by Renee Lake
“It makes it simpler if they think I am a widow.”
“Be simpler if you just got Hecate to give you a proper housekeeper,” Sabine snorted.
“I don’t care for that practice.” Renata’s eyes narrowed as an elderly man was shown into the study.
“Ion!” Nea exclaimed, she jumped up and embraced her Strigoi, she hadn’t seen him in at least 10 years, not since she told them she didn’t need to see them once a year anymore. Sabine had given her lesson 41, Strigoi do not have to feed the Strega that made them, though it’s preferable, they can instead feed any Strega in the area.
“Nea, it’s a pleasure.” He bowed low, his blue eyes twinkling.
“What are you doing here?”
“Ruxandra contacted me and mentioned the project you were working on, we have been sending letters back and forth for over a year. When I arrived at your home Mihail told me you were in Greece, I came at once.” He looked past them at the books, “and not a moment too soon I gather.”
“I feel so silly, I didn’t even think of asking for your help.”
“Well, I haven’t been in contact much these past few decades so I can understand. I have news to share with you, but first why don’t you feed?” He seemed a bit edgy and Nea knew it was probably years of built up emotions.
Nea leaned and placed a kiss on her old friend’s wrinkled cheek and drew in years’ worth of magic, him feeding on superstition and ignorance all over Europe. It made her feel heady and a bit drunk, so much power and magic in one feeding, she couldn’t take it all, even a Strega has a limit to how much she can absorb.
“Thank you Ion, you are full enough that I am going to offer the rest to Sabine and Renata, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. I had a Strega take some of the excess while I was in China, but…” Ion seemed uncomfortable still.
“But it doesn’t quite do it like the Strega who made you, I understand.” Nea motioned to Sabine and Renata who both looked at Ion hungrily, Sabine stroked his other cheek while Renata took his hand, both women closed their eyes. Ion sucked in a breath, shuddering a little, his eyes rolled back in his head and then he sighed. Both women took a step back, cheeks flushed.
“That was wonderful, thank you,” Renata said, rejuvenated.
“Yes, though I like my feedings to be a bit more, erotic.” Sabine laughed then nodded to the gardener out the window, “won’t hunky boy be jealous?”
“No, he is a new Strigoi, and thankfully hasn’t formed any sort of attachment.” Renata stared at him for a few more minutes and then her attention was back to Ion, “you said you had news for us.”
“Yes, while in Italy several years back I came upon a passage in a book from when Rome conquered Greece, I think it may answer your questions.”
“Tell us!” Sabine exclaimed.
“It was a tale about when Hercules slayed the Golden Hind, when the blood of the Hind fell, it soaked into the ground and from then on the valley bloomed with golden flowers. The myth stated that, though never used, it was thought these flowers could be brewed into a tea to kill the Gods.”
“Oh my Gods, Ion you are a genius!” Nea hugged him again, he sounded embarrassed.
“What’s the catch?” Renata was wary.
“Catch?” Sabine raised an eyebrow.
“There is always a catch in mythology, like why hasn’t anyone entered this valley and used these flowers?”
“You are quite right,” Ion nodded at Renata, “the catch is that no mortal has seen the valley in hundreds of years. I remembered there was a map and stopped by Italy on my way here. I copied it down, but as far as I can tell there is no valley where it says there should be, it is just a mountain. The valley is also said to be guarded, but I couldn’t find out by what.” His shoulders slumped.
“Do not feel bad Ion, this is much more information than we had even ten minutes ago, you are brilliant.” Nea reached out a hand and Ion put the map in it. She studied it for a few moments before letting Sabine and Renata see it.
“This is several miles from here, but I know this place. I think we should go look.” Renata rolled the map up and started hunting around the room, grabbing a few objects and shoving them all in a little sack.
“Now?” Sabine asked.
“Why not? We don’t need to sleep,” Nea agreed, “but I think a change of clothes might be in order.” They all changed into outfits a little more suitable for outdoor activities and within the hour they were standing at the base of a small mountain, insignificant and kind of ugly, it blended in with the rest of the Greek countryside.
