The Sweet Knight-Part Three

Part Three

Herecy was trying to teach Riny about becoming a full vampire but she wouldn’t listen, she was restless and in the throes of her transformation.

“We’ve been at this for two days Herecy give it a rest will you” she threw some rocks towards him which he dodged easily.

“Yes and we have to keep at it until you’re ready, we can’t go back like this.”

“Then why go back at all?”

“Because you know they’ll come looking, and it won’t take them long to track us, at least until you’ve fully become a vampire” he then threw a small boulder at her which she wasn’t quick enough to avoid, and it caught her in the stomach. She doubled over and coughed up some blood.

“Ass…hole” she managed to breathe out.

“You think I want this?! Do you really think that?”

But she was too sore and collapsed on the ground.

“Love you have to listen to me…”

“Don’t!” she was still trying to regain her breath “don’t call me that!”

“And why not?”

“Because…you, don’t, love me. And I don’t love you.”

He recoiled at this statement “what if I did love you?”

“Funny, way, of showing it!” he helped her sit up and rubbed her back to try and get her breathing under control. He tried to recall what it was like going through the transformation, but he couldn’t remember his mood being this bad, but maybe it was and he just forgot all about it. ‘She’s just going through the transformation; it’s all just the transformation. She doesn’t mean it’ he kept repeating in his head.

“So if you don’t love me, who do you love?” he thought he knew the answer but he wanted her to say it. She just scowled up at him. “I mean that’s why you left wasn’t it?! For him?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh I think I do. Tell me, who is he? Why did he break out that prisoner?”

“It was his sister.”

“Really? Huh, I didn’t know that.”

She moved away from him and turned to face him “were you the one who took her?”

“Well not me personally…Mal, you know Mal the other vampire, anyway he was the one who did the taking, he enjoyed that part, and he pretended to bite her just to see her reaction. I was just with him, so were Sayur and Savel.”

She blinked, stunned by this news “why would you do that?”

He just looked confused “Sevatar sent us. He said it was important, council’s orders.”

“And you just obeyed them without question?!”

“Well yeah that’s what we do, isn’t it? They give us jobs to do. They give you jobs as well, although yours always send you away for a long time. What do they get you to do anyway?”

“Sanguine gives me my jobs, most of the time, he likes me to wreak havoc, and I don’t go about kidnapping people or killing them or…”

“Come on! You know as well as I do what this organisation is about…debauchery. It’s fun!”

She just frowned at him “that’s not all Sanguine’s about you know.”

“Well I am a vampire, and so are you, soon anyway, it’s time to start revelling shamelessly in sin” and he raised his eyebrows suggestively, which made her smile again.

“Okay ready for another go?” he asked standing up and helping her to her feet.

“Can we eat after?”

“Only if you catch it” and they ran through he woods hunting for some dinner.

***

By the end of the week everyone had their prospective plans in place. Riny was finally trained up in vampire techniques; she had to keep feeding on blood so that when she returned, she looked as normal as possible, but Herecy warned her that this would make her far weaker and more susceptible to damage. The knight and his sister began heading back towards the keep to attempt a second rescue. Lucy had successfully trained Adum up enough that he could fire a bow from a hidden location on top of the gate walls and hit his mark from either up close or from a reasonable distance. Byak had formulated his plans to escape and just hoped that he wouldn’t have to kill anyone on his way to freedom, and Myka was back to casting destruction spells at random objects which while serving as a distraction until Riny arrived back, made it look as though she was still furious about the escape, which admittedly she was.

***

Riny and Herecy arrived back at the secluded rendezvous spot nearly a full two weeks after she had arrived back the first time from her mission. They decided that she should wait a bit longer so that it wouldn’t look suspicious if they arrived back together.

“Now remember what we talked about. They’ll probably have something set up for your arrival. Don’t move too fast, don’t try to eat anybody, and don’t show your fangs. Or else they’ll set you on fire straight away.”

She was having trouble remaining calm “so I’m just supposed to walk in there unprotected?”

