The Taint and Other Novellas

by Brian Lumley

  “You get more like a dictionary every day!” Crow jokingly complained. But his smile quickly turned to a frown. “Olaus Worm, eh? Could a Latinized version of that be Olaus Wormius, I wonder?”

  “What, old Wormius who translated the Greek Necronomicon? No, not possible, for he was thirteenth century.”

  Crow sighed and rubbed his brow. “Sir,” he said, “you’ve thrown me right off the rails. No, I meant worship of the beast—the annelid, if you like—worship of the maggot.”

  Now it was Sedgewick’s turn to frown. “The maggot!” he repeated. “Ah, but now you’re talking about a different kettle of worms entirely. A maggot is a grave -worm. Now, if that’s the sort of worm you mean…have you tried The Mysteries of the Worm?”

  Crow gasped. The Mysteries of the Worm! He had seen a copy in Carstairs’ library, had even handled it. Old Ludwig Prinn’s De Vermis Mysteriis!

  Seeing his look, Sedgewick said: “Oh? Have I said something right?”

  “Prinn.” Crow’s agitation was obvious. “He was Flemish, wasn’t he?”

  “Correct! A sorcerer, alchemist and necromancer. He was burned in Brussels. He wrote his book in prison shortly before his execution, and the manuscript found its way to Cologne where it was posthumously published.”

  “Do you have a copy in English?”

  Sedgewick smiled and shook his head. “I believe there is such a copy—circa 1820, the work of one Charles Leggett, who translated it from the German black-letter—but we don’t have it. I can let you see a black-letter, if you like.”

  Crow shook his head. “No, it gives me a headache just thinking of it. My knowledge of antique German simply wouldn’t run to it. What about the Latin?”

  “We have half of it. Very fragile. You can see but you can’t touch.”

  “Can’t touch? Sir—I want to borrow it!”

  “Out of the question, old chap. Worth my job.”

  “The black-letter, then.” Crow was desperate. “Can I have a good long look at it? Here? Privately?”

  The other, pursed his lips and thought it over for a moment or two, and finally smiled. “Oh, I daresay so. And I suppose you’d like some paper and a pen, too, eh? Come on, then.”

  A few minutes later, seated at a table in a tiny private room, Crow opened the black-letter—and from the start he knew he was in for a bad time, that the task was near hopeless. Nonetheless he struggled on, and two hours later Sedgewick looked in to find him deep in concentration, poring over the decorative but difficult pages. Hearing the master librarian enter, Crow looked up.

  “This could be exactly what I’m looking for,” he said. “I think it’s here—in the chapter called ‘Saracenic Rituals.’”

  ”Ah, the Dark Rites of the Saracens, eh?” said Sedgewick. “Well, why didn’t you say so? We have the ‘Rituals’ in a translation!”

  “In English?” Crow jumped to his feet.

  Sedgewick nodded. “The work is anonymous, I’m afraid—by Clergyman X, or some such, and of course I can’t guarantee its reliability—but if you want it—”

  “I do!” said Crow.

  Sedgewick’s face grew serious. “Listen, we’re closing up shop soon. If I get it for you—that is if I let you take it with you—I must have your word that you’ll take infinite care of it. I mean, my heart will quite literally be in my mouth until it’s returned.”

  “You know you have my word,” Crow answered at once.

  Ten minutes later Sedgewick saw him out of the building. Along the way Crow asked him, “Now how do you suppose Prinn, a native of Brussels, knew so much about the practice of black magic among the Syria-Arabian nomads?”

  Sedgewick opened his encyclopedic mind. “I’ve read something about that somewhere,” he said. “He was a much-traveled man, Prinn, and lived for many years among an order of Syrian wizards in the Jebel el Ansariye. That’s where he would have learned his stuff. Disguised as beggars or holy men, he and others of the order would make pilgrimages to the world’s most evil places, which were said to be conducive to the study of demonology. I remember one such focal point of evil struck me as singularly unusual, being as it was situated on the shore of Galilee! Old Prinn lived in the ruins there for some time. Indeed, he names it somewhere in his book.” Sedgewick frowned. “Now, what was the place called…?”

