THE QUESTERS, PART XIII
Faye, Alexander, and Smit had fought their way into the strange ship. I could sense their battle raging below my feet, inside the close quarters of the ship's interior.
Beck was with me, which was for the best since her talents didn't emphasize violence. Her eyes were distant, but then they cleared and she looked at me.
*Lady Rahne, there are a dozen vampires aboard,* she told me mind-to-mind. Her psychic "tone" was formal. I almost told her not to address me as "Lady" since I had no right to that title, but events were moving too fast for that sort of thing.
Actually, twelve vampires was good. I'd feared there would be more than that.
"We have another hatch!" Rose called out. She was hovering a good thirty feet above the deck, and was peering down into the ship's tower-like protrusion.
*There's three of them behind that hatch,* Beck told me.
The vampires were trying to sneak around and attack the rear of our pack. However, they hadn't reckoned with Beck and Rose. Knowing their numbers and movements was a claw-wise thing for us.
Jonah vaulted onto the tower that loomed above us. I climbed after him - there were a useful set of handholds bolted into the tower. By the time I got to the top, Jonah was using three of his mechanical arms to keep a hatch wedged open, while another arm was wrapped around a struggling vampire and had it trapped in place. The vampire was half-in and half-out of the hatch, but Jonah had his shortswords out and was slaughtering the vampire with them. Pieces were literally falling away from the vampire's body.
As near as I could tell, we were doing a good job of catching the vampires in tight spaces, controlling access, and then killing them one at a time with a combination of surprise, maneuver, and overwhelming might. Daddy would have been proud, although I really couldn't take full credit for what was happening. My pack was very competent and completely capable of thinking for themselves. The Old One had chosen wisely when he sent them to me.
If only I could catch the scent of the Old One's larger plan. Whatever was going on, I knew it was about something even more important than merely destroying a vampiric blood-slave ring.
*Ten vampire's remaining!* Beck called from behind me. *Seven in the hull, fighting Faye and the boys! Two more inside the tower!* Beck couldn't fight at the level of my other companions, but she was proving to be more than useful to us. We knew more about the vampires than they did about us. If we could kill the vampires in the tower and climb inside the ship's hull from there, then we would be the ones who were in the enemy rear.
The vampire caught in the hatchway was scrabbling desperately at Jonah's armor, trying to find a weak spot. Jonah seemed to gather himself into a knot, brace himself with his legs, and then use all four of his mechanical arms to rip what was left of the vampire out of the hatch and up into the air. A pair of Rose's nail-studded wooden stakes arrowed into the airborne vampire and its body shot away into the night.
"Goddamit," Rose grumbled irritably as she glared after the vampire. I think she was trying to retrieve her two stakes and that was proving difficult.
*Nine vampires!* Beck called. *No! Eight! Alex and Smitty just got another one!*
"Going in!" Jonah yelled just before he moved head-first into his hatch. It was a strange, multi-limbed, and insectile movement. His uncle's armor was combining with his natural Spider abilities in a way that was odd and inhuman.
"Mother-fucker!" Jonah yelped as soon as he was completely inside. Then there was a ringing bang followed by a metal-on-metal clatter. I hastily climbed to the edge of the hatch, moving past the drizzling slick of burning oil. Rose was hovering above the open hatch, trying to see inside, but she obviously wasn't having much luck.
"I've got this!" I yelled up at Rose. "Keep an eye on Beck and don't let any more vampires get out of the ship!"
Then I dropped inside the mastless ship.
The interior of the mastless ship stank of undeath, but also of machinery, oil, and terror. It wasn't lit since vampires don't need illumination. The air seemed thin and dead but there was a draft of fresh air coming in from the open hatch.
My senses scrambled to give me a picture of my surroundings. Jonah was fighting a pair of vampires. His arms - both those he'd been born with and the gifts from his Uncle - were parrying and thrusting. Jonah's swords had opened up both of his vampires and the stench of undead blood was becoming steadily more and more overpowering. Jonah was cut and slashed, but his armor had saved him from severe injury.
