Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
‘Stop!’ I shouted.
Alan held the knife steady. He didn’t slice any deeper but neither did he move his hand away.
‘Stop? Why?’ he asked. ‘You have made your opinion clear, but you have to realise that the monster must be fed. The last time it ate was when Lord Chester sacrificed himself. I had hoped to offer it two meals to lengthen the time before it attacks us again – it prefers its food alive and kicking. Such double sacrifices gain us forty days rather than thirty.’ He shrugged.
‘It is what it is. Rather than two living people, it will feast upon one dead body. There is no choice. The monster cannot be stopped and it must eat.’
‘I won’t let you do this, Alan.’
‘You must,’ he replied dispassionately.
I gritted my teeth. I was fast and capable but I had no hope of reaching Eric before Alan plunged in his knife deep enough to kill him.
I wasn’t sure I believed what he was telling me about this maze monster, but I did believe he was about to end Eric’s life.
I had to think quickly. There was still a way out of this. There had to be.
‘Uhnnnnn.’
I jerked. So did Alan. We both turned and stared at Eric.
‘Do it,’ the thrall grunted, apparently conscious of what was happening. ‘Kill me.’
He wasn’t helping his cause.
Alan shot me a triumphant look. ‘See? He wants this.’
Eric raised his head, his eyes wild. ‘I do. If this is where my lord died, this is where I should die too. It’s for the greater good. It will help the vampires.’
Except his death here wouldn’t help them; it wouldn’t solve their problem, it would only delay it. I switched my gaze to Alan. ‘And what happens in another month or so when the monster has to feed again? How many lambs will you sacrifice here?’
He remained impassive; he truly believed he was doing the right thing. ‘As many as it takes. There is no other option, Kit. Too many of us have already died.’
‘I am happy to die here,’ Eric whispered.
‘Shut up!’ I snapped as I continued to focus on Alan. ‘Do all of you know about this? Do all vampires believe it’s right to sacrifice any non-vamp who is unlucky enough to wander through the Understream?’
‘Given sufficient time and enough deaths amongst our people, they will believe as I do,’ he answered calmly. ‘They will see that Lord Chester was trying to help them, as am I. Eric is helping them too, in his own way.’
His expression grew more earnest and it made my insides crawl with revulsion. ‘Sooner or later, the monster will return to its slumber and all this will end. Until then, all we can do is feed it.’
‘You don’t know it will return to hibernation.’
He shrugged. ‘I have to believe it.’
Eric wheezed: that idiot thrall wasn’t giving up. ‘I want to make the ultimate sacrifice. I’m happy for this to happen.’
I held my temper. Just. ‘You don’t want to be monster food, Eric.’
He gazed at me with watery eyes. ‘I do. This is my choice.’
I was aware that Alan was smiling. I glanced at him again and, almost without realising, started to hum. I bit the inside of my cheek as hard as I could to make myself stop.
‘Fuck off,’ I said aloud as I pulled back my shoulders. ‘I will take his place.’
Alan was surprised enough to drop his hand. The knife slipped from Eric’s neck for the briefest moment before he recovered and returned it. ‘What?’
Eric’s jaw slackened as he blinked at me. ‘What?’
‘Give me your word that you will let Eric go and I give you my word that I will take his place,’ I said. ‘I will chain myself up – you can watch me do it. Hell, you can stay and watch your monster eat me, if you want.’
‘It’s not my monster,’ Alan muttered, although I could already see the cogs whirring inside his head. He could control Eric but he couldn’t control me, so his best option was to get me out of the way – and I was offering my life up to him on a plate. ‘Why would you do this?’
‘It’s like you said,’ I told him. ‘It’s for the greater good.’
Eric was shaking his head. ‘No! No! I want to die. It should be me! I want to join my Lord Chester!’
‘Your Lord Chester sacked you,’ I reminded him. I eyed Alan. ‘Well?’
His red eyes narrowed thoughtfully then he jerked his head in assent. He pointed to the empty pole. ‘Chain yourself up there and I give you my word that I will free Eric.’
‘Sacrifice me. Leave me for the monster,’ the thrall whined.
I ignored him and tossed my stake into my backpack.
‘Drop the bag first,’ Alan ordered.
I did as he asked. ‘I won’t try anything funny but let my keep my bag. I give you my word that I will chain myself up right here.’ Magic crackled around me as I freely offered my vow. Alan must have felt it as much as I did because he visibly relaxed.
‘Leave it anyway,’ he said.
I nodded as if that were no problem although I was cursing inside.
I walked to the pole and picked up the heavy chains. As soon as I touched them, I felt the sting of warded magic bound into the metal; no spell that I knew of would release these chains. I grimaced, looped the chains around the pole and snapped the cuffs around my wrists.
