Realm of Monsters - Chapter 639: Home At Last

Chapter 639: Home At Last

  The Lazy Lady reached the docks of Hollow Shade with about as much fanfare as a drunk stumbling out of a tavern. It was dark, and lines of lanterns lined the docks, illuminating little, save the general shapes of the buildings lining the Dire River.

  Though Callum and Kithina had helped stop a dragonbane from leaving the Ebon Realm, and in doing so, saved the other nine realms, no one would sing their deeds. No one would know that they had almost died and had met the goddess of war instead.

  The smell of fresh water and fish assaulted Callum’s nose as he stepped off the Lazy Lady. He wrinkled his nose at the smell, but took a deep breath anyway. It was good to be home. Or at least close to it. He would never actually step back into his family’s manor ever again, lest his sister imprison him forever.

  “If you’re ever in need of a ship again, don’t hesitate to find us,” Captain Greyson called out from the deck.

  Callum bowed to the scraggly captain. “I will keep that in mind, thank you.”

  “Just make sure you’ve got lots of coin,” Greyson gave him a toothy grin.

  Callum scoffed with his own grin. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” 

  “Come on, Cal, we shouldn’t linger. Lysaila’s ship already docked ten minutes ago,” Kithina grabbed his wrist and dragged him along.

  The planks under his feet felt more stable than usual. His vision wasn’t as good in the dark as a full-blooded vampire’s, but he swore the buildings around him seemed— cleaner? No, that wasn’t right. But there was something different about them.

  “Where is she?” Kithina muttered while swiveling her head back and forth, her eyes darting about the docks.

  “I’m right here,” Lysaila said from behind them.

  Kithina jumped and spun around, hands on her hips, an angry frown on her face. “Don’t do that!”

  “Sorry, couldn’t help it.” Lysaila grinned. “I could hear your heartbeats the moment you landed.”

  Kithina broke into a smile and hugged her friend tightly. “I’ve missed you. Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

  Lysaila returned the hug, albeit abashedly. She wasn’t used to such warm contact. The concept of friends was still growing on her. “I’m fine. I’ll tell you both all about it once we get out of the open.”

  “There are plenty of taverns around here. We’ll get a couple of rooms and a warm meal for once,” Callum said.

  If his sister hadn’t been searching for him, Callum would have insisted they’d go to the Night District. They had the best taverns and food in the entire city. But no, even if it wasn’t for Elise, it was already dark outside. The shades were no doubt swarming the area outside the walls by now. Heading into the city would be suicide. Still, he missed his silk sheets and soft bed.

  “Callum, are you okay?” Lysaila cocked an eyebrow.

  “Nope,” he replied off-handedly and headed for the first tavern he could find.

  Kithina hurried to catch up. Lysaila followed behind, her long cloak obscuring her slithering tail. 

  The tavern they found was cleaner than any Callum had ever visited on the docks. And the place didn’t smell too bad, all things considered. They got a table in the corner and Callum made sure to keep his head down and hood up. His sister probably didn’t have eyes in the tavern, but it never hurt to be cautious.

  “…So you really are fine?” Kithina asked, drawing Callum’s attention back into the conversation.

  “Yeah. I’m supposed to meet up with them later. They gave me an address,” Lysaila held up a slip of paper with a black esoteric symbol.

  “Woah, an invitation from the Ebon Order.” Kithina marveled at the sight.

  “So, the gods are real,” Callum mused aloud. The whole thing didn’t seem real if he was being honest, but seeing that simple slip of paper was reminding him he wasn’t sleeping.

  “Yup,” Lysaila said with a pop of her lips, before taking another swig of her ale.

  “And the goddess of war herself invited you to join her secret order!” Kithina whispered excitedly. She was practically jumping in her seat.

  Lysaila shrugged as if nonchalant, though Kithina could see the excitement in her blue eyes. “Bellum said she was impressed by how I fought the dragonbane and was even willing to sacrifice myself to stop it.”

  “We almost died too, ya know,” Kithina muttered.

