Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony

by Brian McKinley

  Without a word, I left Caroline to follow as I ran around the corner to Iago’s door.

  “Avery!”

  I went in. Iago sat in his armchair, the crackling fire beside him revealing that the place still looked like a set from Dark Shadows. He turned to me, unsurprised.

  “Judicis Medici, I’m sorry to barge in like this but Draco has Mrs. Kai, the housekeeper, in his suite! He used her as an excuse to get me up here but now he’s gonna torture her…”

  Caroline, having no choice, had come in behind me and closed the door. “What? Oh, my…” She’d left the security office right after Draco called out to Sebastian and came upstairs to wait for me.

  “Yes,” Iago said, sitting forward. “I am sorry for that.”

  I stopped a few steps from him. “Don’t tell me that was the plan.”

  “Avery,” Caroline whispered, grabbing my arm but I didn’t give a shit about proper etiquette at the moment.

  Luckily for me, Iago didn’t either. “Foolishly, I did give Draco leave to invent his own pretext. From your words and my own familiarity with the principals, the rest of the scenario took little thought to reconstruct.”

  “All right, fine,” I said. “So, let’s get going. Is it better to call him first or just go there and get her?”

  “I truly am sorry,” he answered, looking at me the way you look at a kid who has to be told Fido’s not coming home from the vet’s. “But there is nothing I can do to help.”

  “How can you say that? You’re the Judicis!” I felt myself tearing up again and looked to Caroline for support but she just sat in the chair across from Iago and stared at the floor with similarly moist eyes.

  Iago nodded. “For the moment. However, even if that meant what you seem to believe, I would still have no authority to intervene. As repellant as they are, Draco’s actions are permissible by our laws and traditions. Sebastian gave her to him, did he not? By law, she is his property.”

  “Well, then buy her from him or something, dammit! There’s gotta be something we can do.”

  “His business with Sebastian was personal and he will not look kindly on any attempt to interfere in it.”

  I glared at him. “You just don’t wanna risk losing his support, do you?”

  He met my gaze. “An ugly truth to be sure but one which I shall not shrink from. In this matter, you must recognize that you have done all you are capable of given the limitations of circumstance.” I felt the depths within his eyes reach into mine, felt his words etch themselves into my mind. “Grieve for her without shame, honor her memory and dedicate yourself to protecting others like her if you choose but never let yourself fall prey to the ravages of guilt when you fail. Mark me well, for it is poison of the worst kind and has made monsters of even the noblest men.”

  I felt some of the bleak anguish I’d been carrying since leaving Draco’s suite evaporate, leaving behind a dull and unfocused sadness. Strangely, it didn’t make me feel better. I felt cheated, like something had been taken from me before I was finished with it. Who the fuck did he think he was to just reach into my head and try to make me feel better?

  “Fuck all of you,” I said, turning away.

  “Avery!” Caroline shouted.

  “No,” I said, spinning around to face her. “This whole thing sucks! The whole damn society, all its rules, it’s stupid traditions and everybody in it can all just fucking go to hell! This guy can’t even get his own henchman to stop torturing an innocent woman. Hell, he can’t even make Sebastian keep his room clean! Who the fuck are we kidding thinking he can do anything to help us? This is all just a big, sick, fucking game and we’re not even—”

  Caroline grabbed me hard. I’d never seen her like this before, so terrified. “What else can we do? I’ve known Mrs. Kai for years and I hate what happened to her but should we give up because of it? This is all we’ve got, Avery … so, please, calm down and apologize and let’s—”

  “There is no need, Caroline,” Iago said from his chair, startling us both. “Your lover’s anger is righteous and though he is not especially tactful, he is nevertheless correct in his assessment. This is a game, albeit one of most dire consequence, in which I am a reluctant player with ever-shrinking resources and you are both pieces of negotiable value.”

  “Are you … speaking to me?”

  “Would you prefer we conduct our conversation through your young man as though we did not speak the same language?”

