“I’m just overtired...... or...” he blinked his eyes and opened them wide again, but Cornelius face still stared back at him from the mirror. “W… w… what is going on?” Cornelius stared back, wide-eyed and accusing. His goggles rested atop his head over his dark gray and white hair, the customary smile, completely gone from his face.
“Cornelius?” but the deceased man’s face disappeared from view, and all that remained was Langdon’s own fearful countenance staring back at him.
Langdon gave his reflection one last look, then finished undressing and climbed in the bathtub. A small shiver run up his spine in spite of the hot water.
“Humph. Simply stressed and worried about money. That must be it.” He sank into the water and tried to erase the image of Cornelius’ face from his mind. He allowed his thoughts to drift back to business matters. When he had cleared his head and was feeling better, he got out and dried off, slipping into his undergarments, and night shirt. He took time to carefully trim his beard and mustache, then exited into the room.
Pulling back the bedcovers, he sat down, and grabbed a book from the night stand.
I suppose some light reading would be a good way to calm myself after the day I’ve had. In the corner near the bed, a fancy gold rope hung. That must be the room-service bell Lottie mentioned earlier, Langdon thought. He wouldn’t have paid it any mind except it started to sway gently back and forth, and as it did so, he could hear the softest ding as if far in the distance.
That caught his attention, and he sat as still as a statue as he watched it. The rope gradually gained momentum swinging back and forth. The bell sounded louder and closer now though he knew it was only on the other side of the wall in the kitchen area where the servants could monitor who was ringing. In addition to the fear building in the pit of Langdon’s stomach, his irritation level rose as well.
Chapter Seven
As Professor Granger watched, the bell rope swung back and forth in the moonlight, and the sound grew louder and louder. This is no way to start off my night, he thought.
“If the servants hear that, they’ll think I need something, and then I’ll never get any sleep.” The bell in the kitchen next door clanged louder, causing him to clap his hands over his ears. The door to his room suddenly flew open, the knob smacking hard against the wall. That’s going to wake up the whole inn! He was feigning anger, but deep down inside he felt like he had the night his father got drunk when he was a small lad.
Langdon wanted to wrap the blanket around himself, crawl under the bed and hide until the noise, the swinging bell, and Cornelius’s face went away, never to return.
*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*
“What is happening?” He could hear footsteps, soft at first, and then louder and stronger, quickening with every step. “Go away, Lottie! I’ve no need for service.” Lottie didn’t answer, nor did the sound of approaching footsteps stop.
Suddenly, his door slammed shut, and all sounds ceased. The air around him became very cool and calm, and the shivering he had felt earlier, returned. In fact, the shiver up his spine seemed to be making trips up and down his back as if looking for a way out. Then, there were two loud thumps, and Cornelius materialized before his very eyes.
It was Cornelius as he had seen him in the mirror, with his goggles on his head. Only this was a full body Cornelius, just as he had been in life, his top hat in his hand, long tail coat, white shirt, vest, neatly pressed pants, and something quite unusual around his rotund belly. It was a chain so thick, Langdon was sure it could have restrained a herd of horses, and Cornelius held a length of it in his other hand. The end of the chain seemed to be attached to something behind him, but what exactly that ‘something’ was, Langdon couldn’t see. The end of the chain seemed to disappear into the air behind Cornelius, yet it was clearly attached to something, as it wasn’t dragging on the floor.
“Cornelius? What are you doing here? What is the meaning of this?” Scared as Professor Granger was, he was also feeling oddly irritated.
“Change!” Cornelius’s once jovial voice now sounded so broken, and sad… that Langdon could hardly recognize it.
“Whatever do you mean?” The Professor couldn’t stop his knees from shaking as the air around him had turned undeniably cold.
“Change!” The apparition of Cornelius said again.
“Change what? Be clear man. I don’t have time for this nonsense.”
“You must change…” The apparition’s voice trailed off, as if he might have more to say.
“What must I change? Who are you?” Langdon knew the answer to the question, it was clear that it was Cornelius. However, a part of him wondered if he was hallucinating again. “I need more sleep.”
“No more sleep. Change! You must change!” His voice boomed out, and Langdon grew angry.
“Hush yourself and tell me exactly what you mean. If you don’t quiet down, you’ll bring all the wait staff in here and I don’t want to deal with that lot right now.”
Where is the wait staff anyway? Where is Lottie? Have they not heard the commotion? Surely, they’ve heard the chain? It’s certainly loud enough.
Apparently angry at being told what to do, Professor Cornelius’s ghastly eyes widened, and he shook the chain around his belly as if trying to rip it off. When that didn’t work, he yanked on the chain behind him attempting to haul forward whatever it was attached to, but that also was to no avail. Cornelius let out a frustrated moan and turned back to face Langdon.
The Professor couldn’t pretend to be brave anymore, he took several steps backward, but struck the edge of the bed, which forced him to sit down suddenly.
“Change!” The voice boomed out again, coming closer and closer to him, until he fell back prone on the bed. Cornelius hovered directly above him. “Change!” He yelled again.
