Chapter 16 Trials Of Blood
Brea’s POV
"From here you walk alone." I looked at the guard who had spoken and then at the massive iron door in front of us.
We had been walking for what felt like ten minutes through corridors I had never seen. The marble floors gave way to darker rougher stone, the chandeliers where replaced by narrow iron lamps burning with dull red flames that threw more shadow than light.
The air had grown cooler with every turn and the walls had closed in slightly and I had understood without anyone telling me that we were going underground.
"Alone," I repeated.
"The Rite Chamber is sacred ground." He said it the way people say things they have memorized rather than things they believe. "No escorts permitted beyond this point."
I looked at the door. Then back at the guard. The grip on my arms released. Both guards stepped back simultaneously like they had rehearsed it.
The iron doors opened slowly and cold air pushed out from whatever was waiting on the other side.
I stepped through and heard them close behind me, heavy and final, the loneliest sound I had heard since my father sold me.
Far above in the palace hall Rayne's voice came through the broadcast drones floating near the cavern ceiling.
Every word spoken in the palace traveled down here and everything here traveled back to the empire.
"Where are they taking her?"
One of the elders near the altar glanced up at the nearest hovering recording crystal but said nothing. Varyn answered from the palace end.
"Your Highness, the Rite must take place in the Crimson Cavern."
Rayne's response came immediately. "I didn't ask where." A pause. Then colder, "I asked why."
Varyn's voice remained unhurried. "The Rite of Blood cannot be performed inside the palace. The cavern beneath these mountains holds the original blood wards of the empire. Without them the ritual would destroy the subject the moment it began."
"You mean it will probably destroy her anyway," Rayne said.
Then an older voice replied, "Most humans die the moment the blood touches their throat."
"You dragged her underground to execute her," he said, and it wasn't a question.
"This is not an execution," an elder answered. "It is a trial."
"Then I'm coming down there."
"The Rite Chamber is forbidden to members of the royal bloodline while the ritual is active. This is ancient law."
Rayne's voice dropped into something quiet and dangerous. "Move."
Immediately, weapons were being raised as guards stepped forward.
"Prince Rayne," Varyn said calmly through the speaker mounted on the cavern wall. "No royal may interfere once the Rite has begun."
"You think I care about ancient law?"
One of the elders beside me exhaled quietly. "He's furious."
Another murmured, "Good. Let the empire see."
I looked around the cavern properly for the first time since entering it.
The broadcast drones were positioned high up near the ceiling, angled toward the altar.
Along the upper section of the far wall a single speaker unit was mounted into the stone, which was how Rayne's voice was reaching me down here.
Whatever happened here would be seen and heard across the empire.
If I survived, the court would have its proof. If I didn't, Rayne's engagement would end here.
Then the Queen's voice came through the speaker, "Rayne."
The tension in the transmission eased slightly.
"You know the law," she said. "The Rite cannot be interrupted."
Rayne didn't respond.
I turned away from the speaker and looked at the cavern properly for the first time since the doors had closed behind me.
It was enormous. Large enough that the ceiling disappeared into shadow above me and the walls curved away on both sides further than the dim light reached.
Ancient runes covered the stone, carved deep into the rock, some glowing faintly, others worn smooth by time.
Along the edges of the chamber dark pools of liquid sat completely still, each one giving off a dull crimson glow that reflected off the floor.
At the center stood the altar. Black stone, smooth, stained darker in places that didn't need explaining.
One of the elders approached me.
"You understand why you are here," he said.
"Nobody gave me a choice about being here," I said. "But I understand what the Rite is and what it does to most humans."
He studied me for a moment. "Then you understand the risk."
"Tell me anyway."
He was quiet for a moment. Then he spoke.
"The ritual requires you to drink a mixture of ancient vampire blood," he said. "Your body will attempt to process it. If it can, the Rite will recognize you as worthy. If it cannot, the rejection will move through you quickly." He paused. "It is not a slow process."
"How many humans have survived it?"
"Two," he said. "In a thousand years."
I let that sit. "Is there anything I can do to improve the odds."
"No. The blood decides."
Another elder stepped forward holding a silver chalice. The liquid inside was almost black, moving slowly when the light caught it. The smell reached me before he did, old and metallic.
"Once you drink," the first elder said, "there is no stopping it."
I looked at the chalice. Then, I held it.
"Don't fight it," the eldest elder said quietly.
I nodded once. Then I lifted the chalice and drank.
For a moment nothing happened. Then one of the elders said quietly, "It's begins after a few seconds."
I felt it before I could respond. "Don't fight it," the eldest elder said sharply.
It wasn't pain. It was the heat, starting in my chest and moving outward through my veins. I grabbed the edge of the altar.
"It's not stopping," I said through my teeth.
"Stay standing."
"I'm trying."
"I know."
The heat intensified. I looked down at my arms and stopped breathing.
My veins were glowing. A deep amber light moving under my skin like something molten was running through me instead of blood.
The chalice slipped from my hand and shattered on the stone floor.
The elders stepped back, their circle breaking apart.
"That's not possible," one of them said.
The heat wasn't destroying me. It was fighting. The ancient vampire blood inside my body twisted violently and then began to burn away, consumed from the inside.
Across the empire the reaction came through the monitors mounted on the cavern walls. Rayne froze where he stood. The elder closest to me stared at my arms.
"The vampire blood," he said slowly. "It's not killing her." He looked at the others. "Her blood is eating it alive."
And instantaneously, the cavern shook. The runes ignited, light filling the grooves in the stone, spreading outward from the altar.
The broadcast signal flickered as dust fell from the ceiling.
Then it stabilized, I was still standing alive. Heat radiating from my body, the light under my skin not fading, the runes still burning.
Now everyone watching was thinking the same thing.
What exactly was I?