The Crimson Z

by Robert Cloud, Lee Rush, Richard Savage

  "That is why I went to see the prophetess. The first time I noticed it was the time I cut my finger while cooking with your mother. It healed but at a normal human pace, not the way I used to heal which was almost as fast as the cut would occur. In the other forms I would have to shift to a different form and then back but then I would be healed.” She looked at him the tears in her eyes still falling. He could see she wanted him to forgive her and see that she was trying but instead he was growing colder to her with each moment. The myriad reasons to hate her swirled through his mind, yet he could not bring himself to hate her but he could not forgive her either. She had lied to him. She had killed numerous men and damaged the lives of their innocent families, and she could not even see that she had cheated on her marriage by allowing other men to look upon her naked. He tried to keep his heart open to her explanations but it was growing more difficult as he listened and wondered how much of what she was telling was truth and how much was lies.

  "The asp had also been hurt, but I spent a lot of time in the asp form and found out it took the normal amount of time to heal. The bat form will never regain its wing. The wolf's bones will not set properly. The cave bear will heal in time but I have not had the time to be in his form because they no longer exist and being in his form attracts too much attention. The rat will not regain his tail. None of these will heal without help."

  She lowered her eyes again; he believed she had finally seen that she was not getting into his heart for she sat back onto her heels and her once proud shoulders drooped and her head that had always been held high hung low as she stared at the floor. Zachariah could see that Lilith had given up. She did not believe that anything she said would break through his cold shell. She was just going through the motions of finishing out the tale.

  "The old woman told me you had the gift to heal me but you needed a focus and that you would soon begin to look for one. When we went to get her she asked if you had done what she asked about the stone and I told her yes. She said ‘Good, for the stone will be his focus.’ I had no idea what she meant, but then when she said you would not find your symbol in the mud but in stone I had some idea.” Lilith raised her head again and looked at him.

  "Zachariah I do not know how the stone works, or how you will use it to focus, but that stone can heal me. It can do more than heal me. It can make me human again. It can take away the curse and restore me to being just human so I can be your wife."

  He stood and looked at her then in a hiss said, “Get out of here woman, who do you think I am to remove a curse placed upon you by God.

  "You are a harlot that used the body you swore to be mine to lure men to their death. I am willing to bet my life had I been lured to your temptation upon the night of my proposal I would have been a pile of bones too."

  Lilith rose to her knees and wrapped her arms around his legs and said, “Oh no, Zachariah, I loved you, I could never have harmed you."

  "Love? Love? Harlot from hell, you know nothing of love! Get out of my sight!” Then Zachariah kicked his legs loose of her grip and turned his back on her.

  Lilith wrapped her arms around his legs again but he ignored her. She pleaded but he said nothing. After several more attempts to get him to listen she ran from the shop in tears.

  Slowly Zachariah melted into his chair. Tears came to his own eyes as he recalled all the dreams and love he had for Lilith. How could he have been so wrong about her? He laid his head upon the stone and wept bitterly, his tears running down and onto the stone.

  It could not have been more than a half hour before he heard the weeping of a child outside the front door of the shop. Zachariah made his way through the shop and saw two young boys helping a little girl along the path. She was hopping on one leg and her other leg was covered in blood.

  "Come here,” Zachariah said, as he turned and reached just inside the door and grabbed an old apron, but it was a clean one and then tore it into several strips. With one he wiped the blood away and saw a rather large gash on the girl's leg, but it was not serious, only a surface cut. His mother, unfortunately, was away for several more days but there was some of her healing balms inside the shop in case of an accident so he went back inside and got one for cuts.

  He returned in only a couple of moments and opened the jar.

  "Will it hurt?” asked the crying little girl.

  He smiled at her and said, “Not to a brave little girl it won't."

  Then he put on a generous amount and took another piece of the apron and wrapped it around her leg.

  The girl looked up and smiled at him and said, “It did not hurt at all."

  "See, I knew you were brave, but you should go home and rest the leg for a day."

  "All right,” she said and then she giggled and added to her friends, “He said I was brave."

  Then the three went running off toward whatever house in the village they belonged to.

  Zachariah carried the bloodied rag inside looking at it he decided it would be a good rag to clean and use for other purposes so he got a clay pot and filled it with water, but there really were no surfaces on which to place the pot inside the shop. All the surfaces were covered with jewelry or jewelry making equipment. He hated to do it but the only flat surface was the stone table. He carried the pot back to the table and set it down. Then put the rag inside it and began to try to wash the blood out of the rag.

  He decided he needed some lye and turned to go get some but when he turned he did not remember touching the clay pot yet it tilted and spilled out anyway, the water and blood running out and filling the carved groove. Instantly, there was a flash of golden light and a thought entered Zachariah's head. He saw an image of a ring, one that would bind him and his true love together in a way no other ring ever would.

