“Why don’t you teach me that then?”
Nossy sighed. “Because you didn’t teach it to me.”
Mathias laughed. “I didn’t know it.”
“What, the great Mathias admits he didn’t know something?”
Mathias rolled his eyes. “Just get on with it.”
“All right then. Unlike mortals, this style of fighting is done without armor. You told me that the Myrddin kingdom felt armor would make them look weak.”
Mathias nodded. “They also had a tendency to weed out members in odd ways that had nothing to do with fighting ability.”
“At any rate, even though she uses a different style, it is still fighting with a sword. Defense will be your friend.”
Nosferatu demonstrated feinting, thrusting, stabbing, and cutting. Along with these things, he demonstrated the counters for each move. Then, he motioned for Mathias to copy.
“Remember, this is basically called ‘thrust and cut’ for a reason. Your sword is meant to stab, cut down, and counter your opponent’s sword.”
After a few hours of practice, Nosferatu motioned for Mathias to stop. “Now, I want you to try to attack me.”
Mathias ran forward with his sword raised above his head, ready to cut down. Nosferatu deftly sidestepped and Mathias ended up sprawled in the dirt.
“Where in the hell are your memories, Mathias. Good God!”
Mathias got up and glared. Just as he was about to rush again, he spotted a tall man on the other side of the clearing. He was roughly six and a half feet tall with long brown hair that looked like it never stayed where it needed to. His features were strong but not unpleasant. His eyes were the greenest eyes Mathias had ever seen. He knew those eyes.
Those eyes belonged to the boy who watched him die. “Stuart?” Mathias asked.
Stuart stepped forward into the clearing. “My God.” He turned to Nosferatu. “You weren’t kidding were you? He doesn’t look any different, just younger.”
“Yeah, talk about me like I’m not here.”
Stuart laughed and grabbed Mathias in the biggest bear hug he’d ever had in his life. “Uggh. You know I need to breathe sometime.”
Stuart put Mathias down. “I just can’t believe you’re back.”
Mathias coughed. “Yeah, well. I’m trying not to die here, so not crushing my chest would probably be a good start.”
“You always were a smart-ass.”
Nossy tossed Stuart his sword. “Teach him to use this thing will you? Make yourself useful.”
Stuart snatched the sword from the air and turned to Mathias. He didn’t wait for Mathias to charge him. He simply stepped forward and brought his sword slashing down in the direction of Mathias’ head.
Mathias dodged the sword and blocked it with his own. He took a deep breath- it was coming back. He began to move with the grace that only the knowledgeable possess. Soon, it was Stuart blocking Mathias’ sword. Suddenly, it was Stuart on the ground, sword tip pointed at his throat.
“Well done!” Nossy said as he jumped up from his log.
Mathias pulled away the sword and held out his hand to help Stuart up from the ground.
“I thought he didn’t know how to fight?” Stuart asked.
Nossy smiled. “It was he who didn’t think he knew how to fight.” Nossy waved his hands and a large sword appeared at Mathias’ feet. To call it beautiful would be an understatement. It was large and somewhat noble in shape. The hilt was intricately carved in silver in the guise of a dragon with ruby eyes. The blade was long and tapered, and looked to be deathly sharp.
Mathias’ eyes grew wide. He remembered this sword. “How did you manage to save it?”
“Your home is still where it was, Mathias. I wasn’t able to save everything, but we got the fire stopped in enough time that your back rooms were unharmed. It’s there, waiting for you.” Nosferatu wiped at his eyes with his arm.
Mathias picked up the sword. Even with his strength, it was heavy, but there was a certain balance to it.
“You’ll need it for your test.” Nosferatu looked at Stuart.
“When is the damn thing?” Stuart asked.
“April first.”
“Can we kill her before then?” Stuart wiped the dirt from his clothes.
“Unfortunately, no. The pattern of events was already decided upon.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Stuart asked.
“Iksnay, Stuart. Iksnay.”
“Let me guess, this is another one of those, ‘oh no, we can’t tell Mathias’ things isn’t it.”
Nossy walked over to Mathias and placed his hands on his shoulders.
“Why did I think up this stupid test anyway? It was never meant to be a test to prove that you are worthy of being a vampire,” Mathias said.
“It happened a few centuries after your death. My mother decided that your old rule should be adopted into our rules. Made vampires had to be approved by a counsel before they could be allowed. Technically, when Vlad saved you, he went against the law. Normally, the law isn’t any big deal. The test is a practice fight with a member of The Order. This fight is supposed to show if the made vampire has certain qualities. Those who have a penchant toward ill will, and show no remorse are fed to the beast.”
“What beast?” Mathias asked.
“Not a beast specifically, just that they are killed and their soul is sent to the netherworld. It is extremely rare that a made vampire is executed, but my mother is a psychopath.” Nosferatu grabbed a handful of dirt and let it fall through his fingers.
“I personally think that psychopath is an understatement.” Stuart said.
“Just talking about her doesn’t help me. I need to know what to do.” Mathias stroked the blade of his sword, allowing it to slice his palm. He watched in fascination as the wound closed.
“What you need to do is stay alive.” Stuart said.
