Basilisk

by Graham Masterton

  Nathan reached into his coat pocket and produced the mirror that he had taken to the Murdstone, with its blackened silver and its mottled back.

  ‘I think this mirror stopped Grace from being killed outright. Do you have any idea why, or how? I’ve read all kinds of folk legends about basilisks, and almost all of them say that the only way to destroy them is to use a mirror to reflect their own stare right back to them.’

  Zofia turned the mirror this way and that, and then handed it back. ‘You are probably right, Nathan. But from what I have read about basilisks, one mirror alone is not enough to kill them. It always takes at least five.’

  ‘Five? How so?’

  Zofia stood up. ‘Suppose that you are the basilisk and I am the basilisk hunter. I make sure that when I approach you, I hold one mirror up in front of my face, so that I cannot see your eyes. But I hold a second mirror in my other hand, and when you look at me, I shine the light from the mirror in front of my face on to my second mirror.

  ‘Now I have a friend with me, Rafał, and he is holding a third mirror. He uses this to reflect the light to another friend, who in turn reflects it to one more friend. The third friend reflects it back to the second friend, who now reflects it into the basilisk’s eyes.

  ‘The reflected light, from one mirror to another, makes a pentacle, which gives the light five times more magical brightness. This is supposed to blind the basilisk, and kill it with its own evil.’

  ‘But what can I do about Grace? Do you know of any way that I could get her out of her coma?’

  Zofia went across to the fireplace. The hearth itself was cast iron, and heaped with white wood ash, although it was still giving out warmth. The mantelpiece was made of elaborately carved oak, with bunches of grapes and leaves all the way around it, although it had been deeply stained by centuries of smoke and cracked by the heat of the fire.

  She took a brown ceramic pot from the mantelshelf and set it down on top of a pile of books. It was filled with dried green herbs, and she picked up a box of matches and lit them, so that they smoldered.

  ‘Meliot,’ she explained. ‘Sometimes they call it lemon sweet clover. It is used to protect those people who have been given the evil eye.’

  ‘OK. But does it cure them?’

  Zofia shook her head. ‘It is impossible for me to tell you. I have never personally known anybody who has been put into coma by a basilisk. Kraków is famous for its basilisks, yes, as well as its dragons, and many other creatures. But none of these have been seen here for four hundred years.’

  ‘There is a way. There must be a way, otherwise Doctor Zauber wouldn’t have offered it to me, in exchange for helping him out.’

  Zofia sat down on the couch close to him, and took hold of his hand, as naturally as if they had known each other for years. ‘Has it occurred to you that he is trying to trick you, and that there is no cure? What if you help him, and then he says, “Sorry, my friend, I was lying”?’

  ‘No. He may be unscrupulous, no doubt about that, and he may be totally unfeeling. But I think he knows what I would do to him if I found out that he was trying to con me.’

  Rafał said, ‘We know where he lives. I say we should go around there and beat it out of him.’

  ‘Oh, sure. And what if he refused to tell us, even then? And what if he called the cops? What good would that do us? Or Grace?’

  But Zofia said, ‘He has something that you want, which is a cure for your wife, if such a thing exists. You have something that he wants – your knowledge, and your skill, and your experience. But what if you had a better hand than him? What if you had something that would make it impossible for him to carry on his experiments?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I know from books that if anybody wants to bring back to life a basilisk or any other creature like that, they will need skin and bones. You cannot breed a basilisk out of thin air. So instead of going to Doctor Zauber’s house to beat him, why don’t you go to his house and take away the skin and bones that he dug up from Saint Casimir’s Basilica?

  ‘Then you can say to him: “if you don’t tell me how to bring my wife out of her coma, I will destroy these things and you will never see them again.” And where else is he going to find the remains of a basilisk?’

  Nathan looked at Rafał. ‘It’s a plan, isn’t it? The trouble is, how do we break in and burglarize the place? How do we know if he’s home or not? Or even if he isn’t home, how do we know he’s not suddenly going to reappear, the same way he kept shooting around that restaurant?’

