Matt Forbeck - Marked for Death

The door swung open, creaking on its rusty hinges.

Te’oma looked back at Tan Du, who motioned for the changeling to enter. She pushed the door open and peered inside.

The swirling mists stopped outside the door. Te’oma could see all the way across the large, brick-walled room.

Shelves of books and scrolls stacked floor to ceiling lined the walls. Papers spilled out of some of them and on to the floor. The clutter almost obscured the sumptuous red rug that covered all but the few feet on the edges of the polished wood floor. Ink spots were splattered all about the place, many of which trailed from a pot sitting on the corner of the massive desk in the center of the room.

Te’oma slipped into the room and padded to the desk. She could not read the writing on the pages there, but she recognized the strange notations of a wizard’s instructions for spells. She reached out and ran her finger along the edge of the desk. It came back covered with dust. She noticed, though, that the pages atop the desk’s dark, mahogany surface were clean.

Windows lined the walls. They were wide and unglazed but the mist outside stopped just before their edges anyhow, almost as if each wisp feared to be sucked into the building. No light shone through them.

A long set of wooden stairs snaked back and forth along the rear wall and disappeared through a hole in the ceiling. There was no telling how far up it might continue or how many other floors lay above.

An iron chandelier hung from a long chain in the center of the ceiling. The tips of the bars glowed with a magical light that hurt to look at. Te’oma shaded her eyes with her hand and squinted at the structure long enough to see that it was wrought as a symbol of a god.

Te’oma turned back to see Tan Du and Esprл peering through the doorway at her. “We may not be welcome here,” she said.

“There is no one here,” the vampire said. “The place is empty.”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

The vampire bared a wicked smile. “If it’s not empty now, it soon will be. Invite me in.”

For a moment, Te’oma considered defying the vampire. If she did, she would be safe, at least until she had to leave. The girl, though, would still be in his grasp. “Come in,” she said.

Tan Du strode across the threshold, pulling Esprл along behind him. Once inside, he let her go.

Esprл wandered about the place without a word, her wide blue eyes taking in everything. She looked up at the chandelier and said pointed. “That’s the symbol of Aureon, the god of magic.” She bowed her head. “My mother wore a medallion of it around her neck.”

“Then your mother must have been a good and powerful wizard,” a voice said from the top of the stairs.

Tan Du, Te’oma, and Esprл looked up to see an emaciated elf coming down the steps. She was dressed in fine robes of green- and blue-patterned silk that draped over her pointed shoulders and gave the illusion that there might be some volume to her under them. Her sunken eyes, cutlike mouth, and knife-sharp cheekbones under paper-thin skin belied that impression. She moved with purpose and economy, as if every gesture caused her a pain she refused to express.

“She was a sorcerer,” Esprл said.

The elf favored the girl with a half smile. “I do not receive many visitors,” she said. “The mists keep them away.”

“We came seeking shelter,” Te’oma started.

“From the sun,” the elf said. “I know. Who do you think opened the skies?”

“You forced us here?” Tan Du glared at the elf.

The gaunt wizard nodded. “I predicted your arrival. I know who you are, I know what you are, and I know what you are about.”

Tan Du frowned. “Then you should know better than to interfere.”

The elf coughed up a dry laugh as she descended the final stairs and stood before the trio of intruders. “I do not fear your lich-goddess. True power comes from the light, not the dark. She is but a shadow of what she could have been.”

Tan Du’s frown deepened to a scowl. “You blaspheme. Apologize, or I will tear your heart from your chest.”

Te’oma reached out and took Esprл’s hand. The girl did not pull away. Without taking her eyes from the wizard, Te’oma began to creep backward, a step at a time, bringing the girl with her.

The elf squinted at Tan Du. “You are a pawn and a fool. Do you not realize what you are in the presence of?”

“A dead elf,” the vampire sneered. He lashed out, and his hand closed around the wizard’s bare, thin throat.

The elf’s eyes narrowed in delight. Her smile showed all her teeth like a corpse’s rictus.

The flesh on Tan Du’s hand burned. Te’oma heard the sharp hiss of burning skin and saw smoke rising about the elf’s face.

The vampire’s eyes flung wide in terror. “What-?” he said.

He drew his hand back and stared at it, stunned. It was red and blistered as if he’d pressed it on a hot stove.

Te’oma hustled Esprл behind the wizard’s desk. She didn’t know what might happen next, but she hoped the wizard would be reluctant to attack someone hiding behind her spellbook. She held the girl to her chest, keeping Esprл from watching the pair near the stairs, but she found herself unable to avert her own eyes from the scene.

The elf chanted a few quick words and presented a pearl between her fingers. It burst forth with the heat and light of the sun.

Tan Du cowered before the light and screamed. “No!” he said. “I cannot fail! You cannot-!”

The vampire stopped protesting and turned to run. The elf followed him with the light still blazing from her hand. He stumbled into the side of the wizard’s desk opposite Te’oma and bounced off it toward the door. Esprл let out a little scream and clung to the changeling tighter. Te’oma ran a hand through her hair and shushed her gently as she craned her neck around the desk to watch the vampire flee.

As Tan Du moved, smoke curled from his bare flesh and from under his clothes. The vampire reached for the door, but it slammed shut as he did. Bellowing in frustration, he hauled at it with all his supernatural might, but it refused to give.

The vampire turned to face the elf, his body burning now, flames licking up all around him. His hair caught like a torch, and his skin blackened and began to peel away. He let loose a final agonized scream before he collapsed. Moments later, all that was left of him was a smoldering pile of ashes spilling out of his scorched clothes.

The light in the elf’s hand went out, and she turned to smile again at Te’oma and Esprл. “Now,” she said, “shall we get to know each other a bit better?”

“We have to go in,” Kandler said, staring up at the mound of mist that sat in the center of the valley. From this close, it looked more like the wall of a tomb. “I’m through wasting time.”

“You can’t see a thing in there,” Deothen said. “It’s suicide.”

Kandler turned on the old knight. “You have a better plan?”

The knight nodded. “We set up positions around the place and wait for them to come out.”

Kandler goggled at Deothen. “My daughter is in there!”

“It is a sound plan.”

Frustrated, Kandler pointed at the rest of the hunters. “Do you see how many of us there are left?” The others stared at him. “There’s you, me, Burch, and three knights so green they have grass growing out of their armor.”

Sallah opened her mouth to protest, but Kandler kept talking. He stared at Deothen. “What makes you think the six of us can surround this place? And if they come out of there, how are we going to catch them? How long are we going to wait? When night falls, we won’t be able to see a thing.” Kandler pointed up at the hole in the cloud cover. “And what about that? As soon as that goes away, which could happen any second, they can just ride away again.”