“Well, most phones for the general population are tapped, and eavesdropping in on a ticker requires a local tap and an expensive decryption system.”
He stared at me innocently. Here was a man who could kill draugs with his bare hands, but he had no clue that people spied on other people’s phone conversations all the time.
“I really need to check that message. It is still tapping away, which is never a good thing.” It was either a really long message or someone has hit repeat, which is insanely expensive.
“I’ll go with you,” he volunteered as he stood up.
“I think that is an excellent idea. It might be a message from the President.”
Calidum stretched and jumped down to go with us. When I got to the kitchen, to my horror, the ticker was about to run out of tape. I couldn’t find the end in the three foot tall mound that laid below the spout. I just turned off the machine and took the ribbon closest to the machine. What I read unsettled me.
Basil,
It’s an emergency. Stop. Meet me at the old Deist Church A.S.A.P. Stop.
– Nigel
I fished through the mess of ribbon until I reached the bottom of the pile, which was as close to the beginning as I could locate, and took note of the time stamp. It was only about an hour old. The roll in the machine must have been near its end, so I opened up the storage container under it and set to changing it out.
“What does it say?” Colin asked, while slicing a piece of fruit bread.
“It is my cousin Nigel. He wants to meet at the church where my grandfather died,” I said glumly.
“I can go and meet him, if you would rather stay here. You’ll have to give me detailed directions on how to get there though.”
“No, I don’t mind going. It’s just that it was declared desecrated after the incident, so I don’t know who’s been there and done what since I was last there.”
“What do you mean?” he said as he brushed the crumbs from his fingers.
“Desecrated sites are essentially condemned locations that no one ever demolishes for fear of releasing something nasty into the world. They usually draw all sorts of hooligans who want to do all sorts of vile things. It is not the sort of place a civilized person would ever visit.”
“I’ve read about these desecrated sites. They can remain powerful places for years to come even after the initial event,” he said.
“Yes. Desecrated sites could be drained of residual energy if the government would allow Summoners to do their jobs.”
“President Newton is working hard to do just that. After all, you have been permitted to do your work here, haven’t you?” he argued.
“For now I am,” I said as I finished changing the roll in the ticker. I left the machine off, since there was no sense losing another one to the repeating message. Now I had to decide if I was going to meet him.
“Do you think he has information about the man we found back in the Red Forest?” Colin asked.
I sighed. “Probably. Can you cut me a slice of that?” I asked as I sat down at the table next to him.
“What about my catfish?” Calidum asked.
“I think there are three unbroken jars of pickled herring in the pantry,” I told him.
“That is not what you promised me, but I will accept the substitution,” he said in a manner that made it clear that he was entirely unhappy about it. He skulked into the pantry all the same to get them.
“We should probably pack up and head over to Convent after meeting with him. We should talk to the constable while we’re there,” I said.
“I already have. He wasn’t much help. By the way, thanks for deciding to help.”
I smiled and said, “There are wolves at my door and in my house, how could I say no?”
“All the same, thanks.”
“When did you talk to the constable?” I asked him.
“Before I travelled here. He claimed that no one had gone missing while under his watch, but several Convent families reported otherwise.”
After a few moments, I asked, “If the constable is no help, how about the local Priest then?”
“As you already know, the church is outside of the President’s sphere. Currently, the head of the Deist chapel there should be a Father Chaput. We can certainly try to make contact with him, but I am unsure how much he will be willing to help.”
“He might have heard something from his parishioners. We can also check with Pastor Robert while we are there too,” I told him. “He’s the Estonian pastor. Maybe while we’re there, I can also hire some people to come out to fix this mess. Oh! We can stay at the Château Cyprès too.”
“Sounds expensive,” he commented.
“The hotel? Heavens no, it’s merely comfortable and clean. It’s bigger than Convent needs, and even though its name does sound haughty, it isn’t terribly so. What’s going to be expensive, are the repairs this house needs.”
“Why?”
“This place is way out in the middle of nowhere. Say, you don’t think that the wolves would attack the workmen who will come out, do you?” I asked.
“No, I think they prefer to attack draugs. Regarding your repairs, I can pay for them. It’s the least I can do, since I was apparently the target of the attack,” he told me.
“Thank you, but I think this place is due for some upgrades too.” I looked around the kitchen at the rusted fixtures and peeling wallpaper. “If I decide to not stay here and sell the place, no one will even look at it without at least a front door.”
“Do your plans involve leaving the country?”
“Maybe, but only once I’m done here. It’s not as if my family really wants me here anyway,” I told him after pouring each of us a glass of water.
His face fell a little when he said, “You’ll return to London then.”
“Most likely.”
I wondered if President Newton would ever release him from service, but from the look on his face, I had to hazard a guess of no. I didn’t know how much time we had together, but if this was my one chance at a star-crossed first love, I wasn’t about to pass it up.
