The Saga of Darren Shan

CHAPTER SIX

MR TINY paused briefly when he reached us. The short, plump man was wearing a shabby yellow suit – a thin jacket, no overcoat – with childish-looking green Wellington boots and a chunky pair of glasses. The heart-shaped watch he always carried hung by a chain from the front of his jacket. Some said Mr Tiny was an agent of fate – his first name was Desmond, and if you shortened it and put the two names together, you got Mr Destiny.

“You’ve grown, young Shan,” he said, running an eye over me. “And you, Harkat…” He smiled at the Little Person, whose green eyes seemed wider and rounder than ever. “You have changed beyond recognition. Wearing your hood down, working for vampires – and talking!”

“You knew … I could talk,” Harkat muttered, slipping back into his old broken speech habits. “You always … knew.”

Mr Tiny nodded, then started forward. “Enough of the chit-chat, boys. I have work to do and I must be quick. Time is precious. A volcano’s due to erupt on a small tropical island tomorrow. Everybody within a ten-kilometre radius will be roasted alive. I want to be there – it sounds like great fun.”

He wasn’t joking. That’s why everyone feared him – he took pleasure in tragedies which left anyone halfway human shaken to their very core.

We followed Mr Tiny up the mountain, trailed by the two Little People. Harkat looked back often at his ‘brothers’. I think he was communicating with them – the Little People can read each other’s thoughts – but he said nothing to me about it.

Mr Tiny entered the mountain by a different tunnel to the one we’d used. It was a tunnel I’d never been in, higher, wider and drier than most. There were no twists or side tunnels leading off it. It rose straight and steady up the spine of the mountain. Mr Tiny spotted me staring at the walls of the unfamiliar tunnel. “This is one of my short cuts,” he said. “I’ve short cuts all over the world, in places you wouldn’t dream of. Saves time.”

As we progressed, we passed groups of very pale-skinned humans in rags, lining the sides of the tunnel, bowing low to Mr Tiny. These were the Guardians of the Blood, people who lived within Vampire Mountain and donated their blood to the vampires. In return, they were allowed to extract a vampire’s internal organs and brain when he died – which they ate at special ceremonies!

I felt nervous walking past the ranks of Guardians – I’d never seen so many of them gathered together before – but Mr Tiny only smiled and waved at them, and didn’t stop to exchange any words.

Within a quarter of an hour we were at the gate which opened on to the Halls of Vampire Mountain. The guard on duty swung the door wide open when we knocked but stopped when he saw Mr Tiny and half closed it again. “Who are you?” he snapped defensively, hand snaking to the sword on his belt.

“You know who I am, Perlat Cheil,” Mr Tiny said, brushing past the startled guard.

“How do you know my – ?” Perlat Cheil began, then stopped and gazed after the departing figure. He was trembling and his hand had fallen away from his sword. “Is that who I think it is?” he asked as I passed with Harkat and the Little People.

“Yes,” I said simply.

“Charna’s guts!” he gasped, and made the death’s touch sign by pressing the middle finger of his right hand to his forehead, and the two fingers next to that over his eyelids. It was a sign vampires made when they thought death was close.

Through the tunnels we marched, silencing conversations and causing jaws to drop. Even those who’d never met Mr Tiny recognized him, stopped what they were doing and fell in behind us, following wordlessly, as though trailing a hearse.

There was only one tunnel leading to the Hall of Princes – I’d found another six years ago, but that had since been blocked off – and it was protected by the Mountain’s finest guards. They were supposed to stop and search anyone seeking entry to the Hall, but when Mr Tiny approached, they gawped at him, lowered their weapons, then let him – and the rest of the procession – pass unobstructed.

Mr Tiny finally stopped at the doors of the Hall and glanced at the domed building which he’d built six centuries earlier. “It’s stood the test of time quite well, hasn’t it?” he remarked to no one in particular. Then, laying a hand on the doors, he opened them and entered. Only Princes were supposed to be able to open the doors, but it didn’t surprise me that Mr Tiny had the power to control them too.

Mika and Paris were within the Hall, discussing the war with a gaggle of Generals. There were a lot of sore heads and bleary eyes, but everyone snapped to attention when they saw Mr Tiny striding in.

