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The Slayer Queen Part Three
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 3: CITY OF THE DAMNED
How this came to be, or exactly who it was that sired him, is not clear.
One explanation offered by Otanes is that he was sired by one of his
leading courtiers, who had himself been vampirised when dallying in one of
the city's many whore-houses. However it is hard to see how anyone could
have been alone with the King long enough to do him harm without
attracting attention, or how the secret of his death could have been
maintained until he arose. It is possible, but perhaps unlikely. I cannot
help but speculate that Morthyrus himself may have sought the
transformation, seeking immortality, for he seems to have been childless;
Otanes may have considered it improper to offer such a suggestion without
clear proof, and thus impugn the honour of the deceased monarch.
Such speculation aside, what is certain is that he became a vampire, and
that before his vile nature became known, he had the wretched city held
fast within his demonic grip. Many within his court he made like himself,
along with some of his senior officers. Others he held in thrall by taking
hostage their wives and children, and still others he compromised by
forcing them to perform atrocities in full view of others. Those who
refused were subjected to the most gruesome tortures before being killed,
or damned like himself. (He wished, of course, to maintain a sufficient
human population on which to feed). Before his vampire nature was known to
the populace, he had built a wooden maquis in front of every gate that led
from the city's walls, so that vampires could guard the gates during the day
without fear of the sun.
And so, the gods-forsaken city became a monstrous charnel house, a feeding
ground for the creatures of evil, the unnatural sons and daughters of
Morthyrus. Each day, a few people would be selected at random from the
streets and houses and drained for the satisfaction of one of the
monsters. Not too many, of course; more were kept prisoner, as daily
blood-cows, maintained in a piteous, sickly, accursed existence so they
could continue to feed their captors; and for the rest of the citizenry, a
lamentable 'tax' was exacted, so that each day they were compelled to have
extracted a measured quantity of their blood, on which the vampires would
feast in the evening. The King threw weekly banquets for his `children',
where blood collected was drunk and where some of those marked for death that
week were served up to the honoured guests; exactly what went on in those
depraved mockeries of Dionysian celebrations one can only shudder to imagine, for no human who entered them came out alive. It
a measure of what a pitiable, sub-human state the people of Amrethus were
reduced to, that this grotesque blood duty was administered, not by
vampires; for they might be over-eager to consume their takings
prematurely, or to drain the donors completely thus reducing the human
stock; but by humans, suborned by the imprisonment of members of their
families. Such a tactic was also employed to enable some Amrethians to
maintain some sort of trade with the outside, to keep the human livestock
fed. Nonetheless, not a few traders used the opportunity to make good
their escape, leaving their wives and children to a bloody death rather
than submitting themselves to return to the hell that was their home town.
I cannot help but weep as I write, and as I contemplate the unimaginable
misery of this most distressful city. The brutal hand of a tyrant, the
murderous destruction and hatred of warfare, the ravages of famine and
plague, no horror can compare with this utter degradation of everything
that is human in the souls of the Amrethians, reduced to lives of
continual terror and darkness under the demonic brow of a vampire king.
May the Gods be praised that such a calamitous occurrence is mercifully
rare in the sorry history of humanity. Indeed, I know of only one other case, a much smaller town in
the far Orient, a few centuries past. The Slayer of the time, accompanied
by a small army raised by the leading priests of a nearby temple, made a
number of attempts to free the town, but without success; finally, after a
few months, the peasantry of the surrounding countryside encircled the
town at dawn, and put the entire place, vampires, buildings and people, to
the torch, so that only a very few escaped the inferno with their lives.
There was no other way to save the town, but to destroy it.
**************************************************************
Artemesia and Otanes were first alerted to the disaster that had overcome
the town by Jareth of the King's guard, who became suspicious of goings on
at the royal palace, in particular when he was asked, presumably not long
after the siring of Morthyrus, to dispose of a number of large mirrors.
Otanes asked him to keep a careful watch of developments at the palace,
but as it transpired, this approach proved too cautious. I cannot judge
him too harshly for this, I would probably have made the same decision.
Meanwhile, Artemesia was too engaged in her night-to-night business of
slayage, becoming more and more arduous and perilous as the vampires'
numbers increased, to consider plans that might have discovered and
thwarted the darkness that was engulfing the city.
