“I understand Sienna was the last to disappear,” Jax said, taking a sip from his blood cup.
“Indeed.” Rowan nodded, grief drawing a frown between her reddish eyebrows. “And it’s been five days now. We have not been the same since. This is the first time that this issue has affected us, the Lords and Ladies of Azure Heights, directly. It was the reason we pushed for a vote and allowed Rewa to take the swamp witches’ spell and reach out to Calliope. We don’t know what else to do, at this point…”
I made eye contact with Vincent and nearly lost myself in those two pale green pools. He was a beautiful creature, his diaphanous skin working well against his red hair and steep jaw angles, his lips pink and sadness tugging their corners down a bit.
“You must understand,” Emilian added with a somber expression, “we really didn’t want to contact Calliope, but we are desperate. Whatever this is, it is taking our children now, too.”
“It’s no longer a question of Maras running off because they didn’t like the city,” Vincent said, his soft voice capturing my attention. “My sister loves Azure Heights. She loves me, and Mama and Papa and Rewa and all our friends. She would never just leave. Never.”
“Where did you last see her?” Jax asked, his gaze scanning the Imen who moved around the table refilling glasses.
“At our home, in the afternoon,” Vincent replied. “I was the last to see her, for that matter, in the garden. We live at the top level of Azure Heights, in the Five Lords’ quarters.”
“Are any of her personal items missing?”
“Such as?” Vincent raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know, hairbrush, her favorite jewels, any objects she used in her day-to-day life.”
“Are you implying she ran off?” Rowan interjected, her tone as sharp as my sword.
“I am merely verifying all possible avenues before dismissing them.” Jax shrugged, his eyes on the Iman servant girl who stopped next to me and poured water into one of the two crystal classes before me. One had already been replenished with blood.
“Other than what she was wearing at the time she went missing, Sienna didn’t take anything with her,” Vincent then replied, through vaguely gritted teeth. “She couldn’t have, anyway, because she was abducted. Like I’ve said before, Sienna would never just leave us.”
The Iman girl’s hands trembled, and she accidentally spilled water on the tablecloth. She gasped as she set the pitcher down, and pulled a dry cloth from her apron pocket and dabbed it against the wet fabric.
“I am so sorry, milady, please forgive me,” she said, her voice raw, her hazel eyes wide and filled with terror.
“Cynara, please be careful,” Farrah replied dryly. “You don’t want to make our guests uncomfortable.”
“I am sorry, milady,” Cynara said, giving the Mara a pleading look that ignited some alarm signals in the back of my head. There was genuine fear oozing out of her. “It won’t happen again.”
Another Iman girl came over and gently pulled Cynara away from the table. She had similar features and the same hazel eyes, making me think they were most likely sisters. Cynara stilled, her back against the wall, her cheeks losing their color as she clutched the cloth against her chest, staring at the table.
“Thank you, Hera.” Farrah smiled politely, her gaze fixed on Cynara.
“My pleasure, milady,” Hera said, giving me a quick sideways glance before she removed the water pitcher and left two embroidered napkins in its place.
“It’s okay,” I said, glancing at Cynara over my shoulder. I gave her a warm smile for good measure too, not knowing how else to make her understand that she hadn’t done anything wrong. “Really, Cynara, it’s okay.”
She nodded but didn’t look me in the eyes. Her whole body trembled, and I heard fingers snapping. Two male servants shuffled across the dining room and gently escorted her outside.
“Where are they taking her?” I asked, slightly alarmed.
“Cynara clearly needs to rest,” Hera said from the side, watching as the servants closed the door behind them with an impassive expression. “My sister hasn’t been too well, lately. I apologize on her behalf.”
“There is nothing to apologize for!” I shot back, officially irritated. “Why are you making such a big deal out of this? She just spilled some water.”
“Cynara shouldn’t have been allowed back to work so soon.” Farrah sighed, her penetrating gaze fixed on me, as was Vincent’s. “It’s been what, eight days since her mother was taken?”
