Ayer The Kushite Vampire King

The sun rose over the City of Napata, Capital of the Kush Empire, and bathed the African metropolis in its eerie light. In the antechamber that had become his dwelling, the Vampire stirred restlessly. Even this far below ground, he could feel the sun bathing the landscape, and knew it was time for slumber. Yet, try as he might, the Vampire could not sleep. He kept remembering the old days, and wondering how in hell he ended up where he was...

Once, a few years ago, he walked in the sun, reveling in it like a true son of the African motherland. The Vampire remembered those days well, and smiled in a reminiscent manner. He was born the son of poor farmers on the outskirts of Meroe, the second largest metropolitan area in the Kush Empire. On the day of his birth, King Nedjeh, the legendary warrior who united the Kush Empire breathed his last, and left the throne to his young daughter, Princess Makeda.

As Empress of the Kush Empire, and the Holy Kandake, Makeda faced many challenges. Fortunately, her father King Nedjeh taught her the art of war. The Great King believed that women could be just as capable as men in matters of war, and included women warriors among his personal bodyguards, the Kushite Imperial Guard. As a young woman, Princess Makeda was surrounded by capable women warriors. When her father passed on, Empress Makeda set out to eclipse him in accomplishment, a tall order to say the least.

The Vampire remembered those halcyon days, for he was a young man when Empress Makeda came to power. The young royal faced many challenges, from wealthy Kushite noblemen who were not accustomed to answering to a female ruler, to the threat of nearby war-like people like the Afar, the Punt, and the Axumites. That's why Empress Makeda set out to remake the Kushite Imperial Army. Her first order of business was recruiting new soldiers to swell its ranks...

"Ayer Kamani, you pathetic excuse for a man, wake the hell up," came a deep voice, and the young Kushite awoke with a start. The icy cold water that splashed all over his face and body banished the last vestiges of sleep. Looking up, he glared into the face of a towering, dark-skinned monolith of a man, Amrof, one of the ruthless Sabajo or trainers of the Kushite Imperial Army. With effort, Ayer Kamani rose to his feet, and the Sabajo laughed.

"Aye, sir, sorry I overslept," Ayer Kamani offered, by way of explanation. The young man looked around and saw that pretty much the entire garrison was up and about. Uniformed men went about their business, carrying weapons, running drills, and keeping the Casern in order. The other sleeping cots were deserted, and with good reason. The sun was high in the sky, and after a night of partying at local brothels, Ayer Kamani and his fellow Kha-Deths or trainees had stumbled into the barracks, so drunk they barely made it to their cots.

"Kha-Det, you reek of a whore's perfume and cheap wine, if this weren't a dangerous time for all of Kush, and indeed perhaps all of Africa, I'd have you whipped for your impudence and send you home," Amrof said sharply, his obsidian eyes boring into Ayer Kamani's. The younger man swallowed hard and bit back a reply. He wasn't used to being spoken to in such a manner, that's for damn sure.

"Aye sir," Ayer Kamani replied, keeping his voice and his eyes low. The Sabajo scoffed, and sent him to clean the latrines. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Ayer saluted and then went on his way. Why did I leave my father's farm to literally work in shit? Ayer asked himself, lamenting his fate. A decade ago, he remembered the day Lord Abebech of Axum, supreme advisor to King Nedjeh, came to Meroe. The old Axumite was recruiting young warriors, male and female, to serve His Majesty. To that end, he recruited Aser Kamani, Ayer's older brother.

"To serve the King of Kush is a great honor, little brother, I will miss you and I promise you I will do our country and our family proud," Aser Kamani said to his younger brother Ayer, on that fateful day. The two brothers embraced, and then Aser Kamani, along with several young men and women from the City of Meroe, were taken to the City of Napata, the ultimate seat of power, to begin their elite warrior training. On that day, Ayer swore to himself that he would be a great warrior, just like his older brother Aser.

"Would you look at that? The shit head is literally deep in shit," came a voice, interrupting Ayer's little trip down memory lane. The young man looked up, and saw two burly, dark-skinned and bald-headed young Kushite men standing before him, their crimson and gold uniforms flawless. Their sandals looked so clean he could have eaten off them. Ayer bristled as he recognized Maruf and Dafur, fraternal twins, and his fellow Kha-Deths. They'd been on his case from the get-go, and Ayer hated them more than he could say.

