‘You must hunt her down and find my daughter. Then you must kill her.’ He stressed the word my and with his rejection of his wife I wondered how much he knew of our betrayal.
Arianne would never set me free. I should have sensed that her dangerous state was worsening. I would always be held accountable in some way.
‘How are you injured?’ I had never seen Lewis this way.
‘It is flower magic.’
‘And you,’ he turned to Lilah. ‘This is what you get when you abandon your daughter.’
‘No,’ cried out Lilah. ‘She was safe. You promised.’
‘Go!’ he commanded and even incapacitated on the floor he was still commanding. ‘The longer you are here the closer I am to losing her?’
Arianne
The child sleeps on my lap. She is the image of her mother. Such a pretty jewel. I had taken her from her room, jumped through the sky like a bird. I could make myself invisible. That was my skill. That no-one seems to sense I am there until it all too late. It is unusual, Gabriel commented one day, for a strigoi to have no scent to another. It is a bad sign, said Gabriel. It is the mark of the devil says the histories.
I am insatiable for hunger and I smell her blood. It would be so easy. She would not feel a thing but then something stops me. Lilah! I must wait to see how everything plays out. I must not throw away my cards too early. I wish to learn if Lewis will consider what I have asked: to stop the voices.
The whispering in my head gets steadily louder. It is like a constant gaggle of hens and the banging of blacksmiths. Only feeding releases me for a time but then the sounds quickly return.
I make the girl sleep. I have no use for the whining of a child for it will worsen my headache.
At times my thoughts break apart like shattered glass. I must keep it together. I must not crumble. I have promised the girl to another for a young witch is a prize especially one born into such power. So young, she can be moulded into anything her master desires. My return for such a gift will be that I am made Queen of Hungary.
And once in control I will order the execution of many men: relatives and all those associated with my brothers and father.
Despite the pain, there is still much to do.
Claude
We arrived at the castle of Laszlo. There were no candles lit to welcome us as we entered through the servants’ quarters as instructed. Several maids stared at us suspiciously but Giorgio ignored them and we followed.
We entered a great hall and then through to a smaller chamber painted red with golden light fittings. There were several rugs in the same regal shade worn through in places. Laszlo spent too much money, wasting it on mercenaries and trinkets for his girlfriends. He sat beside a fire. On his lap was a girl, a harlot. He was greedily sucking the blood at her neck. It was vile and I turned my gaze. I tried to imagine it is not as I am.
He became angry that he was distracted from his frenzied feed. Her neck was exposed to reveal a larger than normal wound as if he had taken to her like a rabid dog.
Giorgio and the others sat on the couch opposite him and waited. I hung back near the door in the shadows. None had noticed that I was not sitting near them.
When Laszlo was finished his feeding he picked up the shrunken remains in a bulky cheap linen dress and tossed her into the fire like bracken. The fire sizzled and spat high.
He wiped the blood from his mouth on the back of his sleeve. His feeding habits were no better as a strigoi.
‘So,’ he said, satisfied. His eyes had a slightly glazed look as if he has been taking the herbs that made humans hallucinate. ‘What is it that you have for me?’
Giorgio and the others tipped up the sacks, and gold scattered and tinkled as they fell on the slate floor.
‘Oh, very good!’
‘Now if you would all follow me I will show you to your chambers. I have allocated the whole floor below to use as you wish. My servants now are your servants.’
‘And when can we sit on your counsel?’
‘Why, early tomorrow.’ There was no pause in his response.
‘Because I am thinking that we should allocate the strigoi certain lands.’
‘Of course, dear Georgio, but why the rush? You have all the time in the world.’
He swept his hand across the air theatrically and I could see that Georgio was pleased. His shoulders seemed to fall slightly, perhaps relaxed that any threat had passed.
We followed a curved corridor spiralling downwards. I hung back just a little. No-one seemed to notice that I was not part of the main group. The strigoi looked around them pleased, but I felt something was wrong.
At the base of the stairs was a small bridge across a canal. Instead of following the others across it, I followed my instincts, turning up a narrow stairwell that led to a maze of cavern corridors beneath Laszlo’s castle. These corridors led to open archways overlooking the water and from the foul stench it was perhaps where waste was emptied. I stood in the shadows of one archway to view the strigoi below crossing the water. The walls were damp, and dark olive slime stretched upwards from the watery ground inching its way upwards to the ceiling. The scurrying of rats around my feet did not deter me. I crushed one with my foot and hoped the smell of blood did not distract my fellow strigoi.
Once across the bridge it was Lucretia who enquired of their destination, her question also etched into a frown.
A soldier stood guarding a metal door and it was here that my instincts told me, and perhaps Lucretia also, to hold back from entering. Some of the other strigoi I could tell had picked up something. There was a strong smell of oil.
The soldier opened the door and I could see an empty circular chamber inside. This room was cut into rock.
It was not until the last strigoi stepped into the room that I realised their mistake. I think in those final seconds so did they.
From my hidden vantage, I saw the sudden movement of several soldiers appearing on the floor above this room directly across from me. They dropped torches into manmade holes in the ceiling at the same time that the iron door to the domed chamber was shut and bolted; but not before I saw the room erupt into a fire ball.
