Chapter 14: A Family Affair

The companions only had to wait a couple of days after the coronation before they could leave Elfheim, as all they had needed was confirmation that the nitro powder had reached Duergar. They had a temporary, unexpected addition to their party, however: Avarion insisted on accompanying them part of the way. No amount of persuasion would change his mind.

"Well, honestly," he said, looking a bit piqued as Eredon began ennumerating the reasons he needed to stay, "if you had been completely immobile for more than a year, wouldn't you want to get out and do something as soon as you could? I will die of restlessness otherwise, I assure you. Regardless, I happen to feel it a matter of honor to at least see the Warriors on their way."

Avarion's persistance won out in the end, and so he, along with his personal guards, joined with the Light Warriors' group. Eredon saw them off from Castle Elfheim, as did High Priestess Lauriel and her husband, Telior, who came with the express purpose of bidding farewell to their adopted daughter. Sapphire smiled and hugged them both as they said good-bye to her in Elven.

The now sizeable group left Elfheim, and the brief journey passed pleasantly, as only Rath had any issue with having additional traveling companions. Avarion added some good-natured ribbing about this to Cen and Estel's teasing, thus solidifying his positive reputation with the two young men. This inclusion left Rath to fend for himself, however, as Sapphire, ever his sole supporter, seemed reluctant to speak out against her king's behavior.

The elves accompanied the companions for quite some distance, seeing them as far as the newly reopened Duergar Canal. This meant that for a few days the Charybdis had the company of the stunning, fifty-oar royal longship, the Benthesikyme. Estel had stared at this name for a solid half hour, trying to figure out how to pronounce it.

Though it still lacked any refinements or finishing touches, the Duergar Canal was now serviceable, the Aldean Sea once again opening onto the Gulf of Melmond to the west. The two elven vessels drew in their sails and halted side by side just before the opening, and Avarion, standing beneath a royal green canopy near the Benthesikyme's helm, waved across the sunlit water at the Light Warriors.

"Fare well on your journey, Warriors!" he called. "It's only a pity I couldn't help you more than I have; you certainly deserve more."

Cen, perched on the gunwale, gave a short laugh. "Watch it, or we might just remember that! We'll see you later!"

"I certainly hope so!" Avarion grinned. "I expect to hear a full report when you return, Sapphire. Make sure you don't forget anything that happens."

Sapphire waved back. "Yes, I'll remember. Good-bye, Your Majesty!"

"'Bye!" Estel waved with one hand while holding the sheets tight to keep the sail furled with the other. Only Rath, positioned at the tiller, offered no parting words, giving the barest flick of his fingers in acknowledgement of the farewell.

With this, the Charybdis's sail unfurled, and the ship continued onward, through the canal and into the Gulf of Melmond.

Cen sighed and looked out at the new stretch of ocean. "Finally…"

Sapphire, looking quite pristine in her new white traveling robes, turned to look at him. "You've been really worried, haven't you?"

"Wouldn't you be?" Cen asked, glancing at her and raising an eyebrow. Before she could reply, he held up a silencing finger. "No more talking. Get back to practice."

"Oh. Right."

Sapphire picked up her hammer from where she had lain it on a bench, then walked up to the bow of the ship. A bigeyes lay on the deck there, tied up with its own tentacles and flopping pointlessly, its bulbous eyes unblinking in the bright sunlight. Cen had caught it earlier in the day for use as a target for Sapphire's hammer-wielding lessons. Sapphire felt a bit bad about this at first, but when the creature paralyzed Cen and Rath just by touching them, she suddenly had no qualms about knocking it around the deck. Cen and Estel both found it very entertaining to watch her chase it, and so Rath had been obliged to take the tiller for the duration of the exercise. This did not look as though it would last much longer; the bigeyes had taken quite a beating already.

Cen watched as Sapphire swung her hammer back and landed a solid blow against the creature's side, and he nodded in approval as it went tumbling across the deck.

"Good. You're getting better at following through on your swing."

Sapphire looked over at him. "You think so?"

