by Anne Rice
I realized that they too hated the stench, as much as I. I could feel their disgust, and yet they opened their mouths and their lungs as if they were eating it. Gabrielle was trembling against me, her fingers digging into my neck. Through another doorway we passed, and then, by dim torchlight, down an earthen stairs. The smell grew stronger. It seemed to ooze from the mud walls. I turned my face down and vomited a thin stream of glittering blood upon the steps beneath me, which vanished as we moved swiftly on.
"Live among graves, " I said furiously. "Tell me, why do you suffer hell already by your own choice? "
"Silence, " whispered one of them close to me, a dark-eyed female with a witch's mop of hair.
"You blasphemer, " she said. "You cursed profaner. "
"Don't be a fool for the devil, darling! " I sneered. We were eye to eye. "Unless he treats you a damn sight better than the Almighty! "
She laughed. Or rather she started to laugh, and she stopped as if she weren't allowed to laugh. What a gay and interesting little get-together this was going to be! We were going lower and lower into the earth. Flickering light, the scrape of their bare feet on the dirt, filthy rags brushing my face. For an instant, I saw a grinning skull. Then another, then a heap of them filling a niche in the wall. I tried to wrench free and my foot hit another heap and sent the bones clattering on the stairs. The vampires tightened their grip, trying to lift us higher. Now we passed the ghastly spectacle of rotted corpses fixed in the walls like statues, bones swathed in rotted rags.
"This is too disgusting'. " I said with my teeth clenched. We had come to the foot of the steps and were being carried through a great catacomb. I could hear the low rapid beat of kettledrums. Torches blazed ahead, and over a chorus of mournful wails, there came other cries, distant but filled with pain. Yet something beyond these puzzling cries had caught my attention. Amid all the foulness, I sensed a mortal was near. It was Nicolas and he was alive and I could hear him, vulnerable current of his thoughts mingled with his scent. And something was terribly wrong with his thoughts. They were chaos. I couldn't know if Gabrielle had caught it. We were quite suddenly thrown down together, in the dust. And the others backed away from us. I climbed to my feet, lifting Gabrielle with me. And I saw that we were in a great domed chamber, scarcely illuminated by three torches which the vampires held to form a triangle, in the center of which we stood. Something huge and black to the back of the chamber; smell of wood and pitch, smell of damp, moldering cloth, smell of living mortal. Nicolas there. Gabrielle's hair had come loose entirely from the ribbon, and it fell around her shoulders as she cleaved to me, looking about with seemingly calm, cautious eyes. Wails rose all around us, but the most piercing supplications came from those other beings we had heard before, creatures somewhere deep in the earth. And I realized these were entombed vampires screaming, screaming for blood, and screaming for forgiveness and release, screaming even for the fires of hell. The sound was as unbearable as the stench. No real thoughts from Nicki, only the formless shimmer of his mind. Was he dreaming? Was he mad? The roll of the drums was very loud and very close, and yet those screams pierced the rumbling again and again without rhythm or warning. The wailing of those nearest us died away, but the drums went on, the pounding suddenly coming from inside my head. Trying desperately not to clamp my hands to my ears, I looked about. A great circle had been formed, and there were ten of them at least, these creatures. I saw young ones, old ones, men and women, a young boy-and all clothed in the remnants of human garments, caked with earth, feet bare, hair tangled with filth. There was the woman I had spoken to on the stairs, her well-shaped body clothed in a filthy robe, her quick black eyes glinting like jewels in the dirt as she studied us. And beyond these, the advance guard, were a pair in the shadows beating the kettledrums. I begged silently for strength. I tried to hear Nicolas without actually thinking of him. Solemn vow: l shall get us all out of here, though at the moment I do not know exactly how. The drumbeat was slowing, becoming an ugly cadence that made the alien feeling of fear a fist against my throat.
