A Call of Vampires (A Shade of Vampire #51)(63)

“And the disease she mentioned?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “But there is definitely something fishy about how these servants live here…”





Harper





(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)





I waited outside the Broken Bow Inn with Scarlett, Caia, and Blaze. Jax, Hansa, and Patrik came out a few minutes later. We were all geared up, diamond-fiber plates mounted on our combat gear, weapons and shields ready. Patrik was the only one who didn’t like the leather suits, but, then again, he was armed to the teeth with Druid defensive spells, and fast in his liberal use of them, too.

Rewa, Darius, and his guards soon joined us—a dozen Maras and six Imen, all on horseback, while Darius’s servants brought out horses for us.

“We brought a few of these with us from Calliope,” Darius explained, patting his white steed’s neck. “They’re not as fast as the indigo mares grazing around the Dearghs’ volcanoes, but they can hold their own in long-distance sprints. We brought some of those, too, but I like my Saifa more… She has a gorgeous lineage.”

Emilian came out to see us off, accompanied by Farrah and Caspian.

The main square opened out to a wide stone road at a relatively steep angle, connecting that upper floor of the city to the ground level.

“Okay, so you two go with Rewa.” Jax turned to Blaze and Caia. “You know what to look for and what questions to ask.”

Both nodded, while Rewa smiled, gently leaning into Blaze. I could see fires burning in Caia’s teal eyes, but it wasn’t the time or the place to crack any jokes. I had to swallow and keep them for later.

I got on one of the horses, a black mare with strange, bright blue eyes. The creature neighed under my weight, and I stroked its strong neck, running my fingers through its mane. We were good to go.

Jax, Hansa, Scarlett, and Patrik got on theirs, and Emilian pointed toward the Valley of Screams with a concerned look on his face.

“Please, all of you, be careful,” he said slowly.

“Don’t worry, old friend.” Darius gave him a weak but reassuring smile. “We’ll be back for drinks in a few hours, at the most. There are plenty of us here and a Druid. We have better odds than those who went before us. We can no longer postpone this incursion, anyway. At least we have specialized fighters with us this time.”

He clicked his teeth and rode down the steep road. We followed, along with his sixteen guards. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Caspian watching me, his expression firm, dark, and unreadable. Behind him and on different levels of the city, there were Maras stopping in their tracks and coming toward the edge to watch us, with plenty of curious eyes but few words between them.

Back in the main square, Emilian turned to Caspian and Farrah and said something, to which they both nodded. But when I turned up my hearing sense, all I got was a “Let’s hope they’ll be back…” from the elder Lord.

I left them all behind and focused on the road ahead, our horses’ hooves thundering as they galloped toward the open field.

We reached the dark plain. Two moons shone overhead, with the third slowly rising from the east, beyond the Valley of Screams. I sensed movement on both sides as we darted across the dusty country road leading toward the gorges, but I couldn’t see anything, even with my True Sight. Just tall grass and the occasional rock or shrub. Nothing out of the ordinary.

A scream echoed above us. It was raw, shrill, and downright blood-chilling, igniting my senses and sending them into overdrive. Scarlett and I briefly looked at each other, then shifted our focus to what rose ahead—giant limestone gorges bound together with whispering rivers and thick patches of woods in a maze that stretched for miles on end.

There were about two miles between the Valley of Screams and Azure Heights, and we’d made it in less than fifteen minutes. These horses were fast enough, I thought to myself, then wondered about what entities dwelled in the valley, and what their travel speed was. After all, they’d been able to reach into the city and snatch people from outside their homes without being seen or traced.

“This is it,” Darius said slowly as our horses came to a halt in front of a narrow opening into the massive gorge—one of many stretching left and right, and as far as the eye could see.

Giant trees, reminding me of the sequoias back home, bordered the stone maze, and towered over us with dark green crowns, their leaves rustling in the night breeze. Another scream pierced through the darkness, as distant and sharp as the one before it. My spine froze, but I shook the fear away. I needed my focus.

“Are you telling me those screams belong to actual people being tortured or killed?” Hansa was boiling at this point, her muscles jolting and her nostrils flaring. She seemed dangerously eager to get in there and do some damage.

“We believe so, yes.” Darius sighed. “We’ve sent people after them, but they never returned. If anything, I could swear we heard them scream as well, over the nights that followed.”

“Were there any traces of them visible during the day?” Jax asked, scanning the narrow opening in front of us. I heard water flowing somewhere nearby, splashing against rocks.

“We’ve sent Imen in during the day,” Darius replied. “Some came back, but were never the same again. We even tried mind-bending them to get them to talk, but it didn’t work. They were traumatized. Mute. Catatonic. None of the few Maras we sent in afterwards came back either, just like the many gone before them while hunting over the past couple of years. Therefore, we don’t know for sure; we, the Lords and Ladies, never dared venture ourselves. The Valley wasn’t like this two years ago…”