"Yeah, definitely. Of course, it's harder when the thing you're fighting moves around a lot, but you've got a good start."

Sapphire beamed, then turned her attention back to the bigeyes.

Finished with the sail, Estel wandered over and plunked himself down on a bench beside Cen's perch, leaning back and watching Sapphire attack the bigeyes again. He had not mentioned his less than reassuring experience at the coronation since his conversation about it with Cen; apparently he had taken the comment about complaining to heart.

"She's doin' better," he commented.

Cen nodded. "Yeah. She's really been working hard at this."

Just then, Sapphire's mock battle came to an end; instead of yielding to the momentum of the hammer, one of the creature's eyes ruptured, popping open and spilling slimy liquid over the deck. Sapphire yelped and jumped backward, clutching the hem of her robes out of the way. Estel, unable to help himself, burst out laughing at the startled look on her face.

"Yeah, those things kinda go all at once, don't they?"

Sapphire frowned at him. "Oh, don't joke. It just surprised me, that's all." She turned her disapproving gaze down at the mess on the deck. "How am I supposed to clean this up now?"

Rath, not looking over, muttered something and waved a hand toward the punctured bigeyes. There was a rush of coldness, and the creature froze solid. Rath made another inattentive gesture, and it shattered into diamond dust, leaving a clean deck behind. Sapphire blinked in surprise at the now-empty space, then at Rath.

"Um…thank you, Rath."

Rath gave a half-shrug. "It was the quickest method of removal."

Sapphire frowned at Rath for a moment, then she shook her head and sighed. She walked over and settled herself on a bench next to the one Estel occupied, setting her hammer on the deck at her feet.

"You really think I'm doing better, Cen?"

Cen nodded. "Yeah, I do. You still have a ways to go, but it shouldn't take you too long to get a lot better if you keep working this hard at it."

"What are some of the other things I'll have to work on?"

"Hm…" Cen thought for a moment. "Well, I think strategy is going to be pretty important for you. Knowing the best place to hit whatever you're fighting is good, especially because you can't get the same kind of weight behind a hit and just smash things apart through straight force."

"Right."

"Of course," Cen added, "if you're fighting something you've never seen before, you can't exactly know the best place to hit it. So either make a guess, or watch it and try to get an idea of how it all fits together before hitting. Oh…" He grinned. "…and a head shot will pretty much always work. You're pretty good at that already."

Sapphire gave an embarrassed smile. "It just…always seemed like the best place to hit."

"Can't argue with that," Estel said. "Saved me with it before, haven't you?"

Before Sapphire could reply, Rath interrupted the conversation:

"Estel, come take this. I have reading to do."

Estel pulled a disgusted face before turning to face Rath. "Why? You're always readin', it won't kill you to take a break for a day."

Rath raised an eyebrow. "I would prefer not. You may believe otherwise, but I do not, in fact, learn my spells by osmosis."

"Yeah, yeah, fine." Estel waved a dismissive hand in Rath's direction, then got to his feet and walked over to the tiller. "You sure got a lotta rules."

Rath did not acknowledge this comment beyond giving Estel a vaguely exasperated look. He released the tiller, collected his stack of books from behind him, then made his way across the deck to a point as far as possible from Cen and Sapphire before settling down and opening one of the tomes. Estel pulled a face at his back as he walked away before taking the tiller.

Sapphire frowned at him, looking slightly hurt. "Estel, please don't."

Estel sighed, then nodded before turning his attention to steering the ship. The sparkling water slipped smoothly by as it cut its way forward, tossing spray into the light breeze.

Picking at her sleeves a little, Sapphire turned back to Cen, who had taken out a small chunk of wood and begun whittling it with his short knife; he had been engaged in this activity quite a bit lately. He slid onto a bench so he could lean back against the gunwale as he worked. Sapphire watched him with interest.

"What are you working on?"

Cen blew away a few shavings, then held the object out for her to see: it was a small, half-finished carving of a bird, quite well done given the tools Cen was limited to. Sapphire gave a quiet, impressed, "oh".

