Strigoi

by Tony-Paul de Vissage

  “And you became ghidaj because your eyes don’t match?”

  “Partly. I became ghidaj because I’m like no one else in my family. The ghidaj has to have a physical irregularity, but a very striking one. I remember meeting one leader who was only three feet tall, and another who had six fingers on one hand.”

  Once again, Marek wondered what János’ abnormality had been. He’d never seen it, so whatever it was it was something his clothing had hidden.

  “My father was very fair and blue-eyed, as was my mother. You’ve seen how blond the twins and Dan are.” He gestured at his hair, his hand sweeping down his body. “I’m dark-haired, and…well, quite hairy.”

  “And I love every inch of your very hairy body.” She twisted to plant a kiss on his chest. “That doesn’t explain why one of your eyes is green and the other blue. Were you born that way?”

  He shook his head. “Until I was thirteen, my eyes were as blue as the twins’. Within a few hours of my natal night, one began to cloud and weep and a short time later, it became this pale green color. That’s also when my body hair appeared.”

  He sighed slightly, realizing he’d never before spoken to anyone about this, not even his classmates at school. They’d accepted him and his odd appearance as those features making him an heir and let it go at that.

  “My father had delayed announcing a successor but after I changed, he called me into his study and told me he had no choice but to declare me the next ghidaj. He added that since he intended to live a very long time, I could still pursue my hopes of being a scholar.” He looked away. “He didn’t live as long as he wished, thanks to Mircea Ravagiu.”

  “My poor darling.” She caught his face between her hands, kissing his mouth gently. “I hope you find this Ravagiu fiend and kill him for what he’s done to you. And after you do…”

  “After I do?”

  “I want you to fly directly back to me and let me look into your beautiful eyes while we make love.” She nuzzled her lips against his cheek.

  “You know,” he told her, surprise in his voice. “You’re the first person who’s mentioned my eyes in a very long time. I’d almost forgotten how I must look.”

  “You look handsome, totally handsome.”

  She snuggled her cheek against his chest, and Marek put his arms around her. For the first time in over a dozen years he drifted into a quiet and dreamless sleep.

  Chapter 18

  The change in Marek was so noticeable it became the only gossip belowstairs—how the ghidaj smiled often now, and sometimes was actually heard laughing out loud. Even when he was summoned to do the Domnitor’s bidding, he no longer returned with black looks threatening dire consequences for whoever was unfortunate enough to cross his path. He simply threw himself into Lily’s arms and spent the night purging his memories within her soft and willing body. It was a lucky night, everyone agreed, when the little red-haired deomi came into the master’s life.

  The twins never resisted an opportunity to gibe Marek about the changes Lily made in his attitude, however.

  “I vow, brother,” Vlad exclaimed. “You’re besotted, totally besotted.”

  “Not besotted,” Marek corrected, smiling. “In love.”

  He became serious, all banter disappearing, his next words a shock.

  “By-the-by, since Lily and I are bonded, and I will have no offspring, it’s up to you two to provide candidates to lead the Casa.”

  “Marek, you can’t mean that,” Andrei protested.

  “Yes, I do, little brother, most emphatically. Why else would I say it? I’ve no desire to bed any woman but Lily. Now, or ever. Therefore, I’ll have no heirs.”

  “Are we supposed to rearrange our lives to suit your selfishness?” Vlad demanded. “I won’t do it.”

  “Yes, you will,” Marek replied calmly. “Eventually.”

  At that moment, Dan appeared around a corner of the corridor. He stopped, unashamedly eavesdropping on his cousins’ conversation.

  “You’ll change your mind some day,” Andrei predicted. “There’ll come a time when you’ll want n child of your own flesh, Marek. Then you'll realize how unreasonable you’re being.”

  “If I can’t have an heir with the woman I love,” Marek replied. “I’ll have none.” Looking over his shoulder at Dan as he walked away, he added, “You’re included, also, Cousin.”

  “He can’t be serious.” Vlad muttered with an audible groan.