I reached out and laid my hand over his. He smiled at me. I stood up and went to the ticker machine. “I need to send a ticker for the hostler at the carriage rental store. I’ll pay him for the mare while we are in town too,” I said as I turned the machine back on and prepared the message using the attached typewriter board.
“If he is gone, then you might not have to compensate him at all.” I smiled in response. Then he added, “I’ll tend to Tenebris. He has two people to carry now,” he told me.
“Three, because I’m not walking,” Calidum corrected him. Then he licked his fingers clean of herring juice.
“My horse is patient and well trained, but I don’t know if he’ll bear you too.”
“He will. He told me so,” Calidum informed him.
“Can you communicate with the Loups too?” I asked him.
“No. Their minds are too primitive for me.”
“Did you just insult me?” Colin asked the little fire demon.
“Not at all, just the wolf men.”
I tried to hide a snicker, but failed. Colin merely shook his head and left the room.
“You’re treading on thin water Calidum,” I told him after Colin left.
“I can’t tread on any water at all,” he replied. I couldn’t fathom having a pet demon that could glide over water too.
···•Ͽ Ѡ Ͼ•···
Colin pulled me up on his horse, so I sat behind him with Calidum wrapped around my neck. Tenebris took all of us in stride, bearing the extra weight gallantly as we travelled back through the Red Forest. I then directed Colin to where the old church was, avoiding the canals and moors in our northwesterly journey. I conveniently had the excuse of wrapping my arms around him, and secretly reveled in his clean scent and natural warmth, which felt amazing in the cool morning.
The path finally took us up onto the hill where the limestone chur
ch still stood with its abandoned cemetery located at the back of it. Usually with these kinds of places, the earth was regularly salted by a visiting priest once a month. As far as I knew, the church had no plans for rebuilding yet, so the Deist parishioners had been travelling to the Church of Noble Knowledge in Convent for their weekly Mass.
On the stone structure was a variety of red painted hex marks. That was the local’s way of compensating for the decaying wardstones that surrounded the property. Most of the land had been torched as part of the purification process, but there were a few live oaks left unburnt in the cemetery. Colin pulled the horse to a stop, and Tenebris danced in nervousness.
“He doesn’t like being here. The land is tainted. What happened here exactly?” Colin asked me.
“This place is the death shroud of my grandfather,” I whispered.
“Your cousin is waiting for you behind the tree closest to the church.” Then Colin sneered and said, “He means you harm.”
I paused and said, “Nonsense. While it is true that we are not very close, that is Nigel, my only cousin. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. He is only predatory with the local gentry’s daughters at balls and dinner parties. Besides, he’s only an Ordinary. What can he really do to hurt me?”
“Anyone can carry a gun.” It would be a stretch to assume that he didn’t. Most people in the territory were long-heeled. “Also, there’s nowhere to tether my horse,” he added hastily.
“Tenebris will stay put,” Calidum told him. “Even if bad things do happen to you, he’ll take Basil and me away from here, while your corpse remains to rot here.”
“Now I know you are telling me a story,” he told Calidum.
“Do you?” he asked.
“Let me off,” I told Colin. “I want to approach Nigel alone. If anything looks shady then you have my permission to shoot him in the leg, below the knee please, if you don’t mind.”
He swung himself off and then reached up for me while he replied, “I think I can live with that.” Calidum jumped off of me and landed on the ground next to Colin.
Colin grabbed me and lifted me down, letting his hands rest around my waist a little too long to be polite, before slowly removing them.
“I don’t like being here,” Calidum said. “It makes me feel odd.”
“It’s all the hex signs they added to ward off evil.”
“I’m evil?”
“No, they are simply befuddled in their understanding of demons.” Then I looked back at where my cousin was hiding and said, “Hopefully, this will go quickly and we will be on our way to Convent in no time.”
I turned to Colin and asked, “Why do you think he hasn’t greeted me yet?”
“He is evaluating us,” Colin replied. For what? “He’s evaluating me,” he quietly amended. I noted that he was staring at the tree menacingly.
I grasped tightly the hilt of an athame concealed in my pocket and then called out, “Nigel Beckenbauer, if that is you, you better come out and see me now, or the man next to me is going to shoot first and ask questions later!”
I heard his voice, but he still didn’t come out from behind the tree. “Don’t shoot the messenger Basil. I’m only here to help you, to warn you.” I wanted to believe him, but Colin’s words haunted me.
I slowly cut the angle so I could see him behind the tree. It appeared to be him, but something terrible must have happened to him. He was slouched, which was the first cue that something was amiss. His posture had always been enviously impeccable. In addition, he also had a few strips of fabric hanging down from where his clothes had been torn. His dark, curly hair was matted and wet. We had always been mistaken for siblings, but it was obvious that he had fallen from grace. The only question remained was how far he had fallen.
“What happened to you Nigel? Uncle Charles is going to tan your hide!” I scolded him. Maybe Aunt Verna’s death had hit him harder than anyone suspected.
He turned to face me and it was worse than I had thought. His face was a mess, his head had bald patches, and his arm hung crookedly. I rushed forward, but he stopped me by raising up a hand.
