Chapter 3: Destroyed
1996 Words
“My King, it’s all gone. They attacked at dawn. The entire village is… gone.” Stefen, King Erevus’s chancellor, voice broke as he spoke the last word.
Erevus scowled. Anger drummed through him as hard and as lethal as lightning striking the earth.
He growled in frustration as he threw his stone throne down the marble steps, cracking the last stair. He twisted, walking to the large windows, punching the stone wall, rattling the glass. Pain radiated through his hand and arm, but he didn’t care. Physical pain was better than feeling the depth of sorrow for his people that were defenseless in the light.
Stefen said, “It appears King Torrin has no mercy.”
“No. We will give him none in return.” Erevus faced his friend. “Have we secured the second silver mine?”
“Yes.”
“Blow it up.”
“My king?”
“Blow it up!”
“Yes, My King.”
Erevus stopped on the broken stair, observing the cracks that jaggedly went straight out as if wanting to spread its disease. The disease the rest of the world saw them as. Vampires. The creatures of the night. The Dark Kingdom. That was what they were.
Stefen stood rigidly still.
Erevus said, “Why are you still here?”
“More news, not good for us either.”
“Speak it.”
Erevus didn’t know if he could handle any more bad news. Already he was thundering inside. His muscles constricted as he wanted to feel the blood of Torrin sliding over his hand, dripping into the earth.
“After their attack on our village, King Torrin made his way to Fildira where rumors of an arranged marriage with the High Princess have begun to circulate.”
Biting the inside of his cheek, he once again peered out the large windows that shone the bright half moon on the clear night.
He said, “It was inevitable Fildira would do something like that. We have left them in destitution. They have become desperate.”
“The arranged marriage would be our undoing. What we have fought to protect over many years.”
Erevus already knew what the consequences would be if the arranged marriage should happen. “Then we only have until their marriage to seal off any other silver mines.”
“They are being well guarded and with Torrin now in the proximity…”
“We will take the risk.”
“Yes, My King.”
Erevus started towards the door. “See to the mine. I will go to our village.” Perhaps there might be one still alive.
He didn’t wait to see if Stefen would do his bidding, he trudged into the forest like a bull shaking the ground with its powerful hooves.
Erevus felt anger pump into his veins, clouding his thoughts and senses. All he wanted was Torrin dead at his feet, his lifeless eyes staring straight back at him.
He sprinted into the forest, quickly passing through trees as quickly and silently as shadows slipping in and out of the light.
He paused when he heard the ocean waves, knowing he was close to one of his villages, not the one that was brutally destroyed, but Elithor. Erevus momentarily watched the water. The waves would roll in as consistently and normally as breathing. Erevus wished he could find solace in the waves that hummed its soothing song, but not on a night like this. Not when he felt the screams and pains of every person massacred in the village. He continued further.
Suddenly, he paused. He could smell blood. Not blood exposed to the elements, but blood pumping through veins. What was a living person doing close to one of his villages? Was it one of Torrin’s soldiers scouting out another village to m******e?
Not while there was anger in his veins would Erevus let it happen again. Using shadows to hide his advance, he crept towards the smell. His tongue tingled as the smell grew, signaling to him what their blood consistency was. Perhaps, not only would he get the satisfaction of killing one of Torrin’s soldiers, but get a meal out of it too.
He drew closer to the bushes his prey was behind. He could hear their subtle slow breaths, the quick consistent beating of their heart.
His fangs emerged as he grew ready for his attack. But his prey sighed, then groaned as he heard a thump as it landed in the grass. Female. It sounded like a female, and not like a soldier. What was a living doing this far in the forest?
He emerged from the underbrush now determined to get to the bottom of it and ensure that this intruder would never return.
What he saw stopped him. A young girl of around eighteen laid in the grass, her black hair fanning out contrasting against the green. He could see that she was staring up into the stars, with her arms outstretched. He imagined that is what she would look like when lying out in the warm sand while the sun rays danced across her. Still, she did not belong.
In an icy tone, he said, “Why are you here?”
She jerked up, startled.
“Excuse me?”
He came closer to her. Her black hair fell around her back and shoulders with little remnants of grass and twigs.
“Here. Why are you here?”
She blinked several times. Apparently, he had disturbed her while she was in a melodic trance of some sort.
She said, “Do you own this land?”
He said nothing.
She said, “Then you don’t have a right to ask why I am here. I can be here if I wish.”
He crossed his arms. “It is not exactly safe.”
“From what?”