  “No,” Caroline said, moving toward him. “I don’t mind at all, I’m just very surprised.”

  Iago indicated the chair across from him, which I noticed had been dusted. “Please, make yourself comfortable.”

  Caroline did. “Thank you.”

  The chair beside her had also been brushed off. I moved it beside her and sat. “So,” I said, drawing Iago’s attention. “What if we decide we’re not gonna be anybody’s pawns?” Because of my outburst and Caroline’s dragging me back, I decided to try playing the “bad cop” with Iago.

  Iago arched an elegant eyebrow. “You have no choice in the matter. The simple mechanics of survival and performance of your duties fit you squarely into Sebastian’s plans. Any scheming on your part simply gives others the opportunity to profit by your actions and desires.” He made one of those little hand-shrugs. “It is the nature of The Game: constant, all-pervasive and inescapable. We play, else we are used.”

  I thought about Mrs. Kai again and remembered asking her why she worked for Sebastian. She’d said that the pay and benefits were so good, even as a maid, that she could retire by the time her kids graduated college. The American dream. Then I thought about the people in the cellar and all the other “wine cellars” there must be in this country alone. Those little “Have You Seen Me?” cards I used to get in the mail that I’d just throw out.

  Damn right we got used.

  “In that case, Judicis Medici, we offer ourselves for use in your plans,” Caroline told him.

  I took hold of her hand and she clutched mine. This was the big moment.

  Iago thought for a few seconds before answering, “What exactly leads you to believe that I have plans at all?”

  Remember in The Wizard of Oz where the “great and powerful Oz” turns out to be this old fraud behind a curtain?

  “Well, the fact that you’re still alive and Judicis is my first clue.” Caroline’s poise never slipped.

  The corner of Iago’s mouth twitched. “You are unfamiliar with the excruciating caution and patience of these jackals. They wait, they observe, they test and then they retreat to a safe distance to begin the cycle anew. That it has taken a century for Agrippina to commit to my destruction is a measure of my former stature and the mighty preparation of her design.”

  “But if you know that Hegemon Julia is guiding Sebastian’s moves, then you must at least suspect the Blood Pact between them,” Caroline said. Iago has one of the world’s greatest poker faces but I watched intently and thought I saw a tiny flicker in his eyes at her mention of the Blood Pact. “You’re far too habituated in the functioning of The Order to recognize a hostile intention and not develop a counter, even if you have no intention of employing it.”

  Sitting there in her Age of Innocence gown with her hair done up like a princess and her large eyes sparkling like jewels, I realized just how completely in her element she was here. She loved this! Her face glowed the way it did when she was focused on a challenge.

  Iago also drifted forward to be closer to her radiance before catching himself and slumping back to his former posture. “Ah but I’m afraid you are too generous in your assessment of my faculties. I did only this evening recognize the significance of Agrippina’s coordination with Blackwood and am now passing certain that I am too well entangled in their cunning web to entertain fantasies of escape.”

  After the few seconds it took me to translate what he’d said into normal English, I realized he wasn’t making sense. Julia’s gift of the papal robes to Sebastian, Draco’s mock
ery of Sebastian with that empty suit of Roman armor and even Iago’s parting gift of “the world” to Sebastian; there was no way he could have been in the dark about what was happening if somebody like me could see it. Then I saw the way Caroline’s smile faltered and the way Iago’s attention focused on her as he waited for her reaction.

  He’d lied! He’d thrown her a curve ball after setting her up with a series of straight pitches.

  “But didn’t you also admit to Avery your need to maintain Draco’s political support? If you didn’t have some intention of fighting back, then what would you need it for?” She even managed to make her questions sound like a puzzling discovery rather than a challenge.

  “A thorough argument, signora. Now, before we proceed further,” he said, leaning forward and locking her with eyes that were bright, alert and predatory. “I must ask that you look me in the eyes and tell me if you are here at the behest of your Creator or Julia Agrippina.”

  I saw Caroline’s face go slack and shot out of my chair. “Hey!”