  He took another piece of the apron and began to sketch out the ring's design upon the apron using a quill and ink. As he set the quill to the apron it was like his hand began to sketch the piece with no aid from him. There were no misplaced lines; each mark went exactly where it was meant to be. His hand would dart across the apron as four distinct views of the ring slowly took form. The ring of two coiled serpents tightly woven about each other in a loving embrace, their heads snuggled against each other took form upon the paper. He watched in awe as his hand finished the top, side, front and three dimensional views of the ring. He had never put so much detail into sketching out a piece of work before but he wondered if it had been him at all for he truly did not feel like his hand had followed his mind, and yet the images had indeed been in his mind as quickly as they were appearing on the apron.

  When he was done he held the sketch up and marveled at the miracle before him as the glow faded. He then realized that the anger in his heart had vanished and he wanted to make this ring for Lilith. He looked up at the ceiling and thanked God for he knew the softening of his heart toward Lilith was a true miracle, maybe more of one than the sketch of the ring. He started to turn and placed his hand upon the table to push himself up but his hand caught on the groove of the carving and it sliced his palm.

  He wavered and fell back onto his chair as a flash of golden light lifted out of the groove. From the groove rose a three dimensional representation of the groove itself in gold wire. It was as if someone had taken two identical stones and made a casting of the carving. Suddenly he was watching as his hands moved of their own accord. He had no control over them as they reached for the wire and began to weave it together.

  More than three hours passed as the weaving continued and when it was completed within the palm of Zachariah's hand lay the ring that had just been designed. He did not know if he had made it or if, like the carving in the stone, he had only been the tool however whatever had happened, the ring was real and was in his hands. As he looked at it closely he could even see on the inside of the ring not one but two tiny representations of the carving.

  When he looked at the marks closely and the sun hit them the symbols looked like they filled with blood. They were crim
son Z's upon the ring of gold.

  Zachariah could not wait any longer he had to go to Lilith and give her the ring. He had to let her know that her past did not matter to him that he loved her and he would forgive her sins. He leapt from the chair and ran from the shop. The distance to the house was nearly fifty yards but Zachariah made the run in only a couple of moments. Under the sheep's skin door he dashed.

  He yelled out Lilith's name, but there was no answer.

  His only thought was she must be mad and in the bedroom crying. So quickly he ran to the bedroom and stopped frozen at the door.

  His hands fell to his side and he heard a clink as the ring slipped from his fingers and landed upon the floor. Slowly he walked forward. He did not want to believe his eyes. Every thing within him told him to turn and walk out and come back that it was all just a nightmare and when he came back it would be different. He knew what he was seeing would not change.

  Lying upon their bed was Lilith. Her cold unblinking eyes stared upward at the ceiling, in one hand she held a mirror that had fallen close to her face, as if she had stared into the mirror to watch herself take her last breath. Over her heart was her other hand and it held the hilt of a hunting dagger that she had buried in her chest.

  Lilith lay upon a pool of her blood.

  Zachariah inched forward and fell to his knees beside the bed. He lifted his head and screamed out, “NO! Lilith, I forgive you, why?"

  A voice behind him said, “I know you forgave me, husband."

  Zachariah felt ice grip his soul. Slowly he stood and turned and looked behind him. Yet there was nothing there. As he watched a thin red mist began to swirl about, slowly it took on the shape and form of a woman. Then he could tell it was Lilith. After what he had seen he was frightened but not terrified, he did not think anything would ever truly surprise him again.

  The form began to change color and solidify until Lilith stood before him as if she were living and alive.

  "What are you?” Zachariah asked.

  Lilith responded, “I am not exactly sure, but I know some things I should not know. I know this is because of the magic of the stone.

  "It seems the prophetess put a spell on it so that if this happened I would be filled with the knowledge that we needed,” She said.

  "How? Lilith?” Zachariah fell to his knees as he looked up to her, “When you told me your story you said you could not commit suicide."

  She walked over to him and began to stroke his hair, holding his head close against her belly. “When you fell in love with me you made my body mortal. That is why I could be hurt and my healing was like that of a normal human. That is why I could go into the sun again, and eat food. Your love gave me gifts but made me mortal with all the frailties of being human as well.

  "But it did not release my soul from the curse."

  Lilith went on to tell him everything the prophetess had put in the spell and that they had the one night together before she would be trapped within the mirror and held there until someone commissioned him to make a piece of jewelry but it had to follow an exact pattern.

  The person who commissioned the piece had to first come in contact with accidentally spilled innocent blood that they had to bring to Zachariah. They could in no way be aware at any time that anything was going on with the blood. Once the piece was commissioned and the design was complete then Zachariah would have to collect a little blood from his client without them knowing he did it on purpose. Only then would the stone give him the webbing to create the piece.

  Zachariah pulled himself away from her and crawled to the bed and took the hand of the dead body of his mortal wife. He could hear the other Lilith step toward him and said that she did not want to wait until the next time someone commissioned a piece before she could be with her husband but Zachariah said, “Lilith I do love you but please.” He looked upon her dead body and then turned his eyes to her. “This is more than I can take. My wife is dead. You may be her, but after tonight you will be dead to me again for only God knows how long and here your body lies in your blood.

