"Do not trust a malicious man because you have long been intimate with him. A serpent will still bite, though it may have been kept and tended a long time."
-- Panchatantra

gestured and yet another book floated from a shelf across the room, opening itself to the proper page and alighting upon the desk before me. Yes, there it was, things were making sense now. As I read, it became clearer what Lucien was up to. I did not have the whole picture, but at least I was not entirely in the dark.

He had brought something back with him from the East, something dark. Something that killed. And from it, he thought to bring some ultimate good.

The man was obviously tampering with forces beyond his understanding. For that matter, they were mostly beyond mine as well, and there was little doubt that I had more resources available to me than he did. And knowing Lucien, he would race on ahead whether he had all the facts or not. His enthusiasm would be his downfall, and men like Lucien did not fall alone.

The nagging question was, could I stop him?

I arose and stretched, wandering aimlessly across the room to the window. It seemed like I had been here for days, poring over countless volumes of matter, trying to settle on a plan of action regarding Lucien. I was now convinced that I would have to kill him in cold blood, something which I was still loath to do. Killing in my own defense, or in defense of those I loved, was becoming, if anything, too easy; but this... I had tried to think of a way to stop him without resorting to that final, fatal tactic. But to stop short of his annihilation would be folly. He was simply too dangerous to be left alive.

Undoubtedly, he felt the same about me. Any hesitation would be fatal. Of that I was sure, for Lucien obviously did not share my hesitation when it came to murder. Which was why I had spent a considerable share of my time testing the Valkan-Meer, beginning with what I had most recently seen it do. One thing that proved useful was its way of allowing me to cross from dream into the waking world at will. Several times, I stepped from my stronghold's library into the light of day, where I could see my own earthly form slumbering in the shade of a large outcropping of rock, behind some low shrubs. Whenever I crossed that threshold from Dream into light, there was a strange distortion of time, as if the hours passed much more slowly under the rays of the sun. I would find myself standing in an unnerving world of utter stillness. It was with a pang of sorrow that I realized that not even a day had passed since Isa had deserted me for the Cathars. Yet I had spent countless hours seeking, yet barely finding, forgetfulness in the pages of these books. I knew that the ring had at least something to do with this weird lack of parity between the two worlds; in fact, I thought, it would probably allow me to travel through time. If only I could unlock its secrets...

I also found that, when awake, I could cross into Dream, as I had last night, when I had so conveniently found my sword awaiting my hand.

And it was true that the ring had a wondrous ability to heal. I cut my own arm with my dagger and watched it close up almost immediately, leaving no scar or other sign of ever having been wounded.

But the Valkan-Meer would not kill for me. Not even an insect.

I know, I tried.

Still, it was a powerful and welcome tool. I would need everything at my disposal to complete this task.

Now then, what had I been reading? Ah yes, Antigen Response and Viral Transmission: Identification and Classification.

I expected the room to be protected -- at least a well-placed crossbow trap or maybe a lever under the floor to release poisonous vapors. After all, Lucien would certainly know that I was still alive, and that I would come looking for him.

What I didn't expect was this fine tracery of elaborate patterns within patterns, filling the space where Lucien's laboratory should have been with a glowing web of mathematical complexities. This must surely be the magical warding that the god had mentioned. And I had encountered it because I was crossing, as the god would have, from Dream. Had I come here physically, it would have taken too long and been too dangerous.

Crossbow bolts didn't frighten me much. This thing did.

I regarded it skeptically. There was no indication whether Lucien was within the room. The spaces between the lines showed only what seemed to be infinite nothingness... contained within an area no larger than my room back at the University. And I had no idea what would happen should I attempt to unravel it. Lucien would not have put it here as a mere intellectual challenge for citizens of the otherworld. No doubt the result of a false move would be rather nasty.

The Valkan-Meer could undoubtedly aid me in assaying the task, but in the end I decided not to try. Too much was at stake for me to risk it. As tantalizing a challenge as it posed, I turned my attention elsewhere...

Horses!

Judging by the sound, there were at least a dozen of them, perhaps more, winding their way along the narrow forest path. I awoke groggily, cursing my body's sluggishness under my breath. I peered carefully out from my place of concealment. At first I could see nothing but trees. Then, almost directly below, a party of armed men came around a bend. My rocky perch overlooked this bit of trail, grown dim in the waning light.

Ruffians, by the look of them, a rag-tag bunch of ex-soldiers, no doubt, not an uncommon sight in remote places such as this. Best to stay out of their way, let them pass so that I could return to the dilemma of Lucien's puzzle...

I had just started to retreat from the opening in the brush when something caught my eye.

It was a hooded form, astride a nondescript roan, head turned away from me and unmoving. It sat in their midst, three or four from the front. It was Lucien. Disguised as he might be, there was no doubt in my mind. I had learned to recognize that arrogant set to the shoulders, the almost rude way he held his head.

