The Lost Ruins, Chapter 10

Cold fear gripped Elena’s heart. Both of the vampirs were too close to Marcus, and either of them could end his life in an instant. She glanced around the others, wondering if any of them would be foolish enough to attempt an attack. Luckily, none of them moved aggressively. She saw an expression in Nic’s eyes that she would have best described as haunted. He looked more vulnerable than she had ever seen him.   “Back away!” Renwick said. “Leave now, or I will kill him. I mean it!”   The icy fear shifted inside Elena, turning into fury in a second. She raised her bow, drawing the bowstring back. “If you touch him, it will be the last thing you do.”   Renwick’s eyes flicked back and forth across Elena’s group. Behind him, Sonya tensed up, leaning forward slightly as though ready to pounce. Neither of them made a move towards Marcus, however. Elena could tell that if either of them actually killed Marcus, both would be dead in seconds. Unfortunately, Elena’s group couldn’t actually attack either, or Marcus would be killed before they could reach him.   Tense, nearly silent seconds passed. Elena’s eyes traveled across the two vampirs and Marcus’s unconscious form. All she needed was an opening of perhaps five seconds, and she could dart forward and pull him away from that blade that hovered precariously over his throat. Five seconds, but from her current position, that seemed like an eternity.   Nic’s hand tightened around the leather-wrapped hilt of his sword. The movement shifted the blade, causing the shadows created by its glow to dance through the library. Almost as though caused by the shift in the light, Sonya spoke, her voice an angry whip crack through the silence. “Enough! This is pointless! End him!”   Renwick did not do as commanded. From the look he gave Elena’s bow, he knew the fate that would befall him if he tried. “You don’t value your friend’s life much, do you?” Renwick’s voice held just a tiny bit of a quiver in it. It was obvious that he was feeling as trapped as Elena felt.   Suddenly, Nic spoke, his voice a quiet, dangerous note. “Elena, I need you to trust me.”   Catlín suddenly stepped forward, causing Renwick’s hand to move closer to Marcus’s throat. He called out another warning, but his voice covered up Nic’s next quiet sentence. Elena, standing beside him, was the only one who could have heard it.   “I need you to trust me, but more than that, I need you to cover me. Understand?”   Elena allowed her eyes to flick over to him for a moment. Every muscle in his body was tensed, and he adjusted his grip on his sword, holding it in a grip that she recognized from watching duelists back home. He was preparing to strike, which meant that he was going to charge. She returned her eyes to the two vampirs, quickly analyzing Nic’s most likely target. When she looked, there was only one way that it would work out. He would have to charge Renwick. If he tried to rush Sonya, Renwick would be able to kill Marcus, and Sonya would have plenty of time to meet his rush. Nic was obviously asking her to cover him while he charged, but that would be difficult. With him standing near Marcus, Elena couldn’t hit Sonya.   And then Elena noticed that she could hit Sonya before Nic moved. The problem would be making the shot without hitting him. She could probably make the shot, but only if she was extremely fast.   That’s what he’s asking me to do, she realized. He’s trusting me to make the shot without hitting him.   Elena’s eyes narrowed, and she tightened her grip on the bow. “Do you trust me?” she asked, just quietly enough for him to hear.   Nic turned his head to look at her, fixing one of his pale blue eyes on her face. There was a moment’s pause, then he nodded once. Something passed between them in that instant, giving Elena a surge of confidence.   Elena watched Nic turn back to face Renwick. The tension in his body seemed to increase. A bead of sweat rolled out from his light brown hair to vanish into his thin beard. Then all of the tension in him released in a single snap. In that moment, even as Nic was starting to move, Elena adjusted her aim, fixing her sights on Sonya. She did not have enough time to line up a killing shot, but any hit would do for now. She released the bowstring, feeling that tension release along with Nic’s own. The arrow flew straight, streaking ahead of Nic. It passed so close in front of him that the fletchings caught at his shirt. Neither moving object interfered with the other, and Nic rushed towards Renwick even as the arrow buried itself in Sonya’s shoulder. Both vampirs’ eyes widened in shock. Sonya stumbled backwards at the arrow impact, and her lower legs hit the wall below the open window. She tipped backwards, hands trying desperately to grab onto something, but her reflexive clutching at her wound had left her arms too far out of place to help. She plunged down, out of sight.   