Vampyre: Desire Immortal

Chapter 5

The Cat's Eye

Barbed tongue and loathsome fangs.

We are but prey to Evil's progeny.

*****

"Can you restore my sight, Fye?"

Fye stopped skinning the rabbit she was preparing for dinner. She looked at the old man, lifting the dirty rags he'd wrapped about his head.

"I don't know," said the witch. "The wound is very deep. I hope I can. Come with me."

Fye led him into her hut made of mud, straw, and sticks. She lived in the woods outside the castle. And that was just the way she wanted it. No prying eyes. None of the gossip that permeated everyday life inside the walls of Castle Corlac.

"Down on the skin, Perdix."

The old man got down on the deerskin on the hard ground floor near the fire pit. Fye went outside with a handful of herbs. She came back, throwing back the lid from a large wooden box in the corner.

The stench was pungent. She retrieved several other ingredients and returned to the gutted rabbit outside her door. She scooped up the organs and stoked up the fire beneath the cauldron.

Dumping each item in, she repeated several ancient magic words. The acrid smoke bellowed from the boiling pot. Fye gathered the coals in the pit together in a heap. Adding more kindling, she stoked the flames. Sweat droplets formed on Perdix's face.

"Good, old man," she said. "We will start by burning out some of the poisons in that eye."

He merely groaned. Fye paid no heed. She was too busy. She went to a far corner of the room and dug into the ground. Retrieving a large parcel, she loosened the skin coverings.

"Ahh, yes," she whispered as she unrolled the ancient scroll.

The sacred scroll was filled with drawings and inscriptions and had been handed down for many generations. Fye could not read, but the Ancients came to her in dreams, telling her the meanings of the glyphs and drawings. If she was to find a spell for Perdix that would restore his sight, it would be here.

For three days and nights, she worked nonstop. She fed Perdix a broth that made him sleep soundly. He must not move or make one sound. Exhausted, she sat upon a rock beside the old man.

She brushed across his face the magical herb. She blew her breathe upon him.

He stirred.

"How do you feel?" she asked when he roused.

"Not bad. Not good, either," he said.

"Look," Fye said, holding up a reflection crystal in front of his face. "It's magnificent. Far better than I could ever have hoped.

Perdix studied his face.

"The window to my soul is no longer round," he said, pulling down his lower eyelid. "But the yellow color around it is quite beautiful."

"Close the other," Fye said. "Can you see?"

"The rat scurries from the shelf in the corner to the dark hole that leads outside, Fye. I fear he has made off with some of your prized seeds from the wooden bowl over there."

"Ahh," she said.

She laughed, and the gap-tooth hollow of her mouth was wide and dark. The remaining teeth were velvety with plaque and food. Perdix noted that her breath smelled like a stagnant swamp. He looked about the dimly lit room. His mouth pursed. His brow creased. The mystery was solved.

"Your cat," he said. "It has one eye."