Everybody in the common room stood in shocked silence for a moment. Had the peasant boy really bitten his sister into the neck? Was she dead? Then a shout broke through the room. �Kill them all!� It had been one of the vampire�s servants who shouted. The old nobleman, who had just revealed his true nature, grimaced, apparently disgusted by his own servant�s bloodlust. While the black-clad men still raised their swords, he made a small gesture. Sergeant Kivilinna could not believe his eyes: The hand that held his sword, hardly bleeding, suddenly behaved normally again. His sword cut through the fingers, the other man cringed and released the Lieutenant from his grip. �No! Don�t leave us!� he tried to shout, but it came out as a whimper. Thinking quickly, the Sergeant rammed his sword into the body, killing the man cleanly. Moran had been standing sword against sword with another of the servants, hardly able to hold his ground, when the other man lost all strength, and the soldier�s sword finally came free again. All over the common room, the fighting broke out again. This time, without their master�s support, the intruders turned out to be less than well trained fighters, and despite their better position, they were overpowered by the soldiers in their heavy armour and the greater numbers of the patrons. Four of them went down quickly, and the last two fled down the stairs and into the forest as fast as they could. The wounded patrons had no left energy to pursue them. The two vampires � for Derral was now truly a vampire, a being of evil � wandered off while the fighting was still raging in the room, without looking back, and disappeared into the night. The Lord of Drakenstein had once again won, but not gotten what he truly wanted. After everything had calmed down again, Lieutenant Valkya and Doctor Marrerus tried to bring some order into the ranks of the survivors. It seemed like a miracle that most people had remained unwounded, but some had been injured heavily; Devon was on the ground, still bleeding from the fight on the stairs. Anwen and Vairon tried to take care of him, but at the moment it was uncertain whether he would survive. The body of Olman, the innkeeper, was found in the kitchen. And Emella Willow... she had thrown herself into the vampire�s guard with such ferocity in the attempt to get at the beasts that she had practically staked herself on their weapons. There was nothing to be done. After a night like this, life would never be the same for the survivors. Some had, some had not believed the old legends, but none of them had been in a story like this. With ghosts and vampires around, who could ever trust in his own safety again? How could they lead a normal life? Was everything taught in the academies just as wrong as they had been about the superstitions of the peasants? And, worst of all, they all knew no one would believe them if they told everybody what happened. Silence and gloom settled over the common room as the fight for Devon�s life continued. |