The Sunwalker- Heirs of the Night

21

Nadja saw no one, heard no one. Which direction should she go? She looked around. Where had she come from? Everything looked identical to her, snow and trees everywhere. Maybe she didn't need to distinguish the environment around her, not if she could contact Lars from afar. However, even with closed eyes, Nadja failed to connect to him, failed to even sense him at all. Distance had rarely been an issue before, but.. Realisation hit her. The reason it didn't work must be that Lars, the leader of the Dracas clan, was not wearing the Dracas ruby. Ragnar must have taken from him, taken it for himself. Nadja tried not to let her spirit sink. Surely Lars was alright. A split second later, Nadja had taken off running up the small mountain beside her. High ground. If she could get high up, she might be able to see where Ragnar was bringing Lars. Minutes later, while still climbing the mountain, Nadja noticed daybreak approaching. If the sun was coming out, that had to mean uncle Ragnar had found somewhere to hide. But where? Even as she stood on top of the mountain, she couldn't see anywhere fitting for two vampires to evade the sun. All these stupid forests were in the way, blocking anything and everything except the sun that slid through their branches. After a last, exasperated look around, Nadja made her decision. She would go down to the ocean, where there were big, open fields, hoping to see or hear anything from below. She set off at a run downwards, through the thick and heavy snow, and through the forests too. Daylight was ebbing away, yet she had not found them. Soon they could keep moving, which would make finding them much more difficult. Darkness fell as Nadja struggled, until she saw something. A wooden building between the trees. She sped up and approached what seemed to be a lone church. Nervously, she opened the door. It was empty. Something lay on the floor, which, upon further investigation, turned out to be a silver cross. What could Ragnar have done with this, assuming it was him that displaced it? Had he used it to hurt or kill Lars?

"Lars?"

No reply came, so Nadja turned in the doorway and ran on. If Lars and Ragnar had really been here, they would have to be close by. She searched for signs of passage through the forest, and began tracking what she hoped was Lars and Ragnar's footsteps. Through the trees in the distance, Nadja saw Ragnar and Lars by the water. Lars was alright, their mad uncle hadn't killed him. What was that behind them though? It looked like.. A boat? Was Ragnar planning on crossing the ocean with Lars? She took off running towards them, but knew she would never catch up. They were too far away. When she arrived where they had been, Nadja stopped running.

"Lars!"

The smallest figure turned, just as Ragnar's hand lit up once more and conjured a powerful wind that only took them further away from her. If her brother had shouted back, Nadja had not heard it.

When Nadja returned to the Dracas encampment, a surprising sight met her eyes. Although it was still nighttime, there was no one around. No vampires, at least. There were however... A howl sounded, awfully close, and Nadja ran. She had to evade them, and had to be careful. One bite from a wolf could kill a vampire, so she could only hope no one else had been taken yet. Luckily, the lack of people, dead or not, gave Nadja hope that they had not. She rounded a corner and felt arms close around her and yank her backwards. Nadja fell onto the floor of one of the huts.

"Herlighet, Fanny, du skremte meg! Holy hell Fanny, you scared me!"

"Kom, bli med meg. Come, follow me."

Fanny led her into a secret tunnel beneath the floor. The two of them emerged into a larger room where various vampires hid from the wolves.

"Hvor er de andre? Where are the others?" Nadja asked.

"Dette er alle. De andre dro etter far og Lars, de tok Elisabetha for bare noen timer siden. This is everyone. The others pursued father and Lars, they took the Elisabetha mere hours ago."