“No, you’ll still have your staff remember, and I’ll be there. I’ll wait nearby for you once the hour’s up.”

She was scared and he hugged her “toughen up, you’re a vampire now.” Herecy wiped her face with his hand and smiled down at her. “I’ll see you soon. Just try to remain calm.”

He started to walk away when he suddenly stopped and turned and went back to her, and kissed her very passionately.

“And I think I do love you” and he left her there feeling stunned.

***

When Herecy walked into the compound, Myka emerged from the shadows.

“And where exactly have you been?”

“Hunting” it was true.

“I don’t recall giving you permission to leave!” she walked up to him and narrowed her eyes.

“I’ve never needed it before.” Also true.

“Hmm, alright then. But from now on, I’m going to put a leash on your ‘hunting’ activities.”

He just scoffed and kept walking, making sure to note where she disappeared back to. He thought he caught sight of Adum pacing back and forth across the ramparts. But he was trying to identify where Lucy was. She was the real threat to Riny, but he couldn’t see her anywhere, which made him very uneasy.

***

The knight and his sister managed to procure some horses, and where racing back towards the keep.

“You know, it would have been quicker to fly right?” she yelled over the wind that was racing past them.

“It would attract too much attention” he yelled back.

They were getting close and all he could think about was ‘I hope that I’m not too late’.

He urged his horse to move faster and promised it a bucket full of apples if he got them there in time.

***

Riny was trying to not freak out the closer she walked to the keep. She knew there was no excuse big enough to warrant her unauthorised departure, let alone to stay away for two weeks. She felt odd as well as she was still adjusting to life as a vampire, although admittedly a vampire that had to pretend to be human just for a little while longer, it was all very confusing. Plus she was very pale, she looked very ill, but because she was feeding regularly her eyes hadn’t developed the same level of redness that Herecy had.

As she rounded some bushes she saw that there wasn’t nearly as many people on patrol as there should have been, the keep looked just about empty, and she grew more nervous.

As she was about to pass under the gateway, Lucy and Sevatar stepped from the shadows and grabbed her, then Myka materialised in front of her and waggled her finger in Riny’s face.

“I told Lucy that you wouldn’t be dumb enough to return, but now I guess I owe her 1000 gold pieces” Lucy laughed and twisted Riny’s arm painfully behind her. Riny was panicking; she was looking around for Herecy but couldn’t spot him anywhere.

“Everyone here has sworn an oath to me…” she jerked Riny’s head so that it was inches from her own and Riny spat in her face.

“We’re sworn to Sanguine, not to you! You delusional bitch.”

Myka slapped her across the face so hard that Sevatar and Lucy struggled to hold her upright as her legs buckled under her, more because she was weak from hunger than the force of the slap, but they couldn’t know that.

***

Byak meanwhile was aware that no one had check in on him for over an hour, he listened for any sign of footsteps but was greeted by the blissful sound of silence. He decided that now would be his best chance for escape and breathing deep he began his transformation into a werewolf. He was able to do this quickly despite his wounds and soon his new form broke free of the shackles that were binding him to an upright platform.

With his senses heightened he listened and found that there was a lot of yelling happening up in the yard but very little was happening elsewhere. He used his tracking to catch the scent of nearby enemies, but again there was very little around him.

Puzzled he slowly moved through the narrow corridors that led to the dungeons until he finally came across a distrusting smell. He knew that only one person here smelt like that, it was Herecy. He followed his vampire stench and came up behind him, he was hiding near a window that faced the entrance, and he looked worried. So instead of using his claws to carve him into pieces and send him to Oblivion, he changed back into his regular form and announced his presence.

Herecy had known that he was there, he smelled the dog coming from the passageway behind him, but he had much more important things to care about than some stupid vampire/werewolf feud.

“What’s going on?” Byak croaked, he hadn’t spoken in days and had been denied food and water.

“Something big is about to go down.”

“Where is everyone?”

