Thaumatology 08 - Ancient

by Teasdale, Niall

  ‘While we’re waiting, pet,’ Ceri said, her voice soft, ‘why don’t you exercise that talented tongue of yours.’ It was clearly an order rather than a question and Lily bent smoothly to duck her head under Ceri’s skirt. A few seconds later and Ceri was lying back on the chair, her book forgotten, as Lily’s pointy little tongue worked its magic.

  The gentle licking stopped, after minutes or hours of bliss, and Ceri let out a whimper of frustration. Lily had not been feeding which meant that Ceri was left sprawled on her chair with her nerves on fire and her body begging for more, and she totally failed to notice the sense of alarm coming over her link with Lily until the half-succubus spoke.

  ‘Ceri?’ It was the fact that she did not use “Mistress” which made Ceri pay attention. ‘Something’s not right,’ Lily went on, her voice low.

  Ceri turned her head, her Sight cutting in as she did so, and she gasped. Perhaps three or four yards down the room the light seemed to vanish as though a thick cloud of boiling, oily smoke had taken up residence in the library. Her Sight showed the bending of the magic field which was causing the darkness. This was a spell; there was magic swallowing the light. But it also looked far too much like another wall of darkness they had seen recently.

  ‘It can’t be him,’ Ceri murmured. ‘He’s dead. We saw him die.’

  ‘I don’t like the coincidence.’

  ‘No, neither do I.’ If it was magic, she could do something about it. Ceri pulled her power together and pushed out at the wall of smoke, watching it pull back, revealing the room beyond, and something suddenly moving to escape into the shadows. Ceri looked at Lily.

  ‘That looked bad,’ Lily said, ‘and I’m really not dressed for fighting.’

  ‘If I’d known there was going to be weird shit, I wouldn’t have put you in six-inch pumps.’ Ceri frowned and started to rise, Lily moving as she did. ‘Maybe some of his followers. That was a spell, not like his darkness.’

  ‘How did they get in?’

  ‘Don’t care. If they’re hiding in patches of darkness and running off when uncovered, they aren’t friendly.’

  ‘Well, I can kick them real hard. You’re the only one with effective weaponry.’

  ‘If they’re some of his converts, they’ll be young. Your aura should work on them. We need to find Arabella and the rest of the staff.’

  ‘Uh-huh. You notice that drink never arrived.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Come on.’

  There was no sign of anything on the corridor outside. No vampires, no darkness. Ceri reached out and laid a hand of Lily’s shoulder, pulling power through her and focussing her will to search the building. ‘Nothing alive in the upper levels.’

  ‘The dungeon then?’

  ‘If I were going to take prisoners, I’d take them there.’

  ‘Unless everyone’s dead.’

  Ceri grimaced. ‘I’d prefer option one.’ She headed for the stairs; the lift seemed like a bad idea in the circumstances. As they started down, however, it seemed like less of a great idea; darkness filled the stairwell below them. Nothing was visible within it, but Ceri got the distinct feeling that there was something there.

  ‘It’s behind us too,’ Lily whispered.

  Ceri glanced back. The corridor above was now a blanket of black and from it a voice hissed out. ‘The Master wants you, sorceress.’

  Ceri moved, her arm swinging back, and a six-foot column of flame erupted from her hand. A scream erupted from a throat as the fire contacted someone standing in the darkness. A second vampire leapt out of the darkness below, roaring in anger, only to meet Lily’s knee slamming up into his chest. The roar turned into a gasp and then a shriek as Lily caught the man’s arm, wrenching it up and back as he fell. There was a sickening popping sound as his shoulder joint gave out.

  The vampire above them, his left shirt sleeve smouldering, emerged from the darkness, hands raised to claw at Ceri. She flicked her hand upward and the stream of fire hit him right in the face. There was the smell of burning flesh and something which sounded horribly like an eyeball exploding. Fighting the urge to throw up, Ceri ducked to one side as the vampire fell past her into the failing darkness below. She turned, only to wish she had not as she saw Lily pulling her heel free from the base of her victim’s skull.

  ‘Not bad for a chick in heels, huh?’ Lily said.

  ‘My head is awed. My stomach, not so much.’

  Lily grinned up at her, then the smiles fell away. ‘Their “master”?’

  ‘I hit him right between the shoulder blades, Lil. I saw what was left of the corpse. The bastard was a cinder!’

  Lily shrugged. ‘Dungeon?’

  ‘Dungeon.’

  They met no one else on the way down. Nothing got in their way, perhaps because of what they had done to the last two vamps, though Ceri had the feeling that whoever was waiting in the dungeon did not want to delay them any further.

  Someone had broken half the light bulbs. The dimly lit corridors were even more dimly lit than usual and the rooms were dark, except for a few where the lights had been left untouched. Ceri flinched as she looked into the first of them. The woman hanging by her wrists from the ceiling was covered in blood. Her naked body showed multiple bite wounds and red streaks ran down from her throat, breasts, and thighs. There was no sign of any vampires nearby and Ceri stood guard while Lily checked the girl’s pulse. Ceri’s jaw clenched as Lily shook her head and came out again.

