Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel (15 page)

They would not,
he said calmly,
the magic itself is a deterrent spell. They’d feel an unease so tight in the pit of their bellies they wouldn’t want to. It’s a spell the Stregha learned from the Fatas, to remain unseen and unfound.

I peered into the cave, trying to see further, when Iliaria said, “I’ll get him.”

I turned just in time to see her dive over the cliffside. I rushed toward it and Renata caught me by the wrist, assuring that I did not topple over.

It is hard to describe the Dracule in motion, for they move quickly, even for a vampire’s sight. What I saw was Iliaria’s wings held close to her body in the dive and the clap of thunder when they opened, catching the wind, her feet touching the ground, barely.

I daresay, Vasco didn’t even see her coming, for when she grabbed him around the waist and pushed off the ground, he screamed. By the time they made it to us, tears of laughter rolled down my cheeks.

Iliaria landed, rolling unceremoniously to break her fall. She caught Vasco before he rolled right into us and knocked us all off the narrow walkway. She was laughing, too, a strangely deep rumbling peal of laughter that sounded odd coming from her human lips.

Vasco sprung to his feet and dusted off his breeches. “What, colombina? You’ve never heard a grown man scream?”

“Like that?” I asked. “No, Vasco. I have
never
heard you scream like that. If the clan of Bull Shoals didn’t know we were here, I imagine they do now.”

Vasco fussed with his attire, obviously more than a little embarrassed. “Brava for such a graceful landing,” he muttered.

Iliaria made a choking sound as she suppressed a laugh. “Had you not been flailing like a little girl that would not have happened.”

“We ssshould dessscend now,” Anatharic said as he eased beneath a low hanging arch and down the narrow walkway to follow the descent that spiraled toward the cave’s belly. Dominique waited for Renata’s command. She nodded, indicating that yes, we should follow. Anatharic dropped to all fours after having to duck through several low hanging stones. I walked between Renata and Vasco, the only person in our party that did not have to duck or bend. Iliaria took the rear, so that our party was placed between the two Dracule.

If a person didn’t know the cave had been spelled so that the humans would not find it, it became obvious when the pathway steepened so that even if they had, it would not have been a tourist attraction. There were too many precarious steps and treacherous footholds.

Anatharic called us to a halt. “The path is broken. There’s a gap up ahead.”

“Another reason the caverns are fitting,” Renata murmured.

Large stalactites dripped like massive stakes from the center of the cavern’s ceiling.

“What about dropping down?” I asked.

“You have not looked over the ledge recently, have you, colombina?”

At Vasco’s words, I peered over. The drop was not so terrible that it would cripple a vampire, but the stalagmites stretching upward from the cave’s floor were an entirely different matter. Oh, we’d probably survive, skewered or no, but I did not think anyone in our party was exactly keen on testing the idea.

“What about climbing, then?”

Iliaria shook her head. “The walls are too slick with humidity. It would be too difficult to gain a hold.”

“Flying?”

“There isss not enough room.”

“Anatharic is right,” Iliaria said. “There’s not enough room to gain any momentum in here.”

“Then we jump,” Nirena said from behind Anatharic. “Can you leap so far, Great Sire?”

“We ssshall sssee.”

“Back up!” Dominique called. “We’re going to need room to make the leap.”

One by one, we scuttled back up the path, trying to give Anatharic the space he required. I was far enough back I couldn’t see the space they were jumping over, but if Dominique said we needed more room, we’d do it.

Out of all of us, the Dracule had a better chance of making the leap given their stature. Though the others were in the way, I heard Anatharic take his running start on all fours. A few seconds later, I heard him land softly on the other side of the gap.

“I’ll go,” Dominique said, and I knew he had stopped Nirena from trying to make the jump before him.

His booted feet slapped the stone on the other side.

“It’s wider over here,” he called. “Nirena, give yourself more of a run before jumping.”

We backed up some more.

Nirena made it, then Renata. Vasco was up next and since we were closer, I was able to more clearly see where exactly it was we were jumping.

My stomach lurched. “Vasco, I can’t make that. I’m not as tall as any of you.”

“You will make it,” Iliaria said behind me.

“I can throw you over, colombina?”

“I’d rather you not.”

He patted my shoulder with a smile. “You will be fine.” He turned and ran, leaping over the break in the path with the ease of a sprinting gazelle.

It was my turn and I frowned.

“It is not about your reach, Epiphany. It is about your speed. You are a vampire. You can make this leap.”

It really did not look physically possible.

She’s right, ya know. You’ll certainly not make it doubting yourself.

“If you say so…”

Iliaria pulled me back up the path. “Here,” she said. “You need even more of a running start than the others. Now, run.”

I did.

The cavern streaked in my vision and when it came time to jump, I faltered and misjudged. I leapt too late and fell, trying to catch the ledge with my hands and slipping on the wet stone.

A hand caught my wrist.

Vasco grinned down at me. “You didn’t think I would let you fall, did you?”

I gazed down over my shoulder at the spike-riddled floor.

“Sì,” he said, hoisting me up with ease. “That would not have been pleasant.”

“Thank you, Vasco.”

“Always, sorella.”

Anatharic led the group down the last several feet of pathway. Iliaria made the jump easily behind me and caught up with the rest of us.

The floor was thick with stalagmites of various sizes, so many that there was absolutely no way of navigating to the mouth of the narrow tunnel without stepping through them. Anatharic used his body to push against the stalagmites, toppling some over and giving us a path through the perilous field.

Finally, we made it to a tunnel.

“Do you know where thisss leadsss, Queen?”