“Myka dismissed most of the soldiers for the rest of the evening, only people left here now are the reamins of the council and a few others. They’re all probably down in the town drinking up all of their mead.” He didn’t laugh, or even smile. He was too worried about Riny, Sevatar had just forced her to the ground and Lucy was kicking her in her stomach.

Byak looked through the window then to see what Herecy was watching, and was horrified.

“What are they doing to Riny?”

“Nothing good.”

“Well why aren’t you helping her?!”

“Because I haven’t managed to figure out their plan for her yet!” he turned to face Byak, and even he was afraid of the look that Herecy was wearing, he must truly be a terrifying sight to his victims. He drew a steady breath and explained that Myka was abusing Riny because she supposedly defied the council, but he wasn’t sure why.

“Listen you need to make a decision, help me or get out of the way. But if you’re going to help me, I’d suggest grabbing some food to get your energy up…” he looked down, Byak was nearly naked “and some armour!”

Byak was confused, he had always liked Riny. She was one of the few bright spots in his life there, she was dependable and he knew that she was extremely loyal to Sanguine, so he wasn’t sure what had happened for Myka to want her dead, but he knew he had to help. He saw what that silver arrow did to the knight so he decided that he should fetch his other set of armour rather than transform again, he also passed the kitchen on his way back to Herecy, who was right about his need to sustain himself.

He re-joined Herecy who looked like he hadn’t moved from his lookout; he was crouched and extremely tense.

“I’ve only spotted a few guild members, they’re patrolling the grounds. They’re also armed!”

Byak knew that it was too much to hope for, but he wanted his escape to be quick and quiet, only now it looked like he would have to fight his way to freedom, and that thought didn’t please him. After all, he had spent many years getting to know these people, getting to like some of them, and now he had to consider the possibility of killing them, before they killed him.

“Are you ready for this? Byak?!”

Byak looked up; he was lost in bleak thoughts. He nodded and hardened his face, and tried to do the same to his heart.

“What’s the plan?”

“There’s three people that we need to take care of before we can reach the Riny and that group around her; Sayur, Onyx and that recruit Adum. Then we just have to deal with Myka, Lucy and Sevatar.”

“That’s not going to be easy Herecy; any one of them by themselves is bad enough, let alone all three together.”

“And I can’t get near Myka without her burning me to death…”

Byak knew where this was heading “no! I refuse to take her on by myself.”

“I’ll be providing backup, trust me.”

They glared at each other until Byak gave in. “fine!”

“Good, now anything else? Or can we get going before they kill her?!”

“Where are they? I can’t see them.”

Herecy silently pointed them out, Adum was on top of a wall with a bow strapped to his back, and Onyx was sitting near Sayur who was leaning on a wall not too far away from them.

Herecy lowered his voice as they moved closer “we need to lure those two inside. I think that should be your job, after all you're supposed to be locked away downstairs, they’ll come running if they see you.”

Byak nodded and sneaked around behind Sayur, then once he saw that Herecy was in position by the nearest door, made an obvious loud noise which made Onyx stand up and draw his sword and Sayur turned around to face Byak, who then raced towards the door. Sayur began to growl and then transform into his wolf form, while Onyx tried to run after him as well but he ended up falling over one of the many skooma bottles lying around him and hit his head as he fell to the ground. But as Byak neared the door Herecy was being thrown through it by Mal. The Argonian basically shimmered as he stepped into the light; he obviously hadn’t fed for a while because he was extremely pale, almost white. His fangs were extended to their maximum length, and the dark circles under his eyes made him look unnerving.

Byak barely had time to dodge as Sayur’s claws came towards his head, and when Mal saw that he had escaped he headed straight for him. As Herecy was trying to get back up he saw that Byak was swiftly ducking and weaving as both Sayur and Mal were attacking him, he was truly amazed, had he known what Byak was capable of he probably would have had him join their adventures more often. Byak saw that Herecy still hadn’t moved and reached for Sayur’s healing staff and managed to get a quick spell off before Mal grabbed him by his throat and pinned him to the wall. Sayur was about to rip off his head when Herecy suddenly appeared at his side and stabbed him, pressing his blade deep into his fur. He kept pushing it in until he dropped to the ground in a growing pool of his own blood.

