The Darkness Deepens, Chapter 3

         Rhiannon rode hard for days until her horse started to falter at the abuse.  She stopped him and immediately set about rubbing him down and walking him so that he would not founder.  She mentally kicked herself repeatedly for treating the animal this way, after all he had always been good to her, he had never failed her.  After walking a few miles she felt is was safe to feed and water her horse and she stopped to make camp in a small grove of oaks.

         Rhiannon set about making a small fire and making sure her horse was properly cared for.  She even gave him extra grain from her packs, after all she had not given him grain for days.  It was not to long after she finished her small dinner of dry rations that she spread her bedroll out and fell into a deep sleep.  For the first time since she had left he child she was sound asleep. It was the exhaustion that had set in that pulled her so deeply into sleep and the deep sleep that prevented her from waking when the large man entered the clearing.  It was only the frantic nickering of her horse that finally woke her.  She woke to see a large man retreating fro the clearing.  In an instance she though she knew him, but then she heard other voices.

         Even as she rose from her position lying on the ground she drew her sword.  She turned in time to see an arrow let fly at her.  Turning herself so that the arrow passed by her she went into battle.  It took her only moments to realize that here were at least eight men in the small camp.  She didn’t know what they were after, but then again did it matter?  They had tried to kill her with the arrow that much was clear.

         Most of the men stayed clear of her as they seen her sword, they knew what she was and what the sword would do to them with one small touch.  It was then that the Chosen from the fortress stepped into the dying firelight.

         “So, we finally caught up to you.  I knew we would sooner or later.  I just didn’t think you would stop this soon.  After all a murder usually runs faster and further then this.  But no matter.  I can handle you well enough.”  As he spoke he pulled his sword.  “Now, blackguard, child murdered you will get what is coming to you.”

         He started to circle her, waving his sword this way and that, trying to find a weak spot in her defenses.  Rhiannon was aware that the rest of the men were at her back having formed a large circle for them to fight in and knew that sooner or later she was going to go down.  But she would not go down with out a fight.  She didn’t know what this was all about, but there was no misunderstanding the sharpness of the sword he was swinging at her.

         “I don’t know what you speak of blackguard.  I have killed no one, at least not yet.” Rhiannon said as she moved again to avoid the touch of death.

         “You are formally charged with the death of the Duke’s daughter.  He confirmed that when you left the Isle the child was alive.  You either killed the child outright or allowed the child to die in some other manner.  You are therefore charged with murder.  The way you ran from the fortress after giving the body over to the Duke, well that was an admission of guilt if I ever seen one.”  The other blackguard said as he moved in closer.

         Rhiannon simply did not know what to say.  The girl was dead, but how could that be.  Even the blackguard knew the child was alive when she brought her there.  He and the other had heard the child’s cry of pain.  In confusion she could think of only one thing to do.

         “If I am truly charged then I shall return peaceable with you to the fortress and stand for the charges against me.  But you and I both know that the child was alive when I delivered her into the arms of her father.  You heard the child’s cries only moments before, did you not?”

         The blackguards face turned black with anger and he waited no longer.  He charged Rhiannon bringing the side of his sword to bear on her.  Rhiannon knew if he cut her once she was dead.  Not even thinking of her moves, simply realizing the danger she was in, Rhiannon moved to the side of his attack and swung her own sword.  She felt it hit home and then felt the sword take the blackguards life and soul.

         Rhiannon had never actually killed a man before.  She had been trained to and she practiced her art of fighting for hundreds of years on the Isle.  But never once had she taken another life.  She was stunned at the feeling that ran though her.  But more then anything else she was stunned by the feeling that she got from her sword.  It was a pleasure that ran through her as the sword drank the fallen blackguard soul into it.  She knew that it would do so.  She had been told it was the soul that powered the sword.  But somehow the feeling made her sick and afraid.  It did not matter that no on else knew she had enjoyed it for a brief moment.  She knew.

         It was then that a deep, very rich voice drew everyone’s attention to him as he came out of the woods that surrounded the grove.  “If you hit her in the back of the head with that I shall be forced to kill you like the lowly dog that you are, right where you stand.”  He calmly said to one of the men that stood behind Rhiannon.

         Rhiannon knew the voice immediately and knew she had not been wrong, he had been in the clearing with her before the men had attacked her.  And the men wasted no time in attacking him.

         It was with great shock and a little bit of fear that she seen him bear his fangs and leap into battle with the other men.  He was Risen, a vampire.  And he had almost had her for dinner.

         She didn’t have much time to worry about it at that point.  She had almost forgotten about the other men, they had not forgotten about her.  It was only though the lightening quick moves of the Risen that she was not killed on the spot.  The vampire ran his claws into the man that was going to cut her down where she stood.  Rhiannon did not have time to thank him as the rest of the men closed in for the kill.

         It seemed liked hours that the strange pair fought the men off back to back.  It was in reality only a few minutes.  His strength was much greater then a normal man and she held a Chosen sword.  Both of them stood back to back for several minutes before they realized that between the two of them they had killed everyone.

         As soon as Rhiannon realized that the men were all dead, including the blackguard she quickly stepped away from the Risen, turned and brought her sword to bear on him.

         “Your thoughts are as loud to me as your spoken word.  But I tell you now that I was not going to make you my dinner.”  He said as he slowly turned around with his hands held palm out to her in a gesture of friendliness.

         Rhiannon looked into his eyes for the first time since she had met him on the faithful night almost a fortnight ago.  When she looked into his eyes her heart stopped.  She knew it had stopped and it held her in a special place, one that she had only heard about.  It was then that she realized just how large the hole in her heart was, and this stranger was somehow helping to fill it.  The Risen, a vampire, a blood sucker that lived off the death of others somehow was giving her back something that she didn’t remember losing.

         The vampire met her glazed and held it, but only for a few moments.  He raised a hand and shielded his eyes and began to move back away from her.  “Please Rhiannon, forgive me.  I only meant to help you…”  He choked as he backed away.  He had felt the same thing and knew what had happened.  However the bright glow from her sword was beginning to hurt him.  Rhiannon had not even noticed the strange glow her sword had.  Having never killed before with is she didn’t really know what to expect.  Her trainers had been strangely silence on that aspect of her sword and now she knew why.  The sword burned bright with the souls it had taken this night.  She had killed a total of four men this night.  Rhiannon put it away.

         “I am not sure what is happening Risen.  You can not be Vinculum to me.  You are a vampire.  I know this.”  Rhiannon was growing more and more confused.  And even as her mind raced to find answers it did not have she drew close to him as he did to her.

         Before she even realized that either one of them had move she was in his arms.  He was lifting her without any effort and their mouths met.  Her mouth opened to the slight pressure from his tongue and she returned his passion in kind.  She felt his fangs grew out and their kiss continued, but it simply did not matter to her.  She even felt the cut they made in her tongue and tasted her blood as he allowed the tiny amount to slip down his throat.

         It was then that she felt him stiffen.  He dropped her and turned around.  As she looked up at him from the ground she could see the arrow sticking out of his back.  That type of shot would have killed a mortal man.  His eyes became blood red and he was gone in a puff of smoke.  Before Rhiannon eve realized it a spel had put her into a deep sleep.  It was a special spell, only known to a special few, those that hunted Chosen for one reason or another.