The cliffs of Capilliaria were even larger than what Amanda had expected. They towered up above at well over three or four times the height of their tallest mast. The channel they sailed up was comparatively narrow, barely wide enough for the ship to fit sideways.

  “How do we get out?” Amanda asked Sirius who was currently at the wheel of the ship, delicately steering them in.

  “It’s wider at the end, just enough to turn us around with the help of some winches on land. Then we sail out with the fall of the tide early tomorrow morning.”

  “So we need their help to to get out? What if they were responsible for the attack last night? What if it was a scouting mission that went wrong?”

  “Well, now she’s thinking like a pirate,” remarked Shiv from where he sat by the map table balancing his knife casually on one finger. She could hear the sarcasm in his tone but she wasn’t completely sure if it was directed at her or Sirius.

  Sirius seemed to think it was at himself. “You gotta give trust to get it, Shiv. We’d be sitting ducks out on the water anyway. Besides, it’s more polite if we enter the port.”

  “Ah, yes, baring one's throat to one's enemy has always been considered very polite.”

  “They aren’t our enemy, Shiv.”

  “Last night suggests otherwise,” Shiv grumbled.

  His tone was less questioning though and Sirius let the matter drop.

  Amanda stared out the windows at the cliffs. As they sailed further in, she could just make out little caves and what looked almost like windows carved into rock wall. In one of them for a moment she thought she saw a pale face looking down on them, but she blinked and it was gone.

  As the travelled further in, they passed by magnificent waterfalls that rained in from the sides. Fresh water that sparkled way up high before careening down to join the dark salt water below. It was a beautiful sight and Amanda went out on the deck to get a better look.

  Eventually they reached a large cavern which they sailed right on into. It wasn’t completely enclosed and there were enough gaps in the rock overhead to allow them sufficient light to see by. That combined with the myriad of little rivers that wound their way in from the sides, letting light reflect and bounce off every turn and twist in the tumbling water.

  The cavern went in far deeper than Amanda had been expecting and when they reached the end she realised it wasn’t so much as elongated cove as it was a river, one which had been damned up. The cavern itself, while obviously originally natural had also been manually expanded to accommodate an entire port, with various areas that water could be let into or shut off from. It was a marvel of engineering the likes of which she had never seen before, and it had to have taken several years and substantial manpower. Sirius had been right too. There was room to turn here, although support from land was obviously required. Large mechanical chains were wound into the walls at various points and likely used to physically maneuver the boats to where they needed to go. In this section of the cave almost all of the sunlight had been shut out except for one tunnel through which Amanda could hear the flowing of a large river into a lake that sat somewhere higher up.

  The lighting in the cave was fully electric, likely powered from the flow of the water. She wondered where the rest of it flowed because the one spillway she could see was shut completely and by the sound of the flow, it was no small amount of water.

  Despite the size of the port, there were far fewer people here than there had been at any port so far. It took her awhile to find the first lone figure walking swiftly along a stone walkway in the side of the cliffs. They were soon joined by a handful more and together, after some communication with the crew, they hooked up a large chain to the boat which pulled them further in to a secure birthing.

  They would definitely need the chains and help to get back out again and Amanda wondered exactly what sort of place it was they had wandered into.

  She watched on deck as Sirius spoke with two of the men from shore. Both were pale like ghosts and both were dressed in black, similar enough that she suspected it was a uniform. It wasn’t anywhere near as loose as what the sorcerer’s clothing had been but it did remind her a little of the sort of clothing worn by ninjas in movies stolen from the old world.

  She soon found that the style was limited to the physical dock workers. As she followed Sirius off the boat and into a small office like area, the clothing of the office workers was in stark contrast. Where the port workers had worn black, the office workers had nearly every other colour covered. Tight pants, held up at the waist with oversized belts, and loose flowery bright coloured shirts dominated a tiny room whose walls were painted canary yellow.

  One woman with skin like snow and eyes like twilight and who was dressed in a bright pink suit with flared bell-bottoms handed Sirius some forms to fill out. Even her hair and nails were painted pink. She tapped on the board indicating where Sirius should sign. It wasn’t so different from some of the things one might see worn around Little Rock Public High School, only here it had been turned up to maximum volume and crammed into a tiny room with desks against every wall. They had more computers than Amanda had ever seen in one place. She wondered how big their network was. She’d heard stories of places where people could talk to one another right across the other side of town just using the computer, and even of some places where towns had been connected to one another. In Little Rock the network had been mostly limited to certain areas of town but her nerdy computer friend had told her they were expanding the size of them every day in the modern cities. Given that Scarlett had seemed a little older fashioned she was surprised to find such technology buried somewhere so nearby in a place that resembled a fortress more than a city.

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  Once Sirius was done filling out the forms, they headed back outside, or was it inside into the cavern? The greys and blacks of the stone walls were like stepping into a different world.

  Sirius waved a signal up to Shiv and then the crew began unloading. First a bunch of crates which Sirius said contained various sunscreens, the sort that allowed the wealthier vampires to venture outside during daylight. There were several boxes of books and various technological components, once of which contained computer stuff. Amanda half wished he’d mentioned that before, although she supposed, peeking into the crates beyond their check for illegal animals would have been frowned upon. She would have been curious to see what went inside those magic boxes though.

  The blood barrels were carted off and inspected. Finally only the coffins remained. They watched as these were telekinetically raised over the edge of the boat and set down gently on some wheeled trolleys.