"On your right!" I warned. Then I lunged past Jonah and put my claws into a vampire who was trying to work its way around his flank. The vampire let out a sound halfway between a squeal and a snake-like hiss as I skewered it through the neck and shoulder. Then I slashed outward and split open up the vampire's chest while almost decapitating it. Its head lolled grotesquely to the side, only held in place by a maimed spinal column and a strip of flesh. The vampire's eyes still held some kind of awareness as it tried to grapple Jonah.
I rolled under and past Jonah and then sprang up, using a foot claw to finish the decapitation. The vampire finally fell away.
Jonah gave the other vampire his full attention. As I scrambled to my feet, dead blood splashed over me and a severed hand-and-wrist bounced off the side of my head. Then the last of the vampires collapsed next to me. I kicked a foot-claw into its brain and then tore it out through the crown of the vampire's head. Sparks flew as Jonah's swords clashed against the steel grate of the tower deck and the vampire suddenly became headless.
That left us momentarily without enemies. The way was clear and we climbed the rest of the way down into the main hull.
*Six vampires left,* Beck signaled to me. *They're all between you and the others. Oh... and there are some prisoners aboard as well. They're in the rear of the boat. I think they're locked up. They... they aren't in good shape.*
I pointed towards the bow - where I could hear the rest of the fighting. Jonah nodded his head, then took to the corridor ceiling, clinging to it effortlessly. I moved in a crouch below him, while Jonah's steel arms hung down to either side to me. One of them seemed to brush my hair.
*There's one just ahead,* Beck sent to us. *It's in a gap on what will be your right side. It plans on ambushing you as you pass.*
I think Jonah and I nodded simultaneously. Then we moved forward. We were both beginning to gasp from the increasingly foul air. As we moved further away from the tower hatch, the air seemed to deaden. The fight was obviously going our way, but we had to finish it quickly.
I caught the vampire's scent and paused. Then Jonah's steel arms shot forward and around a corner. A vampire screeched in surprised agony. After that, Jonah's arms dragged a wildly struggling vampire out of its hiding place and back to us.
Jonah and I were waiting with claws and swords. It turned out that we were a good team because what happened next wasn't a fight, it was butchery. For just a moment, I felt something like pity for any vampires we encountered. But it was a very brief moment.
The clatter of fighting and Faye's roars of anger became steadily louder. Then suddenly we were in a chamber that was larger than most. We could see a cluster of vampires battling the rest of our pack, but Jonah and I were behind the vampires.
That was enough. The battle ended quickly.
"I feel terrible," Faye grunted. Her body was covered with cuts, bruises, and bite marks. The Green heal quickly, although not as fast as Blood. Alexander, Smit, and I were almost fully recovered, but Faye's injuries lingered.
We were on the deck of the mastless ship, drinking in the fresh night air. One at a time, we'd washed ourselves off with seawater.
The moon was over the horizon and the ship was rocking gently. The wind was picking up.
About a dozen former prisoners, all of them Folk, were with us. We'd unchained them from a cramped and filthy crawlway. They looked drawn and ill. Some were weeping with gratitude. Others silently stared off into the night, lost in thoughts of their own. Frankly, I was amazed that they'd survived the poor air of the ship's interior.
Alexander was in a chamber at the base of the ship's tower. We could faintly hear him cursing as he tried to divine the mysteries of the mastless ship. Every now and then the ship rocked and moved in response to whatever he was doing. Strange noises and hot gases kept emanating from the aft of the ship.
The barge we'd arrived in was, of course, long gone. Frankly, I couldn't really blame the oarsmen for that.
Faye was lying on her back, with Rose kneeling next to her. Rose was rummaging through a belt pouch, pulling out carefully wrapped bundles of healing tools. Rose isn't a trained healer, but being a wandering hero gave you the opportunity to learn quite a few useful skills.
