Back in my cell, I made myself as comfortable as possible in my hammock - most vampires slept in coffins, but I couldn't stand them - while Harkat climbed into his. It took a long time to drift off, but finally I did, and though I didn't manage a full day's sleep, I was reasonably clear-headed when night rolled around, and I had to report to the Hall of Princes to learn about my first deathly Trial. ARRA SAILS was 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 your wife?"
"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."