Chapter 4 DUSK LINE
I caress the knife inside the pocket that lines my dress. It calms me, makes me feel safe, and it reminds me of home.
Moments after Aaron had given it to me with an apology that was pointless, but I knew he needed, Grethel had called for me again and I’d pulled myself away from my family. It had taken a lot from me, and now I was exhausted on the ride back to Noctharys.
The dawn is pressing around us, and the carriage is galloping at full speed so that the sun wouldn’t catch the vampires out of the cover of the eternal dark.
Fifteen minutes later, we are crossing the invisible line between light and Dark. When the squire had brought me to Noctharys, my head had been covered with a bag that dulled my senses and stole my sight away entirely. But now, I can experience the magic of the Dusk Line for myself. And it is glorious.
The moment the carriage crosses that magical line, it feels like my body comes alive in an entirely difficult way. Rumor has it that when the Dusk Line was created, the magic had somehow found a way for humans to live under it and still get the benefits they needed from the sun. I could feel it in my bones.
From the outside, the eternal darkness is impressive. But right under it, it is even more so. I can still see around me even with the absence of sun rays. The only difference is that it is tinted with something that seems like blue hues.
I feel the warmth of the sun disappear to leave behind a strange coldness. I shiver slightly and draw my cloak tighter around me. Grethel and Syn are seated wordlessly in front of me, and I am equally quiet, as the visit robbed me of the little joy I had been holding onto.
As the carriage flies by, houses start popping out of the hills around us. The front of the houses is lit with the blue mage lights, and the more we go in, the more the houses grow till we enter what looks like a city proper. And still a sea of roofing stretches before me, endless.
No one alive in Velmoor knows exactly how large Noctharys is, but from what my eyes are beholding, Velmoor seems more like a continent that a country. How many are the vampires? How do they exist?
My idle mind is trying to keep itself occupied, and I let it. The only thing we’re ever taught about the vampires is that they drink blood, they require tributes from us occasionally, and have lived under the blanket of the eternal dark since the first recorded human history.
The tale is told that at a point, humans were knowledgeable about vampires, but our scholars who studied vampires in depth were killed, and their books were burnt. The only people who know vampires intimately and live to tell the tale are the humans who live in Noctharys.
It suddenly hits me that I am now one of them, and I start laughing hysterically.
It startles Syn, and I laugh harder at the thought of a vampire being startled by a simple human laugh.
I laugh until my laughter turns into tears. And Grethel and Syn just watch me with no words, though I can see that they’re uncomfortable. But that’s the least they can be.
I see the palace appear before us, and I wipe my tears and take control back for myself.
However terrified I may be, I will not give them any reason to see me as weak. Weak people do not survive, and if there is anything I am hellbent on, it is surviving.
The large gates open before us, and I watch the battlements full of vampire guards and soldiers. Noctharys is the vampire sanctuary, so why are there so many guards? But then again, even in times of peace, human soldiers do not stop preparing either.
The carriage alights before the entrance to the castle proper, and Syn goes down first. Grethel follows him. Syn turns around to extend his hands to help me down, and I contemplate ignoring them, but I smile at him and take his hands.
Callum is waiting for us by the doors and after he gives me and my sack a curious glance, he signals another vampire over. This one is a female vampire dressed in a simple gown.
“Take the human to her rooms in the East wing.”
