Blood Runner: Book Three of the Empress Saga

CHAPTER THIRTY

     There were many fanciful tales about vampires, dark and horrid stories that spoke of wicked plots and depraved acts to topple morally bereft houses. The sun supposedly burned vampires, as they were unable to exist in the light. The creatures lived in shadow, and they only needed to turn sideways to vanish from sight.

    Fear was a similar beast. It lurked on the periphery of the mind, always there if not always known. And then, it turned sideways, appeared before you, and made it clear that you were already within reach of its fangs. You always had been. Fear reigned eternal.

    So it had been when Saveen had scuttled as a mouse beneath Trell's and Elise's feet. Their attention was occupied by Lady Starra's illusion, but one look downward would have betrayed Saveen's presence. As she put herself in position and sought a weapon to use against Trell, the fear had been there. It was only turned sideways.

    She then became her human form, plunged a filched dagger into Trell's back, and snatched Krayson. Saveen now fled, her wings beating with frantic, desperate power.

    Krayson dangled beneath her. She clutched him to her chest, expecting him to shout and curse about heights. He was quiet— didn't move, didn't speak. He barely seemed to breathe. Krayson was catatonic, and it made Saveen afraid. She'd only known him for a few days, but in all that time, he'd never shut up unless it was to brood. This wasn't a brooding silence. It was as if his soul had died.

    Like wasps emerging from a nest, dragons poured out from the broken hole in the Sanguine Tower's roof. They unfurled their wings and leapt into the air in pursuit. Saveen didn't have to look to know that half of them carried riders.

    Fifth to emerge was the ivory dragon, her massive tusks unmistakable. Cardin clung to her back, unharnessed and riding bareback in his haste to give chase. Seeing him again brought back a shadow of the pain Saveen felt upon learning his connection to Elise. She'd thought Cardin was a better person than this.

    Saveen was tired of being disappointed by humans.

    After Cardin and Draxa came a pink-scaled dragon with a small girl riding her. Then came Garret astride Trell. Then, Elise. The empress rode Kimpo.

    Saveen had felt a deep relief when she saw the Huntress, but it had been short-lived and replaced by a gnawing ache in her heart. What Saveen saw, it wasn't the Huntress she knew. Elise had shattered her and forged what remained into something wrong. Kimpo was gone. Perhaps forever. It was worse than death.

    Elise followed Saveen's flight with her eyes. Even from this distance, Saveen could feel her glare like hateful, icy pinpricks. Elise shouted for Kimpo to take flight. The mighty formed up around her, guarding their empress with their spellcraft and bodies.

    These dragons were far older than Saveen. None of them were younger than two centuries, and a fair number were nearing five hundred years. Kimpo and Trell were both Eldest of their kind. Draxa was older than even the Storyteller. Full-grown and in control of their magic, any one of Elise's dragons could overtake Saveen in a matter of seconds.

    Luckily, or perhaps ironically, Saveen wasn't alone.

    She banked and wheeled back towards the tower. Her instinct screamed at her to point south and never stop until she reached Ecclesia, but she found herself trusting Starra. Elise's flight of arcanist knights dived to chase after her.

    Follow the plan, Saveen told herself.

    Her swooping path brought her to pass beneath a broken section of wall on the story beneath the Blood Council chamber. Saveen jostled as a pair of weights landed on her back, but she managed to keep her wingbeats steady. She could feel hands clinging to her dorsal scales and heard a disbelieving grunt from one of her passengers.