The basement cells were not the same as those Alex had been held in...they were much worse. The smell hit me first, halfway down the stairs. I heard a gasp behind me and looked back to see that the three monarchs had followed Ulrich and I down. Freya was standing behind me with a handkerchief over her mouth. Alex gave a little snort of derision.
"It's all right for you lot...you don't need to breathe!" she gasped.
There were four guards stationed beside the only occupied cell and inside it was...well, a creature. It was naked and its skin was a greyish colour. It appeared to be basically humanoid but its hands and feet were grotesquely elongated and its head looked more like that of a dog with long jaws full of jagged looking teeth. It was crouched in a corner against the dirty brick wall, as far away from the bars as it could get. There was a metal collar around its neck and the skin around it looked reddened and blistered. It turned its head as we entered and I saw that there was a line of burn scars all down one side of its body. There was silence in the dingy basement as we stared at the creature in astonishment.
"What the hell is that?" asked Russell.
"We have no idea" answered Angelo but it was with Diana and she left it behind when she fled. We've tried to get information out of it but we don't even know if it's intelligent enough to understand what we want from it. Or if it even understands what's happening." He took a step towards the bars and the creature flinched back, its eyes, a curious shade of pale silvery grey, following him.
"Oh, I think it understands all right!" I said, not bothering to hide the disgust I felt.
The creature turned its head towards me and spoke. The language was harsh and guttural and completely incomprehensible but it was clearly trying to communicate.
Angelo's eyebrows shot up. "It's never done that before!" he said, obviously surprised. He reached towards the bars and picked up a chain which I now saw was attached to the metal collar. He hauled on the chain and the creature was dragged across the floor. It let out a high pitched sound of distress and began to scrabble at the floor with its long claws, trying to stop its inexorable slide towards the bars.
"Stop!" I cried. "Let go of that chain!"
Angelo let go in sheer surprise. I don't think it had occurred to him that anyone other than his Queen would dare to speak to him in that tone of voice.
"Why?" he asked.
"It's obviously terrified of us!" I said. "I wonder why that could be?" Just then I felt a movement at my side and turned to see Alex step forward towards the bars. "Wait!" I snatched her back and held her to me in a panic. "Careful Alex!" I whispered "you know nothing about this thing."
"Oh I think I might do actually" she said softly. "Look at its neck Bill, the collar's burnt it!" She wriggled out of my arms and stepped carefully forward with me close behind her. The creature was squatting on the concrete floor staring at her with equal fascination. As I watched, it leaned forward and sniffed at the air like a large bald hunting dog. It stared up at her without a trace of fear in its eyes, only a strange curiosity.
"That iron collar has burned its flesh" she said. It's not afraid of us! It's afraid of the bars! Of the iron! It's a faerie!"
There was a sudden burst of laughter from behind us. "You're not serious!" I said. "I'd hate to find that at the bottom of my garden!"
Alex turned and stared up at me angrily. "Not a fairy…I mean it comes from faerie…the realm of faerie. Oh…" she gave me a frustrated look. "When I was talking to Aislynn, you remember, she told me about Azaria? Well she said that Azaria's mother, Mab's daughter, could "walk between the worlds". I think this is what she meant Bill!" She was looking up at me, her eyes shining with excitement. "You remember how Mab appeared in the Authority's courtroom?" I heard a sharp intake of breath behind me and turned to see Eric. Of course…..he had been there at the time. "She did the same sort of thing when she visited us at the Mill House. There was a shimmering in the air and she just walked through it…as if she had come through from another realm, another reality. I think that's what faerie is. And that's where this creature is from."
There was a long silence while we all stared at her, trying to take this in. I'm impressed! Very impressed! The voice insinuated itself quietly into my head. Your little pet has more intelligence than the rest of you put together! You mean she's right? I thought. She is absolutely correct! This poor creature is no threat to you my friend, it only wants to go home. I looked through the bars at the dog-like creature which was still staring, seemingly entranced, at Alex. How would you know that? I thought vaguely. It said so, it is trapped here. The poor thing…wait! You understood it? Curiously enough yes, it appears to be speaking a language from the area around Babylon, for some reason….in ancient times creatures from other realms were much more common than they are today. They almost never come here now…..so much for your progress! I smiled to myself. Can you translate for me? Why of course! I felt a curious sensation as if something were shifting inside my head and a tingling in my ear. Speak to it William and I shall translate your words between your mind and your tongue. Then I shall do the same for its replies.