  “No,” Caroline answered in a flat tone. “Sebastian and Julia have no idea we’re here. Sebastian would kill us if he suspected.”

  I remained standing but made no further move to stop Iago, deciding that I’d referee things on her behalf. I didn’t know exactly what I’d do to stop him if he took things too far but I was hoping the situation wouldn’t come to that.

  “Do you in any way represent an interest other than your own in this negotiation?”

  “No.”

  “Very well, then,” he said, waving his hand in front of her face and sitting back.

  With a look of confusion, she glanced up at me. I gave her a little nod to let her know everything was okay and she turned back to Iago as if nothing had happened.

  “Apologies for the use of such inelegant measures,” Iago said. “However, in my circumstances, one needs be certain and time is too dear a commodity to squander in trivial formalities.”

  “Well, then why bother with all that ‘do I have plans’ crap?” I asked as I sat back down.

  Iago gave me an indulgent glance. Caroline looked embarrassed. “Because he needed to know how I reason, how much I’ve observed about him and the current situation.” She smiled her most charming smile at him. “The Judicis needed to know the quality of people he’d be working with.”

  “Graci, signora.”

  I was never gonna be any kind of Machiavellian master schemer but I knew I needed to be able to follow the plays to be of any use. As well as being necessary to our survival, this kind of intellectual challenge got Caroline’s blood pumping the way few other things seemed to. I might not like the whole dark father relationship Iago was building with my girlfriend but I had to try to understand this part of her.

  “Now, let us come to the heart of the matter,” Iago continued. As he steepled his long, bony fingers with their long, dull nails, I saw the way his bright gray eyes drank in every detail of Caroline’s expression, posture and mannerisms. “As you have surmised, my long play of weakness and apathy has fulfilled my aim of enticing my enemies close. When Draco commended you to me after I determined the honorable nature of your young man here, I was able to deduce that you are in possession of some evidence or information which is damning to Sebastian’s plans. I see by your expression that my deduction was correct.”

  Caroline nodded, smiling with pride.

  “Therefore,” he continued. “I shall make my final arrangements based upon what you provide.”

  “What would you have done if we didn’t come to you with something on Sebastian?” I asked.

  “Summon the will to die gracefully? Failing that, I suppose I should have been forced to enter into a bargain with Geoffrey. I shudder at the possibilities.”

  Caroline swept a stray lock back behind her ear and smiled. “Well, Your Exaltedness, as luck would have it, I’m able to present you with two options.” She explained her papers and how they were set to be published on the Internet if she missed two check-ins. Naturally she’d told Sebastian it was one check-in. She further explained that she’d missed tonight’s check-in and if Iago wished, she would miss tomorrow night’s too. “As well as violating The Order’s most sacred edict, tonight’s council session makes it seem to be a natural part of Sebastian’s plan. An incident to force the issue if the tide goes against his proposal,” she finished.

  Iago considered in silence for a moment, eyes like a computer screen switched to power-save and I took the opportunity to ask Caroline what she’d meant about Sebastian’s plan. She gave me the Cliff’s Notes version of his big speech at the meeting.

  “And they didn’t laugh him outta the room?” I asked. “What the hell’s wrong with these people?”

  “Quite a great many things,” Iago mused, drawing our attention back to him. “Though, in this instance, their reaction can be explained most succinctly as the allure of passion. As we Vampyrs advance in age, those once-familiar humors in our breasts wither. We burn them out for fear of vulnerability as Draco has done with his rage or like Geoffrey, we bury them deep beneath a mask of diplomacy until they rot and leave only the mask. Every score of years further separates wit from passion, making the accomplishment of a genuine emotion an ever more onerous task…”

  I thought of Julia in the video, trying to scrape up some shred of feeling for anything and the lengths to which Valmont had gone to jump-start her again, Geoffrey trading oil spills for money, money for drugs and assassinations for favors, all without a single hint of emotion, Valmont and the smell of the baby boy as he whispered in my ear, “There is more to blood than sustenance, or we would all drink Geoffrey’s processed blood. When we drink fresh, we drink life.”

