Chapter 6 – Vorador
Kain and his men all fanned out from the sanctuary, all desperately scanning the ground, looking for some sign of the missing child. Kain strained his vampiric senses, trying to detect a mark the child may have made, a sound, a call, anything that would lead him to her. But there was nothing.
The vampires around him were far less calm. They all searched frantically, more eager to avert their master's displeasure and inevitable wrath rather than find the girl.
Rahab had left after Kain had literally thrown him from the sanctuary, forcing him to go to his brother's aid when he had so desperately wanted to stay and find his neice. He had gone, he would arrive in Melchium by the following morning and then what? Was he to tell Raziel his daughter had run off into the world in an attempt to save him from the bloody army of hunters or was he to stay silent. Kain prayed silently to whatever God cared to listen that he find Mioko before Rahab reached Raziel. He couldn't ask his fourth born to lie to his eldest and he knew that once Raziel found out Mioko was gone, no force human, vampire, Kain doubted even he had the power to stop his son returning to find her. But then who could blame him?
"My lord!" a shout came from one of the vampires to his left. Kain turned on his horse, eagerly. He wasn't as naïve to think they had found the child but they just might have found some trail or clue as to where she had wandered. Kain's eyes narrowed when the vampire did something Kain wasn't hoping for…he hesitated.
The vampire had seen the glint of hope flash in his master's eyes as he turned and now the vampire had to face his lord's fury, "We can't find anything," he muttered quietly. The rage behind Kain's eyes was more evident than the hope had ever been. Infuriated, he threw the vampire aside with a blast of telekenetic energy, "Then I suggest you do not disturb me until you do find something!" Kain turned his horse, harshly to the side and resumed his search, his heart sinking as he failed to find any indication of where his charge may have vanished to. Still, he kept searching. His eyes darting over the barren landscape, daring to hope but struggling to find tracks, a footprint, anything.
The vampire stopped abruptly. His horse reared his protest as the master pulled back harshly, his senses catching detecting something. Kain patted his horse, apologetically before becoming deathly still, as he focused all his attention on his surroundings. He had heard her. Far away in the recesses of his mind he had heard her soft whimpering. He strained his senses, trying to hear her again, trying to get a stronger sign. There was crying, faint crying echoing from those deepest telekenetic regions of his mind. She was sobbing, almost silently, but where was she? He couldn't make out. She was too faint. She was holding onto the crystal that he had given her, but barely. If he was going to find her she needed to send him a stronger signal. He focused all his thoughts on Mioko, blocking out every distraction, all sounds just trying to reach her.
"It's dark here," came her sobbing voice, "Don't like it here," she whispered incoherently, "It's so dark." Kain's heart filled with sorrow as he was forced to listen to the child's pain that he had no way of healing.
"Uncie Kain!" came her sudden scream, cutting through Kain's mind. The shrill cry remained with him for just a moment, but in that moment his eyes shot down the road to the south. He knew where she was and even though he had no way of telling her, he would find her soon.
"Uncie Kain," Mioko cried, repeteadly, her voice becoming quieter and quieter until her words became completely smothered by her chokes and tears. Her eyes darted around the dark chamber she had been discarded in. The females had brought her here and just left her, locked inside this dark room. Mioko fell silent for a moment, the only sound in the room was that of her ragged breathing.
She felt an ache of pain from her hand. She was clutching the gemstone Kain had given her so tightly, she had cut all circulation to her hand. She released the stone, feeling the heat of the blood rushing through her hand once more.
Looking around the room, she felt a wave of despair wash over her and she started crying out. This time she didn't stop at just 'Uncie Kain' she screamed for Raziel, Megara, Azrael, Rahab, even Turel and Zephon got a mention as she desperately cried out for anyone who could and would help her, willing or unwilling.
"Be silent!" came a shrill shriek from beyond the black door. Mioko refused, screaming with all her might for aid. She was filled with some kind of assurance that if she called for long enough she would be found. From this was a confidence born. Raziel was Kain's first born and she was his daughter. No vampire in Nosgoth would harm her knowing that. Mioko hesitated as she realized if the vampires who had kidnapped her in the first place feared Raziel then she wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. Her thoughts were cut short as the door swung open, filling the room with a light from the halls outside.
