Ulrika the Vampire by Nathan Long

Author:Nathan Long
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-17T08:18:48+00:00

chapter twenty-three

The Spire

Ulrika and Stefan looked upon the Sorcerers’ Spire from the roof of the building nearest to it, which wasn’t very near at all. The spire sat at the intersection of the Grand Parade, Praag’s main avenue, and the River Lynsk, and was surrounded by a wide empty space, as if the rest of the city was edging away from it. A high stone wall with no door or gate had been built around its base, though whether to keep the public out, or lock something in, Ulrika didn’t know.

From within this barricade, the tower rose like a shattered mast. Even ruined, it stood three times as tall as the tallest of the nearby tenements, its jagged top tearing holes in the low mist that swirled perpetually around it. The lower reaches showed little damage, the red walls straight and true, the buttresses and balconies unbroken, but further up, the stone was scarred and twisted in terrible ways, signs of the deadly energies unleashed when it had exploded. There, the stone grew mottled and crumbling, and gaping black holes yawned in it. Near the top, a section seemed to have melted, the walls folding down on top of each other as if they were made of wet clay, and the pinnacle was just a ragged blackened stump, like the severed wrist of a man who had been holding a bomb when it went off.

‘I do not see or sense anyone,’ said Ulrika.

‘Nor do I,’ said Stefan. ‘Either we have beaten them to it, or they have already taken the violin.’

‘Or it isn’t here after all,’ said Ulrika.

‘Let us go see,’ said Stefan.

They swung down the front of the building, then jogged across the wide bare plaza to the wall that surrounded the tower. Ulrika looked around to see that they were not observed, then started up it. It was crudely made, and did not lack for holds. A row of spikes ran along its top, but she and Stefan stepped between them and clambered down into the narrow, rubble-filled space between it and the tower.

Ulrika sighted up the tower, frowning. Its walls, at least near the base, were much smoother that those of the barricade, and all the windows in the lower storeys had been bricked up. Climbing might be difficult.

Stefan started around the base, looking for a way in. She followed him. On the far side they found the old entrance, a grand, arched opening with stone dragons winding around its columns and the head of a bear growling from the keystone. It was also bricked shut – but not entirely. Near the ground in one corner, a hole had been smashed through the bricks.

Ulrika cursed as they ran to it. ‘They’ve got here before us!’

Stefan shook his head. ‘If they did, it was years before. Look.’

Ulrika peered closer. It was true, the litter of bricks that surrounded the hole was caked in dust. It had been made long ago, and the dust was undisturbed.

‘Bold thieves of ages past,’ said Stefan.

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