Later, in my room, I feel dull and tired. I am four thousand years old, I do not normally need much sleep. Yet my vision is now blurred with fatigue. Staring in a mirror surrounded by candles, I feel as if my face changes into that of a person from another time and my blond hair turns dark red. The candles grow to the size of the flames that burned in the fireplace. Splashing water on my face, I feel some of the illusions leave me, but they do not go away. There is an unpleasant taste in my mouth that the water cannot wash away.
Then it strikes me.
I have been drugged.
Landulf, perhaps with his wife's knowledge, had something put in my food. There is no other explanation for my lethargy. But it is unlikely that the drug was administered for my benefit--a good night's sleep in a castle rumored to be filled with demons. If he has drugged me it is because he wants me uncon?scious so that he can do something awful to me. All of Dante's tales come back to me in a haunting wave, and I am amazed at how I have dropped my guard. But could my carelessness have something to do with Landulf s magic?
For all I know, his drug was poison and I am already doomed.
I force myself to vomit. Then I drink the water left in the bowl and vomit again. Within seconds my head clears, but I am still far from being at full strength. Moving to the door, I find it locked by a device as sophisticated as the one I found on the cage that held the young women. The metal parts are made of a peculiar alloy--stronger than anything I have ever encountered. Fortunately the door, although thick oak, is only wood. Leaning hard on it, and taking deep breaths to clear my system of the lingering effects of the drug, I am able to break it open without much noise.
Marie stands outside my door.
I grab her and pull her inside.
"What are you doing here?" I demand.
She is frightened. I have a strong grip on her neck.
"I was coming to see if you needed anything, my lady."
"You lie. You were waiting outside my door. Why?"
She wiggles her head. "No, my lady, I am here to serve you."
"You are here to spy on me." I choke her. "Did Lord Landulf send you?"
She gasps. "No. Please? You are hurting me."
I tighten my grip and she begins to lose color. "You feel how strong I am? I have the strength of a dozen men. Tell me the truth now or you will die in pain. Were you spying outside my door?"
She can hardly get the word out. "Yes."
"You had been told I was drugged?"
"Yes."
"Who told you?"
"Lady Cia."
"You were waiting by the door for me to pass out?"
"Yes."
"What were you going to do with me then?"
Marie turns blue. But she has enough will left to struggle.
"No!" she gasps.
I dig my fingernails into her neck, drawing blood. "You answer me or I'll rip your head off!"
She moans. "I was to take you to the sacrifice."
I loosen my grip and frown. "What sacrifice? Where?"
She struggles for air. "It is below--in the hidden chambers."
I point my finger at her. "You will take me there, through a back way. I want to see this sacrifice but I do not want to be seen. Do you understand?"
She coughs weakly. "I don't want to die."
I am grim. "You keep thinking that way."
Marie leads me through a dark passageway uncon?nected to the hallways and rooms of the public castle. We hardly leave my bedroom when we enter a narrow tunnel opened by touching a stone with a series of special pressures. The entrance closes behind us, and I wonder if I would have the strength to reopen it. The effect of the drug continues to plague me. Colored lights flash and trail at the corners of my vision. My heart pounds in my head and I cannot stop yawning. Cramps grip my spine. The power of the poison stuns me. Ordinarily, my system is immune to any kind of abusive substance.
We reach steep stairs and start down. The walls continue to press in on us. The stairs are seemingly endless. I carry a torch in one hand, grip the back of Marie's neck with the other. "If you cry out at any time," I say, "that cry will be the last sound you hear in this world."
"I won't betray you," she whispers.
"I can see you are very loyal."
We continue to go down for the next twenty min?utes, and I begin to believe Landulf has fashioned his castle over a natural cave. It is ridiculous to think he could have carved away so much stone with human hands. Yet somebody must have built this passage?way, and I have to wonder if it is older than I imagined. The surrounding stones appear ancient. I remember Dante's remark, that this spot used to shelter the Oracle of Venus.
Eventually I detect a red glow ahead. At the same time the temperature increases sharply. Putting out my torch, I stop Marie and question her.
"Lord Landulf performs sacrifices down there?" I ask.
"Yes."
"What kind?"
"All kinds."
I shake her. "Does he kill humans? Torture them?"
"Yes. Yes."
"Why?"
She weeps. "I don't know why."
"Then why do you stay here? Are you not a Chris?tian?"
She trembles beneath my gaze. "If I do not serve, I will be sacrificed."
"Is that the law?"
"Yes. Please let me go."
"Not until I am finished with you. Is there a place from where we can watch these sacrifices? And not be detected?"
She glances in the direction of the red glow. It is as if the light of hell beckons us. I smell burnt flesh again, and it has the odor of fresh meat. Marie is having trouble breathing.
"There is a passageway off to the side and above," she whispers. "But it is not all stone."
"What do you mean?"
"It is a metal grill, set in the ceiling. If they look up, they will see us."
"Why should they look up?"
"The eyes of my lord are everywhere!"
"Shh. Don't call him your lord. He is a perverted human." I turn toward the red glow. "He will die this very night." I grab her by the neck again. "Come, you will see."
The passageway Marie speaks of comes well before we reach the cavern. I feel and hear the hot tension in the cavern, the sound of many people whispering among themselves, the moans of a few unfortunates, the faint clash of metal. Even before I see, I know Landulf has brought his devotees as well as his soldiers to this accursed hole. I have to wonder if they're not all Satan worshippers.