"It's a present," Cen explained. "For one of my nieces. She always likes it when we bring her stuff when we visit." He started back to work on the carving.

Sapphire stared. "…Your niece?"

Cen smiled, not looking up from what he was doing. "You sound surprised."

"I just…I never pictured you as an uncle."

"Heh." Cen's smile widened a bit. "Yeah, I am. My brother, his name's Tristan, is kind of a lot older than me, and he and his wife had their first kid when I was about eight. They have four now."

"Wow…"

"Yeah, they're a lot of fun. It's too bad I can't get out to see them more often."

"Why are they in Melmond? I thought you said you were from Crescent Lake."

"It's something to do with Tristan's work. He says that he really likes it there, though, so he might stay for good."

"Must not like it much now," Estel put in.

Cen sobered and fell silent, focusing on his carving. Sapphire frowned in concern and shot a look over at Estel.

"How long will it take to get there, do you think?" Cen asked.

"Um…" Estel thought for a moment. "Not too long. We should get there by sunset tomorrow if this wind keeps up."

Cen sighed and relaxed a little. "Good." He looked up, staring out at the expanse of water that lay before the Charybdis. "I hope they're all okay…"

Melmond lay in a precarious position. Not that its geographical location was poor; indeed, it lay in what was, until very recently, the most fertile, rich land in the world, and the people there prospered because of this. What made the city's position so unenviable were the political ramifications. All the land west of the Kobold Mountains on Cornelia's western border fell officially under the jurisdiction of Duergar; this included the long, verdant spur of land jutting west and south. However, as often happens, the presence of such a fertile area caused some contention, especially when Duergar's trade policies entered the equation. Tired of paying the dwarves' high tariffs for the exported crops, Cornelia decided to take a more proactive approach:

They established the colony of Melmond.

Duergar's protest of this was loud and prolonged. That Cornelia refused to withdraw, indeed going so far as to add more colonies to the region, did nothing to help matters. Only Elfheim's timely intervention stopped things from elevating into an all-out war, and then only just. The relations between the two countries never recovered, and they retained a constant, suspicious watch on one another. Many people speculated that Elfheim's continued alliance with both nations was the only thing keeping them from one another's throats, even now, near eighty years after Melmond's founding.

The general citizenry of Melmond gave little heed to this chaotic past. They considered themselves Cornelian citizens, used gil with the Cornelian crest stamped on them, and built their homes in Cornelian fashion. The cathedral housed images of Alexander, Cornelia's patron god. The population of Melmond, its sister cities, and the small townships that had grown off from them remained entirely human. The dwarves had as little to do with the colonists as possible.

Of course, at the moment, no one wanted anything to do with Melmond; the Light Warriors arrived near sunset to find the harbor almost empty. Those few ships that were there did not linger, only taking care of necessary business and doing so swiftly. The city wall loomed to the east, the stone stained red by the setting sun.

The Charybdis drew into a berth, and the companions gathered what things they needed and disembarked. What they could see of the surrounding countryside did nothing to encourage them as to the situation, and they stared around with astonishment.

What had once been fertile farmland had degenerated into a bubbling, fetid swamp. No trees marred the desolate grey landscape, and faint vapors and gases wafted up from the ground, making everything look hazy and dark. A feeble breeze brought the heavy stench of decay to the companions' nostrils. To the north, foothills and low mountains could be seen, their formerly lush sides now brown and scarred by landslides. The land along the shore look parched and puckered, the salt of the ocean sucking the moisture from the putrefying land.

"So," Rath commented quietly, "this is what happens when the earth rots."

The city itself looked little better. The outer wall had collapsed in several places, the rock crumbling along with the rest of the land. The roads were in disrepair, now little more than dirt tracks among the buildings with an occasional cobblestone or pothole to break the monotony. Many of the buildings seemed to be falling apart, shingles falling from their roofs, wood warping, stone chipping from their sides. The cathedral had been entirely destroyed; only a heap of fire-blackened rubble marked where it had stood. Even the people looked broken, huddled in groups and all with strained, weary expressions on their faces. They gave the companions wary looks and moved away as they approached.

