Noell thought it significant that Kantibh spoke with a kind of awed reverence of the time when Ekeji Orisha – presumably a predecessor of him who held the title now – had decreed that they must send no more unfinished envoys into the greater world, because such envoys were known to have betrayed the cause of Adamawara. Was that, wondered Noell, the last time the elders had said anything new? Was it the last time that they had changed anything at all? Were the elders he had seen in that strange arena in Iletigu any different in their way of being from the disconnected, dreamlike state into which Berenike had lapsed? Were they convinced that what they knew was all that needed to be known, so that they had ceased to think, in any meaningful sense of the word? These questions could not be answered, but the asking of them made it very easy for Noell to entertain the notion that Adamawara, far from being the home of all wisdom, as its reputation claimed, was actually in a state of dire decay.
And if this empire of vampires was built on such a poor foundation, he thought, what then of the Imperium of Gaul, and the Khanates of Walachia, India and Cathay? Were the elders of those empires – Attila and Charlemagne, and the legendary Temujin – slaves to their own great age, having lost their grip on the fabric of everyday life? He remembered that Attila was said to be living in seclusion, in his citadel, having delegated the business of ruling to such favoured heirs as Vlad Tepes, and that Charlemagne was rarely seen in his own court. Had a kind of decay – a mould like the silver death – begun to extend its invisible corruption through all the world where vampires were?
Edmund Cordery had pointed out to his son, long ago, that common men were innovators, while vampires remained slaves to tradition. Noell had understood then, in a vague fashion, how that might be connected with the fact that vampires lived much longer than common men. Now, he understood better what drawbacks vampire life might have, to make it less than the unqualified boon it seemed. The confidence which had come to Noell during the rite in Iletigu grew firmer by degrees, as he began to believe that common men might be in some ways superior to vampires, and that the cleverness of the short-lived must ultimately give them the means to throw off the tyranny of the undying.
The elders of Adamawara saw no need to learn the use of iron, or the use of parchment and paper, or the use of machines, because they were complacent in their belief that whatever they did not already know was not worth the knowing. Noell knew that there was a power not only in particular devices like the cannon and the musket, but in the general process of unfolding discovery, which could change the world more thoroughly than the elders of Adamawara could ever imagine. He suspected that the stubborn blindness of the elemi would never allow them to realise it.
He saw, once he had reached this conclusion, that the most significant evidence of the fallibility of the elders which had ever come to Adamawara was himself. He and his companions were already an uncomfortable thorn in the side of those who were trying to absorb what they had to teach – and trying, as they absorbed it, to render it harmless, devoid of its real significance. In time, Noell knew, Kantibh and Aiyeda were all too likely to reach the decision that there was something intolerable and unclean about him, which must be obliterated to preserve their peace of mind. Not only was he not worthy to be an elemi, but he was not worthy to live in Adamawara at all.
Every time he went into the lifeless forest he would climb to some vantage point where he could look out across the oceanic canopy and wonder whether, now that he was safe from the silver death, he might attempt to cross that wilderness. Every time he returned to the shelter of the twisted trees he would look about uneasily, expecting to see a band of the living dead among them, come to direct their wands at his evil heart, to condemn him to death.
And all the while he kept returning his thoughts to the one particular practical problem whose solution might save all their lives, and give them the means to cross the forest and the plain beyond, careless of all the dangers of those treacherous lands.
How, he asked himself, over and over again, might I obtain a supply of vampire semen, with which to experiment, in order to discover the elixir of life?
TEN
When the season of rains approached its end, Noell and Quintus knew that it was time to plan their leave-taking, if they did indeed intend to leave Adamawara. They had time to prepare, because the streams feeding the Logone would remain a barrier to their progress at least until the end of October, but once the rains had stopped, they could no longer postpone the time of decision.
They both knew that the vampires did not expect them to leave, and they had often raised discreet questions in order to discover whether the elders or any of their subjects would actually try to prevent them going. There had never been any hint that force might be used to keep them here, but Noell hesitated to draw any conclusion from that. The black vampires were convinced that it would be foolish for their guests to contemplate a return journey, partly because they could not see that the outer world had anything to offer which could stand comparison with the safety and tranquillity of Adamawara, but principally because they considered the journey itself so fraught with hazards as to be well-nigh impossible.
Quintus told Noell that he had investigated the possibility of recruiting an Adamawaran vampire to their party, but had found that even the unfinished vampires, who lived on the margins of Adamawaran society, dismissed out of hand any suggestion that the world beyond the lifeless forest might be worth investigation. Kantibh had not the slightest desire to see the land of his birth again, or any other like it. Quintus had made inquiries, therefore, to determine whether any vampire would be returning to the Kwarra delta – or any nearby region – in order to rejoin his tribe following his initiation.