“Do you feel that?” Nea took a few steps closer.
“Feel what?” Sabine tilted her head.
“It feels like…death and trepidation.” Nea walked until she started up the side of the mountain, there was a tiny path, almost overgrown with plant life, she could feel it in her boots, the ground was saturated with fear.
“It is unpleasant, like I shouldn’t be here,” Sabine said, suddenly at her side.
“The locals call this place The Mountain of Tremo, dread,” Renata said from behind them.
“Aptly named I think.” Ion cocked his head, “I can hear something, unnatural as well, like singing, but horrible.” He trembled. They made their way up the mountain and it only got worse: darker, like something horrifying lay in wait around every corner. Nea had goosebumps on her arms and her never fearful best friend was digging her nails into Nea’s hand so hard there were probably going to be marks.
They rounded a small corner and the side of the mountain became a bit hazy, almost as if they were seeing it through water.
“That’s no hillside, it’s a mirage,” Sabine breathed.
“How has no one noticed this before?” Nea was shivering.
“Because the humans that do make it this far probably don’t live to talk about it, I can’t imagine a mortal braving an unknowing sense of fear,” Ion explained, using a handkerchief to wipe the evidence of his own fear from his neck and forehead. Nea looked behind her to acknowledge his words only to find herself alone. She glanced around, she was still on the mountain, but all her friends were gone, she wrapped her arms around herself.
“Sabine, Renata! Ion!” she called, the bracing wind ripped her words from her and flung them in all directions until she could hear the echo of her cries, surrounding her.
“Just had to stick your nose in, didn’t you…where it didn’t belong.”
She turned at the familiar voice and found herself inches from Anna Bathory, Elizabeth’s mom.
“What are you doing here?”
“I have no idea, but here I am.” Anna lit up a cigar and began to puff away on it, “have you ever thought that my death was your fault, had you not interfered I wouldn’t have gone bad and you wouldn’t have HAD ME KILLED,” she yelled the last part, sucking the smoke deep into her lungs she began to cough.
“I agree with mother.”
Nea whipped around to see Elizabeth sitting on the ground, lounging, “You really should have just left us all alone, told Bendis no and made her turn you over to the afterlife.”
“I would have wound up in purgatory like my mother and Mariska,” Nea defended.
“Would that have been so bad, we could have been together, but you were selfish, like always, an ungrateful child.”
Nea gasped as her mother appeared before her, “No mama, don’t say that, you’ve always been supportive, what changed?” This couldn’t be happening.
“Probably too many hundreds of years listening to us downstairs.” Gryzelda Bathory was leaning up against a rock, Nea could feel her hatred from feet away.
“No, you have this all wrong. I am trying to SAVE you, I don’t want you all to be crazy and miserable forever, I have to stop the curse!” Panic was building in her chest, a horrible pressure like something was sitting on her lungs, refusing to allow air in.
“Please, selfish like always, bad wife, bad mother…” Those words were hurled at her by a vi
cious looking Katalin.
Nea’s head felt like it was going to explode, her arms were numb and painful to the touch.
“Maybe we could just embrace it instead, Grandma.”
“Yes, it is because of you my own mother couldn’t even raise me.”
Nea blanched as Stasi and Daniela came around the bend to confront her, both looking the way they had the last time she’d seen them.
“Oh my darlings please don’t say that.” Nea began to defend herself again, her head pounding, it was getting so hard to breathe. She fell to her knees, but then she saw Stasi and Daniela, staring at her with such contempt and the fog cleared out of her brain; this wasn’t real.
“It’s not real,” she said out loud, testing the words, it couldn’t be…She KNEW her children and granddaughter loved her….KNEW IT.
“What?” Anna coughed.
“This isn’t real, none of you could possibly be here.” Nea felt like she could breathe again.