With one exception. A group of men stood near the remains of the church; deep in conversation, they did not notice the companions' presence. One man in the group, however, caught Cen's attention: markedly taller than the others, even taller than Cen himself, he had long, white-blond hair and was dressed entirely in bright crimson, from his boots to his extravagant plumed hat.

Cen heaved a sigh of utter relief. "There he is."

"Yeah, that's him," Estel said, grinning. "I'd know that stupid hat anywhere."

"Hm." Rath raised an eyebrow. "He certainly is…forward about his craft. Most red mages are not quite so flamboyant."

The group of men began to disperse. The red-clad man gave a few last parting comments, then he spotted the companions. A wide grin spread across his face.

"Cen!" He strode over to them and grabbed Cen in a bone-breaking hug. "So there you are! We were starting to get worried."

"Nice to see you too, Tristan," Cen said, sounding badly strangled. Tristan released him, and he took a step backwards, massaging his ribs. "Wait, how did you know we were coming?"

"Elend," Tristan replied, smiling. "He sent a carrier message along from Pravoka telling me to expect you. That was quite a while ago, though, and when the canal collapsed, we weren't sure you'd make it."

Estel gave a snort of derision. "Since when'd an oversized dirt clod be enough to stop us? You ain't keepin' us away that easy, Tris."

Tristan laughed. "I wouldn't dare try." He looked around at the group. "Ah, and these must be your new friends. Rath and Sapphire, am I right?"

Sapphire nodded. "Yes. It's very nice to meet you, Tristan."

"The pleasure is mine," Tristan said, giving her a sweeping bow. He rose and turned to Rath. "And Rath. Something of a traditionalist yourself, I see." He nodded toward Rath's distinctive attire, then extended his hand; Rath, after a moment's suspicious scrutiny, shook it. Tristan smiled, then turned back to his brother.

"So Elend told you about what's going on here."

Cen nodded. "Yeah. We got here as fast as we could."

"Looks like we made it just in time," Estel said, looking around at the decrepit city with a mix of pity and disgust. "This place looks like hell, Tris."

Tristan sighed and shook his head. "You don't have to tell me; I've had to watch it happen. This is getting to be a full-blown crisis. No one dares to leave their homes at night anymore, for all the good it does. Not even the church was safe." He gestured to the rubble behind him.

"It's awful," Sapphire said, speaking as one would at someone's deathbed. "Everything's just…falling apart…"

"Including the people," Tristan said. "I doubt they can take much more of this, and the governor certainly thinks so. He's drafting plans to abandon the city."

Estel nodded. "Good idea."

"Well…" Tristan frowned. "Not really. Yes, we might have to evacuate, but I still think something can be done about this. He's giving up too easily."

"Oh, yeah," Cen said, folding his arms across his chest and looking smug. "You can't duck out yet; your reinforcements just got here."

Tristan shook his head and laughed.

"True! And trust me, I'll be glad of the extra help. Things have gotten pretty hectic lately." He waved a hand around at the degenerating town. "I came here to work with Dr. Unne, and ended up in a war zone."

"What're you workin' on?" Estel asked.

Tristan smiled, obviously pleased by the chance to talk about his work. "Dr. Unne and I found a stone tablet while on a dive near Onrac."

Rath's eyes widened, but he said nothing. Tristan continued:

"The text is Lufenian, and we've been working to translate it. It's been tricky; Lufenian is an incredibly complex language. We're hoping to learn valuable information about Lufenian society from the text, though." He looked up at the darkening sky. "I don't think we can talk here much longer. It isn't safe to be out after dark."

He started walking and gestured for the others to follow him. "You can stay at my home while you're here; we have plenty of room." He grinned at Cen and Estel. "Kirien and the children will be glad to see you."

Tristan led the group through the city to a two-story house, somewhat less broken than its neighbors, near the northern wall. Though boards covered the ground floor windows, lamplight flickered between the gaps. On the front porch stood an attractive, dark-haired woman. She waved to Tristan and the others as they approached.

