Hellogon

by John Booth

  Peter let the fake anger drop as he asked the question. He needed to pump Ilarna for information. She sidled up to him and batted her eyelashes provocatively. Ilarna brought her hands to where her dress barely held her breasts in place, and pulled the top of her dress with her hands to reveal a little more of them. “Do you not find me attractive, my lord?”

  As she spoke, Peter felt a force try to grab him and ensnare him, but some inbuilt defence immediately overwhelmed it.

  “I think that before calling other beings cows you should examine yourself in the mirror.” Peter told her dismissively, and saw a flash of anger run across Ilarna’s eyes before she suppressed it. “Where’s Lord Baldan?”

  Ilarna dodged past him and went to the other side of the room, “He is downstairs in the Banqueting Hall awaiting your return. I am not considered old enough to take part in such ceremonies or play the Great Game with the adults.” Ilarna spoke the word adult as though it was an insult. “Despite the fact I achieved my majority over a year ago and still live, they treat me like a child. Can I offer you a drink, my Lord Cragus?” she said, changing the subject. She opened an intricately carved wooden cabinet containing bottles and glasses.

  “He’s waiting for me to arrive with Solly?” Peter asked as Ilarna prepared the drinks. Solly told him he would get to meet his clan today if he came to the furniture store, and it must be getting on for midday back on Earth.

  “Soluman the Grimm?” Ilarna asked rhetorically, “Yes, there are Vampires and Grimms below, though they didn’t tell me the details of their plans. They just told me they planned to greet you today.”

  Ilarna placed two delicate crystal wine glasses filled with black wine on a small silver platter and lifted if towards him. “Partake of a drink with me, my lord?”

  She’s got to be kidding me, Peter thought. He could see from her body language that she was up to something and strongly suspected at least one of the glasses contained poison or a knock-out potion. He would’ve received detention for such a poor presentation of a ploy, if not caned for it. Peter decided to play along and see what happened.

  “I’d love a drink.”

  Instead of taking the drink nearest to him, he reached over to the far one and watched her eyes. From her reaction, he was almost certain he held the safe glass. Ilarna blinked involuntarily as he took the glass. “Come on, young lady. I don’t drink alone. Pick up your glass and sip with me.”

  Ilarna dropped the platter when she took the drink because her hands were shaking. “Never mind that,” Peter ordered as she bent down to pick the platter up. “Drink with me.”

  Ilarna hesitated and looked as though she might drop her glass. Peter moved close to her, catching her hand in his and forcing her to hold the glass tightly. He felt a force extend itself from his eyes as he again commanded her. “Drink the wine, Ilarna. Drink it now.”

  Ilarna had gone from a commanding presence to that of a little girl. She looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car, unable to escape. The force in Peter’s words brought the glass up to her lips. Her dark lips parted and she ran her tongue across them trying to use her tongue to get her mouth to close. Peter stood so close that he could hear her heart beat rising as death beckoned. He was now certain her drink contained poison.

  No doubt if she succeeded in killing him, she would gain status in the game. As it was, her death wouldn’t even make a footnote in the history of the Vampires. Her eyes shone with terror, but her hand still moved the glass to her lips.

  The glass touched her mouth, which opened sensuously, ready to sip the wine. Driven by the energy in Peter’s words she couldn’t resist his command. The glass tilted and the wine lapped like a deadly lake, closer and closer. Death called to her.

  Peter knocked the glass from her hand. The fragile crystal shattered into a thousand pieces as it hit the floor. Where the wine touched the floor, plumes of smoke formed.

  The spell between Peter and Ilarna broke and she drew back, gasping as though there was no air in the room. She looked at Peter in a mixture of despair and surprise. “Why didn’t you kill me, my lord?”

  Peter remembered Sal saying that in Hellogon there was power in words and promises meant a great deal. As he wasn’t going to kill the girl, he would have to rely on that being true.

