Veridian Shores

Chapter 42 - Armoury

They followed Gliss through the carnage of the bunker, past piles of ash and cold, dead smears of maroon blood. Weapons, broken bolts and a sense of emptiness dogged their every step, and the silence filled Brooke with a sense of utter wrongness. She'd lost all sense of direction as they plunged deeper than ever into the warren of Gliss's home, but that was nothing compared to the sheer lifelessness of the place. Outside of their little band she couldn't sense anything any more. The First was beyond the reach of what she could feel and she shuddered to think of the sheer havoc that would be visited on the citizens of Iron Hollow now.

They couldn't do anything to stop it now though, not until they'd found some way to kill the First. Now that she had a chance to really think about it, Brooke wasn't all that convinced that her plan would actually work. Leaving aside the gamble on actually finding anything in the tomb, she didn't know if the weapons would be any use. She'd never seen anything so powerful – so unkillable. Still, the others seemed to think it was a plan worth pursuing.

And they had to do something.

So they followed Gliss and the new trio of hunters from her clan into the depths. Eventually the corridors began to broaden, sloping downward and opening off into wide, spacious rooms filled with desks and shelves of books filling the walls. Many of them bore the scars of battle, with pages and furniture torn and smashed, littering places once devoted to research and understanding. It all twanged a chord of deep regret in her chest. For all the savagery of Iron Hollow, this industrious group had delved deeper into the past than many thought possible.

And they'd paid a higher price than they could have imagined. Brooke shook her head sadly. A waste. It was all a waste.

They cleared those big, dead rooms a few minutes later, going deeper still until Gliss led them through a connecting tunnel, out into a truly cavernous room at the base of the complex. Brooke's eyes opened wide at what was held within.

"Suns," she murmured, moving up to the gantry rail. Her eyes were fixed on the massive sand-stone hexagon, that dominated the centre of the excavation site. Digging equipment was scattered all around it, and she could see the ancient Vampyr runes that decorated its exterior, vastly old even by the standards of that ancient dialect. There were symbols she didn't recognise; others that she did. Some she wished she couldn't.

"So this is it?" Arcil gripped the rails, craning forward to stare at it. "I'll say this for you, Gliss. Your people are very industrious."

"Maybe a little too industrious," she muttered, striding past him and down the stairs at the far end of the gantry. "Come on. We don't have time to stand and stare."

Brooke cast a withering glance at the other vampire, but she knew time was of the essence. She joined the single-file line as the rest of the group followed Gliss down the stairway and across the hard-packed mud of the excavation. As they drew close to the hulking vault Brooke could feel power seeping through the doorway, no longer contained by the monolithic structure of the vault. She didn't know if there were weapons, but there was definitely something still inside it.

Uneasy in the quiet, and surrounded by the simmering aura of ... whatever it was, Brooke drew one of her duelling rods from its sheath, letting it hand loosely in one hand as they approached. Gliss and her comrades from Iron Hollow led the way, gathering in a shallow arc around the entrance to the tomb ... vault ... whatever it was. She saw them exchanging looks; saw Gliss glance at the bloodied pile of coal-dark ash and shudder. This must have been where the First had been loosed upon the world and the vampires of Iron Hollow had been in the front line when it happened. She didn't like to think about the carnage that must have ensued in the immediate aftermath.