One of the torchbearers approached. I could feel the anticipation of the others, a palpable excitement as the flames were thrust at me. I snatched the torch from the creature, twisting his right hand until he was flung down on his knees. With a hard kick, I sent him sprawling, and as the others rushed in, I swung the torch wide driving them back. Then defiantly, I threw down the torch. This caught them off guard and I sensed a sudden quietness. The excitement was drained away, or rather it had lapsed into something more patient and less volatile. The drums beat insistently, but it seemed they were ignoring the drums. They were staring at the buckles on our shoes, at our hair, and at our faces, with such distress they appeared menacing and hungry. And the young boy, with a look of anguish, reached out to touch Gabrielle.
"Get back! " I hissed. And he obeyed, snatching up the torch from the ground as he did. But I knew it for certain now-we were surrounded by envy and curiosity, and this was the strongest advantage we possessed. I looked from one to the other of them. And quite slowly, I commenced to brush the filth from my frock coat and breeches. I smoothed my cloak as I straightened my shoulders. Then I ran a hand through my hair, and stood with my arms folded, the picture of righteous dignity, gazing about. Gabrielle gave a faint smile. She stood composed, her hand on the hilt of her sword. The effect of this on the others was universal amazement. The dark-eyed female was enthralled. I winked at her. She would have been gorgeous if someone had thrown her into a waterfall and held her there for half an hour and I told her so silently. She took two steps backwards and pulled closed her robe over her breasts. Interesting. Very interesting indeed.
"What is the explanation for all this? " I asked, staring at them one by one as if they were quite peculiar. Again Gabrielle gave her faint smile.
"What are you meant to be? " I demanded. "The images of chain- rattling ghosts who haunt cemeteries and ancient castles? " They were glancing to one another, getting uneasy. The drums had stopped.
"My childhood nurse many a time thrilled me with tales of such fiends, " I said. "Told me they might at any moment leap out of the suits of armor in our house to carry me away screaming. " I stomped my foot and dashed forward. "IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE? " They shrieked and shrank back. The black-eyed woman didn't move, however. I laughed softly.
"And your bodies are just like ours, aren't they? " I asked slowly. "Smooth, without flaw, and in your eyes I can see evidence of my own powers. Most strange... " Confusion coming from them. And the howling in the walls seemed fainter as if the entombed were listening in spite of their pain.
"Is it great fun living in filth and stench such as this? " I asked. "Is that why you do it? " Fear. Envy again. How had we managed to escape their fate?
"Our leader is Satan, " said the dark-eyed woman sharply. Cultured voice. She'd been something to reckon with when she was mortal. "And we serve Satan as we are meant to do. "
"Why? " I asked politely. Consternation all around. Faint shimmer of Nicolas. Agitation without direction. Had he heard my voice?
"You will bring down the wrath of God on all of us with your defiance, " said the boy, the smallest of them, who couldn't have been more than sixteen when he was made. "In vanity and wickedness you disregard the Dark Ways. You live among mortals! You walk in the places of light. "
"And why don't you? " I asked. "Are you to go to heaven on white wings when this penitential sojourn of yours is ended? Is that what Satan promises? Salvation? I wouldn't count on it, if I were you. "
"You will be thrown into the pit of hell for your sins! " said one of the others, a tiny hag of a woman. "You will have power to do evil on earth no more. "
"When is that supposed to happen? " I asked. "For half a year I've been what I am. God and Satan have not troubled me! It is you who trouble me! " They were paralyzed for the moment. Why hadn't we been struck dead when we entered the churches? How could we be what we were? It was very likely they could have been scattered now and beate
n. But what about Nicki? If only his thoughts were directed,
I could have gained some image of exactly what lay behind that great heap of moldering black cloth. I kept my eyes on the vampires.
