Venador had, after years of practice, learned not to scream when he woke from his nightmares. This served him well in the cells. He sat up, clapped his hands over his mouth, and stared wide-eyed into the darkness.

Gradually, calmness settled on him and he relaxed. One foot was cold; his sock had fallen off. He groped in the darkness, found it, and pulled it on, shivering.

There weren't any windows in the Servants' Quarters, and the only light came from a dying candle at the opposite end of the room. He slid his feet into his slippers and stood up, swaying unsteadily. One shaking finger transcribed the Aels Pentagram in the air, complete with a simple set of runes in the lower left part. A soft glow swirled about his head, visible to him alone.

Ven shuffled over to the door and slipped into the corridor. He had to get out of here, out of the temple, out of Aelsa if possible. The past five years had plagued him with worse dreams than he'd ever had at home, and what had he to show for it? Silence in the face of torment, and a handful of magicians' tricks?

He found his way down a hall, turned left, then made a sharp right. He stopped at the heavy wooden door and shoved it open, then paused. It wouldn't serve him well to be caught, and he hadn't used that invisibility spell in awhile...

He traced the Pentagram in the air and frowned at it, glittering dull green against the night. Symbols at the top, in both of the bottom corners, and the character for sight in the center? That sounded right...

But before his finger could write anything, he thought of something better. He could always try a teleport spell, and go out beyond the walls, where no one could see him anyway.

Something nagged at his memory, but his eagerness blotted it out.

* * *

Elyssa had, after months of practice, grown accustomed to waking up in darkness. It was difficult, because there had been a time when the sun had greeted her, but every morning she woke and did not panic.

Every morning she woke and tried not to remember the Overground.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, reaching out to find a candle. Hers had long since burned out. That was the worst part, she reflected. In the darkness, it was hard to tell time.

Eventually despairing of finding anything remotely resembling a match, she got up and found her way to the door, crashing into her half-brother's cot on the way. She heard him mumble something, but he didn't wake. He wouldn't until sunrise. His body was more attuned to the Sun than hers, apparently; she couldn't feel it anymore.

I want to go back Overground. I hate it down here.

There were torches sputtering in their brackets; their light flared into her eyes as soon as she opened the door. She winced and took one down, eyes shut.

Light didn't hurt, Overground.

She didn't want to think of the Overground anymore! Seven months had passed since she'd moved back Underground, and most people got over it quickly, but Elyssa was different. She wanted the expanse of the sky to spread out above her. She wanted to feel a real breeze touch her skin. She wanted her hair to stay its mousy brown color, sun-streaked and special. She hated the pale hair of the others, bleached by darkness. She hated their nocturnal sight.

Living underground wasn't the best place for a claustrophobic girl like Elyssa.

She'd told her father yesterday that she would leave, run away and take her chances with the Overlanders, or the Yom themselves if necessary. Anything to escape.

He hadn't believed her. He never did.

She had traversed the path often enough, in wistful dreams. Down to the store-rooms for provisions, then up the winding stairs to the place where the Aels'dai River flowed from Overground to the caves below. The only place to get out.

If you were desperate enough to risk drowning.

* * *

Ven was cold.

He knew that this wasn't any ordinary forest. He could feel it, the dark night wrapping around him. Something had gone wrong with the Pentagram, that was certain.

Still! The Aels was supposed to know, wasn't it? When something was wrong? That was why it hadn't faded, like the other, older magics. The Aels protected its users. The spell shouldn't have worked at all, if he'd done it wrong.

Instead, it had led him to his death.

Ven had a clearer mind than most of his people. He had a vague suspicion that perhaps the forest did not equal death. Sure, it was named terribly - the Yom'dai, the Way of the Damned - but that was just because of the creatures that lived in it. And damned, he knew, did not equal evil. He was almost certain that he was damned himself, if it came down to it.

There had to be a path. And with it, a way out. No - not out. Back in. Spies weren't any good if they ran away; he knew that.

But the Aels wouldn't have brought him for no good reason. It knew better. It rather liked him, or at least that was the impression he got from it.

The Moon had gone, the stars had set, and all that remained was the darkness before dawn, and the biting cold of early spring. He shivered and wished, not for the first time, that he had remembered his cloak. He could call up a heat spell, but with the way the last Pentagram had gone, he didn't think that was such a great idea.

Well, the forest be damned. He was definitely going somewhere warm, right now.

Or when the Sun rose and gave him a direction to go in.

Ven sank to the ground, arms wrapped around himself. Old leaves crunched beneath his heels, and he leaned back against a tree, feeling a loose bit of bark tangle itself in his dark hair. At the moment, he didn't much care.

But he didn't want to fall asleep again. Two dreams in one night was very bad for a Seer, especially an untrained one.

