“You’re going to need your strength in the hours ahead. You will be glad you fed when you did.”
I commenced to eat, more than for any other reason, because it was in front of me and because Veria had made the effort to prepare it. She watched me in silence as I ate and after a minute of this I tried to get her to talk.
“I heard you brought Charlotte back with you.”
“Charlotte came at our invitation. I didn’t bring her back.”
“So,” I said. “You are angry with me.”
“I don’t want to speak about Charlotte. There isn’t time. Today we must discuss something you have always badgered me about….” Her eyes met mine, “…you and me”.
To say the least I was intrigued. At the moment I was speechless.
“I built us a castle. Finish your food and I will show you.”
Veria wouldn’t move unless I had finished. She monitored my every bite. When I was done I sat back.
“Happy?” I asked. Her response was silence and that unfathomable face looking past me, seeing through me, urging a kiss or slamming a door. I tried again. “You built us a castle?”
“I rely on your clever ways to get us there.” She said mysteriously.
Intrigued, I asked “Where is this palace?
Veria stood at the door to the piazza which widened to the rest of the courtyard, glistening now in the early morning sun. In the far corner, diagonally from where we were, trees and bushes were wrapped, draped and shrouded with fine cloths. In a fashion, a fine tent had been eretcted and I knew this was the castle Veria had built.
“Why have you done this?” I asked.
“Because we need time to talk privately and many changes are coming. You have questions and I have stories to tell. Time grows short, so we have our castle for the day, hemmed in by the sun and yet protected by it. All you need to do is find a way to take me out there without exposure to the sun. Can you do that?”
“Do you trust me?”
“Michael,” She feigned as if she were hurt by my question, “with my life.”
“Then I can get you out there.”
I brought a large blanket out of the closet and spread it on the floor of the kitchen. I offered my hand and she took it. Before long she lay upon the blanket at the edge nearest me, whereupon I rolled her into the covering like a wrapped carpet. I hoisted my human package over my shoulder and carried it through the garden to the castle. She spoke not a word nor did I, and once I was inside the dim room I reopened my package and found my prize none the worse for wear. I helped her up and wanted to pull her into my arms, but held myself off. She turned from me anyway, and while that was a disappointment, Veria removed her hooded robe, and what was underneath was typical for her; scant, lacey, revealing and alluring. Worn as if it was made for her, and it probably was, at great expense, she displayed it both proudly and as if her tantalizing appearance was completely normal. She wore her attire as an artist uses a brush and painted what she wished for the eye of the beholder.
“I found Charlotte narrowly before others did. She does not hold herself highly for anyone…not you or even herself. She is a broken woman, Michael. To be held by Desmondo Milan and his followers would work a slow death even if you were not touched. You and I know something about that do we not?”
I slowly nodded. Veria went on.
“I had to talk to her through the madness that muddles her mind, not about her troubles but about mine. Her terrors were too well guarded. This is the tale I now impart to you so that you may know what I told her.”
There were chairs in our palace that I had last seen in my living room. I sat in one as Veria wandered about our darkened room, rendering her account which included her hunt for Charlotte, what Charlotte told her about the birth of our child, her captivity by Milan and how she escaped. Veria covered how she had found Charlotte, the encounter with Bevin and Jennifer, the burning and collapse of the barn and the long candlelight talk where Veria had shared with Charlotte more of her own story. I joined this new information to what I already knew about the enchantress who moved seductively before me. Then her story went on.
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“The four of us- Getagin, Hessa, Mia and myself traveled early the next day, and the road became busier. This pushed us to hide in the back of the cart but that didn’t last too long. Mia was tired of being so confined and it played into my own feelings as well, especially as the people we passed were more interesting to watch than the darkened interior. We were cautious at first but soon abandoned ourselves to the flow of the local commerce. We had all grown tired of the chase and were eager now to try hiding in plain sight. The port of Constanta was the population center in the lands we were traveling. This was a place so peopled, we could lose ourselves or at least lose those who looked for us.
We waited in the shadows most of the afternoon.
“The day is becoming hot.” Getagin said, “And some of the horses need shelter from the sun. Soon enough we’ll be parting ways. I’d like to take you with me, but I just brought you out of danger and it’s likely I’m headed into more. I’ll try to come back this way when I return but no promises.”
Before leaving he arranged room and board for us and left us with some money. I liked Getagin and felt safer when I was around him. I had so many questions to ask him. I wanted to know more about where he was going, where he had been and much more about Lucido Del Rio, but he departed while I was putting Mia to sleep.
Hessa remained with us for the moment but she made it clear her stay was temporary and she might leave at any time.
“But where are you going? Can we go with you?”
“No, I’m afraid not. You’ll have to make your own way. You have such strength and so much more inside.” Hessa brought her face close to mine and regarded my face and eyes. “You’ve come so far already. Besides, I haven’t left yet. I could be with you awhile. I just want you to know if I need to leave, I will, and it might be without warning or goodbye. There is a drifter inside me who would be content to travel with just the wind at my back. But I am also a healer and this is so much the heart of me. I’ve gotten separated from my friends and wish to join them again. At the same time, I fear I am pursued just like you. So, for several reasons I cannot stay but I will try to make my time count.”