And the one to his right... from the hilltop! The one that had escaped. If there had ever been any doubt in my mind that Lucien had been responsible for my friend's death, there was none now. I realized that I was shaking violently, every nerve alive with hatred. Before I had time to think, I was moving.

Ever since I watched the birds circling over the rooftops of our old abbey in Garronne, I have wanted to fly. As I plummeted rapidly toward the ground from the cliff face, I think I came as close to it as a man ever will.

The exhilaration of the act was broken in a matter of a second, however, by the body of Lucien as we both hit the ground with seemingly bone-shattering force. I did not wait to feel the pain of any damage, but leapt quickly to my feet and drew my weapon. I blame the fact that I was caught still off balance by a quick-thinking guard for my failure in ending the whole thing right there, for there were not more than seven of them including Lucien. As it was, I took three of them, but only after crucial time had been lost dispatching the first. The second man engaged me well, with an elaborate and admirable tracery of feints and parries. I out-fought him only through sheer supernatural speed, and I did not enjoy it, for it seemed unfair.

The third man also tried his skill at elaboration, but far less effectively, and I ended his attack with a simple stop-thrust. He achieved one thing, though, and that was the holding of my attention long enough for a soldier to bludgeon me from behind with the butt of a spear.

Stunned, I was thrown bound over the back of a horse. I came to far sooner than anyone would have thought, and this gave me time to appreciate the sinking feeling in my stomach and to torture myself with self-doubt.

All of this goes to show that there is no such thing as a perfect plan, even when one has wonders such as the Valkan-Meer on his side.

"He is conscious. Set him on his horse properly, and untie his legs. He isn't going anywhere." I don't know how Lucien ascertained that I was awake, but his guards did not question the order as the caravan halted and I was pulled roughly from the horse and re-situated per his instructions. The men and horses started moving once again and Lucien reined to my left, another man watchfully to my right.

"It is a beautiful day for riding, my boy. Not such a good one for flying. Interesting trick, that was. I could swear that as your shadow fell across me, I pulled back hard and veered to miss you. But upon looking up, I saw you change direction. You never cease to amaze me; not least in the fact that you are alive at all!"

His speech was somewhat impeded by the jagged cut that trickled blood from his lower lip. I too was surprised, for he had hit the ground pretty hard with all of my weight on top of him. Yet aside from the cut on his lip, I could see no evidence of injury. "There is apparently more resilience in that skeletal frame of yours than I had hoped. My compliments to your guards, they are very efficient. Far more so than the men you sent to kill my friend and guardian. I killed them quite easily. I had hoped to do the same with you."

His arm came up without warning and slammed me across the face, driving me backward. My wrists stung cruelly as the bonds that secured them to the saddle stopped my motion, and points of light hovered before my eyes. "That is to remind you that I am stronger than you have ever imagined me to be. I cannot be killed!"

As I sat up again, eyes averted. I caught for a second the wary expression of the guard at my right hand, and I understood that these men feared their master greatly. Perhaps it was time for me to fear him too. Yet when I searched my feelings, I found only anger; all of my fear was reserved for Isa and what might become of her.

"You have completed the process, haven't you?" I asked.

"What do you know of it? Speak!" He raised his arm as if to strike me again, but then he relaxed visibly and dropped it, flashing me a death's head smile. "Of course, what could you know? Nothing. You are a smart lad, but you cannot know without being told, and no one knows but I." He glanced about him, then turned and looked over his shoulder at the sun. "Captain, how much longer before we reach the stronghold?"

The leader of the party called back over his shoulder, "About half an hour, by my reckoning, sir. Just two ridges over. This ravine should take us there, alright."

Lucien beamed once again at me, and I repressed a shudder. He had a look of madness about him that had never been so evident before. Something in this man had changed for the worse, if that was possible. "You seem worried, Alix. But there is no need. You would have killed me when I was on my way to deliver the greatest gifts ever given in the history of mankind, and to your good friends, Aguilar and Isa and all of their people."

I was very afraid that I knew what that gift was to be.

We rode through the gates of the old convent unopposed, probably because the Cathars were too stunned to do anything, not to mention the fact that the men who escorted us looked like very capable killers. The Cathars were not afraid of death, but I think they feared violence more than anything.

Aguilar must have been alerted of our coming, for we had barely entered the gates when he stepped out into the courtyard. At first he had eyes only for Lucien, whom he stared at in an oddly pitying manner, though there was fear behind it too. Then his gaze slid to me and he glowered accusingly. I shook my head slightly, in answer to his question, but his expression did not change.

"Lucien, you have not changed. You continue to corrupt all that you come in contact with. No doubt this was a fine boy, once, but you have turned him into a petty informer."

