“No!” I implored wearily. “Kill me or fight!”
She leaped upon me and reached for my eyes with her dog-teeth. They were aptly set apart for the task and now I understood her diminutive size.
She clenched her jaw but I twisted my face so that her tooth penetrated my cheek to the bone. I screamed and wriggled from her clasp. Standing unsteadily, I thrust out my fork, making her back off.
“I tire of this!” she bellowed and rushed at me. I had no time to think. I backed away and tripped over some obstruction. Falling back I could only hold up my fork in defence and the leaping tiger impaled itself on its tongs.
I knew from experience that this would not kill the beast so when it crashed into a tree on the fulcrum of the fork handle and fell to the ground in a heap, I heaved out the weapon from her breast and drove it with all my might into her eyes.
“You have luck on your side and usually this is Beelzebub’s weapon,” Lilith told me, standing white and pale as a snowy mountain. “You confuse me John. Are you a servant of my Master too?”
“I hope not!”
“Take the pot of gold and go!”
She shook her head and turned away from me! Now I feared that she might not try and tempt me so again I uttered the incantation. At the line; ‘If torture my spirit, you’ll not feign to do,’ she stopped and turned. Clearly Satan was not ready for me yet!
“Very well,” she murmured, “But remember this; your lust is my desire. You cannot win!”
She embraced me and we rolled upon long grass in the jungle for days. I have never felt such happiness. I had no wish to leave and I knew I would not.
But slowly and surely, memories of my children entered my mind. At first, they seemed ghosts but then I remembered both my wife, Elizabeth, and my lover of the same name. My desire for them seemed cleaner and I felt it more clearly than my lust for Lilith. While my need of her never diminished, my desire for them seemed to grow until I resolved to leave her.
One day I stood in a stone temple on a hill and invoked the incantation. Lilith came to me and implored me to stay. She used all her womanly powers to persuade me. Oftentimes I felt the sap of my loins rising to the point beyond endurance but I held on and found myself back in the round chamber.
***
Chapter Three
Imagine my shock when I found myself beyond the door marked with a monkey and serving in a graveyard!
A foreman set me to work with the spade, digging two more graves before I could break for luncheon.
This doesn’t look like Hades!
Above, a blue sky arched and I saw no sign of a monkey.
I continued to dig for a while but then shoved the spade into a pile of dirt.
“This is ridiculous!” I blurted. “I didn’t come here for this!”
“What did you come here for then?” said a quiet voice behind me, sounding more than a bit Irish.
I turned and saw an old, bearded man on a stool with a hurdy-gurdy on his lap. Beside him sat a large monkey, which grinned at me like a lunatic before returning to its task of cracking nuts from their casing with its sharp teeth.
“That is a fine looking beast you have!” I declared. “Is it female?”
“Might be. It comes from Deepest Afrique!”
Without pause, he began to turn the wheel of the instrument and sing a lay. It was long and I didn’t catch all the words but they most certainly told the tale of the beast beside him and how it had some magical abilities. It seemed that those who harmed it lost their souls in some way and forever. The exact means seemed to vary but I got the general idea. The singer completed his tune and astonished me by asking;
“Would you look after her for me until dawn? I must go somewhere. Don’t forget what the song foretold if any harm should come to her!”
Since the graveyard seemed the least likely place to find an ape, and an ape I needed, I had to agree!
The foreman returned with a pie and jug of ale for me and remarked that the:
“Monkey will do you no good! Dig until you reach the coffin and remove it. Then you can finish for the night!”
Of course, I ate the food and drank the ale but I had no intention of digging any more. I unleashed the monkey from a post and made for the gate but as soon as the leash became free, the beast let out the most terrible wailing! Within moments, the foreman returned with an axe and threatened to kill her if he heard one more sound.
Damnation! It looks like I have to stay here with this beast until dawn!
“Furthermore!” the foreman added, “If that coffin isn’t out before I leave, I will kill it anyway!”
