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CHAPTER ONE

THE VAST cavern known as the Hall of Khledon Lurt was almost deserted. Apart from those sitting at my table – Gavner, Kurda and Harkat – there was only one other vampire present, a guard who sat by himself and sipped from a mug of ale, whistling tunelessly.

Roughly four hours had passed since I learned I was to be judged in the Trials of Initiation. I still didn’t know very much about the Trials, but from the glum faces of my companions, and by what had been said in the Hall of Princes, I gathered my chances of emerging victorious were, at best, slim.

While Kurda and Gavner muttered on about my Trials, I studied Harkat, who I hadn’t seen much of recently (he’d been cooped up in the Hall of Princes, answering questions). He was dressed in his traditional blue robes, although he now wore his hood down, no longer bothering to hide his grey, scarred, stitched-together face. Harkat had no nose, and his ears were sewn beneath the skin of his skull. He had a pair of large, round, green eyes, set near the top of his head. His mouth was jagged and full of sharp teeth. Normal air was poisonous to him – ten or twelve hours of it would kill him – so he wore a special mask which kept him alive. He moved it down over his chin when he was talking or eating, and back up to cover his mouth when he wasn’t. Harkat had once been human, but had died and come back in this body, after striking a deal with Mr Tiny. He couldn’t remember who he’d been or what sort of a deal he’d struck.

Harkat had carried a message to the Princes from Mr Tiny, to the effect that the night of the Vampaneze Lord was at hand. The Vampaneze Lord was a mythical figure whose arrival would supposedly signal the start of a war between the vampires and vampaneze, which – according to Mr Tiny – the vampaneze would win, wiping out the vampire forces in the process.

Catching my eye, Harkat lowered his mask and said, “Have you … seen much of … the Halls?”

“A fair bit of them,” I replied.

“You must … take me … on a tour.”

“Darren won’t have much time for tours,” Kurda sighed miserably. “Not with the Trials to prepare for.”

“Tell me more about these Trials,” I said.

“The Trials are part of our vampiric heritage, going back as long as any vampire can remember,” Gavner told me. Gavner Purl was a Vampire General. He was very burly, with short brown hair, and he had a scarred, beaten face. Mr Crepsley often teased him about his heavy breathing and snoring. “In the old nights they were held at every Council,” Gavner continued, “and every vampire had to endure them, even if they’d passed a dozen times already.

“About a thousand years ago, the Trials were restructured. This was about the time that the Generals came into being. Before that, there were just Princes and ordinary vampires. Under the new terms, only those who wished to be Generals needed to undertake the Trials. A lot of ordinary vampires take the Trials even if they don’t want to be a General – a vampire must usually pass the Trials of Initiation to earn the respect of his peers – but they aren’t required to.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “I thought if you passed the Trials, you automatically became a General.”

“No,” Kurda answered ahead of Gavner, running a hand through his blond hair. Kurda Smahlt wasn’t as muscular as most vampires – he believed in brains over brawn – and he bore less scar tissue than most, though he had three small red permanent scratches on his left cheek, marks of the vampaneze (Kurda’s dream was to reunite the vampires and vampaneze, and he’d spent many decades discussing peace treaties with the murderous outcasts). “The Trials are only the first test for would-be Generals. There are other tests of strength, endurance and wisdom, which come later. Passing the Trials just means you’re a vampire of good standing.”

Good standing was a phrase I’d heard many times. Respect and honour were vitally important to vampires. If you were a vampire of good standing, it meant you were respected by your colleagues.

“What happens in the Trials?” I asked.

“There are many different tests,” Gavner said, taking over again from Kurda. “You have to complete five of them. They’ll be picked at random, one at a time. The challenges range from fighting wild boars to climbing perilous mountains to crawling through a pit filled with snakes.”

“Snakes?” I asked, alarmed. My best friend at the Cirque Du Freak – Evra Von – kept a huge snake, which I’d grown accustomed to but never learned to like. Snakes gave me the shivers.

“There won’t be any snakes in Darren’s Trials,” Kurda said. “Our last snake-keeper died nine years ago and hasn’t been replaced. We still have a few snakes, but not enough to fill a tub, never mind a pit.”

“The Trials take place one night after another,” Gavner said. “A day’s rest is all you’re allowed in between. So you have to be especially careful at the start — if you get injured early on, you won’t have much time to recover.”

“Actually, he might get lucky there,” Kurda mused. “The Festival of the Undead is almost upon us.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“We celebrate with a huge feast when every vampire who’s coming to Council has arrived,” Kurda explained. “We used the Stone of Blood to search for latecomers a couple of nights ago, and only three more are on their way. When the last arrives, the Festival starts and no official business may take place for three nights and days.”

“That’s right,” Gavner said. “If the Festival starts during your Trials, you’ll have a three night break. That would be a great bonus.”

