I considered battering down the door and avenging myself upon Henry but then I paused.
I only have three challenges to go! Perhaps I really can succeed!
Sitting down to rest for a while, I unintentionally began to fall asleep. Luckily, I jerked awake just as Morpheus took me. I flexed my healed arms and took up the great spear. Turning round, I headed for the door marked with the lion and heart.
“How appropriate!” I said to myself.
Stepping through the door, I found myself not in Afrique but in a circus cage. Three lions circled me, looking for a weakness.
“I will be back in the morning my dears!” declared a male voice before the last torchlight winked out.
“Wait!” I shouted, but he didn’t hear me.
I had been left alone with three lions for a night! I turned back to my foes and you can imagine my horror when I saw that one of them had transformed into my wife, Elizabeth!
In affairs of the heart, the tiniest fear is magnified tenfold and I remembered that Lilith said Henry had taken Elizabeth hostage.
Suppose she fought him and has been killed! Maybe I am too late and this is she!
But I could not believe that her soul would have been so quickly placed into a role of seduction if that were the case. My senses returned to me but now an idea occurred:
What if Henry has constructed the likeness of a circus beyond that door in order to have me kill Elizabeth without knowing it? He could then blame me for her murder and keep the treasure for himself. Yes, that might be it.
I could not see the sky and so could not verify whether this was Hades or Henry’s basement. Doubt flooded my mind and my heart palpitated. Now my fear had been thrown back upon the one organ I could not control!
“Darling!” I whispered. “What are you doing here?”
“Henry tried to seduce me and I resisted him! He told me you had begun a quest and had bedded many women in my absence! I didn’t believe him! Tell me it is not true?”
“It is not true darling,” I told her, with some assurance because indeed I had not been in a bed yet in Hades.
“He told me you had a lover, that actress Elizabeth Barry. Your son said the same thing. Is that true?”
Now I felt caught but the situation demanded action so I said:
“Behind me Izzie. I can prove my innocence later. This spear will protect us; get behind me!”
“These lions will obey the will of him or her who speaks the truth. That is what Henry told me. They are under his enchantment! Tell me now if it is true or false!”
What fiendish trap is this! I know not where I am or how to combat this interrogation!
“It’s false darling! I haven’t bedded Miss Barry!”
Immediately, the two lions pounced toward me and I had to ward them off with the spear.
“Alright! Alright! It’s true, I slept with her … .”
The lions halted and licked their paws.
“When?” Elizabeth asked, suddenly tearful.
“I don’t remember. Several … .” The lions looked at me. “No, many times! Oh Lord!” The lions backed away.
“Oh John! How could you? I don’t know what to say!”
In truth, neither did I. Though I have been unfaithful to my wife, I truly love her. My love for her is boundless and deep. After all, I spent so many years wooing her and suffered so much to attain the hand of one so far above my station. Furthermore, she too is a creative force, just like Elizabeth Barry. I have indeed been a lucky man! But now my fortune wheel had turned full circle. There seemed only one way out; to kill the lions before I did any more damage to my marriage.
“Leave them be!” Elizabeth commanded, when I lunged for the nearest, a lioness. “They threaten you not. Kill them and you will take away the last shred of respect I have for you. Our marriage hangs in the balance; don’t risk the last bond!”
I couldn’t argue with that so I let the spear point fall to the sawdust.
“What is your love for Miss Barry like?”
If you are man, and have been asked this question, you will know that it is a trap without equal; flattering to deceive in such magnitude that any man who has ever escaped it without further suffering could only be a god. If you are a woman, you will know this too.
“I … I am not sure it is love but I have a purely intellectual bond with her!” I blurted.
“Intellectual? Intellectual! So I am not intellectual?”
“Indeed you are dear and many other things whereas she has only the intellectual faculty to attract me. That is why my feelings are so much less for her than for you!”
“But I have seen her. She is comely. Does that not attract you?”
“No more … . I mean; no!”
“You are a poor liar John. I know that you are weak for female flesh. That is why I took you. It is a simple weakness and one that a woman can easily master, both in herself and her lover. A child is no more complex and that is why I can forgive you!”
This last felt very hurtful, stinging, but I could only admired its justice. Truly Elizabeth showed me that I was at heart, just a fool. I loved her more for it.
“One last question, for now,” she announced. “Are you are vampire?”
This, at least, I could answer easily:
“Yes dear. Do you forgive me?”
“We cannot command the way we are born so I can forgive you that too.” She came toward me. “But know this; you will not lie abed with me for the same period you have been seeing Miss Barry. I have a spy that will deliver me the truth in this, so have no hope otherwise!”
I groaned. This would mean no copulation with my wife for years. I had only to hope she would want another child.
“Yes dear!”
She reached me and bade me lie down.
“Now hold me,” she asked, “while the night passes.”
“But the lions?”
“They will not attack unless you lie.”
I wanted to say that was why I wouldn’t lie down but thought better of the jest. I took her in my arms and we fell asleep.
