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He could see the shadow of the serpent's head shooting through the water at him. A snake's primary weapon was its speed, and a sea serpent was no faster than a regular snake. A vampire could exceed that, making this a straightforward hand-to-hand combat, if one ignored the beast's enormous mass. He shoved off the ground and met the serpent's charge with a blow to the nose. As he came back to the sand, he had his sword ready. He shoved his blade into thick muscle, yanked it free and spun to face the retaliation that would come. The serpent's head hit him mid-body, and he jammed his long dagger tip into one of its eyes, rupturing it.
The fangs scraped against his mail as it tried to clamp its jaws on him, which provided him the time he needed to thrust the long dagger into the roof of the thing's mouth. The point emerged at the top of the head. The body thrashed, pummeling him. He fought to get clear of it, but this time he wasn't quick enough. The contact was as brutal and direct as a baseball bat hitting a ball, shooting him through the water. He couldn't see Nexus and still no Keldwyn, no telltale flashes of magical light. He couldn't hear the snarling expletives in his mind which would have told him Kel was still fighting, but he also saw no other serpents. He wasn't sure he'd delivered a killing blow, but his foe had not pursued him. If not mortally wounded, it had been discouraged from an immediate follow up.
A cadre of frogs swam past him as his forward momentum slowed. Their expressions were flat and disinterested, his altercation a minor annoyance.
He fought his lack of buoyancy and the weight of his mail to surface, to get his bearings. There was still fog, so he let himself sink to save his energy, and once again tried to tune into the demon's blood link. It made sense that the head would be on dry land.
Kel, can you follow me? I am trying to guide us to land, I think. Do you see Nexus?
His heart stopped beating in the silence, then began to thump again when he got an answer.
I am with your steed. We will follow you.
He was relieved that Kel had found Nexus, no matter the absurdity, since the horse was a figment of this world. It didn't matter though, did it? Reality was what you felt in your heart, and the way he'd responded to seeing the horse again, how the stallion had responded to him, was all that mattered. He was learning that from the Ennui. He wondered how many vampires denied the pleasurable things the hallucinations could bring them, until all that was left was the nightmarish ones.
He gave a prayer of thanks when the ocean floor beneath him began to go uphill, and he encountered more rocky surfaces, which he believed meant a shoreline. Once he was picking his way through a solid rock field, he changed his mind. The familiarity of it suggested where it was leading him, which he confirmed when he surfaced. The fog was no longer a thick curtain. It hovered high enough above the ground to allow brief glimpses of what was ahead. The ruins of a castle, perched on a pile of rock. A zigzagging path worked its way up a steep hill toward it.
Uthe dropped to a knee onshore to regain his strength and get his bearings. He kept scanning the water, though fog still coated it fifty feet from shore. He tuned in with other senses. When he heard the lapping of water, the rhythmic churn of Nexus's legs, he whistled, in case they needed further bearings. The horse responded with a whinny. A few moments later, he saw the horse's nose break through the smoky mist. Another few blinks and he could see Keldwyn on his back, holding a handful of mane. He'd lost the jerkin, so he was only in the leggings wetly plastered to him. It wasn't an unfortunate occurrence.
"We are nearly eaten by snakes, and you are leering at my manly attributes," Keldwyn commented as they came to shore. "Good to know your priorities, my lord." Slipping off Nexus's back, he flopped down next to Uthe, panting.
Uthe didn't deny enjoying a leisurely perusal of the muscular terrain, the light layer of dark hair over the firm pectorals and sectioned stomach. The wet leggings, cut right below the hip bones and hugging the Fae Lord's groin, afforded him an equally stimulating view. Yet his scrutiny was primarily to be sure Kel had not sustained any serious injury. Like Uthe, he appeared to have suffered scratches and bruising alone.
Uthe nodded to the castle. "I think we just crossed a rather wide moat, my lord."
"Next time, let's look for a drawbridge. Vampires must do everything the hard way."
