THE VROL TRILOGY Page 26

  Unable to reach each other, the beasts howled and scratched at the thick wall that separated them.

  ###

  Miles to the north of Krynos' castle, a massive platoon of slowly rotting, black leather-clad soldiers marched towards the Rhönen Dominion, with those of leadership positions astride dark, mutated horses with glowing red eyes. Vladros took the position of command from the center, preferring to put his lower-caste troops out front and in all sides as cannon fodder in the event that a protective cantus, provided by his ally and fallen Primulus, Marnn, did not function as prescribed.

  For the majority of his existence Marnn was a watcher with a penchant for tinkering. He enjoyed helping to prop up those nascent species that only needed a little push to get up and going. As years turned to centuries, and centuries turned to millennia he tired of assisting those in need, and instead formulated his own views on what was right and just in the universe.

  Of course, this created a conflict between he and his brothers, and he was banished from The Hub, mostly through the insistence of his brother Draagh. Bitter, he had been biding his time for countless centuries, waiting until he could catch his sibling in a situation of weakness. As Draagh had joined with his grandson Max, that moment had arrived. Marnn was certain that Draagh would willingly sacrifice anyone and anything - including himself - in order to protect the young man and thus be less able to properly engage in a battle of ancient skills.

  Vampire king Vladros trotted along on his massive steed while Marnn effortlessly floated next to him. Dressed in ominous-looking black robes, and sporting a black beard and short hair, he almost appeared to be a negative image of his kind-hearted brother.

  "At last, the moment of retribution has arrived, o great mage," said Vladros, who was totally without the intention of honoring any of his promises to the ancient Primulus.

  Marnn was well aware of the vampire's chicanery and continued playing his own cruel game of deceit.

  "Yes, it shall be good to rid the universe of my brother's plague once and for all."

  Further up ahead, Ryder Johnson was limping along with the massive throngs of hideous, malformed vampires. As he had garnered no respect from Vladros, he was forced to march as a first line of defense. That suited him fine. He intended to split off from the troops once they had breached Krynos' castle perimeter, and to go find his other-wordly enemies. He no longer desired to violate the lovely Jennifer Escalante - he wanted to kill her while Gunnarsson watched, and then carve the scientific commander's head off with a dull blade.

  What Johnson didn't know until after Gunnarsson had rescued Jennie Escalante - as he was not privy to Vladros' inner circle of information - was that the vampire king had sent the majority of his troops off to hide in caves near Korlis' dilapidated excuse for a castle, and had done so on purpose. He was playing a strategic chess match with his mortal enemy. After deciding to kidnap the lycan girl, he left a small regiment of troops in the castle - just enough to put up a fight, but also enable the eventual release of his captives. Feigning defeat and making Krynos believe that his forces were all but destroyed, he would lull the lycan leader into a false sense of security, and then attack when they were most vulnerable - during the full moon.

  "So you say that the lycan mage is Draagh's grandson?" Vladros asked Marnn. "That would explain his apparent ease in defeating Ladros and his counterparts."

  Marnn floated eerily next to his ally and said, "Yes, it is rare, but we occasionally procreate. The father of the boy is Taxiarch Michael, but he has been… indisposed of for near a quarter century."

  "What?" burst out Vladros with no small amount of trepidation. "His father is Michael? It is bad enough for the boy's sire to be an archangel, but that lunatic? How are you to be sure that he will not show up in their defense?"

  Marnn smirked and looked out at the marching fleet of death before them, saying, "He cares not for the boy, nor for his father. He only cares for himself. Plus, he has been rendered virtually powerless and stranded on another world. But as I said before, worry not. My brother shall not pose a problem for you."

  Vladros looked forward with a dull gleam in his dying eyes. "Well then, that can only help us, my friend."

  ###

  Draagh sat in his turret, watching the moon slowly rise up into the sky, as the muffled sounds of transformed werewolves came up through ventilation grates. He enjoyed the full moon while in the Rhönen Dominion, finding it to be a time where he could be at peace, with no one bothering him to magically repair a door or to make a love cantus.

  He was nearly alone, with only Krynos running up and sniffing at him occasionally. Although the king retained his reason during the transformation, he did love running around and sniffing things, as there was little else to do for those few hours every lunar cycle.

  The ancient Primulus decided to stand up and walk out to the pathway that connected his turret to the rest of the castle - just to make sure that none of the night guards were curled up in a ball and sleeping (as had happened on many occasions in the past).

  His distrust for werewolf soldiers was probably the only thing that saved the castle, as well as the entire Rhönen Dominion.

  Walking out on the pathway and heading for the western turret, he found the always-humorous Major Kangor at his station, gazing out intently at the flat plains and looking for any sign of disturbance.

  "My good major, how are we this evening?" asked Draagh with a great deal of enthusiasm. The fully formed werewolf looked casually to his left, where Draagh had approached from the southern turret.

  "Urrrrrm, no good. No enemy. Want fight," he growled.