  “Chorazin!” said Crow flatly, cold fingers clutching at his heart.

  “Yes, that’s right,” answered the other, favoring Crow with an appraising glance. “You know, sometimes I think you’re after my job! Now, do look after that pamphlet, won’t you?”

  • • •

  That night, through Saturday and all of Sunday, Crow spent his time engrossed in the “Saracenic Rituals” reduced to the early nineteenth-century English of Clergyman X, and though he studied the pamphlet minutely still it remained a disappointment. Indeed, it seemed that he might learn more from the lengthy preface than from the text itself. Clergyman X (whoever he had been) had obviously spent a good deal of time researching Ludwig Prinn, but not so very much on the actual translation.

  In the preface the author went into various dissertations on Prinn’s origins, his lifestyle, travels, sources and sorceries—referring often and tantalizingly to other chapters in De Vermis Mysteriis, such as those on familiars, on the demons of the Cthulhu Myth Cycle, on divination, necromancy, elementals and vampires—but when it came to actually getting a few of Prinn’s blasphemies down on paper, here he seemed at a loss. Or perhaps his religious background had deterred him.

  Again and again Crow would find himself led on by the writer, on the verge of some horrific revelation, only to be let down by the reluctance of X to divulge Prinn’s actual words. As an example, there was the following passage with its interesting extract from Alhazred’s Al Azif, which in turn gave credit to an even older work by Ibn Schacabao:

  And great Wisdom was in Alhazred, who had seen the Work of the Worm and knew it well. His Words were ever cryptic, but never less than here, where he discusses the Crypts of the Worm-Wizards of olden Irem, and something of their Sorceries:

  “The nethermost Caverns,” (said he) “are not for the fathoming of Eyes that see; for their Marvels are strange and terrific. Cursed the Ground where dead Thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil the Mind that is held by no Head. Wisely did Ibn Schacabao say, that happy is the Town whose Wizards are all Ashes. For it is of old Rumor, that the Soul of the Devil-bought hastes not from his charnel Clay, but fats and instructs the very Worm that gnaws, till out of corruption horrid Life springs, and the dull Scavengers of Earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great Holes secretly are digged where Earth’s Pores ought to suffice, and Things have learned to walk that ought to crawl…”

  In Syria, with my own Eyes, I Ludwig Prinn saw one Wizard of Years without Number transfer himself to the Person of a younger man, whose Number he had divined; when at the appointed Hour he spoke the Words of the Worm. And this is what I saw…” [Editor’s note: Prinn’s description of the dissolution of the wizard and the investment of himself into his host is considered too horrific and monstrous to permit of any merely casual or unacquainted perusal—X]

  Crow’s frustration upon reading such as this was enormous; but in the end it was this very passage which lent him his first real clue to the mystery, and to Carstairs’ motive; though at the time, even had he guessed the whole truth, still he could not have believed it. The clue lay in the references to the wizard knowing the younger man’s number—and on rereading that particular line Crow’s mind went back to his first meeting with Carstairs, when the man had so abruptly inquired about his date of birth. Crow had lied, adding four whole years to his span and setting the date at 2 December 1912. Now, for the first time, he considered that date from the numerologists’ point of view, in which he was expert.

  According to the orthodox system, the date 2 December 1912 would add up thus:

  2

  12

  1

  9

/>   1

  2

  = 27 and 2 +7 = 9

  Or: 27 = Triple 9

  Nine could be considered as being either the Death Number or the number of great spiritual and mental achievement. And of course the finding would be reinforced by the fact that there were nine letters in Crow’s name—if that were the true date of his birth, which it was not.

