Traitors' Gate (5 page)

Chapter Ten

The boat ride into
the Tower is surprisingly long, even with Philippe and Tolliver rowing, but the
closer we get, the more I can smell the foulest of odors. It’s a mixture of
curdled milk and rotted pig meat.

“What is that
stench?”

“The revenants
would not be rotten so quickly. I think it must be the animals,” Philippe
answers me.

“The Tower has a
menagerie of exotic animals, gifts from foreign kingdoms.” Tolliver points
toward the Tower’s courtyard.

“Are they loose?”
I ask, suddenly imagining having to fight lions and zombies at once like some
supernatural gladiator waiting for a thumbs-down from the gods.

“They weren’t, but
there’s no telling now,” Tolliver replies, not looking at me, but staring into
the distance.

We fall into a
comfortable silence listening to the water smack the side of our boat and soon,
as we get closer, we hear the cries of myriad unknown dangers.

“Can animals be
revenants?” I ask.

“No, darling,
magic shouldn’t work on them,” Nicholas whispers to me, pulling me closer to
him so I’m all but sat on his lap.

I’m just starting
to enjoy the moonlight boat ride in the arms of my soon-to-be husband when we
clunk into the tiny dock. Philippe jumps out and offers me his hand, which I
take. He helps me off the boat and surprisingly does the same for both Nicholas
and Philippe.
 
The man is a true
gentleman and I find I’m growing even fonder of him. Tolliver has still
retained his original mood, but even as I think this he reaches inside his
cloak and produces a small sword, which he hands to me.

“She won’t need
it,” Nicholas says.

“Better to have it
and not need it, than need it and not have it.” Tolliver flips the sword so
that the handle is pointed at me. I gently take it from him. “Thank you,” I
say. He smiles a little at me for a moment, then I’m pretty sure he remembers
that I really don’t belong with them, and that I especially don’t belong here,
and then the smile is gone.

Our walk toward
the main Tower is slow and deliberate. We kill an undead raven here and there,
although the vampires beat me to all of them with their super-speed and senses.

I try to think of
all this as some sort of game, so I attempt to ignore the cries emanating from
the Tower. I’m sure that it isn’t unusual for them to echo about England’s most
notorious prison, but the pitch of the cries is somehow different: more
guttural, less human.

“Everything is
going to be okay.” Nicholas squeezes my hand. The vampires’ stride quickens as
they approach the wooden door to the main tower, encrusted with giant spikes.
They push it open and an even more horrendous smell smacks my face so hard I
stumble backwards.

“That is the smell
of revenants,” Tolliver explains.

“Wonderful,” I
say, lifting my fur cloak to my nose in an attempt to block out some of the
stench.

The guards have
obviously evacuated their stations as there are only a few candles still
burning.
 
Shadows and darkness melt into
one another, making the scenery around me like a black blanket smothering my
senses. I cling tighter to Nicholas’s arm as we walk further in.

For a reason that
I cannot fathom, it feels colder inside the Tower than outside. My hand,
although gloved, feels numb around my sword’s handle—so much so, I have to tap
the blade to my leg as we walk to reassure myself that it’s still there.

“All the prisoners
must still be locked up,” Tolliver says, but his tone is more of a question
than a statement.

“Where would the
princes imprisoned?” I ask.

“The top of the
Tower. They are not actually prisoners,” Nicholas replies.

“Really, is that
what you think, brother?” Even in the near darkness I see Tolliver’s face
contort in disbelief.
 

Nicholas grunts
and walks a little faster, slightly dragging me behind him.

We seem to walk
forever, then finally reach the first room of the Tower. It is lightly
furnished in red and purple velvet. There’s a carpet runner on the floor
beneath our feet and thick curtains over the small windows. I let go of
Nicholas’s hand and move toward a window. I open the curtain and breathe in
fresh air. Looking out of the window, I see that we are much higher up than I
thought. I back away and turn to see all three vampires looking at me.

“Let her out,
Nicholas. We can lower her out of one of these windows, then pick her up on the
way back. No one needs to know,” Philippe says.

“Good idea, let’s
do it.” Nicholas grabs a nearby curtain and yanks it down. He then makes a
strange noose out of it and approaches me.

