Of the Blood
Disclaimer: see Chapter 1
As chapter 11 will be the grande finale, I will be posting it along with the epilogue, so as to avoid the 'mustard-after-dinner' effect (an old Dutch saying). However, I will try to minimize delays (The intention is there, at least ;-) ). Enjoy!
Chapter 10
Walking the Bleak Road
Nadine set foot upon the Bleak Road.
Hard earth and dry grass crunched under her sturdy black boots. It felt no different than any other patch of dirt. If the road hadn't had a black fringe of insect and bird corpses, Nadine would have felt the butt of a practical joke.
Among the veritable gods of Amber, of course, practical jokes could be as deadly as any ordinary assault.
Nadine walked along the road at a brisk pace, holding the trump of Gérard in front of her like a warrior's shield. She felt the gaze of the company she'd left behind pricking in her back: the weary and incredulous stares of the soldiers, the grim determination of the Amberites.
And the genuine worry of Corwin.
Nadine knew that if she failed, of all the Amberites only he would mourn her passing. The rest would simply be disappointed that they hadn't succeeded the easy way. She didn't care: she would without pause trade all their might and power for a merry evening drinking with Janus.
Of course it was silly for a vampire, Lady of the Undead, Spawn of the Night, to think things like that. But old habits died hard.
The road took a turn and Amberites and soldiers disappeared from view. Nadine now walked alone through gradually thinning woods: she had departed from a grove of oaks, but now she walked mostly among birches, their stunted forms swaying in a cold breeze. Birds chirped off the sides of the road as dusk turned slowly towards night. A crescent moon, dark orange in the fading light, rose and settled itself over the shadows of faraway mountain peaks.
Then, Nadine saw movement in front of her.
Something small scurried over the road and disappeared under the cover of some fallen leaves. Nadine blinked. It had looked just like a mouse wearing a black cloak. So there were things that could brave the unholy power of the road, apart from the fighting corpses. It felt a bit unsettling.
Now tiny red eyes regarded her from underneath the leaves. Nadine paused. There was certainly more than one pair.
"I have worked in a laboratory, you know," she said. "Dissected dozens of your tiny friends. Don't get any ideas."
Nadine didn't know if it helped. At least the mouse-thing didn't show itself again.
As Nadine advanced, the trees grew smaller and further apart until they disappeared altogether. She walked through a haggard landscape, rumbling with the promise of molten rock flowing ever-so-close underneath the surface. The road itself remained stable, however. Nadine didn't expect it to cave in. It was made to carry someone's army's on towards world domination, after all.
As she passed a tumble of blackened rocks, their surface twisted as in torment, she saw the oncoming horde.
Nadine froze on the spot. There must have been over a hundred creatures walking towards her, not half a mile away, all looking just like the people she had left in the forest. They were actually led by a grotesque Corwin, sword in hand, slobbering and cackling as he went.
The army also froze, surprised by this sudden turn of events.
Among the rumbling and groaning of the earth, Nadine heard a single word coming from the trump she carried: "Up."
Nadine hesitated for a moment. Then she understood and raised the trump.
"Stop. Left."
Nadine moved the trump to the left.
"Hold."
Screeching a distorted battle cry, the horde attacked.
Nadine held her ground as the enemy stormed towards her, not daring to budge even an inch. Bloody beads of perspiration trickled over her brow. She hoped that Benedict knew what he was doing.
With an audible foomp, something huge and white flew out of the trump. A searing hot gust of wind knocked Nadine backwards to the ground. Frantically, she tried to scramble up again. Then, she saw the slender missile speeding unerringly to its target, and she let herself fall.
A deafening crash and a flash of light made Nadine's eyes sparkle with silent explosions. Even the earth remained silent for three long seconds. Then, something landed in front of her with a wet thud. Nadine looked up ever so carefully.
It was a lump of molten metal that could very well have been a sword.
Of the army, nothing but a patch of scorched granite remained.
"Incredible," she muttered.
The trump was silent.
Nadine picked herself up and walked on. She passed the blackened ground quickly, not wanting to look at the gory traces of dead bodies too closely. She wondered if the missile had indeed destroyed all gathered foes, or if some had escaped to warn their master?
She would find out soon enough. It all depended on where the Bleak Road ended.
Nadine strode on for another half-hour through the pocked landscape. The rotten-egg smell of sulphur assaulted her nostrils, and she wondered if living beings could even breathe in the dense stench: the last beasts she'd seen had lived among the twisted birches a while back. Heavy clouds covered the sky and a foul mist hung over the land, making her eyes water: they must be looking quite bloody by now, she thought. Still, she didn't care about the prickling haze: her vampiric eyesight would put even an eagle to shame. And no matter what, she had business to take care of.