Wood, pitch, a pyre there surely. And these damned torches. The dark-eyed woman edged in. No malice, only fascination. But the boy pushed her to the side, infuriating her. He stepped so close I could feel his breath on my face:
"Bastard! " he said. "You were made by the outcast, Magnus, in defiance of the coven, and in defiance of the Dark Ways. And so you gave the Dark Gift to this woman in rashness and vanity as it was given to you. "
"If Satan does not punish, " said the tiny woman, "we will punish as is our duty and our right! " The boy pointed to the black draped pyre. He motioned for the others to draw back. The kettledrums came up again, fast and loud. The circle widened, the torchbearers drawing near to the cloth. Two of the others tore down the ragged drapery, great sheets of black serge that sent up the dust in a suffocating cloud. The pyre was as big as the one that had consumed Magnus. And on top of the pyre in a crude wooden cage, Nicolas knelt slumped against the bars. He stared blindly at us, and I could find no recognition in his face or his thoughts. The vampires held their torches high for us to see. And I could feel their excitement rising again as it had when they had first brought us into the room. Gabrielle was cautioning me with the press of her hand to be calm. Nothing changed in her expression. There were bluish marks on Nicki's throat. The lace of his shirt was filthy as were their rags, and his breeches were snagged and torn. He was in fact covered with bruises and drained almost to the point of death. The fear silently exploded in my heart, but I knew this was what they wanted to see. And I sealed it within. The cage is nothing, I can break it. And there are only three torches. The question is when to move, how. We would not perish like this, not like this. I found myself staring coldly at Nicolas, coldly at the bundles of kindling, the crude chopped wood. The anger rolled out of me. Gabrielle's face was a perfect mask of hate. The group seemed to feel this and to move ever so slightly away from it, and then to draw in, confused and uncertain again. But something else was happening. The circle was tightening. Gabrielle touched my arm.
"The leader is coming, " she said. A door had opened somewhere. The drums surged and it seemed those imprisoned in the walls went into agony, pleading to be forgiven and released. The vampires around us took up the cries in a frenzy. It was all I could do not to cover my ears. A strong instinct told me not to look at the leader. But I couldn't resist him, and slowly I turned to look at him and measure his powers again.
2
He was moving towards the center of the great circle, his back to the pyre, a strange woman vampire at his side. And when I looked full at him in the torchlight I felt the same shock I had experienced when he entered Notre Dame. It wasn't merely his beauty; it was the astonishing innocence of his boyish face. He moved so lightly and swiftly I could not see his feet actually take steps. His huge eyes regarded us without anger, his hair, for all the dust in it, giving off faint reddish glints. I tried to feel his mind, what it was, why such a sublime being should command these sad ghosts when it had the world to roam. I tried to discover again what I had almost discovered when we stood before the altar of the cathedral, this creature and I. If I knew that, maybe I could defeat him and defeat him I would. I thought I saw him respond to me, some silent answer, some flash of heaven in the very pit of hell in his innocent expression, as if the devil still retained the face and form of the angel after the fall. But something was very wrong. The leader was not speaking. The drums beat on anxiously, yet there was no communal conviction. The dark-eyed woman vampire was not joined with the others in their wailing. And others had stopped as well. And the woman who had come in with the leader, a strange creature clothed as an ancient queen might have been in ragged gown and braided girdle, commenced to laugh. The coven or whatever it called itself was quite understandably stunned. One of the kettledrums stopped. The queen creature laughed louder and louder. Her white teeth flashed through the filthy veil of her snarled hair. Beautiful she'd been once. And it wasn't mortal age that had ravaged her. Rather, she appeared the lunatic, her mouth a horrid grimace, her eyes staring wildly before her, her body bent suddenly in an arc with her laughing, as Magnus had bent when he danced around his own funeral pyre.
"Did I not warn you? " she screamed. "Did I not? " Far behind her, Nicolas moved in the little cage. I felt the laughter scorning him. But he was looking steadily at me, and the old sensibility was stamped on his features in spite of their distortion. Fear struggled with malice in him, and this was tangled with wonder and near despair. The auburn-haired leader stared at the queen vampire, his expression unreadable, and the boy with the torch stepped forward and shouted for the woman to be silent at once. He made himself rather regal now, in spite of his rags. The woman turned her back on him and faced us.
She sang her words in a hoarse, sexless voice that gave way to a galloping laughter.
"A thousand times I said it, yet you would not listen to me, " she declared. Her gown shivered about her as she trembled. "And you called me mad, time's martyr, a vagrant Cassandra corrupt by too long a vigil on this earth. Well, you see, every one of my predictions has come true. " The leader gave her not the slightest recognition.
