This time it was completely different. The walls of room were decorated by numerous engravings and watercolour paintings, every single one erotic, and some even pornographic in character. On shelves proudly stood models of sailing ships, caressing the eye with the precision of detail. Little ships in bottles proudly bulged their miniature sails. Numerous showcases, bigger and smaller, were full of figurines of little soldiers, infantry, raiders, in various formations. Opposite the entrance, under glass too, hung a stuffed brown trout. Quite large for a trout.
‘Sit, witcher,’ Pinety, it became instantly clear was host here.
Geralt sat down, looking at the trout. When it was alive the fish had to have weighed a solid fifteen pounds. If it was not an imitation made of plaster.
‘Magic will protect us,’ Pinety moved his hand through the air, ‘against eavesdropping. So we can talk freely, and finally about the true reasons we brought you here, Geralt of Rivia. The trout that interests you so much was caught using an artificial fly in the Ribbon river, it weighed fourteen pounds and nine ounces. I let it go free, this is a magical copy. And now focus please. On what I have to say.’
‘I'm ready. For everything.’
‘We are curious as what are your experiences with demons.’
Geralt lifted his brows. For that he was not prepared. And quite recently he thought that nothing could surprise him.
‘And what is a demon? In your opinion?’
Harlan Tzara winced and moved abruptly. Pinety mitigated him with look.
‘In Oxenfurt University,’ he said, ‘there is a department of supernatural phenomenons. Masters of magic visit and give lectures there. Lectures talking, among others things, about demons and demonism, and many aspects of this phenomenon, including physical, metaphysical, philosophical and moral. But I think I’m telling you all this unnecessarily, as you were there. I remember you, although as a free student, you usually sat in the last row of the hall. I will ask again about your experience with demons. And please be so good as to answer. Without sophistry if we may. And without fake surprise.’
‘In my surprise,’ replied Geralt dryly, ‘there is nothing fake, not a bit of pretending, it's so sincere that it is painful. How can I not be surprised by the fact that you are asking about my experience with demons, a simple witcher, a simple preserver and simpler antidote. And asking are masters of magic, which lecture about demonism and its aspect at university.’
‘Answer the question.’
‘I'm a witcher, not a wizard. And it means that my experience is nothing compare to yours. I listened to your lectures at the university in Oxenfurt, Guincamp. What was important carried to the last rows of the hall. Demons are beings from worlds other than our own. Elemental Planes... dimensions, planes, time-spaces, or whatever you like to call them. To have any experience with them you have to summon them, that is by violence pull them out of their plane. It can be done only with magic...’
‘Not magic, goetia,’ interrupted Pinety. ‘The difference is crucial. And don't explain to us, what we already know. Answer the question. I’ll ask you for the third time, and I surprise myself with my patience.’
‘Answering the question: yes, I have had dealings with demons. I was hired a time or two to ... eliminate them. I’ve managed two demons. One that entered a wolf. And one that had possessed a man.’
‘You managed.’
‘I managed. It was not easy.’
‘But it can be done,’ put in Tzara. ‘Against what is said. That you can't kill demon at all.’
-‘I'm not telling you that I destroyed any demons. I killed a wolf and a man. Are you interested in the details?’
‘Very.’
‘With the wolf, that earlier in the bright daylight had bitten to death and torn apart eleven people, I acted in cooperation with a priest, sword and magic triumphed together. When after a difficult fight I finally killed the wolf, the demon got loose in the form of a huge shining ball. And destroyed quite an area of forest, laying trees flat. He did not notice neither me nor the priest, he fled the forest in the opposite direction. And then he vanished, most likely returning to his own plane. The priest stubbornly ascertained that it was his work, but I think that demon left, because he was bored.’
‘And the second case?’
‘It was more interesting.’
‘I killed a possessed man,’ he continued without being hurried. ‘And nothing. No spectacular side effects. No balls, or afterglows, or thunders, or cyclones, not even a stench. I don't have a clue as to what happened with that demon. The man that was killed was investigated by priests, and mages, your brothers. They found nothing, and affirmed nothing. The body was burned, because decay went as usual and it was hot...’
