The Chronicles of the Immortal Council: The complete 10-book collection

by D C Young

  Disappointing child, that one, Allison thought, before moving on to the next girl.

  Her name was Elizabeth Calder. She was twenty-one years old, an ex-junkie and a college drop out. And yet, she had a talent for spellbinding that Allison thought was remarkable in someone her age. Her rough estimation of the girl was cemented in what she read from the oldest witch who seemed to know that if she didn’t watch herself and Elizabeth carefully, the younger witch could easily incapacitate the elder and leech on her powers.

  Oh, em, gee! Allison cried out suddenly… The premonition that hit her as she combed Elizabeth’s mind was so vivid that even the lips of her comatose body, lying on the couch in Julia Agrippina’s library, yelled the expression clearly. Suddenly, Allison saw what the group of women was up to. They were practicing a resurrection spell. All of their minds bore one common thought: Samantha Moon was their captive and their vessel for the witch queen, Himiko of Wa.

  Then, as quickly as she had slipped in, Allison felt her mind being pushed out of the coven’s circle. They had felt her presence and now they were on the offensive. She couldn’t afford to be detected or to betray the Elder Watchers and Veronica by giving away their intention to find Sam and rescue her. That would just send the coven on the run, with Sam in tow and there would be no telling if, and when, they’d ever be able to locate them again.

  Allison quickly withdrew the billowy tendrils of her mind and tried instead to get a clearer picture of the place the coven inhabited. The girl called Tabitha had referred to it as the lycée. It was a French word that Allison knew meant school. Many o the older covens would refer to the place where they met and conjured up their spells as a lycée, especially if the coven housed young witches as that would be their classroom as well. All witches considered themselves to be eternal students; believing that one knew everything there was to know was a dangerous thing and even the most powerful and arrogant witch knew better than that.

  Chapter Eleven

  March 1875.

  The Forbidden City, Beijing, China.

  “Di Xiang ought to be returning soon,” Tzu-Hsi said, pacing nervously.

  “Relax,” Hsi-An reassured her. “I’m sure that all went well and there is nothing to worry about.”

  “I only fear that it will get back to me somehow,” Tzu-Hsi replied.

  “Di Xiang is careful,” Hsi-An responded. “He would never expose you.”

  “If Tung Chih would only have listened to me and followed my direction,” Tzu-Hsi replied. “We wouldn’t be in this position.”

  Tung Chih, who had been named emperor upon his father Hsien Feng’s death, had been too young to rule. He’d also been too young to care about ruling and had never been forced to actually focus his efforts upon doing so. With his mother Tzu-Hsi already manipulating the process of administering his rule, Tung Chih had found plenty of time to do whatever pleased him. Though he could have any woman he desired added to his concubines, Tung Chih had been more interested in the sport of conquest over whatever woman he desired rather than the boring process of selecting those most desirable by his mother. Because of his indiscretion where sexual satisfaction was concerned, Tung Chih had contracted a venereal disease. He had ruled less than three years before he joined Hsien Feng in death.

  With the death of her son, Tzu-Hsi had returned to her position of Empress Dowager and had made plans to bring her three-year-old nephew, Kuang Hsu, to the Forbidden City to replace him. However, when she learned that a concubine of Tung Chih was pregnant and if allowed to give birth, she had to take action or lose her position. If the concubine of her son produced a male heir, then the concubine would become Empress Dowager and both she and Kuang Hsu would no longer be of high enough status to continue to rule. That, of course, was not acceptable to Tzu-Hsi.

  “You might not have needed to do anything, Tzu-Hsi,” Hsi-An reminded her. “The concubine might have given birth to a girl.”

  “I will not place my fate, the fate of Kuang Hsu and your fate, I might add, in the hands of chance,” Tzu-Hsi asserted.

  “But you’ve taken a horrible risk. Certainly your enemies will spread rumors that you had all rivals to your power removed,” Hsi-An pointed out. It was the first time that Hsi-An had actually pointed out what she’d always known; Tzu-Hsi wanted to rule China and she would do whatever was necessary to do so.

