New Spin-off Fic by Sakiku available on my favorites list, also linked to in my profile. This is a multi-chapter fic written from Draco Malfoy's POV during the time he stayed with Rahkesh and Daray early on in Changes in a Time of War. It's a great read, she's got amazing characterization, and an excellent writing style that's fun to read. Please remember to leave her a review!
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Chapter 25
The magical lights sent a dim glow bouncing off the cave walls, showing the rock to be deep red splashed with milky white and glittered mica chips. The ceiling dropped and the bottom of the cave rose, leaving a tiny gap just big enough to a person to fit through. Rahkesh sent some of the magical lights ahead of him and peered through the gap.
Beyond the cavern widened out into a larger chamber. Reddish stalactites hung from the ceiling with cream and red stalagmites lifting from the floor. A school of white, eyeless fish swam near the ceiling. Cave fish, which had no need of sight anymore. There were at least two different water layers, the cold one he swam in, and another, near the bottom of the cave, which shimmered around and made his head hurt, like he was looking in a liquid mirror.
-Nice. I like this place-. Daray's telepathic voice said.
-Typically vampiric, even underwater you still like dark caves-. Rahkesh snickered.
I am swimming through an underwater cavern in a tributary of one of the world's largest rivers, with a hypnotist and a demon animagus who are grandsons of the world's most famous vampire assassin and a human/thunderbird/basilisk creature who drinks dragon blood, intending on visiting a race of beings, species unknown, who locked their civilization away a thousand years ago, in order to warn them of an impending demon invasion. Have I mentioned anything recently about my life being ever so much more interesting since meeting you Rahkesh? Sygra asked.
Sorry? Rahkesh asked, unapologetic.
Not what I meant. I like excitement. But can we please get out of this water soon? There's magic here that makes me itch.
Or you're just going to shed soon.
It's the magic. Sygra said firmly, Rahkesh didn't respond, he didn't argue with Sygra. Especially not about snake stuff. What was it Nicodemus said?
The living descendants of my people, assuming they exist still, have only one connection to the world. On the new moon seek the Vilcabamba river, where it joins the Urubamba there is an underwater cavern. Rahkesh repeated from memory, he'd read those two letters enough times that he knew them by heart, especially the second one. He and Nicodemus really needed to have a long talk about that, he hadn't even shared the second letter's contents with Sygra yet, and had asked her not to pry.
Well, okay, they were in the underwater cavern. Now what? Nicodemus hadn't provided any more instruction.
-So Thunder, where to…- Daray trailed off.
-I have no idea. Rahkesh admitted. Hey Silas, can you look around a bit, magically?-
-Why me?-
-Well in order to hypnotize someone you have to know that they have a conscious mind right? So therefore you can sense the presence of a consciousness, even if you aren't aware you're doing it-. Rahkesh said.
-Never thought of that. Daray said, makes some sense logically, but magic doesn't always work that way, and we don't know much about how our little scorpion here works yet…give it a try Silas-. Silas, in his bubble, twisted around as nimbly as a seal in water, and began looking around. Daray closed his eyes and stayed still, reaching out magically. Rahkesh tentatively did the same, locating Daray and Silas's minds' easily. After two years of the vampires near-constant companionship he'd learned to identify their presences in his sleep (this was also deliberate training to avoid pranks).
Silas's mind these days gave off intense magic that had an odd sort of shimmer to it. Well, that's what it felt like. Rahkesh assumed this was his hypnotism thing. Such a bizarre ability to be born with, and it didn't appear until he was eighteen. Rahkesh wondered how on earth Cyala had managed to sense such a strange but unique ability, she certainly didn't add just anyone to the family, even if Silas had been part of the disowned section, so she must have known he had some unusual powers. Given the changes both his friends had gone through recently Rahkesh had to work to keep up with their changing magic, which was only fair given the crazy stuff his own magic was probably doing to them. Now be carefully blocked both, noting that Daray's demon side was perfectly settled and comfortable – normally Rahkesh couldn't sense it unless he really tried, and Daray would notice that and ask about it, but right now he had an excuse. With the vampires, and the familiars, blocked out he searched for what magic remained, and there was a lot of it.
The whole cavern was full of magic, old magic. Living magic, but distant. Whatever the enchantments were, they had not been altered, renewed, or even used in a very long time. It was, Rahkesh realized distantly, a little like the old living magic in Hogwarts stone walls. Not the fiery burning active magic of Akren, nor the ancient wards with their frightening intensity. More like Hogwarts. So no offensive magics – nothing to hurt. But magic to keep the cavern as it was for as long as the magic lasted. And something else…
-Got it. Below us…but there's nothing alive-. Silas said. Daray immediately turned his attention downward.
-No, it's an enchantment to observe whatever is in here. That enchantment is passive. There's something else to relay that information somewhere. And a response magic, something to act. That's the part that's really active-. Daray figured it out quickly.
-The one to react, the response, that one's designed to reach out and do something-. Rahkesh warned. -Why isn't it?-
-No one's responding to whatever the other magic is sending?- Silas suggested.
-No, I think it's supposed to act on its own-. Daray said.
-Maybe we haven't actually contacted it yet?- Rahkesh said. -I think we need to go into that lower layer of water.-
-It is what the most of the observing magic is.- Daray agreed. -You first Thunder-boy.-
-Scaredy-demon- Rahkesh sing-songed telepathically. He turned and dove for the lower water layer. The surface of the current shimmered below him like a rippling mirror. Rahkesh closed his eyes and went in.
It wasn't water. It was magic, a shimmering pool of glass-like magic. Rahkesh felt it close tightly around him and his movement froze. The magic caught him, immobilized him. IT'S MAGIC! Rahkesh shouted, stopping both vampires centimeters from the surface.
-Rahkesh?-
-It's magic, this isn't water.- Rahkesh said. -I can't move.-
-It's pulling you further in.- Daray said. -You're sinking away from us, getting smaller.-
-Doesn't hurt, but I can't move.- Rahkesh said, holding himself calm. I-t's a directed movement, and I can feel the enchantments are acting. Now it's doing something.-
-Can you use your magic?-
-Yes. But not to get away.- Rahkesh said, -I can access all my bloodmagic but…I've got this sense that fighting would result in…oh…there's another piece of magic. If I try to get out it'll wake up.- Rahkesh fought to stay calm as he tried to sense the magics around him, but while they were definitely Chachapoyaroan in origin he couldn't sense the purposes.
