Night Terrors

Zeatt teleports to see how the battle with the bandits had concluded, only to find chaos as she arrives.

49.

Night Terrors

 

As soon as she materialized, Zeatt knew something was wrong.   She was in the middle of some sort of conflict.   Before she could pull the helm from her head, a young man carrying an unstrung bow used the weapon as a club and smacked her in the stomach, sending her to her knees with a gasp.  

“Wait!” A familiar female voice called out, which stayed the hand of her attacker.

A moment later, Alis was pulling her backwards, away from the fight and laid hands upon her.

“Thank you.”  Zeatt said to the half-Elf girl while still gasping for breath.

“How did you get here?”  

“Eleazar’s Teleportation helm.   He made it back to Westmark and had mentioned you had some injured knights.   He said you had all the bandits contained…”

“We did!  But a few hours after Eleazar left they started going crazy in the barn back there.   Trying to get out.   They were screaming and yelling like something was in there with them.”  

“We opened the door, thinking it was some ruse to try to escape and they burst out like wild animals.   Some of them impaled themselves on our swords.   We’ve been trying to get them back in there.   They keep yelling about Vampires in the barn.”

“Vampires!”  Zeatt straightened up as much as she could, “Have you detected any?”

“We can’t tell, but Sir Alvis doesn’t sense any strong evil.”

“I have a spell that will tell us; can we get closer to the barn?”

“Yes.   Hey, that looks like Aurei’s barmaid dress!”

“It is, Alis.”   She quickly told her about the Muddy Boot’s substitutions for that evening.

 

 

 

“Oh, how I would have loved to see that!”   Alis picked up one of the few shields that they had confiscated from the bandits and handed it to the Drow lady, “Here, carry this and let me go first.   We’ll go around to the rear; hopefully our knights have most of them surrounded.   Are you able to walk?”

 

“I’m alright, Alis; I just had the wind knocked from me.”

 

The half-Elf motioned for her to follow and they took a looping path around the other knights who still fought to push the bandits back into the barn.   At the rear of the old structure, there was no-one around, and Zeatt immediately began chanting a spell that would detect undead of all types within 100 yards.   When the spell was cast, she waited for nearly a minute, but did not receive any indication of any undead creature within the vicinity.

“There are no Vampires within the area of effect of my spell.”  She told Alis.

“I guess they were just using that for an excuse.” The girl replied.

“Maybe.   Or perhaps the Vampire came and left.   I wonder.”

They returned to the front of the barn and by now the bandits had thrown their hands up and were pleading with the Knights and archers to not place them back into the barn.
“You say there are Vampires in there?” Zeatt asked them, and one of the men to the back screamed when he saw her, “That’s her!   She’s the Vampire I saw!”  

The bandits at the front jumped back wide-eyed.  Zeatt put her hands up, “I’m not a Vampire.   I am Zeatt, bishop of Yesh.   See?   I wear a Cross of Yesh around my neck, which a Vampire cannot do.”

“I’ve heard of you.”  One of the men near the front said, “You lived in Aeropolis, right?”

“Yes, I was the bishop over the Drow in that town.”

“Well then one of your Drow is a Vampire!   Joss and Taleun saw her just before she became a bat and flew away.”

“The Vampire?   It was a woman?”

“Yes, dark like you with red eyes and long white hair.”  Another voice came out of the crowd of men.

“Tell me what happened and I’ll try to help.”

 

“We were trying to sleep and Joss and Taleun saw this dark skinned lady wearing very little clothing, standing over the body of one of our men, and she was dripping blood from her mouth.   She turned into a bat and flew out the barn loft window.   We found two of our people had been bitten.  Both were dead.   That’s why we’re fighting; if we stay in there unarmed, we’re going to be slaughtered like pigs.”  The first speaker informed her.  

 

“I just cast a spell of detection for any undead, and there are none now in the barn.   I can cast a protection from undead spell over the barn that will prevent any undead from getting in there.   But you can’t open the door or go outside or the spell will be dispelled.”

 

The bandits didn’t trust or believe her, and it took considerable persuasion for them to agree to it.   Finally, after a long period of debate, they reluctantly agreed to it and she cast the protection spells, after they first removed the dead bodies.