  “It would be worse to have to kill a child after it was born,” Tzu-Hsi, said with a sinister twinkle in her eyes. “Besides, once the child was born, there would be no chance for me to do anything about it. I have to act before my position is compromised.”

  Hsi-An accepted her argument without either refuting or denying it.

  “It’s what is best for China,” Tzu-Hsi added. “Change in leadership at this critical time might be devastating to our country’s future.”

  They fell silent for a few moments; each considering the future of China and their role in keeping their country on course. Though there were some occasional differences between the two, mostly concerning the execution of certain policies, they agreed, fully, on where China ought to fit on the world stage.

  It was while they were enjoying that moment of silence that Di Xiang tapped softly at the door and announced himself.

  “Come, Di Xiang,” Tzu-Hsi called out.

  “Your grace,” Di Xiang said, bowing quickly. “I’m afraid that I have come bearing bad news.”

  For a moment, Tzu-Hsi was afraid that Di Xiang had not carried out what she had asked him to do. “What error did you commit?” she snapped.

  “No error, at all,” he replied, enjoying the moment a little too much. “I am here to inform you that, the Jianshun Empress, widow of your son, the Tung Chih Emperor, has taken her own life. The doctors were unable to save the child.”

  Catching on to the role that Di Xiang was playing, Tzu-Hsi quickly picked up her part, just in case anyone had followed the eunuch and was listening in. “That is indeed tragic. The poor girl has had a rough time of it, but who would have ever thought that she would take her own life. We must arrange for the proper honors to be bestowed upon her and her family. Hsi-An, would you please make the necessary arrangements? I will need to bring Kuang Hzu to the Forbidden City, now that he will be the heir.”

  Hsi-An, looked at her with a knowing smile. She knew that Tzu-Hsi was only getting rid of her so that she could be alone with the eunuch. “It would be an honor to make such arrangements,” she replied, sweeping out of the room.

  Chapter Twelve

  “She wants me to let her out,” Sam said to Archibald Maximus. They were in the Occult Reading Room at Cal State Fullerton having one of their famous heart to hearts. “She claims it’s because she wants to talk to you… to apologize for all that she’s done—”

  “But you know that you can’t let her out, right Sam? You can’t ever do it. Remember that. It’s a guarantee that the moment she gets out, you will no longer have any control over her at all. Ever again.” “What do you mean, Max?” she asked. Sam was huffing to catch her breath as the throes of a mild panic attack began to set in. The presence of Archibald’s mother was growing increasingly strong in Sam, stronger than she had ever felt it before. It was pulsing at her temples making her head literally feel like it might explode.

  “Think of it like a neural pathway and she, the neurons traveling along it. Once the road has been established, she will always be able to move along it again and again.” Samantha took a deep breath, and then, using all her willpower, she pushed the demon back down where she belonged, back inside the mental box Sam envisioned her as rightfully inhabiting. She even threw up another mental wall or two, sealing her in. Once she was done concentrating on keeping the demon tightly confined, she opened her eyes, and blinked hard.

  The reading room was gone and everything around her was white again. She sat in a corner drumming her too hard, too sharp fingernails on the white floor.

  “LET ME OUT OF HERE!” Sam finally screamed out in frustration.

&nb
sp; Her voice echoed in the emptiness of the void and before the baffling of her scream had settled there came a response to her rant but it was nothing that Sam had been expecting.

  “Oh, they won’t, Ssssamantha. That much isss for certain,” a familiar female voice said. “You know what they want you for, don’t you Sssam? The reason they took you and have been keeping you locked up in your own mind?”

  Sam turned around quickly to see where this new voice was coming from. As far as she could see, she was still alone in the bright, white place.

  “It’s ironic really. You have trapped me in your mind and now Catalina and her little minions have done the same to you. It’s pretty bland in here wouldn’t you agree? This is what I’ve been enduring for all these years. How could you blame me for wanting out? You don’t even want to be in here!” Elizabeth burst out laughing at her own wisecrack.