“By the teeth of the gods!” Paris gasped, his face whitening. He cringed as Mr Tiny set foot on the platform of thrones, then drew himself straight and forced a tight smile. “Desmond,” he said, “it is good to see you.”

“You too, Paris,” Mr Tiny responded.

“To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?” Paris enquired with strained politeness.

“Wait a minute and I’ll tell you,” Mr Tiny replied, then plopped himself down on a throne – mine! – crossed his legs and made himself comfortable. “Get the gang in,” he said, crooking a finger at Mika. “I’ve something to say and it’s for everybody’s ears.”

Within a few minutes, almost every vampire in the mountain had crowded into the Hall of Princes, and stood nervously by the walls – as far away from Mr Tiny as possible – waiting for the mysterious visitor to speak.

Mr Tiny had been checking his nails and rubbing them up and down the front of his jacket. The Little People were standing behind the throne. Harkat stood to their left, looking uncertain. I sensed he didn’t know whether to stand with his brothers-of-nature or with his brothers-of-choice – the vampires.

“All present and correct?” Mr Tiny asked. He got to his feet and waddled to the front of the platform. “Then I’ll come straight to the point. The Lord of the Vampaneze has been blooded.” He paused, anticipating gasps, groans and cries of terror. But we all just stared at him, too shocked to react. “Six hundred years ago,” he continued, “I told your forebears that the Vampaneze Lord would lead the vampaneze into a war against you and wipe you out. That was a truth – but not the truth. The future is both open and closed. There’s only one ‘will be’ but there are often hundreds of ‘can be’s’. Which means the Vampaneze Lord and his followers can be defeated.”

Breath caught in every vampire’s throat and you could feel hope forming in the air around us, like a cloud.

“The Vampaneze Lord is only a half-vampaneze at the moment,” Mr Tiny said. “If you find and kill him before he’s fully blooded, victory will be yours.”

At that, a huge roar went up, and suddenly vampires were clapping each other on the back and cheering. A few didn’t join in the hooting and hollering. Those with first-hand knowledge of Mr Tiny – myself, Paris, Mr Crepsley – sensed he hadn’t finished, and guessed there must be a catch. Mr Tiny wasn’t the kind to smile broadly when delivering good news. He only grinned like that when he knew there was going to be suffering and misery.

When the wave of excitement had died down, Mr Tiny raised his right hand. He clutched his heart-shaped watch with his left hand. The watch glowed a dark red colour, and suddenly his right hand glowed as well. All eyes settled on the five crimson fingers and the Hall went eerily quiet.

“When the Vampaneze Lord was discovered seven years ago,” Mr Tiny said, his face illuminated by the glow of his fingers, “I studied the strings connecting the present to the future, and saw that there were five chances to avert the course of destiny. One of those has already come and gone.”

The red glow faded from his thumb, which he tucked down into his palm. “That chance was Kurda Smahlt,” he said. Kurda was the vampire who led the vampaneze against us, in a bid to seize control of the Stone of Blood. “If Kurda had succeeded, most vampires would have been absorbed by the vampaneze and the War of the Scars – as you’ve termed it – would have been averted.

“But you killed him, destroying what was probably your best hope of survival in the process.” He shook his head and tutted. “That was silly.”

“Kurda Smahlt was a traitor,” Mika growled. “Nothing good comes of treachery. I’d rather die honourably than owe my life to a turncoat.”

“More fool you,” Mr Tiny chortled, then wiggled his glowing little finger. “This represents your last chance, if all others fail. It will not fall for some time yet – if at all – so we shall ignore it.” He tucked the glowing finger down, leaving the three middle fingers standing.

“Which brings us to my reason for coming. If I left you to your own devices, these chances would slip by unnoticed. You’d carry on as you have been, the windows of opportunity would pass, and before you knew it…” He made a soft popping sound.

“Within the next twelve months,” he said softly but clearly, “there may be three encounters between certain vampires and the Vampaneze Lord – assuming you heed my advice. Three times he will be at your mercy. If you seize one of these chances and kill him, the war will be yours. If you fail, there’ll be one final, all-deciding confrontation, upon which the fate of every living vampire will hang.” He paused teasingly. “To be honest, I hope it goes down to the wire – I love big, dramatic conclusions!”

