The Saga of Larten Crepsley 1-4 by Darren Shan

Author:Darren Shan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2014-11-17T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Feeding the baby and prisoners became the focus of Larten’s time. Daniel and the sailors were easy to care for – he just threw them food and water a couple of times a day – but the baby was a different matter. Larten had no experience of babies and was astonished by how often the child wanted to feed. Keeping the boy content was a full-time job.

The mate in charge of the ship reported to Larten regularly. Larten had no interest in their course – he wouldn’t have cared if they’d sailed in circles forever – but it was easier to let the mate deliver his reports and nod thoughtfully while pretending to listen.

Larten was ravenous – he needed blood – but he waited until the mate said they were a day from shore. Tucking in the baby, he went below to the locked room and opened the door. Daniel and the sailors thought that he was coming to feed them and they shuffled forward eagerly. They still feared the vampire, but had come to believe that he meant them no harm.

Not wishing to alarm them, Larten moved quickly, as he had when he’d embarked on his killing spree. Darting from one to the other, he blew a sharp breath of gas in their faces, the gas of the vampires that sent humans to sleep. Once they were unconscious he drank from each of them, then refilled the vials which, unknown to him, had cost Malora her life.

Daniel stirred as Larten was leaving. The vampire had breathed on the boy last, so Daniel hadn’t been dealt as strong a blast of the gas as the others. Larten took no notice as the boy’s eyes flickered open, only closed the door and locked it, then went to feed the baby.

Larten spent most of that last night on deck, watching by the light of the stars as they drew closer to land, thinking of what he’d done, numbly considering what he must do next. He didn’t know much about Greenland, but he knew it was an ice-covered, sparsely populated country. It had many cold, lonely, unforgiving places where a vampire could pass quietly from this world. He would find a suitably desolate spot and let the snow and ice finish him off. A fittingly meek finale for a vampire who had lost the right to die a noble death.

The mate approached late the following evening, as Larten was feeding the baby. “We’re almost there,” he noted.

“Aye,” Larten murmured.

“We should make port not long after sunset, if the wind’s fair.”

“I will disembark before that,” Larten said.

The mate frowned. “Disembark?”

“I will take a scow and sail ashore by myself.”

“Are ye sure?” the mate asked. “There’s nothing much along this stretch and the weather’s fierce inhospitable.”

“Good,” Larten said shortly.

A wave of joy swept through the sailor. He had tried not to think about what would happen when they docked, but whenever he did, he saw no way that the vampire would let them live. They were witnesses to the massacre.

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