That vampires did indeed leave Adamawara every year on just such expeditions, accompanied by groups of Mkumkwe fighting men, could not be doubted, but Quintus’s suggestion that he and Noell might be allowed to join such a party was curtly dismissed. The Oni-Olorun who had visited Benin had found reports of the white men sufficiently interesting to send Ghendwa to ease their path to Adamawara, but the Adamawaran notions of courtesy and hospitality did not extend so far as easing their way in the other direction. Like the Mkumkwe, who could become stubbornly silent in the face of direct questions, the vampires of Adamawara could become stubbornly unhelpful in the face of direct requests. Quintus more than once declared, bitterly, that the task seemed hopeless and that he could see no reasonable alternative to spending his remaining years in Adamawara.
At first, Quintus and Noell did not involve Langoisse in their scheming. The reason for this exclusion was that they were certain that even if they had the strength to make the journey, Langoisse had not. They did not doubt his desire to leave the place where he was, but there seemed to be no possibility of getting him to another. He was simply too ill. Eventually, though, Langoisse demanded his own part in their discussion and decision-making and Noell was not surprised to find that the pirate had a different point of view to offer. Langoisse, determined as he was that he did not want to spend another year in this oppressive place, could see quite clearly that there was only one way he could be made ready for the journey.
‘The answer lies in your hands,’ he told Noell, ‘for have you not spent these last few months poring over your spy-glass, dabbling with potions and applying your alchemy to the wisdom of blood? Do you take me for a fool, not to know that you are hotly bent on discovering the secret which you saw in action in that foul rite which they allowed you to witness? Why, I have been waiting for you all this time, to find a way to make us all into vampires? Then we will cross the whole world, eldritch forest and all, unscathed and at our ease. Man, we must be our own guardians, and can entertain no other thought. We want no vampire guides; we must become vampires ourselves!’
Noell was at first over-cautious, explaining to the pirate how difficult it would be to determine precisely what was necessary to make a vampire of a man, but he soon realised that the stricken man would tolerate no pre
varication.
‘Why else did we come to this foul land, but to snatch the secret from their grip?’ Langoisse demanded. ‘Do you tell me now that for all your patient scratching, you really know no more than you did in Cardigan, so many years ago? Have you not seen the vampire sabbat? Have you not your microscope and your scholar’s cunning? I have risked much to bring you here, Master Cordery, and we are all of one company now, however much you have not liked me in the past. Do you think of betraying me?’
‘I do not,’ said Noell. ‘Truth to tell, no one can be sure that he has the secret of making an elixir of life until he has done it, and has seen its effect. I know what ingredients I would like to have, in order to begin an experiment, but I have not thought of a way of obtaining the more precious of them.’
‘What kind of fool are you, to keep it to yourself?’ demanded Langoisse. ‘Had you told us all, we could all be on the trail of it.’
‘I am not certain that mere numbers will increase our chance,’ Noell told him, ‘but I have no ideas of my own, and will be grateful for any which you can provide. From what I have seen and previously heard I think that two ingredients only might suffice. One is common blood, of which we have no shortage … the other, I fear, is the semen of a vampire. I am not sure that these will be entirely adequate to the purpose, but without the more important, I cannot put the proposition to the proof.’
‘Are you sure that they used vampires’ semen in the rite which you saw?’ asked Langoisse, ‘How can such creatures as these produce seed? Did you not see how their pricks were destroyed in their vile ceremony?’
‘I saw,’ said Noell. ‘But it is the testicles which produce the seed, and they are not removed. I think they may discharge their seed only with difficulty, and I suspect that vampire men produce seed in much lesser quantities than commoners, but produce it they must. It seems to me that it may need some nourishment by blood before it is introduced into the body. I am not sure that it matters how it is taken in, though it might not work if drunk. It is probably best to try the method which they use here, and put it upon an open wound. The problem, however, is to obtain the semen. Can you imagine what answer I would get if I asked Aiyeda for such a gift as that?’
Langoisse lay upon his bed, staring up at the ceiling.
‘It is part and parcel of the vampires’ hardihood that they produce their sperms so slowly,’ Noell went on. ‘I believe that our bodies are made up of a great many tiny particles, or atoms, which are in a state of constant exchange. Just as our hair and fingernails grow, so the outer layer of our skin is always being shed, as new skin is born beneath. When we eat and drink, some of the atoms in our food become atoms of our body, and this is how we are nourished – but at the same time we cast off atoms that were once part of us, in our excretions. In the same way, atoms of ourselves are shaped into the sperms that will reproduce us, continually gathered in a tiny vesicle, ready to be ejected toward their destined soil in a woman’s womb.
‘In the vampires, this process of exchange must be very much slowed down. Their long life may be explained by the fact that their atoms are much hardier, cast off and replaced at a much reduced pace. Though the vampires of Europe eat as we do, they can go without food for much longer periods, as the vampires of Adamawara always do, and this proves that they take less nourishment from their food than we. I believe that they lose far fewer atoms of their bodies, day by day, than we do, and that in parallel with this reduced loss, there is a great reduction in the production of the special atoms of reproduction. Thus, their sperms are much more slowly accumulated in the vesicle which holds them, and they feel far less pressure to let it out.
