These characters are not mine. Pity.
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA X-OVER THE TAMULI BY DAVID EDDINGS
NIGHTINGALE
WRITTEN BY COUSIN D
"Sir?" I looked up from my work, irritated at the interruption, only to find my little angel, Alean. The little girl was the picture of beauty, though it was mostly hidden under lanky, unwashed hair and filth. I had known her a good many weeks now.
I've come to this filthy tavern to write for many weeks now and it is a good place to be just one of the many. I can watch the demented throngs at their drunken worst.
"Yes, Angel?" For this little innocent one, I will pause my work.
In this pigsty of a tavern there are few that will disturb me while I compose and, though I cherish my solitude, I can not bare to be always alone. It is my curse to be parted for the world, hiding myself. At least here, in this place, I can conceal myself in the dark corners and still watch the mad dance of humanity.
The child, who was perhaps nine, held out her tray and I took the small glass of wine. It was all I ever ordered here, but I paid the child well. One small coin for her to give the tavern keeper, one gold coin for her pocket.
Alean took the coins happily and she looked down at what I was writing. I think the child deserves so much better than this pit where she will waste her beauty and kindness away.
"What are you writing, sir?" She asked, curiously. I think she is the only person who has never questioned the white mask that covers most of my face. It's as if she can't even see it.
"A song." I reply modestly, if you can call one of my opera's a 'song'. "Would you like to hear it?" It was not an offer that I made lightly and I barely believe that I had said it at all. I've never let anyone hear my music when it was only half done. Not since Christine.
Alean looked suddenly afraid and glanced over her shoulder. "I'm sorry, sir. The master will beat me if I don't get back to work."
I think I smiled, though in my heart I was seething. I looked behind the bar at the fat man and his dreadful wife who ran this place. They 'employed' Alean, though it was far more like slavery. She feared them terribly, but this was the first I'd heard of beatings.
"Do they hurt you, Angel?" I set down my quill and looked her in those big brown eyes.
Alean smiled sweetly at me and I knew I had lost my heart to this tiny child.
"It's not bad, sir. I've a place to live and food to eat. It's better than being alone, I guess."
I wanted to growl and spit curses at the creatures that controlled my angel. Food? Her ribs were sticking out horribly and her cheeks were hollowed. These barbarians likely gave her the dog's scraps. The child didn't even have shoes!
"Being alone is a terrible thing, Angel." How could I, of all people, argue with that? I touched her brown hair gently with my gloved hand.
Alean walked off to deliver another ale to a customer and I tried to get writing again. It was no good.
With the anger building in me, I simply can't continue. I can't think of anything except my angel being hurt. Why didn't she tell me before?
I looked over my shoulder at the tavern keeper again and a familiar desire took hold of me. It would not be difficult; the man was overweight and had no friends to help him. His death could be quick or last for days; depending on my mood.
Right now, my mood was not good.
As the night wore on, I was, I think the only customer left in the tavern. Even the tavern keeper had retired for the evening with his wife and I was left in the care of Alean who was sweating heavily as she scrubbed the floor.
I would wait until she had tired herself out enough that she wouldn't hear anything from her room and then I could take a little revenge upon her behalf.
Then I heard it.
A tune softly hummed. It was sweet and pure. I had thought the child and I were the last in the tavern. I swung my head to catch the singer and saw that it was Alean. Her voice was lifting in song and I'd rarely heard of such a voice with such potential.
"Angel!" My voice was sharper than I'd meant it to be and the gentle child jumped in surprise.
"I'm sorry, sir." She started guiltily. "I didn't realize I was doing it." I could see tears standing in her eyes and I knew she though I was angry. "I know you're doing important work, please don't tell the master. They tell me not to sing, but I can't help it!"
I held out a hand to her and my angel came to me obediently, if a little frightened. She took my hand and I knew it wasn't I she was afraid of, but what her 'master' would do if I complained about her.
"My Angel. You never told me you could sing. Who taught you?" I was trying very hard to make my voice gentle with her. Just let her relax with me. Just a little.
She shrugged. "No one, sir. I was just humming. Are you going to tell on me?" Her tiny shoulders were shaking.
I frowned. "Never be afraid to sing, Nightingale. Will you let me teach you to sing properly?"
She just stared and I don't think she understood what I was saying.
"Teach me to sing?" Her eyes were questioning. I wondered if she knew how to lie at all. "Why? I'm just a serving girl."
"Never say that, my Angel. Never again will you be just a serving girl. You are my Angel and I can make you into the greatest voice this world has ever known."
She kept staring and finally she smiled at me hesitantly. "I don't know if they'll let me." She nodded at the room where her owners slept.
"I'm not asking them. I'm asking you. Will you come with me, my angel? Will you come with me each night and work hard to sing?"
I set her scrubbing brush down on the table and led her out of the tavern and into the street. Everything was quiet now, and dark. It would be a few hours till morning, so we had the streets to ourselves. I took her to a part of town where I was fairly certain that we would not be disturbed and there, under the moon, I gave the first singing lesson since Christine.
She was slightly frightened to be out in this town at night, but really, there was no danger for her so long as she was with me.
Alean was gone the next morning. I questioned the tavern keeper and he was, as it turned out, as rude as he looked. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but he simply spit on the floor of his own home and told me that the brat had been sold. Not literally, of coarse. Slavery was illegal here in Elenia, but a baron had seen her and taken a liking to her. The tavern keeper had released her from the contract he had and basically given her to the baron.
It was early evening and the tavern was full. I held my anger as far as I could. "Where is she?" I asked, in a most polite tone, I thought.
"How the hell should I know, freak? The brat is none of my concern anymore!"
I grabbed him by the throat and stared into his eyes. One of my many talents is hypnosis and I chose to make full use of it now. "Come with me." He followed me out of the tavern without a word and I took him to the same deserted place I had given Alean her singing lessons.
Once there, I took the tiny, three-inch knife out of my sleeve and touched his throat with it. This was long over due.
He didn't make much noise when he died, but the thud when he hit the ground was most satisfying.
Several weeks later I finally tracked down my Angel. Alean was at a manor with the baron, but it was not the situation she had hoped for.
For a year or so it was fine. There was little asked of her but to clean the bedrooms and she did that with a cheerful smile and a light heart. When she turned fifteen things changed one terrible night.
I heard the scream even as far off as I was from Alean's new home. The manor where she served as a maid was a good ten-minute run away and run I did when I heard her scream. I flew through the countryside with fury and fear in my heart. I could think of nothing else, my child was in danger!
I climbed the walls of the manor without being seen, and found her alone in her room.
The girl was naked and curled in a tight ball on the floor of her room. She was completely silent. I could see blood on the floor and knew with sickening certainty that it was hers.
"Alean?" I whispered as I crept slowly into her room. She didn't move as I called to her and I thought she couldn't hear me. "Alean, are you all right?" A stupid question but perhaps she would speak. She began to shake, and I knelt next to her, taking her shoulders in my hands.
Her eyes were tightly closed and she whimpered pitifully, "No, please no. Don't."
"Alean! Alean, wake up, It's me, my Angel, my nightingale, look at me." I pulled her up to me and she painfully opened her swollen eyes.
Her eyes focused slowly. "Angel!" She cried and threw her arms around me. It was then that she began to cry, long, hard sobs that tore at my heart. I held her for an eternity until she wore herself out.
She looked up at me with bruised and bleeding face. I looked her over briefly and saw what I had feared, blood running freely between her legs.
"Who did this, my Angel?" I asked her in a voice that was rougher than I'd meant it to be. "Who touched you?"
"I'm sorry." Her words came out choked with renewed tears. "I tried to fight, but...I wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry."
"You did nothing wrong, my dear one. Not a thing. Tell me who hurt you."
"It was the baron." Her voice was a whisper and I hugged her to me again. That was all I needed to know. I pulled a tiny vial of orange liquid from one of the many pockets in my cloak and put it to her lips.
"Drink, Angel. It will give you pleasant dreams."
She obediently did as I told her without question and within seconds she was in a deep sleep in my arms.
I live for her smile. I will die for her and I will kill for her.
I looked down at the savaged child who lay on my sofa. She had been damaged beyond belief, in a way that no child should. I had stopped the bleeding, as well as I could, but how was her mind? The little drug I had given her had sent her into a sleep so deep that not even nightmares could penetrate, but it would not last long, and then, I knew, the fear would begin again.
She needed better treatment than I could give her. In my dark caves, the cell I had long ago built for myself, the prison of my mind, she would waste away. I believe she needs to be in the light. Perhaps, one day I can bring her back to the darkness, but now she needs to heal.
I could get her a relatively easy life in a safe place. A place I could watch over her. Somewhere I could protect her.
Alean was not child any longer so a position with few men around her, especially as considering her recent trauma, would be best.
