Chapter 416: The Battle Within (Part Two)
"Shubnalu was a hollow man when I was still alive," Kimsel said, looking at Hauke with flat gray eyes that felt empty and devoid of life. "He cared nothing for the lives of people or the families and communities they built. All he ever cared about was... was what?" Kimsel said, her voice trailing off as she found her memories of the ancient vampire were riddled with holes.
"I don’t remember what he wanted either," Eraric said as he inspected the icy blade in his hands. "But I do remember that he cared very little about the world with the exception of people who had become powerful enough to challenge his rule. Anyone who might challenge him, he killed without question or remorse."
"And anyone useful to him," Eugen said from his seat on the cold stone floor. "To his will he binds. Just like us, just like her master," Eugen said, pointing at the image of Ashlynn on the far wall.
"This is why you must find the things that you will fight for at all costs, young Hauke," Eraric said, resting the icy blade across his knees so he could begin inscribing hooked runes into it’s surface, each one glowing with a unique shade of blue, green, white or purple.
"We may be bound to the service of our people," the craftsman said as he worked. "We may even be bound to the service of a more powerful lord. But the instant that someone wishes to strip our horns from us, turning us into beasts to be hunted for their meat... Then we have become less than people in the eyes of the world."
"It has happened before," Kimsel said. "The Frost Walker clan almost vanished from the face of the world until we struck our bargain with the Fangs of Death to slay those who hunted us. Now, the Harbinger of Death has come with her witches, bearing blades forged from our horns."
"Swore to protect our people, we all did," Eugen said. "Right now, all your people, protecting we are. Over soon it will be," he said, pointing in the direction of the wall that showed what was happening in the world outside.
Through the missing wall of the ancestral cavern, Hauke watched helplessly as his body engaged in brutal combat with Ashlynn. The crystalline ice clinging to the cavern walls reflected their the seen more than a dozen times over, making it impossible to look away from once he’d turned away from the stubborn ancestors.
Ansgar, wielding Hauke’s body with frustrated impatience, had encased both of his fists in thick gauntlets of ice that extended halfway up the forearms. There was nothing remotely elegant about his choice of weapon, nothing that could compare to the sword Eraric had painstakingly carved from a single block of ice, but even crude weapons could be effective when used by a warrior as experienced as Ansgar was.