Ancient Shadows

TWENTY TWO

So on the horror show went. It was a matter of just a couple of minutes before the flames had engulfed the whole of the boy's body. It was as if his flesh itself was flammable. His cries continued but after another minute they stopped. His body fell over in his death prison against the iron bars as it burned up. Soon bones were visible. Flesh fell to the floor like melted butter. It took just a little longer before all that could be seen was a burning skeleton.

The flames rising from the skeleton of the boy tapered off becoming smaller with each proceeding moment. Only seconds later the flames had disappeared leaving a charred skeletal figure roughly resembling a body. One of Dmitri's workers approached the metal cage. He carried a stoker with which he stuck through the bars of the cage and prodded the charred remains. With the first prod the charred mass broke apart. He prodded it again and again. The remains broke up until they simply turned to gray ash.

A cloud of ash hovered above a pile of ashes. It was over. It was done to the great relief of most of those watching.

Count Lewellan turned to face the audience. His smile was gone now. He had the most serious look on his face. His brow was furrowed and his eyes went narrow. He studied those in attendance moving his eyes over the spectators to view them all. The Count seemed to let his eyes linger especially long on Hurst Von Kessler and Yorn Wallvitria, who the brothers were pretending to be.

"This is what happens to those who break my laws or betray me," Dimitri Lewellan roared at his guests. He stared at them again moving his learing eyes over all of them.

The guests said nothing in return. Everyone was remarkably quiet considering what they'd just witnessed. No one even dared to whisper to the person next to them. It wasn't three minutes later when one of the Count's men directed everyone to follow him out of the miniature auditorium. Everyone did as was asked. No one wanted to be the subject of Dimitri s rage. Making an early exit would only draw unwanted attention.

Walter was thinking to himself about how they were going to achieve their intended goal. Things had become complicated. Count Dimitri Lewellan was intimidating. And he had an entourage around him. Sure the brothers had brought some muscle, but they were only two men. In addition they had just been severely intimidated by the man they meant to kill. Out of the four of them not one was up for this task any longer. Not after witnessing that gruesome execution. Walter and Augustus had it demonstrated for them that blood drinkers were not as invincible as they had believed.

The group were paraded down hallways until they came to a set of double doors. They were opened to let everyone in. Beyond the doors were bleachers that descended down about seven or eight rows. The bleacher area was about 40 feet across. At the bottom of the bleachers, beyond the last row down was a drop of 25 feet to an area below that looked like an arena of sorts. A small area below the bleachers that was circular, 35 feet in diameter. There were two doors along the wall that opened into the circular arena area. The floor of the little arena was made of stone. There was nothing occupying in this arena area.

The guests were seated. Afraid of what revelry might await them. The Count had broken off from the group and was nowhere to be seen. A few of his lackeys lingered around the top of the bleachers. They assured everyone that more entertainment would be provided shortly. The guests were quiet for the most part, a few made small talk with those they knew. However mostly they appeared worried. They were debilitated.

Who were they guests of the Count? How did they come to be in this extravagant compound, this extensive palace with a mini amphitheatre and small indoor arena. Did any of them expect things to take a bizarre and violent turn that they surely did? What of the blood drinker Kellandra? How had she reacted to the fellow immortal, the boy vampyr, being destroyed by fire as entertainment?