Time's Dark Laughter Part 12

"Little use if we don't get the keys to this room," commented Aba.

There was the clicking of a latch and the door suddenly opened, knocking D'Ursu to the floor. In walked a stocky, powerful Neuroman covered with reptilian scales from head to foot. He pulled D'Ursu to his feet with a single easy motion, then stood facing the group.

"I am Ninjus," he said, his voice like a file over rusted iron. "I am chief of security. Please state your business."

"Mult.i.tudinous amenities to your Queen!" D'Ursu bowed with a trace of farce. "I am D'Ursu Magna, chief captain to Jarl, the Bear-King. These are my escorts, Beaute Centauri and Aba. Here is our paper." He handed Ninjus the rolled-up doc.u.ment he had kept tied deep in his fur since the outset. Ninjus broke the seal, opened the scroll, looked at it briefly, then sniffed it for a long time.

"Smelling is believing, eh?" chuckled D'Ursu. The paper had Jarl's scent all over it.

"All right," rasped Ninjus. "What do you want?"

"We wish to propose an alliance between your Queen and our King. In general terms, you would help us now in our fight against the stinking Doge, and we would help you collect his stinking Humans for your harems and experiments. We would have to discuss the specifics of our proposal with the Queen herself, of course."

"Of course," Ninjus said, more to himself than the others. Then, louder: "What is your fight about with the people of Venice?"

D'Ursu became less jovial. "The Doge is like the Ice: cold, blind, and without virtue."

"I see," said Ninjus. "Well, we'll have to discuss this at our council. You will be our welcome guests until a decision is made. Osi will show you to your rooms."

Before anything further could be said, he turned and left, and immediately a tall, dark, muscular Vampire entered. "I am Osi," said the Vampire. "You will please accompany me."

Two ramps and three corridors later they found themselves situated in a plush four-room suite-a bedroom for each of them, with connecting doors linking all three to a s.p.a.cious, comfortable study.

Osi paused in the doorway before leaving them. "Please forgive the brisk reception you have experienced thus far. It's only that ... we seldom receive visitors." He seemed to be looking more at Aba than the other two, even though D'Ursu was obviously the leader of the delegation.

Aba returned Osi's stare. The Sire had a commanding presence-nearly seven feet tall, bald head, violet eyes-and seemed to be in total control. Aba unconsciously bared his neck a few millimeters to the dominance of Osi's power, then replied to the Vampire host. "I a.s.sure you, as a humble guest, we intend to keep the lowest of profiles."

Osi bowed. "Honored guests, feel free to use this castle as if it were your own." Again, his look spoke to Aba.

D'Ursu yawned loudly. "At the moment, I am hungry." he said.

Osi replied to the Bear, though his eyes never left Aba. "All your needs will be seen to. Please ring the cords by your beds if you want for anything." He bowed again, and left.

When they were alone again, they sat in the study and discussed developments.

"Is it true?" Aba asked his Bear friend. "Your proposition?"

"No," whispered D'Ursu, "but much can be gained by the ruse, I think. The doc.u.ment, I put on Jarl's stump, just before he sat there, so his smell on it is strong. It was a good trick, I think." He beamed.

"What if they send someone to check the story?"

"It will take time to do so. In a few days we will know if Beauty's friends are here, and what the position of this Queen is on Jarl and the Doge."

"Unless we're still prisoners here," Aba cautioned. He walked to the door, tested the handle. It opened.

"What did I tell you, child. We are honored guests now."

"We had best not test that a.s.sumption yet. The longer we stay here free of suspicion, the freer rein they will give us."

"For the moment, I'm content to rest," agreed D'Ursu. "We would all do well to rest, we may yet have to fight our way out of here." He padded heavily into the middle bedroom and was soon asleep. The others quickly followed suit.

Aba awakened an hour later with the feeling he was being watched. He opened his eyes and looked down at the end of the bed. He was being watched.

Sitting there was a brace of Humans, a strong young man and woman, both naked save for the glittering jewels sewn into their skin.

"What do you want?" Aba asked.

"We're here for your sustenance and pleasure, Sire. We're from the harem of Sire Osi."

"No, no-, please, I-"

"Please don't reject us, Sire. It would mean great shame if we returned without the mark of your tooth."

"But I don't want . . ." Aba felt himself caught in several binds. The most important, for him, was his own ongoing crisis of ident.i.ty: he had to drink blood to live, usually Human blood-this was a genetic imperative-yet it was an activity he loathed, esthetically, morally, historically. He hated the suffering it brought, at the expense of his own unsuppressable thrill. The smell of Human blood simultaneously excited and tortured him. At those moments of exquisite delight when ecstatic life itself danced between his teeth, he was most shamed to be a member of his species. So he drank Human twice a week, when hunger forced him; the delicacy of his appet.i.te a matter of will and discretion.

There were now other factors to be considered, as well. It would be a great insult to turn these prizes away-an insult to Osi as well as to the Humans. Osi was showing him honor by such a gift; to reject the gift was, for purely social reasons, unthinkable.