Assuming, of course, that he was a Seer. The fact was, he wasn't even remotely certain of anything, except that he was cold, and lonely, and lost.

Well, the lonely bit he could take care of. His finger, visible to him as a white blob against the darkness, slowly drew the Pentagram, as he fervently prayed that this time, it would work...

* * *

Elyssa splashed onto the bank. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, and water streamed from her hair, but above she saw the sky, slowly turning purple as dawn approached.

It was the work of a minute to find one of the little sheds where they kept towels for the people who went in and out. She borrowed a few and dried herself off, then got her cloak out of her waterproof backpack and wrapped it around her shoulders.

She was free.

And she was going to get out of this country altogether, just as soon as the Sun rose, because she had a map, somewhere in her bag. She'd try going west. The creatures of the forest were probably all myth, and...

Before her elated thoughts could travel any further, the world turned upside-down.

* * *

Ven sighed as the Pentagram faded away. It hadn't worked, that was plain. He'd tried to bring himself a companion, and according to the characters he'd used, he'd asked for either his "closest ally" or his "nearest river." He hadn't received a friend or the Aels'dai, so assumed it hadn't worked.

Though he was almost sure he'd felt the tug of magic on his mind...

He drew his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them. His shaking seemed to have settled down, and, in a rare moment of optimism, he decided to try again, but this time, he'd scratch the Pentagram on the ground, the way the real magicians did it. None of this Elemental Theory. That had been all speculation, and he hadn't liked that lecture anyway, and obviously it didn't work.

* * *

Elyssa opened her eyes to darkness.

Well, not really. Actually, the sky was considerably lighter, though partially blocked out by the trees stretching their limbs into it.

Trees?

She pushed herself onto her knees, then stood, shakily. She seemed to be whole, and her backpack was still on her back. The problem, as far as she could tell, was that she had no idea where she was or how she'd gotten there.

She pulled her cloak tighter and took a step. This gave her the confidence she needed to try another step, and another, and then a fourth.

That was as far as she got before someone crashed into her from behind.

* * *

Ven ran into something that he realized, after a moment, was not a tree. It was warm, and fell down, and that was enough to convince him.

He had heard something moving, moving with the intense concentration it took to make no sound. He remembered bolting in terror, and then...

"Ouch," someone said faintly.

"Er," he said. "You wouldn't happen to be my closest ally, would you?"

As the dark purple sky started to turn to slightly-lighter blue above them, he squinted at the person on the ground as it got up. "Depends. Do you know my father?"

Ven laughed. "I don't even know my father."

"Then I might, conceivably, be an ally of yours. Unless you try to kill me, in which case I'll get very upset and whine at you."

A girl. Very, very definitely a girl.

"Venador Truin, Ven to everyone but the Aelsa priests," he said. "Of the city-state of Godal. More recently, of Aelsa."

The girl peered at him; at least, he assumed she was doing so, as he couldn't imagine what else she'd be doing at the moment. "Elyssa Al'Drastri of - what do you call it? Xadasha?"

Any other "Overlander" would have gasped, or made some show of surprise. Not Ven. He blinked. "Xadasha. Land of the Lost, correct? Huh. That's mildly interesting."

"Only mildly?" He caught the tone of offense in that query.

"Yes, mildly. You see, Elyssa, I am not whatever you Lostlanders think I am. I'm not a mad priest, or a tyrant, or even a cruel slavedriver. Actually, I'm a janitor. Specializing in Elemental Theory. Er. That didn't make much sense, did it?"

Elyssa smiled. He could see it, now; bright teeth flashing in the pale smudge of her face. "Better than me. I'm a scribe, and I'm claustrophobic."

"A claustrophobic Lostlander? But they say you all live underground...oh."

He startled her by reaching out to grab her arm, shushing her as quietly as he could manage. "Listen." She cocked her head, and they stood there, trembling slightly as an icy wind blew past.

It was a familiar sound to both - that of someone trying their best to make absolutely no sound at all.

"This isn't the Yom'dai at all," Elyssa whispered. To her credit, she was very good at whispering without being heard by any lurking creatures. "I've heard of the Yom. They'd never be so quiet."

"No," Ven agreed. "If the legends are true, they'd jump out and try to kill us. What's out there is trying to...spy on us. Or catch us unawares."

"I didn't know there was an 'us.'"

He rolled his eyes. "The Aels is never wrong. You are my closest ally, and this is exactly where we are meant to be."

"What a pity," a smooth, drawling voice said behind them. "Then this...is exactly where you are meant to die."

* * *

Elyssa woke some hours later and covered her eyes to shut out the light. It was noon, insofar as she was any judge, and the sun was unobscured by clouds.