“What are you talking about, of course we are real,” Gryzelda spat.
“No, you are not.” Nea began to spin around, “oh you are good, I grant you that…but I am better….you can stop the charade, maybe that worked on humans but I am not human! End this and show yourself!”
At her last word the women around her all disappeared. Nea saw Sabine, Renata and Ion trembling on the ground, Renata and Ion were awake, helping each other sit up, but Sabine was still in the throes of her own nightmare.
“Are you alright?” Nea asked.
“Yes, what was that? It was awful.” Renata dug into her bag and brought out a flask, she shared it was a traumatized Ion.
“A test, I think and we all passed.”
“What about Sabine?” Ion said, concerned, Sabine was muttering “no” over and over again. Nea went to touch her.
“She has to pass on her own, you won’t be able to wake her,” a new voice said. Nea glanced up and perched on a rock near them was what looked like a sixteen year old girl. Her hair was in two braids, long and pitch black, her eyes were a vortex of black and blue and her skin was gray like a corpse. She smiled showing pointed yellow teeth under dark blue lip stick. She was in an outfit Nea couldn’t even describe, chains and leather with animal fur, skin tight.
“Who are you?” Nea asked.
“And why are you a punked out Goth?” Renata rolled her eyes, using terms Nea didn’t understand.
“Ah, one of you is from the future.” The girl giggled, jumped off the rock, and got into Nea’s face, smelling of graveyard dust, “To answer your question I am Phrike and I was assigned to protect this place. I haven’t had a visitor in about fifty years and no one has ever passed the test my brother set up for me.”
“Phrike, the embodiment of horror?” Nea was glad she had done all that reading the past week.
“At your service.” She bowed with a smirk on her face, “like the trap that Deimos set up for me? It’s been killing people for what…a thousand years now?”
“Your brother,” Nea swallowed, “is fear?”
“Sure. Who’d you think I was talking about Lust or Music? I make the mountain scary and his trap kills anyone who gets this far, but you guys, you are something different. I’m not sure what to do with you,” she circled Nea.
“We passed your test so let us through,” Ion demanded.
“Oh I will, but only if you ALL past the test, that one isn’t doing so well,” Phrike giggled again.
“So now what?” Renata asked.
“We sit and wait, if she doesn’t make it you can trust all of you will die in the most horrific of ways.” She jumped back up on the boulder, unwrapped some sort of candy on a stick and began sucking away.
They sat for what felt like an hour, but was actually minutes, before Sabine shuddered and her eyes popped open, Nea hurried to her side and helped her stand.
“Are you ok? I was so worried about you!”
“Yes, it just took a while to understand it wasn’t real….my father and my brothers...” She closed her eyes tight, quivering in Nea’s arms and then took a deep breath, “I’m fine.”
“You guys sure have been entertaining, I guess you deserve a prize. Now remember, you can take two things only, if you lose them or get greedy it’s on you. Once you have found this entrance to the valley you won’t be able to again.” Phrike fluttered sticky fingers at them and disappeared. The hazy part of the mountain cleared showing a narrow path between two cliffs.
“Let’s get this over with.” Renata grabbed her sack and they went in. The path was only a few feet long, they entered the valley and stood for a moment mesmerized. Ion had to stay tucked into the cliff side in the shadows because the valley was full of sunlight and bright blue skies, even though it was night in the real world. There was a clear brook burbling through the middle and hundreds of plants that either shouldn’t have been there or no longer grew anywhere on Earth.
“Good, something to drink,” Sabine started forward.
“No, Sabine don’t!” Renata halted her, “Phrike said we could only take two things, I think we should be literal about that, drinking water may constitute taking.”
“Oh, yeah, that little harlot,” Sabine pouted.
“Look!” Nea sprinted over to a large patch of flowers that seemed to be dipped in gold, “these must be them, do you see anything else that looks like golden flowers?”