  Two rooms down and they found another woman in a cell. This one had been chained to a whipping post and flayed. There was almost no skin on her back and she too was dead.

  ‘Whoever is behind this,’ Ceri said through gritted teeth, ‘I’m going to pull their spine out and beat them to death with it.’

  ‘That might be a little redundant,’ Lily suggested. ‘Not that I’m going to stop you.’

  Then they found the first male victim. He had been placed facedown and sideways on a table, his arms spread and shackled to the corners. Someone had torn his back open, severed the ribs along his spine and broken them apart, and then his lungs had been pulled out and spread out on either side of his neck. Some part of Ceri’s mind recognised it as an old, semi-legendary, Norse torture; the Blood Eagle. The rest of her mind was too busy dealing with throwing up.

  She heard a sound over the rushing in her ears and then hands were grabbing her. She let out a shriek and tried to focus, but they had picked the perfect time to attack. When Ceri had regained control of her stomach she was in one of the cells, her wrists held behind her back by two very strong hands.

  ‘Such power, but a weak stomach.’ The accent was German and she recognised the voice, she just could not believe she was hearing it.

  ‘I saw you die,’ she said, swallowing back bile and biting down on the remains of her nausea. ‘You burned. I saw you burn.’

  She looked up into a handsome, pale-skinned face with strong features, short, blonde hair, and icy blue eyes. The last time she had seen that face he was surrounded by vampires, egging them on to take over the world.

  ‘A duplicate,’ Raynor said. ‘Another vampire altered to look like me. You burned him and I flew away on leathery wings, laughing inside as I went.’

  Ceri’s gaze flicked around the room. Arabella was chained to the rear wall of the cell, her dress now gone. She looked dazed, confused, probably controlled. Lily had been thrown into a corner where she was huddled up. Blood ran from her head down her neck and there was a hulking brute of a vampire standing over her, but Ceri could feel her, tense and waiting.

  ‘First of all,’ Ceri said, ‘If you’ve hurt Lily, I’m going to make your second death really slow and painful.’

  ‘You are not in a position to make threats Fraulein Zauberin.’

  ‘And second, you turn into a bat?! Seriously? Have you heard of stereotypes?’

  ‘Ah, British humour in the face of death.’ He looked amused enough. ‘However, I am not going to kill you. Your humour is misplaced.’ He turned away fro
m her, his hands behind his back. He was at his ease; not the least bit worried. ‘I saw you attack us. I saw the power. I have seen such power before, Fraulein. During what you in this age laughing call the Dark Ages there were those who used magic like you do. Sorcerers, they called them.’

  Ceri watched him as he walked slowly around the room, not looking at her. He looked like the kind of swaggering Nazi general you saw in old movies. Overconfidence; she could use that. Of course, with two big vampires in the room with them and another half-dozen standing outside he had a right to be confident.

  ‘It has become clear to me,’ Raynor went on, ‘that my initial plan has fallen foul of the same problem that the fool Hitler had. I believed my people to be perfect, the Chosen. They have failed me and I will have my vengeance, just as he did. You, Fraulein Brent, will be my vengeance weapon, the core of my army.’

  ‘You want me to fight for you,’ Ceri said. ‘You want me to destroy the humans who…’

  His laugh stopped her. ‘No, no. Hitler’s bombs were not revenge against the Americans, or the Russians. They were revenge against his own people. They failed him, Fraulein Brent. They were unable to fulfil their destiny and he destroyed them. I will follow a less self-destructive path. My recruiting will be more careful. With your power I will control your government. You want this, I feel it. There inside you is the desire to be more than you are. To take these insects and bend them to your will. It may take years, but we have plenty of time to spare.’

  Ceri blanched at his assertion. She did not want that kind of power, no way! And a tiny part of her mind, somewhere hidden, a small voice said, Yes, you do. ‘I thought you were already doing a pretty good job of controlling the government,’ she said quickly. ‘I admit the little pushes and manipulations in the Home Office were genius.’

  Raynor turned and looked at her. ‘I’m glad you appreciated it.’

  Ceri looked back, trying to keep the shock off her face. He had known nothing about what had been going on at the Home Office. Raynor had not been responsible for what had happened. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  The Ancient’s lips quirked into a half smile. ‘I was expecting to need more persuasion to get you to join me.’

  ‘Oh no, thank you for telling me everything I needed to know. I have a present for you, Raynor, from an old friend.’ She watched his confusion growing for a fraction of a second as her power flared. ‘Lil! Now!’

  Raynor began to turn toward the half-succubus, even as she slid smoothly to her feet, one arm uncurling in a wide circle and her pupils glowing a brilliant red. Ceri felt the hands on her wrists slacken as the vampire holding her had his Tantric Median pushed into overdrive. Lily continued turning, her arm rising. Pressed between her fingers was one of the stars she had been wearing as a nipple shield and the thin metal carved through her guardian’s throat like a knife. Raynor let out a roar, his hand rising as he stepped toward Lily, and then Ceri caught his hand, pressing the cross she was holding into his palm.