Flames shot up through the ceiling holes where the soldiers had been waiting, so high that they all had to stand back. I heard the shrieking viperous sounds of the strigoi burning alive. A couple tried to claw their way through the ceilings but they were too late, their bodies already blackened.
I covered my ears but it failed to mask the sounds of torment. These sounds were not only heard by ears, they penetrated the very soul. The soldiers could not take the noise and ran from their floor jumping into the water below, screaming. The only one standing was Laszlo. He wore something between a grimace and a smile: a self-serving expression of one quietly pleased with their work.
I stood trembling behind the door, paralysed for what seemed like minutes. Then finally I could not control the whimpering. My friends were gone; I was a beast without home, without knowledge.
Laszlo must have heard it too.
‘Whoever you are,’ he called. ‘There will be no escape for the likes of you. I will hunt you down and kill you.’
I ran then, fast along the corridors, in the dark where only strigoi eyes can see.
Chapter 17
Lilah
From the moment I had discovered Oleander taken I realised I was being punished by God.
Lewis lay on the floor immobilised by nature. I knew what had caused it. I had read the magic books that he allowed no-one but me to see. I had written notes on the devil’s trumpet a commonly known vine bought at many human market stalls. This plant healed bloated stomachs and infections in humans yet to strigoi it could paralyse.
The strigoi might have immortality but it did not keep them safe from nature’s work. It was worse for a strigoi. At least a human could die and go to another place. The end of material form for a strigoi was blackness or nothing, the latter being the better option. And this was the life Le
wis wanted for his daughter!
I sat beside Lewis and held his hand but when he looked at me all I saw was cold condemnation.
‘Lilah, you have failed me,’ he said. And suddenly I was rolling backwards across the stone propelled by an unseen gust of wind. It was not enough to send me flying to crash my bones against the walls, but it was a sign of his determination and anger, and that his powers were returning.
Gabriel stepped forward.
‘Do not challenge me Gabriel,’ he said. ‘I should kill you now but for my daughter…you owe me that. Lilah will stay here and I will deal with her. You must go and get Oleander.’
Gabriel looked to me, reluctant to go.
Go, I spoke to Gabriel through my mind, sending him my messages also that I would be alright. Find my daughter. I will join you shortly.
He would not have agreed had he known what I was about to do. Several other strigoi, loyal to Lewis had entered, aware of what happened. Take the other strigoi with you to help. I will join you shortly. I promise.Go!
Lewis will harm you when he is better. When he is at full strength.
‘Go,’ commanded Lewis echoing my final word. ‘All of you must find Arianne and destroy her and bring back my daughter.’
Gabriel left, his eyes lingering once and the others followed.
I was alone with Lewis who did not remove his gaze.
I went close to him tentatively and touched his hand.
‘Can you ever forgive me?’
‘No, Lilah. Your fortune is about to end.’ His throat was dry and raspy and no doubt swollen and bruised, another effect of the poison.
‘I never loved you but you must know that I felt something for you all these years.’
It was my words that made him look away. He eased himself upward. I could tell that the poison ran through his veins, causing him pain. He was drawing on every particle, within his powerful core, to fight it.
‘Perhaps you did but you also betrayed me, the master of a coven. If I did not destroy you I would look weak. It must be so. For the sake of the coven and our future there must be sacrifices. You weakened me for a time, believing that witches can coexist with us but it is not so. They are simply there to be groomed. Any remaining witches will be given two choices as it was before. Death or immortality.’
‘And Oleander?’
‘She will become a strigoi when she is found. Arianne will be brought back here alive where she will die a torturous death like no other I have performed. When all the strigoi have fed on her and she is nothing but rags I will let the rats feed on her also. Then I will burn her slowly, piece by piece. Anyone who steals from me should expect no less.’
‘Then I’m sorry you have said that.’
He did not have time to ask why as I slipped the dagger into his heart, the dagger that I had hidden in my skirts.
At first he smiled. ‘Nice try…’ And then his face went deathly white and blood began to seep from his eyes.
The concoction that Arianne had used was like milk and honey compared to the ones from our own garden: Witch’s Bells, the beautiful purple flower. I had laced the dagger with its nectar. The same flower I had been preparing to use from the time we departed for Dalmatia. I had made that decision alone without Gabriel knowing.
Blood poured from Lewis’s mouth and then he collapsed and lay still. His eyes red, his body stiff.
This would not kill him but it would take days for him to repair himself. It was little known to anyone who had not read the books that such a plant could have an effect. I carried many secrets now which I would choose to impart when the need arose.
I made haste to leave the dungeon forever and could think of nothing but my daughter’s safety and to be as far away from this castle as possible. I would find Oleander and I would hide. I knew other things too. I could eat certain plants that would kill my scent to a strigoi. If the documents were correct, we could hide for years.
