by Daniel Caet
“What matters is that I need to reach him in Capri,” I said, ignoring her reasoning, “and I need to do it in the most discreet way.”
“Which is impossible ... for almost everyone.”
“Keep going.”
“Before I go on, let's talk about what I get out of all this, dear husband,” she said, becoming the perverse and twisted Liliath that I remembered.
“I've already told you that I'll take care of your revenge.”
“That's not enough,” she replied.
“Say what your price is then.”
“If I can get you into the island to approach Gaius, you must make sure that the girls and I can safely leave Rome and that neither archangels nor anyone else can ever find us.”
The price surprised me because it denoted that the bond of love with the girls was truly deep.
“What about your husband?” I asked, surprised at her omission.
“We all have to make sacrifices,” she replied, and I knew that she hadn't changed at all.
I accepted her terms and she gave me directions to meet her two nights later on the edge of the city, on the banks of the Tiber. That night the wind dragged all the moisture from the surface of the river and made the heat almost unbearable. When I arrived at our meeting point I found that the place was deserted, or so I believed until a slight undulation in the air made Liliath visible. She had evidently been hidden under some spell until she found that I had come alone, which showed that she really did not trust me, but I said nothing.
“You're late,” she snapped and turned expecting me to follow her in her usual ways. Liliath walked along the bank of the river to an area far from all the city lights without saying a word until she stood in front of the wall formed by an elevation of the shore over the waters.
“Are you going to tell me who we came to see?”
“We come to see a half-blood, but I warn you that this is a special type because he hates angels and demons alike, and is extremely susceptible; so if you really want his help, you better let me talk.”
Half-bloods were not common creatures. Resulting from the union of an angel and a demon I knew of some that had existed in the past, but during the angelic wars they had been destroyed by the angels who considered them the manifestation of how much an angel could be denigrated, not only having carnal relationships with an infernal beast, but allowing their offspring to live.
Liliath led me to a narrow hole in the rock wall that formed the elevation of the riverbank. The space was barely big enough for a person to pass, but it soon widened, becoming a kind of corridor in the stone. Soon the outside light disappeared completely, but Liliath walked through that darkness without torches in a completely safe way demonstrating that she knew the terrain well. I, on my part, tried to stick to her as much as I could, trying not to fall behind and for fear that this corridor would become at any time some kind of maze that I could not get out of. My previous experiences with Liliath in another cave long years ago were enough for me not to take any risks. Suddenly, the darkness was displaced by a warm clarity that came from somewhere in front of us. As we got closer I could see that the corridor opened to a wide cavern although not as tall or large as the one in which I had found Enoch. The cave was full of dirt, broken clay pots, bones that seemed to be animals and other spoils, and a stale smell, almost rotting filled everything. In the centre of the room that occupied the cave was a figure with its back to us, not too tall, dressed in some sort of old and ragged tunic playing with something in its hands. Upon hearing our footsteps, the creature turned to look at us, although a hood placed on its head did not allow us to see its face.
“My lady Liliath, always on time. At least when she has an interest,” the figure said in a tone that sounded more reproachful than sneer.
“You knew I was coming, Balthazar, I can't move faster when I carry a package,” Liliath replied and I preferred to ignore the qualifier she had given me.
“Will you follow the terms we agreed on?”
“Of course, you know that I always keep my word,” Liliath said seriously.
“Perfect then!” the figure replied as he removed the cloth that covered his head to expose his face, the ugliest I had ever seen. It was deformed on his forehead causing his skull to be completely irregular, one of his eyes was completely closed and the other appeared slightly down on his face. The barely existing nose was reduced to two protruding holes above a mouth of thick lips and indented teeth. “Wow, this is a surprise!”
“What's so surprising?” I asked in a tone that tried to be neutral.
“I have a gift to see the true nature of all creatures, but I have never seen anyone like you.”
“They tell me that a lot.”
“Very funny, but I know what I am saying. Your body is human, and yet you are not, at least not completely. I can perceive the essence of those who have been exposed to the energy of the underworld for a long time, it is a smell that you cannot escape, gets under the skin and ends up living with one forever. And yet, that essence is mixed with something completely different, hidden, almost non-existent, but still beating alive in you, the essence of an angel. What kind of half-blood are you?” he asked with a curiosity that almost sounded offensive.
“We will take no questions outside the matter that bring us here or there will be no place for agreement.”
The man turned to look at Liliath with an unfriendly face, and he did not even deign to answer her.
“My lady Liliath tells me that you want to enter Capri, as close as possible to the emperor's palace, is that so?”
“Yes, so it is. What can you do about it?”
“I can do many things, in fact, I can make you enter the very palace, I could make you dawn between the emperor's legs if I wanted to. The question is what can my lady do for me in return.”
