Gliss was moving before Capper could stop her. She lunged forward with feral speed and slammed a palm into the thin vampire's throat, cutting off any sound he might have made. His eyes bulged in shock and he pawed at his oesophagus uselessly. Then Gliss kneed him in the stomach, doubling him over so she could hammer a double-handed club against the back of his head to knock him to the ground.
In a swift motion she straddled him, jamming a forearm against the back of his neck to keep him pinned down.
"How did you get in here?"
"Shut up!" Gliss snarled.
"You ... you can't take it," the vampire spluttered, reaching out with a look of desperation stamped upon his gaunt features, his eyes locked on the Keystone. "It must ... remain safe. If it is ever used-,"
He got no further. Capper could only watch as Gliss took hold of the man's head and with a single, savage twist, snapped his neck. A wordless gargle shook free from his lips and Gliss released her hold, letting his body thump limply to the ground. His eyes rolled wildly and his body twitched, but he couldn't formulate any words or move. A broken neck wouldn't kill him, but it would certainly keep him out of action for the better part of a day before his vampire body could repair the damage.
"Hellgates!" Capper swore quietly. "What are we supposed to do now?"
"We do what we came to do," Gliss replied without hesitation, but her voice trembled slightly now. "We take the Keystone." She nodded to the object weighing down his right hand like an anvil.
The prostrate figure of the Baelock scholar let out a high, undulating moan of protest, whereupon Gliss spun and slammed a fist into his face with enough force to knock him unconscious.
"What about him?" Capper hissed. "We can't leave him here. If they find him-"
"They won't."
"How do you figure that?"
"You know what I mean, Capper."
He shook his head incredulously. "Gliss, if you kill him-,"
"And if we don't? He's seen us both. He'll point the finger as soon as the Synod ends, and you'll get the war you didn't want. We ash him, now, and no-one will be any the wiser. They'll look for him eventually but there will be nothing and no-one tying us to any of this."
"Shit." Try as he might, Capper couldn't think of a counter to her grim solution. If the cleric identified them Baelock and Glaive would be at war in a heartbeat. He couldn't be the cause of it. Grinding his teeth together he scooped up the antique, ornately carved stake that had been lying next to the Keystone and stepped forward. "Out of the way."
"I can do it, Capper."
"No. We're in this together." He waved her impatiently aside and dropped to one knee next to the fallen Baelock cleric. In a single smooth motion he rolled the man over. "I'm sorry, friend. You shouldn't have come here." Then he slammed the stake down through the vampire's heart, clamping a hand over his mouth to stifle the inevitable death scream.
The struggle didn't last long. The cleric was no fighter, his Aspect weak, and a few seconds after the death blow Capper stood up, looking down grimly at the pile of ash that lay before him. He glanced at the bloodstained stake and closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying his best to order his thoughts, without much success.
Then he felt someone take the stake from his hand. He looked up and found Gliss staring into his eyes. She wiped the blood off on the remnants of the cleric's robes and placed the stake down on its pillow. Then she slid her glove back on.
"Capper," she said quietly. "We've got to go."
"I know."
"We can slip into the debating chamber when they're in full swing – no-one will notice."
"I hope you're right. We've still got plenty of guards to dodge between here and there."
"Well we don't have a whole lot of choice. If we don't rejoin the Synod, someone will notice."
"And what about the Keystone?" he asked. "If anyone sees it..."
"They won't. Grab his cloak and tear off a piece. We'll wrap it up – keep it under your jacket. No-one will be examining us in the chamber anyway. They should be in full swing with your damned debates by now."
"Probably," he conceded. "But we'll need to pick our moment."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Gliss motioned him onwards. "Follow me."
Allowing her to lead the way back through the passages, he remained close on her heels, acutely conscious of the spherical lump of the Keystone pressing against his side. The rag they'd wrapped it in shielded him from the strange, cold cleaning effect that it seemed to generate, but the vestiges of the sensation still clung to him, as though he still dropped with ice cold water. A thousand doubts and fear whorled through his mind but he did his best to shake them away. One thing at a time. Any other approach would leave him paralysed.
They retraced their steps, carefully gliding around the handful of patrolling guards that still stalked the halls. Although he didn't know the layout of the estate precisely, even Capper could feel the sheer concentrated force the gathered Aspects of so many Elders and Elder-Blood. Like a lighthouse in a storm, the combined power drew them onward until eventually they came to a long passage with a heavy double door at the far end, ornately inlaid with spurs of gold and bronze. From within he could hear the dim clamour of voices and feel a violently churning sea of presences. Whatever was being discussed certainly had the vampires within riled up.
"There'll be a guard on the other side of that door," Capper whispered. "We need to get him out of the way."
"I know. Get into the shadows there," Gliss told him, gesturing to a side passage with one gloved hand. "And keep your Aspect under control. I'll get him to come out of there." Silent and lithe as a cat, she padded up to the door and slid her lock picks free again. The heavy brass lock proved more challenging than the smaller specimens they'd broken through before, but it wasn't long before a heavy clunk sounded.
Instantly she darted back and joined Capper in the shadowed alcove just around the corner, hidden in a nave that may once have housed a statue of some kind. Capper braced himself. If they were caught now they might start a war right in the middle of the Baelock Estate.
