black magic and consorted with the darkest blood demons of the realm to plot against his father.
“You tell the story well,” Chandra said when Falia paused.
“Thank you,” said Falia, smiling at Gideon as if he had delivered the compliment.
Jurl snored peacefully as the girl continued her story.
“When he felt ready to carry out his nefarious plan, Velrav returned to his father’s castle. He presented himself as a humbled, penitent son, reformed in his ways and seeking forgiveness. The king welcomed home his wayward son, and never thought to protect himself from him.”
“Which was evidently a mistake?” said Chandra.
Falia nodded. “In the dead of night, while the whole castle slept, the prince crept into his two brothers’ bed chambers and murdered them both, along with their wives. Then he went into the nursery and slaughtered the three children whom his brothers had sired.”
“He slaughtered the children?” Chandra repeated.
“Then he went to his parents’ chamber,” Falia said, “where he beheaded his mother with one heavy blow of his sword.”
“He killed his mother?” Chandra blurted.
“He’s very wicked,” the girl said prosaically.
“He beheaded her,” Gideon mused. “Interesting.”
“It’s not interesting” Chandra said. “It’s disgusting! His own mother!”
“And then he murdered the king?” Gideon asked.
“No.” Falia shook her head. “He fed on the king.”
“He ate his father?” The grub soup churned unpleasantly in Chandra’s stomach.
“No, he fed on him,” Falia said.
Chandra said, “What’s the diff-”
“And that didn’t kill the king?” Gideon asked.
“It might have, of course,” the girl said. “But he also fed the king of himself.”
“Fed him of himself?” Chandra said with a frown. “What does that mean?”
Gideon asked, “Is the king still alive?”
“Of course not,” Chandra said dismissively. “This happened when Falia’s grandmother was a child.” A man who’d had grown sons and grandchildren that long ago wouldn’t still be alive now.
“Yes.” Ignoring Chandra, Falia nodded, holding Gideon’s gaze. “The king lives still. And since the night Prince Velrav killed his family and turned his father into a sickly shadow of what he himself had become,” Falia said, “daylight has never again come to Diraden.”
“How can the king still be alive after all this time?” Chandra wondered.
“Blood magic,” Gideon said.
“Fierce blood magic,” Falia said, her nostrils flaring. “Wicked. Dark.” She made the words sound… seductive.
Gideon said to her, “That’s what the ‘hunger’ is.”
They looked to Falia for confirmation. She nodded.
“Why did he feed his father his own blood?” Gideon asked. “He’d killed the rest of the family. Why keep the king alive?”
“To curse him,” said Falia. “The king lives in the darkest, deepest dungeon of the castle. He is fed only blood. He is left alone, in terrible solitude. No one speaks to him or sees him, except for Velrav, who visits him once in a great while and tells him about all the torment and suffering he is inflicting on the king’s realm.”
“And this has been going on since your grandmother was a child?” Chandra asked, appalled.
“So that’s why Velrav made it perpetual night here,” Gideon mused.
“I don’t understand,” Chandra said.
“Some blood drinkers don’t like daylight,” he said.
“You mean they don’t want to be seen drinking blood?” she said in puzzlement.
“No, I mean the sunlight burns them,” he said. “Like fire. Those who choose blood magic, those who decide to embrace the power it holds must guard themselves at all cost against the powers of light.”
Fire. The word reminded Chandra of their predicament.
“They don’t like fire, either,” Gideon said. “They’re vulnerable to it.”
“So he uses the veil of false night to block sunlight and red mana,” she mused.
“And that same sorcery winds up blocking all mana, except black,” Gideon said.
Falia said, “Yes, my grandmother says there once used to be other mana here. Other colors in the?ther. Other kinds of magic.” She gave them both an assessing gaze. “You are not from Diraden, are you?”
They both went still.
After a moment, Gideon said, “No.”
“Where did you come from?”
“Someplace very far away,” Gideon said. “And we can’t go back there while Velrav’s power holds.”
“And you would like to go back there? Together?”
“Yes,” said Gideon. “We would.”
Falia said with certainty, “The prince will not help you or give you permission to go.”
“No, I didn’t think so,” Gideon said. “Tell me about this veil of night, Falia, this shroud. It blocks mana and light, but it also keeps things alive, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” she said. “Just enough that many things aren’t really alive here anymore, yet they don’t really die.”
“That’s a tremendous amount of power. Can he do that all alone?”
“No,” the girl said, “his companions work with him to maintain the veil.”
“His companions?” Gideon asked.
“They are the blood demons who helped him develop the power.”
“And blood is what feeds their power?” Chandra asked.
“Yes,” Falia said. “When they feel the hunger, they seek more blood to sustain them. To empower their dark work.”
“How often do they get hungry?” Chandra asked.
“Often.”
“And then people are taken.” Gideon said.
“People. Goblins. Creatures. Animals.” Falia paused. “They like people best. But any blood will feed the hunger. People, though… those thrill them.”
Gideon studied her. “Do people with power thrill them in particular?”
Falia nodded.
“People with power,” Chandra said, “such as a menarch?”
She lowered her eyes. “Yes.”
“You’re in danger?” Gideon asked quietly.
“Always,” Falia said.
Falia offered them water to wash their skin and damp cloths to wipe away the worst of the grime and dirt from their garments. She loaned them a comb and got one of the village men to lend Gideon his razor. After they were clean and tidy, she suggested they all get some rest.
She was willing to share her hut with them… but not with Jurl.
“Goblins are treacherous,” she said. “Even with his hands bound, I wouldn’t feel safe sleeping in the same dwelling with him. We should put him in a secure place.”
Chandra thought that made perfect sense, so they woke Jurl, who was cranky about being disturbed, but became more so at the prospect of being locked up while the rest of them slept in relative comfort.
One of the huts in the village had originally been built to protect livestock at night. However, most of the livestock on Diraden had long since died and now the building was empty. There was also a large, sturdy cage in the hut, which Falia said had formerly been used to keep wild boars being fattened for the annual harvest feast. There had been no harvests since Prince Velrav came to power, obviously, and it had been some time since the villagers had even seen a wild boar.
They locked Jurl in the cage. He was hotly opposed to the idea, and it took Gideon some effort to get the