Lucien startled everyone when he threw his head back and laughed, saying, "On the contrary, Aguilar. You are as big a fool as ever. This is the most tediously incorruptible lad I have ever met. I have no more use for him than I have for you, save in one way, and that is why I have brought him here." He wheeled his horse and called, "Dismount! Bring the boy inside."

I was helped from the horse and bundled into the main room with the others. Isa stared limply with her back to the far wall as we all entered, obviously afraid.

"Ah, Isa! Why, I have a servant away from home, do I not? How convenient. Wine for us all, I think." She stared for a moment longer, at me, at the crowd of her friends, at the guards taking posts at the door and window, then turned and left the room. "Now, then, Aguilar!" Lucien was keeping up his cheerful facade, slapping Aguilar on the back and beaming. "I will get straight to the point. I need you. And I have something that you will appreciate very much."

Aguilar looked at him warily. I could tell that despite himself, he wanted to know what Lucien was offering him, and at the same time he was berating himself for wanting to know. Lucien must have sensed it as well, for he paused and leaned back in his chair, still beaming in that entirely frightening way.

"It is one of the main tenets of your faith, is it not, that the world is an evil place, which must be endured in order to enter the kingdom of heaven?"

"You tell me," said Aguilar. "You were one of us once, were you not?"

"Indeed! Indeed I was, I had almost forgotten!" He grinned again. Isa reentered with a tray bearing several flagons of wine. "Yes, and because I was, I know what I say is true." He paused and raised the cup to his lips, and when it was lowered, his expression had changed to one of utter scorn. "You believe that life is just to die! You deny all things!" He rose abruptly from his chair and began pacing the room. "You say that the flesh is unholy, a thing of the devil, and that to procreate, to couple even for the purpose of bearing children is a failing!

"Then answer me this, Aguilar the Catharist, why is it that over three hundred years, your people have increased in numbers by two?"

Aguilar answered quickly. "We consider it a failing, but not a sin. We are not perfect. The flesh is an evil thing, yes, but its demands are strong on even the most good of spirits--"

"That is correct! No one can resist it. I see priests bedding nuns on a daily basis. I have seen penitents leering at a breast slipped accidentally from a corset in the street. Why is this lure so strong? I will tell you." He stopped his tirade abruptly and returned to his chair, pulling it close to that of Aguilar, peering intently into the old man's eyes. "It is because to bear children is to live on forever, in the form of your own heirs. It is the search for immortality, my friend. Face it! Is it not a delightful idea? Who would not drop his faith in an afterlife like so much horse manure if he knew that he would never grow old, never ail, never die?" He paused as if waiting for confirmation, but Aguilar said nothing, sitting stone still in his chair, chin pulled back to his chest in a vain attempt to keep his face as far from that of Lucien as possible.

Lucien spoke in a near whisper now, and we all, even I, leaned forward in our chairs, straining to hear. "This is what I offer you. I have it here, with me." He patted the pouch at his belt. "And it is my gift to you."

He untied the pouch from his belt and held it suspended over the table. He grinned happily, glancing around the table.

I followed his gaze as he went from face to face, gauging the response. Aguilar was frankly horrified. It was obvious that the idea of a thousand years of life was a thousand years of hell to him. Others were skeptical, though I noticed that Lucien's guards listened on in rapt attention. The younger people were a mixture of disbelief and interest, with not a few of them obviously transfixed by the whole idea. Lastly, my eyes fell on Isa, and it was certain that she found the concept of eternal life wholly appealing. Her eyes did not leave the pouch that Lucien swung gently before them all.

I rose from my seat. "Lucien, it will not work." No one moved, but all eyes shifted to me immediately. "You used blood. It will not do what you say it will. I know, I have read it."

His benevolence disappeared immediately, replaced by scorn. The spell that had fallen over the room snapped in an instant. "And what do you know about it, Apprentice?" he cried scornfully. "Am I to believe that a boy of sixteen could possibly know anything about anything, much less the work of my entire life?" His voice was rising to a near squeak, his face reddening, the veins standing out on his temples. "Well, let's just give it a try then!" He started to fumble with the bag.

"You used human blood," I said more calmly than I felt. "Tainted blood, probably. Do you know what incubation is? How much time has passed since you used it upon yourself?"

He was not listening to me. He pulled from the pouch a vial, stoppered with a cork. He held it out before him. Some of the people in the room shrank away, others stayed in place, still fascinated. One of these was Isa, and I wished fervently that I could catch her eye.

But Isa was perhaps the most enthralled of them all. She matched Lucien feeling for feeling, her face shifting as his did. I suppose I should not have been so surprised, for Isa loved life more than anyone I had ever met; but surprised I was, and I felt betrayed. Once again my anger gave me strength, and I began furiously working at the ropes that bound my wrists, calling on the Valkan-Meer for strength and not receiving it.

