Chapter Eleven #2
Without waiting, he set off from the coop at a faster pace than any injured mortal ever could, but what must have felt like a snail’s pace to a creature who could outrun light itself.
I gathered up my robe with the crucifix still inside as we passed where we’d fallen, but by the time I rose Raleigh had continued on in the wrong direction.
It was only as we reached the next block that he slowed long enough for me to catch up.
It was much darker here; the houses were unlit. Either the occupants were sleeping or Raleigh had visited here before. The moon’s light could barely make it through the jutting shadow of the mountain.
I caught him by his remaining sleeve and tried to tug him back in the right direction. ‘You’re going the wrong way.’
‘I’m not. We need to take the mountain path.’
‘The mountain path? I can’t scale the glacier, Raleigh, that would take days.’
‘I’ll carry you.’
‘You’re one bad move away from losing an arm. If we want to reach the castle before sunrise, we have to use the bridge.’
He hissed my name through his teeth like a curse. ‘You know I can’t cross the bridge.’
Of course. Vampires couldn’t cross running water; it was the reason he had dammed the river in the first place.
‘What will happen if you do?’
‘You may need a refresher on what “can’t” means.’
‘But if you were forced to.’ He opened his mouth for another inane reply, so I added, ‘If someone chained you up and dragged you across, what would happen?’
Lights were starting to bloom through the village ahead of us. The men Father had gathered were closing in on the base of the mountain already. We would never be able to take that route, even if Raleigh was in perfect health. He must have understood that we only had one option.
‘Nothing permanent. Sometimes when I travel I have no other choice, but I have to be driven across by someone else. I physically cannot make myself cross on my own.’
‘So you won’t combust?’
‘No … Probably not. I wouldn’t care to find out what happens if I linger too long over the water.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘You don’t really expect me to cross, do you?’
‘We’ll find a way. Come on.’
Raleigh started to protest but didn’t resist when I grabbed his arm and started to drag him through the shadows. We’d only reached the next house over when a voice to our left made us both freeze. Without thinking, I swung Raleigh into the scrub and dived after him.
‘This is new,’ Raleigh remarked. We were nose to nose in the dirt, my knees on either side of his hips.
I clamped my hand over his mouth before he could say anything else that would make me want to hand him in to my father, just in time for two pairs of boots to appear in our vision.
One set passed by without hesitation. The other stopped mere inches from Raleigh’s face.
‘Did you hear something?’
I recognised the voice – it was Kay. Had Father alerted the whole village? I held my breath, praying that the shadows were deep enough to hide us.
‘No. Come on, let’s keep going.’ That was Yann’s grandfather, Klaus.
‘Hand me the torch.’
Raleigh tensed under me. Klaus grumbled and handed the torch over. The light edged closer, shadows dancing around us. I ducked as low as I could, pressing the full length of my body against Raleigh’s, silently praying Kay would stop before he reached us.
Then the light fell over us, and there was nowhere left to hide.
Kay inhaled sharply. He opened his mouth to call the others, but no sound came out.
His face went slack, the torch dropped to his side and he turned away, leaving us in the darkness.
‘There’s nothing there,’ Kay said. ‘We should rejoin the others.’ He passed the torch back to Klaus and they set off without another word.
The moment they were out of sight I scrambled to my feet, grateful to put some distance between me and Raleigh. ‘Was that you?’ I asked.
‘It was a simple glamour,’ he said, picking himself up off the ground. ‘Nothing remarkable.’
‘Couldn’t you make them stop looking for us altogether?’
‘No.’ Raleigh started walking again. ‘They want to find us. I can disorient, or make people forget, but I can’t force anyone to do something they don’t want to.’
I frowned. That didn’t line up with everything I’d read in my research. If that much was true, no one would ever invite a vampire into their home. I whispered this to him, and he glared at me.
‘I didn’t say no one can, I said I can’t.’ He sounded annoyed. ‘Not anymore. Now, be quiet before someone else finds us.’
We kept to the shadows until we reached the edge of town, listening for signs that anyone else had come this far.
Raleigh stopped as we reached the final house.
From what I could tell, it was unpatrolled.