A moment later the door swung open and out of it flowed the thunder of noise that seemed to be passing for debate in the main chamber. He had no idea what had been said, but it had pushed the order of the Synod into a barely controlled rabble by the sounds of it. The noise was their saving grace. As the guard stepped past them, a grim expression below furrowed brows, he couldn't hear the soft footfalls as they slipped from their refuge and into the light and noise of the debating chamber.
Capper swallowed hard. Aspects were exploding off each other in the air around them as vicious arguments reached boiling point. The noise was a cacophonous clamour in his ears. He could feel the cold bulk of the Keystone against his side, but between his jacket and Gliss's body tucked against him the thing was as concealed as it could be. Unlike the other artefacts that would have announced their presence, the dead nothingness of the Keystone actually served to keep it concealed from prying minds.
They emerged to the rear of one of the massive tiered walls of seating and quickly moved to the nearest end, hoping to slip around unnoticed. As luck would have it the two guards closest to that section of the debate had been forced to move from their positions, having the unenviable task of keeping the Elder-Bloods in the front ranks from crossing the chamber to confront opponents on the other side. Ducking around the side of the stand, Capper knifed into a thin gap between Elder-Bloods – one from Wraith and one from Wolf – both oblivious to the newcomers having had their Aspects riled by something.
Then he spotted Brooke, nearly invisible in the chaos of the chamber. She stood tall, mouth closed, arms folded, an expression of faint disgust on her features. While the vampires around her hurled insults and roared their arguments across the gulf, she remained silent, occasionally casting a disdainful glance around her.
Capper frowned. It wasn't like her to stay out of a good screaming match. Unless maybe she was the cause of all this. He'd heard her speak in debating chambers before and one thing she could do better than anyone else was illicit a reaction – an angry one. She might have been an expert duellist, but she could fight with words better than anyone he knew.
SILENCE!
The single word exploded in Capper's head and he hissed in pain, his fangs reflexively sliding to the fore at the sudden firebrand that ignited in his skull. In that same instant every single Elder-Blood reacted the same way. Curses, oaths and snarls of pain rippled through their massed ranks, fangs bristling momentarily among them before receding again. Then all eyes turned the head of the room.
None of the Elders had actually spoken. Somehow they'd just sent that word straight into the heads of every vampire in the room, with immediate results. He glanced at Gliss and found her staring at the Elders, jaw tight, her grip on his arm now like a vice.
Then he caught sight of Druven and a primeval terror gripped him like a giant's hand. Suddenly he was glad of Gliss's grip on him. He placed a hand over hers, holding tightly and waiting with a sense of impending dread for what might be coming next.
With all the foreboding of a corpse rising from its grave, the leader of Baelock's Elders, lord of the manor, stood up from his chair. While not as tall as Jocasta, he still cut an imposing figure, clothed in a thick black robe that bore delicately threaded runes of ancient Vampyr. Gaunt-cheeked and thin-lipped, he seemed to stare into the very heart of every one of them as his gaze swept through the room like a scythe.
Slowly but surely, order reasserted itself. The Elder-Bloods present regained control of their transformations and brought their Aspects to heel. Baelock guards exchanged grateful looks, no longer looking at the prospect of attempting to restrain a chamber-full of vampires much older and more powerful than they. They trickled back to their positions by the chamber's various doorways, hands still straying close to weapons as they watched and waited.
Satisfied that he had regained control, Druven gave a gentle nod to the Baelock senseschal and stepped forward to the edge of the Elders' dais, to a jutting platform that placed him far closer to the debating floor.
"There will be order within these walls while I reside in them," he said without preamble. His voice was deep and thick, almost like syrup. While he spoke calmly there was a definite undertone of threat in his words, daring any to challenge him. Capper doubted there was anyone that suicidal in the whole city, never mind in the assembly chamber.
"We have heard many opinions and accusations in the course of this Synod," Druven continued. "Some of it is substantiated, some of it is not. I will not deny that there have been tensions between us and our erstwhile counterparts of the Clan Glaive. They are unlikely to be entirely resolved in one night." He glanced back over his shoulder at Jocasta, and to Capper's surprise he saw Glaive's leader smiling thinly. Whatever discussions the Elders had undertaken outwith the assembly chamber, they must have been more fruitful than the debate itself.
"You have had your opportunities to speak. While Elder-Blood Illcanthe's intervention may have bordered on gross disrespect, both she and our own representatives have a common goal. To stop the escalation." He inclined his head to Brooke and Capper blinked in amazement. Whatever she'd said had even struck home with the Baelock Elders. "Our own discussions have proceeded along constructive paths. I urge restraint and patience from all of you. It is best if we adjourn for the moment. We will retire to consider the next course of action for the clans."
Capper tried to catch Brooke's eye, but she was deep in conversation with Marshall now as a fresh hubbub rose through the ranks of the Elder-Bloods, this time far more restrained. He shook his head and looked at Gliss as the
"Well, how do you like that?" she said quietly. "Your friend must've said something pretty impressive."
"She wields words the way you or I would use a sword," he chuckled. "She's a born diplomat."
"You know it's all a lie, right?" To accent the point she hugged herself against him, squeezing the bulk of the Keystone. "They did have the Keystone. They've got no intention of making peace with you."
Capper nodded slowly. "Maybe now they'll have to rethink that plan."