Silence - By Kailin Gow Page 0,34

of course. Oh, and his other heir now, as wel . It was obvious to Waltham’s dragon that the idiot king would come to me, and I would kil him, and then I would take the scepter.” Marcus moved the sword slightly, and a lock of Briony’s hair fel to the ground. “But as I pointed out to the dragon, if it would simply open one or two gates for me, I would not need to do any of that. It was very loyal to its master. And now, access to your home is easy.”

Briony gasped. “No. Please. This is wrong”

Marcus smiled, his sword dipping to hover just over Briony’s heart. “Haven’t you learnt yet?

‘Wrong’ is an idea for the weak. You bleat it so that the strong wil not take what they want from you. It means nothing.”

Briony shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”

“Of course you do not,” Marcus said. “You have not seen what I have seen. You have not seen the way people are, making the same mistakes again and again. You have not had to fight for everything you ever had. You have not built up your power over centuries, doing whatever was necessary to ensure your survival.”

“I would never do what you do,” Briony assured the vampire.

“Which is why you wil always stay weak.

And look at the Hugtandalfer people. They have lived in peace, with their foolish notions of right and good, for so long that they have forgotten how to fight. They have become sheep. Easily led, easily scared,” he nodded at the head on the carpet, “and easily cul ed.

Only a few of them have the strength to protect them, and those wil never be enough.”

Briony bit back her anger at that, barely.

“You should be grateful that I’m not stronger than you.”

“Final y,” Marcus said, “the truth. What would you do if you were stronger than me, girl. Would you keep me as a prisoner? Would you make me suffer?”

“I would kil you.” Briony said it simply. She had never been as certain of something as she was of this.

Marcus laughed. “Good. We might get you to learn the proper way of things yet. Now, though, I need these young men to tel me where the scepter is.”

Fear washed over Briony, sudden and al

consuming. She knew it wasn’t natural.

“How should I do it?” Marcus asked.

“Should I hurt you in front of them until they give me what I want? Should I drink more of your blood?”

“Please don’t,” Briony found herself begging. She couldn’t help it.

Marcus shook his head. “Shush, human. I see a simpler way of going about this.” He hefted the sword he held, looking from Archer to Vigor. “Now, let us not say that I am not fair. I wil give the two of you a chance. The first one of you to speak gets to live. I can’t be more generous than that. Be quick though.

You wouldn’t want to end up like our headless friend here, would you?”

Chapter 14

Fal on ran, the trees whipping past as he dodged between them, glancing back over his shoulder every few seconds with the fear of someone who knew what might be coming after him. He was sure that he had gotten away cleanly from the last master vampire he had visited, but it would be just like them to let him think that, right up until the moment when they struck. If someone had recognized him, or if one of them realized that they had let him know too much…

Fal on shook his head and kept running, sprinting so fast that the forest was little more than a blur around him. He could have jumped, could have flown, but they would be watching for that. Here beneath the canopy of trees, he at least had the ability to stay out of sight while he raced to deliver his warning.

It shouldn’t have been like this. He had gone to the other master vampires solely with the intention of learning more about the place Briony had gone to, this “Palisor”. It had seemed so obvious that one of them would know something, and so long as none of them had learnt about his shunning, it would be simple to get close to them.

So Fal on had done it. One by one, he had sought out the new vampires in the area and worked his way close enough to them to learn hints of things.

He had put up with suspicion from vampires strong enough to