The Geomancer (22 page)

Anhalt tried to appear untroubled, but without success. “Yes, ma'am.” He went quickly out of the cabin and shut the door.

Adele slumped on the floor next to Gareth. “I forget that others are disturbed by our
unique
relationship. It's so natural to me now.”

“I think you'll find that you are unique among humans in that way.”

“That's not true. Your people in Edinburgh let you feed off them.”

“I protected them from other vampires who would have killed them. They were . . . paying me, in a fashion. And, other than my realm in Edinburgh, a willing relationship is never the case between vampires and humans.”

“But it could be,” Adele shot back passionately.

Gareth placed a gentle hand on her arm. “Perhaps. One day. All vampires and humans will fall in love. It will be a golden age. We'll learn to cook for you, and you will open your veins so blood flows like wine.”

She eyed him, hearing playful sarcasm in his voice rather than scorn. “Just feed. And take as much as you need. You drink so little all the time, it's a wonder you can function.”

“I don't need as much as you seem to think. Do you want me to be bloated and lazy like my brother? I need to keep my lean muscular figure intact, as I am frequently portrayed shirtless.”

Adele groaned. “You know, just once I'd like to be shown in a heroic light in those damn books.” She poked him on the shoulder. “Which is why you have to finish your memoir and make me look good.”

His humor vanished. “Someday.”

“Soon,” she insisted, baring her left shoulder. Her olive skin was almost a honey bronze in the gaslight.

Gareth's hunger flared again and he let it, pulling her closer, his lips brushing against her flesh. She shivered and her arms curled under his and across his back. He kissed a spot on her neck where it met the shoulder and bit her. Her body flinched slightly, but then settled in his tight embrace with a long exhale of pleasure. Surges of goose bumps traveled over her skin under his hand.

The rush of her blood across his tongue brought a flood of sensations. The foremost was always the power within her. It threatened to swallow him whole sometimes. Her essence rumbled like a volcano under the surface, hot and smoldering. The tang of spice showed she was fertile, and for a moment he wished they could be more than they were. However, children were an impossibility. For all their similarities, he and Adele were different species. Still, it was always a pleasant dream.

He heard her heart begin to pound harder and he pulled his mouth from her, but kept her in his arms as she sagged against him. Her breath was a shaking exhale.

His lips brushed her bare shoulder, licking a lingering drop of blood.

“Do I taste good?” she asked, her voice drowsy and her eyes half closed. “Or do I still have the flavor of the grave? Remember the first time you drank? You said my blood tasted like your death.”

“You do taste of death and life,” he whispered in her ear. “Because that is all there is in this world. But if it were up to you, you would choose only life.”

“Your life . . . always,” Adele murmured.

C
HAPTER 21

The
Edinburgh
labored to climb against a gale that blew between the towering peaks. On the main deck Adele stood with Greyfriar, Anhalt, and Yidak. She and Anhalt were dressed in heavy furs, as usual, with breathers around their necks. The general wore his Fahrenheit saber and heavy sidearm on his hips, and also carried the wide-bore deck sweeper. Greyfriar was in his typical uniform with rapier and pistols. Major Shirazi and the Harmattan gathered nearby, with rifles ready in case their guest attempted to escape.

Yidak wore the same heavy weather coat, which he buttoned only to satisfy the modesty of his hosts, and he was bare footed beneath it. He studied the wild surroundings, bobbing his head in the wind as if he was sailing the updrafts himself. He wore an amazed grin.

“How far now?” Adele asked through chattering teeth.

Yidak craned his neck, peering about. He pursed his lips, replying in accented English, “Not long.”

“You said that two days ago.”

“Two days ago, it wasn't long either.” He raised a finger. “But now it is very not long.”

Adele turned away from the amused old vampire in annoyance. She took relaxing breaths and fell into herself. She once again reached out to the rifts. She had been seeking lines of power since leaving the village. She felt the tantalizing threads of energy slipping around her, far away and faint to her touch. She could only hope the monastery was built on or near a serviceable rift, as so many holy sites were. The plan was for her to enter the demon fortress, hiding from their sight, and locate the Tear of Death, if in fact it existed. If possible, she would bring it out, and they would be away on the
Edinburgh
. If it wasn't possible to carry it, she would obliterate the vampires in the monastery as she had done at Grenoble. The strain of the event would be great, but she hoped that the monastery was moderate in size, certainly not as large as the town of Grenoble, and she would only need to draw power from the Earth in a relatively small area. If all went well, they would have the Tear of Death and be away without any harm done to any of her men.

If all went well.

Adele felt Greyfriar looking at her because he sensed her reaching for a rift. She snapped back to the frigid deck and gave him a shrug of failure. He took a pensive breath and would have warned her off her plan, as he had done countless times over the last few days, except that Yidak was standing within earshot. Adele then noticed the old vampire staring at her too with great interest. He obviously sensed her geomancy, as did all vampires. She held his gaze boldly, as if to say that the power he had sensed could fall on him if he crossed her. Anhalt poked Yidak in the side with the shotgun and motioned for him to take his attention off Adele and put it back on the geography. The vampire laughed as if this was a skit.

Greyfriar suddenly twitched nervously. He glanced at Yidak, and then over the side. He cursed out a warning.

Adele pushed beside him. In the valley below, a weird swarm of blackness erupted out of the cliff face. The mass shifted and changed shape like a flock of swallows, rising with the wind, twisting toward the little airship.

“By the way,” Yidak said, “we're here.”

“Damn you.” Greyfriar seized the old vampire and pressed the edge of a dagger across his throat. “I'll kill you.”

Anhalt shouted over his shoulder, “Major Shirazi! Form square! Captain Hariri! Stand by for action!”