  Draagh gave the lycan a curious gaze, but was well aware that he was joking. It was possible to speak in phase 3, albeit with substantial difficulty. Lycans had a language of growls, barks and yelps that they used to communicate with each other while in their third state, but considered it polite to speak a language understandable to all when in mixed company. Draagh could understand and speak virtually every language he had encountered during his eons of existence, but simply enjoyed listening to werewolves struggle to form words with their lupine mouths. He found it funny, but that was Draagh.

  He watched the major go back to guarding his post in dutiful fashion, so he turned and walked back toward his own turret, passing it for the eastern sector where Lieutenant Conan was posted. Noting that the good lieutenant was carefully scanning the horizon, and that he was not one to engage in small talk, Draagh moved on, circling around again, this time to the northern tower, where Krynos and Donus stood watch.

  The northern side was considered the most important, as that is from where danger would come. All of the vampire clans were located in the north, but the night was cold, clear, and the slight northerly breeze gave no sign of anything out of the ordinary.

  Entering into the largest of the four main turrets of the castle, Draagh greeted Krynos and Donus with a nod of his head, causing friendly growls to emanate from their throats. The old mage quietly stood there, watching out to the north with his two colleagues, occasionally reaching over and scratching Krynos behind the ear, which in turn caused the transformed lycan king to kick his leg out of pleasure, much like a domesticated dog would do. The three then relaxed and looked out over the landscape.

  ###

  On the second-to-top level of the castle, in a large chamber where the walls were lined with protective cubbyholes, lycan children were quietly passing their monthly ritual. While many children giggled and played guessing games through their walls, Liliana sat in hers, playing with Jennie's wand, making little sparkles of light. Jennie had given the device to the girl, as her own katana had been recently converted into a super-powered sword of mass destruction. Liliana was a quick study, learning cantuses almost immediately, and Jennie thought it would be nice to give the little lycan something to look forward to in life. She had not told Liliana that the wand was hers to keep - she wanted to inform her later, but as far as Jennie was concerned, the wand belon
ged to the girl.

  Imagining she was a great mage and fighting epic battles, she made light designs in her small space, when shadows on the back wall showed what appeared to be a separation in the wood grain. She ran her little fingers over the seam, and digging a fingernail into it found that it moved slightly. Pulling on the seam, a small panel opened, revealing a tiny passageway just big enough for her to squeeze through. As she was a child, and most children were mischievous, she crawled into the passageway and whispered a cantus.

  "Undaincantatio lux"

  Chapter 24 - Battle of the Blood

  All of the transformed werewolves were secured in their cells, making substantial noise, with most peeing all over the inside of their containment areas. One, a female, rolled on her back in the blood and pus she had left from her change in an effort to relieve herself of an itchy back, and only making a worse mess than was already there. As the cats that lived in the castle instinctively knew to stay away from the dungeon areas during the full moon, rats roamed freely, attracted to the human waste and bile on the floors of the cells. One such rat was brave (or stupid) enough to enter into a cell, only to become a quick meal for its occupant.

  Further down the long corridor, the young man, whom Max had surprised the day he was slipping around the castle, was fully transformed in his cell and furiously attempting to hump the wall. Max and Jennie had stopped scratching on their concrete barrier and sat up to the front of their respective cells, whimpering and keeping their noses as close together as possible.

  Overall it was an uneventful evening, and Draagh sat back, enjoying his pipe as the moon moved through the sky. He relaxed and smelled the air, trying not to think of the task ahead of him and his two young charges. Standing up, he returned the to northern tower, wanting to make one final check on Krynos and Donus, the two never staying in one place very long. As he rounded the castle and passed the west tower he had an odd feeling, which turned to a suspicion, which then turned to alarm. He ran as fast as his ancient legs would take him (which was extremely fast), reaching the northern turret in seconds.

  "Move, my friends!" he commanded, as he set his staff on the floor, instantly creating a spyglass of sorts. It was more of a semi-transparent panel, magnifying everything in its view. Looking out over the horizon he saw what no lycan, phase 3 or otherwise, would have seen - a slight distortion in the air at near ground level. The distortion was wide, possibly half a kilometer, and went back nearly the same distance. He could not smell anything, nor could his lycan counterparts, but he knew it was there.

  They were going to be attacked.

  ###

  Out on the open plains, Vladros and Marrn continued forward, one on horse and one floating in the air, as they trudged on toward Krynos' castle.

  "I see our destination, my friend. Will your enhancement hide my troops if they split off and attack from all four quarters?"

  The fallen Primulus looked at Vladros, never having liked it when the vampire used the term friend, and shook his head. "No, they must remain together for the cantus to function properly. Although I have many abilities, they can only be spread so thin, and in order to control so much magic I must attempt to encapsulate it with a certain area. Still they have their amulets that shall function as long as I am in the vicinity."

  "Ah, so then there are limitations to your great power?" The vampire king sneered and looked away, as if he felt himself superior to the eons-old being at his side.

  "We all suffer limitations. If I had none I would rule the universe. Only one is without limit, and he is the Alpha and the Omega."