  I felt a shiver run the length of my body.

  “Besides which, the whole great scheme is just so much smoke,” Iago continued. “He may long for such a world somewhere deep in that unbalanced mind of his but he has no true intention of pursuing it. He wanted an issue to challenge me on and chose one for which he can hue and cry with great drama. Mark you his shrewd invocation of yesteryear from the very opening of this Gathering. You see, even ill-tempered and diseased, your Creator’s gift for speaking to the heart has not yet deserted him. His passion reaches that which has withered inside us, the beating in his chest so strong that we cannot but hear it like a siren’s song. His arguments, though tailored to prick our baser fears, would have fallen on indifferent ears but for the man himself.”

  “You admire him,” Caroline said with quiet surprise.

  He almost looked embarrassed as he turned away to study the still-roaring fire. “Pity won out some years ago but yes, he was once the noblest of us. ‘Tis no surprise then that we felt such a need to lower him, so basely was our seeming in his company…” He glanced at Caroline with concern. “Forgive me if my recollections bring you pain. I assure you ‘twas not my intent.”

  “It’s all right, I…” I heard the edge of tears in her voice but she kept her attention fixed on Iago. I put my arm around her shoulder and she took hold of my other hand. “I’d like to hear anything you can tell me about the times before I knew him. There’s so much he wouldn’t speak of you see and I want to know more of who he was as a man. So I can remember him after the monster he became is gone.”

  I kissed the side of her head, closing my eyes for a moment and just letting myself forget everything except for the smell of her, the feel of her, the warmth of her. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy for me to hear but I realized how necessary it was for Caroline. For the first time, I pulled outside of my insecurities to understand how difficult it must be for her to put the past where it belonged. How it must be killing her to have to live in this house again.

  Iago searched her face for a moment and nodded. “Very well, then. The greater part of my knowledge of Sebastian stems from the recollections of others and my own deduction. However, I’ll spin his story as well as I’m able without wasting too many grains of sand.”

  He sat back,
almost disappearing into the depths of his chair and stared past us into the shadows as he began. “He was born in the mid-twelfth century to one of the many landed, lesser nobles of the time whose family lay claim to fighting for the Bastard—or Conqueror, if it pleases you—at Hastings. Whatever the truth, the Lords Blackwood had a mighty appetite for honors and many a treacherous word upon silver tongue with which to procure them. Sebastian alone in this company wished for some simpler function but though he had small affection for his lord father, he did as bade and fought tournaments aplenty like his brothers, winning victories for his name. A brief church education seems to have left its grip upon him and after many years of victories, he amassed enough private wealth to buy bishop’s robes and appeased his father with some false bargain of continued service.”

  Despite myself, I started to empathize with Sebastian, especially his situation with his father. Iago’s telling played a large part. Written down like this, I worry that it sounds dry and boring, like some old history teacher rattling off a lecture but it wasn’t like that. He’s like those truly great actors who can rivet your attention in even the worst movies. Even his pseudo-Shakespearian dialogue, which I’m trying very hard to remember correctly, made the story more interesting by lending it a kind of classical gravity.

  “Entering the church body and soul, however, he was quickly a stranger to his family,” Iago continued. “There he took the appropriate name of Sebastian: the noble Praetorian whose secret acts of Christian charity brought martyrdom not only by arrows but clubs as well. For a score of years, he was the very essence of pious devotion and did battle with falsehood and impropriety wherever encountered. For this reason, Sebastian’s fall from grace was engineered by his enemies among the high clergy but stopped by the hand of Titus Britannicus, Hegemon of the British Isles.

  “Having risen from Praefector to first Hegemon less than a century before, Britannicus was ever in need of fresh blood to replace the spilled. I recall Britannicus as a lover of war and a man of singular dullness. This caused him to entrust his diplomacy to his newest Creation and Adjutor Prince Geoffrey, late of that devil’s brood whose rule was shaping England so well for Britannicus.