"Who have you brought home?" she asked Tristan; her tone was pleasant, but she looked thin and wan, as though she had not been sleeping well. She reached out and took Tristan's hand as he drew near.

"Just my renegade brothers and their friends, dear," Tristan said with a wink. He kissed her gently on the cheek.

Kirien turned to Cen and Estel, smiling. "Of course." She embraced each of them in turn. "It's good to see you boys again."

"It's good to see you too, Kirien," Cen said with utmost sincerity. "We were worried that we'd get here too late and you would all be gone."

"Oh, so suddenly I can't protect my own family from undead?" Tristan said, feigning indignation. "Thanks a lot, Cen."

Cen introduced Rath and Sapphire to Kirien, then the group turned and entered the house. The front room was small and sparsely decorated, but comfortable. In the corner opposite the door, a slender twelve-year-old girl sat in a well-worn armchair, diligently plucking a simple melody on the lute she held, while three younger children, two boys and a girl, sat in the middle of the floor, playing some kind of card game. They all looked up as the door opened, and the youngest, a four-year-old girl with carrot-colored hair, squealed in delight.

"Cen, Cen!"

She scrambled up and ran to him, clamping onto his legs. Cen laughed and picked her up. The girl's older brothers, a ten-year-old with sandy-blond hair and an eight-year-old with hair the exact color of his father's, ran over and tackled Cen as well, their elder sister just behind them. All the children began talking at once.

"Well, geez," Estel said, speaking loud enough to be heard over the din. "You all jump him, but what about me? Do I smell funny or something?"

The eldest girl laughed and turned to hug him. "Sorry, Uncle Estel."

"Ah, that's better." Estel grinned, returning the hug. "And that's why you're my favorite, Lexa."

"All right, all right," Tristan shouted over the babble. "Let your uncles breathe a bit; they're very tired. Kole, Seth, off…" He helped Cen pry the boys off, and Cen set the little girl down beside them. "Shouldn't you all be in bed, anyway?"

"No," Kole, the sandy-haired boy, said. "Mom said we could stay up until you got home from your meeting."

"I'm home now," Tristan pointed out, but he was smiling.

"But Cen's here!" the little girl exclaimed, attaching herself to Cen's leg again.

"Can't we stay up a little longer?" Seth asked.

Tristan gave them a mock-stern look. "One hour," he said at last. "Then off to bed. It's bad to stay up late, remember?"

"Yes," the children chorused, then, as Lexa went back to her seat, the two boys pulled Cen down to sit on the floor with them.

"Help us play this game," Kole said. "We need three and Nici can't do it right."

"I can so!" the little girl said indignantly, frowning.

Tristan chuckled and gestured for the other companions to have a seat. Estel planted himself on the floor next to Cen, scooping up Nici and depositing her in his lap, but Rath and Sapphire chose to sit in two of the chairs. Tristan sat down beside them.

"So what's been going on here?" Cen asked, glancing up from the game.

Tristan shook his head. "You name it. About a year ago we began noticing the decay of the earth, and around that same time the attacks started. It's just gotten worse since then, as you've seen. At the start, it was only zombies, which was alarming enough since there were so many of them, but then the vampire started turning up as well. There are more of them now; they come nearly every night."

Sapphire's eyes widened. "There are more than one?"

"Quite a few more. They're not fully matured yet, but it's only a matter of time. I don't know how much more we'll be able to take. They destroyed the church last time they attacked, and that really scared people. If the church isn't safe, then what is?"

Silence fell. The older children, busy with their other activities, seemed used to these kinds of discussions and did not appear bothered. Nici, however, made a scared little noise and covered her eyes with her hands. Estel gave her thin shoulders a reassuring squeeze.

"Hey, what's that about? You don't gotta be scared with us around."

Nici nodded but did not uncover her eyes.

Rath drummed his fingers along the collar of his robes. "Have you tried a direct offensive against the vampire and his creatures?" he asked Tristan.

"Only twice, and both attempts went badly. The people don't want to risk it again, though we're certain that the vampire is what's causing the decay of the land."

