Cassandra Pendragon

Ash and soot were sprinkled over my hair like autumn leaves on a forest floor, the glow from my eyes illuminated the pale faces of the vampires before me and when Ahri had reached my side, a solid wall of crimson and silvery blue magic rose behind us, humming with power. I didn’t bother with gently lowering the mage to the ground but instead threw him against Captain Dawn to make sure they wouldn’t try anything silly. Also, I simply felt like it and the tiny bit of spitefulness made it a whole lot easier to drive back the rising tide of icy indifference that threatened to overcome me.

“First question,” I said quietly, “where’s Layla?” Captain Dawn, struggling to get his pet mage off him, stilled and answered immediately. He had obviously decide that cooperation would increase his chances of getting out of here alive by a mile. Also, the fate of his warrior might have shaken him slightly, it wasn’t every day that you saw a 50 kilo slip of a girl utterly annihilate an armoured giant. Smart. But honestly, depending on what he had to say, his prison might still soon turn into his grave. I wasn’t feeling very magnanimous anymore and a small part of me was already clamouring for his head so I would simply be done with the whole affair. I could always worry about the consequences later... crap, maybe I hadn’t shoved the rising tide of frozen fury far enough away, after all. I had to be careful, otherwise I might soon come to regret my choices.

“She’s in my palace, unhurt. What is she to you, anyways? Don’t tell me you ended up in here by accident.” His voice was deep and full like an aged wine but I still detected a quiver of fear behind his words, despite his efforts to appear calm and confident. Good, that’d make everything easier.

“You’re not interrogating me, I’m afraid. I assume she’s guarded. What were your orders before you left?”

“Nothing sinister. My people will keep an eye on her and make sure she’s got something to eat, once she wakes up. I don’t know what she’s told you, but I never mistreated her.”

“Really now? So you didn’t take her blood? Didn’t leave her alone in the dark for days on end? Didn’t scare her or make her dread what you might do if she didn’t comply with your wishes?”

“All of the above, but that’s hardly a mistreatment. She was fed, she wasn’t hurt, all hells, she wasn’t even interrogated. Considering she’s my sister’s daughter, I think that’s more than can reasonably be expected of me. Have you even met the woman?”

“What’s going on between the two of you,” Ahri interjected, brushing the last bits and pieces of her adversary from her clothes. “It’s a little more than simple sibling rivalry, I take it. What has she done that you thought taking her child was an appropriate reaction? Has she killed yours?”

“No, but… have you even looked around my city before you came barging into my tower? We’re at war, darling. Not only do I have to keep a murderous sorcerer from another continent at bay, no, I also have to defend my city against a veritable army of cutthroats and brigands, whom my own flesh and blood has elevated to heights that make them just as dangerous. I’m desperate.”

“And why’s that,” I asked. “Shouldn’t you be working together, especially if there’s an outside threat that might devour your little island kingdom whole, given the chance?” He sighed.

“Politics, love, revenge. Take your pick. It wasn’t always like this, you know? There was a time… it doesn’t matter anymore. The bridge has burned. I killed her husband and she murdered more of my lovers than I can count. There’s no coming back from that. In the end, it’ll be me or her.”

“There is,” I replied evenly. “Almost anything can be forgiven. But it doesn’t explain why you took her child. I would have understood if you had killed her, but why trouble yourself with holding her prisoner? Cruelty? To prolong her mother’s suffering?”

“I’m not a savage,” he spat, his nonchalant mask cracking for the first time. This, more than anything else, placated me. The suggestion had visibly irked him. “I’d never use a child like that and for all her faults, neither would my sister. Why do you think I don’t have any kids and she has only the one? We don’t even turn them, despite our instincts. Tharos told you how we came to be, didn’t he? We’d never make anyone suffer a similar fate. No, I need her, or her blood, to be more precise. In combination with my own, I think I can end this bloody conflict for good. Unlikely as that seems now. Incidentally, what do you intend to do with me? Hand me over to Alassara?”

I studied him for a long moment, but his face had once again turned into an impenetrable facade. “No, I don’t think we will,” I finally said. “But I do expect you to invite her to the gathering you have planned.”

“She’ll never come,” he protested. “Why on Gaya would she?”

“Because you’re going to give back her daughter and try to bury the hatchet.” He snorted, which wasn’t the reaction I had expected. I didn’t think his current situation warranted any form of mirth, sarcastic or not.

“Right, even if I wanted to, she’d never go for it. We’ve been at war longer than the two of you are alive, as far as I know. Whoever you are, you won’t be able to make that happen.”

