Chapter Eight

The night was even darker than usual, and the air was quite cold with the incessant rain. Sentries ringed the camp, armed with torches, and with fires lit every fifty or so yards. I was on the northwest side of the camp, reviewing the sentries' positions there and supervising the shift change. I'd established myself about halfway between the sentry line and the edge of the main camp. The siege equipment was being constructed near the center of the camp, and was guarded by members of Xati's company 'round the clock. The new sentries were just coming on duty when I heard a horrid cry, and raised my spear instinctively. The fellows just heading off duty came back at a dead sprint. Together we hurried to the sentry line. The sight that greeted us was as horrifying as it was bizarre.

Every one of the soldiers lay dead at his post. There was not a mark on any of them, but each of them was dead as a stone, and pale as salt. I turned to the senior officer present, none other than Lieutenant Kolresh.

"Lieutenant, return to camp and alert the High King as to the situation here. We'll need a burial detail as well. My apologies, but for the moment your patrol will have to remain on duty."

Kolresh saluted and turned towards the camp at a swift trot. The patrol removed the corpses about ten yards to the rear, and then resumed its normal position along the sentry line. I turned and looked to the camp. Peter, Steorraniht, Kolresh, and the requested burial detail were about half way between us and the camp.

It was then that I heard it: a ghostly hiss that sounded as though it came from hell itself.

"Hello, Jussssssst King. Meet death's cold embrace!"

The voice had come from one of the corpses! It loomed before me, eyes red, fangs protruding from it's ghastly mouth. It was then that I realised the awful truth. The sentries had been turned into vampires!