Elyse dropped her spoon into her bowl. “He paid off witnesses to lie?”
I chuckled humorlessly and shook my head. “No, they were reporting exactly what they’d seen—exactly what my uncle had set them up to see.
“He’d hired an actor from a distant region who looked just like me—from a distance, anyway—to wear my clothes, abduct the girls, and to loiter around the ruined castle. At first, Rodrick denied the witnesses’ claims that they’d seen me. He refused to believe that I’d abandoned my pilgrimage to become a vampire’s slave. He even had some of the witnesses tortured, trying to have them admit that they were lying. Eventually, he told the townsfolk—with plenty of crocodile tears flowing down his cheeks, no doubt—he could no longer deny the witnesses’ claims. His heart was broken, apparently. He announced to all of Brakith that I’d become a vampire’s slave and was well on my way to becoming one of those vile creatures myself. He had no choice but to strip me of my inheritance and title and condemn me to death on the multiple charges of kidnapping, murder, and vampirism.”
“And you knew nothing of any of this while you were on the road back to Brakith from Luminescent Spires?” Elyse asked.
“Not a whiff. And the only reason I escaped death was that one of my father’s oldest and most loyal servants suspected treachery from the moment my father fell from the battlements. He knew that the vampire tale was an elaborate lie. The clothes the actor was wearing were clothes I had left behind in Brakith when I set off for Luminescent Spires. The servant knew this because he had helped me pack.”
“Is this servant dead now?” Rami asked. “Your uncle must have killed him.”
I shook my head. “The servant is wise beyond his status. One night, he packed his things, quietly slipped out of Brakith, and moved to a small village about a hundred miles away. He cut his beard and all his hair and disguised himself as a cobbler. There, he waited for me, knowing I would pass through the village on my return to Brakith. When I got there, he told me everything I’ve told you. He warned me not to return home because I would be killed. The entire city had been turned against me, and everyone thought I was a vampire.”
“What did you do?” Elyse asked.
“What could I do? To go back to Brakith at that point would have been death. I wasn’t Fated. Nor had I become an assassin. Sure, I was trained in the ways of battle, but I wouldn’t have killed my uncle. I hated him, but I’d only ever a killed a handful of men at that point. Raiders from the north. Not men of Prand, and especially not my own kin.”
“You were a weakling,” Isu said.
“I wouldn’t say that. But there was one thing I did immediately vow. Revenge on Uncle Rodrick. A few weeks stewing on it, and I was soon ready to get my lordship back, by any means necessary.”
“The girls who were abducted,” Elyse said, “you said they were found drained of blood. Do you know if there was a real vampire? Or could your uncle have some connection to the Blood God, like Nabu?”
“It’s definitely a possibility,” I answered. “My uncle would do anything to gather more power. Not to mention his fascination with ancient relics from dead gods.”
Isu prodded her finger into her bowl of stew. “I suspect that the vampire was a mere invention.” She slipped her finger into her mouth and almost barfed. “Remember what Nabu said: there are more like him, and their strength is growing. Of all the Old Gods, I can tell you that the Blood God was one of the most wicked. Before my fall. . .” she paused to look at me pointedly, “. . . I noticed his strength returning rapidly.”
“Is it possible for me to feel him too?” I hadn’t sensed anything out of the ordinary, but I also didn’t know much at all about my own divinity. “And why didn’t you say anything about him before?”
“While you are mastering things in mere days, you are so very young. You cannot expect to acquire mastery over things it took me thousands of years to learn and understand. I fear that, in killing me, you have lost the only chance to stop the Blood God.”
Rami and Elyse shared a concerned look, and it seemed Isu’s words unnerved them.
I smiled. “I doubt it. You underestimate me, Isu.”
She rolled her eyes, but there was humor in them rather than disdain. “In answer to your other question, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t think it was relevant. I’ve always stayed out of the Blood God’s business, and he’s stayed out of mine. It is only now, after hearing of this story with the murdered girls and the supposed vampire, that I’m beginning to put the pieces together.”
“If your uncle has been performing abominations like Nabu,” Elyse said, “then he’s likely become very powerful, like Nabu was. You’ll need to tread carefully, Vance.”
“He is stronger now,” Rami countered. “When he fought Nabu, he was a mere mortal. Fated, yes, but no god. Now, he is Death himself.”
Elyse didn’t seem convinced. “Your uncle was a Sunsword. Now, with the power of the Blood God behind him, he’s far more deadly.”
Rami shook her head. “He’s still no god.”
“Perhaps,” Isu said, “but Vance is merely a minor deity. A Fated of great power could defeat him.”
“Then it’s a good thing we’re taking a detour from Brakith,” I said as I tossed my empty bowl on the ground. “Whatever we find in Kroth might give us the edge we need. By the time we reach Brakith, I’ll have an army behind me. I’m going to take back what Uncle Rodrick stole from me, one way or another. He’ll pay for my father’s death, and for ruining my
