’I don’t know.’ I replied honestly.
Either way her eyes never left my body, waiting for an answer that never came.
An hour later our surroundings had batrly changed – the boat stilled inched toward the stretch of land on the horizon.
And I still hadn’t moved or said anything, and neither had Fey.
Perhaps more time would have passed us by like this, I had not heard something that made my blood run cold.
Fey tensed, she had heard it too . .
It was a scraping noise, like something large dragging itself across the hull of our boat with rows of serated teeth.
I leaned over the boats gunwale and saw it:
It was the size of an elephant and dragging itself across the hull toward us.
It hissed and snarled, its front half mass of elongated serpentine necks writhing in all directions.
I counted the necks in horror – at least a dozen, each topped with a cobra’s head.
Its skin was a scaly dark bronze, and each head revealed a pair of fangs dripping green with venom.
It was untouched by the chaos of the sea of death as it scaled upward, drawing its entire body out of the red matter.
I readied myself for combat, but Fey locked eyes with me – it was a warning: Not yet.
Fey concentrated, and a shimmering black cloud enveloped us.
I understood her immediately.
Even if we could defeat the monster, our ship would not survive the battle, then we would be left at the mercy of the sea of death.
If it was tricked into thinking the ship was empty, It was possible that it might just pass us by.
But if I attacked now, there would be no salvaging the situation.
And so we waited.
And for a while, the plan seemed to work.
The beast had dragged itself on board, its colossal body prowling over the deck.
It didn’t to have noticed us yet.
’Be – very – still,’ Fey warned.
I obeyed her, because my life depended on it.
But something felt strange.
For a creature blind to our location, its movements were oddly deliberate.
It appeared to be flailing about, but every misplaced step only ever brought it closer to us.
I stole a glance at one of the heads. The serpents eyes were murky and grey: It was blind!?
The central serpent head snapped towards us.
’No!’ I tackled Fey and dove to the left with all my might.
Ducking out of the serpents path just as it lunged at our previous location and pulverised the wooden planks right were had been.
The monster turned to face us, all twelve serpent heads zeroing in.
’Were going to have to fight!’ I told Fey. I stretched open my palm and an orb of blue flame roared ferociously above it.
The sight of the blue flame attracted its attention. The monster whipped towards me with all its serpentine heads, hissing and baring its fangs.
’No dont!’ Fey yelled.
Too late. I lobbed a giant ball of fire at the monster. The monster burst into flames, collapsing in a pile of charred scales and steaming flesh.
But before I could rejoice, the remnant scales and flesh melted into a think reddish balck goo.
In a matter of seconds the monster’s form coalesced from the gunk, except that now its entire body was blazing with the same blue fire I had attenpted to destroy it with.
’Mason!’ Fey scolded. ’The creature we face is a demon beast. It feeds on all energies of destruction— even destructive properties of fire!’
We dodged another vicious strike. ’And now you tell me? How do we kill it?’
’Brute strength!’ Fey answered. ’We have to use pure, crushing force!’
As soon as she said that, she leaped toward the creature. Her body vibrated intensely a she prepared to shift.
But the creature was faster.
And the split second before the change was made, was all it needed.
It truck like lightning, sinking it’s fangs into her supple thigh. Fey screamed in agony. Then the creatures thick muscualr neck contracted— it was preparing to tear.
Without thinking, I hurtled forward, giving myself over to my instincts.
Fortunately the monster was distracted with its new prey.
It noticed my flight too late.
My own fangs worked remarkably, slicing the head biting Fey clean off.
It rolled off the ships deck and into the broiling sea, vaporizing as it touched the chaotic elements.
While I retreated with Fey the monster hissed and recoiled.
The gunk it bled squirmed as if it was alive and thickened into a new head.
Still what had just happened gave me an idea.
It clearly could be destroyed— but not while pieces of it where whole.
"One..." I counted, steeling my resolve. "Two...three!"
Thrn I dug into my magical reserves as archaic symbol for the word appeared in my mind: "Destroy!"
The glyph blazed over the monster’s body:
And everything around us crumbled. Destructive forces ripped through the even magically ehanced iron of the boats hull.
The air sparked with energy.
The sea of death heaved upward, creating a surging wave dozens of meters tall.
As for the monster, it disintegrated like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind.
I was hit by another wave of fatigue, but I had no time to dwell on it.
The boat shuddered and lurched, the engine groaning.
The runes etched into the ships hull flickered and dulled. I could feel it beginning to sink.
Worse, when I took a look at Fey, I was immediately scared stiff by what I saw.
The linen had been ripped where the monster had bit her, revealing two bloody holes that oozed a reddish green fluid.
Her skin was pale and clammy, and around the bite wounds it had begun to turn a shade of green.
Her eyes were dull and unfocused as as she regarded me.
I was desperately thinking about what to do when my ears picked up a strange chorus of sounds.
I was so focused on Fey that I didn’t hear the sound of dhampir voices screaming at me.
Wading towards us in the sea of chaos was the most serene ship I’d ever seen.
It was small— wooden— levitated gently on the red matter like a lilypad.
A symbol was emblazoned on the boat’s prow – the mark of clan Uttara.
And lining the deck were pale-skinned Uttarian Vampires – graceful creatures with the same perfect white faces I remembered.
Amongst then was a very familiar face. One I remembered from the great assembly.
He was standing at the ships prow, overlooking us with an easygoing smile.
’Axon?’ My acknowledgment came out sounding more like a question.
’Loser,’ He teased. ’But Lady Rea will flay me if I dont save you. Come on. Jump aboard.’
———’What happened to you,’ Axon asked.
I had finished touring the ship already— it wasn’t very large. I found Fey a hommock in the bunker and placed her on it to rest.
Several of Dhampir raised their eyebrows when they noticed her Sezarian features, but they said nothing.
’The Serzar tried to attack us under ruse of a truce,’ Axon explained ’Lady Rea suspected as much, and made ample preparations so we were able to repel them with minimal casualties.
But then you disappeared and she quite literally went crazy.’
’She sent you here to find me?’ I asked.
Axon nodded, ’None of the newly appointed houslords thought there was any possibility that I’d find you here, but they dared not voice any misgivings after what happend last time.’
’But who would of thought that in the unlikeliest place, we would actually find you?’He laughed.
"Now we can actually leave this damned place and–"
’No,’ I shook my head, ’I have a purpose here. I cannot leave until I accomplished it–’
He frowned ’Here in the demon- infested hellacape?.’
’My gaurdian is dying,’ I admitted. ’And the only thing that can save her is in –’
’No!’ One of closest dhampir pounded the railing. ’This place can offer you nothing besides a grave death, we must leave at once.’
’You all are free leave’ I cleched my jaw. ’I didn’t ask for your help’.
He practically wilted back at my roar. In fact I almost felt sorry for him.
Axon held up his hands to appease the both of us.
’And the poisoned woman in the bunker?’ Axon asked .
’I was captured by the Serzar. And she was the only reason I was able to escape. I owe her my life’ (Of course I couldn’t mention that Fey had been the one to capture me in the first place.)
Axon nodded. ’Then she is a friend to us as well.’ He barked a command to the other Vampires on the ships deck before continuing.
Mason, you’re tired and you probably haven’t fed in a while, have you?
We will keep watch. Rest up and let’s discuss all this properly in the morning’
Next Chapter Title: Truth