TRIALS OF DEATH
THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN
BOOK 5
TRIALS OF DEATH
THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN
BOOK 5
Copyright
First published in Great Britain by Collins 2001 Collins is an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
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THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN BOOK 5: TRIALS OF DEATH. Text copyright © 2001 Darren Shan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.
Source ISBN: 9780007114405
Ebook Edition © February 2011 ISBN: 9780007435302
Version: 2019-01-14
If your trip to Vampire Mountain leaves you
bloodthirsty for more, visit Shanville
– home of Darren Shan –
at www.darrenshan.com
For:
Nora & Davey – ever-gracious hosts
OBEs (Order of the Bloody Entrails) to:
The enormous, fearsome Emily Ford
Kellee “take no prisoners” Nunley
Mechanics of the Macabre:
Biddy & Liam
Gillie & Zoë
Emma & Chris
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Other Books in the Series The Saga of Darren Shan
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
IF PEOPLE ever tell you vampires aren’t real — don’t believe them! The world’s full of vampires. Not evil, shape-changing, cross-fearing creatures like in the legends, but honorable, long-living, extra-strong beings who need to drink blood to survive. They interfere as little as possible in the affairs of humans, and never kill those they drink from.
Hidden away in some snowy, barely accessible corner of the world, stands Vampire Mountain, where vampires meet every twelve years. The Council (as they call it) is presided over by the Vampire Princes – who are obeyed by all vampires – and most of those in attendance are Vampire Generals, whose job is to govern the walking undead.
In order to present me to the Princes, Mr Crepsley had dragged me along to Vampire Mountain and the Council. Mr Crepsley’s a vampire. I’m his assistant, a half-vampire — my name’s Darren Shan.
It was a long, hard journey. We travelled with a friend of ours – Gavner Purl – four wolves and two Little People, strange creatures who work for a mysterious master by the name of Mr Tiny. One of the Little People was killed on the way by a mad bear which had drunk the blood of a dead vampaneze (they’re like vampires, except they have purple skin, red eyes, nails and hair — and they always kill when they feed). The other then spoke – the first time ever that a Little Person had communicated with anyone – and told us his name was Harkat Mulds. He also delivered a chilling message from Mr Tiny: a Vampaneze Lord would soon come into power and lead the purple-skinned killers into war against the vampires — and win!
Finally we arrived at Vampire Mountain, inside which the vampires lived in a warren of tunnels and large caves. There I made friends with a number of vampires, including Seba Nile, who’d been Mr Crepsley’s teacher when he was younger; Arra Sails, one of the few female vampires; Vanez Blane, a one-eyed games master; and Kurda Smahlt, a General who was soon to become a Prince.
The Princes and most of the Generals weren’t impressed with me. They said I was too young to be a vampire and criticized Mr Crepsley for blooding me. To prove myself worthy of being a half-vampire, I had to undertake the Trials of Initiation, a series of tough tests usually reserved for budding Generals. When I was making up my mind to accept the challenge, they told me that if I passed, I’d be accepted into the vampire ranks. What they neglected to tell me until afterwards (when it was too late to back out) was that if I failed — I’d be killed!
CHAPTER ONE
THE VAST cavern known as the Hall of Khledon Lurt was almost deserted. Apart from those sitting at my table – Gavner, Kurda and Harkat – there was only one other vampire present, a guard who sat by himself and sipped from a mug of ale, whistling tunelessly.
Roughly four hours had passed since I learned I was to be judged in the Trials of Initiation. I still didn’t know very much about the Trials, but from the glum faces of my companions, and by what had been said in the Hall of Princes, I gathered my chances of emerging victorious were, at best, slim.
While Kurda and Gavner muttered on about my Trials, I studied Harkat, who I hadn’t seen much of recently (he’d been cooped up in the Hall of Princes, answering questions). He was dressed in his traditional blue robes, although he now wore his hood down, no longer bothering to hide his grey, scarred, stitched-together face. Harkat had no nose, and his ears were sewn beneath the skin of his skull. He had a pair of large, round, green eyes, set near the top of his head. His mouth was jagged and full of sharp teeth. Normal air was poisonous to him – ten or twelve hours of it would kill him – so he wore a special mask which kept him alive.