  “Where are we taking these?” Shiv asked as he joined Sirius on shore.

  Sirius checked the document in his hand. “Someone’s supposed to meet us here. Protocol is for a selection of crew to stay on shore anyway. There’s a dinner we’re supposed to attend too.”

  “How could I forget,” Shiv grumbled with a sigh.

  “Would you rather Alice attend instead? I don’t think he’s had his turn yet.” Sirius replied. His gaze fixed on a couple of men in dark suits coming their way.

  “No, it’ll look bad if the quartermaster’s not there,” Shiv replied with a sigh. “I just hope you’re right about them. Who else is attending? We get up to five right?”

  Sirius nodded back at the gangplank where Bob-bee and Neko were disembarking with a couple of small bags. “And I thought Amanda would find it interesting too.” To Amanda he added, “I packed a few things you might want overnight. Neko’s got our bags. There will be places we can buy anything we’re missing though.”

  She nodded and wondered what the shops would look like in this place.

  “Ooo, I’m so excited,” Neko remarked as he joined them wearing three backpacks and carrying a lyre.

  Bob-bee frowned down at him. “What are you excited for? You’ve been on land duty here before.”

  “Yeah, but it’s exciting every time. The vampires throw the best parties.”

  “Even better than the werewolves?” Amanda asked thinking of the strange but beautiful singing and dancing she’d seen under the moonlight back on the Wolverine.

  “Oh yes,” Neko nodded.

  Behind him, Sirius gave the slightest shake of the head though.

  Amanda would have to ask him about it later however, for it was at that moment that their welcome party arrived.

  They were greeted by two men, both pale as snow, and when they opened their mouths to smile in greeting, their long canines were hard to miss. The shorter one was brown haired but it was obvious from the darker regrowth that he dyed it. His hair was silky but medium length and his eyes were red. The other man was slightly taller, a notch or so above Shiv’s height. His hair was dark and just as silky, and it flowed down his back like water, meeting almost at his hips. His eyes were violet and up this close Amanda could see that his suit was not black at all but a dark green and possibly made of velvet.

  The taller of the pair held out a hand to Sirius. “Welcome to Cap. I’m Sandy and this is Nigel. We met last time.”

  Sirius nodded. “I remember.”

  Sandy smiled wide. “Excellent, it’s good to see you again. We have others coming to collect the bodies. For now, let us take you to Beatrice.”

  “I need to talk to you about that actually,” Sirius said. “About the state they’re in.”

  Sandy smiled and reached out a hand to usher Sirius alongside him. “There will be time for that later. Please, Beatrice is waiting. Whatever needs to be discussed can be done once she is with us.”

  The men led the five of them along winding tunnels, up and down stairs, even into an elevator which took them up several more floors to a black metal door.

  Nigel knocked gently on the door, his touch so slight Amanda was surprised that anyone inside could hear it. It should not have surprised her though, for vampires were known to have excellent hearing.

  A woman’s voice, sweetly answered a moment later. “Come in.”

  The room was lavish and large. It was filled with paintings and artworks, the walls and floor built with a mixture of wood and stone, the placement of which made the room seem larger than it was, especially when combined with the cool white lighting. Rugs covered portions of the floor and various pot plants were positioned around the room, many of them filled with dark green healthy looking ferns. Amanda wasn’t sure if this was someone’s living room or the foyer of an office.

  A woman swept down to greet them from a mezzanine floor in a loose dress designed to look like butterfly wings. Her long silky hair was dyed to match with a blue-violet base colour highlighted by lighter streaks of magenta and green. It was pinned up high away from her eyes on either side of her face. Her eyes were a lighter violet than Sandy’s but her skin was just as fair as the men’s. This was undoubtedly the Beatrice they had been referring to.

  She smiled when she saw him, revealing her long fangs. “Sirius!” She swept forth and wrapped him in a hug that suggested they knew each other well.

  “Beatrice,” Sirius acknowledged as they separated.

  She kept a hold of his elbows a little longer and looked him directly in the eyes. “How have you been?”

  He nodded which she took for enough of an answer.

  She did not wait for more. Instead, with a slight bow of the head, “Thank you for bringing my brothers back to me.”

  Sirius frowned. “Your brothers? I didn’t realise they were yours specifically.”

  “Well I suppose in a way they are all of our bothers, but yes, they were also my brothers by blood, as one might say.” She gave a small smile and Amanda got the impression she was making a joke.

  Beatrice’s gaze swept the rest of them then. “Oh, where are my manners. Shiv I know, and Neko, it’s always a pleasure, but I don’t believe I’ve met your other companions yet.

  Sirius introduced them. “This is Bob-bee, one of our crewmen, and Amanda. Amanda is… er… ah...”

  Beatrice caught on quickly. With a deepening smile she saved Sirius from having to answer. “Ah, I see.”

  She made a subtle adjustment in her position too, both moving and turning away from Sirius slightly, as if she had previously had more than a friendly interest in him. In spite of the fangs, the smile she gave Amanda was nothing but warm and polite however.

  “Would any of you like some tea?”

  Before anyone could answer there came a gentle rapping on the door.

  Beatrice invited them in. Soon, two large coffins stood in the centre of the room. The coffins from the ship.

  “My brothers, home at last,” spoke Beatrice in a soft sad tone. She took a step forward.

  Sirius moved to delay her. “Before you open them, there’s something I need to tell you.”