  Lysaila smiled sympathetically. “I wanted to tell her as much, but we didn’t speak after that. The conversation lasted about twenty seconds. The rest of the time, I was talking to some of the others in the order. They asked me a bunch of questions. It kind of felt like they were testing me or something.”

  “And I guessed you passed.” Kithina eyed the slip of paper.

  “Did you speak to Sylvie?” Callum asked.

  “The dire vampire?” Lysaila shook her head. “No, I didn’t see her after we left the island. I guess she was on the ship, but who knows?”

  “Ah, I see.” Callum’s scarlet eyes dimmed.

  A twinge of annoyance crossed Kithina’s expression, but it disappeared just as fast. She turned back to Lysaila with a smile, “This is amazing, I’m so excited for you. The Ebon Order, I mean, wow.”

  “I don’t know if I want to join,” Lysaila admitted.

  “What do you mean you don’t know? The Ebon Order is legendary! Literally. I didn’t even know if they were real. But they are! They are the servants of the War Goddess herself!” exclaimed Kithina.

  “I don’t know if I want to be anyone’s servant,” Lysaila muttered.

  Kithina’s smile died. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “You’re fine. It’s not like that. But I still have so many questions, you know?” Lysaila gestured to Callum. “Like, why was Sylvie with them anyway? Wasn’t she one of your friends? How did she end up in the Order?”

  “Yeah, I’m not too sure about that either,” Kithina grumbled. She glanced at Callum, who had been quiet. She was reluctant to ask, but she had no one else to turn to. “Cal, any ideas?”

  He blinked as if awakening from a deep stupor. “Huh?”

  “I asked if you had any idea why Sylvie was with the Ebon Order?

  “…Her name isn’t Sylvie. It’s Belle,” he replied after a long moment.

  Kithina furrowed her brow. “Belle?”

  “So a girl named Belle is hanging around with the goddess Bellum, and they both so happen to have scarlet red hair, coincidence? Hm?” Lysaila said dryly.

  “Nah, I don’t buy it. Sylvie’s, I mean, Belle’s hair is somewhat curly. And she has a darker complexion, whereas Bellum was fair-skinned, I think? Hard to see from under her helmet,” Kithina said.

  “Belle has relations with House Ashe. They all have darker complexions,” Callum noted. He had already pondered the possibility while they were sailing back from the island.

  “And how do you know she is an Ashe? Or at least, related to one?” Kithina asked skeptically.

  “She told me herself, right before she left,” he replied.

  “It tracks, the Ashes are vampires,” said Lysaila. “Did Belle tell you anything else?”

  “That she wasn’t actually a dire. Oh, and that she was breaking up with me. That pretty much sums it up,” he sighed.

  Kithina rolled her eyes. “I need another drink.” She got up and left. The short redhead maneuvered past a couple drunks and hopped onto one of the bar stools with a little help of Yellow’s wind magic. “Give me your best dwarven spirits, the strong stuff.”

  The barmaster shook his head. “All out.”

  “How are you all out? Come on, I got coin.” She slid a golden coin across the bar.

  “Sorry, lass.” He slid the coin back to her. “We lost all our stock after the siege and we’ve been having trouble getting any dwarven bottles from Frost Rim ever since, everyone has.”

  Kithina frowned. “Siege? What are you talking about?”

  The barmaster looked at her as if she were crazy. “You’re shitting me, right?”

  “No, I’m not.” Panic started burning in her gut. She leaned forward. “What. Siege?”

  The man noticed the glimmer of her Hollow Shade amulet hanging from her neck and he stood up a bit straighter. “Apologies, Miss. I meant no disrespect to a mage, honest. It’s just… Where have you been?”

  “Away. On a ship. Up north.”

  “Oh, well, that explains it. We don’t get many ships from the Northern Lands these days. I guess you’re one of the lucky few who came out of all of this unscathed. If you’d been here, you may not have survived.”

  “Survived what exactly?” 

  “The war. Marek of the Cairn rallied all the Valley Tribes and proclaimed himself king. He then allied himself with the queen of Undergrowth, Ophelia Thorn. Their armies attacked the city. The docks were the first to go, burned down to ash. We’ve only recently finished reconstructing the buildings around the water. Half the docks are still in shambles.