I set to digging again with vigour and felt not the least surprise when my spade hit good oak. I began clearing soil around the coffin but felt astonished when the monkey leaped into the grave and started throwing out the soil for me. In no time at all, the ape’s great arms had cleared the way and we together we lifted out the box.
The sun had already sunk below the tree-lined horizon and darkness settled over the yard. The foreman returned and muttered his satisfaction before leaving.
“You did well!” the monkey told me.
“So you are a demon!” I replied.
“Perhaps, but have you read the inscription on the coffin?”
“I can’t see it! Why?”
“Try to feel it! You will be able to read it that way!”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” I protested.
I leaped into the pit and ran my fingers over the wooden lid of the box. To my amazement I not only felt letters but found that I could understand them! They read:
William Bonnay of Witney, Oxfordshire
I had no need to read the rest.
“One of my victims!” I explained in horror! “You just made me dig up one of my victims!”
“Not I!” exclaimed the beast, whereupon it turned into the most gorgeous red-headed maiden I ever saw. Her bodice heaved over a bosom only slightly less appetising than that of Lilith herself. Indeed, for a moment I wondered if this could be her.
“We have all night to pass together!” she declared. “I have here a blanket. Why don’t we nestle underneath it and keep away the bad spirits!”
“I like your strategy Madame, but I fear for my fingers!”
“Then keep on your gloves!”
But try as I might, I could not find any satisfactory way to enjoy her fleshy confection. Indeed, it took me more than an hour to remove her bodice with steel-clad fingers.
“Confound it! I will remove them, but you mustn’t bite my fingers!”
“I wouldn’t do that! Not until your victim climbs from his grave to take your soul!”
I didn’t quite know what to say to this but I had no need; kissing her flesh and arousing those mounds of love drove me nearly wild with lust. It is a certain truth that using one’s lips alone on a woman can never satisfy. For some reason, which God must have ordained, one needs to feel her volume with your hands to fully enjoy her.
We were just entering coitus when she wriggled from underneath me.
“What are you doing?” I implored.
“Look! He’s coming for you.”
At that moment, I heard the most ungodly howl and I ran to the edge of the grave. Peering over, I saw something no vampire should ever see; the gnarled and rotted green fingers of my victim of fifty years before had curled around the rim of the lid and it began to rise.
“I am coming for you John!” the foul cadaver croaked.
“But I am not ready for death!” I howled.
I had recalled an old legend; if a vampire ever meets his victims in the underworld and they bite him, he would be dead forever. If he attempts to kill them, he will be dead forever and be damned forever, even beyond Judgement Day. If anything could strike terror into a vampire, this situation could!
“You will come. You will come,” the voice declared.
“No!” I yelled, and leaped upon the lid. The box slammed shut, removing two of the corpse’s fingers
. They writhed on the floor of the grave but I tried to ignore them. I forced the lid down and held on. Overhead the moon cast shadows of tree branches across the coffin. They seemed to mock me as they waved in the warm breeze.
“I have to hold on all night!” I yelled to the monkey demon.
Not only that but I am free to bite your fingers now!
She leaped into the coffin and grabbed one of my hands. Changing back into an ape she bit into my finger, grinding the bone with her teeth. I screamed in agony and tried to push her away.
“If you hurt me, you will forfeit your soul. Remember the song!” she chortled.
What am I to do! The night has not yet passed one hour! I will never make it to dawn!
I ran back to the blanket, picked up my steel gloves and ran back to the coffin just in time to stop William from escaping. The disappointment on his decaying face seemed nothing compared with my horror when I had almost put on the gloves and the demon bit into the still-exposed little finger of my left hand. I heard a sickening crunch and the finger came right off!
“Ha! I have the first victory!” she yelled.
She danced a jig of delight and in my anguish, I considered lopping off her head with the spade, which lay by my feet. The song’s curse prevented me.
It seems I will lose my soul tonight, one way or another!
