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The Slayer Queen Part Two
Sam Perlo-Freeman
A short story based on the world of Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, created by Joss Whedon. Some place names are fictitious, as of
course are all the characters depicted.
Rating: 15
CHAPTER 2 - AMRETHUS
Amrethus at the time was a busy, bustling city of moderate wealth, a
hard-working trading port, with no pretensions to greatness. The areas
round the docks were, as is typically the case, a rabbit-warren of
warehouses, dark little alleyways, steamy brothels and dingy hovels. The
sort of place that attracts vampires as itattracts rats, cut-purses and
all other manner of low-life, human, animal and undead. Plenty of disused
warehouses to nest during the day; a large transient population, where
sailors seeking to sate their appetites of a night made easy pickings for
a female vampire seeking to sate hers, and where the lower sort of
prostitutes would scarcely be missed when they 'serviced' the male fiends.
Seedy bars that asked no questions, where few eyelids would twitch at the
business of others, be that a couple copulating in full public view, or a
vampire draining its prey.
Such was the world that Artemesia was thrown into at the age of 16. A
Watcher is not supposed to support his Slayer financially, but he helped
her find a modest but comfortable place to stay and to find a job in one
of the slightly more reputable establishments as a serving wench, whom the
clientele quickly learned was not one to be taken advantage of. By night, she hunted, fighting the Slayer's lonely,
thankless and barely equal battle to prevent the forces of darkness from
overwhelming humanity.
Artemesia's strong spirit soon won her many good friends, as well as not a
few others who looked at her with mistrust, or who simply didn't know what
to make of her. Of her friends, none was more devoted than Antones, the
20-year old son of a merchant of moderate means. I think it may safely be
said that he was in love with her from the beginning, though none of my
sources speak of it. If he loved her, he never declared it, or if he did,
she must have kindly and quietly rejected him, but what is certain is
that, from these humble beginnings he was her devoted follower to the
last.
He was also the first of her friends in Amrethus to discover her secret
identity. He must have been most curious (perhaps even a little jealous,
if my speculation as to his feelings for her is on the mark) of her
strange nocturnal activities, the way she would suddenly break off a
conversation and disappear into the night towards the less salubrious
areas of town, for one dark winter night he followed her from a distance,
somehow keeping up with her trail as she weave d her way through the
little docklands alleyways. Coming round a corner, he saw her at the end
of a cul-de-sac, facing a large, shadowy assailant.
"Artemesia!" he cried out, and launched himself into a charge
towards the creature of the night. The vampire grunted and batted him away
as he came near, scarcely breaking the flow of his fight. It was enough to
give Artemesia the advantage though; launching herself from the wall
against which she was backed she delivered a two-footed kick to his face,
that sent him reeling backwards, then followed this up with a flurry of
blows. But this vampire was made of sterner stuff than the norm, and
before she had a sufficient opening to reach for her stake, he had
recovered himself and landed a mighty punch of his own into her ribs,
sending her sprawling against the wall.
"Antones! Get out! Run!", she hollered incoherently, as she
rolled out of the way and flipped herself to her feet as the vampire
sought to bear down upon her. By now Antones had picked himself up and,
ignoring Artemesia's protests, ran bellowing at the monster, actually causing him to turn aside from what would have been the Slayer's
killer blow. The vampire grabbed hold of the terrified young man and
slammed him into Artemesia, so that he fell on top of her in a sprawling
heap. With a snarl of blood-lust, he reached down to grab the youth; but
it was Artemesia's turn to spring a surprise, thrusting her admirer into
the leech's arms, then headbutting it in the face as she sat herself up.
The vampire scarcely had the chance to register surprise before her stake
whistled through the air not an inch from Antones's head and into the
creature's heart. A violent coughing fit overcame Antones as the unnatural
creature dissolved into dust all over him.
"Thanks for the help!" she offered uncertainly.
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Well, I shall spare you the details of Antones's shocked expression,
uncomprehending questioning, Artemesia's feeble attempts at dissembling
and embarrassed admissions, Otanes' disapproving admonitions and grudging
acceptance, but from that night Antones became a part of Artemesia's life as a Slayer. It is not so unusual. The
Watchers like to make a great deal of how the Slayer must work alone, the
sacred secret of her identity and so forth, but in reality, it is rather
difficult for a young girl to operate as the Slayer for any length of time
without some people learning of her true identity. Those who do, generally
respond in one of two ways: there are those who, having once seen with
their own eyes the evils that stalk the earth in the depths of night, can
never again lead a normal life, can do no other but to aid the Slayer
against this evil in whatever whey they can. Others run as fast as they
can, even to the uttermost ends of the earth, and seek to erase such a
nightmarish vision from their memory, hoping nevermore to hear breathed
the words 'Slayer' or 'Vampire'. It is perhaps a sad reflection on human
nature that the latter response is by far the most common.
Needless to say, Antones' reaction was the former. He fought with her
where he could, stood anguished and frustrated aside when she or Otanes
decided it was too dangerous; from his first oafish encounter with vampire
kind, he became quite a skilled and hardened warrior, and later, the
commander of Artemesia's armies. But enough of him for now.
So she fought on, and the circle of those who fought with her grew.
Foremost among them were Dana, a young priestess, though not as young as
Artemesia, of the local temple of Demeter, well versed in many mysteries
of help in fighting vampires and demons, and Jareth, a fighter in
the king's guard. There were several others who knew of her nature, and
occasionally helped in various ways, but they are not of great consequence
to this history.
How mysterious are the manifold forks in the road of fate! For so might
Artemesia have remained, fighting evil unremarked and uncelebrated, living
out the remainder of the Slayer's short life in an unremarked,
uncelebrated Black Sea port. So lay her fate along the left hand branch. Fate, however, chose the right-hand branch, and two
winters after her arrival in Amrethus came the ghastly events that allowed
Artemesia to show her true mettle, and that propelled her to fame, power
and glory. For that winter, in that coldest of months that comes after the
midwinter, as the snow fell and the bitter wind blew from the north across
the sea, King Morthyrus of Amrethus became a vampire.
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