Chapter 616
Upstairs, they met Baltheir in the utility porch. He gave them quick directions to the bathroom where they could "wash up". Oren shuffled Jorick in first, then Katelina went. Dots of blood stood out on her face and hands. Luckily they didn't show up on her black sweatshirt.
When she exited, Jorick and Oren were already in the front room. Zander paced, hands behind his back, crystal eyes alight. "we did nothing. For more than a hundred years this region has been our home, yet we sat by while this town was destroyed."
Gaius shrugged. "It was not our fight."
"The aftermath has rendered the townour homeunlivable. How is it not our fight?"
Trefor didn't look up from his magazine. "Next you'll say we should have interfered with the other vampires."
"Other vampires?" Oren asked.
Gaius motioned it away. "There's a coven outside of town. They come and go at random, sometimes gone for months at a time. I don't know anything about them, nor do I want to. They are younger than us, and not worth the effort."
Oren and Jorick exchanged glances. "If you mean Claudius, that coven was disbanded."
"Was it?" Gaius asked without interest. "There you are. They took care of themselves, as will the perpetrators of this attack."
"And you trust to that?" Zander asked.
Gaius held up his hand. "As I've told you before, The Night Goddess scriptures are clear. 'Leave each to their own'. 'Do not interfere in another's path of blood'.' Look to your own"
Night Goddess. It was a name Katelina'd heard before; a deity that vampires once worshipped. That the scriptures read anything except, "Kill. Sacrifice. Blood." seemed unbelievable.
"Yes," Zander said. "But do the scriptures not also warn against tyranny and barbarity?"
Gaius' patience looked strained. "What tyranny do you see, brother? What barbarity?"
"You heard the explanation with your own ears, that one who calls herself Lilith"
"Yes," Gaius interrupted. "These young ones carry a story of Lilith who caused destruction to retrieve a prisoner. What business is it of ours?"
"It was not destruction for the sake of capture. Such things can be achieved easily. It was destruction rooted in malice, an act of war."
"If what you say is true, it was done to pain Lilith's prisoner, a lesson that all who aid her escape will be destroyed."
"If I tried to teach you such a lesson, Gaius, by destroying Trefor's quarters, would he not have the right of retribution?"
"Leave me out of your lunacy, brother," Trefor said without looking up.
"Would he not?" Zander repeated. "If I set his bed aflame and destroyed those things he loves? Even if I did so to anger you?"
Gaius made an aggravated noise. "This is not the same."
"How is it not? Our home was destroyed. My quarters burned. Heirlooms from our master are gone. Treasures passed on for centuries are wasted, because the one they call Lilith wished to teach a lesson to another. Such is a declaration of war. Will you leave the challenge unanswered? Does not the Night Goddess teach against cowardice? 'Answer a challenge with a challenge.'"
"You twist the words," Gaius said. "I could answer back with, 'Let not the concerns of others touch you.' No doubt you could reply again, and I would find my rebuttal. Support for all arguments can be found within the Night Goddess scriptures, but as Master taught us, it is the spirit that matters."
Zander stopped pacing to meet his brother's eyes. "The spirit says that when war has been waged one must rise to meet it. Why else would the scriptures demand the training?"
Katelina tugged Jorick's arm, her brain boggled. It was like listening to a pair of ministers argue, except it was a holy book she knew nothing about.
"What is your answer to the challenge?" Gaius asked.
"To meet her, on the field of battle, to recompense what was taken from us."
Gaius replied with over patience, "Will her blood bring back our heirlooms? No. Will questing across the continent restore our dwelling? No. Blood answers blood. She has taken none from us."
"What of the blood of our neighbors?"
Trefor scoffed. "You use the humans as a war banner? How quaint."
"Are they not our humans?" Zander asked. "There are no other lords here, does that not make them our responsibility?"
Katelina coughed. Our humans?
"The world no longer moves that way," Gaius said patiently. "Here the humans guard themselves and we"
"Are we not charged with their care by the Goddess herself? 'Keep well those who give you life, for without their blood you weaken and die. Protect them, watch over them, and defend them.' Those words cannot be clearer, their spirit cannot be clearer. Lilith has attacked not only our home, but also those humans whom we should care for. There can be no other answer."
Trefor noisily flipped a magazine page. "Do you really care, Zander, or is this an excuse for adventure? If you get your wish, we will not go with you."
"You would hide here?" Zander motioned to the shabby room. Katelina felt the familiar sympathy. She'd almost rather fight than stay there.
Gaius shook his head. "Not hide, only bide our time, until The Guild says we may return to our home."
"Or we grow impatient and find a new one," Trefor added. "If Zander wishes to defend those humans, to wage his war, perhaps you should let him. It would be entertaining to see him out there."
Zander's face scrunched in anger, then melted back to the smooth veneer of an old one. "I am capable of moving in the real world."
"Sure you are. The baby of the family." Trefor closed the magazine with gusto. "You've been coddled and protected for more than a thousand years. You have no idea what it's like out there."
"I've watched television," Zander said coldly.
Trefor laughed. "A poor imitation, I'm sure. But why let us stop you? Crusade if you like. Perhaps the young ones will take you. That is their quest."
The young ones? Katelina realized with horror that he meant them. "Us? We're not on a quest."
"Are you not?" Gaius asked. "Your masters were only a moment ago of finding Lilith and retrieving the one she's taken."
"Yes, but-" Katelina trailed off.
Jorick cleared his throat. "I don't know when we're leaving, or what our next destination will be. For now, we're going back to Oren's den. You have some time to decide."
"What?" Oren and Katelina cried in unison. They looked away quickly, refusing to acknowledge they'd agreed.
"I need to wash up." Oren disappeared, leaving Katelina to be the sensible one.
"Jorick-" She stopped from saying they didn't know Zander. He might be a lunatic. He might be in league with Lilith. "We already have a lot of people."
Gaius held up a hand. "It is something we will consider. Zander, if your conscience has not cooled by tomorrow, you may go."
"It won't," he replied.
Gaius smiled patiently. "We shall see."
Baltheir clomped through, hauling a lumpy black garbage bag. Katelina imagined him leaving it on the curb with the rest of the trash. A surprise for the garbage men.
Oren reappeared, and they said their goodbyes. Zander mentioned he'd join them tomorrow, but Trefor said breezily, "You'll lose interest by then."
Katelina hoped he was right.