I turned to Angelo "You! Open that door now!"
He stared at me in astonishment but didn't move.
"Very well" I raised my hand and pointed at the lock which held the barred gate to the cell closed. Reaching down as Lilith had taught me into the well of cold power granted to me by Mab, I pushed it out to the lock and watched as a film of ice formed over the metal. With a slight effort of will I broke the cold brittle iron apart and the lock fell in pieces to the floor. Very nicely done William. You're learning fast! You concentrate on the translation, I thought. I took hold of Angelo by the collar of his jacket and bundled him through the door before he had time to protest.
Crouching down before the creature I said "It's okay, I won't let him hurt you." At least that's what I thought I said…what I actually heard was something in the same harsh language I had heard from the creature earlier. Everyone took a few steps back and stared at me, their mouths falling open in surprise.
The creature looked equally surprised and moved its head towards me, the movement rubbing its neck against the collar. It gave another high pitched cry and said "please my Lord, help me….the pain….."
"Get that collar off!" I said harshly.
"Are you insane!" Angelo was staring at me as if I had gone mad.
I glared up at him and I could feel Lilith's anger burning in my eyes. "Would you like to find out?" I growled.
He began fumbling in a pocket and produced a key. The creature flinched as he approached it and I reached out a hand to it. "Don't be afraid, I won't let him hurt you again."
Angelo warily unfastened the collar and backed away as I carefully removed it from the raw burned flesh of the creature's throat. It gave a little sigh of relief and looked up at me. "Please…..I was not my intention to harm anyone. I was brought here against my will." The sound I heard was the same incomprehensible language the creature had spoken before, but now I understood it! I stood up and held out my hand. The creature took it and stood up in front of me. When fully upright it was about a foot taller than me but stood slightly stooped with its head lowered. I looked around and saw Alex just behind me, everyone else was well outside the cell but I noticed that several more vampires had slipped down the stairs and were watching me with open mouths.
"Are you saying that you can understand that thing? You can speak its language?" asked Russell in astonishment.
"No" I smiled, "but Lilith can." I turned back to the creature. "How did you get here?" I asked.
It turned its head and looked around at the assembled vampires. "I was brought here with two others of my kind by a powerful sorcerer. She was able to cast a spell to force us to obey her. When she fled from your people my brothers escaped but I….." he glanced at Angelo. "I was captured."
"Who is she?" I asked. "And what does she want from us? We were told that she is a necromancer, that she has power over death."
"No, this is not true. She is an old spirit and very powerful, yet she is not immortal. She cheats death by moving from her body to another. In this way she has moved through time, always leaving one body as it ages and finding another, younger one. She is known as the corpsetaker."
"Should we fear her then? If she has no power over the dead then she cannot harm us can she?"
The creature looked into my eyes and said "I think you should fear her my Lord. She has been looking for one of your kind, a blood drinker. She knows that your bodies are stronger, more resilient than normal humans. She has taken one of the Queen's servants, but recently she has heard of one…..one who has the powers of a God. Would this be you my Lord?"
I sighed. "I guess so!"
"Then it is you that she seeks. You should take care."
I turned back to the others. "It appears that your necromancer is a body snatcher. She moves from one to another to escape death." I turned back to my new friend. "Does she do this often? How easy is it for her?"
"It is not easy" he said. "She does not move to a new body lightly. The circumstances have to be right and she will wait until she is quite sure of her choice."
"What happens to...the original occupant?" I asked curiously.
"They will be transferred into her old body. If they do not die from the shock of the transfer then she usually kills them herself."
I thought for a moment. "Is there any other help you can give us?" I asked.