Marie leads me into a tunnel where we have to get down on our hands and knees and crawl. The way is hot and soon I am drenched with sweat. But below our hands and knees the stone finally turns to wire mesh. We have reached the grills from which we can peer down at what is to be.
The ceremony is about to begin.
We are directly above the altar. It is circular, sur?rounded on all sides by rows of pews that lead up and back one hundred feet. There are approximately six hundred people present. Each person wears a red robe, except for a few soldiers at the doors, who have on metal breast plates and helmets. The altar is black and polished; it appears to be made of marble. Inlaid is a silver pentagram. The five tips of the stars dissect the room into five sections. Landulf sits on the floor with his wife. He is the only one wearing a black robe, and I can't help but notice the small silver knife resting in his lap.
Candles surround the altar. They are black and very tall, but what is most remarkable is that they burn with purple flames. The sober light spills over the marble and the silent participants like a glow from an unearthed volcano. The tension in the air is palpable and it is not something I would wish to touch. I sense that Landulf strives for tension in his rites.
Landulf stands and walks to the center of the pentagram.
He raises his hand with the knife.
The group begins to sing, and for a moment I am bewildered. For it sounds to me as if they are singing the Catholic Mass in Latin. But then I realize they have started at the end, and are working their way toward the beginning, moving verse by verse through the litany. And the knife Landulf holds--the handle is shaped like a crucifix, yet he grasps it by the blade, upside down.
Everything they are doing is backward.
Landulf's grip is tight on his blade. Blood runs down his arm as his worshippers sing, but he doesn't seem to mind. In all of this, the most amazing thing is that their voices are quite beautiful. They remind me of Dante, who never went to sleep without reciting the Mass. Yet their motives are clearly the opposite of Dante's. He implored God for forgiveness for sins he had never committed. These creatures implore anoth?er power to accept their sins and reward them for them.
After forty minutes the twisted mass ends. A wood?en cross is brought out by soldiers and laid in the center of the pentagram. Clad in a white robe, a bound female is carried out next. Her mouth is tied, she cannot cry out. But I see it is one of the girls I thought I had saved. That must mean the other two did not escape either. The girl is spread out on the cross but her white robe is left on. Finally the material stuffed in her mouth is removed and she cries out weakly. Landulf stands over her like the Grim Reap?er, or worse. He has exchanged his knife for a small hammer and a bunch of nails. His intention is pain?fully obvious.
He is going to crucify the young woman.
I cannot watch this. I cannot let it happen.
But I have to watch. And I know I can do nothing.
Landulf holds nails and hammer up for all to see. So far the group has been fairly sedate, but now they leap to their feet and start screaming and jeering. I cannot tell if they are experiencing pain or pleasure. It seems a perverse mixture of both. Landulf kneels beside the girl and the soldiers who hold her down as the noise of the group reaches a frenzy. The very air is now vibrating. I find myself panting hard, on the verge of vomiting. I am a vampire who has killed thousands, yet I cannot bear that they should do this thing to such innocence, and enjoy it, and still remain human. It doesn't seem as if God should allow it.
I have to remind myself that God allowed it long ago.
Landulf begins to hammer in the nails.
The blood flows over the silver pentagram.
The girl's screams rend my soul.
Then I cry out, and the group falls instantly silent.
Plump, frightened Marie has stabbed a knife in my lower back. Put it in deep, cut a few arteries and important nerves. My blood seeps over the wire mesh and spills onto the altar below. Directly on to Landulf s face. He stares up and hungrily licks it as it drops--rain from hell. There is poison on the tip of Marie's blade; it mingles with the drugs already racking my system and causes havoc with my reflexes. Straining to pull it out, I feel my wound being licked by this docile servant girl. She has been told some?thing about my blood, and thinks it will grant her immortality and great powers. She is like a giant insect sticking a needle in my vital organs. But apparently she takes the feeding ritual too far. Landulf suddenly shouts at her.
"It is for me!" he yells.
I am in such agony. Without wishing it, my weight and Marie's weight sag onto the wire mesh. It breaks. We fall like creatures cast down from heaven. Marie lands on her head and her skull explodes in a gray mass. I land on my back and the knife rams so deeply into me that it pokes through my liver and out my front. I have crashed beside the half-crucified woman, and Landulf steps over her to get to me. His face is smeared with blood, yet incredibly he appears sad, as if he wished it could have ended another way. I feel I have reached the end. My strength ebbs rapidly; I cannot get the knife out of my back, so that I may heal. The tortured girl screams at me as if I were a demon. Her mind is shattered. On the cold black altar our blood mingles and flows over the silver star as the crowd cheers. All this had been entertainment to them. Landulf puts a foot on my bloody hair and stares down at me.
"How do you feel, Sita?" he asks with feeling.
I cough blood. "Wonderful."
"You have come to where I always wanted you to be."
I try to roll on to my side, still trying for the blade.
He steps on my free arm with his other foot.
"I am happy for you," I gasp.
He grins slowly. "You are very beautiful, your body, your spirit. This agony is unnecessary. Join me, I will remove the knife and you will be better."
The pain is unbearable. "What do I have to do to join you?"
He presses hard on my arm, grinding the bone into the floor.
"A small thing," he replies. "Just finish nailing these stakes in this young woman you foolishly tried to save."
I think about it for a moment.
A long moment considering my situation.
"My lord," I say. "Go to hell."
He laughs and raises his foot and puts it over my face.
Darkness comes. It is especially dark.