Once the king's vampyrism was revealed, the vampire forces were too strong
for Artemesia and her small group to defeat but, though she and her
Watcher may have been dilatory in taking action to prevent the vampire
takeover, when the darkest hour descended she displayed her truly
remarkable strength, courage and cunning, nor less Otanes his formidable
strategic intellect. With the help of Artemesia's circle of friends, they
built up a small group to resist, and protect themselves from, the ruling
monsters. They developed a network of safe houses, equipping themselves
with various traps and mystical protections to prevent discovery and from
which they could launch raids. Their numbers and their confidence grew,
and Artemesia and Otanes were able to train many of them to be effective
fighters - with Antones, of course, to the fore of this group. Dana the
priestess had managed to salvage numerous holy items and details of rituals from the temple of Demeter before it was burned to the ground by
the vampires, and these helped to ward off vampyric ravages from their
safe houses. Nonetheless, most of the time they were able to achieve
little more than survival, and still they lost several of their number.
Jareth remained in the palace guard, in the employ of the vampire king,
acting as a spy for the Slayer and her circle. What horrors he must have
been compelled to perpetrate to fulfil this mission can scarce be
contemplated, though Otanes writes that he did what he could to save some
of the victims brought weekly to the palace. Still, the effects on his
mind and soul were surely unbearable. However it was he who furnished the
means by which Artemesia was able to bring an end to Morthyrus's reign of
terror.
Otanes had concluded that, as the vampires' numbers in Amrethus were too
great for their small band to defeat, the only hope was a direct attack on
Morthyrus himself, and it was to this end that Jareth was charged with
seeking some secret means of access to the palace, nor was he found
wanting in this endeavour. Skulking round the palace at great risk to
himself one night (the nighttime was the best time for this, as many of
the vampires roamed abroad), he discovered the entrance to a secret
palace, in a corridor not far from a small chamber adjoining the royal
hall, where King Morthyrus held court, both as human and as vampire. He
had begun to explore it, but broke this off when he heard footsteps - it
seemed the passage was in use - but the next day, after his shift at the palace he
returned to the house in the docks area where the Slayer's band was holed
up.
"I am sorry, I was unable to reach the end to find the entrance"
he told them.
"Nonetheless, this may be invaluable," said Otanes. "What
can you tell us of the passage? Every detail may be important."
"It seemed to be sloping gradually downwards - heading northeast..
and it was becoming quite damp..." he replied.
"And in use you say? Probably a supply tunnel, as well as a potential
escape route."
"What if it doesn't lead outside the palace at all? For all we know
it may just lead to cellars!" said Artemesia
"It seemed rather long if that was all..."
"Of course!" exclaimed Dana. As all eyes turned to her, she
continued "There's an underground stream flowing below the palace.
The passage may well lead to it - that would be an ideal escape route in
an emergency."
"Do you know where it comes out?" asked the Slayer.
"Round the cliffs of the headland to the east of town I think."
"Artemesia, you go explore in the morning. See what you can find. It
is probably best if you go alone. Find out as much as you can, but don't
launch an attack. Even with the advantages of stealth and surprise it will
take some force to best Morthyrus. Jareth, it is probably best if you give
no further grounds for suspicion for the moment. You have played your
part. Dana, if you have anything from old temple documents that might give
any more clues, please do bring them forth."
"Must I ... go back ... there?" Jareth pleaded with the Watcher.
"Your disappearance now might fuel suspicion. We must risk nothing
that might lead to our discovery now of all times."
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Artemesia set out at dawn, hiding round the docks then plunging into the
sea and swimming eastwards to get beyond the city walls to the area of
cliffs that Dana had indicated. It was three days before she returned,
triumphant, having discovered the entrance to the passage.
"It took some finding. The stream itself is easily confused with any
number of inlets to the rocks that lead nowhere. But I have marked the
place. Nearby is a rough set of steps up the cliffs where someone fleeing
the palace could have completed their escape."
"It's not too hard to wade through either direction," she
continued, "even without Slayer strength. It can easily be done in
two hours, I timed myself there and back by the sun. I met no-one on the
way."
Thus having found the entrance to the palace, they formulated their plan.
Artemesia was to lead the assault two days hence, accompanied by Antones,
Otanes, Dana and four others. To Jareth and the remaining eleven of their
group was given the task of creating a diversion at the front of the
palace to draw off as much of the palace guards, human and unhuman, as
possible. The group in the passage were to set off up the underground
stream at dawn, aiming to commence their assault on the palace itself as
close as possible to two hours after dawn, relying on Otanes' acute
internal sense of time - while Jareth's group would be able to use the
sundial in the centre of the city square, in front of the temple ruins, to
time their diversion.