"I'm just following the Sabajo's orders, Dafur, what do you want?" Ayer asked, and he paused, resting his hands against his shovel. The twins exchanged a smile, then stepped closer. Their noses wrinkled in disgust due to proximity to human waste. Ayer was almost done with his task, and looked forward to taking a dip in the Nile river. He had absolutely no time for these goons, but knew they wouldn't go away without bothering him...

"Don't act like you're bigger than your garments, farmer's son," Dafur replied, and his brother Maruf chuckled. Dafur stepped closer to Ayer, and shoved his index finger in the young man's chest. Ayer winced, and tried to keep his cool. He knew that these two were the nephews of the Sabajo, and as such, they tended to get their way around the Casern. They made a habit of intimidating other Kha-Deths, and Ayer made the mistake of not being deferential to them during their first meeting. Dafur and Maruf were on his case ever since...

"I'll act however I want," Ayer replied, and with that, he suddenly grabbed Dafur by the collar and pulled him into the pit. The Kha-Deth screamed as Ayer pulled him into the human waste, and threw him right in. Maruf made a sound of disgust and tried to punch Ayer, but Ayer was ready. He grabbed the other young man's arm, twisted, and then pulled him into the wire. Howling in pain and disgust, the twins high-tailed it out of the shit pit, and ran like a demon were after them. Ayer stood there, literally knee-deep in shit, and laughed merrily.

"Nicely done, young man," came another voice, and upon hearing it, Ayer's heart skipped a beat. For the owner of said voice was Feven, the Huntress. The tall, dark-skinned, voluptuous and lovely, armor-clad young woman stood two meters from him, hands on her hips. Ayer had seen a lot of beautiful women of all hues in his time. Women from Axum, Kemet, Punt and the Afar were among the world's most beautiful, but Feven was in a class by herself.

"Huntress, greetings, how are you? I'd shake your hand, madam, but they are grimy at the moment," Ayer said sheepishly, and Feven smiled coyly, and looked him up and down. Looking at her, Ayer felt a stirring of desire he hadn't felt since his first visit to a brothel, in a seedy part of Napata where young men of means went to satisfy their cravings. Feven was beautiful and powerful, and about as similar to those ladies of ill repute as a stone is to a diamond. Ayer knew that many men among the Kushite Imperial Army resented Feven the Huntress, due to her influence on Empress Makeda, but there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. Some of them maintained that Feven and Empress Makeda were lovers, but of course, most people didn't take such whispers seriously. The Holy Kandake was not just the supreme ruler of the Kush Empire but also its moral leader. Surely such a lady wouldn't engage in such activities...

"Yes, Khad-Deth Ayer, you are indeed mired in waste, I saw what you did to those goons, you are clever, and we are going to need clever lads like you for the fight to come," Feven the Huntress said pensively, and Ayer frowned. As far as he knew, the Kush Empire's vast borders were secure, regularly patrolled by regiments of dedicated soldiers, and no one dared invade their territory. Who were the Kush Imperial Army's stalwart soldiers preparing to fight against?

"As you wish, madam, my task is done, I shall get cleaned up," Ayer Kamani replied, nodding gently at Feven. The Huntress looked at him and smiled as the burly young soldier-in-training made a bee-line for the nearby banks of the Nile, and leapt into the water. The waters were infested with crocodiles but Feven doubted that the hungry reptiles would go anywhere near the world's dirtiest soldier...

"Look at this bozo, even the crocodiles don't want him," said the Sabajo, Amrof, as he stood next to Feven the Huntress, and the two watched Ayer splash in the crocodile-infested waters, without a care in the world. Feven looked at Amrof and smiled, then shrugged. The old trainer looked more taciturn than usual, which was understandable since, along with higher ranking members of the Napata military force, he'd recently been briefed on the threat that the City faced.

"The lad has lots of pluck and luck, he's going to need it in the days to come," Feven the Huntress said, and Amrof nodded gravely. The two of them walked off, and the Huntress continued to inspect the Casern. As emissary of Empress Makeda, Feven the Huntress had almost unlimited access to the Capital's military stations. She was going around briefing the Kushite military leadership on the threat faced by the Kush Empire, a threat from beyond the grave...

"Listen up, you grunts, tonight, we are accompanying Her Majesty, the Holy Kandake herself, on a procession on the streets of Napata," said the Sabajo, speaking to the hundreds of soldiers gathered in the main hall of the Casern. Ayer stood among them, clad in a new uniform, scrubbed clean and ready. Anxiously Ayer looked for his fellow soldiers/tormentors Maruf and Dafur, and couldn't find them. Shrugging, he resumed listening to the voice of his commander.

