THE VROL TRILOGY (40 page)

Vladros watched with keen interest (and
shielded eyes), as the two immortals battled, thick beams of
multi-colored light emanating from their staffs.

"Torlen! Do you not see the futility in
their battle?" demanded the vampire king.

His protective guard, Torlen, one of
his most trusted aides, always agreed with the ghoul leader, and
said, "Yes, my liege, it seems like a never ending cycle of attack,
defend, attack, and defend. Then they do it all over again. It
would be quite boring, if the lights were not so unnervingly
attractive."

A vampire that admired light was one
thing, but Torlen was of a special breed - his bloodline was
completely immune to any kind of UV rays. In fact, they could even
get a tan, if not for the fact that they were still slowly
decomposing walking near-corpses.

"I want you to go inside with a small
detail and hunt down Krynos. Bring me his head - or I will have
yours. Go!"

"Yes, my Lord", he responded, as he
pointed to four members of Vladros' protective guard and motioned
for them to follow him into the castle.

The group of five entered into the same
side door that Ryder Johnson had earlier used to enter the castle
and, sniffing the air, determined that there was little danger in
the immediate vicinity. Moving down a narrow corridor, they
encountered a stairwell, which they took to the upper levels. They
ran up to the mezzanine and looked out over the main hall, which
was devoid of all life. Only small piles of ashes showed where
their brothers had so valiantly fought and met their final moments
of life. Suddenly, they saw the flash of a figure running down a
far corridor. Torlen smelled the air deeply, while his troops gave
each other wary glances, having just seen piles of vampire death
before their faces.

"Not to worry, my brothers," said the
lesser-disfigured commander, "he was vampire, but he has a
different scent. I believe it was the alien whom Vladros despises
so."

He then tore down the pathway along the
mezzanine, with troops in tow, following where Johnson had gone,
and figuring that if it were the alien then he at least would be a
fitting distraction for any lycan hiding in the shadows.

###

Johnson looked in vain for Jennie and
Max, not having any idea where they might be. He was given
virtually no information on the castle, or where the phase 3 lycans
housing was, as Vladros simply wanted him to die, not having the
guts to kill the young man himself. As he raced down yet another
hallway, he caught a scent - the scent of lycan youth, and spun
around, looking in every direction. However, he didn't peer into
the grates on the walls, because if he had he would have possibly
detected a young lycan girl, noisily navigating her way down to the
floors below.

However, he did look
at
the
grates.

###

As there were still vampires rampaging
throughout the castle, Krynos stayed with the children, constantly
sniffing the air and checking the hallway. Then, he detected the
scents of Donus and Kangor approaching. Waiting for them to arrive,
he spoke to the children in the language that all lycans use when
in sapient death form, learned from the time they are old enough to
speak.

"Children, you must sit in
the back of your kennels. Be very quiet and do not attract
attention. Have your garlic sprays ready, and if vampires approach,
spray them and scream as loudly as you can. Do you
understand?"

All of the children
responded, saying, "
Yes King
Krynos
!" in their lycan tongue, and
sounding more like puppies than children.

Moments later, Donus and Kangor burst
into the room, with Donus giving their leader an update on the
battle, while Kangor guarded the entryway.

"
We have managed to destroy most of the lesser forces of
Vladros, and only his upper-caste remains. However, although they
are not plentiful in numbers, they are skilled and maintain some
form of magical protection, so we must fight together and carve a
path of ash through the corridors until none
remain
.
I also
assisted Lord Draagh in distracting his enemy, and it appears he
may yet gain the upper hand."

Krynos nodded his lupine head, and
looking around at the children (who were not following his previous
instructions), let out a nasty snarl that sent them to the backs of
their cubbyholes.

Returning his gaze to his
second in command, he growled, "
This room
has already been attacked by vampires, so it carries the scent of
death. I do not believe that any will again approach this
floor
."

While he stood near the door, Kangor
also gave his king a status update.

"
My Lord, the defenses worked as expected, and the majority of
the troops were decimated before scaling the walls. Plus, we also
bring good tidings,
"

"
And what would these good tidings be,
Kangor
?"

"
We shall not have to feed the sharks for at least a
fortnight
."

Donus smirk-growled, knowing that,
although true, Kangor attempted to lighten the mood, which had been
quite dark for the past hours.

Then, the three most powerful lycans in
the Rhönen Dominion bolted down the hallway, after Krynos had
kicked some vampire ashes out into the corridor and locked the
door, keeping the children relatively safe. Tearing through the
east wing, they looked out windows facing the courtyard to see
Draagh and Marnn fighting in their ancient arts. Numerous bolts of
light and eerie, opaque shields materialized out of thin air as the
stalemate continued. Sounds like electrified, burning metal sizzled
through the air. As they hit the master stairway, all three dropped
to the lower floor, where they had detected the rotting stench of
the enemy. They split up, with Krynos heading out alone, and Donus
and Kangor ghosting their leader. Although they were animals,
sapient werewolves were extremely intelligent - one could say much
brighter than when in their day form, and this was simply a lycan
battle tactic.

They were no longer defending their castle -
they were hunting vampires.

###

Draagh and Marnn continued their
otherworldly battle, staffs flashing brilliantly, with deadly beams
of energy and defensive shields being subconsciously generated. All
seemed to lead to a stalemate, until both mages simultaneously
fired an offensive combination of identical flame and gravity
cantuses at each other, knocking themselves back tens of meters in
opposite directions. Draagh was up first and quickly shot over to
his downed brother. Shocked, Marnn opened his eyes to see his
detested sibling standing over him, with an angry, yet concerned
look. Draagh had his glowing staff pointed directly at Marnn's
face, ready to inflict serious damage, and after many long seconds
finally spoke.

