Franengeld

Previously in Frankengeld. At breakfast The Lawyer returned and Damion had to explain to him that they had entertained Alicia and not destroyed her. As it was a quiet morning Damion worked on translating the legend. In the afternoon Helena showed him her designs for a device to collect vaginal secretions and, in the evening they attended the Mystery Club to share their findings. Poppy had taken her story, probably found in a children's book of Folk Tales, and made a play from it that only adults should ever see.

Now read on...

17th June in the year 1784, in the evening.

As Madam Minna gave me my cup of tea she whispered in my ear her desire for me to join her in her bed, and that if I didn't do so then she might be forced to avail herself of the services of her servants, which, for a woman, was a breach of protocol and etiquette.

"I am busy at the moment, but I will see what I can do," I whispered back, then I had an excellent idea. "Have you ever considered taking employment with Madam Schwartz? I believe you would be pleasured most thoroughly at her establishment. Not all her whores are young girls and many men prefer a more matronly lover. You could take a false name, and wear a mask for anonymity."

"Damion!" she giggled. "What a suggestion! You naughty boy! Though it does have its appeal."

She left the room with an expression that said my suggestion did not completely fall on deaf ears, though there was a tension in her that suggested she was conflicted about sexual pleasures.

We turned to the next presentation. This was Alicia's memories of the subject of wolfwere. Alicia sat through her recitation, which was clearly from memory. Of course, I thought, even if she had written it down it would have been hard to bring here in her bat or wolf form. Perhaps she had become skilled at memorising through necessity.

"We have been ever watchful of the wolfwere. We, the vampire, are a solitary people living singly, or in two's or three's, as a family. The female wolfwere gather as a large pack of females and young, and their behaviour is directed in chief by the male that leads and impregnates them. If the male is honourable then the damage they do is limited, but if the male is dishonourable then they become a plague upon the countryside."

She paused, "In 1247 a harem of wolfwere drove my Master and his Bride at that time, Marishka, from their abode near Karnstein, slaying Marishka in the process. We are strong but we can be destroyed by several wolfwere acting together. Like wolves on a roe deer."

I looked at Alicia, anyone less like a roe deer I had never seen, but I understood the metaphor. It was mute testimony to the power of the female wolfwere that they, in numbers, could destroy someone as mighty as her.

"My master removed our little family to our current abode, high in the mountains, and found allies. For the natural wolves, kindred spirits who often sing to us, will not tolerate female wolfwere settling in their range. Several packs will gather together and hunt to death any isolated females they find in their hunting area. They are more wary of the male, or perhaps he does not challenge them for food as a single individual. Whatever, I believe they tend to leave the males alone."

Alicia paused and took a draught of her wine, then continued.

"Over four hundred years ago my master witnessed a battle in which the wolfwere women were again used by the remnants of the old religion. But they were defeated, almost single-handedly, by a hero wielding a small, but deadly, blade. The weapon was incredibly ancient, forged in a time before the knowledge of iron. A thing of myth itself. The blade was a delicate leaf shape of a bright copper colour that nonetheless proved mortal to the wolfwere. We should perhaps seek out weapons made from this metal, if it is more than just myth."

I saw Helena concentrating on Alicia's words with an intensity that made me realise that she had every intention of being by my side through this trial. And I remembered the box of crossbow bolts she purchased had one third tipped in a strange yellow metal. Could this be the mysterious orichalcum? We must show these to Alicia when the opportunity arises, see what she thinks.

Freida thanked Alicia and we then moved on to hear what the results of Philip and Alicia's expedition had produced.

"I would like Alicia to tell the tale," said Lord Philip. "My recollections of the adventure are hazy in parts."

"Very well," said Alicia, smiling.

"But I will interpose," he continued. "If she underplays her role in this. I would not have you think this is only a Lord Scunthorpe triumph. It could never have been achieved without my friend."

I didn't think a vampire could blush, but it happened. Then Alicia composed herself and spoke, low, and in a rather conspiratorial manner.

"Lord Scunthorpe collected me from my mausoleum," she started. "Any bystanders must have been puzzled that his coach stopped nearby. But perhaps they believed he was visiting the tombs of his ancestors."

