Vampyre: Desire Immortal

Chapter 3

Betrothed

                 The children sleep inside their little hovels. So soundly. Like angels. They are so  succulent, juicy, moist, and tender. To pierce their flesh is a joy unfathomable.

Except for those whose parents hang their necks with iron amulets.

That is an abomination most horrific.

Invincible, save for iron.

It is a cruel joke to play upon the one who feeds under the indigo curtain of night's starry skies.

*****

I throw open the shutter and look up at the sky. Dusk is coming. Even now, I see the lazy rise of great orb above the horizon. It is a full moon, and in two more, I will be thirteen.

A woman.

The wedding will happen soon. And why not? I was promised the day I was born. Word has already come the Wolfstan is making his way toward my home, Castle Corlac. Perdix has promised to help me. And he must!

Holy Mary, give me strength. O Blessed One, give Perdix success.

*****

The young man threw the leather bag above his head and emptied its contents. Red wine spilled down his shirtfront, leeching across his chest like a giant blood stain. The branch he held loosely was long and supple.

"If you beat that horse any more," said Galleron, "he's going to drop dead in his tracks. I only say this because he is a fine animal. No finer can be found in all of Megara.

"You're right, Galleron," he said. "And that is the only reason you escape with your life for such forwardness. You may be my cousin, but blood means nothing to me."

He slapped Galleron across the face with the bough, laughing merrily because he caught his cousin off guard. Blood droplets formed along the angry red stripe that marked Galleron's face. Galleron never winced. He averted his eyes, looking at the ground so Wolfstan would not see the fury that burned in them.

"Give me your wine. My bag is empty, and as always, I thirst," Wolfstan said, scratching his groin. "It is only the grape that makes this fire in my inguen bearable. Why should pleasure torment me so? A curse on all the fairer sex. Whores and their filth and all their rotten diseases. By God's bones! There never was a woman born t'was nothing but a peevish flirt."

Galleron handed Wolfstan his leather bag full of wine.

"Eve, the Great Deceiver, beguiled the hapless Adam with her charms to eat and then be damned," he said.

Wolfstan gulped the wine. It left a bloody trail zigzagging down both sides of his face.

"And I must admit," Wolfstan said, wiping his face with his sleeve, "that Nether World between their legs is like forbidden fruit. I find it so irresistible."

He winked at Galleron like a sly, wicked boy.

"And it is so much tastier if snatched from a wench who fights and screams for mercy!"

*****

"You see, Perdix," said the sorceress, "my crystal does not lie."

Perdix looked into the clear beryl stone. The corners of his mouth arched down.

"You must help me, Fye," he said.

"But what is in it for me," she said.

"We are old. Our lives are spent. Her Royal Highness is young. Innocent."

"You are in love with her," said the old witch.

"You are mad," he said. "That is insane."

"Ah, hah," she said, "I see I have struck a nerve. But if we are to forge a deal, then you must make it worth my effort. What you are proposing could get us both killed."

"Nonsense, we will practice the utmost care. No one will know. We will strike from the side where they dare not look. Trust me."

"What is in it for me, Perdix? You're asking a lot. The price you are willing to pay must be precious."

"I will give you the Philosopher's Stone."

"The Great Work," she said. "You have done it. If there was anyone in this valley who could have achieved this, I would have said that it was you. But this is a magnificent gift you offer. What strings do you attach to it?"

"There are no strings," he said. "You help me raise Dyryke , and I will give it to you."

"But what if your plans go awry? Things have a way of veering off chosen paths."

"If I fail, it does not matter. The Stone is yours, just the same. Think of it. All the gold and silver of this world will be yours. It works, you have my word.

The basest metals lying around at your fingertips, you can turn to silver or gold. Silver and gold. Gold and silver. I will give the Stone to you, and you will have within your hands the makings of a treasure beyond your wildest dreams. Or if you would rather forsake treasure, then eternal life is yours. Whatever you wish, the stone will give it to you.

Promise you will bring your strongest magic. We will try. Once the act is over, it is yours."

"But why this one?" Fye asked. "You know what he did. To raise such evil will destroy us both."

"He is the only one. The gods have shown me so. I don't want to, but we have to. If the princess is to be saved, we must do this."

"But I fear . . ."

Perdix dug into his layers of rags. From some hidden place, he withdrew a small vial on a string. He held the tiny thing like a precious jewel between his dirt-blackened thumb and index fingers. He twirled it in the sunlight.

A kaleidoscope of colors appeared inside the bottle, throwing off a rainbow across the witch's face. He quickly put the string back over his neck.

"Ahh," she said.

Fye's eyes narrowed. She licked her lips.

"I don't know," she said, but already he knew that Fye was clay in his hands.