***
I dreamed of putting my head in a lion’s mouth and attempting to tell the lion how beautiful were its rotting teeth. Each time I tried, the great mouth closed around my neck.
Suddenly I woke to the sound of roaring. I could not move. Then I felt something pierce my chest and I tried to pull away. Opening my eyes, I saw the smallest of the three lions with its jaws clamped around my heart.
“You were so easy to fool!” the lion told me, and I knew it wasn’t Elizabeth at all but a Demon. I had been tricked again! “But I feel sorry for you; your love for your Elizabeth is true! I cannot do it!”
I lifted my spear, which I had had the wits to hold on to tightly in sleep, and thrust it toward the beast’s breast. But I too could not complete the deed. The beast transformed into the form of Elizabeth at the last moment and I could not violate that angelic form.
“I would rather be a Christian in the circus, about to be eaten by lions, that to have to kill you!” I wailed, before closing my eyes and sinking my spear into her heart.
“You should be careful what you wish for!” growled a familiar voice.
I opened my eyes and saw that I had been fastened to a stake in the Roman Coliseum. I wore only rags, had no weapon and Lilith, in the form of a huge male lion, circled me.
“You took away my weapon. That is not permitted!” I howled.
“I merely fulfilled your wish!” she retorted. “Moreover, I am unable to take the form of your loved ones as completely as you imagine so I went with you into Elizabeth’s dreams. She knows everything you told her. She will believe the encounter to have truly happened when she wakes!”
“No! No! No! You have destroyed my marriage!”
“There is always a price to be paid for love in Hades!”
“You have stripped away my dignity, my marriage, my health, my hope and my integrity, what little of it I had. What is there lef
t?”
“These total the value you put on a pile of gold John. Consider it well. But you haven’t totalled it all up yet. There is still the addition of your soul, your mind and your children.”
“I give up! I cannot go on!”
“You can make that decision later. Right now, you are mine for the taking!”
There seemed no way out of this predicament. I looked to the Christian to my right. An old man with a white beard, he saw my anguish and told me:
“Pray to God and he will save you!”
“But I have sinned so many times. I don’t think I even believe in him. And I am a vampire. There is no point praying!”
“He may not save your body but he can save your soul!”
I said a quick prayer and really had no belief in its efficacy but I did feel a little shape of hope form in my heart. I tried the incantation from the poem and once again the phrase; ‘weave your magic between Lilith and Beelzebub,’ stirred me. Perhaps this was a dream too? Perhaps I lay asleep on the floor of the round chamber still and Lilith had engineered this dream, just like the last? The idea seemed plausible since my wishes had never come to anything before in Hades. One of the other lions lunged for the old Christian and within moments, the old man’s body parts had become a lifeless feast for the beast.
I soiled myself with fear but held my wits enough to try a ploy:
“Lilith, do you know why Beelzebub has sent me?”
“What? Sent you? You are being silly. Just rest your head on the post, relax and I will make this as painless as possible. Your heart has nothing to fix on in your world anymore anyway. Elizabeth’s remaining feelings for you are simple loyalty and a need for convenience.”
Ignoring her, I replied, “He is testing you. He fears you have been disloyal to him at least once and is preparing your successor.”
Lilith became quiet. She paced up and down for some time before asking:
“What should I do then?”
“This is a dream. I know I am right. So kill me to prove your loyalty but let me escape the dream. I pledge to tell every demon I meet on the rest of my quest that you are fearsome and loyal to the Prince of the Flies beyond all question. I will tell them how you punished Aisha for her treachery but then felt pity for her because she had worked her magic so well on me. Beelzebub cannot have eyes everywhere can he? Surely only God has that power and he may help you in this case.”
“You really think so?”
“Yes. Maybe!”
“You are right that only He Above can see all. Even Beelzebub, my wayward lover, cannot see and tell all. Very well. I release you!”
Immediately I found myself stepping back through the door but my sleeping form still lay on the floor, against the plinth. The room seemed eery and I felt like a ghost as I took up the poleaxe, a weapon similar to the halberd but with a blunt head like a hammer instead of a spike, and headed for the penultimate door.
As an afterthought, I pressed the lion door, not sure whether I had even gone though it yet, but it would not open anyway.
I think I am going mad! At least I must have been correct about the dream!
With my mind on shaky ground, as it were, I stepped through the phoenix door.
I found myself in a small, stone chamber with a round opening on its far side. Ahead of me, on a stone pillar, sat a phoenix upon its nest. Through the opening, no larger than the phoenix but too small for me to pass through, I could see desert but I could not espy the sky.
The phoenix itself stood about the size of a goose and its feathers wore the myriad colours of a raging fire. Its red eyes pierced me as if I were not there.
“Good day!” I said, not knowing how else to begin a conversation with a phoenix.
“Not yet!” it replied.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to talk to you twice.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Wait.”
“A door opened behind me and I turned to see myself entering the room with a poleaxe. My other ‘self’ walked up and merged with my own body. I felt a shiver but no more discomfort than that.”
“Now you are both here, we can begin!” the phoenix said. “I have been waiting so long for somebody to talk to, I didn’t want to risk saying something for a second time but less perfectly!”