-I can't send any magic into whatever you're in.- Daray said.
In the foreign magic, sinking rapidly downwards, Rahkesh was just barely avoiding panic. Furious with himself he breathed slowly and kept himself focused. He was from Akren! Akren's people did not panic. Sygra rubbed her cheek on his shoulder. Well, he couldn't go back, and he doubted that the Chachapoyaro would set up an enchantment to kill anyone who touched it. They weren't that crazy. Well, they hadn't been…
-I'm going to dive down and through this.- Rahkesh said.
-Rahkesh!-
-Got a better idea?- Rahkesh asked. Getting no response he focused directly ahead, straight down…whatever down was, he had no sense of gravity anymore, and gathering his magic he pulled himself in the direction he was already moving.
-Damn it, I guess we're going too.- Daray sighed, magically accelerating downward.
-Can you imagine what Professor Namach would say if we didn't? Never mind Ahmad. Or that Moody fellow. Or Ally and Rianae- Silas grouched as he followed, Nuri swimming eagerly alongside.
-It's not like the Chachapoyaro are all that homicidal- Rahkesh said, trying to move faster. The enchantment instantly let up, let him move, and sent him hurtling downward. Rahkesh built up speed, magic rippling around him as he moved with the strange foreign spells that held him. Flashes of light slipped past, bright bursts of white and green light, shifting to gold. The feeling of water vanished, turning to air-light pure magic. He was free falling with waves of magic flowing over his skin, wrapping him in layers of shimmering power. Rahkesh closed his eyes as the magic built and blocked out everything but the steady sparkle and swirl.
XXX
Rahkesh woke abruptly, coming out of a deep sleep. But he didn't move, even faster than he realized he was awake he sensed something was wrong and remained still. Eyes closed, body relaxed, breathing slowly, Rahkesh tried to figure out what was wrong. He had been trained for this by his combat teachers – they'd appear in their students rooms and if the student gave away that they were awake they got attacked, since, after all, going from sleep to battle was also a useful skill.
He was lying on a very soft bed. The light was a soft gold through his closed lids. The pillow was rather hard. The bed was also long enough for his full height, nice. There were people there, even breathing, sleeping then. And other people, moving a little but not much. No vibrations from walking. They were sitting. Rahkesh breathed a little and decided he could smell a few people, sort of. Without bloodmagic his sense of smell was not so great. Better than it had ever been when he'd left Hogwarts though. The transfiguration teacher had taught them to pay attention to smell as a sign of their transfiguration going very wrong. The mind magic lass also emphasized awareness in its early stages. And naturally Namach included smelling your blood into his classes, you could smell and odd fluctuation in a ritual faster than you could sense it any other way. And combat classes, Ahmad figured you could smell almost as much information about your opponent as you could hear it.
Rahkesh also sensed Sygra, coiled on his chest, awake but pretending to sleep. He reached out to her and she felt him wake. Sending a vague question he got a response, six people, all Chachapoyaro (they smelled different than other humans, if, in fact, they even were human). They were seated around, expecting their visitors to wake very soon. Nuri was awake and lying beside Silas, Rahkesh heard him growl. Satan was awake but had escaped out the window despite it being daylight. He would, undoubtedly, bring back lots of interesting information. Daray was awake, Silas was not. Rahkesh found his familiar's mind and sent a question by way of feelings of intentions and motions; could Sygra get out through the walls if she needed too? Her ability to go through solid objects was difficult at best and extremely painful at worst, but it was useful. Sygra considered and responded with a tentative affirmative.
Well, time to let everyone know he was awake. He'd let Daray wake Silas, Daray's mental connection to his cousin was pretty good; Cyala had been training them to connect with their family since Silas's parents deaths.
Felling okay? How dangerous a situation do you think this is? Rahkesh hissed, rolling his eyes around as if just waking and blinking. His hissing startled the six sitting around them. Two of them even leapt upright while the others visibly jumped. Nice, he'd have to gloat at Nicodemus for their poor observational skills, when he saw him again.
I am well and so is everyone else. I woke two hours ago and was still wet. We can't have been here long. I do believe two of these people are healers, on the basis of the weapons three are guards and I cannot determine the purpose of the last one.
Rahkesh sat up slowly, ignoring his audience for a moment, fluffing the pillow a little and leaning back against the massive wooden headboard. Daray didn't move but Nuri looked up, stopped growling, and began to bathe his claws. One of the guards was by the window near Silas's bed, keeping a wary eye on the big black panther.
The room was a massive oval of sand colored stone. Rounded grey marble pillars at either side of the three doors had amethysts set into them spinning amongst wavy gold runes. The ceiling had crystal and candle chandelier-like things hanging from it and bowls of soothingly aromatic oil burned on the top of each door frame. There were six beds, but only their three were occupied. The floor was white stone bricks laid into a geometric pattern. Rahkesh recognized the runes on the pillars and the geometric patterns instantly, they were the same as those used to ward and protect the healers building at Vailape, the city they had stayed in during their first visit.
The people, he noticed, were definitely Chachapoyaro. He'd recognize that appearance anywhere. Tall, with their odd gold-like skin and all but one had very light colored hair. Orange, blue, red, and purple eyes, sharply defined eyebrows. Well, they had made it to the right place.
Having recovered from their start at his waking the three warriors moved slowly to take positions near the doors. The healers were looking at some sheets of canvas on the wall, where bits of magic were flashing in a pattern. The last of them, a tall white-haired man with orange eyes, glanced at the warriors, then Daray, who had propped himself up on some pillows while waking Silas telepathically. Finally he turned to Rahkesh.
"Good morning, do you feel hurt anywhere?"
Rahkesh stared, and stared, and stared, and then realized he needed to respond…in English. They spoke English. Perfectly modern English. A civilization cut off from the world for a thousand years spoke a modern language, with an odd accent true, but not a trace of their past language.
"I feel fine, Daray?"
"Same here."
"How long have we been asleep?"
"Five hours. The spells on the caves are supposed to keep you out for six, but the three of you have strong minds." The older man said. "I am Hevgedril, do you know where you are?"
