“Yes, yes, everything has been done,” I said angrily. “There has to be more that I can do.”
“Go to Meil’s chateau. Now that he has died, the protections he put in place should be down. See what you can find there. Maybe he left clues or maybe there is someone who knows something.”
“Good idea. I’ll speak with Cain first and then I’ll go right away.”
I walked up the stairs, still worried sick that I would never see Katrina again and never know my son. That frightened me more than anything that I had ever been through before.
“Cain, how are they?”
“They seem slightly better, actually. Their color is better. I think putting their beds in the same room was a good idea.”
“They feel each other’s presence, just like we do now. Allwain said that Sherlah will come tonight, that should help. Of course Idalia is a Queen now, she has to stay in Islandria.”
“Sherlah and Idalia are Asuran aren’t they?”
“Yes.”
“That means they have different powers than we do doesn’t it?”
“Yes slightly different, just as powerful as you or me. Why?”
“Maybe they could help Allwain find Katrina. He is still having no luck.”
“I’m sorry, Damien.”
“We’ll find her. I know we will. I just don’t know when or how. I am going to go to Meil’s chateau and try to find any clue. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Good, I know you’ll feel better with something to do. We’re fine here. Take your time.”
Ivan was already waiting with the coach out front.
“How is everything?” I asked him.
“Fine, Damien. I’m sore, but none the worse for wear. I’m not as young as I used to be, where to?”
“Meil’s chateau,” I told him as I entered the coach.
It was quite a way by coach I had plenty of time to think.
“
Katrina, please come home
,” I pleaded with my mind.
Katrina:
“Katrina, what’s wrong?” May asked.
“Nothing, I just thought that I heard something. I guess I am more tired than I thought.”
“Why don’t you go to your room and rest for a while. I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”
“Thank you, May. I think I’ll take that advice.”
I went upstairs to my room, took off my boots, crawled under the soft, multi colored quilt and fell right to sleep.
“
Katrina, please come home
,” I heard someone call.
“
I can’t, it’s not safe
.”
The distinctive sound of hooves in the hallway outside woke me.
“Katrina?” May whispered as she knocked softly on the door.
“You can come in May, I’m awake.”
“Dinner is ready and I brought some fresh water so that you could wash up. Several villagers brought food, so there is a variety of things to choose from. Is there anything else you need? We will have to get you a change of clothes tomorrow.”
“No I don’t need anything, thank you.”
May hesitated as if she wanted to ask me something else but wasn’t sure how.
“What is it May?”
“Well, like I said we had visitors from the village while you were asleep and they informed me about vampires and I was just wondering, well…”
I laughed, “I see. Let me tell you about
my
race of vampires. We need blood in order to survive and stay strong so we hunt animals. Over the centuries we have developed a way to preserve blood so that we could take a small amount, make it into a large quantity and keep it fresh indefinitely. Now we also have a concentrated version of what we call crimson. Here let me show you.
I took out my pouch and pulled one of the small red tablets. I then poured myself a cup of water and dropped it in. When it was fully dissolved I handed it to May. She looked and it and held it up to her nose and took a sniff.
“It’s blood!” she exclaimed, wrinkling her nose.
“I have enough of these tablets with me to last for several months and if I supplement my diet by hunting, they will last much longer. Zax has given me permission to hunt in the forest. Since I don’t eat the meat and I hate to waste anything that I hunt, I was hoping that there were other races near that that I could share my quarry with.”
“There are many large creatures in the forest that would clean up any carcass that is left by you. Katrina, I am sorry it’s just…”
“I understand May. It’s all right. I understand that you have never seen a vampire before, let alone had one staying in your home. The vampires of legend are not like my race. They are the ones I’m fighting as leader of the Five.”
“You get washed up now and come down. Dinner is getting cold.”
She left and I had to smile. I was continually being thrown into situations where I had little control, but I was always given the tools, ideas and new friends to help me survive.
I walked downstairs to find the table covered with food.
“That’s a tremendous amount of food for two people.”
“I told you we had company. The whole village is very curious about you. I am sure they were hoping to get a closer look at you. It will take a while, but they will accept you. Now help yourself and save room for dessert. There are several in the kitchen to choose from when you’ve finished here.”
“Well, I drank the crimson that I made earlier, but I am still starving.”