He stopped. The sorcerers looked at each other. Their face were stone masks.
‘There is then, as I understand,’ Harlan Tzara finally said, ‘one and only one method to fight a demon. Kill, and destroy the energumen, the possessed man. I underline – a man. He needs to be killed immediately, without waiting and deliberation. Chopped with a sword with full force. And that's all. That's the witcher's method? The witcher's craft.’
‘This is going badly for you, Tzara. You don't know how to do it. To insult someone properly, it's insufficient to have just have a strong wish to insult, with enthusiasm and eagerness. Technique is also necessary.’
‘Stop, stop,’ Pinety yet again stopped the fight. ‘We just want to know the facts. You sad that you killed the human - those were your own words. Your witchers' code seemingly forbids killing a man. You killed a man possessed by a demon, an energumen. After the fact, that is killing a human, let me cite you - you did not observe any spectacular effects. How then can you be sure that it wasn't...’
‘Enough,’ interrupted Geralt. ‘Enough of this, Guincamp, these little allusions don't lead to anything. You want facts? Here they are. I killed him, because it was what was needed. I killed to save the lives of others. And this edict I got from the law. It was granted in a hurry, although in high-sounding words. The state of a higher necessity, of circumstance excluding the lawlessness of the act, the sacrificing of one good for the other, for a real and direct danger. True - it was real and direct. I regret that you could not see the possessed in action, what he had done, what he was able to do. I don't know too much about the philosophical and metaphysical aspects of demons, but the physical aspects are really spectacular. It can surprise, believe me.’
‘We do,’ confirmed Pinety, again exchanging look with Tzara. ‘We of course believe you. Because we have seen this and that.’
‘I don't doubt it,’ the witcher winced. ‘And I didn't back in Oxenfurt, at your lectures. It was obvious that you knew what you were saying. The theoretical basis was useful, with the wolf and the man. I knew the nature of things. Both these cases had an identical background. How did you said it? A method? A technique? Well it was a magical method and the technique was magical too. Some witch summoned the demon with a spell, forced it out of its plane, in an obvious intent to use it for their magical goals. It's how demonic magic works.’
‘Goetia.’
‘It's what goetia is about: summoning demons, use them, and then free them. So goes the theory. But in practice it happens that instead freeing the demon after using it, a wizard magically locks him in the body of some carrier. In the body of a wolf, for example. Or a human body. Because the wizard, taking the example from Idarran and Alzur like to experiment. Observe what will a demon in an alien body do when it is released. Because the wizard, just like Alzur, is a sick deviant, who takes joy from the murder done by the demon. It happened before, has it not?’
‘Various things have happened,’ Harlan Tzara said slowly. ‘It's stupid to generalize, and even lower to rebuke. Do I need to remind you of witchers that were not afraid to rob? Did not have anything against hiring themselves as hitmen? Should I remind you of the psychopaths, bearing medallions with the head of cat that also enjoyed murder
ing everything in sight?’
‘Gentlemen,’ Pinety lifted his hand, stopping the witcher readying to answer. ‘This is not a session of the city council, so stop pointing out flaws and pathologies. It's wiser to think that nobody is perfect, everyone has their faults, and pathology is not something alien even for celestial beings. Reportedly. Let's focus on our problem, which needs solving.’
‘Goetia,’ Pinety started after long pause, ‘is forbidden, because it's madly dangerous. Summoning a demon doesn't unfortunately need neither knowledge nor the highest magical ability. It's enough to possess a necromantic grimoire and there is quite a lot available on the black market. Without knowledge and ability it's however hard to control the demon. A home-bred goet can talk about luck when summoning a demon that will just free itself and escape. Many end up torn to pieces. Summoning demons and any other creatures from the elemental and para-elemental planes is thus forbidden and put under threat of severe punishment. There is a system of control that guarantees that the prohibition is observed. There is however a place that is not under its surveillance.’
‘Castle Rissberg. Of course.’
