The Greyfriar (Vampire Empire, Book 1) by Clay & Susan Griffith;Clay Griffith;Susan Griffith (46 page)

"I'll have you transferred to Ranger, where our ship's surgeon will
tend you." Clark lowered Adele to the deck and crossed to the gunwale,
waving to his crew to rig a transfer basket.

Adele turned to Gareth and mouthed, "Don't leave me. Come to
Alexandria!"

"I can't," he replied quietly as he came close.

"But I love you."

"You mean Greyfriar."

"No. It's always been you." She didn't care about the obstacles
standing between them. Suddenly all she wanted was to be with him.

Gareth's head bowed low at this revelation; he touched her face rev erently, consumed with regret, and his hand shook as it trailed slowly
down her cheek. As quickly as his joy at these words blossomed it was
replaced with sorrow. He knew what must be done, and he prayed he
had the strength to see it through, struggling to keep his voice devoid
of the fervor that blistered him. "We have to save our nations first.
Someday we may meet again, but for now, it is best you return to Equatoria. At the very least, we can both work to prevent a full-scale war
between our races."

She bit back her despair. "But I'll be forced to ... marry." Her eyes
tracked toward her Intended, who was still bellowing orders. With
gentle hands, she lowered his mask just a few inches to reveal his mouth.
She took his face in her trembling hands and kissed him hard.

The footsteps of Senator Clark echoed on the deck as he approached
them. Gareth slipped his mask back on.

"We're ready to leave," Clark informed them with a quizzical
glance.

Greyfriar nodded. He quickly lifted Adele in his arms and strode
past a surprised Clark to gently deliver her into the basket. Greyfriar
watched as the Americans carefully winched her out of his reach into the
dizzying maw between the airships. Adele's gaze did not leave him even
after the crew of Ranger lifted her from the basket.

His heart agonized as he watched her taken away, his eyes darkening
with the sting of it.

Clark clapped an iron hand on his shoulder. "Come with us, Greyfriar. We can exchange a few war stories while your wounds mend."

Greyfriar shook his head, fighting the urge to sweep the hand off,
but sadness weakened his limbs. "I wish you well, Senator Clark. But I
leave you here."

"Look here, this ship is done for. We'd tow it as a prize, but it's not
even worth breaking up for salvage. You can't stay on this wreck."

"Thank you, but my place is here."

"Well, I hope we'll meet again someday. Keep fighting the good
fight!"

The big American laughed loudly as he grasped a line and swung
across to the rail of Ranger. He waved farewell to Greyfriar as he placed his arm about Adele's shoulder. "I'll not let her out of my sight again,"
he shouted to Greyfriar.

Adele's eyes remained riveted on Gareth. The frigate gained
headway and hove off.

With his keen vampiric eyesight, Gareth could watch Adele farther
than she could him. She was crying at the rail, now alone, as her ship
vanished into the clouds.

M MARVELOUS day indeed," Sir Godfrey exclaimed
as Mamoru entered the chamber deep inside the Great
Pyramid. "Congratulations to us all!"

Mamoru bowed his head to the old gentleman. Even Nzingu the
Zulu was smiling as she clapped her lace-covered hands. Sanah the Persian clung to the shadows and stayed quiet.

"We are fortunate," Mamoru said. "Selkirk performed magnificently.
And we can, even against our better judgment, thank the boisterous
Senator Clark as well as the mysterious Greyfriar."

"This Greyfriar chap needs to be brought into the circle, I should
think," Sir Godfrey said.

"Perhaps," Mamoru replied. "If even half of what I've heard is true,
he is more extraordinary than any other man alive."

"What of the princess?" Nzingu asked, a bit too abruptly to show
true concern. "What is her condition?"

A calming breath helped Mamoru collect his thoughts before he
spoke. "I am unsure. The senator's telegram from Malta indicated that
Her Highness suffered grievous wounds, but he feels certain those will
heal. He was, I'm certain, more concerned with the impending marriage than by Princess Adele's well-being. I am amazed by her strength of
body." The samurai paused with a troubled sigh. "But emotionally, she
cannot be unchanged."

"As we might well expect," Sir Godfrey consoled. "How could
anyone endure what she must have in the north? But perhaps the ordeal
has tempered her mettle, yes?"

"We can hope," Nzingu said. "She always seemed ... insubstantial.
Too weak to do what must be done. Maybe her tribulation will be a
blessing. And it will bring out the true girl."

Mamoru cast a dark eye at the Zulu quickly. "It remains to be seen
what Cesare has done to her. Certainly none of us have experienced what
Princess Adele has."

Sanah said, "Do you fear that she has grown past the bond you shared?"

Mamoru regarded the Persian for a very long moment and considered the clarity of her question. "I only worry that she is not yet properly trained to accept the necessary knowledge. To direct it."

Sanah replied, "Perhaps she has a strength that even you did not perceive. There are springs in the mind from which others cannot drink."