As soon as I was secure, Alan moved the knife away from Eric, dug a key out of his pocket and released him.
‘I’m not leaving!’ Eric wrapped his arms around himself and glared at me.
‘Get him out of here, Alan,’ I growled.
The vampire frowned. That bastard was thinking about leaving us both here. He’d fulfilled his vow by unchaining Eric, so he could walk away with a skip in his step and nary a guilty thought in his head. Then something flickered in his eyes.
Damn. I knew what was going through his head. He could do as I wanted and pull Eric to safety then use him as the next sacrifice in a few weeks’ time.
He was a cold-hearted, calculating fuck. Sure, I had killed plenty of people in my time, but not like this. Never like this.
Alan grabbed Eric’s arms and dragged him away. The thrall howled and kicked, but he was weak and couldn’t resist. I watched as the vampire picked up my backpack and turned to give me one last look. ‘Thank you for your sacrifice,’ he intoned.
‘Give me a pretty plaque in your memorial tunnel.’
He blinked. ‘Oh, we don’t do that for sacrifices,’ he said.
At that point, my heart hardened completely. They didn’t memorialise sacrifices because they didn’t want to remember they were responsible for them. Alan didn’t want to acknowledge his guilt in my demise.
He deciphered my expression and dropped his gaze, then the last of my light spell blinked out and I was left in the all-consuming dark.
‘I want to stay! I want to die!’ Eric moaned.
‘Enough,’ Alan retorted.
I heard his footsteps and Eric’s moans fade away. Before long, the cavern was completely silent.
For several moments I didn’t move. Part of me wondered whether Alan’s maze monster would show itself immediately, teeth gnashing and claws thumping as it came to rip me apart, but I could hear nothing. It was possible I could wait for its arrival for hours, if not days.
I sighed, still annoyed that Alan had taken my backpack, sat myself down awkwardly on the cold stone ground and called out, ‘Come on then. Out you come.’
I heard a distant rustle followed by the tiniest of purrs. A few seconds later, I felt warm fur brush against my fingertips as the silver Maine Coon reached me. ‘Were you following me?’ I asked. ‘Or did you simply happen to be here?’
The cat didn’t answer.
‘Do you know Trilby?’
Again, nothing.
I tried for the easiest question of all. ‘What’s your name?’
Nada, zip, zilch, but he did give me a fuzzy headbutt. I stroked him. ‘You know what’s about to happen? You’re okay with this?’
This time I received a definitive answer. The cat miaowed once and licked my fingers. I exhaled. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Thank you.’
I’d been banking on the handsome moggy’s help as soon as I’d realised he was lurking in the dark shadows behind Alan but there had always been the possibility that the cat would decline.
I scratched his ears to indicate my gratitude, then plucked a tiny clump of fur from his flank.
He didn’t protest; in fact, the long-haired beauty purred his approval.
The chains that were clamped around my wrists and held me in place were warded against magic but my escape involved me bespelling myself, not the chains, so no ward in the world could stop me. It was one of the many benefits of being a cat sith.
My transformation would be tricky because I needed to arrange my limbs to avoid twisting and breaking any bones when I shapeshifted, but I’d done it several times from handcuffs in the past and I knew exactly what was possible.
I tilted my head and swallowed the fur. Bring on the cat.
Thirty seconds later I was free. On four legs, I stepped carefully away from the chains and circled, checking out my new body.
Interesting.
I had transformed into cats on far too many occasions to keep count.
Every transformation was slightly different as I took on the characteristics of whichever cat’s fur I used.
I could see echoes of the dead when I used She Who Loves Sunbeams; I could jump higher and had greater stamina when I ate fur from He Who Roams Wide, and I felt more belligerent when I used She Without An Ear.
I had anticipated a surge of something different from the Maine Coon, but nothing felt unusual.
Physically, I was a long-haired cat but in my head I was still me.
I turned around then jumped up and landed on the same spot. I gave a small miaow. So far so very normal. I didn’t need a Wicker spell to see now; my feline eyes were capable of piercing through this darkness to register shapes, shadows and closer objects.
My tail twitched and I glanced at my donor. The Maine Coon was sitting on his haunches watching me. The intelligence in his eyes was unmistakable; this was no ordinary cat but I was none the wiser as to how or why.
His tail flicked with annoyance at my ongoing perusal. He was right: this wasn’t the time for questions. We both had to get out of here – and quickly. I glanced behind me at the looming wall of the Night Maze and my ears flicked defiantly.
Then, with the Maine Coon by my side, I padded away from the Maze and escaped into the tunnel beyond.