Crimson Heir: Rise Of The First Blood

8

CHAPTER 8

THE WEIGHT OF MEMORY

Mira was pacing when Rylan found her.

The old fountain at the edge of Silent Ash had long since run dry, its basin filled with dead leaves and the bones of small animals. Or maybe they were bones of vampires.

When she saw him emerge from the shadows, she stopped.

"You're covered in blood," she said flatly, squinting her eyes at him.

"It's not mine. Enforcers."

"That's not as reassuring as you think it is." Her eyes swept over him. "How many?"

"Six."

Mira's jaw tightened. She had known what she was getting into when she chose to follow him, but knowing and seeing were different things. "Six enforcers. And you walked away without a scratch."

"The Seals don't let me get hurt."

Something flickered in her eyes, something close to doubt. "You're changing."

Rylan met her gaze. "I have to."

"That's what they all say. Every noble, every warlord, every vampire who ever decided that power was worth the price." She stepped closer, hee voice dropping. "You said you wanted to tear down the Dominion, but you're starting to look like the thing you're trying to destroy."

Her words struck a knife. Rylan looked down at his hands, seeing blood even when there was none there.

Was she right?

"I don't have the luxury of staying the same," he said quietly. "Cassian has armies, the Empress has a thousand years of power and the only thing that makes me different from every other Crimson who ever dreamed of rising is the Seals. That's what's changing me."

Mira was silent for a long moment, then her eyes softened.

"Then let's make sure the change is worth it," she said. "What's next?"

Rylan pulled out the map Kaelos had given him and on it four locations were marked.

"We have the Seal of Flesh and the Seal of Shadows," he said, tracing the marks. "The third is the Seal of Memory. Kaelos said it was lost in the mind of an ancient vampire who went mad centuries ago. He retreated into a fortress of his own memories somewhere in the Obsidian Peaks."

Mira studied the map. "The Obsidian Peaks is three weeks' travel from here, through territories controlled by House Arcadis and the Empress's own patrols. We'll never make it unseen."

"We won't need to be seen." Rylan touched the darkness pooled at his feet, and it rose like a living thing. "The Seal of Shadows lets me travel through darkness. I can move faster than any patrol."

Mira's eyebrows rose. "You can do that now?"

"I'm still learning." He let the shadows settle. "But I can do enough."

She considered this, then nodded slowly. "And this mad ancient? What's his name?"

"Kaelos didn't say. He only said the vampire had built a fortress of memory, and that anyone who entered risked losing themselves in it. The Seal is at the center."

"So you'll walk into a madman's mind, find an artifact that might erase your memories, and hope you walk out again." Mira let out a humorless laugh. "That's the plan?"

"That's the plan."

She laughed in amusement. "You're still mad. But at least now you're mad with power, that's an improvement."

Rylan almost smiled back as he took his gaze back to the map.

“Let's go.”

He nodded, then reached for the shadows, wrapping them around himself and Mira. The darkness swallowed them whole, and the fountain of Silent Ash became empty once more.

Three weeks later, Rylan stood at the base of the Obsidian Peaks.

The mountains rose from the earth like broken teeth, their slopes black and jagged, devoid of any life that Rylan could see. There were no trees, no grass and no animals. Even the birds avoided this place. The air was thin and cold, carrying the faint scent of something ancient and sleeping.

Mira stood beside him, her breath misting in the cold. The journey had been hard. Traveling through shadow was faster than walking, but it drained Rylan in ways he did not fully understand. Every time he pulled them through the darkness, he felt the Seals strain from something he didn't know.

"Is this it?" Mira asked.

Rylan looked up at the peak before them. Halfway up the mountain, barely visible through the mist, was the outline of a fortress carved directly into the black stone.

"That's it," he said. "The Fortress of Memory."

Mira studied the structure with a frown on her face. "Doesn't look like much."

"Looks aren't everything."

Without wasting another second, they began to climb.

The path was treacherous, little more than a goat track carved into the mountainside. Rylan's enhanced strength made the climb easy, but Mira struggled. Twice, she nearly fell and twice, Rylan caught her with shadows before she could slip.

As they climbed higher, Rylan began to feel something pressing against his mind. At first, it was a subtle sense of déjà vu, the feeling that he had climbed this mountain before. Then it grew stronger. Memories that were not his own began to surface.

A woman's laughter. A child's voice. A throne made of nothing but bones.

"The fortress is affecting us already," he said, his voice tight. "Stay focused on what's real."

Mira's face was pale. "I'm seeing things, Rylan. A house, a man, I don't—I've never…"

"Those aren't your memories, they're his." Rylan grabbed her arm, pulling her forward. "Keep moving."

They reached the fortress entrance as the sun, or what passed for sun in the Dominion, began to set. The gates were massive, forged from black iron and carved with symbols that thumped with a faint, sickly light.

For a second, Rylan stood, observing the doors like he could read every symbol on it. Then he pushed them open and walked in.

Rylan pushed them open.

Beyond the gates was darkness. Not the natural darkness of night, but something deeper. This was the kind of darkness that was referred to as being awake.

And from the darkness, a voice emerged.

"Welcome," it whispered. "I have been waiting for someone new to remember."

Rylan stepped forward, the Seals humming inside his head.

He was ready. Or so he believed.