Page 64 of Across the Sapphire Sea
They trekked north through towering evergreens to Lake Norvajarvi to meet what fate had in store. Lajos wasn’t among their number—another detail that pinged Elias’s warning bells. Not that he wanted more of Lajos’s company, but at least the vampire was a familiar menace…the ancients, however, were shrouded in mystery.
“Not much farther,” said Valeri from the front of their line.
They crossed through a young forest, one that had probably experienced a serious burn two or three decades prior. Few mature trees had survived the fire, and what had grown back was dense underbrush and skinny trees spaced tightly together, all fighting for the same rays of sunshine. Difficult to walk through.
“Do you think they’ll send a delegate out to greet us?” asked Remy, his tone laced with hope.
Elias thought of Valeri’s return from his trek last year. He’d encountered a woman called Isla, but hadn’t volunteered this detail to their group, so Elias had stayed silent. Valeri knew, because Elias had told him, that these vampires called themselvesThe Vartijaand notthe ancients, but Valeri hadn’t shared that either. Elias wished he’d said something. To mention it now would be suspect, and they would wonder what else Valeri held back—because that was what Elias wondered.
Valeri either didn’t realize Remy had been talking to him, or he didn’t care.
So Ash answered instead. “At Bran Vigny, when new guests arrive, we greet them in the courtyard. But as I recall, Valeri said the ancients’ location has no courtyard.”
“No,” said Valeri. “Their residence is low to the ground and unassuming, built close to the lake amongst the trees with no clearing around the structure. Keep an eye out for a stone wall to our left.”
“Perhaps I should join you at the front.” Aella shuffled up from her place at the rear.
“If you like.” Valeri’s tone was grudging.
Elias moved aside to let her pass. Though they weren’t expecting hostility—The Vartija had agreed to this meeting after all—it was only wise for their most powerful member to take the lead. When the time came for greeting, Ash would take over. His experience as delegate made him the obvious choice to speak for the group. Even Valeri had agreed.
A low thrumming vibration tickled the soles of Elias’s feet. “Do you feel that?”
“Feel what?” asked Laurence.
Elias didn’t know how to explain it. “Like the ground is…pulsing?”
“I feel it too,” said Remy. “It’s almost warm.”
Aella stopped and thrust an arm in front of Valeri so he had to halt too. They all froze in their tracks. She tilted her head as if listening. “There’s a beat to it, isn’t there? A certain rhythm? Feels similar to magic, but not a spell I’m familiar with.”
Elias looked from face to face, each one wary. “Do you all feel it now?”
Nods all around, including Laurence.
“We must be close,” said Valeri.
Bending to lay a hand upon the earth, Aella asked, “Did you sense this last time?”
Valeri mimicked her, touching the ground. “No, not at all. But I circled the lake and approached from the north before. We’re approaching from the south.”
“I think they are directly beneath us,” Aella concluded.
A tremor of nerves coiled tight in Elias’s stomach. After four years of tagging along on a search he once thought would never end, they were literally on top of Valeri’s precious ancients. He thought of Mahu and hoped for his sake they’d return to Bran Vigny triumphant. Beyond that, he longed for a life without obsession. A chance to make friends and to mend the tattered remains of his relationship with Valeri—or to cut the cord.
Aella stood. “Let’s go.”
Small, lean trees gave way to older, mature giants with thick branches towering over their heads. The tangled underbrush was replaced by a carpet of soft, wet pine needles peeking through the last of the melting snow.
Elias could walk shoulder to shoulder with Valeri. “Are you happy?”
Valeri gave a tight-lipped reply. “I will be.”
“We’ve made it.” Aella pointed ahead. “The wall, it’s through there.”
Sure enough, a short, dark stone wall stood visible in the distance. Not like how Elias had pictured it in his mind, but smaller, unobtrusive. What waited for them behind the wall stirred his nerves. Elias took a deep breath and told himself to relax. He was safe amongst their number.
No one came out to greet them, and they could find no gate in the wall. In the end, they scaled the rocks in order to approach the building’s lone door. Nothing like Bran Vigny, no fancy entrance, no glorious towers, nothing pretentious or ornamental. Just a squat stone dwelling without windows stretching a vast distance to either side, perhaps an acre long and wide, with a plain brown wooden door.