"What can we do to help?" Sapphire asked.

"Quite a bit, actually." Tristan leaned forward in his chair. "We only have a few people ready and able to defend the city; the people here are farmers, not warriors. Having you all here almost doubles our numbers, and combat in the city is difficult, so we can use all the help we can get."

Sapphire tilted her head. "How is it difficult?"

"Because we're almost entirely restricted to hand-to-hand combat. Fire would destroy the zombies, at least, but flesh takes time to burn, even for magic. We don't want to risk a burning ghoul getting shoved into a building and setting it on fire as well."

Amazingly, Sapphire perked up.

"Dia would work though, wouldn't it? I mean, it would destroy the zombies without hurting the buildings or even other people."

Tristan stared at her. "You know Dia?"

Sapphire nodded. "Yes. It's one of the first spells I ever learned."

After another moment of staring, a grin spread across Tristan's face.

"Sapphire, I could kiss you."

Sapphire went a bit pink. Estel, trying to coax Nici's hands away from her face, laughed and looked over at Tristan.

"Better not let Kirien know that, Tris."

"Yes, yes, very funny," Tristan said, waving away Estel's joke. "But really, Sapphire, that's wonderful. You're going to save us a lot of trouble here."

Sapphire beamed. "Good. That's…" She shot a look at Rath out of the corner of her eye, checking his reaction to Tristan's words, but he had glanced away to watch the children and did not seem to have heard. "…I'm glad I'll be able to help."

Tristan nodded. "You certainly will. That's a skill we haven't had at all up 'til now, and to be honest, we hadn't missed it; it's a little too specialized for everyday use. Since all this has started, though?" He gave a hollow laugh. "I've wished every day that I had been born with the ability to learn that."

He looked away, watching Cen, Estel, and the children. Lexa had ceased her music practice, instead watching the others. Kole and Seth squabbled over some point of the game, while Estel had finally gotten Nici to show her face again. Cen further placated her by giving her the little wooden bird he had carved; she took it and examined it with delight, her blue eyes round. Tristan sighed.

"Well, enough talking about all that now; not with the kids here. You'll get your chance to see everything later anyway." He turned his attention to Cen, raising his voice a bit to get his attention. "All right, Cen. Now tell me what you've been doing lately. Elend mentioned something about 'saving the world'…?"

Cen looked up at once and, aided by Estel, launched into a retelling of their quest, with Sapphire listening and nodding occasionally. Lexa listened intently, lute forgotten in her lap, but Kole and Seth, growing bored, got up and wandered over to where Rath sat. Rath, surprisingly, did not object to this.

"Are you a mage?" Seth asked.

"Yes, I am."

"Show us some magic."

Rath rubbed his hands together, making rather a show of what he was doing, then started snapping his fingers. Multi-colored flames—blue, red, green—flew up from his fingertips, disappearing in wisps of smoke. The boys looked suitably impressed.

"Cool…"

"We can do magic too," Kole informed him.

"Oh yes?" Rath said without a trace of his usual sarcasm. He leaned forward in his chair, watching with, by all appearances, genuine interest. "Let me see."

Kole took out a small stone and proceeded to make it disappear and reappear repeatedly from various places, such as inside his brother's ear. It was just simple sleight-of-hand, but Rath acted impressed anyway.

"Good, huh?" Kole said.

"Very good," Rath agreed. "May I try?"

Kole handed the stone to Rath. Sapphire looked away from Cen's story to watch as Rath copied Kole's tricks perfectly, as well as adding a few of his own, like setting the stone on fire and levitating it in a web of electricity. The boys oohed and aahed, and Sapphire applauded. Rath ignored her.

"Wow, that's even better than what Dad can do. Let me try!" Kole took his stone back and tried, in vain, to copy Rath's tricks.

"You're doing it wrong," Seth said. "Let me do it." He snatched the stone from his brother, but had no success. Frustrated, he turned to Rath. "How did you do that?"

"Like this." Rath took the stone again and repeated the routine. The boys looked utterly perplexed, grabbing Rath's hand and studying both it and the stone, and then Rath did something his companions had never heard him do before:

He laughed.