“Taken?” I asked.
“Nine days, milady,” Hera replied, staring ahead at no one in particular, her hands behind her back. “Nine days since our mother vanished. And yes, you are right. I shouldn’t have let Cynara back to work so soon, but she was getting restless at home. I was hoping that work at the inn would keep her busy.”
“Taken?” I asked again, raising my voice.
It earned me a brief glare from Jax, who leaned forward and took another sip from his blood cup.
“Imen have gone missing too?” he asked.
“Plenty, yes,” Emilian replied, his fingers gently tapping the table.
“How many?” Jax continued his interview in a tense but neutral tone.
“We’ve lost count, to be honest.”
“But they’re not included in the two hundred and fifty-seven Exiled Maras,” Jax concluded. None of the Lords replied, save for a collective shake of their heads. “And why weren’t they mentioned up until now?”
“We’ve been preoccupied with our two hundred and fifty-seven, including my daughter,” Rowan replied, visibly irritated.
“So, your two hundred and fifty-seven are more important than the countless Imen who have also become victims of this… whatever this is?” Jax continued, unyielding. His hands rested on the table, fingers spread out.
“The Imen are not our concern!” Rowan shot back. “They chose to stay here on the mountain with us—they know the risks! Our people, however, do not deserve this! It’s bad enough we were banished here. So please excuse us if we worry more about our own than we do about the natives.”
A heavy silence fell between us, while I gave Hera a sideways glance. She seemed surprised by Jax’s questions and underlying tone, which we all felt.
“Nevertheless, it is our responsibility to worry about the Imen, too,” Hansa intervened. “You may not care about them beyond how well they wash your shirts or serve your food or trim your gardens, but we, as GASP operatives, care. So we will need a full list of all those who have disappeared among the Imen as well. Do a roll call if you have to. I don’t care.”
“We would like that list tomorrow,” Jax nodded, the corner of his mouth twitching.
The Five Lords looked uncomfortable, with Caspian downright shooting arrows from his eyes, but eventually nodded. Their reaction seemed to surprise Hera even more, from what I could tell.
“That is fine,” Emilian replied, his voice lower than usual. “We will arrange for a census first thing in the morning, and have our archives checked as well. It may take more than a day, though, as there are many Imen living among us.”
“Day after tomorrow, then,” Jax replied, then put on a half-smile. “Thank you.”
“I’d like to speak to Cynara,” I said, still worried about the Iman girl’s wellbeing. She’d seemed so scared of having made a simple, harmless mistake. It just didn’t feel like a natural reaction.
“She is resting now, milady,” Hera replied politely. “But I’d be more than happy to bring her to the inn tomorrow, for you to speak to her at your leisure.”
“That would be great, thanks,” I muttered, then gulped down the rest of my blood.
“You seem worried,” Vincent said, looking at me.
I felt cold and naked in front of him. I took a deep breath, then shrugged, unable to look away. There was something attractive, almost hypnotic about him, and it clearly wasn’t his mind-bending skill. That didn’t work on vampires.
“C
ynara is simply being looked after,” he said gently. “Surely, we must come across as pretentious, enlisting the services of the natives like this, but the Imen prefer living and working here. Most of them get to retire with a couple of bags of gold, which they can enjoy through retirement on other, more exotic parts of the continent.”
“Milord is truthful in his depiction, milady,” Hera added from the sideline.
“We are the elite; that is also true. We are stronger, faster, and live longer than the Imen. We were blessed with eternal life, after all. Of course, there is a particular social order here. But that is how we choose to live, and the Imen accepted that many years ago.”
“You don’t live here,” Darius added, while a servant refilled his blood cup. “I’m not surprised you don’t understand. But each society has different rules, its own customs that it abides by. It is the same wherever you go in the universe. No exception.”
