Wolfweir (7 page)

It occurred to him, in a stark queasy moment, that the
Vampyres
knew this apartment. They knew how to creep into it and how to escape undetected.

But then he remembered that Lord and Lady
Blackgore
couldn't move except at night.
Or in the dusk.
Or early dawn, if they wore a lot of make-up.
How in the world did he know that? He'd have to ask Lucia.

Would a werewolf girl know any
Vampyre
lore? Was that a requirement for being magical?

He buttered two thick slices of toast and covered them with scrambled eggs into which he had tossed fresh cut chives and some tarragon and rosemary. It wasn't as easy to cook with his puppet body but he didn't do too badly in the end. He set the platter of toast and eggs on the table and sliced and squeezed two fat oranges into a glass set the glass beside the plate.

Should he call to her now? He didn't want her eggs to get cold. Did werewolves eat breakfast? Well, she was human right now, wasn't she?

Just then Lucia came out of the bathroom in his shirt and trousers and a pair of red velvet slippers, still rubbing her hair with the towel. She looked thin and strained but dazzlingly beautiful. She smiled when she saw the breakfast.

"Eh,
Marveloso
!" she cried, clapping her hands.

The Evil of the
Vampyres

Alphonse washed Lucia's plate, cup, knife, fork and spoon in the kitchen basin. Then he went into his bedroom, found a chalk and slate he hadn't used since he was five, and came trotting back to sit at the dining table across from the pale wolf-girl.

He chalked: Je
suis
Alphonse Didier-Stein.

Lucia let out a husky giggle. She covered her mouth.

He chalked:
Vampyres
? Kill? How?

Lucia put her right hand on
Alphone's
puppet hand. Took the chalk from his fingers and set it aside. She leaned close to Alphonse and whispered into his wooden ear:

"The
Vampyres
have put your mother and father into deep sleep.
Vesuvio
boasted of it while you were locked up with the puppet boys. Only by slaying Lord and Lady
Edwarda
Blackgore
can we awaken your parents again to the world. But to kill them we must be intelligent.
Vampyres
can be killed with garlic, holy water, fire, or wood. To kill them with garlic is not practical. Holy water may be used to scare or to burn them a little but it also is not very practical unless we could plunge them into a lake of holy water. You understand?
Though I heard once of a huntsman who killed a
vampyre
by shooting it with bullets that had been coated with garlic and holy water and oil.
No. The best way is a wooden stake. Thrust right here."

Lucia touched the shirt over her beating heart.

She had flushed slightly as she spoke. She sat back and looked at Alphonse. Alphonse gazed at the beautiful pale girl with the shocking golden curls. For an instant he thought he would swoon. This girl was so beautiful it hurt his wooden heart to look at her. Then he remembered his parents, tucked under the stiff sheets in their hospital beds, their eyes taped shut. Keep your head straight, Alphonse, you wayward little marionette.

He picked up his chalk and scratched quickly on the slate: What did the
Vampyres
want with you -- a wolf?

He showed Lucia the slate. She answered calmly that they wanted to take some of her transforming powers, the magic coursing through her blood, which could be done only during a moonrise ceremony in the forest, on a stone altar left there by the
Gauls
.

Druids, Alphonse thought.
A stone dolmen.
Pagan magic.
His non-heart skipped.

"They would have killed me, cut out my heart, and feasted upon it, and this would have given them my power. Then they could transform also into wolves during full moon nights, if they wanted."

Alphonse wrote: But they are so powerful already --

Lucia shook her head.

"No.
Vampyres
are not fierce. They are cowardly, afraid. You know? They calculate, what do you say, the odds. They plot and they scheme. The Wolf is brave and has no fear.
Vamypres
envy this and so wish to destroy my kingdom. They want all the power and magic for themselves. This is typical of the
Vampyre
."

Alphonse wrote: Your kingdom?

“
Wolfweir
.”

Lucia said it proudly, breathing out the name through her parted lips. Then she blushed again.