"I know what you are." Rahkesh replied, he had already decided to get straight to the point. The Chachapoyaro had been rather blunt direct people, and he didn't feel like he had neither the time nor the patience to try any slower way of explaining who they were. "We were friends of the Chachapoyaro ancestors of your people – unless you still call yourselves that – a long time ago…about a thousand years ago, actually." The healers and warriors all turned to stare. "I'm not sure yet which city this is, the last time we visited your people we stayed with some friends at Vailape. We fought with them during the initial Incan invasion. You'll find the complete records of us written by Vailape's head sorcerer at the time, Kalahimran."
Their hosts stared at Rahkesh in shock for a few moments, Rahkesh ignored them, having guessed they'd need a few moments to absorb that information. Instead he twisted over his newest injury, his scarred hand and wrist, examining for changes. His whole arm ached dully, and as he flexed his fingers bright points of pain shot through his hand. Rahkesh accepted the pain and didn't flinch, focusing on where it was coming from. He noted that the pain came from the points that seemed to have the densest concentrations of his disintegrated wand in them, then he found the new bits of bloodmagic. They wrapped around the bad spots, helping to move magic without it going into the wand remains. It wasn't an ideal system, magic was supposed to flow through every cell of the body. Ordinary bloodmagic was basically (very basically) permanent spells that altered some magic to a new state, or allowed you to achieve that sate when you wished, but magic was still in very molecule of the body. Moving that magic around some piece of flesh was damaging and painful, even if it was less damaging and less painful then not doing anything.
Okay?
Surprisingly, yes. I suppose their magic didn't really go into us.
I'm more surprised you didn't react horribly to being zapped in the head by some unknown magic. Daray said.
I almost did, but then I reminded myself that these are the Chachapoyaro, and they're not intent on harming anyone, crazy as the Xuelhuala are, and I do not feel threatened overly much by them. Not because they couldn't kill me but because they want nothing from us, expect nothing, and are happy to reside in their peaceful silence for eternity. Rahkesh explained, there isn't much here to be wary of unless you upset them or harm them first.
True, even Nuri didn't sense anything dangerous about the magic in that cave. He was eager to go into it. Silas pointed out.
Rahkesh rubbed his thumb over the lightning-like scars, feeling their slightly raised lines. Nicodemus had once asked if crazy life threatening occurrences were normal for him, Rahkesh had denied that any such things happened regularly, and Nic had not believed him for a moment. Really Rahkesh thought his life wasn't so insane, but lately he could almost set his watch by when the next unexpected battle would happen. He could only imagine what Nic would make of that.
"You what?" The question came from the old man again.
"I am Rahkesh Asmodaeus. These are Daray Ateres and Silas Ateres. A while back we encountered an unfortunate bit of time travel. We wound up a thousand years back, in the city of Vailape. Unfortunately for us this was just before the Inca launched their attack on that city. We were there aiding the healers during the worst of the plague, and we joined with the city guards and the Xuelhuala to battle the Inca later. When it was possible the city's sorcerers sent us home to our own time." Rahkesh spoke slowly and clearly, wondering if he should have taken a believability potion. Now he began on the bit that was a lie. "Before we left one of the Xuelhuala Generals left us with a very specific request – that we find some way to ensure, that if the day ever came that Earth was threatened with a demon invasion, we would return, find what was left of his people, and warn them."
Rahkesh waited, wondering if it was just a bit too much to take in. Then the old man turned to his companions and began speaking so fast Rahkesh's ears hurt. But he was speaking a language Rahkesh had never heard. One of the women replied, slower, and Rahkesh caught a few words, including "Xuelhuala" "Vailape" "records" and "library". So it was some modern variation of the ancient Chachapoyaro language. This was more reassuring, though it did not explain how the old man spoke such excellent, if oddly accented, English.
Silas was awake, sitting up as well, cross legged in his bed. Rahkesh rubbed at his ear, relieved to find his earring there, the spells intact. Silas was watching everyone attentively, but Daray was leaning back a little with his eyes closed. Rahkesh guessed he was probably communicating with Satan, since the bat had fled and was probably out and about in the city, keeping hidden. Daray opened his eyes and glanced over at Rahkesh.
"Were all the cities the same, in layout?"
"No. Not exactly."
Daray grinned and shook his head. "One of us must have some good karma built up then. I think we're in Vailape."
"Really?"
"Satan thinks so. Oh, and you'll love this, there's a dragon statue over against the cliffs behind the city."
Rahkesh grinned, remembering that Sharahak had said that Enireth and had gotten along well with his new human (or whatever) friends before joining Nicodemus with the Xuelhuala.
The old man, Hevgedril, turned back to Rahkesh, as the others all fell silent. One of the healers and one of the warriors had left the room in a rush, Rahkesh assumed to go try to find any mention of them in the library. Sygra wrapped herself around Rahkesh's arm and slid up and onto his shoulders. Rahkesh reached up to stroke the top of her head, noting absently that she would be shedding again soon.
"Very well. Let's assume, for a moment, that I believe you. What does this mean?"
"I promised to return to warn your people when the demons were about to invade Earth. At the time we were the only real contact your people had with the outside world apart from the Inca who they were fighting." Rahkesh explained.
"And now you're back, do you mean…?"
"The demons are barely seven weeks away from an invasion." Rahkesh said softly. "They sent a plague into Europe…you know the continents?" He got a sharp nod in return, though he was starting to get an idea that the only person in the room who understood him was Hevgedril. "The plague killed over a hundred thousand. The demons also sent in a small army to attack into Mexico. They were met by a mixed species force and defeated. There have been various other demons spotted almost everywhere in the world. At the same time we have learned that the demons began sending in their sea demons several hundred years ago, and just recently some magical beings have been disappearing." No one had yet found the missing sirens. "We know from the elves that the magic blocking them will fail in seven weeks, give or take a day."
"And they will invade to rule the world?"
"No. They cannot survive here for long. No. They want to capture, take back to their realm, and enslave, all magical life forms." Rahkesh said. "They will then leave Earth alone, apart from returning occasionally to abduct any new magical humans born to non-magical people."
"And you know this how?"