Mioko cowered from the light and retreated into the shadows. One of the females who had brought her to this wretched place stormed in and pulled her from the darkness. She fixed a tight grasp on the child's arm and dragged her out of the room, into the halls and through the unknown building they were in.
Mioko pulled back, writhing and struggling in a vain attempt to free herself from her captor. The vampire was not deterred and kept her fierce eyes fixed on the floor ahead of them as she pulled the child along with ease.
Mioko was taken to a finely decorated chamber. The vampire pushed open the door and pulled the child, rather harshly inside. The female pushed Mioko forward and stepped back slightly. Mioko regained her balance and shot the female a distasteful look for a seven year old. The female's face contorted with fury but she did nothing. Mioko smiled inwardly upon the discovery of this new power she wielded over the woman. Clearly she wanted to hurt the child but something held her back.
Mioko turned her attention to the room she was in, but before she could take in her surroundings she found herself staring right at another vampire. She took a step backwards, this vampire was male…and terrifying. The child stared wide eyed up at his forest green skin, bald head, strange trident beard and backed away until she felt the female's leg behind her.
"What is this?" the male asked, his voice rich with some accent Mioko knew not.
"We found her on the road," the female's voice replied, suddenly becoming sweet, shrill and sickening. The vampire frowned on the child, he opened his mouth to speak, but Mioko suddenly interrupted,
"I know you!" she cried. Both vampires looked down on the girl, sharply, "You're Vora…Vory…Vordo…"
"Vorador," the male vampire interjected, irratably. He gestured for the child to sit with him while the female, Elizabeth, shrunk into the shadows, still a lingering presence in the room, if not a visible one.
"Uncie Kain told me stories about you," Mioko said, proudly, recalling the days Kain had told her bloody stories of a war with an annoying green vampire at his side. Vorador frowned at the mention of the lord of Nosgoth.
"Kain?" he snapped, "You know Kain?"Vorador refused to believe that such a young, human child would have any ties to the vampiric overlord, especially when those ties meant he told her stories, "How is it that a human child such as yourself would come to know a great vampire like Kain?" his voice dripped with sarcasm and scorn. Mioko looked up at the vampire as though he was stupid, a look it was obvious Vorador didn't appreciate.
"Because Raziel is my daddy," she said, "duh," she added the phrase she had heard Dumah use so often, especially when talking with Turel.
There was a faint chuckle from the lingering Elizabeth and even Vorador could not suppress a small smile, "Raziel, the vampire has a human daughter?" he asked, mildly amused. Mioko looked up, enraged,
"So?!" she demanded. There was a silence over the room as Vorador and Elizabeth considered the child's reaction.
"You honestly believe that you are the child of Raziel, the first born of Kain's vampire lieutenants and that Kain is your uncle?" Vorador asked, trying to contain laughter. Mioko nodded,
"Now I know why Uncie Kain doesn't like you," Vorador stopped laughing and looked down on the child, "Uncie Kain said you're a stupid, green bastard but I think you're smelly too," Mioko scorned, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"That arrogant bastard dares to insult me?!" Vorador roared, though he and Elizabeth both knew the master of the mansion would never confront Kain to his face. Mioko however, did not take the insult to her favourite uncle well, and as Dumah had taught her she unsheathed her dagger from her tiny boot and plunged it, into the vampire's leg.
It wasn't so much the pain, but rather the shock that a young, human child would dare to attack him when most vampires would think twice. In a flash Elizabeth had slapped the child, harshly across the face and shaken her by the shoulders and yet Mioko just stared, calmly, confident and just plain defiant into the whore's face. Elizabeth made to hit the child again, but Vorador stopped her.
He removed the dagger from his leg, felt the wound heal beneath his blood-stained robes before he returned his attentions to the child,
"Take her away," he snapped, "I'll find a suitable punishment for her later, til then the dungeons." Elizabeth hesitated,
"The dungeons?" she asked, it wasn't so much that she didn't want to throw a seven year old to the dungeon, rather she didn't understand why the master was reacting so extremely to a pathetic child.
"Yes the dungeons!" Vorador snapped again, throwing aside the bloody dagger, unaware that a few miles up road, the vampire overlord he so feared had just found, discarded on the road, a doll in his own image.
TBC