29 Fighting Pits

MYRAL DIDN’T KNOW how many days passed inside the pit. It might have been hours. The distant pinprick of lights above never changed, no sign of the passage of time. There was no food, or at least, nothing she wanted to eat. Odd-looking worms oozed from the dark soil around her, glowing in the dark, seemingly larger than the ones in the rocks.

Whenever she attempted to touch one, their lights went out and they retreated. It became a pastime, where she would switch them off, and wait for their return. On impulse, she grabbed a handful and stuffed them into her mouth. If she was to escape, she would need strength. Starvation meant weakness.

Retching, as she tried to chew as little as possible, their foul taste filling her mouth in spurts, she forced the meal down. It took all her inner strength not to bring it back up. She might have thought it was her worst moment inside the pit, but it wasn’t.

In less than an hour she was doubled over, stomach in cramps. She felt a strangeness creep into her limbs as they became heavy. Soon she was paralysed, although conscious. Bloody stupid worms were toxic.

The vampires mostly ignored her as they passed by the pit above. Sometimes, one would enter and approach, and she always thought it would kill her. After a while, she began to hope for it. Wither had stolen her magic, her ability to escape her world. In a way, he had imprisoned her in this pit as much as the vampires, and she hadn’t forgiven him.

The final time one entered the pit, long fingers prodded her, and what looked like a young vampire dragged her across the floor, muttering to itself.

It was after it had hauled her through a small opening into a dark tunnel, did she realise it was Quel. Not a vampire, but a dhampir and a cowardly one. At least it made a change.

‘You shouldn’t have eaten those, foolish human. Vampires use them as a narcotic, to achieve a level of bliss. They are poisonous. At least you did not try to eat the adult ones. One of those would have killed you. Their larvae are not as potent. Lucky for you. Foolish!’

Yeah, thought Myral, lucky me, and lucky vampires too. I’d love a level of bliss right about now. Huh, vampires addicted to intoxicants. Could it get any worse? And adult worms? How big were those?

Eventually she felt a change in her limbs, and with time, movement returned. She lay still a bit longer, wondering if there was much point in moving. Where could she go? There was obviously no way to find her friends if they lived, never mind getting back to the surface.

‘We must go,’ said Quel, with a hiss in her ear, as though he’d sensed her thoughts.

‘Why?’

‘To get you out of here. Why do you think? Ah, I suppose there must be an effect on you humans too.’

‘Eh?’ 

‘From eating the larvae. It must have addled your mind, foolish human. In fact, I’m not sure why you aren’t dead.’

She flapped a hand at him, which did look somewhat oversized and strange. She held it up to her face, drew it back, to her face again. ‘I’m fine. Why are my hands so huge?’

He didn’t answer.

‘Why are you helping me?’ If irritating her could be called help.

This time the dhampir seemed to mull over her question. In the distance there was the growl of vampires and several all-too human screams. Prisoners, or perhaps food. Was there a difference down here?

‘I don’t know,’ answered Quell eventually, cocking his head as though listening to the screams. She could just about see him from the glow of the worms inside the tunnel. ‘They said I was weak. Too human to be of use. Maybe that is why.’ He grabbed her arm, and began to help her up. The tunnel further in was in total darkness, with no torches or glowing worms, but as they moved it began to feel cleaner, wider.

‘Where are we?’ She stumbled along, walking difficult as her body tried to recover.

‘Ah,’ he said, ‘these tunnels are different. They are older, but they were not made by vampires. These tunnels were made by the Makers.’

‘Who?’

‘The ones who came before. They built the city of Dis, and lived here for hundreds of years. The vampires call them the Makers or sometimes, Children of the Despoiled.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘I don’t know. They don’t tell me much. I just overhear things.’

‘Oh.’ She was feeling sorry for him again. It seemed he was as much a victim as she was. He’d never asked to be what he was, after all.

‘Your friends. I’ve located one, I think. A young woman, yes? You said a young woman. Most young women don’t last long down here, but this one has.’

Myral felt herself nodding although she didn’t know if Quel could see her. Then again, if he lived down here, he’d have to see in the dark better than her. ‘Hazi; I got her into this while trying to save her. It is the least I can do to get her out of it.’

Somehow, she could feel rather than see Quel shaking his head.