Mathias rolled his eyes. “Yeah, no shit. What else?”
“Unfortunately, the way the test is conducted is not in your favor. The only two vampires allowed in the Ring are those who will fight. There are no witnesses, no aides. It will be just you and the Queen. Do try to not concentrate on that.” Nossy wrapped his arms around both Mathias and Stuart’s shoulders. They began walking back to the castle.
“Telling me to do that is like telling me to not to be afraid to jump off a cliff.” Mathias tossed his sword end over end and caught the handle.
Nosferatu stopped. “Stuart,” he pointed at a log at the edge of the clearing. “Go sit. I don’t think we’re done for the day.
Stuart did as he was told and found a spot on a log to sit on. Nossy grabbed Mathias and put him in the center of the clearing. “Just stand. Allow your lungs to fill with air. Close your eyes and listen. Hear the silence. What does it sound like?”
Mathias closed his eyes and was transported back to the other time he’d been taught to fight.
* * * * *
The sword master had them all standing in lines. They all wore blindfolds tied so tightly that there was no way to see beyond the fabric. The smell of the Black Sea was strong in the air. Their training compound was made of stone, but sand still covered quite a bit of it. When the winds blew, the sands would blow between the cracks in the stone. Living there meant living with the sand.
They were there to see if the Myrddin army would accept them. It was all about their ruthlessness and their vampiric abilities.
“Attention!” the sword master said. “In battle, you will never know when you’ll be blinded, but your other senses will do just as well. Remember, you are Vampires for Hell’s sake.
This test was different from any other test. The Myrddin army was different than any other vampire army in the world. They expected you to perform miracles. Just to get to this point, you had to pass the initiation; which consisted of allowing the entire army to do whatever it was they wanted to you. It was nothing unusual to be beaten until every bone in your body broke, and most either died
or quit after that, needing a healer to do their best to mend them. Mathias did neither, he survived.
“Evens turn to the right. Odds turn to the left,” the sword master said.
They all complied.
“Listen to where your opponent is. Listen for their heartbeat. To your vampire ears, you will find that each heartbeat is different. They have their own rhythm, their own timber. Listen to the loudness of each heartbeat. Find the one that is loudest, that is the one that is closest to you. Then pay attention to the others around you, you might end up fighting them as well.”
Mathias listened. Heartbeats were all around him. At first, they sounded like a sea of drums, and then, he could hear the ones closest to him, and the ones farthest away. He raised his sword.
“Begin!”
They fought for what seemed like hours. Mathias had various wounds on his body, but somehow, he’d managed to stay whole.
“Stop. Pull off your blindfolds.”
Mathias did. He looked around. Only six, himself included, of the two hundred men stood standing.
The sword master grunted. “Looks like we only have six who will make something of themselves. Get the rest of these pieces of shit off my training ground!”
Mathias looked around him, seeing the pools of blood from the fallen vampires around him. He’d killed a lot of them. How many, he just didn’t know.
“Don’t forget to burn them. I don’t want these unworthy pieces of shit and I know Aurelianus doesn’t want them.”
* * * * *
“Mathias?” Nossy asked.
Mathias opened his eyes. Stuart was standing in front of them. Both Nossy and Stuart looked worried.
“Are you all right?” Stuart asked.
Mathias nodded. Maybe remembering your past life in the present wasn’t a good idea. “I think it was just a flashback. I get dreams sometimes, but this is the first time it has happened during the daytime.”
Nossy nodded slowly. “After this is over and done with, we really need to work on that. It’s not good, Mathias.”
Good would be things going back to normal. “Tell that to Vlad.”
Stuart looked at Nossy, puzzled.
But Nossy shook his head. “I think he’s all right, Stuart.”
Stuart went back to the log and sat down.
“All right Mathias, what you need to know about the test is that it is simple. You will be deemed worthy of being in our world if your do two things. First, you must get the Queen in a position so that you would kill her if you wanted do.”
As if the Queen would let him put her in that type of situation. He was so doomed. “Just how in the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“Our kind is not easy to kill, but it can be done. One must cut off the vampire’s head, place the head far enough away from the body so that it cannot reattach itself, and then burn the corpse in two separate places. And finally, the ashes must be scattered to the wind. But the first step is extremely easy to fail, I’m sure you realize. You must promise me, Mathias, whatever you do, you must not kill the Queen.”
Mathias raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because The Order is tied together by blood. We always know when one of us dies. And in that death, we will see a flash of the person who was last to look into the eyes of our fallen comrade. To kill a member of the Order is to face sudden death unless the kill is authorized.” Nosferatu took a deep breath. “You are not authorized to kill her.”
“Why not?” Mathias asked.
“Because it is complicated. This is only supposed to be an exercise, but you know that it is anything but an exercise to her. Unfortunately, everything appears to be in order, so if you kill her, there will be political implications.”
“Okay, so I’m supposed to just get her in the position to cut off her head, but I can’t actually do it even though she’s done much worse to me.”
“Justice is carried out in different ways, Mathias.”
“All right, so what’s the next step?”
“The next step is admitting compassion, the act of being able to almost cut off the head, but quelling your anger enough to step back. This proves that you are worthy of the immortality that being a vampire offers.”