“Okay! I will… just tell me what to change! I don’t know what you’re asking me to do?” Langdon shielded his face with his arms and refused to look at Cornelius anymore.
“You must change or you will suffer a fate worse than my own.”
“I don’t understand?” Langdon yelled through his arms. “Why are you a prisoner? Who has you chained?”
“Fool! Your deceitful business practices, your greed… my greed. The things we did, the people that we took advantage of to get ahead. The snake named Jacob, the darkest Immortal One who ever lived is worse than anyone could have imagined. It is he who has me chained. I am his prisoner for eternity. If you do not change, then you will suffer a far worse fate!”
“Cornelius, you must tell me what you mean. I will change, just tell me what to do?” The apparition was mere inches away from his face, breathing heavily, as if holding the chain and top hat was causing him tremendous exertion.
“You must stop your wicked business practices, you must let the servants have their Christmas with their families, and stop being so greedy. Give the people what they ask for. That’s all that matters, taking care of people.” Cornelius’s face looked so beaten down and sad that Langdon wondered if it was possible for a ghost to cry.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?” Cornelius spat at him, only there was no spit to be felt.
“I’m not sure, Cornelius.” Langdon could feel his eyelids getting heavy, and the fact that none of the servants had been alerted by the noise told him that perhaps everything he was witnessing, was indeed a vivid daydream, or perhaps he was already asleep and dreaming. But, the dream was so real he could hardly believe it.
“Fool! Jacob is not Jacob…. He goes by another name. A name so dark, I dare not say it aloud, and he is waiting for you to mess up. For when you do, the Immortal Ones will make you a Siapheg, and the appointed Teselym will kill you, as is her duty if she chooses.”
“Siapheg? Teselym? She? She who? What is this nonsense that you speak, Cornelius? Speak not in riddles, but in clear, precise words. For I fear you are nothing but a bad dream.”
“You’re a fool Langdon and you always will be. You need
to make doing good a full time business from now on. Stop worrying about balancing the ledger and start worrying about taking care of the people under your employ, or you will lose everything you have worked so hard for. You must take my word for it… do the right thing before it’s too late for both of us.” Cornelius had drifted upward with his last sentence and was now swaying back and forth, as if lamenting his woes before Langdon. “If you won’t listen to me, then I can’t stop what is to come. You have brought it upon yourself. Do you understand?”
Langdon almost laughed out loud, still not believing what he was seeing and hearing. He felt as if the whole debacle must come to an end, and soon. I’m going to wake up any minute now. Perhaps I won’t wake up, but continue sleeping and when I wake in the morning, I’ll look back at this charade and laugh.
“You’re smiling? You dare to smile at your demise and mine? The Immortal Ones will soon change all that, and when that happens… you will not have another chance. I can no longer help you. I have tried this very night and failed. Mark my words… you’ve been warned.”
“I don’t understand anything that is happening Cornelius. Surely I’m dreaming and when I wake up this will all be over.”
Cornelius shook his head, waving his top hat in front of his face.
“The Immortal Ones are watching you!”
“What is an Immortal One?” Langdon implored, but Cornelius, rather than answering, shook his head and backed away from the bed.
Langdon could see that the chain wrapped around his former business partners mid-section, and held in his hand, had gone taut all the way through the wall. It was almost as if something on the other side were yanking on it.
Langdon rushed to his door as Cornelius began to fade. Throwing it open, he looked out into the hallway where the chain seemed to disappear, but there was no one there. When he went back into his room and locked the door, the apparition of his partner had disappeared completely.
The soft glow of the moon on the bell rope, and its gentle swaying, were the only evidence that anything had been amiss at all. Langdon clambered back into bed and let out a deep sigh.
If that is any indication, this is going to be a terribly long night, he thought to himself before pulling the covers up around his chin and falling asleep.
Chapter Eight
When Langdon awoke, he still couldn’t make sense of what had happened the night before. It felt like a bad dream. He got up from his bed, opened the door a crack and peeked into the hallway. He’d already decided if people were up and milling about, he would hurry to the kitchen and grab some breakfast. Unless, of course, he was too late, then he would have to request that Lottie or one of the other wait staff prepare him something.
A small grumble from his stomach told him he’d better eat sooner than later, but as he opened the door to the hallway, he could see that everything was still in complete darkness. It must still be night, but how can that be possible?
Despite his disturbing dream, he felt as if he had slept for hours and thought it surely must be well into the next day.
“Hello?” he called out. There was no answer, except the pitch-blackness that seemed to echo through the hallway, running the full length before reporting back with more silence. “Adrian? Lottie? Any of you lot awake? Or are you being lazy?” He stood there waiting for some time before he realized that no one was coming. Everyone must be asleep. Or perhaps they are outside?
Langdon hurried down the hall to the large common room, to the huge windows that graced the front of the inn, and yanked open one of the luxurious velvet curtains. He was shocked to see nothing but pitch-blackness staring at him there, as well. Perhaps I slept the whole day? It’s possible, I have been working much too hard lately. He pulled the curtain back into place and hurried to his office, only to find it locked. Drat, I forgot the key.