Renwick, meanwhile, cursed as a massive Eisen man came barreling towards him. He flicked his knife upwards, away from Marcus, to intercept Nic’s massive blade. He had no chance for a full block, so he instead diverted the strike sideways. Nic had apparently been anticipating this, as he used the sideways momentum to add force to a punch that drove Renwick backwards. The vampir stumbled away from his captive.   Elena had her five seconds now. She raced forward, noticing that one of the others was keeping pace with her. She did not recognize her fellow as Sabrina until they reached Marcus’s side. Elena slung her bow from her back and bent down to scoop up Marcus. Sabrina helped her, and the two of them dragged him off of the couch and back towards the door. Only once she was there did she turn to see how the fight against Renwick was going.   Both Nic and Kataya were forcing Renwick back towards a row of shelves. He was trying to defend himself against all of their blows, but he was armed only with a dagger against their swords. As Elena watched, they both struck in unison. Kataya’s strike knocked Renwick’s dagger out of his hand. Nic’s blow made contact with the vampir’s chest.   Renwick did not scream. He simply coughed once and crumpled to the ground. He lay there for a moment, hand reaching up towards his foes. Kataya stepped back, out of the way, but Nic simply swatted the hand aside with the flat of his blade. Renwick coughed again, his voice exiting his body with the sound of leaking air. “It doesn’t matter. Sonya and Mathias will avenge me.”   Nic visibly stiffened at the words. “What?” he barked. “How do you know that name?” Nic crouched down, grabbing at the front of Renwick’s tunic, but the vampir convulsed and went still. The glow of Nic’s sword began to fade. He didn’t seem to notice as he shook the body. “Tell me! Who is he to you?”   “Nic!” Elena’s sudden cry seemed to surprise him. He turned to look at her, apparently defensive. “We need to get out of here. He’s dead anyway, he’s of no use to you now.”   For an instant, Nic looked conflicted. He returned his gaze to Renwick’s body, then nodded. “You’re right.” He sounded pained, but he stood. “Let’s go.”   Together, Elena and Sabrina carried Marcus back towards the entrance hall. Jamieson walked beside them, supporting Richard. The others formed a protective circle around them as they moved back through the mansion. They encountered no more enemies as they exited, and as they emerged into the manor’s front courtyard, Elena could see why. The sun was just beginning to peek up over the trees, filling the area with light. The sun was a welcome sight, though she didn’t have as much time to bask in its glow as she wanted.   The group made their way back to the original campsite, finding it still in place but deserted. Elena had not been there since the revenant attack, and she winced at the sight of so many ripped tents. Some bodies still lay where they had fallen, but the group avoided the worst of the carnage as they went to the edge of the camp. Once there, Lena spread out some blankets, and both Marcus and Richard were carefully laid out. As the light fell across his face, Elena realized for the first time how bad Marcus looked. He had almost no color left in him, and his face looked shrunken and wan. If she had not been able to see the faint rise and fall of his chest, she would have mistaken him for a corpse.   Richard, on the other hand, looked better. He was obviously weak and pale, but he was conscious, staring up at the others with pain-clouded, though lucid, eyes. Jamieson went to work on him, but he waved the other man off. “I’m going to be okay,” he protested. “I just need rest. Take care of Mr. Cunningham.”   As Jamieson obliged the request, Elena sat back on her heels to watch. As she watched the doctor carefully check Marcus, she felt a sudden wave of exhaustion that had nothing to do with her physical condition. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, wondering how everything had gone so spectacularly wrong. She had been a fool to try and come to the ruins in the Walder, and now her friends were paying the price.   “We should get out of here,” she heard herself saying. “We need to escape while we still can.”   Silence fell in the wake of her words. She felt the eyes of most of her companions on her, but she could not bring herself to meet their gazes just yet. She took a deep breath first, composing herself and steeling her resolve. When she straightened to look them all in the eyes, it would be to declare their expedition a failure. To declare herself a failure, and likely a murderer as well. It had to be done, but she could not bring herself to admit it.   “What about the ruins?” The question was soft and tender, and came from Nic of all people. His quiet tone cut through Elena’s resolve to stand and face her companions, and she found herself foundering. “What about the things that you came here for?”   If standing to face her companions before had been hard, the weight of having someone else say it made it ten times harder. Perhaps a hundred times.   You’re so close! a voice inside her seemed to scream.   Very slowly, Elena hoisted herself to her full height. She turned slowly, allowing herself time to lock eyes with each person between herself and Nic. When at last she met that pale blue gaze, she saw something of herself reflected deep within those eyes. A hurt, a longing that had to be suppressed.   “It doesn’t matter,” she said firmly. “We need to get away from here before any surviving vampirs or revenants or Theus-knows-what comes after us to finish all of us off. It’s time to get out of this godforsaken forest.”   “You’d give all of that up?” Nic’s tone remained quiet. “After everything we’ve been through to get here? Just leave now and not see your victory?”   “Yes. None of your lives are worth anything down in those ruins.”   Once again, silence fell. Something changed in Nic’s eyes. Now, he looked ashamed. He turned his gaze away from her, glancing somewhere over her left shoulder. After a moment, he met her eyes again, and the shame was gone. “Respectfully, I think that’s a stupid decision.”   Elena blinked in surprise. “Beg your pardon?”   “We all worked hard to get here. Sure, it was harder than we expected it to be, but to give up now? That’s just throwing away the sacrifices of all of your friends who got you here.”   This time, Elena was so surprised that she physically took a step back from Nic. She tried to speak, but her tongue had gotten tied up in her shock and refused to form words. She was still struggling to get over this when Quin spoke from one side of her.   “He’s right, ma’am.” When Elena turned to look at him, Quin met her gaze, a fire burning in his eyes. “If you leave now, without getting what you came here for, it’d be a waste. We’d all feel better about this if you find something down there that changes the world.” He smiled faintly. “Or, at least, something new.”   To Elena’s surprise, as her eyes roamed around her companions, she saw many nods. Kataya flashed her a grin and said, “We’ve already been paid for this trip, and I think it’s only fair that you get something out of it too.”   “But… all of the deaths…”   “We knew what we were doing when we came along,” Quin said. “We were all prepared for the possibility. We want you to succeed, or we wouldn’t have come.”   “But if the monsters come back…”   Nic stepped up beside her, pulling a pair of vials out of his pockets. “Take these. Spectral Prisons. My last ones. There should be enough here to spread around all of us. No monsters will be able to get in, but we can enter and exit at our pleasure.”   Excitement began to rise in Elena once more. She felt a thrill at having her aspirations placed back into her reach so soon after she had given them up as impossibilities. She turned to the others, each of whom gave her some form of wordless encouragement. “Will you be okay out here?”   “We can take care of ourselves,” Catlín declared. “Go find your artifacts.”   To her surprise, Elena found herself tearing up a bit. She managed to keep her composure, however, and turned her head to look at the ruins. “Okay, then. I guess it’s decided.”   “You won’t have to go in there alone,” Nic said. “I’ll come with you.”   That proclamation sent a jolt of excitement down Elena’s spine. She had expected Marcus to be the one to enter the ruins with her, but Nic would be just as good a companion to have with her down there. She knew from experience how dangerous the ruins could be.   “Alright. Let’s go, then!” She turned to face the others, a fierce grin spreading across her face. “But first, I’m going to need to borrow a few things.”