4 Father and Son

Rahab is waiting for Ayden when he returns, Inah standing at his side. As soon as he sees what Ayden has brought with him, Inah starts forward.

You damned fool!" he cries. "What have you done now?"

Rahab raises a hand to silence him.

"He has done more than you have Inah." He says. "He has achieved what you had told me was impossible, even with an army."

Inah stares at them. He looks at Zafar and then at Ayden, his face contorted with rage and disbelief.

"How…?" He starts.

Rahab turns to him sharply. "You are dismissed." He says.

"But Sire!"

Rahab raises his brows, and looks at him. Inah dare not disobey. Still glaring, he bows to his sire, and stalks out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ayden and Rahab stand facing each other in the cold stone hall. Gently, Ayden lays Zafar on the ground. He is still alive, but only just.

"I know this is not what you ordered," he says. "But I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't leave him there."

He stands, head bowed, waiting for Rahab to say something. He has disobeyed his sire twice now, and the first time had been enough to teach him the consequences of such reckless behaviour. But as he waits, he realizes he does not care about the consequences, or Rahab's displeasure, for that this time at least, he knows that what he has done, is right.

Rahab however, says nothing, all his attention is turned towards Zafar. He kneels beside the broken body of his second-born, stroking back the matted strands of hair that have fallen across his face, his mind searching for any flicker of consciousness that might be able to hear him. Gently, he takes one of his hands, silently taking note of the bruises and the broken bones. He whispers to his child, soft words of comfort and promises that he will be avenged, but he doubts, that he is heard. He can only sense the vaguest signs of thought or feeling in the wounded vampire. He is sure that he feels pain, but he is probably aware of nothing else. At length, Rahab stands up; he looks at Ayden. His next words are spoken very quietly.

"Five nights ago, a letter was handed to me, signed by the Sarafan Lord himself. He assured me no permanent damage would be done to my child, and he invited me to treaty for his release. I was seriously considering entering into negotiations." Rahab looks down for a minute, his pale face set like stone. "And now, you bring me this. Evidently, the man takes me for a fool, or a weakling." He looks up at Ayden, his eyes blazing with a cold fire. "We shall teach him the error of those suppositions." He says. Slowly, Ayden bows his head in acquiescence. For a long while, neither of them says anything. Finally, Rahab breaks the silence. "Ayden," he asks. "Were you able to find out how much Zafar had told them?"

Ayden shakes his head. The use of his name has not escaped him, but he gives no outward sign of having noticed his sire's acknowledgement.

"According to one of their captains," he says, "they were expecting to break him soon, perhaps this very evening, but I don't know if that information is accurate. How much would a Sarafan Captain truly know? They may have broken him already."

Rahab says nothing. He looks down at Zafar again.

"Why did you bring him back?" He asks.

"Would you have had me leave him, my Lord? To die in that place, at their hands?"

"You could have killed him yourself." Rahab says. "It would have been a far less hazardous course of action."

Ayden shakes his head. "And let them defile his body even more than they have already? There was no time, my Lord. I would have been forced to leave before the task could be completed properly. By now, his corpse would be mounted on a pike and displayed for all to see, above their walls. I would not have him shamed like that, and nor would I have our… the clan, shamed in such a manner. Besides," he adds, a note of bitterness giving an edge to his voice. "It is hardly my place to take his life." Not any longer.

Rahab shakes his head, and places a hand on his arm. "You are wrong, Ayden," he says, gently, "It is your place. You have done more for him than any of us. Finish it."

He turns on his heel and walks out of the chamber as Ayden kneels and places the point of his dagger at Zafar's breast.

'Forgive me.' He whispers, and then he plunges the blade into his heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At first, nothing seems to be happening, Zafar lies cold and still beneath his hands, the dagger embedded deeply in his chest. Ayden looks up; slowly, he becomes aware that something has changed. The room is becoming suffused with a soft blue light that is concentrated around himself and the vampire he has just killed, a light that sparkles and moves as he looks at it, almost as if it were alive.

Zafar's soul rises up from his body and part of himself also rises up to meet it. Amazed, Ayden watches as the ground begins to recede away from his feet. Something touches him, a tingling sensation of light that strokes his chest and then reaches inside, igniting a warmth in the very core of his being. He looks up to see the form of his brother, hovering in the light before him. Then the ground suddenly rushes up to meet him and he re-enters his body with a snap, the shock of the connection sending him sprawling on the floor. As he gazes upwards, Zafar's soul comes plummeting towards him. At the last moment, it stops, hovering just above his face. It appears to extend something like a hand towards him, and Ayden gets a vague sense of recognition. Then, the hand drops onto his chest and the spirit enters him.

The pain is intense, starting in his chest and spreading throughout his body. It feels as if his entire ribcage is slowly being torn apart, but although he can feel the pain in all its terrible ferocity, at the same time, it is somehow distant, as though it is happening to someone else, and it does not matter. A feeling of peace, such as he has never known, suffuses his entire being.