"We have an ally who escaped their realm. The memories of one of their sorcerers were stolen during the battle in Mexico, it and some captive that are currently being interrogated have independently confirmed all of this. The demons are coming, with an army of hundreds of thousands, millions even. And I have a request from a good friend and General of your Xuelhuala to warn you, and the Xuelhuala, that what they feared has finally happened."
XXX
Squadrons of vampires on brooms or flying carpets, set in perfect V-formation, flew down out of the sunset, none dead, none injured. Below them the land was littered with dead and dying vampires. A few figures moved among them, collecting those that could survive, chaining them and removing them to the black tents beside the main camp. They also stopped to kill those that were not quite dead yet, and with permission to practice whatever magics they wished on the dying there were few being taken back as captives.
The earth was spongy, soaked in blood, and radiating the remains of violent magic that made the feet ache and caused a slight haze of death magic on the ground. Limbs lay separated from bodies, and dozens of completely clean skeletons were draped over the forest that started off in the west and ran over the hills. The open Mongolian grasslands where the rebel vampires had made their final stand were red and black, the grass trampled and burned away to open empty earth, and ashes soaked in blood spray.
The signs of the magical battle were everywhere in the form of still-transfigured rocks, trees, and limbs. Bits of orange ice were melting into the earth, and the seeds of magical plants were sprouting and growing at a visible rate, feeding on the abundance of magic. A lot of them weren't choosy; the magic of war and dead magical vampires suited them just fine. Six hours and the finger-tall plants would be in full bloom with their blood-red flowers, and then they'd be dead within a full day. But they would be converting death magic to living, and that would be used by other plants.
Other magical seeds that had hit the earth at some point since the last local magical event were also sending out shoots, slower. Maybe six days until they grew fore-arm length stems and begin to flower. Magical plants grew fast when magic was abundant to feed on. And other, slower growing plants only germinated when they could get magic, which the plants then altered to make it their own, which grew into the plant's own magical channels so it could produce its own magic. The outcome of this battle would be measured in new magical productivity at this location. The Mongolians would probably make it a park or a reserve.
The occasional burned and greasy splotch on the bare earth marked the complete passing of some unfortunate in blaze of fire. Around him more vampires erupted into flames, screaming, and perished, writhing in pain as they burned to nothing, their very blood combusting, leaving behind only a small grease patch, and not even that if they were old. The sun would last only a few more hours, but the injured could no longer fight its lethal effects and succumbed to the flames. Beside him a short vampire, missing all her limbs, gurgled, and burst into flames, gone in…thirty-eight seconds. Tristan Namach smiled grimly as he crossed the bloody blackened acres left behind after the battle, finally arriving at the command center.
Death magic wafted past on the evening breeze, bits of and shreds of souls and the little blinks of magic given off by the dying. Undirected death magic wasn't terribly useful, but it could be turned to a few purposes and so two shadows flitted quickly across the ground in front of him, soaking it up and taking it away. With so many dead he'd had to call in a few of his servants to collect it all. He waved them away as the vampires at the command center noted him and shifted nervously. Behind them large tables were spread out on the grass alongside rows of neat tents. The fighters would remain for the night with their prisoners before heading home with their captives the next day. By his decree they would not travel by night; easier to stake out any uprising captives for the sun as examples, and better to test the warriors. Doing things by daylight was more difficult, and now more than ever everyone needed an incentive to train and improve.
The former Master of Mongolia, who had claimed the entire country, was kneeling a few meters away from the tables where names of the rebels were being taken from the memories of survivors, to trace their creators back and find where they had all come from. He was unhurt, for the moment, merely naked to the suns' unforgiving rays and collared and leashed to a solid black post set in the ground. Tristan had brought him out partly as a statement to everyone else there, and partly to show him just what a proper vampire Lord did with problems in his territory. Two of his advisors who had advocated getting Konovalov to get Tristan's help with this problem were chained next to him. Six of his own guards were keeping him captive; it amused Tristan to do this when he removed someone powerful, as a way to test the guards. They were doing their job competently, and he filed away their magical signatures and names, you never knew, given that vampires existed forever, maybe someday it would be good to remember them.
"Antonio." Tristan said, finding the last of the advisors of the former Master of Mongolia. He had been the one to insist on dealing with the rebel vampires on their own, without asking for help, and if they did need help, contacting Tristan directly, he'd even offered to do it himself. This one understood that a vampire lord who could not control his territory didn't deserve to rule it. He had been loyal to his former leader for several hundred years, despite the other being rather less than acceptable he had given Antonio a high rank, wealth, and security. Tristan had chosen to let Antonio, the one in charge of the small but surprisingly well-trained fighting force, lead the battle. The vampire, a native of Mongolia since birth, was probably taking the whole thing personally, which was an added incentive to do a good job. But he had to know that Tristan was studying him, trying to determine his usefulness when properly motivated (as he'd be when the demons attacked). Tristan usually examined the vampires surrounding a leader who needed to be removed, to see how they measured up, given their suspect commander. Letting Antonio lead the battle was mostly to test him, and Antonio knew it.
"Three hundred and forty-five captives, Lord." Antonio said, pleased. His commanders had backed off when Tristan appeared and were watching nervously. Antonio didn't look at all fazed to have the highest ranking member of his species present. The commanders were wary and agitated and fearful, and either they had forgotten to hide the scent of this, or they didn't know how, or they were attempting to show deference to a more powerful vampire by not hiding anything. Whatever the reason they were making his nose ache, and he wasn't even using any of his scent-based bloodmagic, just the normal vampiric senses. So maybe they could fight, but apparently they weren't good for much else. Tristan looked back at the fliers landing and the last of the ground forces returning.
"How many of yours are left?"
"All." Antonio said smugly, there had only been ninety. Vladimir Konovalov had supplemented them with two hundred of his own, but Antonio and his warriors had deliberately been given the worst of the battles. Tristan had hinted that the best would probably be considered for a place in the shelters. All the magical races intended to fight to the end, but if the worst happened they would have to take cover, and there would not be room for all. Tristan had picked two of Antonio's warriors, one of which he wanted the soul of for his own forces to use, and the other who would definitely have a place in one of the shelters, should the worst happen. Regardless of his slightly odd loyalties and un-vampire-like lack of ambition (why on earth hadn't he killed off his lord himself a century ago if the fool was clearly so incompetent?) Antonio did know how to train excellent fighters.