Lucien ignored Isa as he always did,advancing instead on Aguilar. "What about you, old man? Your sight is failing, your legs are weak. It was you I thought of first, when I decided to pay this visit. Will you not be cured of your ills? Will you not partake? Look at me!" Aguilar had fallen back against the captain of the mercenaries, who did not yield. Lucien took Aguilar's downturned face by the jaw and twisted his head upward, to look into his. "Feel my strength! I am as old as you, but am I feeble? I have become immortal! I ask you again: Will you not partake?"

With a last effort of will, Aguilar wrenched his head free from Lucien's grasp and spun to face the captain. Before anyone realized what he intended, he had taken the man's dagger from its sheath and inserted it cleanly into his own heart. Aguilar sank to the floor and was dead.

There was a moment of shocked silence in the room, then Lucien cried, "An old Cathar trick, that! He will not escape me so easily! Open his jaws!" The look in his eyes was now one of complete madness as he began twisting the stopper from the vial. The captain and one of his men pulled at the dead man's clenched jaws. Isa stood over the three stooped men, peering intently at the scene while rage, terror, and curiosity fought for control of her face.

Several things happened at once. The stopper came free of the vial. I sprang across the room, hands still tied, though what I hoped to do I was not sure. And a cloud of vapor erupted from the vial with a whooshing noise as its contents boiled out into the room.

There is no real satisfaction in the fact that Lucien was the first to experience the horror of his mistake. He straightened slightly, froze in place, then his entire body swelled grotesquely and blackened. Isa and all of the others were clutching at their throats, which were swelling and turning various shades of black and green and blue. Within moments everyone had fallen to the floor, writhing in agony as sores opened on their skins.

Everyone but me. I stood in the midst of the cloud, stunned, unable to think or act. Then I became aware of something: The Valkan-Meer had begun to glow hotly on my finger, and the cloud of vapor, invisible only moments before, had taken on a blackish hue as it crawled slowly about the room and toward the various openings. I could see that it was expanding rapidly in size.

It came to me then what I had to do. I don't think it was my idea, for as I have said I was stunned at the carnage that I had just beheld. But the image came into my mind from the dream I had once had, of blackened bodies ripening in the sun, and this was that dream come appallingly true.

The cloud parted and swirled about me as I crossed the room and gathered Isa up in my arms. She felt heavy in my arms, limp with the weight of near-death. Turning, I found Lucien's black-rimmed eyes regarding me from his fallen position near the door. Apparently, he had crawled that far before his strength had failed him. Now he gripped his own swollen throat, unable to speak. I paused for only a second, to look into the eyes of folly, so that I might remember this... then I spun away and let the calmness of Dream fall over me.

I deposited Isa on the table in the middle of my library, the only raised, flat surface I could find. She was barely breathing, sweating, eyes rolled up into her head. Purplish-black lumps were erupting at an accelerated rate under her armpits.

But then, this was Dream, and there are no rules here. I poured my will into the air around me, calling upon the Valkan-Meer for strength. The room grew unbearably hot. I shut my eyes against the bright light that shone from my hands as I placed them gently over Isa's body, over her face, her hands, her feet. When I opened them again, she was breathing more easily, and the angry lumps on her body had greatly subsided. Antigen response.

I had more to do, yet. Isa would be fine, but I could not say the same for the rest of the world.

Though time had barely passed here, the black cloud had spread through the little valley, killing everything that breathed, including everyone in the Cathar retreat. I stood among the dead, trying to size up the situation, feeling helpless. It felt perverse to stand immune amongst such virulent death, yet that was just what I was doing. The ring would protect me.

Unless, of course, I did not let it.

I opened myself to the cloud without hesitation, and it began to enter me. I felt the malevolence flow into me, and I felt my body stiffen, my temperature rise. I was hot, sweating, shaking. Somehow I managed to remain on my feet as massive black lumps swelled and burst rapidly, over and over again in my groin, under my arms and upon the sides of my neck. Each time they burst, I thought surely that it would end and I would be dead, but the ring, released now from its duty, would not allow me surcease from my agony. Hundreds of times I died, and hundreds of times the ring took from me the last moment of extinction so that I may experience another death. The cloud came to me and fed, hungrily, giving death that it may feed over and over again.

How many hours, days went by I do not know. At times I became delirious and imagined that Nicolas or Riothamus or even Lucien were there, speaking into my ear of Latin or science or alchemy, of life or of death or of the universe. At other times the fever would subside for a while, and I would become painfully aware of my condition, and of the dead and stinking bodies that surrounded the room.

Sometime later still I awoke to find Lucien in my arms, eyes staring at the ceiling. I closed them for him and said, "I forgive you." I laughed at the irony, at the obviousness of the metaphor, and died again.

And died again.

And died again...


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