blade. “Good,” he grinned. “That’s more like it.”
He circled me, eyes on mine, fingers flexing slowly. I kept the tip of my sword low, until he came to a halt, then moved towards him and jabbed. I expected him to shift aside, but instead he brought the palm of his right hand up and swiped the blade away, as he would a flat stick. As I struggled to bring it back around, he stepped in, caught hold of my hand above the wrist, gave a sharp twist which caused me to release the sword – and I was weaponless.
“See?” he smiled, stepping back and raising his hands to show the fight was at an end. “If this was for real, your ass would be grass.” Vancha had a foul mouth – that was one of his tamest insults!
“Big deal,” I sulked, rubbing my sore wrist. “You beat a half-vampire. You couldn’t win against a full-vampire or a vampaneze.”
“I can and have,” he insisted. “Weapons are tools of fear, used by those who are afraid. One who learns to fight with his hands always has the advantage over those who rely on swords and knives. Know why?”
“Why?”
“Because they expect to win,” he beamed. “Weapons are false – they’re not of nature – and inspire false confidence. When I fight, I expect to die. Even now, when I sparred with you, I anticipated death and resigned myself to it. Death is the worst this world can throw at you, Darren – if you accept it, it has no power over you.”
Picking up my sword, he handed it to me and watched to see what I’d do. I had the feeling he wanted me to cast it aside – and I was tempted to, to earn his respect. But I’d have felt naked without it, so I slid it back into its sheath and glanced down at the ground, slightly ashamed.
Vancha clasped the back of my neck and squeezed amiably. “Don’t let it bother you,” he said. “You’re young. You have loads of time to learn.” His eyes creased as he thought about Mr Tiny and the Lord of the Vampaneze, and he added gloomily, “I hope.”
I asked Vancha to teach me how to fight bare-handed. I’d studied unarmed combat in Vampire Mountain, but that had been against opponents who were also unarmed. Apart from a few lessons regarding what to do if I lost my weapon during battle, I’d never been taught how to take on a fully armed foe using only my hands. Vancha said it would take years to master, and I could expect lots of nicks and bruises while learning. I waved away such concerns – I loved the thought of being able to best an armed vampaneze with my bare hands.
Training couldn’t start on the trail, but Vancha talked me through a few basic blocking tactics when we rested by day, and promised to give me a real work out when we got to Evanna’s.
The Prince would tell me no more about the witch than Mr Crepsley had, though he did say she was both the fairest and least attractive of women – which made no sense at all!
I thought Vancha would be strongly anti-vampaneze – the vampires who despised vampaneze the most were normally those steeped in the old ways – but to my surprise he had nothing against them. “Vampaneze are noble and true,” he said a couple of nights before we reached Evanna’s. “I don’t agree with their feeding habits – there’s no need to kill when we drink – but otherwise I admire them.”
“Vancha nominated Kurda Smahlt to become a Prince,” Mr Crepsley remarked.
“I admired Kurda,” Vancha said. “He was known for his brains, but he also had guts. He was a remarkable vampire.”
“Don’t you…” I coughed and trailed off into silence.
“Say what’s on your mind,” Vancha told me.
“Don’t you feel bad for nominating him, after what he did, leading the vampaneze against us?”
“No,” Vancha said bluntly. “I don’t approve of his actions, and if I’d been at Council, I wouldn’t have spoken up on his behalf. But he was following his heart. He acted for the good of the clan. Misguided as he was, I don’t think Kurda was a real traitor. He acted poorly, but his motives were pure.”
“I agree,” Harkat said, joining the conversation. “I think Kurda’s been poorly treated. It was right that he was killed when he … was captured, but it’s wrong to say he was a villain, and not mention his name … in the Hall of Princes.”
I didn’t respond to that. I’d liked Kurda immensely, and knew he’d done his best to spare the vampires the wrath of the Vampaneze Lord. But he’d killed one of my other friends – Gavner Purl – and brought about the death of more, including Arra Sails, a female vampire who’d once been Mr Crepsley’s mate.
I learnt the identity of Vancha’s real enemy the day before we came to the end of the first leg of our journey. I’d been sleeping, but my face was itchy – an after-effect of the purge – and I awoke before midday. I sat up, scratching under my chin, and spotted Vancha at the edge of camp, his clothes tossed aside – except for a strip of bear hide tied around his waist – rubbing spit into his skin.
“Vancha?” I asked quietly. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going walking,” he said, and continued rubbing spit into the flesh of his shoulders and arms.
I stared up at the sky. It was a bright day and hardly any clouds were around to block out the sun. “Vancha, it’s daytime,” I said.
“Really?” he replied sarcastically. “I’d never have guessed.”
“Vampires burn in sunlight,” I said, wondering if he’d bumped his head and forgotten what he was.
“Not immediately,” he said, then looked at me sharply. “Have you ever wondered why vampires burn in the sun?”
“Well, no, not exactly…”
“There’s no logical reason,” Vancha said. “According to the stories humans tell, it’s because we’re evil, and evil beings can’t face the sun. But that’s nonsense – we’re not evil, and even if we were, we should still be able to move about during the day.
“Look at wolves,” he continued. “We’re supposed to be descended from them, but they can endure the sunlight. Even true nocturnal creatures like bats and owls can survive by day. Sunlight might confuse them, but it doesn’t kill them. So why does it kill vampires?”
I shook my head uncertainly. “I don’t know. Why?”
Vancha barked a laugh. “Damned if I know! Nobody does. Some claim we were cursed by a witch or sorcerer, but I doubt that – the world’s full of servants of the dark arts, but none with the power to make such a lethal curse. My hunch is Desmond Tiny.”
“What’s Mr Tiny got to do with it?” I asked.
“According to ancient legends – forgotten by most – Tiny created the first vampires. They say he experimented on wolves and mixed their blood with that of humans, resulting in…” He tapped his chest.
“That’s ridiculous,” I snorted.
“Perhaps. But if those legends are true, our sun-related weakness is also Tiny’s work. They say he was afraid we’d grow too powerful and take over the world, so he tainted our blood and made us slaves of the night.” He stopped rubbing spit in and gazed upwards, eyes scrunched up against the disorientating rays of sunlight. “Nothing’s as awful as slavery,” he said quietly. “If the stories are true, and we’re night slaves because of Tiny’s meddling, there’s only one way to win back our freedom – fight! We have to take on the enemy, look it full in the face and spit in its eye.”
“You mean fight Mr Tiny?”
“Not directly. He’s too slippery a customer to pin down.”
“Then who?”
“We have to fight his manservant,” he said. When I looked blank, he elaborated: “The sun.”
“The sun?”