“If the latecomers arrive in time,” Kurda noted gloomily.

Kurda seemed to think I didn’t stand a chance in the Trials. “Why are you so sure I’ll fail?” I asked.

“It’s not that I think poorly of you,” Kurda said. “You’re just too young and inexperienced. Apart from the fact that you’re physically unprepared, you haven’t had time to assess the different tasks and practise for them. You’re being thrown in at the deep end and it isn’t fair.”

“Still harping on about fairness?” someone commented behind us — Mr Crepsley. Seba Nile – the quartermaster of Vampire Mountain – was with him. The pair sat and greeted us with silent nods.

“You were very quick to agree to the Trials, Larten,” Kurda said disapprovingly. “Don’t you think you should have explained the rules to Darren more thoroughly? He didn’t even know that failure to complete the Trials means certain death!”

“Is that true?” Mr Crepsley asked me.

I nodded. “I thought I could quit if things weren’t working out.”

“Ah. I should have made it clearer. My apologies.”

“A bit late for those now,” Kurda sniffed.

“All the same,” Mr Crepsley said, “I stand by my decision. It was a delicate situation. I did wrong to blood Darren — there was no hiding from that. It is important for both our sakes that one of us clears our names. Had I the choice, I would face the challenge, but the Princes elected Darren. Their word, as far as I am concerned, is law.”

“Besides,” Seba Nile added, “all is far from lost. When I heard the news, I hurried to the Hall of Princes and invoked the old and almost forgotten Period of Preparation clause.”

“The what?” Gavner asked.

“Before the time of the Generals,” Seba explained, “vampires did not spend years preparing for the Trials. They would draw a Trial at random – as they do now – but rather than tackle it immediately, they had a night and a day to prepare. This was to give them time to practise. Many chose to ignore the Period of Preparation – usually those who had undertaken the Trials before – but there was no dishonour in taking advantage of it.”

“I never heard of that rule,” Gavner said.

“I did,” Kurda noted, “but I’d never have thought of it. Does it still apply? It hasn’t been used in more than a thousand years.”

“Just because it is unfashionable does not mean it is invalid,” Seba chuckled. “The Period of Preparation was never formally abolished. Given that Darren is a special case, I went to the Princes and asked that he be allowed to avail himself of it. Mika objected, of course – that vampire was born to object – but Paris talked him round.”

“So Darren has twenty-four hours to prepare for each Trial,” Mr Crepsley said. “And twenty-four hours to rest afterwards — which adds up to a forty-eight hour gap between each test.”

“That is good news,” Gavner agreed, brightening up.

“There is more,” Mr Crepsley said. “We also convinced the Princes to rule out some of the more foreboding Trials, those which are clearly beyond Darren’s means.”

“I thought you said you weren’t going to ask for favours,” Gavner noted with a grin.

“Nor did I,” Mr Crepsley replied. “I merely asked that the Princes use their common sense. It would be illogical to ask a blind man to paint, or a mute man to sing. So too would it be senseless to expect a half-vampire to compete on even terms with a full-vampire. Many of the Trials remain, but those which are clearly impossible for one of Darren’s stature have been eliminated.”

“I still say it’s unfair,” Kurda complained. He faced the ancient Seba Nile. “Are there any other old laws we could make use of? Anything about children not being allowed to compete, or that they can’t be killed if they fail?”

“None that I am aware of,” Seba said. “The only vampires who cannot be killed for failing the Trials of Initiation are the Princes. All others are judged equally.”

“Why would Princes be taking the Trials?” I asked.

“Long ago they had to participate in the Trials at every Council, like everybody else,” Seba said. “Some still undertake them from time to time, if they feel they need to prove themselves. However, it is forbidden for a vampire to kill a Prince, so if a Prince fails and does not die during the Trial, nobody can execute him.”

“What happens in cases like that?” I asked.

“There have not been many,” Seba said. “Of the few that I know of, the Princes elected to leave Vampire Mountain and die in the wilds. Only one – Fredor Morsh – resumed his place in the Hall of Princes. That was when the vampaneze broke away, when we had need of all our leaders. Once the crisis had abated, he left to meet his fate.”

“Come,” Mr Crepsley said, rising and yawning. “I am tired. It is time to turn in for the day.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep,” I said.

“You must,” he grunted. “Rest is vital if you are to complete the Trials. You will need to be fully alert, with all your wits about you.”

“OK,” I sighed, joining him. Harkat stood too. “See you all tomorrow,” I said to the other vampires, and they nodded glumly in reply.

Back in my cell, I made myself as comfortable as possible in my hammock – most vampires slept in coffins, but I couldn’t stand them – while Harkat climbed into his. It took ages to drift off, but finally I did, and though I didn’t manage a full day’s sleep, I was reasonably clear-headed when night rolled round and I had to report to the Hall of Princes to learn the nature of my first deathly Trial.