Beside Amrof the Sabajo stood a tall, beautiful warrior woman whom the soldiers recognized as Feven the Huntress, the woman from Meroe who had somehow become Empress Makeda's favorite advisor after slaying Abebech the Axumite under mysterious circumstances. Ayer smiled, remembering the conversation he had with Feven that very same morning.

"Men of Kush, know this, in the coming days, you will be fighting not men but monsters, our empire is under attack from supernatural forces," Feven said, and then she clapped, and a quartet of burly Kushite soldiers brought forth a towering figure attired in black, his head covered by a cowl. The giant struggled in the soldiers hands but could not escape their grasp. Feven walked up to the bound, struggling figure, and removed the cowl from his head...and that's when all hell broke loose.

"You fools, you may strike me down but my Queen, Bilain, will avenge me," cried the creature, a tall man with pallid skin, crimson eyes and a mouth full of curving fangs. Ayer and the other assembled soldiers, most of whom were seasoned fighting men, gasped in shock. The guards struggled with their charge, and the creature somehow broke free from its bonds, and lashed out at them.

"By Aspelta's might, what is that thing?" Ayer shouted, and he watched haplessly as the creature tore into the guards, and in spite of their fighting prowess, they were no match for it. The monster stood over the fallen guards, ready to slaughter them. The assembled soldiers exchanged looks of pure astonishment. Feven the Huntress, though, seemed to know just what to do. Withdrawing her sword from its scabbard, Feven struck at the monster, and decapitated it with a swift lunge.

"This creature is a Vampire, and this is how you slay them," Feven cried out, and Ayer watched, along with everyone else, as the monster turned to dust before their very eyes. The soldiers stepped forward, and looked at the pile of dust that lay where, moments, the red-eyed and sharp-toothed man stood. Ayer looked at Feven, a mixture of respect and fear on his dark, handsome face.

"Are there more of these things?" Ayer asked, speaking for the other soldiers, most of whom stared dumbfounded at Feven and the Sabajo. Amrof stood there, arms folded over his broad chest, a grim expression on his dour face. Feven the Huntress and the other leaders of the Kushite Imperial Army explained to the assembled troops the truth which had been hidden from them for so long. There were monsters afoot, and the men and women of Kush faced the most dangerous ones of all...

Ayer Kamani and his fellow soldiers listened to this impromptu briefing, and then braced themselves for the monumental task that lay before them. The Kush Empire was under attack, but not from its traditional enemies the people of Kemet, the Axumites, the Punts and others. This time, the brave men and women of Kush faced an enemy from beyond the grave, bloodthirsty revenants hell-bent on destroying them. Silently Ayer prayed to Aspelta, wishing for good fortune in the trying times ahead...

That's how it all began, the nightmare that engulfed Ayer Kamani's life. The Kush Empire found itself under siege from within, as a plague of Vampires descended upon its cities, towns and villages. Night after night, Kushite men and Kushite women armed with swords, spears, and sometimes only sharpened sticks and slingshots, went out to battle the Undead. Each night, the numbers of the Undead swelled, and those of the living diminished...

"We're not going to win this war," Ayer said to Dafur, as they returned to the Casern, after a gruesome night during which scores of Kushite soldiers were either slain or infected by the Vampires, including the legendary Sabajo himself, Amrof, and Dafur's twin brother Maruf. Dafur looked at Ayer through tear-filled eyes and nodded, and the two of them embraced without a word.

"I will avenge my brother," Maruf said at last, and Ayer nodded, and clapped him on the shoulder. Bruised, bloodied but unbroken, the two of them lay on their cots, unable to sleep, until the first rays of dawn bathed the landscape. Only then did they allow themselves to sleep. In recent times, they learned that the Vampires literally owned the night. No one was safe from them until dawn's first light...

The following night, all seemed tranquil, and Ayer went for a walk around town, armed and uniformed, of course. As he walked the streets of Napata, he noticed how eerily quiet everything seemed. From time to time he ran into the occasional patrol, and checked in with them. The Kushite Imperial Army had quickly adapted to a world filled with the Undead. Whenever they encountered a stranger at night, they had silver weapons at the ready. They grabbed the person and forcibly administered the test. Press silver against a Vampire's flesh and it will burn, causing the creature to howl in pain. Works like a charm...