The only barrier between us and the safety of the woods was the bridge itself.
All we needed to do was achieve the impossible.
Raleigh eyed the river, looking faintly sick. ‘Do you know the way back on your own?’
‘We’re not separating,’ I hissed.
‘I can’t cross the river, and you can’t climb. You cross here, I’ll take the mountain road. We’ll meet at the castle in the morning.’
‘Half of Orlfen is on the mountain road.’ He knew it too. Golden flecks of light were clustered at the base of the mountain, plainly visible even from here.
‘I could take them all on if I had to.’
‘Yann had one hand tied and you couldn’t fight him. Do you think they haven’t brought every crucifix in town with them now that they know exactly how to weaken you?’
‘What’s your plan, then?’
My eyes travelled along the riverbank. There was only one option, and Raleigh wasn’t going to like it. ‘I’m going to carry you across.’
Raleigh stiffened. ‘Absolutely not.’
‘What alternative do we have?’ Every scenario I could think of ended with either me lost in the woods or him at the end of a stake.
‘Could you even lift me?’
I sized him up. His slim shadow cut sharply against the moonlight. Aside from his height there wasn’t a great deal of him. If there was ever a man I could lift it would probably be Raleigh. ‘There’s only one way to find out.’
Raleigh took one final look back at the western mountain, then sighed. ‘Fine. Let’s do this quickly.’
We crept into the open moonlight, keeping our eyes peeled for any waiting ambush. If this was going to work, we had to start as close to the river as possible to minimise the amount of time Raleigh spent on my back. He managed only one step onto the bridge before seizing up and lurching backwards.
‘You’ll have to start here.’
I stared back across the bridge. It suddenly seemed so much longer than before. ‘Can you really not come any further?’
Raleigh looked like he was about to cry.
I sighed loudly. ‘Okay. We’ll make it work.’
I dropped to one knee as Father would when I was a child and urged Raleigh to latch on to my shoulders.
Everything about it felt awkward and clumsy.
He was too tall and, slight as he was, he was still a grown man and far, far heavier than I’d expected.
It was hard enough hoisting his feet off the ground, let alone lifting my own with his weight bearing down on me.
The crucifix didn’t help matters. I couldn’t exactly give it to Raleigh to hold, so I had to wedge it in place between my arm and his thigh, hoping my dressing-gown wouldn’t slip and burn his leg off while we were halfway across the bridge.
It dug painfully into my side, which was a welcome distraction from every other screeching muscle in my body.
‘Are you ready?’ I asked.
‘No.’
‘Close your eyes, then.’
With shaking legs I shuffled forward, barely able to raise my feet.
The moment I stepped over the river Raleigh went rigid.
He ducked his head into the crook of my neck, which might have felt intimate had I not been so terrified he might bite me.
I put it out of my mind and focused on moving forward, trying to ignore the crushing force of his grip.
‘How much further?’ His voice quivered by my ear.
‘A few more steps,’ I grunted.
‘How many?’
‘Five or six,’ I lied. ‘Not far.’
His grip tightened painfully. There would be more bruises to add to the collection by morning. I pushed forward. One step. Two.
With each second that trickled by, Raleigh’s breathing became ever more laboured.
My knees screamed louder with every step, my back chiming in with perfect harmony.
I became convinced I’d collapse and drop him, leaving him paralysed until sunrise.
Or that my shoulders would shatter under the press of his fingers.
I almost wanted someone to catch us, just to end our shared agony.
With one final push, my foot met dirt. I fell to my knees, grateful to give in to gravity at last. ‘We’re here,’ I rasped, barely audible in the silence of night.
But Raleigh heard well enough. His arms loosened and he tumbled to the ground without any of his usual grace.
He barely managed to drag himself to the nearest shrub before he vomited.
The sharp metallic reek of blood filled the air.
A streak of light flashed between two buildings on the other side of the river. A voice drifted through the dark, not close enough to make out the words, but close enough to be a danger. Someone had thought to check the bridge after all.
I dragged myself to my feet and placed a hand on Raleigh’s still trembling shoulder. ‘We have to keep moving.’