‘Yeah,’ Thane said nodding unconvincingly. ‘I’ve been marked too.’
Eric was too relieved at the sight of my mark to notice Thane’s lie. ‘Oh,’ he breathed. ‘Thank goodness.’
I started over yet again. ‘Lord Chester wanted to solve a problem in the Understream. He got hold of a magical map that he thought would help and he found a special jug to carry it in. Did you see the map?’
‘No. He couldn’t get the map until he had the jug, and he sacked me before that happened.’
Hmm. I had no idea what the map could be but I reckoned Eric was talking about a bellarmine jug. They were typically used to store precious items and documents that were too ancient and fragile to be left lying around, and they were rare. My thoughts drifted to the preservation spell Trilby had gifted me and I frowned.
Eric mistook my frown for incredulity. ‘One of the others told me everything that happened after I left,’ he explained.
‘Others?’ I asked. ‘Other thralls?’
‘Yeah. They’ve gone now, left Coldstream. I’m the only one who’s stayed, the loyal one. He never should have sacked me.I’m the one he could trust! And he only died after he kicked me out! He was fine when I was here to help him!’
Eric would clearly benefit from a good therapist. I mustered as much warmth as I could. ‘He was clearly lucky to have you. So Lord Chester went to the Understream to solve this mysterious problem and somehow he died in the process. Is that correct?’
‘That’s what they said.’
‘And you’ve been sneaking into the Understream to find out what happened?’
‘Yes.’ His head dropped. ‘I shouldn’t do it but I loved him. He was family to me. I thought that maybe he wasn’t really dead.’ His voice took on a faint whine. ‘He’s a vampire. They’re supposed to be immortal.’
‘Nobody is truly immortal, Eric,’ Thane murmured. ‘Not vampires. Not Fae. Not anyone.’
Eric looked sullen: he didn’t want to believe that. It appeared that his life goal was to live forever, and he’d probably die in pursuit of it. I sighed. Poor man.
Then he surprised me. ‘Iknownobody is truly immortal,’ he said. ‘Lots of vampires have died in the last year or two. I just didn’t think Lord Chester would be one of them.’
I stilled. ‘Lots of vampires have died?’ I’d been responsible for one of those deaths but I’d not heard of any others. ‘Who?’ I asked. ‘Why?’
‘Because of the problem in the Understream!’ he cried, as if that was painfully obvious. ‘That’s why Lord Chester was going to fix it. That’s why he was a hero!’
I scratched my head. Forget the missing worms: I obviously had to find out what this ‘problem’ was. It could be at the heart of everything.
‘Do you believe Lord Chester is dead now?’ Thane asked carefully.
Eric took a long time before answering. ‘Yes,’ he said eventually. ‘I do.’ A tear rolled down his grey cheek. ‘There’s no sign of him. He’s not been here and he’s not in the Understream. He’s gone.’ Another tear joined the first one.
I handed him a tissue. ‘Do you know when he died?’
‘July 18th.’ He wiped his nose. ‘The worst day ever. And nobody cares. Only me.’
Penelope and Thomas certainly hadn’t seemed to care: quite the opposite, in fact.
I drummed my fingers against the arm of the chair. Longchamps had died six weeks ago, so he wasn’t the one who’d called up that monster conjuration. I wondered how many other vampires had really died. Maybe this rabbit warren of murder was unrelated to my worm investigation but I couldn’t shake the sensation that they were tied together and there was something bigger going on that I was unaware of.
Every time I thought I was getting somewhere I ended up with more questions than answers – and Eric’s babbling wasn’t helping. I needed something concrete. ‘Eric, why aren’t thralls allowed in the Understream any more?’
‘Because it’s not safe. I’ve been telling you that!’
My frustration was starting to mirror his. ‘You said there’d been several vampire deaths. You didn’t mention anything about the thralls’ safety.’
Obviously irritated by my lack of understanding, he exclaimed, ‘Vampires have died! And thralls, too! When the thralls started vanishing, lots of the pathetic idiots decided to abandon their positions. Some of the vampires were concerned because they value their thralls so they banded together and decided the only way to keep us safe was to stop us all from going into the Understream. Lord Chester wasn’t happy about that,’ he added darkly.
‘Why not?’ Thane enquired.
‘Because he was strong enough to keep us all safe!’
