Vero put the sword on her belt, and also took Pentarch’s family blade along with her other equipment. She thought he would appreciate having it back.

  Alexius was still shaken, and leaned on Conner for support, but he seemed more sensible than before. Though his eyes now stared directly forwards unseeing.

  “What happened to you?” she asked.

  “I could not see any other way,” Alexius replied. “I chose to act. There was a flash, and I was blinded. In more ways than one.”

  “You did the right thing,” she assured him.

  “Did I? It remains to be seen. And by others.” It sounded as though all the life had gone out of him.

  “You’re not going to die here, Father.”

  “I’m useless to you, Vero. The spirit has left me. I can only slow you down now.”

  Vero had no interest in his self-pity. There was no time for it. “We stay together and make it together, or not at all. Now come on.”

  When she opened the door, Vero found the Toad on the other side waiting for her.

  “I always agreed with those who said we should put you to death immediately,” he stated blandly.

  “You’re not the first foe to make the fatal error of not killing me when you had the chance. That imbecile upstairs is already dead; his madman's fantasy is over. If you don’t want to end up the same way as him, then surrender now.”

  Vero partially drew her blade in readiness for a fight, and the Toad looked disappointed when he saw the weapon. “How easily it moves for you. That’s very annoying. With Iosephus and his lot out of favor once more, there will no longer be anyone insisting on keeping you alive, for the moment. Perhaps killing you will sever your connection with that sword at last.”

  She checked again if he brought any men with him, but the Toad was alone. “You and what army, fat man?”

  The Toad opened his cloak to reveal the grey clammy flesh of his chest. It was quivering, as though unseen worms were squirming beneath his skin. “Mouthy little whore. I will enjoy administering this discipline.”

  The creature’s stomach was concave, and contained many smaller arms coiled up in it. Some were shaped like the hands of babes; others were deformed and held scythe-like fingers. Still others bore jaw-like apertures, that snapped with aberrantly swift movements. The monster bent forward onto its belly and unfurled itself in its totality. A horrible half-human centipede of limbs.

  Vero went back into the armory and slammed the door shut. “Put the priest in the corner and grab a weapon!”

  She hoped the door would hold the abomination back, but there was a scratching at the entrance and a key was inserted into the lock. Vero collected anything which resembled a spear.

  The door opened and she immediately hurled a silver javelin into the mass beyond it. That elicited a shriek, and the entity hesitated.

  Vero did not, and threw any missile of silver she could lay her hands on at the vile thing. They stung the monster, but did not debilitate it. The abomination advanced by compressing itself through the doorway, then extending back out into its full size inside the room.

  “Hold it back!” Vero ordered, as she ran through the rough center of its mass with a long lance.

  Conner joined her with a silver-bladed halberd. Together, they tried to keep the roiling horror of limbs confined at the narrowest point possible. Their efforts were in vain, the freakish abomination folded itself over their weapons, and they were forced to retreat from its thin scythes and manic jaws.

  Vero unsheathed her sword, and the touch of its vorpal edge had an immediate effect. The monster recoiled from her, and Vero could see green blood on the floor where it retreated. Their weapons were dealing injury. It could be killed.

  She followed the creature, hacking at its nearest limbs- effortlessly severing them at a touch. It was nearly out the door again before the thing overcame its initial shock to attack once more.

  Conner was back with a silver-headed axe, but the beast would not be halted. The blade-like appendages were razor sharp, and one cut open the top of her left arm from the elbow to the wrist.

  “Keep it busy!” Vero shouted, and ran back to where she sloughed off her pack.

  She kept many pre-portioned quantities of reagents ready for fast fire workings with her. Vero took all of them from her bag and mixed them with her fresh flowing blood.

  “Back away!”

  Conner obeyed the order, and Vero threw the elementalist reaction in progress away from her, just before it erupted into flames. The mixture burned hot, but fast.

  Vero was on the creature before it even burned out. The air was filled with a horrible smell of burning flesh, but the abomination would not yield. Her sword snatched off dozens of limbs, but it still seemed to hold hundreds more.