  “I’d say he is.” Dan watched Marek’s retreating back. “Very serious.”

  Vlad shook his head.

  “Oh, stop looking so woebegone,” his cousin chided him. “Marek didn’t say you have to find mates immediately. After all, he’s only thirty-seven, and that’s extremely young for a ghidaj. Let him get a couple of centuries under his belt and then see what he says.”

  “Aren’t you the least bit angry?’ Vlad asked. “Being ordered to procreate like that, even if it’s at some future time?”

  “Not necessarily angry,” Dan replied. “A little ambivalent, perhaps.”

  “What’s that mean? Either you are or you aren’t.”

  “I hadn’t wanted it to be known just yet, but I suppose it has to come out sooner or later. Sooner, apparently, since our ghidaj’s now issued an ultimatum…” Looking around as if making certain no one else was about, he beckoned to the twins. As they moved closer, he went on, “I can’t decide whether I like men or women.”

  Mouth open, Vlad fell onto the window seat. “You mean like as in pleasantly disposed toward or…”

  “…as in want to get one into my bed?” Andrei finished.

  “Exactly.”

  “Please tell me I misheard you,” Vlad begged.

  “You’re quizzing us, aren’t you?” Andrei asked. “Gods, you can’t be a fetita. You’re too masculine.”

  “It’s not fetita.” His cousin gave an elaborate shrug. “It’s something else. I really don’t know what to call it.”

  “Does Marek know?” Vlad demanded.

  Dan shook his head.

  “What if we tell?”

  “Go ahead.” He didn’t appear concerned. “Aventurieri may make jokes about it, but the Oracle has no law against a man loving his own sex, or both for that matter. As long as he doesn’t become rapitor along with it, and I’ll never be that.”

  Andrei looked thoughtful. “When do you think you’ll decide? Soon, I hope? Then we’ll know how much more time we have to play.”

  “That’s right,” Vlad agreed. “If you were to get married within the year, we could put off our own fates for perhaps another decade or two.”

  “It’s not a decision to be made so easily,” Dan explained, looking a little exasperated by their lack of understanding. “You don’t simply wake up one morning and think…after I’ve had breakfast, I’m going to take a male lover, or I’m going to select a wife between hunting parties. If it were that easy I’d have already done it. This is a lifetime choice, and I must make the right one.”

  He shrugged.

  “Anyway, how much opportunity do I have around here for meeting anyone? Sometimes I wish I were back at school. At least there I know there were others who seemed slightly inclined along the same lines, and a good many of my classmates had sisters, so I could…”

  “We’ll help.” Andrei slapped his brother on the shoulder. “Why don’t we get in touch with a few of our old school friends? Ask if they have marriageable sisters?”

  “Or marriageable younger brothers?” Vlad gave him a pitying look. “Wait…that won’t work.”

  He shook his head, not adding how embarrassing doing such a thing would be.

  “Sorry, Cousin, guess you’re on your own.” Now that the surprise was wearing off, he decided to treat this news as calmly as possible, to show his cousin what a sophisticated adult he was.

  “Oh, gods, Vlad.” Andrei looked horrified. Apparently, he wasn’t as mature as his twin. “That time we went to the river…remember?...and then were afraid to ge
t into the water, because we couldn’t swim? We were naked with you, Dan.”

  “Will you two stop this? I’m not a decadent. However…you are cute, Andri. I wonder if the Principiu condones cousin-coupling?”

  He chucked Andrei under the chin, then kissed the boy lightly on the mouth.

  “Why’d you do that?” Andrei backed away until he struck the wall, both hands wiping at his mouth. “Oh, gods! Pah! Phoo!”

  He spat, as Dan began to laugh so violently he had to embrace the wall to hold himself up. Vlad joined in.

  “Sorry,” Dan stuttered between chuckles. “C-couldn’t resist.”

  While Andrei glared, he burst again into peals of laughter.

  Once he’d gotten himself under control, Dan went on. “Will you two behave and get your perception of me back to normal? I’m the same person I was five minutes ago. Gods, if I’d known you were going to react like this, I wouldn’t have said anything.”