"Hello stranger," came a voice, as Ayer started toward a drinking establishment, and he whirled around, silver sword at the ready. And instantly froze. Before him stood a vision of beauty. A tall woman with dark brown skin and long black hair, her beautiful, slightly angular face dominated by brilliant dark eyes which observed him coolly. Ayer felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, and instantly tensed.

"Who are you, lady? What do you want? You shouldn't be out here alone, there's a curfew in place," Ayer said, and the young woman laughed, and stepped closer. Clad in a crimson toga that wouldn't have looked out of place on a high-born woman, she looked like a noblewoman, one with a fondness for the slums perhaps. As she drew closer, he saw that there was a glazed look in her eyes, not unlike what he'd seen in the eyes of drunkards...

"I'm Bilain, what is your name?" the young woman demanded, and she wrapped her cloak around herself even though it was a warm night. Ayer looked at her and relaxed, somewhat. They stood in the middle of the street, and the lights of the torches hanging on nearby rooftops granted an eerie brilliance to their surroundings. There were a few guardsmen around, and Ayer found that oddly reassuring. He'd tend to this strange young woman and then go about his day...

"I am Ayer, and you shouldn't be here Bilain," Ayer said, and the young woman smiled, and then told him that she was fully aware of the curfew, but did not believe in Vampires. Upon hearing that, Ayer laughed merrily. Once upon a time, he would have had the exact same reaction. When Feven the Huntress and the Sabajo told him and the other soldiers about the Vampires, Ayer thought they were out of their minds. And then he learnt better...

"I am sorry to disturb you, Ayer, I work at that drinking establishment over there, and the owner has decided to put me and the girls out on the street, I have no place to go," Bilain said plaintively, and she looked into Ayer's eyes. The young man flinched, for some reason, and thought of a polite way to send her on her way. Ayer knew exactly what sort of work a woman like Bilain does, and knew how people treated them poorly. Having never had much luck with decent ladies, Ayer developed a fondness for ladies of ill repute...

"Is there someone you can stay with, Bilain? I can give you a few coins, but that's it, I must return to the Casern soon," Ayer said, and Bilain's eyes narrowed, and she looked at him with new interest. Ayer thrust his hand in his kilt pocket, and searched for change. As he did so, he made the mistake of taking his eyes off of Bilain, and she was on him in an instant, like a cat pouncing on a mouse...

"You're one of the soldiers who have been hunting my breed, aren't you? Well, tonight you're the hunted," Bilain said, and she grabbed Ayer and threw him into the dark alley, twenty meters away. Ayer landed with a sickening thud. Winded, dizzy and awestruck, he struggled to his feet. Bilain was on him instantly, and she grabbed him by the neck and shoved him against the wall, hard enough to make his head spin.

"What are you, lady?" Ayer asked, and Bilain smiled, and then sank her teeth into his neck. In that moment, the good man that Ayer Kamani, brother of legendary Kushite Imperial Guardsman Aser Kamani, died. He perished, and his soul departed for the heavens where it belonged. Ayer's body was taken to a secret underground lair, where Bilain held court. As the Vampire Bilain drained away his blood in that alley and replaced it with the poison that flowed through her Undead veins, Ayer's corpse was transformed, and swiftly reanimated.

"I am Bilain, Queen of the Vampires, and I am your mistress now," Bilain said to the fledgling Vampire who lay before her. Ayer rose, and stood on wobbly feet. The fledgling Vampire looked at his mistress, and smiled. Having spent the past few months hunting down, battling and eliminated Vampires, Ayer found it ironic that he had become one of them. Licking his now sharp teeth, Ayer genuflected before his new Queen, and Bilain smiled.

"I, Ayer Kamani, pledge myself to you, Queen Bilain," the fledgling Vampire said, and Bilain smiled and nodded, then gestured for him to rise. Only then did Ayer take a look at his new surroundings. He was deep below ground, in a complex filled with caverns. Everywhere he looked, he saw...them. His fellow Vampires. Men and women, dark-skinned and fair-skinned, the old and the young. The Undead strike force. Bilain's new army.

"Rise, Ayer, and welcome to a new world," Bilain said, and she snapped her fingers, and a couple of Vampires stepped forward. A towering, burly and dark-skinned Kushite, and a bronze-skinned, raven-haired and dark-eyed woman from Kemet. Bilain introduced them as Salbek and Nadia, respectively. Ayer looked at these two, and noticed that, unlike the other Vampires, they looked right back at him. Amusement shone in their eyes, as Ayer suddenly realized that the hundreds of other Vampires that surrounded them were, well, something wasn't quite right with them.