  ‘I can help you with that,’ said Zofia. She went across to an old roll-top bureau, and opened one of the drawers. She rummaged inside, and eventually produced a small decorative bag, thickly embroidered with blue glass beads. She held it out to Nathan and said, ‘There. One of my favorite ladanki.’

  Nathan dubiously took it from her. Although it was small, it was quite heavy.

  ‘Open it up,’ Zofia encouraged him. ‘Take a look inside.’

  ‘Ladanki,’ put in Rafał. ‘That means “charm bags”.’

  Nathan loosened the leather drawstring and peered inside. He took out a small brass cylinder with a stopper at one end. When he pulled open the stopper, he found a neat roll of yellowish paper inside, covered with dense black handwriting.

  ‘That is a spell,’ Zofia explained. ‘Whoever wears this charm bag, it protects them from bad surprises. Nobody can creep up close behind them and attack them, they will always be able to sense that they are there. And they will always know if an enemy is hiding and lying in wait for them.’

  Next, Nathan took out a collection of smooth stones – amber, and marble, and turquoise, and some pale purple stone that he didn’t recognize. ‘These make it possible for you to see more further, and hear much more better, and also to keep open your eyes even when you are very tired.’

  There were all kinds of bits and pieces in the bag: a hank of coarse brown hair, tied up with wire; a medallion with a likeness of a gorgon on it, with waving snakes on top of her head; a tiny dagger, with a ruby set in the end of the handle; a small bouquet garni of dried herbs.

  ‘White bryony, which protects your happiness; mint, which protects your health; birch leaf, which brings good fortune, and also protects you from the evil eye.’

  Lastly, Nathan lifted out an egg, which had been richly decorated with red-and-white pictures of birds and snakes.

  ‘A pysanka,’ said Zofia. ‘A symbolic egg. They are given in Poland as gifts of life. Each egg has a different pattern and a different meaning. You would give a dark one with rich colors to an old person, because their life is almost filled, but an egg with lots of white spaces on it to young children, because their life is still a blank page.

  ‘You would place one in the coffin of somebody you loved; or on the graves of your family.’

  ‘And this one?’ Nathan asked her.

  ‘It is decorated with birds, because they mean sun and heaven and hope, and to push away darkness and evil; and also this, snakes, the had, which protects from all kinds of catastrophe.’

  ‘So what do I do with this charm bag?’

  ‘You can wear it around your neck.’

  Nathan unbuttoned his shirt and drew out the black pearl cross that the Egyptian-looking nurse at the Hahnemann had given him. ‘I have a good-luck charm already.’

  Zofia reached out and held the cross between finger and thumb. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then she said, ‘This is good. A znak, we call it. It is very protective. It carries the warmth of somebody who wants you to return home safe.

  ‘But you will find this charm bag is very special. It will not only protect you from danger, it will tell you if somebody who wishes you harm is coming close. If you wish to break into Doctor Zauber’s house, it will let you know if he is inside the house or not. It will also warn you if he is returning.’

  ‘Oh, really? And how will it do that?’

  ‘You will know, if and when it happens, be
lieve me.’

  Nathan weighed the bag in the palm of his hand. ‘You’re serious, aren’t you?’

  ‘I have used it myself,’ smiled Zofia. ‘Once I had to enter the apartment of a very jealous lover, to find some jewelry which he had refused to give back to me. The charm bag told me that he was not at home; but it also alerted me when he was coming up the stairs on his way back. I was able to hide in a closet, and when he took a shower, I escaped without him even knowing that I had been there.’

  Nathan didn’t know if he ought to believe her or not. But here, in her apartment, with its antique books, and its strange herbal aromas, and its magical paraphernalia like crystal balls and eggs decorated with flying witches, it was easy to think that such things might be possible. On the wall behind her, there was a painting of a green-faced hobgoblin, and it was winking at him in a conspiratorial way, as if it were saying, Go on, Nathan, you can do it. You can do anything, if you put your mind to it. You could even jump from one side of the room to the other, like Doctor Zauber.

  ‘All right,’ he said. ‘Let’s go for it. I’ll bring you this back, when I’m finished with it.’

  ‘You can keep it,’ said Zofia. ‘You never know when you may need it again. And I can always make another. I am znakharka, after all.’