"Not my style," dear lady, he quipped. "Even when I was back in good old England. I have a dreadful fear of tombs, of sleep eternal... of death."

"You seem to have overcome that fear for me," replied Alicia. "I am most appreciative." She took a sip of her tea and continued.

"We had discussed the route so I settled into Lord Scunthorpe's coach for the ride. It is much more comfortable than those I travelled in when I was young. I don't understand the technical reasons for this, I was just grateful."

"Long wheelbase design with triple layered leaf springs on ox skin straps," muttered Philip. I noted that Freida wrote this down. I suppose as a detective she must collect thousands of facts about the world that she then uses in her interpretations, but I had never considered the amount of work that must entail. I was impressed with her dedication.

"I had asked Lord Philip to take a rather obscure road to the east," continued Alicia. "I had overflown it on a number of occasions. I have to say it looked easier to traverse from the air. The hairpin bends just looked rather attractive from up in the sky."

I mused that one day many people might fly, using machines like those suggested by Leonardo and other futurists. Would they also fail to appreciate the terrain they had avoided, its beauty and dangers?

"The road finally became a track, the lurching of the coach told me that, as we approached the cave that I believed was the home of the Oracles. But I was reliant on Philip following my directions, for I could not open the window to check. I need not have feared. He had brought us to within yards of the entrance."

She leaned over and put her hand on his knee, like a married couple who had shared much and could convey it with a simple, caring, touch.

"I put on the cloak that Madam Minna had kindly provided. Thick wool, with a deep hood, a winter cloak not suited to this weather - except for me. Deep in its dark folds I left the carriage and walked the short distance to the cave entrance."

I could see her recalling the moment when she ventured out during the daytime and wondered if the death sleep that vampires suffered from during the day was a habit grown from a fear of the sunlight. They were active at night, but had nowhere to go during the day. Did this mean that the human sleep cycle of day and night was slowly reversed over the years. Her master, the Lawyer, had obviously overcome this urge to sleep in his coffin during the day. Was it simply that a vampire needed a reason to venture forth?

"It was now late in the day but the light was still terribly bright," Alicia whispered, as if to name sunlight was to invoke it. "The reflected light from the stones was almost as bright as that from silver platters." She grinned at me, remembering an incident in the market a short time ago, then continued her tale.

"We entered the cavern and Philip walked ahead with his sword drawn. Ever the honourable protector of womankind. As we descended through a series of caves, on a broad path that followed an underground stream, I tried to prepare him for what he might meet. There were five Oracles in the ancient world, at Delphi, Cumae, Erythema, Trophonius, and Dodona. He had heard only of the most famous, at Delphi. Then I talked of the chthonic hazards we were about to meet, trying to prepare him. You see the Delphine priestesses lived over the remains of Python, the snake slain by Apollo for pursuing his mother, Leto, during her pregnancy. It was believed that the fumes from his ever-decaying corpse gave them their powers of prophecy."

She paused and Philip took up the tale, "Alicia also told me that some sages believed that the priestesses ingested venom from snakes to have their visions. All this talk of snakes made me nervous. I have had a lifelong fear of them since I was bitten by a viper as a toddler. Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes? I thought, as we descended deeper into the cavern."

Alicia gave him a knowing look and again took over, "I almost failed to see the guardian, even with the lantern that Philip carried, so cunningly had it wound itself around the rocks. We were near the temple, and I was a little hasty in my desire to look upon it, so had relaxed my guard."

"The gigantic snake advanced," said Lord Philip. "It dropped down in front of us, and behind us, for it was truly the largest of its kind I had ever seen. Its mouth was dripping venom and the teeth!" He shuddered. "Alicia moved, and so fast I was astounded. She gripped the creature by its neck and whispered some words, then tossed it away as if it were an earthworm that a gardener might relocate to a different flower bed."

"Philip," said Alicia. "You flatter me. The beast was no real danger to us. Greater peril was ahead."

"That I now know," replied Philip. "But at the time I felt that if I had undertaken the quest alone I would have been swallowed and, even now, be slowly being digested in its stomach."