We could hear the sound of water flowing from somewhere beyond the tunnel.

Renata said, “Follow the water, Dracule. That will lead us to the clan of Bull Shoals.”

The tunnel was a great deal longer than I reckoned and uncomfortably small, and though none of us had too much trouble walking through it, the walls were so close it was impossible not to brush against them. Every so often, we had to carefully round corners and ended up with scrapes in spite of our careful efforts to slip through. Blessedly, we were not reduced to crawling through on our hands and knees.

The sound of water grew louder, echoing from the chamber beyond and throughout the tunnel, which spit us out into a much vaster room. Stone draperies hung in thin sheets from the ceiling, appearing as though all it would take would be a gentle breeze to send them swaying. Pillars lined the room, some as high as the ceiling itself and some like small phallic altars. A single lit torch in one of the pillars illuminated the brown and tan stone formations around us.

“Well,” Vasco said, rubbing his elbow as if he’d knocked it against the wall on his way out of the tunnel, “by the looks of it, I’d say we’ve made it.”

A man’s voice startled all of us to attention. “State your purpose!”

Vasco grinned back at me like some kind of wicked cat. “See?”

“Aye,” I grumbled. “We’ve made it.”

The Dracule pushed us into a tighter group as Renata responded. “Inform your king, Keeper of Bull Shoals, that the Queen of the Rosso Lussuria has arrived and wishes to gain an audience with him.”

There was a moment of heavy silence before the sound of stone grumbling against stone emitted throughout the cavern.

“Are you armed?” the man called.

“Sì,” Vasco called back. “We would be foolish to stumble into your territory without means of protection.”

“As you say,” the man’s voice called out again and several cloaked figures stepped out from behind their hiding spots until a dozen of them surrounded us.

I daresay, the King of Bull Shoals was either paranoid or simply employed more guards than Renata had ever thought to consider.

They were all cloaked from head to foot in black garb, their faces shrouded and hidden from sight. A dozen crossbows with silver tipped arrows were aimed in our direction.

“I suggest you not draw any of those weapons. Do not draw and we will have no reason to fire.”

“Very well,” Renata said, encouraging Anatharic and the others to move aside so that we could both see the person speaking. “We will give you no cause to attack.”

The figure raised his bow in Anatharic’s direction. “Who are they and why are they here?”

Anatharic gave an unhappy growl, and the figures around us stirred, some of them training their bows on him.

Iliaria said his name and he quieted.

“They are Dracule and a part of the matter that I wish to discuss with your king.”

One of the figures stepped out of the circle of guardsmen, and a woman’s voice came from her shadowed hood. “That cannot be.”

The woman drew back her hood to reveal a pretty face with high cheekbones and wide, doe-like eyes. She lowered her crossbow as she inspected Anatharic and Iliaria.

“Istania!” the man called. “What are you doing?”

“If they were going to kill us, Gulliver, they would have already done it.”

The woman, Istania, came closer to our group and knelt before all of us. She placed her crossbow on the ground beside her.

“I am Istania, Elder and huntress among the clan of Bull Shoals. They have sent word of your arrival to our king, Queen Renata. I will take you to await his audience.”

The rest of the figures followed her lead. She smiled with genuine sincerity and political politeness that made her dark green eyes seem gentle and kind.

“Move aside, Gulliver.”

Istania gestured to an area between two ivory pillars. “This way, if you please.”

Stone grumbled against stone again as two other figures pushed open a stone doorway.

Thus, we were ushered inside with a small army of armed Bull Shoalians marching silently behind us.

Istania and her party led us through a clean and narrow hallway. Beyond the hidden stone door, the cave was much more obviously inhabited. Stone steps had been carved where the paths sloped, and stalagmites and stalactites had been cleared away, all save the ones too large to move. Istania indicated a long stone bench, and we sat down to wait. Small burners had been placed atop wide pillars throughout the room, casting a soft light. Our sight is keener in the dark than a human’s but when a vampire hunts in the dark, we rely more on other senses than eyesight. Most of the Rosso Lussuria preferred light on a normal basis. Clearly, the clan of Bull Shoals did as well.

I sat between Renata and Vasco, and only Iliaria and Anatharic did not take a seat. They stood like deadly guards at each end of the long bench. The stone was damp and cool beneath my clothes.

I thought Istania would strike up conversation with us, but she didn’t. She waited with us without offering as much as a peep. When she caught me watching her, she didn’t smile. Her features remained steady and focused.

Some minutes later, a cloaked figure pulled aside a linen hanging to reveal another doorway. “The king will see you now.”

He held the hanging in his hand and stepped aside to permit us to pass through.

*

“Queen Renata,” Augusten called from his throne as we entered the throne room, “to what do I owe such a pleasure?”

The others in our party fell back to allow Renata to walk ahead. I slowed my pace, remaining near enough to see her profile.

“King Augusten.” Renata’s voice was politic and honey smooth. Her lips curled in a smile that made her eyes sparkle invitingly and she curtseyed, appearing every inch a monarch paying courtesy to another while she did it.

King Augusten was dressed from shoulder to foot in black leather. He rose from his throne, the dark ringlets of his hair clinging to his forehead and offering only flashes of the silver circlet at his brow. His face was clean-shaven and masculine, his jawline strong, and the arch of his nose unmistakably Greek.

“So,” Augusten said as he moved toward Anatharic, assessing him without bothering to hide it. “I have heard that you wish to speak with me and that you arrived at our humble abode with two demons in tow.” Augusten made his way down our line to observe us. He hooked his thumb under his belt as if it were a habit. As he passed, the others bowed their heads in respect.