Chapter 3
Dree woke suddenly, staring at a pair of boots. Vampires do not wake up gradually, as living people do; partly this is because for them the difference is nearer that between animate and dead than asleep and awake. So Dree awoke entirely lucid, and her first thought was: Wrong boots. They were leather, and just about large enough to belong to a small man. While she was pondering this, a voice from somewhere above her said:
"You'll never pass for a Bosmer if you sleep on floors, you know. It will leave you cold as a stone."
Dree scooted out the opposite side of the bed. She stood up and found herself facing Vicente Valtieri across the neatly folded blanket.
"I am a Bosmer," she said.
"No. You are a vampire," said Valtieri. He frowned as he looked at her, causing much rearrangement among the taut lines on his face. She tried, for the second time, to ignore the uncomfortable sensation that her skin was transparent. "How long ago were you bitten?" he said abruptly.
"About two weeks," Dree said. "I think. I don't remember all of it."
"Two weeks," Valtieri repeated. "Well, well. You will, I hope, forgive my failure to recognize you this morning. Feeding agrees with you, as it does with all of us."
"I don't remember ever seeing you before today," Dree said.
"That, my child, is because you did not see me," said Vicente Valtieri. "It seems I am grown somewhat more contagious in my old age. But then, you are small even for your race, and the nearer death one leaves a victim, the greater the likelihood that the porphyry will be passed on."
Dree stared at the old vampire for a moment in incomprehension, and then understanding woke rage. She could not speak at all for almost a full minute. Valtieri waited, watching with unblinking red eyes.
"You did this," she managed finally. "You bit me and just left me lying on the ground? And you knew I was going to turn into a monster?"
"Oh, no, I assure you," said Vicente Valtieri. "I had no idea other than slaking my thirst at the time. I left you there because that was where I found you. And the last person on whom I fed did not change. In retrospect, I now suspect this may be because I killed him afterwards. It was a contract, you see."
Dree looked at him in silence. He looked back with no sign of remorse. Neither of them breathed (of course), and in the quiet room the tick of the rat's claws seemed unnaturally loud.
"I'm going to kill you," Dree said.
"Perhaps," said Vicente Valtieri. The idea did not seem to cause him much anxiety. "But it won't be today. The last person from whom I drank was you. Perhaps you are not yet familiar with the paradox of our strengths, but I assure you I have grown stronger in the interim, not weaker. You, however, have just fed, and I doubt seriously whether you could now repeat your destruction of our lock."
Gogron. Dree blinked as her thoughts shot down another track. "Am I contagious?" she said.
"Ah, now there you have hit upon the reason for my disturbing you this evening," said Valtieri. "I remind you that porphyric hemophilia is entirely curable if it is treated within the first three days. I suggest you speak to Gogron along these lines very soon."
"You never bothered to tell me that when you infected me," Dree said. "Why do you care?"
"Because he doesn't want me to be a vampire," said Gogron's voice. The Orc detached himself from the shadow of a pillar and came forward. His footsteps were heavy now, but Dree had not heard him come in. Torchlight gleamed on the large expanse of his elaborately patterned breastplate, and also on the top of his shiny green head. It was unclear whether it was bald or shaved, but he seemed to have shoulder-length hair that started somewhere around ear level.
"Vicente here figures only special people should get to join his club," Gogron said.
"Say, rather, that I would prefer to think of you and the Dark Gift as traveling along parallel lines that, by the will of Sithis, will never intersect," Valtieri said mildly. "Among other things, I suspect the Sanctuary would be inconvenienced by the presence of a vampire incapable of taking in less than a gallon at a time."
Dree looked from one to the other. Gogron grinned. "You have your drinking habits, I have mine," he said. "But not to worry. I was born under the Ritual. I don't catch stuff easily."
"Oh, is that so?" Valtieri raised an eyebrow. "In that case, can you spare a pint for a thirsty old man?"
"Sorry," Gogron said blandly. "I am a one-vampire Orc."
"This sudden interest in taking on a protegee is rather puzzling in you," Vicente said. "I suggest you take care. Any offspring of mine is not to be trusted." He inclined his head politely toward the Orc, then toward Dree. "If you have any questions about your new gifts, my child, it will be my privilege to answer them. Until you kill me, that is. Good evening."
"Evening," Gogron said. He watched the vampire until he was out of the room, then went to retrieve a sack from beside the pillar. "That why you're here, Dree? After Vicente?"