"The castle sits up too high for a drawbridge. I expect at one time it might have had a bridge, but the occupants have long ago left, and the Shattered World borrowed it for its purposes."
"You think this world takes things from other worlds?"
"Something does not come from nothing. I sense no cohesive idea here. It's as we both surmised. Residual magic, collective nightmares, anxieties and random dreams, the absurd ones no one can explain, have all been thrown into one place by something that had no use for them."
"So the sorceress figured out the safest place for the head was a trash dump."
"It makes sense. Who would put something of value in a trash dump?" Uthe looked back toward the water. "Though those serpents felt fueled by the demon's power."
"It is probably too much to hope that's the worst he can do."
Uthe shook his head. "If allowed freedom, he can do far, far worse, but he shows his malice even while bound. This is his environment, the chaotic energy. He can do things here he could never do in your world or mine. I was glad for my mail. I'd been thinking of shedding it, but it kept those things' teeth from sinking into me."
"Indeed." Keldwyn's gaze moved to Uthe's shoulder where the links had fouled the serpent's teeth, which had broken and twisted the metal. The Fae grunted and sat up, surveying his bare upper body. "I would conjure another shirt, but it seems pointless. I should have tried to get a set of Fae-crafted mail through the door, though I doubt it would have passed. I cannot wear your mail without impeding my magic," he added, putting a hand on Uthe as he started to shift. "So don't even think it. I would not take it from you regardless."
He gave Uthe a hard look, but there was a set to his jaw that said it had moved him, Uthe's automatic reaction to offer it. "Your steed is a tremendous warrior," the Fae added. "One of the serpents had wrapped itself around him. I went after it with my sword and magic, but Nexus put his teeth to the creature's side and ripped out a good bit of what he found there, weakening it for me. He practically gnawed the beast into two pieces."
"He's fearless," Uthe said fondly, rising and putting a hand on the horse's nose, the only soft place Nexus had. Then he turned and offered Keldwyn a hand. "Ready to continue, my lord?"
"I have nothing better to do." Kel clasped his hand, and Uthe pulled him to his feet. They both surveyed the ruins looming above them.
"Is that our ultimate destination?" the Fae asked.
"Yes."
"Then let's proceed."
Because of the uneven terrain, they chose to walk, Nexus picking his way behind him. Uthe suspected whatever castle this had been in another plane of existence was just as desolate when it wasn't in ruins. The air of despair and desolation upon it was heavy as the fog that had concealed it.
Many of the stones that had fallen from the walls had broken, showing dark brown innards the color of old blood. As they wound their way up the incline to the open gate, the grate rusted and off its track, he saw a trio of vultures sitting on it.
"They have a cleaning crew in place for our remains," Kel commented.
Uthe grunted in response. He stopped at the portcullis, looking around carefully. "Do you feel any magic, my lord?"
"No, but magic is a very malleable idea here. My glamor is one of my easier magics, but it didn't work. Whereas time shifting, one of the most complex, did. The Shattered World likes playing games."
Though the castle sat in the center of a body of water, there was a green field on one side, visible now that they'd reached a higher elevation. The field had perhaps once been used for tourneys and sword practice. Meadow grass rippled over it like a grimace.
"I wonder if the grass would feed him, since he's conjured out of this world?"
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Keldwyn gave him a curious look and Uthe gestured to the meadow. "Nexus. I know he's an echo, but I like to think he'll come to no harm here once our cause is served."
"He'll likely return to his soul, like a beam of light back to the sun." Kel shifted a step closer to Uthe. "Like his master, he doesn't look like he knows what 'at ease' is."
Uthe smiled absently. "We didn't have the term 'at ease' back then. Most commands I gave him in French, but I used 'compline' for off duty. He'd roll in the sand as if it was grass."
They were within the ruins of the castle now, and fell into the habit of fighting men, maintaining a three-dimensional alertness around them to protect one another's flank. Uthe kept a firm grip on his unsheathed sword. Though it had been years since he held such a weapon for actual battle, the constant practice with it had served its purpose. He felt like he'd never put it down.