Someone poked her. As memory slowly returned, she grasped the most recent name she could think of. "Ven?"

"Not really."

She tried to sit up, and was stopped by a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Don't. You'll make the headache worse. I honestly don't know what they taste in you, you're ridiculously skinny and foolish, coming into the Yom'dai without a weapon or anything of the sort." There was a pause, while Elyssa tried to puzzle this out, and the voice continued, "Though it's not really the Yom'dai anymore. We call it the Nil, the Night. The Sun still shines, but not for long, if my sisters have their way..."

"Augh," Elyssa said, as the headache the voice had spoken of finally hit her. "Where's Ven?"

"I'm afraid they have him. Poor child. Not much we can do for him, though - he's a Seer. They'll guard him with every drop of blood they don't have, and tonight, with all the proper ceremonies, he'll be killed."

"Augh. What...are you?"

There was no reply, and Elyssa thought for a moment that the voice had left. Then it spoke again. "I think the proper question is 'who' are you, but we'll start with what. We are known as the Yom'nil'ereka. Those of the Damned Who Belong to the Walks of the Night. Vampires, I think we are called by those who don't like the length of our proper name or its meaning."

"Augh!" Elyssa shrieked. She'd heard the legends, not long ago. How did you get rid of a vampire? With the sign of the Wise, of course, but she didn't have one. Or with the Sun, but it didn't seem to bother this vampire.

The vampire patted her shoulder again. "Don't worry. I can't bear human blood. I wouldn't touch it if all the other animals died. I am the Contessa Laviegla."

The headache was fading, and presently Elyssa sat up and turned to look at her companion. Laviegla was very pale, the color of chalk, and her hair was black as a crow's wing, straight and long, swept back into three long tails. Her eyes had red pupils, and the irises were a most becoming shade of purple. She was nearly completely covered by a black tunic and black trousers, along with old-fashioned black shoes that Elyssa thought looked very uncomfortable. Indeed, apart from her face, the only skin Laviegla bared was her hands, long and slender, with wicked-looking nails.

She also wore a ridiculously large, floppy, pointed black hat.

"Augh," Elyssa said in a small voice.

Laviegla stood and helped the unresisting girl to her feet. "You must get beyond the Wall and warn the humans. The Nil advances, and my sisters will destroy you unless you flee beyond the mountains."

Finally, Elyssa found something she could argue about. "I won't go without Ven. He's my closest ally." That was what he'd said, or at least as far as she could remember. And, aside from being unwilling to abandon him to vampires who didn't share Laviegla's aversion to human blood, she felt quite unprepared to face the Overlanders alone.

"We haven't had a Seer in years," Laviegla cautioned. "They'll guard him. They won't let him go."

"He does magic. He said the Aels works for him." At least, that was what she'd gotten out of his ramblings. "If we can free his hands, he can do whatever it is the Aelsa do, and get us out of here."

"Us," Laviegla said uncertainly. "You realize that to help you is to reject my sisters, my heritage, the forest itself."

Elyssa shrugged. "So? That's basically what I did, if you change a few nouns, and I'm perfectly all right."

Aside from being trapped in the Yom'dai with a vampire, risking my life for a boy I just met, and dammit, the headache's coming back...

* * *

Ven also woke to the piercing sunlight. He was alone, and when he tried to move his hand to block his eyes, found that he couldn't.

Without hurting himself, he swiftly ascertained that he was tied down to some kind of table. It seemed to be made of stone. The part of his plight that hurt was his headache, which could be classified as "splitting" and "pounding" at the same time.

"All right," he said, just to see if proof of his being awake would bring his captors near. "Head hurts. Feet cold. Other than that...physically unharmed. So far."

He waited to see if anyone would contradict him. Failing to get a response, he continued, "Hands can't move, so the Pentagram is out of the question. That girl - Elyssa? - she's gone. So are my slippers." He wiggled his toes. "And my socks." He then tried to wiggle his fingers, and found that someone had bound them together. "I hypothesize that whoever you are, you know I'm Aelsa. Actually, I'm not. I'm a janitor who picked up a few tricks. Too bad I didn't bother with the spoken spells." He sighed. "Probably, I won't be missed until next Tuesday, when I fail to make my report. They'll assume I've been found out. My body won't be found."

After some time, he continued his ranting. "This is pointless, really. I think it's some kind of virgin sacrifice. Damn, I knew I should've taken that one Aelsa priestess up on her offer...actually, that would have been disgusting, so even if I must die here, eventually, I will be pure." He gave the sky his most righteous look. "Come on, whoever you are. Even the Yom follow the Wise, and they don't approve of pointless violence."

"Would you shut up already?"