My finger screamed at me with its pain. I had to do something.
Surmising that a corpse, even an undead one, could not kill a demon, I saw only one option.
When next she ran at me, I took up the spade and took an almighty swipe at the demon’s head. I intended not to kill but to stun and the clanging blow sent her to the ground, senseless.
Without delay, I picked her up and waited for William to get the coffin lid completely open. He had begun to struggle out of his prison when I dropped a guest on top of him; the monkey-demon. She crashed down on him, forcing him back into the coffin and pinning him down. I managed to get the lid down and heave the coffin onto its side against the grave wall.
Blood poured from my finger stump and hurt me terribly but I had to finish the job. Hacking a small hole into the base of the coffin with the spade edge, I began to shovel soil onto the box. I didn’t stop until I had weighted it down sufficiently to trap its unhappy occupants.
The sound of the demon’s wailing combined with the sickly moans of the ghoul were almost too much to bear. That night must have been the longest of my life.
I whispered a quick prayer of Thanksgiving when the sun’s light finally filtered through a tree.
In the meantime, I had bound my finger as best I could and now I commenced disinterring my victims.
William seemed to have fallen back into the sleep of death so I left him to slumber but the demon monkey seemed lively enough. It immediately snapped its jaws in the vicinity of my fingers so I knocked it out once more.
I tied the beast to the post with the leash and waited. The hurdy-gurdy man didn’t come and I could wait no longer. I had escaped the curse of the song so I took up the spade and brought it down upon the beast’s hands, taking all of its fingers off.
***
I left that scene as quickly as my feet would take me. Not knowing where else to go, I passed through the churchyard to the church itself. I felt in need of some spiritual cleansing.
For the first time since the glory of Byzantium, I stepped over the threshold and knelt at the altar.
“God, if you have any mercy in your heart for vampires, let me survive this ordeal, at least until I reach the circular chamber again. There, I will consider withdrawal from this folly.”
It was not a prayer but a short conversation, with no answer.
But then an answer did come.
A statue of Mary rose from its plinth and came down to me. Slowly, it transformed into Lilith herself.
“But how can you come here!” I raged. “This is the house of God you accursed Demon. Go back whence you came!”
“You are not a priest. You have not the power to sway even the meanest demon, let alone the great Lilith! Pray at a pew and I may let you go!”
Then I made one of those foolish mistakes that even the wisest men make in the hour of disturbed emotions. To kneel upon a cushion, I placed my hands on the bible rail. For a moment I dropped my eyes but I heard the sound of something breaking and felt a rush of air. Only by the rudest form of luck, did I throw my hands over my face and so remove my fingers from the path of a great sword, which Lilith had released from its fastenings on the wall. Its old blade bit deeply into the oak of the rail and I stumbled to the floor.
“Once again, you have escaped death John Wilmot. But you will not escape me!” Lilith wailed.
She swooped down and settled upon the brow of my despair. She caressed my soul until I bled out my last desire.
“I see far into your soul and see what you want most!” she cackled. “Even if you can escape me now, I will have your soul for Beelzebub!”
“So you do not fully understand me yet?” I taunted. “But why do you need to understand me? Surely the reason is not just to serve your Master. You crave yet, do you not, some aftertaste, some faint echo of the World Above. You must remember when you were an innocent child and the thought of life, and love, taunts you!”
In truth, my bitter fear of my nemesis in the shape of William Bonnay had finally flushed all feeling from my heart; not desire for that is not a property of the heart alone. I felt remote and had been able to observe her intentions for the first time. In fact, I felt that I could trick her. The thought gave me hope and with one yell of defiance, I wrenched myself free and found myself back in the round chamber once more.
I sat down and put my weary head in my broken hands. I considered deeply the possibility of leaving the Labyrinth and leaving all hope of the treasure behind. I had no appetite for the any challenge, let alone the next; a dragon!
And on top of this fear I had laid the task of cauterising another painful wound. I didn’t know how much more I could take.