“Certainly it was a Vampire.”  Aeric said later on as they examined the two corpses.  

“They claimed the Vampire was a Drow woman.”   Alis stated and they all turned questioningly to Zeatt.

“Well, it is possible; there are many Vampires in the Underdark; it is a perfect place for them, actually.”

“But why would one lurk around here?”   Alis asked, “I wonder if this one is connected to the Dwarf back in Westmark?”

“I don’t know.”   Zeatt mumbled, but she was quickly figuring out a possibility that greatly concerned her.

 

***

 

“I’m glad you joined us.”  Alvis said to her a while later as they watched the bodies of the two bandits burning.

“Well, I thought you might need some healing.”  

“Apparently, we needed your detection spells as well.”  He smiled, and she noticed that he kept casting discreet glances at her rather blatantly displayed bosom.

 

She took a deep breath, “I think that the Dwarf in the cart back in Westmark was not actually the master Vampire, but a ruse to throw us off the actual Vampire.”

“So you think there is a Drow woman who is a Vampire lurking around?”

“Yes, and I think I know who she is.”

Alvis frowned, “Alleania?   Your sister?”

Zeatt nodded, equally as grim.

“What do you think she wants?”

“I don’t know.   Aurei claims she was very interested in her, but that could have been simply to serve her cause.”

“I thought she would have died when the last Light of Yesh exploded.”

“It surprises me as well.   Perhaps she had a coffin in Westmark.”

“If that is the case, then what will we do?”

“I don’t know.   She’s my sister, but…”

“What about Aurei?”

“I don’t think she knows and after her breakdown today, I’m not sure telling her would be a good idea.”

“What if she speaks to her?”

“Again, I don’t know.   What could Alleania expect Aurei - or any of us- to do in response?   She’s undead and Yesh does not allow us to fellowship with the undead.  We may have a big problem.   We’ll have to figure out what to do once we get back to Westmark.  Do you think she is gone from here?”

“I believe so.   She may have selected these bandits so as to not endanger any of Aurei’s people.”

“That may also explain the Dwarves - they were criminals and perhaps she felt that was the safe way to feed.”

“That would be logical.  We’ll have to find a place for you to sleep - for whatever is left of this night.   Perhaps the farmhouse will allow you to bunk there.   I’ll go ask them-“

“Aren’t you all just camping around the barn?” She asked, grabbing his arm.

“Yes, but it is rather rough.”  He glanced down at her cleavage for a split second, but then locked his eyes on her face as if suddenly realizing what he had done and regretting it.

“I can handle roughing it.” She replied, subtly arching her back to see if it drew his attention.   He was nearly as subtle as she had been and managed a glance while feigning to look around.

“Well, it might mess up your dress.”

“It’s not mine, actually, it is Aurei’s; we were filling in at the Muddy Boot.”

“’We’?” He again locked his eyes on hers, though she could tell he was fighting his eyeballs.

“The Queen, Siris and I.”

“Really?   The Queen waiting tables?   Good heavens, what would the King think?”

“She enjoyed it, and everyone loved it.   The patrons tipped amazingly well.   I made nearly 20 gold pieces!”

“No doubt.” He replied with a sheepish smile.

“So do you like her dress?”

“It’s quite fetching.   You look stunning in it.”   Having admitted this, he turned red-faced and looked away awkwardly.

“Thank you.” She replied, “I wanted you to see it.”

He looked back surprised, “Really?”

“Yes; I wanted you to see that it is alright to be a normal person.   We take our roles so seriously, Alvis.   Knight Commander and Reverend Mother.   I think we forget sometimes that we are just like everyone else.   That’s why I’m pleased that Aurei and Eleazar have found each other.   Not to mention Aeric and Alis.   They deserve happiness.”

 

Alvis looked across the barn lot, where the two half-Elves stood together; hand in hand, monitoring the funeral pyre. 

 

“Yes, they do.   They’re good people and I’m happy for them.”   He had a distant look in his eyes and didn’t speak for a long moment.

She touched his arm, “Where are you bunked?”

“Me?   Over by the gate.”

“I’ll camp there; without my armor or weapons, I’d feel much safer being near to you.”

The Knight seemed pleased at this and led her across the lot, calling to one of the knights to find bedding for her.