He closed his eyes. Elyssa had returned to rescue him. He'd rather suspected she might. As she quickly unbound his fingers and then went to work on the ropes tying his arms to the stone table, he said, "How much did you hear?"

"I can't believe you're a virgin," she replied, giggling. "I mean, really. How old are you?"

"Er," he said. "Seventeen. Which isn't actually all that old if you think about it - " He stopped talking when she started giggling.

It was the work of a few minutes for her to release him, and he proceeded to sit up and start on the ropes on his ankles.

"In case you were wondering," Elyssa said, sounding rather irritated, "you were captured by vampires. Who are watching from a cave several yards away, unable to stop me because the sunlight would seriously hurt them. You have to teleport us out of the forest, because if we walk away, they'll stay in the shadows and eventually get us back."

Ven finished with his bonds and hopped off the table, searching for his socks and slippers among the dead leaves. He glanced up at the girl, who stared nervously off into the forest, her brown hair streaked with blonde. He absently noted that she was somewhat pretty.

"I have a sock," he announced, holding it up before pulling it on. "Why did they take my socks? My feet are cold. Or maybe they came off by themselves while I was unconscious. I wonder why they do that. This needs experimenting." He caught her glare and added hastily, "Later. At Aelsa, or better yet, Godal." He located his other sock and one of his slippers, then decided that they weren't very good slippers anyway and it was time to go.

"Not here," Elyssa said when he'd found a stick to draw with. She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the clearing. "One of the vampires is going with us, she can't be seen by them..."

Ven chose not to ask.

They finally reached a clearing. The sun poured lazily past the trees, casting shadows in strange patterns on the ground. Elyssa whistled; Ven took this as a good sign, brushed some fallen leaves out of the way, and sketched a Pentagram large enough for the center to hold three people. His own name and relevant statistics went into the lower right corner. He paused, then selected the top point and scratched in the Aels characters for Elyssa's name.

"Birthday?"

"Hmm? Oh, three days after Summer Solstice, sixteen years ago."

Right, the twenty-sixth of Solara. He wrote that, counted backwards, and added the year. "Okay, now I need your height, weight, and place of birth."

"You know, it's impolite to ask a lady's weight. Age, too. What's taking her so long?"

"Can't teleport you unless I know."

She reluctantly gave him her other statistics, and he stepped away from the Pentagram. Without the vampire's information, he couldn't go any further, but he could try to figure the coordinates...

After a few more minutes of waiting, Elyssa whistled again and wandered over to Ven. She narrowly missed stepping on his calculations, idly glanced at them, and swiped the stick without hesitating.

"This is all wrong," she said, and proceeded to wipe out most of his work and start over.

Laviegla found them a little while later, having a tug-of-war over the stick and shouting something about powers of ten. She cleared her throat.

"Hello..."

Ven looked up, blinked, and succeeded in wrenching the stick out of Elyssa's grip. "You're the vampire, then. Name, birthdate, height, weight, place of birth, please."

"Contessa Laviegla, winter solstice in the human year...2039, I believe...and in what units would you prefer my measurements?"

Ven, who had been busily writing, glanced back at his own data. "Damn, I forgot to convert to the metric system. Imbecile Aelsa, can't use normal units...feet and inches, then."

"Five and eight, then. Weight, that's impolite..."

"What is with you women? I won't laugh."

"Sixty."

He barely managed to hang on to the stick. "And that's in...what...pounds?"

"Grams, actually, and I've no idea how to convert that."

Ven, pale and shaking slightly, did the conversion quickly and sketched in the result. "Don't you...blow away...in strong winds?"

Laviegla smiled, which definitely did not make him feel any better. "Vampires have many talents. One of them happens to be that we are impervious to wind. We can also change weight at will, sixty is just my default. Place of birth..." She rattled off a string of strange-sounding syllables.

Elyssa, meanwhile, was still stuck at a somewhat earlier revelation. "You're two hundred and fifty years old?"

"Not quite."

Ven completed her information and began work on the numbers he sincerely hoped were the right coordinates. He was vaguely aware of Laviegla and Elyssa talking, but his mind had gone far away to deal with this sudden influx of data.

Vampires: not a myth. Very lightweight. Very...tall. Very old.

And slowly taking over the Yom'dai.

It was the work of a minute to translate her birthplace, and it scared him. Not a hundred miles from the Wall. That was where they'd been, two hundred fifty years ago. Who knew how far they'd advanced?

While Laviegla seemed nice enough, Ven knew that most vampires weren't nice at all. If they attacked the humans...well, the species would rapidly cease to exist.

Unless he did something.

Suddenly the dreams were getting clearer. And when a Seer started to understand his visions, it was time to start running and pray that trouble tripped on a convenient tree root and fell behind.