"It is most ancient.
Proud.
Some may find it dark and melancholy but I have grown up there, daughter of a great king, the man-wolf Gar Firth in his glittering armor of steel mesh and silver. We hunt in the forests for our meat. We keep to ourselves and the old rites. But the
Vampyre
covens, they seek to harm the wolf people. Three times in the last century have attacked in force with dragoons and cannon and laid
seige
to
Wolfweir
and each time were beaten away by our superior strength and valor.
The
Vampyre
wish to seize the Blood Amulet.
This is a jewel containing the dried blood of the first Man Wolf. It is powerful. My father, because he is of the ancient line of kings, wears it always around his neck. He wears it even under his armor in battle. It makes him more quick, resolute, and fantastically strong. And the
Vampyres
think the jewel will give them the same power. This Lord and Lady
Blackgore
from Scotland wanted to take my blood and heart only to gain power and fearlessness so as to go to
Wolfweir
as wolves on a full moon night, to seize the Blood Amulet. A fortune telling Gypsy witch told them that the amulet magic can make a
Vampyre
truly immortal as the
Vampyre
that wears it cannot be hurt or killed by anything, not even by a stake through the heart, or fire, or beheading."

Alphonse chalked: Or sunlight?

Lucia smiled, nodded.

"That's right. Or sunlight."

A
Vampyre
that can strut about in the sunlight! Alphonse shivered at the thought.

Alphonse chalked: How were you taken?

Lucia turned a little paler as she remembered. Softly she said: "By the puppets.
By
Vesuvio
and his magical puppets.
He, like most Gypsy wonderworkers, is in the pay of the
Vampyre
. How do you say, a spy.
A scout.
A pimp, is that the word?"

Alphonse laughed.

Why do you laugh?

He chalked: Nothing.
Rien
va
plus. Go on.

"
Vesuvio
sent many of these puppets into the forest to find a wolf-girl, any wolf-girl would do for this magic ritual, and so they found me sitting by the river, floating leaf boats downstream. They tied me and carried me back to the gypsy and he put me in the iron cage and brought me to Paris. "

She shuddered. Her thin body actually shook with a spasm of disgust.

"I escaped. But only with pained and savage effort. I wandered through the mist. A boatman found me by the Seine.
Vesuvio
had taken away my clothes. The boatman took me to the police, and, well, you know the rest. Lord and Lady
Blackgore
have hunted me since. At last they found out where I was being kept, and also who was keeping me locked away in that big building. Then after observing your parents and yourself in the Bois they schemed a way to have you, little Alphonse, release me from my cell.
So that they could do the full moon ceremony."

Why not free you themselves?

"As I have said,
Vampyres
like not to take risks. They do not wish ever to be in danger. So, instead, they scheme to have others do the filthy work for them."

Alphonse, almost choking on the rising bile of rage and horror, chalked:

And so I brought you back to that rotten beast,
Vesuvio
.

Lucia touched his wooden wrist softly with her fingertips.

"Yes. But then, of course, you also rescued me with your sword. At the risk of your own life, you fought
Vesuvio
and Lord and Lady
Blackgore
, ah my brave and loving friend."

Alphonse looked down, nearly faint with emotion. After a while, he chalked: Stop them.
We.
Must.

"Oh yes," Lucia said. "Do not worry. But we must make our way to
Wolfweir
, first. My father the great king will help you to kill this Lord and Lady
Vampyres
and free your parents from the hideous spell. And then we will also find a way to free you and the other puppet boys enslaved by
Vesuvio's
magics
."

Yes, Alphonse thought. It was the only way. How could he, a little puppet, do it all by himself? They must go to Lucia's kingdom and seek the help of the Man Wolf King and this esoteric Blood Amulet. You can only fight strong dark ancient magic with stronger darker and even more ancient magic.
Right?
It stood to reason. But maybe his puppet head wasn't thinking too clearly. Never mind.

He tucked the schoolboy slate into his vest, and put the chalk into a trouser pocket. He stood. He was ready.

Exit

Much as Alphonse wished to see his parents again, he knew it would be useless, senseless, and unconscionably dangerous to try to sneak into the hospital where they lay stunned and comatose, blood-sucked, with or without the wolf girl. You could assume the
Vampyres
had other people beside magical gypsies in their pay.
Guards, orderlies, concierges, fruit-sellers, gendarmes.
No. Better to get to
Wolfweir
and take it from there.
But how?

**

Lucia, tossing her radiant hair back, asks: "Do you have some money?"

Alphonse nods his puppet head.

"Maybe even enough for the train?"

Alphonse takes out his chalk and slate:

Yes but which way?

"Over the Alps is the quickest way to my kingdom.
Through Germany to the north of Italy near the border with Switzerland.
Then we must hike and climb. I will recognize the valley by its flowers."