I exhaled, processing the argument and trying to accommodate myself to this form of reasoning. The Imen didn’t seem oppressed. We didn’t have to speak or intervene on their behalf unless their freedom and their safety were in peril. I understood then that it was best if I focused on the disappearances first. We needed both the Exiled Maras and the Imen to cooperate.
Judging by the reassuring nod that Jax gave me, he’d reached a similar conclusion. But I still looked forward to speaking to Cynara. I needed to remove all doubt before I could let go of this completely.
Harper
(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)
I tried my best to focus on all the creatures in the dining room, Maras and Imen alike, but no matter what I did, my gaze always shifted back to Caspian. And whenever that happened, I found him glaring at me for a second before he looked somewhere else.
“Where did the Imen disappear from?” Jax asked.
“Most of them vanished around or in the Valley of Screams, as did most of our people,” Emilian replied.
“What’s in there that warrants such an ominous name?” I asked, then made the mistake of looking at Caspian, unable to control my curiosity. His gaze caught mine and held it, unyielding and intense, once again sending shivers down my spine. Danger lurked around him like a cloak of shadows.
“It’s because of the blood-chilling screams that come out of it at night,” Caspian said, his voice low and cold. “Whatever is out in those gorges does horrible things to whomever it captures. We can all hear the victims’ screams when the moons are up. We never saw much in there during our earlier explorations, but it’s gotten particularly dangerous over the last couple of years. We’ve stopped venturing through the Valley even during the day. People just… go missing.”
“What about those who vanished from here?” Jax asked.
“We suspect it could be the same thing that dwells or hunts in the Valley of Screams. These are more recent disappearances, though,” Emilian explained.
“So, whatever is taking people from or near the Valley of Screams has now moved to snatching victims directly from Azure Heights?” Jax frowned, glancing around at the Imen, registering their subtle nods.
“Yes.” Emilian let out an exhausted sigh. “Something dark and evil lives in those gorges, something that we’ve tried to confront but have never seen or heard. The fighters we’ve sent after it never returned. The most upsetting part is that we have to rely on our livestock for sustenance. We can no longer go hunting. The bigger beasts with the tastiest and most nourishing blood only come out at night and live in the gorges. It’s made life a little bland, and believe me, we’ve already had it bad with our brothers, our sisters, our children, and our friends missing… Having poor food really is too much for our city.”
“This doesn’t taste bad at all,” I replied, sipping from my blood cup.
“It’s mostly spices and herbs.” Emilian scoffed. “Long gone are the days when we could enjoy pure, untainted blood. There are large grazing animals in the gorges, with thick, twisted horns and hooves, and by the stars, their blood is perfect! Fleshy and slightly smoky, with a heady finish and a long-lasting aftertaste. You don’t even have such beasts on Calliope. You wouldn’t understand…”
“So why haven’t you tried relocating, instead?” Jax asked.
“Would you leave your home so easily in front of such a threat?” Darius replied. “Would you let it drive you out of your city? We’ve been here for thousands of years. Our lives are on this mountain. This mountain is our life. We won’t surrender so easily! It’s why we reached out to Eritopia. If you can’t help us… I don’t know, maybe we will have to consider finding a new home, but we’ve yet to lose hope.”
A minute passed in silence. We glanced at each other on our side of the table, then shifted our focus to the Five Lords, Rewa, and Vincent. I did my best to avoid Caspian’s glare, but it was becoming difficult. I gulped down my blood, then followed an Iman servant with my eyes as he came around the table and refilled my cup.
“Then it’s settled,” Jax concluded, pursing his lips. “We need to go to the Valley of Screams and find out what’s in there.”
He was met with silence and surprised looks, the latter mostly from our team, including myself. I’d thought we’d focus on interviewing the families of the victims and maybe surveying the valley, but not go directly into it.
“I like how you make it sound as easy as polishing your sword.” Hansa chuckled, leaning against the back of her chair.