  “How do you expect us to act?”Andrei demanded. “This is a bit of a shock.”

  “Is it? I’d have thought by now you might’ve guessed something wasn’t quite right, since I’m two years younger then Marek and you’ve never seen me with a female.”

  “I never thought about it.” Vlad appeared to do so now. “I don’t know, it’s always seemed...natural...for you to be by yourself.”

  “Anyway, Marek hadn’t shown an interest in females either,” Andrei pointed out. “Until Lily came along.”

  Vlad turned on him. “Are you suggesting our brother…”

  “Oh gods.” Dan looked heavenward, rolling his eyes in exaggerated despair. “What have I set in motion?”

  “Is that why you asked Father to take Uncle Artur’s holdings as part of our estate? Because there aren’t going to be any heirs to inherit it?” Andrei attempted to change the subject a little.

  “I asked Uncle János to take Papa’s holdings because of this crippled arm of mine.” Dan raised his right arm.

  He could only lift it slightly, not enough to ever wield a sword. That had shamed him considerably as he watched Marek during his training sessions.

  “I knew I’d never be able to defend it without help.”

  The twins fell silent as if digesting this fact.

  “Forget about me and start thinking of your own dilemma,” he ordered, as he went on down the hall. “Like setting yourselves on the marriage track.”

  * * *

  Shortly after he came to Castel Strigoi as a wounded orphan recovering from the murder of his parents by humans, Bogdan Strigoi realized he was different from the other males at his uncle’s castel. Startled to learn he experienced lustful feelings engendered by both females and males, he soon realized decisions had to be made.

  Am I going to like one sex or enjoy both?

  Dan was then only fourteen and one year into his aberatie. Having not yet made overtures to either sex, but already disliking vacillation of any sort, he consulted Dr. Lavelle hoping the physician might have some elixir to neutralize the arousing but guilty feelings he was beginning to experience.

  The physician’s answers were completely unsatisfying.

  “As sorry as I am to tell you this, Master Dan, I know of nothing to cure you of this plight,” the doctor stated. “In fact, I’m not even certain this is an illness.”

  To the boy’s questioning stare, he went on, “You’re in good health, so you can’t be called sick. Your mind’s sharp, therefore you can’t be considered mad. As for your soul, from what little experience I’ve had in that department, I’d have to say it’s also beyond reproach.” He patted Dan’s shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry about it, lad. After all, you’re breaking no commandment.”

  “I know, sir, but…” Dan shook his head, his regard for the doctor’s skill slowly dissolving. “I hoped you’d have better advice than that.”

  Sabine considered before answering. “There are three things I can tell you. Be circumspect, be kind to your lover, and…” Thinking the boy had already made his choice, he added, “Be grateful you won’t be able to get him with child.”

  It was sound advice, Dan agreed, though the doctor didn’t realize he had a third choice: To do nothing.

  That was better than making a mistake. It was also the reason why, in the twenty-two years he’d been at the castel, Dan had never touched anyone with desire, either male or female, also why he’d recently reached his thirty-fifth year in celibacy.

  * * *

  “Why are we worrying?” Having recovered from Dan’s announcement and continuing to wonder if his cousin had been guying them, Vlad was able to find a bright side to the problem. “It isn’t like we have to give up anything. We can find mates and still have the women we want whenever we want.”

  “I don’t know.” Andrei looked unconvinced. “I’ve always believed a man should be faithful to his mate. Like Father was faithful to Mother.”

  “Gods, Andrei.” Vlad stared at his brother in disbelief. “Surely, you don’t think Father never looked at another woman?”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, you idiot,” Vlad’s voice fell to a harsh whisper, “Father plowed every female within grabbing distance. Why do you think he married Anike so soon after Mother died?”

  “Because he loved her, and he was lonely.”

  “Because he’d been bedding her while Mother was sick, loon. Károly wasn’t premature. He was already on the way when they were wed. Hell, he had a mistress before Marek was born, too.”