  It was almost midnight when Nathan and Rafał got back to the Amadeus Hotel. They went into the bar and ordered a glass of red Bohemian wine and a vodka. The wine was strong and rough, compared to Californian or Chilean wines, but Nathan knew what would happen if he started to drink vodka.

  ‘What do you think?’ asked Rafał. ‘You think we should really break into Doctor Zauber’s house?’

  ‘I don’t think he’s given me much of an alternative.’

  ‘He is a very dangerous man, Nathan. If he can kill all of those elderly people with no conscience at all . . .’

  ‘Hey . . . you were the one who wanted to beat up on him.’

  ‘I know. But then I saw myself in the mirror when I came back to the hotel, and I remembered how old I was, and not so healthy and strong. It is many years since I used to do rowing, and weightlifting. And how can you hit a man who never stays in the same place from one second to the next?’

  Nathan took a mouthful of wine, and grimaced. ‘I think we should try. Even if Zofia is right, and he doesn’t really have a cure, at least we will have stopped him from killing any more old people. If he doesn’t have the wherewithal to breed himself another basilisk, he won’t need any more life-energy, will he?’

  ‘But what about Grace?’

  ‘Maybe Patti’s right about Grace. Maybe she’s in God’s hands, not mine.’

  They were still debating whether they should have another drink or not when Denver and Patti appeared. They came giggling and weaving their way across the bar and threw themselves down next to them.

  ‘Have a good time?’ Nathan asked them.

  ‘Totally wicked,’ said Denver. His hair was sticking up because he had been sweating so much, and his eyes were pink. ‘That Frantic is absolutely the best club I’ve ever been to, bar noplace at all.’

  Patti was flushed, too. She reached across the table and squeezed Denver’s hand and said, ‘I have to tell you something, Professor. Your son can dance the legs off of anybody.’

  ‘I assume you had a couple of drinks?’

  Denver shook his head so emphatically that his lips flapped. ‘Only blackberry juice. Nothing else.’

  ‘Blackberry juice? Is that all?’

  Denver tried hard to focus on him. He held up his finger and thumb to indicate a very small measure of spirits. ‘With a little vodka in it, but only to sterilize the glass. Well, wodka, as a matter of fact, with a wubble-you. Except that, in Poland, “wubble-you” is pronounced “vuh”, like in Volkswagen.’

  Nathan said, ‘OK. Glad you had a good time. But you should hit the sack now. We’re going to be doing something real serious tomorrow morning, and I want you both in good shape.’

  ‘Patti is already in good shape,’ Denver blurted out. ‘She has the goodest shape ever, bar no shape at all.’

  Patti looked across at Nathan and smiled. He saw a lot in that smile: amusement, affection, and almost a feeling of family. But he also saw her determination not to be left out of whatever was going on. She was young, and she didn’t take herself too seriously, but she wanted to go back to Philadelphia with the story to top all stories.

  ‘I think I might actually need to barf,’ Denver announced.

  ‘Here,’ said Rafał. ‘I guide you to toilet.’

  He helped Denver to stagger back across the bar. When they had gone, Patti said to Nathan, ‘So what’s this real serious something that we’re supposed to be doing tomorrow?’

  ‘A little larceny, that’s all. But if you don’t want to get yourself involved, that’s fine.’

  He told her about Zofia Czarwonica, and showed her the charm bag. ‘Take a look inside,’ he said. ‘There’s some real weird stuff in there. But this Zofia swore that it worked.’

  Patti picked out the scroll, and the tiny dagger, and the egg, and the colored stones. ‘This is magic, isn’t it? Like, the real genuine thing. I’m finding it hard to get my head around this.’

  ‘You believe in God.’

  ‘Sure I do. But that’s different. God may be invisible, but His world has rules, right? Like people don’t appear and disappear, snap! like Doctor Zauber did. And people don’t walk around with bags full of eggs, and hair, and all this other junk, thinking that they’re going to protect them.’

  Nathan put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. ‘I sense a “but” coming.’

  ‘Yes. You do. I don’t understand any of this stuff, but that doesn’t mean I’m not prepared to believe in it. I’ll come with you tomorrow. Somebody has to record what happened, even if it all goes wrong. Especially if it all goes wrong.’

