CHAPTER TWO
ARRA SAILSwas waiting for Mr. Crepsley and me outside the Hall of Princes. Arra was one of the rare female vampires at Vampire Mountain. She was a fierce fighter, the equal or better of most males. We'd fought a contest earlier during my stay, and I'd won her hard-to-earn respect.
"How are you?" she asked, shaking my hand.
"Pretty good," I said.
"Nervous?"
"Yes."
"I was too, when facing my Trials," she said with a smile. "Only a fool goes into them without feeling anxious. The important thing is not to panic."
"I'll try not to."
Arra cleared her throat. "I hope you don't hold what I said in the Hall of Princes against me." Arra had urged the Princes to make me undertake the Trials. "I don't believe in going easy on vampires, even if they're children. Ours is a hard life, not suited to the weak. As I said in the Hall, I think you'll pass the Trials, but if you don't, I won't step in to plead for your life."
"I understand," I said.
"We're still friends?"
"Yes."
"If you need help preparing, call on me," she said. "I have been through the Trials three times, to prove to myself more than anyone else that I am a worthy vampire. There is very little that I don't know about them."
"We will bear that in mind," Mr. Crepsley said, bowing to her.
"Courteous as ever, Larten," Arra noted. "And as handsome too."
I nearly laughed out loud. Mr. Crepsley handsome? I'd seen more appealing creatures in the monkey cages in zoos! But Mr. Crepsley took the compliment in stride, as though he were used to such flattery, and bowed again.
"And you are as beautiful as ever," he said.
"I know." She grinned and left. Mr. Crepsley watched her intently as she walked away, a faraway look on his normally solemn face. When he caught me smirking, he scowled.
"What are you grinning about?" he snapped.
"Nothing," I said innocently, then added slyly, "an old girlfriend?"
"If you must know," he said stiffly, "Arra was once my mate."
I blinked. "You mean she was yourwife? "
"In a manner of speaking."
I stared, slack-jawed, at the vampire. "You never told me you were married!"
"I am not anymore but I used to be."
"What happened did you get a divorce?"
He shook his head. "Vampires neither marry nor divorce as humans do. We make temporary mating commitments instead."
I frowned. "What?"
"If two vampires wish to mate," he explained, "they agree to share their lives for a set amount of time, usually five or ten years. At the end of that time, they can agree to another five or ten years, or separate. Our relationships are not like those of humans. Since we cannot have children, and live such a long time, very few vampires stay mated for their whole lives."
"That sounds bizarre."
Mr. Crepsley shrugged. "It is the vampire way."
I thought it over. "Do you still have feelings for Arra?"I asked.
"I admire and respect her," he answered.
"That's not what I mean. Do youlove her?"
"Oh, look," he said quickly, reddening around his throat, "it is time to present ourselves to the Princes. Hurry we must not be late." And he took off quickly, as though to avoid more personal questions.
Vanez Blane greeted us inside the Hall of Princes. Vanez was a games master, responsible for maintaining the three gaming Halls and watching over the contestants. He only had one eye, and from the left-hand side he looked awful. But if you saw him from the front or right-hand side, you could tell at a glance that he was a kind, friendly vampire.
"How do you feel?" he asked. "Ready for the Trials?"
"Just about," I replied.
He took me aside and spoke quietly. "You can say no if you want, but I've discussed it with the Princes, and they won't object if you ask me to be your Trials tutor. That means I'd tell you about the challenges and help you prepare for them. I'd be like a second in a duel, or a trainer in a boxing match."
"Sounds good to me," I said.
"You don't mind, Larten?" he asked Mr. Crepsley.
"Not at all," Mr. Crepsley said. "I had planned to be Darren's tutor, but you are much better suited to the job. Are you sure it is not an inconvenience?"
"Of course it isn't," Vanez said firmly.
"Then it is agreed." We all shook hands and smiled at one another.
"It feels strange being the center of so much attention," I said. "So many people are going out of their way to help me. Are you like this with all newcomers?"
"Most of the time yes," Vanez said. "Vampires look out for each other. We have to everybody else in the world hates or fears us. A vampire can always depend on help from his own." He winked and added, "Even that cowardly scoundrel Kurda Smahlt."
