Deciding you can best serve the wolves by adding to their ranks, you zip over to the tavern cellar and nearly tumble down the stairs in your haste to catch Ferris. Unfortunately, you find the cellar completely vacant.
You groan, massaging your forehead as you struggle to guess where exactly Ferris and his coven might have slipped off to. You would have run into them if they were snaking through the alleys and you didn't spy them walking around the streets when you had a full view of town from your vantage point on the hill with the old mill.
You look around the room, curious if perhaps there was more than one exit to the musty cellar. The shelving lining the walls are sparsely populated and reveal bare, sturdy plaster behind them. As for the floor, only dirt and dust conceals it and one quick lap around the room confirms the integrity of the ground. The only questionable adornment is a tapestry dangling on the back wall. You lift up the corner and discover there was a reason it was placed in this particular location.
You gaze into a tunnel—a dark, ashy void that doesn't look especially inviting. You, however, also don't have time to let fear and trepidation slow you down. You swallow hard and pull yourself in, proceeding forward in a crawl.
Eventually, a murky light illuminates the end of your journey and your pace quickens. When you reach the terminal point, you find yourself in a dug out ash pit of a fireplace. Coated in soot, you wiggle your way up to the grate, lifting it slightly so you can peer into the room you have arrived at.
The posh velvet sofa, the heavy oak desk, and the full stocked bookshelves could only be one place in town. You've arrived at one of the lounges in the great hall. Your heart clenches as you realize you have walked straight into the vampires' grasp, but you don't have much time to panic. Standing in a circle in front of you is Ferris and the coven chanting a spell.
They're too engrossed in their magic to notice you as you slide the grate back further, giving yourself room to climb out of the pit. They also fail to notice the feet gathering outside the door, which is quite easy for you to spot with your eyes level with the ground.
Knowing there is no possible way those feet belong to friendly folk, you hasten your pace and pop out of the pit. This time, you catch Ferris' eye and you try to convince him to keep going with a flurry of your hands. His eyes narrow, but he continues. You, on the other hand, snatch a jack-o- lantern at one of the witch's feet and begin reciting a ward spell upon the door.
Though you manage the spell, the door still flies open, only for one vicious, angry vampire to run straight into an invisible wall. As the spell is spherical and imprecise—at least at your level of magic—you trapped the vampire inside the ward instead of creating a solid wall between him and the coven. It's doesn't matter though, since he still can't interrupt Ferris. Or at least you think it is inconsequential until the coven finishes the spell and the vampire remains standing.
"Shouldn't he be dead?" you ask with a slight quiver in your voice. The ward ripples and puckers beneath the snarling vampire's desperate attempts to break free.
"He would have, but your ward protected him," answers Ferris, his words confident and lacking any malice or disappointment over your failed attempt to save them.
"What should we..." You start to ask Ferris, but the ward flickers out and the vamp is free, which also means his drones can now enter the doorway.
"Seize them!" commands the hulking vamp, who you recognize to be Duke Gagnier, the leader and owner of your town.
Not interested in getting his own hands sullied, the duke steps back and lets the drones take point in arresting the coven. Since you're at the back of the room, you have a good twenty bodies between you and them. It means you, out of everyone in the room, have the best chance of getting a spell out before the drones attack you.
Like with the jack-o-lantern you used to form the ward, you need an item to channel your magic. You look for something within reach and find the silver pin you bought earlier with Alissa, the water skin you took from your house, and the spiked knuckles you got from the wolves. You've got to select something quick, there isn't time to think this out or to take a second shot.
- Silver Pin: ch 175
- Water Skin: ch 176
- Spiked Knuckles: ch 177
YOU ARE READING
The Vampire's Harvest
FantasyIn your town, humans are born and raised for the Harvest Ball, an annual event where adult townsfolk dress in their finest clothes in hopes of earning themselves a vampire's mask. With it, you are claimed by the vampire and promised a life of luxur...