"We came to the temple," said Alicia, and I noted she didn't contradict Philip's assessment of his probable fate. "And here were all five of the Oracles, gathered together from their shrines that now lie in ruins. They knew we were coming, perhaps for many years, and slithered forward to greet us."

"Slithered?" I was puzzled.

"Slithered!" gasped Freida, Helena and Poppy.

"I do not know why they were as they were," said Alicia, while Philip just sat white-faced. "Perhaps it was the fumes from the corpse of Python, or the venom they consumed, or living too long bathed in the magic of the temple to Apollo, but they were changed. No longer the virgin girls they had been when they took up their posts over two and a half thousand years ago."

"If you kept your eyes above the naval," croaked Philip, his mouth dry and his voice strained. "They were beautiful maidens, perfect skin, lovely titties, and with gentle brows decorated with circlets of precious gems. And scantily dressed so a man might appreciate their charms. But below the naval they were snakes. True their hips were broad and well rounded, and their buttocks were suitably generous, but they were snakes for all that. I believe I fainted."

"You did," agreed Alicia. "And I caught you before you hurt yourself upon the rocks. I conversed with the Oracles for a while as we waited for you to recover. They had many questions about the world. It had been a long time since any consulted with them, but I carefully avoided any mention of your quest, Damion"

I looked at her quizzically.

"In case the other rumour was true," she replied. "The one that says they simply told visitors a cryptic message that flattered their ears, but could be interpreted in many ways."

I recalled my old tutor telling my brother and I of Croesus, the Great King of famously great riches. He, contemplating an attack on the Persian empire, asked the Oracle for advice. She replied that if he did so 'a great kingdom would fall'. He went ahead, but unfortunately it turned out to be his own kingdom that fell.

"Philip came around and I helped him to his feet," said Alicia.

"I was surrounded by them," he said, quietly. "Each, in form, was the same, but their hair colour, skin, and eyes all differed. They circled me, reaching out to touch my chest, back or hip. Stroking me hungrily with delicate fingers. It was the scariest thing I have ever endured, bar one, which I will allow Alicia to describe."

Alicia had finished her tea and she delicately placed the precious china on the table.

"I asked for help with our quest," she replied. "Pythia, the most senior amongst them, responded that there must be a sacrifice to Apollo. And when I asked them what they wanted they pointed at Philip. 'Him!' they said, all at once. 'We want him!' I think Philip believed they wanted to consume him, or throw him to their serpent guard, which would have meant the same thing. He blanched but then stood tall and said, 'If by this sacrifice I can avenge the old doctor and his daughter, and save others from a similar fate, then I count it a good ending.' He was truly noble."

Everyone in the room looked at Lord Phillip. This wasn't the first time he'd shown courage, but this was beyond anything before. He had risen above being a lecherous rake, happy to use his blade if there was an adventure with little risk. A man fleeing to the continent to avoid a duel, to live a luxurious life in our town and share the beds of lonely wives. He had become a true hero. A man of iron nerve prepared to give up his life for his friends. He looked embarrassed by the adulation.

"Friends," said Alicia with a broad smile. "You know he has survived, but not what he survived. The Oracles, the instant they heard him agree, fell upon him, all at once. I do not know if you have ever witnessed a nest of vipers breeding, their bodies entwined, coiling, slithering, and copulating together. This is what happened to Philip. He was pulled to the floor, his clothes dragged from him and cast aside, and then he was entirely covered by their bodies. For the next hour fertilisation happened, I would guess, many times. From time to time I observed his arm or leg emerge from the writhing mass, the limb moving of its own volition, so I was confident he was still alive. But, I never saw his face after the moment of terror when they fell upon him so I was not able to judge his mood."

"I have little memory of it," admitted Philip. "I panicked, my breathing became rapid and unsteady. I became light-headed and felt that, at any moment, I might faint. And then it was just darkness covering me and hands caressing me. There were delicate fingers, but also tails, and scales, and kisses, and strange orifices that took in and curiously stimulated my member until I gave up my seed."

Perhaps, like Gerda, his mind rejected the memory as too painful. Or perhaps put it away deep and dark in the hope it will never see the light of day again. Or perhaps his memory was clear and precise, but he simply didn't want to talk about it.