First thing's first. Alean would sleep for a few more hours and I had art to attend to. Not my music, not my voice, I had another addictive art that Alean would never witness.
I slipped on my black leather gloves and pulled the hood of my cloak over my masked face. Alean would be avenged.
No one hurt my child. No one!
I found him a short time later. The disgusting man was swilling ale and it slopped down his chin onto his lap and the table in front of him. I watched him from the window that overlooked the main hall in his manor. There was a dagger strapped to the side of my leg and the inside of my lower arm, but that was not how this pig would end his life.
The hall gradually emptied as the night wore on and the pig called over and over in a slurred voice for Alean. "Where is that damned girl?" He hollered at no one in particular. "I want you, Alean!" He screamed suddenly before collapsing in his chair with inane giggles.
The last of his guests left, just as staggeringly drunk as their host.
I came down from my look out as silently as I could. I am not a stupid man, as angry as I am, and I know I can't fight dozens of armed men if this fool should be just sober enough to call for them.
He didn't look up as I finally landed on the floor just behind him and quietly crept up on him. His goblet clattered to the floor and I jumped forward. My hands wrapped around his throat tightly and I don't know if he realized it at first.
He sat there dumbly for several moments.
"Good evening." I said simply. I am a gentleman, after all. "I'm here to kill you. Do you have any idea what you've done?"
The man finally tried to answer, but I really didn't want to listen right now so I squeezed harder and he turned a pleasing color of blue that swiftly changed into purple.
"Let me tell you what you've done." I leaned closer and whispered into his ear. "You have given the most gentle girl to walk this earth nightmares that will haunt her for years to come. You have taken something form her by force that should only be given in love. My Alean has suffered by working here, and I have decided that I will not suffer you to live. You are unworthy of breathing the same air as her."
I squeezed. His larynx collapsed under my hand and I smiled. He struggled briefly and very weakly. I do love my art. I wish he had suffered longer. Alean deserved more. Blood ran from his mouth, as it usually does with this method, and I felt the perverse thrill as the warm liquid ran over my gloved hands and down my sleeves onto my arms.
Still, I can now honestly tell her that she will no longer be bothered by this... animal.
I let the pig fall in a heap at my feet, exactly where he belonged. They would find him in the morning and no one would know who killed him.
I left the way I'd come, silently and without trouble. The guards on this place were a shame, fortunately for me. They never noticed me using the tree as a shortcut to the open field just beyond their sight.
Alean was still in my home. My home beneath the earth where I knew she would be safe. I went back through one of the many secret entrances I had created over my long life.
She was there when I returned to my candlelit chambers, sitting on the bench of my organ, staring with wide eyes at the strange place she had found herself in and when she saw me her eyes were filled with relief.
"Sir!" She jumped up and ran to me, throwing her arms around me. "I thought you'd left me here alone!" Tears ran down her eyes and she looked at me accusingly. "I don't want to be left in the dark!"
I felt immediately guilty at what I'd done and smoothed her hair. "Hush, my Angel. I won't leave you again. There was something I had to take care of. You are always safe in my home."
She pulled slightly away and looked around. "This is your home? Why did you never bring me here before?"
"I didn't see any need."
She roamed around my home for a little while before she asked, "What's you're name, sir?"
I smiled. So few people bothered to ask. "Erik. Erik Dresler."
Alean healed well under my care, but I still wanted to return her to the light. Actually, I wanted to keep her here in my safe darkness, but I know she doesn't belong here. We spent many idle days singing while I continued her education. She not only learned music, but some small skills with healing arts. During the nights I took her out into the cities and entertained my child in anyway she wished.
She learned many things about me while she stayed in my home. She saw my inventions and writings. She found my cat, and several secrets I would have preferred she didn't find out. My autopsy room, for one.
She found my painting of Christine, hanging in the room I kept for her. I still hope that one day she will come back to me. Perhaps that idiot husband will croak some blessed day. She also found my Don Juan's Triumphant and begged to have me play it for her.
I did play for her and while I did I thought of Christine in far away Marathonia, living happily with that dull husband of her. Some day she will return to me. If I have to wait another thousand years.
I found a possible position in the palace of the Queen of Elenia some weeks later. Her imbecile father had recently been poisoned and left the girl with a crown on her head. Queen Ehlana, I saw as I watched during her early days as queen, was a formidable opponent. She was strong and quite intelligent, but more importantly, she was just.
I felt quite safe in leaving Alean in her care. I escorted my child to the grounds of the palace after quietly arranging several illnesses and deaths. The palace would need maids and my child would fill the position wonderfully. We reached the palace at night when the moon was beginning to climb and the grounds were empty.
Alean suddenly, as we drew closer clutched my hand. "Please, won't you come in with me, sir?"
I was still, after all these years, amazed at how easily she touched me. She never hesitated and never feared my mask. I would never show her the other side of my heart, the dark side. I simply couldn't bare it if my angel hated me, or worse, feared me.
"I'm sorry, Alean. You know I don't do well in public. You'll do fine and I'm sure you'll be happy in this new place."
She didn't answer, but swallowed nervously and began to walk steadily toward the castle.
Perhaps I've underestimated how brave my angel is.
I visited her in her room every night. She was my soul's focus in the world, now. I won't allow her to be hurt again as she was by the baron. I will stay and watch until I'm sure she's safe here.
Everything went splendidly until Alean came back to her room in tears one night. No, I thought. Not again. "Who hurt you, Angel!" I demanded. That it should happen under my nose was an insult. I will not let anyone make her cry.
"I'm not hurt." She answered, still in tears. Alean sat next to me on her bed and hugged me for comfort. "It's terrible! The queen is dying!"
"Really?" I actually didn't care a fart about the queen, but if she were to die then someone else would be giving my child orders. This could be dangerous. "Perhaps I'll just go have a look."
I left her in her chambers and easily found Ehlana's still form in the throne room surrounded by a dozen or so people doing nothing to help her. From the people talking around her, I quickly realized what had happened. A rare poison from Rendor. The girl would surely die.
Oh, well.
I was about to leave my hiding place and return to Alean when entered the strangest group of people. One was a Styric woman whom I'd seen several times in the court, Sephrenia, I think. Then came a dozen or so knights in black armor who chased everyone from the room. Luckily, they couldn't see me from where I was watching.
These people set the little queen on her throne and I thought she was being prepared for death. The crown was replaced on her head and then the people circled around her. The small woman began to recite some words in a language that I believe was Styric, it would make sense, but I only recognized some few of the words.
I felt a wondrous music fill my head and the strange sound of pipes fill the room. Somehow, my soul chilled at the sound, and then the queen was encased in crystal. Perfectly clear, like the most flawless diamond. Now, this was a power I had not imagined existed. The Styric woman slumped as she finished speaking only to be caught by an older knight.
Presumably, the Styric woman had asked her goddess to help her, but I know there are no gods or goddesses. If there was one, how could they be so cruel to make me like I am?
I left my watching place as they left the room, thinking. This was a most dangerous place, now. The corridors behind the walls of the palace were convenient, but then, I had built the castle, so why shouldn't it be as I needed it?
Alean was still in her room, but her tears had dried and she was waiting for me.
"This is a tricky situation." I told her. "You may be in danger, as I expect that maniac, Annias, will put his bastard on the throne. If you don't want to stay here, I'll take you back to my home for a time." I wished for her to say 'Yes. Yes, take me home.'
Alean shook her head. "I'm sure it won't be as bad as you think, sir. I'll stay here for a while."
I smiled. "As you wish, my Angel. Shall we sing, tonight?"
Alean smiled at me. It was her greatest joy, singing, and I would encourage it as far as she wished. One day, I know, she will walk away from her life as a servant and become the voice I know she can be. She deserved far better than this tiny room with nothing but a bed in it.
We unfortunately had to sneak out of the palace to the gardens for our lessons. It just wouldn't do for any passing gossip to spread tales about Alean that she had a man in her chambers.
This went on for sometime and I admit I was curious about the little queen. I watched the whole affair from my look out behind the walls. Her knight protector with the crooked nose and his handling of the poisoning of his queen. I also realized, quite early that he loved her. I wondered if he knew it yet. The man, Sparhawk, must be nearly twenty years older than she was, but still, I was more than double Christine's age.
No...No, I won't think about it. I won't think of her.
I waited until the knight returned nearly a year later with the cure and they woke the queen from her rest.
Alean was delighted and I was happy that she was happy. Nothing else mattered to me lately. The years passed again and I saw that Queen Ehlana favored Alean. Good, I'm pleased that she's getting a little recognition. Then she was made the nursemaid for the queen's little daughter, Danae, and I knew she loved this work. One day she would be a wonderful mother.