The remaining problem was to get the Slayer's party out of the city and to
the mouth of the stream. This was the most dangerous and uncertain part of
the operation, as not all could swim like Artemesia. There were many boats
of various sizes around the docks, but it would be difficult to make an
escape without being spotted, and the vampires did not like to see their
livestock escape. This time, the Slayer herself provided the diversion. A
few hours before dawn, she entered one of the public houses in the docks
area where the vampires were making merry, and in plain view threw several
jars of oil stoppered with burning rags around the room, bringing forth
howls of rage from the drunken and blood-sated monsters. Giving herself only the barest of head-starts she fled the place and led her
pursuers a merry dance round the docks, scarcely breaking her step to
stake one or two passing revellers, thus adding numbers to the hunting
party, clambering over and toppling over storage crates and boat equipment
and generally creating havoc. With most of the vampires in the
neighbourhood thus distracted, Otanes and the rest were able to lower a
boat to the water and push out to sea without notice. After a half hour of
this game, Artemesia threw off her pursuers with ease in the labyrinthine
network of streets and alleyways she knew so well, before diving once
again into the water and swimming her way to the rendezvous point.
******************************************************
And thus, when rosy-fingered Dawn arose to caress the woeful land with her
divine rays, they set off on their quest to save Amrethus. Quickly but
carefully they made their way up the stream, sometimes able to walk on
ledges alongside, other times having to wade through the rushing water.
The going was hard and their soaking clothes made them shiver and stiffen,
but Otanes made sure they kept up the pace, keenly aware of the passage of
time. Finally they arrived at the entrance to the passage that Artemesia
had identified. Before they crawled into it, Dana intoned a number of
ritual magicks and protections, including an aura of silence to engulf
their footsteps as they proceeded through the palace. This was as well, as
they encountered a vampire in the passage, whom Artemesia staked, then as they
came out from the passage into the palace proper, Antones had to fell
another with a wooden arrow before it could sound the alarm.
They could not avoid commotion as they entered the room adjoining the
royal court, for there were three vampires there standing guard. They had
the element of surprise though, and Artemesia and Antones charged the two guarding the entrance to the court with long stakes, while
two of the others dealt with the third, as Artemesia kicked open the door
and the group charged through to gasps of alarm and outrage from the
assembled court.
The guards in the throne room had heard the noise, however, and as
Artemesia and Antones charged through, two vampires lay hold of them -
And instantly recoiled in agony! For before they entered the palace, Dana
had blessed the water soaking their clothes with the blessings of Demeter,
Goddess of the harvest - a blessing of life-giving, that made the water a
burning terror to the lifeless creatures of the night.
It all happened very quickly. Artemesia, Antones and the next two charged
towards a group of three vampires standing between them and Morthyrus's
throne, while Otanes and the others stepped behind to deal with the guards at the door. Artemesia drew her great bronze sword
and be-headed the middle of the three in one blow, his bones crumbling to
dust before her. Morthyrus was just standing up, roaring "Kill them,
kill them you fools!" as she reached him. She kicked up at his
throne, sending him sprawling onto the floor, his sword falling from his
hand. As Antones and the others held off newly approaching vampire and
human guards, Artemesia drew her stake, turned Morthyrus's chest towards
her, and plunged the stake downwards with a loud ululation, culminating in a great shriek of triumph
as the king's shocked face decomposed into dust.
There was a shocked silence in the hall as everyone took in what had
happened. Humans and vampires alike held off their blows. Then some of the
vampires started advancing menacingly towards them. It was a dangerous situation still, with Artemesia's group still sorely
outnumbered. The human guards of Morthyrus stood in shock, not knowing
what to do, while some of their vampire masters tried to push them into
battle.
Then, through the silence, as Artemesia stood to her feet, Antones,
standing beside her, grabbed Morthyrus's crown from the floor and held it
over her head, crying:
"Morthyrus the vampire king is dead! Hail Queen Artemesia, the
Vampire Slayer!"
Another pause, then the rest of Artemesia's group joined in the cry,
"Hail Queen Artemesia the Vampire Slayer!", except Otanes whose
face showed a look of panic, and Artemesia herself, who stood bewildered.
Then one of the human guards drew his sword and turned on the nearest
vampire, joining in the shout, and within a few heartbeats, all the
remnants of humanity that filled the hall arose from their stupor and
found their voice, shouting "Hail Queen Artemesia! Hail the Slayer
Queen!"
Finally Artemesia grabbed the crown from Antones and placed it firmly on
her head, held her sword aloft and roared "Kill them all! For
Amrethus! For Artemesia!"
And thus, did Artemesia the Vampire Slayer become Artemesia, the Slayer
Queen.
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