It was a surprisingly pleasant sound, completely at odds with his usual scathing tone, and while Kole and Seth merely protested it because it was directed at them, it stunned the other Light Warriors. Sapphire and Estel both gaped at him, Estel looking intensely puzzled, Sapphire almost pleased. Cen broke off in his storytelling out of astonishment, leaving the room silent save for Rath's unprecedented bout of mirth. Rath paid no attention to this, and, his eyes for once narrowed in a smile rather than in irritation, he began pacifying the boys' indignation.

Tristan glanced around at the companions with mild confusion.

"Is there a problem?"

"Huh?" Cen looked back at his brother, his brow furrowed. "No, no, it's fine…"

The sound of wolves howling outside broke the moment. Everyone in the room fell silent, listening.

"Okay, kids, time for bed," Tristan said. He tried to sound unconcerned, but his expression was tense. He stood and ushered the children out of the room. "Go get Mom to tuck you in, all right?"

This time, the children did not protest; they quietly left the room and went to find Kirien. Nici paused in the doorway and looked worriedly up at her father.

"Will my room be quiet?"

Tristan nodded. "Yes, it will. I'll double-check in a minute, okay?"

"Okay." Nici nodded solemnly, then followed her brothers and sister.

Tristan resumed his seat.

"I hate that they have to deal with all this. I do everything I can to shield them from it, but it never seems like enough. If the governor implements the evacuation, I'm sending Kirien and the kids out, even if I stay to defend the town."

"Perhaps you could further explain the situation, Tristan," Rath said, his moment of levity forgotten. "What of the surrounding towns? Are they similarly afflicted?"

Tristan slumped back in his chair. "Less afflicted and more doing the afflicting, by this point. I couldn't understand where the sheer numbers of zombies were coming from, so I went to the next nearest city to investigate." He shut his eyes for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I found one survivor. He had barricaded himself on top of the armory to protect himself from the city's former inhabitants. The poor man was a gibbering wreck; I managed to get him out of the city, and once I made sure that he wasn't wounded, I put him on the first boat to Cornelia. I figured he would appreciate getting as far away as possible."

"Oh…" Sapphire put her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. "Oh, that's awful. That poor man…I hope he's all right now."

Tristan nodded his agreement, as did Cen and Estel.

Rath, however, just narrowed his eyes in thought and apparent bafflement. He seemed to be frowning behind his collar. "With such numbers of undead, this city should, by all logic, be completely besieged or overrun. That certainly did not seem to be the case when we arrived, and in my experience, the undead do not generally restrict their assaults to certain hours of the day."

"Exactly," Tristan said. "I can't understand it. With, I'm guessing, the entire population of the other three cities and all the minor towns infected, we should be completely surrounded by this point. But we're not." He shook his head, looking suddenly angry. "This doesn't make sense! It's as though everything is working in favor of the undead. They only attack at night, when humans are more vulnerable. We can't chase them down in the daytime, because they sink into the swamps—swamps that started appearing exactly when they did—and disappear. The vampires even seem to be able to control them, herding them like sheep, so even if we staged an assault outside the city, the blasted things wouldn't even come to us!" He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and one hand to his forehead. "That's not typical behavior. Something else is behind this, and it's something powerful enough to pervert an already perverted force of nature."

"The vampire," Estel said, nodding. "The first one, right?"

Tristan nodded, not lifting his head. "That's the theory, anyway. None of my research has described vampires having this kind of power, though. Zombies are supposed to be uncontrollable, but he's controlling them." He sighed and sat back in his chair. "That's how the church was destroyed. We tried to burn the zombies, so we lured them into the main square and hemmed them in, then lit them up. Then…the vampire arrived, with his 'children,' and drove the burning zombies into the cathedral."

Cen winced. "I bet that was pretty."

"Compared to the aftermath, yes, actually. After the building had collapsed, some of the zombies started crawling out of the rubble. Smashed, broken, blackened…but still mobile. It was like watching maggots writhing in a mangled carcass."