It was shortly after Alean's eighteenth birthday when I noticed a change. She was coming late to her singing lessons and she had a distracted air about her when she did come. Finally I had to ask her.
"Oh, sir, it's the most incredible thing!" She gushed with a smile. "There's a man named Kalten and I think he likes me!"
I felt my heart begin to harden. "Really?" Perhaps I should keep a closer eye on the men around the court. "And what does this Kalten do to inspire your smile?"
"He's brave and so sweet. He looks at me like no one has before. He's one of the Pandion Knights."
I hate Kalten. There is little reason for it, I know, but I hate him. Some young fool is trying to take my Angel from me. I won't try to stand in the way if it's what Alean really wants, but first I will have to see him and see if he's worthy of her love.
I kept Alean late so that she would get her full lesson and let her go to her bed. I think I'll make a visit to the home of the Pandion Knights.
I actually found him in a tavern without really intending to. I was walking to the home of the knights, and found one of them entering a badly lit tavern. It was much the same as all the others I've visited in my many years. But there seemed to be something different. The atmosphere was odd here.
I found in this tavern the knight, Sparhawk, I'd seen when the young queen Ehlana was poisoned, the one with a crooked nose. He was talking and laughing with another powerfully built man with blonde hair. I closed my eyes and listened. My hearing is remarkably good and I could hear every word, including Sparhawk call the blonde one Kalten. He was certainly good looking enough to attract an innocent young girl like Alean, I absently touched my mask, but was his heart worthy of her?
Sparhawk-
"Who's that?" Sparhawk asked his friend Kalten. They looked at the man with the white mask who'd just entered. He seemed to be looking for something and his eyes fell on us.
"Beats me." Kalten shrugged.
The man was dressed completely in black except for the white mask that covered half his face. The side of his face that could be seen was pale as snow, and that was all of his skin that was visible. He looked out of place in this taverns where most of the patrons were very common looking.
The stranger was thin as a skeleton and he walked with an easy grace, for all that he was taller than Sparhawk. He stood at their table in the blink of an eye and he glared at Kalten with something very close to hate. Kalten leaned back in his chair, surprised by the emotion from the stranger.
"You are Kalten, I understand." It was not a question.
"Yes." Kalten said cautiously. The stranger sat in an empty chair without being asked and Sparhawk saw this as incredibly rude.
"Who are you, neighbor?" Sparhawk ask pointedly.
The stranger didn't look at him, but said, "I have no business with you. Be silent." Sparhawk was shocked to say the least. "You," The stranger looked at Kalten. "What are your intentions toward Alean?"
This got Kalten's attention. "Alean? How do you know Alean?"
"Answer my question."
"It's none of your damn business!" Kalten shot back angrily. How dare this person demand to know his personal life?
The stranger stood with violence in his every movement and looked down at him ominously. The room seemed to darken around them and, "Beware, you are not immune to my power. You will not have Alean without my blessing!"
The stranger stormed out of the tavern in a fury, the thick crowd seemed to part for him without really seeing him.
Kalten looked at Sparhawk and down at his hands. They were shaking. "I think I need to talk to Alean." He said. It's been a long time since anyone's scared him that badly.
Sparhawk went with his friend and they found Alean with Sparhawk's daughter, princess Danae. They were in the royal garden playing. After telling her about the strange visit in the tavern, Alean smiled, unconcerned.
"That's my friend. He's taken care of me for so long and I just told him about you, Kalten. He's overprotective and probably just wanted to meet you."
Kalten was still unsure about his love's friend. "He threatened us, Alean. He said without his blessing that we'd never be together."
She didn't lose her smile. "Don't worry. Would you marry a girl without her father's permission? Of coarse not. Well, it's the same thing."
"Are you saying he's your father?"
"Well, sort of. He's taken care of me for so long he seems like my father. He loves me very much and I'm sure he just wants to make sure I'm going to be happy with you Kalten."
Sparhawk looked down when his daughter pulled on his arm and followed her to a short way away where the other two couldn't hear them.
"This might be dangerous, Sparhawk." Danae said in an authoritative voice and the knight knew his daughter had assumed her goddess personality of Aphrael. "I think I know who this stranger is from your description. It sounds like Erik. He's a genius and quite nearly mad. He kills for pleasure and to get what he wants. Erik has few morals and apparently loves Alean. She's safe enough, but Kalten might be in danger. Erik is insanely jealous at times and if he decides that Kalten is using Alean or wants to hurt her, he will kill Kalten and we'll never even find his body."
"Even you? A goddess?" Sparhawk asked.
Danae looked at him seriously. "Not even me. He is a genius, father. I don't think anyone, even the gods, understand how his mind works."
"What about his God?" Sparhawk asked. "Surely his god can help us."
Danae wrapped her arms around herself and Sparhawk thought he saw her shiver. "It won't work, Sparhawk. He won't believe in gods or goddesses. There were terrible things done to him and he won't believe that if there are gods, they let these awful things happen to him."
Sparhawk looked at his friends and thought. He didn't want anything to upset their happiness, especially not some black stranger who was a little to possessive.
The day of the wedding approached without incident and Alean said nothing about her 'father' and he didn't appear. She seemed blissfully happy and one day the throne room was disrupted with the sound of a magnificent music. It seemed to come from everywhere and no where.
No one made a sound as the gentle song washed over them and when it ended Sparhawk felt somehow disappointed. "What was that?" Ehlana asked, breathlessly. Everyone was deeply affected by the...the whatever it was.
"That was my father." Alean smiled and Sparhawk saw tears running down her cheeks as she hugged Kalten impulsively. "He's given his blessing! He'll let us be married!"
Ehlana looked outraged. "You mean he might not have let you get married?!"
Alean didn't look at all worried. "Well, he just wants the best for me. He must have seen what a good man Kalten is."
Ehlana was still upset by this. "He can't stop you from getting married, Alean."
Suddenly, Alean's face grew worried. "You mustn't say things like that, your majesty. He gets awful upset when people don't take him seriously. If he hadn't given his blessing, then I wouldn't have married Kalten."
Kalten, of coarse, looked hurt. "Does his opinion mean that much to you?"
She nodded and held him tighter. "It means very much to me."
"How did he decide what was best for you?" Sephrenia asked. She was holding Danae and stroking her long dark hair. The two were so similar that Sparhawk was amazed no one thought it odd that the princess would be a little double of a Styric priestess.
"He was watching us, of coarse." Alean told her.
Everyone looked at her. "What do you mean he's been watching us?" Kalten asked. "I've never seen him, and I've been looking."
Alean put a hand on his arm. "He's always watching. No one can see him, but he's there."
"Here? Now?" Sparhawk looked around the room and didn't see anywhere that the man could hide.
"Yes, how else could we hear his music?"
Ehlana was not happy to hear that someone could creep around her palace without being seen by Platime's people. She found herself constantly peeking around corners trying to catch this Erik person everyone was talking about. Until, however, Alean told her that Erik was watching and probably laughing at her efforts.
So the wedding day came and they all went to the palace chapel where Archprelate Dolmat would join Kalten and Alean. She was beautiful in her white gown with the long train. Ehlana was going to give her a gown, just in case Alean didn't have the money, but there was no need to worry.
"It's all right, your majesty." Alean said, refusing the queen's offer. "My father is giving me a gown. He says he has no need of it now." No one had seen the gown before the wedding day and now Alean appeared in a gown that must have cost a fortune and was even more beautiful than Ehlana's wedding gown.
It was so simple, just a gown with a gauzy veil, but there was something, perhaps just the cut, that made Alean a most beautiful woman.
"Will your father come to give you away?" Mirtai asked as she helped her little friend get dressed.
Alean shook her head sadly. "He's very uncomfortable in crowds and hates it when everyone looks at him. He promised he's be there, though."
As Alean appeared in the doorway to walk alone to Kalten a wonderful music floated down to them from the top of the chapel. Dolmat gasped, he didn't know there was going to be music here. When she heard the music, Alean's smile grew, and a rich, deep voice joined the music.
Just as the ceremony was beginning everyone was shocked when the doors burst open.
Arissa! Ehlana stood and looked at her murderess aunt with fury. The woman who'd killed her father. "How dare you!" She screeched at the older woman.
Sparhawk distantly noticed that the music and song had ended abruptly.
"Easily, child." The woman told her calmly. Behind her, two dozen armed church soldiers came into the room and stood behind her. "Annias had a few loyal men and now they follow me in his name. I thought I'd come for the wedding." Arissa sneered at the lovely Alean. "Dear, how sweet. You've caught yourself a knight. Unfortunately, this will have to wait, you see, this is a coup. Seize them!" She shouted to her soldiers.
Everyone was rounded up nicely and Sparhawk saw a shadow emerge slowly from behind the altar where Dolmat had stood.