"My Lord, what should I do with the prisoners?"
"Keep the fifty five strongest. Of the rest, after their origins have been determined, kill them. Each of Konovalov's vampires gets one of them, and your own warriors get one each." Tristan said, meaning that all of those who had fought would get to kill (and therefore get the blood of) one of the prisoners. Blood of a magical vampire tasted so much better than that of almost anything else, and vampires gained in magical capacity by killing another vampire while drinking their blood, maybe not much, but they did. And it really was like a drug, not addictive but perfectly sublime. As an added bonus drinking the blood of another magical vampire would heal injuries, and their life-energy would confer additional healing ability for some time. "They've got ten hours, if they haven't finished killing their prisoners by then I will."
"Yes Lord. The others?"
"My servants are selecting the strongest as we speak. They will remove them…have removed them." Tristan amended, smirking as he registered shock from everyone in hearing range. His servants were fast and efficient, responding to his orders as he thought them. "They will be of use against the demons. The others need to die. Ten hours Antonio."
"Yes Lord." Antonio said softly, glancing at the tents the captives were stored in as a guard came running out, undoubtedly to report the sudden disappearance of fifty-five of them.
XXX
Six hours after waking Rahkesh was downing a headache relieving potion and fully ready to turn into his snake-self and go coil up in a corner somewhere and wait until the chaos ended. The magical transport might not have harmed him, but it had affected him worse than the vampires and he was tired. Daray had finally taken over dealing with their hosts, which was very fortunate indeed as Rahkesh was just about ready to kill someone. They had met with the city council, explained themselves repeatedly, answered the same questions multiple times, had someone call them all liars, listened to a furious debate from those who believed them, and as proof of their claims trickled in from the libraries disbelief had become awe, which pissed Rahkesh off, and then real worry and urgency.
They were indeed in Vailape, which struck Rahkesh as just a bit on the insane side of unbelievable, until he remembered that since Nicodemus had known all about the Chachapoyaro's withdrawal from the world; he had probably had a hand in setting up the magics. Asking one of the librarians he confirmed that it had been a Xuelhuala-driven piece of magic. The other warrior-city, Xaiaxelo (shy-ah-shell-lo), had done most of the enchantments for the warriors trapped in time (and had their hosts had some sort of panic attack when Rahkesh asked about that!). His knowing about that had been what had finally convinced everyone he was telling the truth. That and someone had, after two hours searching, found them in the historical texts.
As suspected, the paintings with them in, done during the victory celebrations following the Inca defeat, still existed. They had been found hanging in the ancient history section of the city library. Rahkesh had had a good laugh at the idea of himself being ancient history. Daray had been a bit annoyed at finding his painting no longer holding central place over the entrance to the library.
The city council, nineteen people at the moment, was meeting. Now that they firmly believed their three guests the only remaining issue seemed to be what to do. It was clear enough that they were indeed the same three as had been accidently transported through time to the city, and who had fought with them against the Inca and helped their healers during the plague. The full effect of having their help was hard to determine, but it must have been considerable, given that the vampires had eventually been the ones to separate the sick and dying from the healthy for effective quarantine. And Rahkesh, finally citing Nicodemus as the one to transfer a request from the Xuelhuala (almost true) for them to return to warn their friends' descendents of a demon invasion, had immediately gotten a response. Nicodemus was apparently one of the most famous Generals Vailape had ever produced and after a thousand years still a local hero.
"Why don't you contact the Xuelhuala and the Xaiaxelo and have them deal with what to do about the demons?" Daray finally asked after listening to the council argue war preparations for two hours. There was a long pause, and Hevgedril (apparently the head healer and a council member) chuckled.
"When a foreigner knows better than you how your system functions, and what would the best action to take, it is time to retire." He said, grinning. "I suppose it would be easiest to give this issue to them, though we will have to deal with our own citizens and defense systems eventually." He turned back to the rest of the council, who were looking at Daray questioningly, and repeated what Daray had said in their language.
Three of the council left to write up the appropriate message, and everyone else took a break to eat. Being the only one who spoke their language Hevgedril split from the rest of the Council to stay with their guests.
"If I may ask, how did you learn English?" Silas asked Hevgedril.
"It is standard procedure now for a few select individuals to leave the homeland every fifty years to examine the outside world. One or two people per city leave for a year or two, and then return. They go as a group for security and pose as muggles until they have a handle on the language. All who go must be capable of reading minds, and we gain and introduction into the current magical world by scanning a few minds to learn how to act and speak so that we do not stand out. And we use enchantments to disguise our skin and eyes." Hevgedril replied.
Rahkesh, slowly eating fruit slices and wishing his head would stop pounding as he chewed, winced as he heard rolling drums. They still used drum messages. He hadn't learned the drum language last time he was with these people, but due to the plague and war he had learned the entry code for addressing the Xuelhuala. The three council members returned a few minutes later.
"Did you send everything we told you by drum?" Rahkesh asked, "that was a short message."
"No, no. That would take hours. No we sent a signal to open one of our message portals." Hevgedril said.
"The what? I don't recall ever hearing of those." Rahkesh said.
"You would not have, they were invented about a century after you left. It's bloodmagic of a sort. The Xuelhuala invented it. They got some interesting information off of that demon portal, and combined it with their own magical knowledge. Basically there's two golden bowls of blood, one here and one in Xuelhuala, a message dropped into one arrives there seconds later. I don't know the exact magics involved, but that's basically what happens. We only use the system rarely and it's kept magically closed most of the time, partly for security, the Xuelhuala are ever paranoid, but also because the blood has to be the dying blood of a person and it doesn't retain its magic forever. It does get used up, so we use it as little as possible."
Professor Namach, Rahkesh thought, was going to be over the moon when he heard about this. In fact, he and the Xuelhuala would probably get along very well indeed. Actually the Xuelhuala would probably work well with Akren overall. About time someone did.
Hevgedril, as the resident expert on outsiders, was assigned to the guests. After the healers agreed that, apart from Rahkesh being tired, they had suffered no apparent ill effects from whatever magical transport had been used (and the three knew better than to ask about something Xuelhuala created) their guide led them on a brief tour of the city.