I put up my hands
and back away from him. “You’re not doing that. I said I’d help save the little
princes, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Please, just let
me…”

“No, Nicholas.
Those young boys are probably frightened out of their minds. Vampires shouldn’t
add to their nightmare tonight. I’m going to get them out of here.”

He drops the
curtain and smiles at me. “I love you, you know.”

I never imagined
any man saying that to me, and it takes everything I’ve got not to run into his
arms and kiss him till the sun comes up.

“Okay, let’s get
this romance on the road, there might not be any princes left to rescue if we
don’t get moving.” Tolliver kicks the abandoned curtain out of the way and
strides off through a door.

Nicholas offers
his hand, which I eagerly take again, and we follow Tolliver deeper into the
dark, foul-smelling bowels of the Tower.

The vampires hear
it before me. I know they do, because Nicholas’s hand tenses around mine. I
hear it minutes later and it makes my stomach turn.

Chapter Eleven

The groans that we
had heard coming into the Tower’s grounds were nothing compared to this. Cages
line the next corridor and inside each one we pass is a confined, tightly
pressed mob of the undead, reaching and screaming to get at our flesh. Some
push so hard at the bars that the zombie closest to them is sieved through the
iron posts into a twitching pile of splintered bones, squashed flesh and putrid
innards. And still those piles are trying to find a way to get to us. Tolliver
has now fully taken the lead and is chopping off parts here and there. Philippe
is gently slipping his rapier through ears and eye sockets. Nicholas wraps me
in his arms, shuffling me forward from behind. At least they are all still
caged. If they had been free, I’m not sure I would have survived this zombie
gauntlet to get to the top of the Tower.

Finally, we reach
a steep, narrow staircase that leads to the princes’ prison. We open the door
and scan the room. It is a decadent cell, but a cell nonetheless. It is also
empty.

“Where could they
have gone?” Tolliver asks.

I move into the
center of the room and look around. There’s only one door, the one we used, so
either they got out on their own and are somewhere lost in the Tower, or they
are still here… I look at the two beds, still immaculately made, with long,
thick woolen blankets draped over them. I tiptoe toward the nearest one and
lift the edge up. A frightened little face stares back at me. “It’s okay, we’re
here to rescue you,” I say.

I’m not sure he’s
really understood in what I’ve said, since he doesn’t move or speak. I reach
under the bed, gently take his arm and slide him out. “There, that’s better
isn’t it? We can see each other properly now.”

As I say this,
another little boy crawls out from under the other bed and jumps into my arms.
He hugs me so hard I stop breathing. “It’s okay,” I whisper to him, “we’re
going to get you out of here.”

“I know,” the
little boy in my arms whispers back to me. “I saw you in my head, you’re
Lucinda and that is Nicholas, Tolliver and Philippe. They’re vampires.” My eyes
widen.

Tolliver claps his
hands together. “Edward has the gift. That’s why they were locked up.”

“Would the English
monarchy be so cruel to a child?” Philippe asks.

“Yes, if they
think that unexplained visions of the future might be considered the Devil’s
work. The War of the Roses has made the lineage of the King uncertain, and they
could lose support if their lords thought their family was touched by Lucifer,”
Tolliver says.

Nicholas nods in
agreement and all three vampires bend down to shake hands with the little boy.
His younger brother, Richard, still almost catatonic, curls into my body. He
now has a thumb lodged in his mouth and his stare is lost somewhere in the
middle distance. “Will he be all right?” I ask Nicholas.

“Yes, we just need
to get him out of here.”

Nicholas tries to
hoist the boy into his arms, but he squirms and lets out a short, sharp wail. I
quickly shift him back into my own arms, allowing his surprisingly hefty weight
to settle on my hip. Richard puts his face into my shoulder and begins to chew
on my fur cloak.

“I’m sorry about
my brother. I tried to tell him that we’ll be okay, but he doesn’t always
listen to me.” Edward reaches up and pats his brother’s back.

I wrap my arms
around Richard to stop him from falling, although I think it might be a
fruitless gesture as his legs are python tight around my body.

“Let’s go,” says
Tolliver taking Edward’s hand in his.

Just as we begin
to move out of the room, an ominous grinding metal sound echoes up the stairs.

“He’s letting the
zombies out now,” says Edward.