  ‘I told you,’ Ceri said, ‘if you hurt her I was going to kill you.’

  The room filled with flame. Ceri heard the vampires screaming, but to her it felt warm, almost pleasant. Raynor’s hand was wrenched from hers as he was pulled into the air by the angel which appeared right in front of them. His hands were wrapped around the Ancient’s throat and the look on his once angelic features was pure hatred.

  ‘It has been a long hunt, abomination,’ Zuriel hissed. ‘You wanted to reunite with the thing which created you. Now you will.’

  Raynor let out a long scream, his voice trailing off into nothing as both he and the angel faded into nothing. The flames died away with them and Ceri was left looking at Lily. Around them were piles of ash where Raynor’s vampires had been. The two girls just looked at each other for several seconds before Lily took the two steps closer and wrapped her arms around Ceri’s neck.

  ‘Where were you hiding that cross?’ Lily asked, her voice a whisper.

  ‘I wasn’t. I teleported it here from home. I wasn’t sure it would work, until it did.’

  Lily let out an almost hysterical giggle. ‘Of course it worked. You’re awesome.’

  Ceri returned the laugh, holding onto Lily, partially because she was worried she might fall over otherwise.

  ‘Could someone explain why I’m chained to the wall?’ Arabella said, breaking the moment. There was a tiny pause and then, ‘Why I’m chained to the wall, naked?’

  ‘Amnesia,’ Ceri said, ‘it’s pretty common following vampire mind control.’

  ‘You’ll be fine in a bit,’ Lily said, breaking her hold on Ceri and starting to look for the keys to Arabella’s shackles. ‘You’ll probably be glad you don’t remember what happened.’

  The dominatrix looked between the two of them, confused. ‘Don’t you two usually come here on a Tuesday? Today is… Friday? I thought you both worked Friday?’

  Ceri gave her a smile. ‘You’ve missed a few days. Lily will get you out while I call the police.’ She paused, half way to the door of the cell. ‘You might want to stay here until someone comes down to get you. There’s… a bit of a mess in some of the cells.’ She started off again, trying hard not to look left or right as she headed for reception.

  Behind her she could hear Arabella’s voice, far less confident than it usually sounded. ‘I don’t understand. What’s been happening here?’

  ‘It’s kind of a long story…’ Lily began to explain.

  Kennington, June 13th

  ‘You’re quite sure that Raynor was not responsible for the manipulation we’ve been finding?’ DCI Barry was pacing across the study floor with a frown on his face. He had decided that High Towers should be the venue for the debriefing, partially because Lily was supposed to be recovering from the bash on the head she had taken. He had not exactly said as much, but he also wanted to be out of Greycoat Street, somewhere with very good scrying wards; Ceri was pretty sure he wanted this kept on a need-to-know basis.

  ‘I’m not positive,’ Ceri replied, ‘but he looked a little too surprised when I congratulated him on it. And I never quite bought it. He’s been here for too short a time. It would have taken a small horde of Ancients to enact that level of control in the time he’s had.’

  ‘He had a lot of vampires,’ Barry countered.

  ‘Young ones can’t control minds.’ Ceri nodded to John, sitting beside his wife on the chaise longe. ‘John will tell you. Lorna can’t do that yet.’

  ‘I can’t even do glamours,’ Lorna said. ‘As I understand it, it’s something which develops as you get older so that you can still hunt.’

  ‘So you’re saying that we have some other… group who decided they would intervene to make things worse.’ Barry did not look happy about it; Ceri could not blame him. ‘An unknown organisation with powerful magic.’

  ‘That’s what it looks like, yes,’ Ceri said.

  The chief inspector was silent for several seconds, still pacing. ‘You’re quite sure Raynor is dead this time.’

  ‘Not exactly. I’m quite sure he won’t be a problem. I think he got dragged into Hell.’

  ‘Impressive,’ Kate said. ‘Remind me not to piss you off.’

  Ceri gave her a bleak smile. ‘There are others like him. Other Ancients, anyway. I don’t know whether they’ll have his world conquering outlook, but they exist out there, somewhere. Some of them are possibly older than he was.’

  ‘But you don’t believe they were involved in this?’ Barry asked.

  ‘I think if they had been, we’d have lost.’

  Lily waited until the police had left, taking Lorna with them to finally go home, before she spoke. ‘You don’t think the Order of Merlin was responsible for this, do you?’

  Ceri frowned. ‘I don’t think so. It seems a little subtle for them, but I can’t rule them out.’

  ‘If not them, who?’

  Lying down on the chaise, Ceri patted the space beside her, and Lily moved quickly to curl up against her. Ceri felt
herself relaxing in her lover’s embrace. It had not been the relaxing evening they had hoped for and they both needed some time to themselves.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ceri said after a moment of silence. ‘Something we haven’t seen before. Something very subtle, and very powerful. I’m not sure who it was, but I doubt we’ve heard the last of them.’

  Lily snuggled closer against Ceri’s side and her lips touched Ceri’s neck softly. And then they lay still and tried hard to forget that anything was wrong.

  ###

  About the Author

  I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

  Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

  I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still loved the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.