  Desperate, Vero went to Pentarch’s bag, and hoped that he followed the same habits as she. It took longer to find her way through a stranger’s things, but the reagents were there.

  She lit the mystic fuse with her blood, then launched the flaming mixture over the monster. At once, she was scrambling through Isolde’s things, desperately seeking more spell components. Looking for anything she could trigger elemental reactions with.

  Conner screamed horribly.

  There! Guano and grain dust. Vero ignited the spell with her blood and hurled the whole bag.

  Reagents sizzled, and Isolde's pack landed in the center of the monstrosity. Vero could see Conner clutching lacerations and backing away, he had lost his axe.

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  The reaction exploded.

  It tore the monster into many squirming pieces, and there were flashes of many-colored lights in the smoke. Through the whirling riot of colors around her, Vero targeted what she thought was the head and pierced it with her sword until it ceased to move. Then she repeated the procedure with each wriggling piece, from the largest to the smallest.

  When she was certain the evil homunculus was dead, Vero rushed to bind Conner’s wounds. “We need to hurry. The Curia intends to extinguish the wards preventing vampyres from entering the fortress. I’ll go first, you come behind me with the priest, understand?”

  Conner had an empty look in his eyes she did not wish to see, but he nodded. She reminded herself that she needed to trust that he was strong enough to carry on.

  They encountered no more opposition until they reached the door leading out onto the inner castle wall. There, Vero discovered two more guards, again facing the wrong way. They were attempting to brace the exit she wished to leave by.

  With her own weapon in her hand, the guards proved no threat at all when caught unaware. The first was dead before either had seen her, and the second was dead before drawing his blade.

  Vero unblocked the path before the boy arrived with Alexius. They could hear the roar of warfare now close.

  She scanned the battlefield from the relative safety of the doorway. There were archers taking cover on the wall, perhaps half a dozen of them. They fired down at a small company of men-at-arms, who were pinned at the main doors from the great hall.

  Vero saw Diana among those who seemed to be fighting their way out into the courtyard. The giantess fired a masterful shot which struck one of the enemy archers full in the chest. The arrow punctured straight through his armor, and the man did not rise.

  “Try and climb down to the others, they’ll help you,” Vero instructed Conner. “Tell Diana that the Curia intends to bring down the wards, we must leave before sundown. Tell her, or Pentarch, that I’ve gone to lower the bridge over the moat for them. I’ll try to bring down as many archers along the way as I can. Do you understand?”

  He still had a faraway look, but he nodded.

  “We’re almost out, little brother. You must be strong for me just a few more paces, the race is nearly run. I need you, Conner.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  She left the protection of the tower and ran. In all the din and chaos of the fighting, no one saw her kill the first archer. The second archer saw her, and cried out an alarum to the others, but he had already fired his shot. Vero cut him down before he could fully draw the short sword on his belt.

  Arrows sang in her direction, and Vero ran again. The man ahead of her drew down on her with his bow. Time subjectively slowed between them.

  Vero threw her shoulder into him. Her boots kept traction on the slick ice perfectly, while her foeman lost his feet and fired his shot uselessly skyward. She ran him through before rushing on.

  More arrows followed her as she sprinted into the gatehouse which controlled the drawbridge. Another archer was at an arrow slit there, but inside the gatehouse he had not heard the warning of Vero’s presence on the wall. His attention was still on the battle raging down in the courtyard.

  Vero slew him before he realized his mistake.

  She took a moment by the arrow slit to catch her breath. Conner and Alexius had reached the others, who were now pushing across the courtyard as Diana returned fire at the remaining archers.

  Still half-exhausted, Vero forced herself over to the machinery and let down the bridge. One of the archers from the wall charged into the room. Vero fell into cover, and his arrow was lost somewhere among the gate machinery. The guard was not discouraged, and drew his short sword.

  Her heart was thumping, but her sword was light and Vero’s arms still felt strong. The two combatants matched blades, and the man came up short. Half a minute later, another guard bearing a sword arrived, and things ended just the same for him.