The creature looked down sadly, "I will help you all I can. If you need me, I will be here."
"We don't want to keep you here. Please...you can leave. No-one will stop you" I said.
"Where would I go?" he asked helplessly. "I have nowhere."
"Can you not go home?" I asked.
The creature gave a little sigh. "I know how to open a portal, but I have not the strength...not alone."
"Is there some way we can help you?"
He looked up and stared into my eyes for a moment as if trying to judge if I were genuinely willing to help him. Then he moved forward and reached out to place his elongated fingers on my chest. "Yes" he said, a slight glimmer of hope appearing in his strange silvery eyes. "You could help me. You have Mab's power, I can feel it. Your strength could help me open the way."
Lily? Is that possible? I thought. Indeed you could William. It will not harm you, the power will return. Are you sure? I thought, suspiciously. I am inside your mind William. She sounded slightly indignant that I should question her. As you cannot lie to me, so I cannot lie to you.
I nodded. "Very well, I will help you if I can."
The creature straightened up suddenly, towering over me and began to sniff the air. "Not here" he said. "Upstairs, at the level of the earth."
I gestured to the door and he walked out of the cell, ducking his head slightly to get under the bars and taking care not to allow them to touch his skin. There was a sudden mad scramble for the stairs as the assembled vampires made a run for it and I turned suddenly, looking for Alex. She was behind me in the cell and she smiled at me and took my hand. "You're going to help him aren't you?" she said with a grin. "I knew it!"
I followed the creature up the stairs and down the corridor, watching with interest as it sniffed the air, searching, I supposed, for a suitable place to open the portal. It stopped outside two double doors and placed a hand on one, pushing it open gently. The room beyond was large, a ballroom and a great empty space opened up around the entrance as the occupants backed away from the creature. The rest of the room was packed with vampires, those who had been in the drawing room and others of the court who had heard what was happening. Ulrich slipped in behind us and stood beside the doorway.
"What has it told you?" he asked, eyeing the creature warily.
"It looks like our information was partially correct. The sorcerer is looking for vampires, me in particular. But she is not a necromancer, she does not have control over the dead, she uses the bodies of others to escape her own death."
"So why does she want us?" he asked.
"Because our bodies are stronger and more resilient than those of mortals. And mine contains the power of a God!"
"I see!" Ulrich looked very serious and glanced around, checking on his security detail. "What's happening now? What does it want?"
I smiled. "What we all want Ulrich, he wants to go home!"
I watched as the creature sniffed around for a moment until it appeared to find the right spot. He held out a hand to me and I walked over to him. "What do you want me to do?" I asked.
He placed a hand on my shoulder and looked down into my eyes. "Share your power with me my Lord" he said. He closed his eyes and began to mutter something that apparently even Lilith didn't understand. I felt a tingling sensation in my shoulder and suddenly the well of cold power inside me opened and I could feel it flowing up into his hand. His eyes flew open and he waved a hand before us. For a moment I thought I was about to faint. The air before me seemed to blur, then I realised that it was not my eyes that were failing, it was the air itself. A patch of air in front of us had become opaque and shimmered like a silk curtain.
The creature took his hand from my shoulder and knelt down before me. "Thank you my Lord. I will not soon forget your kindness." Then he rose smoothly, stepped into the shimmering patch of air and disappeared. As I stood alone in the centre of the open space left in the middle of the ballroom I realised that there would be no more questions. No more doubts. Lilith's questioning of the Queen together with my seemingly easy and friendly conversation with this strange creature from the realm of Faerie had quashed any uncertainty about my Power.
Ulrich came over to me looking thoughtful. "So, what do you think we should do? Do you want to head back to England? She might follow you I suppose."
I sighed. "Well, I don't think I have too much to worry about actually. I've got one uninvited guest in my head already! What's another one?"
Ulrich chuckled at this. "Well you know what they say - Better the Devil you know!"
I laughed. "Ouch! Oh really Ulrich! She didn't appreciate that at all!"
"I do beg her pardon" he said very seriously. "Please assure her that we will do our best to take good care of you!"