Erik-
This...creature...this thing with the voice of a dying crow had dared to interrupt my performance! My music was only halfway done and she had burst in. Then my eyes went to Alean and there were tears in her eyes as she clung to her knight. I felt my soul catch fire.
Sparhawk-
Arissa saw Erik as he slowly walked into the room, holding a violin in his left hand. "Who are you?" She demanded haughtily.
"Me?" Erik sounded deceptively innocent. "I'm the court musician. I couldn't help but notice the interruption. Do you have a problem with my playing?"
Arissa laughed suddenly and Sparhawk, looking at Erik's face, knew that she shouldn't have laughed.
"You?" Arissa said mockingly. "I have higher concerns than a mere musician!"
"Really? Perhaps you haven't heard my voice. Would you like to?" He asked softly.
Arissa began to laugh, but stopped and took a look at his bizarre appearance. "Yes. I think I have time. Sing for me, musician." Her eyes went briefly to her prisoners and she thought she had nothing to fear from her captors.
"What's he doing?" Sparhawk asked anyone who could answer as he watches Alean's friend begin to sing to Arissa. It was a strange, haunting melody and very erotic, although there was nothing especially dirty about the words. He walked away from the soldiers and slowly glided toward Arissa. None of the soldiers moved to stop him and they stared fixedly ahead. "Is it magic?"
"No, father." Danae whispered. "Don't interrupt. He's going to take care of her." The child looked at Alean nervously. "I'm afraid this may shatter some illusions, though."
The skeletal man gracefully, almost carelessly, made his way to Arissa until they were mere inches from each other. She seemed hypnotized by his voice.
"There is no magic to Erik, father." Danae told him with sadness. "That is his voice you are hearing. I don't know how he does it, but he is magnificent with his voice. She can't think of anything but him, now." Danae frowned. "Not that she ever could think of anything but men."
Erik left her then and seemed to lazily float to the door, which he bolted closed. Erik moved slowly, still singing, and pulled out a small dagger. He methodically went to each of the red dressed soldiers and slit their throats. Twenty of them he murdered on the chapel floor.
Sparhawk would have stopped him. There was no sense in killing all of them, but he couldn't move anymore than the soldiers could. Everyone in the room was completely at Erik's mercy.
The floor was red with blood and cluttered with bodies. Yet Arissa had made no move, her eyes were heavy with lust and they were fixed on Erik. She still moved slightly, licking her lips and panting heavily as he moved toward her again with his bloody knife.
Erik gently touched Arissa just above the bosom and let his hand caress her. She seemed excited by the touch and leered at him. "Take off your mask." She demanded. "I must know you."
Erik stiffened and then looked over his shoulder at his daughter and her friends. "You wanted to know why I wear a mask?"
He turned his back to them and they could see Arissa's face but not his. With deliberate calm, Erik removed the mask and gave the lusty princess a good long look.
Her scream was staggering and the pure terror in her eyes was terrible. She must have screamed for almost three minutes before she broke into a run away from him. Arissa didn't get far when Erik pulled something from an inner pocket of his fine leather cape. With a sharp movement, Erik flicked his wrist and Arissa stopped at the door, clutching her throat. Her face was frozen with a look of terror when her eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped to the floor.
Erik still sang, keeping the rest of them in a trance, and he went to take a thin strip of silk from around Arissa neck, some kind of Lasso.
Erik stood facing the wall, and he stopped singing, and no one knew what to say. Ehlana was now certain she didn't want to see his face, though. All that time, he had managed to keep himself hidden from them with the hood of his cape.
"Angel." Erik said in a soft voice. "My mask."
Alean obediently went to where his mask had fallen and handed it back to him. If what she saw of his face bothered her in anyway, Alean didn't show it a bit. She looked at him as if he was still the same man as before. Erik didn't turn around until his mask was firmly in place.
"Shall we continue?" He asked coldly before returning to his violin. "My music was written for Christine long ago, but she wouldn't mind if I play for you now." He told Alean kindly. There was still blood on his hands and Sparhawk was shocked at the drastic change in moods. "I will play it for her one day, when she returns."
"You didn't know?" Aphrael asked, sounding surprised. "Christine is dead." Aphrael told him softly.
Erik looked at her in disbelief and his violin clattered to the floor. "No."
"Yes. I'm sorry, Erik. Christine died a few weeks ago. She and her husband were on a ship with their newborn son and the ship sank. There was a terrible storm and everyone died."
Erik swayed uneasily and Sparhawk thought the man who'd just killed callously might actually faint. "You are lying!" Erik screamed at the child.
Aphrael didn't flinch, though she did have a look of terrible sadness on her face. "I'm sorry..." She began, but before she could continue Erik put both his hands to his heart and cried out. It was a terrible, heart-breaking cry and Erik stumbled to his knees.
Alean immediately ran to him and put her arms around him. The masked man looked up with tears running freely down his face. "Christine!" He let out one last scream and sprang to his feet. Like lightening, he ran from the room, his cape flying behind him.
"Sir, come back!" Alean called after him. She stood and went after him, barely remembering to look back at her love and friends. "Don't follow, please. He needs me now." She began to run.
Kalten scowled. "I'm not letting her go alone!" He declared hastily and charged away.
Aphrael frowned at him. "I rather wish he'd just let them go. It would be easier for Erik."
Sephrenia picked up Aphrael and ran after Kalten. Sparhawk followed Sephrenia, leaving poor Dolmat to stare at the bodies in his little chapel in horror.
Far down the cellars of the palace and down through a hidden door behind a wall of wine bottles. There were, under the palace, great caverns and passages. The rats and other small, crawling things were in abundance. Sparhawk never knew things like this existed, but then, he'd never looked.
Finally, they found, in one of the rocky walls of stone, a large, wooden door with elaborate carvings and iron hinges. They pushed open the door to find a room like nothing they'd ever seen before. The walls were stone, but they were partly hidden with red silk hanging like tapestries. In this one large room was a coffin, a bed obviously made for a young girl, and a large pipe organ. Along the walls were beautiful painting and sculptures. The dirt floor was covered in thick carpeting.
The pipe organ was sitting on a raised section of the room, some ten feet above their heads, where a staircase led up to it. At the top of the staircase, just next to the organ, was a throne with Erik sitting in it, still as a corpse. He glared down at them. He looked, to Sparhawk, like a king. But this court was empty, except for Alean who sat at his feet with a serious expression on her face.
"You lie to me, child." Erik said to Aphrael coldly. "You can't know if that is true."
"I'm a goddess, Erik. I know most things."
Erik laughed maniacally. "There are no gods or goddesses! There is beautiful music and eternal love, but there is nothing else." Sparhawk thought that this unstable man had passed into insanity and little Alean sat at his side, looking concerned for him.
Erik jumped out of his throne and went to the Pipe organ. With a mad passion taking hold of him, Erik let loose thunderous music. It was beautiful and terrible. Sparhawk found himself crying as Erik began to sing. It was a love song, something very old and Erik sung as if he would die.
Then, Sparhawk felt it. At Erik's side a ghostly image began to appear. It focused slowly and Sparhawk saw a woman with long dark hair and a white gown. Her kind eyes looked on Erik lovingly and her voice joined his. The combination of the two was like hearing a sunrise.
Indescribable.
It seemed an eternity while the ghostly duet sang. When the song ended they looked at each other until the ghost leaned over and kissed Erik on the lips. It was a deep, passionate kiss that bespoke all her love.
She, Christine, touched his cheek and then turned to Alean. Christine examined the girl a short time and looked at Erik. "You've done well, I think, my angel of music. Very well." Her smiled faded just a bit. "I love you Erik. I will come back to you."
And she faded from sight.
Erik burst into a new wave of tears and Alean walked to her friends with a stern look on her face. "I think you should leave now. He needs privacy. My angel doesn't like being watched, like an animal in a cage."
They all took the point and left Alean with her father.
Alean and Kalten were married under the watchful eyes of her father and with his magical music filling the chapel.
END
Some of you Phantom of the Opera fans may be a little irritated at me for making Erik a bit more bloodthirsty than he was in the book. In the original book he only killed a couple of people.
Actually, I based my Erik partly on Erik from the book 'Phantom' written by Susan Kay (a magnificent book! It really is a must read!) where Erik was had a brilliant mind and tragic past, and partly on the Erik from a Phantom of the Opera movie the starred Robert Englund as Erik. He was more murderous, but just as loving. I liked him. Anyway, the Robert Englund Erik was immortal as he has sold his soul to Satan and waits for Christine to be reborn, which she is every few hundred years or so. Talk about true love!
Not that I think Erik would ever do that, but I like the thought of Erik still running around to this day, waiting for Christine.
So, before you write to tell me, I know the "real" Erik wasn't like mine, exactly.