  "I cannot even think of making love to you.” Slowly he stood. He felt pain, then betrayal. He turned and grabbed the living form of Lilith by the shoulders and looked into her eyes, tears streaming down his face, “Why did you do this?"

  "I thought you would not have me."

  "But it was only a half hour after you left that the magic started."

  "That is the worst part of it Zachariah, I felt the magic begin with the last breath I took, but it was too late by then. My life was already gone."

  Blood Ritual of

  The Crimson Z

  The Confrontation

  An Interlude by Robert Cloud

  The Confrontation

  Chapter One

  His eyes were closed and tears rolled down the wrinkles of his cheeks. Even after all the years and all the things he had learned since then remembering her body upon their wedding bed still tore into his heart like the dagger she had buried in her own. Unexpectedly Melanie's tiny arms slid around his neck as she climbed up into his lap and held onto him. She laid her head upon his shoulder and whispered, “Papa Zach, I know you loved her, and that hurt you very badly. I cannot begin to imagine what it must have felt like to find her like that and then to see her in a way still alive too."

  She kissed his cheek and nuzzled against his neck, “Please know I will never leave you like that. I love you and could never hurt you that way."

  Zachariah lifted her chin and looked into her eyes and said, “It was less her death that hurt me than her lies, and that is one thing I know you will never do."

  He hugged her tight and then continued with a few more details of the past. “In those days we did not wait several days to bury our dead like we do today. We did so quickly for flies and rot would take the body. So I walked into the village to get the elders so that they could witness the body and know what had happened.

  "Tobyas, even though he was over twice my age pulled me along in his hurry to make certain that there was nothing that could be done to help Lilith live, but once he saw her he knew that what I had said was the truth. He tried to pull her fingers away from the handle but her grip was so firm upon the hilt that he had no doubt that she had plunged the blade in herself.

  "No one would have accused me but Tobyas had to be sure and make record so that none could come back later to make claim that I was guilty of her death.” Zachariah paused and held Melanie for a moment and he took a breath to continue, “No one knew that in my own heart I would feel for many years that I was to blame.

  "Tobyas directed the village men to use the bed clothes as her shroud. As they wrapped her not one pulled the blade out for they felt that since it was suicide if they removed the blade her ghost would come back and haunt the village. Little did they know that the blade had nothing to do with her ability to haunt the village.

  "Three men carried Lilith's body out of the house. Tobyas stood beside me and handed me something small, I looked down into my hand and it was the ring. Then he offered me the mirror she had been holding. I took it and looked into the glass and for a brief moment saw a red haze reflection of Lilith's face and knew that she was there exactly as she had said she would be.

  "The men carried Lilith's body to the center of the village where other men had already erected a wooded platform. However suicide was such a serious sin amongst my people that the word had spread ahead of us and as we walked the other villagers had emptied the streets and closed their doors. No one would look upon the body of one that had taken their own life. Even the men that were helping me would perform a ritual or purification before returning to their own homes.

  "It was custom to bury our dead, but when one committed suicide no one wanted the body to be around so that it could rise again if it were cursed so they would burn it. I watched in tears as the flames consumed Lilith's body. I remained until I was the last one there and only embers remained. Then I turned and returned to the house."

>   Zachariah looked up at the clock. It read twenty minutes until midnight and there was still a little to tell Melanie before the stroke of midnight. He kissed her forehead and said, “I am going to have to rush through a lot of this, time is running low and there is still a lot to tell.

  "Four days passed before I heard the wagon carrying my parents returning. I walked outside to meet them. My mother immediately noticed something was wrong with my stance and asked me where Lilith was. I fell to the ground at her feet and wept like a child. Finally I calmed down enough to tell them that she had taken her life. I could not tell them of her confession, the suicide was bad enough. That alone would haunt them forever but the images in her confession were almost too much for me to handle. I just could not destroy the happy images they had of her.

  "My parents helped me into the house and another two days passed while my mother did all she could to soothe my sorrows. On the third morning I awoke and deep down knew it was time that I tried to face life. I had to move on. I got up and began to prepare to join my father at the shop but as I sat down to eat my morning meal my mother sat beside me and pulled me tight to her. She said that she had not wanted to keep something from me but she did not want to add to my pain. Her face was filled with grief and tears began to roll down her face, I held my mother tight and told her that I had lost my wife, and that there were few things that could be worse so she could tell me anything. She looked up at me and said it had been wrong of her to keep it a secret. She had wanted so badly to tell me before she and my father had left to take the prophetess back to the mountain but Lilith had made her promise not to say a word. Then she broke down and wept bitterly, burying her face in her hands.

  "It took me a long time to get my mother to calm down enough that she could even speak. When I had I asked her to tell me what had made her so distraught that was when she informed me that Lilith had been carrying my child.