‘Of course. You can't control Rissberg. The system of control over goetia was created here. As a result of the experiments carried out here. Thanks to tests done here that are still being perfected. Other research is done here too, other experiments. With a broad set of characters. We investigate various things and phenomenons, witcher. We do many things here. Not all of them legal or moral. The end justifies the means. That is the inscription you could put over the gate.’
‘But under it,’ added Tzara, ‘should be another "What's created at Rissberg, stays at Rissberg". Experiments here are supervised. Everything is monitored.’
‘Obviously not everything,’ said Geralt wryly. ‘Because something escaped.’
‘Something did escape,’ Pinety impressed with his calm. ‘We have eighteen masters here, at the castle. And over half a hundred apprentices and adepts. The majority of those latter are only waiting for formalities to get their masters titles. We fear... We have some basis to suspect that someone from this numerous group has taken up goetia.’
‘And you don't know who this is?’
‘We don't know,’ Harlan Tzara did not even twitched his eyelid, but the witcher knew that he was lying.
‘In May and at the beginning of June,’ the wizard did not wait for further questions, ‘there were three mass murders around the castle. Around here in the Foothills, the closest twelve and furthest twenty miles from Rissberg. Every time it was forest villages, the homes of lumberjacks, and other forest workers. In the villages every single occupant was murdered, not a single survivor. Autopsies made us sure that the crimes were perpetrated by a demon. Or more precisely - energumen, a demon's carrier. A demon that was summoned here, at the castle.’
‘We have a problem, Geralt of Rivia. We have to solve it. And we are counting that you will help us.’
The transfer of matter is sophisticated, finessed and subtle, therefore it's absolutely advised that before teleportation is attempted one should defecate and empty their bladder.
Geoffrey Monck,
Theory and practice of using teleportation portals
Chapter Ten
Roach, as usually, snorted and was getting sulky in reaction to the sight of just the saddle-cloth, in her snorted protest, fear could be heard. She did not like it when the witcher wrapped her head. She didn't like what happened soon after the wrapping even more. Geralt did not wonder about his mare behaving like that. He didn't like it himself. Snorting didn't befit him of course, but he didn't restrain from showing disfavor in other ways.
‘It truly amazes,’ Harlan Tzara showed surprise the umpteenth time, ‘your aversion to portals.’
The witcher did not start a discussion. Tzara did not expect that he would.
‘We’ve been transferring you,’ he continued, ‘for over a week, and each time you look like a convict being lead to the gallows. Regular people, those I can understand, for them the transfer of matter is still frightful and inconceivable. I thought however, that you - a witcher - should be more accustomed to magic. We are not in the times of the first portals of Geoffrey Monck! Today teleportation is common and absolutely safe. Teleports are safe. And teleports opened by me are guaranteed to be safe.’
The witcher sighed. He had seen many times the effects of safe teleports, he’d also participated in segregating the remains of safe teleport users. He knew therefore that claims of portals safety were to be put on the same shelf as those: "my dog doesn't bite", "my son is a good boy", "this sauerkraut stew is fresh", "I will give your money back the day after tomorrow on the outside", "I spent the night at my friend's place", "I have only the good of the fatherland in heart" and "you will answer just a few questions and we will release you".
There was however neither a choice nor an alternative. According to the plan thought out in Rissberg, the witcher was to patrol a daily chosen region in the Foothills, and villages, colonies, hamlets and abodes located there - places that Pinety and Tzara feared the next attack of the energumen would strike. The villages were spread all over the Foothills, some of them quite far from others. Geralt was forced to agree that without teleporting magic, effective patrols were impossible.