  To use a different system, the fictional date’s numbers would add up thus:

  2

  1

  2

  1

  9

  1

  2

  =18 and 1 + 8 = 9

  Or: 18 = Triple 6

  Triple six! The number of the Beast in Revelations! Crow’s head suddenly reeled. Dimly, out of some forgotten corner of his mind, he heard an echoing voice say, “His numbers are most propitious…propitious…propitious…” And when he tried to tie that voice down it wriggled free, saying, “Not worth it…just a dream…unimportant…utterly unimportant…”

  He shook himself, threw down his pen—then snatched it back up. Now Crow glared at the familiar room about him as a man suddenly roused from nightmare. “It is important!” he cried. “Damned important!”

  But of course there was no one to hear him.

  Later, fortified with coffee and determined to carry on, he used the

  Hebrew system to discover his number, in which the letters of the alphabet stand for numbers and a name’s total equals the total of the man. Since this system made no use of the 9, he might reasonably expect a different sort of answer. But this was his result:

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  A B C D E U O F

  I K G M H V Z P

  Q R L T N W

  J S X

  Y

  Titus Crow equals T,4 I,1 T,4 U,6 S,3 C,3 R,2 O,7 W,6. Which is 4 + 1 + 4 + 6 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 7 + 6 = 36. And 3 + 6 = 9. Or 36, a double 18. The Beast redoubled!

  Propitious? In what way? For whom? Certainly not for himself!

  For Carstairs?

  Slowly, carefully, Titus Crow put down his pen…

  VII

  To Carstairs, waiting in the shadow of his doorway, it seemed that Crow took an inordinately long time to park his car in the garage, and when he came into view there were several things about him which in other circumstances might cause concern. A semidisheveled look to his clothes; a general tiredness in his bearing; an unaccustomed hang to his leonine head and a gritty redness of eye. Carstairs, however, was not at all concerned; on the contrary, he had expected no less.

  As for Crow: despite his outward appearance, he was all awareness! The inflammation of his eyes had been induced by a hard rubbing with a mildly irritating but harmless ointment; the disheveled condition of his dress and apparent lack of will were deliberately affected. In short, he was acting, and he was a good actor.

  “Mr. Crow,” said Carstairs as Crow entered the house. “Delighted to have you back.” And the other sensed a genuine relief in the occultist’s greeting. Yes, he was glad to have him back. “Have you breakfasted?”

  “Thank you, yes—on my way here.” Crow’s voice was strained, hoarse, but this too was affected.

  Carstairs smiled, leading the way to the library. At the door he said, “Ah, these long weekends! How they take it out of one, eh? Well, no doubt you enjoyed the break.”

  As Crow passed into the library, Carstairs remained in the corridor. “I shall look in later,” he said, “when perhaps you’ll tell me something of the system you’ve devised for your work—and something of the progress you are making. Until then…” And he quietly closed the door on Crow.

  Now the younger man straightened up. He went directly to his worktable and smiled sardonically at the bottle of wine, its cork half-pulled, which stood there waiting for him. He pulled the cork, poured a glass, took the bottle to the barred windows and opened one a crack, then stuck the neck of the bottle through the bars and poured the filthy stuff away into the garden. The empty bottle he placed in his alcove bedroom, out of sight.

  Then, seating himself and beginning to work, he forced himself to concentrate on the task in hand—the cataloging of Carstairs’ books, as if that were the real reason he was here—and so without a break worked steadily through the morning. About midday, when he was sure that he had done enough to satisfy his employer’s supposed curiosity, should that really be necessary, he made himself coffee. Later he would eat, but not for an hour or so yet.

  The morning had not been easy. His eyes had kept straying to the library shelf where he knew an edition of Prinn’s book stood waiting for his eager attention. But he dared not open the thing while there was a chance that Carstairs might find him with it. He must be careful not to arouse the occultist’s suspicions. Also, there was the glass of red wine close to hand, and Crow had found himself tempted. But in removing the symptoms of his supposed addiction, Harry Townley had also gone a good deal of the way toward curbing the need itself; so that Crow half suspected it was his own perverse nature that tempted him once more to taste the stuff, as if in contempt of Carstairs’ attempted seduction of his senses.