It was further complicated by the fact that these Humans were probably spies, with instructions to eavesdrop, watch, and remember everything Aba said, in his sleep, or surrounding moments of pa.s.sion. To turn them away might mean he had something to hide-which he did.

And finally, there was the impalpable sense that Osi could be kind, even a friend, under other circ.u.mstances. Aba couldn't say why; he only knew he liked the older Vampire-without cause, but without serious cause for alarm either. He found himself wondering if Osi had been there when Lon died, if he could ask him about it at some point. Better to wait.

He looked at the two hopeful faces at the end of the bed. "We're for complementary tastes," said the girl. "My blood is cool; my brother's, spicy." She bared her smooth, pale neck to him. There was not a mark on it-she hadn't been touched in weeks-and her silvery-blue jugular was plump with blood. Her brother leaned over and licked the spot on her throat where the jugular crossed the carotid artery, leaving that faintly pulsing bulge in her skin a little moist, a little glistening.

Aba wiped his lips between thumb and forefinger. "For my sustenance, perhaps," he whispered. "Though it gives me little pleasure. I'll drink some from each, that neither of you suffers in excess of the other."

The boy smiled tentatively and, like his sister, bared his neck to the helpless Vampire.

The next morning, D'Ursu mentioned that the thing he disliked most about cities was the absence of light and openness; so he was taken, the next day, on a tour of the sun-rooms.

These were in the topmost turrets of the castle, without ceiling, with walls of gla.s.s. In the center of each room was an enormous green crystal-it looked like a many-faceted emerald ten feet in diameter.

D'Ursu was finally impressed. "I've never seen a jewel that big," he growled.

"It's not a jewel, actually," his guide told him. His guide was a Neuroman named Moira. She was polite and fastidious. "It's a solar collector-partly organic, with chlorophyll-based photovoltaics in a crystalline matrix. We'll be powering the whole city this way soon."

D'Ursu looked past the glittering green to the horizon. "You can see for miles up here," he said.

"We'll power all of it someday with these," said Moira proudly.

D'Ursu became irate. "Is that all you can say when you see that view? How good it will be to control it? Will you Humans never learn?"

"I am not Human," Moira replied archly.

"You sure act it." The Bear shook his head. "You're going to try to collect the sun with these things, eh?"

"We are, even as we stand here, so doing."

"But what's the point?" D'Ursu roared. "The sun is lovely where it is! I can walk to the stream and eat a fish and the sun will dry me nicely!"

"You needn't shout," Moira said cooly. "I don't see what your breakfast has to do with our energy supply."

"My breakfast is my energy supply!" he bellowed. "What more would I need? What more should anyone need?"

"We need much more." She nodded sincerely. "We have our experiments to consider-"

"What experiments?" he grumbled.

"Well . . . like this one, in solar collection, for example-"

"Rowwwwrwwwr!" D'Ursu growled imploringly to the sun through the green haze of the light-h.o.a.rding crystal, leaving Moira quite perplexed.

Osi entered his harem. The gifts had returned home. In the soft morning light, the tall Vampire examined the newly bruised necks of the siblings. "Well?" he said at length.

"He seems kind, this Sire Aba," began the girl.

"And quite complimentary to you, Sire," added the boy.

"How's that? How do you mean?" asked Osi.

"Well, he told us repeatedly what a n.o.ble master we must have, to look and behave as we do." The girl nodded.

"He did, did he?" Osi rubbed the boy's thigh.

"Did he not," the boy concurred.

"And as he slept," the girl went on, "he asked for more."

"So we gave him more, which woke him up." The boy smiled.

"But when he woke, he bade us stop, and save our marrow's blood for our 'thunder-eyed prince.' "

Osi raised his eyebrows. "Thunder-eyed prince?"

"So he called you, Sire."

"Go, then; laissez-moi," said Osi.

The two pale Humans stood, bowed, and left the room. Osi lay back on his couch.

He was intrigued by the mysterious young Sire. Imagine-a Vampire in the company of a Bear and a Centaur! How amusing. He seemed well bred-quite charming, really. "Thunder-eyed prince," indeed. Osi laughed.

He rang a crystal bell on the table. Presently a sultry woman entered, carrying a tray of early-morning cuisine.

"Breakfast so soon, Sire?" she smiled. Strands of pearls, loosely wrapping her entire body, delicately clicked as she walked.

"Aperitif only, Vera," he mumbled.

She sat beside him, taking a decanter of golden liquid from the tray and pouring it into a thin gla.s.s. Then in a single movement, she p.r.i.c.ked her ear lobe with a beautiful needle ring and tipped her head slightly away from Osi. He leaned over, licked the blood from her ear, then took a sip from the gla.s.s. He repeated this several times. When the gla.s.s was empty, he applied pressure to her ear lobe until the bleeding stopped, dismissed her, licked his fingers, and looked out the window. The rising sun caught his image in the gla.s.s at an angle, causing the transparent reflection of his violet eyes to glint as he turned. In his throat, softly, he made a sound like thunder.

It was going to be a beautiful day.

Beauty expressed an interest in the educational system provided for the inhabitants, hoping that, as one thing led to another, he would eventually be shown the research facilities, where Josh might now be. The guide, a Neuroman named Ondine, was impressed with Beauty's clear, pithy questions, and on the second morning showed him a day school for Vampire children.

