XLII - The Road to Dusktide

  Bravana was far behind them by the time they finally stopped to rest for the night. They halted their southward journey and began setting up camp on a small beach that was surrounded on all sides by a thick collection of trees. The foliage provided them with some much-appreciated cover from the prying eyes of the outside world. Gentle tides brushed against the nearby shore beneath the light of the sickle-shaped moon. Vlad looked forward to getting some rest, even if it would only last for a few short hours following their lengthy nocturnal retreat from Bravana; the soft sand would provide some relative comfort beneath their bedrolls when compared to the much sturdier ground that they were used to, and the breathing waves would do wonders to help him relax. He knew he could not allow himself to grow too complacent, though—for threats of many varieties were always about, even in such a peaceful place as their little coastal hideaway.

  Vlad dug a shallow hole in the sand and began preparing a small fire while Sybil fed and brushed Elpis. The Plague doctor noticed his apprentice continuously stealing long gazes at the ocean while she worked, seemingly mesmerised by its vastness, or perhaps by the gentle coming and going of the tide and waves.

  “Not much like it back home, is there?” he said to her during one of these prolonged stares. “It’s certainly much more formidable than any river, or even the bay into which I discarded those unfortunate nosferatu.”

  Sybil offered a quick glance in her mentor’s direction—one filled with much less admiration than her stares at the moonlit sea held. “It’s nice,” she said curtly before returning her attention to Elpis’ thoroughly brushed mane.

  Vlad allowed a short pause before continuing the conversation. “Perhaps when this business with Ludovich is finished, we can find a quaint, little town and partake in some coastal exploration. It would be pleasant to enjoy a few days of relaxation before continuing on our journey.”

  “Yes,” she said, this time without looking his way. “Perhaps.”

  The Plague doctor fought back the urge to frown. He finally spoke again after close to thirty seconds of silence. “I have the sneaking suspicion that your current demeanor has little to do with an underwhelming impression of the ocean.”

  Sybil looked at him again. “I do not understand why you felt the need to interfere with my battle earlier,” she said. “I had everything perfectly under control.”

  “Perhaps you believed as much,” he said, “but I saw things differently. What I saw was you allowing your feelings to cloud your judgment. I saw that my apprentice was mere moments away from falling right into that strigoi’s deadly hands.”

  “Well your perception was wrong,” she said. “As I have already told you, I was simply allowing the vampyre to live so I could glean more information about its master.”

  “While loosening your grasp on your whip all the while.”

  Sybil glared at him now. She placed Elpis’ brush onto the nearby coach. “And it would not have mattered even if the creature had managed to come loose. I can slay whelps like that one in my sleep. The thing would have posed no threat to me.”

  “So then you’ve become arrogant,” Vlad said. He stood up from his task of putting together their fire and turned to face her fully now. “What a far cry you are from the Sybil who little more than half a year ago could not have slain a nosferatu if it handed her its fangs and claws. Well, I’d rather you become that Sybil again if such a thing is required to keep you safe from your own carelessness. Because as you are now, your rapidly growing hubris will only lead you to a swift, bloody demise.”

  Sybil waited a long while before speaking. When she finally did, her response came at the far end of a deep sigh. “You’re right,” she admitted. “Perhaps I did let my compassion for that creature come dangerously close to getting the better of me. But it… but he was just a child, Mr. Albescu. And what he said was not untrue. The Vampyre Ludovich stole that boy’s entire life from him and thought nothing of it.”

  “On the contrary,” Vlad said, “I believe that Ludovich purposely sought out a child when looking for somebody to turn. The vampyre likely wanted an underling that could take advantage of its youthful appearance in order to catch its victims by surprise and appeal to their protective instincts. As it would turn out, such a tactic proved to be highly effective—and against a Plague doctor, no less.”

  “But how could that creature have been so cruel as to turn a small boy? How could anything be that evil?”

  “You know the threat we face, my apprentice,” Vlad said. “You are all too aware of what they are capable of. I know you dislike the idea that something which wears human skin can possibly be so daemonic in nature, but you will one day come to terms with this unfortunate fact.”

  Sybil paused, taking a few steps closer to the site of their would-be fire. “And you’re certain that the child no longer had any humanity left within its conscious mind?”

  “None whatsoever,” he said. “I know that can be much more difficult to accept when speaking of children, but it is true. I have never once in all of my years encountered a strigoi that has been controlled by anything but the most vile and evil of impulses.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “And what if you ever do?”

  Vlad frowned, slightly taken aback. “I’m afraid I do not quite grasp your meaning.”

  “What if one day you come across a strigoi that you can definitively say still maintains a part of its humanity?” Sybil asked. “What will you do if you discover a vampyre whose imprisoned soul has somehow managed to maintain a grasp on its conscious mind?”

  “I find it foolish to even consider such a possibility,” he said, “but I suppose if such an event should ever come to pass, it would then become even more imperative that the creature is slain with all haste.”

  Sybil considered this for a few moments. At length, she spoke. “I was almost convinced that the boy was one such case. Even now, I’m not certain that he wasn’t.”