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA X-OVER THE TAMULI BY DAVID EDDINGS
NIGHTINGALE
WRITTEN BY COUSIN D
"Sir?" I looked up from my work, irritated at the interruption, only to find my little angel, Alean. The little girl was the picture of beauty, though it was mostly hidden under lanky, unwashed hair and filth. I had known her a good many weeks now.
I've come to this filthy tavern to write for many weeks now and it is a good place to be just one of the many. I can watch the demented throngs at their drunken worst.
"Yes, Angel?" For this little innocent one, I will pause my work.
In this pigsty of a tavern there are few that will disturb me while I compose and, though I cherish my solitude, I can not bare to be always alone. It is my curse to be parted for the world, hiding myself. At least here, in this place, I can conceal myself in the dark corners and still watch the mad dance of humanity.
The child, who was perhaps nine, held out her tray and I took the small glass of wine. It was all I ever ordered here, but I paid the child well. One small coin for her to give the tavern keeper, one gold coin for her pocket.
Alean took the coins happily and she looked down at what I was writing. I think the child deserves so much better than this pit where she will waste her beauty and kindness away.
"What are you writing, sir?" She asked, curiously. I think she is the only person who has never questioned the white mask that covers most of my face. It's as if she can't even see it.
"A song." I reply modestly, if you can call one of my opera's a 'song'. "Would you like to hear it?" It was not an offer that I made lightly and I barely believe that I had said it at all. I've never let anyone hear my music when it was only half done. Not since Christine.
Alean looked suddenly afraid and glanced over her shoulder. "I'm sorry, sir. The master will beat me if I don't get back to work."
I think I smiled, though in my heart I was seething. I looked behind the bar at the fat man and his dreadful wife who ran this place. They 'employed' Alean, though it was far more like slavery. She feared them terribly, but this was the first I'd heard of beatings.
"Do they hurt you, Angel?" I set down my quill and looked her in those big brown eyes.
Alean smiled sweetly at me and I knew I had lost my heart to this tiny child.
"It's not bad, sir. I've a place to live and food to eat. It's better than being alone, I guess."
I wanted to growl and spit curses at the creatures that controlled my angel. Food? Her ribs were sticking out horribly and her cheeks were hollowed. These barbarians likely gave her the dog's scraps. The child didn't even have shoes!
"Being alone is a terrible thing, Angel." How could I, of all people, argue with that? I touched her brown hair gently with my gloved hand.
Alean walked off to deliver another ale to a customer and I tried to get writing again. It was no good.
With the anger building in me, I simply can't continue. I can't think of anything except my angel being hurt. Why didn't she tell me before?
I looked over my shoulder at the tavern keeper again and a familiar desire took hold of me. It would not be difficult; the man was overweight and had no friends to help him. His death could be quick or last for days; depending on my mood.
Right now, my mood was not good.
As the night wore on, I was, I think the only customer left in the tavern. Even the tavern keeper had retired for the evening with his wife and I was left in the care of Alean who was sweating heavily as she scrubbed the floor.
I would wait until she had tired herself out enough that she wouldn't hear anything from her room and then I could take a little revenge upon her behalf.
Then I heard it.
A tune softly hummed. It was sweet and pure. I had thought the child and I were the last in the tavern. I swung my head to catch the singer and saw that it was Alean. Her voice was lifting in song and I'd rarely heard of such a voice with such potential.
"Angel!" My voice was sharper than I'd meant it to be and the gentle child jumped in surprise.
"I'm sorry, sir." She started guiltily. "I didn't realize I was doing it." I could see tears standing in her eyes and I knew she though I was angry. "I know you're doing important work, please don't tell the master. They tell me not to sing, but I can't help it!"
I held out a hand to her and my angel came to me obediently, if a little frightened. She took my hand and I knew it wasn't I she was afraid of, but what her 'master' would do if I complained about her.
"My Angel. You never told me you could sing. Who taught you?" I was trying very hard to make my voice gentle with her. Just let her relax with me. Just a little.
She shrugged. "No one, sir. I was just humming. Are you going to tell on me?" Her tiny shoulders were shaking.
I frowned. "Never be afraid to sing, Nightingale. Will you let me teach you to sing properly?"
She just stared and I don't think she understood what I was saying.
"Teach me to sing?" Her eyes were questioning. I wondered if she knew how to lie at all. "Why? I'm just a serving girl."
"Never say that, my Angel. Never again will you be just a serving girl. You are my Angel and I can make you into the greatest voice this world has ever known."
She kept staring and finally she smiled at me hesitantly. "I don't know if they'll let me." She nodded at the room where her owners slept.
"I'm not asking them. I'm asking you. Will you come with me, my angel? Will you come with me each night and work hard to sing?"
I set her scrubbing brush down on the table and led her out of the tavern and into the street. Everything was quiet now, and dark. It would be a few hours till morning, so we had the streets to ourselves. I took her to a part of town where I was fairly certain that we would not be disturbed and there, under the moon, I gave the first singing lesson since Christine.
She was slightly frightened to be out in this town at night, but really, there was no danger for her so long as she was with me.
Alean was gone the next morning. I questioned the tavern keeper and he was, as it turned out, as rude as he looked. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but he simply spit on the floor of his own home and told me that the brat had been sold. Not literally, of coarse. Slavery was illegal here in Elenia, but a baron had seen her and taken a liking to her. The tavern keeper had released her from the contract he had and basically given her to the baron.
It was early evening and the tavern was full. I held my anger as far as I could. "Where is she?" I asked, in a most polite tone, I thought.
"How the hell should I know, freak? The brat is none of my concern anymore!"
I grabbed him by the throat and stared into his eyes. One of my many talents is hypnosis and I chose to make full use of it now. "Come with me." He followed me out of the tavern without a word and I took him to the same deserted place I had given Alean her singing lessons.
Once there, I took the tiny, three-inch knife out of my sleeve and touched his throat with it. This was long over due.
He didn't make much noise when he died, but the thud when he hit the ground was most satisfying.
Several weeks later I finally tracked down my Angel. Alean was at a manor with the baron, but it was not the situation she had hoped for.
For a year or so it was fine. There was little asked of her but to clean the bedrooms and she did that with a cheerful smile and a light heart. When she turned fifteen things changed one terrible night.
I heard the scream even as far off as I was from Alean's new home. The manor where she served as a maid was a good ten-minute run away and run I did when I heard her scream. I flew through the countryside with fury and fear in my heart. I could think of nothing else, my child was in danger!
I climbed the walls of the manor without being seen, and found her alone in her room.
The girl was naked and curled in a tight ball on the floor of her room. She was completely silent. I could see blood on the floor and knew with sickening certainty that it was hers.
"Alean?" I whispered as I crept slowly into her room. She didn't move as I called to her and I thought she couldn't hear me. "Alean, are you all right?" A stupid question but perhaps she would speak. She began to shake, and I knelt next to her, taking her shoulders in my hands.
Her eyes were tightly closed and she whimpered pitifully, "No, please no. Don't."
"Alean! Alean, wake up, It's me, my Angel, my nightingale, look at me." I pulled her up to me and she painfully opened her swollen eyes.
Her eyes focused slowly. "Angel!" She cried and threw her arms around me. It was then that she began to cry, long, hard sobs that tore at my heart. I held her for an eternity until she wore herself out.
She looked up at me with bruised and bleeding face. I looked her over briefly and saw what I had feared, blood running freely between her legs.
"Who did this, my Angel?" I asked her in a voice that was rougher than I'd meant it to be. "Who touched you?"
"I'm sorry." Her words came out choked with renewed tears. "I tried to fight, but...I wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry."
"You did nothing wrong, my dear one. Not a thing. Tell me who hurt you."
"It was the baron." Her voice was a whisper and I hugged her to me again. That was all I needed to know. I pulled a tiny vial of orange liquid from one of the many pockets in my cloak and put it to her lips.
"Drink, Angel. It will give you pleasant dreams."
She obediently did as I told her without question and within seconds she was in a deep sleep in my arms.
I live for her smile. I will die for her and I will kill for her.
I looked down at the savaged child who lay on my sofa. She had been damaged beyond belief, in a way that no child should. I had stopped the bleeding, as well as I could, but how was her mind? The little drug I had given her had sent her into a sleep so deep that not even nightmares could penetrate, but it would not last long, and then, I knew, the fear would begin again.
She needed better treatment than I could give her. In my dark caves, the cell I had long ago built for myself, the prison of my mind, she would waste away. I believe she needs to be in the light. Perhaps, one day I can bring her back to the darkness, but now she needs to heal.
I could get her a relatively easy life in a safe place. A place I could watch over her. Somewhere I could protect her.
Alean was not child any longer so a position with few men around her, especially as considering her recent trauma, would be best.