"So you didn't hear all of that," Dree said.
"Nope. I just came in." He brought the sack over to the bed and began removing things from it. Dree watched him. Gogron's not afraid of him, she thought, and felt a little calmer. It would have been slightly more reassuring if her heartbeat had slowed down, but she didn't have one any more. There was no flush to betray her, no harsher breath, only the tightness in her neck and the slow burn inside.
"I thought it was just a well," Dree said. "I didn't know it was him until he told me."
"So you didn't plan on being a vampire," Gogron said.
"Of course not. Who would?" Dree said.
Gogron paused in what he was doing and straightened up to look down at her. After a second he said, "Hm," and turned to survey the bed again. "Maybe you don't know it, but people have offered him money for it before."
"They don't know," Dree said. "They can't."
"Oh, I think Antoinetta knows. But he told her no. Said a religious fanatic shouldn't be a vampire, even one crazy for Sithis. All right, look here." Gogron gestured at the bed. "Hopefully it'll fit. First I figured we'd start you out on leather 'cause it's nice and light, but then I found this."
Dree turned her attention to the objects on the bed. There was a plain steel bow and a matching quiver of arrows. A steel dagger lay beside them, glinting reassuringly in the dim. Beside the dagger lay a shirt and trousers that seemed to be brown linen, and a pair of soft boots. And, lying spread out by itself at one end of the bed, there was a robe. It was gray and plain, but when she moved her head, it changed with the light, sometimes black, sometimes brown.
"Will that fit over these?" she said.
"Yep," Gogron said. "It's magic, almost as good as armor. You'll be able to go out in the sun, too."
"Wearing a hood doesn't work," Dree said. "I tried it. The light burns right through."
"Not through this," Gogron said. "That's what I bought it for. Well, that and it'll make it easier for you to blend in. Won't show stains, either."
Dree raised her eyebrows as she fingered the fabric. It felt softer than it looked. She ventured a sidelong glance at Gogron. "You worry a lot about stains, Gogron?"
The Orc chuckled deep in his chest. "Nothing sticks to dwarf-made armor. Part of the reason I wear it. It sure as Oblivion is no good for stealth."
Dree stared down at the bed. He'd found a belt somewhere, too, and a purse, and by the way it was lying she could tell it wasn't empty. Why? she asked herself, not for the first nor the second time. It was a question worth remembering. She already felt a sort of wary hatred of Vicente Valtieri, but he had raised a good point. It seemed very unlikely that an assassin who admitted to being a ravening berserk would take up with her from altruistic motives. And the contract would take them far from any living people, other than the intended victims. But then, what's he going to do out there that he can't do in a Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, really?
"Thank you," she said at last. "I don't know what else to say."
"You may change your mind tomorrow," Gogron said. "Now collect your gear and go find someplace to change. We're starting tonight, and it's a long ride."
"Ride?" said Dree.
---
"Vampires ever get sore?" Gogron said.
"I hope not," Dree said. "I never rode a horse before." She sat pillion behind the Orc, clinging for dear life, and this was made more awkward by the fact that the horse was so enormous her feet practically stuck straight out.
"You're not going to fall off," Gogron said.
"How do you know?" Dree said.
"Because you're denting my armor. Ease up, will you? I thought Bosmer liked animals."
"You don't see horses roaming around the woods very much," Dree said, reluctantly loosening her grip a little. "Besides, I haven't seen Valenwood since I was five."
"I had you figured for city-bred," Gogron said. "Telaendril talks differently." It was a moonless night, but Dree could see, if she cared to look around. She could, if she wished, hear the heartbeats of the horse, and a passing deer, and small creatures in the grass, though the ponderous thud of Gogron's pulse tended to drown those out. Mostly she preferred to stare at Gogron's back and try to ignore the constant up-and-down motion of the horse trotting through the tall grass. They'd left Cheydinhal heading west, but that was all she knew.
"Who's that?" Dree said. "Didn't you say something about her... Um... Before?"
"When I found you? Yes." Gogron was wearing a pointed dwarven helmet now, and even with the visor up it gave his voice a tinny echo. "I guess you'll find out sooner or later. Telaendril and I had a thing going for a little while. Didn't last long."
"Oh," Dree said. And it didn't end well, either, if you thought she'd leave dead people around for you to find.
"I sort of broke some of her ribs. By accident."