Chapter Twelve

We quickly close
the door, trapping ourselves in the boys’ room. Philippe drags a nearby chest
of drawers in front of it and Nicholas grabs a tapestry chaise longue to push
on top of that, barricading us in.

“There’s no other
way out,” Tolliver says, looking round.

“There’s the
window,” I yell. I move toward it, albeit slower due to my child baggage.
 
I push the heavy curtains aside and stare out
of the hole that claims to be a window. We’re far too high up to jump and below
are now a clump of undead prisoners. Some are pushing themselves onto the
stones of the tower, trying to grip on, while others are feasting on the
remains of one of the Tower’s lions. I put my hand up to be sure that Richard
has his face turned away. I can’t stop staring at the scene below; even if I
could the sounds are enough to make you vomit, insistent groaning coupled with
sloppy slurping and skin being ripped asunder. As I watch, Nicholas edges
beside me to see what I’m looking at. He murmurs something in a language I’ve
never heard before and starts to pull me away. As I’m gently guided backward I
see the half-eaten lion twitch and stumble to its feet. Didn’t Nicholas say
that the animals wouldn’t be affected?
   

The zombies then
lose interest with their meal and all of them start to clamber up the Tower’s
wall. I tense my body, stopping Nicholas’s efforts to get me further back in
the room. Now there are more of them, they can climb onto one another’s backs
and pull themselves further up the wall. Some reach up and grab onto jutting
stones. They start to pull themselves up, creeping up to the open window of the
Tower.
 

A loud bang makes
me jump and I turn to see the door shiver and one of the drawers from the chest
clatter to the floor.

“Can we go out the
window?” Tolliver asks.

“They’re climbing
the walls,” I whisper.

“What do we do?”
Philippe asks as he places his back against the now jumping furniture blockade.

Nicholas turns to
me. He looks worried. A look I’ve never seen before.

“We can fight
them,” I say. “We can funnel them through the door with the furniture. With
your strength and speed, we should be able to quickly dispatch them as they
stumble in. They may be dangerous, but they’re not as dangerous as vampires.”

All eyes are on
me. Nicholas smiles.

“I think I kind of
love her too,” Philippe says with a grin.

I take both boys
to the back of the room and cover them in a blanket to shield their eyes.
Philippe begins unstacking the barricade and Nicholas and Tolliver place the
furniture either side of the doorframe, making a kind of makeshift
corridor.
 
They then lift one of the
wooden bed frames and place it in front of me and the boys. As they move to
their positions, I catch Nicholas’s hand and pull him to me. I angle my face
upward and gently catch his bottom lip in my mouth. He puts his palms on my
cheeks and holds me to him. I close my eyes and wonder if this is our last kiss
and if vampires are allowed into Heaven, or even if I will be if things go
horribly wrong.

“We will have a
wonderful eternity together,” Nicholas whispers to me.

I open my eyes and
a thousand things I want to say crush together into my mouth and nothing comes
out, so I lift his hands and place a chaste kiss on each of his palms, hoping
our love will make his sword true.

“That’s enough of
that, let’s focus!” Tolliver yells at us.

Nicholas turns
from me and all the vampires unsheathe their swords. I sit on the floor with
the boys and wait…

The wood of the
door seems to bulge, then suddenly splinter in two. Zombie prisoners fall
through into a heap at the vampires’ feet. With fast strikes, they begin
beheading the foul creatures. Part of me wants to close my eyes till it’s over,
to hide under the blanket with the princes, but the more dominant part of me
demands I watch every tumbling head, every slash and slice, because it’s that
side of me that knows I was born to be a vampire.

I have an arm
hugging each of the boys, so if a zombie were to make it through the line, I’d
have to move quickly to stop it. Realizing this error, I get to my feet and
stand in front of them, sword out and ready to spill some dead blood. As I take
my arm from Edward’s narrow shoulders, he grips my hand and looks sad.

“It’ll be okay,” I
say to him, but his eyes are glassy and unfocused.

“He’s getting a
vision,” whispers Richard.

I really want to
know what he’s seeing, even if I’m unsure as to whether to believe it or
not.
 
As far as I know their scheming
uncle has tricked Edward into thinking he has visions as an excuse to get rid
of his royal competition.