Liliath approached some elevation of the cave floor that the creature seemed to have been using as a table or shelf. There, closing her eyes she placed her hand on the surface, and a moment later a small lump had appeared on the rock. It took me a moment to recognise what it was, but when I did it was hard for me to accept that Liliath had lent herself to that. There, covered by fabrics denoting an extremely humble origin, was a baby just a few days old, perfectly asleep. The half-blood's eyes widened as much as they could and shone with anticipation. Immediately the memories of the price Sadith had had to pay for her immortality came to my head, and I became the father who had once held his children in his arms.
“It's a boy?” he asked.
“Yes, just as I promised you,” Liliath replied, lightly stroking the boy's face. “His parents are no longer among us, it's all yours.”
The creature's face showed the immense joy that it caused.
“Liliath, no!” I told her, making the risk of getting ahead of the creature that in an instant had reached the baby and looked at him as if he had found a treasure.
“I know what you're thinking, and although I don't care in the least, let me tell you you're wrong,” he said, still looking at the little boy. “I do not devour infants, in fact, humans are not part of my diet, I have always found them repulsive. Just like they find me, I guess,” he said, turning to stare at me. “My father was an angel, a proud creature that had to swallow all his pride when he fell between my mother's legs, a demon of the Najeth caste that I suspect you know well.”
Indeed, I knew them. The Najeth were inbred creatures who lived in seclusion in their own communities, without interacting with anyone and feeding on the rotten corpses he could find in the necropolis of all cities.
“It did not play well for neither of them. My father committed suicide unable to live with shame when he was shown the deformed product of his sin. I guess he expected something more like a Nephilim. My mother on the other hand was torn apart by her own tribe when she saw herself without the shelter of her lover and tried to return with them. And I, the repulsive half-blood, was thrown into a swamp to be eaten by beasts. But, luckily, an elde
rly washerwoman found me and took me with her. I lived with her until her death when I was thirteen years old, and since then I have lived, or survived if you prefer, without anyone's help. As you can imagine,” he continued, “in my circumstances it is difficult to find a woman who has the slightest interest in me, not to mention having children. That is my price for helping you, foreigner. A son of my own.”
As much as I heard him try to justify what was happening, I couldn't accept it. What could lead a repulsive creature like that to wish to have a child if it wasn't for some terrible purpose? A part of me wanted to stop that, take the child and leave the cave, but another part inside me knew I couldn't do it. Whether or not I agreed with the payment, I needed the help of that being, or at least, I had to listen to what I had to offer because I had no other way out.
“And what service is worth such a high price? Explain yourself!”
“Very simple. It turns out that the washerwoman was more than that, but her other activities were less well known and not too well seen. It's what witches have, I guess. Some fear them and others need them, but nobody respects them. The fact is that she taught me many things, among others to use this little toy that I have here.”
His steps went to the back wall of the room where there was something I recognised right away. To an inexperienced eye, they would have seemed like misplaced stones, but I knew that this was something else, a false door, not as elaborate as the ones I had known in Egypt, but a door, after all.
“I see you have recognised it. With this door I can get you where you want, I just need to engrave the right symbols in its threshold and everything will be done. It depends on you. What do you say?”
I could not remove my eyes from the door. That was truly the best way to get me to the emperor's island in a completely discreet way, the only question was whether I was willing to pay the price. I tried not to look at Liliath, much less the creature that rested on the stone, and telling myself that I was doing all that for a greater good, I nodded, unable to say a word.
“Very well,” said Balthazar. “Let's not waste more time then. First of all, we need to clarify where you want me to take you. My recommendation is that we open the portal in the kitchens of Tiberius’ palace. At this time everyone should be sleeping, and the kitchens will be empty. And if they are not, it will not cost you much to close any pair of prying eyes forever.”
“I suppose it will work,” I replied, not wanting to have a conversation with that creature, “but I'd better try to fit in.”
In an instant as if swept by a wind blow my clothes changed to become those of a servant like those I had seen in any of the houses to which Gaius had taken me in our time together. I didn't know exactly how the palace servants dressed, but I was confident that the difference would not be very important, or my entrance would be anything but discreet.
Liliath approached me and looked me straight in the eye.
“I've done my part of the deal, now it's your turn.”
Knowing that I could not escape my promise I put my hand in the tunic and took out three dark red crystals.
“These three stones will make you invisible to both angels and demons, you must wear them at all times or they will have no effect.”
“I hope you're not lying to me, Helel,” she said, calling me by my name for the first time in a long time. “I don't get along with the deceptions.”
“You can be calm, I'm not like you.”
“Really?” she said laughing and looking at the baby at the other end of the cave. “All men are equal, you think you are better than women, more dignified, purer, but you are only interested and selfish. All your dignity has disappeared as soon as it has turned out that this child is the only thing that stands between you and your desires. How are you different from me, Helel? You may not see it, but that is why you and I end up together. We are absolutely identical, dear husband.”
Suddenly, her lips landed on mine and her tongue filled my mouth as it had long ago. And I did not resist. When I opened my eyes Liliath was gone and there was only Balthazar left who was looking at me with a triumphant smile.