  “They managed to get that close to the city?” The shades couldn’t reach as far as the docks, but surely no army would have dared get that close to the city anyway.

  “Pft. Those bastards did more than that. They had a dragon rider and these flying horned abominations too.”

  Dragonbanes, Kithina realized in horror. They had been here. “How many?”

  “At least a dozen, closer to twice that,” the barmaster muttered grimly. “They destroyed the wall and its shade. Then their army invaded the city districts. They reached all the way to the Ebon Tower.”

  Panic had burned into a blaze in the pit of Kithina’s stomach. She felt sick. All she could think about was her family. Were they okay? Were they d… No, she couldn’t finish that thought.

  Kithina swallowed hard. “But we won…?”

  “Aye. That we did,” he said with a heavy voice. “The valley’s king is dead. Executed a few days later in the city square. Rumor has it Queen Ophelia fell in battle. So I guess you could say we won, but we lost a lot of our own. Commoners. Merchants. Nobles. There are so many dead. If it wasn’t for the fires in the  Commoner District burning the bodies, I’d wager we’d have a plague on our hands.”

  “There was a fire?”

  “Took half the Commoner District. The Trade District didn’t fare much better, their stores were set on fire by those damn barbarians. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Lord Veres, I don’t think any of it would have survived.”

  “Lord Veres?” Kithina wrinkled her brow. Callum had told her his father was dead. Elise had murdered the rest of her siblings. She was in charge now. So, who was he talking about? Surely he had misspoken.

  “Lord Veres rallied the Sylvan armies of Vulture Woods and came to the city’s rescue. They broke the drow army all by themselves,” the barmaster said proudly. 

  “You’re joking,” Kithina said. She considered herself somewhat of a Sylvan expert on account of her blue goblin friend. And from everything Stryg had told her about Sylvans, it was that they never left their forest.

  But then a man sitting on the stool next to Kithina spoke up. He was clad in the armor of the wall’s guards. “I saw it. I was there, on the wall. I saw it all. A tide of silver mist sweeping across the hills, swallowing everything whole. There were so many screams, then they all stopped. And all the while, the chilling howls of wolves filled the air.” He sipped at his drink. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Kithina stared at him, uncertain now. His words had sent a chill down her back. Could he be telling the truth? Or was he just another drunk rambling? She stopped and shook her head. “Wait, you said a Veres rallied the Sylvans?”

  “Aye.” The barmaster nodded.

  “How did a vampire rally an army of goblins no one has seen in centuries?” Kithina crossed her arms.

  The barmaster and soldier glanced at each other. “Because he’s one of them,” the former answered.

  Kithina’s frown deepened. “What? How is Lord Veres a—”

  The soldier slammed his drink on the bar. “Ebon Lord Stryg Veres is a goblin-vampire, that’s how.”

  Kithina blinked, certain she had heard wrong. She laughed. “Sorry, what was that?”

  “He is a hybrid. So what?” The soldier glared at her. “Ebon Lord Veres saved this city. If it wasn’t for him, my wife and son would be dead. As would half the people in here. So, if you think you can just come in here and laugh at our lord for what he is, then you won’t like where this ends, even if you are a mage.”

  “I didn’t…” Kithina’s voice trailed off. Something was terribly wrong with these people.

  Another patron at the bar spoke up, “Aye, nobody disrespects Lord Veres! He cut down two hundred drows and barbarians all by himself. He’ll cut you down too!”

  The barmaster raised his hands, “No, no. It was four hundred.”

  “How’d he do that?” another asked, his words slurred.

  “While riding atop that giant wolf of his, of course. The beast carried him across the battlefield while he chopped off drow heads,” the barmaster answered.

  Many nodded at that as if it all made sense.

  “I saw him fight one of those fucking horned abominations with his fists,” a small woman exclaimed. “Lord Veres punched one of them right through a building. A building!”

  Now Kithina knew all these drunks were fucking mad.

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