I lightly squeeze one of the children’s hands, smiling down at them demurely as they look up at me with huge, frightened eyes.Yes, so much to do . . .
Shaking my head of the intrusive thoughts, I guide our small company through the high grass of the countryside, toward a tall copse of trees in the distance that sits like a holy beacon for our protection.
Yes, there we are. The woods! We can hide in the woods.
The sounds of battle and death drown away behind us. We leave Olhav in our wake, that damnable, infernal place. It truly is the afterworld come alive there, and perhaps I shouldn’t be so distraught that Valenthia is gone.
A peaceful night takes over, if not a bit chilly. The younglings are shivering—all four of them—and they huddle for warmth as we skitter across the mountaintop.
“Come on, little ones, we’re stopping just up ahead. No time to dally, no time to hug!” I push them further.
I must be pliable for these younglings. Understanding.I can do that. I did it for years as abbot of the House of the True.
Yes, I certainly can be amenable and kind. All they need do is look at my face, see my kind, fatherly smile, and I’ll have them transfixed.
Transfixed like I did at the House of the True. In my personal chamber. Alone with the younglings, where I can see after them best.
A rush of innocent faces blurs through my mind—so many in rapid succession I can’t keep track of them or voice their individual names. My years as abbot and Father brought many trusting younglings to my quarters. The faces of those who came to me for aid, in which I fought against my sinful ways and lost. Tests of my strength, sanctity, and vows, ordained to me by the spirits of the True. Those firm, young bodies, so easily molded by my hands—
I clear my throat, adjusting my robes as we run.
The prairie dips into a bowl before rising to meet the edge of the tree line.
“What are we fleeing from, Father?” one of the children asks.
I don’t have the heart to tell him I’m an archpriest, the most powerful bishop in the land after the untimely death of my predecessor, or the part I played in said bishop’s death. He wouldn’t understand the awesome power I possess. The power that allows me to lay claim to people like him.
“Devils!” I screech. “Death and carnage and vampires in the night, little one.”
We reach the woods. I finally let my body exhale, only for a minute. The branches and vines seem to claw at me, ripping my robes and flesh, breaking my skin. Though I can’t feel themanywhere, I can sense the proximity of the vampires. “We can’t stop . . .” I say. “Can’t stop moving.”
I know if I head far enough east, I can get us off this blasted mountain. There, I can find a harbor. A boat, perhaps, where I can barter with the younglings’ lives to seek passage elsewhere, and rid myself of this twisted, horrid region forever.
The children are my flock, Truehearts without even knowing it, yet they are also a means to an end. A means for me to seek my salvation and further my holy cause.
In the thickness of the forest, we’re eventually forced to stop. The sun is beginning to rise. We’ve fled for hours, the children are complaining of aching legs and bones, and my thighs are beginning to cramp.
I find a small cave for us to rest in. “Only for a few hours. Nothing more,” I tell the children as they huddle around me.
My throat is parched. My stomach grumbles. I would love to be a skilled tracker in this moment, to hunt us game to eat and fill our bellies with sustenance. Maybe I will forage when I wake . . .
But the early morning is beginning to drain me.
I open my eyes with a start, gasping.
Mice are crawling over me, and I shriek, sitting up from the wall where I’ve dozed off.
My shrill voice wakes the children as I squirm, ripping my clothes, tearing my holy vestiture to get the squeaking rodents off my body. The children yell, so I yell at them, “Q-Quiet! Keep your voices down!” though I’ve been the loudest by far.
My humiliation is absolute.
As we travel on, stomachs grumbling and younglings whining, I feel something stalking us. It sounds large, like a wolf perhaps.
Yes, a wolf sent by the vampires to track us down.That’s all it is, and I know the wolf will be hesitant to attack without its pack, in broad daylight.
As we reach the far eastern edge of the woods hours later, the sun is high in the sky. It’s been many hours since we fled Olhav, and vampires can’t exist in the daylight.
I feel safer.