“Don’t. They are going to raise me as a revenant Basil. I don’t want to be a revenant,” he told me with terror in his eyes.
“Nigel, you have to die first in order for a Necromancer to do that to you.”
He tried to lift up his arm and failed miserably. “I’m nearly there.”
“They have to off you first,” I said resolutely. “No body, no revenant. I’ll protect you from them.” He then eyed Colin, who staying a good distance behind me. “We’ll protect you from them.”
I inched my way forward until I was only about ten feet from him. He appeared more skittish than a new born colt, when I asked, “Who are they, and what do they want?
He leered at Colin and then said, “You can’t help me if he’s around.” Then he smiled a grisly smile, which had every other tooth missing. “They want to kill him.”
“Who wants to kill him?”
“And now you’re with him. This won’t do at all. Not at all. It’s all over.”
“Nigel, let’s take you home so we can sort this all out,” I pleaded.
“I can’t turn into a revenant. They won’t bury my body in the Convent cemetery if I’ve been contaminated.”
“It’s illegal to raise the dead in the Republic Nigel,” I countered.
“Summoner’s are illegal too,” he said.
“Were illegal,” I countered. “I’m here with the President’s blessing.”
“I’m sure you are. I’m sorry Basil. Please don’t attempt to summon me back from the dead when I’m gone.” He spat something out of his mouth which caused the earth to open up and explode. Colin and I found ourselves flung backwards in the air. He had obviously been housing some sort of device with a delayed explosive in his mouth, maybe even in one of his remaining teeth. He had detonated it by simply biting down on it or perhaps by spitting it out of his mouth.
I must have hit my head on a tombstone, because I blacked out.
···•Ͽ Ѡ Ͼ•···
“There are sigils on the walls,” someone said to me, but I didn’t recognize whom that person might have been. But with certainty, I did hear Colin next.
“She sleeps,” he said.
“Sometimes people don’t wake from sleeping,” Calidum pointed out.
“She will be fine.”
“How do you know this?” Calidum asked.
“I know this to be as true as the sun rises in the east each day. I can see the bond between us is still strong.”
“I can’t see the sun today,” the demon truthfully replied.
“Precisely.”
“I don’t understand humans. You speak in riddles.”
“It is called faith, little dark one,” he replied.
I opened my eyes and said, “We need to get inside the church.”
“Aren’t you worried about Nigel?” he asked.
I looked deeply into his eyes and said, “Why should I worry over the dead? The living is my business.” What I didn’t say was that the rest of the family would most likely not mourn long over his loss either, once his traitorous behavior had been revealed to them.
He looked a bit shocked, but stood and looked towards the church. It was then that I noticed the back of his jacket had been shredded. “Colin, your back…”
“Is fine. When we get to Convent, I’ll just need to get cleaned up.” And replace a shirt and a jacket I thought. He held a hand to me, I took it, and then he helped me up.
“He’s bleeding,” Calidum offhandedly pointed out.
“Colin!”
“Let’s get in there, so we can be gone from this cursed land,” he said and then he stomped towards the church doors.
“You’re not regretting coming here, are you?” I asked him.
“I didn’t say that.”
I knew I had to get in there and see what was on those walls, so I let his obvious irritation go and then followe
d him into the church.
Calidum said, “I want to investigate a little more out here. I will join you in a few minutes.”
“Hurry,” I told him. “I might need to consult with you.”
He took off to examine the splat that used to be Nigel. I believed that I could have protected him… maybe. I certainly didn’t do such a great job with defending Stephen or Grandfather though. Who I really felt sorry for Uncle Charles. Nigel had been his and Verna’s only child, and I had been such a disappointment to my own.
The Beckenbauer line had to be cursed. I decided that it would be a kindness if I never had children. I slid a sidelong glance at Colin. Something told me he wouldn’t be satisfied without a litter of children to make up for his lonely childhood. I needed to treat him very carefully over the next few days.
I approached the front doors and found the lock securing them had been hexed shut. I did not have the knack of lock picking, so I began looking for large rocks to throw through the stained glass windows. I needn’t have worried however, since Colin took a broken tree limb and smashed the old hexed lock open. Apparently, the magic in the locking mechanism had faded away as quickly as it had from the wardstones.
He pushed open the doors, which were rotten on their hinges, and realized that the lock was just a useless accouterment for the door, since we could have kicked it in just as easily.
Once we entered the church, I noted that all of the windows had been boarded up from the inside and the interior was empty. I faintly recalled that the pews had been burned along with the rest of the furniture that used to be in the church, shortly after the desecration. I had not partaken of that festivity, since I had been in Convent for the reading of the will.
I looked up to the choir where he had died over a year ago. I had not been here since the incident, and found that I felt numb. I squinted my normal eye and tried looking up there with the milky one. If there were any flits or ghouls, I didn’t see any this day. I turned my attention to the walls, which were white washed to cover up all the old sigil marks that still managed to bleed through.
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