To keep it a secret, Tzara and Pinety constructed their portals at the end of the Rissberg complex, in a huge, empty hall, in need of repair, which smelled of mustiness, cobwebs stuck to his face, and dried mouse droppings crumbled under his boots. After the spell was activated on wall a covered with water stains and the remains of some goo, a fiery and shining contour of door - or rather gate – appeared, beyond which billowed an opaque opalescent shine. Geralt was forced to cover the mare’s head to enter into the shiny portal - and then it became unpleasant. There was a flash in front of his eyes, and one ceased to see, hear or feel anything - anything but cold. Inside the black void, among the silence, the lack of forms, time and cold was the only thing that could be felt, all other senses were shut off by the teleport. Luckily only for a split second. A split second passed, the real world flashed before his eyes, and his horse snorted with fear and beat its hooves on the hard soil of reality.
‘That the horse is shying is understandable,’ Tzara said once again. ‘But your fear however, witcher, is purely irrational.’
Fear is never irrational, Geralt stopped himself from correcting. Neglecting psychic aberrations. That is one of the first things taught to young witchers. It's good to be afraid. We feel fear, so there is something to be afraid of, so be careful. You don't have to defeat fear. It's sufficient to not yield to it. And it's worth to learn from it.
‘Where to today?’ asked Tzara, opening the lacquerware box in which he held his wand. ‘Which region?’
‘Dry Rocks.’
‘Try to get to Little Sycamore before sundown. We will get you from there, I or Pinety. Ready?’
‘For anything.’
Tzara waved his hand and wand in the air, like he was conducting an orchestra, Geralt even thought that he heard some music. The sorcerer chanted the spell melodically, it was a long one, sounding like a recited poem. On the wall fiery lines flashed, and merged into a rectangular contour. The witcher cursed under his breath, calmed his pulsing medallion, nudged the mare with his heels and made it go into the milky void
***
Blackness, silence, lack of form, lack of time. Cold. And suddenly a flash and shock, The booming of hoofs on hard soil.
***
The crimes of which the wizards suspected of the energumen, carrier of the demon, were committed around Rissberg, upon the unpopulated terrains called the Tukajan Foothills, a hill range covered with an ancient forest, separating Temeria and Brugge. The name came from as some said from a legendary hero named Tukaj, or like others said - from something completely different. As there were no other hills in region, it became wide spread to say just the Foothills, and such a name could be seen on ma
ny maps.
The Foothills spread for around a hundred miles in length and about twenty to thirty miles in breadth. Particularly in the western part it was intensely used in forestry. Widely spread woodcutting was carried out, and industries related to it were growing. Wasteland villages and hamlets occupied by people that worked in this industries formed, temporary or permanent, managed well, or bad, bigger, or smaller or quite small. Presently, the wizards estimated, there were about fifty of such localities.
In three of them there were massacres that had left no survivors.
***
Dry Rocks, a complex of low limestone hills encircled by thick forests, was the westernmost part of the Foothills, on the western border of the patrols. Geralt had been here before, he recognized the terrain. On a clearing adjacent to the forest was built a lime-kiln, a huge furnace used to calcify rocks. The final product of such calcifying was calx. Pinety, when they were here before explained what is it used for, but Geralt had listened carelessly and forgotten. Calx - of whatever - was beyond his sphere of interests. But around the furnace arose a colony of men, for whom said calx was the basis of their existence. And he was hired to assure their safety. And it was the only important thing.
The coalmen recognized him, one of them greeted him with a wave of his hat. He reciprocated the greeting. I do what's mine, he thought. I do what I should do. I do that for what I'm paid.
He directed Roach towards the forest. He had about an hour of travel on the forest road. It was about a mile before the next village. Called Dunnock's Clearing.
***
During a single day the witcher traveled from seven to ten miles - depending on the region this meant visiting from a few to several villages, and making it to a set place from where he was teleported back to the castle before sundown by one of the mages. The next day the ritual was repeated, however other regions of the Foothills were patrolled. Geralt chose regions at random, avoiding routine and a clear scheme that could be easily deciphered. Despite this, the task proved quite monotonous. Monotony however did not disturb the witcher, as he was used to it in his profession, in most cases only patience, persistence and consistency guaranteed a successful monster hunt. Up to this moment - it was not without significance - no one was willing to pay for his patience, persistence and consistency as generously as the Rissberg sorcerers. There was no place for complaints, one should just do his job.
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