He turned his back on the Hall and one of his Little People handed him a flask, from which he drank deeply. Furious whispers and conversations swept through the assembled vampires while he was drinking, and when he next faced the crowd, Paris Skyle was waiting. “You have been very generous with your information, Desmond,” he said. “On behalf of all here, I thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Mr Tiny said. His fingers had stopped glowing, he’d let go of his watch, and his hands now rested in his lap.

“Will you extend your generosity and tell us which vampires are destined to encounter the Vampaneze Lord?” Paris asked.

“I will,” Mr Tiny said smugly. “But let me make one thing clear – the encounters will only occur if the vampires choose to hunt the Lord of the Vampaneze. The three I name don’t have to accept the challenge of hunting him down, or take responsibility for the future of the vampire clan. But if they don’t, you’re doomed, for in these three alone lies the ability to change that which is destined to be.”

He slowly looked around the Hall, meeting the eyes of every vampire present, searching for signs of weakness and fear. Not one of us looked away or wilted in the face of such a dire charge. “Very well,” he grunted. “One of the hunters is absent, so I’ll not name him. If the other two head for the cave of Lady Evanna, they’ll probably run into him along the way. If not, his chance to play an active part in the future will pass, and it will boil down to that lone pair.”

“And they are…?” Paris asked tensely.

Mr Tiny glanced over at me, and with a horrible sinking feeling in my gut, I guessed what was coming next. “The hunters must be Larten Crepsley and his assistant, Darren Shan,” Mr Tiny said simply, and as all eyes in the Hall turned to seek us out, I had the sense of invisible tumblers clicking into place, and knew my years of quiet security inside Vampire Mountain had come to an end.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE POSSIBILITY of refusing the challenge never entered my thoughts. Six years of living among vampires had filled me with their values and beliefs. Any vampire would lay down his life for the good of the clan. Of course, this wasn’t as simple as giving one’s life – I had a mission to fulfil, and if I failed, all would suffer – but the principle was the same. I’d been chosen, and a vampire who’s been chosen does not say ‘no’.

There was a short debate, in which Paris told Mr Crepsley and me that this was not official duty and we didn’t have to agree to represent the clan – no shame would befall us if we refused to co-operate with Mr Tiny. At the end of the debate, Mr Crepsley stepped forward, red cloak snapping behind him like wings, and said, “I relish the chance to hunt down the Vampaneze Lord.”

I stepped up after him, sorry I wasn’t wearing my impressive blue cloak, and said in what I hoped was a brave tone, “Me too.”

“The boy knows how to keep it short,” Mr Tiny murmured, winking at Harkat.

“What about the rest of us?” Mika asked. “I’ve spent five years hunting for that accursed Lord. I wish to accompany them.”

“Aye! Me too!” a General in the crowd shouted, and soon everyone was bellowing at Mr Tiny, seeking permission to join us in the hunt.

Mr Tiny shook his head. “Three hunters must seek – no more, no less. Non-vampires may assist them, but if any of their kinsmen tag along, they shall fail.”

Angry mutters greeted that statement.

“Why should we believe you?” Mika asked. “Surely ten stand a better chance than three, and twenty more than ten, and thirty – ”

Mr Tiny clicked his fingers. There was a sharp, snapping sound and dust fell from overhead. Looking up, I saw long jagged cracks appear in the ceiling of the Hall of Princes. Other vampires saw them too and cried out, alarmed.

“Would you, who has not seen three centuries, dare to tell me, who measures time in continental drifts, about the mechanisms of fate?” Mr Tiny asked menacingly. He clicked his fingers again and the cracks spread. Chunks of the ceiling crumbled inwards. “A thousand vampaneze couldn’t chip the walls of this Hall, yet I, by clicking my fingers, can bring it tumbling down.” He lifted his fingers to click them again.

“No!” Mika shouted. “I apologize! I didn’t mean to offend you!”

Mr Tiny lowered his hand. “Think of this before crossing me again, Mika Ver Leth,” he growled, then nodded at the Little People he’d brought with him, who headed for the doors of the Hall. “They’ll patch the roof up before we leave,” Mr Tiny said. “But next time you anger me, I’ll reduce this Hall to rubble, leaving you and your precious Stone of Blood to the whim of the vampaneze.”