The growing commotion caught Myka’s attention, who looked around and saw that Herecy was killing Sayur, she then promptly ordered Sevatar to capture Herecy but he never got the chance to move as Riny twisted out of his grip and disappeared in cloud of mist then materialised behind him and sank her fangs into his neck. Myka’s eyes widened in surprise and yelled out for Adum to fire the shot. He fumbled for his arrows and Herecy knew that this had been Myka’s plan, to use the recruit to kill Riny so she wouldn’t have to do it herself. In his split second of distraction Byak head-butted Mal who promptly released his grip on him and saw in slow motion Adum load a single arrow and pull his bow taught. Herecy screamed out and vanished as he called his bats and transported to where Adum was, but he was too late. He saw that Riny had thrown Sevatar away from her and begun advancing on Lucy when Adum let the arrow fly. Herecy ran to him and broke his neck and hurled him from the top of the wall as Riny collapsed with blood trickling from her chest as well as her mouth.

Byak went to run towards her but Mal tackled him to the ground, and Lucy readied one of her special arrows and aimed it at Herecy. Another cry emerged from behind the gate and the knight hoped off his horse and Herecy instantly appeared at his side and covered his mouth, Lucy was trying to see where the new noise came from and left Myka’s side who was busy watching Byak struggle with Mal. The knight’s sister was quiet as she dismounted her horse further down and ran silently to the gate and hid as Lucy cautiously stepped from the fort. She looked around but couldn’t see the knight or Herecy making him be quiet and when she turned her back, Myka looked towards her in time to see the prisoner grab her by her hair wrenching her head back to expose her neck and slit her throat. Blood spurted from the wound and Myka drew her staff and shrieked “Lucy, noooo!”

The sister tossed Lucy’s body from her towards Myka who looked deranged, with anger and grief and taunted her “that’s for kidnapping me you bitch” and threw a knife towards her. Myka was unable to completely dodge the dagger and she caught it in the shoulder as Herecy and the knight came running around the corner. Herecy went to pull Mal off of Byak but the knight dropped to his knees besides Riny, and mistook her paleness as a mortal wound and he wept. He pulled her body up and hugged her while his sister was continuing to throw knives at Myka who was deflecting them with spells and Herecy and Mal were now circling each other. Byak stumbled towards the knight who looked up with a tear strained face.

“I was too late. I should never have let her come back.” He sobbed and buried his face in her hair. At last Byak understood what Riny had done “she left to save you didn’t she?” The knight just barely moved his head, “she loved you” he said simply more to himself than to the knight, and he awkwardly placed his hand on his shoulder. He may have been kidnapped by him but at least he was never tortured by him, and he gently removed Riny’s body from his grip and helped him stand up.

Herecy and Mal were too evenly matched to fight each other properly so Herecy grabbed a broken skooma bottle from next to Onyx’s unconscious body and smashed into against Mal’s temple. Myka fell over as another dagger landed in her thigh and Byak yelled out to the sister “we have to go, now!” she nodded and covered their backs as Byak led the knight away from Riny’s body.

Herecy took that opportunity to collect Riny’s body and disappeared before Myka could fire off another spell at them. Byak saw the two depart but didn’t say anything to the others. What good would it do? Instead he said to the pair “I want to come with you. I’ve had enough of this, I want to help you.”

The knight couldn’t speak, he was still in shock so he just looked to his sister who rolled her eyes and said “fine, but grab your own horse. You had better come in useful!” Byak nodded and went to find his horse, his heart was saddened by Riny but knew she would be glad that he was leaving in order to seek his happiness, and that’s how he would remember her, a kind hearted Breton who was too good for this life. He saw what she had done to Sevatar and he suspected that Herecy was the one who had turned her and just hoped that she survived, somehow.