Chapter V: Lies and Confession
Eight hours later.
The door crashed open.
Tanis squeaked, scuttling back into the corner. Before he could scale the wall, two hands had seized his robes, forcefully hauling him back to the ground. Garbed in only breeches with blood dripping down his chest, Lucian was a fearsome sight to behold, his teeth at a point, the growl rising from the depths of rage.
"You lied to me, Tanis…" he said, his teeth grinding against the words.
"I…I didn't lie. I…forgot."
"You forgot…" Lucian repeated in grim condescension, tightening his hold on Tanis' neck. "…rather convenient."
"She…I…I may have got the date wrong." Speaking in a constrained rasp thanks to the neck-hold, he unsuccessfully tried to unwrap the fingers. They tightened. Wonderful. It was daylight outside and if the door hadn't shut with its own momentum, he would have been frying. After another attempt at the fingers, he decided to hang. Maybe Lucian would let go of him with the extra weight…though he barely weighed anything anymore. "Is she…alive?"
"She looks dead, Tanis. Give me a year? An event, a circumstance…"
Curse it, the man wanted the date again…1878…what happened then? The death of the pope. Raising of Cleopatra's Needle. No, something more obscure. Something Lucian wouldn't remember…how to word it…
"…the…the fourth battle of Shipka Pass?"
"Shipka Pass…" Lucian muttered, dropping Tanis suddenly, letting the vampire fall with a sharp thump onto the stone. Apparently deep in thought, the lycan bounded onto the old cask in the corner, his legs folding underneath, back against the wall, eyes closed as he worked it out. "Shipka Pass…a dispute. A battle. Sounds like Bulgaria. Russia moving against the Ottoman Empire. The Russo-Turkish War in 1877, however, the fourth battle would be the next year. Winter…probably around January...1878, if that sounds right." He opened his eyes, silver staring arrogantly from above. "Which by your face, it does. She's been asleep for two decades…on the mark."
It was so annoying when people knew as much as you did.
Glaring up at the lycan master, Tanis reached back to massage the bruise on his tail-bone. Everyone was mishandling him. Burns on his cheek, holes in his robe, bruises on his back. He raised his arms, looking at the sad mess his sleeves were in. He swore, if he ever got out of here, he'd wear silk and velvet for an entire century. Though wait a minute… He stilled, realising the obvious. If the woman was dead, then that meant…
"Alright," the lycan master said, leaping off the cask. "…I'll give it three days."
"I thought you said she was dead," Tanis sputtered.
"I said she looked dead," said Lucian, shaking his head in annoyance as if Tanis should keep up. He began to walk around the storage room, apparently exploring...or perhaps searching. There was not much to see. Twelve empty casks. A few old chests. The shelves only had dust on them. Still the lycan master crouched by one of the chests, opening the cover by a crack and peering inside.
"So you woke her?"
"Hmmph?" Frowning, Lucian looked up from the chest. He seemed annoyed by the interruption, but surprisingly conversational considering how bloody he was. "Woke her?...oh yes, a few complications, but nothing to worry on." His attention returned to the chest, his hand flipping the cover fully open with a loud bang.
"Complications?"
"Yes." Apparently unsatisfied with the contents, the lycan-master had moved onto another chest, flipping that open with a bang as well. Tanis flinched at the sound, his glower taking in the newest dent along the chest cover. Did he have to do everything with a bang? The man was going to break something.
"What…kind of complications?"
Shrugging at the question, Lucian began pulling out tunics, breeches…a few pieces of cloth and a blanket from the chest. "A few…permanent…complications. I've taken the liberty of placing her in your room. Raze already cleaned her up." He scrunched all his finds into a tight bundle and returned to the door.
Tanis nodded, already starting to crouch behind one of the casks. He was always happy to see Lucian's back, but there was something to be said for preparing himself for the ray of sunlight that tended to burn his skin every time the man walked through a door.
Except it never came.
Rather than leave, Lucian had stopped at the door, his forehead creasing as though he'd forgotten something. And then he turned ever so slowly on his heel and eyed Tanis with the most astute expression. Another one of those cursed moments of deep thought. The man thought too much. Then again, he was sporting grey eyes instead of silver. Perhaps the wolf was taking his ease…
"Why are you afraid of her?"
…or not.
"What? That's not true…" Tanis spluttered.
"It is." He looked around them and then pointed. "Twice you've told me the wrong date, and now you're hiding in a storage cupboard."
Bloods.
Did he have to put it that way?
"I…I'm not hiding…" Trying to force an innocent smile on his face, Tanis licked his lips. "…I'm just…" He changed his tune. "…ashamed. W-when I think of her, I think only of how I failed in my task as a historian. I gave her shelter, I gave her food…" He emphasised the last word. They all knew how hard it was to sustain oneself let alone a guest. "…but I failed to give her the information she sought. You can imagine the guilt I felt afterwards. I was gone only for a moment when she made her choice." He flicked an eye to the left to see if Lucian was still listening.
The man was examining the door now, his thumb running over several dents in the surface. "And when you say 'choice', you mean…"
"Choice."
"As in unprovoked."
"Oh yes," Tanis nodded emphatically. Over the past twenty years, he had started to believe it himself. "Driven no doubt by despair," he hastened to add, in case Lucian had missed that part. "An act of desperation that I could have prevented. Alas, I could barely live with myself…the world's oldest living historian with no history to offer. I tell you, it was unbearable."