  “Vero! We’re across!” She heard Heward calling to her from below.

  Vero stowed her sword and clambered out one the murder holes in front of the wall. From there, she climbed down the chains used to raise the bridge. Heward was there to assist her as she reached the bottom. They were the last two across, and leapt to solid ground when the bridge began to raise under them.

  Archers were still behind them, and they were running again immediately. A few arrows strayed too close for comfort, but no one was hit.

  The drawbridge did not reopen for pursuers to follow them, and they had a moment to rest at the base of the outer curtain wall, where it seemed no one was on guard. Although the gates there were closed.

  “What happened to you?” Diana asked her.

  Pentarch was wheezing too badly to speak.

  “Conner and Alexius rescued me. Iosephus and the Toad are dead. We need to find shelter before the sun’s set.”

  “So we heard,” said Phillip.

  “If we make it to the Dread Valley,” Diana said, “we can escape through the underground river.”

  Vero knew that there must have been a secret route to Burgorod. “Then, first we must seize this final gatehouse and get everyone past the wall.” Looking at those assembled, Vero realized she was better off than anyone else present. “I’ll lead the assault group. We can’t waste any more time here.”

  “Fine,” replied Diana.

  “Heward, Phillip, follow me.” Vero started up the stairs to the top of the wall, but first she halted herself and returned Pentarch’s sword to him. “As my property has been returned to me, this should be returned to you.”

  Pentarch was still breathless, and there was no time to wait for him to recover. The others followed without questioning her orders.

  How odd, that her bedroom of some months was so nearby. Vero felt bone weary, and she hoped the gatehouse would be empty.

  It was not. Two men stood on guard duty, and Vero gritted her teeth. She signaled her companions to take one and kept her own attention on the other. Vero could feel her body slowing with fatigue, and she was only just able to match her opponent. Fortunately, Heward and Phillip worked in tandem to cut down the other guard quickly. Then they overwhelmed Vero’s opponent together by force of numbers.

  With the gatehouse cleared, the portcullises were raised. The sun was starting to pass beyond the horizon. There was still no sign of pursuit from the main fortress. Vero speculated that the nearness of the fighting had rattled the Curia. If so, they could use their opponents’ conservative tactics to their advantage.

  With all their allies on the other side, Vero and the other two let themselves down into the soft snow piled up against the side of the wall. Their companions helped them up, and then they climbed at a stiff pace down into the Dread Valley.

  Vero was almost as tired as she had ever been, but the thrill of their near escape gave herself, and everyone else, a second wind. The sinking sun only gave greater impetus for their haste.

  When the sun set, they still had not reached the river. In the darkness, Vero felt certain she could feel the power of the Fiend moving through the night all around her.

  When the attack came, it arrived too suddenly for warning. A rush of wind and Vero was torn from her feet. The Landgravine Sidonie was on top of her, hands at Vero’s throat. “You killed him! You killed the man I loved, you witch!”

  Vero drew her blade far enough to run the edge along Sidonie’s belly. That was sufficient. She screamed in horror at its touch and launched herself away, back into the night.

  “Hurry, Vero! It’s just ahead!” Diana called.

  Heward had turned back to help her and pulled her to her feet. Vero saw the maniacal form of Kunigard hurtling towards them in the moon's light. There was no dodging it.

  It was interrupted en route. Elizaveta pulled the undead priestess out of the air, and ripped at its throat as they fell to the ground. Her maids joined her, and together they tore the heretic vampyre into pieces.

  There was no time for Vero to thank them, there was no telling how many other vampyres were closing on them. If Elizaveta survived her delaying action, perhaps she would make her own way to Burgorod and meet them there. Vero and Heward ran down into a crevice as fast as their legs would carry them, and heard rushing water ahead.

  They reunited with the others at a hidden ferry, which ran up and down an underground river of warm water spilling from the heart of the mountain. They were already prepared to depart, and set off the moment Vero and Heward were aboard.

  Safe at last, Vero immediately collapsed.

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