There were four Vampire students: three boys and a girl ranging in age from six to sixteen. They sat in a small cla.s.sroom, books open before them, as the teacher read aloud some pa.s.sage. The teacher herself was a Vampire, about twenty months pregnant-which was almost full-term for a Vampire. She paused in her reading as Beauty and Ondine entered.

"Please continue," Ondine said to her. "We're here only to observe."

"We were just finis.h.i.+ng," said the teacher, closing her book. The four young pupils stared at the Centaur and Neuroman intruders. "But we're on our way now to Gol's confirmation ceremony. You're welcome to watch if you like."

"Quite, quite," said Ondine. "Lead on."

"We must get ready first," said the teacher. "You go ahead. It's to start in ten minutes, in the Temple. Cla.s.s?" The students rose, and followed her out a side door.

Ondine smiled at Beauty. "This way," he said. He spoke as they walked around a long, spiral corridor that sloped gently upward. "We maintain a Vampire temple in the west wing, for just such functions. Of course, we'd like eventually to get away from these primitive rituals, but for the time being the confirmation ceremony helps the Vampire children maintain a sense of ident.i.ty-cultural heritage, that sort of thing."

"We had racial customs among the Centauri," said Beauty, "but none religious, as such. We had no temples but the sky."

"Quite, quite," nodded Ondine. "I believe these Vampire species are rather older than the Centaurs, though, so their rites of pa.s.sage tend to be more Human."'

Beauty flinched at this reference to the genetic novelty of his species. His aloofness increased. "What is the nature of the service we are to witness?"

"The most ancient Vampire transition ritual, the Coming of Tooth. Every Vampire child performs the ceremony at the age of ten, when the last baby teeth are gone and the adult fangs begin coming in. It's quite a beautiful ritual, really- I think, sometimes, that what I miss most about being Neuroman are rites of pa.s.sage like this. Ah, here we are . . ."

They came to an arched doorway and entered. Inside was a circular room, perhaps forty feet across, with an altar at one end and half-filled with pews. The four Vampire children stood at the altar, dressed in red robes. Several adults sat in the front row. Standing at the head of the altar was a large scarfaced Vampire in sacramental dress- Beauty was struck by the fact that he was neither clean nor pretty, like most members of his race, but instead rather vile, despite the splendiferous garments he wore. This was Ugo.

Beauty and Ondine stood at the back of the tabernacle, while Ondine continued in a whisper. "These Vampire children are the privileged ones, actually-being allowed to live and study in the castle. Generally, only Neuromans are allowed in here, you know."

Beauty wasn't sure whether this was meant as an insult or a compliment, though he felt certain it was directed at him. He simply said, "Quite."

Ondine went on. "They're being specially groomed, you see, to be the Queen's representatives in various Neuroman-animal affairs, as they develop in the New World. So they're given special training in these matters here-as well as being allowed to go on with their traditional Vampire teachings, of course."

"What does this New World training consist of?" Beauty asked. "Little is known of it in the northern provinces." "That is not for me to say to an outsider. We have-" One of the older Vampires in the front row-the pregnant instructor they had briefly spoken to earlier-turned in her seat and looked at them. "Sshhh," she said. Beauty and Ondine hushed. The ceremony began.

A fifth Vampire child entered by a door behind the altar. This was Gol, the ten-year-old boy. Naked, he was trying to repress a grin, which turned into a giggle at the sight of one of his little friends. He got a stern look from Ugo, though, and quickly became appropriately solemn.

He climbed onto a gold marble slab that formed the center of the altar, and lay down flat upon it. At this point Ugo and the four robed children commenced singing-a sequence of crescendoing high-frequency beeps that seemed to please the adults in the front row, but which only hurt Beauty's ears.

Finally the singing stopped. Ugo spoke some sonorous words, then bent over and placed his neck against the young boy's open mouth. The four other children chanted: Long of tooth Long of life Song of truth arise!

Sing, little wing, Now in blood you are wise.

Ugo motioned to the girl Vampire-she appeared to Beauty to be about twelve-and she walked up to the mar- ble altar. Ugo untied her robe, and it fell to the floor- whereupon she climbed onto the altar, mounted the little boy, and they began copulating.

Beauty was a bit shocked by this behavior, ritual or no. He had a strong sense of propriety, and Centaurs simply didn't do such things-not at that age or in public. n.o.body else in the chapel seemed offended, though-they all watched with unabashed enjoyment, in fact-so Beauty swallowed his distaste and tried to avert his eyes. There was just no way he could avoid watching, though. The two children were fornicating rambunctiously, rolling all over the marble slab, their little wings fluttering, hips grinding. Still, with all that exuberance, it was over rather quickly, and they lay panting, half-fallen over one end of the stone.

Ugo lifted the girl back to the floor and tied her robe back on her. The boy got up and stood facing the others. There was more supersonic singing, during which a Human was carried in and bound down to the altar on his back.

Beauty tensed. His nostrils flared as he strained to see the face of the Human.