  Nathan ordered another glass of wine and another vodka for Rafał. Patti asked for a peach juice.

  Rafał came back after five minutes or so, shaking his head. ‘Denver is OK. He was very sick, but he has gone to bed now. He will be fine tomorrow.’

  He sat down, picked up his glass of vodka and said, ‘Na zdrowie! Good health to all of us, and long lifes!’

  ‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Patti. She lifted her glass of pale orange peach juice and said, ‘Long lifes!’

  EIGHTEEN

  The House of Empty People

  The next morning, Nathan and Denver and Patti had breakfast together in the hotel dining room. The sun was shining through the stained-glass windows, and the air was swarming with sparkling motes of dust.

  Patti wore a tight white rollneck sweater and a very short blue denim skirt, while Denver was wearing a purple T-shirt with Like, Duh emblazoned on the front. Denver had completely recovered from his blackberry-juice binge, and ate two hard-cooked eggs, as well as salami and Gruyère cheese and half a basket of rye bread.

  Nathan settled for a glass of sweet, synthetic-tasting pomegranate juice and two cups of strong black coffee.

  He explained to Denver what they were planning to do, trying to sound as matter-of-fact as possible. ‘Without those remains, Doctor Zauber is totally stymied.’

  He had been seriously worried that Denver would think that the whole idea of breaking into Doctor Zauber’s house was too flaky, or too risky. But Denver shook his head admiringly from side to side and said, ‘Wicked, man. Totally wicked,’ with his mouth full.

  ‘Just remember,’ said Nathan. ‘If you decide to come along, you’ll have to do exactly as I tell you and don’t try to be a hero. I wouldn’t have asked you to come along at all, but we need to search through that entire house, top to bottom, as quickly as possible. God alone knows where Zauber keeps those remains, if he keeps them there at all.’

  ‘So we’re looking for, like, bones and skin, all wrapped up in an old leather parcel?’

  ‘Bones and skin, yes, like a snake’s skin. Zauber may have taken them out of the
leather parcel by now. But it’s the bones and skin that we’re after. They contain the DNA which he needs to re-create a basilisk. He doesn’t do it the same way I do it, with embryonic stem cells. He uses some kind of medieval hocus-pocus, as far as I know. But however he does it, he still has to start with the same genetic ingredients.’

  At ten twenty-five, Rafał appeared, in a green tweed shooting coat with brown suede shoulder patches. He was carrying a red string shopping bag. He bear-hugged Nathan and Denver, kissed Patti twice on each cheek, and then sat down.

  ‘We are all ready for this adventure?’ he asked. ‘We have not lost our courage?’

  ‘I think it’s going to be ur-mazing,’ said Denver.

  Patti said, ‘Raring to go, Raffo.’

  ‘I drove past Doctor Zauber’s house on my way here,’ Rafał told them. ‘From the outside it looked as if there was nobody home.’

  ‘You brought the mirrors?’ Nathan asked him.

  ‘Of course.’ He lifted up the shopping bag. ‘Five altogether.’

  ‘And we’re all clear on exactly how we’re going to use these mirrors, if we need to?’

  Patti said, ‘Me on your right, Raffo on your left, and Denver in between the basilisk and me. We got it, Professor.’ She pointed her finger to each of them in turn, as if she were shining an intense light. ‘Bing – bing – bing – bing – whamm!’

  Rafał handed out circular shaving mirrors, with magnifying lenses. Denver peered into his, and pulled a face.

  ‘Pops?’ he asked. ‘Do you really think that what’s-his-name has bred himself another what-do-you-call-it?’

  ‘To be honest – no, I don’t. I think it’s more likely that he’s been holding off in the hope that he can persuade me to help him with the cell development. He doesn’t want another deformed monster on his hands. But even if he has gone ahead, I wouldn’t have thought that he’s had enough time to breed a full-sized basilisk. Not that I have any idea how fast a basilisk can grow.’

  ‘Let us just pray that he has not,’ said Rafał.

  Nathan pocketed his two mirrors and stood up. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Let’s do it.’