Page 119 - Microsoft Word - FANG EMPIRE - NOVEL.docx

The room was silent.

Then Sygnosis spoke. “We need my father.”

“What could your father do?” asked Omar.

“Timbuktu wouldn’t be the first kingdom to suffer the sword of the vampirical,” she said.

“Where is your father?”

“Byzantium, the city of the vampires.”

“And what alchemy do you have to get us back to the first century? Byzantium no longer

exists,” said Omar with a chuckle.

“But it does . . . in the Astral Realm,” she said.

“I don’t understand,” said GoGo.

“Ancient Byzantium was on the Black Sea but only vampires could thrive there because

there wasn’t enough drinkable water,” said Sygnosis.

“There were no humans there?” Raki asked.

“Only bloodstock,” replied Sygnosis, “humans raised as you would raise cattle, for food

and mating.”

The men grimaced.

“Vampires don’t drink water?” asked Daka.

“No. We only drink blood,” replied Sygnosis.

GoGo looked at Sooth. “All this time—blind to my surroundings,” she thought. “So self-

centered I didn’t even notice Sooth never refreshed himself with a cup of water? I am as much to

blame as Kanja for our disgrace.”

“Vampires built the city and were there for centuries. Then the Roman Emperor

Constantine came. He set out to conquer Byzantium and build aqueducts to bring water so free

humans could live there. He gave our city to a Roman aristocrat named Flavius Valens, made him