Jax stifled a smile, then looked at the Five Lords.
“This won’t be much of a recon trip if we don’t at least visit the place. It’s the only way we’ll get any answers,” he said. “I’ll keep a few of our team members here, to interview the families of the Exiled Maras and Imen that have gone missing, and take the rest with me to the Valley of Screams. You’re free to join us, but it’s not mandatory.”
“I think you’re being reckless.” Caspian frowned.
“Maybe, but I don’t think so,” Jax replied bluntly. “You’ve all been trembling in your boots for two years straight, now. It’s time we get to the bottom of this, but that won’t happen until we start looking in the obvious place. None of you are trained for any of this. We are. We have protocols in place. It’s risky, yes, but I think we can handle taking a quick peek inside that gorge.”
“I feel like I must join you on this mission, then,” Darius said, sighing. “I will also bring some of my squires and guards, for good measure. You should bring the Druid, at least.”
“That makes all the sense in the world.” Jax nodded. “Thank you, Darius, your assistance is appreciated.”
“Don’t think for a second you’re leaving me here in fashion land,” Hansa growled, her emerald-gold gaze settling on Jax’s profile.
“I couldn’t even if I wanted to,” Jax replied. “You’re too stubborn for your own good. Harper.”
I instinctively straightened my back at the sound of my name.
“Yes, sir!” I replied automatically.
“You, Patrik, Hansa, Scarlett, and I will go to the Valley of Screams tonight,” he said, then glanced to his side at Heron. “Heron, you take Avril and Fiona to check the Roho residence and see if you can pick up a trail for Sienna from where she was last seen.”
I held my breath for a couple of seconds, measuring my own excitement and anxiousness. I was definitely looking forward to exploring the Valley of Screams. Call it my morbid sense of adventure, but I had a feeling it would surprise me on more than one level. At the same time, my muscles tensed. I was heading into a danger zone. I needed my sentry senses perfectly attuned, and I needed to feed for that. Caia was always happy to spare some of her energy, so I squeezed her hand and looked into her eyes.
As if instantly knowing what I’d asked of her, Caia gave me a nod and a wink. My sentry dinner was taken care of.
“Cool, so I get the sniffer, then.” Heron grinned, giving Avril a friendly nudge in the ribs. It got him a harder nudge in return, forcing him to cough and grumble.
“Blaze.” Jax
looked at the fire dragon. “Normally I’d take you with us for this one, but we’ll have plenty of armed guards with us and the Druid. I’d rather you stay behind, take Caia, and start interviewing the victims’ families. The more you can cover over the next few hours and tomorrow, the better.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come along?” Blaze frowned slightly.
“Nah, you’re like the nuclear option.” I grinned. “Jax won’t whip you out unless he has no other choice. We’re doing recon for now.”
“Don’t worry, Blaze, once we switch to extermination mode you’re the first creature I’ll let loose in those gorges.” Jax gave him a reassuring smile.
“I’ve never seen you in dragon form, though. How big do you get?” Heron muttered, then glanced at Jax. “How big does he get? You don’t want him getting his ass stuck in those gorges. That would be terribly counterproductive!”
Chuckles rose from our group as Blaze rolled his eyes, then groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. Heron gave him a friendly pat on the back.
“It’s okay, buddy, I’ll get you out if you need help.” Heron winked. “I’ll have these lovely Imen ladies pack a barrel of oil to use and we’ll be good to go.”
We burst out laughing, and I noticed the Imen girls, including Hera, blushing and looking away, pressing their lips together. Leave it to Heron to make every female in this room blush. My gaze shifted around the table again, and I found Caspian once again staring at me, a permanent frown casting dark shadows over his eyes.
I raised an eyebrow in response, as I no longer had the patience to tiptoe around him. Whatever problem he had with me, he could either voice it or shut the hell up. He didn’t. Instead, he scoffed and looked at his fellow Lords, as if deeming me unimportant.