First thing's first. Alean would sleep for a few more hours and I had art to attend to. Not my music, not my voice, I had another addictive art that Alean would never witness.
I slipped on my black leather gloves and pulled the hood of my cloak over my masked face. Alean would be avenged.
No one hurt my child. No one!
I found him a short time later. The disgusting man was swilling ale and it slopped down his chin onto his lap and the table in front of him. I watched him from the window that overlooked the main hall in his manor. There was a dagger strapped to the side of my leg and the inside of my lower arm, but that was not how this pig would end his life.
The hall gradually emptied as the night wore on and the pig called over and over in a slurred voice for Alean. "Where is that damned girl?" He hollered at no one in particular. "I want you, Alean!" He screamed suddenly before collapsing in his chair with inane giggles.
The last of his guests left, just as staggeringly drunk as their host.
I came down from my look out as silently as I could. I am not a stupid man, as angry as I am, and I know I can't fight dozens of armed men if this fool should be just sober enough to call for them.
He didn't look up as I finally landed on the floor just behind him and quietly crept up on him. His goblet clattered to the floor and I jumped forward. My hands wrapped around his throat tightly and I don't know if he realized it at first.
He sat there dumbly for several moments.
"Good evening." I said simply. I am a gentleman, after all. "I'm here to kill you. Do you have any idea what you've done?"
The man finally tried to answer, but I really didn't want to listen right now so I squeezed harder and he turned a pleasing color of blue that swiftly changed into purple.
"Let me tell you what you've done." I leaned closer and whispered into his ear. "You have given the most gentle girl to walk this earth nightmares that will haunt her for years to come. You have taken something form her by force that should only be given in love. My Alean has suffered by working here, and I have decided that I will not suffer you to live. You are unworthy of breathing the same air as her."
I squeezed. His larynx collapsed under my hand and I smiled. He struggled briefly and very weakly. I do love my art. I wish he had suffered longer. Alean deserved more. Blood ran from his mouth, as it usually does with this method, and I felt the perverse thrill as the warm liquid ran over my gloved hands and down my sleeves onto my arms.
Still, I can now honestly tell her that she will no longer be bothered by this... animal.
I let the pig fall in a heap at my feet, exactly where he belonged. They would find him in the morning and no one would know who killed him.
I left the way I'd come, silently and without trouble. The guards on this place were a shame, fortunately for me. They never noticed me using the tree as a shortcut to the open field just beyond their sight.
Alean was still in my home. My home beneath the earth where I knew she would be safe. I went back through one of the many secret entrances I had created over my long life.
She was there when I returned to my candlelit chambers, sitting on the bench of my organ, staring with wide eyes at the strange place she had found herself in and when she saw me her eyes were filled with relief.
"Sir!" She jumped up and ran to me, throwing her arms around me. "I thought you'd left me here alone!" Tears ran down her eyes and she looked at me accusingly. "I don't want to be left in the dark!"
I felt immediately guilty at what I'd done and smoothed her hair. "Hush, my Angel. I won't leave you again. There was something I had to take care of. You are always safe in my home."
She pulled slightly away and looked around. "This is your home? Why did you never bring me here before?"
"I didn't see any need."
She roamed around my home for a little while before she asked, "What's you're name, sir?"
I smiled. So few people bothered to ask. "Erik. Erik Dresler."
Alean healed well under my care, but I still wanted to return her to the light. Actually, I wanted to keep her here in my safe darkness, but I know she doesn't belong here. We spent many idle days singing while I continued her education. She not only learned music, but some small skills with healing arts. During the nights I took her out into the cities and entertained my child in anyway she wished.
She learned many things about me while she stayed in my home. She saw my inventions and writings. She found my cat, and several secrets I would have preferred she didn't find out. My autopsy room, for one.
She found my painting of Christine, hanging in the room I kept for her. I still hope that one day she will come back to me. Perhaps that idiot husband will croak some blessed day. She also found my Don Juan's Triumphant and begged to have me play it for her.
I did play for her and while I did I thought of Christine in far away Marathonia, living happily with that dull husband of her. Some day she will return to me. If I have to wait another thousand years.
I found a possible position in the palace of the Queen of Elenia some weeks later. Her imbecile father had recently been poisoned and left the girl with a crown on her head. Queen Ehlana, I saw as I watched during her early days as queen, was a formidable opponent. She was strong and quite intelligent, but more importantly, she was just.
I felt quite safe in leaving Alean in her care. I escorted my child to the grounds of the palace after quietly arranging several illnesses and deaths. The palace would need maids and my child would fill the position wonderfully. We reached the palace at night when the moon was beginning to climb and the grounds were empty.
Alean suddenly, as we drew closer clutched my hand. "Please, won't you come in with me, sir?"
I was still, after all these years, amazed at how easily she touched me. She never hesitated and never feared my mask. I would never show her the other side of my heart, the dark side. I simply couldn't bare it if my angel hated me, or worse, feared me.
"I'm sorry, Alean. You know I don't do well in public. You'll do fine and I'm sure you'll be happy in this new place."
She didn't answer, but swallowed nervously and began to walk steadily toward the castle.
Perhaps I've underestimated how brave my angel is.
I visited her in her room every night. She was my soul's focus in the world, now. I won't allow her to be hurt again as she was by the baron. I will stay and watch until I'm sure she's safe here.
Everything went splendidly until Alean came back to her room in tears one night. No, I thought. Not again. "Who hurt you, Angel!" I demanded. That it should happen under my nose was an insult. I will not let anyone make her cry.
"I'm not hurt." She answered, still in tears. Alean sat next to me on her bed and hugged me for comfort. "It's terrible! The queen is dying!"
"Really?" I actually didn't care a fart about the queen, but if she were to die then someone else would be giving my child orders. This could be dangerous. "Perhaps I'll just go have a look."
I left her in her chambers and easily found Ehlana's still form in the throne room surrounded by a dozen or so people doing nothing to help her. From the people talking around her, I quickly realized what had happened. A rare poison from Rendor. The girl would surely die.
Oh, well.
I was about to leave my hiding place and return to Alean when entered the strangest group of people. One was a Styric woman whom I'd seen several times in the court, Sephrenia, I think. Then came a dozen or so knights in black armor who chased everyone from the room. Luckily, they couldn't see me from where I was watching.
These people set the little queen on her throne and I thought she was being prepared for death. The crown was replaced on her head and then the people circled around her. The small woman began to recite some words in a language that I believe was Styric, it would make sense, but I only recognized some few of the words.
I felt a wondrous music fill my head and the strange sound of pipes fill the room. Somehow, my soul chilled at the sound, and then the queen was encased in crystal. Perfectly clear, like the most flawless diamond. Now, this was a power I had not imagined existed. The Styric woman slumped as she finished speaking only to be caught by an older knight.
Presumably, the Styric woman had asked her goddess to help her, but I know there are no gods or goddesses. If there was one, how could they be so cruel to make me like I am?
I left my watching place as they left the room, thinking. This was a most dangerous place, now. The corridors behind the walls of the palace were convenient, but then, I had built the castle, so why shouldn't it be as I needed it?
Alean was still in her room, but her tears had dried and she was waiting for me.
"This is a tricky situation." I told her. "You may be in danger, as I expect that maniac, Annias, will put his bastard on the throne. If you don't want to stay here, I'll take you back to my home for a time." I wished for her to say 'Yes. Yes, take me home.'
Alean shook her head. "I'm sure it won't be as bad as you think, sir. I'll stay here for a while."
I smiled. "As you wish, my Angel. Shall we sing, tonight?"
Alean smiled at me. It was her greatest joy, singing, and I would encourage it as far as she wished. One day, I know, she will walk away from her life as a servant and become the voice I know she can be. She deserved far better than this tiny room with nothing but a bed in it.
We unfortunately had to sneak out of the palace to the gardens for our lessons. It just wouldn't do for any passing gossip to spread tales about Alean that she had a man in her chambers.
This went on for sometime and I admit I was curious about the little queen. I watched the whole affair from my look out behind the walls. Her knight protector with the crooked nose and his handling of the poisoning of his queen. I also realized, quite early that he loved her. I wondered if he knew it yet. The man, Sparhawk, must be nearly twenty years older than she was, but still, I was more than double Christine's age.
No...No, I won't think about it. I won't think of her.
I waited until the knight returned nearly a year later with the cure and they woke the queen from her rest.
Alean was delighted and I was happy that she was happy. Nothing else mattered to me lately. The years passed again and I saw that Queen Ehlana favored Alean. Good, I'm pleased that she's getting a little recognition. Then she was made the nursemaid for the queen's little daughter, Danae, and I knew she loved this work. One day she would be a wonderful mother.
