David Gemmell - Morningstar

In that moment every Vampyre in the hall disappeared, and the flesh vanished from the corpse of the King. Close to the skeleton lay a skull seemingly carved from ivory, and in the empty eye-socket was my dagger.

I stumbled towards it, retrieving the weapon.

‘Was that Golgoleth?’ asked Raul. I shook my head. Corlan groaned and I made my way to him, kneeling at his side. Blood was staining his chin and his eyes had the faraway look of the dying.

‘Is… Ilka safe?’ he whispered.

‘Yes.’

His eyes closed. ‘They… took her. I’m… glad… she escaped.’

‘Lie still. Rest.’ I wanted to say words of comfort, but I had none. What could I promise this man, this killer, this hero? Redemption? Forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life? I did not believe in these things. But I needed to say no more, for he died there without another word.

Raul had moved to the open doors. ‘God’s teeth!’ he said. I ran to the sunlit entrance. Outside, hooded against the sunshine, hundreds more of the creatures were swarming across the market square. Raul and I slammed shut the doors, lifting a bronze reinforced bar into place to secure them.

‘It is not going to hold them for long,’ he warned. A great hammering started on the doors, the wood shivering.

‘We’ve got to find Mace,’ I said.

Wulf was sitting with his back to the wall, the skull in his lap. His face was grey and blood was seeping from the wound in his chest. The sword was still jutting there — it was high, just under the collar-bone.

‘Can you walk?’ I asked the hunchback.

He shook his head. ‘You go on,’ he said.

‘There is danger close by,’ came Megan’s voice. I spun, but the hall was empty.

‘You are wrong, lady,’ I said aloud.

I can feel it, moving closer to you. Deadly. Closer.’

I swung again, but there was nothing save the creatures beyond the gates, and these could not effect a swift entry.

Something moved behind me and I turned and saw Ilka approaching. Opening my arms, I took her into an embrace. My hands stroked the skin of her back, feeling the flesh beneath the thin tunic. ‘You are very cold,’ I said, rubbing her harder. Her head was resting on my shoulder and I felt the chill of her face against my neck.

And in that instant I knew.

‘Oh, dear God,’ I whispered, holding her close to me, waiting for the fangs to open my throat.

I felt her hand move to my side, but there was no sharp-bite to my jugular. Instead she slumped into me and I heard her sweet voice echo in my mind for the last time. Her head fell back. Her eyes were still beautiful and I did not look at her mouth, not wishing to see the Vampyre canines.

I glanced down to see that she had taken my dagger and plunged it into her breast. I lowered her to the flagstones, tears blurring my vision, seeing not the Vampyre but the lover I would never hold again.

She died there, and her body did not disappear.

Raul laid his hand on my shoulder. ‘She saved you,’ he said, his voice low. ‘She was a Vampyre and yet she saved you.’

‘It is almost upon you, Owen,’ Megan’s voice screamed inside my skull. ‘Run!’

‘The danger is past,’ I whispered. Still cradling Ilka’s body in my arms.

‘No! I can feel it!’

Even through my grief I felt the sudden chill of understanding. ‘Megan!’ I cried. ‘It is not here. The danger is with you. It is coming for you!’

But there was no answer. No link.

The numbness had faded from my shoulder and I laid Ilka’s body down and took up her silver sabre. Somewhere within Vampyre-haunted palace was Golgoleth. And I would find him.

Astiana awoke in the night, a dark dream hovering at the edge of memory yet slipping away before she could fasten to it. She sat up; the cabin was empty and cold and she rose from the bed.

Mace and the others had gone and she felt alone.

No, she realized, not just alone. Desolate. Empty.

You fool, she told herself, remembering again that night on the journey from the ruined cabin. Everyone had been asleep, save Piercollo who was on watch. Astiana had felt the need for solitude and had wandered away into the forest to sit beside a silver stream. Swiftly she disrobed, putting aside the thick woollen habit and her underclothes of cotton. The stream was icy-cold, but she enjoyed the silky flow of the water over her skin.

Mace had found her there.

‘You should not stray from the camp,’ he said. ‘There are still robbers in these woods.

’I have the Morningstar to protect me,’ she had snapped, angry to be disturbed and sitting up with her arms across her chest.

‘No need to be frightened, sister,’ he said. ‘I’ll not molest you.’

‘I do not fear you,’she told him.

‘You’ve a good body. Shame you’ve decided to waste it.’

‘How dare you!’ she stormed, rising from the water. ‘You speak of waste? I have spent my life helping others, healing the sick, giving hope to those who have no dreams. What right have you to speak to me of waste? What have you ever done save gratify your lust?’

‘Not much,’ he admitted. ‘And you are quite correct, it was a stupid thing to say.’ He smiled suddenly and removed his shirt, tossing it to her. ‘Here! Dry yourself. You’ll catch cold.’

The shirt smelt of woodsmoke and sweat but she used it anyway, then clothed herself.

‘Thank you,’ she told him. ‘Both for the shirt — and for your courtesy.’ She was angry still, but struggled to mask it. Although she would never have contemplated allowing Mace to make love to her, nevertheless she was irritated that, despite finding her naked, he had made no attempt to seduce her.

‘What will you do,’ she asked him, ‘when the people finally realize what you are, when they see you are not a legend?’

‘I won’t be there to suffer it, lady,’ he told her.

The sharp retort died in her throat, for at first she thought he meant he would flee, and then she realized what he was saying. Her resentment of him vanished like a spent candle.

‘I’m sorry I said that,’ she whispered. ‘The words were born of anger.’

He shrugged and grinned. ‘The truth mostly is, I find.’

‘I don’t want you to die, Jarek.’

‘Why should you care?’ he asked, pushing himself to his feet. ‘You don’t even like me.’

‘No, I don’t. But I love you.’ The words rushed out before she could stop them, and strangely she was not surprised. It was as if Mace’s readiness to die for the cause had breached the wall between them.

‘Oh, I know that,’ he said. ‘Most women do.’Then he had walked away.

She had scarcely spoken to him after that.

Now he was gone. They were all gone.

Astiana sighed. I should be with them, she thought. I am a Gastoigne sister and pledged to stand for the Light against the gathering Dark.

Silently she left the cabin and walked across the clearing towards the night-dark forest.

She travelled for hours, long past the dawn, arriving in mid-afternoon at the remains of their camp-fire. Wearily she sat by the ashes, her thoughts once more on the night by the stream.

Her limbs felt heavy, drained of energy and she lay back on the soft ground with her head pillowed on her arm. Almost at once she fell asleep and dreamt she was floating beneath the stars in a jet-black sky. There was comfort in the dream, freedom from care and fear, and she soared through the night unfettered.

Below her lay Ziraccu, dark and gloomy, a black crown upon a hill. She flew closer, seeing the Vampyre mob beating upon the gates of the palace. Such was the power of the evil emanating from the scene that it pushed her back, as if she had been touched by Hellfire. She fled the city and found herself hovering above a hillside where a grey, hooded figure was kneeling with head bowed.