“Night creatures.”
“Such as?”
“Vampires.”
She lifted her eyebrow. “You’re here.”
There was an intelligence he could see written into her features. But apparently, not intelligent enough to be afraid of who had dominion over the night nor recognize that she was talking to one. Oddly, he found her naivety endearing. He couldn’t remember the last time he had talked to a living without them screaming or casting immediate judgment because of what he was.
“That doesn’t mean it’s safe.”
“Safe is such a relative word. You think it is not safe here, but where I have come from, I feel safer here than there.”
“I am not sure your reasoning is sound.”
“Well, are you momentarily safe to be around?” He could see a twinge of a smile play on her lips.
He took a step, feeling a pull towards her innocence. How little she knew who she was talking to. If she knew, she would not feel safe around him.
“Momentarily is such a relative word. I could be safe to be with now, but in another moment, depending on circumstances, I may not be.”
“Well, then, I will take advantage of our whim of a moment to be safe in one another’s company- here.”
He took another step forward.
“You like to make your own rules, don’t you?”
“When circumstances allow me to.”
Now, completely entranced in her mystery. Erevus sat near her, still keeping a distance between them.
Again, he asked her his question, but gently. “Why are you here?”
“The stars.” She peered up. “It’s a calming place.”
He glanced around, understanding what she meant. The ocean noises below, the secluded area, and clear view of the moon and stars.
“You are not afraid of the night? With everything happening with the Dark Kingdom?”
She leaned back. “What if it’s just misunderstood? The night, I mean. People fear what they can’t see and night time limits our vision. But what if the night truly shows us only what we need to see? I guess for me, the night shows me the hidden beauty, keeps me focused on the calm.”
Erevus had never met someone like her. So willing to look beyond.
She said, “I mean take the Dark Kingdom for example. They have taken two of Fildira’s mine, but oddly enough they don’t mine them. They seal them off. Why would the Dark Kingdom go through so much to take a mine, to not even use it or profit from it? Has anyone even tried speaking with the Dark Kingdom? Every Kingdom wants something, and everything has a price. But for the right reasons, a price can always be negotiated. What if they are just misunderstood?”
Erevus tilted his head, fascinated with the woman before him. She may be eighteen, but her mind worked beyond those years. Yet, there was still so much she didn’t understand. But he could see the curiosity- and that could be dangerous.
“People fear what the Dark Kingdom is.”
“Like the night?”
“Yes.”
“But do we really need to fear the night?”
“Not in arbitrary safe moments like what’s here.”
She giggled. She laid her hand on the grass near his. He could see the coloration in her skin, the pink undertones next to his pale hand.
Erevus nearly forgot what his purpose was. A war was erupting between the living and the vampires. He could see his own kingdom of vampires beginning to hate the living, willing to kill anyone that trespassed. There was a great divide happening where peace between the living and them was slimming. There may be misunderstanding, but the reality was the living feared the night and the vampires feared the day and there was no fixing that.
He stood.
“It’s not safe. You better return to your home.”
Her shoulders dropped and she looked across the ocean again, slowly nodding. The young girl stood.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Listening. Making me feel seen and perhaps understood.”
Funny, she said that, when vampires were experts at hiding within the shadows remaining unseen and were widely misunderstood.
“Get home safely, and best if you do not return.”
“Right. Home. Safe.”
Erevus wondered what type of home she had if she didn’t feel safe amongst its walls. But what kind of king was he if his own people didn’t feel safe within his borders? Not much of one.
Dipping his head, he went back into the trees. He paused when he could smell her blood again as it left further into the trees towards Fildira.
He checked on Elithor, finding it well. They had heard the news and were understandably nervous and frightened. They were the next closest town. Erevus set up guards and instructed the building of watch towers.
He continued on to the next village, dreading every step. What he saw, even living hundreds of years, could never have prepared him for the sight. Houses were ruined and some were still smoking. His people laid scattered across in different stages of being burned, exposed as they had been in the sun. Silver arrows and knives stuck out of most of them.
Erevus fell to his knees in horror. He gripped the dirt in his hands, shaking with a fury no hurricane, no earthquake, and no storm could ever create. Despite the silver, he withdrew a knife from a victim, letting it burn across his palm, and seared his oath that he would unleash his fury among the living and every drop of Torrin’s blood would bathe his skin for the lives brutally taken. Erevus Ciaus, King of the Vampires, declared war, and he would not be satisfied until every drop of deserved blood soaked into this hallowed ground.
- Writer
