Werewolf Knight 2, page 28
“Look!” Tabitha exclaimed when we reached a clearing. She bent down and pointed in the distance at a blue flag rising out of the forest.
“Is that it?” Sybil asked in an excited voice.
“Uh-huh,” Tabitha replied. “Smell that mountain air. That’s the lake.”
I started to race toward the flags, and as we drew closer, I could see the blue, silver, and white flags that normally flew over the palace. It meant the King had already arrived, but it looked like we were in time to stop the attack.
“We did it,” Tabitha laughed. “And it’s not even lunchtime. Hank, you did it!”
As I ran at what felt like a hundred miles an hour, I felt the sweet relief of success. There was still an entire afternoon ahead of us to stop the vampires’ plot, and I was feeling completely indestructible.
We’d done it. We’d reached the village of Lake Wahaya in time to save the King and preserve Lupercalia.
Chapter 16
It soon became clear that flags had been placed around the entire village. The whole place looked like it was wrapped in chiffon, and I wondered if Sebastian and the rest of the squires had been sent ahead a day or two early just to get the place ready.
When we cleared the forest, I had my first real look at the town. It was like a Renaissance fair, but without the folks in shorts and t-shirts, the weird ‘historically accurate’ candy, or the guy talking on his cell phone while his girlfriend pretended to be interested in a glass-making demonstration.
There were cobblestone streets as well, just like the other towns I’d visited in Lupercalia. However, unlike the roads through the farming villages that were covered in muck, this one had glistening gray stones that looked like they’d been freshly polished.
“Whoa,” Sybil said in amazement as I padded toward the town. “The whole place is so… clean.”
“Uh-huh,” Tabitha replied. “They spend practically all year preparing for the King’s visit. It’s sacred ground, so they take care of it accordingly. It also doesn’t hurt that most of the townspeople are either craftsmen or fishermen. There isn’t as much… debris as you would find in places where there’s a lot of farming or raising animals.”
“I do love Stock, of course,” Sybil started, “but I have to admit that a fishing town smells a whole lot better than a town with sheep and pigs.”
“You should be here after the catch has been brought in,” Tabitha laughed. “It’s not quite so charming then. But they don’t fish while the King is here, at least, not on a large scale.”
We were close enough by that point that I could see market stalls selling fish as well as stalls with small artistic wares. Most of the knickknacks looked like wood-carved figurines of the King, but there were also plenty of animals and a few dolls in the mix. Small noble children ran around in little blue robes while their parents greeted each other. The taverns were full, and on such a beautiful day, many people were sitting outside while they breathed in the cleansing air and drank the local mead.
They had no idea how much danger they were in.
I stopped at the edge of the town so that I could shift back to my hybrid state. It was the form that would guarantee us entry into the town, and if I was lucky, maybe get me in to see the King. But more importantly, it was the form I would need for the upcoming battle.
“I guess this is where we get off,” Sybil said, and I felt both girls slide off.
“My goodness,” Tabitha said and stretched her back out. “That feels good after a long ride.”
“Truly,” Sybil agreed. “I was beginning to get a little bit saddlesore. Who knows if I’ll be able to walk tomorrow after all this riding we’ve been doing!”
I found their reaction pretty funny, because they hadn’t even been doing any of the work. I suddenly had a newfound respect for horses and all they put up with from people, and I told myself I’d make sure to give all the horses on the estate some extra carrots and oats.
Then I rose up on my hind legs and felt myself grow into my nine-foot-tall, werewolf self. It had been a little longer than usual since I was in my hybrid form, and it felt really good to be back in it. I towered over the girls and could see even further than before into the town of Wahaya. I felt instantly more powerful, and I growled as the energy from the transformation coursed through me.
“Oooh,” Sybil cooed as she blushed a deep pink and swiped her dark, silky hair behind her cheek.
“What is it?” I laughed gruffly.
“Oh, nothing,” she huffed and fluttered her eyelashes. “I haven’t seen you in your hybrid form for a few days. I forgot just how tall you were.”
I placed my hand on her head and laughed to myself, while Tabitha looked back at us and playfully rolled her eyes.
“Come on, gang,” the noblewoman laughed. “We have a quest to complete.”
Anywhere else in the galaxy, we probably would have drawn plenty of stares. But in the middle of Lupercalia, a werewolf and his companions barely drew more than a polite nod. Many of the other nobles were also in hybrid form, and while we weren’t dressed in blue and white, no one seemed to care enough to comment on our attire, though the free-flowing mead might have played a part in that as well.
“Hank!” I heard a squeaky voice say.
I looked around for a second before realizing who it was, and then I looked down at the ground.
“Sebastian,” I laughed. “How are you?”
Sebastian was dressed in a checkered blue and white jumpsuit and a hat with a bell at the end. He was quite literally dressed like a court jester, which I thought didn’t even exist in Lupercalia.
“Will you be joining us for the banquet tonight?” the small squire asked. “We will be having the most elaborate fish courses, and the squires are all putting on a pantomime. As you can see I’m a jester for tonight, but we are doing a haunting rendition of The Fish of Blue Valley afterward”
“Not The Fish of Blue Valley,” Sybil squealed. “That was always one of my favorite pantomimes as a girl."