He surrenders to the feelings, to the pain and the peace, as the last trace of the being that was once Zafar embraces him and dies. Slowly, these sensations start to ebb, the pain receding and the lights also fading away, until the hall is dark once more, wreathed in its accustomed shadows. Looking up into the darkness, Ayden is suddenly very aware that he is alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning finds the Sarafan keep in turmoil. Agrippa is standing before the long oak table in his quarters, an untouched breakfast of fried eggs, bacon and bread cooling and congealing on the plate before him. On the other side of this table, stand three of his captains. All three men are quite literally shaking in their boots. The loss of the vampire prisoner is a catastrophe, not only have the Sarafan lost a potential source of information, but much more importantly, they have also lost face.

"Heads will roll!" Agrippa had stormed, and no one present had doubted that this threat was meant to be taken literally. Even before his arrival from Willendorf, Agrippa had the reputation of being a harsh and uncompromising leader, a reputation, which he has more than lived up to since taking up residence in Meridian's keep. The three captains know that someone will have to be blamed for this incident and at this particular moment, it looks very likely to be one of them.

"What happened?" Agrippa demands of them.

"Well, Sir," Ventures the most senior of the men. "There were several incidents in the keep last night, but we are not entirely sure they were all related. For example, three guards were killed in the dungeons, but we think that might have been the work of the prisoners."

Agrippa fixes him with a steely stare.

"The prisoners?" He asks

"Yes, Sir."

"Did any prisoners go missing last night? Apart from the vampire, that is."

The man shakes his head.

"No, Sir." He says. "Not that we know of."

Agrippa leans forward, resting his weight on his fists, his knuckles churning the soft, scarlet cloth that drapes the table.

"So, you're telling me," he says with heavy sarcasm, " that an unknown number of prisoners got loose in the dungeons, last night. That they killed three of the guards, and then, to crown their achievements, they made no attempt to escape, but instead, went and locked themselves back in their cell with one of the bodies?"

The man does not reply, he swallows hard and tries vainly to escape Agrippa's increasingly threatening stare. The story that he and the other two captains had agreed upon earlier, no longer sounds quite so plausible. The truth is, they did think some of the human prisoners might have escaped the dungeons, but they don't know how many, because no one has any idea how many prisoners there were in the cells in the first place. So many people have passed through the Sarafan dungeons in the past few months, that very little care has been taken with keeping the records up to date, but with the vampire prisoner gone, and Agrippa on the warpath anyway, the three captains had felt it might be prudent to keep this fact to themselves

Agrippa draws himself up to his full height and smashes his fists down upon the table, his untouched breakfast flying in all directions. "Were you born a complete moron?" He thunders at the hapless soldier. "Or have you achieved this status after several years of practice?"

The captain continues standing to attention, he looks fixedly ahead and makes no attempt at replying to this insult.

"Take him outside and execute him." Agrippa orders. "But only do that after you have questioned him. He's either a fool or a conspirator, and by sundown, I expect to know which it is."

The captain is led away and Agrippa turns his attention to the two other soldiers remaining before him.

"Now," he says. "Let me hear what you have to say."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours later, the investigation is well underway and Agrippa is sure he is in possession of at least some of the facts. He has two known deserters, both of whom went missing last night and, he suspects, were working for the vampires. One of these men was supposed to be guarding the west dock by the main gate, and the other was one of the guards assigned to watch outside the vampire's cell. Between them, he suspects, these men had killed the three guards in the dungeon, and possibly the other guard outside the cell too, unless he was also a traitor.

The prisoners in the dungeons have been questioned with some of them insisting that it was a vampire that had done the killing, but more had confirmed his own suspicions, saying that the murderer had been wearing Sarafan armour.

After killing the four Sarafan soldiers in the interrogation room, the traitors had released the vampire and somehow, smuggled him out of the keep, disabling the ward-gates, which had been activated in the prison wing when the alarm was sounded.

Such treachery comes as no surprise to Agrippa. He is a man of few scruples himself, so he has no illusions about what depths one might sink to in order to achieve ones ends. What has shocked him, is the appallingly lax security that this incident has uncovered, and the fact that many high-ranking Sarafan seem to accept this as a perfectly normal and acceptable state of affairs. A few more executions for dereliction of duty should cure that, he thinks, but his main priority now, must be to find out how many traitors still lurk amongst the Sarafan of Meridian and then, to eliminate them. He needs men about him that he can trust.

A timid knock at the door breaks across his thoughts. A flunkey enters at his command, bringing in a second breakfast on a silver tray. Agrippa points at the table, and waits while the man sets it down and uncovers the dishes. He falls to eating as soon as this is done, pushing the food into his mouth with a distinct lack of finesse. As the flunkey leaves, Agrippa's secretary enters.

"Lord Agrippa," he says bowing. "I do hope I'm not disturbing you…"

"Of course you're bloody disturbing me!" Agrippa says, speaking with his mouth full. He glares at the secretary, continuing to shovel food into his mouth while the man waits nervously, to see if he should continue.

"Well?" Says Agrippa.

"Your correspondence, Sir." Replies the secretary, trying not to show how affronted he is by the Lord's rather appalling lack of manners. Agrippa gestures impatiently at him with his fork.