Vanez didn't really think Kurda was a cowardly scoundrel he just liked to tease the soon-to-be Prince but many vampires in the mountain did. Kurda didn't like fighting or war and believed in making peace with the vampaneze. To a lot of vampires, that was unthinkable.
A guard called my name, and I stepped forward, past the circular benches to the platform where the thrones of the Princes were. Vanez stood just behind me, while Mr. Crepsley stayed in his seat only Trials tutors were allowed to accompany contestants to the platform.
Paris Skyle, a white-haired, grey-bearded Prince he was also the oldest living vampire asked if I was willing to accept whatever Trial came my way. I said I was. He announced to the hall in general that the Period of Preparation would be used, and that some Trials had been withdrawn, because of my size and youth. He asked if anyone objected. Mika Ver Leth who'd suggested the Trials looked unhappy about the allowances and picked irritably at the folds of his black shirt but said nothing. "Very well," Paris declared. "We shall draw the first Trial."
A bag of numbered stones was brought forward by a green-uniformed guard. I'd been told that there were seventeen stones in it, each with its own number. Each number corresponded to a Trial, and the one I picked would be the Trial I'd have to face.
The guard shook the bag and asked if anyone wanted to examine the stones. One of the Generals raised a hand. This was common practice the stones were always examined so I didn't worry about it, just focused on the floor and tried to stop the nervous rumblings of my belly.
When the stones had been checked and approved, the guard shook them up once more, then held the bag out to me. Closing my eyes, I reached in, grabbed the first stone I touched, and drew it out. "Number eleven," the guard shouted. "The Aquatic Maze."
The vampires in the Hall mumbled softly among themselves.
"Is that good or bad?" I asked Vanez while the stone was taken up for the Princes to verify.
"It depends," he said. "Can you swim?"
"Yes."
"Then it's as good a first Trial as any. Things could have been worse."
Once the stone had been checked and put aside so that it couldn't be drawn again, Paris told me that I would be expected to report for the Trial at dusk tomorrow. He wished me luck he said business would keep him away, though one of the other Princes would be present then dismissed me. Leaving the Hall, I hurried away with Vanez and Mr. Crepsley to prepare for my first test and brush with death.
CHAPTER THREE
THE AQUATIC MAZEwas man-made, built with a low ceiling and watertight walls. There were four doors in and out of it, one in each of its four external walls. From the center where I would be left, it usually took five or six minutes to find your way out, if you didn't get lost.
Butin the Trial, you had to drag around a heavy rock half your weight which slowed you down. With the rock, eight or nine minutes was good going.
In addition to the rock, there was the water to deal with. As soon as the Trial began, the maze started to fill with water, which was pumped in through hoses from underground streams. The water slowed you down even more, and finding your way through the maze usually took about fifteen minutes. If it took longer, you were in serious trouble because the maze filled to the top in seventeen minutes exactly.
"It's important not to panic," Vanez said. We were down in one of the practice mazes, a smaller version of the Aquatic Maze. The route wasn't the same the walls of the Aquatic Maze could be moved around, so the maze was different each time but it served as a good learning experience. "Most who fail in the maze do so because they panic," he went on. "It can be frightening when the water rises and the going gets slower and tougher. You have to fight that fear and concentrate on the route. If you let the water distract you, you'll lose your way and then you're finished."
We spent the early part of the night walking through the maze, over and over, Vanez teaching me how to make a map inside my head. "Each wall of the maze looks the same," he said, "but they aren't. There are identifying marks a discolored stone, a jagged piece of floor, a crack. You must note these small differences and build your map from them. That way, if you find yourself in a passage where you've already been, you'll recognize it and can immediately start looking for a new way out, wasting no time."
I spent hours learning how to make mental maps of the maze. It was a lot harder than it sounds. The first few passages were easy to remember a chipped stone in the top left corner of one, a moss-covered stone in the floor of the next, a bumpy stone in the ceiling of the one after that but the farther I went, the more I had to remember, and the more confusing it became. I had to find something new in every corridor, because if I used a mark that was similar to one I'd committed to memory already, I'd get the two confused and end up chasing my tail.