“He’s quite right,” the wizard added to my surprise in a nasal voice, almost as if he had a cold. Or he might have broken his nose when he had slammed head first into the kite shield. One of the two.“Years of cruelty can’t be wiped away with the wave of a wand, whoever wields it.”

“Cruelty… a funny, little word.” Ahri replied. “Considering what you did to your dead friend, I’m honestly not sure I even want to know what cruelty entails for you. Or do you mean to tell me, that he was willingly carrying those runes you carved into his skin.”

“No,” Dawn answered. “But I’m telling you he wasn’t our friend, far from it. That maniac was the strongest in an unending line of assassins my sister sent after me. I simply chose to keep the gift and add a little… insurance to make sure he couldn’t try again. Honestly, I’m not going to shed a single tear for him. As far as I’m concerned, he suffered far less in your flames than he should have. Be that as it may, I’m not stupid enough to deny your request, but I’m telling you, Alassara won’t show and she won’t believe a single word, whatever I’m going to say to her.”

“That’s why you won’t tell her,” I elaborated. “I will. And I’ll also take Layla with me.”

“I expected as much,” he shrugged while he slowly got to his feet, making sure we didn’t mind. “If I may, why do you even care? What difference does it make to you?”

“I don’t care about your feud, but I do care about your fleet. The murderous sorcerer from a another continent, you so casually mentioned… do you know who he is?” Another shrug.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Partly. About as well as I know who the both of you are, which, as it just turned out, isn’t nearly well enough. As the Pirate King, he’s naturally been at the centre of my attention but, since most of my resources are used to keep my sister at bay, I’ve mostly left it to the other Captains to deal with him. A large part of our fleet is just now on its way to their islands to finally get them under control. From the few prisoners we managed to keep from jumping overboard before they could be interrogated, we learned a few things and my mages were able to trace back some of his spells to the other continent as well as witness your battle against his ships. That’s how I knew you were involved with him. And since he’s a thorn in my eye as well…”

“Tharos made it sound like you have a way to bridge the ocean,” Ahri inquired. “Do you have a connection to the other continent? Or were you simply luring us in?”

“A bit of both,” the vampire admitted. “I don’t have a portal that can reach across the waves, but I know where you might find one, if you wanted to. Also, ever since I came to know of the Pirate King’s origin, I tried to collect as much information as I possibly could about that distant land.”

“What do you mean,” I asked. “You said you traced back some of his magic. What happened, precisely? And what did you find out?”

“That’s a bit… confusing. If it’s all the same to you, why don’t we return to my residence? I’d much rather enjoy a glass of wine and a comfortable armchair than the smell of a burned vampire.”

“And as soon as we step through that gate, we will enjoy the company of your guards, won’t we,” Ahri replied scathingly. “I’m not very keen on following you into your lair.”

“Lair? My dear Lady, have I done anything to either of you that warrants your mistrust? Sure, the circumstances of our meeting have been far less than ideal, but if anyone had the right to cry foul, it would be me. You manhandle us, without the slightest provocation, except for me telling my guard to keep me safe, I might add, and I’ve been nothing but courteous and forthcoming. Besides, what would be the point? I have nothing to gain by leading you into a trap. Now, don’t take this as a threat, because it’s not, but if I wanted to force you into anything at all, I wouldn’t be focusing on you, but rather on the people you left behind.” Not a threat my lily white ass. But before I could come up with an appropriate response he already continued:

“There is no reason to stare daggers at me. None of my people are near the house you’re staying in and I intend to keep it that way. And incidentally, you’ll have to step through the portal sooner or later anyways, unless you want to fly back, which might take a while. We’re pretty far south, about 200 miles away from Free Land. While I fully appreciate that you could do it, why would you? So, unless you want to kill me outright, which I fervently hope you won’t, I don’t see a reason for us to linger any longer. Besides, it’s terribly difficult to concentrate on the conversation while I’m struggling to keep my eyes on your face,” here we go, I thought. “I could even offer you a set of clothes, if you wanted to come along. What do you have to lose?”

A few things came to mind and judging from the suspicious gleam in Ahri’s eyes, she was thinking pretty much along the same lines. How did the saying go again? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice… and if I hadn’t miscounted, Tom’s betrayal had already been one too many. If only there was a way to be sure he was telling the truth… and there was. Admittedly, the last time around, I hadn’t spotted Tom’s intentions, but that was mainly because he himself hadn’t decided to sell us out, yet. And also, this time, I knew exactly what I was looking for. It would be a much harder to hide anything from me when prompted directly.