Blowing dust off his heart-shaped watch, Mr Tiny beamed around the Hall again. “I take it we’re decided – three it shall be?”

“Three,” Paris agreed.

“Three,” Mika muttered bleakly.

“As I said, non-vampires may – indeed, must – play a part, but for the next year no vampire should seek out any of the hunters, unless for reasons which have nothing to do with the search for the Vampaneze Lord. Alone they must stand and alone they must succeed or fail.”

With that, he brought the meeting to a close. Dismissing Paris and Mika with an arrogant wave of his hand, he beckoned Mr Crepsley and me forward, and grinned at us as he lay back on my throne. He kicked off one of his wellies while he was talking. He wasn’t wearing socks, and I was shocked to see he had no toes – his feet were webbed at the ends, with six tiny claws jutting out like a cat’s.

“Frightened, Master Shan?” he asked, eyes twinkling mischievously.

“Yes,” I said, “but I’m proud to be able to help.”

“What if you aren’t any help?” he jeered. “What if you fail and damn the vampires to extinction?”

I shrugged. “What comes, we take,” I said, echoing a saying which was common among the creatures of the night.

Mr Tiny’s smile faded. “I preferred you when you were less clever,” he grumbled, then looked to Mr Crepsley. “What about you? Scared by the weight of your responsibilities?”

“Yes,” Mr Crepsley answered.

“Think you might break beneath it?”

“I might,” Mr Crepsley said evenly.

Mr Tiny pulled a face. “You two are no fun. It’s impossible to get a rise out of you. Harkat!” he bellowed. Harkat approached automatically. “What do you think of this? Does the fate of the vampires bother you?”

“Yes,” Harkat replied. “It does.”

“You care for them?” Harkat nodded. “Hmmm.” Mr Tiny rubbed his watch, which glowed briefly, then touched the left side of Harkat’s head. Harkat gasped and fell to his knees. “You’ve been having nightmares,” Mr Tiny noted, fingers still at Harkat’s temple.

“Yes!” Harkat groaned.

“You want them to stop?”

“Yes.”

Mr Tiny let go of Harkat, who cried out, then gritted his sharp teeth and stood up straight. Small green tears of pain trickled from the corners of his eyes.

“It’s time for you to learn the truth about yourself,” Mr Tiny said. “If you come with me, I’ll reveal it and the nightmares will stop. If you don’t, they’ll continue and worsen, and within a year you’ll be a screaming wreck.”

Harkat trembled at that, but didn’t rush to Mr Tiny’s side. “If I wait,” he said, “will I have … another chance to learn … the truth?”

“Yes,” Mr Tiny said, “but you’ll suffer much in the meantime, and I can’t guarantee your safety. If you die before learning who you really are, your soul will be lost forever.”

Harkat frowned uncertainly. “I have a feeling,” he mumbled. “Something whispers to me – ” he touched the left side of his chest “ – here. I feel that I should go with Darren … and Larten.”

“If you do, it will improve their chances of defeating the Vampaneze Lord,” Mr Tiny said. “Your participation isn’t instrumental, but it could be important.”

“Harkat,” I said softly, “you don’t owe us. You’ve already saved my life twice. Go with Mr Tiny and learn the truth about yourself.”

Harkat frowned. “I think that if I … leave you to learn the truth, the person I was … won’t like what I’ve done.” The Little Person spent a few more difficult seconds brooding about it, then squared up to Mr Tiny. “I’ll go with them. Right or wrong, I feel my place is … with the vampires. All else must wait.”

“So be it,” Mr Tiny sniffed. “If you survive, our paths will cross again. If not…” His smile was withering.

“What of our search?” Mr Crepsley asked. “You mentioned Lady Evanna. Do we start with her?”

“If you wish,” Mr Tiny said. “I can’t and won’t direct you, but that’s where I would start. After that, follow your heart. Forget about the quest and go where you feel you belong. Fate will direct you as it pleases.”

That was the end of our conversation. Mr Tiny slipped away without a farewell, taking his Little People (they’d completed their repair work while he was talking), no doubt anxious to make that fatal volcano of his the next day.

