“Maybe it’s a thousand years of former royal family?” Aahz said. “Look at that one.”
He pointed at one skull hung on the wall, ornately decorated with gems.
I knew that wasn’t exactly right. I could feel it in the energy in this place. After a moment I turned to Tanda.
“Can you feel anything odd in here?”
“Power,” she said.
“An energy focus?” Aahz asked.
“Sure seems that way,” Tanda said. “Or maybe there’s something special about these skulls, something in them that magnifies the magikal power of this area and turns it into something different.”
I found myself, to my own amazement, moving forward toward the closest shelf of skulls. I reached out and lightly touched the smooth, cool surface of one. It did have energy, but not energy like I had been taught by Aahz to use. There was different energy in it, used for something more than just magik.
“Vampire energy,” I said.
Tanda and Glenda came up beside me, each carefully reaching out and touching a skull.
“He’s right,” Tanda said. “These skulls seem to take magical energy and change it, radiating the new energy needed to turn cows into vampires.”
“Are you kidding me?” Aahz asked, standing off to one side.
“No, she’s not,” Glenda said. She waved her hand at the thousands and thousands of skulls. “Welcome to the energy source of the vampire rulers of this world.”
“And the energy is starting to get stronger,” Tanda said. “I can feel it.”
“The sun is going down,” I said. “We need to get out of here.”
I opened up the map and looked at it. Through the room, against the far wall, was the door we needed to go through. And on the other side of that door was something I hadn’t expected us to get so close to this fast.