Vailape had changed since their previous visit, but in many ways was much the same. It was larger, with new buildings in a slightly different architecture, more ornate, but also more magical. Rahkesh, walking through on the areas where people lived, noticed that the artwork on the buildings seemed to be magical in nature, and certainly felt magical, and this he felt safe asking Hevgedril about.
"It is magic. We suffered a few earthquakes several centuries ago, and while there wasn't much damage everything was rebuilt anyway. We needed to expand and people wanted different housing types so it was the right time to do so. The magics there serve several purposes. They keep us safer from earthquakes, they lend strength to the magical shields over the city, allow the city to rebuild itself after damage, send otherwise damaging storm events like lightning elsewhere, and allow for buildings to be dismantled or altered quickly."
"I'm surprised at how similar everything looks." Daray said, "I don't know how much you know about other cultures, but a thousand years means major change everywhere else I've been." Hevgedril looked pleased, as if he'd been complemented.
"We've had little need to change. Our population has probably grown by half since you were last here, but now it is stable. We added two new cities as our warriors magical abilities to look after them expanded. Because they're new they're more unique than any of the others, but I like the feel of the older cities better. More of our people's magic in the earth and stones. Our architectural preferences have gone through six major revisions, well, major for us, but with the newest magics on the buildings people can magically alter their own homes. We did experiment with electric lighting, but found it incompatible with large magical undertakings. We have however mimicked many other changes in the outer world, but we really are very much the same."
"No major social changes?" Rahkesh said.
"We still believe in communal raising of children, once at a certain age. And as always our best and brightest are either our defenders or our teachers, those who look after the next generation." Hevgedril said, smiling. "And some of our magical advances have caused changes in basic everyday life. I know the warrior cities used to function on slave labor from those captured in battle, but a long time ago General Nicodemus put an end to that, amid a general political shift in all the cities. Of course, at that point we didn't have anyone attacking us to be capturing people from. Our population expansion about two hundred years after the plague you experienced brought about some fairly major upheaval, the vast majority did not approve of the plans, and so it took nearly a century.
But I'm no historian, I think you'll find us different in some ways, and very much the same in others. We like our system; we're safe, healthy, well fed, with clean cities, minimal political strife, there's enough room for everyone and plenty of opportunities for different lifestyles."
Unless you want to have kids and the people in charge of population regulation won't let you. Daray muttered telepathically Or you're born with either a mental defect or an extreme physical one, in which case you die, but that I approve of entirely, even if the mentally deficient are often easier to feed from, at least among magical beings. They had never found out how exactly population size overall was regulated, but they also hadn't really asked, and they weren't going to now. Rahkesh strongly suspected bringing the Chachapoyaro into the world at large would have some major issues attached, population control being one of them.
Well, their clothing has changed. Silas remarked. Hevgedril was wearing simple dark red pants and a black sleeveless tunic with tiny rubies in patterns over it, plus a black belt and black leather boots.
Not so much. Bone carved armbands with gold and rubies in them, gold and rubies tied into his hair, gold and red feather magic-filled necklace, gold around his wrists. They're still huge on decoration. I don't suppose they've switched to a monetary system? Probably not, and the cloth materials are the same, except I haven't yet seen any reptile skin. Daray said.
I prefer the lack of it. Rahkesh said, and got snickers from both of them and whisper of "snake-boy" from Silas.
People were watching them curiously from balconies or stopping in the streets to watch them pass. Rahkesh grimly ignored the stares, by the time they'd been here a year last time people had thought of them as familiar faces and were more likely to call out a greeting then stare or ask about where they came from. Now he got to do it all over again.
"Do you think your people will rejoin the rest of the world?" Rahkesh asked.
"Well don't have much choice do we?" Hevgedril said. "A demon invasion is a demon invasion, and we can't expect to handle them all on our own. Better to join forces than fight by ourselves. I'm sure the Xuelhuala will agree."
"But you'll be keeping your cities in this…erm…removed from the world magical land of yours?" Daray asked. "Since the land where you came from now has people living there you can't really put all this back."
"No, no. We never planned to. We copied everything and removed it permanently. And completely, we do not connect to the rest of the world in any way – we're our own complete system in here. Well, we get the same earthquakes these lands to in your world, but not much else. Probably not too surprising that the weather changed shortly after we did it, and everything was a little crazy for a while, but eventually it all sorted itself out. That's why we took so much land, so there'd be room for our lands to stabilize." Hevgedril explained. "Of course, I expect the demons would find a way in eventually, so we're better off fighting with the outside world rather than alone."
"You've been to visit other places, how do you think it will go when you're people start mixing with others?" Silas asked curiously.
Hevgedril laughed, "Silas it will be the worst culture shock ever experienced! I expect most of them will remain here, and leave rarely if at all, or only to fight. But eventually we'll mix in wit everyone else, and them we'll be in for it! So many new ideas…I do wonder if we'll even survive as a people, quite possibly not. It depends a lot on whether we are indeed our own species or not."
"You don't know?" Rahkesh had always wanted to ask, but he hadn't, it surprised him that they hadn't bothered to find out.
"After I and my group returned we wanted to do some tests, find out. But we weren't able to get much support, no one cared. I think most everyone here thinks of themselves as a different species, but I don't know. I mean, according to our histories we were humans. But something changed at some point, obviously, we're all magical, never mind the physical differences."
They smell like a different species. Not like werewolves, who were human, nor vampires, who are dead reanimated humans, they smell different. Sygra said, answering Rahkesh questions, if she thought they smelled like a different species then they were. But he wouldn't mention that.
XXX
Rahkesh woke to the sound of distant thunder…no drumming, the thunder was all in his head. A little disappointed that he hadn't awakened to a nice wild storm Rahkesh listened in to the message. From the Xuelhuala, but the rest was lost to him. It was morning, two days after their arrival. They had been given rooms in a very nice building that seemed to function as a privately owned hotel, but also had rooms kept for important visitors from other cities.
"Xuelhuala are almost at Vailape." Daray said, wandering into Rahkesh's room a few minutes later as Rahkesh pulled a shirt on, not bothering to knock of course. Rahkesh made sure the Akren crest was settled onto his left shoulder, they were representing Akren after all, and he fully expected Headmistress Alefly or someone from the AAA to request to view their memories. Last time it hadn't mattered as much, being a thousand years in the past and Akren still functioning as just a school and not as much as a united fighting force. Now it mattered.