"And it took this creature, " she approached me, her face a hideous comic mask as Magnus's face had been, "this romping cavalier to prove it to you once and for all. " She hissed, drew in her breath, and stood erect. And for one moment in perfect stillness she passed into beauty. I longed to comb her hair, to wash it with my own hands, and to clothe her in a modern dress, to see her in the mirror of my time.
In fact, my mind went suddenly wild with the idea of it, the reclaiming of her and the washing away of her evil disguise. I think for one second the concept of eternity burned in me. I knew then what immortality was. All things were possible with her, or so for that one moment it seemed. She gazed at me and caught the visions, and the loveliness of her face deepened, but the mad humor was coming back.
"Punish them, " the boy screamed. "Call down the judgment of Satan. Light the fire. " But no one moved in the vast room. The old woman hummed with her lips closed, some eerie melody with the cadence of speech. The leader stared as before. But the boy in panic advanced upon us. He bared his fangs, raised his hand in a claw. I snatched the torch from him and dealt him an indifferent blow to the chest that sent him across the dusty circle, sliding into the kindling banked against the pyre. I ground out the torch in the dirt. The queen vampire let out a shriek of laughter that seemed to terrify the others, but nothing changed in the leader's face.
"I won't stand here for any judgment of Satan! " I said, glancing around the circle. "Unless you bring Satan here. "
"Yes, tell them, child! Make them answer to you! " the old woman said triumphantly. The boy was on his feet again.
"You know the crimes, " he roared as he reentered the circle. He was furious now, and he exuded power, and I realized how impossible it was to judge any of them by the mortal form they retained. He might well have been an elder, the tiny old woman a fledgling, the boyish leader the eldest of them all.
"Behold, " he said, stepping closer, his gray eyes gleaming as he felt the attention of the others. "This fiend was no novice here or anywhere; he did not beg to be received. He made no vows to Satan. He did not on his deathbed give up his soul, and in fact, he did not die! " His voice went higher, grew louder.
"He was not buried! He has not risen from the grave as a Child of Darkness! Rather he dares to roam the world in the guise of a living being! And in the very midst of Paris conducts business as a mortal man! " Shrieks answered him from the walls. But the vampires of the circle were silent as he gazed at them. His jaw trembled. He threw up his arms and wailed. One or two of the others answered. His face was disfigured with rage. The old queen vampire gave a shiver of laughter and looked at me with the most maniacal smile. But the boy wasn't givingg up.
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"He seeks the comforts of the hearth, strictly forbidden, " he screamed, stamping his foot and shaking his garments. "He goes into the very palaces of carnal pleasure, and mingles there with mortals as they play music! As they dance! "
"Stop your raving! " I said. But in truth, I wanted to hear him out. He plunged forward, sticking his finger in my face.
"No rituals can purify him! " he shouted. "Too late for the Dark Vows, the Dark Blessings... "
"Dark Vows? Dark Blessings? " I turned to the old queen. "What do you say to all this? You're as old as Magnus was when he went into the fire Why do you suffer this to go on? " Her eyes moved in her head suddenly as if they alone possessed life, and there came that racing laughter out of her again.
"I shall never harm you, young one, " she said. "Either of you. " She looked lovingly at Gabrielle.
"You are on the Devil's Road to a great adventure. What right have I to intervene in what the centuries have in store for you? " The Devil's Road. It was the first phrase from any of them that had rung a clarion in my soul. An exhilaration took hold of me merely looking at her. In her own way, she was Magnus's twin.
"Oh yes, I am as old as your progenitor! " She smiled, her white fangs just touching her lower lip, then vanishing. She glanced at the leader, who watched her without the slightest interest or spirit. "I was here, " she said, "within this coven when Magnus stole our secrets from us, that crafty one, the alchemist, Magnus . . . when he drank the blood that would give him life everlasting in a manner which the World of Darkness had never witnessed before. And now three centuries have passed and he has given his pure and undiluted Dark Gift to you, beautiful child! " Her face became again that leering, grinning mask of comedy, so much like Magnus's face.