“Really now,” I said, my wings slithering forth to gently swirl around him like a breeze of stardust. “Then say it again. Tell me we’ve got nothing to fear from coming with you.” He didn’t hesitate.

“I swear, if you want to, you’ll be able to leave my home anytime you want to. I mean you no harm.” He wasn’t lying but his mind was also surprisingly empty. No currents of only half realised ideas assaulted me and I couldn’t even get a glimpse of his memories. In a way, it felt like his mind was an unassailable fortress, only the battlements and towers visible. I could see everything that directly impacted whatever he was doing at that precise moment, but anything else was hidden behind walls, thick enough I couldn’t even begin to guess what was going on behind them. I might have been able to pry the gates apart, but not without tearing his mind to shreds entirely.

“He’s telling the truth,” I pronounced. “But now, that were having a heart to heart, what about Layla? How is she? Will you let her leave with us?” He rolled his eyes, a rather impressive gesture, considering they were glowing like the embers of a dying fire.

“She’s fine, maybe spooked, but unhurt. And yes, I don’t intend to get in your way. Take the brat with you, if that’s what you desire. I won’t stop you and neither will my people.”

“That’s good enough for me.” I turned to Ahri and added: “what do you think?”

“I’ve got one more question. Why did you tell your sister about us? If you hated her that much, why would you offer her any kind of information?” I blinked, confusedly, but after I had taken a moment to think about what she had said, it made sense. If Captain Dawn had only come to know who we were by keeping an eye on Amon’s puppets, Alassara shouldn’t have been able to figure it out on her own. And considering how she had treated Tom, or rather mistreated, and the gem that had brought me here, she must have had a pretty solid idea of who we were. Where had she gotten the knowledge?

“Frankly, I hoped that she’d do something rash. In that case, I was decently sure that you’d have taken her head and I’d have been spared dealing with her. Turns out she isn’t as impulsive as I hoped she’d be.” Again, he wasn’t lying, but I was also convinced that he wasn’t telling us the whole story. As if a crack had formed in the walls of his mental fortress, emotions and distorted images bled through. I couldn’t make any sense of them, but a few scenes were clear enough that I could at least understand what I was seeing, even though I lacked context.

A dark cave, filled with flickering lights that reminded me of torches in a draft, an underground chamber, bustling with masked people who were chanting, a towering edifice, almost like a temple, standing vigilant in the midst of a desert under a starry sky and lastly a face, eternalised in stone. A face I hadn’t seen before but one that triggered my memories. Beautiful beyond mortal perception, regal and wise, powerful and kind. The face of an angel and suddenly I knew why he was named Dawn.

For the fraction of a second, I saw an almost perfect replication of the rising phoenix, the mistress of dawn and it scared the living hell out of me. My heart beat increased, a thundering drumroll in my chest and a cold sweat formed on my brow. Another immortal? How? When?

“What have you done,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. Louder I asked: “who is she? Where have you seen that statue?” For a however ancient vampire, he suddenly seemed very much like a schoolgirl caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Not that I had any experience in that regard…

“You saw that? Figures. I’m not going to pretend like it’s nothing, but all I can say for now is that I, or rather, my sister and I, know a bit about what you are. And we did so, long before you ever set foot on our world.” He sighed. “We’re an old people and the roots of our family date further back than you can imagined.” Mephisto’s remark that he had already heard of this particular family suddenly became much more important to me. “If you want to know more, you’ll have to come with me. I’m not willing to discuss my past here.” While he had been talking, the wizard had scrambled to his feet, his eyes roaming from Captain Dawn to me and back again.

More to give me a little more time to think than out of actual curiosity I asked: “and what about him? Do all your… friends know what we are?”

“Him,” the vampire answered with a lazy smile. “He’s already heard too much.” And without another warning or even a hint of hesitation he whirled around, his fingers elongating into claws. A strike, a spurt of blood and the mage fell back, his fingers clutching the gaping hole in his neck, where his throat had been. Before he even hit the ground, his former master moved lightning quick, his hand disappearing into the poor blighter’s chest. In utter disbelieve I watched while Captain Dawn ripped his heart straight out of his body, squashing it into a bloody pulp.

“I’m sorry, Damocles, but you’re much too clever for your own good. May the eternal night embrace you with open arms. Farewell, my friend.” Mouth opened wide in terror and surprise, the mage trembled once and became still, his eyes glazing over as his soul left his body.