So, we stayed in a large building at the docks on danger’s doorstep. Ships came and went. Cargos were unloaded, stored or brought onboard. People traffic was rough and poor, and often spoke languages I couldn’t understand but Hessa could. I can remember times when we would be eating or sitting among a group that had come from parts of the world unbelievably far away, yet before the night was over and often shorter than that, Hessa would be able to speak their language every bit as well as they did.
Often we would keep out of sight during the busy hours and come out to take air as the day’s work dwindled. Mia loved this of course. She loved me as her mother and Hessa as a kind of Grandmother. No mother loved her child any deeper than I loved Mia. My shift from harlot-in-training to young woman with responsibilities was guided by Hessa who seemed to know me inside and out.
Once Mia ran a little too far ahead of me when I was coming back home from a late afternoon errand. A door of a building I had passed many times but never been inside, was partially open. Mia came to this door and I hurried to catch her before she went in, but she had already taken a few steps beyond the door. I charged in after her, not knowing what danger she might find. She stood at some stairs that led down into darkness, and I knew something silent and powerful was staring up at me from below. Strangely, Mia felt drawn and showed great interest in going down those stairs. I caught her hand and stopped her from her plunge. I stood there looking into the blackness for several seconds before Hessa gently called to me from the doorway we had passed through from the outside.
“Come away Veria. Hold Mia tight and back away from the stairs.” Her voice became louder and more insistent. “Come away now Veria. Pull back and come to me.”
When I did pull away I nearly fell backward as if I had been straining at a rope tied to me and it suddenly broke. Hessa dragged us out, closed the door and made us walk briskly down the rest of the row of buildings.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Something dangerous you must keep Mia away from. I think you are safe but she is not.”
“What do you mean?
“There is something about you that says you are protected but Mia does not bare this mark. Keep away from that building from now on. Stay out of sight from it. I’m serious and do not go into dark buildings again.”
I felt I’d been chastened by the mother I wished I’d had, but I hadn’t done anything wrong. This pushed me to ask more, to understand it.
“Why are you acting so strangely? What was down there?”
“Creatures of darkness…you don’t want to come under their notice…and you have but maybe this was a momentary glance, like a fly upon your arm; give it a bush-off and return to what you were doing. Let’s not give them any reason to look further into the crossing of our paths.”
Hessa’s advice was to avoid that building, even the vicinity, and to be watchful of those around us especially during twilight hours. “…maybe early morning too,” she said. “It is probably nothing, but there was a certain feel to it I did not like. Now it maybe that Getagin placed us here to be near them or that he selected this place without knowledge of their presence. I’m just saying for good or for bad, something or someone has our scent and I’d suggest moving away from here, except this was where Getagin put us.”
And so we focused our activities during the brighter daylight hours and made ourselves scarce during darker hours. Yet as with a mole on someone’s chin, or a birthmark upon a cheek, it took some effort to overlook. Though I avoided the area, I admit to looking at the building with its blocked windows, and especially the unremarkable door, if it accidentally came into view. And if it was unintentional at first, I found my glances more frequent. I felt I was being watched while I was out during a carefully chosen time of day. I was drawn to this place, and this place in turn was drawn to me.
Hessa helped me with my early parenting attempts, and the caretaking of another through her maternal advice and the way she treated both Mia and me. Her caretaking extended to others as well, and soon we were regularly stopped on the street as we sought our own destinations. Though I was at best an assistant, and always with Mia in tow, we earned a reputation as healers and the barter and trade from this funded our stay and kept food on the table. Hessa built me up in the eyes of onlookers and consulted with me regarding restorative treatments, though she was the one with the knowledge. Her knowledge went against many healing practices common for the time but offered more success. This wasn’t appreciated by already established practitioners. They were threatened and their methods were thrown into question. It wasn’t long before whispers of witchery and witchcraft followed us. As much as we tried to avoid notice we became features when our plan had been to remain featureless. We made friends but we also made enemies.
“It is important that you learn some of the healing that I know, and that you are perceived as a healer, a younger version of me perhaps, but a healer none the less. Now I hate to always put this between us but I will not remain with you. In fact, I will be leaving all too soon, so you must study hard…hard! And learn these lessons I present very well. You’ll need a trade and be recognized for it or people will become threatened by your appearance and assume you represent another trade. Keep yourself covered up with a shawl or a hood when you can. Let your acts define you, not your looks. And regarding the healing life, never make claims you cannot bring about. Never be unsavory in your dealings with those who come to you for treatment. Create a reputation through nothing more than what you do. Be respectful of those you work to heal. Treat them and their families with fairness of spirit.”
She told me she was a wanderer, and though she lived a peaceful existence and meant no one harm, she feared enemies or anyone for that matter, not content to allow her a life of peace. And those who hunted her and the rest of her family.
“Well they’d better not show themselves here.” I said. “I am stronger than I look. I will crush them to dust.”