  The voice was taunting, teasing, mocking… and it was a voice she had heard in her mind and heart before. The timbre of it sent a chill down her spine because in Sam’s opinion, she had been hearing that voice far too often and much more loudly of late.

  “You won’t be able to keep me locked in that cerebral prison you call a mind, Sssamantha. I will be free, these witches will see to it once and for all.”

  “Shut up, bitch. Shut the H-E-double hockey sticks up!”

  Sam closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears. She wasn’t going to listen to another word that demon was saying to her. Its motive was clear. Now that Sam herself was locked inside her mind, the demon living there would try to torture her until Sam’s spirit broke and she ended up letting the demon out.

  Moments past and Sam, thinking that perhaps the situation was back under some modicum of control, slowly took her hands from her ears. There was nothing to be heard but the silence that had originally come with the white roomed prison of her mind.

  She opened her eyes and as they slowly adjusted to the muted brightness, Sam realized there was someone standing in front of her. She jerked backwards and rammed up against the wall behind her.

  “Peace, Samantha. It’s just me. I’m so glad I found you.”

  Samantha couldn’t believe her ears so she rubbed her eyes trying to hurry them to refocus and when they did, she was hard pressed to believe what she was seeing.

  “Oh, thank heaven! You’re back!” She cried and launched herself into Maximus’ arms. “I’m so happy to see you.”

  ***

  “Am I dreaming?” Samantha asked Maximus.

  “No, Sam. This is all very real.”

  “Now I know that I’m dreaming. Because that’s exactly what I would expect someone in a dream to say.”

  “I assure you, Samantha, all of this… everything you are going through right now, is quite real. Me being here though, that might be the only part of all of this that is a dream.”

  “Fine,” she said, sitting back angrily against the wall. “Be cryptic if you want to Max… or not Max… Whatever!”

  “You sound frustrated Samantha,” he said softly, soothingly. “Believe me when I say that my reason for coming to you was not to frustrate you.”

  ‘Then why are you here… or not here, Max?”

  “I’m not here in the flesh, Sam. But I’m here in your mind. I always am. Just like every other person who has ever made an impression on you lives here forever in your mind. You think about us, you have emotions towards us, you talk to us, and you talk about us. Therefore we are here, permanently.”

  “Everybody?”

  “Yes, Sam, everybody. From that annoyingly judgmental school principal at your children’s school to my wretch of a mother.”

  “Wow! I never thought of it like that.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m here,” he said. Then he waved his hands at the white, blankness that surrounded them. “Because the answer to all this, is in your memory. We spoke about the answer to your current dilemma, Sam. Many weeks ago, in the Reading Room, I told you how to conquer my mother.”

  Sam looked at Max questioningly.

  “Do you remember what I told you about the spirits being bound in the books at the library?”

  Sam nodded. She did remember that.

  “You have been similarly bound, Sam. Inside yourself. They want to harness your power and use you as a conduit for something terrible but they don’t understand where that power comes from. That’s the dangerous part.”

  “Your mother?”

  “Yes. If they are successful in using you, they will be tapping into her and when they do that…”

  “The neural pathway will be complete.”

  “And it will be quite irreversible!” Max said. “The only way to stop the people who have bound you is to go back and remember what I told you about how to fight her, Sam. If you are going to come out of this thing alive you must fight multiple enemies on different levels and the first will be fighting her from within.”

  Then, just as quickly as his image had appeared he was gone again. Sam thought hard about what he had said to her.

  Fight her from within? No, that hadn’t been it…

  She went back into her memories of Archibald Maximus, the medallions, their compelling talks about her vampirism, the Occult Reading Room at the university, those creepy whispering books…

  Sssssister Moon… don’t you remember?

  The alchemist told you what you mussssst do.

  She is your posssssesor, yesssss.

