Chapter 534: A Sylvan Welcome
Six vampires dressed in thick red cloaks walked in a loose circle around a centaur and her rider. Each vampire had their hood up, their enchanted cloaks designed to block out the sun’s light. Even though the day was somewhat cloudy, a vampire’s skin would sunburn quicker than others, a few minutes was all it would take. Yet, such a danger hadn’t crossed any of their minds. The vampires of House Gale were all focused on the danger all around the neighborhood or lack thereof.
“There’s no one here,” noted Willow.
Stellan nodded at his sister’s comment. “We’re almost at the Commoner District. Whoever lived here was either killed during the siege or ran away when the golems and valley savages attacked.”
“Or maybe it was the goblins…” whispered Willow. She couldn’t help but glance up at their lord, sitting astride the most graceful centaur she had ever seen. When her cousin and leader of their House, Gale had told them of Stryg’s origins she could hardly believe it after seeing him. This man clad in a cloak of pristine white flowers, hair as silver as the moon, eyes that seemed to almost glow, skin as blue as the Ebon Sea, and sharp ears that drooped like teardrops, this— was a goblin?
Sure, she had seen his mother. She was a goblin, through and through, save for the same pale hair as her son. But even as she slept in the infirmary back at the manor there was something different about her. Willow couldn’t quite place what it was, but she knew Aurelia Veres was different.
As for her son, Stryg seemed more like a drow than any vampire or goblin, though the slits in his eyes and his sharp, albeit small, fangs said there was something more. Lord Veres was more beautiful than he was handsome. A prince like in the stories her father used to read to her as a child. Willow thought such stories were just that, stories nothing more. Yet here he was, the Ebon Prince. There was no doubt in her mind that this was the heir of the Blue Rose.
Which made it even harder for her to imagine that their prince was somehow related to the ruthless Sylvan that had taken over the Commoner District.
“What was that?!” Stellan drew his sword and turned towards an alleyway to their right.
The other five vampires drew their blades in unison and hurried to form a wall in front of Rhian. She glanced up at Stryg who shook his head subtly. A rustling noise echoed from the alleyway and a moment later a small dog stepped out from the shadows. His fur was rugged and he favored his right paw. He whined at the vampires’ appearance, his large dark eyes looking at them uncertainly.