‘Okay, what is it you’re not telling me?’ she demanded, resisting the urge to throttle the useless creature. She wouldn’t have ended up in this mess if he hadn’t handed her over in the first place. Although, she realised, he may not have had any choice, and others would’ve caught her eventually. She felt surprise at how her sympathy could turn to murderous anger in an instant, though. Maybe it was the worms.

‘Will you leave without her if I tell you? If she cannot be saved, I mean?’

‘No, not a chance.’

‘Then, I must show you. When you see for yourself, you will then leave.’

‘I will not go without my friends. Maybe you don’t have any, or you can’t understand friendship, but it means something to me.’

‘We shall see,’ he whispered and then she felt the cold touch of his fingers on her hand. He tugged gently, and she had no choice but to remain in the darkness or go with him. Placing her trust in this hybrid human-vampire thing wasn’t easy, but her choices were limited. As they often were.

They followed the tunnels for what seemed like hours to Myral, until they emerged into an area she hadn’t seen before. She realised they had to be still in the city, but much deeper. The alley was a short piece of dirt between two towering buildings with gaping holes for windows and doors.

A vampire crept across the face of one of the buildings as they emerged from the tunnel. Quel placed a hand on Myral’s face, shoving her back from sight. The vampire crept on further, before halting, as it appeared to test the air. Myral felt both revolted and fascinated. The vampire’s disjointed limbs gave it unique climbing abilities, its numerous muscles giving it great strength. Powerful beings, efficient killers.

Wither’s Grim-hooded legacy.

She knew in her heart she had to find him, and not just because Adal had wanted her to. He was the last chance of controlling them, and preventing a slaughterous rampage across the face of the world. Especially now she knew they’d be high on glow-worms. Adal had entrusted her with an impossible task, but whether human or angel, he had always expected the impossible.

When the vampire moved on, Quel dragged her out into the faint light. He was rough with her, but she didn’t think he realised it. It was just how he was. They entered a low building, and crept through the darkness before emerging onto another street.

And there, she saw vampires feeding.

She felt horror, revulsion, and terror, as bile rose in her throat. They fed on humans of course, but it was the manner of feeding which caught her attention. She resisted Quel’s tugging as he attempted to get her to follow in a new direction. He didn’t seem to like what he saw either, and she then wondered what dhampirs ate.

Within a square of sorts, there was a feast. As herds of humans were dragged in chains, alive, weeping or screeching, a knot of vampires sucked the souls from people before cracking open their corpses, as though lobsters.

The soul-sucking was the most horrific part; with their jaws wide, the vampires inhaled a long wispy tendril of ghostly light. It was only visible once it reached the vampires’ mouths, but there was no mistaking what it was. Myral thought she could hear the faint scream of souls as they were consumed. After each vampire had finished with the ghostly appetiser, it turned its attention to the activity of actual eating.

Myral turned to Quel, his form hardly visible in the shadow of a building. The dhampir looked pale, and she realised he was terrified. He took her by the arm again, and led her through a door and beyond a labyrinth of dark corridors and foul-smelling rooms.

They passed out into another alley, and then along what she thought of as back streets leading behind the square where the vampires fed. Three times they had to duck into a building, or crouch amid bones and refuse, as vampires or dhampirs appeared, going about whatever business these creatures attended to.

It was while crouched in such a darkened alley, they spotted two dhampirs dragging a prisoner. At first, she thought it was another person invited to dinner, but she caught sight of the man’s face.

Wither.

She was too late. Not that she’d had a plan, but at least while he’d been free, there had been hope. She couldn’t abandon him however, since he was the whole reason for her being there, and the only way she knew of to stop the vampires.

As she made to follow him, Quel grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down. She lashed out and caught him in the chin with an elbow, but he was stronger than she had suspected.

He hissed in her ear. ‘Please, you will give us away. If they have not discovered your escape, they will. Please, I am risking my life to save yours.’

That gave her pause, and she ceased her struggle. Besides, it wasn’t any use. ‘I need to follow him. You don’t understand.’

‘The Red Prince,’ said Quel as his grip slackened, and she disentangled herself from him.

She turned and stared at him. ‘You know what he means to your kind, then.’

He looked confused. ‘The vampires were ready to follow him. They would have killed or died on his command, but he is the Red Prince.’

