DARREN SHAN - Shan, Darren - Cirque Du Freak 12 - Sons of Destiny

This document was generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter program

SONS OF DESTINY

Cirque Du Freak 12

By

Darren Shan

Darren Shan

�

Contents

PROLOGUE

�

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

�

INTERLUDE

�

PART TWO

�

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

�

THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

�

1 Cirque Du Freak

2 The Vampire's Assistant

3 Tunnels of Blood

4 Vampire Mountain

5 Trials of Death

6 The Vampire Prince

7 Hunters of the Dusk

8 Allies of the Night

9 Killers of the Dawn

10 The Lake of Souls

11 Lord of the Shadows

12 Sons of Destiny

�

�

�

�

�

DARREN SHAN

�

SONS OF DESTINY

�

THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN

BOOK 12

�

�

HarperCollinsChildren's Books

�

Discover your Destiny with Darren Shan on the web at www.darrenshan.com

�

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsChildren's Books 2004

HarperCollinsChildren's Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishersLtd,

77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith,

London, W6 8JB

�

The HarperCollinsChildren's Books website address is:

www.harpercollinschildrensbooks.co.uk

�

Text copyright � Darren Shan 2004�

ISBN 0 00 715921 8

�

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

�

Printed and bound in England by

Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

For:

�

Bas, Biddy and Liam � my three pillars

�

OBE's

(Order of the Bloody Entrails) to:

�

"Lucky" Aleta Moriarty

�

A and Bo � Bangkok's best banshees

Emily "Lilliputian" Chuang

Jennifer "Stacey" Abbots

�

Saga Editors:

Domenica De Rosa, Gillie Russell, Zoe Clarke and Julia Bruce � you done good, girls!!!

�

Bloody Brilliant Buccaneers:

The Christopher Little Cutthroats

�

And an extra special thank you to all of my Shansters,

especially those who have kept me company on Shanville.

Even in death may you all be triumphant!

�

PROLOGUE

If my life was a fairy tale and I was writing a book about it, I'd start with, "Once upon a time there were two boys called Darren and Steve�" But my life's a horror story, so if I were to write about it, I'd have to begin with something like this instead:

Evil has a name � Steve Leopard.

He was born Steve Leonard, but to his friends (yes � he had friends once!) he was always Steve Leopard. He was never happy at home, didn't have a dad, didn't like his mum. He dreamt of power and glory. He yearned for strength and respect, and time in which to enjoy it. He wanted to be a vampire.

His chance came when he spotted a creature of the night, Larten Crepsley, performing in the wondrous magical show, the Cirque Du Freak. He asked Mr Crepsley to blood him. The vampire refused � he said Steve had bad blood. Steve hated him for that and vowed to track him down and kill him when he grew up.

Some years later, as Steve was preparing for his life as a vampire hunter, he learnt about the purple-skinned, red-eyed vampaneze. In legends, vampires are wicked killers who suck humans dry. That's hysterical rubbish �they only take small amounts of blood when they feed, causing no harm. But the vampaneze are different. They broke away from the vampire clan six hundred years ago. They live by laws of their own. They believe it's shameful to drink from a human without killing. They always murder when they feed. Steve's sort of people!

Steve went in search of the vampaneze, certain they'd accept him. He probably thought they were as twisted as he was. But he got it wrong. Although the vampaneze were killers, they weren't inherently evil. They didn't torture humans and they tried not to interfere with vampires. They went about their business quietly and calmly, keeping a lower-than-low profile.

I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing the vampaneze rejected Steve, just like Mr Crepsley did. The vampaneze live by even stricter, more traditional rules than vampires. I can't see them accepting a human into their ranks if they knew he was going to turn out bad.

But Steve found a way in, thanks to that eternal agent of chaos � Desmond Tiny. Most just call him Mr Tiny, but if you shorten his first name and put it with his surname, you get MrDestiny . He's the most powerful person in the world, immortal as far as anyone knows, a meddler of the highest order. He gave the vampaneze a present many centuries earlier, a coffin which filled with fire whenever a person lay within it, burning them to ash within seconds. But he said that one night someone would lie in the coffin and emerge unharmed. That person would be the Lord of the Vampaneze and had to be obeyed by every member of the clan. If they accepted this Lord, they'd gain more power than they'd ever imagined. Otherwise they'd be destroyed.

The promise of such power proved too much for Steve to ignore. He decided to take the test. He probably figured he had nothing to lose. He entered the coffin, the flames engulfed him, and a minute later he stepped out unburnt. Suddenly, everything changed. He had an army of vampaneze at his command, willing to give their lives for him and do anything he asked. He no longer had to settle for killing Mr Crepsley � he could wipe out the entire vampire clan!

But Mr Tiny didn't want the vampaneze to crush the vampires too easily. He thrives on suffering and conflict. A quick, assured victory wouldn't provide him with enough entertainment. So he gave the vampires a get-out clause. Three of them had the ability to kill the Vampaneze Lord before he came fully into his powers. They'd have four chances. If they were successful and killed him, the vampires would win the War of the Scars (that's what the battle between the vampires and vampaneze was known as). If they failed, two would die during the hunt, while the third would survive to witness the downfall of the clan.

Mr Crepsley was one of the hunters. A Vampire Prince, Vancha March, was another. The last was also a Prince, the youngest ever, a half-vampire called Darren Shan � and that's whereI come in.

I was Steve's best friend when we were kids. We went to the Cirque Du Freak together, and through Steve I learnt of the existence of vampires and was sucked into their world. I was blooded by Mr Crepsley and served as his assistant. Under his guidance I studied the ways of vampires and travelled to Vampire Mountain. There I undertook my Trials of Initiation � and failed. Fearing death, I fled, but during my escape I uncovered a plot to destroy the clan. Later I exposed it, and as a reward I was not only accepted into the fold, but made a Vampire Prince.

After six years in Vampire Mountain, Mr Tinyset me on the trail of the Lord of the Vampaneze, along with Mr Crepsley and Vancha. One of Mr Tiny's Little People travelled with us. His name was Harkat Mulds. Little People are grey-skinned, stitched-together, short, with large green eyes, no nose, and ears sewn beneath the flesh of their heads. They're created from the remains of dead people. Harkat didn't know who he used to be, but we later found out he was Kurda Smahlt in his previous life � the vampire who'd betrayed the clan in the hope of preventing the War of the Scars.

Not knowing who the Vampaneze Lord was, we missed our first chance to kill him when Vancha let him escape, because he was under the protection of Vancha's vampaneze brother, Gannen Harst. Later, in the city of Mr Crepsley's youth, I ran into Steve again. He told me he was a vampaneze hunter and, fool that I was, I believed him. The others did too, although Mr Crepsley was suspicious. He sensed something wrong, but I convinced him to grant Steve the benefit of the doubt. I've made some terrible mistakes in my life, but that was certainly the worst.