“Well, you’re in luck,” the squire replied.
“Or not,” I warned as I glanced at Sybil.
I bent down so that I was on the short man’s level and gave him my most urgent look. I saw his eyes widen in response, and he grabbed at his hat like he might pull it from his head.
“Is everything alright, Hank?” he asked as he patted the fabric instead.
“Not exactly Sebastian,” I said. “Do you know if the King has arrived yet?”
“He will be in his quarters,” the small squire replied with a nod, and when he did so his hat jingled. “But, might I ask, is this something to do with the matter of the cipher?”
“I’m afraid it’s exactly that,” I said and sighed. “We found something disturbing in the pages, something that suggests the King is in danger. I need to talk to him immediately.”
“I’m afraid you will have to wait until after the sacred ceremony,” the squire replied matter-of-factly. “The King can’t be interrupted during his preparations for the ritual--”
“You don’t understand,” I interrupted. “This is a matter of life-and-death. In fact, the entire fate of the Kingdom is at risk. The King has to be warned--”
“Oh, come now,” the small squire laughed. “You’re new, so I can understand if you don’t know the rules about the sacred festival at Lake Wahaya. All of our problems in the Kingdom are left in the palace. Matters of politics, quests, in-fighting, affairs, all matters of drama are left at the bottom of the mountain.”
“You don’t understand,” I growled. “The vampires have a plan.”
“That vampires always have a plan,” the little man said and rolled his eyes. “It’s certainly nothing that would require breaking the sacred ritual.”
I growled again, and though Sebastian backed up a couple of steps, he didn’t suddenly offer to take me to the King. I glanced at the girls in frustration, and while Sybil shrugged, I saw Tabitha scan the crowd.
“Look,” the noblewoman exclaimed, and pointed to a stall selling shining silver figurines of fish and other lake creatures. “It’s Charles.”
I looked past the squire and saw Charles in his hybrid form making small talk with one of the merchants. The other knight was smiling as he examined some of the figures, and I felt a twinge of guilt that I was about to ruin his holiday. But Charles would listen to me, and he would help me get into the King’s presence.
“Come on,” I urged the girls as I tried to dart across the square.
“But--” I heard Sebastian protest as we scurried off.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for pleasantries. I had only one reason for being here, and that was to rescue the King from Wenderoth’s evil plan.
I ran up to Charles, who was leaning over a small display of manatee-like creatures. Before I could say his name, he glanced up and then jumped back slightly when he realized how close I was.
“Good Goddess!” the older knight chuckled. “You gave me quite a start. But what a lovely surprise to see you all here. To be honest, I didn’t think you would make it.”
“Neither did we,” Tabitha said. “We must have set a world record to get here.”
“Is everything alright?” the noble knight asked as he scanned our faces. “Ah, should we go somewhere to talk in private?”
“That would be wise,” I replied, and I gestured at the women to follow us.
We passed through what seemed to be an ever-growing sea of people in the market square. They were punctuated by tiny, four-foot squires who were all dressed like sea creatures.
“They’re doing The Fish of the Blue Valley again,” he sighed. “Not like they do that one every single year with different costumes. They need to put another squire in charge of the program, because Dromgoole is such a perfectionist that he won’t stop staging this one until it’s absolutely perfect.”
“Sounds like Stanley Kubrick,” Tabitha added, before she realized what she’d said.
“Sorry, Stanley who?” Charles asked with a bemused expression on his wolf face.
“Nothing,” I said. “Is this where you wanted to take us?”
I pointed to a small, eight-sided gazebo right outside the market square, which was just out of earshot of the crowds in the village.
“Yes, of course, perfect,” he said and shook his head.
He ushered us to the benches, and then he sat down next to me. He gave me a hard stare while he waited for me to explain.
“I need to get to the King,” I said. “I need to warn him about the plan we’ve uncovered. Can you tell me what his schedule is for today? I just need a few minutes to talk to him.”
Charles looked slightly affronted by the flurry of information and questions, but he was wise and perceptive to realize that there was something genuinely wrong.
“Let’s start with the first step,” he said. “The King is due to take a dip in Lake Wahaya at midnight, as is the tradition every year. He receives a blessing from the Moon Goddess that will determine how our crops will grow for the next year. This blessing is essential, because it ensures that the Kingdom will be able to survive until the next moon festival.”
I shot a look at Tabitha and Sybil, who stared back at me with a worried look on their faces.
“Yes, I’ve been told about the ritual,” I replied. “But he can’t do it. It’s too dangerous.”
“What are you talking about?” the other knight replied. “Do you think he’s going to drown or something? The King has done this every year since he assumed the throne. There’s nothing dangerous about it.”
“Look,” I said. “Here’s the thing. What if I told you that there was a scheme to kill the King, and that it had been planned for years in advance to take place on this very day?”
Charles stared at me blankly before he sighed and turned to watch the gathered nobles for a moment.
