Page 3 of Rune Assassin

A wry smile slipped onto Tegan’s lips. “They had no say. Lusio was very coy about which wreckages he plundered and always insisted they were ancient ruins.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Sounds like a nice guy. And we’re supposed to be protecting him.”

A strange expression passed over Tegan’s face before he leaned his head out the window. “If he is our protectee then we’ll have our work cut out for us.”

A noise caught my attention and I looked out my window. The road ahead was crowded by a small group of very pale people. They stood in the shade of a small lean-to but the more daring held umbrellas and stood in the middle of the road. Many in the group held up hand-made signs written in red ink.

I read a few of them out loud. “Lusio the Liar. Lusia Has Robbed Graves. Revoke Lusio’s License or Suffer the Consequences.” I turned my head to Tegan. “License?”

“Anyone who dives into the seas around here needs a license,” Tegan explained as our driverless carriage was forced to stop in front of the group. Tegan opened his door and hopped out. I did the same and the two of us walked over to the group.

One of the umbrella owners hurried up to us with a pamphlet which he held out. “A minute of your time, please.”

Tegan smiled as he looked passed him at the blocked road. “You have forced that but what seems to be the issue?”

“Have you heard of Felix Lusio, the local dive master?” he asked us.

Tegan nodded. “The name does sound familiar.”

“He has sought to dive into even more and deeper areas around the bays,” the vampire explained as he handed us each a pamphlet. “We are trying to halt his efforts, at least until a complete map of all the sunken ships has been made. Such an act will make it not only safer for his divers since they’ll know where they’re headed but we can guarantee Lusio has the right to salvage the goods from that vessel.”

“I take it Lusio is not well-liked in the area,” Tegan guessed.

The vampire’s lips curled back in a sneer. “He is a scourge, sir. He uses the divers and pays them a paltry sum for their efforts, and he pays off the local salvage assessor so he can drag the divers into robbing vessels which he has no right to salvage. Worse yet, the fiend has threatened the divers that they will be implicated in any court proceedings should anyone turn him in.”

I cast a knowing look at Tegan. “Sounds like someone I don’t want to meet.”

Tegan lifted his pamphlet. “We’ll be sure to read this, but if you wouldn’t mind removing yourselves from the road.”

The vampire nodded. “Of course. Thank you for listening.”

He turned to the others. “Alright, everyone, off the road!”

They shuffled out of our way and we climbed back into the carriage.

“I didn’t know vampires could be awake at this hour,” I mused.

“They generally can’t,” Tegan informed me as he studied the contents of the pamphlet. “The daylight saps their strength and leaves them weakened even when night falls again.”

“So they must be really mad at Lusio to be out now.”

“Very mad,” he confirmed as he closed the flyer.

We rolled past them and I couldn’t help looking out the window. All the vampires were shabbily dressed with patches on their elbows and knees and ragged hems galore. It was so unlike the elegant attire I’d seen in the capital.

“And not all vampires manage to save up money in their long lives?” I guessed.

Tegan shook his head. “Their lives are hardly any different than ours. They’re born, they live, and sometimes they even die, and all the excitement and heartache of life weighs on them even longer.”

I winced and dropped the curtain. “I think I’ll stick to one life. I’m having enough adventures during this one.”

Tegan drew aside his curtain and studied the sights. “Our next one is about to start. There’s Lusio’s estate.”

The road curved not in my favor, so I scooted over and leaned across him to catch a peek. We rolled around a grass-covered dune and a small plateau of some twenty acres appeared before us. A large green lawn surrounded an elegant manor house. The structure was built of the finest wood with pillars of stone that held up the veranda that wrapped around the whole of the home. The blinding white of the house was in stark contrast to the many flower beds that dotted the short lane that led up to the wide stone porch steps. Stone paths wound their way through the flower beds and dozens of trees of various lineages provided shade to the weary wanderer.

The three floors of the home each featured many windows to look out on the domain of Lusio. A few were open and white silk curtains waved in the gentle breeze that blew off the dunes in front of the house.

The raised plateau stood above the high-water mark and was protected from wave erosion by a huge wall of boulders that stretched for a quarter of a mile. High cliffs to the west prevented neighbors in that direction and as far as I could tell, there wasn’t another structure for miles along the easterly part of the beach.

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