She may have nullified my magic powers, but I can still destroy her as a vampire. I tense, ready to pounce—
But then a whole army of screechers drops down from above, surrounding her immediately.
“One wrong move,” she says sweetly. “And I will let my preciouses have their way with you.” She laughs. “Did you really think I would dedicate my full force to the attack? No, no. I had to leave behind some, in the hopes of something like this happening.”
I am frozen in place. If I move fast, I could maybe destroy ten, twenty, before the rest start to shriek. But she has many dozens around her, with more landing around her with every passing moment.
The woman steps into the room. She looks at Riyu’s unconscious body.
“A shame he had to be caught up in all this,” she says. “He is your… lover? Protector? No, no, don’t answer. It matters not—he did a pitiful job.”
She kneels down by his body, and, before I can stop her, slits his throat with a silver blade.
“NO!” I cry out. I launch myself at the woman. But her screechers are equally fast. They leap in my way, sacrificing themselves for their master. I tear through, two, four, ten, ripping out their hearts and crushing their throats without mercy. The others start to scream. The sound staggers me, but I clench my teeth and fight on, propelled by the sight of Riyu’s blood gushing all over the floor. If I can just get to him in time, if I can give him some of my blood…