But after a long while, I remembered the point of my mission. I was dissolute, a wretch, whose only fame seemed to be a few bawdy poems, a trumped-up title and a reputation for drinking and whoring. I had nothing to leave my children of wisdom or love; only financial security. Surely that had to be the only thing that could make a man continue on this quest.
I wearily burned the flesh of my finger stump, took up the heavy mace and stepped through the door marked with a dragon and a very large phallus.
“I wish Henry had left some water or wine for me!” I briefly thought before finding myself in the echoing passage of a great castle.
My boots broadcast my steps to any that could hear though I tried to tread quietly. I proceeded to check each room for a dragon or an adversary. All seemed disturbingly quiet.
I reached the end of a colonnade and stepped out onto a parapet. What met my eyes would have seemed like a dream were it not for the black vault of sky above. Even below the castle hung white clouds; the building seemed to be floating in the sky. I ran along the wall of the castle and peered over but no sign of any ground could I see. Far, far below, tilled fields patched a landscape that could have been inhabited by toy people, almost too small for the hand to hold!
I heard a loud roar and swung round. On the furthest tower pinnacle, I saw a huge dragon whose scales shone in the false sunlight, rising over a hill. It roared again and I saw that it had somewhat the body of a woman; huge breasts and wide hips. But when I blinked, it had gone.
“Are you not lonely?” a voiced cooed nearby.
I swung again and found myself facing a small dragon.
“Sometimes,” I said. “You are a very modestly sized dragon!” I exclaimed and immediately regretted my impertinence.
“Because you are a very modestly endowed beast!” she retorted, glancing at my groin, whose cloth under my shirt I must admit had suddenly become tumescent from the growth of my desire. Indeed, the beast had breasts and wide hips. Its face
had the pleasing form of a beautiful woman’s. I began to wonder what might be between its legs.
“Ah, a sheath to fit the sword!” I replied.
“Let’s go inside and make ourselves comfortable.”
She led me to a boudoir and bade me lie on some silk cushions strewn about. Their design was Eastern and unfamiliar to me
“Where am I? I mean; where is this in imitation of?” I asked.
“I was the mistress of a Knights Templar in the Holy Land when I fell into Hades,” the voice replied. I saw that it now belonged to a sultry maiden with a veil to cover all her face save almond shaped eyes of cinnamon colour. She wore loose silks that showed her slim but shapely form beautifully as she set about serving me food and wine.
“I must admit, I am exceedingly hungry,” I noted. “So this is a Knight’s castle?”
“A ghostly representation of it, I suppose. His name was Sir Edmund Holsover. I loved him dearly. Would you like to hear of him?”
“If it pleases you. I always loved tales of the Holy Wars as a child.”
“The year was 1136. Edmund’s castle had been secure for some time and his own knights and retainer staff had begun to assimilate themselves into the local population. I was the daughter of a young merchant and caught his eye.”
At first I wasn’t interested; my father had always told me if I ever so much as looked at a Western soldier, he would cut out my eyes!”
But Edmund possessed wealth beyond even my father’s dreams and his influence in local business seemed great enough to turn my father’s mind to thoughts of an alliance. He fostered Edmund’s interest, even against my wishes. I loved another boy and felt that the English knights would be too old for me.”
Then Edmund took a wife and I became jealous. Then I truly desired him and gradually became his lover. I only thought to supplant the English Lady but Edmund preferred me for his bed only.”
Edmund’s sign was the dragon; a tale existed in his family of a predecessor killing a dragon and becoming a Knight by this means. Edmund seemed obsessed with this idea and talked constantly of it. I found out a great secret about him; not only was he Knight Templar but he belonged to a secret order called Ordo Lupus. What that means, I am still not quite sure but he would never come to my bed on the Full Moon and I would hear the howl of wolf in the hills that night. Wolves never came to our town at any other time during my life. Later, I discovered that he had started the secret brotherhood with three of his friends.”