  “Swear fealty to me now or I’ll make you lick the wine from the floor. Are you capable of loyalty, little girl?” He commanded her answer, making his voice appropriately gruff. He needed to see the look in her eyes as she spoke to see if her promise carried any weight.

  Ilarna pressed up against him, her breasts pushing against his chest. “I will, my lord. I will swear loyalty because you have shown mercy to me.”

  Peter felt sure she was sincere. She acted somewhat like a puppy who had found a new owner. He wasn’t sure whether this was a good or a bad thing, but Peter didn’t doubt her word. “Then swear it,” he commanded and Ilarna dropped to her knees burying her face in his crotch.

  Before Peter could decide whether this was an unusual sexual custom, Ilarna pulled both his hands over her head so they rested on her hair and moved back from where her breath had been doing strange things to him. “I swear the great oath of fealty to you, Lord Cragus, to be my master from this day on. If I should fail you, I will cut my own heart out before you. This I swear before the gods.”

  Ilarna rose from her position but not before placing a kiss through his jeans on what had become a noticeable bulge. No one in his school would believe a word of this if he ever got the chance to tell them. Probably just as well I’ll never get the chance, Peter thought ruefully.

  “We’re going down to the Banqueting Hall, Ilarna.”

  “I can’t. I am forbidden,” Ilarna said in a shy school girl sort of voice.

  “That won’t do. I need them to see my staff are important. Tell me, Ilarna, what position could you hold in this castle under me? Err…, I mean an official position.”

  “There is Castlemaine,” Ilarna said doubtfully. “That is the person responsible for keeping the castle in working order. But it is a very important position and I could not…”

  “That’ll do.” Peter put a finger over her lips to stop her talking. “We’ll go downstairs and you’ll go ahead of me into the Banqueting Hall and announce my arrival and your new position. Do you understand?”

  * * *

  Ilarna was trembling as she walked down the wide stone staircase to the hall below. They reached two massive oak doors and Ilarna informed him they were at the entrance to the Hall.

  “I’ll open them for you. Then you stride in and make the announcement,” Peter said, and gave Ilarna a quick kiss on the cheek. “That was for luck. Go do your best.”

  Peter pulled the iron-ring handles of the great doors and they opened silently on enormous hinges, and stood well back as their momentum carried them round to crash loudly against the walls. Ilarna took a deep breath and strode forward.

  “Lords of the Vampires and Cohorts of the Grimm. I, Ilarna Dran, appointed Castlemaine to Lord Peter Cragus, heir to the Castle Cragus and all its possessions, ask you bid his lordship welcome!”

  Ilarna’s voice held firm, but at the end of it she looked like a naughty schoolgirl and stared down at her shoes. Peter heard tittering from the men in the room.

  He strode into the room before their titters could turn to outright laughter. “Thank you, my Castlemaine. Now go about your appointed duties while I talk to the assembly.”

  Ilarna scuttled out of the room as if being chased with a whip.

  Peter saw a long table in front of him. Fifty or so Vampires sat down one side of it and an equal number of Grimms sat along the other. Seeing Grimms in the flesh for the first time, Peter was surprised how handsome they were. Their skin glistened on their naked torsos while they wore elegant loincloths, held up by thick leather belts.

  One of the Grimm hurtled towards him at a speed far beyond anything he could have imagined. Peter thought only a Vampire would be able to se
e it happen. The Grimm stopped in front of him with a clawed hand raised and the long incisors in his mouth sticking out.

  “Hi, Solly,” Peter said, as he grabbed the hand and shook it. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the furniture store today. I got waylaid. Well, I certainly got laid. I can assure you of that.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Discussions

  They sat in discussions across the table for four long hours. Peter found it hard to keep his anger in check. He didn’t know which of these two species was more dim witted, the Grimms on the far side of the table or the Vampires on his side. He was, however, beginning to understand the urges these idiots had for killing each other.