"I don't want to know," Dree said.
"I wasn't going to tell you," Gogron said. "Besides, it couldn't have worked."
"Because she's a Bosmer and you're an Orc?"
"Because she's a sniper and I'm what I am," Gogron said dryly. "If race was going to be a problem, I wouldn't be riding through the wilderness with a Bosmer and a vampire."
"I guess not," Dree said.
"Is it going to be a problem for you?" Gogron said. "'Cause if you're in the position of taking any port in a storm and you have a thing about Orcs - "
"No," Dree said. "I have a thing about vampires."
"You are a vampire."
"And that's why," Dree said.
"Hm." They rode on for a while. The terrain seemed to be accelerating on its way past, Dree noticed. She risked a glance downward. There seemed to be stones skimming by under the horse's hooves, but the view was so disconcerting that she tightened her grip again, and this time she felt the armor start to deform under her fingers.
"Sorry," she said. "I didn't used to be able to do that."
"You'll get used to it," Gogron said. "Vicente can hold a really fragile glass even when he's mad, and I've seen him plenty mad. Speaking of which, will you listen to a friendly warning?"
"I've known you for less than twenty-four hours," Dree said. "But I'll listen."
"Think hard and long before you try anything there. Lots of Undead are plenty strong. Valtieri didn't get that old by being stupid, and now he'll be keeping an eye on you."
"I'm not stupid, either," Dree said.
"Good."
More landscape sped past. They seemed to be traveling uphill now, into rockier country.
"Are we getting close?" Dree said.
"We're about halfway. I figure we'll get there about sunrise. Give you a chance to try out your new hood while we make sure everybody's accounted for, and if it doesn't keep the sun off like it's supposed to, we'll just head straight in. Even necromancers won't be able to set up much in the way of traps in a natural cave."
"Oh, good," Dree said.
---
They did come to the cave at sunrise. Dree pulled her hood up as soon as she felt the first twinge, but that was all that happened. She had to squint in the bright sunlight, because her eyes were more sensitive than before, but her skin did not burn.
"It's working," she said, very quietly. Gogron finished tethering the horse behind a convenient bush with small white flowers.
"I figured it would," Gogron said. "Let's stay here for a while, see if we see anyone moving around."
They stood still for a while. Dree listened to the Orc and the horse breathing. It was beginning to strike her, now that the constant terror of that first two weeks had lost its grip, how very loud living things were. Hearts and lungs and, in the horse's case, digestion would give away even the stealthiest creature to her kind of ears. But it wasn't just that. If she concentrated, she could see their outlines in front of her eyes. It was very faint in the sunlight, but in the distance she could see a blue glow limning a wolf, and a browsing rabbit, and a stumbling manlike shape that seemed to be lacking one arm or any clothes. Dree blinked, and looked again. Sure enough, there it was. There might be something behind it, but it was hard to tell. But he isn't breathing and he has no hearbeat, or I would hear it.
She laid a hand on Gogron's forearm. He nodded, but held up one gauntlet: be still. Dree waited obediently, still watching. Whatever-it-was staggered closer, and now she did hear a heartbeat, but it wasn't the creature's. Someone else was walking behind it, cursing occasionally as they stumbled through the tall grass.
"Come back here, curse you, there's nothing to kill over there! If you give Beneldren a disease he'll have my head!"
The zombie did not appear to be listening. Dree became aware that it seemed to be moving in their direction. She reached up and drew an arrow, very quietly, from her quiver. Then the creature vanished in a puff of gold sparks.
"Finally," muttered the black-robed Breton who was now mere yards from them. "A plague upon all conjurations and especially upon zombies. Why did I ever..." The voice trailed off as the mage stomped into the cave and slammed the door behind him. Gogron and Dree waited a few more minutes, but nothing happened. Birds sang nearby under the cover of the trees.
"They'll be waiting for night before they come out again," Gogron said quietly. "You follow me in and cover the door, understand? Stay right by it. You see anybody coming, kill them however you can. You see me coming, and I'm in my right mind, I'll sing out. Otherwise, stay invisible and I probably won't know you're there."
"What about the horse?" Dree said.
Gogron shrugged. "I'll buy another one if I have to. Usually I run out of steam before that."
With these not-overly-reassuring words, he reached back and drew the axe from its harness across his back. The black metal glowed faintly red at the edges, or perhaps that was Dree's imagination. Dree followed him into the cave, trying to think invisible thoughts and hoping her magicka would last. She closed the door behind her without making a sound.