"Brother, you indeed have serious
issues with which to contend, and although it is not my place to
kill you, as I have sworn to preserve life to the utmost of my
abilities, you can no longer exist on this plane. I truly am sorry
for what I must do, as you have gone beyond the pale."

Not wishing to expose himself to
another moment of danger, he executed his cantus:

"
Moverincatatio exilium purgatorio"

Marnn disappeared to a dimensional
purgatory from which he would never escape, followed by a sucking
sound that terminated in a loud pop. He would continue existing,
but in blank nothingness. For most that was a fate worse than
death.

Draagh kneeled down and picked up his
brother's staff, left behind when the fallen mage was forever
banished. Appraising the dark mage's device, he thought he might
hold onto it for a while, but then reconsidered.

Max will not be ready for
quite some time, and when the time does come, he will find his
ghanlo just like the rest of us.

The staff of a Primulus was
no ordinary walking stick, nor even a magical object of great
power. Inside it was a living entity, the
ghanlo
, and although not sentient,
it had immortal life and therefore could not be killed or even
disposed of. The object in which it resided could not be broken; it
was not affected by the elements, and it withstood the ravages of
the deadliest radiation and even the burning fires of a sun.
Prīmulī could change the object in which their
ghanlo resided, and Draagh himself had carried his in the form of a
sword many centuries before (when he used to pal around with
Vikings). T
he
staffs of minor-mages were indeed simply wooden objects
through which they channeled their abilities and collected some 3D
computational data, but for the most part they were as valuable as
a wooden pole. Draagh's ghanlo was nearly old as the galaxy itself,
as it was created when he was - so connected were the
two.

Mentally concentrating on the local
area, he saw that Max and Jennie were safe in their cells, the
children had been saved by Krynos, and the lycan king and his top
two aides were quickly dispatching the invading forces, so he
decided to dispose of the staff before heading down and finishing
off the invaders.

As he stood there, with Marnn's staff
in his hands, he knew he was required to send it far away, to a
place that not even he could find, to rest within an object of
cultural importance that was not of his knowledge. This was the law
for ghanlos detached from their masters. The ghanlo had already
terminated its connection with Marnn as soon as its former patron
was banished, so it would simply wait until again
claimed.

He gazed upon the black pole with an
ornate headstock and then, setting it down, brought up his own
infoscreen and started randomly typing data into the seemingly
intangible interface. Before he could finish his 4d slip data
entry, which was to take the staff, Socrates coalesced into
view.

"Lord Draagh, greetings."

Chapter 25 - Liliana to the Rescue

Deep within the walls of the castle,
Liliana dropped to the ground inside her vertical access tunnel,
having reached the dungeon where the phase 3 lycans were being
housed. Howls and snarls immediately commenced, all having detected
her scent. She used the same cantus as before, blowing out the iron
grate and cautiously sticking her head out, looking in every
direction for any sort of danger.

After determining that no one was loose
in death form, she crept down the corridor, attempting to find
Jennie - the only problem was that she didn't know what Jennie
looked like in phase 3.

Liliana peered into each
cell, with nearly every werewolf growling and snapping hungrily at
her. She had almost reached the end when she saw two very unusual
werewolves in adjacent cells. One, a female, had a particularly
glossy black coat and was relatively small in size compared to the
others. The male in the cell next to the female had a medium brown
coat, and was slightly larger. The odd thing was that they both
seemed so calm, simply sitting on their hindquarters and keeping as
close together as they could, despite their common wall.
Liliana took one look and knew that they were
Jennie and Max.

"Jennie! I know it is you. I am so glad
you are safe, but we need your help for we have been attacked by
the enemy - vampires are in the castle, and a battle continues as I
speak."

Phase 3 Jennie just sat and looked at
the little girl without moving. The little girl neared the cage
that housed her transformed friend, and for a moment it seemed as
if she could reach out and touch the werewolf, but the its face
suddenly contorted and snarled, as it snapped at the little
girl.

Scared, Liliana jumped back, a tear
rolling down her small cheek, but she knew that she had to try to
help her to change back with something untested. Frightened, she
pulled out the power gauntlet. The werewolf had stopped snarling,
and was watching the little girl put the quadrinium device onto her
hand. Then, as if knowing what was to happen, it sat in the middle
of the cage and closed its eyes. Liliana lifted the gauntlet with
purpose, and pointed it at her friend.

"Electrincantatio
quassatio!"

A massive burst of electricity shot out
from the glove and hit phase 3 Jennie squarely in the chest,
knocking the werewolf back against the wall, with ample amounts of
smoke and the stink of burnt fur filling the air.

"Jennie! No! Jennie!" cried out the
little lycan. "Please don't be dead! Please wake up!"

The child was so concerned with her friend
that she didn't notice a mid-level vampire soldier had found the
dungeon, and was creeping up behind her. The cacophony of scents
and chaos in the castle prevented her young, nascent senses from
detecting the immediate danger until the last second. Phase 3s were
going wild in their cages, not being able to get at their mortal
enemy that stood right before them.

"Lycan child, this shall be fun," the
decrepit creature hissed, as he raised his knifed hand, preparing
to plunge the blade into her small frame. His rotting smile held
nothing but evil intent, masked by near-dead eyes.