I found the witches cowering in their rooms. They knew they were now in danger. I instructed them to leave handing each of them gold pieces and jewellery given to me by Lewis. They would at least have the money to buy peace for a while. I told them to be strong, to take heart and to never return. They said that they hoped to see me some day and we hugged our goodbyes. I told them my secret of the plant that would keep them safe from being hunted by Lewis who would be seeking revenge on me. This plant much later I would learn would keep witches safe but would also phase out our kind. Such a secret would segregate us from knowledge and our origins, and those of the next generation kept ignorant of their potential. And when betrothed to humans they would gradually weed out their witch blood.
I had to travel fast. Some of the strong strigoi would probably be alerted to my drastic action and perhaps even Gabriel would know. I would call to him to find his location.
Gabriel
I sensed her. Something had changed. Lewis was ill and she was the cause. Other strigoi had sensed it too. They were coming for her.
Ahead of me I had picked up Oleander’s scent but I turned back towards Lilah who was now in grave danger. It was a matter of life and death for both of them, their lives in my hands.
I ran through the winding trees, across brooks, my feet touching nothing but air. The birds were calling to the rising sun and I ran into its light, the brightness of which burnt my eyes.
In a small clearing among the giant firs, my beloved stood. The light behind her made her appear incandescent, but this vision was marred by her assassins, and her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths of fear.
‘Stop!’ I yelled.
But they ignored me and the two were closing in and then pulling her down to break her bones.
She did not cry out but looked across at me, her eyes large.
Find Oleander, please.
Not without you.
And then I charged knocking them both to the ground. The accomplice strigoi, Renee shrieked and flew at me like a bat. I shielded against her battering with my shoulder throwing her backwards against a tree, her arm broken. Lilah lay motionless, her dress torn, and arms and face scratched. I saw that she had been bitten and would quickly need healing before she bled to death. But another blocked my path.
‘Gabriel, go away. Find Oleander,’ said Pietro calmly. ‘This is not your fight. The witch cannot live. She would destroy the coven.’
Pietro was one of Lewis’s oldest friends, and I did not like this fight but if I was to choose between these loyal strigoi and Lilah, it was easy. Lewis had always accused me of making decisions with my heart and not my strigoi sense of honour. He was right. I was not meant to be part of any coven either.
‘You can let her go,’ I said. ‘All she wants is her daughter.’
‘It is Lewis’s daughter. There are some things we cannot alter,’ he said. ‘Those rules were set up to protect us over the centuries. We cannot change things now.’
‘And how would you explain Georgio?’ I asked. ‘The rules didn’t work for him either.’
‘Georgio will be punished for leaving,’ said Pietro. ‘But it is also because of her that he left. She is the real cause of this dysfunction. It is the division and the indecisiveness of the whole coven that has shocked people into disarray and to look for other ways to protect themselves. Witches must change to one of us when they come of age or they must disappear. They are nothing but troublemakers otherwise. They already get themselves killed by humans because they are ignorant and stupid.’
‘Pietro, they are so close to our kind,’ I pleaded, ‘yet we do not treat them fairly.’
‘Gabriel, it is over. It is time to leave this silly witch to her end.’
I concentrated on him drawing power around me like a shield then punching my fist forward into the air to send a small ball of fire in his direction.
It knocked him backward and when he stood I saw that his hand was on fire but nothing more. It did not occur to me till now how strong he must have grown over the centuries. He laughed and blew
at his fingertips like a candle, extinguishing the flames.
‘I guess this means our friendship is terminated,’ he said ,wryly.
We charged at each other, and wrestled. With our skill now exhausted, it became a battle of brute strength. I was born to love and avoided fist fights even as a boy; a young witch living in the Kingdom of Norway. I often reflected on the times I met the girls from our village in secret behind the church, and if not for the skills passed down from my mother, I might be buried in the very place where I discovered unrestricted pleasures. The art of lovemaking was an easy contest. But raw strength again my own kind was not what I had experienced before; I was nearly outplayed.
I collapsed under Pietro’s weight and felt my bones breaking in one leg, but in a final show of tenacity and the art of surprise, I twisted his head until his neck snapped.
He gurgled to speak but his body slumped to the ground. Renee had been circling us and she pounced once more. I took her head and pounded it into the ground. I felt that she also had some strength I had not foreseen and felt a burning within my chest. She was trying to kill me. Then, in a flash, tiny fissures formed in her face and light poured out of the cracks. I could see a roaring fire within her face and neck and stepped back as the fire spread through her body. She clutched at her face tearing pieces of flesh to stop the pain. And then suddenly the fire burst from her body, engulfing the whole of her in one roaring flame. The screams were so loud they travelled high above the trees.
I could feel the same happening to me before discovering the source of this new power. But how was it possible? The perpetrator was a reborn, not even born of a witch. Arianne had one hand on the ground and one arm pointing at me. I felt the energy through the air and even my powers were not able enough to block it. My hand tingled, itched then burned.
Lilah’s head rolled from side to side. She was returning to consciousness and this sign of life fuelled me to block the assault. But to no avail. It had been several weeks since I had fed, and without reserves I fell backward, the itching spreading up my spine and across my neck. I was being cooked from the inside out.
Lilah Page 28
