Once in a Blood Moon (Another Life Part One)

Chapter Eight

Serana led the werewolf back out to the garden, and showed her a place off in the corner where a large metal disk was set into the ground, surrounded by a ring of smaller disks, some of which were missing.

“It was a project of my mother’s, but she never got around to finishing it,” she said, circling the disk in the ground. “After all, why bother? A moon dial is completely useless. I didn’t understand why she said it at the time.”

Elayn looked at the dial for a few moments before darting off to a nearby bush. She pulled out a disk with the shape of a waning crescent moon. “Is this part of it? I saw it the other night while you were gardening.”

She took the disk and set it in its proper place with a final-sounding click. “Maybe there are others buried around here?”

The two of them set to looking around the garden in the most likely spots, then the most unlikely when that proved fruitless. Finally they had all the missing pieces gathered, and as Serana set the last one into place, she heard the sound of grinding stone ahead of them. She looked up to see part of the wall recede into itself, then slide to the side, revealing a set of stairs leading up.

“How did she do something like this?” Serana wondered, peering up into the darkness. “It leads to a part of the castle I’ve never been to.”

Elayn responded by grabbing a torch and walking up the first two steps. “You coming?” she asked over her shoulder. Serana huffed a laugh and followed after her.

There were thirty steps spiralling up to a dark corridor covered in cobwebs. Elayn used the torch to brush them out of the way as they went on. They came to a room with low ceilings that had another set of steps set in the back, leading up to a closed door.

“These gargoyles are… awfully realistic,” Serana said, and then the trap sprung.

Elayn cursed as the door behind them slammed shut and with a sound like boulders crashing together, the stone gargoyles sprang to life, roaring with incredible realism.

“Look out!” Serana shouted, manifesting necrotic energy in her hand to wield against the stone creatures.

Her magic stymied the creature closest to her, but not enough to stop it from lumbering toward her with grasping claws. She slid out of the way and kept hammering it with energy, while she hoped Elayn was faring against the other two creatures. If only she had a sword…

The sound of metal colliding hard with stone grabbed her attention and she looked to see Elayn kneeling in front of one of the gargoyles, which now had a huge chunk missing from its face. It fell to the ground with a grinding crash and she rounded on the next.

Serana focused on her own foe, now quite sure her werewolf could handle herself. The creature’s life force could only last so long, and she could see it slowing its steps toward her. Finally it fell to its knees and toppled forward, while she heard Elayn finishing up with the last gargoyle behind her.

“Fell off the door,” Elayn said of her weapon through pants.

“Good luck that it did.”

They pressed on up the stairs, through the door that swung open readily enough when Serana gave it a shove. It led to yet more stairs that the two ascended wearily, only to come to yet another closed door.

“I’ll go in first,” Elayn offered. “You follow me.”

Was that a protective instinct? Or was she hoping for more battle? To be fair, she had been cooped up for a while.

But when she went through, she quickly gave the all-clear and Serana followed inside. There, she gasped at what she saw. It was a fully stocked lab, even larger than the one she had shared with her mother, and it was lit by purple fire glowing in torch sconces littered along the walls.

“She never showed me this,” she said in awe. “I don’t think even Father knew about this.”

“Maybe there will be some clues about how she escaped that we can follow,” Elayn suggested, exploring the room leisurely.

Serana made straight for the bookcase and sure enough, there were more journals like the one in her laboratory, dozens of them that she was sure spanned centuries of learning. She could spend weeks here buried in these books and still not be half done.

But that wasn’t what she was here for. So she grabbed what looked like the freshest book and flipped for the last page, and started reading out loud.

“My husband is a madman. His plans to strike the church will leave us all in ruin. In this age of iron and science, the humans only grow more dangerous to us. If we were to bring their ire upon this castle, I fear we would not last a fortnight. I must leave soon, tonight if I can, to keep him from learning what I have here. I pray that my daughter does not suffer for my sins.”

Silence rang throughout the lab as the last of the page’s words left the air. Serana felt a tightness in her chest. Her mother had known of her father’s madness, had left her to it without a word of warning. Perhaps she had a good reason, but did it matter? Serana was still alone.

She looked up, and saw Elayn’s face was twisted in sympathy. Maybe she wasn’t completely alone.

“Maybe,” she said slowly. “We should try and find out what my dear parents have been getting themselves into.”