It was darker inside, and cooler. Dree heaved a silent sigh of relief as her eyes readjusted from the painful sunlight to the restful dim. She stood in a narrow passage with irregular rock walls, and a faint yellow light diffused through from the door behind her. It gleamed gold on the curlicues on Gogron's armor as he stalked off down the passage, axe in both hands. A moment later, he vanished around the corner, but Dree could still see him. The blue glow was much stronger in the dark. In fact, if she concentrated, she could see others as well, though there were walls between her and them. The largest was still much smaller than Gogron. Men and mer. She counted silently. Ten of them. Everyone's here, then.
She wondered if anyone would even try to run away. If all of them were conjurers, like the man she'd seen, they could easily double their numbers and keep on summoning until they had an army against one Orc. He must have thought of that, Dree told herself. He does this for a living. Even to herself, she didn't sound completely convinced. Gogron's assurance couldn't bolster her when she was alone with the deadly sun at her back and something moaning off in the distance. She held up her own hand in front of her face. It was transparent, showing only the very faint edges. That's working, at least.
Dree watched very closely as the big blue glow that was Gogron converged with the first small blue glow that was a necromancer. Sure enough, she heard a distant whoosh and a hiss, and then there was a hovering sort of blob between them. A ghost. The tactic must have failed, however, because the big blue glow apparently ploughed right into both of the others, and Dree heard a very brief scream. (The echoes were strange, inside the cave.) Then one vanished, the other blinked out, and Gogron kept right on going. In fact, he sped up, racing for the next amorphous man-shaped blob. This necromancer shouted an alarm, and the others quickly converged on his location.
A lot of things happened very quickly, and it was hard to follow. There was much noise of hissing and moaning and the occasional trailing shriek. Blue blobs appeared and disappeared and moved around each other, and Dree couldn't tell what was really going on, except that Gogron must still be alive, or all this activity surely would not keep going on. Right?
Then one shape detached itself from the mass and sped away. Dree became aware, after a moment, that it seemed to be retracing the Orc's path into the cave. Which means he'll be here any second. In fact, she could hear footsteps, and a frantically pounding heart, as the man drew closer. It's too close in here to shoot him, and besides, he'd probably fry me with a spell. She drew her dagger instead.
One part of the plan failed almost at once, because the necromancer saw her the instant he rounded the corner.
"Who's there?" he demanded, and then a blast of fire shot from his hands, and Dree had to throw herself sideways to keep from being incinerated. It seemed she had been lucky, however, or that the Dark God did indeed favor vampires, because then the necromancer drew a dagger very like hers and charged forward. This was not necessarily a good thing, because Dree knew approximately as much about knife fighting in close quarters as she did about riding a horse, but it was better than being scorched to death.
She was lucky again. Neither did the necromancer. He ran up to her holding the dagger up over his head in both hands, shouting something inarticulate. Dree waited until he got close, dodged out of the way, and stabbed him in the back. It worked better than it probably should have, because Dree the new vampire was much faster than Dree the young Bosmer. The trouble was that no amount of supernatural speed could give her more familiarity with anatomy. She missed his heart. Instead of falling down dead the way she expected, the necromancer spun around and she lost her grip. He slashed blindly at her, and this time it was unexpected enough that she barely moved in time. He slashed again, his breath gurgling in his chest, and she could smell the blood running from his wound and from his open mouth. This time she grabbed his knife arm and gave it an unscientific yank, and then she caught the knife as he dropped it.
I shouldn't have been able to do that, she thought again, and then she stabbed him. This time she must have done it right, because the man gave a rattling gasp and collapsed onto his side. Dree stepped back as he fell. Blood spurted around the dagger once, then stopped as his heart finally gave up.
Dree stood there for a moment, looking at the body. He was dead. There was no question. But he was still bleeding, although with no pulse he was doing it very slowly, and she was loathe to touch either of the knives with blood on them. She had a horrible suspicion she would be tempted to lick it off, and then she would have no choice but to open the cave door and hurl herself out into the sun. She turned to look back down into the cave. All sound seemed to have died down, and she saw only one light below her. Gogron? It had to be, unless it was three necromancers all standing right next to each other. Dree watched for a few moments more. The glow did not move. It has to be, she thought, and turned to descend into the cave.