He headed back to his room to grab the key to his office. It was clear he wasn’t going to be able to sleep another wink, and besides, there was always work to be done. He still hadn’t reworked all the wait staff’s salary. Professor Cornelius had been paying them far too well. That had to be stopped as soon as possible.
Langdon assumed he would lose some of them over the salary cuts, but to him that was just a way to weed out the weak ones, and keep the ones who wanted the job the most. The ones who would really work hard and do what was required of them for the least amount of money possible were the most desirable. That was how he always weeded out the weak ones.
Langdon was searching his room, trying to figure out where he had put his office key when he heard the most miraculous sound he had ever heard. It was like a soft tinkling of bells, so faint he could only wonder if he was imagining it. With each passing second the tinkling expanded into a blend of exquisite music. For a moment, he thought maybe he had died and was hearing sounds from beyond.
Am I in the celestial place? Could I be imagining things? Light from an unseen source flooded the room and refracted off every surface around him. It was like when the sun shone through crystals, and the colors danced and sparkled over everything in their path, and yet more marvelous than anything, his eyes had beheld before.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” Langdon called out. He was beginning to think the bad dream he’d had the night before wasn’t a dream after all. “Cornelius? Is that you? Have you come back to pester me some more?” But, Cornelius didn’t answer, and Langdon stepped cautiously forward into the light that seemed to cover everything like a delicate blanket.
A voice said, “No. Cornelius is not here.” The light flowing around Langdon shone from behind him, so he turned to face in that direction. At first, the figure that stood before him was hazy, like a mirage or a ghostly apparition, except he felt no fear. As he began to get clarity, he could make out the physical form of a woman? Or was it a man?
The entity before him simply wouldn’t form a definite shape in his mind. In fact, much like the musical bells he had heard and the light that shone around him in rainbow refractions, it began to feel like the entity before him, the light, and the colors, made up the entire physical world he existed in. The figure before him, appeared angelic in nature.
“Wh… who… who are you?” he stammered. He wondered just what was causing him to dream so vividly.
“Oh, I assure you, you are not dreaming Langdon. Cornelius warned you of things to come. I am one of the ones he tried to warn you about, but you would not heed his warning or listen to what he had to say.”
Langdon sensed that the celestial being was angry, but even in anger the voice of the beautiful apparition sounded like a song the whole world needed to hear.
“I tried to listen, but it’s hard when you’re convinced it’s all a hallucination.” Langdon attempted a smile as if trying to charm his way into the being’s good graces.
“Langdon, we do not joke. The Immortal Ones oversee everything that happens in this world, and the moment something happens to throw off the balance of good and evil, we take steps to rectify it immediately.”
“What is my role in all of this?”
“Langdon, it is time for us to choose a new Siapheg. The dark dragon of night that balances the evil in the world. Lord Jameston Ukridge’s lineage has ended and therefore a new family line must be chosen.”
Professor Granger took a step back. The Immortal One speaks of dragons? Am I losing my marbles?
“I assure you, that you are not. You simply have a dark enough heart with enough wisdom that we feel you could carry out the duties of the Siapheg quite well.”
“I must be going crazy. What exactly is a Siapheg?”
The immortal one looked him up and down, with a face that was still a blend of features that would not make themselves come clear in his mind.
“I will tell you, as I have told all those who have searched for knowledge of the Dragaleth race. We the Immortal Ones, created the Dragaleth race the first time we cried tears of true heartbreak over the deterioration of mankind.
“From those t
ears there arose two Dragaleth dragons. One, of the order of Teselym and the other of Siapheg. Teselym protects humanity from evil and executes justice when necessary. The Teselym enacts the balance of good. The Siapheg brings evil and ensures that humanity will never be entirely free from the sadness of death, betrayal, and lies.
“We control both of them, but allow them free rein in most of their undertakings. Our current Teselym has done her job splendidly and maintains the balance of good even now. However, the Siapheg dragon has died and must now be replaced. Our last Siapheg, was Lord Jameston Ukridge whom I spoke of. You must pick up where he left off.”
Chapter Nine
Professor Granger processed the information the best he could, but he was only human and there was only so much talk of dragons and good and evil he could take. Langdon felt his head spinning. Please let me wake up! Whatever is happening to me, let me wake up from it.
“No, you will not awaken, because you are already awake. We have chosen you to take the place of the Siapheg. Your life will be changed forever… your sole purpose for the rest of your life, however long or short that may be, will be to balance the evil in the world,” the Immortal One concluded. His melodic voice as matter-of-fact as Langdon had ever heard from the ethereal host.
“What are you saying? How am I to balance the evil?” Langdon was completely at a loss, not for words, but for understanding.
“Well, you are headed in the right direction with everything you are doing. It seems you need no help from us, or suggestions for that matter. You will simply let your dark heart perform all the evil that it desires.”
Professor Granger knew himself to be a stingy man, as well as a demanding and unkind employer. However, the idea of being solely committed to a life of pure evil scared the living daylights out of him. No matter how awful he was, he certainly had no intention to purposely cause evil... or bring about death and destruction.
A Steampunk Christmas Carol: (The Dracosinum Tales) Page 4