"True enough." Mamoru gave a professorial tug on the cuffs of his
jacket. "However, we are dealing with a power that can't be fully appreciated until the moment it is unleashed. And then it will be too late to
realize it has been badly prepared. This is not a poem. This is a rigorous
doctrine. And it will bring about the end of the world. For good or bad
depending on how I ... on how we remake Princess Adele."

Sir Godfrey chuckled and placed a hand on Mamoru's shoulder.
"With a little time, I feel certain she will become your beloved student
again. And we can get on with it."

Mamoru said, "That is my hope. It cannot end any other way."

The ground crew at Pharos One roared out a rhythmic chanty as they
drew USS Ranger and their beloved princess to the earth with each
sinewy heave on the cables. The ship descended alongside the air tower,
bathed in the chemical lights of the airfield.

Adele sat in a makeshift chair that had been rigged on the quarterdeck for the flight home so she could spend her days basking in the
windswept majesty of her Intended. Tiring of this activity quickly, she
had protested of constant chills and begged feebly to be returned to her
private cabin. She became a master of the faint whenever Senator Clark
felt compelled to visit her. Adele would smile, recalling how Gareth had
merely stared at her swoon in the Tower, clearly unconvinced by her
lampooned fragility. Thankfully Clark was not so savvy.

The senator brought Ranger to Alexandria at a time of Lord Kelvin's
choosing, late evening and in the middle of the week. The court lied to
the people about the time of Adele's arrival so no great crowds would be
fighting to catch a glimpse of the returning heir. Apparently, the prime
minister felt it was best if the residents of the capital did not see their
frail future empress carried off the ship. Witnessing what was left of her
after her frightful ordeal might shock them. No doubt Kelvin expected
that Adele would be either catatonic or raving, with a head full of shock
white hair.

The princess struggled from her chair and grasped the rail, staring
down into the light-speckled crowd searching for her brother or Colonel
Anhalt. Clark had related the joyous news of their survival. She could
make out the uniforms of the Imperial Guard, but nothing more
detailed. Perhaps her father was even present. The wonderfully familiar
glow of gaslit Alexandria spreading out around her gave her goose
bumps. However, the sight depressed her too. This was her city, the
heart of a great empire that once seemed to encompass most of the
world. But it seemed so small to her now, and crowded with people
secure both in their power and in their ignorance about the world. Not
just secure, but smug. This city wanted to rule the world, but it only
saw the world through the haze of its own sand-choked surroundings.
Just when she should be at her happiest, Adele was swallowed by an
overwhelming sense of sadness. Perhaps, she wondered, it was the darkness and the cloying warm air. Maybe she would feel better in the
morning after she had become accustomed to her own place again.

"Adele, take a seat," Senator Clark barked through the ruffling
wind. "I can't have you tipping over the rail now!"

The princess served her Intended a sharp glare and held it until he
added, "Your Highness." She considered snapping back that her sea legs
were as good as his, but she didn't have the energy. Instead she returned
to the chair with a pleasant smile and sat. Excruciating pain radiated
through her frame. Adele would never admit it, but her body was recovering very slowly. She lived in constant agony despite the best drafts
from the ship's surgeon. The inhuman exertions of her adventures in the
north had caught up to her in the absence of the constant barrage of lifethreatening dangers that had kept her frame empowered. It was all she
could do not to collapse into a comatose bundle.

Still, Adele took comfort in the fact that she would soon see her
brother. And Colonel Anhalt. And her father. She would be among her
family. And there was much she wanted to discuss with Mamoru about
his network of geomancer spies in the north, about Selkirk, and about
the power she too seemed to wield. Clearly there was much more that
needed to be learned than she had ever imagined.

Also, she had much to teach, and this gave Adele great satisfaction.
She relished the idea of holding forth to the great minds of the court as
they surrounded her, reacting to her matter-of-fact tales of adventure and
horror with furrowed brows, tugged mustaches, and muttered admirations of her strength and courage. She was anxious to see Colonel Anhalt's
astonished reaction with his wide eyes and white knuckles as she described
her bloody exploits. But beyond those foolish conceits, Adele was most
eager to set her countrymen straight on their knowledge of vampires and,
even more, of human society in the north. There was so much the great
leaders of the south didn't know, and needed to know before they started
rolling their war machines across the European landscape.

Ranger touched down with a thud, and the air filled with sounds of
bellowing longshoremen, heavy cables running through metal and over
wood, and the vents above blowing the last of the chemical buoyants.
The frigate was hardly secure before the gangplanks dropped and a mob
surged aboard. They raced toward Adele, but then, overwhelmed by her
mere presence, they all stopped and stared at her, waiting for something.
Permission to approach? The screeching of a madwoman?

Adele recognized her own doctor and other members of the imperial medical corps. One of the nurses touched her own hair. Adele realized
she was sporting Gareth's cut, which was nearly as short as the sailors
surrounding her, rather than her former flowing auburn hair. The
princess could see how different she looked now by the gapes on their
faces. It wasn't just her shorn head. It was her whole self. They were terrified by the pain and violence that showed on the face and body of the
royal heir. Adele had left them a soft, pampered girl, but returned a
battle-worn woman. They were perplexed and frightened by the change,
and the horrible imaginings of what could have caused it.