Daray was in demon form lounging on the thick woven furniture that was a cross between a couch and a hammock. He had to raise his wings a bit to avoid getting his wing claws tangled, and his tail draped over the edge. Satan was perched atop a wingtip. Sygra was wound around one of his forelimbs. Seeing Rahkesh awake she dropped off and crossed over to him, Rahkesh picked her up and put her across his shoulders.
"Why a demon?"
"Because I like it. Oh I like my vampire form as well but they're both, well, me, so I don't really have a preference most of the time."
"What are you going to do about the Chachapoyaro knowing who you are? If a demon gets someone who knows, they'll know about you."
"I hadn't thought that far. I'll be little use as a spy if they find out."
"So you are seriously considering that?"
"We might need a spy in their realm."
"True, still it sounds very unpleasant."
"It does. I am not eating human infants for dinner or munching on some roasted foot." Daray sighed, "well, if it was really necessary, maybe I would. But as Sabien pointed out I would have to convince them I was somehow like Sharahak, a demon raised in the human world. I doubt they'd believe it. I'd have to find some other way. Since there are millions of them I could probably a avoid detection, but I haven't asked Sharahak about it yet."
"So what do you do for now?"
"Stick to being a vampire. The fewer who are reminded of me the better. That painting of me in demon form has been hidden by the Council. I'll stay as a vampire here and at home. Unless they're all ancient history experts no one will remember that one of us was also a demon, and they won't know it's me and not you or Silas, and the Council and librarians who do know will say nothing."
"I'd suggest talking to the Xuelhuala about it."
"Yeah, maybe they could put some magical blocks on the minds of those who know."
"No, because if they were captured the demons would notice and would want to know what knowledge was being blocked. Better to make them actually forget."
"A good idea, there are several ways it could be done, and if the Xuelhuala asked they'd do it." Daray said, and transformed as they heard footsteps outside. The vampire was wearing all black boots and pants, with a rust colored sleeveless top, Akren crest on the left shoulder. Satan was on his other shoulder, looking sleepy now that the sun was up.
Will you be with us today? Rahkesh asked Sygra.
Yes. The Xuelhuala respected me. I rather liked it.
Yes, oh Queen of serpents. Rahkesh teased.
Distant drums again, then a series of horns ringing off the mountainsides, from some distance away still. "That was fast, only two full days for them to get here." Rahkesh said. It had taken them several more days to get between cities a thousand years ago. He wondered how they'd speeded up the process.
"Hevgedril said they keep horses now, a few anyway." Daray reminded him. "One of the city guards says they've just passed the closest drum station, so maybe two hours."
"They aren't bringing a whole army are they?" Rahkesh worried.
"I didn't ask, but I think someone would have warned us, or at least warned the city to expect extra guests."
"We'd better get over to the Council Hall, they'll want to have use there when the Xuelhuala arrive." Rahkesh said. "I'm leaving most of my weapons here, with the Xuelhuala around…"
"Good idea," Daray said with a grimace, "wouldn't want to give them any reason to get nervous."
"I was also thinking last night, the Xuelhuala might be a bit more suspicious than the Council, and it might be an idea to really make a shocking first impression. You remember that greeting the Xuelhuala used to acknowledge respected warriors not from their own city?"
"Yes. They used it with the city guards and with us."
"Yes, that. I was thinking we should use it. After all, they are respected warriors from a different place than us, therefore it does apply. And I'll bet they still use it, the Xuelhuala liked their traditions."
"They probably don't use it often, being isolated from the rest of the world. What if they don't recognize it?"
"They said used it with the other warrior city representatives, and with Vailape's guards."
"Okay, we can give it a try, can't hurt."
Rahkesh and the two vampires ate with the Council, who seemed very excited to have their guardians coming. The three guests had taken language potions again and were mostly up to speed on the modern Chachapoyaroan language, if still slipping sometimes and struggling with new words, of which there were many, and changed pronunciations. They hadn't bothered hiding this from their hosts, knowing that the Xuelhuala would probably notice that they could understand what was being said. Shortly after the morning meal had ended a guard came running in to say that the Xuelhuala were approaching the city gates.
The whole city turned out to see the Xuelhuala Generals arrive. People packed onto balconies and rooftops and filled store fronts and walkways. The guards kept everyone off the walls and out of the center of the streets, but with what seemed like every citizen in Vailape there to watch and the noise and crowding was extreme. Rahkesh was glad he hadn't brought Sygra, and Silas sent Nuri back to the Council Hall to wait when the panther began to get aggressive and frightened of the crowds of noisy people.
When the Xuelhuala appeared Rahkesh knew it instantly because the entire city went silent. Abrupt painful silence that made his ears ache after the earlier tumult. He, Daray and Silas were standing behind and to the left of the Council on the steps of the Council Hall. The city's gates were straight ahead and he could see over the Council's heads fairly well.
The Xuelhuala were riding black unicorns, the glossy black beasts with their slightly curving needle-sharp horns were clearly visible, rising over the heads of their riders. The animals were decked out in black, gold and red tack that was hung with small feathers placed into threadmagic alongside magic-filled tiny slivers of gemstones. Their riders were in black as well, black armor and leather with threadmagic runes done in gold and red all over them. Rahkesh could remember the Xuelhuala he'd known in the past often wearing camouflage-like greens; apparently they weren't bothering right now. Nothing subtle about this; there were eight of them riding side by side in twelve ranks, all in black, red and gold, long capes falling down over the unicorn's backs. Rahkesh's couldn't recall a more awe-inspiring sight, unless he counted Namach's Ice Dragon animagus.
"That's rather a lot of them, given that there's not battle going on." Daray whispered in English to Hevgedril, who, like all the other Chachapoyaro present, seemed entranced.
"You did come to tell us about demons invading this planet." Hevgedril said softly.
The Council members waited until the Xuelhuala had stopped and three of the first rank dismounted before bowing low, Rahkesh and his friends did not copy them. Four ranks of warriors dismounted and walked towards the Council, two other ranks went to surround the Council Hall. Four more ranks dismounted and went to the stairs leading up onto the walls, spreading out across the city walls among the guards. The rest turned as one and went back out the main gates. Rahkesh could distantly see them riding or walking up almost invisible trails along the hills and then vanishing into the rock or shrubs to keep watch.