It was shortly after Alean's eighteenth birthday when I noticed a change. She was coming late to her singing lessons and she had a distracted air about her when she did come. Finally I had to ask her.
"Oh, sir, it's the most incredible thing!" She gushed with a smile. "There's a man named Kalten and I think he likes me!"
I felt my heart begin to harden. "Really?" Perhaps I should keep a closer eye on the men around the court. "And what does this Kalten do to inspire your smile?"
"He's brave and so sweet. He looks at me like no one has before. He's one of the Pandion Knights."
I hate Kalten. There is little reason for it, I know, but I hate him. Some young fool is trying to take my Angel from me. I won't try to stand in the way if it's what Alean really wants, but first I will have to see him and see if he's worthy of her love.
I kept Alean late so that she would get her full lesson and let her go to her bed. I think I'll make a visit to the home of the Pandion Knights.
I actually found him in a tavern without really intending to. I was walking to the home of the knights, and found one of them entering a badly lit tavern. It was much the same as all the others I've visited in my many years. But there seemed to be something different. The atmosphere was odd here.
I found in this tavern the knight, Sparhawk, I'd seen when the young queen Ehlana was poisoned, the one with a crooked nose. He was talking and laughing with another powerfully built man with blonde hair. I closed my eyes and listened. My hearing is remarkably good and I could hear every word, including Sparhawk call the blonde one Kalten. He was certainly good looking enough to attract an innocent young girl like Alean, I absently touched my mask, but was his heart worthy of her?
Sparhawk-
"Who's that?" Sparhawk asked his friend Kalten. They looked at the man with the white mask who'd just entered. He seemed to be looking for something and his eyes fell on us.
"Beats me." Kalten shrugged.
The man was dressed completely in black except for the white mask that covered half his face. The side of his face that could be seen was pale as snow, and that was all of his skin that was visible. He looked out of place in this taverns where most of the patrons were very common looking.
The stranger was thin as a skeleton and he walked with an easy grace, for all that he was taller than Sparhawk. He stood at their table in the blink of an eye and he glared at Kalten with something very close to hate. Kalten leaned back in his chair, surprised by the emotion from the stranger.
"You are Kalten, I understand." It was not a question.
"Yes." Kalten said cautiously. The stranger sat in an empty chair without being asked and Sparhawk saw this as incredibly rude.
"Who are you, neighbor?" Sparhawk ask pointedly.
The stranger didn't look at him, but said, "I have no business with you. Be silent." Sparhawk was shocked to say the least. "You," The stranger looked at Kalten. "What are your intentions toward Alean?"
This got Kalten's attention. "Alean? How do you know Alean?"
"Answer my question."
"It's none of your damn business!" Kalten shot back angrily. How dare this person demand to know his personal life?
The stranger stood with violence in his every movement and looked down at him ominously. The room seemed to darken around them and, "Beware, you are not immune to my power. You will not have Alean without my blessing!"
The stranger stormed out of the tavern in a fury, the thick crowd seemed to part for him without really seeing him.
Kalten looked at Sparhawk and down at his hands. They were shaking. "I think I need to talk to Alean." He said. It's been a long time since anyone's scared him that badly.
Sparhawk went with his friend and they found Alean with Sparhawk's daughter, princess Danae. They were in the royal garden playing. After telling her about the strange visit in the tavern, Alean smiled, unconcerned.
"That's my friend. He's taken care of me for so long and I just told him about you, Kalten. He's overprotective and probably just wanted to meet you."
Kalten was still unsure about his love's friend. "He threatened us, Alean. He said without his blessing that we'd never be together."
She didn't lose her smile. "Don't worry. Would you marry a girl without her father's permission? Of coarse not. Well, it's the same thing."
"Are you saying he's your father?"
"Well, sort of. He's taken care of me for so long he seems like my father. He loves me very much and I'm sure he just wants to make sure I'm going to be happy with you Kalten."
Sparhawk looked down when his daughter pulled on his arm and followed her to a short way away where the other two couldn't hear them.
"This might be dangerous, Sparhawk." Danae said in an authoritative voice and the knight knew his daughter had assumed her goddess personality of Aphrael. "I think I know who this stranger is from your description. It sounds like Erik. He's a genius and quite nearly mad. He kills for pleasure and to get what he wants. Erik has few morals and apparently loves Alean. She's safe enough, but Kalten might be in danger. Erik is insanely jealous at times and if he decides that Kalten is using Alean or wants to hurt her, he will kill Kalten and we'll never even find his body."
"Even you? A goddess?" Sparhawk asked.
Danae looked at him seriously. "Not even me. He is a genius, father. I don't think anyone, even the gods, understand how his mind works."
"What about his God?" Sparhawk asked. "Surely his god can help us."
Danae wrapped her arms around herself and Sparhawk thought he saw her shiver. "It won't work, Sparhawk. He won't believe in gods or goddesses. There were terrible things done to him and he won't believe that if there are gods, they let these awful things happen to him."
Sparhawk looked at his friends and thought. He didn't want anything to upset their happiness, especially not some black stranger who was a little to possessive.
The day of the wedding approached without incident and Alean said nothing about her 'father' and he didn't appear. She seemed blissfully happy and one day the throne room was disrupted with the sound of a magnificent music. It seemed to come from everywhere and no where.
No one made a sound as the gentle song washed over them and when it ended Sparhawk felt somehow disappointed. "What was that?" Ehlana asked, breathlessly. Everyone was deeply affected by the...the whatever it was.
"That was my father." Alean smiled and Sparhawk saw tears running down her cheeks as she hugged Kalten impulsively. "He's given his blessing! He'll let us be married!"
Ehlana looked outraged. "You mean he might not have let you get married?!"
Alean didn't look at all worried. "Well, he just wants the best for me. He must have seen what a good man Kalten is."
Ehlana was still upset by this. "He can't stop you from getting married, Alean."
Suddenly, Alean's face grew worried. "You mustn't say things like that, your majesty. He gets awful upset when people don't take him seriously. If he hadn't given his blessing, then I wouldn't have married Kalten."
Kalten, of coarse, looked hurt. "Does his opinion mean that much to you?"
She nodded and held him tighter. "It means very much to me."
"How did he decide what was best for you?" Sephrenia asked. She was holding Danae and stroking her long dark hair. The two were so similar that Sparhawk was amazed no one thought it odd that the princess would be a little double of a Styric priestess.
"He was watching us, of coarse." Alean told her.
Everyone looked at her. "What do you mean he's been watching us?" Kalten asked. "I've never seen him, and I've been looking."
Alean put a hand on his arm. "He's always watching. No one can see him, but he's there."
"Here? Now?" Sparhawk looked around the room and didn't see anywhere that the man could hide.
"Yes, how else could we hear his music?"
Ehlana was not happy to hear that someone could creep around her palace without being seen by Platime's people. She found herself constantly peeking around corners trying to catch this Erik person everyone was talking about. Until, however, Alean told her that Erik was watching and probably laughing at her efforts.
So the wedding day came and they all went to the palace chapel where Archprelate Dolmat would join Kalten and Alean. She was beautiful in her white gown with the long train. Ehlana was going to give her a gown, just in case Alean didn't have the money, but there was no need to worry.
"It's all right, your majesty." Alean said, refusing the queen's offer. "My father is giving me a gown. He says he has no need of it now." No one had seen the gown before the wedding day and now Alean appeared in a gown that must have cost a fortune and was even more beautiful than Ehlana's wedding gown.
It was so simple, just a gown with a gauzy veil, but there was something, perhaps just the cut, that made Alean a most beautiful woman.
"Will your father come to give you away?" Mirtai asked as she helped her little friend get dressed.
Alean shook her head sadly. "He's very uncomfortable in crowds and hates it when everyone looks at him. He promised he's be there, though."
As Alean appeared in the doorway to walk alone to Kalten a wonderful music floated down to them from the top of the chapel. Dolmat gasped, he didn't know there was going to be music here. When she heard the music, Alean's smile grew, and a rich, deep voice joined the music.
Just as the ceremony was beginning everyone was shocked when the doors burst open.
Arissa! Ehlana stood and looked at her murderess aunt with fury. The woman who'd killed her father. "How dare you!" She screeched at the older woman.
Sparhawk distantly noticed that the music and song had ended abruptly.
"Easily, child." The woman told her calmly. Behind her, two dozen armed church soldiers came into the room and stood behind her. "Annias had a few loyal men and now they follow me in his name. I thought I'd come for the wedding." Arissa sneered at the lovely Alean. "Dear, how sweet. You've caught yourself a knight. Unfortunately, this will have to wait, you see, this is a coup. Seize them!" She shouted to her soldiers.
Everyone was rounded up nicely and Sparhawk saw a shadow emerge slowly from behind the altar where Dolmat had stood.