“No, but let’s be certain.” Renata and Sabine spent a good fifteen minutes combing through the valley, making sure they chose the right plant. Nea picked two that were the fullest and healthiest and Renata placed them between the pages in a small book she had brought.
“They are pretty.” Sabine leaned down and sniffed a bloom, “yuck!” She reeled back.
“What?” Renata asked.
“They smell like gore.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
“Surprised the hell out of me, let’s leave this creepy place.” Sabine walked back towards Ion.
“I wish I could take a picture,” Renata sighed.
“Yes, maybe I can sketch it decently enough for Mihail to paint it.” Nea straightened and they left the valley, all relieved to do so, the feeling of fear and being watched never truly left them until they were away from the Mountain.
When they arrived back at Renata’s villa it was to see Mihail waiting for them. Ion excused himself to retire before the dawn came and Nea thanked him again for his help, before seeing her son.
“Mihail, what’s wrong, I thought you were with your father?” She took his hand and led him to a bench to sit down. Renata and Sabine left to give them some privacy.
“I was, but I am so angry and so worried, I had to see if I could come help you.” Mihail ran a hand through his dark hair.
“You cannot. We know what we have to do, we have found flowers that need to be made into a tea, it will kill Bendis and the curse will be lifted.”
“Well, let’s do it right now! Summon the bitch and let her drink her tea!” Mihail stood up and began pacing.
“Oh my dear heart it’s not that simple. I had hoped this would be a quick process, but Mariska told us when Daniela and I went to see her and my mother…she told us that Daniela had to brew the tea and give it to Bendis.” There she had said it.
“No, that’s too much, she’s just a little girl!” Mihail sat down again, heavy hearted.
“I agree, Mariska also mentioned she had to be 8 years older, so 18. Which means we will have to wait the years out.” It was hard for Nea to say the words, hard to think of not seeing her granddaughter for a long time.
“What are you saying?”
“You can still see Stasi, explain to her what must happen so that she can prepare Daniela. When she is 18 she will be a grown woman, capable of making such a choice, for it is her choice.”
“Eight years.” Mihail hung his head in grief.
“I know it seems like a long time, but you can do it, I did,” Nea said softly, thinking of how long it took for her to
see Mihail again after her death.
“I think I hate you a little for this.” Mihail looked up at his mother, tears in his eyes.
“I know my darling, I am so sorry.” Her heart broke with each word.
“I have to go.” With that he was gone, leaving Nea, wringing her hands, alone, wishing she could fix everything but knowing she couldn’t.
Chapter 21
1909- Qiao Pingyao, China
“Is that another letter to your granddaughter?”
Nea glanced up at the woman talking to her. She was a small beautiful Asian woman, with tightly wound black hair, deep brown almond shaped eyes, and skin like honey.
“Yes, I am telling her all about my visit here in China.” Nea smiled, dipping a quill into ink she drew several Chinese symbols to show Ella the progress she was making in learning to write and speak Chinese.
“You will be leaving soon I think.”
“Yes. In less than two years Daniela turns 18.”
“I wish you would tell me what is so important.”
“It would put you in danger.” Nea signed her name and sealed the envelope, handing it to a young girl who bowed low and darted off to see that it was mailed.
“I have enjoyed the last few years in your company, Ah Kum, but it is time for me to be going.” Nea stood, she was much taller than the other woman, but Ah Kum had a formidable presence that made up for it.
“I, too, have enjoyed your company and showing you the beautiful sights of our city. I am thankful that you came to help when I asked.” They began walking, they were in a courtyard of Ah Kum’s home, her girls spent their free time making it a lovely retreat, full of lush flowers and plants.
Two years ago Bendis had come to Nea and Sabine because a fellow Strega was in trouble and needed assistance. Qiao Pingyao was a lovely and historic city surrounded by large walls, with six gates, so that the city resembled a turtle. The people there had been trapped by half a dozen Strigoi that had gone bad and slaughtered two other Stregas in China. Ah Kum was the last, the Strigoi thought to eliminate her and reign free in China.