  “Which is exactly how such a creature wants you to feel,” Vlad said. “Ludovich is devious to have turned a child for that purpose—devious, but genius at the same time. It is evident that this particular nosferatu shall be quite the formidable foe on its own, notwithstanding its brood of underlings that we shall have to contend with as well. We are truly walking into the viper’s nest with this one, my apprentice. As such, it is imperative that we are properly prepared for the battle that lies ahead.”

  “I fear that no amount of preparation shall properly steel us for this bout,” she said. “Are you certain that we could possibly see victory with so many foes looming ahead of us? Because I must admit that I worry about our chances.”

  “We must not stop to consider whether or not we can,” Vlad said, “only that we must. We cannot fall until Three-Fang has been properly slain, and as such, we must overcome this obstacle which stands between our blades and that creature’s undead heart. As it stands, we must wet those blades with Ludovich’s black blood before we can do the same against our ultimate foe. As such, it becomes abundantly clear that we simply have no other choice.” He gazed out into that obsidian sea, which shimmered with the bright moonlight as its shifting tide continued its perpetual dance. “We cannot rest easy until the Vampyre Ludovich and its entire bloodline have been sent straight to hell where they belong.”

  ___

  Dusktide existed at the far end of a long, mostly barren peninsula which concluded at the precipice of a steep cliff. Water surrounded the city on three sides; the fourth was exposed to a sprawling stretch of grass and sand that allowed it to be seen from many miles away, should anybody farther up the coastline have thought to look in its direction. It is for this reason that Vlad and Sybil could see the billowing pillar of black smoke which escaped from the city’s center long before they ever reached their destination.

  The orange of evening already tainted the firmament by the time they had made it halfway along the peninsula. Vlad willed Elpis toward the most dense pocket of foliage that he could find before bringing the coach to a stop. He and Sybil dismounted their transport and began setting up camp while the sky delivered its promise of a fast-approaching sunset; though dusk liked to linger for a bit longer during that time of the year, it still always gave way to the darkness of night far sooner than the Plague doctor would have liked.

  “I scorn the notion of entering that city so close to nightfall,” he said as he began preparing a fire in the pit he had dug out of the sand. There were very few trees anywhere along that peninsula, and as such he had had to produce a premade firewood kit from the coach. “Such a thing would be ill-advised even if there were not ample bloodsuckers skulking about at night.”

  “You sound as though you are familiar with the city,” Sybil said. “Have you been to Dusktide before?”

  Vlad shook his head. “No. I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid the place during my travels. But I have heard stories, my apprentice—tales that do not paint the city in an overly pleasant light. It has long been a den of debauchery and a bastion of crime, likely well before the vampyre menace had ever arrived. But I am certain that their presence has only exacerbated the city’s current state of lawlessness.”

  Sybil peeked over the tall beachgrass which surrounded most of their campsite and saw the city beyond it. She watched as the dark column continued to rise high up into the copper sky. “It would seem they are contending with a rather severe outbreak of Plague as well.”

  “It is no wonder that Ludovich and its ilk have taken up residence there,” Vlad said. “A remote city of rampant anarchy and unchecked disease is the perfect home for a vile nosferatu.”

  “I suppose now may be a good time to formulate some sort of plan,” Sybil said, “because we can hardly enter that city and begin poking and prodding around while going on about some hidden family of vampyres. At best, we’ll be seen as completely out of our minds, and at worst, we’ll draw some undesirable attention.”

  “I agree,” Vlad said, “And in fact I have been pondering this very subject almost constantly since our departure from Bravana. It is of utmost importance that we are furtive in our hunt for the strigoi. We also need to keep in mind that we are dealing with dangerous rogues and cunning and conmen on top of the nosferatu, so any information that we do glean must be considered with some degree of skepticism.” He paused while he continued to fiddle with firewood. “We shall begin our quest tomorrow morning, when our foes will be at their weakest. If we can somehow identify and slay Ludovich with decent haste, then its underlings should be considerably easier to pick off. Without their leader, the family shall quickly crumble. ”

  “And if we cannot?” Sybil said. “What if Ludovich eludes us while its minions attack us in droves? Will we slay every single vampyre in the family before finally reaching their leader?”

  “We shall do exactly that if we must,” Vlad said, “and we shall succeed in that task. We shall succeed, or we shall die trying—and neither one of us is at liberty to die just yet.”

  “The Vampyre Ludovich might see things differently.”

  “Well then the Vampyre Ludovich is in for quite the rude awakening, is it not?”

  She nodded with a smile, but her face told him that she remained unconvinced. “Yes, I suppose it is.”

  Their conversation went dormant as the duo finished setting up camp. Vlad set work to lighting the fire while Sybil took care of their horse’s evening needs. When they were both finished, they settled into their camp for the night. Sybil managed to fall asleep at a reasonable time, but Vlad, as was often the case, stayed up late into the moonlit hours, listening to the sound of their crackling fire as well as the gentle waves of the nearby coast, both of which failed to lull him to slumber.

  The Plague doctor glanced at his apprentice sleeping on the other side of the blaze. Her breaths came in a relaxed, gentle rhythm which told Vlad that she slept peacefully this night, and he was glad to know that her regular nightmares were slowly beginning to fade into the background of her resting mind.

  But then the girl started to toss and turn, and he knew that a dream had begun.