“Just finish it!” I shouted, making him jump slightly. Moving as if it were a mouse with quick and short steps, he approached the door and suddenly bit himself hard in his hand. Using the other finger as a brush, he took blood from the hand where he had been bitten and began to draw some symbols on the doorway. Immediately the hollow of the door that was full of rocks melted as if it were a bright liquid that vibrated until the movement ceased, and I could clearly see a small, dark room on the other side.
“Hurry, it won't remain open forever!”
“Where exactly does it take me?” I asked.
“It's one of the kitchen pantries. Wait until you know that there is no one before leaving it and watch out for the imperial guard or they will throw you down the cliffs of Capri as soon as they see you. Quick!”
Without waiting another second, I crossed the door, and immediately I could feel in my nose an intense smell of food and wine. The room in which I had appeared was small for what I would have expected from the pantry of an imperial palace, Villa Jovis, as Tiberius himself had called it in honour of the god Jupiter. The walls were occupied by shelves where you could see clay containers that gave off an intense smell of cheese and oil. In the lower part there were other larger containers full of legumes and grains of different types, and the floor of the room was occupied by large closed amphorae filled with precious golden oil brought from the southern ports and Hispania. At the back of the room were three large jars, tall as a man and wide as two that gave off an unmistakable wine aroma. How I could I crawled behind one of those jars and there I hid in the hole that formed with the wall waiting for the right time to go out to the palace. From my shelter I concentrated in listening to the minds of who could be in the surroundings, but all I perceived was silence. It seemed that the half-blood had not been mistaken and the entire palace slept at that time. The hours passed without a soul venturing through that room, just the distant echo of two guards making their way through the halls of that part of the town and that served me to confirm that the half-blood had not deceived me and I was truly in the imperial palace in Capri. Tired of waiting and assuming that it should be dawn, I decided to leave my hiding place and try my luck outside the room. As soon as I crossed the threshold of the room I found myself facing a tall, fat woman who looked at me with an unfriendly face.
“What are you doing there?” she asked badly.
“I was checking how much wine we had left,” I replied with the first thing that crossed my mind.
“Unless now Velio has decided to go over me, I'm still the head of this kitchen,” she said gesturing agitated, “and that's my function. Besides, who the hell are you?”
For a second the idea of ending that parrot went through my head, but it was likely that the disappearance of the kitchen manager would generate a considerable stir that did not suit me, so I opted to continue lying.
“My name is Arso,” I said using the name of Liliath's slave. “I am new and Velio and has assigned me to the kitchen. He told me that I should introduce myself to the boss, who is the most efficient woman in the entire palace, but I got lost trying to find you.”
The woman looked at me with a suspicious face, but I could see a hint of a smile that told me that my praise had hit the target.
“Velio told you that? It is hard for me to believe it, but in the end, I will not be the one to say that he is wrong,” she replied and her body visibly distended. “This is the first kitchen of the imperial village, boy and here you do what I say, understood? I deduce that you have no experience in kitchens seeing how thin you are, so you will just clean the vegetables and peel the chickens and then help serve at the banquet tonight. You better be careful!” she said, putting the dog's face back on. “If you screw up at the banquet tonight, your head won't last on your shoulders. You will serve wine in a corner, hopefully you will not offend any of the guests by
throwing the wine over their cocks and their cunts.”
I didn't have much time to think about what the woman meant because I immediately started plucking pheasants to continue cleaning fish, and thus one task after another until sunset. Being locked in that kitchen seemed like a waste of time, but perhaps it was the best option to get to Gaius. If there was a banquet in which the presence of the emperor was expected, perhaps Gaius was also present, and I could have the opportunity to approach him without Michael and his dogs noticing my presence.
Just before nightfall an older, thin and very effeminate man entered the kitchen loaded with clothes that he put on a table.
“Very well, the party begins, those who have been selected to serve put this on immediately and enter the banquet hall. Hurry up!”
“You've heard Velio, lazy rat, quickly!” The fat woman replied as she winked at the man who looked at her in horror.
I obeyed trying to go as unnoticed as possible, and when I finished putting on the short robe they had given me, this Velio, without paying any attention to me, handed me a wine amphora and told me that I should stand by the door of the room in the opposite end of the imperial throne. I followed the rest of the slaves to the living room, bowing their heads every time we met someone in the halls for fear that someone would notice me; although I knew it was unlikely that none of Michael's soldiers would notice a slave, not just because they had probably never seen me before, but because sometimes the best way to hide is in the open. No one sees what he does not expect to see.
The banquet room turned out to be an immense room with marble floors and walls, and in the background, a large throne covered with purple and gold cushions. The centre of the room was occupied by a small fountain with statues of nymphs and a slightly elevated stage. Around the room were about thirty or forty couches distributed strategically so that all the guests had a perfect view of both the throne and the stage.