Sapphire looked ill, and she leaned forward to stare down at the floorboards, breathing hard. Estel looked at her, then scooted over to sit beside her chair. He gave her knee a reassuring pat, and she seized his hand in a slightly desperate grip.

"Where's the vampire's lair?" Cen asked. "If he's the one behind this, we ought to take him out; that'd make everything stop."

"That's what we're hoping, anyway." Tristan sighed, staring blankly across the room. "We suspect that the lair is in Jord Cave. From what I've been able to determine, that's where the decay first started."

"Hm." Rath looked mildly intrigued. "How…coincidental."

"Jord Cave's where we figure the Earth Crystal is," Estel told Tristan.

Tristan nodded. "You figure right. It never struck me as a coincidence that's where the source of all this mess should be. That the vampire hails from there solidifies the theory that he's the one behind this. I wanted to investigate myself, but…"

He trailed off, and in the silence, they could hear the wolves howling again. Tristan tilted his head.

"They're getting closer." He looked around at Cen and the others. "I have to watch the perimeter, but you can all go to bed if you want. You've had a long journey."

Estel gave Tristan an incredulous look. "What, you think we're gonna bail outta what we came here to do in the first place? You feelin' okay, Tris?"

"Yeah, are you kidding?" Cen's expression mirrored Estel's. "Of course we'll stay up to help."

Sapphire, looking somewhat recovered, nodded. "Yes, of course."

Rath shrugged, then nodded as well.

"Thanks." Tristan smiled faintly. "I thought you would, but I didn't want to impose on you your first night here."

Estel snorted. "Impose away. Otherwise, why the hell'd we come, huh?"

Rath raised an eyebrow. "Ahem."

"Yeah, yeah…" Estel flapped a hand at him. "Light the Crystal, save the world. I remember."

Tristan's smile gave way to a laugh. "Well, at least you have your priorities straight there, Estel," he said. "All right, then, let's—" He broke off with a wince. "Oh, I just remembered." He pointed to Rath. "I have something for you."

Rath froze halfway out of his chair and stared at Tristan.

"What?"

"A letter," Tristan said. "It arrived in Pravoka just after you all left, and Elend sent it along for you when he sent off his message to me."

This explanation did nothing to diminish Rath's shock. He sat back down in his chair with a conflicted expression in his eyes. Finally, he settled into a look of suspicion.

"Who is the original sender?"

Tristand shook his head. "I didn't look. It must be important, though; it's sealed with the royal crest." He stepped out of the room, heading to retrieve the letter.

Realization dawned in Rath's eyes, completely eclipsing the suspicion. Similar knowing looks came over Cen and Estel, accompanied by rather vindictive glee.

"Ooh, Rath…"

"…she sent you a letter."

Tristan returned and gave Cen and Estel an odd look.

"Yes?"

"Nothing," Rath snapped before either Cen or Estel could reply. He held his hand out to take the letter. "I thank you for holding that for me, Tristan."

"You're welcome…" Tristan handed the letter to Rath while still looking at Cen and Estel with confusion; the pair seemed to be trying to hold back an absolute torrent of laughter. Rath glowered at them, while Sapphire, face turning scarlet, seemed torn between doing the same and looking very downcast indeed.

"Oh, stop it," she said at last. "It's…it isn't funny…"

Tristan raised an eyebrow. "Cen? Estel? Come on, get a grip on yourselves."

"Right," Estel managed to say. "Sorry, Tris. It's just…" He gave a quickly-stifled snort of laughter. "It's just too damn funny."

"Maybe, but we don't have time to go to pieces right now. Come on, let's go get set up for the night."

"Yeah, okay." Cen got to his feet. "Come on, guys."

Estel and Sapphire both rose as well, but Rath remained seated.

"I will join you shortly."

Cen and Estel smirked at one another, both looking ready to comment on this, but Tristan shot them a quelling look and they kept quiet. The group left the room, Sapphire trailing along despondently at the rear. Rath slit open the envelope, opened the parchment inside, and began to read, an almost touched look in his eyes.