Vampire Mountain was in uproar that night. Mr Tiny’s visit and prophecy were debated and dissected at length. The vampires agreed that Mr Crepsley and me had to leave on our own, to link up with the third hunter – whoever he might be – but were divided as to what the rest of them should do. Some thought that since the clan’s future rested with three lone hunters, they should forget the war with the vampaneze, since it no longer seemed to serve any purpose. Most disagreed and said it would be crazy to stop fighting.

Mr Crepsley led Harkat and me from the Hall shortly before dawn, leaving the arguing Princes and Generals behind, saying we needed to get a good day’s rest. It was hard to sleep with Mr Tiny’s words echoing round my brain, but I managed to squeeze in a few hours.

We woke about three hours before sunset, ate a short meal and packed our meagre belongings (I took a spare set of clothes, some bottles of blood, and my diary). We said private goodbyes to Vanez and Seba – the old quartermaster was especially sad to see us go – then met Paris Skyle at the gate leading out of the Halls. He told us Mika was staying on to assist with the night-to-night running of the war. He looked very poorly as I shook his hand, and I had a feeling that he hadn’t many years left – if our search kept us away from Vampire Mountain for a long period, this might be the last time I saw him.

“I’ll miss you, Paris,” I said, hugging him roughly after we’d shaken hands.

“I will miss you too, young Prince,” he said, then squeezed me tight and hissed in my ear: “Find and kill him, Darren. There is a cold chill in my bones, and it is not the chill of old age. Mr Tiny has spoken the truth – if the Vampaneze Lord comes into his full powers, I am sure we all shall perish.”

“I’ll find him,” I vowed, locking gazes with the ancient Prince. “And if the chance falls to me to kill him, my aim will be true.”

“Then may the luck of the vampires be with you,” he said.

I joined Mr Crepsley and Harkat. We saluted to those who’d gathered to see us off, then faced down the tunnels and set off. We moved quickly and surely, and within two hours had left the mountain and were jogging over open ground, beneath a clear night sky.

Our hunt for the Lord of the Vampaneze had begun!

CHAPTER EIGHT

IT WAS great to be back on the road. We might be walking into the heart of an inferno, and our companions would suffer immeasurably if we failed, but those were worries for the future. In those first few weeks all I could think about was how refreshing it was to stretch my legs and breathe clean air, not caged in with dozens of sweaty, smelly vampires.

I was in high spirits as we cut a path through the mountains by night. Harkat was very quiet and spent a lot of time mulling over what Mr Tiny had said. Mr Crepsley seemed as glum as ever, though I knew that underneath the gloomy façade he was as pleased to be out in the open as I was.

We struck a firm pace and kept to it, covering many kilometres over the course of each night, sleeping deeply by day beneath trees and bushes, or in caves. The cold was fierce when we set off, but as we wound our way down through the mountain range, the biting chill lessened. By the time we reached the lowlands we were as comfortable as a human would have been on a blustery autumn day.

We carried spare bottles of human blood, and fed on wild animals. It had been a long time since I hunted, and I was rusty to begin with, but I soon got back into the swing of it.

“This is the life, isn’t it?” I noted one morning as we chewed on the roasted carcass of a deer. We didn’t light a fire most days – we ate our meat raw – but it was nice to relax around a mound of blazing logs every once in a while.

“It is,” Mr Crepsley agreed.

“I wish we could go on like this forever.”

The vampire smiled. “You are not in a hurry to return to Vampire Mountain?”

I pulled a face. “Being a Prince is a great honour, but it’s not much fun.”

“You have had a rough initiation,” he said sympathetically. “Were we not at war, there would have been time for adventure. Most Princes wander the world for decades before settling down to royal duty. Your timing was unfortunate.”

“Still, I can’t complain,” I said cheerfully. “I’m free now.”

Harkat stirred up the fire and edged closer towards us. He hadn’t said a lot since leaving Vampire Mountain, but now he lowered his mask and spoke. “I loved Vampire Mountain. It felt like home. I never felt so at ease before, even when I … was with the Cirque Du Freak. When this is over, if I have … the choice, I’ll return.”