I filled my plate and sat down. “Everything is just delicious; such a variety too.”
“We have gotten very good at figuring out different ways to fix fruits and vegetables serving them with baked goods and different cereal grains of course. We also have eggs and cheese, mostly from donkey milk. We are lucky to have fertile soil and long sunny days for most of the year.”
“It is beautiful here, I must say. Aaron mentioned a race of beings that had feet like me.”
“Yes the Caleadon, they live south of here, but sometimes come here to hunt. They never bother us, so we don’t bother them. There are rules here. No one kills anything that can speak.”
“So there is no crime here?”
“I didn’t say that. Rules are broken, but dealt with swiftly.”
“By whom?”
“There are rulers in each village. But any larger problems are taken care of by the elves.”
“Elves!”
“Yes, you don’t have elves in your world?”
“Yes, yes we do. These elves, where do they live? Is it far from here, May?”
“Yes, very far away. In the mountains on the other side of the world.”
“If they are that far away how to you get help if you need it?”
“You use the skrying pool.”
“
You have a skrying pool
?”
“Of course, each village has one. Oh, you think that it could help you get home don’t you?”
“I don’t know, but if anyone can, it’s probably them. Are you sure that they wouldn’t be in league with the entity that sent me here.”
“No, I wouldn’t think so. What do you know about him?”
“Not much because he was pretending to be someone else. He’s very powerful and that’s about all that I know. He sent me here to a cottage, which I was told is about a hundred leagues from here, up the river in the forest.”
“Oh, we’ve heard stories. Zax even sent a small group of men to investigate, but they couldn’t get close, not when anyone was there. When the magic subsided the cottage was empty.”
“I thought it was very strange that there wasn’t either someone there to watch me or protections in place to keep me there. Maybe that means he couldn’t complete them or…”
“Or what, Katrina.”
“Well, I know from the wizards in my world, that magic put in place doesn’t survive once that wizard is no longer living, unless he made provisions for that. I think Meil is dead!”
“Does that mean you could go home?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if I
can
get home. If they still have people searching for my baby I have to stay hidden. I just can’t take that chance. Do you think Zax would seek help from the elves for me?”
“You mean kind of feel them out to see if they could help someone if they needed help? And not elaborate more than that?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t see why not. How long do you have before you will have your baby?”
“Vampires aren’t like humans; it doesn’t take us nine months, it only takes five. That means I will be ready to deliver in less than four months.”
“That also means that very soon you won’t be able to travel. If you need to get to the elves you need to start the journey.”
“You mean you don’t have portals to go back and forth?”
“I don’t even know what that is.”
“It’s a doorway between time and space used to travel instantly from one place to another.”
“That sounds amazing. Is that how you traveled here?”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. It didn’t feel the same and I think if it had been a portal, someone would have been able to find me by now.”
A knock on the door startled us both.
May got up and briskly walked to the door.
“Zax, Aaron, we were just talking about you.”
“Really, I hope you weren’t boring poor Katrina with child hood stories about me?”
“No. Well not yet anyway. Have you eaten? So many people dropped off food that we have enough to feed us for a week.”
“We’d love to, wouldn’t we Father?” Aaron said as brushed past both of them and sat next to me.
“I’ll get two more plates,” May said.
“Are you all settled in, Katrina?” Zax said as he joined us.
“Yes, I am. May and I were just talking and she mentioned the elves and the fact that you had a skrying pool so that you could communicate with them in case you needed help. I thought maybe you could ask them if they could help me. Or maybe I could use it try to call someone in my world.”
“You mean help you get home? I thought you needed to stay away from home for a while.”
May gave Zax and Aaron each a plate, cup and fork before sitting back down. “Katrina thought you could ask them without letting them know too much.”
“I see. Well I don’t see any problem with that. Would you like to come with me?”
“I’d love to,” I said.
We both smiled, I liked him.
“Well, finish eating first, please. Aaron, when you are done you can go in the kitchen and choose a dessert.”
“I’m done now then,” he laughed.
This was all so strange and fascinating to me. Hours ago I was pretending to be the Madam of a pleasure house and now here I was in an unknown world being treated like a part of a Faun family. We were laughing and talking as if we’d always known each other. Yet this was my life and for some reason I knew it was meant to be.