I suspected that the snipers weren’t only posted here to keep people out of an empty set of ruins though. My intuition was telling me that something else was going on here, that there was another secret that was being protected.
I climbed down into the cave, and this was where my newfound night vision really came in handy. I couldn’t risk lighting a torch down here, but thanks to my ability to see in the dark, I was able to make my way through the pitch black tunnels without smashing my head into any rocks. Finally, after a good while of creeping through the winding tunnel, I emerged into the lower section of the ruins’ crypts and immediately sensed death.
A lot of death.
While I was sure that there were no vampires in here, someone had been killing people in this place, that was for sure. As I crept through the crypt, the sense of death, the presence of many deaths, became stronger. It was a little difficult to see in the inky darkness, even with my ability to see partially in the dark, but when I dropped down onto my hands and knees, it was easy enough to see that the soil here had been disturbed quite recently. It called out to me, a strange whisper that was barely audible. I dipped my fingertips into the loose soil. I could feel them—the corpses—as acutely as if I was staring right at them, even though there was at least a foot or two of earth between myself and them. Without actually digging them up, though, I had no way of knowing who they were. All I could do at the moment was sense that they were there.
Of course, I could have dug one up and touched one to use my ability to see through time, but digging would make a noise, and I didn’t want to draw the attention of dozens of sharp-shooting crossbowmen who could very quickly turn me into a walking pincushion. Even though I was a minor god, I figured I could still die.
“What the fuck have you been doing in here, uncle?” I whispered. “Who are these people?”
I’d seen what Nabu had done in the crypts beneath his cathedral, with his sacrificial victims, and I suspected that this was a similar situation. Nobody obtained power from the Blood God without shedding the blood of the innocents, and knowing my uncle’s thirst for power, that fucker had likely been doing a lot of innocent-bloodshedding. And how convenient it was for him to have a pair of imaginary vampires to blame the stream of disappearing people on. I couldn’t wait to expose my uncle in front of the people and show them what he’d done, how he’d pulled the wool over their eyes, dragged my name through the mud, and used me as a scapegoat for his sick murders. I couldn’t wait to pull his entrails out and strangle him with them in front of the entire city.
“Everything in good time, though,” I whispered to myself. “Everything in good time.”
I froze suddenly as the sound of footsteps crunching on gravel nearby cut through the silence. I quietly cocked my wrist crossbow and slipped into the heavy shadows behind a large chunk of fallen masonry and waited for whoever was coming down the stairs into the crypt.
“By the Lord of fucking Light,” a man was whining in a nasal, slightly effeminate voice with a noticeable lisp, “I grow so weary of this endless boredom! Save me, somebody! But what’s an out-of-work actor to do? And his lordship does payeth me oh so generously. Why, with all the coin I’ve amassed for playing this abysmal role in these god-forsaken ruins, I’ll be able to retire in the fucking Isles of the Sun in another few years, in my own villa, with a couple of fabulously muscular hunks in translucent loincloths to serve me grapes and wine and fan me with palm fronds. Ah, yes, when I’m there, living the dream, this will all be worth it. This cursed vampire makeup makes my delicate skin so dry; I hope that when I eventually get to the Isles of the Sun, my good looks won’t have gone to shit from all of this.”
Whoever this was didn’t sound like much of a threat at all, but I decided to remain hidden nonetheless. I watched from my position of cover as the new arrival, carrying a burning torch to light the way, descended the final set of broken stone steps into the crypt. When I finally saw him, I almost jumped out of my boots with shock. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, because I was looking at myself.
How had my uncle found this guy? He was a dead ringer for me, a doppelgänger if I had ever seen one. Of course, the moment he moved or spoke, it was obvious that he and I were as different as chalk and cheese, but anyone who saw him and myself standing side by side would swear that we were identical twins.
“Ugh,” he whined as he stepped into the crypt, “the smell down here just gets worse every day! I have no idea what his lordship does down here. By the Lord of Light, I think I’d rather not know. Ugh! UGH! Still, it’s the best place in this whole sorry dump for me to hide my stash.”
He walked over to the far wall, swaying his hips the way certain women did as he moved, and squatted down next to a loose rock. He dragged it out of the way, did a bit of digging, and pulled a sack out of the ground. I watched as he emptied his purse into it, tied it up, and buried it again.
“None of those crossbow-carrying buffoons are going to get their greasy, grubby paws on my hard-earned coin,” he muttered to himself as he reburied the sack and dragged the loose stone over