The unicorns, at a spoken command, turned left and trotted off around the back of the building, where Rahkesh assumed there was some sort of stables. He watched the massive shiny black animals leave, and turned back in time to see the Council leading eight of the Xuelhuala towards him, five men and three women, the rest moved fast to take up guard posts inside the building. Well, he'd known these people were seriously paranoid and true professionals, but he hadn't been around to watch them take over a city before. They were serious about security.
Rahkesh understood moments later, of the Generals heading his way two walked with canes and some of the rest were very elderly. He noted that two of the others wore stripes indicating them to be healers, while two more wore white stripes across each shoulder, and Rahkesh was pretty sure that meant the Xuelhuala's personal academics. Obviously all of them had at one point been expert fighters, but of the eight of them five were very, very old. The two young armored Generals were probably the ones currently in charge of most of the army, and the rest retired advisors. Not the sort of people you risk losing.
The Council Head, an older woman named Korinahma, was speaking quickly to the highest ranking of their visitors, guessing by the numerous gold and red bands on his shoulders and arms and gold medallions. She and the Xuelhuala turned to Rahkesh, and he responded before anyone could say anything, bowing a little bit with his back a straight line, eyes down, left hand over right breast, right hand lightly touching his left elbow, then straightened, dropping both arms to his sides, giving his full name as he straightened.
The Xuelhuala all stopped on the spot and stared. Korinahma and Hevgedril traded looks, and then Hevgedril grinned brightly. Rahkesh, remembering the Xuelhuala he'd known a thousand years before perfectly, met their apparent leader's eyes solidly and didn't blink. Beside him Daray repeated the motion and introduced himself, followed a second later by Silas, each of them eyeing the rest of the Xuelhuala calmly. The one Rahkesh was facing didn't seem to notice the two vampires, eyes fixed on Rahkesh. After a moment he looked away and glanced at the two vampires for a moment, and then at Nuri, who sat silently at Silas's side, and at Sygra, who leaned out a little off Rahkesh's shoulder and reared her head back. After a moment the old man smiled.
"Asmodaeus, Ateres, Ateres, welcome back to Vailape."
XXX
Three hours later the Council, along with the eight Generals and the three guests, were in a large sitting room on the uppermost level of the Council Hall. The room was filled with low woven chairs not unlike some beach chairs Rahkesh had seen. They were heavily padded and the room was littered with large heavy pillows made to resemble the backs of chairs, and thick carpets.
After brief introductions the Xuelhuala had immediately begun questioning their guests on the demon invasion. After three hours of questioning Rahkesh thought he might have given them everything he knew. The Generals were intense, and asked good questions, and listened to the answers. Four of the warriors were sitting along one wall, taking notes, but each of the Generals was taking his or her own notes as they went. When the group finally paused for refreshments Rahkesh thought he might have a chance to ask a few questions of his own.
"When we were last here your people had just acquired a rather unique ally, a dragon, named Enireth. Do you happen to know what became of him?"
The oldest of the women Generals, Ciforiam, pulled a set of papers out of a black leather folder she had brought with her and began looking through the pages. "We brought a summary of our records of you with us." She explained quickly, "as for Enireth, he came to join the Xuelhuala at our city, along with one of our best Generals, Nicodemus. I understand you were actually responsible for freeing Enireth from the demons?"
"Yes."
"He eventually became General Nicodemus's familiar, to the point where they could communicate telepathically. Enireth was a valuable ally indeed; we never had a problem with dragons hunting us when he was with us. He also was the one who brought us the first of our unicorns, he found a herd that had been brought to our lands by some strangers from another land, and took a few home with him, thinking they could be useful."
"That's good to hear." Daray said, "what about Nicodemus?" The sharp looks he got from everyone surprised him, "we were very good friends while we lived here." The vampire pointed out defensively. The Xuelhuala traded looks briefly before the highest ranked one, Korashanal, shrugged.
"After joining the Xuelhuala he led most of our fights against the Inca, who didn't stop trying to destroy us until about two decades after you left. Nicodemus was eventually the one who led a political drive to get rid of our slaves, and later he was also the sorcerer who arranged for our complete removal from the outside world. While he was with us he rebuilt Xuelhuala for better defense…particularly against demons. He trained the first of our cavalry with the unicorns Enireth found, and his plan to end our slave-based society was mostly driven by his eventual plan to keep us safe by removing all Chachapoyaro from the world. Nicodemus was probably our most accomplished General. At the age of thirty-eight he chose to join our time-frozen army, and Enireth joined him there."
Rahkesh did his very best not to grin wide enough to split his face, but it was a near thing. Nicodemus and Enireth were alive! Well, sort of. And with the demons invading the Xuelhuala would doubtlessly finally awaken their sleeping fighters for the battles to come.
You're giving me a headache, being that happy. Sygra commented.
Then shut down the link Rahkesh replied, euphoric. Oh I can't wait to see those two again, and Sharahak will be delighted.
"We've told you everything we know about the demons. If there's anyone who knows more then they haven't shared it with the Magical Life Forms Conclave." Rahkesh said. "I suspect some of the battle planner could give you a better update on what is currently happening."
"If we'd go meet them," Sonivale, one of the Generals, said stiffly. He was one of the younger armored duo and Rahkesh had already pegged Sonivale as being a bit insecure and stuffy, probably because of so many higher ranking warriors being around.
"We're here to warn you on Nicodemus's request. And he said nothing about bringing anyone else along." Rahkesh pointed out. "But his recommendation was a joint action plan."
"I think we can agree to that." Ciforiam said, but the others all scowled at her, she scowled back.
"Thank you then Rahkesh, and you Daray, Silas." Korashanal said gently. "We'll have to discuss what to do about this. Bringing our people back into contact with the outside world is a big decision. And, more importantly perhaps, we must decide whether or not to awaken our army."
-
Whew! I'm sorry about the slow update; I suffered a computer virus attack and lost more than half of this when it was nearly done. I think the rewrite actually has a bit better dialogue. Next time I will remember to hit the little "save" button more often.
Please Review! Reviews are always appreciated.