  Peter tried to calm down. The banqueting hall of Castle Cragus was impressive. The ceiling was at least thirty feet above him while the room itself was at least a hundred feet long by fifty feet wide. Four large crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling along the centre line. Each chandelier held several hundred candles. Exquisite tapestries adorned the walls, showing historical scenes of Vampire murder and pillage with the odd bit of tasteful poisoning thrown in for good measure. A line of arched windows graced the upper part of the wall.

  Human slaves waited on them hand and foot, though the Vampires called them serfs. The serfs looked pale, presumably as a consequence of a lack of normal sunlight. Some of them showed signs of rickets. Peter concluded it would never occur to the Vampires to import vitamin D. Humans were disposable animals in this world. The serfs kept their heads down. Peter suspected that daring to look a Vampire in the eye would shorten a serf’s lifespan.

  * * *

  Peter had assumed his position as heir to the Cragus line. He received some evil looks from First Lord Baldan, a distinguished Vampire who looked about fifty years old. His second in command, Lord Drogwar, looked mean. However, no one of them dared to question Peter’s authority. Peter suspected this state of affairs wouldn’t last long, but he planned to savour it while it did.

  The leader of the Grimms was a grizzled old warrior called Geldar. It took Peter twenty minutes to realise Geldar was female. He didn’t know what the Vampires thought of her, but she certainly scared him. Solly, or Soluman as they called him here, wasn’t part of the official Grimm delegation. He was merely regarded as someone useful to have at the meeting. Peter deduced from some of the talk that Solly became part of this meeting on his promise to deliver Peter. Peter’s method of arrival may not have been the one Solly planned, but Peter was sure Solly claimed it as his idea all along.

  “We must strike at the heart of the Warlocks in Zandar,” Lord Baldan said energetically. Lord Baldan was much into striking and smiting things. It must have been the fiftieth time that he made that particular suggestion. The response he got from Geldar was much the same as all the other times.

  “The kill ratio is not acceptable. We must kill at least three Warlocks for every death on our side. It is simple profit and loss accounting.”

  “Enough!” Peter shouted. He felt encouraged when the room became silent. “I need a break from all this bickering.”

  “Lord Cragus is right,” Solly said. “We’ve been discussing the situation far too long. Shall we reconvene in an hour when everybody has had a chance to reflect?” There were nods of approval, especially on the Grimm side. The assembled host got up from the table and made their way to the door.

  Peter noticed that many of those present checked their Rolex watches as they left. Though totally incongruous, human technology was desirable in Hellogon. Apparently only small technological items made it through the portals unscathed.

  Solly grabbed Peter by the arm and led him to a small private apartment. The room was richly decorated with yet more tapestries, these ones concentrating on Vampires performing coupling. Several of the positions looked highly implausible.

  A serf stood waiting in the room, a young girl, perhaps twelve or thirteen years old. She cowered as she opened the drinks cabinet. Solly cuffed her about the head and ordered her to leave. She ran out of the room as if her life depended on it.

  “I was surprised when you arrived here on your own.” Solly poured Peter a drink. “It’s a long way from the Sunner Gate and the way to Castle Cragus is far from obvious.”

  Peter noted the carelessness of Solly’s words. Perhaps Solly wanted him to know, but Peter was already well ahead of him. “I just followed the river, Solly. Having only attended one of these meetings, I’m not sure I can take much more stupidity.”

  “You sounded like your father when you said that. He once told me the species of Hellogon were bent on self-destruction and that’s why he was leaving for good.” Solly walked over to Peter with the two glasses in his claws. He offered one to Peter.

  “He was right.” Peter sighed. He took the glass and had a long drink. The drink tasted like fire and then warmed him as it reached his stomach. “According to Lord Baldan’s estimates, he thinks there are approximately eight thousand Vampires left. How many Grimms are left, Solly, three thousand?”

  “Perhaps less. Our population experienced a decline a couple of centuries ago when the Warlocks targeted our women.”