"Read it to me."

There is little of interest, a few reports from other Sarafan strongholds, a request for more men to be sent to Willendorf, which is being sorely pressed by the vampire known as Turel, and a personal letter from his wife. Agrippa drums his fingers impatiently on the table as the secretary begins to read this particular missive.

Apparently, his wife is finding the winter in Willendorf disagreeably cold and she is wondering if it would be possible for her and their daughters to at least, spend the rest of the winter in Meridian, where the weather is considerably milder. As a further incentive, she adds they would also have the advantage of being closer to him, pointing out that it would undoubtedly be pleasant to spend some time together as a family, since his duties have kept them apart for so very long.

Agrippa frowns. The company of his wife is the last thing he desires. She was the daughter of his captain in Stahlberg, a good soldier who had also been blessed with an uncommon degree of political sense. Agrippa had learned much from him in his first years in the Sarafan army, and even as a callow youth, he could see this man was destined to rise.

Agrippa had courted his captain's rather insipid daughter with the sole intention of using their relationship to hasten his own promotion. A scheme, which had worked out excellently for him, until the time when he had been promoted above his father-in-law and his wife was suddenly of no further use to him.

The marriage had not been a particularly productive one. His wife has produced a son for him, a rather dull lad, of indolent habits who has grown up spoilt and lazy. Not only does he seem devoid of ambition, but recently, he has developed a tendency to indulge rather too heavily in the pleasures of the tavern and the whorehouse; Agrippa has had to use his influence more than once, to save the boy from the consequences of his drunken escapades.

The only good thing he can see in his son, is that he has been blessed with an uncommon amount of greed, a characteristic, which he has undoubtedly inherited from his father. Agrippa is sure he can use it to mould the boy into something more to his liking.

He has found a place for Lucius in the Sarafan army and he has also ensured his promotion to the rank of captain. Once he has him away from the softening influence of his mother, Agrippa is sure he will be able to shape him into a competent soldier and more importantly, into a worthy successor.

After his son, his wife had given him two daughters and after that, Agrippa had decided that marital intimacy was not worth troubling himself with. As he had said to his wife, he did not wish to be responsible for siring a pack of horse-faced and unmarriageable females. Nor does he wish to have them living anywhere near him.

"If the lady finds Willendorf cold." He tells the secretary. "Tell her to buy another blanket."

There is a final letter, a rather terse note from his son, informing his father that he will be arriving in Meridian that evening. Agrippa smiles inwardly at the resentful tone of the letter. The boy may chafe at the restrictions he has imposed on him, but he will do as he is told, Agrippa's unmerciful control of his finances leaves him little choice in the matter.

Agrippa finishes eating his breakfast.

"No more men will be sent to Willendorf." He says to the secretary. "Tell Augustus he must manage with what he has. We have campaigns of our own to wage. Oh, and recall Ward." He adds as an afterthought. "He's too good a man to let go. Far better than the rest of the shower I've been left with here."

The secretary bows and then leaves the room, shuffling the sheaf of notes he has been holding like a shield, throughout the interview.

Agrippa gets up from the table. He walks over to the door, an unpleasant smirk spreading slowly across his features as he does so. He thinks he might start the day with an impromptu inspection of the keep, just to see how seriously his men are taking the present situation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At sundown, another unfortunate is standing before the table in Agrippa's quarters; his son, Lucius has arrived from Willendorf.

The youth stands sullenly in front of his father, trying none too hard to mask his increasing boredom, while Agrippa lectures him, at great length, on exactly what his expectations are.

The move from Willendorf had not been Lucius' idea at all; he had liked it there. All the taverns and the card games in that city had been open to him. It is where his friends are, and even more important, it is where his mother is, the one person who can be relied upon to supplement his meagre income in times of need. Now he is in Meridian, Lucius knows he will be subject to his father without any mitigating influences to soften his rule and it is a prospect he finds profoundly depressing.

Agrippa looks at the boy and sighs inwardly. Even after four years training as a Sarafan knight, Lucius still looks uncomfortable in armour. He is strong enough, and reasonably well-formed, with fair hair and broad features, but he is also clumsy, even cutting himself on his own sword during basic training, and, his father realizes with disgust, he is beginning to run to fat. His appearance suggests he would be more suited to some form of simple manual labour rather than soldiering and looking at him, Agrippa finds it almost impossible to imagine Lucius successfully engaging a vampire in swordplay. The boy is, he admits, something of a disappointment.

The truth is, Lucius would never have chosen the soldier's trade willingly. Had he been asked what he wanted to do with his life, he would have taken almost any other path in preference, but, unfortunately for Lucius, no one had asked him. So, at the age of twenty-four, he is trapped, and all he really wants, is to find somewhere within the Sarafan order where he can be safe and comfortable, somewhere he won't have to work too hard to get the things he wants from life. He is hoping for marriage to a rich wife, or, failing that, a desk job. However, the rich wife shows no sign of materializing, and with Kain's vampires in ascendancy, desk jobs are rather hard to find.