  “You’re making that up,” Andrei accused.

  The older boy shook his head. “I overheard Sabine talking to Sandor one night. That black-haired deomi wench, he called her.”

  “What happened to her? I don’t remember anyone like that.”

  “She died. In childbirth. Baby died, too. The same day Mother gave birth to Marek. They kept it secret. The Principiu, remember? I doubt anyone else in the castel knows and those two probably wouldn’t have said anything then if they’d realized I was lurking about.”

  “I suppose that was lucky for Father…that she and her baby died, I mean.”

  The droop of Andrei’ shoulders made Vlad feel guilty. He hadn’t realized his twin was so ignorant of their father’s amorous adventures.

  “Otherwise… Vlad, could the Domnitor order his taietor to kill himself?

  It was Vlad’s turn to look shaken. “I think he really loved her, Andri. Remember how, when he and Mother would fight, he’d retire to that little room on the fourth floor?”

  Andrei nodded.

  “I’m sure that was her room. Where she and her baby died. I believe he went there to think of her.”

  “It doesn’t matter, you know.” Andrei’ voice was very soft. “I’m merely a little ashamed I was too young to understand, though apparently, you weren’t.” His smile was a little crooked. “Guess that proves I’m really the younger twin, doesn’t it? You wouldn’t ever tell, would you?”

  “This is the first time I’ve spoken the words since I found out. Promise you won’t say anything to anyone. This is something we’ll have to take to our graves.”

  He received a sombre nod, and they both fell silent. After a moment, Andrei spoke up again.

  “I’m not changing my mind, though. If I take a mate, I’ll never sleep with another woman but her.” He sighed. “Damn, that does sound dull, doesn’t it?”

  * * *

  Having left the twins, Dan was on his way to an assignation of another kind. On the way, he stopped by the kitchen, where he talked the cook into giving him one of the pastries she was preparing for dinner, a large muffin filled with melted butter and sugar.

  After coming to the castel, the cook had been dismayed to discover aventurieri couldn’t tolerate most spices and herbs. Learning they liked sweets, however, she daily prepared an overabundance of pastries, candies, and sweetmeats such as the one Dan devoured as he perched on a hallway windowsill.

  Afterward, wiping the crumbs and sugar from his mou
th, he left the castel for the flying field. It was nearly midnight, but no one other than the gardi would be coming outside, so he was certain he wouldn’t be seen. The crescent moon kept visibility low.

  Against the day his cousin discovered his secret—it was evitable he would discover, Dan was certain—he was working to prevent the remark Marek would make…Why didn’t I realize this? Dan’s always been a little too delicate.

  As if having a disabled arm automatically made one suspect.

  With his cousin’s reaction in mind, he approached Josef the weaponsmaster, taking the man aside and asking to be given private lessons in self-defense. They met at the flying field nightly.

  Josef was waiting for him at the edge of the field, raising his sword in a salute as Dan appeared.

  “Master.” He held out the other blade.

  Dan took it, did a few practice feints and stances, then saluted Josef and their mock-fight began. Because of his weak arm, he had to fight left-handed. That made his training more difficult, since he had to reverse everything Josef taught him. He managed it however, and in the armsman’s opinion was becoming quite adept.

  Tonight’s battle was a short one. After only a few maneuvers, Dan thrust out his sword, whipping it in a tight circle around Josef’s weapon. Flicking the underside with the edge of his blade, he knocked the sword from the weaponsmaster’s hand.

  “I never saw that coming.” Josef laughed as the sword sailed through the air, landing in the grass. “Congratulations, Master Dan,” he went on, as he bent to pick up the weapon. “There’s nothing more I can teach you.”

  He turned to his pupil, driving the sword into its scabbard.

  “You’re able to hold your own in a fight now, unless your opponent’s Lord Marek.”

  The armsman smiled at his little joke and Dan joined him.

  I’ll never do anything to pit myself against my cousin, he silently promised himself.

  Chapter 19