  And the glass was still there, untouched, when half an hour later Carstairs quietly knocked and strode into the room. His first act on entering was to go directly to the windows and draw the shades, before moving to the table and picking up Crow’s notes. Saying nothing, he studied them for a moment, and Crow could see that he was mildly surprised. He had not expected Crow to get on quite so well, that much was obvious. Very well, in future he would do less. It made little difference, really, for by now he was certain that the “work” was very much secondary to Carstairs’ real purpose in having him here. If only he could discover what that purpose really was…

  “I am very pleased, Mr. Crow,” said Carstairs presently. “Extremely so. Even in adverse conditions you appear to function remarkably well.”

  “Adverse conditions?”

  “Come, now! It is dim here—drab, lonely and less than comfortable. Surely these are adverse conditions?”

  “I work better when left alone,” Crow answered. “And my eyes seem to have grown accustomed to meager light.”

  Carstairs had meanwhile spotted the glass of wine, and turning his head to scan the room he casually searched for the bottle. He did not seem displeased by Crow’s apparent capacity for the stuff.

  “Ah…” Crow mumbled. “Your wine. I’m afraid I—”

  ”Now, no apologies, young man,” Carstairs held up a hand. “I have more than plenty of wine. Indeed, it gives me pleasure that you seem to enjoy it so. And perhaps it makes up for the otherwise inhospitable conditions, which I am sure are not in accordance with your usual mode of existence. Very well, I leave you to it. I shall be here for the rest of today—I have work in my study—but tomorrow I expect to be away. I shall perhaps see you on Wednesday morning?” And with that he left the library.

  Satisfied that he was not going to be disturbed any further, without bothering to open the window shades, Crow took down De Vermis Mysteriis from its shelf and was at once dismayed to discover the dark, cracked leather bindings of the German black-letter, almost the duplicate of the book he had looked into in the British Museum. His dismay turned to delight, however, on turning back the heavy cover and finding, pasted into the old outer shell a comparatively recent work whose title page declared it to be:

  THE MYSTERIES OF THE WORM

  being

  THE COMPLETE BOOK

  in sixteen chapters

  With many dozens wood engravings;

  representing

  THE ORIGINAL WORK

  of

  LUDWIG PRINN,

  after translation

  By Charles Leggett,

  and including his notes;

  this being Number Seven

  of a very Limited Edition,

  LONDON

  1821

  Crow immediately took the, book through into his alcove room and placed it under his pillow. It would keep until tonight. Then he unpacked a
few things, hiding Townley’s gun under his mattress near the foot of the bed. Finally, surprised to find he had developed something of an appetite, he decided upon lunch.

  But then, as he drew the curtains on the alcove and crossed the room toward the library door, something caught his eye. It was an obscene, white wriggling shape on the faded carpet where Carstairs had stood. He took it to the window but there, even as he made to toss it into the garden, discovered a second worm crawling on the wainscotting. Now he was filled with revulsion. These were two worms too many!

  He disposed of the things, poured the still-untouched glass of wine after them and went straight to Carstairs’ study. Knocking, he heard dull movements within, and finally the occultist’s voice:

  “Come in, Mr. Crow.”

  This surprised him, for until now the room had supposedly been forbidden to him. Nevertheless he opened the door and went in. The gloom inside made shadows of everything, particularly the dark figure seated at the great desk. A thick curtain had been drawn across the single window and only the dim light of a desk lamp, making a pool of feeble yellow atop the desk, gave any illumination at all. And now, here in these close quarters, the musty smell of the old house had taken to itself an almost charnel taint which was so heavy as to be overpowering.

  “I was resting my eyes, Mr. Crow,” came Carstairs’ sepulchral rumble. “Resting this weary old body of mine. Ah, what it must be to be young! Is there something?”

  “Yes,” said Crow firmly. “A peculiar and very morbid thing. I just thought I should report it.”

  “A peculiar thing? Morbid? To what do you refer?” Carstairs sat up straighter behind his desk.