"Don't let me become a vampire," Faye announced morosely. She was dazed and confused. Two vamps had been sucking blood from her when Jonah and I hit the vampire pack from the rear.
"You aren't going to become a vampire," Rose replied distractedly. She had some rubber tubes and complex-looking needles. Jonah was watching what Rose was doing. Smit and Beck were near the prow, talking with the now-freed prisoners who were still able to talk.
"If you have to kill me, tell Ben that I love him," Faye continued.
"He knows that," Rose replied, "and you can tell him yourself the next time you see him." Then she tied one of the rubber tubes around Faye's upper arm. That caused the veins of her arm to become more visible.
Faye suddenly focused on what Rose was doing. "Oh, dammit, I hate this!"
I sat cross-legged next to Faye and took off my buckskin jacket. Rose used another rubber tube to tie off my arm.
Jonah seemed interested in what was happening. Beck and Smit had stopped talking and were also watching. Beck seemed puzzled. Smit looked disgusted.
As the ritual required, Rose washed the two special needles with simple alcohol and a clean cloth. Then she slid one needle into my arm and the other needle into Faye's arm. It took some effort to pierce Faye's skin, but Rose managed it. The needle she was using on Faye was made of Holy Adam - it was worth a small fortune.
After that, Rose connected the needles with yet another rubber tube. Then she opened the stop-cocks in the needles. There was a simple hand-pump contraption attached to the hose connecting the needles. I took a bulb in my hand and began to gently squeeze and release. Blood flowed from me into Faye.
"I've heard of this," Jonah said slowly, "but I've never seen the procedure. Don't the spirits of the blood have to somehow match?"
Rose nodded in agreement. "If they don't match, it's actually dangerous. But there are a lot of peculiarities from individual to individual. Faye and I don't match, but Rahne's blood has the quality of being transferable to anyone. That's rare and I'm sure it's some sort of sign that she can do that."
The ship lurched once again and then began moving purposefully. We described a slow turn and began moving to the west.
Alexander's head popped up at the top of the tower.
"How's it look?" Jonah yelled up to him.
"The current plan is to hit a continent!" he yelled back. "I think I can manage that!"
"Good plan," Jonah said with a nod of his head.
"I swear, if I ever see Ben again, I'm going to have him use me for the cheapest and most degrading sex," Faye announced blearily. Melodrama and horniness are things that Faye can do simultaneously.
"Sounds fun," Rose responded with a smile as she ran her fingers through Faye's still-green hair.
Then Faye began a detailed description of what she would have Ben do to her. Jonah and Smit seemed interested. Beck trying not to laugh. Rose put a hand over Faye's mouth and then leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.
"Hush," Rose said softly.
Beck cleared her throat. "Lady Rahne?" she asked.
"What is it, Beck?" I replied.
Beck made a gesture towards the prisoners. "These people are all from Bost and Provd. This ship picked them up outside of Bost harbor."
"So they do operate in multiple cities," Jonah grumbled unhappily.
Then he gave me a serious look. "What now?" he asked. "We have the vampire ship. We know they have blood-slave activities. But we need to find their base."
"I'll ask for information," I told Jonah.
He glanced at the former prisoners. "I'm not sure how much they'll know," Jonah said.
I nodded in agreement. "We have other sources," I said.
Jonah looked puzzled.
I patted the deck next to me. The ghost of a young girl was sitting there. She was naked and her throat was torn open. Glistening red trails of blood still trickled down her body and over her bare breasts. Other bite marks, savage and deep, were scattered over her arms and legs. Her death had not been an easy one.
She leaned against me and rested her head against my shoulder - there was a sensation of mild pressure and coldness. Her eyes were peacefully closed. I wanted to put an arm around her, but I couldn't.
The mastless ship was haunted. It overflowed with ghosts. So many innocent people had died aboard that damned vessel.
"We need your help," I told the spirit next to me.
Her eyes were still closed as she nodded her head.