  "Yes, yes, I know," interrupted the rotting leader, "and it is he who we despise above all."

  "Without Jah, you would not exist."

  "Ah, but I do exist, and shall continue to do so for a very, very long time."

  Marnn had an unsettling feeling, allying himself with such a despicable creature, but as always, the ends justified the means, and Marnn's end goal was the termination of Draagh's existence. He almost regretted providing Vladros' troops with special amulets that provided them enhanced strength and protection, but saw it as a necessary evil in order to complete his task.

  The vampires were not completely at fault for being such a horrible subspecies. They were all well aware of their race's history, and felt slighted by the sins of their ancestors. Centuries before, their people had been nearly immortal, just like their hated lycan cousins, but the lycans were good of heart and prayed to Jah, while the vampires turned their eyes away from their creators and sought a path of death and destruction. Unwilling to participate in the natural balance of Earth, they left their path as the carrion eaters of the world, and went on a rampage, drinking and killing every normal they could find. This upset the Prīmulī greatly, so as punishment they modified the vampires' genome, stripping them of long life, and causing them to live a short, futile existence, in a state of constant decomposition.

  The vampires were a necessary part of the ecosystem and could not be completely eliminated, so the Prīmulī used the only method they could to control the creatures - time. It was simply controlled collateral damage.

  This particular factoid was very much at the forefront of Vladros' mind, every day of his pathetically short life. He had spent years scheming to find a way to lengthen his existence, and felt that Marnn was the key.

  Still, Marnn was light-years ahead of Vladros in thought and planning, and was determined to kill the vampire king once he had finished with his own brother.

  You shall not live as long as you believe, o putrid one.

  ###

  The invading vampire forces neared the castle via the open northern plains, unaware that they had been seen, while Draagh hurriedly contacted all of the sapient werewolves via their magical battle armor (as well as the normals who were provided with special medallions that facilitated communications from the mage), and informed them of the approaching forces. With their numbers so few, they would be required to use some non-conventional methods of repelling the vampires (conventional methods being swords and teeth), none of which were ever shared with those that had non-sapient transformations, and most certainly not with non-lycans, such as the traitorous minor-mage, Siegfried, or even the conscripted normals who had the privilege of spending one night per lunar cycle in Krynos' grand castle. However, this time all needed to be informed.

  Kangor made for the defensive machinery - easily clocking in at 85 kph, and using his semi-dexterous paws he enacted the complex set of gears and weighted pullies that would lift massive wood and quadrinium machinery up and over the castle walls. Years before, Draagh had assisted them in developing this system of defense, which was created with the purpose of holding off an invading vampire army until the sun peeked over the eastern horizon, at which time all of the dungeon cell doors would have already automatically opened and released the soldiers of the Rhönen Dominion.

  As Vladros' forces approached the castle walls, they noticed the massive machinery that peered over the edges, and split out to cover the four sectors of the castle, breaking Marnn's cantus at the same time. It was at this moment that Kangor enacted defense number one - a wide-spanning bath of ultra-intense UV light that instantly burned roughly two-thirds of the nearby frontal attacking forces to a crisp, annihilating a substantial number of Vladros' lower-caste troops. The remaining forces attempted to shoot crossbow grappling hooks up over the castle walls in order to scale them, as the fresh-water great white sharks would not sit idly by and allow them to push planks over and break the walls down.

  Draagh needed to make a choice - either defend the castle, or go and personally protect Max and Jennie, who were stuck in their cells like sitting… lycans. He chose the former, as he was uncertain that his defenses would hold against the marauding ghouls. Being there was only a handful of sapient lycans available along with their human helpers - humans who unfortunately did not possess near the strength of even a lower-caste vampire - he did have the option of shocking a few phase 3s an
d having them join the fight, but there was precious little time, and even then it was a risk, as a good percentage of shocked phase 3s would not survive the process. He ran to Krynos and instructed the lycan king to guard the children, being they were the most vulnerable. In a worst-case scenario, they could trip a lever that would instantly open the dungeon cages on a sector-by-sector basis, where meat draggers would lure the savage beasts to the main level, but Krynos would need to be above to make sure that the errant phase 3 didn't make it to the cubbyholes that protected their precious young, and it could also put the normals at incredible risk.

  ###

  Vladros screamed out orders from behind, not willing to personally engage in battle, as he was a coward, just like most upper-caste vampires. He looked around to see smoking corpses where some of his troops had been only moments before, and cursed Marnn, who had already departed up and over the castle walls via a levitation cantus. Still, many of his troops made it inside the castle, their protective amulets preserving their lives.

  ###

  Krynos bounded up the stairs, while Donus took care of a few of the enemy that had managed to get up the wall before being picked off like hors d'oeuvres by the super-intelligent and very hungry sharks. In too much of a hurry to push their grappling hooks off, he ran from location to location at high speeds, slashing and biting anything that made it over the walls, decapitating invading soldiers with his razor-sharp claws and smashing others' heads into the gray stone from which the structure was built. Looking out over the wall, he saw a lone vampire hanging back, as if he were waiting.