Erik-
This...creature...this thing with the voice of a dying crow had dared to interrupt my performance! My music was only halfway done and she had burst in. Then my eyes went to Alean and there were tears in her eyes as she clung to her knight. I felt my soul catch fire.
Sparhawk-
Arissa saw Erik as he slowly walked into the room, holding a violin in his left hand. "Who are you?" She demanded haughtily.
"Me?" Erik sounded deceptively innocent. "I'm the court musician. I couldn't help but notice the interruption. Do you have a problem with my playing?"
Arissa laughed suddenly and Sparhawk, looking at Erik's face, knew that she shouldn't have laughed.
"You?" Arissa said mockingly. "I have higher concerns than a mere musician!"
"Really? Perhaps you haven't heard my voice. Would you like to?" He asked softly.
Arissa began to laugh, but stopped and took a look at his bizarre appearance. "Yes. I think I have time. Sing for me, musician." Her eyes went briefly to her prisoners and she thought she had nothing to fear from her captors.
"What's he doing?" Sparhawk asked anyone who could answer as he watches Alean's friend begin to sing to Arissa. It was a strange, haunting melody and very erotic, although there was nothing especially dirty about the words. He walked away from the soldiers and slowly glided toward Arissa. None of the soldiers moved to stop him and they stared fixedly ahead. "Is it magic?"
"No, father." Danae whispered. "Don't interrupt. He's going to take care of her." The child looked at Alean nervously. "I'm afraid this may shatter some illusions, though."
The skeletal man gracefully, almost carelessly, made his way to Arissa until they were mere inches from each other. She seemed hypnotized by his voice.
"There is no magic to Erik, father." Danae told him with sadness. "That is his voice you are hearing. I don't know how he does it, but he is magnificent with his voice. She can't think of anything but him, now." Danae frowned. "Not that she ever could think of anything but men."
Erik left her then and seemed to lazily float to the door, which he bolted closed. Erik moved slowly, still singing, and pulled out a small dagger. He methodically went to each of the red dressed soldiers and slit their throats. Twenty of them he murdered on the chapel floor.
Sparhawk would have stopped him. There was no sense in killing all of them, but he couldn't move anymore than the soldiers could. Everyone in the room was completely at Erik's mercy.
The floor was red with blood and cluttered with bodies. Yet Arissa had made no move, her eyes were heavy with lust and they were fixed on Erik. She still moved slightly, licking her lips and panting heavily as he moved toward her again with his bloody knife.
Erik gently touched Arissa just above the bosom and let his hand caress her. She seemed excited by the touch and leered at him. "Take off your mask." She demanded. "I must know you."
Erik stiffened and then looked over his shoulder at his daughter and her friends. "You wanted to know why I wear a mask?"
He turned his back to them and they could see Arissa's face but not his. With deliberate calm, Erik removed the mask and gave the lusty princess a good long look.
Her scream was staggering and the pure terror in her eyes was terrible. She must have screamed for almost three minutes before she broke into a run away from him. Arissa didn't get far when Erik pulled something from an inner pocket of his fine leather cape. With a sharp movement, Erik flicked his wrist and Arissa stopped at the door, clutching her throat. Her face was frozen with a look of terror when her eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped to the floor.
Erik still sang, keeping the rest of them in a trance, and he went to take a thin strip of silk from around Arissa neck, some kind of Lasso.
Erik stood facing the wall, and he stopped singing, and no one knew what to say. Ehlana was now certain she didn't want to see his face, though. All that time, he had managed to keep himself hidden from them with the hood of his cape.
"Angel." Erik said in a soft voice. "My mask."
Alean obediently went to where his mask had fallen and handed it back to him. If what she saw of his face bothered her in anyway, Alean didn't show it a bit. She looked at him as if he was still the same man as before. Erik didn't turn around until his mask was firmly in place.
"Shall we continue?" He asked coldly before returning to his violin. "My music was written for Christine long ago, but she wouldn't mind if I play for you now." He told Alean kindly. There was still blood on his hands and Sparhawk was shocked at the drastic change in moods. "I will play it for her one day, when she returns."
"You didn't know?" Aphrael asked, sounding surprised. "Christine is dead." Aphrael told him softly.
Erik looked at her in disbelief and his violin clattered to the floor. "No."
"Yes. I'm sorry, Erik. Christine died a few weeks ago. She and her husband were on a ship with their newborn son and the ship sank. There was a terrible storm and everyone died."
Erik swayed uneasily and Sparhawk thought the man who'd just killed callously might actually faint. "You are lying!" Erik screamed at the child.
Aphrael didn't flinch, though she did have a look of terrible sadness on her face. "I'm sorry..." She began, but before she could continue Erik put both his hands to his heart and cried out. It was a terrible, heart-breaking cry and Erik stumbled to his knees.
Alean immediately ran to him and put her arms around him. The masked man looked up with tears running freely down his face. "Christine!" He let out one last scream and sprang to his feet. Like lightening, he ran from the room, his cape flying behind him.
"Sir, come back!" Alean called after him. She stood and went after him, barely remembering to look back at her love and friends. "Don't follow, please. He needs me now." She began to run.
Kalten scowled. "I'm not letting her go alone!" He declared hastily and charged away.
Aphrael frowned at him. "I rather wish he'd just let them go. It would be easier for Erik."
Sephrenia picked up Aphrael and ran after Kalten. Sparhawk followed Sephrenia, leaving poor Dolmat to stare at the bodies in his little chapel in horror.
Far down the cellars of the palace and down through a hidden door behind a wall of wine bottles. There were, under the palace, great caverns and passages. The rats and other small, crawling things were in abundance. Sparhawk never knew things like this existed, but then, he'd never looked.
Finally, they found, in one of the rocky walls of stone, a large, wooden door with elaborate carvings and iron hinges. They pushed open the door to find a room like nothing they'd ever seen before. The walls were stone, but they were partly hidden with red silk hanging like tapestries. In this one large room was a coffin, a bed obviously made for a young girl, and a large pipe organ. Along the walls were beautiful painting and sculptures. The dirt floor was covered in thick carpeting.
The pipe organ was sitting on a raised section of the room, some ten feet above their heads, where a staircase led up to it. At the top of the staircase, just next to the organ, was a throne with Erik sitting in it, still as a corpse. He glared down at them. He looked, to Sparhawk, like a king. But this court was empty, except for Alean who sat at his feet with a serious expression on her face.
"You lie to me, child." Erik said to Aphrael coldly. "You can't know if that is true."
"I'm a goddess, Erik. I know most things."
Erik laughed maniacally. "There are no gods or goddesses! There is beautiful music and eternal love, but there is nothing else." Sparhawk thought that this unstable man had passed into insanity and little Alean sat at his side, looking concerned for him.
Erik jumped out of his throne and went to the Pipe organ. With a mad passion taking hold of him, Erik let loose thunderous music. It was beautiful and terrible. Sparhawk found himself crying as Erik began to sing. It was a love song, something very old and Erik sung as if he would die.
Then, Sparhawk felt it. At Erik's side a ghostly image began to appear. It focused slowly and Sparhawk saw a woman with long dark hair and a white gown. Her kind eyes looked on Erik lovingly and her voice joined his. The combination of the two was like hearing a sunrise.
Indescribable.
It seemed an eternity while the ghostly duet sang. When the song ended they looked at each other until the ghost leaned over and kissed Erik on the lips. It was a deep, passionate kiss that bespoke all her love.
She, Christine, touched his cheek and then turned to Alean. Christine examined the girl a short time and looked at Erik. "You've done well, I think, my angel of music. Very well." Her smiled faded just a bit. "I love you Erik. I will come back to you."
And she faded from sight.
Erik burst into a new wave of tears and Alean walked to her friends with a stern look on her face. "I think you should leave now. He needs privacy. My angel doesn't like being watched, like an animal in a cage."
They all took the point and left Alean with her father.
Alean and Kalten were married under the watchful eyes of her father and with his magical music filling the chapel.
END
Some of you Phantom of the Opera fans may be a little irritated at me for making Erik a bit more bloodthirsty than he was in the book. In the original book he only killed a couple of people.
Actually, I based my Erik partly on Erik from the book 'Phantom' written by Susan Kay (a magnificent book! It really is a must read!) where Erik was had a brilliant mind and tragic past, and partly on the Erik from a Phantom of the Opera movie the starred Robert Englund as Erik. He was more murderous, but just as loving. I liked him. Anyway, the Robert Englund Erik was immortal as he has sold his soul to Satan and waits for Christine to be reborn, which she is every few hundred years or so. Talk about true love!
Not that I think Erik would ever do that, but I like the thought of Erik still running around to this day, waiting for Christine.
So, before you write to tell me, I know the "real" Erik wasn't like mine, exactly.