‘You know what pressure a common man may feel in his loins when he has not lain with a woman in some days, and you know that a common man may sometimes ejaculate in his sleep, while dreaming of a woman. That is because the atoms of reproduction need to be let out, just as we need to let out other excreta. The vampire men feel that need far less than you or I, and this explains much about their attitude to women, and the nature of their relationships with them. The initiation rites which I have seen take this reduced need as a virtue, and they exaggerate its reduction, insisting that a finished vampire has transcended any need to lie with women, and making it impossible for him to do so. Even an elemi still produces sperms, though, and must still discharge them, though what power of the imagination they need to control their release I cannot tell. Nor am I sure of what they do with the semen, though I am convinced that they use it in their rite, just as the vampires of Gaul do, after a different fashion.’
‘Say you so?’ said Langoisse, softly. ‘Say you so.’
‘This does not mean that I know beyond the shadow of a doubt how to formulate a magic potion that could make any man a vampire,’ Noell warned him. ‘It is by no means certain that all the other things which they put in their mixture, save for the blood, are unnecessary.’
Langoisse, fascinated, considered the matter for some time, serious enough in his contemplation to ask for several points of clarification regarding Noell’s theorising about the nature of vampire flesh. Inevitably, he came eventually to the most puzzling question.
‘Why blood, Master Cordery? Why do they need the blood?’
‘I do not know,’ Noell confessed. ‘But I have an idea. I think that just as the body makes sperms continually, so it also makes blood. That is why a man who loses blood from a wound, though he may be pale and weak for a while, will ultimately recover his colour and his health; and that is why common men can feed vampires continually, without themselves being totally drained. It cannot be doubted that the vampires can make new blood, perhaps in great quantity, even though their wounds do not bleed as profusely as those of common men. If they could not make new blood, I do not think the vampires could recover from injuries which would cause death in humans. This means that we cannot draw a direct analogy between the blood and the sperms; the manufacture of blood cannot simply be slowed down as I suppose the production of sperms to be. But there must be something unique about the process of manufacture – which we must suppose to be unnaturally rapid in vampire terms – that requires an intake of appropriate atoms from the flesh of common men. In all other matters, the flesh of vampires can sustain itself with a slower exchange of atoms than we are victim to, but in this one respect the vampires must prey on those whose nature is to produce new atoms more quickly. That is why vampires need men – and why there may never be a world in which all men are vampires.’
‘I think you are a wise man, Noell Cordery,’ said Langoisse. ‘Does the monk concur with all these judgements?’
‘He agrees with many of my chains of reasoning,’ he replied, evasively, ‘but we can neither of us be sure that I am right, until the matter is put to the test. I have not posed the question of how we might obtain a vampire’s semen; I did not think it … seemly.’
‘Seemly! We are speaking of eternal life and painful death, and you do not think it seemly to raise such questions aloud. Oh, Master Cordery, thou art a strange creature. Why didst not come to me a long time ago, if ’twas only the courage that you lacked?’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Noell, a little sharply.
‘Why man, we are in a world of vampires. If they have the semen inside them, we need not wait for them to bring it out for us. Vampires they may be, but they are old men, many living quiet lives, virtually alone, in this ancient city.’
‘You think we should secure what we need by murder!’ Despite the pretence of shock, this was a thought which had occurred to Noell before, though he had always shied away from it.
Langoisse laughed. ‘Murder?’ he said. ‘Nay, Master Cordery, you know better than that. No murder, nor even permanent harm. The gentle sleep into which friend Ghendwa fell. That which we take will surely grow anew! And if it works – why then, we’ll set such a rumour abroad in Gaul that every man of mettle will have no higher goal than to castrate a vampire knight to steal eternal life from his balls.’
‘Repay?’ answered Langoisse, scornfully. ‘Do you think we owe them a debt? They brought us here for their own purposes, to learn from us what happens in the outer world, and in return they offer us arrogant lessons to demonstrate the folly of our ways and the vanity of our ambitions. Do you think that because I have so little Latin I cannot understand what is happening here? Your friend has called this a paradise of fools, and so it is, though they think we are the fools while theirs is the paradise. I will seek out the lonely ones, who will not be missed when they are put to sleep, and will never see who it is that thrusts the knife into their bodies.’
‘I have thought of that,’ Noell confessed, ‘but I fear that it will not work. However lonely they seem, there is none who would not be missed, because each must be visited every day, to receive his allotted donation of blood. Do not think that their victims would hesitate to betray you; they would not pause for an instant before raising a hue and cry. If you try to do it that way, you will surely destroy us all.’
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