It was another hour before Nadine saw the castle.
She had just scaled the ridge of a huge crater and saw the road winding down towards a solitary magma pillar in the centre. It zigzagged up the column and ended, not before but as a mighty palace. Nadine stared at it; it seemed as if all the cathedrals and fortresses she had seen on boring holidays in France with her parents were all unconsciouly built after this design. It was the palace of all palaces.
Except that the right tower was for some reason one storey higher than the left.
Nadine hurried down the road, through a fine layer of grey-brown ash and pumice, that flew up in lazy clouds as she passed by.
As Nadine approached the palace, anxious shouts indicated that she had been spotted. Soon, a volley of arrows flew from fortified ramparts up the magma pillar. Nadine broke into a run, hoping she would reach the shelter of the stone walls before the projectiles could hit her.
As abruptly as the volley was launched, however, it was undone, as fast bullets from Gérards's trump picked the arrows off one by one.
Nadine took no time to be amazed: although her guardians on the other side of the trump kept her safer than a large wooden shield would have done, she still felt exposed hiding herself behind a magical piece of paper. Keeping a weary eye on the ramparts she ran on, hoping the defenders wouldn't have hot oil or Greek fire at the ready.
Luckily, the owner of the place had probably never expected a direct attack. And since an abandoned attempt to deep-fry doughnut balls on her first New Year's Eve away from her parents, Nadine knew that cauldrons of oil took an awfully long time to heat up...
As she reached the foot of the pillar where the Bleak Road turned into a Bleak Staircase leading upwards, Nadine stopped for a moment to compose herself. Being a vampire meant she didn't need to pant anymore, but running still put a strain to her body. Unlike mortals, she could mostly ignore it, yet she wanted to be nice to the body she would wear for all eternity.
Besides, she had to save her strength for the confrontation with what waited above.
As Nadine went off again and jogged up the staircase, a column of armed Amberite-corpses descended to meet her. The sight should have instilled fear, or at least waryness, but instead Nadine felt a strange sense of exhilaration. A hot glow suffused her limbs, and she felt she could handle them all easily She turned the trump around and looked at the surprised face of Gérard, rifle at the ready.
"Give me a sword!" she found herself shouting at him. "I want another chance!"
Gérard looked baffled. Then, he narrowed his eyes. "Stop it, Bleys," he grumbled. "You're risking our best opportunity to catch the traitor!"
As well as risking the life of a young lady, a female voice said, seemingly from nowhere and everywhere at once. Bloody Fiona, always the pedant...
Nadine felt the glow withdrawing from her limbs with reluctance, until it settled down in the back of her head again. Suddenly, she realized she had not been herself. Rather, she'd been possessed.
The flamboyant presence of Bleys to counter Fiona's coolness seemed much less reassuring now.
Nadine quickly turned her trump around so that Gérard and Benedict could face the oncoming horde.
The climb was surprisingly easy. Amberite bodies fell before her under the rain of bullets and tumbled to the rough rocks below. Seldom did they manage to approach closer than ten yards before being swept away or knocked off balance. One huge creature resembling the man called Gérard lunged at her: just as Nadine braced herself to face him, a well-muscled hand reached out of the trump, grabbed her attacker and pulled him in. Without a sound, the giant disappeared into the playing card.
Then, the bullets came again, making Nadine's ears buzz and drowning the staircase in blood so that the going became slippery.
Halfway up the last staircase, the wave of attackers dried up. As the last Bleys-clone fell screaming to its death, Nadine paused for a moment and wrung out her shirt. Dark droplets welled up and fell to the worn stone steps. By now, she must be covered in blood as if she'd cracked open a vampiric piñada. Like a cat, she licked her hands clean and found the taste not unagreeable: stale, but hearty, with a velvety aftertase. It was all utterly unreal: elating and horrifying at the same time...
Realizing that too much reflection would probably unleash a wrecking wave of emotions, Nadine quickly continued upwards.
The landing was empty. No one challenged her as she walked towards the castle and passed through the open gates, into the heart of the place that was the beginning of the Bleak Road. Now that the shock troops were dead, it was all so easy...
Suddenly, the presence of both Fiona and Bleys in her mind evaporated, leaving behind a distinct chill. At the same time, Gérards trump seemed to shrivel in on itself.
Bleys? Nadine thought. And then, although she had never expected to actually wish for her presence: Fiona?
There was nothing. Every trace of them had gone.
Nadine turned Gérards card over and stared at it. On it was a friendly, well-painted and utterly unliving picture. Panicked, she concentrated on the portrait so hard it made her eyes water. She felt nothing at all.
"No need for that," a soothing but ghostly voice said down the hall. "Didn't you know I'd broken all contact with my family?"