Something in the way he said those words gave her pause. She grabbed hold of him in her eagerness and shook him, before realising what she was doing. She decided it was as good a course of action as any, and kept rattling him. ‘What happened to him? I need to know everything, Quel, or it may cost me. Cost all of us.’

‘First, I must show you something. The girl, they caught her first because she fell first. They didn’t expect you. They thought it was one woman and the Red Prince. When they realised their mistake, they sent me to retrieve you.’

‘Hazine!’

Quel did not take her hand this time, but turned and moved quickly along a back street. She followed, feeling uncertain. She was placing a lot of trust in him.

Reaching a set of stairs, consisting of broad cut stone, rising to incredible heights, Quel started up. Myral gulped down all protest at the climb and followed. When they had reached quarter of the way up, she realised there were plateaus invisible from below. They left the stairway and headed left through a short tunnel before entering another chamber. Illuminated by glow worms, there were pits like the one she’d been in but not as large.

Snarls and growls emanated from within. There were no guards, which surprised her. Quel beckoned her to go towards the nearest, and look inside.

It was much smaller but also deeper than her pit had been, the walls near vertical. Inside she saw two sprawled corpses, and six figures engaged in combat.

Worse, she recognised Hazine, and then the problem Quel had hinted at. The girl was not herself. A dhampir like Quell, she fought others just like her. None of them were people, anymore. Grabbing a male dhampir, Hazine bit into his neck before he flung her aside to strike the pit wall. He was the largest, and bore numerous wounds. They had ganged up on him, but there could be no doubt as to the purpose of the pits. She did not need to look inside them all to know similar conflicts were occurring.

She crept back to Quel. ‘What is this?’ she croaked. Her face was wet with tears.

‘The strongest and cleverest survive. They climb out if they are able, and join the rest after their gestation period. The weakest ...’

‘Yes?’

‘Surely, you do not wish to know.’

She didn’t. ‘How do I get her out?’

He stared at her as though at an imbecile. ‘You do not.’

‘I will not abandon her, Quel. I will do this without you if I must.’

Quel was shaking his head. ‘Do you know why they call me weak?’

Myral frowned. She had thought it was because physically he could not handle himself, but he had displayed his strength earlier, holding her as if she’d been a child. Besides, he must have been in one of those pits.

‘It is because I do not think like them.’ He tapped his forehead. ‘I still think like a human, an aberration they do not appreciate. I am fortunate they have not terminated me. We were all humans once. They bite and infect us. The one who bit me became my new father. They are killers, murderers, each one.’

‘There must be something we can do.’

‘Your friend cannot be saved, human. If you could get her out of the pit, she would kill you. The girl you knew is gone, and a dhampir has taken her place. Besides, she is not weak like me.’

‘If it happened to you, then maybe she’s the same. You can’t be sure.’ However, her words sounded hollow even in her own head.

Quel appeared saddened. ‘I have been the only one to retain some humanity, and I have watched hundreds of men and women of all ages become dhampir. None are like me.’

‘Then why did they let you live?’

He tapped at his head with a long finger. ‘I displayed a talent for making alliances, which is how I survived the pit, and I am not averse to killing when I must. I just don’t enjoy it like they do. I proved useful, and Lord Corso allowed my existence to continue. The vampires, they don’t care most of the time. It is the dhampir who hate me. You would not believe the politics involved. I’ve had to murder several just to keep my place.’

Politics and murder, eh? Sounds familiar. Myral stared at the pit edge, hearing a death cry and growls. ‘I can’t just leave her there. I promised her.’

Quel patted her shoulder, though it felt far from comforting. ‘I promised my children I would always be there. I broke that promise the day they took me ... and them.’

Startled, she observed the dhampir beside her in a new light. Once a father, an ordinary man in the world above. He had not asked for this any more than Hazine. ‘Your children ...?’

Quel said nothing, his face a sad mask. There was no need. There were two possible outcomes for his children down in the depths of this dark world and neither pleasant.

‘If you say I cannot save her,’ said Myral, though it pained her to admit defeat, ‘I believe you, but I will not abandon Wither too.’ I’m so sorry, Hazi. You didn’t deserve this fate.

Quel smiled though it was lacking any warmth even for a dhampir. ‘I never suggested you should. Why do you think I freed you? We must stop the ceremony. You are my last hope.’

A ceremony? Myral didn’t like the sound of that at all. Not one bloody bit.