  “There may be as many as ten thousand Warlocks or as few as five thousand, nobody in the Banqueting Hall seems to know. And as for Dragons, no one has seen any Dragon but Han No. You should be worried about extinction, but instead you play the Great Game.” Peter paused for breath and took another sip of his drink. “You kill each other more than the enemy does. Four out of five Vampires die at the hands of their own kind. Baldan told me he kills eighteen year olds that look intelligent, so they don’t become a threat. This place is a madhouse and the lunatics have taken over the asylum.”

  Solly sighed deeply. “The Game’s important here. How else can you assess your worth? The Vampires and the Grimms balance Han No and the Warlocks. Each claim they have the upper hand.” Solly subsided into a chair, his wings folding back to present a smooth surface.

  “If you let Han No take the prize, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

  “We would know, Peter. The shame would be too much.”

  “And you, Solly? What of these stone gargoyles? How do they come into the great game?” Peter was pleased to see Solly jump up and look around, startled out of his complacency.

  “Be careful what you say. No one here knows anything about them and I’d prefer to keep it that way.” Solly convinced from a quick look around that they were not going to be overheard.

  “Tell me about them, Solly,” Peter prompted. Given the small number of protagonists available for battle, the number of items in the crates had more than a little significance.

  “I’ll tell you if you’ll answer my questions about the Establishment,” Solly countered.

  “Done.”

  “We Grimms do not produce many females and they are fiercer warriors than the males. You should see them on Earth, Peter. Even though they look like small fat women they’d still take your breath away, they’re such brilliant business-women.” Solly paused, his mouth open in a wide grin showing his long fangs.

  “Some centuries ago, our females began vanishing. This was strange because the Dragons rarely attack us and Warlocks lose in any normal battle. Though they can turn us to stone, the magic wears off quickly and then we kill them. The effects on our population were devastating and our species never recovered. One day the losses stopped as suddenly as they began.”

  “It was while I was in South Africa with your father that I discovered what happened to our women.”

  “They’d been turned to stone and portaled to Earth where they remained stone,” Peter finished for him.

  Solly’s mouth fell open. “How did you work it out?”

  “Establishment training plus your own interest in finding and collecting them. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” Peter gave a laugh. Solly continued with his story.

  “When Warlocks open a temporary portal, it can open anywhere on Earth. Most of the Earth is water a
nd I’m sure many of our women lie buried in mud and silt under the sea. The Warlocks must have caught them while asleep. The ones you saw at the dock were in our sleeping position. Some of the women ended up adorning churches when humans found them. Those are the ones I’ve found.”

  “Do you really believe they will change back to living Grimms when you bring them back?” Peter was sceptical. “You said it yourself, they’ve been like that for centuries and they look so worn.”

  “I know they will. I brought one back as an experiment. She remains in hiding because Han No will act if he discovers what I’ve been doing,” Solly whispered. “Now it’s your turn. What is the Establishment’s purpose? I’ve never been able to find out. Are you spies?”

  Peter choked on his drink and spent a minute coughing.

  “The Establishment was founded in 1862 by a group of ex-soldiers loyal to Queen Victoria. The organisation doesn’t officially exist. It isn’t in any way connected with Military Intelligence, neither organisations 5 or 6, though I can see why people might think it is.”

  “The Establishment’s purpose is economic warfare against rivals of the Empire, or as it is now, the United Kingdom. It helps in economic revivals as well as economic destruction. It hasn’t always been used effectively. Between the first and second world wars, it wasn’t employed at all, though it never disbanded. It is forbidden for it to operate within the UK.”

  “We’re trained to enter a country and destabilise it. We might form a trade union making unreasonable demands, or infiltrate its companies and make conditions for the workers so bad they go on strike. We destroyed the industry of the Soviet Union in the nineteen seventies and we helped the pro-western countries of that dissolution get back on their feet afterwards.”

  “My father met my mother in South Africa where she was working on strategies and tactics to keep the country afloat during the regime change. Not that the president or his government knew we were involved. We are always covert and our agents often die. It’s the nature of the Establishment to annoy people.”