“I guess that sort of makes sense, but isn’t it just as easy for someone to fake compassion, etc just for the test?” Mathias asked.
“Truthfully,” Nosferatu said. “I believe that since Lilith adopted it, it has always been a ploy for her to ensure that no matter what, if you came back, she would be able to destroy you. She thinks that you will not be able to curtail your anger. This is the only way she would imagine to ensure your death.”
“This is so fucked up.”
“Hey, you didn’t have to live with the woman,” Stuart said.
Mathias laughed. “I don’t even want to think about it.” Mathias looked at Nosferatu. “So what do we do now?”
Nosferatu waved his hand and a sword, not unlike Mathias’ own popped into his hand. The most striking difference was that the sword was as black as night. “Go to the opposite side of the clearing, when you are ready bow to me. I will return the bow. That is the fair way to begin a fight in our world. It lets your opponent know that you are ready.”
Mathias did as he was told. He bowed and held his sword ready. Nosferatu returned the bow and motioned with a claw for Mathias to advance. Mathias took a deep breath and charged, screaming as he ran. Time seemed to merge. It was almost as if he was seeing both his past and his present at the same time. The past was overlaid atop the present like a watermark. He could just see the stone of the old training facility overtop the clearing. The entire thing was surreal.
Nosferatu sidestepped him and hit him between the shoulder blades with the hilt of his sword, sending Mathias sprawling. Mathias landed in a heap on the ground, wings askew.
“Now you’ll know that one should always take care that their wings are out of the way so that you don’t trip over them.”
Mathias shot Nosferatu the middle finger.
Nosferatu ignored it. “Get up. Now again.”
* * * * *
Stuart watched Nossy. They were relaxing in the sitting room. Unlike both Vlad’s and Nossy’s rooms, Stuart’s rooms were modern. There was no ornate decoration, no stack of books that one had to trip over. Stuart’s rooms were decorated tastefully in black and white. He had everything, a large TV, Blu-Ray player, various gaming systems, and a fancy laptop. All of these things were spaced in various parts of the sitting room on sleek black tables. The only furniture to sit on was a simple black sofa.
“Nossy, it doesn’t look good.” Stuart said, picking up a remote. He turned on the TV and put it on mute.
“You have to remember that Mathias, while he has all of these memories, his body is still very young. Mathias couldn’t even do the things he was capable of later in life when he was sixteen.”
“True, but before, Mathias didn’t have to survive a test with the Queen either.”
Nossy shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. The Order is involved.”
Stuart’s mouth slowly upturned into a sly smile. “They are? You mean after all of these years they finally realize she’s dangerous? I still couldn’t believe they allowed her to teach flying here, let alone live here when all the kids are here nine months out of the year.”
Nossy sighed. “Sadly, it really is only Mathias that she hates. Of course, now she feels slighted by the members of court because they dared to think ill of her when they found out the truth.”
“And that’s why politics never should have controlled The Order at all. Too many of them are content to sit and watch what happens instead of acting on things to prevent catastrophe. I would say it was their age, but you are older than any of them.”
“Well, Stuart. I think it is just a difference between people who are brave and people who are cowards. It has been that way forever. And nothing you or I can do will change that.”
“The only one who is worth a damn
is Speaker Tallus, and even he has his own agenda.”
“Of course he does. And we have ours, though I suspect that our agenda is a bit more pure than his. The only thing he’s ever wanted was his chance at the throne.” Nossy rubbed his hand over his head.
“Does he pose a threat to Mathias? After all, when the Queen dies, he would be the proper choice since ‘Lucifer’ wouldn’t do it.”
“Unless we went against tradition of having one of the original three rule at all times. Even though Lilith thought of that, it was one of the few things I agree with her on. But the choice to rule should be Mathias’, and I sure as hell don’t want to rule,” Nossy tapped at his teeth with a claw. “But there is nothing to worry about with Tallus. He never was a fighter. He is just waiting, always trying never to choose sides so that if the possibility of him ruling ever comes up, there will be no honest objection.”
“So we are back to the test and what will happen,” Stuart said.
“Mathias will fight. We will train him as hard as we can in the time we have left. Anything else, I’ll take care of.”
“Care to tell me what you will be taking care of?” Stuart smiled and batted his eyelashes.
Nossy cuffed Stuart on the arm. “You know better than that, you young pup. Just stay away from our mother.”
Stuart’s eyes darkened. “Trust me; that will not be a problem.”
* * * * *
The days passed quickly. Stuart and Nossy took turns training Mathias each day. Everything was neglected for training except food and sleep. Gradually, Mathias stopped thinking when he fought and relied on his instinct. And over time, his muscles seemed to communicate better with his brain.
“Are you ready?” Nosferatu asked from the opposite side of the clearing.
Mathias had been lost in his thoughts. “I’m sorry. Yeah,” he bowed and like many times before, he charged Nosferatu. The fight had become a choreographed ballet. Their movements were timed perfectly, almost as if they knew what the other was going to do before they did it. Mathias had just swung downward with his blade when Nosferatu burst into the air with an upward swing countering Mathias’ move and sending him sprawled across the dirt again.