  But you must fight her, Ssssammm.

  You musssst fight her with….

  “With love!” Sam shouted. “I must fight her with love!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  April 1881.

  The Forbidden City, Beijing, China.

  “Madam Empress,” the attendant called through the door announcing herself. It was highly irregular for an attendant to be calling her at that hour, but she had been ordered to do so and her presence drew a lump up into Tzu-Hsi’s throat.

  Tzu-Hsi looked over at Di Xiang, who was sleeping soundly beside her in her bed. He’d been her loyal servant for years, having been brought into her service in preparation for the day she would enter the Imperial household. Tzu-Hsi’s mother had come from the Nigiyahala clan of Manchu, a family which had a tradition of installing a personal servant from their household to girls chosen as Imperial concubines. They were very knowledgeable about the inner workings of the Imperial household and its politics and knew that having her own eunuch to look out for the girl’s interests was paramount to success at court.

  Lady Fuca was also a very sexually liberated woman; she was familiar with the frustrations a woman can experience when she was counted among hundreds or thousands of others in an Emperor’s harem. Her own eunuch had been castrated by Tibetan monks in the ways of the Ottoman people and specially prepared to serve her sexual desires as well as her political interests. Knowing the benefits of having such a man in her service, she had ensured her daughter had the same.

  Tzu-Hsi has been part of the selection process that singled out Di Xiang as her eunuch, then he had been sent to the Himalayas for the surgery to be performed properly. When he returned Lady Fuca had personally examined him and ensured he remained functional.

  Throughout her years in the Forbidden City, Tzu-Hsi had kept Di Xiang by her side as her personal confidant and advocate. The Hzien Feng Emperor had been fond of him, constantly commenting that Di Xiang never stank of urine as the other eunuchs did. As a consort, Tzu-Hsi was summoned to the emperor’s chamber less than four times in a year, so having Di Xiang around had been quite handy.

  Though having the eunuch share her bed would have been considered a capital crime by the traditional protocols of the Qing Dynasty, Tzu-Hsi’s position of power had been so firmly established that none would dare speak of such a thing, especially those who were employed by her to be her attendants.

  “Come,” she responded. She was expecting the very worst of news to arrive at any moment, in fact, Di Xiang had been both comfort and diversion for
her as she tried to deal with the inevitable.

  The attendant entered with her eyes turned downward. Her face was ashen and her cheeks were streaked with the stains of tears. She stood quietly, just inside the door, waiting to be addressed.

  “What news do you have?” she whispered.

  “Madam Hsi-An has passed on,” the attendant announced, trying to remain in control of herself. She had attended to Hsi-An for quite some time and had been close to Tzu-Hsi’s co-regent. In all honesty, she had been disappointed to have to leave her former charge to begin attending to Tzu-Hsi.

  “Thank you,” Tzu-Hsi responded. She didn’t often thank her attendants for doing those things for which they had been given charge, but on that particular occasion, seeing the sorrow of the girl and feeling a touch of the same sorrow, she had felt like it was warranted. “You will make certain that the necessary honors are arranged, yes?”

  “I will,” the attendant replied on the verge of losing control of her emotions.

  “That will be all then,” Tzu-Hsi ordered. Mercifully, she had allowed the girl to pass from her presence so that she might maintain control of herself.

  At the sound of the large door being pulled closed by the attendant, Di Xiang awakened. “What is it?” he asked sitting up and rubbing sleep from his eyes.

  From the time that they had been selected for the Hsien Feng emperor’s household, Hsi-An and Tzu-Hsi had been together. Hsi-An had seen her for what she was, had accepted it and accepted her place behind her. In many ways, in as much as one could say it, Hsi-An was Tzu-Hsi’s best, perhaps, only friend. Her loss was not unexpected, she had been on the verge of death for several days, but the fact that she had passed on, had brought a twinge of pain to Tzu-Hsi. Wiping away a few tears and swallowing, she responded to Di Xiang. “She is gone.”