Hessa responded with a smile. It was a sad smile just the same.
23
One morning Mia and I awoke to find Hessa packed and ready to go, sitting by the door.
“No!” I cried. “Please, no!”
Hessa watched me as I rose from slumber and from the bed. She appeared resolute.
“We love you, Hessa, please, don’t go.”
“I love you both too, and that is exactly the reason I must leave. I couldn’t stand it if my being here brought my enemies upon you. I’m afraid I have lingered here.”
Mia and I both dissolved into tears. Mia was more concerned about my condition and couldn’t quite grasp what my reaction was about, but cried when I did. Hessa held us both, comforting until the tears stopped their flow. Once again, I teetered on the sharp edge of heartbreak and felt it cutting through.
“Veria, I wish I could leave you where I know you would be safe but I think my leaving is the best thing I can do. I have left a cloak for you over there on the chair. It has a hood. Make use of it. You are Mia’s mother. She remembers only snatches from before. You have taken on an awesome responsibility. You can do it. Mia is exactly what you have needed…who you have needed.
Now, I must walk out this door. But I will come back if I can. Getagin has said he would seek you on his way back, and the vampire… What is his name?”
“Lucido Del Rio….”
“Yes. In the end your rescue and much of the funding of our stay here is due to him. His reach is far but doesn’t stretch forever. Remember his name and use it like a sword you draw out from a sheath when there is nowhere left to run. Its sharp blade may just keep enemies at bay, or call those who call him friend. I mean this advice neither to be harsh nor bossy. I speak them now because I’m going out the door. It breaks my heart, but danger is circling, and I must draw them away and run for my life.”
Hessa stood up and kissed us both on the head, nearly broke our bones with a tearful hug, rushed to the door and went out without a goodbye or a look back. I have heard before the words; ‘the silence was deafening’. In my case, it was crushing.”
We both cried again, and the sadness was thick within us. We did not go out for a week. I used every grain of food even if it was the same thing three times a day. Going outside would be the beginning of the life I had after she left. I was so afraid of that, I tried to keep the coals of her warm influence burning for as long as possible, and always was the hope of her walking back through that door. Finally though, denial would not work and hunger stepped forward. We were running out of supplies and needed to get more. To do that required that we step out into the real world. When you do that, you leave tracks.”
Our first ventures were to the places Mia and I had already visited on our own, when we would go for supplies. We felt safer doing so, because Hessa and Getagin were part of our lives and they were out somewhere conducting their own business, but we were a group…a family. There was an unspoken feeling of belonging to others who watched my back and I in turn watched theirs. But first Getagin left and then so did Hessa. The feeling of having my back protected was quickly taken away. Now I felt the ache of having no one to share life’s everyday struggles, and even worse, there was no one who even cared. It wasn’t lost on me that my predicament could be so much worse. and had been ever since marauders had attacked my town and sent my life spinning. Long hours of cramped captivity in my life with the river people had served as a harsh reminder that there was no one to save me from my plight. During the lowest of those times, I often conjured the image and the memory of the brief encounter with Lucido Del Rio and the saving of my life from clutching jaws of the wolves. Where was he now? He remembered me. Getagin had been told to keep an eye out for me, and in fact, to gi
ve aid if our paths crossed. Why was I important enough to him that this concern was expressed?
As I had when I was in captivity I pretended to myself that Hessa or Getagin or the vampire, Del Rio, would soon be showing up. I only needed to last one more day before people who knew so much more of the wide, wide world would join Mia and me, I wouldn’t be so vulnerable. I treated those who approached me, thinking I was a healer or at least half of a healer team. This did help to keep food on the table, but I was always accompanied by Mia and I’m certain that this was often a subject of conversation. Also, no matter how I might cover up, my form still showed its curves and my face couldn’t always be hidden in the cloak as I interacted with others. So it was that I attained certain notoriety and my movements attracted attention. The good side of this is that it was a form of advertising, so those seeking my help came to me at a slow but steady pace. Others who practiced the healing arts felt a loss of income from my growing presence and became more disgruntled about it. Though I tried to keep my outings to the brighter hours of daylight, sometimes the demands upon me were long and the hours short. I, more than once, felt that I was followed from the tents where I conducted business, through the streets of the city to the place of my lodging. I always took different routes and kept a keen eye for places where a surprise attack might prove easy.
One day, I had worked later into the evening than what I’d wanted, and asked the proprietor of the tent city of business, Omar, if I might stay in the tent for the evening rather than risk a return to my abode during the evening hours.
“No, you are a woman, and not safe here during the night.” Omar replied. “There are vagrants and criminals who would make short work of you. Spend the night with me. None would dare to touch you. None would risk the wrath of Omar.”
“But there is always a catch, Omar. I could awaken to your jealous wife beating me with a club. Even my own healing knowledge would be greatly tested. I do not search for pain. There is more than enough to go around.” I returned to him in conversation. “Besides, your relationship with your wife might never recover. You have told me Felice is as much hot headed as she is hot blooded.”
The Blood In Between Page 12
