Forgotten Heir: Realm Doors Book One

Chapter Twenty Two

The set up a task force of elahdril to clean up the mess of Vargon's foolish end and bury his remains, then commanded everyone else to stay in the barn unless called for. Anthony wore a grim expression as he led the others through to the furthest stall, the one which had once been Cara's and most distant from prying ears. The sit together staring silently at Anthony until she felt fit to burst under the anxiety. Ant seemed to be having problems finding the words for what he needed to say so in the end he chose for the direct approach.

"Blutholme is now officially at war with Lunesacpe, Last night the wolves attacked our capital with devastating force and began the sealing of our realm."

She felt her body sag of its own accord. They'd all known such a day would come, but to hear the words still came as a shock.

"What happened?" she whispered softly.

Anthony's head dropped to his hands finally crumbling and revealing the anguish he'd hidden in the barn. The previous night had taken its toll and there were ghosts in her friend's eyes.

"A werewolf sorceress phased into Alderburgh with a small contingent of elite soldiers to protect her. She sealed off the city, preventing anyone shifting realms within a ten mile radius if it's perimeter. In a way we're lucky, it doesn't appear she has the strength to close off more than a city at present, but it does mean that werewolves have found out how to close off Blutholme, if they find a big enough power source.

"Although she'd stopped vampires leaving, she didn't prevent werewolves from entering. A well organised mob shifted into our streets; trained soldiers out to pillage rather than make war. This mob was huge, my lady, so many more wolves that Alderburgh had defensive soldiers. They raped and slaughtered, then torched every building until the City burned and all that could be heard was the screams of the mutilated and dying."

Anthony seems curled in on himself and Cara wanted to comfort and console him, but how would she console him now?

"This was nothing, Nekyra, to what they have planned. This was a trial run. They've taken out our capital and killed our leader. Right now the Emperor's chief advisor is ruling in his stead as he'd named no heir. They've shown us what they can do in one night, and it's devastating. We do not stand a chance of defending ourselves against the wolves alone. We will fight but we will also be defeated. There is no hope."

No hope, because her people had failed to give help when help was due. Because she had been slow in getting to Karycadra and finding a way to make the elahdril follow her.

"The razing of our most prized city only ended when the sorceress became too tired to hold the barrier up anymore and the wolves left. Almost all of them left. Our retaliation had been so poor, so disorganised... We took revenge on so few of their number."

Ant's head fell against his knee.

"I have a list of vampires who are currently here, but whose friends, lovers and families were killed last night. We need to tell them. The decader, Ryan, his sire was a senator and was publically executed early on. Elizabetta's husband was found dead once the fighting stopped, beheaded. A girl Wolfram had recently sired was raped and tortured and poisoned with wolf's curse before anyone could get to her. Then there's Marcus, he and his partner had successfully born a child, one of those one in billion chance naturally conceived vampire babies. His baby and his fiancé are both dead."

He paused, his eyes finally lifting to look forlornly at Ric in a way that made her breathless with dread.

"They attacked a number of the realm doors at the same time. They attacked Urban Darkness. The club was well defended but it fell. Ric... Arianna died fighting to keep that door open."

Ric's fury hit her in a torrent, a swirling red mist which descended around both of us. With a yell of agony at the death of one he'd made, his fists pounded through the timber wall of the stall. Then he was on his knees, his head in his hands. A thousand wishes to have been there, to never have left Urban Darkness in the first place, filled a mind so easily readable to Cara it may as well have been her own.

Arianna had died because he wasn't there, or so Ric thinks.

Ric wasn't there because of her.

Tears sprung to her eyes and she wanted to hold him, but she didn't know what to say to make his grief any easier for him to bear.

Anthony pulled a bag from the corner of the room, rummaging around to find two sealed envelopes, one addressed to 'Nekyra of the Elahdrilas' and one to 'Dearest Ulrich'.

"When we managed to get into our side of Urban Darkness, we found only one survivor, a donor who'd gotten caught in the mess. He gave us these, saying that a vampire named Arianna had told him to give them to the first vampires he saw."