His face was inscrutable as he turned away from the door. "What was she looking for?"
Tanis fingered the torn edge of his sleeve. "Just a name," he said, unable to look away from the lycan master's gaze. Almost hypnotic. "Someone called Áris." So easy to talk to Lucian. So easy to speak to the first person to visit in twenty years. "She said it was very important to her. She seemed to think I would know where to look, but there was no reference, no trail. We searched for hours and then days, and in the end, I locked her up in the…"
He gaped suddenly, his mouth clapping shut before he could say more. Horror at the words spilling from his tongue. He had not spoken of this to anyone. Not in twenty years...
…and why should he feel guilty, he thought. It was a cruel world. A world of exiles and people who would kill you as soon as look at you. He was weak…a historian. Banished as she was, she would have died anyway. She had been…
"Go on," said Lucian. Despite clearly wanting to sand something, he'd taken a seat on the stones, his chin resting on his fist, the bundle of clothes forgotten by his side. Strangely enough, he seemed only interested in the tale. Not justice or morals or honour.
Tanis swallowed, watching him with some suspicion. Perhaps his apathy was real…and though it was absurd confiding in Lucian of all people, it might be a relief to get it off his back. How many years had he carried the guilt?
"Food." Tanis confessed softly, breaking his gaze with the lycan master. He could almost see them…their faces haunting him like the walls of the monastery. "Before he died, Josef used to bring me food. Livestock, mortals. Other vampires…exiles. Whatever he could get his hands on…and then he came upon this woman. This mysterious woman who actually wanted to see me."
His eyes darted up to Lucian suddenly, almost pleading with him to understand. He had never wanted it to be this way. "She came of her own free will. She came to me…she wanted to be here." Nervous, his hands began to twitch."The coven has no idea what it is to live on the outside. Beyond their stone walls, their farms, perpetual livestock at their fingertips. After you stopped trading…I had to…survive."
For days, she had screamed at the door, slamming her body against every surface, searching for a way out. She had fought against everything…the walls, the doors, the catacombs…against him. He could see her face as if it were yesterday…strange beauty of dark hair and blue eyes, the smooth, high cheekbones. Probably one of the Laplanders from up north.
His throat started to dry.
"But I did…" He was making the hole bigger in his sleeves. "I did try to help her. For days. And I was starving, but she was…" He coughed. "…her question was intriguing, so I looked. I searched the histories, the treatises, everything I could find, except I…" Confession was so hard. "I couldn't find anything…and she was stronger than me." He swallowed, wiping his hands together. Dust on his hands mixing with the sweat. "So I told her there was one more book. One more place for us to look for the name, but the moment she entered the room, I locked it. Let her starve." He smiled uneasily, his eyes starting to lose their focus as he stared at nothing. "Let her weaken…"
"Her name?"
Tanis blinked, realising he had drifted. His stomach was starting to hurt…what was the question Lucian asked? Oh yes…her name. "She never gave it. Stuck up piece of work that she was." After all these years, her words still smarted. "I came back in a few days and she was shrivelled. Dust in her veins…"
"I can imagine," Lucian murmured with a sinister smile.
"Well, imagine when she gets her hands on me," Tanis swallowed, a bit estranged as he discussed his guilt with the lycan master. He laughed nervously. "She'll…not be pleased."
"No…" the lycan master frowned for a moment. "…no, she won't. Though I can promise you this…if our deal goes through, you get food and protection. So of course…we can't let her kill you, can we?" Almost pleasant, the lycan master grabbed the cloth bundle and stood. For once, he gestured to the door, giving Tanis some warning of the sun.
Tanis almost gaped. Usually that never happened…it was like a hobby for the man, flinging doors open, shocking vampires into thinking they were about to burn. Grateful nonetheless, he nodded at the warning, quickly ducked his head and scrambled deeper into the room, covering his face and eyes before the faintest of the sun's rays hit his skin.
Hidden as he was, he felt an elated smile creep upon his face… Lucian had spoken as if the deal would probably go through. In exchange for the blood-seer, he would get the two things he had lost in the past forty years. Food, protection…and life was finally looking up. From beyond, he heard the sound of the handle turning and the door swinging open, Lucian's voice drifting across the room with the last rays of the sun… "There's leftover blood in the dining hall. When the sun sets, drink it and set yourself up here."
The door closed softly.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Tanis lowered his hands in wonder. Really…when the lycan master was not focused on strangling him, it was remarkable how understanding he could be. But then…it was Lucian. A bit like confiding in a demon… …which was fine as long as the demon paid. Grinning like a fox, though some might call him a weasel, he settled himself back against the old cask, folding his arms on his stomach and crossing his legs at the heel. Blood in a few hours and the rest of his life in three days.
All of it under Lucian's protection.
Comfortable at last.
A/N: Thank you Sheen for the latest review and ThranduilsDaughter for the forum one! Also thanks to Light Saber Muffins for the alert (In passing, that is one of the most brilliant screennames I've ever encountered.)
Anyway, this is a bit of a short chapter. Originally, chapter six was meant to be chapter five, but I figured we'd need a bit of a transition between chapter four and what I wrote. Hence, there's an enormous chapter waiting for readers right after they finish this one.
Please read and review!