"Afterwards," continued Alicia. "It took him a further hour to recover. We were then taken to a deeper part of the cavern where a stone seat had been carved from the living rock over cracks and fissures in the cavern floor. The smell here was both sulphurous and oily and I could see that Philip was becoming light headed. I breathe, at least I move my chest, but I do not need air so it had no effect on me."

Philip agreed, "The fumes were powerful and made me dizzy, what it must be like for the Oracle sat directly above them I dread to think, though it explains why their replies are so strange."

"Pythia made her prophecy, writhing on the stone chair, above the fumes. I memorised her words and later, outside, I got Philip to write them down. They suggest we are on the cusp of powerful events, and I think that more than one person's fate is bound up in them."

"I was anxious to leave," said Lord Philip. "So, as soon as the senior Oracle had made her prophecy I bade them farewell. They each came and kissed me and begged me to attend them again. I was prepared in my mind to delve deep into a cave on this adventure, but not for the reptilian orifices that I deeply delved. The idea of returning scared me. But I promised each of them that I would return one day."

So, I thought, still the rake, despite becoming a hero.

"Their guard," added Alicia. "Escorted us nearly all the way to the entrance to the cave, but in the manner of an honour guard. We never felt in danger."

"Speak for yourself," muttered Philip, who had clearly not overcome his ophidian fear by this quest.

Alicia smiled at him and gestured at his pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper and laid it on the table, smoothing it flat. We all bent over to have a closer look. It read...

Tell the Doctor that when the moon sits in its cradle then he has just the one chance to prevail.

Tell him that he is not his father's son.

Tell him, of his family, one will kill, one will die, one will be said to be mad, one will live broken, and one will not live, but will not die.

Tell him that his cousin will make himself a wife, and that his wife will make herself a whore.

And finally, tell him that his greatest power is not in his scientific mind, though that will bring fame, but in his generous heart. That it has the capacity to love as if it were two hearts in one body.

I looked at the scrap of paper and more than once thought that either Alicia had misremembered, or that Philip had made an error when transcribing her words. It wasn't what I had hoped for, a clear instruction perhaps to go to the Chief of Police and inform him of our investigation. Or a promise that if I challenged my father he would vow to mend his ways. Just riddles.

There was no time for me to think about this. Freida was asking for my contribution. The legend of the Frankengeld, that I had copied using the ghost's magic.

"I have had no time to make this into a play," I smiled at Poppy. "And to recount all that happened when I visited my Father's house would waste time when we desire to spend at least part of the evening in the fresh air. But I found this, and a map, which Helena has examined. I will read the legend, as much as my Latin will permit."

I took out my notes and, with occasional reference to the original text where my writing was obscure, I read them the following...

"An account of the battle of Melanik Pass where the bravery of one Urdo saved Burchard, the Bishop of Halberstadt, a Frank, from death at the jaws of a pagan monstrosity."

"In the year of our Lord 1068 an army lead by the good Bishop was despatched to deal with the pagan sanctorum at Radgosc. The civil war amongst the Obodrites was over two years long at this time. Lead by Blus, an Obodrite noble, the intention of his clans was to resist the word of God and maintain the pagan practices of his kin."

"In the year 1066 he had captured John, Bishop of Mecklenberg and, removing him to his pagan temples at Radgosc, had tortured and then beheaded said peaceful cleric. Sending his head back to the Emperor as a sign of their resistance to both secular and sacred laws. Pope Alexander II had declared that all true Franks should support those Obodrites who had remained loyal to the Emperor, and that Obodrites who fought with Buchard would be rewarded with land, coin, and a place in Heaven."

"In a narrow pass, near the village of Melanik, the army of the Bishop came across a vast horde of pagans who blocked their way, screaming curses and hurling rocks down from the heights. The Bishop despatched skirmishers to drive the rock rollers from the hills and took position on a raised tongue of land where the pagans would need to climb to make an attack. He placed his archers where they could make effective the use of their bows and urged them to taunt the pagans into attacking. Blus, the pagan's commander, had a small guard of horsemen but most of his army were an ill disciplined rabble. The Bishop judged his men to be more than capable of fighting off peasants."