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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 131: Brown 329
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Cooper 42
The next morning Derek told Vashti where he was going, transformed into Morach, and took his bow and two kinds of arrows, regular and drugged. He remembered that he had killed the ancient antediluvian vampire Tubrok by putting a drugged arrow in the roof of his mouth, but why that worked he still wasn’t certain. That also meant he couldn’t be certain it would work on the vampires of this world--but it was a possibility, and having the weapon was certainly better than not having it.
He realized that this was something of a fool’s errand, a wild goose chase. Lake Charles, the western edge of Cajun country, was a good two hundred miles from New Orleans, and the territory spread from the gulf shore to north of Baton Rouge, maybe fifty miles. On the other hand, the boys were only ever reported in New Orleans, never as far north as Baton Rouge or as far west even as Lafayette; and since they died before the age of steam he was betting that they weren’t far from the city they plagued. This was particularly likely given the rumors--unconfirmed, but popular--that they sometimes dragged victims back to their lair, and he was betting that the crypt had to be their lair. They could fly here as bats, but two bats couldn’t carry even a child very far, so they must have carried their victims out on foot.
That also meant that there must be a path that can be traversed between the city and the tomb. Further, since they were always seen at Mardi Gras, and that holiday was in the Spring, it must be traversable in high water.
He spent something over two hours criss-crossing the wild wet country west of the city. Since he had spent quite a few mornings doing aerial exercise, simple flying wasn’t tiring--but the combination of no particular way to create an organized search pattern and the boredom of looking down at treetops and waterways wore him down, and he returned home disappointed.
He expressed that disappointment to Vashti, but she encouraged him. “Love, it’s your first try, and from what you’ve said there’s about ten thousand square miles of territory to check. I know you’re starting with the most likely area, but you won’t have covered a tenth of that today.”
She was right. It was a trade-off, between how much area he wanted to cover and how meticulous he wanted that search to be. He might have covered fifty square miles today, but that was a small bit of the total area, and he couldn’t be certain he hadn’t missed a small vine-covered granite building somewhere in a space that was no longer a clearing--if that was even what he was seeking.
They went to lunch, playing again for the crowd, and had rehearsal that afternoon. He reported his findings, or lack thereof, to the others, but they were equally encouraging. He could do this.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #512: Versers Work. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
