Chapter 61: Sanctuary of Solitude

June 1999

It was pandemonium everywhere I looked. Screaming, snarling and shouting echoed from the coliseum as creatures were fighting hand to hand, some with bladed weapons. The crashing of metal against metal indicated that the fighting was fierce and savage in its brutality.

The vampires of the Red Velvet Clan were eager to settle the score with their cousins. Though there were many of them, we pushed and shoved our way to get to the doors of the entrance to the Hall of Skulls. I had thought the palace would have offered us sanctuary, but I was wrong. As we opened the doors, fighting was going on in there as well. It was dangerous to stand still, as cutlasses, broadswords, claymores, and sabers cut through the air of the subterranean world. It was as if we were running a gauntlet, and I almost thought we were going to make it unscathed, until a hand reached out to me and caught my overcoat’s sleeve.

The momentum of my running spun me around to see a grotesque creature in black robes preparing to strike me down with a saber. Instinctively, I pulled my Taurus nine-millimeter with my free hand and fired two shots, both into the head, dropping the creature like a stone. Never take a knife (or a sword) to a gunfight! There was no time to evaluate my actions. I holstered the weapon, running down the hallway trying to catch up with Tayla. As we did, I could see red-cloaked vampires blocking the efforts of those in black to get to Tayla and myself. It was a chilling night as I could see my breath in front of my face in the torchlight that fought the darkness in the hall.

Most of the bodies lying dead in the floor and elsewhere were of the Black Velvet Clan. That was reassuring. Tayla knew it would happen like this. The Black Velvet Clan had lost its invincibility, as its leader was now dead. On the other hand, the Red Velvet Clan had not, and was flexing its muscle. After I had caught up with Tayla, she motioned for me to follow her through a secret door leading to a room off the corridor, which led behind the great throne room. This was a magnificent suite complete with bathroom, bar, lounging furniture and giant bed. I knew there was no time to ask questions about this, but I meant to ask about it once we had arrived inside Tayla’s tomb. Tomb! What a sense of finality one gets when one says or hears that word. I was going to a place no mortal had ever been. If they had, they probably were not alive now to talk about it.

“You’re quite right about that, Malcolm. Quickly! Inside here!” She motioned me over into the bathroom, which I wondered about the plumbing arrangements. Inside, I could see the large bathtub was full. A bubble bath filled it just below the rim of the tub. “Remember this, Malcolm, because you have to come back this way.”

After she had said that she reached over and turned one of the fixtures on the wall. The water disappeared quickly through a drain. She then turned another fixture, as the bottom dropped down from the tub. This revealed a staircase leading down into an abyss of darkness under the Hall of Skulls. “Remember, the left one drains the water, the one on the right opens the bottom of the tub. Down below it is just the opposite. Right to drain the water, left to open the bottom. Do not forget! Come with me, my friend, as we have a journey to make.” I reached into my pocket, pulled out a notepad, and wrote it down.

We began our descent down the staircase. The icy air smelled musty and old. It became even colder in this descent into darkness. Tayla took a torch from a sconce on the wall and lit it immediately. I wished that I could do that! The staircase seemed to go on forever. Finally, we found the bottom of the stairwell.

We were in the antechamber of a monarch’s tomb. Only this one did not stay there. Perhaps after tonight she would.

“Yes, perhaps after tonight I will. However, I must have peace. Your angels are with you tonight as usual, my friend. They are faithfully at your sides, always watching, always on guard against my other half. What you saw up there was my greatest and sadly, the worst feat of my reign. I never wanted to destroy my brother. I hope he find some peace.”

“I seriously doubt it,” I said, muttering it to myself. “That room up there, was that your personal chambers?” I kept trying to miss any puddles of ice water that the floor of rock might have as I walked alongside her. We came out into a larger cavern, with stalagmites and stalactites all around.

“We are now exactly twenty-five hundred and forty-two feet below the surface. You are standing where no man has stood in over a hundred years.” We continued walking.

“I am honored to be here. When this is over, shall I take the same way back, or is there an alternate route?”

“There is an alternate route, but it is risky. The choice will be up to you. Remember, when you make your way to the surface, you may have to go through my Red Velvet Clansmen. I ask you to have no doubt they will have surmised what has happened and will sense you have possession of the ring. Remember, they will still have to retire to the solace of their crypts at dawn. I have ordered them to support you as you make your way to the surface to find the sundial.”

“Something I always wanted to ask you. Why the sundial for the rings?” I asked with great curiosity.

“The sundial symbolizes time and placing the rings on the sundial symbolizes the defeat of the vampire by the instrument of time. I know it may sound strange to you, but remember; we vampires hate time, light, and life. A sundial will represent all three of these things. We do not like mirrors, or photographs, for that will show nothing of the true selves that we are. I have written all of this down for you.”

“Written all this down? Where? In the library?” I asked. “No, my dear Malcolm. I have my journals stored in my most private of places. I do not trust any of this information outside my tomb. The jackals have wanted this information for centuries, but I never let any of it out. I have even chronicled their history. Part of it is in the library, safely hidden away, but most of what you really seek, is down here.”

We made our way through naturally formed paths of limestone and rock, seeing the reflection of only Tayla’s torch in the pools of dark water on the cavern’s floor. We must have been walking at least an hour since the stairs under the bathtub. I looked at my watch. It had been only forty-five minutes. I could hear water running, and soon I could see an underground river flowing parallel with our path. Then it cut suddenly in front of us, as we stopped on the bank of stone.

“Remember the death traps I told you about. This place is no different. Watch this!” She continued walking down the path that followed the river. I could see the outline of something over the river in the distance. As we came close, I could see it was a hanging rope bridge like the one in Colombia! I hated those things. In addition, this one was at least a century old. If that bridge failed, allowing me to drop into the river, I was a goner for sure. Where the current of that river would take me, God only knew, but I would die of hypothermia before I got there. I was sure of that.

Tayla came to the bridge and took the first step upon the thick wooden slats. “You must not grab the rope on the sides, or we will both go into the water. Remember; do not grab the side ropes.” I nodded to her my understanding. We both went across without incident. As we did, we came upon an incline of our path. The river went around a corner and disappeared. We strode up this path and found ourselves looking down off a cliff. I wondered how deep it was.

She stretched out her arms, and lights came on from every direction. The cliff was about one hundred fifty feet or so, maybe more. I could hear the roar of the water below as the river went over the side, filling an underground lake. A mist covered the surface of the lake, akin to the mists at Niagara Falls. The lake must have been three, maybe four hundred yards across. From high atop the cliff, I could see structures through the lighted mists. In the middle of the lake was a small island, perfectly round, with a white structure about the size of a small house standing in the middle of it. There were floodlights shining upon the structure. A small dock jutted out from somewhere below, and had a small boat tethered next to it. A landing was next to the island. It was the most impressive site I had ever seen.