I pull the boys
into one another’s arms and stand up in front of them. Just as I do, a zombie
lunges past Tolliver and falls toward me. Its head lolls back exposing red and
yellow teeth. I poke out with my sword, hoping to skewer it through the
eyeball, but misjudge the angle and instead scrape its ear clean off. The
momentum of the motion pulls me forward into its waiting arms. I grab its
shoulders and steady myself. I quickly drive a knee into the zombie’s groin,
which of course does very little other than to anger it. A string of violent
vowels drip from its mouth along with a trail of pinkish saliva. I flip my
sword back up and thrust again. This time it buries itself in the zombie’s
mouth.

“Zut!” I yell and
move the blade’s grip in my hand so I can fall to my knees and thrust it up
through the top of the zombie’s mouth and into its brain. Finally it falls
down. I hear clapping. When I look up I see Tolliver holding back Nicholas and
Philippe, poised to strike.

“See, brother, she
can handle herself,” Tolliver says, letting Nicholas go.

I really want to
slap Tolliver. I suspect he let that zombie by him deliberately. They had
obviously dispatched the others beforehand, as there is now a pile of
quivering, rotting limbs in front of the door.

My sword, although
small and slim, begins to feel heavy in my hand so I put it back in my belt.
Tears are gathering in the corners of my eyes and I turn toward the princes to
avoid the vampires seeing them. Edward launches himself forward and hugs me,
closely followed by his brother. “It’s okay,” I whisper.

“Those are not all
the prisoners and we still have St. John to deal with,” Tolliver says as he
steps beside me and hoists Edward into his arms. I go to pick up Richard but
Philippe beats me to it.

“Lucinda,”
Nicholas says, but I ignore him. Whatever fight I had in me is now diluted. I’m
not a vampire yet, and trying to act like one will probably get me killed. I
can’t let my love see this. I flash him a quick smile and stride out of the
room, kicking a few undead heads as I do.

As we carefully
make our way out of the Tower, Nicholas grabs my hand and pulls me behind him.
I don’t have the energy to complain so I fall in line, sandwiched in the middle
of our small group. We pick up the pace and make it to a great hall that
connects the guards’ barracks with the royal prison.

It’s colder now,
or maybe I’m colder. I really can’t tell. I’ve never felt like this before, so
overwhelmed and breakable…. A roar bounces off the stone walls and bounding
shadows seem to suddenly surround us.

“Well isn’t this
interesting,” says a man whose bulk now blocks our exit. I look around at the
shadows, my eyes focusing on what they are. It’s a pride of lions, but their
eyes are red and their teeth are enlarged and extended. They prowl around us in
a circle, forcing our group to clump together in an easier target.

“You must be St.
John,” Nicholas says.

The enchanter
inches forward and takes a bow. He’s not an attractive man. His skin is scabby
and sallow and his eyes are an unnerving shade of light blue. He’s wearing a
thick purple cape and is covered in jewelry.

“Gotten into the
Crown Jewels, I see,” Philippe states, staring at the nearest lion.

St. John chuckles
and actually blushes. “Well, it would be a waste not to.”

A lion nips at my
heel, making me jump.

“What do we have
here? A female vampire? My, I thought that was illegal. You know you’ve picked
the wrong side, dear,” he says shuffling a little toward me. “We worship our
women, not like this undead lot.” He points at Nicholas, who snarls back.

“We are not your
revenants. We are not undead,” growls Tolliver.

“Ah, but you
forget, a good enchanter can feel the tug of all death.” He raises his hands
and a strange green mist starts to tumble from his palms.

“No!” Philippe
yells. He turns to me quickly and hands me Richard. Toliver puts down Edward
who grabs my hand and starts to pull me away from the vampires.

“What’s
happening?” I whisper.

In a flash,
Philippe, Tolliver and Nicholas pull out their swords and swipe them out toward
their nearest friend. The blades stop inches before their throats. They stand
in a sort of three-man triangle, each ready to chop the other’s head off. The
thin green mist lingers around them, not hiding their pained expressions.

“No!” I yell.

“Don’t worry dear,
we’ll dispatch these brutes, then you and I can play our own games. I’ve always
wanted a female vampire under my control. There are so few of you. You’re quite
a treasure, much more so than mere baubles.” He shrugs off the Crown Jewels and
steps over them toward me. He thinks I’m a vampire, that he can control me.
He’s dead wrong.