Within seconds, steam horns sounded across the ship and men ran for cannons or leapt into the ratlines to scale into the tops. The dark vampire swarm continued to lift toward them. The ship's guns rumbled out. Shirazi took Adele's arm. “Get below, Your Majesty.”

Adele ignored him. She stretched out her hands, desperately reaching for the power of the rifts. She touched faint embers, but they were too weak. She needed a great rift to bring fire on the approaching horde, to ignite them and send the lot drifting back down as burnt husks. With a curse, fighting her fear, she sank deeper into the Earth. Threads of power trickled just out of reach. With the most tantalizing pressure, slivers of fire grazed her fingertips. She stretched, trying to grab them or hook a fingernail around them so she could drag a rift toward her. The music of the Earth was beautiful but muffled, and she only smelled the scent of ice and snow.

She felt the hard deck beneath her feet again. Greyfriar had Yidak in a death grip, but his attention was on her. Anhalt watched too. Adele shook her head at Greyfriar in alarm. The red-coated Harmattan scrambled to form a square around her. The front rank of troopers knelt, and the back line stood with bayonets out and up.

Yidak reached up gently to Greyfriar's wrist. With a subtle motion, Greyfriar's blade flew away from the old vampire's throat. In an instant, Yidak leapt into the air, vaulted over the soldiers and sailed beyond the side of the ship. Greyfriar was already pulling his pistol while Anhalt had barely registered the rapid action. Adele stretched her hand out toward Yidak. She hoped she could summon power enough to at least burn him out of the sky.

The old vampire stared at her with a nervous narrowing of his eyes, and he screeched into the wind. The horrific sound pierced Adele's ears just as a wave of bodies roared up above the rail. Inside the dense mass, individual vampires could be seen staring with cold blue eyes. The flock thundered past with a terrifying flutter of cloth like the beating of hundreds of wings.

Adele recovered from the stab of the vampire's cry, but felt something grab her arm and Greyfriar was shouting, “No!”

Startled soldiers fired an irregular volley into the swarm of torsos. The ear-numbing report from several cannons reverberated under their feet. Murderous shrapnel shot tore ragged holes in the undulating vampires.

Then the horde was gone, arcing away under the curve of the dirigible and splitting into smaller clutches. The twisting flock rolled away from the airship.

Yidak remained alone, floating just off the side. His head turned to watch the throng of vampires slipping away through the sky. A gun boomed and glowing green shot tore into the old figure. Yidak tumbled wildly through the air. Anhalt broke the smoking breach of the shotgun and reached into his coat pocket for new shells.

“Stop!” Greyfriar grabbed the shotgun by the barrel and pointed it at the deck. “Don't attack him.”

Anhalt looked at the swordsman in shock, then at Adele. She was surprised too. In the distance, she could see the vampires dropping back the way they had come like blurry lines of charcoal smoke in the sky.

“Cease fire!” Adele shouted, although all fire had already stopped.

Soldiers and airmen looked at their commanders and at each other for answers. The attack had come and gone in seconds. It couldn't be over, however. That wasn't the way of vampires.

“Don't.” Greyfriar extended a cautioning hand at Adele because she was still poised to burn Yidak. The old vampire drifted haltingly back toward the ship, grimacing in pain. “He's no danger.”

“How do you know that?”

“His cry. He was calling off the attack. That's why his pack turned away at the last second.”

Yidak fell onto the rail and crouched with gasping breaths. He looked at the gaping hole in his coat. Underneath, his abdomen was raw and the flesh steamed. Yidak winced at Anhalt. “A little closer and it might have taken my heart.”

The general kept the deck sweeper aimed at the Demon King. “This is a Fahrenheit gun. Those pellets burn, don't they?”

“They do.” Yidak huffed loudly. “I'm not used to pain. Remarkable. When does it stop?”

“I don't know,” Anhalt replied.

The old vampire sucked air with painful hisses. His eyes shifted to Adele and Greyfriar. “I told you, I am not your enemy. I welcome you.” He extended his hand down off the ship. “There is what you seek.”

Adele moved to the rail next to Yidak, with Greyfriar close at her side. She peered over, but saw nothing except mile upon mile of grey rock and white snow. And then suddenly, there it was. About halfway down the valley wall, nestled into a steep cliff face, almost as if it were a gecko on a mosque wall, was a miraculous structure. It seemed to hide against the mountainside. White walls gave it the appearance of fallen snow, masking it from view. A collection of large buildings surrounded a multitude of smaller ones stacked up along the cliff face, but it was hard to see where the rock and snow ended and the monastery began.

Then Adele noticed what appeared to be narrow, irregular stairs carved into the mountain itself, providing what must have been a treacherous and dizzying approach to the monastery from the valley much farther below. In certain spots the stairs gave way to hemp bridges that looked treacherous. She wondered how anyone but vampires could call it home. It was difficult to reach without wings.

“So,” Adele said cautiously, pushing down Shirazi's pistol that was still aimed at Yidak's head, “we can land our airship at your monastery?”

“I won't allow your soldiers or your ship.” The old vampire forced a smile. “I value peace with you, but I'm not stupid. You may land your ship at the foot of the Ten Thousand Steps.” He pointed at Adele, Greyfriar, and Anhalt. “You three will be my guests. Whatever you seek, I will help you find it.”

Adele took a deep breath and she could hear Major Shirazi's teeth grinding with fury because he knew she was preparing to agree to go with the Demon King into his fortress. The major snorted angrily and muttered under his breath, “Why even have a bodyguard?”

From Adele's vantage point at the bottom of the Ten Thousand Steps, it certainly seemed that the name sold it short. The endless stairs were little more than flattened steps carved from the mountainside. Each step was barely two feet wide, worn slick and smooth, with a rough mountain wall on the one hand and the abyss on the other.