“I quite understand,” I replied, feeling a little unsure of my own sanity.
“What would you like to ask me?” said the bird.
“Well, I don’t want to ask you anything. I just want your brain.”
“Is that a dish in your country right now?”
I didn’t know how to respond to this joke. The phoenix laughed and added:
“I jest. Seriously, we both know there will be a fight but have you ever met a phoenix before? Wouldn’t you like to know me better?”
“I suppose I have as much time as you want!”
“As much time as you want!” it corrected, fluttering its wings as if I had unsettled it.
“Ask me the right question and you will get a treat!” it said.
“Alright. Where did phoenixes come from?”
“Ah! Good question. Not the one I wanted but perhaps better! I came from the dreams of the first men! Earth is as God dreamt it, many eons ago, but men shape the images in their minds and God allowed the strongest dreams of men to take flight in the real world, for a while. But soon I will fade, as do all dreams of men. Only God’s endures. I am the only phoenix! Actually my name is a nonce word. The name appeared in a text, lost long ago. It represented the images in your dream that have no lasting form, only function, and are replaced with a new form continually as the dream flows. As an idea, I will exist forever!”
“I think I am confused. So you represent something that doesn’t exist?”
“No. Only the name. I was originally called the Johinda or Johina bird. Men believed a bird existed that could survive a forest fire. In actual fact, the bird retreated to a burrow during fires. But that is of no consequence. Even men will fade from their own dreams one day!”
“Now you have really confused me! Is this place real or Hades?”
“To somebody that lives in Hades, this is real but I am not.”
“Am I mad?”
“You can never know that. Isn’t this fun. Excuse me, I have to just go and do something.”
The bird left through the opening and I pondered what it had said. I could understand little of it and yet it seemed perfectly rational. Shaking my head, I peered over the edge of the nest of sticks, looking for an egg but I could see none. Just as I stepped back, the bird returned. It did not settle on the nest but landed on the floor beside me and took the shape of a beautiful red-headed maiden. She stood very tall and slender and moved like a ballerina in water.
“Where did you go?”
“When you are the dream of many, you are kept very busy.” The woman spun round, making her white shift lift in the draft of air created. “Which do you prefer, this or feathers,” she asked, gesturing toward her body with her hand.
“This, I suppose, but it depends on for what!”
“You will be consumed by fire anyway, there is no escape from Lilith, so why not enjoy the conflagration?” she suggested, putting her white arms around my neck. “By the way, you have the wrong weapon. Your Hebraic translators are not very good!”
The mention of Lilith reminds me of something! Oh yes!
“Lilith has always been accursedly loyal to Beelzebub and I have never managed to escape her yet!”
I dropped the weapon and cursed. Taking hold of her I loosened her shift and let it fall to the ground. The fire of my loins consumed me as I entered her and we rose to the heights of the flames of love. Her red hair and her delicate freckles reminded me both of Julia and Elizabeth Barry but her body existed nowhere in my memory or imagination. After I had burned for her three times, she changed back into the bird, left me and flew to the pillar.
“Now we shall burn together!” she
exclaimed.
At once, the chamber filled with smoke and then fire. I choked and cursed my luck. I would never make it home to see my family.
What folly! To die with a dream, a non-existent thing!
As the flames began to consume my body, I began to wonder if the pain could be real. If the phoenix was a dream, then surely this fire must be also. Trying to shut out the agony, I pondered again what the bird had told me of dreams.
I thought of the nonce word and tried to imagine that I stood back in the round Castle chamber. This didn’t initially work but I began to recite the incantation and slowly, but surely, the pain left me. I continued to say the words, then to shout them, then to sing them as if they were a psalm, until I found myself falling though dark space.
Around and around I spun with Lilith beside me.
“You have grown John. You are almost worthy of my love now!”
We clasped eachother and fell down, and down.
“Where are we falling to?” I screamed.
“To the very lowest dungeon of Hell. Beelzebub himself wants to see you!”
“I told the Demon what you wanted darling! Let me go!”
“Then give me your heart. Tell me you love me more than either Julia, your wife or darling mistress! Mean it and I will let you go! But do not forget me. I will come to you in your dreams for the rest of your life!”
“I love you! I love you! I love you! Yes, I mean it!”
I truly meant it and knew that I had cursed myself forever. I had lost my heart more truly than if it had been cut out. Indeed, I wished not that it had been cut out!
But I found myself, on hands and knees, kneeling on the cold flag stones of the round chamber.
***
Chapter Four
I didn’t move for long minutes. The pain left my body but not my heart. By the time I struggled to my feet, I no longer felt human.
“Now, most surely, I am a demon of Hades!”
I looked for the last weapon, a hammer, but it had gone!
“Henry! You bastard!” I hollered. “Now I know that you want me to fail. Having come this far, I have given you the knowledge you need. You will try for the treasure yourself but you will fail!”
I had no intention of leaving him any gold. I had paid the price and now I would take the treasure. If my wife was still alive, she would at least be rich for the rest of her days!