"You're not concentrating!" Vanez snapped when I came to a standstill for the seventh or eighth time.
"I'm trying," I grumbled, "but it's hard."
"Tryingisn't good enough," he barked. "You have to tune out all other thoughts. Forget the Trials and the water and what will happen if you fail. Forget about dinner and breakfast and whatever else is distracting you. Think only about the maze. It must fill your thoughts completely, or you're doomed."
It wasn't easy, but I gave it my best shot, and within an hour I had improved considerably. Vanez was right cutting off all other trains of thought was the solution. It was boring, wandering through a maze for hours on end, but that boredom was what I had to learn to appreciate. In the Aquatic Maze, excitement could confuse and kill me.
Once my map-making skills were good enough, Vanez wrapped a long rope around my waist and attached a rock to the other end. "This rock is only a quarter of your weight," he said. "We'll try you with a heavier rock later, but I don't want to tire you out too much ahead of the Trial. We'll get you accustomed to this one first, move up to a rock that's a third your weight, then try you on the real thing for a short time, to give you a taste of how it feels."
The rock wasn't especially heavy as a half-vampire, I was much stronger than a human but it was an annoyance. Along with slowing me down, it also had a bad habit of catching on corners or in cracks, which meant I had to stop and free it. "It's important to stop the instant you feel it snagging," Vanez said. "Your natural instinct will be to tug on the rope and free it quickly, but more often than not that worsens the situation, and you wind up taking even longer to fix it. Seconds are vital in the maze. It's better to act methodically and lose four or five seconds freeing yourself than to act hastily and lose ten or twenty."
There were ways to stop the rock and rope from snagging so much. When I came to corners or bends, I had to seize the rope and pull the rock in close to me that way it was less likely to get stuck. And it was helpful to give the rope a shake every few seconds that kept it loose. "But you have to do these things automatically," Vanez said. "You must do them without pausing to think. Your brain should be fully occupied with mapping the maze. Everything else must be done by instinct."
"It's useless," I groaned, sinking to the floor. "It'd take months to get ready for this. I don't have a hope in hell."
"Of course you do!" Vanez roared. Squatting beside me, he poked me in the ribs. "Feel that?" he asked, jabbing a sharp finger into the soft flesh of my belly.
"Ow!" I slapped his hand away. "Quit it!"
"It's sharp?" he asked, jabbing me again. "It hurts?"
"Yes!"
He grunted, jabbed me one more time, then stood. "Imagine how much sharper the stakes in the Hall of Death are," he said.
Sighing miserably, I hauled myself to my feet and wiped sweat from my brow. Picking up the rope, I gave it a shake, then started back through the maze, dragging the rock and mapping out the walls, as Vanez had taught me.
Finally we stopped for a meal and met up with Mr. Crepsley and Harkat in the Hall of Khledon Lurt. I wasn't hungry I felt too nervous to eat, but Vanez insisted: he said I'd need every last bit of energy when it came to the Trial.
"How is he doing?" Mr. Crepsley asked. He'd wanted to watch me train, but Vanez had told him he'd be in the way.
"Remarkably well," Vanez said, chewing on the bones of a skewered rat. "To be honest, though I put on a brave face when the Trial was picked, I thought he'd be excuse the pun out of his depth. The Aquatic Maze isn't one of the more brutal Trials, but it's one you need a lot of time to prepare for. But he's a quick learner. We still have a lot to fit in we haven't tried him in water yet but I'm a lot more hopeful now than I was a few hours ago."
Harkat had brought Madam Octa Mr. Crepsley's spider to the Hall with him and was feeding her bread crumbs soaked in bat broth. He'd agreed to take care of her while I was concentrating on my Trials. Moving away from the vampires, I struck up a conversation with the Little Person. "Managing her OK?" I asked.
"Yes. She is easy to take care of."
"Just don't let her out of her cage," I warned. "She looks cute, but her bite is lethal."
"I know. I have often watched you and her when you were onstage at the Cirque Du Freak."
Harkat's speech was improving he slurred his words a lot less now but he still had to take long pauses for breath in the middle of sentences.