A Shade of Vampire 37: An Empire of Stones(58)

All too soon, the group of us landed in the graveyard. We made our way over to the temple, finding it locked with the hole still covered. I looked at Tejus.

“Is he in there?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you know if he’s…”

“He seems like he’s himself,” Tejus replied, answering my unspoken question.

“Okay.” I nodded, mentally preparing myself. “I need to get to the door.”

We walked over to the natural land dip where the door to the entrance lay, and I leaned against it once again.

“Benedict? It’s Hazel,” I called out.

“Hazel?” His voice came from behind the door. It was weak and sounded confused. If the entity was gaining power, then it stood to reason that Benedict was finding it harder to shake the creature off. I’d have gone half-mad anyway, spending my days locked up in a creepy temple, with or without an entity habitually invading my mind.

“I’m so sorry, Benedict,” I called to him.

“I-It’s okay. I don’t think I was at the castle last night anyway…I didn’t come back with a stone. Was I there?”

I looked at Tejus, who returned my gaze with a calm expression. It was up to me.

“No,” I replied, “you weren’t there.”

“Good.” He sighed.

“Benedict,” I continued, “I’ve got some ministers here, and they’re going to have a look and see if they can open the door—is that okay?”

“They won’t be able to. No one can get in or out. That’s the way he wants it.”

“I know—but we need to try,” I pressed.

I could practically hear his unenthusiastic shrug. Had it not felt so heart-breaking, it would have been comforting that I could still predict my brother’s mannerisms…when he was himself.

“Okay,” he said.

“I’ll come back and talk to you in a bit.”

I stood aside, and the ministers gathered around the door. I walked back up the slope and joined Tejus as he watched them work.

“What do you think about the stones?” I asked. “Why didn’t he return with any of them?”

Tejus shook his head grimly.

“I don’t know…it doesn’t really make much sense. I thought that perhaps there were stones kept in our living quarters, but why not just blow the door in? It should have been easy for him—it’s exactly what he did at Danto’s tower.”

Our living quarters?

I felt an intense heat creep up my neck, and tried to ignore what he’d just said. Obviously it was just a slip of the tongue, and besides, we had far more pressing matters on our hands…but.

“What?” Tejus asked, looking at me in confusion.

“Nothing,” I replied too quickly.

He gave me a peculiar look, and I turned my attention to the ministers who were muttering and gesticulating around the door of the temple. It looked like they were performing some kind of ritual.

“I was thinking the same thing,” I replied eventually. “About why Benedict couldn’t get into my room. The frustration in his voice…all the pleading. It seemed like a lot of effort just to scare me or make me upset. There must have been some reason that he wanted to get in there.”

“And why he couldn’t,” Tejus agreed.

I thought about last night. If the entity was using Benedict to try to manipulate me, rather than just use brute force, then it meant he still didn’t have much power…but why not? He had full control of Benedict, and had syphoned the energy off at least half the castle so far.

“Okay, we know that the stones are the key to unlocking him and giving him power,” I started, thinking out loud, “and so he needs those…but in that case, why did he even bother going to Danto’s tower in the first place? Why not just get Benedict to take all the stones from the passageway—that’s easiest for him, right? Why even go into the castle at all?”

“It’s a pattern,” Tejus murmured. “He must need only certain stones—or stones removed in a particular order…and if so, then somewhere in my tower, there’s another lock…” He trailed off.

“The stone is what gave him the power last time,” I added. “In Danto’s tower—the reason he could syphon off you so aggressively and knock us back. He must then lose power when he can’t get to a specific stone—which is why he couldn’t get into the room without my help.”

Tejus nodded.

“We need to find the next lock, and guard it. We could end all this before he rises to full power.”

I was silent. I wasn’t sure it was going to be that simple. I felt there were still so many things we didn’t understand, like the role the Acolytes were playing in all this, why they had murdered Varga, and just how much Queen Trina knew about Benedict and the stones—and the entity.