“I understand that you’re quite a new knight, and that your first quests have been… turbulent,” he said as he turned back to me. “And maybe you have uncovered something while you were questing. But you must understand this. This ceremony is very important to the welfare of Lupercalia. You say you’ve uncovered some elaborate plot, but if the King doesn’t complete the ritual, the whole country will suffer.”
“We’ve been on a mission for days now,” Tabitha insisted. “That’s why we weren’t on the pilgrimage with the rest of the nobility. We had to find a cipher so we could decode the notebook. Hank, tell him about the notebook.”
Charles studied my face, and I could tell that he was torn, because he’d always been my mentor. But news like this would obviously make him question my sanity, even if I was chosen by the Moon Goddess.
“I know it sounds crazy,” I said and took a deep breath. “But it’s the truth. When I defeated Wenderoth, I found a journal with a bunch of strange writing in it. It was written in some sort of code, so I had to find a cipher who could figure out what it said.”
“But there’s no cipher in the palace anymore,” Charles said. “Not since Melchior--”
“We found Melchior,” Sybil cut in. “He lives on an island in River Gomul, west of Yarikh.”
Charles turned around slowly, and his eyes widened as he studied the witch.
“You found Melchior?” he asked. “But the King said that he went missing all those years ago.”
“He didn’t go missing,” Tabitha said with some scorn in her voice. “He abandoned his post. He didn’t want to be involved in state secrets anymore.”
“Well,” Charles laughed. “That’s one way to retire. But if you’re fortunate to be of the Lupercalian nobility, then by the Goddess, you would hold onto that post. Leave it to a redblood to just disappear because he didn’t like doing the work anymore. Oh, no offense, Hank.”
“That’s what I thought,” Tabitha agreed. “At first, I didn’t like the cipher. But he’s very good at what he does, Charles. He decoded all of the vampire’s writing through alchemy. Without him, we wouldn’t know what was going on.”
Charles looked between the three of us and sighed.
“Well,” he said. “What is going on?”
“There’s a plan,” I said, “that the vampires have been developing for years. They’ve been tracking the King’s every movement when he leaves the palace, right down to the exact second he leaves the grounds and the second he returns. Everything he does outside the palace has been watched and recorded.”
“That’s…” Charles began and stopped. “I’m not really sure how to even finish that sentence.”
“But that’s not the end of it,” I continued. “They’re experimenting with necromancy. They made a plan to put something in Lake Wahaya tonight. It’s a kind of zombie, and it’s made up of parts of old questing knights. It doesn’t have to breathe, and that’s why it can survive under the water. When the King goes to dip himself in the lake, the zombie is going to pull him under the water and kill him.”
I could barely believe what I was saying, either. In comparison to my life in New Jersey, which seemed to be an endless flurry of business calls and emails, this talk about evil zombies sent by vampires didn’t seem like it could be real. But it was real, and by the Goddess, we had to destroy the zombie before it could fulfill its mission.
Charles looked at me blankly before taking an almost pitiful breath in.
“Alright,” he said in a soft, almost fatherly tone of voice. “First of all, I am more than impressed that you found Melchior. I always had a feeling that his random disappearance was not so random, and that there was something that perhaps only the King and the administrators of the palace knew about.”
Charles paused and stared at the wooden slats that made up the floor of the gazebo. For a second, an awkward silence fell on the four of us.
“But?” Tabitha finally asked.
“Sorry,” Charles said brusquely and shook his head. “I was just thinking. You can understand why this is a lot of information to take in. And to have all this happen on such an important day is… well, it’s a bit difficult to decide what to do.”
“Of course,” I replied. “And believe me, I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t sure. But I know in my gut that the vampires are planning to strike tonight.”
“I don’t doubt you,” Charles said softly. “I don’t doubt a word of what you just told me. The only thing is, this is more than just a holiday. Our country’s fortunes rest on this ritual. To interrupt it on a suspicion? That’s a lot to ask.”
I took a deep breath and looked over at Tabitha, who was practically on the edge of her seat.
“Charles,” the noblewoman said. “You know that I understand the importance of this ritual, not just for the Lupercalian nobility, but for the entire Kingdom. I’ve been coming here my whole life. But I saw the notebook, and I believe what the cipher told us. It all makes sense, and today is the day that they’re going to try and carry out their plan. If we don’t do something, then the vampires will win.”
Charles stared at the slats a moment longer, sighed deeply, and finally folded his hands together. He sat up straight and looked at all of us.
“Aright,” he said. “As much as it pains me to interfere in such an important ceremony, I believe you. Hank was chosen by the Moon Goddess, after all.”
“Then you’ll help us?” I pressed.
Charles studied the nobles in the square again before he finally nodded. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“You three know more of the details of the vampires’ plan,” he said. “So I don’t know that there’s much I can add to your mission.”
“But--” Sybil started to protest until Tabitha tapped her arm.
“You know where he’s staying,” Tabitha said.
“You always were much quicker at solving puzzles than your peers,” Charles chuckled. “And yes, I know where the King is residing.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Charles,” I said. “Literally.”
